Chapter 9

“I saw you waiting earlier, so I thought you had business with me. But if that’s all you wanted to talk about, I’m gonna go.”

“Wait, wait! C’mon, you’re too hasty.”

He really was excellent at sly responses.

“So you heard the recon report, right?”

“Yes.”

“And what we saw?”

His voice seemed excited. As it was his first time spotting a D-grade monster, he probably thought it was on a different level. When humans encountered something that surpassed their own limits, they were bound to feel a sense of awe.

“I really... didn’t want to ask you something like this...” Chansong trailed off and lowered his gaze. “Think you can beat that cerberus in a fight?”

A silence settled between us for a moment.

Could I beat a cerberus...? What an interesting question. My skills were the strongest when I faced irregularities, which was why I was best at battling humans. Monsters with ridiculous strength that used their weight as a weapon could be considered counters for me.

My strengths were that I could outmaneuver an opponent that knew how to fight with intelligence and waswere capable of psychological warfare. I could also instantly penetrate obvious weaknesses.

However, the cerberus was neither of those things. While its intelligence was considered the highest among D-grade monsters, it couldn’t inflict psychological warfare against humans. It also didn’t have a clear weakness. The way to attack this monster was to pierce through its strong body and puncture its heart. Unfortunately, I didn’t have that kind of strength yet.

Chansong looked at me desperately. It was as if he earnestly wanted me to say “yes.”

“...I can beat it.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

At my response, his face brightened. He was clearly reassured.

“What a relief...”

His low, muttering voice was gentle. I wasn’t lying to him. I was planning to fight and win against the cerberus.

***

Yusu and Yura were lying on the floor, breathing heavily, when I returned to them. Their stamina was still weak. If they had to fight for a long time, they’d inevitably lose.

“Seoha... We...”

“We’re... whew... gonna die...”

“You won’t die. Get up.”

They didn’t listen to me. They just rolled around on the floor in protest. While it may be an indoor gym, the floors outside of the tents were dirty as no one had time to clean them. They sure had strong stomachs.

“How are you so strong, Seoha...?”

“Seriously. You’re only two years older than us.”

They had only lifted their upper bodies to ask.

Hmm, what should I say to them?

That I had already lived in this gate for three years? And that while I had worked hard to clear it, I was now back again?

“You’re both stronger than the adults.”

“But we were candidates for the national archery team!”

“It wasn’t the national team, but we were candidates.”

I guess that was the reason that they chose the bow as their weapon. When they said it like that, I had nothing to say to them.

There was no such thing as a national karambit athlete, and I really was just a regular student.

“I heard from Seongmin that you were super strong from the start.”

“Yeah. He said you killed a monster by yourself.”

“How did you do that?”

“Seriously.”

Their skill of pretending to have a casual conversation while trying to get information out of me was excellent. They were quite the sly duo. They’d be unstoppable if they could use that slyness when fighting humans. It was a shame that they didn’t have the years of experience to do that yet.

“That time when she snuck out at night is also suspicious...”

“Yup. She brought back that weird knife...”

They lowered their voices to talk, but I could hear everything.

“Get up. You need to do it one more time.”

The twins gave me a startled expression. They tried to act cute to get out of it, but I ignored them. If they still had the capacity to think about other things, I’d make it so they couldn’t think at all.

“Get up!”

“Ugh... fine.”

“Fine.”

As soon as they got up, their gazes suddenly changed. Without even waiting for me to say to begin, they ran towards me. I lightly tapped their foreheads with the tree branch I was holding. I blocked all of their attacks. Even though they fell on their butts, they immediately got back up to run towards me.

“When you attack together, I told you to separate your attacks into left and right or up and down.”

As soon as I said that, they took turns approaching me from the left and then the right. I jumped up and was instantly in the air above them. I pushed against their backs with both hands and, using that rebound, I straightened my position and safely landed. The twins were once again strewn on the floor.

“Again, one more time.”

They sighed in unison. However, I couldn’t help but to take a Spartan style of teaching with them as there wasn’t time for anything else.

I was going to leave.

From the start, I had only one goal: to find the teacher that I had eternally buried in my heart and atone for my sins. Just once, I wanted to see her alive and breathing. And if I had the chance... to save her life.

This had been delayed only because there were many people who relied on me.

They each had the potential of becoming a powerful force in the future, and I was just helping them get there. In a few years, there would come a time when each and every Hunter was valuable. When that time came, people would need all the luck they could gather. If these people survived the Gate and became Hunters, they would be of great help.

I was determined to kill the cerberus and then leave this place.

The twins just needed a bit more training to be at a decent level. Except for me, there wasn’t anybody at the indoor gym who could counter their combined attacks. If an internal division were to happen again, they would be able to protect Woo-do and subdue the situation.

As for the remaining ones—people like Seongmin, Minjoon, and Dajeong—it would be better for them to stay here. It was the perfect environment for newbies to gain experience and gradually improve. Where else could they find an unbreakable castle like this?

That’s why those who should stay would stay, and those who should leave would leave.

***

The cerberus subjugation force was formed.

It didn’t have many members as the main force was needed to protect the fort. Still, as it was a gathering of people with special talents, it was a pretty solid party.

Taebyeong was the Tanker and the Rangers were Yusu and Yura. Seongmin was the leader.

Since the twins or I could do the recon, Minjoon didn’t come along. As we didn’t know how long it would take, there were a couple of people from the reconnaissance team to help carry the food and supplies.

There were those of the opinion that it would be better to just hide in the fort and wait for the monster to pass. However, with the hairy insects all gone, there was no way the cerberus would just pass on by.

If it were to make this area its new home, that would cause problems for future reconnaissance, as well as the food supply since other monsters wouldn’t dare to come here.

For the long-term safety of these people, it was better for me to solve this and then leave.

“There are claw marks here,” Yura said after checking out a tree that had grown in between a collapsed concrete block.

While it had only been a month since the Gate Conversion, the trees had already grown so thick that it felt like we were in a forest. Just as Yura said, there were clear claw marks.

“That’s not something that a hairy insect would leave behind,” Seongmin explained.

“It seems to be wandering nearby...” Yusu pointed to what looked like the monster’s excrement. It was clear evidence of life.

“After searching a bit more, we should slowly find a place to sleep,” Seongmin whispered to two members of the recon team.

They set off to find a campsite. While the twins and I found more traces of the cerberus, it didn’t reveal itself. As night fell, we lit a fire and prepared to sleep.

Dinner was soup with chunks of monster meat. It was closer to mixed porridge, actually. Since we couldn’t carry cooking utensils, we’d decided on this kind of food to lessen our load.

To be honest, we should just be thankful to have warm food. If we didn’t have the skills to survive, we wouldn’t have been able to light a fire as it would’ve attracted a monster’s attention.

“Is the food okay?”

“Yeah. It’s always the same.”

The food during reconnaissance was similar to this. It was a familiar taste. Seongmin smiled and sat next to me.

“It seems like it’ll take awhile, right? I wonder if we have to stop by home again before we continue.”

“We have to end it this time. Let’s go further tomorrow.”

I glanced at Seongmin as he ate the soup. This mission was really important for him too. He probably felt like he was getting tested by Woo-do.

“It’s my first time seeing a D-grade monster. Is it really different from F-grades?”

“Yes. If it’s a D, it’s no longer in the normal grade. It’s not a monster that is commonly seen.”

E, F, and unranked formed what was called “normal.” They were monsters that were common in any Gate. That was why their by-products had little value.

“And starting with D-grade monsters, they have Unique Skills.”

“Do you know what the cerberus’s Unique Skill is?”

“From what I remember, it’s...” I frowned slightly. As the cerberus’s habitat needed to meet certain conditions, I hadn’t encountered it often. But as I tried to pick through my hazy memories, I remembered its Unique Skill. “...A barrier.”

Suddenly, we heard howling.

It was an ominous sound. Seongmin got up with his sword in hand and looked around.

Damn.

“Where... did everybody go?”

There was nobody around us.

***

“So you think we’re trapped inside a barrier?”

“It’s highly likely.”

If the monster wasn’t boss-level, it wouldn’t be able to create a barrier that trapped everyone except us.

The “barrier” that it created was a space that was entirely disconnected from the outside. It wasn’t a grand concept like space creation, but entities outside the barrier wouldn’t be able to sense it.

Originally, my Spatial Interference could break through such a barrier.

After I transmigrated, did my skill level get locked?

While I had sensed it before, it felt like my control had dulled strangely. With my sharp senses, I could reassemble a place from a speck of dust, but now my skills were much worse.

“Then... what do we have to do to escape from it?” Seongmin asked nervously. His tone revealed that he wanted a miraculous solution, but unfortunately...

“We have to defeat the cerberus.”

The only way out was to face it. This Unique Skill was one of the reasons why the monster was named cerberus. Just like the figure that guarded the gates of hell according to legend, this monster also used a barrier. The difference was that it used this to attack and not protect.

“Even now... it’s probably nearby.”

Earlier, I had felt something approaching us...

I hid the karambit behind my back. I tensed my body, feeling my muscles contract and tighten. I activated my Spatial Interference so that I could act immediately. As the blue light shone in my eye, it clearly recognized the movement of the monster approaching.

“It’s coming.”