A few days ago, the thief, Eunho, disappeared after the incident at the museum and the military awakeners failed to contain or track him — alerting everyone.
"I'm surprised you let the thief get away."
At the Hunters Division Building, in the meeting room, Han Ruby, sits at the couch as she drinks a cup of coffee.
Song Dohyun who now looks unscathed from the incident drinks one of the healing potion, still recovering his mana after days of the incident at the museum.
'It looks like that little bastard's skill effects the person's mana when attacked huh...' Song Dohyun annoyingly puts the empty bottle of potion back to his inventory before forcing himself to put on the mask, smiling at Han Ruby and Yang Semyon.
"I was too injured to even move an inch, Ruby." He smoothly excuses himself as he leaned against his chair.
Yang Semyon's leopard ear twitches, his brows raising, "Hm~ Boss... Does that mean the thief escaped with the sword then?"
'Did he? I was certain that he didn't because he wasn't holding anything at all when he got away...'
Song Dohyun just chuckles, "Maybe, but we'll retrieve the weapon no matter what."
'Still, it's possible that wolf... stole it.' Song Dohyun swore that he saw Seo Hwigeon fixated on the
If he doesn't find that sword any time soon, how will he finally kill Eight once they cross paths?
Song Dohyun's fingers stilled against the desk. The great vortex returning — Mary's words had been sitting at the back of his skull like a splinter he couldn't reach.
Without that sword, Eight was untouchable. And an untouchable Eight when the world was ending was a problem Song Dohyun refused to entertain.
Han Ruby on the other hand just eyed at Song Dohyun with almost suspicion in her eyes before dismissing it, she stands up from the couch, leaving the cup of coffee by the table.
"Surely they'll handle that for now and get the
Then Song Dohyun came next, standing up and fixing his suit. "I'll be going now too, you can do whatever you want since we won't be raiding any vortex for three days."
Yang Semyon furrows his brows before letting out a long groan that indicates his pure boredom of just hanging around and doing nothing.
"Seriously, Boss? Not even an outing..." he pouts, making Song Dohyun laugh politely —
"Don't feel disappointed now, you can go wherever you want. It's your break and enjoy the rest of your free time. I'll be going now."
Yang Semyon then waves, watching Song Dohyun disappear behind the door as it clicks to a shut and silence, he's all alone again.
"Damn... I'm always alone," he then looks around and then takes out his phone with a menacing grin...
'Finally! I can spend three days trashing on the
Before he can unlock his phone, the door of the office swings open, revealing a tall and familiar man. Yang Semyon quickly looks up and he didn't expect the guest of today...
"Woo... Woo Woojo?!" he instantly becomes flustered and Woo Woojo just smiles at him politely with his famous princely smile that made Yang Semyon want to snap at him.
"Ah... It's nice to meet you, Yang Semyon."
'Why he is here...!?'
Yang Semyon doesn't even know what to do with Woo Woojo's sudden appearance and for the first time... he had become so helpless.
"So..." Yang Semyon cleared his throat, sitting up straighter than necessary.
"Did you... need something? From me specifically?"
Woo Woojo just smiled that infuriatingly calm smile of his, taking a seat without being invited. "I just had some time to spare." Yang Semyon's tail went very still. That was somehow worse than a real answer.
'I might be going insane…'
***
"EEKK...! I CAN'T HOLD ON MUCH LONGER!"
One of the helpless screams as she tries all of her might to try and buy some time to get some help by trying to herd the beasts away with her sword and weak skill.
'Why did Chief Baek send these people who can't seem to fight the monsters at all?' Yeon Yujun sighs, turning away from the path towards the nest.
Yeon Yujun winced, pressing two fingers to his temple. His skill flickered once — purple light guttering like a candle — before steadying again.
The air here felt wrong, too thick, like breathing through wet cloth. He didn't expect the energy to be so strong.
"Pupu!?"
"…We're going to them."
He just has to get away from the nest for now.
And so, Yeon Yujun activates his skill <[B+] Sprint> towards his helpless teammates, cornered by the terrifying vortex monsters.
Pouch quickly accesses Yeon Yujun's inventory tab, clicking on the
—SWOOOOOSH!
And then…
—SPLNNNNT!
The monsters are quickly just sliced into half, their bodies falling to the ground while his teammates look at him with wide and teary eyes, clenching their own weapon tremblingly.
"Is everyone alright?" Yeon Yujun asks, slightly sweating before everyone breaks down to tears of gratitude—
"Thank you! Thank you!!!"
"You saved us!!!"
Yeon Yujun isn't expecting this kind of gratitude at all, especially when they're literally inside a vortex…
All he can do is laugh awkwardly and accept their grateful cries — it has almost been a while since people have thanked him like this…
Unexpectedly, he feels comfort and assurance.
"Right… Before all of you go ahead of yourselves, we have to go to the nest." he points at the distance where the huge nest lies and everyone looks at it with almost awe.
'Why are they looking at me like that…?' Yeon Yujun couldn't help but notice how his teammates are looking at him, like he's the one who's responsible for them like a good mother… just what he dislikes.
'Don't tell me they have high expectations from me…'
Because Yeon Yujun is starting to regret his choice over that.
Once they're done, they start walking and running towards the nest at the far distance, their boots pressing against the ground as they cross the vortex terrain.
When they finally arrive at the huge nest, there's a huge egg lying in the nest… What kind of monster lays an egg this huge? Yeon Yujun quickly shakes his head to get that thought off his head, he turns to the others who seem to be confused and interested in the egg.
"Everyone, spread out for any threats. We have to search the area before we act." Yeon Yujun commands the others with respect as they easily comply with his request and starts searching the area.
"You should help with the search too, Pouch." Yeon Yujun picks Pouch off from him and gently puts them down the ground as Pouch shakes and blinks at the unfamiliar ground.
Pouch had gone completely still the moment its paws touched the ground near the nest.
No crying, no squirming — just frozen, its huge black eyes fixed on the egg with an expression Yeon Yujun had never seen on it before. Not curiosity. Something closer that seems to be recognition.
"Bubu…" Pouch whines quietly, as if sensing that something's wrong.
"It won't take long, I promise." he decides to brush it off for now.
'Besides my shoulders start to ache when they perch way too long on my shoulder…'
He also notices that the unstable energy seems to have weakened when he's finally close to it. He couldn't seem to tell what is wrong with the vortex they're in.
Yeon Yujun watches the small fluffy creature move around the area before he activates his <[SS] The Mind's Eye> skill to look more closely at the remnants of the unstable flux of energy.
In his eyes, he can see the faint traces of the unstable dark energy surrounding the egg on the nest before them and before he's about to move to the other spot to investigate further… Everything starts to shake, like the vortex is about to collapse any second.
"T-THE GROUND…!"
"IT'S SHAKING…!!!"
"Bubu!!"
Everyone except for Yeon Yujun starts screaming as the vortex shakes violently beneath their feet, Yeon Yujun just focuses on finding his balance before he leans down and grabs Pouch to put them in his pocket.
"Everyone, don't move!"
Yeon Yujun shouts to the others who are panicking to death, they clearly had to get used to events like these if they're going to be a hunter now.
Then, something unexpected happened…
—CRAACK….
The sound comes from the egg at the nest behind them, causing their helpless screams to halt immediately, everyone slowly turns around… the egg is slowly cracking one by one and that's where Yeon Yujun finally feels it.
It makes Yeon Yujun drop to his knees as he covers his mouth and nose from the unstable energy, the same energy from before, but concentrated now, pressing against his lungs like something alive.
He then heard the thuds of body falling to the fine ground, when his eyes landed on his teammates… Everyone is lying on the ground with eyes rolled back, their bodies unconsciously twitching and their mouth begins to foam. But they're still alive.
'They… can't handle the energy at all,'
Yeon Yujun watches as the huge creature emerges from the egg, the shells falling to the ground with loud and sharp cracks and all he can do is watch.
Is this really just a B-ranked vortex? He begins to doubt.
Then the notification screen pops out in front of him as he held his ground, trying not to lose his balance from the violent earthquake.
—ROOOOOAAAAARRRRRR!!
The shrieking scream of the dragon fills the air as Yeon Yujun stares at the screen, frozen in place as if he can't move at all even when Pouch tries to shake him back to reality.
[ GUILD CHAT: Hunter Trainers ]
[ Chief Baek: The vortex upgraded to S-rank! Abort immediately! ]
But it was too late… They aren't even given any warning about the vortex's transformation.
Just as he expected… he has to relive the hell he experienced from the Great Vortex. From the very beginning.