Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 43

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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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43
I was swept into the gaping maw of a colossal sea monster I’d never encountered before, seawater and all. Through some mechanism, the water drained away, leaving only me clenched between those massive jaws as the creature gnashed its teeth relentlessly. Of course, those fangs couldn’t pierce my body. This mysterious monster was enormous and possessed strength to match, but it wasn’t powerful enough to penetrate me now that I’d grown stronger.
The problem was that whenever I tried to attack, the beast thrashed about so violently that I couldn’t maintain any stable position. I attempted to drive my fingers into the soft tissue, but some kind of slick fluid coated the interior of its mouth, protecting it.
Once the monster had chewed me to its satisfaction, it swallowed hard, sending me down its esophagus. The muscular walls contracted with crushing force. For ordinary prey, even if they’d miraculously avoided the teeth, they would have been pulverized here for easy digestion.
I dropped into the stomach after passing through the esophagus. My body was submerged in potent gastric acid, but it was merely uncomfortable.
The creature’s stomach, proportional to its massive frame, contained a pocket of air. The space reeked of toxins befitting the interior of a beast, but breathing took priority. Besides, my poison resistance meant this level of toxicity caused no real harm. Most of it was noxious gas with only traces of oxygen, yet even that meager amount was welcome. Though I would have preferred not to be swallowed and to have reached the surface instead.
“I came to stop an earthquake, and somehow I ended up inside a monster’s belly… Sigh.”
When misfortune strikes, nothing goes right. But no matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t fathom how such a colossal monster existed in the sea.
Gates typically open in densely populated areas. That’s why a Gate opening in the middle of the ocean was virtually unheard of. This creature must have emerged from a Gate on some foreign coastline and drifted all the way here.
In my previous life, I’d never heard of anything like this. Did it only inhabit the Deep Sea? Or perhaps it had been killed in an explosion before I could encounter it.
I stopped pondering and focused on escape.
Outside, I’d been constrained by various limitations and couldn’t respond properly, but inside the beast’s belly, things were different. I placed my hand against the stomach wall and began absorbing its life force, expanding my body. As I grew larger, I pushed against the creature’s stomach lining.
As my expansion pressurized the stomach wall, gastric acid erupted from all directions.
The monster convulsed violently, clearly in agony.
Listening carefully, I felt a rhythmic pulse above my head. Its heart.
I formed aura blades roughly forty centimeters long on both fists. Small compared to my enlarged body, they were more than sufficient to carve through the creature’s abdomen.
I drove both blades toward the stomach wall in the direction of its heart.
I slashed horizontally across the puncture wound, then used my feet to tear the gaping wound open vertically with tremendous force.
Blood gushed forth like a dam breaking, drenching everything as I’d apparently severed major blood vessels.
The monster thrashed about violently, but trapped inside its own belly, it was helpless against me.
After several more cuts, the creature’s massive heart came into view. It was enormous, befitting the beast’s size.
Pinned beneath the creature’s flesh, I plunged my blade into the heart and tore through it diagonally with a long, decisive stroke.
The monster’s body convulsed once more, then went completely still.
[Your level has increased.]
[Your level has increased.]
Given the creature’s massive size, I’d earned substantial experience, gaining two levels at once.
Now I just needed to escape. But since I’d come this far, I might as well claim the magic stone as well.
Once I’d awakened the ability to absorb life force, I could sense the vitality contained within magic stones. Moreover, the life force radiating from this creature’s stone was so immense that locating it proved effortless.
After carving through the heart several times, I discovered the magic stone—it was the size of an adult human head. Apparently, the larger the creature, the larger its stone. Even if I broke it down and sold it in pieces, it would fetch tens of billions, but selling it intact would yield far more given its rarity.
I hadn’t expected to gain anything from this ordeal, yet I’d increased my skills, secured substantial wealth, and made progress with Bae Na-young. It had been an incredibly productive week.
I carved through the creature’s flesh and emerged outside. When I surfaced, the Japanese Fleet was nowhere to be seen. The monster’s thrashing had carried us far from our original location.
I released my enlargement, shrinking my body back to normal and covering myself completely in the suit. Now it was time to return to where everyone was waiting.
* * *
“Where have you been?”
As I returned after being away for quite some time, Bae Na-young asked.
“Just out in the sea for a bit.”
“I told you to drop the formal speech.”
“Right, I know. I’m still not used to it. Look at this. I picked it up.”
I showed her the magic stone.
“No way… There was something this massive in the sea?”
“Yeah. I was diving around, and it fell off.”
People around me were already worried enough as it was. There was no need to tell them I’d been eaten by a sea monster, killed it, and brought back its core. Not to mention hiding the whole Mana Stone Engine business.
“Boss! Is this a Mana Stone?! Where did you get it?!”
Jae-in’s eyes sparkled as she rushed over to examine the stone.
“I found it in the sea.”
“…I believe you. Can I use this?”
She clearly didn’t believe me. I suspected she’d figured out I’d hunted down a monster to get it.
“What are you planning to make?”
“Mana Stone Engine research is booming worldwide these days. I want to build one and use it to power the Workshop.”
For a moment, I pictured the Workshop next to my house exploding like a submarine.
“Absolutely not. First, you’ll experiment underground with an F-rank Goblin Mana Stone, and if it succeeds, I’ll give you a bigger one.”
I took the stone from Jae-in’s hands. She looked disappointed, but there was no helping it. A fist-sized core had already caused an earthquake when it detonated. If this one went off, the damage would be catastrophic.
“And when you’re working on it, you have to do it with me. No exceptions. And I have something to give you later too.”
If I analyzed the composition of the cooled Mana Stone Engine Core, I could get hints that would help with development. And if I worked alongside her, I could suppress any runaway reactions, making the experiments much safer. If things went well, we could probably pull it off within a few years.
On my way home after the vacation ended, I searched the news on my phone, but nothing about the East Sea incident appeared.
Since it was a covert experiment, they wouldn’t have publicized it.
At least that situation was resolved.
Normally, the whole country would be in emergency mode by now, but the view outside my window was peaceful.
* * *
I’d grown stronger faster than originally planned due to all the hardships. Now I just needed to handle minor events and prepare for the future. I’d always felt rushed, but for the first time in a while, I could breathe easy.
Since I had time, I followed along as Bae Na-young and Yang Sang-heon went to renew their Hunter Licenses. Both of them were now D-rank. Not as impressive as my B-rank, but still an incredibly fast progression.
Hunters don’t level up or increase their rank just by hunting any Gate. Once you reach a certain level, monsters below that level stop giving experience, so you need to hunt higher-ranked monsters to keep progressing.
However, without good skills or high stats, it’s difficult to level up by risking your life against monsters stronger than yourself. As a result, many Hunters gave up on leveling and stayed safely at their current rank.
I had no intention of letting those two do that. Once they got their new Hunter Licenses, I planned to take them to D-rank Gates for training, and then have them explore C-rank and B-rank Gates under my supervision.
While waiting in the first-floor café, the Awakener Management Bureau was unusually bustling today. There were lots of people coming and going, and it was noisy.
“Brother, something’s going on today?”
“Seems like it. It’s hectic.”
“Let’s go.”
Yang Sang-heon and Bae Na-young finished their renewal and headed toward the main entrance to leave the Bureau.
That’s when several Hunters escorted a group of people inside, surrounding them protectively.
“Ah, looks like someone important just arrived?”
I doubted my eyes as I watched the escorted group pass by in the distance.
Their heads were covered by hoods attached to cloaks, but I could recognize them. The tall, slender figure with blonde hair and emerald eyes peeking out from the hood—Helen, an elf. The man with a sturdy build and long brown beard, slightly taller than a Goblin—Adam, a dwarf. The two Caucasians following behind them were Richard Calloy and Paul Alexis. I’d seen these people in my previous life too. They were otherworlders who’d crossed over from another world.
I had no idea how they’d crossed over so early when they weren’t supposed to arrive for several more years in my previous life. They were the ones who’d caused the massive disaster in our world. If not for them, we might not have been annihilated in the war against monsters ten years later. We might have fought for decades more. And in that time, we might have developed the strength to actually win.
We happened to be in their path as they moved toward the elevators.
“Lee Ji-seok, hello.”
Baek Young-shin acknowledged us as he passed.
“Director. Hello.”
I kept my expression as neutral as possible.
“Is this person a Hunter too?”
Helen looked at me and asked.
“Yes. He’s a very capable Hunter. He contributed greatly to preventing the Gate Break incident not long ago.”
The Director spoke proudly of me.
“Is that so? He has impressive momentum.”
Helen looked me over and offered her praise.
“My passion is capturing and eliminating those who harm Earth.”
I spoke while meeting Helen’s gaze directly.
“I see. Then please continue to do your best.”
“I’m rather busy at the moment, so perhaps we can have tea another time.”
The Director offered his parting words and guided Helen’s party past us.
“I’ve never seen someone so beautiful before. But she’s a foreigner and speaks Korean incredibly well? Was she born in Korea?”
It was understandable that someone would mistake Helen, who appeared Caucasian, for a native Korean speaker given her fluent command of the language. Her fluency stemmed from the use of interpretation magic. While the other world hadn’t received the blessing of Awakening like us, it was abundant in mana, so magical research and magical artifacts had been actively developed since ancient times. Though few could wield such magic, they commanded a far greater variety of spells, and the quality of their items was considerably higher.
“Sang-heon, Na-young—did you renew your Hunter licenses?”
“Yes.”
“From now on, we’re going into C-rank Gates.”
“What? Why? You said we were going into D-rank Gates today?”
“Time’s run out. I’m going to need both of your strength.”
* * *
The next day, their photographs circulated online, followed by an immediate government announcement.
“A delegation from the other world, Telus, has arrived. They desire peace and are experiencing the same Gate calamity as Earth. We are currently coordinating the details to establish an alliance with Telus. We will share information and cooperate with Telus to face the Gate disasters together.”
The response was fervent. The existence of another world and of other races was more than enough to capture the attention of nations worldwide.
Particularly, the internet erupted over the beauty of the elf Helen. They called her the embodiment of a fantasy world elf.
Watching this spectacle made it difficult to maintain my composure. They’re being revered like this now, and it was exactly the same in my past life. The technology they’ll share from now on is something we don’t possess, and with so many applications, they’ll be treated as heroes for some time. Looking at it that way, it doesn’t seem like a bad thing, but the problem is that in my past life, we failed to discern their true intentions.

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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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