Ch.3737. Control

In an awakened state, even with trait adjustments, control weakens during combat.

I even black out and can’t remember what happened during that time.

My body becomes not my own.

A different crisis situation from the Aerial incident.

The acrid smell of monster corpses fills my nostrils. I hear crying voices in my ears.

My vision shows the bodies of monsters.

[Total Points]

-6,430

Points have accumulated without my knowledge, and the terrain has changed. It’s different from C-rank. Not D-rank either. I’ve reached B-rank.

I don’t even know what’s what.

Awakening abilities are dangerous. I’ve realized this with absolute certainty.

If I’m not careful, I could be hunted down and killed without even knowing it.

And to make matters worse, that annoying Jaeger appeared right in front of me as I barely regained consciousness.

My mind raced instantly. This is B-rank. It would be correct to assume a minimum B to A-grade adapter.

When our eyes met, he waved his hand at me.

“G-get away, monster! Get lost!”

I assessed his condition. He appears to be male, and doesn’t seem injured.

He turns and leaves urgently. He’s incredibly fast.

But I wasn’t interested in that.

What mattered first was whether there were other Jaegers around.

It’s rare for them to come alone. Especially in high-difficulty areas.

So if another guild had seen me, it would be a huge problem.

Gates are so vast that they’re hard to search, but surveillance could be strengthened.

“No one else nearby.”

My wild instincts don’t detect any enemy presence.

“That’s somewhat fortunate. If he just thinks I’m one of the monsters living here, he might let it slide.”

The problem is I don’t know what I did while I was wandering around without my senses.

“Should I just pretend to run away in front of the guild, acting like a common monster?”

I moved in the direction of the disappeared adapter. This body is faster than it looks.

But after running for quite a while, the man’s scent mixed with another smell.

Monsters.

My wild instincts stir again. I approached that direction in one breath.

“Aaaaargh!”

I heard what seemed to be the voice of the man who ran away. Running toward it, I saw four monsters surrounding a blood-covered Jaeger.

“…”

I don’t particularly hesitate. The enemy is determined, and I’ll fight.

Now I roared toward the beasts.

*

There are exactly two reasons why someone would wander alone in a gate.

Either they’re confident in their abilities, or they’re lost.

Lee Ji-hoon, peculiarly, fell into both categories.

Age 19.

A fresh graduate, brand new to the field.

[You have talent.]

Ji-hoon had caught the eye of the Magician Guild, the second-ranked guild, and was a genius with a guaranteed future.

He was overflowing with confidence in his power, and also arrogant.

However, there was one problem.

He had no sense of direction.

Gates are so vast that it’s not uncommon for people to get separated while fighting.

That’s why guilds always teach direction-finding and attach trackers when entering gates together.

On top of that, his pride in his abilities led him to come hunting alone.

[I’ll kill a B-rank monster solo. What? You say I can’t? What do you take me for? I’m second in rank. Second! I’m the future of this Magician Guild. Why attach a magic detector? Are you that worried?]

Those were the words he had proudly uttered just 30 minutes ago.

But once he separated and entered the B-rank area, he truly became like a lost child.

“What’s this smell?”

His nose detected a strong smell of blood.

Following the scent, he saw monster corpses. They were scattered everywhere.

“What! Who got here first? In this vast place?”

Ji-hoon grumbled as he increased his speed. His summoned spirit, Hermes, boasts incredible acceleration.

And he arrived at the battlefield before anyone else.

“What on earth is that?”

He trembled at the sight of something he had never seen before.

There were three monsters. They were staring at each other. One was a giant dinosaur-type monster over 6m tall.

It wore something like a skull on its face with a rhinoceros-like horn attached to the skull mask.

Its arms and legs were long and large. Ji-hoon noticed this monster over the other two because of its uniqueness.

‘Was there such a monster?’

There were all kinds of monsters, but such a monster was hard to find in B-rank.

[In gates, there are special entities called ‘Kings’. They’re powerful creatures, A-grade or higher. They’re also rare, so you must always call an S-grade Jaeger to handle them.]

The existence of the so-called kings of each gate, which he had learned about in gate classes.

He could feel its overwhelming power at a glance.

But the next problem was even more shocking. The monsters were fighting each other.

Here, he received a cultural shock.

‘Monsters fighting each other? This is truly record-worthy!’

In gates, monsters either ignore each other or don’t fight.

They only become hostile to humans. But they’re fighting among themselves? This is certainly astonishing.

And one more thing. Behind that dinosaur monster, there are piles of monster corpses.

Moreover, two of the three monsters were attacking that dinosaur monster.

A mysterious sight never taught in textbooks. Ji-hoon regretted not being able to communicate from here.

‘It’s really violent.’

All of this was a unique situation emanating from that dinosaur.

Ji-hoon also realized that the opponent was extremely violent.

A blue light flows from its tail.

“It’s the same color as the magic power we use. Well, blue is common.”

With one tail strike, a B-rank monster that was charging got knocked down.

Its claws were enhanced, and it sliced through the enemy in one go.

‘It’s strong.’

Ji-hoon’s expression changed from smiling to serious. It tears apart and kills monsters.

Such a violent monster.

“This might be worth fighting.”

Ji-hoon’s fighting spirit ignited. He believed he could handle a B-rank monster one-on-one.

He confidently jumped in. Rough winds swirled with each of his sprints.

Using this acceleration, he instantly aimed for the monster’s abdomen.

A powerful impact sound. But Ji-hoon sensed danger and quickly retreated.

‘It’s tough!’

His fierce attack using acceleration only left a scratch on the monster.

‘My attack is shallow. I need to hit harder…’

As Ji-hoon was about to retreat, a wind passed in front of his eyes.

“Huh?”

Blood suddenly flowed from his nose.

‘I wasn’t even hit.’

It didn’t even graze him, just passed nearby, but the pressure alone made his nose bleed.

This single attack was enough to make him tremble with fear.

Ji-hoon gritted his teeth.

‘I was second in the academy. I won’t lose to such a monster!’

He should have retreated here, but Ji-hoon charged in.

At that moment, something like a fireball flickered in the monster’s mouth.

Ji-hoon swallowed hard and dodged to the side.

‘If I just avoid big attacks, openings will appear.’

He used Hermes’ shoes to leap high into the air. From the sky, such attacks would be useless… or so he thought.

Just when he thought he had risen quite high,

He saw a faint dot-like light from below.

‘It’s attacking. It’s shooting. It won’t reach this height.’

He now accelerated to deliver his most powerful attack, like a rider kick.

The wind acceleration created pressure around him, becoming a storm.

And now he launched a single blow enveloped in a storm toward the monster.

The impact carved the ground within a radius of tens of meters.

An attack that had shattered countless monsters until now. But Ji-hoon now felt a different sensation than before.

‘Most monsters would be crushed… huh?’

But now a heavy impact was transmitted to his leg, preventing him from advancing.

It felt like throwing an egg at a massive rock.

The powerful energy wave he created swept through everything.

But amidst such intense waves, the dinosaur monster was perfectly fine.

Rather, it was staring at him with blood-red eyes, drooling from its mouth.

He’s caught. Ji-hoon tried to pull back, but the dinosaur monster had already opened its mouth again, generating flames.

‘I’m going to die.’

His whole body went numb with fear. It withstood his attack too easily.

The moment he met those ferocious eyes, Ji-hoon lost his will to fight.

But then,

The monster’s red glow disappeared. The monster didn’t move, and Ji-hoon was able to survive after a desperate struggle.

But he no longer had the excessive thought of challenging the monster.

‘How can such a monster exist? Is it a new species?’

His knees were trembling, and when he had lost all will, he saw normal eyes looking at him.

That gaze was much quieter compared to the red glow.

As if searching for something.

But Ji-hoon couldn’t and had no reason to understand such circumstances.

All he could do was run away. But as he fled randomly, he encountered a group of monsters.

Four B-rank monsters.

‘This can’t be. One monster has a different color.’

Among those four, one had a distinctly different color.

A monster with colorful patterns like a poison frog.

It seemed to command the other monsters.

‘Could it be… another king?’

A different being among the same monsters. The concept of a king swirled in his mind.

But here, another question arose.

‘There’s only one king per gate, so what did I see earlier?’

As he was trying to pass by carefully, one monster pulled him down from below.

“Argh!”

Pain shot through his entire body, and Ji-hoon could only run away.

Regardless of his emotions, this was a combination he couldn’t possibly win against.

Just when Ji-hoon felt like he was facing one mountain after another,

“Kuaaaak!”

He heard a roar from behind. He didn’t need an explanation to know which monster it was.

‘I’m dead.’

His team would come looking after 30 minutes, but he would die before then.

‘Here I…’

Filled with fear, he saw the dinosaur monster that had suddenly appeared behind him.

However, what Ji-hoon didn’t realize at this moment was that the four monsters were no longer paying attention to him. They were all focused on the single monster that was coming.

The dinosaur monster opened its mouth.

Ji-hoon had given up.

Academy’s second rank, and a promising talent of the second-ranked Magician Guild. His life flashed before his eyes as he faced death.

At that moment, the monster leaped in front of him.

As he blankly watched the scene, a mass of heat erupted in front of the monster.

The sound was louder than a cannon, and Ji-hoon covered his ears and ducked.

The impact was more powerful than a missile.

Everything in the direction of the monsters melted away. All that remained in his view were heat and melted traces still burning residual flames.

‘Incredible power. This new species is definitely not B-rank.’

Ji-hoon now wondered what would happen to him. He was already injured and could barely move.

He met the monster’s eyes again.

“…”

“…”

The silent moment felt like hours. The monster turned away.

Ji-hoon was surprised. No, he couldn’t understand.

‘It’s a monster. Why isn’t it attacking me?’

That’s what monsters are supposed to do. That’s their nature.

A monster sparing him? It’s unclear if monsters even have such a concept.

‘It’s almost as if it saved me.’

Watching the disappearing monster, Ji-hoon soon saw guild members who had come looking for him.

“Ji-hoon! What happened?”

“Did you take down several monsters by yourself?”

The puzzled members misunderstood, thinking Ji-hoon had killed the monsters.

Ji-hoon didn’t say anything.

“Seniors, do monsters ever save people?”

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

“You must be delirious from fighting too much. Where in the world would such a monster exist?”

“Right?”

He smiled awkwardly, but the dinosaur monster still lingered in his mind.

Ji-hoon didn’t mention the monster he had seen.

***

Aerial received an email.

[To my beloved daughter]

-Here’s the latest report on monster habits and ecology that you asked about. Feel free to ask Dad anytime.

“Thank you.”

Aerial happily read the attached materials. She speed-read through the extensive content that spanned over dozens of pages.

“As expected, monsters don’t fight each other unless controlled by a Jaeger. Plus, there’s no similar type of monster.”

Aerial pretended otherwise, but she was looking for the monster she had seen during the Minotaur and Sung Min-woo incident.

It wasn’t for any particular reason.

‘Why did it ignore me back then?’

It was unprecedented in monster behavior. So she investigated, but that strange monster wasn’t found or discovered.

‘It ignored me. Why?’

There were other people and monsters, but it only cleanly took out the Minotaur and Sung Min-woo. In fact, there was somewhat of a reason. She was in danger.

Do Jong-hyun kept appearing in Aerial’s mind.

‘A monster saving a person? That’s impossible! But if Do Jong-hyun is a monster… No, that can’t be! He doesn’t even have a summoned spirit! Get a grip!’

Aerial kept shaking her head in denial. Prejudice and common sense denied it as absurd.

“Ah~ This is so frustrating. What is that monster anyway! Do Jong-hyun can’t possibly be that strong! It’s not him. It’s suspicious! If it’s a monster, why would it help people? To gain favor? Ah~ so annoying.”

Aerial was frustrated with this incomprehensible creature.

This wasn’t a question limited to Aerial.

In the counseling room of the White Dragon Guild,

Seol Yu-hwa finally received an official contract from Jeon Se-jin. The thought that her abilities were recognized was momentary. Yu-hwa brought up that story again.

“Are there monsters that save people?”

“No.”

Jeon Se-jin, a long-time expert, denied it outright. But having heard the report, even Se-jin was puzzled.

“It’s strange. It only catches Lycan and disappears?”

“I know. I can’t figure it out.”

“There are two possibilities. Either it’s an unknown instinct unique to a new species, or…”

Jeon Se-jin voiced a thought he considered absurd.

‘It might be to save you.’

But that’s impossible. Se-jin quickly cleared his throat and moved on to explaining the contract.

But everyone was harboring thoughts.

A being different from the monsters they knew. Such a being was starting to seep into their thoughts.