Chapter 106
Gate Break.
It is a phenomenon in which, if a Gate is not conquered within its allotted time limit, the Gate bursts open and the monsters inside pour out.
However, in rare cases, some Gates are designed from the outset to undergo a Break.
They are Gates that cannot be entered until a set time, when the Break occurs.
In Hunter terminology, such Gates are called ‘raid-type Gates.’
Unlike an ordinary sudden Break, their timing is clear, leaving plenty of time to prepare, and the combat power of each monster that pours out is somewhat lower than that of monsters of the same grade.
The A-grade Gate that appeared in Mapo-gu this time was one of those.
It had received an A-grade rating solely because there were a ridiculously large number of monsters.
Each individual monster was not particularly strong.
‘……That’s what it said on TreeWiki.’
Anyway!
Though this was called a Gate Break, the Association had already put together a powerful assault team, and the evacuation of civilians was complete.
In other words, a very secure defensive line had been established.
‘I’ll wait for the right moment here, then make the Blood Golem appear.’
Of course, its appearance would cause a little confusion.
There would probably be people who recognized it as an enemy and tried to attack it.
But what if it ignored them, stood on the humans’ side, and quietly cut down the monsters?
This would become a worldwide issue, not merely a Korean one.
At precisely that moment.
If I revealed on the Climber Community that it had been my summon?
‘Whoa. So the True Ancestor was actually a ridiculously powerful dark-hero vampire, not a villain?’
‘Sorry for calling you cute! You’re really cool, True Ancestor-nim!’
‘I shall offer tribute!’
‘Ahem! I am the True Ancestor!’
With a plan like this, I could preserve my dignity, show off the power of my terrifying summon, and win the people’s support all at once.
‘Am I actually a genius?’
Even I had to admit it was a perfect plan.
If, by some tiny chance, something went wrong, I could simply deploy my other retainers or support it remotely by swinging the Death Scythe.
However, since the Blood Golem was the star of this show, I wanted to finish things with the golem if at all possible.
And most importantly.
The experience from the monsters killed by the Blood Golem would go entirely to me!
That was the key point.
My class was unusual in that when my retainers killed monsters, the kills counted as their experience, and only their levels increased.
Thus, until now, I had only been able to grow by drinking blood or remotely using the Death Scythe’s Harvest skill for the finishing blow from inside my safe domain.
But the golem’s kills counted as kills made by my skill, so I would receive one hundred percent of the experience.
Until the cooldown on the sixth floor of Nightmare difficulty reset, I wanted to raise my level as much as possible for a safer conquest.
“Go forth, my retainers!”
Bzzzz—.
And so I dispatched my army of mosquito retainers toward Mapo-gu, where the Gate was scheduled to break.
***
Mapo-gu control zone.
On the road where the defensive line had been established, the Hunters watched the enormous rift with tense expressions.
C-rank Hunter Oh Yuna was among them.
‘Phew….’
She took a deep breath to calm herself and tightened her grip on the weapon in her hand.
Although she had entered Gates and conquered them before, this was her first large-scale raid defense, holding back a horde pouring out from the Gate.
In fact, just a few days earlier, she had suffered severe injuries while fighting a Demon in Itaewon, to the point of nearly dying.
Naturally, she should not have been in any condition to participate in a major operation like this.
But thanks to the treatment provided by the jelly monster, she was able to take part in the raid today.
Even to Yuna, her body felt lighter than it had before she was injured.
Even most ordinary healers would not have been capable of that.
‘What on earth was that?’
Oh Yuna briefly thought back to that moment.
The pink jelly monster that had treated her.
The internet was trembling in fear, calling it a horrifying biological weapon.
But if she looked only at the cold, hard facts.
That monster had defeated the Demon who was trying to kill her, perfectly healed her when she was on the verge of death, and had not harmed a single person.
Wooooong—!
Just as she was lost in thought, a thunderous roar came from the Gate.
“Break occurring! Everyone prepare for battle!”
At the commander’s shout, monsters began pouring out from inside the Gate.
They were insect-type monsters.
Huge dragonfly monsters the size of people rose into the air,
while mantis and centipede monsters surged across the ground, scraping their grotesque legs against the asphalt.
“Commence attack!”
Just as the battle was about to begin.
Boing—! Splut!
“Kkyu!”
A huge pink jelly dropped right into the middle of the battlefield.
“W-what?!”
“That’s the monster that appeared in Itaewon!”
The Hunters guarding the defensive line were thrown into confusion by the sudden intrusion, and their formation wavered.
But Yuna was different.
‘Ah……!’
A burst of delight welled up inside her.
Right then.
Swoooosh!
The creature’s soft arm stretched out like a rubber band, and it slammed a heavy punch into the head of the giant mantis monster charging at the front.
Thwack—!
The mantis’s head exploded, and it rolled across the ground while spraying green fluid.
“Kkyu-pit!”
The golem followed up by swinging its extended arms like whips and beating the insect monsters on the ground one after another.
“Huh? That monster is helping us…?!”
“Stop the Break first! That thing isn’t an enemy!”
The startled Hunters soon realized that the jelly monster was clearly fighting on their side and immediately re-formed their lines.
‘Jelly…! You came to help us again…!’
Yuna’s eyes sparkled as she gazed at the jelly monster’s dependable back.
It felt almost like watching a magnificent hero.
***
‘Eww, that’s disgusting!’
Lying on my bed and watching through the screen, I shuddered.
I had already learned from the wiki that a horde of insect-type monsters would be appearing.
But seeing swarms of mantises and centipedes larger than humans with my own eyes made my disgust go through the roof.
‘Ugh…. But I have to watch…!’
I barely managed to narrow my eyes and focus on the screen.
In the middle of the battlefield.
The Blood Golem’s performance was dazzling.
Whoosh, boom! Whoooosh, whack!
This time, for some reason, it did not use its vicious muscular-arm mode, instead sticking to a method of stretching its pink jelly arms farther and farther to strike its enemies.
Like the rubber-bodied protagonist from a famous pirate manga, it used its elasticity to throw punches.
Soft punches! Jelly punches!
They lacked the destructive impact of its muscular transformation, but they were quite cute instead.
- “Kkyung!”
- “The jelly monster is helping us!”
- “Tsk. It’s kind of cute, though?”
I could even see the other Hunters nearby starting to find it a little cute.
Hmm. That was good and all, but…….
It was supposed to be terrifying, not cute.
‘Why isn’t it using the muscle arms?’
Thinking about it, perhaps it was because those insect monsters had such poor durability that jelly punches were more than enough to kill them.
What other reason could there be?
Anyway.
By then, the Hunters had stopped attacking the golem and were naturally fighting alongside it in formation.
- “We’re reporting live from the scene! An unidentified monster that appeared in Itaewon last time has invaded the Mapo-gu raid site!”
- “Amazingly, it’s helping the Hunters repel the monsters…!”
News-station drones hovering in the sky were broadcasting the golem’s outstanding performance live.
‘Good.’
Well, things were more or less proceeding according to plan.
Every time it smashed a monster apart, my experience bar steadily filled.
And above all.
‘Its blood is filling up!’
As it absorbed the monsters’ blood in real time, the Blood Golem’s body gradually became a deeper red.
Its original peach-jelly color had now changed into something resembling strawberry-flavored jelly.
It was completely ready to activate its ‘special ability.’
“Vam! Hahaha~♪”
That was when I began humming happily at the smooth progress.
- “Oh…?! Look up there!”
At the news anchor’s urgent voice, I tilted the mosquito retainer’s vision upward.
‘Huh? What’s with that black cloud?’
A patch of pitch-black cloud was floating above the blue sky of Mapo-gu.
No.
Looking more closely, it was not a cloud.
Bwoooong—!!!
What had covered the sky in black was a swarm of enormous fly monsters.
They had clumped together and were flying around with a spine-chilling buzzing of their wings.
‘What the hell is that?!’
That was seriously disgusting!
That crossed the line.
Not a single one of those filthy-looking things could be allowed to live.
I immediately gave the golem an order.
‘Golem. Let’s try a Large-Scale Explosion!’
- “Kkyu!”
The golem answered confidently as soon as it received the command.
But there was one problem.
How was it supposed to get all the way up there?
The golem had excellent elasticity, but could it jump to that height in one go?
Right then.
Haaap—!
The golem suddenly inhaled deeply, as though filling its lungs with air.
Its body began to swell like a huge balloon.
‘Ah, that’s how!’
Up it floated!
A bizarre sight unfolded beneath the enormous cloud of flies: a bright-red balloon rising toward it.
It kept rising, and rising, until
the Blood Golem finally entered the very center of the swarm of flies.
‘Large-Scale Explosion!’
The moment I gave the signal.
BOOOOOOM!!!!
A red explosion erupted in the sky with a thunderous roar.
The Blood Golem’s stored blood burst outward with tremendous destructive force, and the cloud of flies was caught in the blast and literally vaporized.
‘Whoa, wait. It’s that powerful?’
I could not close my wide-open mouth.
The area-of-effect attack of an A-grade golem far exceeded my imagination.
Ding—!
[The Blood Golem has been reverse-summoned.]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
‘Wow! I leveled up twice!’
This was the result of combining the experience from killing the Minotaur Demon last time, sweeping up the insect-type monsters on the ground today, and wiping out that enormous cloud of flies with a single area-of-effect attack just now.
The corners of my mouth rose on their own.
Since the golem had neatly blown away the aerial forces that could have become troublesome, the rest of the raid should proceed without a hitch.
Besides, if I uploaded this vivid display of its exploits to the Climber Community, the reaction would absolutely explode.
‘Man, what a packed showcase today.’
I pulled my attention away from the mosquito retainer’s vision and went to check the reactions on the Hunter Gallery and the Climber Community.
***
“Good heavens. It took out that many flies in one go….”
“That monster. Could it have sacrificed itself for our sake?”
The Hunters spoke in trembling voices.
“Huh…? Th-the jelly…? That, that can’t be…?”
Oh Yuna stared blankly up at the empty sky and muttered.