episode_0060

When Natalia arrived at the portal, preparations for entry had already been completed by officials.

They were monitoring the stability of the portal through various equipment, and when Natalia appeared, her face looked like a Christian who had seen the Second Coming of Christ.

Leaving those government officials behind, she immediately entered the inside of the portal with her equipment.

The portal through which one entered was in the shape of a circular arena.

“Hmm….”

As I stood in the middle of the arena and looked around the empty stands, the iron bars on the other side opened and a monster crawled out.

Despite his stooped posture, he appears to be at least 2.5 meters tall, has grayish skin, and has a skinny body and elongated limbs compared to his size.

It was a troll.

Trolls are a difficult species that appear as boss monsters in upper-middle level portals.

It was an even more annoying monster, especially in the situation Natalia was in now.

The reason is Troc’s unique vitality.

No matter how much you rip out its heart or crush its head, the troll’s body will quickly return to its original state.

Of course, since they are not an immortal race, if they continue to be injured and regenerate repeatedly, they will eventually die.

So, under normal circumstances, it could be an annoying monster to Natalia, but it couldn’t be a threatening monster.

In situations like now where time is important, the story is different.

“Tsk.”

Natalia put the gun away with an annoyed expression. Then he pulled out the machete he was wearing on his waist.

Natalia swings the air a few times to regain her senses as she feels the feeling of the machete being drawn for the first time in a long time.

At the same time, the eyes never fail to check the troll’s condition.

‘Let’s see, the only weapon he has is an ax in his right hand.’

Well then, things are simpler than you think.

Even though Natalia was already relaxed, she continued to swing the machete in the air regularly. The troll just quietly watches Natalia and does not make any special moves.

Then, the moment when the troll’s concentration broke a little due to Natalia’s repeated actions.

‘now.’

She quickly dug into the gap without missing a thread.

Breaking through the troll’s loose tension, Natalia closes the distance. At the same time, the machete is swung once again.

What the machete swung like that cut off was the troll’s right hand holding the axe.

Trolls place less importance on pain perception as they have excellent regenerative abilities. Rather, from the perspective of a troll who does not need a biological alarm, it is more advantageous not to have one.

So the trolls had a dull sense of pain and did not go on a rampage and cry out in pain when their wrists were cut off.

Of course, the bleeding from the cut wrist stops immediately and begins to grow again in real time.

‘That’s natural.’

Of course, it’s not that Natalia didn’t expect that. Her goal in the first place was to make the troll drop the weapon he was holding.

While her severed right hand was growing back, Natalia quickly moved behind the troll.

Then, despite being so skinny, he climbed on top of his wide back, wrapped a chain around his neck, and began to strangle him.

“Queek…! Wow…!”

Then the troll, who had been calm even with his wrist cut off, began to react.

The body’s regeneration did not solve the problem of strangling and blocking oxygen. The troll struggled to survive like a rodeo bull.

“Kyaaaak…! Kek…! Gyaaagh…!”

He made a bubbling sound and swung his arm behind his back, but with the durability of an S-class hunter, his hand without a blade was not that threatening.

Soon the troll fell down, his face blue, and Natalia unchained him and climbed off his back with only a few bruises.

“Phew….”

Afterwards, various monsters poured out one after another. As expected from an arena, it had a down configuration.

Salamander, who could not be approached due to high fever, became cold after repeatedly firing rifle bullets at it, and Cockatrice, which turns into stone when it makes eye contact, was made into a raw chicken by inferring its behavior from the movement of its feet.

When a ghost-type monster that was completely immune to physical attacks appeared, he deliberately possessed him and activated the seal engraved on his body. In the process, I suffered some spiritual damage, but it was bearable.

Undine, the water spirit, became calm after a little caress with electric magic, and the swarm of insects were nothing more than mosquitoes in front of an electric fly swatter.

As we dealt with each one with maximum efficiency, even the boss monster from the dimension gate appeared in the arena.

The boss monster here is Living Armor. It was possible to predict to some extent given that it was an arena-type portal.

‘No tricks will work on that thing, so we have to catch it with pure firepower.’

Natalia thought about that and raised the index finger of her right hand.

At the same time, the fingers are strengthened with magical power. The magical energy of the entire body is concentrated and compressed into one point with the force of almost creating a black hole.

“Do not move. Because I can’t avoid it anyway.”

With those words, Natalia suddenly jabbed her finger into the breastplate before Living Armor had time to react.

At first, only a black-sized hole was made.

However, the shock wave, which could not keep up with the speed of the stabbing, followed too late and the hole expanded to almost the size of a watermelon.

Even then, the shock waves that were not completely absorbed flowed backwards, creating a sandstorm. For a moment my vision became blurry and I couldn’t see anything.

Living Armor, whose strengths were strong defense and tenacity, died in a single blow.

“Phew….”

After finishing defeating the portal, Natalia sighed and took out a top-class fatigue recovery potion from her bag and drank it.

***

The entrance to the portal in the air began to tremble.

The officials of the Dimensional Gate Management Department who discovered this fact looked horrified.

“What…, what…? Is reflux starting already? It’s different from the expected time, right?”

“No… there is no problem with the machine, right? Isn’t the subjugation over?”

“You idiot. I went in earlier, but it couldn’t have been over already…!”

The senior civil servant’s criticism lost its persuasiveness even before he finished speaking.

The one who appeared from the ripples of the shimmering dimension door was Natalia, the S-class hunter who entered earlier.

“Uh…, how already…”

The public officials looked as if they had seen a ghost. But somewhere in that expression was relief.

Natalia left the scene without even looking at them, leaving the disappearing portal behind.

After escaping from the scene, Natalia headed straight to the place where Han Soo-hyun was imprisoned, which she had heard from the police.

After a while, Natalia stopped near a building. He then took out a small bottle that he had secretly received from a researcher who had previously visited him with a problem with belladonna.

What is inside the bottle is a monster reminiscent of a fly.

It was a familiar to a monster called Beelzebub.

Natalia opened the lid of the bottle and stuck her finger in it.

When a finger enters the bottle, the familiar reacts. It flies up and lands on your fingertips.

Then Natalia and the familiar became mentally connected. It has now become her familiar.

The ability of Beelzebub’s familiar is shared vision.

Natalia’s left eye began to show the world as her familiar saw it.

“Okay, go.”

The familiar received Natalia’s command and quietly flew towards the building.

‘I feel like I want to go in and beat everyone up from the front door… but this time, rescuing the hostages is the top priority.’

From her perspective, it was necessary to infiltrate as secretly as possible and ensure the safety of the hostages.

Anyway, Natalia sent her familiar into the building and carefully figured out the structure of the building. At the same time, I looked for where Han Soo-hyun was imprisoned.

After exploring for a while, Natalia was able to completely understand the structure of the building.

In addition, the room where Han Soo-hyun was imprisoned was also able to be identified to some extent.

‘Okay, let’s go.’

The familiar was collected after obtaining all the necessary information before infiltration. Natalia then approached the building.

She didn’t go to the front door. However, I didn’t go through the back door.

The place Natalia headed to was a narrow alley formed between buildings.

‘I checked with my familiar earlier, and there was one of the windows here that wasn’t locked.’

Since it was located in a place where people didn’t often go and the window wasn’t that big, it wasn’t surprising if the management was lax.

Of course, even if it wasn’t carelessly locked, there was at least a crime prevention device installed.

Even so, it was a cheap product that was easily neutralized when Natalia overloaded it with electricity.

After disabling the security device, Natalia opened the window. Although it was a bit difficult for my chest and pelvis, I was able to get in easily.

Natalia entered the room of the building through the window and instead of immediately opening the door, she once again sent her familiar flying through the crack in the door to inspect the situation in the hallway.

‘No one is passing by.’

After checking it, she carefully opened the door.

From then on, Natalia repeatedly used her familiar as a drone to detect threats in advance and move secretly.

Thus, we were able to reach our destination without being noticed by anyone.