Infinite Evolution Hunter [NOVEL] - chapter 24
“I only did my job.”
I said that to the battalion commander who came to thank me for breaking through the flames and taking down the fairies.
“No, you saved our lives. If you need anything, say the word.”
“Ah, could you collect some fairy wings for me?”
“We were already planning to retrieve all the fairy wings from the fairies Hunter Lee Ji-seok took down and deliver them to you. On top of that, we’ll purchase what other hunters got and pass those along as well.”
“Thank you.”
“Then please get some rest. Second platoon leader, support the Hunter with whatever he needs.”
“Sir!”
It felt worth it to have thrown myself into the fray.
After the battalion commander left, I went to rest as well, but the camp was a wreck, so it wasn’t a situation where I could wash up and relax properly. I soaked a towel with whatever was available and wiped myself down, then put on a spare set of clothes.
“Do fairies normally gather and move in a strategic way like that? This is different from the information we received from the Awakener Bureau.”
“Fairies are a highly intelligent species, but they’re very individualistic; there have been no sightings of them moving like that. They even came together with a different species—werewolves. Almost as if they had a commander.”
While I was resting, I could hear the battalion commander and Director Baek Young-shin talking; my sharp ears picked it up.
“Pushing straight north like this would be dangerous; we need reconnaissance. Do we have any available hunters?”
“Hmm… We’d need to requisition at least a B-class hunter, and we won’t know when one could get here until we send the request.”
The director spoke with a troubled look.
“Didn’t a B-class hunter arrive as support earlier?”
“That hunter is a mage—unsuited for recon. Besides, if he leaves, can we even hold this place?”
“That’s true… If we’re hit like that again here, it’ll be hard to avoid heavy losses.”
“Even though we got a B-class hunter, considering the same situation could be happening elsewhere today, we might have to withdraw.”
“That won’t do. We’ve already gathered this much force; we can’t end without results.”
The battalion commander seemed unable to tolerate a withdrawal—probably because his position would be at risk.
“Then what do you propose we do?”
“Let’s take volunteers and send out a recon.”
“…You mean to send hunters to their deaths?”
“I’m only asking to see if there are hunters who will volunteer. Naturally, if it becomes dangerous, they’re allowed to abort the recon and return.”
“No. It’s too dangerous.”
“Director, operational authority rests with me. And I’m not proposing we send them blindly. I’m saying we’ll take volunteers.”
“Then, if there are no volunteers, we withdraw?”
“…Understood.”
The battalion commander stepped outside and picked up a bullhorn. The director watched with a dissatisfied expression.
“Hunters, gather up please. There’s an announcement.”
With a murmur, the hunters gathered one by one.
“I’ll get right to the point since we’re all in a tough spot. Two hours ago the fairies and werewolves coordinated an attack, so the current situation isn’t good. Before we decide the next course of action, we need to investigate the cause of these unusual monster behaviors. We’ll take volunteers for a reconnaissance mission to handle that investigation.”
“Sending hunters into a forest that hasn’t been cleared of monsters—aren’t you sending them to die?”
I was about to volunteer when another hunter spoke up to the battalion commander.
“If it becomes dangerous, you may return immediately. Your lives are more important than the recon. However, volunteers will receive hazard pay commensurate with the mission and priority rights to materials obtained by the military.”
I was going to go even without those; all the better.
“I’ll go.”
I stood up.
“Hunter Lee Ji-seok? We know you distinguished yourself during the hellhound incident, but this is far more dangerous than that.”
Director Baek Young-shin recognized me and spoke.
“We fought head-on against the hellhounds, but this time the objective is recon, not killing. If it comes to it, I can at least get my own body out.”
“Hm…”
He seemed reluctant—like he felt he was sending me to my death.
“Come now, he volunteered himself. He was the top performer yesterday; I trust he’ll return safely.”
The battalion commander blocked Director Baek.
“Understood. But safety is paramount. If it feels dangerous, abandon the recon and return here.”
Director Baek grudgingly gave permission.
“Any other volunteers?”
The battalion commander asked the hunters again, but no one else volunteered. Even if every hunter here went into the forest, it wouldn’t be certain how many would make it back—sending a small group on such a mission, it’s only natural no one volunteered.
I put on the black uniform worn by special forces and camo’d my face and hands so I’d be almost invisible in the night forest.
“Well then.”
I gave a nod in greeting and dashed into the woods.
I spread my Keen Senses to the maximum and took in information from all directions. Even for a warrior-type hunter, a higher Intelligence stat is useful in areas like this. As your senses sharpen, the amount of information you take in skyrockets, and if your Intelligence is low, you can’t process it.
Thanks to that, even in pitch-black night I could grasp my surroundings as though it were day.
While hunting hellhounds I made noise on purpose, but now I stepped on earth and branches like a cat, killing my sound as I moved.
When I spotted monsters while moving, I marked their positions and moved on.
I headed north for an hour and saw nothing unusual; I was about to head back when I saw a whole flock of fairies gathered several dozen meters ahead.
‘Why are they gathered? Is there a commanding entity?’
I lowered my stance and approached to get a better look.
There was a fairy there about my height, with wings that looked four meters across both ways. A Fairy Queen.
“Come out.”
The Fairy Queen looked straight at where I hid in the brush and called me out in a beguiling voice.
Some high-intelligence monsters learn human language. For a highly intelligent monster like a Fairy Queen, picking up a language might be easy.
Even as I thought I shouldn’t step out, was I intoxicated by her appearance and voice? Before I knew it I had stood up and walked before the Fairy Queen.
As I stared blankly at her, the Fairy Queen smiled seductively.
Up close, she resembled a naked human woman; the difference was the translucent, iridescent wings. Her face and body were picture-perfect, but my eyes were fixed on the wings. Wings that big and high-quality would let me make the item I wanted.
Without even flapping, the Fairy Queen glided through the air toward me.
“Human men are all the same. They’re always entranced when they see me.”
She stroked her voluptuous body as she spoke.
I wasn’t entranced by her face or body—I was entranced by her wings; she misunderstood. Even so, why had I approached like this? My head felt foggy.
“You will return and kill your own kind. Until the day you die.”
Dust-like particles spread from the Queen’s wings and enveloped me.
[The skill level of Iron Will has risen from D to C.]
[The skill level of Poison Resistance has risen from E to D.]
The slight haze in my head cleared. This damn moth tried to brainwash me.
If I hadn’t raised Iron Will ahead of time through special training with Na-young, I might have been enslaved, killed soldiers and hunters, and then been hunted down myself.
With my mind clear, I shot my hand out like lightning and grabbed her nape.
“G-kh—! H-how….”
I choked the struggling Fairy Queen hard.
Her once beautiful face warped into something like a vicious insect.
She pressed her fingers together into a point and jabbed toward my face.
I grabbed one of her hands and broke it; I blocked the other by twisting my head and biting it.
The Fairy Queen may excel at magic, but her close-quarters combat ability is low.
I hadn’t known she had mind control. If I had known, I wouldn’t have approached so carelessly.
“Kieeeek!”
Fairies swarmed from all around, scratching and biting me. It looked like only my hands stuck out of a cloud of fairies as I gripped the Queen’s neck.
They tore at my whole body, but fairies’ physical attacks couldn’t do me much harm.
Even if they tried to cast, I was too close to the Queen. In truth, even their magic wouldn’t have meant much.
Crack.
I poured strength into the hand on the Queen’s neck and snapped it; the Queen went limp.
[Level has increased.]
“AAAAAH!”
“Kieeeee!”
The fairies shrieked with skin-crawling screams, raking at me and casting magic heedless of their own bodies.
I didn’t want to damage the Queen’s wings, so I threw her far away, then tore and ripped the fairies clinging to me one by one. It seemed every fairy in the forest was flocking; no matter how much I swung, I kept hitting something.
If they had flown off, they’d have been harder to catch, but having lost their Queen, they threw themselves at me as if they’d lost their minds.
Under the mass assault, wounds opened all over me and even my left eye got hit, but like the blades of a giant mixer I swung my arms madly and slaughtered the fairies.
[Level has increased.]
—
I wrapped the dead Fairy Queen in her own wings, slung her over my shoulder, and returned to the camp as dawn began to break.
I had gone out in a black uniform for the mission, but I came back looking like a beggar again. I needed to hurry and make the item.
“The recon hunter has returned! We have a casualty! Requesting a healer!”
A soldier on watch spotted me and shouted into his radio.
I guess he took one look at me and assumed I was hurt again.
As I slowly approached the camp entrance, the battalion commander, the Awakener Bureau director, and a healer rushed out en masse. I guess they hadn’t slept at all.
Thud!
I dropped the Fairy Queen to the ground.
“Hey! You can’t just put a casualty down like—hieek! A fairy?”
A soldier shouted in surprise. I thought he was calling me the casualty, but I guess he mistook this for one. Yesterday she lured humans with a beautiful face, but dead and transformed into a monstrous insect, the Fairy Queen was no longer beautiful.
“Yes. This thing seems to have been controlling the surrounding monsters and fairies.”
“What… We told you to recon… and you killed that?”
The battalion commander spoke, slack-jawed.
“She let her guard down because I was alone. Also, could you go to these coordinates and retrieve the fairies?”
“Retrieve? Not hunt?”
“Yes. There won’t be any alive. I killed every fairy in the area. I’m going to get some rest.”
After fighting all night and running around the forest, my fatigue was high. Thanks to Regeneration it was only fatigue; an ordinary hunter—even a B-class—wouldn’t have been able to return.
—
When I came out of the tent after sleeping, the camp was a frenzy recovering fairy corpses. Soldiers and the staff from Hwagok Collection, whom I’d called in, were rushing around sorting the bodies.
“The wings are the important part, so be careful. Hey?! Careful there~ Don’t throw it like that~”
President Yang was directing his company’s employees and the soldiers.