The Molting
In the end, I couldn't find it.
After a restless night, Tiss's condition still showed no signs of improvement.
[Puff...! Tiss, Tiss's face looks like a panda.]
Whose fault was this, anyway?
Staring at Shan, who was groaning and grinning at me, a sigh escaped me.
Clearly, there was something related that I should have known, but it wouldn't come to mind. I decided to search online for keywords in hopes that it might trigger a memory.
My face, with deep dark circles from staying up almost all night, looked exhausted.
It wasn't just physical fatigue; the mental toll was heavier.
Although it was called Shan's symptom, I couldn't search openly, so I searched centered around monsters and hunters.
To avoid any issues from my search history, I mixed in keywords that others might search for and searched indirectly by clicking on related results.
I browsed videos from casual time-fillers like ranking which monsters are stronger or recommending honey hunting spots for beginner hunters, all the way to videos based on current hunters' experiences, but came up empty.
"Just agro fishing posts, huh."
Multiple hypotheses and data floated around the net, but most were mere speculations, far inferior to the information in my head.
Crackle!
The senses, sharpened after consuming the essence, reacted first.
While my mind was in turmoil, a sudden warning from my body made me sit up from the bed.
[Tiss, Tiss! Something incredibly strong is coming this way.]
"Yeah, I felt it too."
[Eh...? Something familiar about it?]
"It seems like it's someone we know."
It wasn't someone to run or fight from.
"Oh my, you're up early?"
The target was none other than Emily.
"Since it's the day of discharge, it must be a bit exciting."
She was dressed in a business suit with her hair tied in a neat ponytail, as if she had come straight from the Management Bureau.
"Little miss, you don't look well. Are you okay?"
Thud!
I slapped away Emily's hand as she tried to touch my forehead.
"There's too much distance between us."
"Oh my, you know that when the body is close, the heart is close too."
Emily ignored it and smiled slyly.
"I want to get close to you a lot. That's why I gave you the essence as a gift."
"Emily, be honest. Since I ate the gift you gave, this kid here is in pain. I want you to explain what happened."
Emily tilted her head in confusion at my question about whether I was drumming on my chest and making strange noises.
It's painful. The expression on her face suggested that the statement itself didn't make sense.
"There shouldn't be any way... I took out the essence from the kid when it was alive, after all, I was careful."
What's going on?
From Emily's reaction, it seemed she really didn't know.
If it wasn't her fault, then why was Shan in pain?
Creak.
Emily closed the door, drew the curtains, and checked the surroundings before approaching me and asking if I was okay with her checking my condition seriously.
"Go ahead."
With my permission, Emily slowly opened her eyes, placed her hand on my chest, and stared intently for a long time.
"Puff."
She suddenly burst into laughter.
What's this?
"Amazing. I didn't expect it to be this perfect even on the first try."
Before I could understand the meaning of that laugh, she praised me as impressive.
"What are you talking about suddenly?"
"To answer, that symptom isn't pain."
Even though it's suffering like this, it's not pain?
Honestly, it was hard to believe.
"Then, why is it so difficult?"
"Well, that's..."
Emily asked me to come closer and whispered quietly in my ear.
"It's because your body is signaling to molt."
"Molt?"
"Yeah. It's similar to a bug's molting."
According to Emily, molting is a feature possessed by only some of Abaddon's spawn among monsters.
Generally, monsters gain changes by slightly enhancing their existing traits during growth.
On the other hand, monsters that molt discard their old body entirely like shedding a shell and reconstruct a new body suited to the absorbed essence.
"So that's what it was."
Thanks to Emily's explanation, the forgotten memory resurfaced.
In the game, depending on the scenario, you often encounter bosses much faster, sometimes fighting weaker ones than usual, and that was probably because you met the pre-molt boss.
Moreover, it was a rare feature even among monsters to create a new body, and only a few in the Management Bureau knew about it.
Even with the essence of a superior-grade monster, having absorbed just one and already being able to molt was astonishing.
Questioning this, Emily laughed and said the cause was me.
I didn't understand how I could be the cause.
"How can I be the cause?"
"It's because you perfectly absorbed the essence, little miss. Normally, that's impossible. Like cleanly cutting only the red flesh from a watermelon."
Normally, symptoms wouldn't appear this quickly, but since Shan absorbed the essence without waste, the molting symptom appeared.
At the same time as feeling that my hard work had paid off, the thought that the cause was me hit me.
[W-wow... I said it wasn't anything special, right? I could have just rested well, but I got scared for nothing.]
"Yeah."
Seeing Shan boasting that she was fine, a sigh of relief escaped me.
It was fortunate to have obtained the mimic ability first.
Whether evolving or molting, as monsters consume essence and grow, external changes naturally follow.
Just like there's a latency period after a bug enters the body before symptoms appear.
Since Shan had been in my body for some time, it was time for my body to start being affected by the parasite Shan.
Thinking back to why I desperately hunted the Disguiser, because leaving human appearance brought huge restrictions on external activities, it was truly a stroke of luck.
[H-huh, is molting dangerous?]
Passing Shan's question to Emily, she nodded with a serious face.
Molting itself is not a safe zone activity; it's something that requires risking one's life.
If you fail even once in molting, your life is greatly endangered, and even if you don't die, you'll suffer severe deformities and won't be able to live normally.
[Hiiik... Then, what if I don't...? I want to postpone it later...]
Shan, terrified by Emily's words, wanted to postpone the molting itself.
"What happens if you don't molt?"
"You can postpone it to some extent, but you must molt. If you don't molt within a certain period, you won't grow again. Ever."
You need to shed the shell to become an adult bug.
If you can't shed through molting, you can't grow anymore.
Failure in molting is equivalent to death in the world of the strong preying on the weak.
That's why monsters desperately hide in hiding spots to molt.
This is why the monsters humans see are always those that have successfully molted.
"Is the reason the Management Bureau hunts Disguisers so thoroughly for this reason?"
"Yes. Because there's no safer hiding spot than human cities."
The reason monsters hiding in cities are scary is exactly this.
If a growth-type monster uses human barriers as a shield and grows safely inside them...?
It's like an undetected terminal cancer, a ticking bomb.
"When the time comes, even without explanation, you'll instinctively know what to do."
Looking at Emily laughing as if the explanation was over, I worried about how to handle this matter.
"Can you endure it a little?"
[H-how long...?]
"You have to endure until you find a safe place. Be honest. How many days can you hold out on that feeling?"
[I-I've never experienced it before, so... I don't know well, but it seems I have to resolve it within a week at most.]
A week.
Considering Shan's first molt, even if short, within 3 days I should find a safe zone and attempt the molt.
"Yeah, at least within 3 days, try to molt."
[Yeah....]
Four days would be enough to get somewhat used to the mimic ability.
And.
I had to do something here too.
"Sorry, I misunderstood."
I apologized to Emily with sincerity.
Ultimately, it wasn't Emily's fault.
She had even provided information, so it was impossible to just get angry and let it go.
If there was concern, it was wondering what the kid would use this as an excuse to demand.
We were helping, but we didn't know what kind of person Emily was.
At my reaction, Emily's face broke into a smile.
Somehow uneasy... but it couldn't be.
"No, there were also some points where my explanation was lacking. No need to apologize with a bowed head."
Emily waved off the simple misunderstanding as nothing and suddenly smiled, saying if she was sorry, let's eat together, and took us to a nearby restaurant.
After ordering food and sitting down, I felt her gaze fixed on us.
No matter how I looked, it seemed like her eyes were closed, but how the intense gaze was felt was mysterious.
By saving us and bringing us to the hospital, providing potions and the Disguiser's essence, Emily had proven her trust in herself through action.
Plus, the explanation about molting.
Completely trusting wasn't possible, but there was no need to distrust rashly.
If she was after our essence, it would have been enough to handle it at the orphanage.
"While waiting, I'll tell you things that might be of interest."
After admitting me to the hospital on the day I fainted, Emily said she had been handling the aftermath of the orphanage work.
"At first, I tried to handle it as a simple gas leak explosion, but because it damaged the barrier, it wasn't easy to resolve."
Emily laughed, saying it was harder than expected, and I told her I was sorry for the trouble.
She smiled, saying she was grateful for the help.
Chris received a disciplinary punishment for solo action, but it was handled as detecting the warning in advance and moving before the barrier collapse.
With citizens' evacuation and first rushing to fight monsters to save the orphanage kids, he received recognition for his merits and could maintain hunter qualification.
For Rox, it was determined that he had stolen the identity of an Abaddon's spawn.
"A Disguiser is an Abaddon's spawn?"
"Yes."
In the chaotic explosion where it was hard to distinguish, because Shan's accumulated energy was too much to be just one monster's, it was determined to be two spawns.
After fighting another Abaddon's spawn hiding underground in the orphanage and boom!
Successfully killing the hidden spawn, but with the explosion of the corpse, Rox himself burned and died.
The Management Bureau judged that the explosion was caused by the energy from the two spawns.
As expected.
I thought I could understand a bit why the Tiss I met as tutorial boss was strong.
Accumulating faith and offerings from two or more Abaddon's spawns in its size, eating magic stones, hunters, Disguisers, and growing by molting in hiding.
Clatter.
"And, look at this."
"Is it a medal?"
"Yes."
Emily proudly told me that she received a medal for completing the incident as a hunter.
Because the explosion was so powerful, there were almost no other evidence left, and the cause and result were neatly proven, the investigation was concluded.
The Management Bureau was busy with the aftermath of the explosion rather than the investigation.
With so many injured and transported to hospitals, they could easily manipulate the whereabouts of one orphan, she whispered, reassuring me.
"No, but... that's one thing, but you're too close."
My cheek felt like it would touch her lips.
[Hiiik...! You, you're too close. I-I can hear breathing... S-stomach feels sick. G-get away.]
Shaaak!
Shan puffed up her fur like a hedgehog, couldn't hold for 10 seconds, said she was out of strength, and melted again.
Still, Emily's distance was too close.