A Sulking World Serpent
BOOM!
The instant Jormungandr's tail came crashing down—
FWOOSH—!
"Ngh!"
Crack, CRAAACK!
Choco's arms stretched out and swelled, his whole body transforming into something well over five meters tall—and he caught the serpent's descending tail dead on.
Crunch, crunch—
"Well done, little brother!"
"Hff. Ngh… Brother, she's heavy. Please hurry…!"
It was a weight even the Giant Bear could barely endure. And the white snake squirmed against his grip.
"Kgh, to struggle like this…!"
BANG, BANG-BANG!
Only after whipping her tail this way and that, writhing until she'd shaken Choco loose, did the white snake—Jormungandr—rise up straight from her place. Then the serpent's head swung down toward the humans far, far below her.
"…Vile little humans."
A rumbling pressure rolled over them. Hearts hammered.
"You dare… Do you have any idea whose property I am!!"
"Ghk—hkk…!"
"Th-the pressure…!"
"I-Is this S-rank…?"
The hunters' bodies locked up entirely, unable to move so much as a finger. Jormungandr flicked her long tongue with an unpleasant hissing, hissing sound—like something ready to swallow a human whole at any moment, the white snake lowered her head lower and lower.
"Know the sin of coveting my body, I, Jormungandr, guardian deity of Hel—"
"DDUBU!!!!"
At that moment, Ji-hoon leapt down from Poppi's back and shouted. Jormungandr paused mid-sentence, cleared her throat with a dignified ahem, and began again.
"Know the sin of coveting my—"
"D! DU! BU!!!!!"
The white snake froze rigid once more. Then Jormungandr's head began to move toward a presence that felt familiar—yet somehow, not.
Grievous, and yet longing. Hateful, and yet impossible not to recall. His scent.
The moment the serpent's head finally locked onto Ji-hoon—
"…Oh… my…?"
"Yep! Poppi and Choco are here too!"
Jormungandr's eyes went wide. Poppi flapped his wings, and Ddubu—Jormungandr—spotted her own tail dangling from Choco's hands.
And then, she drew her whole body back with a slow hiss.
"O-ohoh, Elder Brother!?"
"That's right, Ddubu! Glad to see you're healthy!"
"Y-you could have at least SENT WORD that you were coming! I would have groomed myself properly! Someone kept interfering with my mana gathering, so I thought, well, I simply must go out and—!"
So it WAS you gathering it all. I was wondering why the mana kept flowing in one direction.
"Wait—you're mid-molt?"
"!!!!!??????"
"You always stockpile mana whenever you molt."
Ji-hoon grinned. At the same moment, Jormungandr—Ddubu's—massive face flushed crimson and she began thrashing about in a wild panic.
BANG-BANG-BANG! KRAK! KRAK-KRAK!
Flailing without a single thought for how much damage her own body was doing.
"I-I don't know, Elder Brother!! Do you have any idea how hard I've worked to hide that!? Such an unseemly display, in front of you of all people!!"
"She's completely lucid."
"Perfectly lucid, Brother."
"Totally lucid, yes-um."
BANG-BANG-BANG!
"Hey, hey, HEY, stop it! The gate's gonna collapse!"
"Th-this maiden is mortified! And—come to think of it, Elder Brother! I have things to say to you as well!"
Hiss, hiss—
"You vanish without a word! Then pop up out of NOWHERE! Who DOES that? Who!?"
"That's not exactly something I had a say in…."
He'd been forced into indentured labor (granted, he'd signed the contract himself), and he hadn't become a hunter because he wanted to either (though he was running the returnee camp). Ji-hoon pulled an aggrieved face, but Ddubu turned her head away with a haughty toss, as if none of it concerned her.
"Hmph! I don't care!"
Then she suddenly stuck out her tongue. The long tongue slithered, whip-whip, weaving between the hunters.
"Until my mood improves, I will not move ONE step from this spot!"
And with that, she coiled herself up and flopped down with a resounding thud.
Boss Monster Dark Knight (A) has appeared in the Gate.
"The boss monster!?"
"The sub and the real one are separate!?"
"I've never heard of anything like this!"
"The Dark Knight is emerging! Everyone, follow my command—"
The moment Baek Kang-hyun's hand closed around his blade of mana, the Dark Knight burst out of the rift—
FWAAAAAH—!
And in that instant—
"I am in an EXTREMELY foul mood right now."
Krizk, groan?
"So be a good boy and stay put until I feel better, won't you?"
Jormungandr wound her tail around the Dark Knight and subdued the creature in a single heartbeat. Then she bared her razor fangs at him and—
Clack, clack.
Tap-tap, tap-tap-tap.
Her jaws gaped wide enough to swallow him whole, teeth clicking together again and again, as if she might chew the Dark Knight up at any second.
"…Oof."
Even I'll admit that's kind of terrifying.
"Hunter Ji-hoon, what on earth is…."
"Ah, she's the same type as these guys, but with one difference…."
Even in Hell, Jormungandr—Ddubu—had been a mythical monster among monsters. Yet she'd had one very special trait all her own. Namely:
"She sulks. Really, really badly."
"Uh… pardon…?"
A monster… that sulks?
"This is hopeless, you guys. Come here."
Ji-hoon called Poppi and Choco over and convened an emergency strategy meeting.
"…We're in serious trouble, aren't we?"
"Yes, Brother. You have never once managed to soothe our little sister's temper. She was the worst at Hell Farm, too."
"You done?"
"Sorry-um!"
"Big Sis Ddubu doesn't even cheer up with food. Real trouble, yes-um."
As Ji-hoon sighed—
Dungeon grade is being recalibrated: S-Rank → A-Rank.
The message announcing the downgrade appeared before every hunter's eyes. Ddubu remained coiled in her heap, the Dark Knight still squirming, trussed up in her tail.
And all around her—the C-Rank and B-Rank hunters.
If anyone touches her in this state.
Total annihilation. Ji-hoon clicked his tongue.
"One wrong move and she'll blow."
"Yes. She's holding it together by a thread right now."
"Big Sis Ddubu is genuinely dangerous, yes-um."
"…Ha."
Ji-hoon pressed a hand to his forehead.
Meanwhile, Jin Seo-yoon had ordered in support forces and was rushing into the gate.
According to Baek Kang-hyun's intel, this is one of the most badly warped anomaly gates yet.
Monsters regenerating on repeat, the rank constantly shifting. At this very moment, it had gone from S to A.
"What even IS this…!"
Worried she might actually lose Lee Ji-hoon at this rate, Jin Seo-yoon picked up speed. But from every direction, there wasn't a single sound of combat.
"Then where IS the fighting…."
Just then, the sound of a crowd drifted into her ears.
"So it's over there!"
TAAANG—!
She channeled mana into her feet and her new heels launched her forward like a bullet. She found the crowd within moments—and spotted Baek Kang-hyun as well.
"Baek Kang-hyun, Bran—"
And then Jin Seo-yoon saw it.
"S-Senior, allow me to give you a massage!"
"You know, I once dreamed of being a comedian. I had this whole comedy routine…."
Hunters, performing party tricks in front of a serpent.
"Ddubu, sweetie, peeksie-boo! Cheer up, c'mon~"
"…Hunter Lee Ji-hoon?"
"Ddubu~ honey~"
"…"
Lee Ji-hoon, putting on a full song-and-dance show in front of the serpent's massive head.
Ddubu had been a high-maintenance boss since her days in Hell.
"Elder Brother! What are you doing!?"
Like the time he tried to clear away her shed skin.
"You insolent Choco! Where do you think you're taking your sister's snack!?"
Like the time Choco made off with a candy no bigger than her claw.
"I shall lodge a formal complaint with Lord Abel! This is an unacceptable matter!"
Like the time Abel came to tour the farm and moved one cup of water, and she actually filed an official grievance document over it. The cup had moved all of one centimeter.
Really? You're making THIS much of a fuss over THAT?
That was the kind of exquisitely sensitive monster Ddubu was—sensitivity dialed to the absolute maximum.
"You there, man. Your forehead is drenched in sweat. Wipe it, or I'll bite you out of sheer disgust."
"And you, woman. Why is your hair not groomed? I cannot concentrate—it is driving me mad!"
"AARGH, infuriating! Elder Brother! Are humans simply born without your delicacy!?"
"Ddubu! Even you should not speak to Brother that way—"
"You hush too, Elder Brother Poppi!"
KRAAAAAAAH!
The colossal serpent, the white Jormungandr, roared with bared fangs.
"What do we do?"
"What indeed?"
"What do we do, yes-um?"
Even putting their heads together produced no answers. What had they done back at Hell Farm…
Ah!
Then Ji-hoon remembered something and rose to his feet.
"Branch Chief Baek Kang-hyun."
Ji-hoon—who seconds ago had been going peeksie-boo with the crowd—approached, and Baek Kang-hyun flinched.
"…What is it?"
"Ah, nothing, nothing at all, hahaha. Being a tamer isn't easy either."
"Tell me about it…. Ah—no, that's not what matters."
"If even you're struggling with her, that snake must really be something, huh?"
Jin Seo-yoon seemed relieved by the loosened atmosphere, but still uneasy, she pressed on.
"Ji-hoon, is there a way to fix this?"
"Hmm…."
"Honestly, it'd be better to smash through her. What even IS this—an S-rank boss pinning down an A-rank boss, and the gate rating bouncing around like a roulette wheel."
It was a first for Baek Kang-hyun too. Could they even get past that sub-boss Jormungandr to take down the Dark Knight?
They could, technically—
But the collateral damage would be catastrophic.
Most of the returnees here were C to B-rank hunters. If they committed to a fight, a single roar from Jormungandr would knock them out cold—or outright kill them.
"So actually, there's something I've been wondering. What happens if we just don't catch the gate boss?"
Baek Kang-hyun and Jin Seo-yoon's ears perked up.
"After a set period, the boss monster is permitted to emerge into the human world. The exit opens."
"And then a Gate Collapse occurs. Like the one ten years ago, when the first gates opened."
Jin Seo-yoon clenched her fist. So hard and so tight that her resolve—her vow that such tragedy must never repeat—was practically tangible.
"So as long as the boss doesn't come out, we're fine, right?"
"I… suppose so? Guild Master Yoon Do-ha, is that correct?"
Yoon Do-ha's voice came through the comm.
"Correct. And when the boss crosses over, all its little minions come pouring through with it."
"Aha, got it."
Ji-hoon clapped his hands together once.
"Poppi! Choco!"
"Ddubu, I was sorry to have… Yes, Brother!"
"Big Sis's jerky is so tasty, nom nom. What, Brother?"
The two of them, hard at work calming Ddubu's temper, turned to look at him.
"Let's bail."
At those words, Baek Kang-hyun and Jin Seo-yoon tilted their heads.
"Sorry?"
"Did you say… bail?"
Every last member of Team C was no different. They could only blink in bewilderment, wondering what on earth he meant.
"Yep. We run first, we figure it out later."
Soothing a sulking little sister. The first principle of the craft:
Give her space.
Back at Hell Farm, whenever Ddubu sulked, they simply let her be alone. And by the next day, she'd more or less gotten over it. And right now, Ddubu was mid-molt, wasn't she?
Touch her wrong now and she'd explode. Not just angry—her mana would literally detonate.
So, the answer:
Everyone gets their alone time, starting now.
"We'll see you in a month, yes? Same time, same place, hahahaha."
Obviously not a whole month, though.
Every eye turned to Ji-hoon, who smiled as if this were the most natural thing in the world. But Ji-hoon just went on shrugging, as if to say nothing could be done, packing his bags, item by item.