Chapter 211: Centipede (3)

TL: SHW

Claaack. Clack!

“......!!!!”

The centipede's movements were frantic.

I didn't know much about monster ecology, but even I knew it wasn't acting like that because it was happy.

The centipede crawled rapidly after me. This time, even the little ones that had been clinging to the trees like they didn't have a brain among them had joined in. The sight had somehow become even more disgusting. I was seriously starting to consider just leaving through the Gate. I'd destroyed the Core, so they shouldn't be able to follow me out!

The only reason I held back was that Hong Seok-young wasn't too far away. I'd tell him we should hurry up and get out of here.

But Hong Seok-young said something I hadn't expected.

“What did you say?”

“I said I'll teach you how to tell how monsters from the future behave.”

“...What?”

No, I'd come here to dump a tedious job I didn't want to do on him, not to receive some grand lesson.

Still, I obediently stopped beside Hong Seok-young. He wouldn't have said something like that for no reason. My father was the kind of teacher who liked having a textbook to teach from, so I knew where this was going. That centipede was probably....

Well. Of course.

“Now, first.”

Hong Seok-young began speaking slowly.

Instead of his usual fierce grin, he wore an easygoing, good-natured smile. But I wasn't naive enough to fall for it. I could tell from his voice that he was barely keeping his anger from boiling over.

“If it understands human speech, it's not hard to identify. Fight it for a bit and it'll usually give itself away first.”

His almost comically relaxed tone gradually grew harsher.

“Second. Even if it doesn't understand human speech, if it can make sounds, watch its intonation. The rise and fall tends to sound similar because it's imitating people talking. Names are especially easy to recognize. They're surprisingly good at copying them.”

Hong Seok-young chuckled under his breath and said his own name. Hong Seok-young.

Then he simply opened his mouth and made the sounds again with clumsy pronunciation. Like a baby who had only just learned to speak. Like someone trying to imitate the pronunciation of a foreign language they'd never heard before.

If I'd heard the sound by itself, I probably wouldn't have recognized it as Hong Seok-young, but once I knew what it was supposed to be saying, there was no way I could miss it.

And Hong Seok-young must have heard that sound countless times before he could be certain it was meant to be his name.

“Third. The type that doesn't understand human speech and can't make sounds. Honestly, those are the easiest.”

The centipedes circled Hong Seok-young. They were completely on guard. They looked ready to attack, but couldn't quite bring themselves to lunge at him.

Why? They'd come straight at me.

...Was it because the person in front of them was Hong Seok-young? Because he wasn't some ordinary human?

“Maybe they're usually dumber too, because the moment they see me, they charge in without thinking about anything else. Makes things nice and easy.”

I quietly gauged the distance between him and the centipedes.

It was a strange distance. Too close to call far, yet not close enough to reach by hand.

But it was a distance I knew well. When I held a Spear, that was exactly how far I could attack without moving my feet. And I'd learned the Spear from my father. His Spear and mine were almost the same length, which meant that for Hong Seok-young, this exact distance was also....

Now I understood why Hong Seok-young had gotten so upset. If I entered a Dungeon for the first time, faced a monster I'd never seen before, and that monster made it obvious that it knew me well....

Being annoyed would be the least of it.

“The fourth type... those are the trickiest.”

“The ones that understand speech but can't make sounds?”

“Right. You catch on quick, don't you? That's my son for you.”

“There was only one possibility left....”

“Exactly why you're my son.”

Hong Seok-young laughed, his voice cracking at the end. I pretended not to notice and asked,

“So why are they the trickiest?”

“Hmm. They're quick on the uptake.”

“Quick on the uptake.”

“And they're smart.”

“Smart.”

The centipedes were still surrounding us. Ridiculously enough, they looked almost as though they were listening to our conversation.

Nonsense.

But if there was one thing I knew for certain about Dungeons, it was that anything could happen inside one.

Common sense had no place in a Dungeon.

Hong Seok-young looked at my face and smiled with satisfaction, as if praising me for figuring out the right answer.

Then Hong Seok-young kindly added,

“These little bastards stayed hidden all this time, then suddenly came crawling out. Why do you think that is?”

“......”

“Hmm?”

It reminded me of lessons with my father.

Both my father and Yoo Ji-eun had always asked me questions. Whether my answer was right or wrong didn't matter. They wanted me to think it through for myself first.

I did think it was a good way to teach, but did he really have to do it here too?

“Hmm? Why do you think?”

Hong Seok-young looked strangely excited as he pressed me for an answer.

For some reason, that made me not want to give him a straight answer.

“How should I know?”

The curt reply slipped out before I knew it. Hong Seok-young didn't care.

“What do you think the reason is?”

“......”

“It's fine if you're wrong. Go on, tell me.”

Ah, damn it. This wasn't going to end unless I answered.

“They must've thought they had no chance of winning.”

“Why?”

“......”

I didn't even need to replay the conversation Hong Seok-young and I had just had.

If those centipedes had understood what we'd been saying....

“Because we said we'd destroy the Core.”

Hong Seok-young beamed.

“Exactly.”

Seeing how delighted he looked drained what little energy I had left. All I wanted was to get out of here as soon as possible.

“In the end, they're all the same. These ones are just a little craftier.”

Hong Seok-young slowly lowered his stance. When he took one step forward, the centipedes retreated by the same distance.

“They stay quiet, watch for an opening, then ambush you. Just because they can't speak a human language doesn't mean they can't understand one, right?”

“I suppose not.”

“They wait for the perfect moment to go for my throat. Though I guess they were in a hurry just now.”

“Yes.”

I humored him with a flat reply. I wanted out of here already.

“Probably somewhere under here....”

Hong Seok-young tapped the ground a few times with the sole of his foot.

“...is the brain controlling all these things. I don't care how it's giving them orders. That's the one that probably came from the future. It might still be small. There hasn't been anyone around to feed it yet.”

“......”

“We talked openly about the future, so it must've realized something. It wasn't only the monsters trapped inside Dungeons that came back to the past. Well, knowing that won't do it any good!”

Hong Seok-young burst into hearty laughter. Mana began moving slowly beneath his feet.

“I'm telling you, they're all the same. So is the way you deal with them.”

The laughter stopped. The Mana stopped with it.

“Hwijae-gun, always remember this.”

The air felt taut with tension, like the calm before a storm.

“Whenever you find a monster behaving suspiciously, no matter where you are or what the circumstances are, kill it. If killing it is too difficult, close the Dungeon.”

A gale of Mana bore down on my entire body.

“...What if I'm not strong enough?”

I swallowed hard as I asked.

“Then call Dad.”

For some reason, hearing exactly the answer I'd expected reassured me.

Maybe it was because, just as the Siren Dungeon that had killed Kim Chae-min in the future had disappeared, the centipede Dungeon that would kill my father and Yoo Ji-eun twenty years later was about to disappear too.

It really was strange.

But like I'd said, all kinds of strange things happened in Dungeons.

*

“Well? Your dad's pretty cool, right?”

“What kind of bullshit is that?”

“That monster Hwijae-gun couldn't beat. I went like this, then like that!”

“I didn't fail to beat it. I chose not to.”

“Hey now.”

“I just went along with you venting your anger, Teacher. Don't get the wrong idea.”

“Hey now....”

“With your experience, if you couldn't even clear one measly D-rank Dungeon, you might as well go die.”

I gripped the Sword I'd retrieved and let a small flame flicker over it. Hong Seok-young looked at me questioningly, and I shrugged.

“Disinfecting it.”

“......Are there any Dungeons you have trouble going into?”

“No. None.”

“...Bugs?”

“I kill them just fine.”

“Doesn't seem that way.”

“Why should I kill them when there's someone else who can do it for me?”

Fortunately, there weren't many Dungeons with insect-type monsters. And as far as I knew, Dungeons with centipedes were....

At least to my knowledge, there weren't any others in the country besides this one. There were Dungeons with other kinds of insect monsters, though.

Even after Hong Seok-young had his little rampage, and despite the fire I'd started still blazing away, there were centipedes left. There was no need to go out of our way to kill every last one in a Dungeon that would soon close anyway. We just had to turn around and leave.

Once the centipedes realized how this would end, they lost the will to attack.

“That's the final proof they're intelligent.”

“...This is?”

“They understand the concept of hope.”

The blazing forest. Dead centipedes. The glass ceiling breaking apart.

I snorted as we slowly made our way toward the Gate.

If that giant centipede had been hiding inside this Dungeon from this early on, then even if we'd Raided the Dungeon back then like Yoo Ji-eun had wanted, the centipede would already have grown large enough to burst out and interfere. The very monster that my father and countless other Hunters would later barely manage to kill together.

Maybe Yoo Ji-eun had instinctively sensed the thing hiding inside the Dungeon. Maybe that was why she'd thought we needed to Raid it, even though she couldn't explain why.

Then it had already been too late. Even if we'd gone in to Raid the place, we'd have been wiped out.

Stupid old lady.

Noona.

If the world was going to end just because we failed to clear one Dungeon, it would've ended long ago.

As I watched the Dungeon collapse around us, I remembered Yoo Ji-eun's face as I'd last seen it, the face of my one and only noona.

“Hwijae-gun?”

“...Let's go.”

Fuck.

I should've at least closed her eyes.

Holding my noona's memento in my hand, I regretted it far too late.

*

“So....”

Yoo Ji-eun tilted her head toward something. I followed her gaze and found the TV remote. Ah, damn it. The Hunters at the Ability Management Agency really needed to see what this woman was like.

I picked up the remote and tossed it to her. Yoo Ji-eun grinned obnoxiously.

“So you're saying there's no Dungeon you can't enter, noona?”

“Of course not.”

Yoo Ji-eun grinned with complete confidence.

“Who do you think I am? I'm the ace of the Ability Management Agency.”

“Wasn't Han Tae-kyung the ace?”

“That ajeossi is the Ability Management Agency's ace nutcase. He finally got his license suspended this time.”

“Only now?”

“The Association and the government had let a lot slide for Teacher's sake....”

Yoo Ji-eun let out a hollow laugh, looking exhausted. Watching her shoulders shake exaggeratedly made me wonder whether even Yoo Ji-eun found working with that ajeossi exhausting.

Yoo Ji-eun was plenty crazy herself....

I guess there was no beating the real thing.

“Anyway, there's pretty much no Dungeon your noona can't enter.”

“Yeah, sure....”

“Do you respect me a little more now?”

“I'm not even a Hunter. Why would I?”

“You're not cute at all.”

Yoo Ji-eun picked up my cup again.

She'd already drained it earlier, so what was she trying to drink now? Yoo Ji-eun looked disappointed when she saw the empty cup and smacked her lips.

“Still, uh... there are Dungeons I hate.”

“Bugs?”

“No.”

Yoo Ji-eun shook her head firmly.

“I hate cows.”

“Cows?”

“You know, the kind that go moo. I hate them even more if they've got horns.”

“You're scared of them?”

“No. It's not because I'm scared.”

Yoo Ji-eun smiled with the same complicated expression she'd worn earlier.

I hadn't seen her smile like that since around the time ajeossi first introduced me to her. More precisely, not since after Yoo Ji-eun graduated from high school.

Just as I started thinking I shouldn't have asked, Yoo Ji-eun finished what she'd been saying.

“Because I want to cut those bastards' heads off so badly I can't think straight.”

***

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