Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 15

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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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15
[Strength increased by 2.]
The moment a Hellhound the size of a small pony clamped its jaws around me and pulled in all directions, the strain distributing across my entire body, my Strength stat surged upward.
Gritting through the pain, I seized the heads of the creatures mauling and thrashing me, then crushed them with my newfound strength. After dispatching one and pulverizing another’s skull, the Hellhounds realized that clinging to my body meant death—they released me and retreated, widening the distance between us.
They were cunning and formidable.
These were no F-rank monsters like goblins. Yet they weren’t beyond my capacity to handle either.
They no longer threw their full weight at me; instead, they struck and withdrew. Still, there was a marked difference from days one and two. Before, I couldn’t match their speed and could only defend passively, but today when multiple rushed in, at least one or two fell to my hands.
I’d taken considerable damage and bled profusely, but within an hour I’d eliminated most of the Hellhounds in the lair. Several escaped during the chaos, carrying young ones with them. In a mountainous country like Korea, complete subjugation proved difficult when creatures could hide deep in the ranges.
Now the remaining problem was disposing of the corpses. I’d ventured quite deep into the Mountain. Transporting these massive beasts to the nearest Checkpoint would consume the entire night.
After deliberating, I found the number of the Awakener Management Bureau official who’d authorized giving me the key and called from the Hunter App.
“Hello?”
His voice was thick with sleep.
“Hello. Is this Kwon Jong-il? This is Lee Ji-seok. Could you send a transport helicopter to my location?”
I got straight to the point without wasting time.
“Pardon? Why would you need a transport helicopter?”
Kwon Jong-il’s voice sharpened slightly, clearly caught off guard by my request.
“If you check my coordinates, you’ll see I’ve gone quite deep. The Hellhounds here are massive and numerous—it’s impossible to move them to the Checkpoint on foot.”
“I see. However, since hunters are expected to retrieve the corpses themselves, aerial support is difficult to arrange.”
“I’ll send photos. Please show them to your director and ask. These aren’t normal-sized creatures, and higher yields benefit the Awakener Management Bureau as well, don’t they? With aerial support, I could capture several times more than before. And I’ll accept only half the government compensation for any Hellhounds transported via helicopter.”
“Understood. I’ll report this. Please wait a moment.”
The Bureau wouldn’t refuse halving the compensation. The helicopter was on standby for emergencies anyway.
After hanging up, I sent the photos. Then I sat on a rock and savored the night landscape. The weather was perfect, and with the nearly full moon, the moonlight was exquisite. Looking up at the sky, countless stars scattered across the darkness made even this brief respite feel poetic and serene.
The call came back faster than expected.
“Approval has been granted. However, to ensure fairness to other hunters, we’ve announced that aerial support will be provided if any hunter gathers a certain minimum number of creatures at a single location. The helicopter will arrive in approximately 20 minutes.”
Kwon Jong-il, now fully awake, relayed the information briskly.
The 20 minutes of waiting while gazing at the moon and stars passed in an instant.
Since the mountainous terrain prevented the large transport helicopter from landing directly, the pilot dropped a massive tarp from above. I loaded the corpses onto it, and the helicopter hoisted them away. The pilot gave me a thumbs up, and I waved back lightly.
With the helicopter handling the corpses, I could accelerate my hunting pace.
Searching through the Mountain Range, I cleared another lair before sunrise. Without the support, tonight would have been consumed entirely by the first lair and transporting the bodies. I’d surrendered half my earnings, but the outcome was more profitable overall. Besides, the bet wasn’t about profit—only the score mattered.

I hadn’t confirmed the exact count when they loaded me onto the helicopter, but the goblins I’d hunted during the night alone seemed to exceed roughly eighty. Once the score reflected in the Hunter App, my score would easily surpass Choi Chul-min’s.
Still, I didn’t let my guard down and continued hunting throughout the day without rest.
I didn’t have the luck of discovering another lair during daylight, but I killed every creature I spotted roaming about for prey.
While hunting, I realized something else—there were almost no other wild animals visible, day or night. It seemed the Hellhounds had devoured them all.
As winter deepened and food grew scarce for these creatures, it was only a matter of time before they descended toward populated areas. Such pests were truly the worst kind of pests.
While I was in the middle of hunting, Sang-heon contacted me around noon.
“Hyung, what kind of magic are you using? You’ve caught over a hundred since yesterday?”
Sang-heon spoke as if bewildered.
“Well, I can’t lose a bet, can I?”
“I didn’t think you were the competitive type.”
“Am I? Besides, there’s money on the line.”
A hundred million won isn’t pocket change. I’m the type who carefully collects every magic stone from the Goblin Gate.
“But you were the one who made that bet.”
I could hear the exasperation in Sang-heon’s voice.
“I made it because I’m going to win. Anyway, what’s going on?”
“Don’t let your guard down. Choi Chul-min is grinding his teeth over this. He’s catching up fast.”
“Got it. Thanks.”
After hanging up, I checked the scoreboard and saw that Choi Chul-min had hunted over seventy, leaving little difference between us. I regretted not finding another lair during the day.
Since I couldn’t find any more lairs even deep in the mountain range, I began descending the mountain while continuing my search. As dusk fell, I heard faint screams and sounds of combat in the distance.
The moment I heard the sounds, I ran toward them.
I sprinted down the steep mountainside as if falling. My body, enhanced with increased strength and agility and a hardened physique, felt no impact even after leaping down dozens of meters consecutively.
I reached the combat site within minutes. Dozens of small horse-sized Hellhounds surrounded a party.
The Hunters appeared wounded, but since they were still standing, the injuries didn’t seem severe.
The Hellhounds behind the pack noticed me and turned their direction. I didn’t slow my speed and charged into them.
I smashed skulls with my fists, striking whatever came within reach, and grabbed the ones trying to bite me, hurling them at the others.
Whether the creatures saw me as a greater threat, most of them now turned their heads toward me.
“Run!”
I shouted to the Hunters whose encirclement had broken as I drew the attention.
They flinched at my words, looked at each other, then began slowly backing away.
‘Wait, Bae Na-young?’
I caught a glimpse of the fleeing people’s faces, and Bae Na-young was among the party members. The woman fleeing in terror appeared to be an ordinary novice Hunter in her early twenties.
No matter how I looked at her, she didn’t seem like a villain.
I pushed aside the distracting thoughts and focused on dealing with the Hellhounds.
A few of them chased after the fleeing Hunters, but they’d handle that on their own.
After clearing the area, I caught my breath. I’d dealt with roughly thirty of them. I called to request helicopter support.
“Hunter Lee Ji-seok, helicopter support isn’t available right now.”
Urgency was evident in Kwon Jong-il’s voice.
“Why not?”
“Hellhound packs are gathering abnormally. The helicopter is currently occupied with rescue operations for Hunters and civilians elsewhere and has no capacity to be diverted. Please return as well, Hunter Lee Ji-seok.”
I told him I understood and hung up. Opening the app, I saw that rescue requests and multiple Hellhound pack sightings had been updated. Based on the locations and times, it appeared that multiple Hellhound packs were descending from the mountain and gradually moving toward the Resort.
Hellhounds typically hunt in packs, but different packs don’t mix. Yet now they were all converging together.
It was possible the Hunters had agitated the Hellhounds so much during this subjugation that they’d forced them to gather.
I happened to be on the path toward the Resort. Hunting Hellhounds took less time than searching the Mountain for them and disposing of their corpses, so if they were gathering like this, it was actually good news for me.
My wager with Choi Chul-min wasn’t over yet.
I hastily gathered the Hellhounds I’d hunted in one place and moved toward where another pack had been spotted.
Within minutes, I spotted another pack of Hellhounds descending the Mountain in formation.
I accelerated and charged straight into the center of the rushing pack. My speed was high, and they were moving fast as well, so they couldn’t even react.
Without bothering to punch or swing, I charged at full speed and collided with them. Those that hit my body flew backward like they’d been struck by a truck. As I sent several flying and split their pack in half, they stopped moving and began to surround me.
After a brief standoff, we clashed without warning, and the battle began.
The fight was one-sided. With my level, stats, and skills all raised considerably, even large Hellhounds posed no threat to me.
They didn’t retreat even as their comrades fell, continuing to attack.
Then I heard a Hellhound’s howl from afar. At that moment, all the ones attacking me retreated and began to howl as well. Their howling spread across the entire Mountain as if resonating through it.
My keen senses sent a sharp warning. Danger if I stayed here.
The moment I thought I should flee, something massive leaped over the forest and appeared before me.
A Hellhound so enormous it could only be seen inside a Gate materialized before my eyes. Its body length easily exceeded five meters, and its shoulder height seemed to reach three meters. I couldn’t fathom how such a creature could exist so close to residential areas. Was it one that escaped from a Gate Break, surviving by avoiding Hunters? Or had one born on Earth mutated and grown to this size? Even in my past life, grotesquely large monsters occasionally appeared in unexpected places or emerged from Gates undetected.
Regardless of the reason, it stood before me. With a body the size of a house and movements disturbingly fluid and graceful despite its mass, it approached me step by step. If this creature possessed the same combat power as a Hellhound from inside a Gate, it would be classified as a D-rank monster. That meant multiple D-rank Hunters would be needed to face it.
If my level had risen just a bit more, I might have had a chance, but I was barely E-rank, with stats only approaching D-rank.
I considered fleeing, but it was surely faster than me.
I decided to strike first instead and hurled myself toward the creature when the Hellhound suddenly opened its maw and breathed fire.
With no time to dodge, I barely shielded my face with my arms. Flames engulfed my body as if to consume me entirely.
It was incomparable to the Dragon’s Breath I’d only heard about in stories, but the immediate agony of my body burning made me grit my teeth and roll across the ground to escape the inferno.
The flames ceased, but fire had poured across my face, leaving me unable to see. My keen senses screamed at me to evade quickly. But my body, stiffened by the flames, couldn’t respond.
A massive foreleg swept across my body. Though my weight had increased through compressed energy, I was infinitely light compared to the creature. I flew like a shell, toppling two trees, and crashed to the ground.

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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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