NOVEL NEXT Chapter 337
Fortunately, there was a much more mature and intelligent mermaid princess, Hyung-An, than Yane in this place.
‘Well, if I remember correctly, broadcasts used to show something stimulating or interesting…’
Recalling the various antics Shia had displayed in the Deep Sea Palace, the mermaid princess wondered if Yane also needed to do something like that, but the exceptionally intelligent princess quickly shook her head to deny it.
If humans were in their right mind, they wouldn’t make Yane do such ridiculous things.
‘Just toss them some interesting bait, and that should work.’
And this place was a dungeon.
Just moving a little further would reveal a dungeon filled with mutant Minotaurs roaming around.
The mermaid princess let out a short sigh, poked Yane on the shoulder, and pointed toward the other side of the forest.
“Go, Yane.”
“Kki-ekk?”
-?
-Mel-yo?
-Eh?
“Headbutt!”
“Kki-i?”
And Yane, who had a higher fondness for the mermaid princess than her master, immediately turned and charged in the direction she pointed.
Puhuhk!
—Uhm-moo… Guhak!
And where Yane charged was a Minotaur munching on protein cacao by itself, and at quite a speed, Yane slammed her head into the Minotaur’s spine.
There was a slight cracking sound, so it was highly likely the Minotaur’s vertebrae had cracked.
Of course, the Jang-Bung watching couldn’t help but be horrified.
-Oh no!
-Oh no!
-Huh?
-Holy crap!
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-!?
-No way, a Minotaur???
And just then, the eyes of Yane and the Minotaur met, and perhaps they were both surprised, as they started to scream.
“Kki-eeek!?”
-MooOOOO!?
“Kki-eeek!!!”
-MooOOOOo!!
“Kki-eeek!!!”
-MooOOOOooook!
“Shut up, dammit!”
—Screech!
Then, with her ears ringing, Yane swung her tail and hit the Minotaur under the jaw, neatly severing its jawbone with the blade attached to her tail.
-?
-?
-?
-Eh?
-Did Yane just curse?
-No, what? She’s treating a Minotaur like a joke, lol!
-Yane is so terrifying, lmao!
-LOL!
“Kki-ekk?”
With a naive look on her face again, Yane, however, it seemed the viewers felt like the girl they always thought would be innocent had suddenly outgrown their expectations.
‘Well… if there’s no broadcast content, I’ll have to create it.’
Hyung-An’s mermaid princess thought she could adapt to broadcasting surprisingly easily.
○○○○○
“Damn it, humans!!!”
The dungeon boss in Hwangwoo Valley was a white female Minotaur known as Baekchakchi.
For reference, the term “Chakchi” refers to a half-human, half-beast demon defeated by the ancient Chinese hero ‘Ye’, and since its skin was so white that it stood out from afar, it was called Baekchakchi among Chinese hunters. It seemed the Baekchakchi herself took pleasure in being referred to by that name.
Anyway, Baekchakchi was first observed by hunter drones from Heilongjiang Province after several hunters died in their attempts to conquer Hwangwoo Valley.
Though smaller in stature than other Minotaurs, she was still about 2 meters tall, exceeding the average height of humans, had long horns like her kin, and her skin was as white as if covered in bone dust, making her noticeable from afar. Despite being a female Minotaur, her appearance closely resembled that of humans, and at a glance, one could mistake her for a returnee or a humanoid species that had formally applied to immigrate to Earth.
However, Baekchakchi was undeniably a monster.
Like her kin, she consumed a variety of foods, including human cuisine, and years ago, she attempted to invade human cities with an army of Minotaurs.
Typically, Minotaurs don’t give birth to females, instead capturing females of other species to use as breeding stock, but Baekchakchi’s mother was a dwarf woman, her grandmother an elf, and her great-grandmother a human woman, thus she could be seen as a type with newly expressed genetic traits.
Because her appearance was different, Baekchakchi was rejected by both her kin and other species.
But Baekchakchi possessed a strength that her brute kin lacked—an ability to manipulate minds, a power inherited from her maternal grandmother.
Although one could think Baekchakchi was strong enough to be regarded as the leader of ferocious Minotaurs, the reality was that it wasn’t her physical might that unified the Minotaurs, but her ability to manipulate the minds of her opponents with her ‘sorcery’ independent of great power.
In fact, Baekchakchi’s overall strength was typically weaker than that of ferocious Minotaurs, while she possessed the intelligence and sorcerous powers to control them and the ability to share sight with small insects, birds, beasts, and minor monsters through her sorcery.
Because of this, Baekchakchi had preemptively cut off the buds of any potential rebellions among her kin, solidifying her position.
But today, Baekchakchi was facing the greatest crisis of her life… no, of her monstrous existence.
‘I’m finished…!’
Baekchakchi could perceive the circumstances of the humans invading the dungeon through the shared sight of her kin.
Excluding civilians, there were over 1,000 A-grade hunters.
About 20 S-grade hunters had been transported due to the dungeon gimmick.
As soon as Baekchakchi detected the dungeon invasion, she ordered her kin to attack with the intention of exterminating the humans, but the organization and response capabilities of the A-grade hunters were more impressive than Baekchakchi had imagined.
Still, with an army of nearly 3,000 Minotaurs, she thought it would be impossible to wipe out the hunters but inflict devastating casualties.
‘If humans suffer a lot, they’ll be too busy healing their wounds to pursue us. We can hide in the Underground Meridian with as many kin as we can and immediately escape danger.’
In fact, Baekchakchi’s reasoning was quite rational.
Her original plan was to sacrifice 3,000 Minotaurs to preserve the rest of her kin. If the humans retreated, a chance to flourish again could arise.
But…
“And that damn little female, what’s with her? I’m done because of that little brat!”
Teresa Kaitlyn.
Because of the dark witch, who stepped onto the battlefield instead of Shia and Menelapie, who were caught in the transportation gimmick, Baekchakchi’s plans fell apart.
Teresa wasn’t just killing Minotaurs with brute force; her purple threads eroded the living bodies of the Minotaurs, piercing through them to turn them into puppets, even killing her kin.
Though Minotaurs were fierce beasts, they possessed discernible intelligence and reason.
Because Teresa controlled Minotaurs at the forefront, causing severe psychological destabilization, while there were many hunters with injuries, none had died.
Not all Minotaurs perished, but they were utterly defeated, losing morale, meaning Baekchakchi would have to intervene with her kin’s mental condition, and there was a threat of losing additional warriors.
“How long did it take to recover this point…!”
In any case, if there were no fatalities, the hunters would soon reorganize and begin exploring the dungeon, meaning Baekchakchi and her kin would have to give up a lot before they could hide in the Underground Meridian.
“Damn purple little girl! I will definitely capture you and use you for breeding!”
Of course, that would require an opportunity to make it possible.
Baekchakchi wasn’t a fool.
In fact, being the most intelligent among Minotaurs, she could lead them, and since she wielded sorcery that manipulated minds, her own intelligence had to be high.
“Umoo… now that it’s come to this, I need to erode their minds…”
Baekchakchi realized that to win against those numerous hunters, she couldn’t go with a straightforward approach or head-on clash, but rather, she had to incite division from within.
Inciting division from within meant manipulating the hunters with Baekchakchi’s sorcery, but the issue was that she could only erode the mind of one individual at a time.
Since Baekchakchi was a Minotaur herself, she could manipulate the minds of her kin in the hundreds, but humans tended to resist, and their mental fortitude was naturally unfavorable to the type of sorcery she employed.
Moreover, even if she could only control one, it would still be incredibly challenging to breach the mental barriers of any A-grade hunter. Eroding the mind of just one A-grade hunter wouldn’t be sufficient for internal division.
‘What to do… what to do…’
This meant Baekchakchi had to erode the mind of an S-grade hunter to make any progress, but the problem was, if the mind barriers of A-grade hunters were tough, how could she touch the mind of an S-grade hunter?
And besides, S-grade hunters were the very ones who deemed the dungeon too dangerous and had activated the transportation gimmick.
For Baekchakchi to manipulate an S-grade hunter’s mind with sorcery would demand tremendous conditions and efforts.
“I need to catch a strong human, then if a male, I should torture him to weaken his mental fortitude… If a female, I might be able to break her mind by coupling with a male warrior and then casting my sorcery…”
However, Baekchakchi knew that if the strong human (S-grade hunter) were of Teresa’s caliber, capturing him would be impossible, no matter how many of her kin were involved.
If an S-grade hunter, who judged he couldn’t win in a direct confrontation, decided to flee, how could they capture him?
Although the mighty Minotaurs possessed powerful strength and excelled in direct confrontation, they were not in advantageous positions for capturing hunters who wielded unpredictable abilities.
“Grr, no. No. They all look too strong. Dangerous. Can’t pierce the mind…”
So, Baekchakchi continued to search and search through the eyes of the insects, small beasts, and birds she had assigned her sorcery to but could not find an appropriate target.
It wasn’t as though she hadn’t attempted her sorcery, yet S-grade hunters seemed to sense any disparities and instinctively reinforced their mental barriers. If things continued down this path, Baekchakchi would have to sacrifice 90% of her kin to the hunters and hide with her remaining family in the Underground Meridian.
Then again, no existence with powerful strength commensurate with S-grade hunters would lack mental resilience.
Unless by some stroke of luck, an S-grade hunter suffered a mentally crippling blow, she might give it a try, but even if such an entity existed, the world was not that convenient to provide one just at the right moment during such a desperate situation.
“Huh?”
However, while Baekchakchi was shifting the sight of the insects around, the next moment, despite not believing in deities, she found herself seeking a god.
With a gray aura shimmering and holding an odd ice bowl and skewers, it was somewhat strange, but nonetheless, she found it!
“Shia, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
[..Found.. it…!]
I found it aaaaaaaa!!!!!