KWA-A-A-ANG!
Something slammed into the ground like a meteor, creating a massive crater.
All the surrounding trees were shattered, and clumps of earth that had been flung into the sky began to fall back down one by one.
A moment of silence followed.
Even the remaining Wraith and Slime froze in place, turning their attention toward the crater.
Tadak!
Then, brushing aside the residual magic and dust that billowed like mist, someone strode out confidently.
"Behold, my entrance."
It was none other than Valerie.
I couldn't help but be baffled.
How the hell did she know to come here?
Valerie elegantly flipped her hair and flashed a confident smile.
I ground my teeth at the sight.
"Valerie…"
"Lee Cheol! I came to help! Are you hurt?"
"…Other than almost dying because of you just now, I'm perfectly fine."
This crazy woman. Couldn't she just show up like a normal person?
For a second, I really thought a meteor had hit.
I could've been seriously injured.
"Aw, come on. Wasn't that cool? I call it the Hero Lan—"
"Can't you land like a sane person?"
"I came because I was worried about you, and this is the thanks I get?"
"Weren't you trying to assassinate me just now?"
"You're not hurt, are you? Then what's the problem?"
This lunatic…
Ah, Auntie, I'm sorry.
Comparing you to this crazy woman was an insult.
The more time I spent with her, the more I missed my aunt.
"Anyway… more importantly…"
Valerie's eyes gleamed with a violet light.
"What the hell are those?"
She clenched her whip-like weapon in her mouth as her gaze turned to the monsters.
A Grade 9 Slime.
A Grade 7 Wraith.
Why were those here?
"Enemies."
"Yeah, I can see that."
"Those things used to be humans."
Valerie gave a short laugh.
"What nonsense are you spewing? Are you hallucinating?"
"I'm telling you the truth. Just a moment ago, they looked completely human."
Valerie furrowed her brow deeply.
"Do you even hear how crazy that sounds?!"
At that moment, the Wraith let out a piercing scream.
—KIEEEEEEH!
"Ugh, what the hell is that?"
Valerie covered her ears, feeling her magical field waver.
"A mutant?"
Even as she said it, she shook her head. No matter how mutated it was, a mere Grade 7 monster shouldn't have that kind of special ability.
Then, Lee Cheol's eyes lit up as if things were going according to plan.
"Let's save the talking for later. Valerie, perfect timing. Can you capture that thing?"
It might've been odd to call it a "capture" when Wraiths aren't technically alive, but Valerie seemed to understand and nodded.
"I can. But why?"
"We need to get those two. When I give the signal, catch them."
"No, seriously—why?"
Before Valerie could finish her sentence, I kicked off the ground.
The coordination between the Lizardman, Wraith, and Slime had been annoying, but individually, they weren't that hard to handle.
Aura Skill: Yama.
I used my Aura Skill to restrain the fleeing Wraith.
Aura can bind even spiritual entities.
—KIAAAAGH!
Ignoring the Wraith's screams and flailing, I shouted behind me.
"Now!"
Valerie extended her whip into the air and unleashed her magic.
"Oh, screw this!"
FOOSH!
6th-Tier Sealing Magic: Hundred-Fold Binding Array.
Dozens of threads of magical light appeared above the Wraith's head, forming geometric patterns that locked it in place.
—KIEEEEEEK!
But that was just the binding.
Valerie pulled out a talisman from her sleeve.
"When it comes to ghosts, nothing beats exorcism. Urgent Spirit Command!"
Chanting in awkward pronunciation, a red glow spread in the air, and the Wraith was sucked into the talisman like it was being vacuumed up.
Valerie caught the fluttering talisman with magic and turned to look at Lee Cheol.
Lee Cheol, meanwhile, had wrapped his fist in Mujin and shoved it into the Slime's mouth.
"Even with special abilities, a Slime is still a Slime!"
He felt the Slime's core at his fingertips.
Without hesitation, he yanked it out.
Splat!
With a sound like tearing leather, the acidic slime splattered its mucus everywhere.
Anticipating this, I deflected it with a layer of aura around my body and went ahead to retrieve the slime's core, handing it over to Valerie.
"Please store this too."
Chiiee!
The squirming slime's liquid looked grotesque, almost like human organs.
There was no way I wanted to touch it directly, so Valerie used telekinesis magic to wrap around the core instead.
"Ugh…"
Wriggle! Wriggle!
Even with only the core remaining, the still-living slime squirmed unnaturally.
Valerie frowned as she looked at it with a complicated expression.
"Why are you trying to take this with you?"
"I think you'll need to analyze it."
"Analyze? What do you mean by that now?"
Valerie let out a deep sigh.
"I think we need to have a talk."
***
It was Valerie who began speaking first.
She talked about the gate that opened in the city of Gyeongju and the mysterious energy detected by her sensors.
"A gate in Gyeongju?"
"Yeah, that's what I'm saying."
Valerie crossed her arms and grumbled.
"It was an artificial gate. But the thing is—it was definitely a gate, but it wasn't a gate."
"What does that even mean?"
"Well, to put it simply, it's like the concept of a quantum tunnel. You know, how in the quantum world, magic particle information—"
"Hold on."
I stopped her before the explanation dragged on.
"Please break it down in a way a non-expert can understand. Don't start rambling again."
"Hey, this is basic high school theory, okay?"
"In what world do high schoolers learn quantum mechanics and magic theory? I'm still only 15, you know."
"…You always have to get the last word in, huh."
Valerie grumbled and continued.
Her next explanation was simple and to the point.
The five gates that appeared in Gyeongju were artificial passageways.
But unlike normal gates, they didn't spew out spatial monsters—instead, someone came through them to this side.
I tilted my head.
"Then isn't that just teleportation?"
"Nope. Teleportation requires both point A and point B to be prepped. Think of it like a handshake—you need both sides to reach out."
Valerie stretched out her small hand and grabbed mine tightly.
"But this time, point A just did the teleportation unilaterally without any setup on point B. And not just regular teleportation—they used a gate."
She let go of my hand and furrowed her brows.
"With current human technology… no, this just isn't possible. We know how gates form, but we can't use them."
If even Valerie says it's impossible, then it really must be.
But—
"There are countless powers in this world that defy logic."
Valerie nodded, looking like a deflated leather pouch.
"That's true."
Things like sorcery, the source of magic, blue holes, the transcendent powers of legendary artifacts…
Humanity still doesn't know a lot.
'Even so, it's kind of shocking that not even Valerie has a solid theory.'
Just then, Valerie exhaled a puff of smoke and wrapped up her story.
"Anyway, after checking out the gate and returning to the workshop to rest, something weird showed up on my sensor. Thirty-one unidentified magic signatures. So I rushed back out here."
That explains why Valerie appeared so suddenly.
I glanced down at the corpse of the lizardman on the ground.
"I think these things are what came through that gate."
"So what are they? I think it's your turn to talk now."
I nodded and started explaining.
I left out the part about the tomb and gave a brief summary.
A group of thirty or so unidentified individuals suddenly appeared.
They had the presence of humans, but inside their bodies was a twisted monster-like energy.
Some had parts of their bodies transformed like monsters. Others wore monster hides.
And—
"What? What are you saying?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. As I said earlier, humans turned into monsters."
Valerie frowned.
"Hey, that's ridiculous. Do you even know what a genome is? If they'd had something transplanted, maybe, but… weren't you just under some illusion magic?"
"Do you think my eyes wouldn't be able to tell?"
Valerie's expression twisted oddly at my response.
"That's why I wanted you to check out the ones you caught earlier. And if possible, I'd like you to take this lizardman corpse and examine it, too."
"Seriously, are you sure you weren't hit with some kind of hallucination magic…"
Valerie furrowed her brow and turned toward the lizardman's corpse.
Vmmm—!
A violet aura shimmered from her eyes.
After analyzing the lizardman, she tilted her head in confusion.
"This is just a monster. A bit unusual… no, very unusual in terms of abilities. But still a monster."
Valerie cautiously walked over and began to rummage through the lizardman's body.
I tried pushing in my magic, even deployed some strange magic circles to examine it.
"It's certain. It's just a monster."
"But…"
I tried to argue but ended up clamping my mouth shut.
Maybe she sensed something from my expression, because Valerie paused and murmured thoughtfully.
"There are monsters that can take on human forms, sure. But this one? Impossible. It's a Lizardman. The magical structure is weird, its build is huge, and it even has special abilities… but still, it's just a Lizardman."
I clicked my tongue and looked down at the Lizardman's corpse.
What the hell did it do to fool even Valerie?
Still, I couldn't just let it go.
"There were some that were part monster while still looking human. Let's check that angle."
"Yeah, alright."
Valerie was clearly curious about this incident too.
More than anything, we had detected unidentified magical presences—but all we found here were monsters.
Unidentified magic signatures and monsters, inside a gate?
'Ugh, my head hurts.'
It felt like I was missing a few puzzle pieces, scattered all over the place.
"This way, Valerie."
I led her up the mountain.
Aside from the Lizardman we beheaded and the Wraith and Slime we captured alive, there were twenty-seven other corpses of strange beings scattered across this mountain.
They had died in human form, not as monsters.
Some of them even had partially mutated, monstrous body parts—enough to support my claim.
I went to the spot where I had shot one down with an arrow and brushed away the foliage.
"…"
Looking down at the corpse, I couldn't believe my eyes.
Valerie frowned and said,
"Hey, this is just a goblin."
One of the mutants who'd tried to flee during the final battle.
He had definitely still looked human when I shot him down.
After that, I combed the mountain, searching for the other bodies like I was combing for lice.
'What the hell…?'
The man wearing orc hide, the woman with compound eyes like a bug's face—
None of them still had human shapes.
Every one of the mutants I had brought down was now in the form of a monster.
Valerie used her Mystic Eyes to analyze each corpse, even did a quick inspection using magic.
She went through all thirty monster corpses like that.
The result was the same across the board.
But then—
"What is this?"
Valerie found something strange while checking one of the monster corpses.
A shoe, torn open from the inside as if something had burst out of it. On the side was a logo from a famous sports brand.
"Why would something like this be on a monster's foot…?"
Exactly.
The clues weren't limited to the corpses themselves.
Valerie began examining the monster bodies again.
There were human footprints, remnants of clothing they had worn.
They didn't have any personal belongings left, but there were definitely traces of humanity.
Even the skeptical Valerie now had a strange look on her face.
'No way… was it real?'
Had humans turned into monsters?
Or were monsters simply disguising themselves as humans?
That led to the next thought:
'The unidentified magical signatures.'
What if that theory was true?
It made no logical sense.
But then again, gates were anomalies to begin with.
Valerie stood silently and rose to her feet.
"I'm going to investigate further. I've collected enough samples—I'll look into it on my own."
She collected samples from a few of the monsters and stored them in a subspace artifact.
"You believe me?"
"There's definitely strange evidence. And these monsters… they're all off in some way."
Valerie exhaled smoke from her cigarette.
With the evidence collected, I got her help in burning all the monster corpses.
Monster remains caused problems in all kinds of ways.
"That makes thirty… hngh."
Valerie incinerated all thirty monsters with a controlled flame that wouldn't spread.
Then she glanced at me and asked,
"So we've got one left, right?"
"Sorry? Thirty is all of them."
"There were thirty-one magic signatures."
Thirty-one?
When I heard that, I immediately remembered the eerie flute sound I had heard during the fight.
One more. Someone else had been here.
And that one… was the one pulling the strings behind these mutants.
[T/L: Read extra chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : https://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]