Master of the Throne (2)

“What the hell… a terrarium?”

The Chamber of Nakak looked like a massive terrarium someone had artificially arranged. Shallow pools that came up to the shins, rocky islets rising between them, and crawling over those islets were hermit crabs roughly a meter tall.

“Those are the Nakak?”

The word nakak had made me think of a conch-shell horn, so I had expected hermit-crab-type monsters. Still—

“They’re fucking huge.”

I never imagined each one would be a one-meter-tall monstrosity of a hermit crab.

But then…

“They look delicious…”

Those things looked surprisingly tasty. Especially those massive front claws—steam them and they’d be incredible.

“Hmm… I think someone once said steamed hermit-crab claws taste like lobster or king crab…”

If I had my way, I’d prefer them to taste like Korean snow ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠crab.

Anyway, this worked out perfectly. After a long dry spell, I was about to stuff myself with seafood.

Shing.

I swallowed hard in anticipation of those claws, then pulled Barisada out of My Room.

“So I need to kill at least five hundred to reach the Chamber of the Big Dipper?”

Entry into the Chamber of the Big Dipper required exactly ten Sangpyeong Tongbo.

Just harvest the claws and clean up the rest with Flames of Destruction.

If I’d had time, I would have carefully snipped every single claw from five hundred Nakak and stored them in My Room. Right now, though, time was the one thing I didn’t have.

I had to catch up to Kim Dokja, Yoo Sangah, and Lee Gilyoung as fast as possible. Who knew how fiercely the kings were fighting in the Chamber of the Big Dipper, or whether Kim Dokja’s party was already in danger because of it?

I started walking slowly toward the densest cluster of Nakak. Midway there—

“Huh?”

Scattered across the rocky islets were five corpses. Their bodies were riddled with bite marks, and blood was still trickling from their ears.

“…Blood from the ears?”

There were plenty of reasons for that, but the classic one was ruptured eardrums.

And I could already guess why these corpses had bled from the ears.

“Ah… of course. True to the name Nakak—conch-horn—they use sonic attacks.”

Right on cue, the Nakak that had sensed me all turned their antennae in my direction at once.

Wooooong.

Dozens of them stared at me, antennae twitching. Instinct screamed danger.

The system message flashed and I bolted hard to the right without thinking. The pattern was identical to the sonic masters in martial-arts novels.

Kyuooooong!

Kudududuk!

Dozens of Nakak cried out in unison. The rock where I had been standing a second earlier was pulverized.

“Yep. Sound-based attacks.”

I watched the cluster carefully.

Is there a cooldown?

After that single blast they all fell silent. Whether they needed to catch their breath or were simply exhausted, this was my opening.

I gripped Barisada and charged the silent Nakak. One of them, startled by my sudden approach, swung its massive claw at me.

Whoosh!

“Anyone else would’ve panicked.”

I calmly watched the claw come in, then reached out and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠grabbed it.

Grab!

“Kyuung?!”

“There’s a pretty big gap between our stats.”

Crack!

I twisted hard and ripped the claw clean off.

“Kyuoooong!”

“I don’t need the rest of you.”

Slash.

The Nakak thrashed and made a weird keening noise once its claw was gone, but I already had what I wanted. I swung Barisada without hesitation and took its head.

I tossed the claw into My Room and looked at the rest. They just stared back, completely unbothered that one of their own was dead.

“What, so they’re just trash mobs that fire sonic blasts on a fixed interval?”

Kind of anticlimactic. The name “Small Nakak” had made me wonder if there were Large ones, but nothing bigger was in sight.

“Alright. Hunting method’s clear. Time to rip claws and kill everything fast.”

I began the slaughter in earnest—dodging the periodic sonic waves, yanking claws free, and beheading them one after another.

One hundred fifty-seven already, and the place was still crawling with them. I scowled, thoroughly sick of the sight.

“God, I want auto-hunt so bad.”

I could have used Gleipnir or Samryunhwan, but both guzzled mana. I had no idea what was happening in the Chamber of the Big Dipper, so I needed to conserve every drop.

Normally I’d just torch everything with Flames of Destruction and chug a mana potion…

But a five-hundred-coin potion on these trash mobs felt criminal. So the Flames stayed sheathed.

Yoo Sangah and Lee Gilyoung are stronger than most incarnations, and Kim Dokja’s right there with them. Should be fine… right?

“What?!”

Among the constellation messages flooding my head, the Bald Militia Commander’s made my eyes go wide.

“Hey, Bald Militia Commander.”

“Is that for real?”

I stared at the message for a long second, then slowly turned my gaze back to the swarm of Nakak.

“Plan change.”

Clatter-clatter!

Kiiing!

I pulled Gleipnir and Samryunhwan out of My Room. For a man, preventing hair loss and maintaining stamina were matters of the highest priority.

“From now on, all five hundred of you. Donate those claws.”

I charged the Nakak that were supposedly good for hair and stamina. Gleipnir bound and ripped claws free, Samryunhwan sliced them clean, and Barisada finished the job. Every claw that hit the ground went straight into My Room, neatly stacked.

The moment the count broke four hundred, something changed in the Chamber of Nakak.

Kugugugung!

“What? I still need a hundred more.”

A light tremor ran through the entire terrarium. I yanked Barisada free from the Nakak I’d just stabbed and tilted my head.

“Oh-ho?”

I smirked at the messages.

“So that’s why they were called ‘Small Nakak.’ There really was a bigger one. Probably just Grade-7, though.”

I looked around with a bored expression, searching for the higher species that was about to show up.

Then, from the giant central pool that dominated the Chamber of Nakak, something enormous began to rise.

“…How big is that thing?”

A conch shell the size of a small house emerged from the water. I just stared, dumbfounded.

The grade message left me looking completely blank.

“No, after Grade-8 comes Grade-7. Why the hell is it suddenly Grade-6?”

And this Grade-6 thing was taller than Ignir.

Of course the penalty lands on me. Goddamn it.

I glared at the Ancient Nakak, dug a finger in my ear, and muttered,

“But there’s no way that thing is stronger than Ignir, right?”

Sure, it was Grade-6, so I couldn’t get careless—but I had already hunted a Grade-5 Sojaeng. If I struggled against this thing, Ignir would be crying blood in the afterlife.

Shing.

I pointed Barisada at the Ancient Nakak.

“And what’s with the name ‘Ancient Nakak’? It’s just a bigger Small Nakak.”

I bit my lip hard at the General’s words and fought back a laugh while grumbling inwardly.

Damn, the General’s got better comedic timing than I expected. I was going to tease the Great Sage Equal to Heaven about how the hair-loss cure didn’t work on him since he’s already balding, but I missed the window.

Right then, a bounty scenario window appeared.

Ding!

I looked at the scenario and said,

“Three thousand coins.”

“Come on, it’s good for hair loss. Three thousand.”

“Guess you’re not that desperate. Fine, two thousand nine hundred.”

A sudden staring contest between me and the Great Sage. But I’m a nice guy, so I decided to throw the match on purpose.

I let out a small sigh.

“Alright, alright. Let’s split the difference—two thousand five hundred, deal? If you refuse this time I’m just not doing it.”

Having successfully negotiated with the Great Sage, I smiled faintly and looked at the Ancient Nakak.

The Ancient Nakak slowly turned its massive body and waved its antennae in my direction.

Kiiing!

I fed mana into Samryunhwan and launched a spinning blade straight at its claw, intending to finish it in one shot and clear the bounty.

I had clearly underestimated it.

Kwaaaang!

“What?”

The spinning blade exploded in mid-air. I stared in shock.

Wooooong.

An ominous vibration rose around the Ancient Nakak’s body. My eyes lit up as I glared at it.

“…It fired a sonic wave that canceled out Samryunhwan’s blade?”

That explained the mid-air detonation.

Kyuooooong!

A vibration far stronger than before rolled off the Ancient Nakak.

“…Tsk!”

Bigger body, higher grade—its power would be no joke. I scrambled backward, trying to get out of range.

With my improved overall stats and all the combat experience I’d piled up, I instinctively understood: this Ancient Nakak could unleash sonic attacks on a completely different level from the Small ones.

Kuuuuuu!!

A massive circular sonic wave blasted outward.

“…This is bad.”

Sound travels far faster than any human can run. Simply backing away wouldn’t cut it.

There was only one option left.

“Escape into My Room.”

Click.

I slapped my hand on the ground before the wave reached me, opened the door to My Room, and dove inside. The instant I shut the door, a tremendous roar thundered outside.

Kwagagagagak!!

The sound of rocky islets being carved away was bone-chilling.

“If I’d taken that head-on, both eardrums would’ve been gone.”

While I waited for the noise to die down inside My Room, a question hit me.

They clearly hear each other’s sonic attacks. So why don’t they take any damage?

I peered out the window of My Room. Even after that devastating blast from the Ancient Nakak, every Small Nakak was still perfectly fine.

They’re immune to each other’s sonic attacks. Why? Why the immunity?

If I could figure that out, killing the Ancient Nakak would become much easier.

Simple racial trait? Or maybe they have no hearing at all?

No. There had to be something more fundamental. Why no mutual damage from the sonic attacks?

I leaned against the wall of My Room and thought hard, until one fact surfaced.

“A nakak is a wind instrument made from a conch or whelk shell.”

You drill a hole in the pointed tip of the shell and blow into it. The sound amplifies and booms out of the wide opening.

Something clicked in my head.

“I can’t believe it took me this long to realize something so simple.”

I had uncovered the trick behind their mutual immunity, and the realization left me looking faintly empty.

“The inside of the Nakak shell acts as a kind of soundproof membrane.”

Conversely, the place where the head sits is designed to amplify sound.

Trick solved. Time to test the hypothesis.

Bang.

I opened the door and stepped back outside.

Kyuung?

I locked eyes with the Ancient Nakak again. It was thrashing its antennae wildly, apparently shocked I was still alive.

…Surprised I’m still breathing, huh?

Its reaction was almost cute, but I ignored that and sprinted to a nearby dead Nakak, yanking the corpse out of its shell in one smooth motion.

Kuuuuung!

The ominous sound rose from the Ancient Nakak again. Another attack was coming.

I stood the empty shell upright and climbed inside.

…Please let my hypothesis be right.

If I was wrong, my precious eardrums were toast. Cold sweat ran down my back as I pulled the shell lid shut.

Dudududududu!

The moment the lid closed, a drumming sound hammered against the shell. My ears felt a little muffled, but that was all.

Hypothesis confirmed. The Nakak shell really did function as a soundproof barrier—that was why they were immune to each other.

“Once this wave passes, I kill it immediately.”

Time was running out. I needed to rejoin Kim Dokja’s party for real now.

The moment the sound outside stopped, I flung the shell open and charged.

“Kyuoooong?!”

Seeing me emerge unharmed, the Ancient Nakak swung its enormous claw.

Whoooosh!

A claw incomparably larger than any Small Nakak’s. Anyone else would have died right there.

But I was not anyone else.

“I’ve already figured out your pattern. So die already, you bastard!”

Its close-range attacks were basically the same as the Small ones. I deflected the claw with Barisada and leapt straight for its head.

Thud!

I drove Barisada deep into its skull.

Kuuung!

The moment the blade sank in, the Ancient Nakak seemed to die instantly. Its massive body slowly tilted, then crashed to the ground with a thunderous impact.

“Life is seriously fucking variety-show material…”

So far I had killed zombies, mole-wolves, bears, ghosts, demons, dinosaurs, and a dragon. Now I had just taken down a house-sized hermit crab.

Remembering every monster I had met and slaughtered left me looking thoroughly exhausted.

I stared at the ridiculously oversized corpse and considered.

Tsk… Should I extract a skill?

I needed the byproducts anyway if I was going to offer Ancient Nakak meat to the Great Sage.

“What, you’re already giving the coins? I haven’t even offered the meat yet.”

“Hmm…”

I thought for a moment at the Great Sage’s message. Extra reward was on the table, so I would give the meat eventually—but right ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠now I was short on time.

“Hey, Prisoner of the Golden Headband. Mind if I do the cooking a little later? I need to rejoin my party and I’m almost out of time.”

“Okay, thanks!”

Permission granted to deliver late. Now I just needed to extract a skill, harvest the byproducts, finish the remaining hundred Nakak, and catch up with the others.

“「Skill Extraction.」”

Ding!

“…Tsk.”

Kind of underwhelming, honestly.

Every skill the Ancient Nakak had felt vaguely mediocre.

“If I have to pick one… Amplification, the A-grade, looks the most useful.”

I nodded. My gut was telling me that skill would come in handy a lot.

“Tch… Go again.”

“Whew…”

Thankfully it landed on the second try. Next I extracted the byproducts.

“Now I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠just need to finish the last hundred?”

I had taken everything worth taking from the Ancient Nakak. Time to wipe out the rest without a second thought.

“Alright. Let’s move on to the next chamber already.”

I charged the remaining Small Nakak to clear the last hundred.