The Great Monster in the City Center
“Congratulations!”
“Thank you! Honestly, I had a rough time with this total pervert of an examiner. Look at this—my clothes are all torn. What a creep, seriously.”
“...... Was the examiner’s name by any chance Maeng Seong-yong?”
“Huh?! You went through testing with that guy too, Yeonhee?”
“Yes, yes… He’s a bit—rough, isn’t he?”
“Ugh, so it wasn’t just me. I thought he was treating me like that because I’m a beastman. I seriously thought I was going to die during the exam.”
Yeonhee stared quietly at Arang, who spoke as if she had truly brushed against death, before bursting into laughter. Arang smiled back at her. The rabbit beastman perked her ears up, wiped them a few times with her hands, and continued.
“Ugh, seriously. My ears are full of dust now. Anyway, it looks like Jooa and Eun-yeong unnie will finish up today too.”
“Oh? Then if they pass the exam safely, we’ll be able to work together starting the day after tomorrow?”
“Yep! Though… I’m a little worried about Eun-yeong unnie… You know how she is. Her mental state is a bit… But they say the support class has a slightly different testing method, so… it should be fine, right?”
...... Ah, right. I completely forgot about Ham Eun-yeong. Will she be okay? Her mind is all over the place.
A sudden wave of anxiety surged through me. She was someone who carried around an unidentified demon. I needed to keep her close and monitor her.
“Ilwol is in stealth right now, right?”
“Yes. Can you sense him?”
Yeonhee asked after noticing Arang’s gaze turn precisely toward where I was sitting. Arang replied that she could faintly feel something there.
“It said my rank went up and gained the phrase ‘more animalistic.’ So the effect is working.”
“Ah, you mean the beastman trait?”
“That’s right! Of course, since I’m certain it exists, I can detect it. How helpful it’ll be in real combat, though, I’ll have to find out through experience.”
...... Her growth must have been enormous. If she can faintly sense my Stealth, that’s impressive.
Even considering that beastmen commonly possessed a passive ability known as ‘sixth sense,’ it was still remarkable. Although Arang had mentioned me, the café was packed with customers, so I kept Stealth active just in case.
“By the way, how was Frog Folk? I heard those guys are incredibly annoying.”
“Ah, them? Actually, as long as you watch out for the terrain, their attack power isn’t—”
“—Oh ho, so the slime cloak is still useful. That’s unexpected—”
Yeonhee and Arang chatted away like they hadn’t seen each other in ages, enjoying a peaceful afternoon. I admired their beautiful two-shot while keeping watch over the people coming and going through my spread-out senses.
More than an hour passed like that. Arang was debating what third drink and dessert to order when she suggested chatting a bit more. That was when I felt it—hundreds of massive flows of mana, far below our position, rushing rapidly toward a single point.
And soon after, within the range of my senses several kilometers away, an ominous energy I had never detected in this life began to appear.
Wh-what?! What the hell is this?! A magic circle?
Clatter—!
The overwhelming presence coming from where those flows converged made me shoot up from my seat. Both Yeonhee and Arang stared at me in confusion, even though I was still supposed to be in Stealth. The people inside the café were startled for a moment by the sudden appearance of a knight in full armor, but they quickly calmed down again.
The mana… feels incredibly alien. Calm, yet violently aggressive.
It gradually condensed, growing denser, then began spreading out even faster. The energy was so ferocious that the ground itself started vibrating in response. And now, as the mana penetrated within a kilometer, it slowly began carrying the will of a living creature.
This feeling… Is it a top-tier monster? No… It’s a monster. A Great Monster! No doubt about it!
I relayed the information through Ran, who was perched on my head. The moment Yeonhee and Arang heard it, they kicked their chairs back and stood up.
“R-report! We have to report this first!”
Arang hurriedly pulled out her phone to contact the Management Bureau, but for some reason the call wouldn’t connect.
“The call won’t go through! Is it because of the monster Ilwol mentioned?”
At this scale… is it on par with a Great Calamity?
A powerful vibration began surging up from deep beneath the road. After gauging the intensity, I tentatively concluded that this insane creature was approaching the level of a Great Calamity.
Kwa-jijijijijik—
Kugugugugugugung—!!
“Uwaaa— Something’s coming!”
At that moment, an unprecedentedly powerful earthquake struck the entire area. The café floor we were on undulated like taffy, and all the windows shattered at once.
Kwa-jang-chang-chang—!!
“Kyaaaaaack—!!”
At the same time, people dove under tables while Yeonhee swiftly spread the Mysterious Membrane wide above them.
“L-let’s get out first!!”
At Yeonhee’s shout, I grabbed Arang under one arm and leaped outside, soaring straight into the sky.
“Kyaaaaang!!”
Arang, suddenly flying, clung tightly to me. Yeonhee settled into her familiar position in my embrace, glanced briefly at Arang, then focused her attention on the situation below.
Fortunately, no buildings had completely collapsed, but everyone who had rushed out into the streets was in a state of panic. Nearby awakened beings were doing their best to remain calm and guide people toward nearby shelters, but with aftershocks still continuing, mounting a proper response seemed difficult.
Yeonhee looked down and asked worriedly, “Shouldn’t we go down and help too?”
Using the mana waves I had spread out, I confirmed there were no lives in immediate mortal danger and fell into thought.
Hmm… Even if we lend a hand right now, it probably won’t change much.
“Let’s head to the epicenter first! There must be people near the monster too, and that place is probably more urgent!”
I hesitated for a moment, but since Yeonhee seemed to agree, I took the two of them and quickly moved toward the monster’s location.
As we traveled, my mind was entirely occupied with drafting emergency response plans.
… Ran, wait for my signal. If things get dangerous, accelerate the possibility of using the inventory.
(Understood!)
Depending on the situation, I could just shove Arang into the inventory and have Yeonhee use her earrings. We soon reached a point where the monster came into view.
It was a plaza with an outdoor concert hall where small recitals were occasionally held. A massive something was crouched there, still growing larger. Overall it resembled a water droplet, but its surface constantly rippled and changed shape. The pitch-black color that absorbed every speck of light reminded me of the scenery of the demon world I had once heard about.
It looks exactly like a slime… But no one died while it grew this huge? That’s practically a miracle.
Although it was the most crowded district, it had manifested right in the middle of the stage, so it seemed no one had been there at the exact moment of its appearance. Still, the countless collapsed buildings around it and the roads split open like drought-stricken rice paddies made it clear this place was far more hellish than where we had been.
— ......!!
And below us, the area was already packed with awakened beings who had gathered first, tension stretched to its limit.
The monster’s colossal presence was so overwhelming that even hundreds of high-ranking hunters, including three S-rank ones, had frozen in place. From the snippets of conversation, it seemed Hyeon Jung-gil was currently trapped by his constraints and unable to move freely.
Who’s going to handle that thing… It’s practically a Great Calamity. We’d need at least three hunters on the level of Kang Yeonsu or Jo Giman…
From what I’d overheard while Yeonhee was texting with Kang Yeonsu, Jo Giman had been so busy lately that he was rarely at the guild office.
Will he not show up this time either? If he doesn’t appear here, that’s a problem in its own way. Just what is he doing?
I stroked my chin, continuing my thoughts as I watched the giant slime whose growth rate was gradually slowing.
Maybe I can sneak up in stealth and plant a Flame Mark…
A greedy impulse suddenly rose, but the moment I revealed any intent to attack, a massive wave of mana erupted from the creature’s body, instinctively urging me to retreat immediately.
“Huaaang!! Th-this is bad! We need to increase the distance—”
Arang, whose sixth sense was far more developed than other hunters, had already judged that this was not an opponent we could face. She frantically gestured toward Yeonhee, who was held in my other arm, essentially requesting a full retreat.
“Mmm… You’re right… No matter what we do, it doesn’t look like we could even scratch it. But instead of running away, let’s focus on supporting the citizens!”
“Y-yeah, that sounds good!”
Arang’s ears drooped in a perfect ‘L-shape’. Yeonhee looked up at me and said we should descend to the ground.
⊳ All hunters in the vicinity!
⊳ The monster does not appear to be taking action yet.
⊳ Focus on civilian rescue until I give a special signal!
Park Yong-hwan, an S-rank hunter ranked around the top 300 in the country, climbed atop the debris of a collapsed building and began directing the hunters. As the guild master of the ‘Indomitable’ guild, he seemed to be acting with a sense of responsibility.
Good. It’s fortunate there’s a central figure like him.
Seeing Park Yong-hwan brought up some fragmentary information, but nothing about his abilities came to mind. It probably meant we had no connection in my previous life.
“Preset.”
Yeonhee summoned a large number of her beasts and focused on rescuing people trapped beneath the buildings. I used my senses to locate those in danger and concentrated on sharing that information. Arang helped as well, but she was still trembling with fear. She clearly wanted to leave this place immediately but couldn’t because of us.
…… But that monster… It’s definitely their doing, isn’t it?
Before the creature had awakened, I had sensed a massive magic circle activating from the outskirts of the city. It reminded me of how the Blue Eye cult members had been planting ‘crystals tainted with malice’ all over the city.
So the power they were gathering was for this… It wasn’t to open a gate?
I had the feeling that something I didn’t know about was progressing beneath the surface.
I don’t care about their internal circumstances, but what exactly do they gain from doing this?
The appearance of that giant monster had caused massive destruction to the city center. The cost of restoration would be astronomical. Yet surprisingly, the loss of life wasn’t that severe. In fact, it was almost nonexistent.
They must have spent a considerable opportunity cost to pull this off. There has to be something they’re aiming for through this…
They had certainly drawn the attention of the hunters. Was that the goal? While holding onto these questions, I continued working on restoration alongside Yeonhee.
One by one, the powerful figures from guilds concentrated in the capital region began to appear in real time. And by the time the number of citizens we had rescued exceeded three hundred, Kang Yeonsu and the key members of the White Knight Guild arrived on scene one after another.
The first to arrive alongside Kang Yeonsu was the S-rank healer Gu Sang-min.
It’s been a while, hyung.
Seeing someone I had once been somewhat close with filled me with both joy and a bittersweet ache in my chest at the reality that we could no longer grow any closer. Still, with the man known as the pinnacle of trauma recovery now here, even fairly serious injuries shouldn’t worsen any further.