Awakening(??) (4)
“Shhh. Shhh. Shhh.”
Listening to Yutra's hissing cries, Zeke felt a deep, familiar nostalgia for the first time in a while.
Back when Dark Fantasy was just a game.
Back when he was just an ordinary guy who played games for 10 hours a day.
Just how many of these things did he kill?
At first, it appeared with the force of a boss, but by the middle of the game, it was just another common mob.
And after being summoned to Dark Fantasy, how many Yutra corpses did he step over?
In the game, this guy had a set pattern.
It mindlessly spammed the same cycle of attacks.
So after killing it a few times, he could instantly kill it as if he was dealing with a small fry, earning it the grand title of "Newbie Gatekeeper."
He could even lie down on the ground with an emote to dodge its attack patterns, teabag it thoroughly, and still finish it off in less than a minute.
However, when he became the hero of Dark Fantasy, where the game became reality...
When he first encountered Yutra, moving with its own will, with an actual physical body instead of polygon graphics...
He was truly caught off guard.
Because the damn thing's attack patterns weren't set in stone.
‘That's why I relied on patterns back then and almost died for real several times.’
Zeke! Living monsters don't have patterns, dammit! Fuck! Please!
Ah, hold on. Wait, let me try one more time, just once!
You crazy bastard! Why are you lying down there! Just stay right there. I'm going to dig a hole. Just go in there and die!!!
The Saintess suddenly barged into his memories. Get lost, bitch.
Anyway, although there were no attack patterns as such, Zeke eventually crossed paths with death a few times and figured it out.
It wasn't the attack itself, but the 'pre-attack signal pattern.'
In other words, the preparatory movements it made right before launching a specific attack were the same in both the game and reality.
If he knew those movements beforehand, he could tell what attack was coming next, no matter what attack it unleashed, and dodge it as if he had predicted it.
Zeke, a veteran gamer, naturally knew this as well, but he hadn't been able to grasp it at first because he was experiencing it from an immersive first-person perspective in reality, rather than the third-person view in the game.
As each detail came into focus...
And after he was able to easily take it down again...
He started dragging out his fights with it, narrowing the gap between his knowledge of the game and the game-turned-reality, finding similarities, and eventually succeeding in creating a one-turn-kill strategy.
Of course, after about three years, when Zeke became strong enough, all his efforts were rendered meaningless as it was reduced to a mob that he could kill with a casual swing.
Yutra glared at Zeke with its red eye embedded in the center of its face. It hissed, flicking its thinly forked tongue.
‘Ugh, it looks absolutely disgusting. Is it because I know what it tastes like? If I didn't know, I might have enjoyed it, saying snakes taste like chicken...’
Yutra's snake tail swayed and then paused briefly at a 60-degree angle.
Zeke's eyes sharpened.
‘Right second arm attack. Regular swing.’
Zeke moved before its attack could launch.
The difference in their reflexes meant it would be too late to react and dodge after seeing the attack.
Whoosh!
Bang!
A tremor that tore through the ground.
The club in its right arm slammed down where Zeke had been standing just a moment ago.
Zeke immediately ducked his head.
‘Three neck twitches. Hair pattern 4.’
Yutra's worm-like, wriggling hair swung horizontally.
Whew!
Like a giant sword slicing through, an attack passed over his head.
A few strands of Zeke's black hair were severed.
Boom!
The tree behind him was cut in half and collapsed.
But Zeke, unconcerned, charged straight at it.
‘One strike possible.’
Thud!
He thrust his bread into the spot where its upper and lower body connected, its weak point.
“Hiss! Hiss!”
Even though it was a weak point, its body was so tough that it didn’t seem to take much damage.
Still, its eyes widened, indicating it wasn't completely ineffective.
Its tail whipped around belatedly, trying to grab Zeke, but he was already gone.
He retreated, then charged in again. Stab, retreat. This time, two stabs.
As if playing a rhythm game, Zeke watched for the pre-attack patterns and timed his attacks and dodges accordingly.
Stab, stab.
Like performing monotonous tasks in a factory
Damage gradually accumulated on Yutra's body.
Finally, a single spot on its white body began to bruise a deep blue.
"Hisssssss!!!"
"Huff... huff... Are you angry?"
Zeke, too, was out of breath, having put all his effort into each stab.
His entire body was drenched in sweat.
"I can do this all day."
Thankfully, his stamina was good enough.
At that moment.
As if Yutra couldn't accept being toyed with by prey far weaker than itself, explosive mana began to surge from its body.
Black mixed with the red in its pupils, and the poisonous energy surrounding its hair pulsed a darker green.
And the muscles in its upper body bulged, doubling in size.
“Already phase 2? That was quick.”
The timing of its phase shift was different from the game.
In the game, it would enter phase 2 after losing half its health, but in reality, it was completely random, depending on whether it was feeling impatient or not.
But what Yutra didn't know was...
“You're easier in phase 2.”
...that it had just dug its own grave.
All four arms swung fiercely at Zeke simultaneously.
A speed at least twice as fast as before.
The power behind it was on a whole other level.
But Zeke, like a loach, slipped through the gaps where the four arms couldn't reach.
‘Attack power and speed doubled, but defense halved.’
He saw the weak point again, right in front of him, but Zeke didn't swing his bread.
Instead, he waited for about a second and then twisted his upper body to the side.
Thud!
The tail, which had swung from behind, stabbed into its own body.
And the bread that shot out from Zeke's hand also pierced the same spot.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
"Hiss!!!!!!!”
“With a self-destruct pattern like that, how could this not be easy?”
Double the speed, double the attack power. The monstrous force struck its weak point.
"Hiss...! Hiss! Hiss...!"
It clutched its waist with its arms and let out ragged breaths.
Its eyes were fixed on Zeke, burning with the intent to kill.
Its body swelled as if it was about to unleash one final attack.
But Zeke knew its habits.
‘You’re trying to run away after spitting poison because you’re scared, aren't you?’
In its current state, he could finish it off with just one or two more hits.
However, Zeke stopped himself from launching himself at it.
‘Yutra can't actually survive in a place with this little mana…’
Based on what Zeke had gathered so far, this romance fantasy world was only home to the cute, harmless monsters you'd find in the beginner village of Dark Fantasy.
The fact that this thing was here meant…
‘Yutra's habitat is a place overflowing with mana. And it must be nearby.’
20 magic stones for the Mana Filter, no, the [Mana Purification Method].
And 10 magic stones to create a [Space Filled with Mana].
He had collected 27 so far.
He was currently working his butt off to collect the remaining 3.
But what if, after killing this thing, he got a magic stone, and there was already a space filled with mana prepared?
After using 20 for the Mana Purification Method, he would have 7 left. Plus, there was the magic stone embedded in this thing's body.
‘This… I might be able to do something a little better.’
Zeke, who had initially planned to only acquire the Mana Purification Method this time, licked his lips.
Whoosh!
Finally, a dark green poisonous smoke erupted from the trembling head of the creature.
Even if he inhaled it, it would only paralyze him, not fatally poisonous, but there was no need to take the risk.
Whirl!
Zeke swung his bread like a windmill, preventing the smoke from reaching him.
As he continued to whirl his bread, Yutra seized the opportunity and fled.
“Hiss! Hiss!”
Zeke kept swinging his bread until the poisonous smoke completely dissipated, then, seeing that it had escaped, he quietly followed, muffling his footsteps.
A viscous fluid oozing from its tail marked its escape route, thanks to its severe injury.
* * *
Following Yutra's trail at a distance led Zeke to a cave hidden deep within the forest.
Not a single ant was in sight due to its territorial markings.
“Hiss… Hiss… Hiss…”
The sound of weary whistling confirmed his suspicions.
Indeed, the mana emanating from the cave was thick and heavy, indicating a place teeming with magical energy.
Zeke ventured deeper into the cave.
Inside, he found Yutra submerged in a lake of mana, resting its weary body.
‘So the mana has pooled into a lake.’
It seemed it hadn't noticed Zeke's presence yet.
It closed its eyes and began to tend to its wounds.
A green light flickered, and its wounds slowly began to heal.
‘That bastard! How dare it use my lake to heal itself?’
Seeing Yutra using his lake for recovery, Zeke's eyes sparked with fury.
‘Without my permission!’
Thud!
Zeke dashed forward and thrust his bread, held vertically in both hands, into Yutra's weak spot.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Thud!!
The creature, caught off guard in its moment of respite, opened its eyes wide and glared at Zeke.
The bread pierced through its weakened muscles, completely penetrating the point where its body connected.
Round droplets of blood began to bloom in the lake.
A vein bulged on Zeke's forehead.
“Don't pollute my lake. And if you're going to use it, at least clean up after yourself.”
Zeke channeled his mana, enhancing his strength, and flung the creature's body out of the lake.
Crash!!!!
A cloud of dust erupted as the massive body collided with the ground.
"Hiss..."
Yutra's last breath escaped its lungs in a weak wheeze.
The light faded from its dark red eyes, leaving behind only large, white orbs.
And so, a fearsome monster that could have threatened the world of the romance fantasy met its end in such an absurd manner.
‘First, let's collect the magic stone.’
Zeke reached into Yutra's chest and retrieved a magic stone.
A magic stone shimmering with a brilliant blue light.
Its quality and size were both mid-grade.
It was roughly equivalent to all ten magic stones that Prince had given him combined.
“As expected, I never doubted you, Yutra. Forgive me for shedding a bit of your blood.”
Zeke decided to first use the extraordinary magic stone to acquire the Mana Purification Method.
He took out the 20 magic stones from his pocket and gauged their total volume.
"Yes, this should be enough."
Then he poured the magic stones into the lake.
Next, he took off all his clothes, submerged himself in the lake, closed his eyes, and assumed the lotus position.
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