WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Became the EX-Rank Pet Maker Hunters Obsess Over ◈

Chapter 45: S-Rank Beast Demonstration

──────

Fwoooosh-!!

“Gwoooaaaar-!!!”

Baaang-!!!

The monsters strengthened by the blood-red fog clashed with the Riders.

The Riders had probably entered the Gate to end this situation as well.

They must have seen the traces of our battles on their way here.

Which meant that noisy attack was likely a diversion for those who had entered before us.

‘Or they just didn’t think it through...!’

Either way, this was our chance.

I checked the case containing the dormant S-rank magical beasts and started running toward the Flesh Shrine.

Tap tap tap-

“We need to get inside quickly while the monsters are focused on the Riders. If the Riders unleash that much firepower, their combat endurance will drop sharply!”

Yeon Harim raced ahead of me while Baek Seola ran beside me.

“What about joining them and taking down the monsters!?”

“It wouldn’t be good to drag this out under these conditions. Amon probably gathered those monsters to keep us tied down in the first place.”

From what I’d experienced so far, the longer this went on, the more it would favor Amon.

The fog had slowly eroded our reality, gradually becoming a serious threat.

If we wasted time, some other unforeseen disaster might occur.

There was no need to fight the way our opponent wanted us to.

What we needed now was a quick, decisive finish...!!

As she ran, Baek Seola glanced back at the Riders fighting behind us.

“But they’re badly outnumbered! It doesn’t look like they can use those big attacks many times! They won’t last long!!”

“It’s fine! If there’s one thing those people are good at, it’s holding out!!”

They were Awakened with tanking traits to begin with.

And considering the notoriously picky Panoplia Gamma model and their respective core models had chosen them, they had to possess tougher bodies and more resilient minds than ordinary Awakened.

At this point, there probably weren’t any Hunters in Japan who could hold out longer than them.

“I’ll clear the way!!”

Crackle-!!!

Yeon Harim wrapped herself in lightning, drew up her mana, and cleaved the monster blocking our path in two with a single sword strike.

There were still monsters lingering around the Flesh Shrine, but Baek Seola and Yeon Harim raised their firepower as high as possible and quickly took them down. At last, we made it inside the shrine.

Fortunately, most of the monsters outside were too large to enter.

The passage was wide enough for five adults to walk through side by side, made of blood vessels and chunks of flesh.

Yeon Harim took the lead through the passage and muttered.

“Ugh... The floor feels really disgusting... And the fog is thicker too.”

The squishy floor inside the shrine definitely didn’t feel pleasant.

Baek Seola created an ice crystal, apparently a type of detection magic, then fired it deeper into the passage.

Whoosh-

The ice crystal flew to the end of the passage, sending prismatic rays in every direction as though scanning the surroundings.

“Thankfully, there don’t seem to be any side passages. I don’t sense any monsters either.”

“Oh....”

“Pant pant....”

As expected of two Gate experts, we were able to continue our search without much trouble. Eventually, we reached what seemed to be the center of the shrine.

“I’ll clear away the fog.”

Fwoooong-!!!

When Baek Seola dispersed the fog with wind magic, a door stitched together from bone and flesh appeared before us.

Judging by its location, the shrine’s center had to be beyond this door.

Thump. Thump.

The door pulsed as though it were alive.

“This really is a revolting place. I want to deal with this quickly and get out.”

Snap-!

As if disgusted by the pulsing door, Baek Seola flicked a finger toward it. At the same time, Baduk and Omok of the Eclipse model wrapped around her body amplified their mana.

The surrounding temperature dropped in an instant, and the door began to freeze. Soon, it shattered into pieces.

Crack crack crack-!

Crash-!

Dense fog poured out from beyond the shattered door...

Fwoosh-!!!

A space engulfed in darkness appeared before us.

“This is... that place from before?”

The altar I had seen in the mental space sat at the center. A faint glow was the only source of light, illuminating it.

Then, from the darkness beyond the altar, the grotesque priest with four pairs of arms slowly emerged and opened its mouth.

[ You have come... mortals.... ]

The moment it appeared, I pointed at it.

“Hunters!! That’s the guy!! The one who tried to corrupt me!! It tried to destroy my sanity by showing off its talents and its organs!!!”

Neither Baek Seola nor Yeon Harim could hide their shock at Amon’s horrific appearance. It hadn’t just been alone with Yoo Hyun, someone practically no different from an ordinary person. It had even subjected him to a mental attack?

Baek Seola covered her mouth with both hands, tears welling in her eyes as though she had been deeply shaken.

“My god... How can something be so hideous... You faced something like that in a mental space!? President Yoo Hyun... Once this is over, I’ll introduce you to a psychiatrist. You must have serious trauma from this...!!”

Yeon Harim, on the other hand, glared at Amon as if she wanted to kill it, sparks of lightning jumping from her body.

“You dared to do that to Yoo Hyun...!! You ravaged Yoo Hyun’s fragile, soft, squishy Jellykko-like mind with that horrible form of yours...!!!!”

[ ....... ]

Amon silently stared at me. It probably wasn’t my imagination that it looked like it had a lot to say.

In the end, seeming to give up on responding, it ignored us and formed hand seals with its four pairs of arms.

[ To enter a sorcerer’s domain... so fearlessly... I will make you... bitterly regret it─ ]

Crackle-!!

Baaang-!!!

Before it could finish, Yeon Harim launched an attack while wrapped in lightning.

I’d already told them Amon was a sorcerer. There was no reason to give it time to cast a spell.

The easiest way to defeat a mage was to deny them casting time...!

“Damn...!!”

But Yeon Harim’s surprise attack was blocked by a curtain of fog.

[ ...Foolish... This entire shrine... is my domain.... ]

This place was a domain Amon had constructed.

A sorcerer who had fully established a domain could do more than fight a warrior head-on. They could gain the upper hand.

[ Be cast away... primitive one.... ]

When Amon formed another hand seal, a shockwave erupted and flung Yeon Harim away.

Baaang-!!

“Aah-!”

Boom-!!

Yeon Harim crashed into a wall of flesh, sending chunks of meat flying everywhere.

Her carefully planned ambush had been blocked, but their strength still surpassed that of ordinary S-ranks.

Taking advantage of Amon’s counterattack, Baek Seola gathered the mana of the Eclipse model and cast a large-scale attack spell meant to seize control of the entire space.

“Taiyin Grotto-Heaven: Icebound Realm.”

The chant meant to solidify her magical image left her lips. At the same time, pillars of ice rose from the floor, transforming Amon’s domain into a frozen wasteland.

It was a domain spell that filled the surroundings with her mana, allowing her to unleash silent-cast spells in rapid succession. It also drastically reduced the opponent’s mana-sensing range, creating an environment where allied melee damage dealers could move more freely.

[ For a mortal... you are quite capable.... ]

Amon spoke as though intrigued by Baek Seola’s overwhelming amount of mana. Yeon Harim, who had been thrown into the wall, rejoined the fight, and the two-on-one battle began.

Yet Amon received their combined assault with surprising ease.

It responded as though it had absolutely no reason to hurry.

While they fought, I quietly slipped past them and headed deeper into the shrine.

Baek Seola’s wide-area attack and Yeon Harim’s relentless assault had been misdirection from the start.

My objective was finding Japan’s S-rank Hunters.

“Let’s sneak in and find the Japanese Hunters, Haengbok.”

“Pant pant....”

* * *

As I expected, there was more space beyond the altar chamber.

But there was also something I hadn’t expected...

“Wow, what is all this...?”

“Pant pant....”

This place was littered with items commonly called artifacts.

Daggers and staffs a priest might use, restraint tools inscribed with runes, and more....

There were all sorts of items, but it was hard to believe they were all things Amon used.

“......Hmm. Then is this because of that causality thing too?”

A price that had to be paid to preserve the balance of something unseen...

This Gate was likely structured so that it was normally impossible to clear, but defeating Amon would grant every reward scattered here.

High risk, high return.

Well, that was only my intuition, so I could be wrong...

Anyway.

I found the Hunters I’d been looking for.

“......So this is where you both were.”

But there was no response.

The two Hunters had been buried in prisons of flesh, with only their heads exposed.

Yamada Ryusei, who had been friendly, and Shirasaki Ayame, whose lack of expression made it impossible to tell what she was thinking.

Neither of them could be considered normal.

Dense blood-red fog had completely swallowed their heads.

Still, their bodies kept twitching, so they were alive.

“Well, well... They turned perfectly fine people into vegetables.”

“Pant pant....”

First, I pulled them free from the flesh imprisoning them.

Thanks to the Awakened physical abilities I already possessed and the Ouroboros Core implanted in my body, it wasn’t difficult.

Once I laid the two Hunters on the floor...

Boing-!

Haengbok crawled out of the pouch and licked the Hunters’ hands.

Lick lick-

“Pant pant....”

After licking the Hunters, Haengbok looked up at me.

“That’s right, Haengbok. It’s not too late yet.”

What a smart Jelly Dog.

The fact that they’d maintained their human forms in that condition meant they were still resisting in the mental space, didn’t it?

All we had to do was pull the two people, somehow holding on through incredible mental strength, out of that mental space.

“First, the inoculations....”

I took magical beast gene syringes from my alchemy kit, disinfected the injection sites, and administered the injections to both Hunters.

The genes would naturally disappear after two or three weeks, so there would be no problem.

This would let them resist the fog’s influence to some extent.

“You held out for a long time.”

I raised a finger and pointed it at the two Hunters. Blood welled up on my fingertip, then stretched out like a snake and entered their ears.

Once the biological connection formed, my consciousness grew hazy, and I felt myself being sucked into some kind of space.

“I’ll be back, Haengbok. Guard my body for me.”

“Pant pant....”

* * *

As the battle with Amon dragged on, Yeon Harim began to notice something strange.

“......Hunter Baek Seola, doesn’t something feel off...? No matter how strong it is, the fact that it doesn’t even look tired....”

“......I feel it too. I knew there was a gap in strength, but something’s wrong if it shows no depletion at all.”

Yeon Harim and Baek Seola had entered the battle treating their opponent as an S+-rank boss or worse.

They knew there was a difference in strength, and to buy Yoo Hyun time, they had attacked relentlessly while spending their resources excessively.

No matter how powerful a monster was, its stamina wasn’t infinite. Since their opponent was also a sorcerer, there had to be a cost every time it used a technique.

But Amon showed no change in condition, as though it had suffered no depletion at all.

Yeon Harim and Baek Seola almost felt as though Amon’s stamina was infinite.

As though it had heard their conversation, Amon spread its four pairs of arms and delivered grim news.

[ You have noticed... That is correct... Within the bounds of this shrine... my arcane energy is... infinite... From the moment... you came here... there was never... any chance of victory.... ]

Amon was always in peak condition, while Yeon Harim and Baek Seola’s stamina had fallen considerably.

Still, they smiled.

“Even if your stamina recovers endlessly, it feels like the maximum power you can use is fixed, right? Otherwise, we would’ve died instantly. Looking at it that way, it doesn’t seem like we have no chance...?”

“That’s right. When I ambushed you earlier, you blocked it in a hurry. You’ll die just the same if you get stabbed, won’t you? Infinite this and that, but it’s nothing special.”

Amon watched them and gathered the surrounding fog.

[ Yes... Struggle... as much as you wish... You appear... to be useful materials... so I will not kill you... Instead, I will show you... true despair.... ]

The fog Amon gathered surrounded Yeon Harim and Baek Seola, writhing as it formed into a living entity.

The tentacle-like fog slowly began to take shape.

Before the fog could fully form, Yeon Harim swung her sword...

Clang-!!

The sword was knocked away, and the being within the fog was completely unharmed.

It was as though the laws of reality did not apply.

Yeon Harim groaned, her wrist throbbing from the impact.

“......Tch!”

[ Now... behold... the forms of nightmares... becoming real.... ]

When Amon formed a hand seal, the grotesque creatures within the fog writhed as though they were trying to emerge from it.

[ Mortals... behold... the pinnacle of sorcery... that creatures with lives... as short as insects... can never─ ]

Rustle-

At that moment, a red butterfly passed before Amon’s eyes.

[ ......An insect? ]

Boom-!!!!

Before Amon could even process its confusion, the butterfly exploded with tremendous force and released poisonous fumes.

The blast opened a small gap in the wall of fog around Amon, and poison seeped through it.

[ Cough...!! ]

Overwhelmed by the terrible poison, Amon spewed bodily fluids from the holes in its face.

Feeling its insides twist, it turned toward where the butterfly had come from.

Yoo Hyun stood between the two rescued Japanese Hunters, smiling at Amon.

He mouthed a word at it.

Essence.

Twitch-

Amon’s body recoiled, and it formed another hand seal.

The shapes of the beings within the fog grew clearer, and countless grotesque monsters appeared in reality.

[ ...Yes, you rescued... your companions...? But that is... as far as you go... The decisive blow... you prepared... did not work... against me.... ]

The butterfly had certainly been a powerful strike, but it wasn’t enough to inflict a fatal wound on Amon.

Swish-

But Ayame quietly raised a bead with a red butterfly clinging to it. The butterfly began multiplying, becoming hundreds, then thousands.

[ ......!! ]

Before long, a tide of red butterflies spread through the chamber as though it would swallow everything whole.

Yoo Hyun looked at Amon and spoke.

“Serve as the test subject for an S-rank magical beast demonstration.”

Author’s Note

I failed to release chapters consecutively, so this chapter ended up very late... I’m sorry!!

The final butterflies contain antidote powder...!!! Don’t worry!!

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried