Chapter 338: Stone Marten

Actually, there was another possibility, and that was an Evil God.

However, the characteristics of creatures contaminated by that Evil God were quite obvious. Judging from the appearance of the zombies he could see in areas where the red mist was relatively thin, their bodies had not undergone any sanity-shattering mutations.

Regardless of which possibility it was, this place definitely had to be cleared out. He could not allow it to continue growing stronger.

It was just that without figuring out the condition of the red mist, Joo Joowon truly did not dare to venture deeper into it.

Thinking of this, Joo Joowon could not help looking down at Hwi.

Hwi: "...??"

Joo Joowon picked him up. "Hwi, Dad wants to discuss something with you. What do you think...?"

After a round of discussion, Hwi quietly left on his own and soon arrived within the area covered by the red mist.

Thinking about what Joo Joowon had told him, Hwi took a deep breath, then stopped breathing altogether to avoid inhaling the red mist into his body. Only then did he suddenly dash forward and run inside.

Once he got closer, Hwi’s fur instinctively began to stand on end.

There were some beings whose strength could be recognized without even waiting for them to make a move. Simply standing in front of such an opponent could cause one’s body to instinctively produce a defensive reaction upon encountering a powerful enemy, immediately making one aware of how strong the other side was.

Hwi could not help tensing his nerves. He did not get too close to the zombie group, instead carefully observing them with his large eyes.

When he had been observing them from above, he had not felt anything. But now that he had approached them, he discovered that the bodies of these monsters were all far too large. Even the shortest ones were one or two meters tall. Their sheer size alone was enough to create a powerful sense of oppression.

Hwi flicked his tail and first confirmed that the distance between the two sides would not affect his ability to maneuver. Only then did he clear his throat and let out a loud howl, the kind of cry he would only make when fighting with other cats in the past.

"Awwoooo~"

With this cry, the zombie group that had originally been wandering around was immediately attracted to him. They became somewhat restless, but they did not immediately charge toward Hwi.

Seeing this, Hwi called out several more times. Then, without caring whether they would follow him, he did not remain where he was and immediately ran toward the outside of the red mist.

As soon as the zombie group saw Hwi trying to leave, one of the zombies in the group could no longer hold itself back and charged out from among them.

"Roar!"

The ground trembled slightly as a stone marten two or three meters tall charged over. Its fierce face and sharp teeth were terrifying, while its blood-red eyes were filled with a surging, bloodthirsty killing intent. Even from a distance, it made anyone who saw it feel a chill run down their spine.

Hwi, who was serving as the bait, did not feel any fear. From time to time, he even turned his head to take a look behind him.

He had seen a similar creature before in his memories.

Back when he and Byeol had not yet been driven away by their cat mother, a weasel had once come looking for trouble with them.

That creature had bitten all of their brothers and sisters to death. If their cat mother had not returned at the critical moment, Hwi and Byeol would probably have become food to fill that creature’s stomach as well.

But neither Byeol nor Hwi had ever developed fear because of that experience.

Not to mention that the weasel from their childhood had long since been bitten to death by their furious cat mother. Their cat mother had also been extremely vengeful, deliberately hunting prey that looked similar to that weasel and bringing it back for them to eat several times. Even after Hwi and Byeol had grown up, it was not as if they had never hunted such prey themselves.

A powerful cat would challenge prey that was much larger in size.

Even though the prey’s body had now grown so huge, Hwi did not think there was anything strange about it.

It was not as if he could not grow bigger too.

The only reason he was not enlarging himself right now was because he did not want to waste energy.

In his normal size, Hwi looked especially small and harmless when compared with the stone marten. It looked as though one stomp would be enough to crush him to death.

However, he charged straight ahead right in front of the stone marten, darting around so quickly that the stone marten could only roar repeatedly. Hwi was so agile that he was never caught even once.

Instead, because the stone marten’s body had grown larger, it had actually become less agile than before. Once it left the open area covered by the red mist and entered deeper into the jungle, its speed inevitably decreased.

Joo Joowon was somewhat surprised that a marten could have such a huge body, so he stood on a tree and used Detection on it.

[ Elite Zombie ]

[ Basic Information: Level 12]

The instant the Detection Technique was cast, the stone marten immediately abandoned its pursuit of Hwi. It twisted its neck, its pair of scarlet eyes looking toward the direction where Joo Joowon was hiding, and charged toward him.

Oh, great.

Joo Joowon could not help shaking his head. As expected, this Detection Technique was very easy to notice.

He did not immediately leave his position. Instead, as he watched the stone marten charging toward him, his fingertip moved slightly.

A strand of white light continuously grew larger within its crimson eyes. Like a laser, it cut through the glaring red, and the stone marten’s eyes, which looked especially huge because of its enlarged body, suddenly exploded, exposing the pitch-black eye sockets beneath.