I calmly loaded my rifle.
I’d caught several Tentacle Dragons before.
I should be able to deal with them again this time.
Rather than that, I was more curious how the less experienced Holy Knight and Puppet Master would respond in battle.
Let’s see how they do.
With a splash, three Tentacle Dragons appeared before the Ruins’ gate.
It was a horrifying sight.
Hundreds of eyes stared at us.
The Holy Knight gripped his hammer.
The Puppet Master pointed the end of his Staff at the Monsters.
“Engage.”
Before we could even prepare, the three Tentacle Dragons charged straight at us.
The Holy Knight’s hammer shone—
Pak!
Wouldn’t a sword have been a better choice than a hammer?
One of the charging Tentacle Dragons was blocked by the Holy Knight, and several puppets confronted the second Monster.
I aimed my Hunter Rifle at the remaining one.
“Spray the chemicals!”
Pineapple began to release Pyraclostrobin gas at my command, and a white mist spread everywhere.
It seemed effective, but the dispersal speed was too slow.
“Telekinesis.”
I threw the pesticide gas tank at the Monster’s face and shot it with my Hunter Rifle.
That was easier than I thought.
The white mist exploded outward, and one Tentacle Dragon thrashed around like a cockroach doused in insecticide.
“Kieeeek!”
Now, two Tentacle Dragons finally seemed to grasp the situation and started looking around warily.
It was an oddly intelligent movement.
Only then did the Holy Knight and Puppet Master belatedly open the valves on the gas canisters.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
It wasn’t hard to hit them.
They were bigger than cars, after all.
Gunshots rang out, and all three Tentacle Dragons collapsed to the ground.
One of them tried to escape.
The Holy Knight charged after it.
I’d seen Hunters fight plenty of times.
Puppets just get stronger as the Puppet Master does, so that’s fine.
For a low-level Holy Knight, their firepower was impressive.
White Sunlight enveloped the Holy Knight.
It felt like something that swept away the darkness of the Black Forest and the Tentacle Dragons.
No wonder it’s an S-rank ability…
Dark red blood splattered everywhere.
The Holy Knight exchanged blows with the Monster—
Battle over.
The three Tentacle Dragons stopped moving.
The Holy Knight was wiping the blood from the Gas Mask lens.
“That was dangerous.”
I nodded.
The antifungal pesticide had definitely worked.
It was a bit of a waste to blow up a whole canister, though.
Still, we caught three Tentacle Dragons, so that’s fortunate.
Whew.
Leaving the Tentacle Dragon corpses behind, we headed deeper into the Ruins, following Pineapple in the lead.
Just like other Gates I’d explored so far, it was obvious the Tentacle Dragons hadn’t built this.
However, something looked a little different this time…
“There are traces of battle here?”
I hadn’t noticed from outside.
But as we ventured deeper into the Ruins, weapons and corpses appeared all around us.
Corpses that seemed at least decades old.
Buildings of an old-fashioned style I’d never seen on Earth were rotting and collapsing under the influence of the Black Forest.
I bent down and picked up a helmet.
The helmet was covered in black mold.
Inside, I found two bleached skulls.
Humanoid, but probably not human bones.
Judging by the teeth, were they Kobolds?
I used Seekers’ Trait Activation on the ground.
[You have discovered an Ancient Battlefield.]
[Seek Points +20.]
[Enlightenment 3rd stage progress: 40/300.]
It was all too obvious.
Let’s just call the old ruling race of this planet the ‘natives’ for convenience.
The Kobolds must have fought a war against the Tentacle Dragons and the Black Forest.
And they lost.
The Tentacle Dragons and their ecosystem took over.
“Found something?”
The Holy Knight picked up a sword nearby.
The sword had some sort of magical treatment—despite being in this damp place for ages, it hadn’t rusted at all.
I used Seekers’ Trait Activation on the sword from the Ruins.
[Enchanted Sword of Senior Kobold]
[Grade: B]
[A sword imbued with magic.]
Well, that was a definite gain.
Looks like there are Artifacts in the Ruins worth taking.
If these were weapons dropped in actual battles, there might be things suitable for real combat.
I looked around again.
Kobolds mainly seemed to use crossbows.
[Crossbow of Kobold]
[Grade: D]
[A crossbow reinforced by magic.]
I picked up a relatively intact crossbow and inspected it.
Could this have really stood up to a Tentacle Dragon?
Honestly, I doubted it.
Even with a machine gun or small-scale firepower, killing a Tentacle Dragon was tough.
Of course, the crossbow string had long since rotted away, and the clockwork mechanism was rusted and useless.
Still, the crossbow itself looked remarkably sophisticated.
Their Armor and the city they’d built weren’t just the work of primitive savages.
From the ground, I also picked up a device at the end of a staff-like tool—it looked like a Clockwork Device.
What could this be…?
“There’s something big nearby.”
At the Hunter Association President’s words, I looked up.
***
It seemed a high-level Monster was still lurking around.
We prepared for battle, gripping our weapons nervously as the presence of some enormous creature pressed in from the surroundings.
“Pineapple. Battle mode.”
“Human. Please hide behind me.”
“Where’d you pick up that kind of phrase?”
“Dr. Lee, please hide behind me.”
I hid behind Pineapple.
Through the gaps in the Ruins, Tentacle Dragons began to appear.
Perhaps having seen their comrades die, they didn’t rush right in.
There was no easy solution.
Not only did I have to protect two low-level Hunters, I also had to think of escaping on my own.
I grabbed my summoned beast with both hands.
Honey Combo.
I’d been feeding it Monster meat for days—maybe it could transform now?
“Summoner’s Blessing.”
Pineapple raised its head in battle stance, spreading its wings toward the Tentacle Dragons.
I held my breath and waited.
“What is that thing?”
The Holy Knight and Puppet Master looked at me with bewildered eyes.
To others, it probably just looked like a strange chicken.
But—
The Basilisk stomped as if it had been waiting for this.
Its wings rapidly grew large enough to cover a car, and its talons and beak soon became big enough to impale a person.
“Kieeeek!”
Poison began to spread from between the Basilisk’s feathers.
Now, perhaps recognizing the true threat, the Monsters ignored the three Awakened and the robot, charging straight at the Basilisk.
Are they trying to eliminate the most dangerous enemy first?
I drew my gun to support Honey Combo.
Bang!
Several Squid Monsters clung to the Basilisk, but it showed no sign of being overpowered.
There’s a famous saying from Pokémon:
Type advantage over level.
The Basilisk’s beak and talons could slash through the tentacles, and thanks to the venom seeping from its feathers, the Monsters couldn’t even grab hold.
The Tentacle Dragons and the Basilisk let out truly horrific noises.
On Earth, I’d never heard such sounds before—screams and roars beyond description.
As the legend goes, if you get hit with the Basilisk’s poison even once, you can’t move for a while.
Honey Combo impaled one Tentacle Dragon and tore the wing off another.
Monster blood splattered even here, dozens of meters away.
When the last Tentacle Dragon fell, the Basilisk folded its wings and reverted to its Shapeshifting State.
I used Seekers’ Trait Activation on the dead Tentacle Dragon’s corpse.
[You have slain multiple Tentacle Dragons.]
[Seek Points +20.]
[Enlightenment 3rd stage progress: 60/300.]
[You have evolved Basilisk into its Main Body form.]
[Seek Points +10.]
[Enlightenment 3rd stage progress: 70/300.]
I caught the Hedgewing Basilisk again.
It looked a bit tired, but thankfully, it wasn’t hurt.
***
There was still one Monster left.
The huge Monster leading the Tentacle Dragon pack.
It looked rather flustered after all its Tentacle Dragons were wiped out instantly.
Well, that’s how it seemed if you interpreted things through a human lens.
Whatever the case, I’d prepared for this situation.
The two Hunters with me raised their weapons.
While Tentacle Dragons were formidable, of course there were other Monsters beyond the Gate besides them.
Like that thing.
“Takoyaki.”
“Huh? Takoyaki?”
That’s what we called the specimen quarantined at the Research Institute.
Its true name was Black Flower.
One of the most troublesome and terrifying Monsters in the Tentacle Dragon ecosystem.
A beast with the form of a snake or squid, larger than an elephant.
Unlike the Tentacle Dragons, it didn’t fly, but it had tremendous regeneration and defense, and was shrouded in magic—making it dangerous.
Modern weapons barely scratched it.
If you got close, it would poison you or ensnare you with its tentacles.
“Don’t get too close, it’s dangerous.”
“Should we engage?”
“Hold on a second.”
The Black Flower.
It was also called the Giant Slug.
We had to deal with it before it sprayed poison.
If we got drenched in that toxin or dragged off now, there was no guarantee we’d survive.
That’s why I’d brought this.
There was only one, but…
I pulled out the Anti-Tank Missile Launcher 614 from Pineapple’s back.
These days, it’s all about disposable weapons.
Missiles and launchers come as a single integrated unit, ready to use.
“I’m using an anti-tank missile. Stand back.”
“Huh?”
The Anti-Tank Missile 614 Pineapple had been carrying.
For reference, Pineapple didn’t have hands, so it couldn’t actually fire this.
Fortunately, the instructions were written in huge letters, with each button’s number clearly marked.
- Remove safety pin.
- Load launcher.
- If the target is over 250m away, enter estimated distance. Otherwise, proceed to the next step.
- Press and hold the safety.
- While holding the safety, pull the trigger.
Very simple and intuitive.
I aimed the optics at the Black Flower Monster and pulled the trigger.
For a second, I worried the missile might explode on my shoulder, so bright was the flash and so loud the explosion—
Kwang!
We were all knocked backward by the shockwave.
To be precise, I barely stayed standing by holding onto Pineapple.
The Holy Knight and Puppet Master were blown back by the blast.
Still… the Monster was dead.
I breathed a sigh of relief.
“What did you just use?”
“Anti-tank missile. For research purposes, we put some Magic Stone Fragments into the warhead, and it seems to have worked well.”
The Association President sat on the ground with a shocked expression, while the Holy Knight quietly brushed dust from his Armor.
“That’s… frightening.”
“At least it worked, so that’s a relief.”
Modern weapons are often useless against things with magic, so I’d stuck a few Magic Stones from the Goblin Gate into the missile’s warhead.
As you can see, the results speak for themselves.
Anyway.
Honestly, I wouldn’t want to use this twice.
“Magic Stones are too valuable to waste on things like this.”