Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 24

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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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24
“I merely did what was necessary.”
I replied to the Battalion Commander, who had offered his gratitude for piercing through the flames and eliminating the Fairy.
“No, we owe our lives to you. If there’s anything you need, please tell us.”
“Ah, would you be able to collect some Fairy wings for me?”
“We were already planning to recover all the Fairy wings that Lee Ji-seok hunted and provide them to you. On top of that, I’ll also purchase wings caught by other hunters and deliver them to you.”
“Thank you.”
“Then please rest. The Second Squad Leader will ensure the hunter has everything they need.”
“Yes, sir!”
My sacrifice in blocking their assault had borne fruit.
After the Battalion Commander left, I went to rest as well, but the barracks had been devastated. There was no opportunity to wash properly or rest comfortably. I simply dampened a towel with whatever water was available, wiped myself down, and changed into spare clothes.
“Do Fairies normally gather like that and move strategically? This is different from the information we received from the Awakener Management Bureau.”
“While Fairies are indeed a highly intelligent species, they have strong individual personalities, so they’ve never been observed moving in such a coordinated manner before. And they even came as a single group with a different species—Werewolves. It’s as if there were a commander directing them.”
While I rested, I overheard the Battalion Commander and Baek Young-shin speaking through my keen ears.
“Pushing forward as things stand now is too risky. We need reconnaissance. Do we have a capable hunter available?”
“Hmm… We’d need to request at least a B-rank hunter, but I won’t know when they’ll arrive here until I send out the request.”
The manager spoke with evident difficulty.
“Didn’t a B-rank hunter arrive in support earlier?”
“That hunter is a mage, so they’re not suited for reconnaissance. Besides, if they leave, who will defend this position?”
“That’s true… If we suffer another attack like today, we’ll have difficulty avoiding serious casualties.”
“A B-rank hunter did arrive, but considering other areas could face the same situation today, we might need to consider a retreat.”
“That’s not acceptable. We’ve already gathered this much force—we can’t return without results.”
The Battalion Commander’s stance made it clear he couldn’t tolerate retreat, likely because his own position was precarious.
“Then what do you suggest we do?”
“Let’s call for volunteers and send them on reconnaissance.”
“…Are you sending hunters to their deaths?”
“I’m simply asking if there are hunters willing to go voluntarily. Of course, if things become too dangerous, they can return without completing the reconnaissance—that’s the condition.”
“That’s not acceptable. It’s far too dangerous.”
“Manager, I have full operational authority here. But I’m not suggesting we send them blindly. I’m asking for volunteers.”
“And if there are no volunteers, we retreat?”
“…Understood.”
The Battalion Commander stepped outside and picked up a megaphone. The manager watched with a displeased expression.
“Hunters, please gather. I have an announcement.”
With murmurs of confusion, the hunters began assembling one by one.
“Given the difficult circumstances, I’ll get straight to the point. Two hours ago, Fairies and Werewolves coordinated their attack, leaving our current situation precarious. Before determining our next course of action, we need to investigate the cause behind these monsters’ unusual behavior. I’m calling for volunteers for a reconnaissance mission to conduct this investigation.”
“You’re sending hunters into a forest where monsters haven’t been cleared? Isn’t that just sending them to their deaths?”
I was about to volunteer immediately when another hunter spoke to the Battalion Commander.
“If things become dangerous, you’re free to return at once. Your lives matter far more than reconnaissance. However, volunteers will receive hazard pay commensurate with the mission and priority acquisition rights for materials obtained by the military.”
I would have gone even without such incentives, but this made it even better.
“I’ll go.”
I rose from my seat.
“Lee Ji-seok? I know you distinguished yourself against the Hellhound, but this is far more dangerous than that.”
Baek Young-shin recognized me and spoke.
“With the Hellhound, we fought head-on, but this time the objective is reconnaissance, not capture. If things go south, I can extract myself.”
“Hmm…”
He seemed troubled, as though sending me into certain death weighed on his conscience.
“Come now, you volunteered of your own accord. You were our most effective hunter yesterday—I’m confident you’ll return safely.”
The Battalion Commander cut off Baek Young-shin’s objection.
“Very well. However, safety is paramount. If you sense danger, abandon the reconnaissance and return immediately.”
Baek Young-shin reluctantly acquiesced.
“Are there no other volunteers?”
The Battalion Commander asked the hunters once more, but no one stepped forward. A mission this perilous—one where even if all the hunters here entered the forest, we couldn’t guarantee how many would emerge alive—naturally drew no volunteers when asked to proceed in small numbers.
I donned the black military fatigues worn by special forces, and with camouflage applied to my face and hands, I became nearly invisible in the nocturnal forest.
“Then.”
I nodded in farewell and bolted into the forest.
I deployed my heightened senses to their fullest, absorbing information from all directions. Even warrior-class hunters benefit from elevated Intelligence stats in situations like this. As senses sharpen, the volume of information acquired becomes staggering, but without sufficient Intelligence, one cannot process it all.
Thanks to this, despite the pitch-black night, I could perceive my surroundings as clearly as daylight.
During the Hellhound hunt, I’d deliberately made noise as I moved, but now I advanced like a cat, treading lightly on earth and branch alike, muffling every footfall.
Whenever a monster appeared, I recorded its location and continued onward.
After an hour of northward movement with nothing unusual to report, I was considering turning back when I spotted dozens of Fairies gathered ahead.
‘Why are they congregating? Is there a commanding individual?’
I crouched lower and crept closer for a better look.
There stood a Fairy roughly my height, with wings that spanned four meters across and lengthwise. A Fairy Queen.
“Come out.”
The Fairy Queen gazed directly at me hidden in the brush and called me forth with an enchanting voice.
Some highly intelligent monsters learn human language. For a creature of the Fairy Queen’s intellect, mastering a single language might be trivial.
Even as I thought I shouldn’t emerge, I found myself intoxicated by her appearance and voice, rising to my feet and walking toward her.
As I gazed at the Fairy Queen with vacant eyes, she smiled seductively.
Up close, she resembled a naked human woman, save for the translucent, iridescent wings. Her face and form were exquisitely beautiful, yet my gaze fixed upon her wings. With wings so large and magnificent, I could craft the items I desired.
The Fairy Queen glided toward me without fluttering her wings, as though skating through air.
“All human males are the same. They fall for me the moment they see me.”
The Fairy Queen spoke while caressing her sensuous form.
I had fallen for her wings, not her face or body, yet she seemed to misunderstand. But even captivated by the wings, why had I approached her? My mind felt hazy.
“Return and slaughter your own kind. Until you perish.”
A powder-like substance emanated from the Fairy Queen’s wings, enveloping me.
[Skill Unyielding Spirit has advanced from D to C rank.]
[Skill Poison Resistance has advanced from E to D rank.]
The fog clouding my mind dissipated. This damned moth had attempted to dominate my consciousness.
Had I not elevated my Unyielding Spirit skill beforehand through special training with Bae Na-young, I might have been brainwashed into slaughtering soldiers and hunters alike, only to be hunted down myself.
With clarity restored, my hand shot out like lightning, seizing her by the throat.
“Hack! Wh… what…?”
I squeezed the struggling Fairy Queen’s throat with brutal force.
The Fairy Queen’s beautiful face twisted into something grotesque, insectile and hideous.
She gathered her fingers into a sharp point and thrust them toward my face.
I seized one of the Fairy Queen’s hands and snapped it, then twisted my head to bite down on her other arm, deflecting the attack.
The Fairy Queen may have been exceptional with magic, but her close-combat prowess was decidedly lacking.
I hadn’t known she possessed brainwashing abilities. Had I realized that beforehand, I would never have approached so carelessly.
“Kieeeek!”
Fairies swarmed from all directions, clawing and biting at my body. Surrounded by them, only my arms extended outward, my hands locked around the Fairy Queen’s throat.
They tore at me with their teeth and claws, but the physical attacks of fairies inflicted negligible damage on me.
Even if the fairies attempted to cast magic, I was too close to the Queen. Besides, their magic would have been largely ineffective anyway.
Crack.
I poured all my strength into the hand gripping the Queen’s neck and broke it. Her body went limp.
[Level increased.]
“Aaaahhhhh!!”
“Kieeeee!”
The fairies shrieked in bone-chilling anguish, clawing at me while heedlessly casting magic, their own safety forgotten.
Careful not to damage the Queen’s wings, I hurled her away and began methodically shredding the fairies clinging to my body one by one. Every swing of my arms connected with something—it seemed every fairy in the forest had converged on me.
Had they fled, they would have been harder to catch, but the fairies, bereft of their Queen, threw themselves at me with reckless abandon.
Waves of them left me covered in wounds, and my left eye took a hit, but I moved like a possessed whirlwind, my arms a blur of motion, slaughtering fairies with the relentless efficiency of a giant blender’s blades.
[Level increased.]
* * *
I wrapped the dead Fairy Queen’s body in her own wings, slung her across my shoulder, and arrived at the Fortification just as the sun began to rise.
I’d departed for the mission in a black military uniform, and here I was returning looking like a beggar again. I’d need to craft some new gear soon.
“The scout hunter has returned! We have an injured party member! Requesting a Healer immediately!”
A soldier standing watch spotted me and shouted into his radio.
He’d taken one look at my appearance and assumed I was wounded.
As I approached the Fortification slowly, the Battalion Commander, the Awakener Management Bureau official, and the Healer came pouring out. They must not have slept all night.
Thud!
I dropped the Fairy Queen onto the ground.
“No! You can’t just drop an injured person like that! Eek! A fairy?”
The soldier yelped in surprise. He’d mistaken me for the injured party, but now he realized his error. Yesterday, with her beautiful face, she’d seduced humans, but the Fairy Queen now lay dead, her visage transformed into something monstrous and insectoid—no longer beautiful at all.
“Yes, it appears she was controlling the surrounding monsters and fairies in this area.”
“You… you went on reconnaissance and… you defeated that?”
The Battalion Commander stared at me in stunned disbelief.
“She grew careless, thinking I was alone. And could you send a team to these coordinates to recover the fairies?”
“Recover them? This wasn’t a hunt?”
“No, there won’t be any survivors. I eliminated all the fairies in the area. I’m going to rest now.”
I’d spent the entire night fighting and traversing the forest, and my fatigue was mounting. Fortunately, I had regeneration skills; otherwise, even a B-rank hunter would have been unable to return from injuries like these.
* * *
When I woke and emerged from the barracks, the fortification was in chaos as they recovered the fairy corpses. Soldiers and the Hwagok Recovery Company personnel I’d summoned were bustling about, meticulously sorting through the fallen fairies.
“The wings are crucial, so handle them carefully. Huh?! Watch it over there~ You can’t just toss them around like that~”
Yang President was directing his company staff and the soldiers with exacting precision.

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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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