49
Chapter 49
This morning.
Mother Bear, Urami, and Jjokkomi.
The Flame Bear family set out to hunt like any other day.
As the three of them roamed around searching for prey,
they stumbled upon a scene that was both awe-inspiring and horrifying.
They had discovered a mountain made from the bodies of all sorts of monsters.
A Mountain of Corpses.
Two beings stood casually in front of it.
One was a relatively large entity,
while the other was an old being with a frail frame.
The moment she saw them,
every hair on Mother Bear's body stood on end like sharp needles.
A chilling shudder ran down her spine, sweeping across her entire body.
It was an overwhelming Killing Intent.
The air in the surrounding area felt heavily crushed as it pushed against them.
Mother Bear's instincts screamed at her.
She needed to run away immediately.
That small, old figure over there was incredibly dangerous.
However, it was already too late to escape.
The old being had already spotted the Flame Bear family.
Just as Mother Bear was about to signal her cubs to flee,
Thud-!
Mother Bear's body collapsed to the ground.
Her upper and lower body had been completely severed.
There wasn't even time to react.
It all happened in a single instant.
Belatedly realizing that her body had been split in half, Mother Bear let out an agonizing scream. Jjokkomi's cry echoed right alongside hers. The cub, who had been sticking close to her mother, was also hit by the attack. Though not as severely injured as Mother Bear, Jjokkomi had lost one of her front paws.
The old being fixed his gaze on the Flame Bears.
He then reached out his arm to finish off the remaining two.
Right before Mother Bear breathed her last breath,
she squeezed out the last of her strength to speak to her cubs in a trembling voice.
She told them to leave her behind and run immediately.
Jjokkomi couldn't hear her mother's words.
Having lost her front paw, she staggered around, unable to keep her balance as she whimpered.
Urami fell into a brief panic, but quickly snapped out of it upon seeing Jjokkomi groaning beside him.
This was no time to lose his head.
Gritting his teeth, Urami gathered his senses.
Before the old being's next attack could fly their way,
Urami's mind raced furiously in that split second.
First of all, it was impossible for the two of them to escape together.
Jjokkomi was injured and didn't possess any exceptional escape skills.
If he were alone, he could get away.
Because Urami had the Short-Distance Teleport skill.
But he absolutely could not abandon Jjokkomi.
Even if they didn't get along and always bickered, she was still his one and only little sister. He didn't want to repeat the past where he lost his little brother due to a foolish Action. He never wanted to lose a sibling again.
Urami made his decision.
He would make sure that at least his sister got away.
He would sacrifice his own life to save Jjokkomi.
The Teleport skill.
It could be used on another target as well.
Urami decided to Teleport Jjokkomi.
Not a Short-Distance Teleport, but a Long-Distance Teleport.
By pouring out all of his remaining Mana, he could cast Long-Distance Teleport exactly once. Of course, it was impossible to teleport more than one person.
"Kku, kku-o?!"
Jjokkomi realized it too late.
Mana had surged up from beneath her feet, enveloping her.
"Kku-ohhhhh!!!"
In the end.
As she watched the sight of Urami's head soaring into the sky, Jjokkomi was teleported.
***
What Jjokkomi had been through.
What kind of opponent she had faced.
How she had survived.
And so on.
Through Ailee's Interpretation, I heard the whole story.
Jjokkomi hadn't just barely managed to run away alive.
She survived because she alone was teleported through her Oppa's sacrifice.
Here, Oppa must mean Urami.
It seemed Urami had something like a Teleport skill.
Anyway.
I didn't feel too good about it either.
Even if Mother Bear had abandoned me, and even if Urami was a heinous bastard who tore off my arm, I didn't feel any satisfaction knowing they were dead. Was it because family is still family, no matter how bad? Rather, I just felt a heavy weight in my chest.
Then again, anyone who would rejoice in this situation would be a psycho.
Especially when my precious Jjokkomi was weeping so bitterly, devastated by the loss of her family.
"Kku-o... Kku-heueuk......."
Jjokkomi cried herself to exhaustion and fell back asleep.
Tears were still welling up in the corners of her eyes.
"I'm at a loss as to how I should comfort her when she wakes up... I know all too well how deep the wound of losing family is, and I also know that no amount of comfort will make that wound heal easily...."
"...!"
Ailee and Baby Doll clung tightly to the sleeping Jjokkomi's body.
As if trying to comfort her with their warmth.
Tosuni also watched over the sleeping Jjokkomi for a while before weakly turning around, saying it was time to head back home. Seeing her friend so sad seemed to have drained her own energy.
I went out to see her off at the front of the Dungeon.
Before I knew it, the night in the outside world had grown deep.
"Woong, woo-woong."
Tosuni waved her hand weakly.
I waved back at her.
Yeah, get back safely.
Be careful not to run into the bastards who attacked Jjokkomi.
Tosuni trudged toward the bushes.
Watching her receding figure, I felt unnecessarily worried and used Luck Breath three times in a row.
With a Luck Buff applied, she should be able to get home safely.
After that.
I went back inside the Dungeon.
Taking a seat a short distance away from Jjokkomi, I started tapping the ground carefully so as not to wake her. It was to charge my Spicy-Sweet Fist.
While charging my fist, I fell into thought.
Just what was the true identity of the ones who attacked Jjokkomi?
From what I heard, they looked similar to Ailee.
I had no other information besides that.
Looking similar to Ailee...
Could they be a Vampire?
Or perhaps another monster that resembled a Human?
If not that... then just a Human?
Guessing who they might be in my head, I spent the entire dawn sharpening the blade of revenge... no, the Spicy-Sweet Fist of revenge. Now that I was in the Luck Domain, it was highly likely that this fist would become my trump card.
For the record, I wasn't vowing revenge for Mother Bear and Urami.
I was only vowing revenge for Jjokkomi.
***
Going back in time, to this morning.
Two Humans set foot on this continent.
An Old Man with a frail physique.
A young man with a sturdy build.
As they disembarked from a small boat, the people at the coastal camp stopped what they were doing and stared at them blankly.
To be exact, all eyes were drawn to the Old Man.
The Humans all wore expressions of sheer disbelief.
"W-what? That person came too?"
"Wow... I've heard a lot of rumors, but this is my first time seeing him in person. He looks exactly like the drawings, doesn't he?"
"So a Slayer Badge of that color actually exists...."
"But didn't they say he retired from being both a Mercenary and a Slayer? I heard he isn't active at all anymore."
"Did he perhaps come after hearing the news yesterday that the Ebony Slayer died?"
"There's no way that news could have reached his ears already, right?"
"He probably just came out of curiosity about the Unknown Continent."
There was almost no one who didn't know the Old Man.
Even if they had never met him in person, most of them recognized his face.
That was how famous the Old Man was worldwide, existing almost like a living legend.
The young man was a Porter hired by the Old Man.
The Humans at the camp slowly approached him, trying to make some kind of connection with the Old Man using this opportunity. And they tried speaking to him.
However, the Old Man completely ignored them all.
Motioning for the Porter to follow, he walked past the coast and headed straight into the forest.
After that.
Every time the Old Man encountered a monster, he subjugated it without asking any questions.
As long as it was in his sight, it was a target for subjugation.
Because subjugating monsters was the very reason the Old Man had come to this continent.
"Good, very good. This place is absolutely overflowing with new monsters."
The Old Man's face was colored with joy.
The wrinkled corners of his mouth slowly curled upwards.
"I don't even know how long it's been since I could continuously update the encyclopedia like this."
Embracing a thrill he hadn't felt in a long time,
the Old Man looked down at the thick book he held in one hand.
His Soul Weapon, the Monster Encyclopedia.
It was a book where the information of subjugated monsters could be engraved.
Most information, aside from level and power, was registered in the encyclopedia.
A drawn illustration of the monster's appearance.
Its species name, species rank, and even one random skill it possessed.
The Old Man could use one of the registered monster's skills, and the more diverse the species registered in the encyclopedia became, the more the power of his Soul Weapon increased. In other words, the more new monsters he collected, the endlessly stronger the Old Man could become. Because of that, the Unknown Continent was no different from a massive treasure trove to him. As a side note, it was also possible to register living beings that weren't monsters. Even a Human.
"B-Boss! Could you please slow down a little? You're too fast, it's hard to keep up...."
"You don't even have the stamina to follow a single old man? Yet you have plenty of energy to lust after other men's women every night, tsk tsk."
The two advanced through the forest without hesitation.
No one could block the Old Man's path.
[Poison Tiger lv.70]
┗Pw.140
┗Rnk.Uncommon
[Wind Ripper lv.50]
┗Pw.300
┗Rnk.Elite
The powerful monsters that blocked their way.
Without exception, they all died helplessly to the Old Man's single strikes.
In the process, even the villages of the High Orcs were completely annihilated.
The Old Man passed through the forest and entered the mountain range.
Even here, the Old Man continued his endless massacre.
Every single monster corpse was collected without missing a beat by the Porter following behind him. Using his Subspace Storage skill.
And when they took a brief rest period.
The Porter poured out the corpses he had stored in the Subspace Storage.
Whenever they had time like this, he intended to do the dismantling work to collect the Mana Stones in his spare moments.
Looking at the mountain made of monster corpses that had been created, the Old Man wore a satisfied smile and muttered to himself.
"Indeed, it's overflowing with high-level monsters. This is a truly amusing continent. I'm glad I came."
The true identity of the Old Man was none other than,
one of the beings who could be called the strongest of humanity, excluding the Zero Slayer.
A Hero who had been called the Mercenary King in his youth, and who had single-handedly subjugated a Champion who betrayed humanity in the past.
One of the few Special Grades in the entire world.
[Human lv.85]
┗Pw.170 (+400)
┗Rnk.Uncommon
[Soul Weapon]
┗Pw.400 (+170)
┗Rnk.Unique
An Astral Slayer possessing a Purple Badge.