Ch.2121. Humanoid Monster

Although the kobolds that occupied the largest territory on the Korean Peninsula have been eliminated by my hand, that doesn’t mean they left nothing behind.

The vast underground tunnels that served as their nests and habitats, rare metal-infused ore chunks—the kobolds’ corpses, and various subterranean monsters they had tamed were all there.

Particularly among the underground monsters they had tamed, there was a specimen that had evolved somewhat differently from conventional Worms, and by referencing this creature’s physical structure in my design, I was able to create a new species of Wyrm.

Silent Wyrm

Grade :: 6

Level :: 76

Stats

Strength :: 105

Agility :: 98

Vitality :: 151

Intelligence :: 65

Resistance :: 35

Energy :: 55

Leadership :: 0

Traits

Monster Gene(E), Predator(C), Hive Mind(C), Subjugation(EX), Bio Core(C), Infinite Stamina(C), Stealth Psychic User(D), Underground Adaptation(D), Mineral Digestion(D), Psychic Detection Interference(D)

Skills

Rapid Excavation(C), Psychic Stealth(D), Psychic Blocking(D)

Bio-Weapons

Bio Drill(C)

This Wyrm, equipped with stealth psychic abilities—a particularly annoying assassin-type monster ability in games—is simply put, a monster created for covert infiltration.

While it will replace the Wyrms I’ve been using for mining and help defend against external detection, I’m more excited about its potential use in future full-scale warfare.

It can bore tunnels leading directly to enemy headquarters, allowing troops to be deployed behind enemy lines while bypassing their defenses. Though countermeasures will quickly be developed after a few uses, that means we can still utilize it effectively until then.

Additionally, kobolds themselves possessed fairly decent physical structures, which allowed me to inject their genes (traits/skills) into the Hive Infantry base to create even more efficient small excavation monsters.

Hive Elder Miner

Grade :: 7

Level :: 76

Stats

Strength :: 25

Agility :: 12

Vitality :: 25

Intelligence :: 10

Resistance :: 10

Energy :: 5

Leadership :: 0

Traits

Monster Gene(E), Predator(E), Hive Mind(E), Subjugation(EX), Tireless Stamina(D), Underground Adaptation(D), Mineral Digestion(E)

Skills

Mining(D), Sonic Detection(E)

Bio-Weapons

Kobold Excavation Claw(D)

I named this monster the Hive Elder Miner, a Hive Mind version of kobolds designed to mimic kobold physical structure for rapid excavation.

Its primary role is precision excavation, which was difficult for other mining/excavation monsters that are relatively medium to large in size, and in emergencies, it can also buy time using its rocky body.

※ ※ ※

Around the time the cleanup after the kobold subjugation operation was nearing completion, I noticed that the amount of energy gathering to me was not only increasing dramatically over time but the rate of increase itself was also rising.

This was, in a way, inevitable, given that I’ve been consuming energy by infiltrating more than 5% of the underground Korean Peninsula.

My energy storage capacity is gradually becoming unable to keep up with the supply rate, and I’ve accumulated enough energy to evolve into a high-grade monster—that is, a Grade 1 monster—but therein lies the problem.

If I, or any other Hive Mind, were to evolve from Grade 4 to Grade 1, the process would release massive and easily detectable unique psychic waves in all directions.

If these psychic waves were detected outside the DMZ, humans would simply record it and ignore it, but the problem is that my main body is currently located in southern Gangwon Province—that is, inside the DMZ line.

With a Grade 1 Hive Mind suddenly established within national territory, South Korea would panic and try to eliminate me by any means possible, whether with anti-psychic bombs or missiles.

Of course, I’ve devised various methods for relocating my main body in anticipation of such a situation, but even so, several preparations are still needed, and it will take considerable time.

Therefore, my chosen solution is to develop new monsters to quickly consume the vast amount of energy remaining after accounting for what’s needed for the relocation of my main body.

Specifically, a small, highly mobile monster comparable to the knight in chess, among the rook, knight, and bishop.

This monster, commonly considered a “knight type,” often raises questions about its usefulness at first glance.

Though fast, it’s so small—at most 3 meters in size—that there are limitations to the ranged weapons it can carry, making its primary armament close-combat weapons… which aren’t particularly efficient.

Against infantry, monsters equipped with large-scale ranged bio-weapons are more effective, and against large bipedal war machines, deploying larger colossal monsters is more efficient.

Moreover, knight-type monsters are extremely inefficient to develop and produce.

It’s essentially like compressing a medium-sized monster the size of a house down to human size, requiring technological innovations completely different from conventional production methods, and even the bio-core, nearly the size of a small vehicle, must be compressed to the size of a human heart.

Reduced output is inevitable, and despite this, production requires all sorts of rare metals, making it twice as expensive as other monsters of the same grade.

Despite these seemingly inefficient characteristics that knight-type monsters possess, this is strictly from the monster’s perspective, and a malicious one at that.

From a human standpoint, a medium-grade knight-type monster is essentially a human-sized fighter jet that’s annoyingly fast and difficult to deal with, yet also durable.

The energy-to-size ratio is several times higher than that of other monsters because the size reduction is greater than the bio-core output reduction, allowing it to be surrounded by a force field dozens of times thicker than conventional monsters while flying at tremendous speeds.

Despite this, strictly speaking, it’s not entirely incapable of facing large-scale weapons like tanks or giant armor, and in situations where such large-scale weapons cannot be deployed, knight-type monsters cannot be stopped by conventional methods.

With one exception: Hunters.

Although there are exceptions depending on the type, most Hunters can be considered knights of the human faction.

This tendency is even more pronounced in the sense that they are “small entities disproportionately strong for their size, difficult to deal with using conventional weapons,” and the origin of Hunters was precisely to counter knight-type monsters.

Therefore, I must eventually create knight-type monsters, and now is the time.

With excess energy at my disposal, now is the perfect opportunity to develop and produce these supposedly inefficient knight-type monsters.

Moreover, I don’t have to start from scratch.

Not only have I obtained various knight-type monster physical structures from the Seonggwang Guild through the youngest daughter of the Seonggwang Group chairman, but the youngest daughter herself is a valuable resource to some extent.

To be more explicit, the knight I’m currently producing is based on her. Since I already have a complete analysis of her from head to toe, I used that data in its entirety.

Hive Starlight

Grade :: 5

Level :: 76

Stats

Strength :: 85

Agility :: 205

Vitality :: 147

Intelligence :: 104

Resistance :: 155

Energy :: 96

Leadership :: 0

Traits

Monster Gene(E), Predator(C), Hive Mind(C), Subjugation(EX), Bio Core(C), Close Combat Expert(C), High-Speed Mobility(C), Psychic Resistance(D), Enhancement-type Psychic User(D), Super Regeneration(D)

Skills

Advanced Weapon Technique(C), Physical Enhancement(C), Sensory Enhancement(C), Special Enhancement(D)

Bio-Weapons

Energy Sword(C), Compact Laser Blaster(D)

And the result is this Grade 5 monster, the Hive Starlight.

Externally, it has a face resembling aliens commonly seen in science fiction, with reverse-jointed legs and a body integrated with an exoskeleton that looks like a bodysuit.

But the part I focused on most is elsewhere. Specifically, when the exoskeleton is removed, not only does a body resembling a human emerge, but I actually utilized some human genes in its creation.

My aim is to make humans analyzing the Hive Starlight’s structure in future warfare believe it was created by modifying humans.

Whether they become frightened, shocked, or conflicted doesn’t matter.

If I deliberately kidnap civilians and children of high-ranking officials and then produce more Hive Starlights using their genes, the side effect of causing confusion would certainly be effective.

Families would be reluctant to attack Hive Starlights that appear to be their modified relatives, and as the finishing touch, I designed the Hive Starlights to show “human-like” reactions just before death.

To make it seem as if a modified human regained their senses just before dying.

My actions might seem evil, but I believe I’ve maintained some courtesy as a former human in that I don’t actually intend to kidnap and modify real humans.

…Of course, this applies only to Korea, where I still retain some emotions.