Ch.6868. Returning to School.

[Main Card]

-Species: Marine Mammal, Name: Half-Human Half-Beast Sura, Growth Form: Adult

Characteristics: Aquatic Predator (Agility and Magic Power increase by 1 rank against enemies smaller than self, all stats increase by 1 rank underwater, all stats decrease by 1 rank on land), Diving (Resistance and Magic Resistance increase the deeper you dive), Genetic Effect (When attacking with teeth, Strength rank increases and skill power enhances), Endurance (Extended sub-card effect duration)

Strength: S

Agility: B

Resistance: S

Magic Resistance: S

Energy: S

Magic Power: A

Skills: Bite, Tail Strike, Magic Charge, Hardening, Bite

Evolution: Fish, Half-Human Half-Fish

Sub Cards: Shockwave (Can emit shockwaves from head), Light Neural Oil (Blocks enemy skills and resists continuous effects)

Finally, my body has transformed into an adult form. A different entity from before. A massive body even surpassing dinosaur Sura has now formed. As a Leviathan, it must be at least 16m long. Moving this bulk underwater creates ripples all around me.

I already know how to handle this body. I moved forward while swinging my tail.

Despite the heavy body, my speed is quite decent.

All my sensory organs are now alerting me to enemies.

Ships are capsizing and Jaegers are falling into the water.

The surroundings are filled with Cursed Octopuses and other monsters.

Fighting them underwater? Anyone facing this for the first time would naturally be afraid.

But right now, I’m not afraid. I feel like I can do anything.

[Aquatic Predator]

Strength: SS

Agility: S

Resistance: SS

Magic Resistance: SS

Energy: SS

Magic Power: SS

These are formidable stats underwater, reminiscent of a dinosaur’s power.

Here, I used my newly acquired sub-card, Light Neural Oil.

[Light Neural Oil]

-Blocks one skill or debuff and resists continuous effects for 5 minutes.

-With the Endurance trait, usage time extends to 10 minutes and blocks one additional skill.

The optimal card to block the Cursed Octopus’s techniques. I now moved fiercely toward the Cursed Octopus.

[Cursed Octopus’s poison is blocked.]

-Magic Resistance and Resistance completely nullify the effect.

This is the advantage of having high Magic Resistance and Resistance.

Now I can focus on attacking without worry.

The image of a sperm whale devouring a giant squid flashed in my mind as I opened my mouth.

As evident from my silhouette and transformation, my teeth are even larger than those of a Megalodon.

I caught the Cursed Octopus as it tried to approach the Poseidon Guild members.

These people weren’t destined to die here originally. They were supposed to be alive until two years before the apocalypse.

In other words, they’re in danger because the future has changed.

And I’m handling that crisis now.

As the Cursed Octopus turned its body, our eyes met.

Though I didn’t attack first, the Cursed Octopus extended its hypnotic tentacles toward me.

[Hypnotic effect blocked.]

Naturally, I ignored the effect. I opened my mouth as wide as possible and pounced on the opponent in one go.

The octopus’s flesh began to get caught in my mouth. The moment I closed my jaws, the octopus’s flesh burst.

In an instant, one-third of the octopus’s body was torn away, and its attacks came pouring in.

Its tentacles moved, but they were ineffective against me in this underwater environment.

[Water Vortex]

And the moment I attacked with my Water Vortex skill, a massive whirlpool formed, shaking the entire vicinity. The Cursed Octopus was pulverized the moment it entered.

Of course, this was incomparable to the piranha days.

It was so powerful that I had to release the technique before it caught other people.

[Monster Report Mission Success!]

-Gained 2 Monster Points!

-Apocalypse Risk Reduced

Normally, I would stop here, but there are other monsters around.

Might as well diligently earn points while I’m at it.

Salivating at the sight of other monsters isn’t even an issue.

However, the problem is that the Poseidon Guild is also here. The sisters are helping those who have fainted, but I can see people who have already sunk deep.

“…”

I immediately began diving and passed by people falling into the deep sea.

Then I turned my body and started rising, pushing people up with my forehead.

Having a large body makes this possible.

As I approached the sisters, they were startled and launched attacks at me.

“…”

Clearly, those sisters’ attacks should be fierce. Visually, they were threatening.

If I were a dinosaur, they might sting a bit, but this form barely registered the attacks, and my body remained completely unharmed.

I get that it’s impressive, but stop attacking. I gently nudged the person in front of the sisters as I rose again.

But then that person shot up into the sky.

The sisters rose in surprise, and I began pushing up others with my bulk.

Eventually, when I reached the surface, something touched my back.

“Sis, what’s happening right now?”

“What is this monster trying to do?”

“Captain, I’ll perform CPR first.”

While commotion broke out above, something was also happening beneath my belly.

Yes, the Cursed Octopus had triggered an offensive from surrounding monsters.

But I felt comfortable. I maintained this position with the stability of a Simmons mattress.

“Breathe!”

“Press harder.”

“Cough! Hack!”

Human voices could be heard everywhere, and the two sisters came up to my head.

“Is this really a monster?”

“I don’t understand why it’s not attacking people. It’s strange.”

“But at least we saved the kids.”

Everyone’s saved? Then goodbye~

I started diving again. Now they can manage on their own, and I need to finish up.

As I began to dive, I saw catfish, lobsters, and sea snakes.

About 7 of them in total?

[Water Vortex]

The moment I fired one Water Vortex, one monster was torn apart.

That’s powerful.

[Hardening]

-Strengthens the metal on your forehead.

-Damage increases according to Resistance rank.

-Power increases when combined with Light Neural Oil.

It’s time to deploy a newly acquired skill.

As I activated Hardening, a small change occurred on my forehead.

I couldn’t see it, but it must have become harder.

In that state, I simply charged forward.

Blocking the path with Water Vortex, two monsters came into my view.

No need for other techniques.

The moment I made contact, the monsters’ blood and flesh scattered.

Powerful.

One monster moved to the side, but the moment I turned my head, it was pushed down by the pressure.

Underwater.

In this special environment, this massive body is clearly powerful by its very existence.

After this, it was just a routine of chasing and killing.

By the time I finished all the hunting, I had earned 5650 DNA points.

As I was about to leave after completing my objective, the two sisters entered the water and our gazes met.

I couldn’t answer underwater, but they just stared without attacking.

I moved to a safe place to deactivate my transformation.

That concluded the day’s work.

*

The next day, being the weekend, I was confined to my dormitory bed.

“Ugh… evolving into something new brings new pain too.”

It’s like having the flu. Because of it, I have to lie down all day.

But calls came from friends wanting to go out this weekend.

“Gicheol? What’s up?”

“Do Jonghyun, want to go out with the seniors? They’re suggesting we hang out at the PC bang for bonding.”

“Ah… I don’t think I can. My body feels too heavy.”

Naturally, after transforming from sub-adult->adult->sub-adult yesterday, the strain on my body is beyond imagination.

It seems worse than transforming into a dinosaur.

Thanks to that, I had to spend the day lying still.

But the calls didn’t end there.

“Is it Cheongi this time?”

The members I stayed with during training called.

“Hey, sorry. I think I’ve got the flu.”

“What did you do yesterday? Don’t tell me…”

“If it were a girl, I’d have introduced you first.”

“Right? I believe it wasn’t a girl. You have Aerial after all. But you’ve been missing out on hanging with the seniors since Friday.”

“I’d like to, but my body really can’t. I just want to lie down.”

“Alright, if that’s the case.”

But the phone rings again. This time it’s Hyungman.

“Hey, are you just going to stay inside on the weekend?”

“I want to go out but I’ve got the flu.”

“Doing what? Want me to bring you some porridge?”

“That’s kind of you. My appetite is fine, so if possible, steak…”

The call ends immediately. He’s quick to act.

After receiving consecutive calls, I went back to sleep.

I woke up in the evening to my phone ringing furiously.

But this time it’s an unknown number.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Do Jonghyun. You little shit.”

“Who is this?”

“Who? It’s Yoon Sangho, you bastard.”

Yoon Sangho? That kind second-year junior class senior? The image of a nice senior who looked after me came to mind.

But his voice sounds angry.

“Senior Sangho?”

“Hey! When seniors ask you to hang out, you should! Okay? Otherwise… it’s not good! If you keep skipping, we can’t cover for you anymore.”

“Yes, I’m sorry. I’ll definitely come out next time.”

“Good! There are also bad rumors going around about you. Man, you need to hang out with us to clear those up.”

“Yes, yes.”

This is Senior Yoon Sangho’s advice. Considering his personality, he probably didn’t mean it in a bad way.

“Yes, thank you. I’ll keep that in mind.”

I accepted his advice and hung up. But I have my own circumstances—what am I supposed to do?

Maybe I can try something tomorrow?

But the aftereffects of three consecutive transformations continued the next day.

“Ah…”

I was still staring at the same ceiling. On the second day, my condition remained the same.

Maybe I could walk around a bit more? But I’m in no shape to fight.

“Just spending Sunday like this too. Does it even matter?”

What am I supposed to do when I’m sick? Just to check, I picked up my main card.

[Evolution]

-Sub-adult, Adult form unavailable

“I see.”

Completely impossible. Rest is the top priority for now.

I can do better starting tomorrow. Senior Junghyun has a good personality, so I can make things right again.

Even if things got a bit tangled, I can mend them. With that hope, I waited for Monday, but what awaited me was reality.

“Do Jonghyun, team up with the third-years. Hey! Gu Jeongyul! You’re forbidden from being with Do Jonghyun, remember?”

“Yes… yes… but this is my first time, so I’m not sure what to do.”

“We’re going to split the second-years separately. We’ll assign you to either first or second-year groups. And don’t stand in such an obvious position! Next time, I’ll kick you out!”

Gu Jeongyul and a few others hastily retreated at Oh Juhwan’s warning.

This time, I didn’t even glare at them, but the atmosphere was strange.

Perhaps because this measure itself was new to everyone, the mood was unsettled.

And I could feel it.

The gazes of the other seniors.

“Because of him…”

“What’s this? Why do we have to do this?”

Though I hadn’t done anything wrong, I could clearly hear the second-years stirring.

My strategy to get along with the second-year seniors had collapsed from the start.

This disciplinary action was certainly effective in separating the violent perpetrators, as I mainly worked with third-years rather than second-years.

But in the eyes of the second-years, things were getting worse day by day.

Another problem arose when the middle and upper classes mixed.

Without a chance to clear up misunderstandings with the lower classes, I was completely assigned to work primarily with third-years.

What advice could I give in front of third-years? It was good to go with the flow, but the misunderstandings with the second-years were problematic.

Meanwhile, Gu Jeongyul made contact with Bang Seokcheon.

Those leading the strict discipline began to gather intermittently.