NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 4 - The End of Childhood, The Hunt Begins (4)
Chapter 4. The End of Childhood, The Hunt Begins (4)
The first to immediately oppose my decision was the information window.
[Warning: The selected Successor lags behind other Successors in achievement progression.]
Was that why it was “there”?
But.
“I don’t care.”
I would neither retract this choice nor regret it.
[Warning: The selected Successor is registered under the
Before I could finish reading the warning message, the monster charged straight at me.
Slaaash!
The uniform jacket and the skin beneath it were torn apart by its pincers.
If I had hesitated even slightly in retreating, my sternum would have been crushed. My voice instinctively grew urgent.
“I said, I don’t care. Just do it now!”
[《Sacred Fire Succession》: Initiating Sacred Fire Succession for the chosen entity.]
Perhaps. Just maybe.
The
But there was a more important standard for my choice.
The one who helped save the children’s mother.
The one who guided me when I was about to give up in the end.
The one who encouraged me, even when the beings called the Holy Spirits mocked me.
Sometimes, you can discern a person’s humanity from fragments of their actions. The entity I chose was exactly like that. Specifically.
[You have chosen a failed Successor, Master of Broken Dawn!]
Whooosh!
While this was happening, the squid-headed creature extended its tentacles.
It hurt… The excruciating pain of my skin being torn apart. Just a slight graze on my shoulder was enough to make blood gush out.
“Huuup!”
In the end, I raised the revolver and aimed the last flare round at its head—
—Ping!
Damn it.
Its pincers struck the swiftly flying flare round… deflecting it.
The bright red flare fell far into the mist, while the monster let out a sinister laugh and lunged at me with both pincers and its tentacles.
[《Sacred Fire Succession》: Activating unique weapon.]
I would have died.
If not for the orb of light that appeared at that moment.
The size of a fist.
It appeared in the space between me and the monster.
While the monster let out a scream of shock and retreated, the orb spoke in a calm voice.
「Take it.」
I hesitated briefly.
As if entranced, I reached out and grabbed the orb, and then I couldn’t help but shudder.
──Chaaaang!
A brilliant flash of light.
The radiance swirled fiercely like a storm.
It wasn’t ordinary white light, but the golden hue of life itself, and as it spread in all directions, the yellow mist began to evaporate.
At some point, the whirlwind of radiance condensed into my grip, forming a new shape.
The shape of a sword.
A mystical greatsword.
Without a sheath and with its blade broken halfway.
And yet, it was so breathtakingly beautiful that I couldn’t look away.
[Equipped unique weapon: Dawnblade.]
True to its name, the blade seemed to embody the dawn itself.
Waves of crimson and gold shimmered across its surface, exuding the heat of the breaking dawn.
「BARISHYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」
As the monster lashed out with its pincers, I instinctively grabbed the hilt of the sword.
At that moment, something strange happened.
My body ‘automatically’ retreated, evading the monster’s fierce attack.
Swooosh!
The following tentacle strikes were also avoided as I spun sideways. At the same time, the sound of something cutting through the air pierced the silence.
Clang!
This time, the monster let out a shriek.
It wasn’t anger over losing its prey. It was a scream born from pain.
Thud, thud.
Half of its twenty-some tentacles were severed, falling to the ground.
The severed surfaces gleamed with radiant light, emitting heat so intense that the tentacles began to burn, filling the air with a foul stench.
What… ridiculous power.
The feeling of wielding the sword was vivid in my fingers.
Not only had my body dodged attacks it shouldn’t have been able to react to, but it had also counterattacked perfectly.
[《Sacred Fire Succession》: Succession Progress (2%)]
Combat memory synchronization (2%).
Physical ability synchronization (2%).
A notification window appeared in the corner of my vision.
So that’s it.
That must be it.
It started making sense.
The combat memory, even at just 2%, had truly been passed on to me.
Maybe… I can win?
The moment I realized that, my blood began to surge through my veins.
From the point where the tentacles were severed, the situation turned into a standoff.
I became bolder in advancing, while—
“Come at me again, you bastard.”
The monster grew cautious, no longer closing the distance.
“Why don’t you charge at me agai—”
I stopped mid-sentence.
The Dawnblade cut through the mist, revealing a horrific scene behind the monster.
Corpses blanketed the road in a sea of blood, stretching as far as the eye could see.
Those torn apart.
Those crushed flat.
The methods of slaughter were horrifyingly diverse, yet there was no discernible reason for such brutal deaths.
In my trembling grip, the Dawnblade shuddered.
I couldn’t tell if it was my fingers shaking or the sword itself.
At that moment, I remember only one thought pulsating in my mind.
Extermination… Extermination.
Whatever the purpose, those who commit such atrocities as if it were a game must be killed without exception.
To bring solace to the souls of the fallen. That’s what I believed at that moment.
Perhaps that’s why.
I was the first to break the stalemate, charging forward.
「KERASHIKKKKKKKKK!」
The monster was a cunning hunter.
It had been waiting for me to drop my guard and recklessly leap in after gaining new strength.
In an instant, it mapped out my approach path and launched a dual attack.
Whoosh!
A cluster of white tentacles aimed for my face.
Simultaneously, its pincers dove downward from the upper left.
I would have been overwhelmed without question.
That is, if I had still been the person I was earlier.
With movements close to miraculous, I twisted and turned my body.
Barely dodging the tentacles, I spun my waist and swung the Dawnblade.
The blade, wrapped in the radiance of dawn,
clashed midair against the emerald-colored pincer, sparks flying.
It was astounding.
Despite its broken blade, it didn’t yield even slightly against the pincer that could crush the ground.
As the grinding sound of steel against steel echoed, I let out a surging battle cry.
“Haahhhhhhh!”
The blade dug deep into the pincer, leaving a trail of dawn’s brilliance.
Thick blood gushed out, but almost immediately, tentacles counterattacked, flying toward my face.
Spinning sideways, I twisted the blade free.
As the tentacles brushed past my cheek in an instant, a heavy crash resounded.
One of the pincers had been severed and plummeted to the ground.
「Garak, Garakak, Gaaraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak.」
The monster let out a raspy groan, gasping for breath.
It looked to be in excruciating pain, but this was just the beginning.
“Does it hurt?”
Before I even finished asking, the remaining pincer came rushing toward me.
I barely evaded it by twisting my body, and the pincer slashed through the air.
A beat later.
A sharp slicing sound grazed my eardrum.
That was it.
The creature couldn’t retract its pincer again.
Because I brought the Dawnblade down vertically and severed its limb.
“Answer me, you bastard!”
It was laughable.
The emotion in the squid-like eyes was fear.
Even funnier was the fact that it started to back away, stumbling in retreat.
“It hurts, doesn’t it?”
As I approached cautiously, a mass of tentacles lashed out desperately.
I ducked my head to dodge easily and grabbed one tentacle midair.
“You knew how much it hurts, and yet you did those things.”
I yanked the tentacle forcefully.
A piercing shriek stabbed through my ears.
Now… I’ll finish this.
At that moment, a violent earthquake swept through the area.
I barely managed to maintain my balance, using the Dawnblade as a staff, but the retreating monster stumbled and fell.
Was the earthquake triggered by the invasion? Or…
A sense of foreboding crept in, but as the tremor subsided, the scene I wanted had already come to life.
The fallen prey and the advancing hunter.
I approached the monster slowly.
I wanted to let it know. I wanted it to feel.
The fear of impending death.
The despair that the people it killed must have felt. The rage born of helplessness.
One step.
Then another.
The monster let out guttural sounds, flailing as it tried to get up.
But the blood slick on the ground caused it to slip again and again.
「Guarbas, Karrasis, Garakak, Gaaraaaaa.」
In a final act of desperation, a few tentacles lashed out.
The once-terrifying tentacles now seemed pathetic. I let out a roar, striking them down with the Dawnblade, over and over.
As I struck, I kept walking forward.
When I finally stood before its feet, I severed both legs, one after the other.
「SSSIASSSSSSSSSSSSS!」
A mournful death cry.
The monster had nothing left. It couldn’t fight or flee. All it could do was await death.
I raised the Dawnblade above my head.
As I stood there, letting it feel fear, despair gripped the squid-like head as it began to tremble violently.
In the darkness, the brilliant blade of dawn gleamed.
The blade flashed, struck the monster’s head, cleaved through its chest, and sliced all the way to its pelvis.
In the next moment, its body split in two. Black blood erupted, drenching me.
It was thick, fishy, and warm.
Even now, the severed surfaces shimmered with blood-tinged light.
This blade seemed to possess a mystical power that incinerated the bodies of monsters.
As I blankly watched the monster’s body crumble to ash,
[A hunt for the ancient being ‘Haneubeirak’ has succeeded.]
[Notification: The mist of the Huangjo has temporarily weakened to Level 1.]
[Warning: Aberrations in the area have gone berserk and are rampaging.]
As if in congratulations, notification windows popped up one after another.
[Legendary Achievement: Twelve Pioneer Hunters (7/12)]
[Honor is given to the pioneers who hunted an ancient being for the first time in history!]
All physical stats receive a (+2) bonus.
A heavy silence fell.
I wiped the blood off my face and surveyed the ruined city.
Buildings lay in shambles.
Corpses littered the ground.
Smoke billowed here and there.
Beyond that, the mist obscured my view, but it was clear.
The heart of South Korea, Seoul, had fallen.
I lifted my gaze to the sky.
The pitch-black, torn sky bore the words [Holy Spirit’s Selection].
Watching humanity’s ‘struggle’ with pleasure were Guides resembling angels.
Struggle… Transcendence…?
They dressed it up in flowery words, but wasn’t this just turning the world into a game?
I couldn’t revel in victory.
Only rage surged within my chest, a hollow fury.
It was rage against the beings who twisted the laws of the world. Rage against the senseless deaths of the powerless and innocent.
I closed my eyes quietly.
The day the world became a game.
I was chosen as a hunter on the Holy Spirits’ game board.
But they wouldn’t know.
That on that same day, they were chosen as prey.
“Are you perhaps… one of them?”
I muttered as I looked down at the Dawnblade.
After a brief silence, the radiance of the Dawnblade dimmed, as if to refute my question.
“I’ll trust you.”
I had no solid evidence, but I chose to believe.
There was no hope in sight, so I had to cling to this.
I fashioned a sheath for the Dawnblade.
Using the clothes and belts of the dead, I wrapped the blade and created a makeshift scabbard to sling across my back.
…It looked decent enough.
I decided to move quickly and assess the situation, even if it felt terrible, like playing a game.
My weapon was a broken blade.
My unique skill was 《Sacred Fire Succession》.
The former could effectively strike monsters, and the latter ensured I could defeat at least one enemy.
One versus many… That still seemed impossible.
As I quickened my pace toward S-042, something caught my eye. I muttered unconsciously.
“…An item?”
At the spot where the monster’s corpse had burned away, a glowing stone emitting soft, glittering light lay.
It was the same effect games used to distinguish objects from items.
[Rare Material Obtained: Soul Stone of the ancient being ‘Haneubarach’.]
I was dumbfounded.
As I picked up the stone, an information window appeared as if it were the most natural thing in the world.