Ch.105105 – The Stronger the Adventurer, the More Dangerous the Monster

# 105 – The Stronger the Adventurer, the More Dangerous the Monster

Zigoku was confident.

“Gyahahat! You coward. Now that we’re here, did your confidence suddenly disappear?”

“Who knows what monster might be inside when we open this.”

“Monster? Who in the world would be stupid enough to lock monsters in a storage room! They’re not even rare animals.”

“This is Gift Academy, you know.”

“…Is that so?”

Despite being full of bravado, even Zigoku had to admit that an academy like this might well have a monster storage facility.

“Well, I suppose. Even pirates occasionally get requests from scholars willing to pay for rare sea monsters or strange subspecies living on archipelagos.”

There are occasionally high-ranking individuals who approach pirates—who fearlessly venture into dangerous areas that most countries avoid—with strange requests in exchange for enormous compensation.

“Zigoku… did you do such terrible things…?”

There are different types of pirates.

There are subsistence pirates who rob merchant ships just to survive in desperately poor coastal villages, and there are demonic pirates who enjoy evil deeds and even deal in slaves.

There are also privateer pirates who collaborate with governments to hunt other pirates and occasionally legally plunder enemy merchant ships.

Zigoku is a privateer pirate.

That’s what I basically know, but the tricky charm of <Graduating from Academy with Luck> is that some variable might have occurred that turned her into a demonic pirate.

“What kind of person do you think I am?”

Thwack.

“Ow!”

“You need to be hit. How dare you lump me together with that trash.”

“Hing. I’m sorry.”

“When I’m bored, I might shoot my gun or kick the legs of weaklings passing by, or even shoot between the legs of lower-class students because I want to see them tap dance, but I never deal in slaves! Got it?”

“Yes…”

But wasn’t I right though?

Don’t you think you’re being too harsh? Or is that just my feeling?

I have so many questions I want to ask, but I hold back.

Zigoku is stronger than she looks.

Strong enough to have the upper hand in a strength contest with Son Ocheon.

In fact, Son Ocheon is known more for his endurance than his strength.

Anyway, the fact that Zigoku, with less muscle mass than Son Ocheon, can win in a strength contest implies one thing.

She’s a mana tempering practitioner who can dramatically increase the maximum power her muscles can exert!

Considering that maritime mana tempering is even rarer than land-based mana tempering, it would be difficult to find someone who surpasses Zigoku in water attributes not just among the 981st class but throughout the entire academy.

In maritime fields, she’s counted among the 0-tier (ranks 1-5).

“Shall we open it then?”

“Aah!”

Yet the reason why Zigoku remains at 1-tier (ranks 11-15) rather than 0-tier or even 0.5-tier in maritime fields where she could truly shine—

The true value of her unpredictable, bouncy, self-centered evil personality was displayed right before my eyes.

Bang!

With the sound of gunfire, the door handle creaked open.

From the dark monster storage room, <Sludge Slimers> that crawl on the floor eating filth came pouring out.

“Hey, you were scared of just these things?”

“There’s more coming!”

Behind them came small creatures with long claw-like fingernails called <Clawmen>, climbing along the walls.

“Ha, no matter what, they’re just one-hit wonders. You’re overreacting.”

Adventurers also have ranks.

Stone badge, Bronze badge, Iron badge, Silver badge, Gold badge, Platinum badge.

Sludge Slimers are the most manageable monsters that even the lowest-ranked Stone badge adventurers deal with when cleaning sewers.

However, Sludge Slimers are typically kept in monster storage facilities.

They maintain hygienic conditions by dealing with the waste from other monsters.

The problem was the Clawmen.

‘Those aren’t usually kept with other monsters in storage because they injure them?’

Although they’re monsters that Bronze badge adventurers typically hunt, they require isolation due to their aggressive nature.

Yet they weren’t isolated but placed in the same storage. Because something can control them.

Control the Clawmen’s aggression.

Another monster in the storage.

“Kyaak!”

“Huh?”

Zigoku’s face froze when she saw the fiercely howling monster that appeared behind the Clawmen.

A land monster infamous even among pirates at sea.

A monster with troublesome attributes including <Fungal>, <Man-eating>, <Parasitic>, and <Gas>.

It was a <Red Tooth Mushroom>, a monster that grows from fungal stalks and tears apart living creatures with shark-like sharp teeth.

“Move, Oknodie! I need to shoot it dead right now!!”

“No! If you carelessly cut or injure a Red Tooth Mushroom, it will frantically spray spores everywhere!”

This is why fungal monsters are terrifying.

If you rashly attack them, you’ll be poisoned by the biological gas that spreads everywhere, and small mushrooms will grow both inside and outside your body.

Anyone who has heard the horrific accounts of Red Tooth Mushrooms growing by consuming the flesh of unfortunate creatures near a defeated one would have to agree.

The fact that mushroom monsters are both the most common and the most horrifying.

And that’s not even the end of it.

“Kyaak!”

“Kyak! Kyak!”

Multiple Red Tooth Mushrooms pouring out one after another.

Thud. Thud.

Beyond them, an even larger mushroom monster pushing through, filling the entire storage doorway.

<Mother-class Red Tooth Mushroom>

A higher entity that spreads its species by releasing spores even without being attacked.

A Mother-class Red Tooth Mushroom had appeared.

“Run away, Zigoku. Go call a supervisor.”

“What about you?”

“I know the cry that makes mushrooms behave docilely.”

Just as Giant King Crabs fear the cry of octopuses, their natural predators, Red Tooth Mushrooms also fear the cry of their natural enemies.

Even mushroom monsters, which vindictively parasitize their attackers’ bodies, have natural enemies.

<Fire Elementals>, which make parasitism impossible.

A hard-counter species whose bodies are made of fire, not flesh, making it impossible for ordinary mushrooms to steal nutrients even if they try to attach themselves, as the fire burns all spores.

The most common fire elemental in the world is the fire dog!

“Hwalhwal! Hwalhwalhwal!”

The mushroom monsters backed away, startled by the cry of the fire-attribute dog.

Realizing my words weren’t a lie just to save myself, Zigoku gritted her teeth and turned to run.

“If you die first, I’ll kill you myself!”

“Hwalhwal!”

As I answered with dog barks, Zigoku bit her lip tightly and ran toward the academy’s main building.

10 seconds. 20 seconds. 30 seconds.

When I thought Zigoku was far enough away, I stopped making dog barking sounds.

“Whew. Even I was startled!”

Looking closely, I saw the mushrooms were wearing fungal suppression devices.

With their internal spore-launching organs suppressed, they wouldn’t release spores unless attacked first, and their aggression was controlled so they showed no hostility.

Even the Clawmen, clicking their nails like scissors, were being controlled by the Red Tooth Mushrooms, their aggression regulated according to the mushrooms’ will.

Trembling.

In fact, looking closely, they were afraid whenever they made eye contact with me.

They had been captured by humans, forcibly modified so they couldn’t release spores, and confined in a dark monster storage room.

They were afraid of humans and wouldn’t dare think of attacking.

Yet I pretended it was an emergency situation because:

“Hmph. Zigoku needs to be taught a lesson.”

To correct Zigoku’s bad habit of touching things she shouldn’t.

She carelessly opened the monster storage and nearly caused a disaster.

We were lucky these were well-maintained creatures.

What if there had been truly ferocious monsters inside? It could have been catastrophic.

Even now, it’s the same.

I recognized the mushrooms’ condition and prevented an attack, which is why things are calm.

If she had charged in with the one-dimensional thinking that monsters must be attacked on sight, she would have been heavily infected with spores before the supervisors or professors arrived.

If she died before rescue came, it would be a dead ending.

Even if she was lucky enough to be rescued, she would still end up in intensive care.

The points deducted for treatment and the penalty points for missed lectures would be additional consequences.

If she saved time and credits thanks to me, a little anxiety is a small price to pay!

* *

Zigoku had never resented her sea origins as much as she did now.

‘At worst, I was only expecting a mimic.’

Sea monsters become powerless when they come ashore.

She thought land monsters would be easy to handle too, based on her experience, though the degree might differ.

Her arbitrary judgment led to an accident.

Dangerous mushroom monsters that must never be attacked.

And there were also aggressive Clawmen around.

Oknodie has to fend off the attacks of numerous Clawmen while making sounds to drive away the mushroom monsters.

Until she returns.

Until supervisors or professors arrive.

Continuously, alone, at the entrance of these dungeons in this pouring rain.

“Help!!! Someone please help!!!”

She ran frantically, shouting and requesting help.

The main building was too far away.

It had already taken 30 minutes to get here.

Even if running could reduce it to 3 minutes, that was still too long.

Whether Oknodie could hold out for 5 minutes, 3 minutes, or make a mistake and fall in just 1 minute.

In real combat, nothing can be guaranteed.

‘What am I doing feeling sympathy? I’m trash!’

Just last week, she had given Oknodie a lucky bullet out of pity for having received underwater training in real combat at such a young age, yet now she had put Oknodie in danger with her own hands.

She wanted to cry.

She wanted to die.

But right now, she was the only one who could help.

If she, who needed to gather people to save Oknodie, was late, then Oknodie might really die or be seriously injured.

“First, please calm down.”

A refreshing voice forcibly calmed Zigoku’s anxious heart.

“You’re… the examiner from the first entrance exam gateway!”

“Do you remember this humble monk?”

“Monk!”

“…How unfortunate. I am Monk Myungho.”

“Oknodie is in danger. She’s surrounded by mushroom monsters and Clawmen that came out of a monster storage that drifted to an area full of dungeons!”

Monk Myungho smiled kindly and reassured her.

“I will handle the rest myself. Student Zigoku, please request medical support from the main building just in case.”

The monk in loose-sleeved attire.

Monk Myungho, with his mysterious aura that made him seem both like a monk and a Taoist master, disappeared from sight as he moved dozens of meters at a time as if using a space-compression technique.

Zigoku, who had been watching the scene as if entranced, finally came to her senses and ran toward the main building again.

‘Oknodie can survive!’

Her heart was filled with hope and relief.

In contrast, Monk Myungho’s face, as he ran toward Oknodie, hardened coldly.

‘This is going to be a serious problem.’

Ironically, when encountering mushroom monsters, the stronger the adventurer, the higher the probability of death.

Weak adventurers don’t even dare to fight and run away, and mediocre adventurers carefully retreat because they can’t guarantee victory.

But strong adventurers tend to fight anything they think they can handle.

Those who know the infamy of mushroom monsters wouldn’t commit such foolishness, but those who don’t?

They get covered with more parasitic spores and die faster.

Unfortunately, Oknodie was a student who was incomparably, truly, markedly, very much, overwhelmingly stronger than other first-years.

She might punch a mushroom monster and burst it alive, covering herself with spores.

If that happens…

She could die in the tens of seconds before he arrives.

Monk Myungho quickened his pace.