Chapter 45

Chapter 45

I glanced at Lee Chantae, then looked at Nuri.

In my past life, Nuri broke through the first hunting team, then overwhelmed the second, and when the third stepped in, its aggro spiked and it descended on Seoul.

Kim Younghwan never stepped up, claiming he was protecting the citizens.

And so Seoul suffered catastrophic damage, and countless people died.

That was when people started saying Nuri was on a different grade from other Harmful-class Level 8 monsters.

It maintained its complete original form and preserved its purity, wielded breath freely, and the blade storm recognized as a gift was ferociously powerful.

A wide-area attack that shredded everything in a radius of over fifty meters—it was a catastrophe in and of itself.

So I'd intended to target the common weakness of avian monsters, but.

"This thing's skull is rock hard."

Even after landing three successful attacks, Nuri didn't so much as flinch.

If anything, it got angry and gave off killing intent. If you can't keep it together even after getting hit, that's a real anger management problem.

Kieee!

It howled and shot up into the sky.

I stepped through the air to close in and fought it, but it seemed to have adapted in the meantime—it spewed breath, whipped up blade storms, and desperately tried to keep its distance.

So the birdbrain can learn. Maybe because it's the king of the birdbrains, its adaptability was impressive.

I activated Intuition. This mental gift, stolen from Jung Dahyun, had endless applications, and there was a subtlety to it whose limits even I couldn't grasp.

Using Intuition, I probed for an efficient way to kill Nuri. Arc Mine like before? That would mean getting close to it. It was trying to keep its distance with breath and blade storm, so I needed a different approach.

Then it'd have to be Slash instead of Arc Mine. Intuition responded. But the response wasn't strong, which meant that wasn't the answer either. That told me just how troublesome a monster Nuri was.

Just because it isn't Arc Mine doesn't mean Slash is the answer—that's binary thinking on my part.

"Guess I've got no choice."

Seeing that the earlier clash had put distance between me and Lee Chantae, I clasped my hands together. I activated the Slash gift.

Blood-red Force poured out and collided with the creature's blade storm.

Fwoosh! Bang! Kwaaaaang!

As Slash and the blade storm collided, countless residual traces of Force scattered everywhere. The ground within a hundred meters churned as if swept by a storm, and thick dust billowed up. Watching Nuri fly higher through the dust, I clicked my tongue briefly.

Birdbrains instinctively seem to judge that being higher up gives them the advantage. The fact that it was starting to genuinely irritate me proved it.

"You're a pain in the ass."

I stepped on Force and rose, relentlessly taking the blade storm that poured down.

The thinly layered Force around me was struck again and again by the blade storm. What an obnoxious gift. Each individual Force blade in the storm packed considerable power, and just maintaining my body in midair while closing in on the creature drained my Force at a steady clip.

It felt like scooping seawater out with a big basin.

Because it was me, I could pour out Force like an idiot, but any other Hunter would've run dry long ago.

Maybe this is why the standard tactic of whittling a monster down with numbers became the accepted method.

Kieeeee!

I broke through the blade storm and closed in, and this time it fired breath. I canceled it with Slash and succeeded in getting within striking range.

Even with me right in front of it, the birdbrain activated its gift.

Kwa-deudeuk!

It clashed against the Force barrier, cracking, breaking, shattering, and regenerating over and over. The creature tried to widen the distance this way, but I closed in right up to it in the end.

I activated Slash from my fingertips and stabbed its head.

Kwaang!

Slash struck the hard hide but ultimately failed to pierce through the skull. The hide was absurdly tough, and I felt a monstrous backlash of Force.

Just how hard was it that it could withstand Arc Mine and even resist Slash?

Slash hadn't pierced the hide, but it wasn't without impact.

Kieeeek!

Nuri shrieked, its body tilting, then it plummeted toward the ground before barely catching itself.

I could feel it was furious. Nuri's body turned a deeper red, and steam rose off it.

One more annoyance added to the list.

The Force carried in the blade storm now bore heat as well.

If there's a hell of scorching flames, this might be it. The air blazed and the surrounding temperature rose without end.

So this was Phase 2? Annoying as hell. All I could think was that I needed to end this fast.

Jjeong!

I loaded Arc Mine and swung at it from point-blank range. The strong backlash was still there. But it didn't feel stronger than before. Which meant the creature's defense wouldn't hold forever either.

Running it through Intuition, neither Arc Mine nor Slash produced an answer. That meant I couldn't end this situation by relying on gifts. If I leaned on Intuition any further here, it would drain my mental energy endlessly with no bottom in sight, so I shut Intuition down.

Right. There had been only one method from the start.

No matter how tough and hard it was, Nuri was still a monster of flesh and blood. Keep hammering away, and it would have to break. So I set Slash aside, loaded Arc Mine into my fists, and started pounding Nuri's head.

By the time the creature thrashed and escaped my range, over thirty attacks had already rained down on its head.

Keeeeee!

Unable to endure any longer, Nuri let out a shriek and plummeted.

With a heavy thud, Nuri crashed into the ground. Seeing it still twitching told me just how tenacious its life force was.

"Seriously tough."

Over thirty Arc Mines and it still held on. Other Harmful-class Level 8 monsters hadn't been like this, I was pretty sure.

One thing was certain. If you made armor from the hide of a creature that had withstood even my Arc Mine, it would be worth a fortune.

Feeling the emptiness from spending a considerable amount of Force for the first time in a while, I stood before Nuri.

It was the first Harmful-class Level 8 monster I'd faced with a clear head. To handle the next Level 8 monster efficiently, I'd need to do some research.

"Glad you're alive."

Whether it heard the sincerity in my words or not, Nuri trembled.

*

"Interesting."

I ran various experiments on the fallen Nuri. Its hide was absurdly tough, and I'd wondered what the principle was—sure enough, it was tied to Force.

Though at a primitive level, Nuri instinctively manipulated Force as well. When my attacks headed toward it, it instinctively concentrated Force in front of the area about to be struck, canceling the impact.

But that Force manipulation wasn't infinite either. After being caught by me and subjected to various experiments, it seemed to have run out of strength—its hardness was no longer what it had been.

Then, once its Force was depleted, the Arc Mine strikes landing on its head began dealing meaningful damage.

Kieeeek!

Nuri twitched.

"Did I hit it too much?"

Watching Nuri shudder, I felt no particular sentiment. If it went around killing humans for fun, it should be prepared to get hit itself.

After testing Arc Mine and experimenting with Slash against its hide, I moved to the next stage around the time Nuri started foaming at the mouth.

That was whether I could tame this creature.

Taming a monster to use as a pet is a desire everyone has.

There were in fact recorded cases of taming Harmful-class Level 1 and 2 monsters through 'animal training' or 'taming.'

Though the two gifts were far more often used on humans rather than monsters, causing social problems far more frequently.

It had been proven that monsters could be tamed, but the prevailing opinion was that it was only possible because they were low-level. Level 1 and 2 monsters were, frankly, little more than slightly aggressive wild animals.

Since there were no recorded cases of taming Level 3 or 4 monsters—which actively harmed humans—taming them would be practically impossible.

The higher a monster's level, the stronger its hostility toward humanity and the tougher its mental fortitude. Experts say that if you break down this mental barrier, taming becomes possible.

I figured Brainwashing could bring down that barrier.

Though it might turn the creature into a mindless idiot.

"Not like there'd be much difference between a birdbrain and a mindless idiot anyway."

Stupid is stupid.

I thought back on Brainwashing.

The principle of this gift is planting my will into the user's consciousness. The core of it is so-called Gaslighting—breaking down the target's will and injecting the keywords I want.

I couldn't pull it off with the finesse of the cult leader I'd seen use it. He turned his targets into fanatics through environmental manipulation, atmosphere, and rhetoric.

His Brainwashing was so thorough that in the end, a single word from the cult leader could drive his followers to mass suicide.

Since delicate Brainwashing like the cult leader's wasn't possible for me, I'd have to do it my way.

I injected the keyword "Obey" into Nuri through Brainwashing.

Kiek!

The creature, still retaining consciousness, resisted. The hostility toward humanity hardwired into its mind and its animosity toward me became the driving force of its resistance.

Stubborn thing.

First, I had to break that driving force.

Ignoring Nuri's defiance, I used Brainwashing again. This time I layered and injected the keyword.

"Obeyobeyobey!"

Kyaaaak!

Nuri, which had only been resisting intermittently, began to thrash wildly.

Was this its final resistance? It was fairly intense.

Kwa-deuk!

I planted a volley of Arc Mines into its head to make its movements subside.

I injected the Brainwashing keyword several more times into the head of the creature as it collapsed limply, but it endured.

This is really starting to piss me off.

I injected the keyword endlessly.

"Obeyobeyobeyobeyobeyobeyobeyobeyobeyobeyobeyobeyobeyobeyobeyobeyobeyobeyobeyobey."

Force drained out endlessly, but I didn't care. This much should be enough for it to give up and obey. The creature was persistent too.

When it thrashed, I knocked it down with Arc Mine and injected the Brainwashing keyword.

After three rounds and roughly three hundred injections of the keyword, Nuri could no longer hold out.

Kiruru!

Intermittent twitching spread through its whole body, and then its eyes rolled back and it stopped moving entirely.

"Dead?"

I tapped its head lightly, and its brain had turned to mush. I must have overdone the Brainwashing.

"Taming isn't easy."

Clicking my tongue softly, I reached toward where Nuri's heart was.

With the Force barrier gone, the hide resisted Slash, but after about three attempts it split open.

I gripped Nuri's heart. It had just died, but the freshest green blood clung stickily to my hand. The moment it touched my skin, a prickling sensation spread. Poison. Without hesitation, I brought the blood to my mouth.

"Damn nasty."

Starting with numbness, confusion, hallucinations, and poisoning effects began to set in.

It was a familiar phenomenon, so I suppressed it with Force. The poisoning effect is something I experience every time I try to peek at a monster's gift.

Suddenly I thought of Immunity to All Poisons. If I had that, I wouldn't have to go through status effects like this. If I asked Berserker for it, he'd throw a fit, so I should look into whether there's a way to copy a gift without killing him.

Meanwhile, Nuri's gift information began to copy over. There was blade storm, fire breath, and high-speed flight. Just as I'd expected, so neither hope nor disappointment.

Fire breath and high-speed flight were gifts that couldn't be selected due to species limitations.

That left blade storm. When I selected it, the gift began to copy, and then an anomaly occurred.

"Huh?"

I was supposed to choose a gift to delete, but without any warning, Slash had vanished. And blade storm had taken its place.

"...No way?"

This kind of case is never common. But it isn't rare either.

A phenomenon that occurs more often than dual gift—that's the gift mixing phenomenon.

Two gifts combine into one, and it's said to grow more powerful.

Just now, blade storm had absorbed Slash.

This case, I hadn't anticipated.

"I need to check this."

I pulled a short sword from inside my coat. Originally, to properly unleash Slash's power, a sword that emitted a Force blade had been essential.

When I unleashed blade storm, a Force blade extended that was clearly different from Slash's. The Force blade, spinning with a violence that bordered on grotesque, shredded the boulder I'd targeted to pieces.

Within the existing Force blade, blade storm's rotation was now contained, destroying everything it touched.

Slash-on-the-outside, Slash-on-the-inside, huh.

It shredded the outside and the inside alike—a skill perfect for killing your opponent.

Through the gift mixing phenomenon, the strengths of Slash and blade storm had been exquisitely fused.

"Turns out keeping it alive was the hardest part."

Whether they'd confirmed Nuri was dead, several helicopters and vehicles began pouring in moments later.