"What?! He just got stabbed and you want him to?!" Cordelia moved to protect her boyfriend, but a single intimidating glance from Rowan was enough to shut her up.
"You are the reason we are in this situation, so you will be the one to finish it."
Rowan hated when people treated hunting like a game or an adventure.
This was a serious war between dimensions where death could happen in any gate.
There was never a guarantee you were coming back.
Excitement or pride would not cut it. There needed to be a will.
"I'm not going to be harsh on your lack of skill because you're new, but if you don't have the guts." Rowan loaded another round and pressed the barrel against Jack's forehead.
"Quit."
This time there was no surviving it.
"I'll do it!" Lee, through his pain, grabbed the sword and used it as a crutch to stand up.
He had been trying to heal himself, but at only level 2 a wound this deep would take days.
Everything inside him screamed with pain, but his heart blazed.
Seeing firsthand what a single hunter was capable of through Rowan, his mind became clear.
"I kept blaming myself for my weak skills. I can only make party trick lights and heal small injuries..." Lee hated himself for it as he raised the sword and drove it into Jack's crippled body.
"But if it is just mental preparation, I have that already!"
It was not a clean strike. Jack was still alive and kept screaming.
"P-Please, I beg you, please don't kill me! AGHH!!"
Lee stabbed again as blood spewed across his face.
Still not a clean hit. So, he did it again.
And again.
And again.
Jack's screams faded into exhausted cries of desperation from a voiceless mouth.
It took five strikes before Jack finally gave way, whether from blood loss or the blade itself.
It was hard to say.
[SP: 14]
Even after death was confirmed, even after Jack had stopped pleading for his life, Lee kept stabbing. So much so that Cordelia couldn't stand it anymore.
"Lee, stop! It's finished." Cordelia hugged Lee and grabbed his hand.
Lee slowly calmed down and sank to the floor. But Rowan had to remind them.
"We still have work to do." He began gathering [Mana Cores] from the dead goblins.
While the other goblins dropped E rank cores, the goblin shaman gave up a D rank mana core.
The boss monster of each gate was usually one rank higher than the gate difficulty itself.
As well as:
[Magic Staff (E): Increases magic damage by 5%.]
After Lee calmed down and sat waiting, Rowan and Cordelia dissected the dead goblins and looted Jack and Tyrone's corpses.
It took them around half an hour to gather all the loot while Lee recovered himself with his magic.
"I'll take all 3/4 of the mana cores, you guy take this, do what you will." Rowan tossed Cordelia the magic staff since he have no need for it and mana cores is far easier to convert into cash.
Nobody dared to argue after he had saved their lives.
After a boss died, a timer would appear on the system counting down before the rift closed.
[10:41]
That was the time remaining when they got out with all their loot.
When the last living being stepped through, the gate slowly collapsed in on itself and returned to nothing.
"Rule one of hunters, you all know it, right?"
"What happens in the dungeon, stays in the dungeon." Lee knew it by heart.
He had almost become a victim of it.
"Good." Rowan nodded and patted Lee on the shoulder.
"You did well, kid." He was not up to standard yet, but Lee had shown he had ambition.
And realistically, that was all it took.
Rowan himself had crawled his way up from a mere E rank assassin to S rank before he ever got the Soul Reaper class.
Lee's eyes opened wide as he looked up at Rowan. "Really?"
"Yeah. One more healer in the world is always welcome. Just pick your teammates more wisely next time." Rowan chuckled, then turned to Cordelia.
"You too. I think you should stay on the hunt with your boyfriend in rank E dungeons for now. Your magic is strong but your fundamentals are severely lacking." Every word landed like an arrow straight through her prideful heart, but she kept quiet.
"Being a mage is a true blessing. You should strive to be the carry of the team, not get carried. I don't know if there are guides online but look them up and put them to use while you're carrying your boyfriend. The leveling might stall for a while, but it will pay off in the long run."
His cold demeanor had melted the moment they stepped out of the gate and into the open air, replaced by the measured tone of a mentor who had lived through years of life and death.
"Are you really a first timer?" Cordelia was no longer sure who the real D rank hunter between them was.
Most hunters just joined, got in, and got out.
She had also been on autopilot for a lot of gates in the past, because the frontline was always loaded with melee fighters, and with so few mages in the area she had been carried often.
But none of them had ever criticized her directly like he was doing.
"Haha." Rowan didn't answer back. Just a laugh.
"I guess this is goodbye. Keep up the good work." He waved.
"Mister Rowan!" Lee was still injured and winced sharply from the pain in his chest as Cordelia caught him.
Rowan turned and listened.
"Will you join our party?"
"Yeah! Why don't you team up with us?" Cordelia also thought it was a good idea.
While they had learned their lesson, they still wanted a party, and he was as reliable as anyone at E rank could get.
He might even be more skilled than some D rank hunters Cordelia had worked with.
There was still so much more they wanted to learn from him.
'A mage and a healer...' Both Lee and Cordelia had very good classes.
Any other party would be fighting to recruit both a mage and a healer together.
But Rowan already knew.
"No."
A party was not the way he could beat Orelia.