Evolution (3)
The rest was cleaned up without much difficulty. Most of the monsters had already poured out of the gate, so there weren’t many Forest Orcs left inside. Shin Jiyeon and Kim Jungjun headed straight for the boss room and faced the boss immediately.
The boss was a muscular macho man with teal-colored skin and a height of about 180cm—slightly smaller than the other orcs. His physique was the kind that would make women who loved muscular bodies, or men with that particular preference, lose their minds. But—
“Tsk. I don’t need a man.”
Shin Jiyeon made a displeased face and clicked her tongue. If it had been a pretty female orc, she would have welcomed it with open arms. She might have even ignored closing the gate and rushed outside to call Park Jihun. But the only man she wanted was her sunbae. Every other man just looked mediocre to her. The muscular macho orc standing in front of her was no different.
“...?”
Only Kim Jungjun, who was standing beside her, tilted his head in confusion at her words.
Slash!
Since Shin Jiyeon was a B-rank hunter, taking down a D-rank boss was no big deal. Kim Jungjun, a magic-type hunter, had been struggling a bit from mana exhaustion, but his support still helped. In the end—
You have cleared the D-rank gate ‘Forest Orc Village.’
After clearing the gate, Shin Jiyeon took the boss’s magic stone and left the area without any lingering attachment. There were no special byproducts worth collecting from orcs, and the female orcs all looked exactly like regular orcs. There wasn’t a single female monster that caught her eye.
And right after that—
You have cleared a rampaging gate.
You have achieved an accomplishment. Strength has increased by 1.
The same notification appeared for every hunter who had participated in subduing the rampaging gate. Just one point of Strength. But because everyone knew how difficult it was to raise stats, the hunters were all overjoyed.
“Whoa, whoa…! This is my first time ever seeing a stat go up!”
“Same here. So stats really do increase…”
The E-rank and F-rank hunters who had been with Park Jihun were experiencing their first stat increase ever, so they were especially excited.
“Don’t get too worked up. If the reporters outside see you like this, they’ll write articles about it. They’ll say hunters don’t care about civilian safety and only care about making money and raising their own stats.”
Kim Jungjun, who had some experience with this sort of thing, warned the excited hunters before leading them down to the lower floor through the evacuation route. As he said, there was too much damage to be purely happy about the victory. Parts of the department store were destroyed, and several people had been injured while evacuating. While there weren’t any major casualties, it wasn’t exactly a flawless outcome either.
“…Ahem.”
“Hm, hm.”
The people looked a bit sheepish at the D-rank hunter’s warning and followed him down to the first floor. Since everything was wrapped up, it was time to leave the department store.
“…? Hunter Park Jihun, aren’t you coming?”
But Park Jihun alone remained standing motionless in place. Naturally, since their master wasn’t moving, his familiars Kar and Briana also stayed right where they were. When one of the hunters asked in confusion, Park Jihun simply shook his head.
“Ah, no. I’ll head out later.”
Anyone looking at his face could tell he was barely holding back an expression of pure delight. The hunter who had been wondering about it simply thought, ‘Ah, he must be trying to get his face under control before coming out,’ nodded, and left first. The gate was going to close soon anyway, and all the orcs that had escaped had already been dealt with. There was no danger in leaving him behind.
“Heh, hehehehehe.”
Once everyone had left and only his familiars remained, Park Jihun finally burst out laughing.
“Holy shit, this is insane.”
Instead of exclamations, curses poured out of his mouth as he checked the notification windows.
You have cleared a rampaging gate.
You have achieved an accomplishment. Strength has increased by 1.
The stat increase notification that had appeared for every hunter present. Of course, that wasn’t what had him so happy. He had already raised his stats a bit today by hunting several female orcs. For Park Jihun, stat increases were practically routine. The important part came next.
A monster familiar participated in clearing a rampaging gate and saved humans.
This is a great accomplishment! The familiar’s stats will increase significantly.
Briana’s stats have increased significantly.
Kar’s stats have increased significantly.
It was the massive stat boost for his familiars! It was a shame that it didn’t apply to Shin Jiyeon since she was a human hunter, but it was still fantastic news that the two familiars—who had relatively low stats—had received such a huge increase. Once they grew stronger, they would be a huge help when challenging higher-rank dungeons later.
That alone would have been enough to make the corners of Park Jihun’s mouth reach his ears. …But astonishingly, that wasn’t the end.
Goblin Warrior Briana’s stats have reached a certain threshold.
Briana’s rank has risen to D-rank.
With the rank increase, Briana’s species has evolved from Goblin to Hobgoblin.
The ‘Hobgoblin’ species skill has been added to Briana.
“Kuh, kuhuhuhu.”
Park Jihun checked the notifications below and burst into laughter again. The stats she had accumulated while fighting countless monsters—the silver wolves, the giant bats, and today’s Forest Orcs—plus the massive increase from the great accomplishment. In the end—
Briana’s rank had finally risen. The E-rank Goblin Warrior had evolved into a D-rank Hobgoblin Warrior!
“She really, actually grows… enough to raise her rank…!”
He had known through Shin Jiyeon that familiars could grow, but seeing an actual rank increase was enough to move Park Jihun deeply.
“Hmm, her appearance doesn’t seem to have changed much…”
Park Jihun watched Briana, who was also curiously looking over her own body, and thought to himself. There was no flashy evolution effect like in those manhwa where tamed monsters would shine brilliantly. Her appearance was exactly the same. Her skin was still green, her height was still petite, her face was still pretty, and her breasts were still huge. Her figure didn’t seem to have become any more voluptuous either.
‘Did only her stats and species name actually change?’
…Or so he thought. The real change revealed itself the very next moment.
“M-Master! It seems I have evolved into a Hobgoblin!”
“…Huh?”
“Eh…? Huh? I-I can speak…”
Briana’s originally cute and beautiful voice had always been accompanied by strange screeching sounds that didn’t match her appearance. But now, suddenly, perfectly fluent Korean was flowing out of her mouth.
“…Holy shit.”
Park Jihun unconsciously let out a curse.
#
“Grr! Kyatu! Tufasa!”
“Miss Kar says she’s jealous and wants to communicate with Master too.”
“…Uh, yeah.”
Briana could speak now. And in Korean, no less. Far more fluently than expected. Was it an ability she gained from evolving into a Hobgoblin? Or because she was his familiar?
‘But before that… when monsters talk, isn’t it usually more like… Master! Me! Hungry! Master! Me! Sex!’ or something like that…?’
Yet Briana’s tone was incredibly elegant and refined. She gave off the strong impression of a highly competent secretary. Her appearance—with green skin and pointed ears—made her look like a green elf or a beautiful goblin, yet her speech was completely at odds with that image.
‘Still, this version has its own charm.’
But when he thought about how Briana had acted until now—sharp, quick-witted, highly adaptable, and even looking after Kar by calling her “senior”—she really did give off the feeling of being capable and intelligent. So even though her speech didn’t match her looks, it somehow didn’t feel out of place at all.
“Haa, haa… I-I can’t hold back anymore.”
Shin Jiyeon, who had joined them on the first floor before heading outside, saw the scene and immediately began drooling.
“B-Briana! Call me big sis! Haa, haa!!”
Her eyes were bloodshot red. It was almost scary.
“H-Hiiik! Please don’t do that!”
Briana shrieked and backed away. It was the same pattern as always, but now that they could actually understand each other, it felt completely different.
‘Oh… Instead of “Kyik kyik,” it’s “Hiiik, please don’t.” That’s kinda fresh.’
It was so interesting that Park Jihun—who would normally have stopped Shin Jiyeon at this point—simply watched without intervening.
“M-Master?”
The flustered Briana called out to her master, but he remained silent, simply observing the situation. Briana’s face crumpled into a tearful expression. Shin Jiyeon’s eyes sparkled as she pounced on her.
“Uhehehehe, look at this, Briana! Master sunbae gave permission! I’m going to lick every inch of your body until you call me big sis!”
“Kyaaaaaak!”
Somehow, the strange title “Master sunbae” had been attached to Park Jihun.
“Stop, stop. Let’s head outside first. There are tons of people out there.”
Only after Park Jihun finally stepped in could he calm Shin Jiyeon down.
“The main hero of the rampaging gate subjugation can’t stay hidden. Let’s go.”
The one who had directly defeated the boss and suppressed this rampage was Shin Jiyeon. The other hunters were probably answering questions from reporters outside, but without the real protagonist present, they wouldn’t be able to write a proper article.
“Another Guild is going to become famous again.”
“Yeah. This time it’s not me, it’s you, Jiyeon.”
When Park Jihun said that, Briana and Kar chimed in from the side.
“Still, Master was the coolest. The way you kicked that orc… I fell for you all over again.”
“Kyrrung! Kyaang!”
Briana blushed, and Kar nodded her head vigorously in agreement.
“Thanks for saying that.”
Being praised by his familiars in a way he could actually understand made Park Jihun feel even better. But this time, Shin Jiyeon was the main character. He thought he wouldn’t receive much attention. He also assumed the only noteworthy thing about his familiars was that they could speak now.
However, Park Jihun’s expectations were about to be spectacularly proven wrong.