episode_0112

“It’s an attack!”

Time passed, but the operation still remained unchanged.

When the guy appears, powerful people stationed here and there grab his ankles, and others rush to attack him in concert.

This time, the plan went smoothly, and Max had to deal with the guy again.

Although it was the second fight, the aspects themselves were not much different.

Max dominated him throughout.

But this time, we couldn’t even catch him.

Because it broke through the siege and escaped with another strange movement.

Max clicked his tongue again and expressed regret at that fact, but the regret itself was by no means strong.

It’s definitely a shame that we couldn’t catch him, but that wasn’t the goal in the first place.

Reaching the grave on time without causing any casualties.

Since that was the original goal, being able to buy time in this way without causing any damage was not a big bad thing.

From then on, the situation continued in a similar way every time it appeared, and the group was able to continue their journey without causing any more deaths.

however.

The few times he dealt with it, Max felt a subtle sense of strangeness.

The time spent dealing with the shadow monster, which had hitherto been so overwhelming that it could be described as overwhelming, began to gradually become longer.

At first I thought it was an illusion, but as the number of times continued, the time became longer and longer.

Not only did the time increase, but the feeling also changed.

Max came to a conclusion.

“… You’re growing.”

That the monster is gradually becoming stronger.

It was not simply about becoming stronger or faster.

The guy’s movements themselves were changing.

When I first encountered it, its movements were sharp, but they were truly unpolished, like those of a wild beast.

However, now the raw movements have disappeared, and fragments of refined movements are visible.

Just like a human moving his body.

Like martial arts.

The monster was learning.

battle.

human movement.

Martial arts.

“Does that make sense? A monster learning martial arts?”

Johanna frowned.

“What a ridiculous story.”

Hector’s reaction was no different.

It was worth it.

The behavior he had shown so far was clearly foreign and something that had never happened before, but it was still not completely unreasonable.

Even among ordinary animals, individuals with such cunning intelligence sometimes appear.

But this is a different story.

Learning at this speed, and even imitating and mastering martial arts, is an action that is beyond the intelligence of a monster.

“If that’s true, then a ridiculous person has appeared… … .”

Hector smoothed his forehead as if he was feeling a headache.

“You don’t have to worry yet. but… It’s true that he continues to improve. From the beginning, his strength, speed, and magical power were like monsters. If martial arts is added to it… It’s hard to predict how much of a monster it will become.”

As Max added, Johanna and Hector’s faces became even more grave.

“The grave is not far away. In this condition, we will be able to reach the tomb safely. but… Honestly, I don’t know if I can move on from that. That guy is too dangerous to just leave alone.”

Max continued.

Simply considering the current goal, all you have to do is arrive at the grave without causing any more deaths.

However, Max felt strongly that it should not go that way.

He is still dangerous enough.

But if he grows further, he might become an uncontrollable monster.

“… But that also means you have to be able to catch him. How are you going to catch this guy who you can’t catch even now?”

“That’s the problem… … . It seems like magic doesn’t work well on him.”

There are wizards even among mercenaries and among the clients heading to the warrior’s tomb.

And there was also an attempt to catch him with their help.

But everything failed.

It’s because the magic didn’t work properly on him.

Simple attack magic was fine, but most magic that granted status abnormalities did not work properly.

Because of that, the conclusion had already been made that magic would not be of much help.

“Then in the end, there is no obvious solution.”

“… That’s right.”

Max nodded with difficulty.

“Well, there is also a way to ask for cooperation from other groups on the way back later, or to form a punitive force after returning to Darbil, so there is no need to do anything right away. I’m worried about the latecomers… However, we cannot wait here forever.”

“… … .”

As Hector said, there was no sure way to catch him right now.

Max also knew that fact well, so in the end he had no choice but to nod to Hector’s words.

Just like that, Max forced himself to swallow the thick anxiety rising in his heart.

I hope this anxiety does not become a reality.

However, unfortunately, that anxiety came true.

In the form of The Rise of Hector.

***

‘It’ was born one day.

‘It’ did not know how it was born or what it was born from.

However, I didn’t even wonder about it.

The thought of ‘it’ was too simple to think about such things, to think about where one’s existence came from, to worry, and to agonize over.

Before I got caught up in those thoughts, the first thing I felt was hunger.

I’m hungry.

need to eat something

‘It’ moved its body based on that simple instinct.

Fortunately, there was plenty of food to eat.

Even though I couldn’t see it, I knew ‘it’.

A place with edible things.

smell.

The smell that made saliva flow irritated ‘it’s’ nose.

‘It’s’ feet naturally moved in the direction the smell was moving.

And soon, ‘it’ found something to eat.

The food saw ‘it’ and attacked straight away.

but.

‘It’ was too fast to be hit by that attack.

And, it was too strong.

Soon, the food was being eaten by ‘it’s’ teeth.

It was delicious.

felt good.

Filling my stomach was truly a satisfying feeling.

‘It’ felt full after eating several of its prey, but that feeling of fullness did not last long.

Soon, it became hungry again, and ‘it’ started wandering around looking for food again.

While repeating that process a few times, I noticed ‘it’.

That your legs are getting faster.

My claws are getting sharper.

That you are becoming stronger.

With its faster and stronger body, ‘it’ pursued its prey even more actively.

At some point, the prey began to run away to avoid ‘it’.

However, it was a meaningless struggle.

‘It’s’ legs were too fast to simply lose sight of its prey.

In the end, ‘it’ ate constantly and became stronger.

However, there was an end to that trend.

This was because there were no more prey around.

No matter how strong ‘it’ became, there was no way to trace it to a direction where the smell would not reach.

Eventually, ‘it’ began to move its territory in search of its next prey.

I was in the middle of repeating that kind of life.

What I smelled was a unique smell.

It was a smell I had never smelled before.

It even felt terrible.

But ‘it’ was interested in the smell.

So, I got closer.

The new prey discovered by following the smell were as unfamiliar in appearance as the smell.

It had very little hair and was covered in shiny things.

The claws also had a strange shape, unlike anything I had seen before.

Although it was understandable to be frightened by its unfamiliar appearance, ‘it’ did not hesitate and pounced on its new prey.

And, for the first time, I tasted defeat.

The new prey’s fighting methods were as strange as their unique appearance.

Suddenly, he became stronger, faster, and even spewed fire.

Due to its unfamiliar power and fighting methods, ‘it’ was miserably defeated and ran away.

Since then, ‘it’ has not approached its strange prey.

Instead, it chased the prey it had been eating so far more fiercely and ate it.

And it became even stronger.

As time passed, ‘it’ smelled a strange prey again.

This time, I didn’t move away from the smell.

Rather, I headed towards the place where the smell came from.

There, there were special prey that had a different appearance from those I had seen back then.

‘It’ struck them.

And, this time, we won.

My whole body was pricked, cut, and even burned by their strange claws, but in the end, it was ‘it’ that won.

In return for its victory, ‘it’ was finally able to eat its special prey.

Eventually, ‘it’ felt a great shock.

It was a taste I had never felt before.

It was an ecstatic taste.

Also, I noticed ‘it’.

By eating special prey, he became significantly stronger.

From then on, ‘it’ only targeted special prey.

As soon as it smelled it, it ran towards it, attacked it, and ate it.

As a result, ‘it’ grew stronger at a rapid rate.

Now, nothing around can threaten ‘it’ anymore.

It was then.

‘It’ had a very strong smell.

The smell of special prey was so strong that it had never been seen before.

The ‘thing’ that followed the scent could be seen.

The sight of a group of special prey that is difficult to count.

Looking at that scene, ‘it’ drooled.

It occurred to me that it would be the first time in a long time that I would be able to have a satisfying meal.

However, hunting was not as easy as expected.

At first, it was easy to hunt by hunting prey that had separated from the group, but at some point, such prey became invisible.

In response, ‘it’ used its head.

By making other prey attack them and taking advantage of the opportunity to hunt them.

The operation was successful.

‘It’ succeeded in hunting again.

However, even that did not last long.

The special prey changed their strategy again.

Prey that even ‘it’ cannot easily deal with has begun to target ‘it’.

Caught in that plan, ‘it’ suffered defeat for the first time in a long time and had to run away.

And ‘it’ was in trouble.

What should I do?

How can I hunt and eat those prey?

There was too little time to hunt ordinary prey and increase strength.

If you do that, you’ll miss out on those prey.

As it continued to hunt and prey, its intelligence had already surpassed that of an ordinary monster.

With its intelligence, ‘it’ continued its worries.

Why couldn’t he defeat the orange-furred prey?

He is clearly ahead in terms of strength and speed.

Why did he have to lose?

The answer came sooner than expected.

movement.

The movements were different.

The movements of special prey were different from those of other ordinary prey.

It was difficult to explain specifically, but it was definitely different.

‘It’ concluded that it was defeated because of the difference in its movements.

Well, the answer was simple.

If you lost because of a difference in movement, all you have to do is imitate that movement.

With that conclusion, ‘it’ went back to looking for special prey.

And instead of blindly hunting, I watched their movements and remembered them.

Although the hunt failed again, there was something to be gained.

Because I gradually became able to imitate the movements.

It was clumsy at first, but it got better as time went by.

Eventually, ‘it’ became certain.

That you are becoming stronger.

If we continue like this, we will be able to hunt successfully again.

So, ‘it’ began to evolve again.