Teeth's Fall and the Blue Eye's Gaze
Either way, after finishing off Teeth, a message about my level rising flashed through my mind. I allocated the stats gained from the level-up—one each to Perception, Agility, and Wisdom. The points in Wisdom came from a hunch that I'd be running into these creatures often, so I wanted to boost the power of my opening strikes, whether bombs or Fireballs.
The monster whose head had exploded so spectacularly remained frozen in its standing posture. Its tail, however, still twitched restlessly, as if insisting it had been alive just moments ago. I tossed its corpse into my inventory and turned toward the other monster. The situation there was going better than I'd expected. My summons were driving the creature hard.
Recently, Ttungi had pulled a shield from his magic bag and given it to Lizard No. 1. It must have been decent quality, because the lizard was blocking the monster's attacks quite effectively. Thanks to that, the Air Sann monsters circling the cornered creature kept darting in to strike its exposed spots before retreating. I'd casually mentioned that tactic a few times for when we faced strong single targets, so seeing them actually use it felt oddly satisfying.
They've taken quite a few losses in the meantime.
Judging by Yeonhee's remaining mana, I could roughly tell how many times she'd had to resummon. While I was busy with one monster, the others had apparently been killed and resummoned several times. It was a little bitter that they'd suffered such attrition even with the monster already wounded and us holding overwhelming numbers, but I had to give them credit for isolating a top-tier C-rank monster and steadily piling on damage.
They're handling it well on their own.
I decided to watch for a moment. Pew—! Thwock—! In the middle of the summons ganging up on the monster, Yeonhee kept loosing arrows through the gaps. One of them sank into the creature's right forearm, already bristling like a porcupine with arrows. She met my eyes, clearly signaling that she intended to finish this one herself.
Nice. That's cool.
When she fought, the commanding glint in her eyes carried a surprisingly sexy charm.
She's so beautiful...
While I was distracted by Yeonhee, the monster called Teeth was pounded like a sandbag for several minutes before finally dropping to its knees. Thud thud thud thud—! Watching over a dozen monsters stomp on the fallen creature was such a novel sight that I could only stare blankly.
Yeonhee dismissed the summons that had been protecting her, pushed back the cloak that had been covering her head, and spoke to me.
"Whew~ I had to resummon the summons twenty times. Ugh, I'm exhausted."
That many?
I hadn't had the luxury of paying attention to this side while dealing with Teeth, so the number surprised me. Her mana recovery must have improved, throwing off my earlier calculations. Twenty times... Teeth really did possess monstrous combat ability. If it had been at full strength and we'd failed the opening strike, it would've taken at least twice as long and twice the effort to bring it down.
"What even is that crystal..."
Yeonhee handed me the cloak and started walking toward the malice-tainted crystal. Just in case, I took her hand and shielded her with my other arm as I escorted her forward.
"...Who do you think set this up? Do you know anything, Ilwol?"
"Clack!"
"Yeah... you're taking that too, right?"
"Clack clack!"
The moment she finished speaking, I swept the crystal into my inventory. Leaving something so ominous in the same space as her couldn't be good for anyone's mental health.
We quickly cleaned up Teeth's remains and the area, then left the building. After putting 470 meters between us and the site, we waited on the rooftop of another building, keeping watch on the one we'd just left.
"...They'll show up, won't they?"
Yeonhee asked with the face of an innocent child stepping into a secret base. I shrugged, but I agreed the odds were high. Only three minutes remained on my Mimicry duration. Since things had come to this, I figured we might as well identify the shady ones before heading home. There was a good chance they'd overlap with the Blue Eye cult...
"My heart's racing... Hehe—"
Yeonhee's eyes sparkled like jewels as she stared at the building we'd just been inside, clearly thrilled by the scent of a secret mission. Not that anything was visible from here anyway.
Three minutes later, now in my human form as Yun Han-gyeol, I took off my jacket and draped it over her shoulders as an extra layer.
"······."
Yeonhee's eyes widened for a moment, but she said nothing. She simply dropped her gaze from the building straight to the ground. When she furtively lifted her eyes to look up at me, I was staring at the minimap in my head, completely stunned.
Shit... What the—
Thirty people had been flagged as the shady group. Over thirty powerful individuals were rushing toward the building where Teeth had been. I'd expected the organization connected to Teeth to be marked as shady, but what shocked me was the crystals embedded in several of their bodies.
They embedded malice-tainted crystals into their own bodies?
What kind of change would that cause? It had to be something beyond my expectations. The moment they arrived at the building, they headed straight to the basement and began searching. They wouldn't find a single clue that could identify us, though. Before leaving, I'd used my Perception to collect every last trace of our presence—even a single strand of hair.
"Are bad people here?"
I nodded. Through Ran, I relayed the enemies' movements to Yeonhee in detail. She pressed close to me, visibly tense, and curled up tightly.
The searchers emerged from the basement with blank, defeated expressions. Thanks to that, we'd eaten well. Haha—
Then one of the women sat down cross-legged and began channeling mana.
Hmm...?
The mana flowing from her body formed a structure resembling three eyes. The flow was clearly an ability I'd seen in my previous life. What was it called... Ah, right. It was the skill abbreviated as RGD (Remote Gaze Detection). A unique ability that detected gazes directed at oneself and pinpointed their direction.
Oh no...!
The moment the skill activated, the woman's gaze met mine exactly. Not eye-to-eye, but gaze-to-gaze—an unfamiliar concept. Damn it, time to run!
······!!
The woman immediately pointed in our direction and shouted. Thirty powerful fighters launched themselves toward us like bullets. The instant our gazes met, I scooped Yeonhee into my arms and shot into the air.
"Ilwol—"
Yeonhee cried out in surprise, but I had no time to respond. These were fighters who far exceeded B-rank, and three of them were A-rank monsters. 470 meters wasn't far for them.
[High-Speed Flight][High-Speed Flight][High-Speed Flight]
Carrying Yeonhee, I chained the skill. Flying in a straight line without changing direction wasn't difficult anymore, so I quickly widened the gap between us and them.
Shhhhhhhheeeeeek────!
"Uwaaahhh...!"
Yeonhee was startled by my sudden action, but she gritted her teeth and endured. Fortunately, my reaction had been swift and my speed slightly superior, allowing us to shake off the pursuit. Still, my startled heart refused to calm.
Stay calm, you idiot. Why isn't it activating at a time like this?
[Composure]
Thanks to the passive trait responding to my will, I quickly regained my composure. Yeonhee's face, however, had gone pale from the shock. I leaned in close to her face, gently stroked her cheeks a few times, and spoke.
"There, there. There, there."
"Haa— haa— Ugh, yeah! I'm okay."
It seemed to help. After taking several deep breaths, her heartbeat settled quickly. I helped her up from where she'd been sitting awkwardly, then held her in my arms and patted her back.
"Huaa... Mm..."
She now wrapped her arms around my waist with practiced ease, sending warmth into the heart I'd artificially set in motion. While holding her, I focused on the waves of my Perception. Within the expanded range granted by the level-up, I soon detected the pursuers again. But they'd already lost us once. They wouldn't be able to pinpoint our location while we were hidden by Stealth. Even if that woman tried using her ability again, she wouldn't find me. The skill only worked when the target was clearly aware of their own existence and staring intently. Right now, I was simply spreading my Perception wide and sensing them, so they couldn't lock onto me.
It's fine. There's no problem at all.
If anything, encountering this early on might actually be fortunate. Now I knew they had this level of preparation, so I could approach future situations with even more caution. I'd roughly guessed from the part about being an experiment subject of that archmage from another world, but they really were connected to the Blue Eye organization. The unique scent of the Blue Eye cult clinging to the mana of the pursuers was unmistakable.
Huu... How am I supposed to deal with this insane world?
The road ahead was long, and there were far too many obstacles in the way. Blue Eye, the archmage, chimera experiment subjects, the orc legion, the red-haired elf—they were all in league.
Even Teeth was barely manageable alone...
I still had two of them to deal with by myself. In just a month and a half, my growth had been dazzling, but when I thought about the situations we were facing, there was no time to pat myself on the back. The searchers, who had been combing the area centered around tall buildings, began converging back on the ruined building. Still holding Yeonhee, I slowly glided after them. There was no reason to fall for that gaze-detecting skill a second time, so I wasn't particularly worried even while tailing them again. Besides, I'd confirmed that [High-Speed Flight] let me move faster than them, even if only momentarily, which made me bolder.
The group gathered in front of the building, exchanging serious looks. I avoided consciously looking at the woman who'd used RGD and instead studied the faces of the others. A short while later, several of them boldly began re-placing malice-tainted crystals in the same basement spot.
Oh? Look at these bastards.