Edited By: Sebas Tian
The silver light didn't appear this time.
Because of that, Karazhan's attack slightly cut the hem of Hyun-Soo's clothes.
'What the?'
Did he imagine the silver light he saw just now?
But the light actually blocked Karazhan's attack.
"Damn, whatever. I'll think about it later!'
Hyun-Soo stopped thinking about the problem and focused on the situation that was occuring before him.
It's because Karazhan was now attacking aggressively, which was different from when they first fought.
At first, they attacked without moving a muscle, but now, they were aggressively throwing themselves towards Hyun-Soo.
It's probably because they realized that standing still didn't affect him.
'But just suddenly attacking like this is really unexpected!'
Even though they looked like a fairy, their actions reminded him of a horror film.
Thanks to his views slowing down the opponent's movements, he managed to dodge their attacks.
Kyahhhhh!
Hyun-Soo used his skill while dodging, but Karazhan used their wings and flew up to dodge it.
While dodging, they released an odd cry.
It sounded like they were looking down on him.
"Huh…… "
Were they looking down on him just because they had wings?
Because they were able to freely control their wings, Hyun-Soo couldn't really land any attacks.
The smoke would protect their weakness and when Hyun-Soo counterattacked when Karazhan attacked, they would just fly away.
They were really like an annoying fly.
'Wait.'
While gritting his teeth due to the annoyance Hyun-Soo was feeling, something popped into his head.
'In order to catch a fly like them…right, a fly swatter!'
A fly swatter was the perfect tool when trying to catch a fly.
While thinking about this, Hyun-Soo created a large net.
Hyun-Soo tried to make it as big as his power allowed.
He stitched them as close as he could so that they couldn't escape.
It started off as a fly swatter, but it got upgraded to a large net.
Smirk.
A smile appeared on Hyun-Soo's face when he reached his limit.
Kyahhh?
Karazhan, who was using their thin wings to stay up in the air, tilted their head in confusion after making fun of Hyun-Soo.
But after flying around once, they charged towards Hyun-Soo.
And…….
Flap!
Kyahhhh!
Karazhan felt something odd when they got closer, so they tried to pull away, but Hyun-Soo was faster.
The net that Hyun-Soo made enveloped Karazhan.
After confirming that Karazhan was trapped inside the net, Hyun-Soo condensed his power.
Kyahhhhh!
When Hyun-Soo's power tightened Karazhan's entire body, Karazhan started screaming.
Karazhan moved violently to try to escape.
But even after getting caught by Hyun-Soo, the black smoke disappeared, so Karazhan had no way of escaping.
"Whew……."
He finally caught them.
Since Hyun-Soo tied their wings together, Karazhan couldn't fly away.
Kyahhhh……
After realizing that they were surrounded by the enemy, Karazhan cried sadly.
Karazhan's eyes met with Hyun-Soo's.
And Hyun-Soo was surprised for a moment.
There was some sort of transparent liquid on their eyes and it reminded him of tears.
A human-shaped monster was looking at Hyun-Soo with tears in its eyes, making it extremely awkward and weird.
Like mentioned earlier, Hyun-Soo felt that he was going up against a human, not a monster.
On top of that…….
Kyahhhh…….
Their pitiful cry sounded like they were asking Hyun-Soo to go easy on them.
Karazhan looked at Hyun-Soo, then looked elsewhere and when they looked back at Hyun-Soo, they chattered in a language Hyun-Soo couldn't understand.
Hyun-Soo felt ridiculous and absurd.
But he couldn't go easy on them.
Hyun-Soo shook his head and got rid of the hesitant feeling inside him.
"I almost fell for it."
Maybe it's because Karazhan specializes in illusions.
Since they were a monster that was part of the psychological type, they were talented in manipulating the mind.
Because of that, they were probably able to plant ideas into their opponent's mind.
A psychological type monster that Hyun-Soo has never encountered before.
In some ways, it was the most dangerous skill than any other skills.
If Karazhan used absurd illusions like they did in the beginning, Hyun-Soo could easily notice by using Interface.
But what if it was a type of skill that slowly creeped up?
'I don't even want to think about it.'
Karazhan must've given up entirely because they looked like they were out of energy.
It happened right after Hyun-Soo shook off the thoughts in his head.
But that could've been another illusion.
As soon as Hyun-Soo saw Karazhan, he started feeling a bit bad for them.
But instead of falling for it, Hyun-Soo chose to…
Swoosh!
He slashed the white light, which was Karazhan's weak point.
Drop!
With one attack, their small head fell off and rolled on the ground.
And at the same time.
Fwoosh!
A big light flashed.
Hyun-Soo instinctively closed his eyes and got into a defense position.
Since Karazhan was an interesting monster, they could've done something even as they were dying.
However, that light flew somewhere and then it slowly disappeared.
'What was that?'
Other than the fact that the light suddenly flashed, nothing else happened.
Hyun-Soo wiped off the fluids on his face with his hand while feeling uneasy.
"Ugh, something feels off."
Maybe it's because he felt bad for Karazhan.
Even though he knew he shouldn't be, it affected him a lot mentally.
And since they had a small body, he didn't expect their head to be cut off with one attack.
"It was easier than I thought."
Hyun-Soo mumbled while cutting Karazhan's body.
The battle would've been a lot more difficult if the weird, silver light didn't appear at all.
It was difficult to block attacks that were coming from all directions.
The poison pierced through the stone floor, so Hyun-Soo's body definitely wasn't safe.
The owner of the colorful portal.
Their skill was powerful enough to make A ranked hunters delusional.
On top of that, they were a psychological type monster.
They weren't an easy monster to fight against.
It's just that Karazhan was unlucky.
The others, as well as Hyun-Soo, never imagined that they would come here to hunt.
Since Hyun-Soo was able to use Interface to detect the illusion, Karazhan was at a disadvantage.
"Where isn't there an Energy Stone?"
Hyun-Soo mumbled as he cut open their body from head to toe.
He looked through every part of their body and didn't find an Energy Stone.
'Is it because they were still developing?'
He's never killed a monster that was still in development.
No, this was a special case since it was a colorful that appeared.
So the fact that there weren't any Energy Stones was possible.
"In that case, I did all that fighting for nothing…"
His efforts in the first colorful portal went down the drain.
No matter how much he looked for it, it wasn't there.
Since there wasn't an owner in the previous colorful portal, it made sense that they didn't get anything, but this time, Hyun-Soo took down a monster and yet, he didn't get anything in return.
"Did it fall somewhere?"
Hyun-Soo walked around because he felt disappointed.
He thought that maybe he missed it, so he looked around Karazhan.
"Huh?"
And then, he discovered a wall with a small hole that's been slightly covered.
It was skillfully hidden, but it wasn't difficult to notice.
But he didn't remember seeing it during the fight.
He slowly went through his memories and recalled one thing.
'Karazhan was very defensive in the beginning.'
They stayed in one area and kept on attacking.
And when it didn't work, they charged towards Hyun-Soo.
'And before they died, they kept on looking towards…'
The area where the hole was.
'Were…they trying to protect that area?'
After considering the different situations, that was the answer he got.
On top of that, when Karazhan died, the light that appeared disappeared towards that direction.
'What's over there anyways?'
Hyun-Soo carefully walked towards the hole.
Something could pop out, so he enveloped himself with skills just in case.
Step.
He carefully pushed away the dead vines at the entrance and looked inside.
Thankfully, there wasn't another monster.
Instead, there was something he never expected.
"What…is this?"
If he wasn't imagining, then the thing that Hyun-Soo saw was probably an…
"Egg?"
It was probably Karazhan's egg.
It was a purple that was as big as a fist and gold geometric patterns were all over the egg.
The egg's appearance made it easy to differentiate between the pebbles and stones.
The complicated looking patterns was smooth and shining as well.
Hyun-Soo was curious, so he carefully placed a finger on it.
Thump!
He could've imagined it, but he felt a slight vibration, almost like heart beating.
On top of that…….
"It's warm……?"
In the beginning, Karazhan stayed in the same spot and didn't move.
And after Hyun-Soo caught them, they looked at him sadly.
And the light disappeared at that very spot.
When considering all of this, he easily came to a conclusion.
"Were they trying to protect this egg?"
When thinking about it, there was a part in the report that he ignored.
It said that it was in an incubation period.
Because of the unexpected information about them being in development, Hyun-Soo didn't look deeply into the other parts of the report…
'I shouldn't have overlooked it like that.'
If he looked at the details more, then he could've realized why Karazhan acted the way they did.
Well, he would still have to kill the monster in the end anyways.
Inside the portal, you either kill or get killed.
Hyun-Soo looked down at Karazhan's egg momentarily.
Hyun-Soo was contemplating on what he should do with the egg.
Was he going to take it?
Or was he going to destroy it?
He thought destroying it was the right thing to do since it was a monster's egg, but…
'We've taken a monster's corpse and items we obtained inside the portal, so I should be able to take this egg with me, right?'
Because of that thought, he gently held the egg.
On top of that…….
Thump……thump…….
Even though he told himself that it was impossible, it felt like the heartbeat was coming from the egg.
It wasn't really possible, but the portal itself was a fantastic part of reality.
"I should check it first."
Hyun-Soo used Interface to get information on the egg that was on his hands.
——————————
[Incubating Egg]
Karazhan's egg is currently in incubation.
In order to make it hatch, one needs to pay close attention and gently take care of it.
Time Remaining Until Hatch : 24 Days
——————————
It was definitely Karazhan's egg.
And there was one information that caught his attention.
The time remaining until it hatched.
"24 days……."
This could be considered a short time or a long time.
On top of that, they needed to be taken care of very carefully.
For Hyun-Soo, this was burdening because he wasn't the gentle type at all.
He could've broken it and act like nothing happened, but he couldn't get himself to do that.
But his instincts was calling out to him.
That he was going to regret it if he just left it!
'Whatever. I'll take it with me for now.'
If an issue arises, then he could break it then.
Hyun-Soo made his decision and he carefully placed the egg in his pocket.
After checking through Interface that there wasn't anything useful here, Hyun-Soo walked towards the members.
Since he killed the culprit that caused the illusion, they'll be able to wake up soon.