About five minutes later, all the monsters that had been warming themselves by the fire here were dead.
"Whew. They weren't that difficult,"
Kim Min-jae said as he let out a breath. He didn't look exhausted. Gyodong Island itself had simply been neglected because it was a low-priority area—it wasn't that the monsters were particularly strong.
"Aren't you going to check the bodies separately?"
Honestly, I wasn't expecting much. To begin with, it wasn't like half-naked, bat-headed cavemen would be carrying anything worthwhile.
At my words, Kim Min-jae pulled out something that looked vaguely like a gun, pointed the muzzle at the ground, and pressed a button. With a psshk sound, a small chip embedded itself into the soil.
"I've planted a microchip. Once safety is secured, a junk dealer I have a contract with will come to retrieve it."
"A junk dealer?"
For hunters, it's impossible to collect every byproduct that comes from monsters during a fight. They're bulky and heavy. So instead, you plant microchips like this and move on.
Once the Gyodong Island request is over, junk dealers come in and sweep the entire area where chips were planted, picking up anything that looks like it might be worth money, then appraise its value.
After the appraisal is finished, they sell the items, take their contractually agreed commission, and pass the remainder on to the hunter who planted the microchip.
If there's something on their inventory list that you want to keep instead of selling, you can pay the junk dealer their commission and take the item yourself.
"Are those guys trustworthy?"
"You can't exactly lug around trophies while fighting monsters, right? That's why it's important to find a good junk dealer and sign a contract. It's better to work with someone reliable, even if you have to give them a slightly higher cut."
I more or less understood.
"Then let's move."
After that, we encountered monsters of the same type about three more times. Kim Min-jae continued to take the main role, while Han Sang-ah and I alternated roles as we dealt with them.
"Something feels off."
"What exactly feels off?"
I answered immediately to Kim Min-jae's comment. This was my and Han Sang-ah's first hunt, but Kim Min-jae had experience. That alone made his opinion worth hearing.
"No, the monsters and Gyodong Island itself are about what I expected. But it's been much easier to deal with them than anticipated."
"Sounds like you've been working with people who just move on impulse."
If you don't analyze each individual's maximum physical capability and give appropriate instructions based on that, it's no different from a bunch of street thugs roaming around together.
With that exchange, we arrived at the road leading to Hwagesa Temple.
On the ground lay shattered pieces of metal, and among them I could read the words 'Eumnae-ri Stele Cluster.' When I lifted my gaze, I saw broken stone monuments and several corpses.
Those were the bodies of other hunters who had crossed over to Gyodong Island by boat. There were five corpses in total. It seemed another team heading toward their operation site had taken heavy losses at the hands of this thing.
A creature nearly two meters tall, with a massive, muscular build. Like the others, it had a bat's head. Unlike them, its body was wrapped in armor, and it held a huge club and shield—crudely fashioned by carving stone to resemble weapons.
The bat-headed creature turned its gaze toward us.
"Kehk."
Its eyes drifted to the blood clinging to my and Han Sang-ah's swords. Then it let out a strange sound and slammed its stone club into the ground once. Thud. A heavy, dull sound echoed out.
It seemed it had been looking for us.
Well, we had killed quite a lot on the way here. I think we took out around fifty of them.
"Both of you, fall back as far as you can."
"Yoo Chan-seok, but—"
"Hunter Yoo Chan-seok. This isn't the kind of monster that should appear in a place like Gyodong Island. We should buy time with a joint attack, then pull back and report the situation—"
"Grow up and do as you're told."
This was a monster suspected of having single-handedly wiped out an entire hunter team. If what it was looking for was us, those two would never be able to escape.
It wasn't an opponent easy enough that I could protect them while fighting it. Just looking at the corpses of the other hunters sprawled on the ground made that much clear.
When facing that thing, Kim Min-jae and Han Sang-ah would only be in the way. At the dry, almost brutally cold tone, the two of them flinched for a moment.
The words came out a bit harsh, but it couldn't be helped.
I had warned them to fall back. If they still didn't retreat and ended up dying, I had no intention of worrying about that.
"Hi-kik, hi-kik."
With that strange laugh, the creature raised its stone club. With the sound of its feet pounding the ground, that massive body charged straight at me.
I sidestepped slightly, and the stone club smashed into the ground. Even the shock transmitted through the impact made my body tingle.
I swung my spear in a wide arc, but the creature slapped it aside with its fist, knocking it away.
The experience and knowledge I had accumulated over a long time instantly produced an estimate of the monster standing before me.
Taking a few steps back, I reset my stance, took a deep breath, and regained my composure.
So this is its level.
"Ending this quickly will be hard. I'll take my time cooking you."
You know, sous-vide is best when it's slow. At the tip of the spear in my hand, a faint black flame gathered.
Kim Min-jae swallowed hard as he watched the fight between the monster and Yoo Chan-seok. The club being swung around looked like it could shatter flesh with even a glancing blow.
"Shouldn't we help him?"
And Yoo Chan-seok, dodging that onslaught, looked extremely precarious. But unlike Kim Min-jae, Han Sang-ah's judgment was different.
"They've been fighting for quite a while, but there hasn't been a single effective hit."
He's dodging everything, deflecting it all. He's not being pushed back—Yoo Chan-seok is deliberately buying time. Han Sang-ah couldn't understand how that was even possible.
"Terrifying…."
She hadn't expected such a word to come out of her own mouth. She briefly doubted what she had just said, then continued.
"A terrifying talent."
Yoo Chan-seok should have been the one getting pushed back. That would be normal. She couldn't comprehend how this exchange of blows was even holding together.
Was he really a rookie like herself?
'Dodge, then poke lightly—keep the spear tip in contact for as long as possible.'
Wherever the spear pierced, black flames inevitably transferred. Like the ongoing exchange itself, it was an incomprehensible ability. What on earth was that?
And the monster facing Yoo Chan-seok was feeling a similar confusion.
Eat, survive, reproduce, grow stronger. A creature that had moved under those four instincts like its kin had grown to the point where others felt something like reverence toward it, and in doing so, it had gained a fragment of reason.
"Uraaaaah!"
I am much stronger. I am much faster. I eat, and that thing should be eaten.
"…"
It swung its club without rest, but it couldn't land a solid hit.
More than that, those eyes. The eyes of prey that should be eaten, looking instead at the eater as if it were prey. The monster didn't like that.
It had already allowed several attacks. At first, it had been wary of the flickering black flames at the end of that weapon.
But the small black flames that transferred with each strike didn't seem to have any effect on the monster at all. They were slowly growing, yes—but they weren't hot, didn't hurt, and caused no wounds.
They merely clung to its body, faintly burning.
"Hheuk… kehheuk…."
"Huuh… hhh."
Its body felt unbearably heavy. It sensed that something was going wrong.
The prey, breathing heavily with an exhausted expression, suddenly grinned and wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth.
"Finally."
The monster couldn't understand the meaning of that smile. This time, for sure—
At that moment, the arm holding the club suddenly drooped limply downward.
"Kyahk?!"
Startled, the monster looked at its own arm. It was the same as ever. The bulging muscles were something it took pride in, even by its own standards.
Then why couldn't it lift the club it had wielded like an extension of its own body?
***
I won. After taking a deep breath, I sneered at the creature.
"What do they call muscles like that again? Oh right—balloon muscles."
What the paradoxical black flames I had transferred whenever I found an opening during the exchange had been burning was not the monster's flesh, but its strength.
Because I wasn't burning the muscles themselves, the muscles remained intact. They kept the same shape and size as when we first encountered it. But the overwhelming physical power those muscles were supposed to produce had been burned away by the paradoxical black flames.
By now, the monster was in a state where it couldn't even properly lift its own weapon. It strained with both hands to pick up the club that had fallen to the ground, but the club didn't budge, as if it were glued in place.
'And on top of that.'
I could burn its strength for quite a long time. Thanks to the paradoxical black flames clinging and flaring up while continuously spewing mana, the concentration of mana in the surrounding air had become quite high.
At this level, I could repeat the same thing I had done after taking the ampoule, even now.
"Hoo…."
A slightly larger amount of mana than usual flowed into my body.
As the amount of mana I absorbed increased beyond normal, the current of mana that had been gently flowing like a river through the blood vessels inside my body began to accelerate.
The accelerated mana scoured, widened, and reinforced my blood vessels far faster than usual. In the middle of that process, faint cracking sounds—tak, tak—could be heard from inside my body.
"It's time to part ways."
Normally, it's difficult to move your body while strengthening your blood vessels. But would Edmund Hillary struggle while climbing the small hill behind his house?
An achievement at this level was something I could accomplish even while moving. Aiming for the creature's head, I thrust my spear straight in.
The monster died, and the cracking sounds inside my body stopped.
As we headed back toward our destination, Gyodongsa Temple, I spoke to Kim Min-jae.
"Hunter Kim Min-jae."
"Ah, uh… yes?"
With a flustered expression, Kim Min-jae replied very cautiously. It's not like I'm planning to grill you and eat you—why are you so nervous?
"Is it normal for a monster like that to appear on Gyodong Island?"
At my question, he immediately denied it.
"Absolutely not. Unless this were an infected zone with at least a Grade 3-rated corrosion source."
Then the conclusion was simple.
"Looks like there's a Grade 3 corrosion source on Gyodong Island."
At my words, Han Sang-ah answered with a grave expression.
"Then the alpha corrosion source on Gyodong Island…"
Her guess was the most likely possibility. Kim Min-jae still looked unconvinced.
"Even though Gyodong Island is a low-priority area, it isn't that far from Seoul, so even if they postpone dealing with the alpha corrosion source, they still carry out periodic sweeps."
That much I knew as well—I'd heard it from Lee Se-eun. Kim Min-jae's expression still didn't brighten.
"If the alpha corrosion source on Gyodong Island has grown enough to receive a Grade 3 rating… there won't be many hunters who can survive and make it back."
From the start, when Incheon City selected the hunters, they did so under the assumption that the alpha corrosion source was ungraded. Naturally, now that it had grown beyond that level, there weren't many among the hunters sent here who could handle it.
"Why are you looking at me?"
Kim Min-jae and Han Sang-ah unconsciously glanced at me, then quickly looked away again.