The Dark Legacy of the Evolution Stone

The phone vibrated with that unmistakable Association pattern—one long buzz followed by two short ones. An alert at this hour was almost never good news. Yeonhee angled the device so I could see it too, and the full message filled the screen.

I couldn’t help clicking my tongue. How did they bungle things so badly that they let this much slip through the cracks? Claiming it’ll be easy to spot them because they’re rampaging when you haven’t even identified who they are—what kind of nonsense is that?

The fact that the Management Agency and the Association were running a joint operation to hunt villains was commendable. Yet when two such massive organizations tried to synchronize, holes like this tended to appear in urgent situations.

“...Evolution stones… That’s horrific. Those people are truly evil.”

“Clack…”

Yeonhee seemed less concerned with the immediate threat and more focused on the origin of the Evolution Stones, her anger meter steadily climbing.

“Second awakening… They’ll be walking around with their abilities fully released, so they say it should be easy to identify them…”

“......”

“......”

A brief silence fell between us. Being called up to catch villains was common enough, but the subject matter was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠grim. Evolution stones, of all things.

What exactly were Evolution Stones?

It had all begun more than twenty years ago, when a hunter in Sweden discovered a recipe for something called the Elixir of Life inside a dungeon. The miraculous item could revive the dead and restore youth to the living. He and a few colleagues poured years of research into it and eventually succeeded in creating the Elixir of Life.

But what seemed like a monumental achievement soon turned them into fugitives hunted by other hunters. The reason was simple: the price required to produce a single bottle was staggering.

It cost ten thousand lives.

They had offered up an entire region of tens of thousands of people as a sacrifice and achieved their goal, but by then they had already ceased to be human. An item infused with enough power to bring back the dead would naturally do far more to its consumer than simply turn back the clock on aging.

And they had all been exceptionally talented hunters. The pursuers who first tracked them were slaughtered. To eliminate the monsters they had become, Europe’s greatest powers assembled. Only after the earliest awakeners joined the effort were they finally eradicated from the world. Strangely, the research data was not destroyed but instead handed over to the European Union.

What became of those results afterward was never publicly disclosed. Yet a few years later, copies of the “Elixir of Life recipe” began spreading rapidly through the underworld. Even though the content was heavily degraded from the original, the core production method remained intact. Research and experimentation in the shadows soon led to unforeseen disasters.

It did not take long for the information to reach Korea.

People wanted to resurrect the dead. They wanted to regain their youth. But those were not the primary motives. The burning desire to become as powerful as the original creators—who had gained overwhelming strength through the Elixir—drove its rapid proliferation.

Still, it took quite some time before the modified name “Evolution Stone” rose to the surface. No matter how degraded the copy, improving it required pure effort from the user.

Then, several years ago, the number of missing children under ten began to spike dramatically. What started as simple missing-persons cases grew large enough to reach Special Incident Division 1 under the Hunter Management Agency. The results of their year-long investigation were horrifying.

Evolution Stones used children who had swallowed runes and mana stones taken from monsters as their primary ingredient.

It was unthinkable. How could one human being even conceive of such a method? How many sacrifices had been made in the process, and how many children had ultimately been killed to perfect the recipe?

The creation of Evolution Stones was immediately added to the Level 1 crime list. Even the slightest involvement carried a near-certain death sentence.

“Innocent children…” Yeonhee’s brow furrowed deeply, her rage impossible to hide.

Anyone would be furious. It was only natural.

Waaaaaaaah—!!

Outside, sirens began to blare. Even in a world that had become like a movie, ordinary people easily fell into panic during situations like this. Swift action was necessary, and we had the power to help.

As I watched Yeonhee hurriedly prepare to head out, I sank into thought. I needed to stay cold. Emotions could not be allowed to cloud my judgment; I had to view the situation objectively. Perhaps that was the most important role I played while working with her.

Combat strength ranging from B to D-rank…

The strict ranking system for hunters and monsters existed precisely to enable rapid response in moments like these. We were still green—freshly promoted to D-rank. The odds of encountering opponents one or two ranks above us were high.

As wide as possible…

Having finished my thoughts, I expanded my sensory waves to the absolute limit of my ability.

Oooooooong—

Despite my full effort, I could only cover a radius of about two hundred and fifty ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠meters. The first things I sensed were hundreds of ordinary civilians. People panicking at the siren. Several who tripped while rushing indoors. They should have grown somewhat accustomed to crises like this, yet their reactions were still this intense.

This was a world saturated with mana. Even ordinary people who had never awakened carried trace amounts of it in their bodies. I filtered out the faint signatures of civilians and small animals from my mind. Only someone like me, who had trained their senses since childhood, could manage such precision.

Once those trivial signals were removed, the mental minimap became clean and easy to read.

They haven’t appeared here yet.

Fortunately, the creatures were not in our immediate vicinity. In a way, that was only natural. The disaster alert had been sent to hunters in the area where the targets had fled, but the range could not be pinpointed with perfect accuracy. With luck, this incident might have nothing to do with us.

Let’s disable stealth as well…

I designated the search area and suppressed every other ability to keep my senses as sharp as possible. Any new life form entering my range would now be detected instantly. Of course, such efforts would be meaningless against a monster like Kang Yeonsu.

“Ilwol! Let’s move right now!”

Clack—

Once outside, Yeonhee seemed to be wrestling with several worries. For now she had only summoned Ran and the Neos Harpy “Nepy,” whose appearances didn’t provoke strong revulsion.

“F-for now, fly up and see if you can spot any suspicious figures!”

Nepy shot into the sky the moment the order left her lips and began scanning the area with its keen eyes.

“Ilwol, do you sense anything?”

“Clack.”

“Sigh… Should we observe the situation a little longer? It might already ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠be taken care of somewhere else.”

Clack—

Fortunately, Yeonhee didn’t seem inclined to push too hard in pursuit. The message had instructed hunters to guard their assigned sectors, and the dutiful Yeonhee would naturally prioritize that order.

We waited in tense silence for about a minute. The narrow alley between tightly packed villas offered a clear view of neighbors cracking open windows one by one to check on the commotion outside.

“What are those people doing standing there? Hunters?”

“A guy in weird armor and a woman… Definitely hunters, right?”

“Oh, so we have hunters living in our neighborhood too.”

Because the alley was so narrow, their voices—mingled with worry and relief—carried clearly through the night air.

It would have been nice if things stayed quiet, but soon my senses caught a single grotesque life form.

Its height is short… Tsk…

At the edge of my range the shape wasn’t perfectly clear, but it stood about as tall as a lower-grade elementary student and moved in a manner close to quadrupedal. Its body appeared to split into several branching…

Ha…

You goddamn pieces of trash…

I had only just detected the mutant, yet the urge to rip apart the adults responsible already surged through me. The Composure skill quickly cooled my mind, leaving only a bitter aftertaste as I signaled Yeonhee.

“Haa… It’s coming from that direction. Let’s capture it first. Who knows? There might be a way to turn the child back.”

“Clack…”

“Nepy! Go!”

“Kiiak!!”

The Neos Harpy hovering overhead flew off along the path I indicated. With its excellent vision, it would locate the creature soon.

I wonder if Yeonhee will be all right…

She still seemed to be clinging to hope—that even if the child had become a mutant, capturing it might somehow lead to a solution.

We’ll just have to catch it first.

I took the lead while Yeonhee summoned Chehwa, and we raced together in that direction. Along the way we saw traces of the mutant scrambling up walls and numerous shattered villa windows. For the people living here, this night had to be the most terrifying moment of their lives. It would have been slightly less horrifying in daylight, but the deep darkness only amplified the fear.

Before long we found the mutant cornered in an alley, driven there by Nepy’s relentless harassment.

“Krrraaaah—!”

“Huk! Ah…”

Yeonhee, seeing the mutant for the first time, could only let out a faint, choked sound. She had been told it was once a child, but no trace of human form remained no matter how hard one looked. A bug wrapped in tree-like bark, a flea, an alien, filthy dangling tentacles, bulging orange eyeballs, a spider… If forced to describe it, those were the words that came to mind.

I had assumed quadrupedal movement, but the legs that split like uprooted tree roots and the countless tentacles wriggling across its face and back intensified the visceral disgust. Its elongated face merged directly into its back, and its legs were covered in fine thorns. The tentacles hanging from its snout hid any visible mouth, yet it was easy to imagine all manner of lethal weapons concealed within.

“Kiiiit!!”

“Kyaaaaah—!!”

Nepy raked at it with its claws from above while the mutant countered with short tentacles. The monstrous roar that tore from its throat left the people hiding in nearby houses curled up in terror, praying for this nightmare to end quickly.

“That… that thing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was a child? Really…?”

“......”

Yeonhee seemed deeply shaken. She froze like ice at the entrance to the alley. As far as I knew, a mutant’s appearance changed depending on which monster materials had been used. But this creature was so twisted it was impossible to identify any single source. The root-like legs clearly came from an Ent rune, yet the rest was so chaotic it looked as if dozens of different runes had been forced together at random.

I recalled the information Kang Yeonsu had once shared about Evolution Stones. Being in a high position, she received all kinds of classified data, including details on these stones. According to her information, matching the grade, type, and numerical values of the ingredients fed to the children as closely as possible raised the success rate. Without such precise tuning, the chance of creating a mutant instead of a proper Evolution Stone was extremely high.

Looking at the abomination before us, it seemed that information had been quite accurate.