Infinite Evolution Hunter [NOVEL] - chapter 28
“It’s just that I did what needed to be done.”
I said 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 the fairy wings for me?”
“All fairy wings from fairies taken down by Hunter Lee Ji-seok will be gathered and handed over to you. In addition, we’ll purchase those taken by other hunters and deliver them as well.”
“Thank you.”
“Then please get some rest. Second platoon leader, support the hunter with anything he needs.”
“Yes, sir!”
Throwing myself into the fire was worth it.
After the battalion commander left and I went to rest, the camp was too wrecked to wash up or relax comfortably. I wetted a towel and wiped myself down as best I could, then put on a change of clothes.
“Do fairies normally swarm and move strategically like that? This is different from what we got from the Awakened Bureau.”
“Fairies are a highly intelligent species, but they’re also very individualistic. There are no recorded cases of them acting that way. And they even came in the same group with werewolves, a different species—as if they had a commander.”
While I was resting, I could hear the battalion commander and Section Chief Baek Young-shin speaking—my sharp ears picked it up.
“It’s risky to keep pushing north like this; we need reconnaissance. Do we have any hunters who can do it?”
“Mm… we’d need to requisition at least a B-rank hunter, and I can’t say when they’d arrive until we put in the request.”
The section chief sounded troubled.
“Didn’t a B-rank hunter arrive for support earlier?”
“He’s a mage—not suited for recon. Besides, if he leaves can we even hold this place?”
“True enough… If we get hit like that again here, it’ll be hard to avoid heavy losses.”
“Even if a B-rank came here, other sectors could face the same situation today. We may have to consider retreat.”
“That won’t do. We’ve already concentrated this much force—we can’t come away with nothing.”
The battalion commander couldn’t accept a retreat, maybe because his position would be on the line.
“Then what do you suggest?”
“Let’s take volunteers and send out a recon.”
“…You’re planning to send hunters to their deaths?”
“I’m only saying we see if anyone volunteers. And of course, if the situation becomes dangerous, they can abort and return.”
“No. It’s too risky.”
“Section chief, I have operational command. And I’m not saying we send them blindly; I’m saying we take volunteers.”
“If there are no volunteers, then we retreat?”
“…Understood.”
The battalion commander stepped outside and took up a megaphone. The section chief watched with a disapproving look.
“Hunters, gather please. There’s an announcement.”
With a murmur, hunters gathered one by one.
“Since everyone’s exhausted, I’ll get right to it. Two hours ago, fairies and werewolves coordinated an attack, and the current situation isn’t great. Before we decide our next move, we need to investigate why the monsters are behaving abnormally. We’re seeking volunteers for a recon mission to handle that.”
“Sending hunters into an un-cleared forest—aren’t you sending them to die?”
I was about to volunteer when another hunter spoke up to the battalion commander.
“If it gets dangerous, return immediately. Your lives are more important than the recon. Volunteers will receive hazard pay commensurate with the mission and first rights to materials acquired by the army.”
I was going to go even without that; all the better.
“I’ll go.”
I rose from my seat.
“Hunter Lee Ji-seok? I know you did great during the hellhound operation, but this is far more dangerous.”
Section Chief Baek recognized me and spoke.
“With hellhounds we fought head-on, but this time the goal is recon, not kills. If it comes to it, I can at least get myself out.”
“Mm…”
He seemed conflicted, as if he were sending me to my death.
“Come now, he volunteered. He was the top performer yesterday, so I trust he’ll return safely.”
The battalion commander cut off the section chief.
“All right. But safety is the top priority. If it seems dangerous, give up the recon and come back.”
The section chief reluctantly gave permission.
“Any other volunteers?”
The battalion commander asked again, but no one stepped forward. Even if every hunter here went into that forest, no one could be sure how many would make it back. Asking a small team to go—it was only natural no one volunteered.
I donned the black fatigues used by special forces and camouflaged my face and hands, making me nearly invisible in the nighttime forest.
“Then I’m off.”
I gave a small nod and slipped into the trees.
I spread my heightened senses to take in information from all around. Even a warrior-type hunter benefits from Intelligence—more sensitivity means a deluge of input, and low Intelligence can’t process it.
Thanks to it, even in pitch black night I could read my surroundings as if it were day.
When we hunted hellhounds I’d moved noisily on purpose; now I stepped like a cat, placing my feet on ground and trunk without a sound.
If I saw a monster, I marked its position and moved on.
I headed north for an hour with nothing unusual, and was about to turn back when I saw a mass of fairies tens of meters ahead.
‘Why are they gathered? Is there a commander unit?’
I lowered my posture and crept closer for a better look.
There stood a fairy about my height, with wings that looked four meters across. A Fairy Queen.
“Come out.”
The Fairy Queen looked straight at me hiding in the brush and called me out in a bewitching voice.
Some intelligent monsters learn human language; for a Fairy Queen, picking up a tongue or two might be trivial.
Even as I told myself not to show myself, maybe I was intoxicated by that figure and voice—before I knew it I was standing and walking out before the Fairy Queen.
I stared blankly at her, and she smiled sensually.
Up close she looked almost like a naked human woman; the difference was the translucent iridescent wings. Her face and body were picture-perfect, but my eyes were fixed on those wings. Wings that large and high-quality could make the item I wanted.
The Queen drifted toward me without so much as a flap, as if gliding through the air.
“Human males are all the same. They all fall for me.”
She ran her hands over her voluptuous body as she spoke.
I was enthralled by the wings, not her face or body, but she misunderstood. Still, why had I approached like this? My head felt foggy.
“Go back 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 haze lifted a little. This damned moth was trying to mind-control me.
If I hadn’t raised Iron Will through training with Na-young, I might’ve been brainwashed, slaughtered soldiers and hunters, and then been hunted down by hunters.
With my mind clear, my hand shot out like lightning and seized her nape.
“Kh-hek! H-How…”
I strangled the struggling Queen.
Her beautiful face twisted into something like a monstrous insect.
She shaped her fingers into points and stabbed for my face.
I caught one of her hands and snapped it; the other I blocked by twisting and biting.
She might excel in magic, but her melee ability was poor.
I hadn’t known she had mind control. If I had, I wouldn’t have approached so carelessly.
“Kieeeek!”
Fairies swarmed from all sides, clawing and biting me. I was wrapped in fairies, my arms jutting out only enough to keep hold of the Queen’s neck.
They tore at me everywhere, but their physical attacks couldn’t do me serious harm.
They couldn’t use magic on me—they were too close to their Queen. Even if they had, it wouldn’t have mattered much.
Crunch.
I poured strength into the hand on her neck and broke it; the Queen went limp.
[Level up.]
“Aaaargh!!”
“Kieeeek!”
Fairies shrieked in a hair-raising chorus, raking at me and firing magic heedless of their own.
I tossed the Queen’s wings far so they wouldn’t be damaged, then ripped and shredded the fairies clinging to me one by one. It felt like every fairy in the forest was converging; no matter how I swung, I struck something.
If they had flown away, they would’ve been harder to catch, but losing their Queen left them crazed, and they rushed me.
Under the sheer numbers, cuts opened all over me and I lost my left eye, but I whirled my arms like the blades of a giant mixer and massacred them.
[Level up.]
—
I wrapped the dead Fairy Queen in her wings and slung her over my shoulder; dawn was breaking as I reached the camp.
I’d gone out in black fatigues and came back looking like a beggar again. I really needed to make that item soon.
“A recon hunter has returned! We have a casualty! Requesting a healer!”
A sentry spotted me and shouted into his radio.
Seeing my state, he must’ve assumed I was wounded.
As I approached the line slowly, the battalion commander, the Bureau section chief, and a healer rushed out. Guess they hadn’t slept.
Thud!
I dropped the Fairy Queen on the ground.
“Hey! You can’t just drop a casualty like—hii! A fairy?”
A soldier yelped. I thought he meant me, but I guess he mistook this for a casualty. Beautiful enough to beguile humans last night, the Queen was now dead with a monstrous insect face—no longer beautiful.
“Yes. This seemed to be commanding the nearby monsters and fairies.”
“Wait… we told you to recon… and you killed that?”
The battalion commander stared, dumbfounded.
“She let her guard down because I was alone. Also—please send a team to these coordinates to recover fairies.”
“Recover? Not hunt?”
“Yes. There shouldn’t be any survivors. I wiped out every fairy in the area. I’m going to get some rest.”
After fighting all night and moving through the forest, my fatigue was high. Thanks to Regeneration it was only fatigue—any normal hunter, even a B-rank, couldn’t have made it back.
—
When I woke and stepped out of the tent, the camp was in a frenzy recovering fairy corpses. Soldiers and the collection crew I’d called were busily sorting them.
“Careful with the wings. Hey! Careful there~ Don’t toss them like that~”
President Yang was directing our company staff and the soldiers.