Ha Ildo Unleashed a Dog-Squirrel into a T-Rank Rift! # 2
I geared up carefully.
It was a state-of-the-art suit made from the hide of an anteater I'd acquired not long ago. Once it was on, I went over my equipment list one more time.
"Potions. Rope—"
Good. That was everything I needed packed.
It felt like the night before a school field trip.
Swish—
Now I turned my gaze to the entrance of the T-Rank Rift standing before us. It had opened in the sea off Gangneung, and like some colossal iceberg it warped the entire coastal landscape around it.
Swish—
We took a boat out to the spot and entered the rift.
Vuuuuum—!
For a moment, my whole body churned with nausea—
and then I found myself gawking at the blazing vista spread out before me.
A river of raging fire.
That was what flowed right in front of me.
If hell actually existed, I suppose this was what it would look like. A T-Rank Rift was abnormal from the very environment up—without this newly tailored anteater-leather suit, I would have been boiled alive by the heat myself.
Swish—
Seo Yerim stepped forward as if the scorching air were nothing at all. She prodded the tar-like substance soaking the ground sticky beneath our feet with one finger, then gave us a light rundown of the situation.
"This East Sea Rift is a fragment of the Land of Flame — Muspelheim. Flame giants show up here mostly, and every one of them is A-Rank, so don't get careless."
The Land of Flame, Muspelheim. I was just thinking what a fittingly awesome name it was when Desperado Cassie drew the pistol at her hip, her eyes gleaming.
"Korea's T-Rank Rifts are like something out of Viking legend! The T-Rank Rifts back on American soil spawn bandage-wrapped mummies and bayonet-mounted monsters!"
I'd heard that the rifts opening in each country had their own distinct flavor. In Korea, the rifts usually revealed elves and the shattered remnants of the world they once lived in—whereas in America, apparently, deserts crawling with mummies tended to appear instead.
Why would the character of the rift environments differ so much from nation to nation—?
I was mulling that over when I pulled Keong-keong-i out from my belt.
"Keong-keong-ah. How's it going? You holding up?"
Swish—
In that sweltering hell, Keong-keong-i hopped and bounced this way and that, cheerful as ever.
Watching him, Desperado Cassie let out a long, aching moan. "Soooo cute!"
Cute he was, to be fair.
And that was the exact moment it happened.
━Grrrung-!
Keong-keong-i bristled, every hair on end. A moment later, the boulder smoldering in the lava right in front of us gave a heavy, grinding groan and began to move. When the thing finally rose to its full height, it stood roughly four meters tall, burning like living fire.
There it was—the A-Rank monster, the Fire Giant.
It looked every bit as imposing and powerful as its reputation promised.
"Keong-keong-ah! Go!"
Swish—
I drew the Beam Saber from my hip and, at the same instant, deployed my mana.
Ssssss—
My mana spread outward from the ground, and with it, Keong-keong-i's movements grew even faster.
"Go get him! Keong-keong-ah!"
━Grrrung…!
Word had it that when fighting giants, it was best to concentrate your firepower on a single point. Stall on the offense, and the giants would call for their comrades—and then everything got complicated.
Pat—
Keong-keong-i finally launched himself into the air, scurrying smoothly up the giant's leg and climbing all the way from there to its neck.
"Gale Kkeong-Kkeong Slash!"
Pat—
He bit down on his own tail and whipped the attack out with everything he had.
FWAAANG-!
With a thunderous shock, the Fire Giant's body wobbled and swayed.
Rustle— rat-a-tat-tat—
Like a crumbling cookie, chunks of stone shed from the giant's frame and clattered to the ground.
━Goooooh—
The thing straightened the knee it had dropped and heaved itself back up to its feet.
"And here I was aiming to take its head off in one stroke."
So a body built of burning rock really was that durable, huh? This, too, was an outcome I'd anticipated.
"Keong-keong-ah! Fall back for now!"
Swish—
I called Keong-keong-i back to regroup. Watching this, the American S-Rank hunter Cassie looked genuinely astonished.
"Incredible power! So the rumors were true! You actually dealt damage to an A-Rank giant!"
We hadn't brought the giant down, but landing a solid blow on an A-Rank monster was apparently worthy of high marks. And honestly—
when I thought about how we'd once needed bombs just to scratch that Troll King Kurish, and now Keong-keong-i had wounded a giant of the same class—well, even by my own estimation, that was a big deal.
━Zzji…!
Just then, someone poked their head out of my bag. An emperor ant with three horns.
Was he asking me to send him out too?
"Alright! Ang-ang-i! Your turn!"
Swish—
I took Ang-ang-i in my hand and rubbed his glossy, hardened carapace rapidly—swish swish swish swish—charging him with friction. Ang-ang-i's body gleamed ever brighter gold, and at the very peak of that radiance, I hurled him out with the desperation of a pitcher loading the bases in the bottom of the ninth.
"Ant Railgun!"
Peeshoong—!
Reinforced by my mana, Ang-ang-i streaked across the field like a single point of laser light. He punched straight through the magma giant's heart—and then, with a mighty buuung of wingbeats, circled back and landed on my shoulder.
Psssssh—
The giant collapsed into dust.
━Guaaaaah—
Even Seo Yerim looked fairly stunned by the sight.
"They said you fought weirdly strong using animals, but you just took down an A-Rank? That's beyond what I expected. Ha Ildo, since when did you get this strong?"
"Hoo, hoo—"
Instead of answering, I caught my breath. I'd burned through a lot of mana. I'd topped up my internal reserves by drinking a potion brewed from the well water at our house, but I'd fired off my trump cards twice in a row, and my stamina was running a little short.
That was when it happened.
Pa-shushk, pa-shushk—!
Lava geysered up from the ground, one eruption after another.
Five giants.
All of them surged out at once.
We'd barely managed to fell one A-Rank monster, and now five showed up in a single wave? So this was a T-Rank Rift. My breath went short in more ways than one.
"Can you still fight?"
Cassie asked me. The right move here was to strike a pose and declare, "Absolutely!"—but honestly, ten minutes of rest would have been the smarter call. Keong-keong-i and Ang-ang-i deserved a break, too.
Luckily, Seo Yerim and Cassie were both S-Rank veterans, and they seemed to read my condition perfectly. They advanced on the giants in front of us, and in under five minutes, all five were down.
"Yerim! I took out three of them!"
"Excuse me? You do know the last one died burning in my firebomb, right?"
These were monsters that any one of us would have to go all-out to handle alone, and here they were bickering over a kill count. So this was the wall of the S-Rank—high and impossibly far away.
In the end, I took down exactly one A-Rank giant. Cassie and Seo Yerim made absolute mincemeat of the T-Rank Rift, and I got to tag along behind them, spectating the S-Rank awakeners at work—pure premium entertainment.
"So this is the shard said to appear only in Korean rifts—the Cataclysm Shard?"
The core of the East Sea Rift was blazing flame itself. The only one among us who could actually touch it was Seo Yerim, mistress of fire.
Sssss—
The moment her hand made contact, the flames died away, revealing a single blackened, scorched stone.
"That one rock holds as much energy as an entire power plant! Unbelievable!"
Cassie marveled at the Cataclysm Shard, the cornerstone material of Korea's 5th Industrial Revolution. I marveled too. It was my first time seeing one up close, after all.
Before long, Seo Yerim had tucked the boulder-sized stone—big as a human head—into the storage case we'd prepared in advance.
"They say it's a fragment of a monster called Surtr. It goes by the name Cataclysm Shard, but just one of these generates a staggering amount of eco-friendly energy, so for us it's a blessing."
She was right. The reason Korea had been able to lead the 5th Industry era was precisely this—that rifts yielding such precious materials opened on Korean soil.
Anyway. The T-Rank Rift expedition ended there.
Only when we made it safely out of the rift did I finally let myself breathe easy.
Thump—
Desperado Cassie smacked me on the back. "Mister Ildo! It was a pleasure watching you work!"
"Keong-keong-i is impressive, isn't he?"
"The K-Squirrel is impressive, yes, but your briefing and scouting skills were also first-rate! A true veteran hunter through and through! B-Rank, but you'll have no trouble holding your own at B-Rank!"
Rank 15 in the world. Being praised by someone that high up put me in a good mood.
Before long, Cassie was chuckling. "Heh heh. No interest in firearms? Supporting your animals from range would take your skills to another level! In Kentucky, even seven-year-olds shoot!"
Well, then. Cassie was a woman from the American South, after all, where just about everyone carried.
"Well, it was a pleasure meeting you!"
Swish—
With that, Cassie threw both arms wide and pulled me into a fierce hug.
"Uh—?!"
I froze in panic. A hug—from a woman? Was this the American style? So open, so free. And true to people from a big country, there was plenty of, ahem, generous capacity on display, too!
"Hey! What the—! Why are you suddenly hugging people!"
Swish—
Seo Yerim pried Cassie off my body. Cassie looked puzzled.
"Back home in Kentucky, this much is just a casual greeting!"
Oh! So that's how it was! I'd heard plenty of stories since I was young about Americans exchanging hugs and cheek kisses like handshakes, man or woman, young or old—so that explained it.
"Hey, Ha Ildo. We have to go file the T-Rank rift subjugation report. It's your first time, so watch how I do it and learn. Fumble around like an idiot later and you'll be asking for the flak."
"Then I'll be off to catch some dog-squirrels!"
Cassie headed for Taecho Village, and I followed Seo Yerim to file the subjugation report.
Vrrrooom—
The car pulled out of Gangneung, and from inside it, Seo Yerim spoke up.
"You saw that, right? That Cassie woman is completely off the rails."
Is she, though? I wasn't so sure.
According to the rumors, Desperado Cassie supposedly had a reputation for being rude—but meeting her in person, that didn't seem quite right. Wasn't she just a wholesome country girl from America? If anything, she was so down-to-earth for an S-Rank that she grew on me.
And her advice about picking up a firearm had a certain appeal, too. What kind of gun would suit me, anyway?
A sleek, tactical automatic pistol? A revolver, dripping with romance? A manly shotgun? An assault rifle with serious stopping power? Or a professional-grade sniper rifle?
It wouldn't hurt to think it over seriously, at least once. The more cards you could play, the better—as a rule.
"The Desperado made contact with Senior Ildo? They ran a T-Rank Rift together?"
In a darkened room, Doctor Yu Ari received the astonishing report from the S-Rank awakener Cha Yura.
Contact between Cassie, the awakener dispatched from America, and Ha Ildo. Ari's mind naturally leapt to one conclusion.
"There's been talk lately that the US is trying to scout promising young awakeners from every country, hasn't there? High-rank awakeners are under heavy surveillance by their own governments, so I heard they've been poaching lower-ranked prospects instead."
Maybe Cassie was trying to lure the promising Ha Ildo out to America. He was a man with more raw potential than anyone. At least, Ari believed that with all her heart—so naturally she was convinced her reasoning couldn't be wrong.
"Hm? What did you say?"
Swish—
Cha Yura, who had been licking away at a lollipop, noticed Ari's gaze and rattled on.
"This? It's called 'Honey Ant Honey Candy'—the nymphs' fan club sells it. It's insanely good! Only 500 won a piece! I'm not even much of a candy person, you know? But this one's delicious!"
"I see."
Cha Yura went back to licking her candy.
Watching her, Yu Ari thought to herself that Korea's S-Rank awakeners were somehow all hopelessly half-baked—not a single one you could truly rely on. Which meant, in the end, the only one who could defend Korea, and beyond that, protect Ha Ildo himself, was her—the hidden S-Rank agent.
With that thought, Ari picked up the phone.
"Yes, it's me. It looks like I'll need to take a few days off. There's somewhere I have to go. Right."