Predator
Predator
I threw away the now-useless dagger hilt in my hand without hesitation.
No point holding onto something I can't use anymore.
A wolf that had been closing in from behind leaped at me.
"Get lost!"
I shoved its jaw aside with my shoulder.
Yelp!
The wolf went flying back as if hit by a car.
Seizing the moment, I charged toward the staggering,
now dying wolf and reached for its thick neck.
Grrrl!
But it was still alive.
The moment my hand touched it, the wolf desperately flailed its front paws.
"Ugh!"
Sharp claws raked across my forearm.
Maybe I should've splurged on armor after all?
The sudden pain nearly made me loosen my grip,
but I gritted my teeth and crushed its neck with sheer strength.
"Now die!"
I raised my other hand
and shoved the loosely embedded blade deeper into its neck with all my might.
"Die!"
With the sound of tearing flesh, the blade disappeared into its body.
The flailing wolf coughed up blood and went limp.
Hot blood ran down my arm.
"Phew, one down... you're next."
I turned to face the wolf charging at me.
Immediately grabbing the dead wolf by its neck,
I swung it with all my strength toward the incoming wolf.
A dull impact sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed across the grassland.
The wolf took the full brunt of the corpse in my hand and crashed to the ground.
It didn't even have time to scream.
I tossed the now-meaty corpse in my hand onto the grass.
"...Did it."
Both my arms were stained red with wolf blood.
The claw marks on my forearm had already scabbed over and didn't hurt anymore.
"Huh? ...I'm not even winded?"
Though my heart was pounding hard, sending blood to my limbs,
my breathing wasn't labored at all.
Normally, hunting wolves would leave me completely drained.
An opponent that used to take me minutes to barely defeat.
Now I'd killed it barehanded.
"...Is this the power of an enhanced Trait?"
I looked down at my bloodstained, massive palms.
For the first time, I fully realized just what kind of monstrous body this Trait had given me.
***
After that, First Layer monsters were no match for me.
I tore apart wolves' maws with my bare hands,
grabbed charging boars by their tusks and slammed them into the ground.
I was gradually getting the hang of how to use this body.
I stopped the second boar head-on.
Grabbing its tusks with both hands, I held my ground as dirt flew up behind me from being pushed back.
But I stopped it with pure strength.
Confusion appeared in the boar's small eyes.
It was clearly its first time experiencing a failed charge.
This was an opponent whose thick hide used to make stabbing difficult even with a blade.
I couldn't help but laugh.
Lifting it up and throwing it down made the ground shake.
My hunts became increasingly efficient and brutal.
The path I left behind was littered with monster corpses.
Bottom-tier Hunters like my former self, hunting in the distance,
were staring at me with shocked expressions.
I grinned at them.
They immediately turned tail and ran.
Somehow, that made me feel good.
***
Before I knew it, the surroundings had gone quiet.
There were no more monsters left to hunt.
"Did I overdo it...?"
I looked down at my bloodstained hands.
Wolf blood had painted over the brown scabs from earlier wounds.
The wind blew.
The grassy scent mixed with the metallic smell of blood tickled my nose.
It was a smell I'd created.
Turning my head toward the opposite thicket,
I saw another party making a wide detour around the path I'd taken.
The trail of gutted corpses stretched out like a road.
For three years, I'd walked out of this grassland every day.
With five or six Cores in my pocket.
Sighing at the reality that after equipment repairs, nothing remained.
But now everything was completely different.
My pockets were now swollen to bursting.
"Let's rest for a bit."
***
My feet automatically headed toward the scrub forest at the edge.
To my resting spot where the hole that had dropped me to the Third Layer used to be.
The tree stump came into view.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the hole was already gone.
...If I hadn't found that hole here back then.
I wouldn't have fallen to the Third Layer,
wouldn't have gotten my stomach pierced by that flame dog.
Wouldn't have ended up 300 million in debt.
But.
I also wouldn't have gotten this monstrous body, wouldn't have met Wolha.
"...Whatever."
Enough sentimentality.
My pockets were heavy enough—I'd rest a bit then head back.
Tomorrow I'd come properly equipped to go deeper.
That way I could learn more about this strange Trait.
Then I'd surely find some answers.
And to do that...
I looked toward where that party I'd tangled with earlier had gone.
The place leading to the Second Floor where the Boss Room was located.
With my current strength, I could probably take it alone...?
...But maybe I should find a party?
Like that guy recruiting at the entrance earlier, I should find some decent rear guards.
After the rampage I'd just gone on,
anyone on the First Floor would jump at the chance.
At that moment, an unusual vibration traveled through my feet.
My body reflexively turned toward the source.
A sound came from the distance.
Someone's scream.
From the Boss Room direction?
Through the bushes, a woman in white robes stained with blood was running toward me.
Her hood had fallen back, revealing flowing light pink hair,
and her face, streaked with blood and sweat, was deathly pale.
...The woman who'd been recruiting a boss hunting party this morning.
I could see her legs losing strength as she ran.
Just as her knees buckled and she started to collapse forward,
I sprinted toward her and caught her with one arm.
She was light as a feather.
"Are you okay?"
"Huff, huff, you, you!"
Before she could finish, the ground trembled underfoot.
Something massive was charging toward us.
Instinctively, I leaped back with the woman on my back.
Boom!
Something enormous crashed into where we'd just been standing.
The ground cratered, dirt flying everywhere.
A pit formed where the grassland had been.
The woman's heartbeat pounded against my back.
Frantic and fast.
Her hands gripped my shoulders.
So hard her nails dug into my flesh.
"S-save me..."
Her voice was barely alive.
I set her down behind me.
Her arms visible through the torn robe sleeves were unharmed.
Not her blood then.
No need for emergency treatment.
She looked up at me with tear-filled violet eyes.
Her gaze was half-unfocused.
First, leave her here.
I turned around.
The thing in the pit was rising, putting strength into its limbs.
Its shadow engulfed the woman and me.
The smell hit first.
A foul stench mixed with blood—pungent and piercing.
The familiar smell of a boar.
But its size was different.
Ridiculously large, the size of a house.
Its towering tusks stained with blood marked it as
the rumored First Floor boss.
...Huge.
But why had it left the Boss Room?
---
[Dungeon Gallery]
Title: Fuck! If your Trait's OP, go to 2F already!
Yeah, since your Trait sucks, get the hell out of 1F
Are you mocking me now?
Anon: What's up during the day?
Anon: Some guy doing solo barehanded slaughter on 1F
Anon: Madman's butchering every monster in sight
Anon: Saw him kill a wolf with a headlock
Anon: Bullshit lol
Anon: Wish it was bullshit. Already left dungeon cause nothing left to hunt thanks to that bastard
Anon: At that level, he must be Guild-affiliated. Why's he wasting time on 1F?
Anon: Fuck, need to find out which Guild he's in and file a complaint
Anon: ...I'm having serious reality check. With guys like that around, no wonder I can't get scouted
Anon: Took the red pill hard today T_T
-------
TN: Idk if already added a note for this, but ㅋㅋ is used as lol/lmao on korean livestreams. ㅎㅎ is a subdued version (ahah), and there is ㄹㅇ = 리얼 which is "lmao fr fr". Here is your korean streaming slang.