Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 67

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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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67
The Minotaur is a monster with a bull’s head and human body, standing at a towering three meters tall. They typically wield double-bladed axes or massive swords. Despite the numbers befitting an A-rank Gate, these creatures are merely C-rank monsters.
“Forward, everyone!”
At Shim Hee-ho’s command, I stepped ahead with the rest. Scales erupted from my back, wrapping around my body. As the scales spiraled outward, enveloping me completely, Shim Hee-ho nodded in acknowledgment. So I hadn’t come unprepared after all—that was the look on his face.
The warriors formed a line and charged forward, while mages, archers, and mana projectiles rained down from behind.
Before the warriors even collided with the Minotaur horde, a third of them had already fallen to ranged attacks. The other attacks were adequate, but watching dozens of Fire Arrows from Yoon Dong-ha—the Rose Guild’s A-rank flame mage—pierce through the Minotaurs and reduce them to ash was genuinely impressive. An A-rank mage’s area-of-effect magic shone far brighter in these large-scale battles than in one-on-one combat.
“Uuuaaahhh!”
Shim Hee-ho charged at the front, dual arm shields covering his forearms to his fists. It was time to witness the skill of Jung Min-gi’s cherished younger sibling.
The shields’ pointed edges allowed him to defend and attack simultaneously—a versatile piece of equipment.
As befitted an A-rank hunter, he effortlessly deflected the Minotaur’s axe—a weapon wielded by a creature a full meter taller than himself—with his arm shields. Then he thrust the sharp front edge toward the monster’s throat, or spun his body like a top to strike its head with the pointed elbow section. Against his ferocity, neither healing support nor covering fire was necessary.
Lee Dong-bin fought far better than he had during the Troll Gate break. Fighting alongside teammates he’d coordinated with made all the difference. That day, monsters had surrounded him on all sides, and his allies were all strangers—no wonder he’d struggled to perform.
I’d seen enough. Time for me to work. Clearing these wouldn’t yield much experience, but hanging back and only snatching the A-rank monsters would look terrible.
I encased myself in armor from head to toe and grew to match the Minotaurs’ size. Felling one at a time, I personally handled roughly ten of the dozens of Minotaurs.
Lee Dong-bin glanced at me, then recklessly charged into the monster swarm, taking multiple hits in the process.
“Hey! Stop going in alone! If you drain my mana, you’re paying for it!”
Jung Ji-eun unleashed a barrage of healing magic on Lee Dong-bin.
“I… I’m sorry!”
Despite the minor incidents, the operation proceeded smoothly.
“Ah… so there was a reason your brother recommended you. Hehehehe.”
“Hmph. Well, you’re not completely useless, I suppose.”
Despite her words, her gaze toward me had softened noticeably—I’d clearly made an impression.
“Alright! Let’s continue.”
The other monsters that appeared posed no challenge to this team composition. The real problem was the environment itself. At minus thirty degrees with winds exceeding dozens of meters per second, even thermal gear couldn’t hold back the cold. Exposed skin felt like it was being sliced away, making it nearly unbearable even for superhuman hunters—especially for C-rank ones.
“W-w-w-why d-d-do I h-h-have to f-f-follow y-y-you?”
Yang Sang-heon could barely speak through his violent shivering.
“Tsk tsk… you’re wearing cold-weather gear, aren’t you?”
“D-d-don’t you f-f-feel c-c-cold at all, b-b-brother?”
Yang Sang-heon glared at me with frost-covered eyes.
“Are you even human?”
I’d read about monsters that spoke like that in some book.
But Yang Sang-heon wasn’t the only one suffering from the cold. The B and C-rank hunters were largely in the same predicament. Choi Ye-seul too. Her expressionless face made it hard for others to tell, but I knew—she was freezing to death. Yet she’d tried to give me her thermal gear. Truly remarkable.
I wasn’t sure how to help, but I should at least do what I could with these small gestures.
“Let’s move forward a bit.”
I led Yang Sang-heon toward Choi Ye-seul, then enlarged my body and generated heat. Standing four meters tall in front of them, blocking the wind while radiating hundreds of degrees of warmth, the hunters’ expressions brightened considerably.
Some even held out their hands and followed me like I was a portable heater. Is this what the Pied Piper felt like?
Thanks to this, our marching speed increased. Shim Hee-ho watched me with a pleased smile. It seemed guild recruitment pitches would only intensify after today.
“Team leader, Wyvern approaching from seven o’clock!”
Looking skyward, I spotted a massive winged Wyvern descending through the air.
“Ah, excellent. Finally showed up. Yoon Dong-ha, I’m counting on you.”
Yoon Dong-ha extended his staff toward the Wyvern and concentrated his focus.
“Fire Fall.”
When the Wyvern closed to within a hundred meters, Hunter Yoon Dong-ha chanted the incantation, and a torrential cascade of flames poured down upon the creature’s head.
Fire erupted from the sky as though a hole had been torn through the heavens themselves, crashing down upon the Wyvern with devastating force. The creature couldn’t withstand the pressure and heat of flames larger than its own body, and it was driven hard into the ground.
The beast sprawled on the earth measured a good twenty meters from head to tail, appearing several times larger from this vantage point than it had in the air. Where the Drake I’d encountered in North Korea had felt thick and unyielding, this Wyvern possessed a relatively slender, agile quality.
“Second unit, fall back!”
The second unit consisted of B and C-rank Hunters. No matter how much they were buffed, approaching the Wyvern would mean getting one-shot, so Hunter Shim Hee-ho issued the order and charged at the creature alone.
The Wyvern swung its massive foreleg down at the approaching Hunter Shim Hee-ho, who crossed his arms and thrust upward to meet the blow head-on.
“Uooooh!!!”
Taking the Wyvern’s strike directly, it proved far stronger than I’d anticipated.
While Hunter Shim Hee-ho held the line, the dealers unleashed their attacks, but the Wyvern, having sensed the danger, leaped backward with surprising agility for its size and took flight, beating its wings with tremendous force. The grace belied its massive frame.
The wind that buffeted everyone was far too powerful to have come from mere wing beats. A-rank monsters possessed special abilities beyond mere physical prowess, and most Wyverns could manipulate wind or breathe fire.
Razor-sharp gusts left the Hunters bloodied one by one.
We’d planned to handle this ourselves, so we could manage even without additional help, but prolonging the fight would only increase casualties. I enlarged myself to five meters and drove a devastating side kick into the creature’s ribs as it flapped its wings.
With a sickening crack, the Wyvern’s ribs caved inward, and it tumbled backward, shrieking in agony.
“Thank you for your efforts. Please take a moment to rest.”
“Uh…? Uh…?”
Hunter Shim Hee-ho stared at me in stunned silence.
As the Wyvern rose to its feet, its attention shifted entirely from Hunter Shim Hee-ho to me.
I sidestepped its charging foreleg and struck its head repeatedly with aura-infused blows. The fact that it didn’t go down in a single hit despite my aura-enhanced strikes confirmed it was indeed an A-rank monster. Tough hide, enormous body, threatening fangs and claws, and the ability to manipulate wind on top of it all.
But compared to how much I’d grown since defeating the Drake, this opponent was manageable.
Perhaps sensing my unease at fighting alone, Hunter Jung Ji-eun’s buff descended upon me for the first time since entering the Gate. I felt my strength and agility increase slightly.
And when I took hits, Ye-seul and she would cast healing spells, and I felt my vitality replenish. It wasn’t a critical situation and my health had plenty of margin, so it wasn’t strictly necessary.
“Hunter Lee Ji-seok, step back! We can’t attack!”
With me enlarged and grappling with the creature, the dealers found it difficult to land their strikes.
“Just shoot.”
“What?”
“You won’t hurt me even if you shoot.”
“But… how can you…?”
Unlike the worried Hunter Shim Hee-ho, Hunter Yoon Dong-ha didn’t hesitate and conjured a massive fireball two meters in diameter, launching it without reservation.
I caught a glimpse of Hunter Yoon Dong-ha chanting and seized the Wyvern’s neck, immobilizing it. The fireball struck the creature’s body directly and detonated, flames spreading toward me as well.
“Hey?! Dong-ha?!”
“You told me to shoot.”
Hunter Yoon Dong-ha answered with casual indifference.
It didn’t matter. Even a direct hit was something I could defend against—scattered sparks were trivial. But the Wyvern, engulfed in flames, thrashed about in agony. I tightened my grip on its neck and drained its life force. I could have poured aura into it from within like when I’d defeated the Drake, but that would be wasteful. Besides, I’d need to continue serving as a heater going forward, so I needed to recharge from this creature.
“Hah… hehe… impressive. Everyone, attack! Our attacks won’t hurt Hunter Lee Ji-seok anyway!”
Arrows and magic flew in rapid succession. As I drained the creature’s life force while holding its neck, taking hits from all directions simultaneously, even the mighty Wyvern couldn’t endure for long and collapsed.
“Unbelievable… Wyvern hide is famous for being resistant to aura, yet we took it down so easily.”
“That person is A-rank?”
“If we’d left him alone, he would’ve soloed it?”
“Thanks to him, we’ll breeze through this Gate.”
Thanks to my strength, the B and C-rank Hunters expressed considerable admiration. In contrast, Lee Dong-bin, who initially seemed jealous of me, now avoided eye contact entirely and kept his head bowed.
I hadn’t done anything, yet he was the one nursing jealousy and losing his nerve—a busy man indeed.
“Damn, who knew he was that strong….”
Jung Ji-eun seemed to recall how she’d initially picked a fight with me, muttering her regrets. They were all too far away to realize I could hear them.
“Choi Ye-seul! Aren’t you going to swap this out? Do I have to ask you directly?”
Jung Ji-eun pulled out a thermal item designed to maintain body heat from inside her winter coat and threw it on the ground. The hand warmer-like thermal item that fell to the ground was still warm enough to melt the snow—clearly another unnecessary complaint on her part.
“This one’s still warm. We don’t have many, so if you use too much now, you’ll struggle later.”
As Ye-seul picked it up and spoke, Jung Ji-eun’s face twisted sharply.
“Just give it to me if I ask! Why do you have to say so much?”
She snapped loudly, but the Rose Guild members didn’t pay much attention—apparently this happened often.
I took a thermal hand warmer from Yang Sang-heon’s bag and handed it to Jung Ji-eun.
“Use this.”
“Oh… you really didn’t have to….”
Jung Ji-eun’s face, which had been twisted so viciously, relaxed as if nothing had happened.
“Hunter Lee Ji-seok, you’re really amazing, aren’t you? You said you’ve only been awakened for less than a year?”
Where did that earlier prickliness go? Now she was speaking sweetly.
“Yes. I was fortunate.”
As I made small talk to distract Jung Ji-eun, Ye-seul bowed her head slightly in gratitude.
The subsequent dungeon conquest became even easier. It was a team capable of clearing it without me to begin with, yet I alone was performing at a level exceeding the Rose Guild team’s capabilities.
“Is it okay to just coast like this?”
A B-rank warrior who was supposed to provide support when Shim Hee-ho was in danger spoke up. It was a dangerous role for a B-rank Hunter to draw the attention of an A-rank monster, but now he was just watching from behind. Shim Hee-ho had told him to step back—if he accidentally got in the way, he might get crushed by me or the wyvern, which would be troublesome.
I subtly continued looking after Ye-seul as well, sharing my thermal items with her or giving her food first.
I didn’t think this repaid the debt. That said, suddenly giving her a large sum of money or an A-rank item would seem strange. From now on, I’d gradually become closer and provide various forms of help.
The Gate conquest proceeded smoothly. After several hours of clearing, we set up a temporary barracks for rest. Made from items stored in everyone’s bags, while not particularly spacious or luxurious, simply blocking the wind made breathing easier, and everyone’s expressions relaxed.
“Thank you.”
I handed warm food to Ye-seul. Since I didn’t need many items, Yang Sang-heon’s bag contained a thermal container to maintain food temperature. The other Rose Guild members were eating cold preserved rations.
“Oh, don’t I get any?”
Jung Ji-eun approached, catching the scent.

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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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