Chapter 136
Chapter 136
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 136
Chapter Title: Chapter 25: Germination (5)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fortunately, the two of them understood their roles well, and they hadn't disappointed me in party hunts so far.
“What are you gonna do, hyung? Made up your mind?”
“Hmm...”
It felt wasteful to buy something from the silver tab with the mana I had now.
The prices in the gold tab were way too high.
Most of them were out of reach because of the limit at five times my current mana.
‘Maybe I should save it up, in case I can't learn Mana Domination.’
Mana Domination, presumed to be a higher skill of Mana Control.
It took two months to go from Mana Operation to Control.
If it took that long to advance from Control to Domination, it might be better to just buy it.
‘How can I use it most efficiently?’
I pondered ways to squeeze out maximum efficiency and said,
“I'll think about it for a bit. It won't be too late to use it after gathering more mana.”
“...Gather more? You're not thinking of going hunting right away today, are you?”
“Any reason I can't?”
Kim Yul's movements stopped dead as he stuffed his cheeks full of meat and chewed.
Yang Tae-ho, who had been quietly eating across from me, lifted his head and stared right through me.
At their honest reactions, I let out a hollow chuckle.
“I said after the victory feast, we'd have personal time.”
I never planned to invite them along in the first place.
Once I made that clear, Kim Yul started chewing the meat in his mouth again.
Yang Tae-ho sighed in relief and resumed poking at his food with his fork.
“I know you're a spartan, hyung, but you hunted non-stop until the victory feast. Even until dawn every day. You absorbed over 200,000 mana in that time. How could you earn more in the last ten days than I did in my first three months? It doesn't make sense, right?”
“What doesn't make sense? If you wanna get that gold badge quick, you gotta hustle.”
Kim Yul looked at me with eyes full of dread and grumbled bitterly.
“I'm seriously curious, hyung—when the hell do you rest? Are you some steel human who doesn't need breaks? No stress or anything?”
He started poking at my body on his own, so I gently peeled his fingers off one by one.
“I rest when I sleep.”
“...Don't you sleep like four hours a day, hyung? You still doing morning lessons with that mage guy? And training with the knights?”
“Three hours lately. Cut it down a bit.”
The one good thing about becoming a Player? My body holds up fine on less sleep.
“...I got nothing to say to that.”
“Then don't say anything. If you keep yapping, I'll assume you got energy left and drag you hunting.”
Kim Yul shut his mouth immediately.
‘Always so chatty.’
I chuckled lightly and checked the remaining rewards.
Useless medals, resources that always made me smile, a breastplate good enough to wear for a while.
And finally, the small box from Marquis Efenel.
‘Wonder what's inside.’
Half curiosity, half tension.
I opened the box, and a round golden orb appeared.
‘...They really love gold around here.’
In Biharr, anything good tended to involve gold.
That made me instinctively feel this thing would be pretty useful.
I picked up the golden orb from the box, and a system window popped up right away.
[Enhancement Stone Infused with the Divinity of Pinelpenia]
• Type: Consumable
• Acquisition Difficulty: Unique
• Grade: ★★★★★★★
• Description: Imbues an item with divinity, turning it into a relic. The item becomes a relic with special powers.
• Effect: Item enhancement.
Unique acquisition difficulty, and a whopping 7-star grade.
I was surprised at the higher-than-expected level, but not that impressed.
The description was too skimpy.
Did it have a failure chance? How do you use it? Exactly how much enhancement?
It would've been nice to know the details upfront, but I wasn't naive enough to expect that kindness from this game anymore.
‘Not knowing doesn't mean I won't use it.’
The moment I read the description, I'd already picked the item.
‘Kerax's Spear.’
My only current means to conditionally unleash a lightning bolt.
An item that boosts attribute mana by ten times—it needed enhancing.
‘It's an enhancement, after all. Can't get worse, right?’
The System and the Seven Gods shared the goal of nurturing Players.
It felt a bit iffy since it came from the Pinelpenia side.
‘But it's a game item, so it won't harm the Player.’
The issue was that Kerax's Spear was already a relic.
After a brief hesitation, I reached out beyond the table.
I pulled Kerax's Spear from my inventory, drawing stares from Kim Yul and Yang Tae-ho, who were almost done eating.
Not knowing the exact method, I just held the orb against the spear.
10 seconds, 30 seconds, a full minute passed with no reaction.
But I didn't give up and waited a bit longer.
‘This game's janky as hell—I knew that already.’
A little delay wasn't surprising.
“What are you doing right no—...”
Just as Kim Yul broke the silence.
Flash.
A beat late—no, several beats—a blinding golden light filled the room.
When the light faded, the golden orb in my hand had vanished.
Instead, a system window appeared above Kerax's Spear.
[Enhancing: 0.01%]
Watching silently for 20, 30 seconds, it ticked up another 0.01%.
This was update-patch-level speed.
‘Even a turtle could crawl faster than this.’
I sighed deeply and stowed the spear back in my inventory.
No quick results here, so I cleared it from sight.
‘Better eat up and head out hunting.’
Waiting for that to finish? Nah, better do something else meanwhile.
* * *
After the meal, I left Habon Castle straight for the contaminated zone.
Habon had made solid progress on purification, advancing the outpost five or six times by now.
‘About time to take the next castle.’
Word was, the church higher-ups were discussing it.
Nothing decided yet, but I'd join the march when it was.
For now, handle what I could quickly.
I purified the contaminated zone through repetitive hunts that were basically manual labor.
Then something made me stop: info on the map.
‘What the hell?’
A dot in a color I'd never seen was plastered on the map.
‘White?’
I stared at the map, paused hunting, and changed course.
Black dots were already clustering nearby.
Worried it might vanish, I picked up speed.
A few minutes later, at the destination, I tilted my head.
“Kiruk!”
“Kieek, kieek!”
First thing I saw: monsters gathered in one spot, greedily tearing into red flesh.
Next, my eyes went to the unidentified corpse surrounded by them.
‘Pretty big.’
Height alone was about 4 meters.
From the outline, it looked four or five times a bear's size.
Plus, four legs visible through the monsters.
Accounting for quadrupedal stance, it'd be even bigger upright.
But low chance I'd see this mystery creature rise and move.
‘Looks dead.’
No minimal breathing or pained twitches.
No thrashing while monsters ripped into it? Yeah, right.
Even without that, it had that distinct chill and eerie vibe of a corpse.
I alternated glances between the lingering white dot on the map and the corpse, then reached out.
Regular monsters from a 2-star zone? Easier than breathing now.
A dozen fireballs formed in a blink and flew at them.
I walked forward amid the screams of monsters burning alive.
With the surrounding ones cleared, I examined the massive corpse closer.
Untouched fur up high was white.
Lower down, that white fur was splattered red and black.
Eaten so much in spots, bones were visible.
‘Blood's red... Definitely dead.’
No body heat from the fur. No heartbeat.
‘So why's the white dot still there?’
I manifested Mana Detection, which I hadn't used much since the map.
The red butterflies I hadn't seen in ages: three of them, bigger than my early ones.
Activating it directly showed it.
A small mana clump inside the giant corpse.
To uncover it, I lifted the limp corpse.
No clue what happened, but it was curled tight.
Probing like checking pockets, I found bloody lumps between the hind legs, lower abdomen.
“One, two, three... four.”
Three of the four pups were ice-cold.
The last one.
“Nng, kiing.”
One was weakly wriggling.
Now I got the picture.
‘Wondered how this big one died to trash mobs.’
Probably attacked during birth, couldn't fight back and died.
Or botched birth, died, monsters found and started eating.
‘One or the other.’
With the gist, I grabbed the scrabbling pup's scruff—eyes still sealed.
Newborn by the look, tiny as a handful.
Even on my palm, it'd have room to spare.
Of course, I picked it up not from pity over its small, soft form.
‘What the white dot?’
I examined the live one, turning it this way and that.
‘Looks like a mammal beast.’
Biharr beasts show as blue dots.
So why white for this?
What made it different?
Marking new mana type?
I pondered, thumb and index around the squirming bloody lump's neck.
‘Absorb its mana?’
What if it's harmful?
Safest: take it back, ask Biharr folk what it is.
Even as I debated killing it, it kept wriggling.
Maybe mistaking my hand for mom's teat—or something else.
It twisted, shoved its muzzle at my hand.
Then chomp.
“Tch!”
It bit. I shook my hand on reflex.
“Kyang!”
The tiny body flew to the ground, but I ignored it.
Instead, stared at the two clear holes between thumb and index.
“Huh...?”
Absurd it even had teeth, newborn and all.
And it pierced skin that shrugs off daggers.
Rubbing the wound, I reached again and grabbed the pup.
Then, an unfamiliar sound flowed into my head.
Thump-thump-thump!
From pitch darkness, a massive drumbeat shook my whole body.
-Kieeeek!
-Gyaahaaong!
Distant roars and screams, then sudden brightness everywhere.
Blinding light tore at my eyes, unfamiliar screams continued.
Mixed in were whimpering cries.
-Gyaong, gyaong...
-Kiiing...
Hearing beast cries over and over, they faded until one remained.
-Nng, kiing...
“Nng, kiing.”
Just this one in my hand.
“What the...”
Words slipped out reflexively, but I knew without asking.
What flowed in was memories.
Likely what this little one experienced in the womb before birth, and after.
My gaze changed as I looked down at the wriggling thing in my hand.
‘Telepathy?’
First thought: how?
But this world had two moons, mana, magic as norms.
‘No rule against telepathic beasts.’
Pondering between caution and curiosity, it sent more memories.
Damn System