As she looked at me, my feet dangling from the ground, with my cloak caught in my hand, she scolded, “You little bastard. What are you trying to do again? You’re not some foolish kid writing graffiti in an ancient ruin, seriously.”
“Clap, clap…”
“Don’t try to deny it, you troublemaker!”
Here I was, throwing a dagger at Hyeon Joong-gil and leaving a scrape on a rock, yet I was the troublemaker?
Feeling both embarrassed about my position in midair and recalling the life of my previous self, Kang Yeon-su, who couldn’t handle me, resistance flared within me.
‘Should I just [mimic] and turn her into a gullible fool?’
Though it was something I couldn’t do right away, the thought crossed my mind.
As I sulkily glared at her, she tilted her head for a moment.
Looking closely at Yeon-su’s face reminded me of the first day we met. When she saw me greeting her, she dropped her coffee, unable to speak properly, her face turning crimson.
For a while after that, she struggled to speak whenever she saw me until the Dungeon Break incident. After she coincidentally helped me, she somehow became proactive and began calling me like a servant.
‘… How nostalgic.’
Anyway, feeling relieved having made arrangements, I sat on the ground with my companions, keeping a decent distance in the huge crater area.
“Can we go home now?”
Maybe it was the relief of everything being over, but Ah-rin’s ears returned to normal for the first time in a while.
“It seems like it’ll take some time to lift the barrier. The person at the center of it disappeared.”
“The center? You mean the S-rank Hunter, Kim Jae-hyeon?”
“Yeah… It seems he did something to the barrier. He set up the formula so complicatedly that even other Barrier Mages might take days to break through.”
“Oh no… I need to get to my siblings…”
‘So that’s what’s been bothering her.’
I wanted things to wrap up quickly for Ah-rin’s sake, but as she said, the barrier was the issue.
While Transcendent Kim Seon-min and Hyeon Joong-gil managed to deploy their unique domains to escape somehow, we didn’t have that luxury.
‘Jo Gi-man might be able to, right?’
The power of [Lightning Barrier] I saw earlier seemed to surpass even Hyeon Joong-gil’s.
It was extremely rare for a Hunter, especially not an early Awakener, to have their domain, and there were rumors that Jo Gi-man might be the first in our country.
Anyway, with the defeat message already up, we all casually rested as we waited for the barrier to be lifted.
Munch—
“This is really tasty,” I said.
“Right? It was a limited edition at the market, made from the meat of a flying monster called… Tanarak or something,” she explained.
Having stocked almost every variety available at the market, the two of them held a taste test, trying out different types.
About thirty minutes passed, and the tension in the area seemed to completely fade away.
─────
‘Huh?! Wh-What?!’
Suddenly, the property of mana in the air swirled violently, signaling a change.
Then.
Whoosh──!
– Gurfah──!!
A desperate cry echoed from where the monster had left its remains.
“?!”
In that moment, hundreds of Hunters turned their heads towards it.
Where their gazes landed was Park Yong-hwan, suspended in the air, impaled by something like a tentacle.
– ………!!
Jo Gi-man, who was a distance away talking to Park Jin-gon, reacted first.
Swish─!
Jo Gi-man quickly severed the thick tentacle impaling Park Yong-hwan with a hand knife.
At that signal, the strong ones gathered in the area unleashed their skills all at once.
Bangbangbangbangbang──!!
The tremendous destructive force concentrated on the spot where the remains had been hardened like a rock.
The explosion that resulted from the overlapping skills sounded like thunder.
After that brief moment, the Hunters who had used their skills hastily withdrew, putting distance between themselves.
‘?! [Absolute Reflection?]’
Crashbangbangbang──!!
The Transcendents who had been attacked were met with their skill rebounding back to them, and they opened their eyes wide in shock.
– What the hell is that!! It amplified my skill and tossed it back?!
– No way!! How could such a thing exist!!
– He’s dead! The defeat message showed up! Why is he still alive?!
‘Is it a superior version of Cha Jin-hyuk’s ability…?’
If that were true, even the top-tier Hunters would be shocked.
Even Jo Gi-man looked bewildered as the monster broke free from the rock.
I stretched my senses as much as I could, wrapping around the creature’s body and the suspicious rock nearby, and that’s when I realized.
‘…… The stone made by Queen Slime… Was it some kind of breeding device to create this guy?’
The stone he broke out of was completely hollow inside.
Like a Russian doll, there was a stone within a stone, and another stone inside that.
Layered dozens of times, it obscured the existence of that little creature at the innermost part.
Since it fooled even my senses, that strategy was highly successful.
I could see countless mana circuits engraved on each surrounding stone.
From my observations, they seemed to be structures for storing the power received from the outside and channeling it inward, created by ‘Queen Slime.’
Given that the stone showed no traces of remaining mana, it seemed it had already fulfilled its purpose sufficiently.
After all, Queen Slime fired thousands of shells and created that little guy. Was it to buy time?
I started to think that the attack felt lacking considering the power absorbed from the thousands of Hunters.
I had considered it to be simply inefficient at absorbing power, but it seemed that it was preparing something else…
‘It seems that the slime stuffed all the power it consumed into that jerk. Even at the end, without retaliating, it ‘sacrificed’ itself to keep him safe. Sacrifice… This is not good. This is clearly a dangerous development.’
The debuff skill I received while escaping, Kim Seon-min’s bugs, and the skills of Hyeon Joong-gil and Jo Gi-man.
Piling all that energy to create just that little being made my head spin.
The small monster, divided distinctly into black and turquoise, stood less than 150 cm tall.
Its lower body was no different from a human’s, but its upper body was a bizarrely long oval cylinder with several tentacles attached.
The tentacles on its body were as thick as a muscular man’s arms, and they sometimes flared out at the ends like a trumpet.
What it was for, I didn’t know, but the moment I looked at it, I felt chills and an overwhelming urge to run away.
But I knew there was no need for that.
‘The mark… It was indeed visible because of that jerk.’
Twenty-five marks of flame blossomed like buds on its shoulders.
The aura of flame, distinctly visible even from a distance.
It seemed that the creature was also troubled by the flickering marks on its shoulder, as it waved its tentacles repeatedly.
Seeing the marks reappear after being swept away by its tentacles, the creature soon became indifferent, starting to look around as if searching for something.
I hurriedly dropped my gaze, focusing only on the ground below.
If our distance had been closer, I would have probably triggered an explosion instantly, stacking five blasts one after another.
Shiver, shiver—
Even though it was late winter, it felt warm like spring, a time when news of climate crises emerged daily.
Yet as the unsettling energy from it enveloped us, Yeon-hee and Ah-rin began to tremble like aspen trees.
‘…… That’s a Great Beast.’
There was no doubt about it.
And this was a rare opportunity.
Fortunately, it seemed that the creature showed no interest in lowly beings like us who were far away.
‘If I can just endure the energy of that beast, I will be able to grow.’
It was worth risking a look at the situation.
Of course, if it suddenly decided to start indiscriminate slaughter, the story would change.
But as long as Yeon-su was with us, the risk of getting killed was low.
‘That little guy… is that strong?’
A Great Beast, defined only to be suppressed when multiple Transcendents combined their strength, had that level of power.
“Give me a break!!”
Ah-rin, trembling, had covered her eyes and was crouched down, her ears bearing the brunt, standing stark with fur like needles.
Yeon-hee, instinctively summoning her summoned creatures, wore a look that suggested a screw was loose somewhere.
Even the summoned creatures that were called out vanished the moment they realized the presence of the Great Beast, even the Shadow Drake.
If I had triggered a flame explosion right now, I wouldn’t have witnessed such a phenomenon.
There seemed to be plenty of gain from this situation.
‘Even the Sword Dragon vanished? Is it that serious?’
I did feel a sense of pressure from the aura it emitted, but it didn’t seem overwhelmingly difficult.
‘… Is it because I killed Queen Slime and sucked a bunch of its smoke into Space? Who knows.’
As I pondered, Yeon-hee’s condition began to deteriorate.
“I should have raised my dominance more… Oh no… it’s all my fault—”
With her eyes losing focus, Yeon-hee repeatedly muttered that phrase like a parrot.
‘So high dominance allows the summoned creatures to hold out…’
Dominance was not just about forcing disobedient summoned creatures; it seemed to be a power that allowed one to endure overwhelming enemies as well.
‘Thinking about the monsters we’ll face in the future… It’s a necessary stat to prioritize, isn’t it?’
I scolded my past self for thinking of Dominance as less important and examined my surroundings.
‘The Hunters who are standing properly seem to be from Park Jin-gon and up?’
Even Park Jin-gon, who was on the edge of S-rank, was barely holding on, biting his lips, and the Hunters below him were all in a groggy state.
[Gyahh?]
Startled─!
The newly born Great Beast flared its tentacles and let out a faint sound, causing the shoulders of all the Hunters present to jolt.
[……? Gyahahaha!!]
The Great Beast seemed to find the Hunters’ reactions amusing, laughing heartlessly for a while before soon falling silent.
[Gyahh? Gyahh? Gyahh?]
‘You crazy bastard…’
Everyone here must have thought the same thing, but no one dared to speak.
An overwhelming presence.
It felt like I was witnessing a brutal monster’s gigantic front paw shaking right in front of me.
Its central torso opened, resembling a female reproductive organ, repeatedly spitting the same words, eventually stopping abruptly.
[…… Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaa───!!]
Rumble──!!
– Aaaaaaaaaah!!
– Krrrk!
It seemed the Great Beast wasn’t pleased with our silence, letting out a roar so strong that it lifted its body off the ground.
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