Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 141

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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141
Jae-in closed her eyes before the anvil and concentrated on the mana flowing through her body.
‘Feel the current.’
Jerex was trash by anyone’s measure, but Jae-in acknowledged his skill as a craftsman.
Like he had done, I moved the mana—from my chest through the hammer, into the Blue Dragon’s heart, through the anvil, and back to myself via the earth.
I needed to receive not just the blessing of fire, but also the blessing of earth, which was possible because I was an Elemental Smith who could manipulate all elements.
The mana completed its circuit, and finally the loop was formed.
“It works!”
Jae-in lifted the hammer again with delight.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
I struck with all my might, but the impact didn’t shatter the heart—it slowly reshaped it, bit by bit.
“Hmm… This Jae-in fellow. Truly remarkable talent. It should be finished soon.”
“Really?”
Bae Na-young, who had been growing slightly bored watching the hammering for over ten minutes, brightened at Parchem’s words.
“At this pace, it shouldn’t take more than ten hours?”
“…I’ll step outside.”
As Bae Na-young left, the shield she had cast also disappeared.
Parchem couldn’t endure even one more minute and quietly slipped out of the Workshop.
Jae-in was so absorbed she didn’t even notice her body beginning to cook.
Even a dwarf blessed by fire couldn’t last ten minutes in flames of this intensity. That’s why only Ji-seok remained, breathing life force into Jae-in.
* * *
“It’s finished!”
Just as Parchem had said, ten hours later, Jae-in and Ji-seok emerged.
Thanks to Ji-seok’s support, the flames hadn’t damaged her body, but she couldn’t prevent her body temperature from rising, so Jae-in was drenched in sweat from head to toe.
Meanwhile, Ji-seok emerged looking perfectly dry.
In Jae-in’s hand, held with a satisfied expression, was a blue sphere the size of a fist.
Inside the sphere, several smaller spheres were layered extremely thinly. Each sphere had round holes drilled throughout, and when aligned perfectly, they created tiny passages connecting all the way to the center of the sphere.
Neither Earth’s cutting-edge technology nor Telus’s greatest craftsmen could achieve such intricate shapes and high precision with such fragile materials.
“You worked hard.”
Bae Na-young, who had been waiting outside, handed water to the two of them.
“Well done. Your name will now remain eternal in the history of craftsmen.”
The short Parchem raised his hand and patted Jae-in on the waist.
“Jae-in, so you can make cores now?”
Ji-seok asked.
“Yes. The Blue Dragon’s heart will serve as a cooling mechanism, allowing me to create even more stable cores. Once I return to Earth and complete the finishing work, it will be done. Let’s head back to Korea soon.”
“Already leaving?”
Marcelo expressed his reluctance.
“Already? It’s already gone much longer than planned. But I’ll come back later. There’s still so much to learn.”
“You must come back.”
Marcelo, reluctant to see Jae-in and Bae Na-young leave after growing attached to them, held Jae-in’s hand firmly as he spoke.
* * *
I—along with Jae-in and Bae Na-young—immediately packed our belongings and made our way to the teleportation circle.
“Please visit us again, Goddess!”
“We shall await your return!”
“Darkness and light are one—fear not!”
“Long live the Purple Goddess Church!”
“I still don’t quite understand why they revere a human as a goddess, but if there are so many devoted believers like this, Bae Na-young might actually achieve divine status.”
Jae-in nodded as she watched the Purple Goddess Church devotees enthusiastically bid Bae Na-young farewell.
“By the next time we visit, there’ll probably be a statue of her erected, won’t there?”
“That would be… awkward.”
Imagining a statue of herself standing in the city, Bae Na-young’s expression grew troubled.
“We’re ready.”
The Mage activated the teleportation circle, and a small Gate opened just as it had when we arrived.
The moment I—standing at the very front—reached my hand toward the Gate.
My keen senses screamed a violent warning that entering would be dangerous, and I froze in place.
In that instant, the Gate became a black hole, devouring everything around it.
In a fraction of a second stretched across an eternity, I watched in slow motion as Jae-in and Bae Na-young were pulled toward the vortex behind me. If I did nothing, they would be sucked in alongside me.
My arm, already inside the Gate, had gone numb and wouldn’t respond. There was no time for any other action.
I released my aura in a broad wave, pushing the two of them away, and allowed myself to be pulled into the Gate.
Normally, passing through a Gate feels like nothing—instantaneous displacement. But this time, the space enveloping me twisted and stretched, tearing and crushing my body.
Without the physiology and regenerative power of a dragon-human, I would have been reduced to a bloody pulp.
Light appeared through the darkness. The outside world.
Ejected through the downward-facing Gate, I crashed to the ground like refuse.
The pain—something I hadn’t felt in so long—left me momentarily dazed.
Looking down, I saw a pool of blood forming beneath me.
“H-he’s alive!”
“Kill him!”
Soldiers wielding spears splashed through the spreading pool of blood as they rushed toward me.
“Where… am I?”
Surveying my surroundings, I saw the sea. There were more than ten military vessels, each capable of carrying hundreds of soldiers, and countless barracks and troops scattered across the harbor.
Their uniforms and banners bore the insignia of the Imperial Army.
I passed through the soldiers rushing toward me.
They were ordinary soldiers—they couldn’t even perceive my movement.
“H-he vanished! Find him! If we lose him, we’re all dead!”
A knight shouted and looked around frantically, but even he couldn’t capture me.
In the distance, I could see several Gates open above the pool of blood where I had fallen.
From one Gate, blood and debris continued to pour down.
The Empire had clearly done something to the Gates.
Fortunately, the Western Continent must have noticed, because no more bloody chunks came pouring through the circles.
“What’s all this commotion about?!”
An Imperial Noble emerged from the Barracks and shouted.
“It’s… nothing at all.”
The knight who had been searching for me earlier made a false report.
“Stop making a fuss and prepare for the next phase!”
The Imperial Noble issued his command and entered the Barracks.
I followed the Imperial Noble inside to assess the situation.
“What is it now?”
The officer asked without lifting his eyes from the documents on his desk.
“What does the Empire want?”
“What?”
Startled by my words, he raised his head.
“Who are you! Outside… gack…”
Before he could cry out, I seized his throat and lifted him.
“Gasp… gasp…”
The Imperial Noble clawed at my hand around his throat, but his fingernails merely bent against my solid armor.
“If you scream, you’ll be dead before that sound leaves your mouth.”
When I released my grip, the Imperial Noble—his face turning purple—crumpled to the floor.
“Cough, cough!”
He hacked as though expelling his lungs, glaring at me. Since he hadn’t reacted at all when I’d seized his throat from a distance moments ago, he understood my threat was no bluff.
“Why launch such an attack so suddenly? The Empire can’t have that much spare strength.”
They had to seal the Gate, yet they were invading the Western Continent with full force? The conflict in the Middle East came to mind. It was like looting a neighbor’s house while your own burned.
“What reason is there to slaughter the people of the Western Continent…!”
As he ranted convulsively, I applied the same oppressive aura that Eres had once wielded against me. The technique that had unconsciously manifested when teaching Hunters at the Academy and during my battle with Amy—I had honed it steadily until I could now suppress a person with considerable skill.
The Imperial Noble was flattened against the floor, crushed.
“Your attitude is poor. Should I grind you like the Western Continent people you’ve already crushed?”
The oppressive aura did more than simply pin him down—it functioned like a Dragon’s Fear, making the target tremble with terror.
“It… it was an order from His Imperial Majesty!”
I eased the pressure.
“Why so suddenly?”
“How would I know? I’m merely a commander of a tactical unit.”
“Hmm… where is this place?”
“Burwick Nest Harbor.”
“The Empire’s southwest?”
I recalled seeing it on a map.
“…Yes.”
“Is that magic newly developed?”
“…Yes.”
The Imperial Noble hesitated to answer, but upon meeting my gaze, he spoke.
“If it’s destroyed, can you make it again?”
His eyes darted about frantically.
“If I destroy what’s out there, this will be over.”
He didn’t answer, but his expression told me everything I needed to know. There had been no lies in anything he’d said so far.
I struck him in the neck, knocking him unconscious, then rushed outside.
Dozens of hexagonal pillars were driven into the sky around the Gates, arranged in a five-pointed star formation. I sprinted toward the nearest one.
The pillar, standing five meters tall and a meter thick, was densely carved with geometric patterns.
Around it, I could see mana stones piled like a mountain, and the intricate carvings channeled the power of dozens of mages.
An Imperial mage standing beside the pillar locked eyes with me as I charged forward. The mage’s mouth fell open in shock as I rushed past and shattered the pillar. By the time I destroyed the second and third pillars, the Imperial Army finally reacted.
“Enemy attack!!!”
“It’s a Knight! Call our Knights!”
The Imperial soldiers poured out like a pack of hounds.
A single Knight blocking my path to the next pillar swung his sword, but I didn’t even need to dodge.
The blade struck my arm and shattered, its teeth breaking as it bent. The Knight’s arm snapped from the impact.
I weaved through the soldiers blocking my way and destroyed the fourth pillar.
Desperate to capture me, the Imperial Army unleashed magic and arrows without regard for their own casualties.
As I rushed toward the fifth pillar, a young Knight wielding a greatsword wrapped in green aura charged at me.
As a master of aura manipulation, his speed was respectable, but it wasn’t overwhelming.
I lightly deflected the blade wreathed in green aura with the back of my hand and drove my fist into his jaw.
His jaw shattered, teeth flew, and he crashed into a pool of blood.
With no one left to stop me, I destroyed the final pillar.
The dozens of Gates in the sky warped and twisted, shrinking until they vanished completely.
This would prevent the Western Continent’s Gates from being interfered with for a long time.
Na-young and Jae-in would undoubtedly worry, so I needed to return to the Western Continent quickly.
In the moment I paused, hundreds of soldiers surrounded me.
Killing them all would be trivial, but what crime had these foot soldiers committed?
I kicked off the ground and launched myself toward the sea.
As I began to climb higher, the calm sea suddenly twisted upward like a tornado, surging toward me as if alive.
I kicked off the empty air, dodging the cascading seawater to the side. But the soldiers behind me were swept away by the high-pressure torrent.
Standing in midair, I looked toward the sea and saw a Female Mage standing atop a pillar of water. With her lush, well-maintained blue curly hair and ornate dress, she looked less like a warrior on the battlefield and more like a noblewoman heading to a ball.
“What do you think of your comrades’ lives?”
“Comrades? Those insignificant things?”
The Blue-haired Mage frowned as if she’d heard the most offensive words in the world.
I was about to flee, but seeing how cruelly this woman treated even her own allies, I changed my mind.
I released a beam of aura at the Blue-haired Mage, who stood arrogantly atop her water pillar.

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