Evolution Theory of the Hunter

J: And this is the last chapter Kyle left for me to post in his stead. I will still check up on the site occasionally, so if anyone finds any mistakes Kyle made, let me know and I will fix them. Oh, and sorry about posting it two days late. I completely forgot about this site until today due to the new semester of university starting this week.

“I have something I have to do you see.”

“Ah. Come to think of it, why did you come all the way here from Korea?”

He sure asked quickly.

“You should know that a new island called Yellow Sea appeared as well. I’m doing a private investigation of the cause.”

It was beating around the bush but a part of the truth was mixed in. I actually didn’t know ‘why’ the Yellow Sea appeared after all. The Delta System had gotten into my hands and that was interfering with the existing system.

However, it seems the original system does not welcome that.

I am saying this while personifying but it’s true that it feels like that. Delta deleted the originally existing dungeons and added superior items and was even trying to obtain information on the original system.

The fact that beings I didn’t know about were at war could be inferred just looking at the things that have happened until now.

Also, it was chance to get closer to find out about the things happening behind looking for ruins.

This was the reason I was looking for ruins despite the fact it didn’t earn me much money.

Wouldn’t it be possible for me to meet that Master of Delta guy someday if I keep tracking it down?

For now, it was all my speculation until now but I could feel myself getting closer the more I grow.

After parting with team Die Hard I immediately bought another van. It was impossible to repair a completely destroyed van so it couldn’t be helped.

With this the credit that reached 900 EP fell to the 500s.

With the ones bought for team 1 and team 2 each amounted to 300 EP and other miscellaneous things were bought so it became like that.

After driving for a long time we finally arrived at the South coastline. The ocean that was spread out made it impossible to travel by ship because of the pieces of ice and glaciers.

“So it’s that place.”

Edward pointed at the cave protected by a huge statue below the cliff on the other side.

The size of the stone statue was about 5 meters and thinking about how they were all going to move at once my head already started hurting.

“I didn’t know this. I think I don’t like fighting at the base.”

“You? Are you really saying that?”

Edward frowned. Is it hard for him to believe since he has been beaten up by me I wonder.

“No matter how easy of a battle it is, variables exist after all. Always putting your life on the line is a really exhausting thing.”

“From what I know, there’s no one that battles easier than you. For now, that Dancing Sword or whatever seems like something that shouldn’t exist.”

“That’s true.”

I felt a bit embarrassed after saying it myself.

I had quite a few difficult battles but it was also true that I often used the Dancing Sword to sweep them as if cleaning.

For now, we got off the van and went down the cliff. The Dancing Sword was truly convenient in various ways. To be able to move regardless of terrain. If I didn’t have this I would have had to crawl down the cliff or something.

Or I had to buy the Angel Shoes from the Delta Store but thinking about how the price of level 6 items were 500 EP it really wasn’t easy to buy one.

The two giant stone statues were huge bears. I’m guessing they are different depending on the region. My guess is that it’s a monster that is the variant of a polar bear.

I carefully went towards the stone statue.

There was no tremors from the stone statue unexpectedly.

“What did you do last time?”

“It started moving once I put a hand on it.”

“Then does it stay still as long as you don’t put a hand on it?”

I tried going inside the ruin just to be sure. The stone statue didn’t move.

It seems you just had to not touch it. Since there was a high chance of a level 10 monster appearing I was planning on touching it once it appeared. Since a level 10 Aura Blade dropped from the Black Tiger wouldn’t these guys give something as well?

Either way, it wasn’t easy to see a level 10 monster like this so I couldn’t miss this chance.

I ignored the stone statues and went into the ruin. A warm feeling could be felt in the ruin unlike the outside.

There was a circular large hall with dozens of stone statues lined up along the wall.

It was similar to the Yellow Sea over all but there were some differences.

From the tunnel connected to the hall dozens of monsters holding weapons started running towards me.

There were things that looked familiar and things that I saw for the first time.

If there was a similarity it was that they were all at least level 5. I took out the Dancing Sword and started cutting them down indiscriminately.

“Kueek!”

“Kiek!”

“Kyaa!”

A merman with the head of a fish and human legs stabbed at me with a trident. Even while startled by the monster I swung the Bloody Sword to cut off its arm.

A scorpion’s tail made of ice came towards me. It was a strike that would make me freeze due to the ice poison on it. As I cut off its tail a transparent liquid spouted out and collapsed on the ground.

[+500]

[+600]

As I frantically cut down the monsters swarming in from all around, reward points, items, and ores kept coming in. The wide area was full of hundreds of monsters at some point and I was completely surrounded.

Even so, it wasn’t like I felt threatened or something.

Instead, the crowded monsters collided with each other unable to attack properly.

Every time the Dancing Sword drew a circle the front line of monsters all got killed. Ten or so monsters died with each attack and items would come in each time. The ones killed until now numbered 100. It wasn’t a situation that exhausted me either so I felt like I could do this kind of battle all day.

Edward who was looking at that scene from midair opened his mouth as he clicked his tongue.

“Who said they didn’t like battles? At least don’t laugh.”

I only just realized there was a smile on my face.

I fixed my expression and opened my mouth.

“Shut up man. I’m not being happy about the battle but because of earning money.”

It was just that my mind was feeling productive looking at the ores and items piling up in real time. There’s no way I would like a battle with my life on the line right.

As the battle about 30 minutes ended, the area returned to its original appearance as if nothing had happened.

It was because all of the monster corpses were Rapid Returned. Not a single bloodstain or piece of corpse was left behind and all disappeared.

Edward looked around at the surroundings and sighed.

“At least leave one. There’s not even one for me to suck blood from.”

“Sorry. I forgot about it. I will leave one next time.”

I thought that Rapid Return was good but it seems there was a drawback as well. Either way, it wasn’t difficult to leave one or two so it wasn’t much of a problem.

After the battle ended, I destroyed all the stone statues.

Strengthening Stones and ores showered down. There were level 7 and even level 8 Strengthening Stones. Overall, it was higher in level than the ones from the forest region.

The appearance of monsters and high quality ores.

It was similar to the ruin in the forest region but slightly different at the same time. I thought that it might be a bit dangerous but I ignored it for now. In the end, I wouldn’t know until I actually experience it.

“This way.”

“Do you know where you’re going?”

“I went this way last time as well.”

“That sure is a logical reasoning.”

Edward let out a laugh. However, since he didn’t have any other alternative he had no choice but to follow behind me.

Passing the area from before we went to the tunnel on the right. If the structure was the same as what I remember we would be able to arrive at the place with the stairs without getting lost.

I proceeded carefully just in case monsters appeared again.

Most dangerous would be blocked by the level 10 armor on me but you never knew where and when danger would appear.

After moving like that for 10 minutes a straight long hallway appeared. Stone statues were lined up on the left and right.

Edward lightly whistled.

“This place is also filled with stone statues I see.”

“It’s okay for getting allowance.”

For now, I sent the Dancing Sword with Aura Blade on it.

The blunt sword with white light passed by the statues at a fast speed.

It was more like exploding than cutting.

The Dancing Sword with Aura Blade destroyed the close to 100 stone statues in mere moments.

The items from the broken statues immediately went into the item list. The fact that I didn’t have to pick them up one by one was incredibly convenient.

I was thinking about whether I should get a skill slot and buy Psychokinesis you see.

By the way, Psychokinesis is a skill that allows movement of an object below 100 kilograms.

A regular person could be held as well so it was a skill that had many uses.

On top of that it allowed the user to levitate oneself. It meant that it was possible to fly although it was incredibly slow.

Of course, the place Psychokinesis is used the most is getting a TV remote that’s far away.

Because Psychokinesis itself didn’t have many uses in battle it was mostly used by hunters that had a surplus of money and was only used as a skill to make their lives easier.

Passing the empty hallway like that we had come back to the area we were at before.

“It seems it’s not this path.”

“I was planning on exploring every single area so it doesn’t matter.”

I sluggishly went to another path.

It wasn’t like there was a time limit and it would be able to get through it in one or two hours so there was no need to rush.

After going through all the paths I returned to the area.

This made me a bit flustered. There was no path to the altar.

“Did I miss something……?”

No matter how I think about it I didn’t miss a path. All paths were inspected.

Edward opened his mouth.

“Maybe there’s a hidden path somewhere?”

“It’s not like it’s not impossible but…….”

The ruin the Mystic Dungeon indicated was definitely here. That meant that the place the original system’s data can be gotten is somewhere here. Also, I’m thinking that it’s in a similar manner to the ruin in the forest region.

The problem was that it couldn’t be seen.

If there was a hidden path as Edward said, it wasn’t an easy talk to find it.

If it could be found just by looking for it there’s no way it would be hidden.

“Isn’t there some sort of hint.”

“Well…… If you’re frustrated how about you take care of the things outside first?”

He was talking about the two bears outside. I thought it wasn’t a bad idea.

We went of the ruin like that. The ruin at the bottom of the cliff had two bear stone statues at the entrance. The road from the ocean was blocked so it was a discrete location that wouldn’t be found easily.

In other words, there’s no way someone would come here even by chance.

But there was such a person. A person wearing a black suit at that.

“Hey, hisashiburi.” (Kyle: ‘Hisashiburi’ means long time no see in Japanese.)