#25 Night of the Great Battle (2)
#25 Night of the Great Battle (2)
'A phone and a charger.'
The abandoned building I'd claimed as a hideout obviously had no electricity, but a quick search turned up a small generator and a charger.
Even as I moved, the mutter of the crowd gathering outside grew louder.
'Well, I did kind of rampage out there.'
Hunters had joined the onlookers now, drawn by the commotion. A wall of people was packed in front of the door — forcing my way out that way seemed like a terrible idea.
'Even with C-rank Stealth, this is a bit much.'
Sure, Lee Baek-seom — the Alpha's Tail — had failed to spot me until the instant before I struck, even when he was on high alert. But threading through a mob that size in plain view? I wasn't confident.
'A better way...'
Hiding and waiting it out was an option, but the Hermit's Forest Clan Leader was surely on the way, so running was the right call. After a moment's thought, I opened a window at the back of the building that looked onto an alley.
'Old me would've been terrified.'
Guess all this rolling around in the dirt had shifted my instincts. I hopped down from the building and landed softly.
'Get clear of this place first.'
I wasn't about to repeat my last mistake. Keeping Stealth up, I slipped into a building a fair distance away.
'This far out, they won't follow.'
Looked like an office building — empty, so everyone must have gone home. I mean, who's still at the office at one in the morning?
'Let me borrow some electricity for a bit.'
I plugged in the charger and powered the phone on.
'Ah, for fuck's sake.'
Pattern lock. I traced the pattern with a tentacle and let out a long sigh.
'When did I become the kind of asshole who sits around doing this?'
Five failed attempts, thirty-second lockout each time. I was in the middle of failing yet another pattern when a call came through.
***
Standing before the door, the Team Leader steadied his breathing.
"We going further in?"
"I'm weighing it. If we go now, won't the rats just scatter later?"
"Wrecking a facility this size is a win by itself."
"Is it, though? They'll just dig a new hole~"
There was no thought of turning back. Tail Hair met the Team Leader's eyes with every intention of seeing this through to the end.
"You've felt it on the way here, haven't you? That this needs to be cleaned out. Or are you still suspicious of me?"
The Team Leader shook his head at the question — the implied suggestion that he wanted to retreat.
"I'm close to trusting you."
"Oh my~ 'Close'?"
He crushed a writhing monster underfoot.
"And you? Do you trust me?"
"Absolutely! You're handsome."
'Crazy bitch.'
Regretting that he'd even asked, the Team Leader rubbed the corners of his eyes.
"A chimera, I assume. Correct?"
"Yep~ Of course!"
The flesh of the crushed chimera squelched and squirmed, but Tail Hair laughed and snapped her fingers.
"Hoo. So. That scale of yours. Which way has it tipped?"
Tail Hair winced.
"Mmm~ I'd say it's about leveling out?"
"Looks to me like it tipped a while ago. I'll take the rest of the payment later. Any reinforcements coming from the Square?"
"If you could spare just a little more time and budget..."
"Will they actually come or not?"
"Probably... yes?"
The Team Leader took in the uncertain response and shook his head.
'Yeah, not getting my hopes up.'
"Let's go in."
***
"No telling what's inside. Stay sharp."
While police managed the swelling crowd outside, a temporary search party of hunters entered the building.
'The elevator?'
The steel door had been ripped off. Not that an elevator in an abandoned building would have worked anyway.
"This is brutal. Who the hell did this?"
"Let's head up."
Eun Ja-rim, the woman who served as the representative clan's Lord, strode up the stairs, the other hunters following.
'The stairs are gouged all over.'
That meant whoever was running had been desperate enough to use mana. Clearly being chased — yet there were no footprints of any pursuer.
'They were taking their time?'
Just as she was about to climb from the fourth floor to the fifth, she noticed a mass of debris scattered across the landing.
"Did the floor break?"
"Look at the ceiling. That fell from up there to here."
Fragments from a shattered landing. When she shined a flashlight over them, some of the debris was smeared with blood, still sticky to the touch.
"This is recent."
"A fight happened here, then?"
"Probably. What is this building, anyway?"
"I thought it was abandoned..."
Unlike the outside, the interior was surprisingly well maintained.
"......."
A closer look revealed a trail of blood leading from the stairs toward a room.
"Looks like they went into that room. Let's follow."
"Ah, yes. Understood."
While the other hunters stayed on alert, Eun Ja-rim spread her mana wide.
'Nothing. As expected.'
Whoever it was had already slipped away. She opened the door carefully, and acrid smoke billowed out.
"What is this — this smoke?"
The stench mixed into the smoke made Eun Ja-rim's brow furrow.
'The smell of a human body burned.'
She didn't want to imagine it, but only one conclusion came to mind.
"Don't tell me..."
Another hunter had clearly reached the same thought. Eun Ja-rim let out a deep sigh.
'Lee Baek-seom.'
Not someone she'd ever particularly liked, but a person who did his job. More than anything, the absurd death of a B-class hunter hit her in the gut.
Why had he come all the way here at this hour? Who had attacked him?
Several questions tangled in her mind.
'And this fur...'
Black fur like a beast's, claw marks gouged everywhere... What the hell had happened here?
***
'The phone's ringing.'
Answer? Don't answer?
'I can mimic his voice.'
I used Change briefly to approximate the man's voice, tweaked it a little, then pressed the call button.
[Why the hell aren't you picking up! You're the one who told me not to call this number!]
'He had another phone?'
Well, of course he did. A Tail worth the name would have a burner phone or two. I debated whether to use formal speech or drop the honorifics, and in the end, I just let my words trail off.
"I was in the middle of something..."
[We've got an intruder in Building A! Can you help or not?]
"Intruder?"
[Tail Hair — that crazy bitch is here!]
'Tail Hair?'
Was there someone hunting the Heretical Prodigals at this point in the timeline? It puzzled me, but for now I decided to keep the conversation going.
[Help us. If the lab gets destroyed, you're just as screwed as we are, aren't you? Lord Agail won't be back for a while.]
"......."
[Shit. I thought we were allies? When Lord Agail learns about this, you won't get off clean either....]
I was starting to grasp the relationship. The way he was clinging to the word "ally" told me that the dead man — Lee Baek-seom, the Tail — had outranked the person on the line.
"...All right."
I answered in casual banmal, suppressing a flicker of unease. The voice on the other end dropped, suddenly relieved.
[Hoo. As fast as you can, please. We'll hold out in Building A as long as possible, but if they reach Building B...]
I hadn't been caught. I hung up and paused to think.
'Agail?'
I knew that name. I knew exactly who Agail Morest was.
'So this is Blind Spot.'
The head of Blind Spot. From the sound of it, this Tail Hair character was chasing Blind Spot specifically, not the Heretical Prodigals. But...
'He said allies, didn't he?'
Normally, I would've run rather than kick a hornet's nest, but the man on the phone had handed me a critical piece of intel: Agail wasn't here right now. He'd be back eventually, yes, but the key point was that it would take time.
'Then it doesn't matter.'
Honestly, without Agail in the picture, the rest of Blind Spot didn't scare me.
'Blind Spot should be getting hunted by the Squares right now...'
So was Tail Hair a mage from the Square? If she'd been uncovered and dispatched at the Square level, the caller wouldn't have been able to ask for help at all. No — if that had happened, the protagonist would never have even encountered an organization called Blind Spot later on. What exactly was going on?
'I've never heard the name Tail Hair either.'
Did she die around this point in the story and thus never get mentioned? Not that it was her real name, of course...
'Let's go.'
Building A. He'd said Building A, right? I pushed my detection to its limits.
***
"The resistance has gotten heavier."
The enemies, who had been moving passively — slamming doors shut and running — were suddenly a lot more active. The Team Leader deflected an incoming spell and sighed.
"Thanks for the sword, but why did you stick this thing on it?"
"Oh my, why? I prepared it for my Romeo."
"Hoo. Forget I asked."
The heart-shaped charm dangling from the pommel had annoyed him so much he'd pried it off; Tail Hair pantomimed crying.
"How could you? That's so mean..."
"Shut up and work."
"Yes'm~ Halucinaţie~."
The moment Tail Hair's purple mana pulsed outward, the eyes of the resisting mages glazed over. The Team Leader let out a hollow laugh.
"You could've handled this alone, couldn't you?"
"Ayy~ It doesn't work on chimeras."
"A short-sentence incantation just like that... Who the hell are you?"
She was no ordinary figure even by Square standards. Tail Hair pressed a finger to her lips and winked.
"A secret makes a woman woman."
"Isn't that from a really old comic?"
"Oh my~ You know it? I do like my comics."
The Team Leader cut the throats of the mages who were still trapped in the hallucination.
'Better to finish them off properly.'
Getting blood on his hands was unpleasant, but less so than risking a knife in the back later.
"Hoo. You will keep your promise."
"Don't you worry. I'll roast my own Master alive if that's what it takes to unearth Gowon's trail for you! Even the color of Changseon's underwear!"
"I don't need that."
A flat refusal. Watching the blast doors descend, the Team Leader drove his blade into the power core. The thin rapier met the heavy bulkhead — and the reinforced barrier shattered into pieces.
"Oh my."
Tail Hair covered her mouth in feigned shock. Gu Jin-ha looked beyond the broken bulkhead and asked:
"How much further?"
"Hm? I've never been here, so I wouldn't know. But their level is all the same, I'd imagine. These people — all dropouts, you see."
"Dropouts?"
"Dregs, if you prefer."
In the fleeting moment he glanced at her after that rather extreme remark, the Team Leader caught unmistakable contempt in her eyes.
"Let's keep moving."
"Sure thing~ Let's wrap this up fast~."
***
'This has to be the place.'
Traces of a heavy fight, the vague tang of blood in the air. At a glance it looked like any other abandoned building, but I could tell there was a large space hidden below.
"......."
Not long after entering, I found the way leading underground.
'...They had some fun with this.'
The funny part was that the staircase from the first floor to the second was unusually long — and yet every floor was roughly the same height. That meant there was space tucked between the first-floor ceiling and the second-floor floor.
'I only know that because I already know the answer.'
They could hide the space, but they couldn't hide the smell. I quickly found a section of floor with a hairline seam. Lifting it revealed a narrow gap.
'If I duck low, I can squeeze through.'
They'd kept it small on purpose; too wide, and someone might notice.
'Nobody would ever think the way underground starts on the second floor.'
A blind spot in your thinking. The sewers had been the same — these people seemed to have built-in paranoia. Passing through the gap led to a staircase; they must have created a vertical hidden compartment too.
'How long have they been prepping this?'
The abandoned building looked old... Had the Heretical Prodigals built it as a hideout from the start? Or had Blind Spot just borrowed it? In any case, I descended the long stairs and found exactly what I expected: a vast underground space.
'I had no idea this was here.'
Maybe it was discovered later and the Square erased it. Obviously Blind Spot would've fled by then. I followed a long corridor until a heavy iron door stood before me.
'It's beyond this.'
I tried the handle. Locked. I was debating whether to smash it when the door suddenly swung open.
"Of all people — Three Swordsman...!"
Framed in the doorway, a sullen, robed figure in armored monstrous form froze solid.
'Three Swordsman?'
Unless I'd misheard.
'Three Swordsman — that's Gu Jin-ha, isn't it?'
Why was that name coming up? Was "Tail Hair" actually referring to Gu Jin-ha?
'No. They called her a crazy bitch.'
If it had been "crazy bastard," I could at least understand... I had no idea what was going on.
"Ha- Halucinaţie―!"
The frozen figure spat out the spell. He twisted his lips into a greasy smirk, but I just tilted my head.
[All Damage Reduction (D) Lv.5 proficiency at maximum. All Damage Reduction (D) Lv.5 → All Damage Reduction (D) Lv.6]
'You really think that'll work on me?'
I'd already checked with Insight. His MP was 207. Magic at that level couldn't touch me even if he wanted it to. For a second he looked suspicious, but when I didn't move, he seemed to believe the spell had worked and muttered to himself.
"Hoo. They let a monster loose too... But how did it get out?"
'Ah. Is that right? So they keep monsters here.'
Useful intel. The instant he stepped out through the door, I drove a tentacle through his heart.
"......!"
He died without even a death cry. Leaving the armored corpse behind, I stepped through the iron door.
'He said there were monsters, didn't he?'
Perfect timing. An ideal chance to fill the last sliver of experience before Level 20. I spread my detection wide and zeroed in on a presence I figured was a monster. When I shattered a nearby bulkhead, the mages inside recoiled in horror.
"A S-Skull Wolf? How?"
"The monster's loose! Check it, now!"
All the same reaction. I lunged at the nearest one and tore his throat out in a single bite. The startled mages began chanting.
"Halucinaţie!"
"Halucinaţie!"
Same spell as before, similar mana levels. Naturally it didn't work. I killed two more in the interval.
"Illusions don't work on it!"
"Fereastra de gheață!"
The mages shouted their incantations in a panic.
'Ice spears?'
Crude and clumsy, but ice as sharp as icicles sliced the air. I dodged easily and bit the chanting mage dead.
"Fereastra fulgerului―!"
This time, lightning arced toward me. Watching them throw a rainbow of spells, I sighed.
'Like I'd ever get hit by that.'
These so-called mages had no tactical sense. They couldn't even manage something like Lee Eun-ha's net-magic. It took less than a minute to finish off the rest.
'Well, their level is still low at this point, I guess.'
Call it good timing? I felt very glad I'd come here.
'Blind Spot.'
The organization founded by Agail Morest — son and heir of the current Purple Square Master, the Phantom Butterfly. At this point in time, he'd only just been expelled from the Purple Square.
'Three, four years at most?'
Meaning the organization couldn't possibly be well-established. This facility was likely built with support from the Heretical Prodigals. And by its nature, Blind Spot was still weak right now.
'They gathered mages who couldn't get into a Square.'
Calling them mages was generous. They were ambiguous figures who'd learned only basic magic at the Academy. A handful of them had worked hard enough to join a clan, but even that had failed for everyone else.
'That's Blind Spot.'
True to the name, a place no one's eyes ever reached.
'Which is why they're this pathetic.'
The mage profession, in particular, is 99% talent. It's a cruel story, but no matter how hard the talentless try, they never get anywhere. Later on, the story shifts once the reason for Agail's expulsion is revealed, but...
'Right now I can't do anything about Agail, but pruning the rest of them is the smart play.'
Wasn't this a golden opportunity? I'd gotten strong, sure, but I wasn't on the level of fighting someone who'd once been heir to a Square.
"Groooaaar!"
I followed the howls and found cages packed with monsters — all of them restrained, unable to move.
'What is this, a buffet?'
Feeling like I'd just been handed a gift, I opened the cage door and stepped inside. Some of the monsters sensed my presence and started roaring, but a few were even muzzled.
And then.
[Skull Wolf]
[Length 4.15m] [Height 1.56m] [Weight 560kg]
[STR 246] [AGI 309] [VIT 221] [MP 145]
I found a Skull Wolf nearly three times my size.
'...Fucking huge.'
Far bigger than I'd ever imagined a Skull Wolf could be.
'Am I going to get that big too?'
[Skull Wolf consumed. Experience Points and Satiety increase.]
I devoured the Skull Wolf and a few more. That filled the last of my experience.
[Experience Points at maximum. Lv.19 → Lv.20]
The Level 20 achievement condition had been satisfied the moment I returned to the mortal realm, so the level-up was immediate. After a brief hesitation, I decided to clean out every remaining monster too.
[Evil Devouring (D) Lv.8 proficiency at maximum. Evil Devouring (D) Lv.8 → Evil Devouring (D) Lv.9]
'A shame.'
The caged monsters were too low-quality to give much real experience, so I didn't make it to Level 21.
'This is probably still Building A...'
I hadn't gone far yet, so I was still in A.
'They definitely mentioned a Building B.'
The man on the phone had been deeply reluctant to let the intruder reach Building B.
What was in Building B? An important secret? Hidden treasure?
'Building B, huh...'
I turned slowly.
'Agail isn't here.'
And the mages who were here were busy fending off the intruder.
'Nobody even seems to know I've gotten in.'
—Fundamentally, telling a person not to do something only makes them want to do it more.
So this wasn't my fault.
It was the Caligula Effect. A bad influence.