The Weight of a Hero (10)
I swam down toward the seabed.
Wearing the W1 suit made from sea dragon hide, and after all the training I’d put in over the years, moving through the water was relatively easy.
The bastard’s location is...
The sea floor rippled.
Found you.
Dirty Kraken had cleverly altered its skin color and hidden itself among the reefs and coral.
The body that had been split in half had already mended.
Still, the aftereffects must have been severe, because a clear scar remained.
The psychic ability that allowed me to converse with sea creatures underwater.
I activated the Magical Circle Whisper of the Stars.
“You rat bastard. So you were hiding here after all.”
I deliberately provoked it, choosing words meant to sting.
Dirty Kraken returned to its natural color and glared at me with all three eyes wide open.
“Y-you, you, you!!!”
It still looked furious, but it didn’t dare rush me.
“What is it? Scared of me?”
The moment I finished speaking, Dirty Kraken kicked off the sea floor and launched itself upward.
Black liquid sprayed from its body.
Ink?
Through the brief stretch of blackness that blurred my vision,
a long, pointed shape, sharp as an arrow, shot toward me.
It was a tentacle fired by Dirty Kraken.
Too slow.
I drew Heoksikdo from my back.
Usually I used Ganro-ryu with White Revenge in my left hand, and Ilcheon-illyu with Heoksikdo in my right.
This time, it’s reversed.
I swung Heoksikdo in a blur.
The fact that we were underwater didn’t matter.
The results of all that blood-soaked sword training I’d endured finally showed their worth.
As though an invisible circle had been drawn around me, countless black arcs recreated its shape.
The tentacles flying in from every direction were sliced to ribbons and scattered uselessly.
Dirty Kraken came to a stop directly in front of me.
So that was just stalling for time.
Behind the massive octopus’s back,
its tentacles tangled together into a human shape, twisting like ropes.
Each tentacle-man held a long tentacle in its hand like a harpoon.
It looked like a monster wielding a trident.
Just how many are there?
At a glance, there had to be more than a hundred.
Dirty Kraken copied human speech and behavior.
The tridents in those tentacle-men’s hands were modeled exactly after the way I’d looked earlier.
“How long are you going to hide behind those disgusting bandy legs?”
I held out my hand and curled my finger at it.
“Come on out. Let’s do this one-on-one.”
“Do. Not. Fuck. With. Me!!!”
The tentacle-men thrust their tridents at me in perfect unison.
Ganro-ryu, absolute defense.
Heoksikdo knocked every single trident away.
The tentacle-men didn’t retreat.
They charged again, attempting the same thing.
It was pointless.
Ordinary physical attacks couldn’t leave so much as a scratch on me.
...
As the fight dragged on, a sense of unease slowly crept in.
If I only defend, I’ll be here until dawn.
Even though I hadn’t taken any damage, the battle situation wasn’t good.
I still hadn’t activated Blessing of Water.
I was holding out purely with my own physical ability.
I had to keep my breath for as long as possible while fighting.
The duration was only five to ten minutes at best.
After that, I’d have to purchase Poseidon’s power.
I had about 564 million won left in my Awakener's Balance.
The amount needed to breathe and move freely in the sea was...
If Blessing of Water cost roughly 1 million won per second, then...
I’d burn through almost all of it in ten minutes.
Spending my Awakener's Balance didn’t scare me.
What scared me was...
Failing to take that thing down.
The longer this dragged on, the worse it got for me.
[ Hero Skill Shop ]
3. Poseidon
2) Control of Water
: 100 million won per use.
A tremendously powerful psychic ability capable of splitting the sea.
A guaranteed finishing move, as long as we’re talking about the ocean.
Control of Water could erase Dirty Kraken in a single stroke.
The cost was 100 million won.
Because of inflation, it was the most expensive skill I’d ever bought.
What’s there to hesitate over? End it.
Without a moment’s hesitation, I clicked and chose to buy it.
An alarm sounded, and words appeared.
Not enough mana.
What the hell...
More text followed.
The current user may use Control of Water once per day.
...
Then I understood.
The hero skill wasn’t at fault.
I just hadn’t grown enough to support it yet.
My vessel isn’t big enough yet. That’s what this is saying.
I’d already drained most of my mana using Control of Water earlier.
No wonder.
My body had been feeling heavy since before.
The speed of my sword swings had clearly slowed.
Before long, my breath was coming up short.
Damn it.
I didn’t even have confidence that I could last the five to ten minutes I’d planned for.
“W-wo...”
Dirty Kraken caught the change immediately.
It raised all eight of its legs as it watched me suffering from a slump in condition.
Dirty Kraken could do more than just change its body color.
It could mimic texture, weight, and hardness too.
It had the ability to imitate anything it had seen.
The creature’s eight legs transformed into tridents.
“Y-you! Y-you! R-right n-now... h-have. A. h-hard. t-time, d-don’t you?”
The tridents all stabbed at me at once.
Unlike the tentacle-men, whose limbs moved independently, the legs connected to Dirty Kraken’s body had greater speed and force.
My stamina was dropping in real time. The water’s current was impossible to predict. The unfamiliar environment was choking the breath from me, too...
A tiny crack became a fracture, and even my solid Ganro-ryu began to show openings.
One trident brushed my side.
“Ghk!”
Hot blood burst out.
The continuing loss of blood left me shivering so hard it felt like I’d caught a chill.
Another trident pierced my thigh.
“Kuhk!”
The hair on my body stood on end.
A tingling pain ran down my spine.
I’d expected this from the start.
Fighting Dirty Kraken underwater wasn’t going to be easy.
But actually experiencing it was a much harsher road than I’d predicted.
...Feels like I’m going to die.
It wasn’t a metaphor. For a moment, I had the absurd illusion that a black-clad reaper was hanging right in front of me.
Keeping up the fight was getting harder by the second.
The sea was a stage built only for Dirty Kraken, a battlefield designed for it alone.
Once again, I felt just how brutal nature could be, and how wide the gap in our capabilities really was.
It was fighting intelligently, using the environment to its advantage.
Yeah. This one isn’t easy.
Dirty Kraken twisted all eight of its legs into one.
“I’ll... p-pierce y-you... d-don’t... k-know... how t-to... hide...”
If that tentacle went through my body, there would be no more chances.
I could heal it with Regeneration, sure.
But oxygen deprivation is the real problem.
Even if Speeder’s skill restored my wounds, it wouldn’t save me from drowning underwater.
“I d-don’t l-like... n-no. f-fun... if y-you... go a-way... I... s-so... h-hate... h-humans... l-like y-you...”
Dirty Kraken aimed its single knotted leg at me.
“I f-fucking h-hate it!”
That was my limit.
Was I really going to give up like this?
Not a chance.
It was time to use my ace in the hole.
Beep.
Blessing of Water has been activated.
A warm aura wrapped around my entire body.
As mana converted into oxygen, my breathing opened up again.
Much better.
Underwater, I flipped backward in a smooth somersault and easily dodged the straight-line strike.
“I! I! Iii!”
Dirty Kraken stabbed at me several times, but I dodged every one of them with ease.
The balance in my account was visibly being burned away.
“S-so what? Y-you still c-can’t beat me!”
It wasn’t exactly wrong.
Blessing of Water only lets me adapt underwater and move as freely as a fish.
With Control of Water blocked at the moment,
how was I supposed to land the final blow?
“W-why d-do you k-keep dodging? Y-you! A-are y-you scared of m-me?”
Dirty Kraken parroted my earlier words back at me.
I looked at it and lifted one corner of my mouth.
It had a mask on, so it probably couldn’t see my expression, but
through Whisper of the Stars, Dirty Kraken could still sense my emotions.
“Huh?”
I reached into the pocket at my thigh.
Out came an ordinary waterproof radio.
I knew this would happen.
In truth, my trump card wasn’t Control of Water.
I pressed and held the transmit button.
“Your turn. Key man.”
* * *
While Choi Yongki fought Dirty Kraken,
two sailors and two hunters waited aboard the Eagle-class speedboat.
They were Mun Dal-su, the team leader from Dio Guild, and the youngest member, Jang Na-ik.
“Oh? Team Leader Mun.”
Jang Na-ik held the receiver.
A purple light flashed at the end of the device.
“It’s a signal!”
“Right.”
Mun Dal-su swallowed hard.
Before Choi Yongki dived in,
the order he’d given them was simple.
“Just do what I tell you. Then we can definitely win.”
Mun Dal-su patted Jang Na-ik on the shoulder.
“Let’s start.”
“Yes, sir. Team Leader.”
Jang Na-ik sat at the edge of the speedboat.
He bent forward and lowered both hands into the water.
Jang Na-ik’s talent was Gravity.
It was a telekinetic-type ability that manipulated gravity.
Because his level was still low, he could only move objects weighing under ten kilograms.
“Let’s go, Team Leader.”
“Okay.”
Mun Dal-su stood behind Jang Na-ik.
He placed both hands on the younger man’s back.
“Let’s see...”
Mun Dal-su’s talent was Long Pull.
It was a psychic ability known as a long-range power.
Any awakened person designated by Mun Dal-su had their ability’s range extended.
“Done. Go ahead.”
“Yes, sir!”
Jang Na-ik closed his eyes, then opened them.
“I’ve got it too.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“That’s it?”
“...Yes. It was so light it was easy.”
A seagull cried overhead.
It was an absurdly simple mission.
“Want to try again?”
Mun Dal-su let out a long sigh.
“Forget it. Our job’s done. Now...”
He glared at the dark, rolling sea and muttered,
“Let’s trust him. Our hero.”
* * *
I opened and closed my fist.
A bronze coin engraved with an anchor appeared in my hand.
It was the object that Navy Captain Eom Il-seop had entrusted to me.
Hurry up, Jang Na-ik.
The bronze coin slowly rose through the water.
Then it began spinning in place.
As though it had somehow gained perpetual motion.
Not because of current or tide.
It was a phenomenon artificially created by humans using mana.
Success.
Jang Na-ik and Mun Dal-su had worked together to move the lightweight coin.
That was why I’d put Mun Dal-su and Jang Na-ik into the extermination team.
Dirty Kraken tilted its head.
“Wh-what a-re y-you d-doing?”
What I’d pulled out as my final weapon.
Was nothing more than a coin.
The fact that the coin was simply spinning.
Pathetic. Ridiculous, really.
I lifted my head and met Dirty Kraken’s eyes.
“Hey, octopus. Here’s today’s proverb. Burn it into that damn head of yours: a thief who steals a needle will end up stealing an ox. A half-baked shamman gets people killed.”
“W-what th-the hell a-are y-you t-talking about?”
I spread my hands.
Just like Jang Na-ik had done.
I closed my eyes, then opened them.
Beep.
Mirror Turn has been activated.
The strongest black magician in the comics.
I bought Mr. Eden’s skill.
In a single breath, 50 million won vanished.
That left me with roughly 500 million won.
Jang Na-ik’s Gravity was a telekinetic-type power, and its category fell under magic.
That’s right. Magic.
I couldn’t use magic skills by myself.
But a technique that reflected an opponent’s magic back like a mirror...
If it’s Mirror Turn,
then if I can send the magic back tenfold...
“From now on, I’m going to stab an octopus with a needle.”
Dirty Kraken’s twisted mouth jerked.
“S-say... l-less... s-stupid... th-things...”
I brought my hands together as if in prayer.
“Go ahead and get squashed.”
After several seconds of silence,
the flow of seawater changed.
The water gathered all at once.
Centered on the place where Dirty Kraken stood.
“W-what...?”
Like an octopus caught in an elevator door,
Dirty Kraken slowly began to compress.
“Kyaaagh!”
It struggled furiously, refusing to be crushed by the invisible force, but it was useless.
The Gravity being used on the coin had unleashed a tremendous gravitational pull, like the black hole at the center of the universe.
“Kk...”
For a moment, my eyes met Dirty Kraken’s.
Fear had appeared in those pale, cloudy pupils.
“Cute.”
I tightened my clasped hands.
“Hup!”
Crushed under an imaginary hydraulic press, Dirty Kraken went mad and screamed.
“Kiiiiiiyaaaaaaah!!!!!”
The monster’s body kept narrowing.
With a hideous crunch, ink and innards squeezed out of the body and dirtied the sea.
Flattened like dough smashed with a hammer, Dirty Kraken sagged uselessly.
I snatched the bronze coin spinning in the water.
“Nice work, Jang Na-ik.”
---