episode_0045

We didn’t specifically tell the villagers we were leaving for the hunt immediately. Following Warren’s opinion, we judged that there was no need to inform those we felt strangely uneasy about of our schedule.

While it was unlikely they were colluding with the Doppleganger, with whom proper communication was impossible, there was no harm in being cautious.

“This way.”

The compass pointed west. The group raised their tension, ready to react anytime, anywhere, and moved along the compass needle.

-Kyahahaak!!

Strange-looking monsters suddenly poked their heads out on the way.

Creatures they had never seen before, with heads long like caterpillars but anuses shaped like human heads, lunged at the group. Even Asel, who had read quite a few monster encyclopedias in Wehaim, couldn’t identify them. Asel reflexively unleashed impact magic onto the creature’s body.

Thump!

Its body was driven vertically into the ground. It thrashed its long limbs to resist the crushing force, but that alone was insufficient to escape Asel’s magic. Asel drove a lightning formula into the head of the creature squirming like an insect, then observed the fallen corpse closely.

The answer came quickly. He furrowed his brow slightly and muttered.

“Creatures created with synthetic formulas. Human organs and heads were transplanted onto regular monsters. Thanks to that, they’ve become monsters that cannot accommodate the intelligence of either, with only appetite remaining.”

“……Why is something like that here?”

Warren spat out with a disgusted expression. Asel shook his head and straightened his bent waist.

“We need to find out. More importantly, we need to be careful.”

“……”

“If things like this are here, maybe the Doppleganger is also ‘assembled’ by someone’s synthetic formula. It might not look like the one we knew.”

As Asel finished speaking, Warren swallowed hard. Tension also filled Saya’s face. Only Qwill, who had some experience hunting monsters while working as a mercenary, was relatively unfazed. He threw an arm around Asel’s shoulder and smiled widely.

“I’m counting on your backup.”

“……Alright.”

A statement mixing sincerity and jest, deliberately made to lighten the mood. Asel chuckled and replied.

“……”

They continued to move forward after that. The deeper they went into the mountains, the more monsters assembled by someone’s hand poked their heads out. Thanks to the group dealing with them in time, there was no damage, but their nerves grew increasingly frayed at the fact that monsters targeting them were swarming around.

In this situation, opening their mouths would only cause conflict among the team members. So they kept their mouths tightly shut and moved forward, relying only on Saya’s voice guiding the direction of the compass. Asel stood at the very back and unleashed area-of-effect magic towards the gazes targeting him.

[첨뢰멸휘(尖雷滅揮)]

Rampant lightning wields destruction.

The moment the lightning blooming from Asel’s fingertips flashed, a burst of light raced through the space, scorching and burning away all the creatures crawling around the group. A delayed sound echoed, following the light of the lightning.

Kwaaaaaang!!

A deafening roar that felt like it would burst their eardrums. But no one reacted to it. They glanced briefly at Asel, who was shaking off the electricity from his fingertips, and then continued to move forward.

How much time had passed like that? Saya suddenly stopped the group. She showed everyone the compass and pointed to a cave entrance straight ahead.

“It’s there.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. The needle is pointing to that cave.”

“Let’s go right in.”

Qwill gripped his spear shaft and wore a fierce expression.

“Let’s finish it quickly and get out of here. Like the bookworm said, this wasn’t a normal mountain. I don’t want to stay long.”

“The life signs felt inside are roughly in the dozens.”

Asel said. The group’s eyes turned towards him. Asel met their gazes with a composed expression and stared at the cave.

His pupils gleamed with a blue light.

“Many reactions are similar to the ones we killed. One feels like the Doppleganger’s.”

“……Looks like this was their den. What do you plan to do? Are we going to charge in directly, or lure them out?”

Warren asked Saya. Saya pondered for a moment, then made a decision.

“Let’s go in. It’ll take too long to lure them out one by one and deal with them. There’s also no guarantee they’ll come out one by one in the first place. If they suddenly pour out all at once, it’ll be hard to identify the Doppleganger among them.”

“……”

“And… I’d like to finish this before nightfall, at least.”

Saying so, Saya split her pupils vertically. Mysterious mystical energy began to flow from her body.

A power granted to only a select few among Fox beast-kin, mystical magic. She swayed her tail, which had somehow increased to five, and conjured blue foxfire.

Seeing that, Warren raised his magic power, and Qwill exhaled a long breath, wrapping aura around his spear shaft. Asel approached Saya and observed one of her foxfires closely.

“Flames that degrade the spatial perception of creatures nearby and burn anything they touch? This is my first time seeing mystical magic, but it’s more sophisticated than I thought.”

“This is my first time seeing someone like you. It’s strange how your tone becomes stiff when you have to use magic like this. Should I say overbearing? Anyway, you’re gentle usually, but at times like this, it flips surprisingly.”

“……Me?”

“Yes. Didn’t you know?”

He hadn’t. Overbearing tone, was it a habit from living in the slums unconsciously manifesting? Or was there another reason?

It was hard to know for now. He awkwardly changed the subject by shifting his gaze towards the cave.

“Among the creatures inside, there are no intelligent ones. However, the Doppleganger seems to have some intelligence. It seems like it’s been alive for at least several decades.”

“That means it can’t imitate you. That’s fortunate.”

“You never know. It’s better to be prepared.”

Saying so, Asel slowly loosened his body. He pumped the core he had long since heated up, sending magic power throughout his body, rotated his neck, and strode towards the cave. The group formed a formation centered around him.

Snap, crackle!!

Electricity crackled around his body. The transformed magic power manifested externally, grabbing and sizzling the air. Due to the overflowing magic power, his eyes glowed, and lightning mixed with his exhaled breath. The sensation of controlling his body’s electrical signals at will, as if his entire body had become a single bolt of lightning.

A lightning user who fully activates their core becomes a strategic weapon in itself.

It wasn’t for nothing that Ena was active in countless battlefields and received proposals. Even Asel had not handled lightning-attributed magic with such full power since the fight against Fernand.

Not a bad sensation and feeling. While it felt a bit excessive just to kill one Doppleganger, Asel was wary of the owner of the synthetic formula behind the Doppleganger, not the Doppleganger itself.

‘A formula so meticulous and sophisticated that it cannot be detected until one gets close. It’s clearly a magician above me.’

It wasn’t a matter of talent. A formula user whose essence of years and experience accumulated as a magician was vastly superior. For reasons unknown, an apostate who had set up shop in this mountain and had a twisted hobby of combining monsters and humans. Asel activated his magic power to its full extent from the start, wary of him.

In any case, no magic power was being consumed pointlessly just by doing this. The only things maintained constantly were the shield protecting his body and the mental barrier magic.

The magic power consumed by these two spells recovered automatically just by breathing.

It was the same now. Asel straightened his index and middle fingers, and then swung them widely horizontally.

[섬진뢰(殲進雷)]

Bzzzzt!!!

A streak of lightning followed where his fingertips moved. As they entered the cave, the synthetic creatures that revealed themselves were directly struck by the lightning and turned into ash. Synthetic creatures that strangely contorted their joints to evade the lightning were either killed by Qwill’s spear thrusts or crushed by Warren’s spirit formulas.

-Grrrrrrrl!

-Kieeeeeeek!!

Creatures that sensed their comrades’ deaths began to pour out from deeper inside the cave. Warren met the gaze of the largest among them and made hand seals. Simultaneously, the spirit began to glow, and the earth resonated with his will.

[Sinkhole]

Ddddddduk!!

With the manifestation of the magic, the ground around where the synthetic creatures had been charging collapsed as if carved out. The creatures that momentarily lost their balance floundered, and Qwill sprinted through their ranks.

A body reinforced with aura and a spear blade. Practical senses honed from living as a mercenary. All of it combined to form Qwill’s spear technique.

Puwhak!

Every time his shoulder moved, the heads of synthetic creatures flew into the sky. Blood and organs splattered, and covered in an unknown bodily fluid, he let out a hearty laugh. Asel watched him, extended his right hand, and curled his knuckles as if to crush something.

[뇌폭(雷爆)]

Kwaaaaaang!!

The lightning mixed in the air responded to Asel’s will. It exploded within the abdomens of the monsters still alive. Horrific screams were buried and vanished in the thunderous roar. Corpses that died in a considerably gruesome state were buried beneath the sinkhole.

Overwhelming slaughter. However, no one felt any great emotion about it. Everyone knew that they hadn’t come here just to kill the synthetic creatures in the first place.

The group walked across the bridge over the center of the sinkhole that Warren had created, sweeping away the synthetic creatures that were gathering again.

Then, the synthetic creatures stopped charging pointlessly and began to circle the group as if tightening a noose. It was as if a leader had begun directing them. Asel crushed the head of one with telekinesis magic and focused his magic power on his vision.

An ‘opening of the eyes’ that had reached the realm of magnifying or shrinking space beyond the limits of normal sight. In his field of vision, he captured the sight of a being looking like a young girl giving instructions to the synthetic creatures.

As soon as he perceived it, Asel extended mana threads at supersonic speed, tied them to a pillar near the girl, and also tied threads to the bodies of the rest of the group, including himself, fixing them in place.

“Hey, what the—”

“……!”

The group, feeling a sense of being restrained, turned their heads with flustered expressions. Asel looked at them and grinned.

“Hold your breath. We’re going right now.”

“What are you talking abooooout!!!!”

Before Qwill could finish speaking, Asel drastically shortened the length of the extended mana threads. By that recoil, the bodies of the bound group members moved at high speed, following the shrinking mana threads.

In addition, Asel simultaneously chanted wind resistance magic and telekinesis magic, doubling the movement speed.

“Kyaaaaaaaak!”

“Shiiit, we’re gonna craaash!!”

“Asel, Asel!”

Thanks to that, the time it took to reach where the girl was did not even exceed 3 seconds. Before the group could crash into the wall and be smashed to a pulp, Asel created a downdraft and gently settled them onto the floor.

“Hey, you son of a bitch!”

As soon as he landed on the ground, Qwill charged towards the girl and shouted.

“Tell us beforehand when you’re gonna do stuff like this!”

“I did.”

Asel chuckled and replied like that, then stared at the girl who still hadn’t grasped the situation and snapped his fingers.

[뇌궁(雷弓)]

Bzzzzzt!!

A lightning arrow that bloomed behind Asel pierced directly through the girl’s forehead.