Sensing the Omen (1)
Splash! Bubble bubble!
Bubbles and mud kept rising from the water where Predator and Mririk had plunged in.
“Ah! Wayne!”
[Lord Wayne!]
Brock and Sabina called out, but there was no response.
Soon, the river current began flowing again as if nothing had happened.
Yond, his fur singed all over his body, stared blankly at the water before slamming his spear into the ground. His face twisted in regret.
“Wayne, you were a true warrior!”
“Yeah! He’s gone to Valhalla!”
Barak, the beardless dwarf, looked equally somber. Meanwhile, Ajul was the only one sniffling back tears.
[What the hell are you talking about?!]
The young dwarves jumped at Sabina’s sharp shout and turned to her.
[Lord Wayne is definitely alive! Hurry and send the golems into the water to find the Gigant!]
Brock reacted first to Sabina’s words, issuing a command to his golem.
“That’s right! Save Wayne, now!”
[Groooar! The king never sleeps!]
Creak! Thud thud!
As Brock’s Steel Golem moved to the water’s edge, the young dwarves followed suit, commanding their own golems.
“Yeah! Save Wayne!”
“Get in there!”
It was just as the four golems waded in up to their waists.
Splash! Whoosh!
“Kwaaaargh!”
Mririk burst up from the middle of the river, letting out a monstrous screech.
“Ugh! The beast’s back!”
“Gasp! Valhalla!”
But it wasn’t alone.
Pfsh! Stab! Stab!
Predator had one hand gripping the monster’s teeth while the other wielded a 1-meter dagger, relentlessly slashing at its jaw and throat.
“Oh! Wayne’s alive!”
“He’s fighting!”
“Wayne! Drag it to the shore!”
Swoosh! Splash!
Wayne and Mririk vanished back into the water in an instant.
“Gone again!”
Sabina shouted urgently.
[Hurry and help pull out the arrows!]
Brock understood and sent his Steel Golem to yank the arrows from the monster’s body, passing them to Artemis.
Sabina nocked the arrows on her bowstring, aiming at the water’s surface.
“Will it come up again?”
[It will! Lord Wayne doesn’t go down easy!]
That’s when it happened.
Pfoosh! Whoosh!
This time, Mririk surged up closer to the riverbank.
And—
Crackle crackle crackle!
“Aaaagh!”
“Kaaaagh!”
“Gegegelgel!”
The dwarves shuddered violently all at once.
Mririk had wrapped around Predator like a snake and unleashed an electric attack.
Twang! Thunk!
“Kwek!”
In the midst of it, Sabina loosed an arrow, striking one of the beast’s eyes. But that alone wasn’t enough to bring Mririk down.
Twang! Thunk! Thunk!
Sabina kept firing without pause, every shot hitting true.
Even as the electric assault raged, Wayne clung to a fin with one hand, stabbing relentlessly at Mririk’s head and body with the dagger in the other.
The monster thrashed in agony before diving back underwater with Predator in tow.
“Kuhk!”
“Kek!”
[Everyone, get away from the water!]
The dwarves, nearly electrocuted to death, scrambled back at Sabina’s cry.
But Artemis, piloted by Sabina herself, was already nocking the next arrow. She too had taken a massive shock from the beast’s attack but had gritted her teeth and fired anyway.
“That human woman’s impressive!”
“She’s not human—she’s an elf!”
“Elf or human, same difference.”
This time, though, it didn’t resurface for long.
“It’s taking too long to come up.”
“Ugh! Another beast here!”
Suddenly, Mririk’s pitch-black head popped up right at the water’s edge.
The dwarves fell back as the Steel Golems raised their weapons.
Mririk began emerging further from the water. But its eyes were unfocused.
Predator had hoisted the monster over its shoulder.
Thud!
The mud-caked Predator dropped the beast on the bank, aimed its blade at its forehead, and plunged it in deep.
Still alive, the creature convulsed once violently before going limp.
“By the gods! Wayne took down the monster!”
“Ooh! Valhalla!”
“Taking down a beast that size solo—he’s a true warrior!”
The dwarves cheered wildly as Predator placed a hand on the fresh stab wound on the monster’s forehead, almost as if paying silent respects.
[Lord Wayne, are you alright?]
Even to Sabina’s question, Predator remained silent for a moment.
About three minutes later, it finally pulled its hand away and turned its head.
[Whew! I’m fine. Just in case more show up, let’s head to the spot where we rested yesterday.]
[What about this Mririk corpse?]
[Leave it. We can’t take it anyway.]
[Yes, sir...]
An A-rank monster like this was notoriously hard to catch—selling it at Westline Fortress would fetch a fortune in gold. Sabina felt a pang of regret.
But they hadn’t brought any equipment for processing monster parts or a transport Gigant, so there was no choice.
A brief rest period.
The dwarves were trimming their singed beards and hair from Mririk’s electric attack, while Sabina wiped the blood and frog poison from her arrows.
Wayne, meanwhile, had been sitting motionless atop an exposed tree root, eyes closed.
‘Replenishing his Odd?’
Sabina assumed that’s all it was.
‘Whew! If I hadn’t caught that second Mririk, we’d have come back empty-handed...’
Wayne scattered white Odd around him, replaying the recent battle.
The white Odd from the first Mririk hadn’t been much.
Like all Odd, it was consumable. Whether from pythons, other monsters, or even humans piloting Gigants, Odd depleted gradually.
But Mririk’s white Odd enabled powerful electric attacks—albeit ones that burned out in a flash.
The first one had unleashed its strongest shock four times. By the end of the fight with Wayne’s group, it had exhausted them all, leaving little behind.
Fortunately, reading its memories in that moment had revealed another Mririk nearby.
That’s how he’d sensed the second one approaching from behind.
The second could unleash five shocks total. It had hit him twice before dying, letting him absorb what remained.
‘As expected, the principle is accelerating the Odd!’
Crackle! Zap zap!
Static electricity flickered around Wayne.
White Odd was highly sensitive and reactive to stimuli.
First, emit white Odd outward to form a magnetic field. Then accelerate white Odd inside the body and direct it toward that field.
The collision between the compressed, accelerated internal Odd and the external field generated a powerful current, shocking the target.
‘At my current acceleration speed, the power’s lacking.’
That was a shame.
Through Karian’s second-stage Odd breathing technique, Wayne already knew how to accelerate Odd internally—at eight times normal speed. Optimizing third-stage had bumped it to sixteen times.
But Mririk could hit sixty-four times, producing devastating electricity.
With continued training, his acceleration would improve—but that would take time.
‘Wait, no! I don’t need to one-shot monsters or enemies with electricity!’
The thought struck him.
Even if weaker than Mririk’s, a paralyzing jolt or shock would create an opening to finish with Predator’s iron mace.
It would conserve white Odd, allowing more uses—no need for max power every time.
‘Right! Odd recharging’s tough anyway, so better to use it sparingly.’
White Odd had one major flaw: it couldn’t be recharged from the air.
That’s why only aquatic monsters like Mririk used it—it drew from water-borne Odd, and only in flowing water while fully submerged for fast recharge. Severely limiting.
Humans weren’t fish; they couldn’t live underwater.
‘Gotta test the acceleration speed and attack power beforehand.’
The easiest way? Experiment on a monster.
Rough calculations with his current white Odd reserves and sixteen-times acceleration suggested at least twenty uses.
Drop to eight-times, and he could double that. Real tests were essential.
Then he discovered another unique feature—one he’d just figured out, something even Mririk couldn’t do.
White Odd was incredibly dense, tightly packed. Highly mobile within its magnetic field, with strong repulsive and interference properties.
That enabled this new trick.
‘Huh! It actually works!’
Wayne was telekinetically moving a twig in midair.
‘Anyone watching would think I had psychokinesis or superpowers.’
Another white Odd ability: manipulating objects within its field.
Scattering it lightly like red Odd moved small items. But starting with accelerated Odd could form a field strong enough for much larger objects.
‘Come to think of it, this is Karian’s ninth-stage Odd breathing technique.’
At ninth stage, with overflowing Odd under perfect control, one could layer and compress it until it visibly shimmered to normal eyes.
That let you move or fetch objects—and at mastery, even make a Gigant step on the compressed Odd platform.
White Odd mimicked early ninth-stage without reaching it: accelerate internally for density, then emit.
Of course, his reserves were too low for heavy loads, and acceleration needed boosting.
‘If only I could hunt more Mririks...’
Impossible now. Others lurked deeper in the Great Forest, and he lacked time.
For now, this would do. He’d return later to stockpile more white Odd—much easier next time.
Wayne cracked his eyes open.
‘Perfect. A test subject just showed up!’
Something to gauge his new electric attack on: an E-rank, 2-meter giant spider.
A lowly worker ant among ant monsters, drawn by the dead Mririk’s scent, antennae twitching as it approached.
“Brock! Gonna wash off the Gigant real quick.”
“Got it, Wayne!”
“Be careful, just in case.”
The dwarves shook their heads at Sabina’s warning.
“Elf! He took down Mririk—what’s there to worry about?”
“Yeah! Wayne’s strong!”
Wayne chuckled and mounted Predator, heading to the riverbank. He approached the giant ant cautiously.
‘Start light—four-times acceleration.’
He scattered white Odd to form a field around him, snuck up behind the ant as it tore into Mririk’s flesh with its mandibles, and grabbed its body.
Then he unleashed the accelerated Odd.
Crackle zap!
“Gagagak!”
The ant’s legs and body convulsed, then stiffened rigid.
“Huh?”
Suddenly, darkness closed in.
‘What the—?’
In an instant, he was in a pitch-black cave. Looming against one wall was a colossal ant, at least 40 meters tall, glaring down at him.