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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: Balloon Muscles
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About five minutes passed. In the end, all the monsters that had been warming themselves by the fire right there were dead.
"Hoo. They weren't that tough."
Kim Min-je let out a breath as he said that. He didn't look tired at all. Gyodongdo had been left alone because it was low priority, not because the monsters were strong.
"Aren't we checking the corpses?"
I wasn't really expecting much anyway. These naked bat-headed primitives weren't likely to have anything impressive on them.
At my words, Kim Min-je pulled out something that looked like a gun, aimed the barrel at the ground, and pressed a button. With a psshk sound, a small chip embedded itself in the earth.
"I've planted a microchip. Once it's safe, the scrap dealers I have a contract with will come collect them."
"Scrap dealers?"
Hunters can't possibly recover the byproducts from monster corpses while fighting them. The bulk and weight make it impossible. That's why they plant these microchips and move on.
Once the Gyodongdo commission is done, the scrap dealers sweep the area marked by the chips, take everything that might sell, and appraise the value.
After valuation, they sell it and take their cut based on the contract ratio, passing the difference to the hunter who planted the chip.
If there's something in their inventory you want to keep instead of selling, you can buy it by paying their commission fee.
"Can you trust those guys?"
"You can't lug around loot while fighting monsters, right? It's important to contract with good scrap dealers. Even if it means giving them a higher cut, it's better to go with ones you can trust."
I got the gist.
"Alright, let's move."
After that, we ran into groups of the same monsters about three more times. Kim Min-je still took the lead, while Han Sang-ah and I switched roles to handle them.
"Something feels off."
"What seems strange? Tell me."
I answered Kim Min-je right away. This was our first hunt, but he had experience. So anything he said was worth hearing.
"No, the monsters and Gyodongdo are about what I expected. They're just a lot easier to deal with than I thought."
"You've been running with a crew that swings wildly, huh."
If you don't analyze each person's maximum physical capabilities and give proper orders, it's no different from a street gang brawling.
With that, we reached the path leading to Hwaga Temple.
"..."
On the ground lay shattered metal scraps with the words "Eumpnae-ri Stele Group" engraved on them. Looking up, I saw broken steles and a few corpses.
Those were the bodies of other hunters who had come to Gyodongdo by boat. Five bodies. Probably another team heading to the operation site that got hit hard by this thing.
It was a brute nearly two meters tall, bulging with muscle. Like the others, it had a bat head. Unlike them, though, it was clad in armor, wielding a massive club crudely shaped like a sword from carved stone and a shield.
The bat-head turned its gaze toward us.
"Kek."
Its eyes shifted to the blood coating mine and Han Sang-ah's swords, and it let out a weird noise as it slammed its stone club into the ground. A heavy thud echoed out.
It had been looking for us.
Well, we had killed quite a few on the way. Around fifty, maybe.
"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 shows up on Gyodongdo. Buy time with a pincer attack, then pull back and report the situation."
"Do as Yeomul says."
We figured it had wiped out a whole hunter team solo. If it was after us, these two wouldn't escape.
It wasn't easy enough to handle while babysitting them. Just looking at the other hunter corpses on the ground told you that.
Kim Min-je and Han Sang-ah would just get in the way against this thing. My voice came out dry and harsh, making them flinch for a moment.
It came out rough, but it had to.
I'd warned them to fall back. If they didn't and died, that wasn't my problem.
"Heek, heek."
With that laugh, it raised its stone club. Its feet scraped the ground, and the massive body charged at me.
I dodged to the side, and the club smashed the earth. The shock alone made my body tingle.
I swung my spear wide, but it batted it away with its fist.
Years of built-up experience and knowledge instantly appraised the monster before my eyes.
I took a few steps back, reset my stance, took a deep breath, and regained my composure.
So this is it.
"Won't end it quick, then. I'll cook you slow."
Hey, I hear sub breeds taste better anyway. A faint black flame flickered at the tip of my spear.
Kim Min-je swallowed hard as he watched the fight between the monster and Yoo Chan-seok. A graze from that swinging club looked like it could pulverize flesh.
"Shouldn't we help?"
Yoo Chan-seok looked precarious dodging that onslaught. But unlike Kim Min-je, Han Sang-ah saw it differently.
"He's been fighting a while, but not a single clean hit."
He was dodging and parrying everything. He wasn't being pushed back—he was dragging it out. Han Sang-ah couldn't fathom how.
"Terrifying..."
She hadn't expected those words from her own mouth. She doubted herself for a second before continuing.
"Terrifying talent."
Yoo Chan-seok should be the one getting pushed. That was normal. She couldn't grasp how this exchange was even possible.
Was that guy really a rookie like me?
He's poking lightly while dodging, keeping the spear tip on as long as possible.
Black flames reliably ignited wherever the spear struck. Just like the ongoing clash, it was an incomprehensible power. What the hell was that?
And the monster facing Yoo Chan-seok felt the same doubt.
Eat, survive, reproduce, grow strong. Driven by the same four instincts as its kin, this monster had grown to a point where its fellows would show respect, even developing a fragment of reason.
"Uwaaaah!"
I'm much stronger. I'm much faster. I eat, it gets eaten.
"..."
It swung the club relentlessly, but it never connected properly.
Worse, those eyes. The prey was looking at the predator like it was the meal. The monster didn't like that.
It had already taken several attacks. At first, it was wary of the dark flames dancing at the tip of the prey's weapon.
But those small black flames that transferred on impact had no effect. They were growing, sure, but they weren't hot or painful. No wounds either.
They just clung to its body, flickering faintly.
"Hweeeek... kehehek..."
"Hoo, hngh."
Its body felt so heavy. Something was wrong.
The tiring prey panted with a weary face, then grinned and wiped drool from its mouth.
"Finally."
The monster couldn't grasp what that smile meant. This time for sure.
The moment it thought that, the arm holding the club drooped limply.
"Kyak?!"
With confusion, it checked its arm. It was fine. The massively swollen muscles were still impressive, even to itself.
But why couldn't it lift the club it had wielded like an extension of its body?
* * *
I won. I took a deep breath and sneered at it.
"What do they call muscles like that? Oh, right. Balloon muscles."
In every opening during our exchange, I'd transferred Paradox Flame. What it burned was the monster's muscle power.
I hadn't burned the muscles themselves, so they were intact. Same shape and size as when we first met. But the overwhelming muscle power they should produce? Paradox Flame had incinerated it.
The monster could barely lift its own weapon now. It strained with both hands to pick up the fallen club, but it stuck to the ground like glue.
And besides.
Its muscle power had burned for a good long time. Thanks to Paradox Flame clinging and steadily consuming mana, the ambient mana density was now quite high.
At this level, I could pull off the same trick as with the ampule—one more time.
"Hoo..."
A bit more mana than usual flowed into my body.
With the increased intake, the mana flowing gently through my meridians like a river quickened its pace.
The faster mana scoured my meridians much more vigorously than normal, widening and hardening them. Amid the process, faint crackles echoed inside me.
"Time to say goodbye."
It's hard to move while reinforcing meridians normally. But would Edmund Hillary struggle climbing the local hill?
This much was doable on the move. I aimed at its head and thrust the spear.
The monster died, and the crackling in my body stopped.
As we headed back toward the destination, Gyodongsa Temple, I spoke to Kim Min-je.
"Hunter Kim Min-je."
"Ah, uh... yes?"
He looked flustered, answering very cautiously. Like I was gonna eat him or something.
"Is it normal for something like that to show up on Gyodongdo?"
He denied it immediately.
"No way. Unless it's an Erosion Zone with a confirmed Grade 3 Erosion Core."
Simple conclusion, then.
"Looks like Gyodongdo has a Grade 3 Erosion Core."
Han Sang-ah replied to me with a grave expression.
"Then the Alpha Erosion Core on Gyodongdo..."
Her guess was the most likely. Kim Min-je still looked confused.
"Even if Gyodongdo is low priority, it's not far from Seoul, so they clean it periodically even if they delay the Alpha Erosion Core."
I knew that from Lee Se-eun. Kim Min-je's face stayed dark.
"If the Alpha Erosion Core on Gyodongdo has grown to Grade 3 levels... not many hunters who came here will survive and make it back."
Incheon had selected hunters assuming the Alpha was unrated. Naturally, few could handle it if it was higher.
"Why are you looking at me?"
Kim Min-je and Han Sang-ah glanced at me unconsciously, then looked away.