The Monsters Draw Near

The monsters' presence was closing in at a frightening speed. The destination of those thousands of colossal beasts was none other than the very spot where Yujun stood, and every last one of them might as well have been an enemy.

Yujun drew his mana up. The blizzard, fierce enough that it was hard even to keep one's eyes open, was cut off within a five-meter radius around him—a peculiar phenomenon born of the extraordinary purity of his mana.

Even Manuela, who these days was seldom surprised by anything, let her mouth fall open.

That much, just from drawing his mana out?

It was not a sight one could dismiss with a simple nod. He had not even raised a shield, and still the storm could not cross in on him, for no reason but the purity of his mana. Only a few days ago, Yujun's mana had been nothing like this.

Just how far has his Magic stat climbed in a handful of days?

Even she—a pure-blooded witch, a master of the art—could not begin to measure it.

He isn't a dragon, is he?

Now and then she caught herself thinking Yujun seemed less a man than a dragon. If he had only taken human shape for a moment's diversion, the strength before her would at last make sense. And yet, for a dragon—the founding race of magic—he wielded a sword far better than he did spells. His magic was appalling in its excellence, true, but the sword seemed to stand several whole stages beyond it, on another plane entirely. Perhaps that was only because she was a layman where swordsmanship was concerned. Even so, watching enemies fold helplessly before his blade left no room for doubt.

I knew human players grew fast. Does he truly have no limit at all?

Manuela had never seen a player as without weakness as Yujun. No—she had never seen a player stronger than him at all. And he was growing stronger in real time.

What would I have done if I'd kept him as an enemy?

A belated sigh of relief escaped her.

Yujun, meanwhile, was already studying the monsters that had gathered close.

"Yetis?"

He had seen the monster in the game, but something was off. They were alike only in that white fur covered them head to toe; these were far bulkier, and their faces were a raw, furious red—a shape that looked like ogre, demon, and yeti stirred together in equal measure. Strong, even at a glance.

I don't need a status window or a stat sheet to tell.

By now he could take the rough measure of an opponent's martial power by sight alone. Players were murkier—skills and traits varied too widely—but monsters were different.

Stronger than the chimeras, even.

The stronger Yujun grew, the more it felt as if the monsters that appeared kept outstripping the ones before. A large part of that, of course, was that he never settled, and kept seeking out new hunting grounds.

Well. Works out.

What he needed most was experience, nothing else. Hunt the monsters, raise his level, and if an item or two came along as spoils, all the better. Throw event rewards on top of that, and it was perfection itself. In short, this place he had stumbled into by chance was, to him, nothing short of a hidden paradise hung with golden fruit.

They said there was a player.

Being in a party had raised the difficulty once, and the presence of a player already running the event had spiked it again by a wide margin. He had no idea what a player had to do with the difficulty, but harder meant the rewards had gotten better to match. Having thought that far, a smile touched Yujun's lips.

He gave the creatures a rough name—Enhanced Yetis—and prepared his magic. Ice-attribute spells would mean nothing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠against Enhanced Yetis that came on through cold like this as if it did not hinder them in the slightest.

And if I use fire, the power will only drop further. That's obvious.

This was no environment for attribute magic to show its full strength. Lightning, though, was different. In a place this saturated with moisture, the power of lightning magic was amplified more than twofold. He was intensely curious what lightning cast through Ancient Magic (EX++) would look like.

Among the lightning spells, which ones were large-scale area magic...

If he was going to cast something, he wanted the strongest spell he had. The pleasure of sweeping a battlefield clean with large-scale magic could not be put into words.

That was when it happened.

"Kuwaaah!"

The Enhanced Yetis began hurling chunks of rock sheathed in ice. An attack he had not quite anticipated—but he was not flustered. Yujun moved his hand, only slightly. A diagonal line scored itself across the ice-bound boulder screaming toward him.

Crack!

It split cleanly in half. The same scene repeated dozens of times. Every attack the Enhanced Yetis launched came to nothing. The creatures flinched, faintly thrown, but they did not stop. They closed in slowly, still hurling their stones.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The force of the incoming rocks was enough that Paranet, watching from behind, jerked his head aside without meaning to. Yujun, however, did not let a single stone fly past him.

Paranet gave voice to his doubt.

"Master! Surely there is no need to hew every last one. Would it not suffice simply to step aside?"

"That wouldn't be any fun."

"...Huh."

For a moment, unable to follow his master's way of thinking, Paranet let out a vacant sound. He came around quickly enough, though, and nodded. From long experience, Paranet knew very well what sort of man his master was.

Yujun's magic reached completion. A harsh buzzing rose, and sparks cracked and leapt in every direction.

It could hardly be called the single most powerful spell he knew, but among lightning-attribute magic it stood alone at the top for range and scale. Out of nowhere, storm clouds began to clot across the sky. Thunder came first, as a herald.

Rumble. Rumble. Boom! Crash!

It was as if the heavens themselves had flown into a rage and were bellowing. Amid the driving blizzard, the roar never once let up.

And then, for an instant, the world before his eyes flashed white. A detonation slammed against his ears.

Skreee—!

The lightning fell only where the Enhanced Yetis stood. Agile as the creatures were by nature, they could not react to the speed of Thunder Wave. Those struck could not even scream. Worse, the current leapt from yeti to yeti, and the damage swelled far beyond the first strike.

Zzt. Crackle.

That was the end of it. A single Thunder Wave had slaughtered the Enhanced Yetis to the last.

No experience? Is it settling the books and paying out after the event again?

The missing experience was a shame, but if it was converted into items later, that would be the greater gain. He had no complaints.

"Yujun. This is a little awkward to say, but... it smells delicious."

Manuela said it with a small smile. It was not Yujun who answered, but Paranet, his expression twisting.

"A barbarian."

"...What?"

"A notion fit for none but a barbarian."

"You're a skeleton. You can't smell anything, that's all. If you were still alive, you'd be saying exactly what I am. Right, Yujun?"

Manuela looked to Yujun. He nodded. The smell really was delicious; it needled at the nose.

"Makes me miss samgyeopsal..."

Since being dragged into the Tower of Infinity he had grilled plenty of meat, but none of it compared to the pork belly he used to eat back in Korea.

"You think yeti meat would taste any good?"

"Ugh... probably not? That thing looks like it's all muscle."

"I don't think so. No matter how thick the fur is, muscle alone couldn't endure this cold. Wouldn't there be even more fat? And if there is, of course it'd taste good."

"...You're actually going to eat that?"

"Yeah."

Yujun used Flash, and with one hand easily ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lifted an Enhanced Yeti that had been roasted crisp and then frozen solid. By the common sense of Earth, it was a deeply unreal sight—and no wonder. The Enhanced Yeti and Yujun differed in size by dozens of times, and the difference in weight would have been greater still. Simply lifting such a creature in one hand was enough to make him look like a monster. It was also a moment that made plain just how great his strength was.

"But we're not finished yet, are we? I feel like more are coming..."

"They are. We'll just help ourselves to whatever shows up."

Yujun said it as if it were nothing. Not even ten minutes had passed since the preliminary task—survive for one hour—had been given. Fifty minutes still remained.

"Is this really all right..."

The moment Manuela muttered it, worry on her face, monsters appeared this time from the sky above. The assault of the Enhanced Yetis had been nothing more than the first wave.

Yujun paid it no mind and raised a barrier. With that, the bitter cold was shut out. Then he formed a fireball and held it to the Enhanced Yeti. Slowly, it began to thaw.

Whoosh!

"Hah. Melting nicely."

"...Hey. Monsters showed up."

"Manuela, you handle them."

"...Me?"

"Yeah."

"Fine."

Manuela looked up, a resolute light in her eyes. Flying monsters filled the sky—creatures ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shaped something like furry bats. Only the look of them was similar; their bulk, of course, was far greater. From a distance they were no different from heavily furred pterosaurs.

There are a lot of them.

The giant bats spewed powerful poison energy from their mouths, and it was not just one or two of them doing it. When the condensed poison was fired, the barrier shuddered. Yujun laid a shield over it. The poison began to strike the shield. The blue membrane melted as if it were being corroded—then regenerated at once. This, too, was thanks to the high purity of his mana.

So the shield had an auto-repair function.

He had known nothing of it until now. Freshly, Yujun recognized that his mana excelled in every direction. Even so, he had no intention of pouring unallocated stat points into his Magic stat. His mainstay was Swordsmanship. It was not that he meant to neglect magic, but if one weighed efficiency alone, investing in his physical stats was the better choice.

Shaaa—!

Just then Manuela poured curses over the giant bats and, at the same time, began to unleash dark-attribute magic. Dark Arrow, Absolute Disease, Magi Explosion, and more—every means of attack available to her.

Boom! Crash!

The giant bats took heavy hits, but not enough to lose their wingbeats and fall. In the end, not a single one died. Manuela's face crumpled.

"I guess I can't do it..."

"Why are you this weak? You threw how many spells and still couldn't catch them?"

At Yujun's words she opened her eyes wide, as if wronged.

"Aren't you just strong?"

"Strength is relative to begin with. If you can't catch those monsters, then in the end you're weaker than they are."

"..."

It was a fact she could not deny. By any objective standard, Manuela was a top-tier player. Set beside Yujun, even she fell far short of him. To refute his words she would have needed to stand on something close to equal footing; as things were, she had not a chance. Knowing that, she shut her mouth tight.

I should give her some items later.

He felt a little sorry toward her. For how close they had grown, he had never once shared the surplus equipment lying around in his possession. Manuela's base specs were excellent. She simply could not bring that power out properly, because the items she wore were shabby. Give her a few Mythic-grade pieces, and there was a real chance she would grow several times stronger—no, dozens of times.

"I'll do it."

The yeti meat had finished thawing and was properly roasted. He meant to deal with the giant bats before it cooled.

Those things look awful, just at a glance.

The giant bats were flying creatures. Lightning magic would not be much fun against them. A low hum gathered as he prepared a spell of the freezing attribute. Honestly, whether ice magic would take at all on giant bats that lived in an environment this extreme was anyone's guess—but there was nothing to lose by trying.

The more variety I use now, the better I'll be able to use it properly later.

"If they rose by poison, it's only proper they fall by poison."

He intended to pay the giant bats back in full, in ice and in venom. At the sight of Yujun's chilling smile, Manuela went pale and backed away.

"S-scary."

Pat. Patter!

A rain of bitterly cold poison came drizzling from the sky, and then broke into a downpour. Dull impacts rang out, as if hail were hammering down. The giant bats, in the middle of firing poison from their mouths, took it square across the backs of their heads.

"Kiiieok!"

"Kyaaaak!"

The effect was tremendous. The same giant bats that had taken several of Manuela's spells dead-on and endured them with ease melted the instant the rain soaked their bodies. Soon the number plummeting began to multiply at a geometric rate.

Thud! Boom!

The second wave ended just that emptily.

"Ah. Wait."

Yujun's eyes went wide. There was something he had not thought of. The corpses of the Enhanced Yetis outside the shield had melted in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Poison Cold Squall as well.

"My emergency rations..."

He muttered it, his face gone blank with loss.