Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 243

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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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243
Dozens of venom spouts suddenly erupted from the creature’s body. I kicked at the air frantically to halt my momentum, but the beast’s spray was faster.
Venom shot from the orifices like machine-gun fire, melting the ground and releasing acrid smoke that billowed across the arena.
“Damn! My money!”
“It’s Nijir, just as I thought!”
The spectators already believed I had melted away and perished.
“Wait! He’s alive! He’s moved far from the smoke!”
The Announcer spotted me standing at a distance from the toxic cloud and pointed me out first.
“Damn it….”
To evade the torrential venom spray, I burned through my life force to boost my physical abilities and slashed through the air with my aura, dodging every projectile. But the cost was staggering—a substantial portion of my accumulated life force vanished in an instant.
Rage surged through me. The life force I had painstakingly gathered for escape was squandered so pathetically.
I sighed, but dwelling on regret served no purpose. Still, I needed to vent my frustration.
With my physical abilities still boosted, I charged back at Nijir.
Nijir’s back was still bristling with venom spouts, but knowing their location made it simple to anticipate and dodge them.
Venom sprayed in all directions, even toward the nearby spectator stands, but the creature’s projectiles curved away like curveballs, dropping harmlessly before the stands.
Standing before them with arms crossed was Rockrel, Chon’s direct subordinate, glaring at me.
I had no time to dwell on him. I circled Nijir while dodging venom bullets, narrowing the distance, then seized the moment when the firing rate slowed to charge straight at the beast.
The barrage rate had diminished significantly, allowing me to evade with minimal movement as I closed in and brought my greatsword down in a heavy arc.
Nijir possessed a thick carapace befitting its massive frame, and unlike Trapix, it did not fall easily. I continued my relentless assault.
“SHRIEEEEK!”
Nijir, enraged, trembled violently, then shifted from firing pressurized venom bullets to spraying it like a mist.
My boosted state allowed me to anticipate the unexpected attack. I immediately leaped backward, escaping the creature’s toxic cloud.
I watched as the surface of my greatsword dissolved where the mist had touched it.
“Nijir is truly furious! The creature has resorted to its final gambit—attacking while dissolving its own carapace!”
Whether Nijir’s interior possessed resistance to its own venom, I could not say, but its carapace certainly did not. It was melting away in its own toxic mist.
“SHRIEEEEK!”
Nijir charged directly at me.
Though Nijir was slower, that was only in comparison to other Exos. The creature bore down like a heavy tank, spraying venom and dispersing mist as it advanced.
“No! The otherworldly monster! Has it given up?! It dropped its weapon!”
I released my weapon and rushed toward Nijir bare-handed.
“Melt away!”
“The mist! What are you thinking about the mist, you fool?!”
Contrary to the spectators’ fears, my body did not dissolve in the toxic mist. Instead, power surged through me.
“Damn it. If only I had known sooner….”
My diminished abilities had prevented me from detecting the minute traces of life force dissolved in the venom, and I had wastefully squandered my reserves for nothing.
Moreover, this venom—whether it was lethal to the native lifeforms here, I could not determine—but it posed no threat to me.
When the mist had dissolved my greatsword moments earlier, some of it had certainly touched my fingers. Yet I remained unharmed.
“Die! Because of you! All that life force I gathered!”
I absorbed the life force dissolving in the mist and wrapped my fists in aura.
Though I had absorbed it from Nijir’s venom, my life force reserves were so depleted that I compressed it repeatedly until it became dense and solid.
My extended fist shattered Nijir’s damaged carapace with a sickening crunch.
“Guaaahhhhh!”
The creature shrieked and collapsed face-first, spilling toxic venom across the arena floor. I pressed my hand directly into the puddle of poison, draining the remaining life force from it.
“It’s already scattered everywhere.”
Most of the venom that had been in the creature’s body was already dispersed throughout the Colosseum, and in my current state, I couldn’t absorb the minute traces of life force scattered so widely from a distance.
The Guard was already waving his signal, so it was like reaching for the moon.
I returned to the Underground Prison.
“You stupid bastard!”
O-gun shouted at me as I returned, his mouth gaping wide.
“What?”
“Ah. It’s a message. Should I continue?”
“…”
“Ahem… You stupid bastard! I sent you exactly what you needed, and you waste it all and bring back only scraps? Since I came to Kagrun, I’ve never seen anyone as stupid as you!”
O-gun paused with his mouth still agape.
“That’s what the message said.”
He bowed respectfully to me, then I smacked the back of his head—or was it his back?—without warning.
“Ow! Why did you hit me?!”
“Don’t add emotion to the message. Just deliver it.”
“No… he really did say it like that.”
O-gun rubbed his head.
“So who sent this message?”
“That’s the strange part. Some guy I’d never seen before came and left me a message. So I asked who he was, and he didn’t even know why he was here, and he’d forgotten he’d even given me the message.”
“Os-na….”
“Huh?! That was Os-na? But his build was completely different!”
O-gun and the other fighters gasped in shock.
“He seemed to be using sorcery. Damn it… How am I supposed to know if that benefits me or not? Explain it properly.”
I scratched my head in frustration.
I regretted the life force I’d wasted on the floor. To make up for it, I absorbed life force from the Guard’s and fighters’ meals.
After using what I’d accumulated in the battle and reabsorbing it from the venom, the result was that I’d only increased my stored life force by a speck.
“Barely… 1%… Sigh.”
I had a long way to go. If I didn’t have a body remaining on Earth, I wouldn’t be able to remain this composed.
* * *
“Chon. You have a visitor.”
Rockrel crawled into the room on the floor.
“Let them in.”
Before Rockrel could even leave to fetch the guest, Os-na, wearing a mask and cloak, passed by Rockrel’s side and approached Chon.
Os-na’s body was slender and his height far exceeded that of an ordinary Exos. Yet he was still slightly shorter than Chon, allowing Os-na to stand with his back straight before him.
Hierarchy and stature were absolute in the world of Exos.
“It’s been a while.”
“Yes. It’s been how many decades since you came here?”
“We don’t see each other that often, do we?”
“Krkrkrkr, you’ve grown quite sharp-minded with age. So, what brings you here today?”
“A reunion of this length demands a gift, wouldn’t you say?”
Os-na glanced back, and his subordinate pushed a crate forward, crawling over to present it to Rockrel.
Rockrel accepted the crate and slowly slid it across the floor, presenting it to Chon.
When Chon threw open the crate, it was brimming with pentagonal gems. The brilliantly luminous stones in their myriad hues seemed utterly out of place in Chon’s drab chamber.
“You’ve put considerable effort into this. Excessive gifts often carry poison. What is it you want?”
“I’d like to purchase some fighters.”
“Surely you already own a considerable number of fighters and beasts?”
“No matter how many fighters one possesses, they’re never enough, are they? Who else would I turn to but Chon, the supreme authority of the Kagrun Arena and keeper of the greatest fighter collection?”
“You’ve certainly oiled your tongue well. So which ones do you have your eye on?”
“The list is inside.”
Names were inscribed along the inner surface of the crate’s lid.
“Oho… you’re after quite a few formidable fighters. But with this level of sincerity, I see no reason to refuse.”
“That’s music to my ears.”
Os-na struggled to conceal her delight.
“All except one.”
Os-na’s body stiffened.
“Outer, the otherworldly monster—he belongs to me.”
“Compared to your personal guard, he’s hardly worth mentioning. If my sincerity fell short, I can offer more—”
“Before you showed me sincerity, didn’t you already present him with a gift?”
“…”
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice? That you gave him a gift?”
Chon had discerned Os-na’s scheming when he witnessed Nijir’s venom failing to affect Ji-seok. While he couldn’t have detected the life-force absorption, his perceptiveness was keen enough to sense that something was amiss.
“What do you mean?”
“Playing innocent, are we? Well, no matter. Your arrival has revealed to me that his value far exceeds my initial assessment. This meeting has proven quite profitable after all.”
Os-na, who appeared as rough as a stone rolled in from nowhere, harbored the cunning of a fox within. She pressed down her roiling frustration with effort.
“How much longer do you intend to keep me bound to this place?”
“Bound? Me? Surely you know the rules?”
Chon rose from his chair and stretched both arms toward the sky.
“The absolute law of this barren Kagrun! The victor takes all! The vanquished simply accept their fate and are consumed! Does that displease you?! Challenge me anytime! I am always here!”
With his raised arms, Chon alternately pounded his chest. The shockwave reverberated through the entire chamber, causing Os-na’s subordinate and even Rockrel to wince in pain.
“…I’ll return another time.”
Os-na spun around and departed.
“Chon, simply give the order. I shall dispose of that insolent woman.”
“Rockrel, you were too busy burying your head to notice. I concentrated my drumming upon that accursed woman, yet Os-na remained unflinching.”
“Surely not…”
“Of course, I wasn’t fighting at full strength either. Nevertheless, she is no opponent to be taken lightly. Why else would she be the second authority of the Arena?”
Chon collapsed back into his chair.
Despite being crafted from the durable material of Cagron, the chair creaked under Chon’s weight.
Chon’s mind whirred like a calculating machine.
“Intensify surveillance on that one.”
“Should we dispose of him, sir?”
“No, he still has value. I’ll pit him against Bae-sho.”
“Pardon? Wasn’t I supposed to fight next?”
Rockrel lifted his head ever so slightly—a subtle act of defiance.
“I’ve received intelligence that Bae-sho, who’s lost his last ten matches, is grinding his teeth for this one. Of course you won’t lose, but there’s no need to exhaust yourself unnecessarily.”
“I’m honored by your consideration, sir. I hardly know what to do with myself.”
“It’s a win-win either way. If you happen to win, excellent. If you lose, we learn Bae-sho’s patterns. Kekeke.”
“Wise indeed, sir.”
* * *
I’d absorbed vitality from the fighters and guards’ meals in the Underground Prison, but after that one massive surge from Nijir’s venom, I’d tasted something far richer—and now this meager sustenance left me ravenous and bitter.
“Will Os-na help me in the next match too…?”
“The next opponent won’t be Os-na. It’s Bae-sho, they say.”
O-gun slipped me the information quietly.
“Damn it. This’ll be the last one then.”
The Guard sighed as he picked up the food from which I’d drained the vitality.
“Why?”
“Bae-sho’s lost ten straight. If he loses again, he loses his position as third-in-command, or so I heard. That’s why you weren’t supposed to fight—it was supposed to be Rockrel.”
“So now I have to choke down tasteless slop again….”
The guards’ expressions darkened. They’d already accepted my defeat as inevitable.
It’s hard to take candy from a child who’s tasted sweetness once. They’d savored superior sustenance, and now losing it could only dampen their spirits.
“I have faith in our leader.”
O-gun, whose belief in me ran deeper than mere duty, smiled.
The next match arrived swiftly, and O-gun’s confident face crumpled without mercy.

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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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