Chapter 14
Chapter 14
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: The Sudden Halt
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‘Evade?’
It was too late for that.
The tentacles were dropping at an unbelievable speed, already right in front of Seo Woo-jin.
‘Block?’
That was impossible.
There was no way the current Seo Woo-jin could block tentacles thicker and heavier than utility poles, ones that could shatter the ground with a single strike.
“…Then die?”
Death seemed to be the only option left.
But he didn’t want to just stand there and die without doing anything.
Seo Woo-jin raised his sword.
Whether he died doing this or that, it was the same—so he figured he might as well go out swinging to clear his chest.
“Even an earthworm writhes when stepped on!”
He swung his sword at the tentacle plummeting down to crush him.
Whoosh—
The level 2 hero—no, aspiring Demon King’s sword clashed with the tentacle in a pathetically feeble display.
And then….
“Huh?”
The ice worm stopped moving.
He barely felt any impact through his sword.
It was like a child swinging a weak punch.
Considering the tentacle’s size and weight, that was impossible.
‘…What?’
It couldn’t be that his own strength was this overwhelming.
Seo Woo-jin cautiously checked the ice worm’s status.
As expected, it wasn’t that he’d suddenly gotten stronger and hadn’t noticed.
The ice worm had simply halted.
Not just the tentacle falling toward him, but the main body and all the other tentacles had frozen solid like stone.
He swallowed dryly without realizing it.
He couldn’t make sense of the situation at all.
“Seo Woo-jin!”
Just then, Ailin’s shout rang out.
It was almost a scream.
But Seo Woo-jin couldn’t respond.
If he made any noise in this situation and the ice worm started moving again, he’d be crushed for sure.
Instead, he slowly retrieved the sword he’d held overhead and sidled sideways.
“Seo Woo-jin! Answer me, Seo Woo-jin!”
Ailin’s voice was trembling badly.
She thought he might already be dead, and the guilt from that was eating at her.
Even amid it all, her voice was drawing closer—she must have been sprinting this way.
‘Just a bit more….’
The ice worm didn’t seem dead.
Its massive eyes were still shifting slowly toward him.
But its body was definitely rigid.
‘Quick, now!’
Once he’d put some distance, Seo Woo-jin bolted and finally opened his mouth.
“Over here!”
What if the ice worm started moving again? He worried, but it was unfounded.
Even as he pulled away, it didn’t twitch a single hair.
It just stared.
“Get away from the ice worm! I’ll come to you!”
Joy? Relief?
Unlike her earlier quavering voice, Ailin’s shout was thick with relief.
She still sounded urgent, of course.
Seo Woo-jin kept running to put as much distance as possible between him and the ice worm, just as she said.
He didn’t forget to glance back at it occasionally.
Even as he sped away, the tentacles remained frozen, unmoving.
And then Ailin came into view beside it.
“Here! Over here!”
Seo Woo-jin raised his hand and yelled.
In an instant, Ailin’s figure grew larger.
She closed the gap at a speed he couldn’t even compare to.
“You’re safe!”
Honestly, he’d planned to say something upon seeing her.
Not quite a curse, but a scolding to calm his rattled nerves.
But Seo Woo-jin couldn’t.
Ailin, who always wore a cold, composed expression…
‘Tears?’
If those weren’t beads of sweat in her eyes, they were definitely tears.
“A-are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
The moment Ailin reached his side, she checked his body.
Naturally, he wasn’t scratched anywhere.
He was a bit tired and winded, but that was from handling everything alone.
The ice worm hadn’t paid him the slightest attention until moments ago, so there was no way he’d been hurt.
“I-I’m fine.”
Stunned by this new side of Ailin, Seo Woo-jin stammered a reply.
But she insisted on confirming it with her own eyes, inspecting every inch of him carefully.
Only then did she let out a sigh of relief.
“Let’s pull back for now.”
She didn’t understand the situation either.
Why the ice worm had suddenly stopped, and why it stayed that way.
Everything was baffling, but figuring out the reason wasn’t the priority now.
Getting the hero to safety quickly—that was.
Ailin hoisted Seo Woo-jin onto her back.
“H-hey! Wait a second!”
He panicked at her sudden action, but he didn’t have time to resist.
Shooo—
With an insane speed he’d never felt before, the two returned to their original spot.
Like riding a supercar with the sunroof open—what would that feel like? It was thrilling and embarrassing in some inexplicable way, leaving Seo Woo-jin speechless, eyes downcast.
“This should be far enough.”
Ailin set Seo Woo-jin down and checked his condition once more, meticulously.
Only after confirming again that he was unharmed did she revert to her usual self.
“What in the world…”
Ailin trailed off.
But Seo Woo-jin could guess the rest without hearing it.
‘Roughly, “Why’d you pull that reckless stunt?”’
He didn’t know either.
It hadn’t been like this when other soldiers or knights were in danger.
He’d only thought about saving his own skin.
But when Ailin was at risk, it was different.
His body had moved on its own before he knew it.
This was already the second time.
‘Because she’s pretty?’
She was pretty.
But that couldn’t be the reason.
Ailin was stunning, sure, but Seo Woo-jin had seen countless celebrities back on Earth.
Plenty were even prettier, more beautiful than her.
He wouldn’t risk his life for that.
‘Do I like Ailin?’
No way!
If anything, he felt more uncomfortable around her.
He was grateful that she took care of him and protected him, but that was it.
There wasn’t enough history between them for him to feel affection.
‘I don’t know.’
It wasn’t some childish hero complex either…
“Isn’t it Ailin who should be explaining herself?”
Running out of excuses, Seo Woo-jin turned the tables on her.
She’d charged ahead without a thought for what was behind her, after all.
If she hadn’t bolted out like that in the first place, none of this would’ve happened.
“…I’m sorry.”
Seo Woo-jin’s eyes widened slightly.
He hadn’t expected her to apologize so readily.
Pride and self-esteem sky-high as they were, for Ailin to do this.
“I forgot my orders and let personal feelings leave you alone—that was clearly my mistake.”
“Y-yeah. As long as you get it.”
Scratching the back of his head after saying that, Seo Woo-jin glanced toward the ice worm.
“Anyway, why’d that thing suddenly freeze up like that?”
Ailin had brought Seo Woo-jin pretty far from the ice worm.
At this distance, even if it started moving again, they could easily evade.
With safety somewhat assured, Ailin regained her composure and began analyzing the cause.
There were a few reasons monsters stopped moving.
First: encountering a natural predator.
Think of a frog in front of a snake.
Prey often froze in the face of such killing intent.
But the ice worm’s natural predator?
Ailin had never heard of one.
At least around here, no monster could challenge it.
Second: receiving an order from its master.
No matter how mindless the monster, it couldn’t disobey a command linked through the soul.
Of course, that was impossible.
Monsters had only one master.
The Demon King.
She considered a few other possibilities.
But none fit the current situation.
“…I have no idea.”
In the end, Ailin shook her head with a baffled expression.
“Figured as much.”
Seo Woo-jin hadn’t really expected an answer, so he nodded.
Meanwhile, he thought to himself.
‘Happened with Drakeas too, right?’
The monster charging to smash him had frozen in place for a moment.
‘It looked scared.’
Absurd, but that’s definitely how it had felt to Seo Woo-jin.
Same with the ice worm.
No way to read its expression, so he couldn’t confirm fear, but the rigid motion was identical.
‘What’s the reason? Could it be because I’m the Demon King?’
Seo Woo-jin shook his head.
He wasn’t the Demon King yet.
To be precise, he just had the aptitude to become one.
Right now, he was a mere level 2 newbie without even a set class.
Too insignificant for Drakeas or the ice worm to sense the Demon King and cower.
‘Then there’s only one thing left….’
Seo Woo-jin opened his ‘status window’ for the first time in a while.
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■ Name: Seo Woo-jin
■ Class Aptitude: Demon King [Immeasurable]
■ Level: 2
■ Skill: ??? [Passive]
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The only change was his level going from 1 to 2.
But Seo Woo-jin wasn’t checking his level.
‘That skill.’
While waiting in the Empire, he’d overheard a few things.
“Heroes start getting skills at level 5, right?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah.”
Just to be sure, he’d confirmed with Ailin.
Heroes got their first skill at level 5, then one more each level-up after.
‘Even the S-grade and SSS-grade aptitude guys didn’t have skills yet.’
But Seo Woo-jin had one from the start.
Even if it was listed as ‘???’, revealing no information.
‘If there’s a reason, it’s that.’
A mysterious skill whose name and effect were unknown.
A passive skill, not active—so it had to be constantly active.
Unbeknownst to him, its effect was ongoing even now.
‘…I need to figure out what this is.’
There was only one way.
Level up.
Once he hit level 5 and got a skill, he might uncover its true nature.
“Think we can take that thing down?”
Seo Woo-jin asked, looking at Ailin.
Naturally, she stared at him like he was insane.