Terror Echoes in the Ancient Shrine
A vast clearing encircled by lush mountain forest, untouched by human hands even if one traveled back to a hundred years past.
Yet traces of fierce battle remained here.
Trees with massive trunks lay toppled, their collapse caused by ground subsidence, and huge piles of boulders dotted the area.
Around them, a dozen or so hunters using abilities walked back and forth.
"Make sure no traces are left behind."
"Yes."
Whoosh. The ground rumbled.
Thanks to the earth-attribute ability, the boulder piles shifted and the underground passage they had been tunneling through was crushed and filled without a single trace remaining.
The A-class hunter from Jeokpung Guild, Seong Min-jae, supervised the operation without hiding his stern expression.
"Hah, I, Seong Min-jae, should be handling the cleanup of the underground laboratory."
Jeokpung Guild hunters were extraordinarily loyal to their master.
And that loyalty grew even fiercer the closer one got to the top.
Of course Seong Min-jae had no complaints about carrying out the back-end work instructed by Lee Myeong-won. He simply found it annoying that within the guild his rank was still behind Jo Yong-hyeop.
"Still, the more I do this kind of work, the more Master will rely on me."
In truth, when Seong Min-jae first joined the guild ten years ago he had been no more than a B-class hunter.
But the guild was rapidly expanding, and Seong Min-jae had surrendered himself completely to Jeokpung after hearing the master’s back-end operations.
He had never regretted that choice for a single second.
It was said in the world that once a hunter reached the level of Jeokpung’s executive, rare Level Up items were provided as reward. That had been the driving force behind Jeokpung becoming the nation’s strongest hunter power.
Of course, once it became known that the so-called Level Up items were actually the master personally injecting abilities into guild members’ bodies, the entire hunter world would erupt in chaos.
"There are some side effects."
His temper grew rough, and sometimes he felt like he was no longer himself.
Collisions caused by this had led to his name being shunned by other guilds.
But other guilds’ hunters could never openly express their dissatisfaction to Jeokpung’s members.
After the Great Calamity a hundred years ago, when humanity had been on the brink of extinction, the world order had been rebuilt around those with exceptional abilities.
This age belonged entirely to the strong.
The current Jeokpung Guild possessed that power.
Seong Min-jae took pride in being a Jeokpung executive.
And he was also exceptionally loyal, quietly carrying out any dirty work that came his way.
That this place was the resting ground of an Ancient Species was of little concern to them. Not just the Jeokpung hunters, but most hunters would feel the same.
In fact, during the Gate Break, many hunters had joined the fight even after learning the Ancient Species’ resting ground was a battlefield, without the slightest hesitation.
The reason was simple: the humans alive today were generations who had never experienced the terror of the Ancient Species.
A hundred years had already dulled most modern people’s fear of them.
The work continued without incident.
CRASH! The ground shook violently.
Seong Min-jae and the other Jeokpung hunters all dropped into a defensive stance.
"Urgh… again?"
"Seong Min-jae Hunter!"
"Pause all work until the localized quake passes!"
It was probably just a localized tremor.
Since the Gate Break, earthquakes had become frequent around this “Ancient Species resting ground,” starting from the massive ground collapse that had occurred during the calamity.
It did not matter anyway. They were simply erasing traces of the underground laboratory. Extra collapse would cause no real problem.
As expected, the tremor ended shortly afterward.
The hunters who had crouched to protect themselves with mana returned to their original tasks.
The anomaly occurred without warning.
"Aaaah!"
"W-what?!"
A blood-curdling scream as if coming from a slaughtered creature.
Seong Min-jae turned his head sharply toward the forest where the cry had come from.
It had to be the scream of one of the workers who had been digging the tunnel inside the woods.
TATAT!
He immediately pulled mana and ran toward the source.
What he saw was a human-shaped corpse, already lifeless, mutilated beyond recognition and pierced through.
The hunter had already died.
Like a beast that had been savagely devoured, his head hung limply backward, his empty eyes wide and unfocused, blood pouring from his parted lips.
"Urgh…!"
Seong Min-jae could not stop a pained groan from escaping.
Thick, sticky bloodstains spread outward from the body, forming small puddles. The stench that assaulted his nose and the sharp smell of blood enraged his senses.
At that exact moment, a sharp cry rang out from above.
Kiiiik!
When Seong Min-jae looked up, a colossal winged beast’s shadow was rapidly approaching.
"B-class flying monster, Wyvern!"
Why? Where had it come from?
All monsters generated by the Gate Break should have been exterminated by now.
Before the incident, Seong Min-jae instinctively activated his ability.
Fwoosh! His entire body erupted with blood-red mana, forming a spear that shot straight up to pierce the Wyvern’s body mid-descent.
Kiik!?
BOOM! POW!
The Wyvern tried desperately to veer away, but Seong Min-jae’s blood spear was faster.
The Wyvern’s wings were torn open with massive holes and it plummeted. Seong Min-jae’s spear drove straight through its head.
Seong Min-jae panted heavily and scanned the surroundings.
"What the hell is this thing?"
Although there was forest around, this was clearly an open field.
If a Wyvern had been flying over and approached here, Seong Min-jae would have seen it earlier.
Seong Min-jae’s mind spun rapidly.
A localized tremor.
Ground collapse in the vicinity.
The Ancient Species’ resting ground.
Then this creature…
Had it emerged from underground?
At that moment.
"Aaaah!"
"W-what?!"
From the open field where the main work was being carried out, screams similar to the one just heard came along with the panicked voices of the subordinate hunters.
TATAT!
Seong Min-jae sprinted over.
And he saw another individual of the B-class monster he had just killed.
This time there was not one.
Kiiiik, kiiiik, kiiiik.
A countless number of Wyverns filled the clearing and were massacring the Jeokpung hunters.
Seong Min-jae’s blood ran cold. He took a step backward.
This was a clear anomaly.
A large-scale outbreak of high-grade monsters occurring without a Gate Break.
The situation had already gone beyond his control.
Seong Min-jae immediately grabbed his smartphone and called the Jeokpung Guild headquarters.
"This is A-017 region, secret mission team! …Hah!"
But soon Seong Min-jae could only open his mouth wide and stare at the sky.
Because a blazing giant eye was staring down at him from the air.
CRACK!
A place that looked like a mouth opened, and endless power surged inside it.
And then.
WHOOOOOOSH!
With no time to even scream.
Seong Min-jae’s body was swallowed by the torrent of energy and vanished.
***
"As I was walking down the road, I saw a bad hunter bullying a weak person. What should I do?"
"Help the weak person! If you don’t have enough strength, report it to the nearest hunter guild!"
"Isn’t it just the natural order of the world that the weak get bullied by the strong?"
I tilted my head, but Na-yeon gave me a stern look.
"Those with power must carry out the corresponding responsibilities. Haven’t you heard of the term nobility oblige?"
"…I’ll look it up on Wiki later."
After thinking it over for a while, I came up with a solution.
"Cut off the bad hunter’s blood flow so he can’t move, then confiscate all his property."
"Heek…! Wiji!"
Kyaaak!
Lee Da-yeon’s face twisted in fear, and Kim Na-yeon screamed.
Immediately Kim Na-yeon pouted and grabbed my shoulder, shaking me.
"You have to use moral reasoning! You’re not fundamentally a bad kid, right? Noona believes Wiji will become a good child…!"
"Ugh."
No matter how many times she said it, I could not flip three hundred years of Heavenly Demon Wiji Yeon’s way of thinking in such a short time.
But Na-yeon seemed convinced she could change me.
"This kind of education is unnecessary for this body."
"If you don’t put in the effort to learn properly, then today Wiji won’t get her hair braided. Are you going to braid your own hair?"
"T-that!"
She had to be blackmailing me with this!
Bathing for Wiji Yeon was my greatest joy these days.
Kim Na-yeon was gradually learning how to handle me.
"Here, copy me. The weak must be helped."
"The weak… must be helped."
I barely managed a smile and answered.
I had seen similar behavior on the internet once. Gaslighting, I think?
Anyway, following Na-yeon’s words, I was slowly absorbing the common sense of this world.
While we were still in the leisurely afternoon, a thunderous emergency siren blared across the entire city.
"…What is that sound?"
I frowned.
But Kim Na-yeon’s expression froze.
"Noona."
Lee Da-yeon also looked anxious and grabbed Na-yeon’s sleeve.
Dang! BANG!
The office door burst open urgently, and the dazed building manager Yoon Deok-ja appeared.
"Na-yeon! This alarm…!"
"Yes. It’s a full emergency mobilization order."
"Shouldn’t you go too, ajumma?"
"Hah, what are you saying? You’re a retired hunter, right, ajumma?"
Na-yeon stroked Da-yeon’s head to calm her down.
"Da-yeon and Wiji, listen to ajumma and stay quietly inside the guild? Noona has somewhere to go."
"When will you be back?"
"I’ll be back soon. Don’t worry."
Na-yeon’s hand even reached my head.
If it had been my usual rough treatment of these kids, I would have snarled and bared my teeth. But the atmosphere was strange, so I stayed silent for a moment.
TATAT!
Soon Na-yeon’s figure vanished outside the guild.
Yoon Deok-ja smiled while trying to soothe Da-yeon.
"Listen to noona. Be good and wait quietly with ajumma."
"Yes, yes."
……
I quietly stared at the black martial robe designated for Wiji Yeon hanging on the office wall.