Chapter 95
Chapter 95
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 95
Chapter Title: Fugitives (3)
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After completing all his preparations, Suhyun set off toward the deepest part of the poison zone. Even though he had relatively easily resolved crises so far using telekinesis, he didn't relax his tension.
‘The absence of lifeforms is nagging at me.’
It could be due to the harsh environment that made it hard for life to adapt, but he couldn't shake the feeling there might be another reason. If the environment itself had grown intensely toxic, even Suhyun's telekinesis had its limits. He needed to breathe and stay alive, after all.
‘If I keep my telekinesis ready to activate at any moment and run healing on top of that... even I would struggle.’
Superpowers weren't abilities he could use endlessly without cost. They required rest and recharge, just like stamina.
On top of that, healing couldn't fully neutralize toxins that had already infiltrated. It could only mend the body after the poison had spread and wreaked havoc. That was exactly why Suhyun was going through all this trouble to acquire poison arts.
The crunching of his footsteps echoed unusually loudly. Come to think of it, it had been a long time since he'd been in a place this quiet on Cameron Planet.
-Grrr...
“?”
What emerged from between the trees in the distance was a tiger with green fur. The Poshkan tiger was a monster occasionally spotted on the outskirts. It possessed the swift movements, tenacity, and ferocity of a beast of prey. But it wasn't a match for Suhyun.
What surprised him was its color. It wasn't supposed to have such a dark, sickly shade of green.
Slash!
As it slowly approached, the Poshkan tiger swiped its claws at a tree. A tree of that thickness would normally shatter under its strength.
Yet the tree didn't break. The base simply melted away where the claws touched.
“...!”
Suhyun was stunned. The claws being poisonous wasn't surprising. Creatures in the poison zone all carried venom somewhere on their bodies. It would be stranger if they didn't.
But this poison wasn't normal. No existing toxin could melt a tree of that size instantly. It was more like a conceptual poison—an imaginary one.
‘A superpower...!’
It wasn't generating real poison from bodily organs and expelling it. It had to be creating poison through a mechanism similar to superpowers. There were plenty of monsters that wielded something akin to superpowers.
‘Did it awaken to adapt to the poison zone, or do only the awakened ones survive?’
Either way, leaving it alone for long would be dangerous. He had no idea how poison created by superpowers would act. Suhyun prepared to attack the tiger with telekinesis.
-Grrr!
“?”
But the tiger didn't approach any further. When Suhyun halted his steps, it just glared fiercely. It was rare for monsters not to charge at intruders in their territory.
‘What’s going on?’
Suhyun noticed the tiger's body was covered in wounds. Hidden by its long fur at first glance, but up close, dried blood was visible in places.
‘If it's holding back because of injuries, it's not much of a monster.’
Moreover, Poshkan tigers were among the most ferocious monsters. It wouldn't shy away over wounds like that. Suhyun's curiosity piqued—perhaps due to traits adapted to this poison zone.
But before he could satisfy that curiosity, Suhyun had to move. A chilling scream tore into his ears.
“Ugh!”
He blocked it with telekinesis, but the shock was unavoidable. There were definitely no monsters nearby? It wasn't the Poshkan tiger's sound.
Shadows suddenly flickered around Suhyun. He gritted his teeth and launched telekinesis upward. He realized where the monster had come from.
Thud!
A massive spider landed with a creepy noise. Its size made the Poshkan tiger look small, and the ground around it melted just from the impact, radiating toxic fumes. Worse, its face resembled a human's.
‘A human-faced spider actually exists...!’
Legends from other races often required skepticism, but half of them held truth.
A giant spider with a human face. Human-faced spider. The legends claimed its venom could poison anything in the world. It was a tale that couldn't help but intrigue those who handled poisons. Suhyun vaguely recalled reading about it.
No matter how hastily Suhyun had fired his telekinesis as a barrier, the human-faced spider seemed unscathed. Instead, it turned its gaze to the Poshkan tiger.
-Grrrr...
Now he knew who had inflicted those wounds on the Poshkan tiger. The human-faced spider chewed grotesquely and spat blue poison from its mouth. The Poshkan tiger leaped aside to dodge, but the grazed fur melted, and the rock it brushed vanished.
Both were monsters that could generate poison with superpowers. Victory would go to whichever had the stronger venom. But the outcome was already decided.
Stab!
The Poshkan tiger charged and swung its claws. Its claws seemed darker. It had to close in to stab with venom-coated claws, while the human-faced spider could just shoot poison. And the tiger was already gravely injured.
Before it could get close, the Poshkan tiger's movements stopped. The human-faced spider deployed another weapon. A web shot from its rear pierced the tiger's leg and nailed it to the ground.
-Kyaaang!
As the human-faced spider approached, the Poshkan tiger let out a final roar, resigned to its fate. The spider battered it with thick legs and bit its scruff. The tiger flailed its claws in desperation, but inflicted no damage.
Boom!
Creatures that could top the food chain anywhere else, yet their clash ended anticlimactically. As the Poshkan tiger collapsed and rolled, the human-faced spider turned. Now it was time to kill the puny human who had dared strike it.
Crack!
“Ugh.”
Suhyun, in the stance of a javelin thrower, clicked his tongue at the result. He hadn't been idle while they fought. He'd been gathering power to fell the victor. He'd formed a pointed spear and struck, but the human-faced spider was tougher than expected.
Not its defense per se. A huge hole gaped in its torso, yet its movements were unimpeded, and its eyes remained sharply feral.
‘Is it pretending not to hurt, or is its physiology different?’
Either way, he needed to evade. The full-power attack had drained him more than anticipated. Despite the gaping hole, the human-faced spider pursued Suhyun immediately.
Spurt!
The same blue poison it had shot at the tiger now targeted Suhyun. He reacted as he always did against venomous monsters, erecting a telekinetic barrier in midair and twisting away.
But the spider's poison melted through the telekinetic barrier.
“!”
He knew it was a superpower-type poison, but not to this extent. Thinking it mere toxin, he'd made the barrier as thin as possible to conserve energy—a mistake. Suhyun widened the distance again.
“Ugh...”
The spider began webbing the area. Suhyun chose to burst through even if it touched him. Staying put would mean getting bound. A strand grazed his arm as a result.
He gritted his teeth and tore off the flesh. Healing was too precious to waste, but leaving it would let the poison spread. This wasn't the time to stint.
As the distance grew, the human-faced spider hesitated. The hole in its torso didn't seem debilitating, but no creature could emerge totally unscathed from such a blow. It abandoned chasing Suhyun and turned back to the Poshkan tiger, intent on devouring it.
‘Not on my watch!’
Suhyun, whom it thought was fleeing, kicked off the air with telekinesis and looped back. The spider roared in irritation and spat poison, but it couldn't hit Suhyun, who had forsaken offense for pure evasion.
-Whoosh!
Hit and run, hit and run, constantly needling it—finally, the human-faced spider resolved to kill Suhyun no matter what. It began pursuing even as he distanced himself.
‘In that case, I’ll...’
As the gap closed, Suhyun darted past it like lightning. His target: the Poshkan tiger's corpse. If what he'd seen earlier was right, its body definitely had...
* * *
Furious at being toyed with repeatedly by the tiny human, the human-faced spider's rage peaked. This foe was within leg's reach—yet here it was. Returning to chase Suhyun, it spotted him standing where it had webbed the area to fight the tiger earlier.
“Ptoo.”
Suhyun didn't flee. Vile smoke rose from the spit he hawked.
“With a human face and that expression, you're truly creepy.”
The human-faced spider wore a triumphant smirk, as if it had finally caught him. Suhyun smiled bitterly and glared back. Webs stirred from all directions, stabbing toward him.
“The poison from its claws, the venom from your maw. And this paralyzing toxin from the webs.”
When the web hit him earlier, he'd realized the webbing poison wasn't superpower-based.
“I've finally gathered it all. Took... way too long.”
The webs bounced off, and the spider spat poison. Suhyun raised his arm. Having grasped poison arts, he could sense the flows of venom blooming around him.
The blue poison swirled in midair and was sucked into his hand.
-!!!!!
“Good stuff. Here, have it back.”
Suhyun shaped it into a bead and flung it with telekinesis. Superpower poisons had no immunity.
Splat!
The leg it struck melted away.
Perplexed by this unprecedented event, the human-faced spider's face filled with confusion. It desperately sprayed poison again—an enormous volume unlike before.
But before Suhyun, it was like digging its own grave.
‘Poison arts are exactly what they sound like: the ability to wield poisons.’
The power to infuse his will into poisons and manipulate them. A superior ability above any other poison-related power. Suhyun closed one eye. The human-faced spider was no longer a threat. He wanted to experiment.
The tree behind the spider melted.
“Ah. Damn.”
The rock beside it vanished.
After two misses, Suhyun clicked his tongue. He'd tried poisoning targets in his sight like telekinesis, but he couldn't control it that way yet. Misuse could cause accidents.
‘Whatever.’
A black vortex swirled in Suhyun's hand. He could recombine ingested poisons, and even fabricate imaginary ones like those of the Poshkan tiger or human-faced spider.
And Suhyun was a telekinetic. He handled created poisons better than the spider.
Poison bullets fired from all directions pierced the human-faced spider. Realizing its rear lacked vitals, Suhyun concentrated firepower on the front.
It melted away completely. Having blasted so many poison bullets that even the corpse vanished, Suhyun realized he'd overdone it.
‘Oops. Too much?’
Clink.
A rhomboid stone remained where it had been. It had been embedded in the spider's forehead.
“What’s this...?”
-Grrr.
“?”
Before he could savor completing his poison arts or ponder the forehead object, a weak cry from behind drew his attention. Suhyun turned. The Poshkan tiger was definitely dead?
It wasn't from the corpse. It came from farther away. Suhyun followed the sound.
“Ahh...”
Now he understood the Poshkan tiger's odd behavior. It hadn't fled from the spider or attacked the intruder Suhyun first.
Its cub was here.
From inside a den, it growled lowly, glaring at him—a true tiger cub. Barely born, it was dog-sized, but its eyes burned with predatory fierceness.
Suhyun probed its body with poison arts. No toxic adaptation. In this state, it wouldn't last months.
“Alright. Since your mother helped me out.”
With those words, he grabbed its scruff and lifted it. The cub growled and swiped at him.
“...Guess training comes first.”
Half out of interest, he'd decided.
Taming captured monsters had long been attempted, with some successes. But most failed. Rescuing a monster cub wasn't easy either, so Suhyun planned to take it and assess its condition.