Chapter 12
“Oh... this looks like it was just taken out of a monster?”
“I-I see... that’s a relief.”
“By the way, so it’s a summoning skill?”
“Come to think of it, there was a skill called Summons, wasn’t there?”
Suri looked around for a moment, then ruffled its wings and came over in front of me, pecking the mana stone twice with its beak.
“Huh? What is it, Suri?”
Then it toddled back over on its bird legs and kept poking Minyumi’s head with its beak.
“What about Minyumi?”
Judging by Suri stretching its neck out, pointing at the mana stone once, and repeatedly tapping Minyumi’s head, I could guess....
“Hmm..! Got it!”
“What did Suri say, Eve?”
“It seems like it’s saying this is heavy to carry, so I should give it to Minyumi?”
ㅡ탁!
Suri raised a wing and pressed it to its forehead. It must have been impressed by my stellar comprehension. To think it cared about me this much—it really is such a good kid.
“Um... Suri has a mana stone embedded in its body too, so isn’t it telling me to give the mana stone to that Gundam?”
“Weren’t... those the words I just said?”
Chaea repeated what I’d just said. I literally just said that, didn’t I?
“No, no, not that. Like... give it as feed or something?”
“Ah, that’s it. It means I should synthesize it with Minyumi.”
Once Chaea, who didn’t know much about synthesis, mentioned “feed,” Han Dohee finally caught Suri’s meaning.
Because Han Dohee had already seen, through Dangdang’s video call function, how I made a golem using a sword containing a mana stone.
“Aha..!”
If that’s what it meant, it should’ve said so sooner. Maybe because Suri can’t speak.
“This to Minyumi? Mm... got it!”
The mana stone was small enough to fit neatly in my palm. According to Han Dohee, it was probably from a monster about 50 percent stronger than the wolf monster we’d fought before.
“Where did you catch a monster from again....”
It wasn’t really relevant right now. Surely Suri hadn’t just gone around catching any monster it saw. Maybe it had spotted an open gate nearby while flying along with us.
Or maybe it was a monster that had escaped from a gate that opened briefly in the mountains and then closed again. Korea has mountains scattered throughout its cities, so apparently that kind of thing happens sometimes.
If it was a timid monster, it might hide in the mountains and survive by eating animals.
“Here, Minyumi. Take this.”
Minyumi reached out with both hands and took the mana stone, which was about the size of its forearm. So... what now?
“Hmm....”
I wasn’t sure whether a mana stone could fuse if it hadn’t been made into a golem first. If I didn’t know, I could just try it.
“Umm..! Minyumi and the mana stone, fuse...?”
ㅡ우우웅..!
The moment I finished speaking, the mana stone Minyumi was holding in both hands began to glow.
Along with a brilliant blue light, the mana stone melted like liquid and was sucked into Minyumi’s body. Not long after, Minyumi’s body was also engulfed in light, and the transformation ended a moment later.
“O-ohh..!”
Minyumi celebrated its own evolution. It had even gained something like a cloak, and was holding a sword.
“What? It got bigger?”
“Wow, that’s amazing.”
It was now as tall as my waist. At this size, wouldn’t it be at least one meter?
“How big is it?”
“Hmm, looks like about 90 cm?”
“It comes up to my waist..?”
Han Dohee looked me over closely again, then nodded as if to say she was right.
“Yeah, you’re not even 140 cm.”
“W-what?!”
That was impossible. I wasn’t even 140 cm tall? The only thing I’d ever had to brag about in my entire life was my height. No matter what anyone else said, I’d always lived thinking, At least I’m tall.
ㅡ쿠궁
The shock hit like lightning striking my head, and I lost all willpower, collapsing limp onto the floor. My one and only advantage....
“How could this be.. my height....”
“Pffft... is that really something to be shocked about? It’s cute, so what’s the problem?”
“B-but....”
Minyumi stood in front of me as I slumped there, reaching out a hand.
“Minyumi... you won’t get taller than me, right..?”
ㅡ도리도리
“Unbelievable....”
Minyumi had betrayed me too. I even gave it a mana stone!! Of course... Suri had fetched it, but still. I was the one who gave it to it....
“So what? You’re still young. You’ll grow more.”
Right. Come to think of it, I was only ten right now. Of course I’d get taller from here. Maybe by around 200 meters. I was amazing, after all.
“Uuu... now I’m sad....”
“A small height has its charms too. Don’t worry.”
“Sigh....”
* * * * *
Entering the gate began with shock, depression, and a sense of loss.
Minyumi, now somewhat larger, also carried a little sword when it transformed. It seemed the hair dryer’s hot-air function was still attached, but a hair dryer that fights? It felt weird, but whatever.
“Now, don’t get too down. If you mess up here, you can get seriously hurt, so stay sharp.”
“But Eve, is that dog following behind you okay?”
“Huh? A dog?”
I turned my head and glanced back, and Dangdang was following diligently behind us. Come to think of it, Dangdang didn’t seem like it could really fight....
Dangdang had been completely wrecked by that weak wolf monster. Its combat ability was basically nonexistent.
Though it does eat well....
“Dangdang, you need to stay right by my side, okay?”
ㅡ삐빗!
“I think it’ll be fine.”
“Really? Well, then.”
This was my first gate in life. Even though it was low difficulty, it was still a place where monsters actually came charging to kill people.
“Phew..! I’m nervous.”
“There’s a healer too, so don’t worry too much. Still, the most important thing is not getting hurt, so make sure you follow what we say, okay?”
“Yes..!”
In fact, it wasn’t like a game dungeon where monsters swarmed the moment you entered. Gates like that do exist, but this wasn’t one of them.
The difficulty was low, access was good, and the infrastructure was well set up. Maybe because entry was free, there were a lot of people inside the gate, so the overall number of monsters wasn’t that high either.
That means we need to let the squirrel loose. Got that?
“Does Suri normally fly around that far away?”
“Um... this is actually its first real battle....”
“Well, I suppose so.”
Suri was flying high in the sky far over there, just like a real eagle. I hadn’t specifically ordered it to fly out there, so was it just handling everything on its own?
“If it’s that far away, won’t your commands not reach it?”
“I haven’t really given Suri any orders... hehe.”
“That’s really fascinating.”
Kim Chaea kept looking at me with an amazed expression. Well, familiars’ first priority is protecting their summoner, right? Most of them don’t move without orders.
Golems are even worse than that. Most of them are designed with something like programming, so the majority are low-performance things that won’t even properly defend themselves without their summoner’s words.
An AI-equipped golem? That’s seriously incredible.
ㅡ투둑..
Once inside the forest, Han Dohee drove the blade into the ground, then gripped the hilt with both hands and gently closed her eyes.
“What are you doing?”
“Searching for monsters. I’ve got a vibration-detection skill.”
“Ahh....”
Do B-rank Hunters have skills like that too? After kneeling on one knee on the ground for a while, Han Dohee nodded and pulled the blade out of the earth.
“Let’s go that way. I think there’s something there.”
“Not a person?”
“The footsteps are a bit lighter. Could be goblins.”
What Han Dohee’s detection skill had picked up were goblins. After walking a bit in the direction of the sound, sure enough, goblins were wandering through the forest.
“Ew... gross....”
Dirty green skin and a witch-like nose jutting out. A body small compared to its face, and thin, spindly limbs for its tiny frame.
Each one was carrying a club or a crudely assembled stone axe, and their combat power was about that of an elementary schooler armed with a weapon.
“Shh, they might hear us.”
“Ah, yes..!”
There were quite a lot of them, maybe around eight. Considering Suri’s combat ability, they weren’t that difficult an opponent.
“What do you want to do? Call Suri and have it handle them, or should we show you how we deal with them?”
“Um.. I’ll try it once.”
I didn’t remember ever properly using the command-issuing skill before. It wasn’t that I was issuing commands through the skill; up until now, I’d just been asking them. The kids were smart, so they understood everything.
I steadied my breathing and called Suri in my heart.
‘Suri, take care of those goblins over there.’
Before long, the sound of wind began rushing past us as we hid among the bushes.
Suri deftly dodged the dense branches of the thick forest as it plunged straight down toward the ground. Just before landing, it spread its wings wide and made a near-right-angle turn...
ㅡ쐐애애액..!!
With the sound of slicing through the wind, Suri folded its wings and crouched its body like a bullet, then charged horizontally into the goblin pack.
ㅡ서걱!
“Oh.. that’s incredible.”
“R-right.”
Right before reaching the goblins, it spread its 3-meter wingspan wide and, like a blade, sliced through the eight goblins in one sweep.
The goblins had been strolling peacefully when, all of a sudden, a living blade flew in from nowhere and cleanly severed their bodies into upper and lower halves. Honestly, I’d wondered whether it was even possible to give commands in my head, but somehow it worked.
After slicing past the goblins, Suri flew in a high-speed spin in the air to shake off the blood on its body, then approached the goblin corpses again.
“Suri! Good job!!”
This was my first time properly hunting in a gate. If I’d known Suri could fight this well, maybe I should’ve gone somewhere with monsters a bit stronger than goblins?
No, you never know. Suri might fight well, but I could still get hurt if I can’t run away. Safety comes first.
“Suri? So that’s a golem that fights really well. But what’s it doing now?”
“Hmm.. good question. Suri, what are you doing?”
Suri rummaged through the goblin corpses, then brought me something it had found.
“What is this..?”
“Oh, it’s a mana stone. It’s exactly goblin level, but these are surprisingly rare.”
It was the very, very, very lowest-grade mana stone, worth about 20,000 won if sold. Most goblins didn’t even have one, so it was actually a rather rare item.
“Hmm! Do you want this, Suri?”
ㅡ끄덕끄덕
This time Suri was the one who did well, so I should give it to Suri. Honestly, it probably wouldn’t make much of a difference, but if it piled up little by little, it would become something eventually.
“Suri, fuse with this!”
Unlike with Minyumi, its whole body didn’t change. The mana stone simply floated into the air, melted like liquid, then turned into a wisp of mana and was absorbed into the mana stone embedded in Suri’s chest.
[ The fragment of the collapsed kingdom has absorbed mana. Completion rate has increased. {Synthesis-capable entities: 2 / Completion: 38.8%} ]
“Ooh....”
“Why, did something pop up?”
“Ah, yes! It just said the completion rate went up. Though it’s only 0.8 percent.”
“Completion rate? What are you talking about?”
“She found a hidden piece.”
“Really?! Already!?”
At Han Dohee’s brief explanation, Kim Chaea looked at me in surprise. Hidden pieces weren’t something you found that easily, and even among people who’d spent a very long time as Hunters, only extremely rarely did they find one.
After feeling its mana increase for a moment, Suri smoothed down its wing with its beak and then rose back into the sky.
Minyumi, who was beside me, suddenly poked my shoulder with its finger and thumped its chest.
“Huh? What is it? Do you want me to give one to you too?”
ㅡ철컥!
It seemed the stronger Minyumi also wanted to test its own abilities.
“Sounds good, then should we look for a few more goblins?”
“Please do!”