Chapter 99 (1/2)

Trap (1)

The dry telepathy resonated in my head.

– Coordinate verification complete. A Mana core containing 18,100 Mana is required to transfer one human species to the user’s destination.

It’s very expensive.

Frowning, I injected the Mana core in it.

– It’s now ready to be used.

I pulled the devil’s sword that was remained stationary far away with psychokinesis and pushed it into the gate first.

There was no admission fee for the devil’s sword as it was treated as an item.

I then dragged the sacred beast’s body, which was tangled into the sword-energy-woven net, into the light.

After confirming the transfer location…

Swoosh!

The scenery changed.

‘Ugh! I-it is too close.’

The shriek of the sword echoed through my mind.

“Such a wuss.”

Even if it’s a sacred beast dug from the ground, the sacred power must’ve remained to a certain degree. The devil’s sword that was in close distance with it acted like it was about to die.

Swish!

With psychokinesis, I floated the devil’s sword high up in the sky.

As its distance with the sacred beast widened again, it looked like it could relax again. The whining mental wave stopped as well.

‘By the way, why have you come here?’

A gray plain stretched vastly.

It was inside the dungeon that only I, Hibiki, and Nate knew about.

That time again, I moved directly from dungeon to dungeon without going through Earth.

The place where the [Door of Hope] vomited me out was near the newly planted tree seedlings, which were placed by tilling over the preexisting plants.

“What do you mean why have I come here? Isn’t that obvious?”

The seedling colony wasn’t yet enough to be called a forest, but it could be considered within the standards of landscaping projects in small parks.

I was internally impressed.

“It’s growing so fast. It should bear fruit in a little while.”

Then…

Dududududu!

I heard a large crowd rushing in nearby.

“That’s fast.”

They released a roar that silenced a mutter.

“Rarghhh!”

A legion of monsters gathered, and their charge caused clouds of dust to rise.

The army’s shadows were enough to cover the horizon.

‘Why are there so many of them? Is this place on the verge of collapse?’

The devil’s sword, who didn’t have any idea about what was going on, wondered.

I shook my head.

“It’s not a collapse. Most of them were in the vicinity before I came and are rushing in because they smelled me.”

‘But they’re too dense compared to the area of the dungeon.’

In terms of tree management, the two recently took care of the monster density to prevent it from rising too much. Nevertheless, they quickly gathered again, crossing the dungeon boundaries.

I paid attention to the tree colony once again.

“Well, the effect is evident.”

It was the trees that attracted the monsters beyond the boundary into the dungeon at a rapid pace.

Taking back my glance, I lowered the bound body of the sacred beast and flew, using the next energy formation, high into the sky.

Shhhhhh!

I grabbed the handle of the devil’s sword that had been floating in the air.

Whoong!

The Mana injected into the blade was amplified several times over, turning it into blazing purple sword energy.

I held it firmly and aimed it down at the group of monsters rushing in from all directions.

I then raised the sword and hacked it to the ground without hesitation.

Swish!

Following the trajectory, a dense purple rain linking the blade to the ground was summoned.

The brilliant heavy storm bombarded the ground.

Boo-boo-boo-boom!

With a blast, the earth was crushed like a sheet of paper.

Heavy shock waves and intense energy storms tore the legion of monsters swiftly as they ran below the artillery barrage.

The monsters’ shrieks and screams that had been ringing so loud it almost tore my ears off were quickly silenced by the catastrophe I caused.

However, even as that took place, the rain of sword energy avoided one area above the ground. The land with the sacred beast and trees was missed as if invisible lines blocked it.

After a little while…

On the ground, brutally-torn-apart monster corpses extended for miles like a red carpet.

It was complete annihilation.

‘… I’m going to go crazy.’

The devil’s sword, who was looking at the scene, lamented.

“Why are you the one that’s going to go crazy when I’m the one hunting?”

I clearly understood what it meant, but I pretended to be unaware.

The devil’s sword replied as if he was shocked by the cruel sight before us.

‘You’ve become more like a monster than a hunter.’

It hoped for me to die soon so that it could skip to the next owner, but it wailed since it seemed like that possibility was farfetched.

It kept going.

‘Well, you’ve been consuming so many damn cores…’

The devil’s sword delivered bitter telepathy as it watched almost all the hunting by my side.

In between the process of handling guild work once a week and dealing with tasks such as achievement quests and finding aliens, I hunted in my spare time.

At that moment, the cores were used for items such as the [Door of Hope] and Mana absorption. I had no choice but to collect it diligently.

Shh!

As I pointed my fingers below us, the Mana core that the monster legion had in them came up to me.

Like a group of fireflies flying in unison, sparkling blue crystals flocked in from all directions.

[Mana Drain!]

I instantly absorbed the cores flowing in like the Milky Way.

Just like a stream of water was sprinkled on the crusty dried ground, the Mana stored in the core spread into my body instantly.

“Now, then.”

I came down to the ground again, positioning myself a little further from the sacred beast to avoid the overreaction of the devil’s sword.

After setting my foot on the ground, I swung my sword once more.

Boom!

I dug through the ground, and a large hole that a couple of trolls could be buried in was created.

I then lifted the sacred beast, tied with a purple net, into the air.

‘It looks bizarre no matter how many times I look at it.’

Black tentacles stretched 360 degrees in all directions wriggled to make a fuss, but it couldn’t escape from the net. The tentacles that clumped up by being tied together looked like tree roots.

Screech!

The base of the tentacles connected the center of its body to the stone pond that was aboveground and the idol of Igras-Sho.

After moving the sacred beast’s position a little, the tentacle part below was inserted into the hole.

“It feels like repotting a plant.”

Burying only the tentacles in the soil, I left only the pond and the statue above the ground.

As I filled the gap of the hole…

Drrrrrrrrr!

I immediately felt a slight vibration under my feet.

The environment suddenly changed, but the sacred beast didn’t attempt to run away.

It’s originally not the type to move from place to place, but rather the type to wait for food while burrowed.

And the changed environment was…

‘There’s plenty of food everywhere.’

I could feel it stretching out a thick tentacle underground.

The food there had been torn apart mercilessly, so it’s a mess, but it wouldn’t affect its absorption of nutrients.

The most important part was that there was a lot.

“Look.”

Indeed, the monster corpses, which dyed the gray land with thick bodily fluids, were gradually buried underground.

The devil’s sword exclaimed.

‘So, this is what we were aiming for.’

I nodded.

“The feeding environment would be better here than the forest.”

I took a look at the bottom of the pond, where the waterless exposed floor was.

As if to prove my words, moisture was already collecting in it.

“The holy water will fill in soon.”

The devil’s sword raised a counterargument.

‘However, since you buried the sacred beast in the ground, the sanctification began around this area. I can feel it right now, and the monsters will notice it. They won’t be approaching here from now on.’

The monsters didn’t touch the forest where the sacred beast was buried in Shepherd 2 Dungeon.

The hunters had to kill the beasts themselves and drag them into the woods.

But I had taken that into consideration.

“I don’t think you need to worry about that.”

With the sword in my hand, I flew up into the sky once more.

The place where my gaze reached was near the boundary of the dungeon.

The devil’s sword could see where I was staring.