EFME 52

“You spoke well, hey.”

As soon as they got in the car after all the tests were finished, Jaehoon grinned and said to Sunyul.

“…Will it be okay?”

Now that he’d done it, he was starting to regret it, so Sunyul replied timidly. Of course, his opinion hadn’t changed from that moment to now. It was more a regret of whether he really needed to say it there.

“What does it matter? It’s not like you said anything strange. The Ability Management Office and the Research Institute will think you’re a pushover if you stay quiet. You have to give them that much.”

“…Yes.”

Jaehoon’s reaction was that it was no problem at all. Seeing that, Sunyul thought of Muyoung.

Would Muyoung say the same thing?

He definitely would. It felt like no matter what Sunyul said, Muyoung would be on his side.

Sunyul slowly pushed away his fear. Even if countless people weren’t on his side, as long as Muyoung was, that was enough.

Humming a tune, Jaehoon started the car.

They were on their way to the guild, driving down the road for some time. The car in front of them suddenly stopped. And at almost the same time, a warning alarm started blaring from his smartphone.

“What the… shit.”

Jaehoon’s complexion, who had been about to curse at the car in front, changed in an instant.

A door stood incongruously in the middle of the road. It was a massive door, big enough to be seen even from a considerable distance. The door was wide open, and the inside was completely black and couldn’t be seen.

It was a dungeon gate.

And a huge monster was just emerging from the gate.

“Crazy…”

A look of dismay crossed Jaehoon’s face.

A monster that huge in the middle of downtown Seoul, lined with buildings. If it so much as collided with a building, the damage would grow beyond control.

Jaehoon turned to look at Sunyul. According to the conditions set by the Ability Management Office, Jaehoon was obligated to keep Sunyul under constant surveillance. But there was no way he could drag Sunyul around while fighting a monster that looked powerful at a glance.

“Ah, seriously!”

Jaehoon, who had exploded in anger while scratching his head furiously, gestured at Sunyul with his chin. The Ability Management Office’s conditions weren’t the problem right now. If things went wrong, there would be massive casualties.

“This won’t work. You evacuate. I’m going to go stop that thing.”

“Ah, yes!”

The situation was so urgent, there was no other choice. After watching Jaehoon dash out, Sunyul decided to stay seated in the car after some thought.

He didn’t have any disguise items right now. If he went to a shelter for no reason, someone would recognize him. It would be better to stay here than to cause confusion among people because of his existence.

Sunyul sat and checked his messages.

ᴀ-ʀᴀɴᴋ ᴅᴜɴɢᴇᴏɴ ᴏᴜᴛʙʀᴇᴀᴋ. ᴠɪᴄɪɴɪᴛʏ ᴏғ xx-ʀᴏ, sᴀᴊɪᴋ-ᴅᴏɴɢ, ᴊᴏɴɢɴᴏ-ɢᴜ, sᴇᴏᴜʟ. sᴛᴀʏ ɪɴᴅᴏᴏʀs. ᴘᴇᴅᴇsᴛʀɪᴀɴs, ᴇᴠᴀᴄᴜᴀᴛᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ɴᴇᴀʀᴇsᴛ sʜᴇʟᴛᴇʀ.

ᴅᴇᴛᴀɪʟᴇᴅ ᴅᴜɴɢᴇᴏɴ ʟᴏᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ɢᴜɪᴅᴇ (ᴜʀʟ)

sʜᴇʟᴛᴇʀ ʟᴏᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ɢᴜɪᴅᴇ (ᴜʀʟ)

The dungeon’s rank was high. S-rank hunter Jaehoon had joined in, but maybe the matchup was bad or something, because the clearing was slow. Because of that, the situation didn’t go as Sunyul had hoped.

The number of monsters coming out of the dungeon was quite large. Jaehoon was holding them back, but it seemed he couldn’t use wide-range skills because the monsters were high-rank and the people who hadn’t evacuated were scattered everywhere.

Eventually, a group of monsters got close enough to approach the car Sunyul was in. In the end, Sunyul had no choice but to get out of the car. At the edge of the panicking crowd, Sunyul also headed for the shelter, hoping no one would recognize him.

“Aaargh!”

A desperate scream from somewhere stopped Sunyul in his tracks. A monster that had escaped the containment line had come close.

And the person who had just screamed was on the ground, a short distance from the monster.

A touch-and-go situation.

After seeing the despair-filled face, Sunyul ran over and helped the fallen person up.

“Get up!”

“Ugh, ahh…”

But the person, as if their legs had given out, couldn’t seem to get up.

Sunyul tried his best to lift them while checking their condition. The unfocused eyes, the body trembling so violently it was visible. This wasn’t just fear…

‘A skill?’

It looked like they’d been hit by a skill. It seemed the monster had some kind of fear-inflicting skill.

At that moment, a very high, thin sound struck Sunyul’s ears. It was a sound that was barely audible, difficult for the ears to perceive. Sunyul frowned. It felt like a strange sensation had swept through his body, and it felt a little itchy before quickly becoming fine again.

Just as Sunyul was about to support the person who had gone completely limp.

The monster that was a short distance away closed the gap in an instant.

—What’s this?

The monster let out a low growl, grrrr. The monster, shaped like a long, slender fish with wings instead of fins, was leisurely flying in the air.

—It smells delicious.

“…”

—What is this one? Why isn’t my skill working on it?

The monster stopped and circled around Sunyul. Its long body coiled and uncoiled as if it would squeeze Sunyul’s body at any moment. The monster brought its face right up close.

—What in the world are you.

“…Go away.”

—Oh? Can you understand me?

Sunyul was silently horrified by the monster’s words.

‘Did the monster just understand what I said? How?’

It was one thing for Sunyul to understand the monster, but for the monster to understand him when he had spoken in normal human language. Sunyul became genuinely confused.

—Interesting. I’ll take you with me without killing you.

“What?”

—You’ll resist, so I can probably take you after cutting off a leg, right?

He could feel a blatant killing intent from the monster.

“Ugh!”

It was pure luck that he managed to dodge the attack of the monster’s wide-open mouth.

Something like mucus dripped from its open mouth, drip drip. The asphalt where the mucus fell smoked as if it were burning. A sense of crisis filled his head.

There was nothing Sunyul could do. Even if another hunter spotted them and came running, the monster would tear Sunyul apart first.

In that instant, countless thoughts flashed by. Piercing through his complicated mind, a single message was engraved in his head.

[‘Traveler of the Eternal Night’ says that you have a skill bestowed upon you.]

[‘Traveler of the Eternal Night’ urges you to use Polar Night.]

There was no time to ask how to use a skill. The monster was lunging with a ferocious momentum, as if it would tear off his leg at any second.

Sunyul didn’t think too hard. Just as he could breathe naturally without thinking about it, the moment Sunyul decided he had to use it, his magic power moved naturally.

[Using skill ‘Polar Night’.]

Simultaneously with the skill’s activation, the surroundings suddenly darkened. A veil of pitch-black darkness covered the sky above. As if a piece of the night had been cut out and brought here.

—What is this!

The monster let out a sharp scream and raised its head. That shriek didn’t have as much power as before.

[‘Traveler of the Eternal Night’ urges you to use the Meteor skill.]

Cold sweat ran down Sunyul’s back. His head hurt as if it would shatter, and he was dizzy. It was a typical state of magic power depletion. But he had no time to hesitate.

[Using skill ‘Meteor’.]

From high up in the darkened sky, a twinkling star plummets downward. Still twinkling just as it did when it was embedded in the sky, leaving behind a silver trajectory.

Cutting straight across the sky…

CRASH!

With a huge sound, the falling star directly hit the monster.

A giant crater formed where the star fell. The cars that had been abandoned on the road along with the monster were also completely smashed.

The long trajectory didn’t end with just one. A few more stars followed, rushing toward the ground. It wasn’t enough to be called a meteor shower, but the successive impacts were certainly a spectacle. The fallen stars crushed several monsters like flies.

Sunyul clutched his head. The headache was too severe. It felt like his head was splitting open.

[‘Traveler of the Eternal Night’ feels sorry that you are lacking in magic power right now.]

[‘Traveler of the Eternal Night’ explains that your magic power will return to its original state only when you reclaim your existence.]

He had no idea what that meant. He couldn’t understand the constellation’s words, which were always like grasping at clouds, nor did he want to.

“Gasp…”

Then, he heard the sound of someone sucking in a breath. The person, freed from the effects of the fear skill, was staggering and trying to get up. Sunyul reached out a hand to help.

“Are you okay?”

But instead of his hand being taken, the person slapped it away in terror. Sunyul’s hand was knocked away in vain.

“…Ah.”

The person, their face pale, backed away and fled in a hurry, afraid of what might happen.

It was a disaster.

Sunyul, who had withdrawn his hand, stood there blankly, unable to do anything. He couldn’t go back to where he was, nor could he leave for the shelter.

I should probably go back to where I was before. If I can use that skill from a moment ago, at least it won’t be dangerous…

As he was thinking that, he saw someone flying over from far away. It was Jaehoon.

“Hey, you… what did you do.”

Jaehoon, who had come closer, had a scary expression Sunyul had never seen before.

“Follow me, for now.”

There was no mercy in the rough hand that grabbed him. Sunyul couldn’t say a word and followed Jaehoon.