Chapter 54
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 54
Chapter Title: The Young Chimeras' Snack Time
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Cheon Doun surveyed the yard.
He saw the yellow ore piled high in one corner of the yard.
He’d left it there for the chimeras to use as cover, but he couldn't just keep it piled up like that forever.
“It’s about time I made a fence. And the chimeras will need their own houses.”
“In that case, how about we make something like a cat tower?”
“A cat tower?”
“You know, that piece of furniture cats play on? I was thinking we could reference that and build their houses vertically.”
Nam Giseok said as he looked around the yard.
“Even with a lot of them, a tower-style structure would take up less space. For people, it would be like an apartment building.”
“Really? That’s not a bad idea. Go ahead and make one.”
“M-me?”
Nam Giseok was flustered by the unexpected command.
“I can’t quite picture it from your description alone. Try building what you have in mind. If it doesn’t seem right, I’ll fix it.”
“Ah… I understand. I’ll draw up a blueprint first, then.”
Nam Giseok flipped to a new page in the autographed notebook and began sketching a design.
His so-called blueprint was little more than a grade-schooler's sketch, but the look on his face as he fleshed out his idea was more serious than anyone’s.
‘I’ll leave the houses to Nam Giseok. In the meantime, I should carve the fence posts.’
Cheon Doun stood one of the ores up on the ground.
*I should round the pillars and the tops. The bottom needs to be flat so I can bury it in the ground.*
Having formed a rough image, he pulled threads from his fingertips. Like machines, the threads began to carve the ore.
‘The shape is about right. Ah, I forgot something important.’
Cheon Doun flipped the fence post over.
He carved a groove in the base, then cut a luminous stone to the same size and fitted it inside.
When he inserted the luminous stone, the light reflected, making the fence glow gold.
Nam Giseok, who had been watching Cheon Doun work, marveled at the ethereal light.
“That looks amazing! If you build a fence with that, it’ll be…!”
*It would complete the house’s utterly bizarre aesthetic.* Nam Giseok’s words trailed off as the thought belatedly struck him.
He turned his head and saw the house of horrors.
The fence itself was high-quality, but the shadows cast by its light would only make the house look even more terrifying.
“This will be quite a… u-unique house.”
“Right? I like it too.”
Cheon Doun looked around with a satisfied expression.
“I’ll have to expand the yard, too, considering where Blue will sit.”
With more mouths to feed, a larger scale was better. Cheon Doun measured the distance, then stretched a hand toward the sky.
Pure white threads erupted from his fingertips.
They spread out in all directions, instantly shredding the surrounding trees.
The falling debris was struck by other threads and sent flying far away.
‘W-what is that? What in the world is his ability?’
Witnessing this, Nam Giseok recoiled in shock.
His jaw dropped as he watched each and every thread move as if it had a will of its own.
Was he a wire-type user? But he had never seen anyone control wires like that.
And it was a wide-area attack. The threads he controlled were numerous enough to fill the sky.
Nam Giseok was dumbfounded by the unprecedented sight.
‘He must be an S-class Awakened, right?’
He had secretly thought so for a while. The only question was why Cheon Doun’s name wasn’t known in the industry.
S-class ability users were few in number.
Even if they weren't combat-types, they were so rare that their names would spread through the industry by word of mouth.
Nam Giseok had always found it strange that he’d never heard the name Cheon Doun.
But now that he had a vague idea of Cheon Doun's age, the mystery was solved.
‘Maybe he’s a Hunter who was active in the old era.’
The old era. The chaotic time when Gates opened and the world collapsed.
It was a time when many Hunters dedicated their lives to the world.
‘If he was active back then and retired, it makes sense that he isn't well-known.’
Nam Giseok thought as he watched Cheon Doun.
It was a time when systems had collapsed, so most records from that period were lost.
All that remained of the nameless heroes who fought for the world were stories passed down by word of mouth.
Nam Giseok looked at the notebook containing the autograph. If he truly was an S-class Hunter from the old era, then he had been receiving teachings from a hero of the past.
‘This is insane. If this is true, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, isn’t it?’
Nam Giseok looked at Cheon Doun with sparkling eyes. Faced with such a reverent gaze, Cheon Doun’s expression turned peculiar.
‘What’s with him all of a sudden?’
Why was he huffing with excitement all by himself? Cheon Doun glanced at Nam Giseok.
He had more than enough potential to be an A-class cleaner, but he was a bit of an oddball.
Another line was added to Cheon Doun’s assessment of Nam Giseok.
***
At the same time Cheon Doun was building the fence, Kim Nari and the chimeras from the institute were gathered in front of the waterfall valley.
“This is the waterfall valley. It’s where Mister and I go fishing and do laundry.”
Kim Nari introduced her friends to the place she lived.
“Wait here. I will make you something delicious.”
-Something delicious? That sounds nice, Nari. But we just ate. We had something called curry.
The fox said, tilting its head. Kim Nari replied as if to tell it not to worry.
“You don’t have to worry about that. There’s a separate stomach for meals and one for dessert. Uncle Sparrow taught me that.”
*A meal stomach and a dessert stomach?* The fox was curious but didn't ask.
Since its friend said so, it decided it must be true and waited.
Taking off her shoes, Kim Nari dipped her feet into a pool in the valley. All sorts of aquatic monsters latched onto her feet, biting down.
“Fishing is easier this way.”
Kim Nari pulled her feet out of the water and began sorting through the fish.
“This green fish here is no good either. It’s tough and doesn’t taste good. Mister said he doesn’t like it much either.”
After yanking off and tossing the unnecessary ones back into the valley, a single crayfish remained.
A crayfish the size of a grown man’s forearm was clamped onto Kim Nari’s calf with its pincers.
“This is it! Let’s eat this. I will grill it for you.”
Kim Nari gathered the twigs she had prepared beforehand. A laser shot from her eyes, instantly lighting a campfire.
It had always been the case, but ever since being found out as a Machine Lifeform, Kim Nari showed her powers without hesitation.
“The shell is useless, so I’m going to take it off.”
Kim Nari narrated as she grabbed the crayfish with both hands. A laser from her eyes struck the crayfish’s neck.
As she moved her head back and forth, the laser sliced off chunks of the crayfish’s shell.
Cheon Doun, who was walking over from a distance, stopped upon seeing the scene.
‘Looks like they’re having fun.’
She was a child who could transform her arm into a railgun. It wasn’t strange that she could shoot lasers from her eyes.
Cheon Doun leaned against a tree and watched the situation quietly.
An adult had no place interfering in the children’s playtime.
“I have scanned Uncle Sparrow’s recipe. I will make that for you.”
Kim Nari sat in front of the campfire, placed the cleaned crayfish in the fire, and shook it.
Seeing this, the fox ran over in alarm.
-N-Nari! Fire! That’s fire!
“It’s okay. I’m not scared of fire anymore.”
-A-are you okay? Really?
“Really. Mister taught me that you just have to put fire out.”
Kim Nari replied with a bright smile.
The fox was surprised. The Kim Nari it remembered would freeze stiff at the sight of even a small flame.
But that same child was now touching fire without a care. What in the world had happened? What had changed her?
‘I couldn’t do that for her.’
But this place had. It was probably that person, Cheon Doun. The one who had saved them.
The fox felt a little happy. It was glad that what it was seeing right now wasn’t a dream.
“Like this, like this. Flipping the crayfish back and forth. Hooo-ah, hooo-ah! He said it’s important to let out a spirit shout here!”
With her hands in the fire, Kim Nari tossed the crayfish back and forth between her hands as if playing catch by herself.
“Ah, it’s b-burning! Now is the time for salt!”
Kim Nari jumped up and threw the crayfish into the air. Grabbing a handful of the salt she had prepared, she looked up at the crayfish.
Did he say a spirit shout was important when salting, too?
Kim Nari threw the salt at the crayfish.
“Hyaaaah! Hyo, hyo.”
At Kim Nari’s strange shouts, Cheon Doun, who was watching in secret, covered his face with his hand.
His shoulders shook with laughter, thinking about the weird things she had learned from the siblings.
“It’s done!”
Kim Nari shouted as she caught the crayfish.
The cooking process was peculiar, but the golden-brown grilled crayfish meat looked quite plausible.
Kim Nari placed the crayfish meat on a cutting board.
Now, it was time to cut it according to the number of friends.
Kim Nari’s right hand transformed into a kitchen knife. With it, she began to slice the grilled crayfish.
“All done. This is my…! Uh, special grilled crayfish.”
The special grilled clam skewers the siblings had made.
After naming her creation in imitation of theirs, Kim Nari placed each piece of crayfish meat on a washed leaf.
She then placed them in order in front of the chimeras.
“Try it. This is my treat.”
Kim Nari smiled with a proud face.
The chimeras nibbled on the pieces of meat placed before them.
Even though they had just eaten curry, their appetites were piqued.
-I-I see. So this is the meal stomach and the dessert stomach.
The fox swallowed the crayfish meat with a look of enlightenment.
For them, who had lived on nothing but frozen raw chicken in the lab, everything was new.
Cheon Doun, who had been watching from afar, approached once the chimeras had finished their meal.
“Is snack time over?”
“Mister! When did you get here?”
“Just now.”
“I see. That’s a shame. I grilled a crayfish. If you had come a little earlier, I could have given you some.”
“Really? Then grill me some next time. By the way, Guu and Sasa aren’t at the house. Weren’t they with you?”
Cheon Doun asked as he looked around. He thought they would be with Kim Nari, but there was no sign of the two here either.
“Sasa is not here. Guu took her.”
“Took her? Where?”
“He said he was going to a cave. He took her because he said Sasa looked like she was going to molt.”
Cheon Doun froze at the word ‘molting.’
Kim Nari pointed to the mountain across the waterfall and continued.
“They went over there. Sasa seemed to be sleeping all the time. He said it was because of the molting, but Mister, do you know what molting is?”
“I do. It’s a stage monsters go through as they grow. When they molt, their appearance can change, or they can get bigger.”
Cheon Doun’s expression was somber as he answered.
Not all monsters went through molting. Furthermore, it was rare for it to happen to a creature not even a year old.
“It’s best for them to molt where they were born, if possible.”
If they did it in an unsuitable environment, there was a high chance of death.
There was no way Guu didn’t know that. The fact that he hadn’t gone to the volcanic region meant there wasn’t enough time to get there.
An unscheduled, abnormal molting.
‘I need to go get them.’
Cheon Doun looked at the mountain Kim Nari had pointed to. He spread his mana to search for Guu and Sasa’s location.
‘Found them.’
Guu and Sasa were not far away.
“Kim Nari, you stay here.”
He would go alone. Cheon Doun ran toward the location where he had sensed their presence.