Chapter 118: Unfinished Battle

Roy looked up at Kim Taejin with eyes that could be seen as somewhat challenging.

He still felt the gap between himself and Kim Taejin.

As Taejin began to raise his momentum, a chilling sensation crawled up Roy’s spine and reached the tips of his hair, though not as intensely as before.

He still couldn’t be certain he could win if they fought seriously, and that competitiveness welled up inside him.

“I’ve never fought that monster before, but I’ve taken down monsters with strong regeneration.”

As expected, he was an interesting junior. Kim Taejin casually brushed off Roy’s competitiveness with a sly grin.

From Taejin’s gaze, it was clear that everything Roy did reminded him of his own past self, which he welcomed gladly.

He too had once quietly vowed to surpass a Hunter Idol senior who was far more skilled and successful than himself—just like Roy.

“The method I used back then was…”

Swoosh—

The sword in Kim Taejin’s hand lightly swung. But the flicking motion wasn’t something to underestimate.

The mud monster’s body was split into two.

If it had ended there, the monster would have soon reattached the severed part as if it never happened.

Swoosh— swish swish—

Taejin’s hand movements grew faster and faster.

Finally, when his hand moved so fast that the naked eye couldn’t see it, a dense net made of sword energy descended over the monster.

“Wow. It’s completely shattered.”

Song Doyoon lightly clapped his hands and let out a word of admiration.

Chunks of mud, broken down to sizes that children could have played with, scattered across the ground.

“Junior, will you finish it off? It looks like it’s about to come back together again.”

Kim Taejin shrugged his shoulders lightly, as if stretching, and signaled to Roy.

As Taejin said, the chunks of mud were moving toward each other like opposite poles of a magnet attracting.

However, the speed at which Taejin infused his sword energy felt like a snail’s crawl.

“Ber, Aqua, Solum, Ris.”

Roy called out the names of the Spirit Kings. Even without detailed instructions, the Spirit Kings immediately understood what Roy wanted.

“Beep!” (Now that kid’s free, it’s time to let loose.)

“Rumble.” (Don’t interfere, Ber.)

“Pia—.” (I’ll make sure those clumps don’t come together.)

“Umm.” (I think purifying the earth will work. You guys conserve your energy.)

The Spirit Kings divided their roles. Seeing Taejin’s raw power, they themselves felt an itch in their bodies, almost regretting their own limited abilities.

Flare—

“Beep!” (I’ll turn them all into crumbs!)

Ber was the most flamboyant, swinging his long tail of fire. Every time he passed, the mud burst into flames.

“Purr.” (Ugh, this heat.)

Aqua disliked flames because of the nature of her abilities.

Just seeing Ber’s flames made her reflexively want to snuff them out.

But instead of suppressing that urge, Aqua unleashed her powers to the fullest.

“Haa…”

“Hyung, are you okay?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry.”

Roy exhaled deeply, feeling a slight dizziness.

Solum and Ris hadn’t even started using their mana fully, yet it was already exhausting.

Even considering that Ber and Aqua, who had been holding back, were now going wild…

‘I need to find a way to increase my mana.’

Currently, Roy’s level was 303.

Among Kkoribyul members, it was the highest.

The others were still hovering around 300, 301, and 302.

I heard that Kim Taejin was at 341 and just reached 342 last week. Once you hit level 300, you understand.

The effort required to level up and the power difference per level are on a completely different scale from before.

“Let’s each take a few clumps.”

Song Doyoon lightly tapped Hajun’s arm.

Kim Taejin had just shattered nearly fifty chunks of the mud monster.

The spirits were using their unique abilities to break the clumps, but Song Doyoon thought they should contribute more.

“Let’s use something a bit more potent this time.”

Earlier, Kim Chan had been close to the mud monster, which limited his use of abilities.

Song Doyoon mixed something with the poison he used before to make an even stronger toxin and poured it over the mud clumps.

Screech—

Thick, black smoke rose.

The foul, indescribable stench made Ha-jun back away from Song Doyoon and draw his bow.

“Please just die already.”

The mud monster never looked like a living creature but more like a crude sculpture shaped by a clumsy god.

Now that it had become tiny chunks moving around, it was easier to deal with than any monster they had faced so far.

Whoosh—

An arrow shot from the bow turned one of the clumps into a hedgehog.

The chunk that had been moving sluggishly toward its core froze completely.

“Is it dead?”

Hajun couldn’t tell which part of the original mud monster the chunk had come from.

The mana arrow, having served its purpose, disappeared silently.

Swoosh swoosh—

“Aaah!”

“W-what’s going on all of a sudden?”

Hajun jumped on the spot, shouting in alarm.

Song Doyoon, standing nearby, also startled and fidgeted.

“That, that one…”

Hajun stammered, pointing somewhere, barely able to speak.

“Is this some kind of Whac-A-Mole game now?”

Song Doyoon shouted in shock, jumping on the spot.

A mud clump slid beneath his feet like a mole.

All of them.

Beneath the clumps, countless legs poked out and moved relentlessly.

“Why do they keep evolving…”

Hajun stomped his foot and moved over to Kim Chan.

Kim Chan was still recovering from the shock of the mud monster’s attack.

If the members had been in danger, Kim Chan would have moved immediately despite the pain, but Kim Taejin and Yoo Jaeri had arrived.

Roy, too, was fighting brilliantly alongside Kim Taejin, so Kim Chan felt less worried.

But when Hajun approached with a pale face, Kim Chan sprang up.

“Are you okay, our youngest?”

“Hoo… It feels like a spiritual mission. What on earth is that thing?”

It was already unusual enough that a fan had turned into a monster.

“I don’t know exactly…”

Something serious was definitely unfolding. Kim Chan looked at Roy with worried eyes.

A strange premonition stirred inside Kim Chan.

He had a dark feeling that this mud monster might not be unrelated to Roy.

“Everyone, stop right now!”

“From here on, we’ll take over!”

As if adding insult to injury, hunters affiliated with the Association appeared.

They should have arrived much earlier but were somewhat late.

The Association was sensitive to the abnormal phenomena occurring recently in South Korea.

Because of that, even high-ranking Hunter Gi Yonghyun was dispatched as Kkoribyul’s road manager.

They hadn’t yet identified the causal link between Kkoribyul members and the abnormal phenomena but judged there was some connection.

Whoosh—

However, the Association hunters only encountered the crumbling chunks that dissolved under Roy’s power.

All of them.

“Huff…”

Roy brushed his sweat-drenched hair back.

He had fought like crazy after a long time.

He had been focusing on his debut stage for a while, unable to engage in battles and having to dedicate himself to practice.

“Beep.” (What a nothing guy.)

“Purr.” (Someone might think you took them all out alone.)

Ber, now back to his small bird size, puffed out his chest proudly, making a boastful cry.

Arra glanced sharply with her large eyes over her fluttering wings.

“Everyone, hurry up and collect samples!”

Dressed entirely in black uniforms, the hunters moved in unison.

Roy walked toward where the members stood.

“How’s your body?”

Roy checked Kim Chan’s condition as soon as he saw him.

Fortunately, Kim Chan’s complexion had returned to normal.

“I’m fine. What about you? Didn’t you use too much power?”

Kim Chan was fine, but Roy’s complexion had turned pale instead.

His normally fair skin had lost even more color, with a bluish tint creeping over his face.

“Actually, I feel refreshed.”

Roy lightly shook his right hand in dismissal.

The only worry was how this incident had come about.

‘Did Earth find anything?’

{We found traces connecting to the mud monster.}

‘Where?’

{It leads toward Gangwon Province. We’ve narrowed it down to within a 10 km radius, though the exact location is unknown.}

Roy’s face darkened.

He wanted to protect both this world and the world with the Continent of As.

Both places had become precious to him.

He couldn’t give up either.

He must protect both worlds.

Roy glanced around.

Kim Chan was looking at him with concern, while Song Doyoon had relaxed and was chatting away.

Hajun was nodding enthusiastically.

Even the faces of other members who weren’t here but wished for his safety came to mind.

‘I have to uncover the cause for sure.’

This felt different from the usual emergence of gates connecting to the Continent of As.

A fan had turned into a monster.

And recently, there had been an assault incident in front of Bada Entertainment.

‘Could the person who turned into a mud monster be the same culprit who attacked the fan in front of our company?’

Back then, Earth and the Spirit Kings had lost the culprit’s trail. Even the Spirit Kings had sensed an evil aura.

{It’s similar but subtly different. I think the powers of those who crossed over from the Continent of As are unusual.}

If only sharing this incident with the Association would make it easier to resolve these abnormalities.

But there was no guarantee they would believe Roy.

‘Is it impossible to brainwash people? Like what was done to those who invaded the orphanage?’

If the president of the Association or at least the Chief of the Seoul Branch could be swayed to their side, it would make things much easier.

{Brainwashing one person is easy. The problem is the chain reaction it causes among the many connected to that one person.}

Like the butterfly effect, what’s insignificant to one can snowball uncontrollably.

{What was done to those thugs was just wiping a day’s memory, but making someone believe a near-impossible lie is far more complicated.}

Earth’s words made sense. It was already hard enough to get someone to believe other worlds exist, let alone implant the idea that the day of destruction is near.

{The stronger the Hunter’s ability, the harder it is, of course.}

Brainwashing low-level employees in the Association was useless.

They needed at least the Chief of the Seoul Branch to make a difference.

The Seoul Branch Chief Roy had once met was not someone to take lightly.