[Fortress of Reincarnation]
– The magic barrier strengthens proportionally to the number of beings raised by the [Drunken Dead].
[Drunken Dead]
– Raises beings that you have personally defeated.
– The magic consumption varies according to the rank of the beings raised.
“Wow?! Is this for real?! This is just a Necromancer, right?! There’s a clue that they were beings I killed, but still, that’s insane.”
Of course, I had already been commanding minions and demon servants, but this ability, which instantly enhances my strength on the battlefield, would undoubtedly provide a whole new level of tactical diversity, so I couldn’t help but cheer.
“However… it’s only useful if I have enough magic power.”
Magic Power: 712/6,821
Currently, my magic is nearing 7,000. I could guarantee there are only a handful of S-rank hunters in our country with a higher magic stat than mine, but still, I felt a lack.
“Since I have so many capabilities… no matter how much I raise my magic, it just doesn’t quench the thirst.”
While I was pondering if there was a way to explosively increase my magic, I was following the traces of a great beast.
“Hm?!”
[Stealth]
I instinctively activated my stealth upon sensing an overwhelming presence. Even at a distance exceeding 3 km, I could distinctly feel the aura.
“This is…”
I cautiously followed it, finally arriving at a secluded abandoned building where I could confirm its identity.
“Dnarr Panijial… was that guy the one who summoned the great beast?”
Dnarr was in a fierce standoff with a great beast towering four stories high, continuously opening its massive jaws.
“Liu Xiao-Wo… damn.”
I could faintly sense Liu Xiao-Wo’s aura leaking from the beast’s mouth. Given the significantly weakened energy, it seemed she was having quite the tough battle all on her own.
Understanding that it was reasonable considering Jo Gi-man had only just freed himself after using the power of the Seven-headed Dragon, I felt a pang of guilt.
“If I hadn’t driven away the cats…”
She wouldn’t have fallen so easily.
The youthful face of Liu Xiao-Wo, who had shown me a shy smile, appeared in my mind.
I could not afford to just leave her, who could be as reliable an ally as Kang Yeon-su for me.
“I still have one blink left. Should I use that along with this?”
I recalled the ability I obtained by defeating the ‘Gray Smoke’ on my way to China.
[Gray Wings]
– Spreads gray smoke around, drastically reducing the enemy’s hit rate.
– Movement speed increases by 15% while within the gray smoke.
[Gray Storm]
– Fires off a powerful gray storm infused with strong energy.
– Enemies are inevitably blown away, with the distance inversely proportional to their rank.
“If I explode every mobility spell I have with this…”
As I finished preparing and watched for an opportunity, Dnarr began to sweat profusely as he infused the great beast with a golden aura.
“Damn, listen up, you disgusting monster! You can’t let Jo Gi-man have Liu Xiao-Wo. Just go somewhere else, any dimension will do, just get lost!”
Dnarr was angrily shouting. Meanwhile, the great beast glared at Jo Gi-man with its rotting, dead fish eyes. Its pupils spun a few times before its body shook in defiance of Dnarr’s command.
“Send the great beast to another dimension? What about Liu Xiao-Wo?”
At this point, given Liu Xiao-Wo’s condition, if she crossed into another dimension, she would be dead for sure.
I could never allow that.
“By the way, what the hell is this guy doing to control a great beast… wait?! Could it be this guy?”
Suddenly, I began to suspect that the great beasts appearing so frequently in our country were somehow tied to him. Since I had encountered him before, it was highly likely he would be stationed in Korea.
“It seems quite probable. That damn guy…”
I didn’t know what his intentions were, but he was undoubtedly as dangerous as Jo Gi-man.
Currently, I was about 3 km away from him.
He was a foe I couldn’t win against in a direct confrontation, so could I sneak up from this distance and rescue Liu Xiao-Wo, who was inside the great beast’s mouth?
“Please, go away. Just get out of here!”
As I stealthily approached while muffling my presence, I voiced that hope.
But surprisingly.
“Hah… hah… damn. I don’t even know when I got hit.”
Blood began to flow from Dnarr’s side.
“Did Jo Gi-man that bastard fight back in the midst of all this?”
As Dnarr staggered and barely managed to regain his posture, he launched himself in the opposite direction of where I was.
“Oh?!”
The intensity of his presence vanished, and a few seconds later, I activated [Gray Wings] and burst forth into the smoke, running toward the still-stationary great beast.
As expected, the dumb fish that had been staring at the sky suddenly noticed me, and—
“Whoooaaahhh────”
“Wait, what?!”
It opened its mouth wide and shot something toward me.
Kwaaaahhh─!
Instinctively, I dove, covering my head as a massive magic projectile swept past where I had just been.
“Hah- hah- that nearly got me! That crazy thing isn’t weak at all!”
Clearly displeased that I had evaded its attack, the fish opened its mouth once more and targeted me.
At first, I was a bit startled, unable to gauge its range, but maybe thanks to my newly acquired [Gray Wings], its attack wasn’t directed at me with such accuracy.
“Whoooaahhh…?”
It appeared confused, unable to comprehend why I was dodging its attack.
The beast tilted its head a few times before it began to drastically lower its presence.
“That’s not good!!”
It was trying to escape.
A being the size of a great beast trying to run away from just one hunter?
That was completely unexpected.
“What the hell did that bastard Dnarr do to it?”
It was absolutely impossible, yet the great beast turned its back and was already fleeing from me.
With time, Liu Xiao-Wo’s energy grew fainter.
The great beast was determined to escape.
Its speed was so fast that I ultimately used my last blink to jump over its head and bind it.
“Hooowaaaa?!”
I carved a long gash along its neck where it was bound. It was definitely much easier to handle than Necrosquall.
The beast, writhing in pain, leaped high before smashing back down into the ground.
Kwaaaang!!
“Ugh, what a dumb creature!”
It quickly tried to stand up after tumbling backward and began to swell up.
Suddenly, light enveloped it, instantly restoring the damage it had taken!
“Both this one and that one! Who the hell names their healing ability after their dog’s name!!”
Whoosh──!
It struck at me violently with its tail where I had just been.
I easily dodged it and fired a [Thunder Soul].
Crackle- crackle!!
Being a fish, it shivered violently after being hit by the lightning bolt.
However, there wasn’t even a fleeting ‘paralysis’ effect, and thus the close-quarters battle with the great beast continued for some time.
Even with binding, its resistance was so high it was only briefly restrained, and its health and defense were so strong that I couldn’t deal any real damage.
[Flame Explosion]
Kraaahhh───!!
After several minutes of back and forth, I finally managed to get a flame explosion off through a pinhole-sized opening.
“I can’t let this go on, Liu Xiao-Wo’s energy is fading!”
However, I couldn’t figure out how to deal with the relentless great beast, which showed no sign of stopping.
Then suddenly, I felt another faint aura from behind and dodged to the side just in time.
Snap──!
A massive form emerged from beneath the ground.
“Damn it!”
It had a round hole in its belly, oozing bodily fluids.
“Didn’t that guy kill Jo Gi-man?!”
The great beast that had swallowed Jo Gi-man appeared.
In a panic over its ambush, I tried to dodge repeatedly but ultimately—
Bomp──!!
I got swallowed by the fish.
Half of it was intended, so I wasn’t too surprised.
“Well, there’s no helping it; I’ll go for self-destruct…!”
Just as I was about to activate [Blast of Madness], I sensed Liu Xiao-Wo’s aura somewhere far away.
She was slowly collapsing inside the belly of the great beast.
The image of Liu Xiao-Wo, reluctant to show her face to me, flashed in my mind.
“…Aah, crap!”
I quickly navigated through the corrosive fluids pouring down.
The squirming inner lining was pushing me out of the belly, rapidly closing in around me.
Chiiiii───
“What kind of digestive fluid is this?!”
– [Acid Resistance] level has increased!
– [Acid Resistance] level has increased!
[Acid Resistance Lv.3]
– Acid Resistance +39%
– Resistance increases up to 60% in proportion to the time affected by acid damage.
“How strong could it possibly be to cause a 2-level increase in one go?!”
Thanks to my trait, I could hold on for a bit, but that wouldn’t last long.
Swoosh—
After enduring a constant downpour of acidic rain for a while, I spotted Liu Xiao-Wo, struggling with something black in the distance as it dragged her legs.
“Damn it!!”
She was already being devoured up to her knees.
Perhaps she had lost all her strength, as she could only twitch her legs.
I rushed over and grabbed Liu Xiao-Wo’s legs, putting all my strength into it, but I could feel the force pulling her in was even stronger.
“Wh-what the hell is this?!”
This felt like more than just a simple act of digestion; it was as if she were being sucked into another dimension.
Just as I thought I had to cut through this horrible thing entirely with my great sword, a translucent sphere, holding the stars of the night sky, materialized and began to suck in everything around it like a black hole.
“Ughhh!!”
I tried my best to hold on, but it was utterly futile.
– The great beast ‘Void Corruption Whale’ is expelling foreign substances.
– Some of the foreign substance’s past history is being reflected.
– You are being transported to ‘Multidimensional Desert Ruins.’
?!!
With that last message, my mind darkened, and I lost consciousness.
*
“Il-wol’s connection weakened?!”
When Il-wol faced an unexpected crisis inside the great beast, Yeon-hee was startled just as she was about to enter the quest.
She quickly examined the message.
– You are sharing stats with your summoned creature Il-wol.
– Agility: 1,382 (+1,044)
Yeon-hee was receiving Il-wol’s agility stats, and seeing that it was being maintained assured her that there hadn’t been a mishap.
“Phew… It’s such a dangerous place; I’m worried. I’ve never lost connection this much before, hmm…”
While there had been a few times when her connection had faded when Il-wol challenged harder 난도, she decided to trust Il-wol for now.
She was fully committed to her quest challenge again.
It had been several weeks of attempts, but today she felt an unusual determination.
“One attempt a day isn’t enough. I’ll make sure to achieve results by tomorrow, even if it wears down my mental fortitude!”
The rapidly widening gap in power between her and Il-wol was a serious issue for a summoner.
“A summoner weaker than their summoned creature? That’s just absurd! I need to raise my power to match Il-wol once all my strength aside from Il-wol is combined!”
With her fists clenched, she threw herself into the path of the quest.
And the next day.
After a staggering eight attempts, Yeon-hee successfully cleared the Cursed Giant Tribe quest and returned to her front yard.
Flop─!
“Guhhhhh… whew—”
Eight high-intensity battles had nearly left her unable to breathe.
Her mental energy was completely depleted.
Blood was gushing from the wounds on her face, resembling a fountain.
This was the result of pushing her body and mind to their limits.
(Master! Are you alright?! Fibryn!! What the hell are you doing?! Do something! Aren’t you a water attribute summoned creature?!)
“F-fib?!”
Just rushing around wouldn’t yield any results.
All she could do was keep pouring Irmana’s water down Yeon-hee’s throat.
“I-I’m fine… heh heh—”
A short while later, when Yeon-hee finally opened her eyes with great effort, she began reassuring the excited ‘Ran.’
As Fibryn used [Acceleration] in search of other methods, Ran tossed Fibryn into the pond and moved closer to her.
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