Chapter 481: Ant Cave (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 481: Ant Cave (2)
Park Gi-tae was a guide.
Though combat wasn't his specialty, surviving countless battles had instilled a firm conviction within him.
'A hunter's rank is absolute.'
From S-rank down to F-rank.
Over the past twenty years, humanity had meticulously categorized these ranks into detailed subcategories. What seemed simple at first glance was actually the culmination of the entire world's collective knowledge. There were no exceptions. Those qualified for promotion always demonstrated skills surpassing their current rank, while those who repeatedly stagnated in the Hunter Database clearly lacked what it took to climb higher.
Hundreds of battles.
This was a truth forged in blood and experience.
If someone was an F-rank, there was a reason they were F-rank; if they were E-rank, there was a reason they were E-rank.
That was why he never expected this group to clear the Ant Cave from the very beginning. He had been certain that a single clash would break the resolve of these two men who didn't know their place. That was as far as his plan went. He only intended to do his job to the extent that his own safety was guaranteed. But watching Kang Min-ho effortlessly slaughter the ants left him utterly bewildered.
'...This guy is an E-rank?'
It defied common sense.
Soldier Ants were D-rank monsters.
Simply having the skill to kill one meant a hunter shouldn't be an E-rank. Yet Kang Min-ho wasn't just surviving; he was overwhelmingly dominating dozens of Soldier Ants and Worker Ants at once. That meant he was at least a D-rank. And he hadn't just barely crossed that threshold—he was fighting at a level that bordered on C-rank.
It was shocking.
If a hunter of this caliber existed in Incheon, Park Gi-tae should have heard of him long ago. Yet, this was the first time he had ever seen the man named Kang Min-ho.
Crunch.
He crushed an ant's head beneath his heel.
A flawless victory.
Kang Min-ho seemed to be saying something to him, but the words didn't register in Park Gi-tae's ears right now.
'A single battle was all it took to prove it. I don't know why Kang Min-ho is still stuck at E-rank, but his combat prowess far exceeds anything I could have anticipated. Especially his Dash and Strong Strike. Those are common, widely known skills, yet the destructive power he just displayed makes me doubt they're even the same techniques. His utilization of skills is on an entirely different level.'
Park Gi-tae had no way of knowing.
He didn't know that it had only been a month.
He didn't know that these results had been achieved in such an impossibly short period of time.
Kang Min-ho had indeed possessed the meager skills of an E-rank, but a single lesson had completely transformed him.
In truth, this was a natural outcome.
People spoke of Dmitry's inheritance as something extraordinary, but Roman Dmitry was an existence who was Dmitry itself. A power capable of shattering the very foundation of the rank system. Because the world was still ignorant of his existence, they would be bewildered for now. But in the near future, Roman Dmitry would completely overturn the standards of common sense.
Park Gi-tae composed his emotions.
The battle was over.
Normally, he would have fled by now, but after witnessing Kang Min-ho's performance, his mind changed.
'At the very least, they've proven they aren't just suicidal nobodies. If they actually have the strength to subjugate the Ant Cave... this is a golden opportunity to make 300 million won.'
Of course, it still wasn't enough.
Kang Min-ho alone couldn't handle the entire swarm. But Park Gi-tae's real focus was on Roman Dmitry. There was a clear hierarchy between the two men. For a skilled fighter like Kang Min-ho to willingly follow Roman Dmitry, the man had to possess something truly special that he hadn't revealed yet.
He chose to believe.
This was an opportunity.
And so, contrary to his initial plan, Park Gi-tae chose to stay.
* * *
Park Gi-tae spoke up.
"From this point on, you have to make a choice. The deeper we go, the more the ants will multiply. Given the geographically restrictive nature of the Ant Cave, escaping will be impossible once we're surrounded. What just happened was merely a skirmish. If you aren't absolutely confident in your ability to handle waves of ants rushing at us like a tidal wave, now is your last chance to turn back and make it out alive."
It was sincere advice.
However, Roman Dmitry and Kang Min-ho had no intention of backing down.
They chose to keep moving forward, and as a result, just as Park Gi-tae had warned, the battles repeated.
Skreeee!
Skreeeeeee!
The ants lunged.
They bared their menacing mandibles at the intruders encroaching upon their territory. Just like before, with Roman Dmitry and Park Gi-tae watching from behind, Kang Min-ho stepped forward alone. He was brimming with confidence now. At first, he had doubted whether he could handle a swarm of Soldier Ants and Worker Ants by himself. But after confirming his newly awakened strength, he slaughtered the enemies without hesitation, riding an unstoppable momentum.
Thud.
Crunch.
Blood splattered.
He cut down every single monster in his path.
Kang Min-ho's raw physical strength wasn't much different from a month ago, but the explosive power originating from the Asura Mind Method yielded completely different results. It was a whole new world. As the battles dragged on, his blood pumped with exhilaration.
Suddenly, he felt a burning urge to take the promotion exam the moment he returned.
'When I took my first promotion exam, the examiner told me my future was obvious. He said that people who obtain hunter qualifications at my age, unless they get incredibly lucky with some powerful opportunity right from the start, are destined to live mediocre lives before meeting a miserable end in the jaws of monsters. He told me it was better to just give up being a hunter.'
The examiner hadn't been wrong.
If he hadn't met Roman Dmitry, he would never have escaped his E-rank status. He would have eventually met a miserable death, exactly as warned. That was why he wanted to prove himself. He wanted to see the look on that examiner's face when evaluating his current self—a man who didn't take a single step back even when facing dozens of monstrous ants.
Of course, that was a matter for later.
He knew all too well that he had to survive the present before he could dream of the future.
'Lord Roman Dmitry promised to step in if a situation arose that I couldn't handle. So, there's no need to be afraid.'
He gritted his teeth.
Beyond the darkness, the endless tide of ants rushed forward.
It felt like walking on thin ice, yet strangely, he felt no fear.
Skreeee!
Skreeeeeee!
Another swarm poured out from the tunnels.
Kang Min-ho charged toward them without a shred of hesitation.
* * *
Things were progressing smoothly.
But as they penetrated deeper into the underground tunnels, a strange, ominous sensation crept over Park Gi-tae.
'There are too few ants. If two Queen Ants have been constantly breeding over the past month, this Ant Cave should be teeming with numbers I've never experienced before. But so far, the resistance hasn't strayed far from common sense. No, there are actually fewer ants here than in an Ant Cave with only a single Queen Ant.'
It was undeniably strange.
The Ant Cave.
It was a hunting ground most hunters actively avoided. Its claustrophobic underground layout, naturally crawling with monsters, rarely permitted human intrusion.
It was then.
"I've found the Queen Ant's nest."
Roughly a hundred meters ahead, a massive space was detected by his exploration magic.
In every Ant Cave, there was a central chamber serving as the Queen Ant's nest, where she constantly laid eggs. This had been their destination from the very beginning. No matter how many drones they slaughtered, failing to kill the Queen Ant would result in a vicious, unending cycle. She was the absolute core of any subjugation mission.
Park Gi-tae forced the anxiety out of his mind.
Regardless of the variables, reaching the Queen Ant's nest meant they were practically at the finish line.
He pressed forward.
Soon, the massive cavern revealed itself.
At the sight that filled their vision, not only Park Gi-tae but even Kang Min-ho froze in shock.
"...Oh, no."
"Wow."
Ant eggs were everywhere.
There were too many to count. Considering it took less than a day for an ant to hatch, lingering here was a death sentence. But it was then that Park Gi-tae felt that ominous sensation flare up again. This time, the dread was suffocating, and the source of his anxiety was glaringly obvious.
"Something is definitely wrong. The absolute maximum number of eggs a Queen Ant can lay in a single day is a hundred. But at a glance, there are over a thousand eggs visible here. It makes no sense. For this many eggs to exist at the same time means..."
He swallowed his words.
It was only possible if there were dozens of Queen Ants.
It defied all logic.
Incheon Mayor Kim Jun-hyeok had postponed the subjugation specifically because of reports detailing just two Queen Ants. The existence of dozens was impossible to accept. Even a veteran guide like Park Gi-tae had never heard of such a precedent. Ant Caves were common hunting grounds that appeared all over the world; even in this chaotic era, there were established ecological rules.
It was then.
Wriggle. Wriggle.
The ant eggs convulsed.
One of them was significantly larger than the rest. Cracks began to spiderweb across its surface before something violently burst out.
Crack.
A massive, jagged foreleg punched through the membrane.
Then, the ant poked its head out.
In that instant, Park Gi-tae's eyes widened in horror.
The identity of the ant.
It was none other than a Queen Ant.
* * *
The Queen Ant.
Its very existence was an anomaly.
Queen Ants were known to hatch with an astronomically low probability among countless normal ants. This was something that should never have happened in a colony where two Queen Ants already resided. But that wasn't the only problem. As Park Gi-tae stared blankly, the surrounding eggs began to rupture one after another. More heads poked out from the slime.
Skreeee!
"...T-this is insane."
His eyes shook violently.
Another Queen Ant.
Not just three, but four, five... even more Queen Ants continued to tear their way out of the hatching eggs.
Goosebumps erupted across his skin.
There was only one way to explain the nightmare unfolding before his eyes.
'Could this be... an Omen Phenomenon?'
A Great Disaster.
Before the world had turned into hell, several omens foretelling a Great Disaster would occur. It was a warning to prepare for the apocalypse, and a localized hell in its own right. Because an Omen Phenomenon completely shattered existing common sense, it was the only logical explanation for the simultaneous birth of dozens of Queen Ants in a single Ant Cave.
In other words, a minor disaster was writhing right here, hidden deep beneath the earth, away from human eyes.
If they had kept delaying the Ant Cave subjugation, Incheon would have soon been completely overrun and annihilated by the swarm.
His terrifying realization was cut short.
Suddenly, bizarre, deafening screeches echoed from all directions in the darkness.
Skitter-skitter-skitter.
Skreeee!
Skreeeeeee!
It was the sound of a swarm.
At the horrifying cacophony of thousands—no, tens of thousands—of ants rushing toward them, a scale utterly incomparable to the previous skirmishes, Park Gi-tae's face drained of all color.
"W-we have to run! If this is an Omen Phenomenon, we can't handle this on our own!"
He frantically fumbled through his clothes.
He yanked out a Teleport Scroll and gripped it tightly. Yet, despite Park Gi-tae's desperate, urgent screaming, Roman Dmitry remained perfectly calm.
"Whether we can handle it or not is for me to decide."
"Dammit."
Park Gi-tae spat out a curse.
They were crazy bastards.
Even if their skills far exceeded their ranks, it made absolutely no sense for just two people to try and stop an Omen Phenomenon. An Omen Phenomenon was a cataclysm that required a city-wide mobilization at the bare minimum. Even a Peak Hunter of B-rank or higher would find it impossible to survive the impending tsunami of monsters.
His mouth went dry.
His body trembled violently.
Under normal circumstances, he would have tried to show some loyalty, but with certain death staring him in the face, he couldn't afford to play the hero.
Hadn't Roman Dmitry said it himself?
That he wouldn't hold him responsible if he fled.
"...I'm sorry. I'm truly sorry."
He squeezed his eyes shut.
Rip.
He tore the scroll.
A brilliant light erupted, enveloping his entire body. Park Gi-tae couldn't bring himself to open his eyes until the teleportation was complete.
* * *
Flash.
Thud.
The teleportation coordinates were locked to Incheon.
Appearing in a familiar space, Park Gi-tae quickly scrambled to his feet after confirming he was safe.
'There's nothing I can do about those two dying. But the Omen Phenomenon is a different story.'
Their survival?
It was impossible.
Holding out for even ten minutes against thousands of monstrous ants in an enclosed space was a futile hope. Thus, Park Gi-tae already accepted their deaths as a given. The real problem was the Omen Phenomenon. Since the scale of the disaster would exponentially multiply with the continuously hatching Queen Ants, the city had to subjugate the Ant Cave by any means necessary, risking everything to ensure Incheon's survival.
"I have to report this."
He hurried his steps.
His destination was clear.
It was none other than the Incheon Government.