#38 Lava Volcano (2)
#38 Lava Volcano (2)
I kicked up a gale as I ran, but I was still too slow. Just before the falling lava swallowed us both, Baekrok mustered his magic to form a barrier, yet even with over 500 MP, fully blocking it proved impossible—the overwhelming weight of lava and magma steadily eroded the shield.
"Perry!"
Perry, catching on immediately, used Blink together with Baekrok and narrowly dodged the cascading lava. But the thing was already tracking them, already pursuing.
'...It's locked onto us.'
And worse—beneath our feet, the monsters of the lava zone were gathering one by one.
[Prominence Crocodile]
[Length —] [Height —] [Weight —]
[STR —] [AGI —] [VIT —] [MP 401]
[Skill List]
[Swimming (F)]
'Can't read it?'
No—I had read it. The numbers were just changing in real time. I'd seen this phenomenon before.
'The Budding Evil.'
Its stats and physique were shifting depending on how much lava it had cloaked itself in. From what I could roughly gauge, its stats were comparable to a Lesser Drake, but the problem wasn't the numbers—it was the creature's very ecology. Not a skill, but the species itself: an entity that wore lava as armor, fundamentally beyond common sense. The fact that its body weight fluctuated in real time alone placed it outside the bounds of any living organism.
"Baekrok! Keep running!"
"And you?!"
"Don't worry about me—go!"
Leaving Baekrok's flustered expression behind, I sprinted forward. I raced across land where lava erupted in geysers and read the Crocodile's movements. Lava splashed upward where it struck the ground. In that instant, a violent gust tore through and scattered the rising embers.
'—It's not invincible!'
Most ordinary attacks wouldn't work, that much was obvious. My tentacles would melt on contact—useless. I couldn't imagine Ghost Flame (C) doing much against something armored in magma. But Baekrok had just proven that magic could block it.
'If the attack has no physical substance...!'
The fierce gust scattered the lava, but only a little. The creature's magic was holding the lava together. For a single instant, though, its true form was laid bare.
'Prominence.'
A shimmering vapor, rippling like heat haze. The Crocodile shape was only a shell. Its essence was closer to an elemental or a specter than a living creature.
'That's how it can wear lava like that.'
Shadows stretched out from my Spiritual Field, but the lava blocked them.
'Shadow alone won't cut it.'
Without hesitation, it dove into the underground lava. My shadows seized it—but I lacked the strength to hold it. It burst out again moments later, armored once more in lava and magma. And it wasn't just the Crocodile. The monsters beneath the lava were taking notice. At any moment, the floor could shatter and something could erupt. My eyes glinted.
'I was waiting for this.'
[Gust (C) Lv.5 proficiency at maximum. Gust (C) Lv.5 → Gust (C) Lv.6]
The winds intensified. The moment they stripped away the lava, my Spiritual Field surged into the gap. Formless shadows sliced and tore and shredded the thing from within its own molten shell.
'Here it comes—!'
I leaped high—not because of the Crocodile, but because the ground shattered and the lava monsters burst upward exactly as I'd predicted.
'Where's the boss?'
My Insight swept the battlefield. There were plenty of monsters above the Prominence Crocodile's grade, but none that looked like a boss. I'd assumed it was hiding beneath the lava. Where the hell was it?
'Goddammit.'
No time to think. I landed with a bounce of Elasticity and hurled myself at the Crocodile—torn ragged by my shadows—with wind coiled around my body.
The wind that blew from me. Naturally, the closer to the Origin, the stronger the force. A fiercer gust ripped the lava away, and I didn't hesitate. I bit down.
"......!"
Even when I shook the lava off, the heat that had been wrapped around it remained, still searing. The inside of my mouth was a mess of burns—but Pain Nullification was active. It would regenerate soon enough. I didn't stop.
[Prominence Crocodile consumed. Experience Points and Satiety increase.]
[Experience Points at maximum. Lv.13 → Lv.14]
I devoured every wisp of that vapor and ran across the land without a second glance. I vaulted onto Baekrok's back where he'd been waiting nearby. No matter how fast I was, I couldn't match Baekrok's Shrink Ground, and we managed to lose them soon after.
"You—what in the world were you thinking, charging in like that?!"
"I didn't die, did I?"
My breezy answer made Baekrok look like his stomach was turning inside out.
"Do you have any idea how reckless that was?! A single moment's delay and you'd be dead! Why did you not simply escape immediately?!"
Baekrok didn't flinch from my flat red stare, but I wasn't really looking at him. I was just reading the System messages.
"At any rate."
[EXP 84126 / 212478]
"...I'm going to devour them all."
***
"Dawn 47. Gwangmyeong 25. Geoam 18. Okyeon 11. Temple 6. Hermits 3."
A total of 110 high-grade Hunters. Hong Yuri scowled.
"Are you out of your mind? You're planning to raid Neverland with this?"
The Gowon Clan, of course, wasn't participating, nor were Oebong of Hwaseong, Cheonju of Incheon, or Mangwol of Gwangju. The Squares had even recommended suspending the raid entirely. This was throwing eggs at a rock. Best-case scenario: they'd hit Sector 3 before the dungeon closed on them. More likely, they'd be wiped out before they even got that far.
"Does Neverland look like a joke to you? If you're suicidal, go by yourself, yeah?"
At Hong Yuri's incredulous tone, Kang Tae-ho scratched the back of his head.
"Hm. It is a little small, sure."
"A little? It's less than half the usual force, and you're calling that a little?"
The representative clans had withdrawn, but the ordinary clans were flooding in with applications instead. Gu Jin-ha, reading through the documents Geoam had sent, let out a deep sigh.
"There isn't a single clan we can actually use."
The confirmed representative clans numbered only 110. The rest had pulled out. But conversely, requests to join from ordinary clans were plentiful—they'd assumed spots would be vacant and wanted to give their Hunters some experience. A shallow calculation.
"D-Class...?"
When Hong Yuri saw that most of them were D-Class, she let out a hollow laugh.
"There are plenty of other ways to get yourself killed if that's what you're after."
Anything below B-Class was nearly useless in Neverland. The C-Class Hunters Dawn was bringing were specialists in areas outside direct combat—detecting traps and the like. D-Class participants would clearly be nothing more than dead weight. But Kang Tae-ho tilted his head.
"Why wouldn't they be useful?"
Gu Jin-ha cocked his head at that.
"You're not planning to use them as meat shields, I assume. What exactly do you intend?"
"Bait. And while we're at it, we bundle their clan leaders into the deal too."
"Are you serious?"
"If only their low-ranks show up, they're useless anyway."
What Kang Tae-ho was proposing: give the clans experience for their members, and in exchange, drag their Clan Leaders along. Gu Jin-ha shook his head slightly.
'He's only being this audacious because the situation's so dire.'
Even a minor clan's leader would hover around B-Class. If they could be brought in, all the better; if not, so be it. That was his thinking. Audacity born of a bleak situation—but whether any clan would agree to those terms was highly questionable.
"Speaking of which—are you two even supposed to be here? Don't you have work?"
Kang Tae-ho asked with a puzzled look. Gu Jin-ha returned the question.
"What work do you mean?"
"I'm prepping for Neverland. Weren't you two supposed to be hunting Alpha?"
"Ah."
He hadn't forgotten. After rescuing the people on the west coast, he had naturally gone to Daejeon with Hong Yuri.
'The problem is—'
Gu Jin-ha glanced sideways at Hong Yuri. Her B-rank skill, Tracking Magic Eye, could pursue absolutely anything so long as even a trace remained. But.
'The problem is, there was no trace.'
Strictly speaking, there had been a trace. It simply ended at a certain point and vanished.
'I don't know the method, but as long as that Fairy Dragon is with them, chasing Alpha directly is impossible.'
All they'd done was confirm that fact all over again. Hong Yuri averted her gaze, pride clearly wounded, and Gu Jin-ha sighed. Now that hunting Alpha directly was off the table, their only remaining option—as originally planned—was to latch onto the representative clans and wait for the creature to come to them.
'Except that's obviously impossible right now, with Neverland preparations underway.'
In this grim situation, they couldn't afford to rock the boat. Which meant, in the end, they had no way left to pursue Alpha at all.
***
After weathering Baekrok's extended lecture, we resumed the hunt. Leaving the dungeon unattended was no longer an option, and in the end, Baekrok had no choice but to cooperate with me.
'I really wish he wouldn't push himself so recklessly, though.'
Now I understood why the Young Dragon had been so worried. A Lesser Drake, sure—I could watch that with some peace of mind. But earlier, when I'd charged in alone, Baekrok's heart had nearly stopped. The way I fought, it must have looked like tightrope-walking on the very edge of a blade. The volcano heaved and belched ash and smoke as we returned to the lava zone. The moment they spotted us, the monsters hurled themselves forward.
"Baekrok."
"...Understood."
As we'd arranged beforehand: Baekrok hung back, and I ran straight at them. The moment those massive jaws gaped open, both of us fired enormous mana rounds.
'This should do it.'
Great Magic Power. A B-rank skill that didn't just amplify the amount of mana you possessed—it strengthened every act of wielding mana itself. Even so, I couldn't match Baekrok's MP, but the force was more than enough to blast through the lava.
'And—'
A Gust scattered the remaining dregs of lava. My shadows unfurled from my Spiritual Field, worming through the gaps to carve the creature apart. It was almost certainly dead by this point. But the heat that had cloaked the lava—I had no choice but to endure that and chew it down.
[Prominence Crocodile consumed. Experience Points and Satiety increase.]
'This... is the right answer.'
Beneath me, after I'd devoured the Crocodile, nothing but lava remained. The massive mana round we'd fired moments ago had obliterated the last surviving patch of ground. With no foothold in sight, Baekrok leaped from the distance—exactly as we'd agreed.
"...Grab on!"
I extended my tentacles. In that span, the volcano lurched once and vomited a great cloud of ash and dust. As I wrapped my tentacles around Baekrok, Perry—waiting for the signal—used Blink. But beneath us, a shark erupted from the lava, jaws stretched to their absolute limit.
"......!"
The Blink distance was short—nothing to be done about that. And springing off Baekrok's back to gain height was out of the question; the distance was too far. In that instant, Baekrok's eyes, fixed on me, lit up.
"Jump!"
From across the gap, Baekrok conjured a platform of magic directly beneath my feet. I strained every muscle and launched myself into the air a second time with Elasticity. The recoil shattered the mana platform into splinters.
'Hardening!'
My tentacles stiffened. The moment my shadows yanked Baekrok upward, the Lava Shark's jaws clamped shut on empty air. We landed precariously, and the instant we were clear of the lava zone, Baekrok's brow furrowed.
"You—I told you this was reckless! We could take them one at a time, slowly, instead of—"
He stopped, confused. I wasn't looking at him. I was looking at something farther away. He followed my gaze—and his eyes flew wide, bulging to their limit.
'......!'
From the volcano's crater, finally emptied of everything it had to spew—something was slowly, deliberately, breaking the volcano itself apart as it revealed itself.