Once Yoon Seohyeon and I joined in, the situation was quickly brought under control.
“Good work, everyone. Let’s rest for now.”
“Phew……”
“Th-thank goodness.”
At Go Seongjun’s words, the Roman Guild members collapsed where they stood. Every one of them looked terrible. Covered in dirt and drenched in sweat, they were utterly exhausted.
They were already visibly worn out even though it had only been their first battle.
I glanced around and quietly slipped toward the back. I needed to recover the magic stones and materials from the wolves I had killed.
『 Collecting spoils from the monsters. 』
『 The effect of the Skill ‘Dissection Lv.10’ has taken effect. 』
Slice, slice.
In an instant, the magic stones and hides were separated. Just as I was about to put the magic stones into my inventory, I felt someone watching me.
It was Hunter Yoon Seohyeon.
‘……’
Couldn’t she just pretend she didn’t see it? Well, considering the Association’s position, I guess she can’t.
Just as I was about to put the magic stones back down on the ground—
Slice.
Hunter Yoon Seohyeon pulled out a knife and extracted the magic stone from the other wolf lying beside us.
Then she held it out to me.
“Here. I can take the hide, right?”
“……”
“Let’s hurry before the guild people see us. The Association pays peanuts as it is, so I might as well take something like this.”
Nod.
We’re strangely compatible in places like this. Well, I don’t mind.
Thanks to that, I managed to secure D-rank hides and claws. Having the magic stones too made me feel much more secure.
After swiftly finishing the collection, we returned to where the guild members were.
My gaze naturally went toward the resting Roman Guild.
“Let’s rest a little longer, then move on to the next area. This time, if we set up our positions properly……”
Go Seongjun still didn’t seem to have come to his senses.
“Don’t tell me you seriously want to keep going deeper into the gate?”
“Seongjun, I don’t think this is right.”
Instead, the guild members themselves began trying to stop him.
After a few more exchanges, the guild’s overall opinion shifted toward going back.
When things did not go his way, irritation crept into Go Seongjun’s voice.
“What’s wrong with you? It’s just a D-rank gate. We need to finish this hunt properly if we want to buy equipment and pay off what we owe.”
I understood that as guild leader, there were things he had to think about that the guild members did not.
But there was a limit to how badly someone could fail to understand the situation.
‘At this rate, it wouldn’t be strange if the whole party got wiped out.’
Go Seongjun had no idea how much weight his choices carried.
‘If this were a game, a choice like this wouldn’t matter much…… But this is reality. A reality where one bad decision can cost you your life.’
That was the nature of hunter life.
Because hunting that resembled a game continued over and over again, your senses became dulled. Even the feeling that alien things like gates and monsters were dangerous began to dry up.
‘Eventually, you forget that your life is actually on the line.’
And that was why people made the wrong decisions when it really mattered.
Still, in this particular incident, they were victims more than anything else.
The appearance of an anomalous gate itself was an accident.
People viewed anomalous gates almost like natural disasters.
Like earthquakes that could not be predicted precisely.
So I couldn’t blame Go Seongjun alone.
“We can just go a little farther and then turn back!”
“And what if something happens while we’re doing that?!”
Even among the guild members, opinions were split.
Hunter Yoon Seohyeon, unable to keep watching, stepped in.
“Hmm. I think it would be better to go back.”
A clean, accurate judgment.
“The gate you’re currently inside is an anomalous gate. You’ve fought the monsters yourselves, so you know that now, right? They’re much stronger than even I expected. Let’s go back first and request support from the Association.”
“See! Even the Association lady is saying that!”
Guild member Park Hyeonju immediately agreed.
Once even Yoon Seohyeon spoke up, the mood inside the guild shifted further toward retreat.
Unable to tolerate it any longer, Go Seongjun stood up.
His brow deeply furrowed, he shouted.
At Yoon Seohyeon.
“Who are you to interfere? So what if it’s an anomalous gate? You think being from the Association makes you special? We make the decisions. Stop butting in.”
“……”
No answer came.
Silence followed.
Perhaps thinking his words had worked, Go Seongjun began to smile faintly.
That was when—
“S-Seongjun…… B-behind you……”
Guild member Park Hyeonju pointed past Go Seongjun with a trembling finger.
Grrrr……
Behind Go Seongjun, who still had no idea what was happening, two gleaming eyes appeared.
The moon emerged from behind the clouds, revealing what those eyes belonged to.
A beast baring sharp teeth, drool running from its jaws.
The Alpha Silver Wolf.
It looked easily four times larger than an ordinary silver wolf.
Everyone was overwhelmed by its size and held their breath.
Grrrr……
It was merely growling, yet even the air around us trembled.
The vibration was enough to make even my heart shake.
Everyone slowly began backing away.
Only then did Go Seongjun realize something was wrong.
“W-what is it, everyone? Is there something behind me……”
The moment Go Seongjun slowly turned his head, the Alpha Silver Wolf roared.
ROOOAAAR!
The sheer force of it was enough to push my body backward.
My entire body tingled so badly I could not move.
And my mind felt as if it might be blown away.
Even I had to grit my teeth.
“Aaaagh!”
At the sudden eruption of sound, Go Seongjun tumbled across the ground.
『 The Alpha Silver Wolf roars! Fear slowly creeps upward. 』
『 Affected targets enter the ‘Fear’ state. 』
“Aaaaaagh!”
“Save me!”
“W-we have to run!”
It had only roared once, yet the entire Roman Guild had fallen into a state of panic.
‘Damn.’
I suppressed the fear rising inside me.
More precisely, I tried to.
I could not afford to fall into a panic here too.
Then messages began sounding one after another.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
『 You have acquired the Skill ‘Mental Fortitude Lv.1’. 』
『 You have acquired the Skill ‘Mental Fortitude Lv.2’. 』
『 You have acquired the Skill ‘Mental Fortitude Lv.3’. 』
『 Resistance to mental status effects has increased by 9. Mental Fortitude has increased slightly. 』
‘Good. I held out.’
At the same time I acquired the Mental Fortitude Skill, its Level increased.
Hunter Yoon Seohyeon, whose base attributes were high, did not seem particularly affected either.
That was fortunate.
‘In that case, what I need to do is……’
My gaze turned toward Go Seongjun, who was scrambling toward us.
He shouted desperately at the guild members.
“E-everyone, run!”
Idiot.
We absolutely could not scatter here.
Even if I ran after them, there was no way I could keep everyone together.
In that case……
I used Intimidation.
『 The effect of the Skill ‘Intimidation Lv.7’ has taken effect. 』
『 Nearby targets enter an intimidated state. 』
“Ghk!”
Go Seongjun, who had been running, was caught by Intimidation and collapsed.
He planted his face into the ground in an undignified heap.
I picked him up and slapped him once across the cheek.
Then I spoke quietly.
“Get a grip.”
Go Seongjun looked up at me with a dazed expression.
Lift.
I raised him higher where everyone could clearly see him.
“Seongjun!”
“Hey, Seongjun!”
The guild members, who had likewise fallen under a mild state of intimidation, turned their eyes toward me.
Their feet stopped as well.
It was a little forceful, but the result was good.
I had successfully overwritten the Fear inflicted by the Alpha Silver Wolf with my own Intimidation.
I spoke with an annoyed look.
“Pull yourselves together and stick close to Hunter Yoon Seohyeon.”
They should understand after that.
Hunter Yoon Seohyeon, who had been watching the situation, raised a hand at just the right time.
“Everyone, gather here! We’re getting out with Teleportation!”
“W-wait!”
“Take me too!”
Six hunters in total, including me, crowded around Yoon Seohyeon.
The surroundings began to distort in an instant.
Of course, the boss did not simply stand there.
At the edge of my vision, the Alpha Silver Wolf charged forward and opened its jaws wide.
Its mouth was large enough to swallow all of us in a single bite.
“Th-the wolf!”
“Aaaaaagh!”
“Pleeeease!”
Just before the Alpha Silver Wolf snapped its enormous jaws shut—
We escaped the area.
***
“H-hah……”
“We’re alive.”
Even a Teleportation Skill could not take us outside the gate.
Still, we had managed to move to a safe location.
“Thank you. You saved us.”
A sense of relief incomparable to what they had felt after the first battle spread among the guild members.
Go Seongjun in particular was sweating as if he had been caught in the rain.
BOOOOM!
A cloud of dirt rose from a distant location.
It seemed the Alpha Silver Wolf was throwing a tantrum after losing its prey.
Since we were on high ground, we could see it clearly.
Everyone stared blankly at the Alpha Silver Wolf’s rampage for a moment before coming back to their senses.
“This isn’t the time for that. Let’s get out of the gate quickly!”
“Exactly. What kind of wolf gets that ridiculously huge? If we want to live, we need to get out.”
Its strength was on a completely different level from what one should experience at D-rank.
One roar had knocked everyone out of commission.
I agreed with that much.
But I could not agree with leaving.
Hunter Yoon Seohyeon looked around and spoke in confusion.
“That’s strange. We Teleported to where the gate should be, but there’s nothing here. Don’t tell me the exit disappeared……?”
Her eyes turned toward me.
A look asking for an explanation.
“It’s an anomalous gate, so that’s only natural. The vanished gate will appear again once the boss is defeated.”
“Ah, ah……”
“This is bad……”
Groans spilled from the guild members.
Go Seongjun, who had finally gone quiet for a while, suddenly jumped to his feet and shouted while clutching the cheek I had slapped earlier.
“How does that make any sense? How are we supposed to kill that monstrous thing—”
Before Go Seongjun could finish speaking, a wolf hiding behind a rock above us leaped out.
“Ghk!”
I already knew it was there.
Slash!
I swung Soul Devourer in my hand, and the wolf fell in a single strike.
I flicked the blood from the blade and spoke.
“I’m the one who’ll be killing it anyway. If you don’t want to die, keep quiet.”
Only then did Go Seongjun shut his mouth and slowly retreat toward the back.
Rrrrrumble……
That was when the ground began to shake.
“W-what is that?”
Everyone’s gaze followed Park Hyeonju’s pointing finger.
Toward the place where the Alpha Silver Wolf had been.
The cause of the vibration was obvious.
A massive black wave was covering the entire area.
Awooo!
The wave overturned and swallowed trees and rocks alike before finally crashing over the Alpha Silver Wolf.
The Alpha Silver Wolf thrashed violently and shook its head in resistance, but the wave merely surged along with its movements.
The Alpha Silver Wolf leaped around as if going berserk.
But gradually, its movements slowed.
Little by little, the black liquid swallowed the wolf.
The boss was being helplessly consumed by a bizarre life-form that had suddenly appeared.
Everyone was struck speechless by a sight that made them doubt their own eyes.
That was right.
That thing was the demon of growth I had come here to kill.
Hunter Yoon Seohyeon’s eyes widened as she looked back and forth between me and the black wave.
“Don’t tell me…… that thing? No, right?”
“That’s the one.”
It would have been nice if the exit had appeared automatically when the boss died, but reality was not that kind.
That black liquid swallowing the boss—
The demon of growth—
would now become the boss itself.
Either we killed it and created the exit, or we waited until it left the gate and went outside.
Those were our two choices.
“……Then what are we supposed to do?”
Go Seongjun, noticeably more subdued now, looked at me as he asked.
“Stay here and hold out. If you get bored, have a campfire or something.”
Even while being consumed by the demon, the Alpha Silver Wolf continued howling until the very end.
Because of that, the ordinary wolves were probably gathering toward the center.
This place was relatively safe.
They could handle a few wolves themselves.
It would just take them some time.
I was about to leave when Go Seongjun caught my eye.
I stepped closer to him and spoke.
“Come to think of it, there is one thing you can do.”
I pointed a finger at Go Seongjun’s chest.
“Lend me that.”
Go Seongjun slowly backed away with a flustered expression.
“Th-this? This is Rare-grade……”
Oh, Rare-grade?
Even better.
“Lend it to me if you don’t want to die.”
***
『 Decent Metal Armor Set 』
Quite satisfactory.
The metal armor I borrowed from Hunter Go Seongjun had excellent performance.
No wonder he had stayed intact after getting beaten around by the wolves like that.
I could practically picture Go Seongjun’s face as he reluctantly forced himself into the shabby leather armor I had given him.
“I left the equipment supplied by the Association behind, so the Roman Guild should be able to hold out without much trouble. The problem is us.”
Hunter Yoon Seohyeon spoke with concern.
Hunter Yoon Seohyeon and I were currently heading toward the demon of growth we had seen earlier.
Finding its location was easy.
Awooooo!
It had been standing on a high cliff and howling continuously.
As if pretending it had always been the original boss.
But if you listened carefully, there was a subtle distortion mixed into the sound.
It could not imitate it perfectly.
Yoon Seohyeon asked while climbing the slope.
“So what exactly is that thing? It swallowed the boss and then transformed into the exact same form. I’ve never seen a monster like that before.”
“Who knows. First time for me too. We’ll probably be fine if we just beat it to death.”
“Wow. Incredible plan. A perfect plan for getting both of us killed.”
I shrugged.
I could not reveal that it was a demon.
‘Telling the Association about demons right now would be dangerous.’
For now, it was enough to call it a special monster.
“Looks like it can use the abilities of the monsters it consumes. Either way, what we have to do doesn’t change.”
Defeat it and move forward.
Fortunately, the path toward it was not difficult.
We encountered several wolf monsters, but defeated them quickly.
Yoon Seohyeon’s combat ability was far better than I had expected.
“I may not look it, but I’m almost a B-rank hunter.”
“Oh.”
When I showed a hint of surprise, Yoon Seohyeon smiled proudly.
It seemed Yoon Seohyeon’s defeat against Kuhullen before had partly been a matter of compatibility.
‘We work surprisingly well together.’
With Yoon Seohyeon’s magic combined with my Swordsmanship, even wolves strengthened by demonic energy were no match for us.
Yelp! Yelp!
They fled while letting out pitiful cries.
The amusing thing was that after disappearing like that, they came back with their companions.
『 Soul Devourer consumes souls. Current Soul Concentration: 56% 』
It was hard to imagine a more literal version of mob pulling.
The only disappointing part was that I was not getting Experience.
‘Missing the magic stones and materials hurts even more.’
We needed to reach the demon of growth as quickly as possible.
If it finished digesting everything completely, we would lose any chance of winning.
Even I had no confidence in beating that massive wave.
『 Soul Devourer consumes souls. Current Soul Concentration: 83% 』
The more wolves we killed, the stronger the chill emitted by Soul Devourer became.
‘At least gathering souls is easy enough.’
The demon of growth was drawing the other wolves toward itself with its howling.
It probably intended to swallow them all and turn them into nourishment.
‘That’s what makes it terrifying.’
It absorbed other beings and made their abilities its own.
A simple ability, but one that allowed it to grow endlessly stronger.
After devouring monsters and hunters one after another, the demon of growth eventually gained intelligence.
It did not take long after that for it to obtain the position of demon commander.
The sight of it reigning above the other demons had been terror itself.
‘Which is why now is the only time to deal with it.’
When it had grown the least.
When it had only just crossed the gate and arrived in our world.
Right now was our chance.
Slash!
When I cut down the last wolf, a new message appeared.
『 Soul Devourer consumes souls. Current Soul Concentration: 100% 』
『 Soul Devourer’s special function has been unlocked. 』
Blue light began to surround Soul Devourer.