Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 14

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

14
With my level up and the bonus, my stamina stat surged by three points all at once, leaving my body feeling remarkably light.
After a few minutes of combat, something felt off. Normally, these creatures kept their distance and fought defensively, but today they threw themselves at me with the fury of the doomed. For someone who needed to dispatch large numbers, it was advantageous—yet their behavior deviated sharply from the usual pattern.
Surveying the cave, I spotted injured and juvenile specimens scattered throughout. They were protecting their kin.
Monsters though they were, it was genuinely admirable. Still, I couldn’t simply leave them be. These creatures viewed humans as nothing but prey.
The surrounding farms and residential areas had already suffered casualties, which was precisely why the hunters and I were here. If left unchecked, the damage would spiral beyond control.
After dispatching roughly twenty, only the remaining specimens in the cave remained. The cavern was absurdly cramped for creatures of their size and number, so I stooped low to enter. The moment I stepped inside—not their mother—the young ones bared their tiny fangs and snarled. My hand hesitated for an instant, but necessity demanded I end it mercifully.
Once the battle concluded, I surveyed the surroundings. Hellhound corpses lay in mountainous heaps, and blood pooled everywhere.
Now I had to transport the bodies to the Checkpoint. It was closer than the Resort, but with this many, I’d need at least five round trips. The corpse retrieval would consume more time than the hunt itself, but since I hadn’t called for porters or professional salvage crews, there was no avoiding it.
I bound the slain Hellhounds tightly with rope, slung them across my back, and sprinted up the Mountain. After roughly ten minutes, I reached the Checkpoint with its storage container. I unlocked the container door with an electronic key, deposited the Hellhounds inside, and returned to the lair where I’d fought moments before.
With a thunderous roar, Hellhounds erupted from the darkness. Their crimson eyes pierced through the gloom. They’d surely witnessed their lair reduced to ash and their young slaughtered. And with the reek of Hellhound blood clinging to my body, I was undoubtedly their enemy.
But my level and stats had risen, and my keen sensory skill was now second nature. The Hellhounds’ attacks were transparent to me.
I raked my hand into a claw shape and struck the head of an incoming creature.
Hours earlier, I’d allowed their fangs to pierce my flesh, but those days were over. Now their teeth couldn’t even graze me.
The moment I arrived at the Hellhound lair, I hunted eight more. I’d made one trip to the Checkpoint earlier, yet the corpse count had only grown. It seemed I’d be running across this Mountain all night.
* * *
Until dawn broke, I shuttled back and forth between the Checkpoint and the Hellhound lair. By morning, the container—barely the size of a small room—was completely full, blood dripping steadily from beneath its doors.
On the fourth night alone, I’d captured fifty-six, bringing my total hunting score to seventy-four. Before departure, Choi Chul-min’s score had barely exceeded forty, so I’d already surpassed him.
This wager would be effortless. I waited at the Checkpoint with ease for the Gate Management Official to arrive.
As the morning sun rose higher, an Awakener Management Bureau official and the Hunter assigned to guard the Checkpoint appeared in a compact all-terrain vehicle, roughly the size of a golf cart. Its small frame made it ideal for navigating narrow mountain paths.
“Welcome.”
I tossed the key to the official stepping out of the vehicle and greeted him. He was the same person who’d lent me the key yesterday.
“You must be exhausted from working through the night.”
Word had apparently spread, because he made no comment about my blood-soaked appearance.
“Do you have any food or drinks?”
“Yes, right here.”
He retrieved bread and milk from the vehicle and moved toward the container.
“Be careful. It’s going to spill from inside.”
“Pardon?”
The moment he turned his head in response to my warning, the carefully stacked Hellhound corpses I’d arranged came crashing toward the door.
I launched myself forward and grabbed the back of his neck, yanking him away. While a civilian might not die under a pile of corpses, they could certainly be injured.
“You captured all of these by yourself?”
The Awakener Management Bureau official, now sitting on the ground, pointed at the bodies with trembling fingers and asked.
“I found one of their lairs. I’m heading back out now.”
I shoved the bread and milk into my mouth and turned back toward the Mountain.
“Aren’t you going to the Resort?”
As I headed into the forest rather than toward the Resort, he exclaimed in surprise.
“No, there aren’t many days left anyway. I need to catch more. I’ll be back soon, so keep the container empty.”
Unprepared for my immediate return to hunting, he stared at me blankly for a moment before snapping to attention and picking up his phone to request a transport helicopter.
I spent several hours roaming and hunting scattered groups of Hellhounds, though I didn’t find another large pack like last night. Still, my numbers were already comfortably ahead, so I hunted at a leisurely pace and returned to the Resort around midday. This morning’s haul was twelve. For a hunt without discovering a lair, it wasn’t bad.
While other hunters were out on their expeditions, the Resort stood empty. The buffet wasn’t operating either, so I lined up instant ramen cups, poured hot water into them, and cycled frozen dishes through the four available microwaves.
With no one watching, I stuffed ramen and dumplings into my mouth without restraint. Eating was part of my combat strategy—I needed to accumulate energy reserves.
I pulled up my status window while eating the ramen.
—————————————————-
Name: Lee Ji-seok
Occupation: Unemployed
Level: 10
Strength 32, Stamina 32, Agility 27, Intelligence 15, Vitality 320, Mana 118
Skills: Regeneration E, Hardened Body F, Resilient Spirit E, Poison Resistance E, Keen Senses C
—————————————————-
I’d reached Level 10 and obtained a C-rank skill. Once I completed the subjugation mission successfully, I could advance my hunter rank to E.
My Stamina and Strength had already exceeded 30, and Agility would soon follow. I’d surpassed E-rank hunter stats and now resembled a D-rank hunter’s capabilities. Watching my attributes climb steadily made me feel as though my suffering in my past life was finally being rewarded.
I finished my meal, treating my status window as a side dish, then took a nap.
After sleeping for about five hours, I came back downstairs to find the Cafeteria packed with people.
“Hyung!
Sang-heon spotted me first and rushed over urgently.
“I saw the scoreboard! How did you do that in just one day?”
Sang-heon spoke to me with considerable excitement. I’d made the bet, but he seemed more thrilled about it than I was.
“Found a Cave. Cleared it completely.”
“I’ll catch up soon with just a bit more effort.”
“A bit more?”
I was clearly ahead before I went to sleep—what was he talking about?
“Yeah, Choi Chul-min caught a ton too. But looking at how his numbers are climbing steeply while his party members are doing worse than yesterday, it seems like they’re funneling their scores to him. And you came without porters, right? He brought several with him.”
I checked the scoreboard on my app and saw that Choi Chul-min’s score had increased by 42, bringing him to 105. Mine was 86—still nearly a 20-point gap.
“Now that’s interesting.”
My competitive spirit was ignited. I must have been too complacent during the day and taken too much rest.
“Thanks for letting me know.”
I thanked Sang-heon for the information and began eating. From now on, I planned to minimize rest or skip it entirely until the final day, so I needed to consume significantly more food.
The buffet had already emptied out, so I brought entire serving trays and started eating. It took considerable time just to chew and swallow, but this allowed me to reduce the time spent on rest and food replenishment—a worthwhile trade-off.
After an hour-long meal, I left the Cafeteria. Though I’d consumed every remaining dish in the buffet, my real-time digestive compression meant my stomach barely protruded. By the time I began climbing the Mountain, it had flattened again.
Just like yesterday, I found a Hellhound Cave and plunged into the darkened Mountain.
I ventured deeper into the Mountain, farther from the Resort, and began hunting Hellhounds. The terrain grew steeper, making it an area most hunters avoided.
I caught everything in sight, and after taking down about ten, I discovered another Cave.
Typically, adults leave at night to hunt, leaving the Cave empty. So like the Cave I’d cleared yesterday, it usually contained only smaller or sickly specimens. But this Cave had an adult standing guard.
The fact that it was maintaining a watch suggested its intelligence was considerably higher than a goblin’s.
Moreover, the Hellhounds here were larger than any I’d hunted so far. Previously they’d been about the size of large dogs, but some of these looked as big as small horses.
Hellhounds native to Gates are far larger than what I’m hunting now and incomparably more powerful in combat—they’re D-rank monsters that F-rank Awakeners dare not face. But breeding in Earth’s mana-depleted environment had reduced their individual size.
These Hellhounds had apparently scavenged something that made them larger, though they still remained far smaller than their original size.
I approached the guarding ones without hiding.
The one that spotted me first let out a howl, alerting its den-mates to the intruder.
Howling echoed across the Mountain. Rather than attacking one by one, the beasts formed a formation and surrounded me with tactical precision.
If I didn’t flee, I could only be grateful.
Ignoring their encirclement, I walked in a straight line toward the nearest Hellhound. Their formation shifted to follow my movement, then in an instant, they lunged at me from all sides.
I’d tensed at their larger size, but their speed wasn’t proportionally faster.
I swung my hand at the first one attacking. I thought I could finish it in one strike, but despite its massive frame, the beast moved with surprising agility, turning its head to evade. My fingers raked across its face, leaving deep gouges, but it wasn’t a fatal wound. The creature twisted its scarred face back toward me, baring its fangs.
I drove my left fist toward its torso. Unable to dodge while airborne, it took the full force of my punch. Its body crashed to the ground with a sickening thud.
But I’d spent too much time on one beast. Four more were closing in simultaneously from all directions. Since the neck was a weak point that would paralyze me instantly if struck, I used my arms to block only the one coming at my head.
They clamped down on my arms, legs, and waist, shaking their heads like dogs playing with a toy, trying to tear away flesh. Fortunately, the flesh didn’t sever cleanly from the bite, but their bite force was far superior to the smaller ones, and their teeth gradually sank deeper.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————