Ch.7171. Apex Predator

Coming to this swamp filled with B-rank monsters was the right decision.

I could handle everything with ease.

[Alligator Guy eliminated!]

-750 DNA points acquired!

The points keep rolling in. Plus, being in a swamp, monsters come to me from all directions underwater.

Fish-like monsters and powerful armored beasts—all retreat before the might of this Leviathan.

[Lightning Oil]

-Duration and number of uses increased.

I only have about 30-40 minutes. I need to catch as many monsters as possible within that time.

Between this hunt and what I collected at the Poseidon Guild, I’ve gathered 8,600 points total.

Even that’s not enough. When will I get another opportunity to collect points like this?

I want to at least earn enough points to transform into an adult form. Can I do it within the time limit?

It’s definitely better than the White Dragon Guild situation—I can communicate and control myself now.

I can’t come here too often, only when I can use hanging out with friends as an excuse.

That’s why I need to make the most of this opportunity.

Have I been here for more than 10 minutes? There’s still time.

I’ve finished off all the visible monsters nearby. Using this body, I push deeper into the swamp.

The difference from the sea is that there are more clusters of weeds and mixed soil, which is inconvenient.

Visibility is also challenging.

But nothing can stop this body.

I spot an amorphous monster ahead—a swamp slime.

Its formless body grows larger, but this body of mine is at least 16 meters long.

Even if it expands, it can’t even cover my forehead.

The size advantage is definitely perfect.

As its attacks continue, there’s one major difference:

[Resisting Swamp Slime’s poison.]

-Stamina and magic power will not be reduced.

The overwhelming resistance and magic resistance had the tremendous advantage of neutralizing the enemy’s special techniques.

I simply charged forward.

The moment I headbutted it, the slime disappeared without even leaving a trace.

[Swamp Slime eliminated!]

-800 DNA points acquired!

-Beast DNA acquired

I diligently accumulate points and move around to find the next prey.

Since the area is vast, I should find something if I keep moving.

Honestly, I’ve earned about 3,000 points purely from this swamp? I need more.

I’m reminded of fathers working overtime and night shifts to feed their families.

As I continue moving, I spot another gathering of monsters.

There are tree trunks around, but with this body, I simply power through.

Suddenly, the water ripples and a tank emerges from underwater.

A tank underwater? It’s not So Ji-hyun from the Cheonji Guild… wait, is it?

Before my eyes, I see a chariot smoothly driving through the mud. Magic horses pull the chariot at the front.

“It really is So Ji-hyun!”

Her dyed blonde hair flutters in the water. Right in front of me, So Ji-hyun, who possesses the 5-star summon Poseidon, is stirring up the water.

She’s still in her signature stockings and miniskirt, freely using Poseidon’s power to ignore water resistance.

Wait, those were monsters I was going to catch! That person was SS-rank… or was she? She was SS-rank before the apocalypse, and she was promoted to SS-rank two years before the apocalypse, so she must be A-rank now?

While there are skilled hunters like the leaders of the three major guilds who can dominate monsters of the same rank, most Jaegers typically hunt monsters one rank below them.

So, an A-rank So Ji-hyun coming to a B-rank gate isn’t particularly unusual.

The problem is that she’s catching the monsters I was going to catch.

“…”

Her chariot stops and she looks in my direction. Meeting like this, I remember that to others, I’m just a monster. Which means…

A massive water spear forms in front of me.

“Ah, why? I haven’t collected enough points yet!”

As So Ji-hyun throws the spear toward me, I realize that today is not going to be my lucky day.

*

As I’ve explained before, Jaegers who wander alone in higher-rank gates usually fall into two categories:

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

So Ji-hyun of the Cheonji Guild belonged only to the latter. She wasn’t lost—she came to hunt in this vast swamp.

She recalled Park Tae-sang’s words.

[To be honest, sea monsters are too inconvenient to fight. That’s why guilds like Poseidon Guild and White Horse Guild make enormous profits despite not being among the top three guilds. Damn it, we need to take a piece of that pie. Got it?]

Her reason for coming to the swamp was simple. So Ji-hyun was an ability user who could operate underwater.

‘With Poseidon’s power, I can go anywhere.’

Her summon is the 5-star Poseidon.

This 5-star summon grants her special weapons and authority—she can summon spears and chariots in water and move freely.

As someone who later rose to SS-rank, she was a promising Jaeger that the Cheonji Guild was proud of.

She thought this swamp would be the perfect opportunity to enhance her abilities.

‘A swamp has many obstacles and limited visibility, so my skills should improve the more I practice here.’

That’s why she boldly came to the B-rank gate alone.

She triumphantly broke through the mud-mixed swamp before her.

“It’s just a little cumbersome!”

Thanks to her authority, she can even speak freely underwater. As she dispatched monsters and cleaved through them refreshingly, something strange caught her eye.

“Wow! It’s huge.”

A 16-meter super-sized monster immediately captured her attention, watching her from a distance in the swamp.

She had never seen such a specimen before.

‘A swamp whale? A new species. A new B-rank species. If I catch that, I might get a free pass on my promotion evaluation.’

She thought it would be B-rank at most.

Plus, the value of a new species.

So Ji-hyun began driving her chariot.

The chariot gloriously raced through the water, and she started unleashing her attacks.

The water around her rotated magnificently, moving toward the massive monster.

‘It looks like a sperm whale.’

But her attack instantly disappeared upon hitting the solid body.

‘Water attacks don’t work? So it must have earth attributes too?’

She tried to piece together the creature’s characteristics as she had been taught.

She immediately changed her attack strategy, burning her authority along with the chariot.

Just like Gram burns magic power, she burns the power granted by her authority with magic.

This creates an attack different from water. So Ji-hyun confidently struck the monster’s body.

Bubbles spread everywhere from the energy release.

‘It worked!’

This promising Jaeger believed her attack had succeeded, but as the foam cleared, she realized the giant eyes were still staring at her.

‘My goodness…’

It was completely unharmed. She had expected to inflict significant damage, but the whale monster was perfectly fine.

So Ji-hyun suddenly felt the water current intensify.

The glowing tail had moved.

Though slow, the impact of its swing was anything but slow.

The force was enough to change the flow of water, sending So Ji-hyun flying backward.

The whale moved. So Ji-hyun was momentarily paralyzed by the pressure of this massive body.

Surprisingly, despite the whale’s deadly movement, it simply passed by her.

‘A monster just passing me by? Why?’

So Ji-hyun suddenly recalled recent unconfirmed rumors.

About unique monsters that existed.

She considered following it but her instinct stopped her.

‘Can I even catch it? Judging by its size, I’d need stronger attacks…’

She did have one breakthrough technique, but she didn’t think it would be enough to defeat that monster.

[Surviving against monsters is also a great ability. You need to know which monsters you can defeat and which you can’t. Understand, rookie Jaegers?]

Remembering Park Tae-sang’s advice, she made up her mind. She was certainly wise here. As a Jaeger who had survived until the end, she let the whale monster go.

‘Strangely, it didn’t attack. Is it a species specialized in defense? There are rumors about strange monsters these days.’

Monsters not attacking humans isn’t an option.

That’s why this was such an unusual species. Fearing a follow-up attack, she left the swamp.

“A new species, I need to report this quickly.”

Just as she was about to contact the Cheonji Guild, she saw a lizardman with blood-red eyes in front of her.

“Lizardman… B-rank, so it’s a Fighter Lizardman.”

Originally, lizardmen had balanced physiques, but this specimen was more sturdy and approached with knuckles on both hands.

‘Well, you’re better than that strange monster from earlier.’

She decided to deal with it lightly. She quickly closed the distance to handle it.

Burning magic power like before, a spear extended from her hand and pierced straight through the lizardman’s body.

“That was easy. Easy…”

So Ji-hyun’s expression suddenly froze. She tried to retrieve the spear that had pierced through, but suddenly her body felt sticky like rice cake.

“…What?”

As far as she knew, lizardmen weren’t supposed to stretch like this.

So Ji-hyun immediately released the spear and pulled away.

This judgment was correct, as spikes suddenly protruded from its body.

“It doesn’t seem like a new species…”

A strange monster. So Ji-hyun summoned another spear.

“Huh?”

Burning magic power again, this time she aimed for the head, intending to split it in half rather than stabbing it.

With nimble speed, the lizardman was split in half in an instant.

So Ji-hyun saw a slime inside.

“…A slime?”

At that moment, the lizardman’s form became gelatinous, and bones were expelled.

In the brief moment So Ji-hyun looked in surprise, the bones pierced her body.

“Aagh!”

As she pulled back, blood flowed out.

Enough to make her dizzy.

‘Impossible. I’ve never seen such a monster before?’

Since when did lizardmen become slimes? This structure was unprecedented.

‘It contains poison.’

Moreover, the pierced area was becoming paralyzed.

‘Orange slimes cause paralysis, but I’ve never seen a slime that parasitizes other monsters!’

Though she diligently analyzed her opponent in her mind, her body was already immobilized.

In this crisis, she utilized her ability.

She made the chariot push her.

“Ugh!”

She urgently escaped the crisis, but the problem was being underwater.

Remembering that lizardmen can also operate underwater, it was one problem after another.

“Ah…”

The lizardman also jumped into the water after her.

One peculiar point was that the lizardman’s movements were unnatural, unlike its usual swimming prowess.

It was charging at her as if its arms and legs were paralyzed.

‘That’s strange.’

This was definitely strange. And So Ji-hyun tried to move her body little by little.

Her paralyzed body was starting to move slightly, but it wasn’t enough yet.

But then, red powder-like substance fluttered from its body, and suddenly it charged more vigorously than before.

“It’s faster?”

Its speed had increased as if it had been upgraded beyond its incomplete state. While So Ji-hyun was bewildered, the monster approached right in front of her.

‘I’m going to die.’

Darkness descended upon her.

When So Ji-hyun looked up, she saw a giant whale moving above her head.

*

So Ji-hyun wasn’t destined to die here. Yet she was being chased by a lizardman.

There was no way a B-rank lizardman could defeat So Ji-hyun, but its form had changed.

The sight of protruding bones and recovery despite attacks underwater—this was a “Slime Composite Monster” that would appear two years later.

It was troublesome because it effectively utilized the slime’s physical resistance ability.

But the current one seems to have unnatural movements. Well, it appeared now instead of two years later, so maybe it’s incomplete?

I rushed at full speed.

As I passed over So Ji-hyun’s head, I opened my mouth.

I bit into this composite monster that was charging toward So Ji-hyun as if to suck everything in.

I felt something mushy inside my mouth. Something solid-feeling… but what can I do about it?

[There are two ways to defeat a composite slime. Either blow away the main body entirely, or inject magic power to make it explode.]

I obviously chose the former. I just chewed. My teeth literally pulverized it.

[Resistance]

-Reduces paralysis effect.

[Magic Resistance]

-Resists imprint debuff

Imprint? What’s that? Something strange appeared. Composite slimes don’t have such debuffs?

Though confused, a clear sign of successful elimination appeared.

[Composite Monster eliminated!]

-2,700 DNA points acquired

Wow. That’s a lot of points.

Delighted by the unexpected points, I looked at So Ji-hyun.

She was already moving her arms and escaping. That’s good. I don’t need to save her after all.

I’ll just leave now.

I moved as far away as possible, transformed back into a bird, and broke through the gate.

When I was about to transform back into a human at the D-rank entrance and exit:

“Ugh!”

The expected pain throughout my body. This time it was particularly fast.

“Damn it.”

Unable to move easily, I just waited openly for the guards at the entrance.

“Over here! Over here!”

“What did you do?”

“You pushed yourself too hard.”

In the end, my plans to hang out with friends were canceled, and I was carried back by the guards.