"Putting on airs like that changes nothing!"
Pyo Dae-rim swung the enormous hammer at Garam.
It was threatening enough to turn any ordinary hunter into minced meat in a single blow, but.
"Weak."
Garam added blood to the axe in his hand.
The axe, a mere fifty centimeters or so, grew and grew, and about the time it reached a size close to Pyo Dae-rim's hammer.
CLANG!
Garam swung it at the incoming hammer.
"Ngh?"
Pyo Dae-rim's attack was blocked far too easily.
He clearly hadn't expected the hammer to be stopped head-on; his expression could be seen souring.
"Strength, A-Grade. Then what about defense?"
He said it lightly, but strength at A-Grade also meant that with that one blow just now, Pyo Dae-rim could have produced destructive force close to a missile's.
CRACKLE—!
Enormous wings formed behind Garam's back.
Vast wings of blood with nothing but a framework of bone.
Within the wings, which closed like hands, an axe formed.
An enormous axe just like the one Garam held.
"Try blocking this."
Garam's wings gripped the axe and swung.
CRASH—!
CRASH—!
Only two strikes.
Blows that felt less like an axe than a massive pillar sent Pyo Dae-rim's body floating into the air and slamming into the wall.
"KRRRRK......."
A large scar ran long across Pyo Dae-rim's chest.
Spilling blood in gouts, Pyo Dae-rim clutched the scar and twitched.
On top of that, a few swings of the axe had the cave shaking as if it would collapse.
'Tsk. This cave really is too weak for fighting with A-Grade power.'
Garam glanced around him.
Where the axe he had just swung had merely grazed it, the cave wall bore scratches as if a dragon had clawed through.
And Pyo Dae-rim wasn't about to release the hostages.
'Bring Pyo Dae-rim down as fast as possible.'
In the end, all Garam could do was take him down as quickly as he could.
"So his defense is about the level of the Bat-Man that ate a Blood Point Stone."
Returning the enlarged axe to its original form, he analyzed the fallen Pyo Dae-rim.
Stats that clearly leaned toward offense.
Since his regeneration let him fight again quickly, he seemed to have kept defense to a minimum.
'Then it's simple.'
Break him until he can't regenerate.
A simple and certain method.
"Wh-what's this. He blew me away in one hit?"
Dumbfounded, Pyo Dae-rim looked back and forth between his own body and Garam.
Soon he used the hammer in his grip as a cane and barely got to his feet.
"Well now, I figured you were no ordinary sort from back when you killed that Bat-Man. Hiss. But this is unexpected."
SIZZLE—!
Smoke rose as Pyo Dae-rim's wounds regenerated.
"I can't have it end like this yet. You die here today."
"I think that's the third time you've said that. Can you actually kill me?"
"You son of a bitch!"
At Garam's taunt, Pyo Dae-rim charged him at once.
He swung the hammer with everything he had, but.
CLANG!
Garam spread his wings and blocked Pyo Dae-rim's hammer.
"Damned hard, that is. But say, haven't you left something out?"
VWEEEEEN!
In that instant the orc arms on Pyo Dae-rim's back seized Garam's wings.
At the same time, a green wind settled over the orc arms, spinning like blades.
That wind shaved away at the hard wings bit by bit.
CRACK!
And soon succeeded in snapping one of them.
"I use skills, is what I'm saying."
Blade Wind.
A skill of unified offense and defense that let one use wind as a blade.
Not as rare a skill as the Body Reinforcement Art, but for that very reason it had been researched and developed into something all the more threatening.
Pyo Dae-rim wore the Blade Wind over his body like armor.
VWEEEEEEN!
With the Blade Wind massed around them, the hammer and the fists rushed at Garam.
The hammer in front and fists flying in from both sides.
Blows he could neither dodge nor block.
"Die!"
Pyo Dae-rim seemed certain he had him too; he could be seen smiling deeply.
As he thought, it was an attack most hunters wouldn't even think to dodge, but.
"Only I'm not most hunters."
CRACKLE!
Wings re-formed in an instant and blocked the two fists.
VWEEEEEN!
The Blade Wind wreathing the two fists began shaving away at the wings, but.
"Not a chance."
FWOOOOSH!
He massed Crimson Flame over the axe in his grip.
Just as when he fought Yang Jin-hak earlier.
He gathered an overwhelming flame.
Forced together, it wavered as if it might scatter at any moment.
But he could simply add as much flame as scattered.
"Hup!"
Garam struck Pyo Dae-rim with the flame-wreathed axe.
BOOOOM!
A blast and shock like an explosion rocked the cave.
"GUHAAAAACK!"
Along with the huge explosion, Pyo Dae-rim was hurled into the wall.
Because the wings had hold of his fists, his arms couldn't withstand the recoil and were torn away with a grisly sound.
"The axe is completely wrecked."
Unable to bear the impact, the axe he held had been reduced to a rag.
Garam immediately turned the axe back into blood and absorbed it.
"You, you blocked that?"
With his orc arms torn away, Pyo Dae-rim wiped the sweat running down his forehead, tense.
Unmistakable fear wavered in his eyes.
'Me, flinching? No, that can't be. I'm close to A-Grade now!'
He couldn't accept it.
The Chimera Project had been built by drawing in every kind of research and even an unknown power of unclear origin.
And of all its results, the closest to a finished form was himself.
And that self, seized by fear?
"I told you. You would come to fear me."
Garam approached Pyo Dae-rim.
"Let's see just what a chimera's blood tastes like."
[Lower Skill: Absorb is used.]
[Absorbing the blood of the individual: Pyo Dae-rim.]
[More than one kind of blood is mixed in.]
[Skill plunder has failed.]
"Hm?"
Plunder, failed?
It seemed to be because orc blood was mixed into Pyo Dae-rim's.
"Then there's nothing for it."
He had no intention of leaving Pyo Dae-rim alive to begin with.
Naturally, since the man knew his identity.
Yang Jin-hak and Illiana hadn't recognized him, so he could hand them over to the Holy Knights.
But Pyo Dae-rim, who knew who he was, couldn't be handed over.
"Can't have you going around telling people who I am."
Garam reached out a hand toward Pyo Dae-rim.
"Absorb."
"GUHAAAACK!"
He absorbed Pyo Dae-rim's blood.
Unlike before, he took every last drop without leaving any, meaning to kill him outright.
Pyo Dae-rim shriveled like a mummy in an instant.
The man who had drained blood to make Blood Point Stones, brought to the same state as his victims.
"Life sure is ironic, isn't it?"
"You son of a bitch......."
[Absorbing the blood of the individual: Pyo Dae-rim.]
[More than one kind of blood is mixed in.]
[Normal Skill: Blade Wind (B) acquired.]
"Nice."
And that wasn't all.
[Hardening (C) Lv 7 has risen to Hardening (C) Lv 10.]
[Absorb (C) Lv7 has risen to Absorb (C) Lv8.]
[Congratulations. Having passed level 10, Lower Skill: Hardening (C) Lv 10 is enhanced to Hardening (B) Lv 1.]
The Lower Skills' levels rose as though they had been waiting for it.
[Conditions for the Second Molting have been partially unlocked.]
[Raise the Grade of Hardening, Absorb, and Regeneration to B-Grade.]
[???]
'Ha, the Second Molting already?'
Wasn't this far too fast?
By now even he was dumbfounded watching it.
[Let's leave the molting to think about later.]
'First I take what's mine to take.'
Garam walked slowly toward the fallen Pyo Dae-rim.
The orc's regeneration must have been at work; despite every drop of blood being drained, Pyo Dae-rim wasn't dead.
'Though that won't last long either.'
What remained of the orc's regeneration would last only a moment.
In a little while he would simply die.
"Thanks. Because of you my skills grew faster than I expected."
Still, without True Progenitor Form he would have been an enemy too strong to handle.
'I never thought he'd be enough to make me pull out True Progenitor Form from the start.'
He had gone down in one blow this time, though.
Garam slowly approached him.
VWEEN
Blade Wind rose over Garam's hand.
"How do you have that skill......."
Ignoring Pyo Dae-rim's words, Garam carved out the Blood Point Stone with the Blade Wind.
"Got it."
That left only the Blood Script.
"I'll be taking this too."
He was holding out remarkably well without passing out.
He trembled as Garam approached him.
But Pyo Dae-rim gripped the pen inside his robes and would not let go.
"Cough. I'll never hand it over. This is my stake."
Pyo Dae-rim glared sharply at him, as if refusing to be robbed of it.
It didn't matter.
"Absorb."
[Absorbed the Arrangement of Nosferatu: Blood Script.]
[Hidden Quest: Arrangement of Nosferatu (1) cleared.]
[The Blood Script is granted as a reward.]
Absorbing the Blood Script directly was all it took anyway.
Pyo Dae-rim stared in blank despair at the Blood Script, which had run away like sand.
'I wonder what kind of ability it is.'
[The Blood Script has been fully absorbed into the True Progenitor's body.]
[The power the Blood Script held is released.]
[The Blood Script is engraved into the True Progenitor's memory.]
"Ngh?"
Pain like part of his brain being carved out assailed him.
Characters he had never known before came into being inside his head.
"So this is the Blood Script."
He was too disoriented to grasp it properly yet, but it was clearly no ordinary power.
"I'll have to analyze this properly."
As Garam shook his head and gathered himself.
RUMBLE—!
The cave began to shake.
As though it would collapse at any moment.
"Tsk. Looks like it couldn't hold after all."
The cave seemed to be reaching its limit from the battle.
"KYAAAAA!"
"Help!"
"It's really coming down, isn't it?!"
Still, with Pyo Dae-rim down, rescuing the hostages wasn't a very difficult matter.
CRUNCH—!
He tore the bars away and got the hostages out.
Fortunately it wasn't about to collapse that instant, so Garam was able to lead the hostages out of the cave quickly.
The moment Garam was out, the cave came down as if it had been waiting for him.
He had confirmed Pyo Dae-rim's death before leaving, so he had no further business in this gate.
"Let's all head out now, then."
He led the hostages out of the gate.
After they had escaped the gate.
The one who appeared to represent them approached Garam.
"Haah, haah. Thank you. For saving us."
"It's not as if I did much......."
Answering vaguely, Garam looked at the man before him, struck by something familiar.
"Cha Jin-myeong?"
What?
Why is this man turning up here?
"You know me?"
"It would be stranger not to."
He was the head of a conglomerate.
"That's fair enough."
"Why are you in a place like this?"
Was this why Cha Seo-rin had said she couldn't reach him lately?
"It's embarrassing, but I entered the gate to obtain herbs for spirit medicines, and I was abducted."
Given the string of disappearances in gates lately, it wasn't implausible.
'Still, to go and abduct the head of a conglomerate.'
They were reckless bastards indeed.
"Might I ask who you are? I would like to repay the debt."
"Hmm."
Repayment from a man of Cha Jin-myeong's standing would be no small thing.
But Garam glanced at the people standing behind Cha Jin-myeong.
"That will be difficult, I'm afraid."
Revealing his identity with this many people around was too much of a stretch.
"Then contact me here at some later time."
Saying that, Cha Jin-myeong held out a business card to Garam.
"I would like for us to talk somewhere quiet."
Having handed over the card, Cha Jin-myeong led the people away.
Garam pocketed Cha Jin-myeong's card as well and headed home.
'With this I can use Kindred Conversion.'
Looking at the Mid-tier Blood Point Stone in his hand.