Me... a Magical Beast?
Me... a magical beast?
"Ugh... ugh."
...Ugh?
Wait, it doesn't hurt?
Ding—
You have acquired the body of the Pyranian 'Revita.' Would you like to keep this name?
Accept (Y) / Decline (N)
...What?
"Wh-what is this...!"
The moment I opened my eyes, a translucent yellow message had materialized before me. Without a second to spare for examining my transformed body or anything else, I frantically stared at the floating text.
Accept or decline...
"You've got to be kidding me."
It's not like my answer would change anything — the system clearly wanted me to pick one. So why did it keep offering these pointless choices? Still, figuring it was worth one more attempt, I reached my finger toward the button.
"No."
That's right. If you're really giving me a new body, the least you can do is let me change the name.
Pop!
Please enter a new name.
"Ooh, nice! A name? A new name, huh..."
...But how exactly am I supposed to type it in?
A keyboard of some sort had appeared, but every character on it was completely unfamiliar. Alien script? Hieroglyphs? If you're going to patch in Korean, do it properly — what is this supposed to be?
"...Ugh?"
At that moment, something forced its way into my head. Then, suddenly, several of the characters on the keyboard began to read themselves out to me.
"Wh-what the..."
The changes kept coming. The pronunciations and symbols of the letters I'd just seen, and then a flood of knowledge tied to them came pouring in like a rising tide.
'Ghh... gaaah!! Stop! Stop it!!'
It felt like shoving a body far too large into a suit that didn't fit. Clutching my head, which felt ready to split open, I could do nothing but wait for the strange phenomenon to end. After a short while, just like that, everything settled down again as if nothing had happened.
"Uuuugh... at least have the decency to blink before you barge in..."
Huh?
"Wow — are you serious right now?"
The instant I became able to read the letters, a single explanatory message planted itself before my eyes.
— Convert keyboard to Hangeul? [Y/N] —
Unbelievable. If you can write the word 'Hangeul' in your own script, why couldn't you just give me the keyboard in the first place?!
Granted, now that I could read the alien letters, I had zero interest in deciphering them, so I converted everything to Korean on the spot.
"Let's see, what's next... oh, there's an auto voice-recognition feature too. So I never needed to type anything in the first place."
......Right. Of course.
First things first — let's pick a name.
I held both hands up in front of my eyes. Emerald nails, as if freshly done at a nail salon, caught my attention first. A luminous, beautiful color. Everything else looked no different from an ordinary human hand — white, slender, soft, and small.
A woman? Judging by the voice, the hair... yeah, the gender's pretty clear.
"And this ring..."
The ring I'd been so desperate to pull out. I distinctly remember giving it back to that mummy.
'Ha. Haha.'
Looking at the evidence, there was no doubt — it had been that mummy. Had it drained the life force from my original body to regrow its own flesh? Its skin was bone-dry and flaky.
"..."
I stared at it, lost in thought for a moment, before arriving at a single conclusion.
'It's a magical beast.'
A hundred percent, magical beast. In all the world, I'd never heard of a hunter — not a single one — who mummified and then recovered.
This body's true identity was almost certainly undead-type. If an undead had drained the vitality from my original body to restore itself, every piece of the puzzle clicked into place.
Damn it.
...Can I really live as a magical beast? And not even a male one — a female beast at that.
It wasn't that I had any urge to kill people or anything like that, but just because I was fine with it didn't mean anyone else would be. The moment someone found out I was a magical beast, my life was over. Fun's done. Game over.
"Well... still, let's be grateful I came back from the dead. As long as nobody finds out, right?"
Worrying wouldn't produce answers. I decided to get back to choosing my new name.
...Revita, was it?
I figured I'd mix it with my old name somehow — but which combination?
Nabita...? No, that's out. One wrong syllable and people could get the wrong idea.
Vitajihun?
Refreshing. Get out.
Let's see, let's see...
Na Jihun. Revita.
"Na Raebi...?"
At that, the message popped up once more.
Ding—
Would you like to set your name as 'Na Raebi'?
Accept (Y) / Decline (N)
"No, it's not that 'Rae'...! Actually, never mind. Fine."
It's not like there was any real difference — how much could one syllable matter? Accept!
Ding—
From this moment on, your name is 'Na Raebi.'
Great, the name's settled. Now it was time to seriously take stock of the situation.
I brushed the sand off my legs and stood up. Thankfully, I was at least wearing something — a faded white shroud of a garment. And only then did something plump and unmistakable catch my eye.
'A chest...?'
Something's wrong here. My eye level was way lower than usual, but a body the size of an elementary schooler with a developed chest...?
"Hmm..."
Nobody was watching, and yet for some reason I felt embarrassed, and I tugged the shroud back up without quite knowing why. It was the moment I felt some innate feminine instinct buried within this body assert itself.
Or maybe it was just that I'd never been particularly masculine to begin with...?
"...What am I even saying, sheesh — whatever. Nobody's watching anyway."
"K-khulrak! Khulrak!"
...Oh, what now.
The instant I finished speaking, a man's coughing sounded from behind me. I turned around, head tilted in confusion, to find Kim Young-hak sprawled on the ground, badly wounded.
And with that, a question surfaced in my mind.
We fell together, so why was only he hurt like that?
What was strange was that the wounds were far too deep to be bruises from the fall. They were unmistakably the marks of something having slashed into him.
"Ki-Kim... $^%"
...? Why won't my voice come out?
Ding—
The flesh offered as a sacrifice was insufficient.
To prevent your body from collapsing, kill the C-Rank Hunter Kim Young-hak with the skill 'Blade Claws.'
Then absorb his essence.
🎁 Reward: Official acquisition of the skill 'Blade Claws'
💀 On Failure: The mummification of your body
Huh?
"What?"
...What kind of development is this, all of a sudden? I've never killed anything human-shaped in my life!
Just then, as if he'd been waiting for his cue, Kim Young-hak rose to his feet and began glaring at me. Blood streaming down his entire body — it was a grotesque sight.
"Khh... ughah... you damn beast."
No! I'm not a beast!
I tried desperately to force the words out, but my voice still wouldn't come. On a hunch, I tried speaking in the language of magical beasts instead...
{I'm not a magical beast! Calm down, you insane human!}
"Kheheh, can't understand a word you're saying. Doesn't matter — you're dead anyway! Graaaagh!!"
The system's behavior seemed almost designed to fan the misunderstanding. Kim Young-hak squeezed out the last of his strength and lunged at me, and I, at a complete loss, hastily raised both my hands.
'What do I do..! What do I do...! Block it? Dodge it?'
"B-Blade Claws!"
At that, emerald nails slid out, growing long and sharp. Terrified out of my mind, I swung them wildly, wherever they would reach.
"Gyaaaah!!"
Shlick—!!!
"Kehk...!"
Clutching his throat, Kim Young-hak staggered past me, weaved a few unsteady steps, and then crumpled onto the sand before he'd made it five paces.
...Thud!
And right on cue, the message appeared.
Enemy eliminated. Approach the corpse and use the skill 'Essence Absorption.'
It was a message that came with no alarm sound. As if its only purpose were to add a footnote, it vanished the instant I finished reading it.
'A skill...?'
I approached Kim Young-hak's corpse, hunched and hesitant.
So I just have to think the words 'Essence Absorption'?
Fweee—
"...!"
I had only thought it — and yet light rose from the corpse. It looked like a kind of jewel. It hovered in the air for a moment before being sucked into my chest in the blink of an eye.
"Ugh! What the—!"
I patted myself down, but nothing had visibly changed. Only, breathing somehow felt a great deal easier.
I don't know what it was, but I really didn't want to eat that guy's... well. Nothing to be done about it, I suppose.
I slumped down right where I stood. So many bewildering things had happened in a row that I desperately needed a moment to rest. I flopped back onto the sand and stared blankly up at the sky.
"......Let's sort this out one thing at a time. First — yes. I need to move from this spot."
Having Kim Young-hak's corpse discovered with me beside it would be a serious problem. Never mind that I was the one who killed him — this body looked, beyond any doubt, like a magical beast's.
'Those claws that grew out...'
If this really is a game system, then this should work, right?
"Status window!"
Pop!
⚠ Condition: Essence Deficiency
Only 30% of your true stats can be exerted.
Ooh... fascinating.
But what kind of body is this, that only the Intelligence stat is so absurdly high?
Without thinking, I tapped the 'Intelligence' line on the status window. Immediately — pop! — another yellow box replaced it.
Stat required for the use of Sorcery and Dominion.
Base stat: 100
Effect of the Ancient Ring of Pyranian: +50
...What is this.
I raised my right hand and looked at it. The stat bonus from leveling up was a measly five points. And yet a single item was boosting it by a full fifty?
I didn't yet understand the system well, but even at a glance, I could tell this was a broken, overpowered spec. If this really was the game system I thought it was, then this ring was a big deal. A very big deal.
'Sorry for ever calling you a useless piece of junk. I'm never taking you off.'
I clenched my fist and pressed my lips to the ring. At once, my mana flowed out in a smooth stream.
Ding—
...Huh?