#36 Island Cleanup
#36 Island Cleanup
When we finally cornered the One-Eyed—the boss cowering deep inside the cave—it bolted, pure terror on its face. It even used Stealth, but the rank was so low it didn't matter. A boss, running away... Baekrok shook his head.
"You're becoming more of a monster every day."
This was new to me too, and I let out a dry laugh as I chased the One-Eyed down. This was its own cave—what was it thinking, running into a dead end instead of the exit? Maybe the panic had set in that deeply. It was a little pitiful, but if I didn't kill it, the dungeon wouldn't collapse. Before long, my spiritual field had completely swallowed the cave, and the One-Eyed let out its final death rattle.
"——!"
[Experience Points at maximum. Lv.11 → Lv.12]
'Shame.'
Clearing a whole dungeon barely filled the leftover experience bar because the dungeon was so low-level. Worse than the Gyeongsan dungeon—compared to the ones I'd handled before, it was almost embarrassing. If I could just have one more dungeon like the Dragon's Waste, that would be perfect. The dungeon collapsed, and as we returned to the original Gwangmyeong Cave in Incheon, the System sent a message.
[Destruction Probability 96.08% → 96.06%]
[Karma acquired. +0.02%]
[Karma 2.84%]
"Baekrok. Is there..."
"None right now. The next dungeon won't open for a few more days."
I nodded at the flat refusal. There were no dungeons left in the Phantom Realm, and finding the protagonist was just as hard. Which meant—
'Now's the time.'
The Heretic Prodigals. The hour had come to exterminate them. Time to pay them back for raiding the Academy.
'To the island.'
Dungeons open in the sea, too. And most of the dungeons that open in the sea have never been touched. Unlike on land, marine monsters have one simple advantage that makes them a nightmare: they're in the water. Because of those monsters, humanity had to abandon most islands and pull everyone back to the mainland. If an island at least had the area and infrastructure of Jeju, maybe it would've been worth the fight, but there was no point stubbornly holding on to anything smaller. The Prodigal Sons had exploited exactly that.
'Living on an island.'
That was one of the reasons their identity had stayed hidden all this time. Even if someone's thoughts reached as far as the islands, confirming it was a completely different problem. There aren't many hunters who can march straight onto one of their islands and walk out alive.
'But that's actually perfect.'
The Prodigal Sons didn't live on an island because they liked it. They were forced into it, constantly on guard to keep their identities from being exposed. It wasn't as if they had some way to freely travel the seas either.
'But I've got Amphibious.'
Not on land—underwater. If I went in from the sea, I could say with absolute certainty that they couldn't catch me.
'That academy raid a while back is proof they're cornered.'
The Witch's Calamity—the attempt to kidnap Baek So-yul had definitely surprised me, but the fact that they'd overreached that far was proof they were getting desperate. And they'd even failed at that, so if I pushed just a little harder, who knew how they'd react. A cornered rat bites the cat, but in the end, the cat eats the rat all the same.
'Though I probably shouldn't call them rats.'
And there was another objective: the sea monsters themselves. With no dungeons around, marine monsters would make for a decent stream of experience.
***
"Well, look at that face."
Lee Eun-ha pouted, hiding the expression from Hong Yuri, who found fault with absolutely everything. The moment she did, an invisible hand yanked both her cheeks into a twisting pinch.
"You want to get cheeky with me? Yeah. Thought so."
"Uwe—I wadin't!"
"You weren't my ass... Oh, right. I sent them on a coffee run with your card, by the way."
"And you couldn't have told me..."
"So should I have used her card instead?"
So she'd rather die than offer to pay for it herself. Lee Eun-ha sighed and turned her gaze, landing on the girl sitting with her eyes closed, deep in meditation. Academy-trained... still a student. Sure, Lee Eun-ha's pay was docked right now, but she still couldn't bring herself to spend a kid's pocket money.
"Fine. A person has to have a conscience."
The Prodigal Sons' target, Baek So-yul. Currently on leave from the Academy, she'd been placed under Dawn's custody in the name of protective observation.
"...She's really good."
"Don't compare yourself. She's been at the Academy for years already. And you, anyway..."
Hong Yuri trailed off and shook her head.
Yes. She was clearly talented. Gifted, even. Diligent on top of it. But did that justify the Prodigal Sons raiding the Academy to target her? The answer was no.
'About Anella's level.'
That much talent, nothing more. Anella—Square Master's blood kin—was no pushover of a mage, but that was the ceiling Hong Yuri saw. Honestly, she still didn't understand why the Prodigal Sons were after her. That was exactly why she and Lee Eun-ha were running her through the wringer now...
'There must be something I don't know.'
There was no way those bastards had gone to all that trouble for nothing. Hong Yuri narrowed her eyes and stared hard at Baek So-yul. Baek So-yul, still locked in concentration, didn't feel a thing.
"......."
Right. Expecting to figure out the reason in just two days was greedy. She needed more time to watch. A careful knock pulled Hong Yuri from her thoughts.
"Vice-Leader?"
"Yeah. Leave it there."
The coffee run. She answered without turning around, and the clan member scratched the back of his head.
"That's not it. Team Leader's calling for you."
"Gu Jin-ha? Why?"
"No, ma'am. Team 2 Leader."
Hong Yuri mulled that over, then her face twisted into a deep grimace.
"It already opened?"
"You think I'd be here if it hadn't?"
"Ah... I'm busy as hell. Don't tell me I'm being pulled in too."
"How would I know?"
Hong Yuri snatched the offered coffee with an irritated expression and let out a sigh.
"Fucking hell."
She didn't bother hiding her displeasure, downed the coffee in one go, and kicked the door open on her way out. This wasn't the first or second time the clan member had dealt with her personality, so he just shook his head in resignation.
"When's she ever gonna fix that attitude?"
"Ahaha..."
"Anyway, I'm leaving the coffee and the card, okay?"
"Thank you~."
"Yeah. Work hard."
The moment the clan member stepped out, Baek So-yul and Lee Eun-ha were left alone in an awkward silence, sipping their coffee. Lee Eun-ha couldn't stand the strange stillness and was just about to say something when Baek So-yul bowed her head.
"Thank you. For saving me last time."
"Ah~ it's fine. That's just what hunters do. Really."
"You can speak casually with me..."
The instant Lee Eun-ha agreed, the uncomfortable silence settled back in. Unable to bear it any longer, she spoke up, half to ask something she'd been curious about.
"Alpha. You said you saw him, right?"
"Yes... I did."
"I heard he saved you... are you okay?"
"Yes. I'm okay. That wolf..."
Because he saved me. Lee Eun-ha nodded at the words that followed and sipped the last of her coffee.
"What was it like? Weren't you scared?"
"I was scared."
An immediate, firm answer. As soon as Eun-ha nodded, Baek So-yul continued.
"But more than the fear..."
There was something faintly nostalgic in the expression she wore as she remembered it, and Lee Eun-ha tilted her head. Baek So-yul lifted a hand to her chest, as if touching something there, and let out a long breath, savoring the feeling.
"I felt incredibly... safe."
"......."
"What about you, unni? I heard you were the first person to meet him..."
"I almost died."
"......."
Something she'd heard in passing. One person nearly died. Another was saved. Their situations were complete opposites, and Lee Eun-ha laughed bitterly to herself.
"Some slime saved me. Twice. And then... it got eaten. In my place—no, it just got devoured."
If she hadn't stupidly climbed that mountain, that would never have happened. Even though there was no way to tell it now, she wanted to say thank you. Thank you for saving me twice. But that slime had gone somewhere she could never see again. Lee Eun-ha crushed the coffee can in her grip without realizing it.
"Yeah. Maybe what you felt toward Alpha, Soyul—maybe that's close to what I felt toward that slime."
"...Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. It's been a long time."
There was no way she was fine. The only things left were the single-minded desire for revenge and sheer killing intent. She'd regretted it ever since—that she should've killed it for sure back then. If she hadn't frozen up, if she'd responded calmly. She'd definitely had a chance to kill Alpha. She'd lost count of how many times she'd replayed that belated regret.
As the memories of Jirisan surfaced, Lee Eun-ha let it all out with a deep sigh.
"The gap's too wide now, though..."
Alpha, once a Warg, had supposedly gone beyond a Skull Wolf and become some unknowable monster wreathed in shadow.
Even if only half of what she'd heard was true, the current Alpha was not something she could dare to challenge. The clan was talking about capturing it alive, sure, but... still, wouldn't a chance to kill it come someday? Lee Eun-ha finished her thought and looked at Baek So-yul with an odd expression. If I do end up killing Alpha, will I have to apologize to Soyul? Should I tell her I'm sorry in advance?
'...But if the chance comes.'
She steeled herself once more that she wouldn't hesitate. Not for a second.
***
"Oh, you're here?"
"I'm here, but—please tell me it's not what I think."
Kang Tae-ho raised a thumb at Hong Yuri's look of utter repulsion.
"Knew our Yuri was quick on the uptake. The moment you've been waiting for has finally come ar—"
"No. I went last time, remember? Send Hayeon and that bitch this time. Come on."
"Hayeon's going too."
"You've lost your goddamn—"
"Hey now. Did you not hear the Clan Leader say we 'absolutely must' clear it?"
Kang Tae-ho grinned as he spoke, and Hong Yuri pressed a hand to her forehead.
"I swear, I should just go back to Square. What kind of riches and glory did I think I'd get by staying here?"
"It's not just you. Jinha, Hayeon, Kijun—Team 3, and even Woo-taek. Basically everyone worth bringing is going. I was gonna leave you behind since you hate it so much, but it looks like Go-won won't be available this time, so we don't have a choice."
"What about Geoam?"
"They're Yongin's representative clan, so they'll be there no matter what. I'm actually going to see them soon. So—Neverland. We're clearing it this time."
Neverland. The nation's largest theme park. In 2055—roughly fourteen years ago—the entirety of Neverland had dungeoned in what became the single worst incident of its kind, a massacre that killed nearly ten thousand people. Unlike the Academy raid, it hadn't been caused by turncoats—just a simple dungeon disaster. And it was the only dungeon in the country that still hadn't been cleared.
"Got it, but if Go-won isn't available, wouldn't it be better to go next time?"
"No. With things the way they are right now, this is exactly when we need to do it."
"......?"
"If we clear Neverland without Go-won, public criticism dies down, doesn't it? And the chaos settles a bit."
Since when did he think that deeply? Hong Yuri narrowed her eyes and stared plainly at him, and Kang Tae-ho let out a long sigh.
"I can tell how you normally see me."
"First of all, if I go, can we actually clear it? If it closes, it's game over anyway, right?"
"We've been working on it for years, we've got intel. I'd say the odds are about fifty percent."
"Fifty percent..."
"Just two years ago, we made it as far as Magic World, didn't we?"
Neverland was a dungeon that opened and closed at random intervals, and every time it did, the entire dungeon reset. Magic World, which Kang Tae-ho had mentioned, was the fourth sector. Neverland was split into five sectors total, and honestly, each sector was so fundamentally different that you could treat them as five separate dungeons. The problem was that every single sector was so brutally difficult that most ordinary dungeons couldn't even compare.
"We'll just have to bull through the rest with our bodies."
"...It's not like I can get out of it anyway, is it?"
"Pretty much. I already submitted the roster."
"You insane—"
"This is a notice, Yuri. Neverland. There really isn't much time left now. A month... it'll open within a month, guaranteed."
At Kang Tae-ho's serious tone, Hong Yuri let out a deep sigh.
***
I ran from the Phantom Realm all the way to the West Sea. The destination was Deokjeok Island. At this point in the timeline, the Silent Mouth should still be ruling over the Deokjeok Island area. Fighting him head-on was a burden, but even without taking him on directly, dealing damage to the Prodigal Sons wasn't hard.
'Because all I have to do is wreck everything in sight.'
"Kyuuuu!"
As I moved to enter the sea, Perry couldn't hide her unease. I was the one with the Amphibious skill, not her. For now, she was perched on top of my head, but if things got genuinely dangerous, she'd know to return to the Phantom Realm on her own.
'First...'
I dipped a foot into the water and activated Detection. Most of the presences I felt were normal animals, though there were monsters here and there. I stayed as close to the surface as possible, stretching out my tentacles to lure them in like fishing and dispose of them.
[Big-toothed Angler Shark consumed. Experience and Satiety increase.]
[Cave Chain Moray consumed. Experience and Satiety increase.]
I'd even consumed a Lake Lizard before—there was no way the coastal waters nearby held anything stronger than that. In other words, they were low-level. But experience was experience. Before long, I reached Deokjeok Island.
'Hold on.'
Something was off—I couldn't sense any presence.
'Don't tell me they haven't set up on Deokjeok yet?'
No, that couldn't be right. They'd been preparing for a long, long time. There was no way they weren't here. Baffled, I circled the entire island.
'Shit.'
I found traces of massive destruction. The faint outlines of building foundations were still visible, but every structure had been reduced to ash. Traces of destruction—and the lingering residue of mana still hanging there made me frown.
'Hong Yuri.'
The crimson mana that had burned the Budding Evil was an unforgettable memory. The mana still lingering here was unquestionably hers. There was no way she'd come here alone, a lone mage—which meant Dawn had been here.
'How did this happen?'
I was definitely the one who had revealed the Prodigals' existence. But the question was how they'd known the bastards were on Deokjeok Island. Knowing they existed and finding their hiding place were two completely different problems.
'...Well, it worked out.'
Question aside, this was good news. Things had played out in my favor. The fact that someone had used magic capable of reducing an entire town to ash was proof they'd fought the Silent Mouth.
'And took him down?'
Judging by the mana that still lingered, this was recent. Three or four days at most. Which meant the Silent Mouth hadn't returned yet. I couldn't stop the corners of my mouth from curling up.
'The Silent Mouth being gone means...'
In other words, there was no cadre here defending the place. That made this the perfect opportunity to sweep through all the surrounding islands—a free house raid.
"Kyurururuk!"
At the same moment, Perry tugged at my ear. I followed her urgent lead to a beach and a street where chunks of flesh still lay writhing. Baekrok's words surfaced in my mind.
[They grow by feeding on impure matter.]
The unfinished imitation elixir—if the malice inside it was what he meant by impure matter. If that was it... no, it had to be.
"Kyururu!"
Because Perry was fluttering around in delight as if she'd just discovered a feast. And I felt the same way. A chance to wipe out the Prodigal Sons—and if Perry could grow from it at the same time, that was the best of both worlds. And so, Perry began devouring the leftover flesh chunks.