Damned System

Chapter 38. Capitalism (2)

My hands grew busier, and my mind was filled with chaos. Fortunately, the second battle also concluded without major injuries. I had only suffered a bite on my thigh.

I was mentally exhausted from the battle and purification, yet considering the circumstances, I considered myself to be in a decent state. I consumed a potion to recover from my injuries and attribute mana, then forged ahead.

It had been 30 minutes since the mission began. The heights of the plants gradually decreased until they barely peeked above the water at a certain point. I had finally left the thorny lotus-leaf colony.

Unlike before, my view opened up. Sparse, unknown grasses and muddy ground stretched out, with a bog of indeterminate depth. The thick mist clung to the water, obscuring distant views. Nonetheless, the open view was a relief.

‘One cannot tell what’s beyond the grass. What a bother.’

Had it not been for Mana Detection, the mental strain would have been immense. In many ways, it was an unwelcome field. The smell of the water was annoying, and the ground beneath my feet unstable.

‘Others would struggle significantly here.’

This was not an environment conducive to group battles.

‘Entering as a party meant that having more hands was an advantage over me.’

As I organized information for the guidebook, I clicked my tongue. The mana that had been within my detection range began to converge.

This time, I could clearly see the surface of the water splitting in response to the monsters’ movement.

“Tut.”

The situation I had worried about had come to pass.

‘Seventeen, eighteen.’

The number of monsters continued to increase. This time, I might have to endure significant losses.

‘My attribute mana is about half.’

If I allocated it well, I thought I might be able to handle this battle.

Trusting their numbers, they wasted no time. I swung my long sword, splitting the body of the monster that leaped from the water in two. I then retreated to the side, avoiding the ones that rushed at me consecutively.

“Whew!”

For a moment, I stepped on something soft, causing my foot to slip. With a splash, my foot plunged into the water. During that process, the mud I had stepped on gave way, revealing a buried object beneath.

My attention was involuntarily drawn, but there was no time to examine it closely. Four monsters were swimming towards me, slicing through the water. I used the spear I had obtained during the tutorial to stab one of the monsters’ heads that reached me first. No sooner had I pulled my foot from the water, than three other monsters jumped out from the swamp on my right.

They rose rapidly to my shoulder height. I lowered my stance and enveloped the long sword in my right hand with mana. I swung it above my head while directing mana into my left leg.

By a hair’s breadth, the ones that appeared on my left bit my thigh and calf.

“Tsk.”

When the three monsters, severed in mid-air, spilled black blood. I used the dagger in my left hand to cut the throat of the monster clinging to my thigh. Up next was the one hanging from my left calf. Holding the dagger in reverse, I drove it through the monster’s skull in one deft motion.

However, it was too early to feel relieved. At that moment, the number of monsters caught by Mana Detection continued to rise. The number of creatures charging towards me outstripped the corpses I had slain.

“You troublesome bastards!”

Each one, on its own, wasn’t much of a threat. They were at a level I could crush barehanded. But when their numbers exceeded thirty, it became difficult.

The only way to clear them out was by using attribute mana. It wasn’t sufficient to incinerate them in one blast, but enough to paralyze them.

It bought me time to take care of the alligator monsters.

“Whew, whew.”

While I had numerous injuries, I had avoided any dangerous scenarios. But the physical exertion was more intense than in the Level 2 mission.

I truly had to keep moving constantly.

Standing upright, I gasped for breath, the pungent stench of black blood mixing with the fishy smell of water, feeling nauseating enough to make me gag.

A rough glance at the area where I stood showed over 30 monster corpses floating.

Having already estimated the number via Mana Detection, seeing them with my own eyes left me astounded.

‘No one withstands being ganged up on.’

Facing over thirty on my own had again depleted my attribute mana. I guzzled a potion right after the battle ended.

I also poured the potion generously over the wounds inflicted by the monsters.

Though the wounds began to heal, my expression remained grim.

‘I need a proper attack or area-effect skill.’

Otherwise, I’d have to form a party.

‘If my physical condition remains stagnant, advancing to Level 4 alone will be a huge challenge.’

Clicking my tongue, I swept back my hair, causing black blood to trickle down.

Relocating to a less monster-laden spot, I washed my face and head haphazardly.

I returned to the location where I’d first stepped out of the thorny lotus-leaf colony.

Lowering my stance, I carefully groped around, soon discovering what I was searching for.

“What was that…?”

I hadn’t imagined it.

I gritted my teeth and used my dagger to flip over the object half-buried in the mud.

It revealed white bones within the rotten flesh, along with a broken fingernail at the end.

This bloated, decomposing piece was undeniably a human hand.

“Ahh…”

As I stared at the decomposing hand in silence, I sighed heavily and looked up at the sky, where two blue moons still shone brightly.

‘I was the first player to enter a non-barrier mission zone.’

Thus, the hand’s owner wasn’t a player. Likely, it belonged to someone who lived in this world, not Earth.

Recalling the gold coins I had found during the Level 2 mission, the idea that had been lingering in my mind crystallized.

‘There is civilization and people in this world.’

My certainty was without doubt or dispute.

After taking a deep breath, I took off my tattered, thorn-scratched shirt. Ripping it in half, I wrapped it around the decomposing hand.

“Ugh…”

I felt its pulpy, mushy texture. It suggested that enough time had passed for rigor mortis to fade. Just touching the hand of a dead person felt disgusting enough.

The fact that its consistency was hardly different from stewing beef I used to buy from the butcher’s morbidly heightened the sensation – enough to send chills down my spine.

Nevertheless, after wrapping the hand, I took out a bag from the inventory.

It was the bag where I had stored essentials like clothes and shoes to change into when the mission ended.

I placed the hand inside and stashed the whole bag back into the inventory.

There was a straightforward reason I bothered to take this grotesque item with me.

‘I need to confirm.’

I needed to verify if it was truly a ‘human’ hand.

But delving deeply was far too specialized for me alone.

‘I should first talk to Jonghun about this.’

If that doesn’t work out, I’ll seek assistance from the NIS for further analysis.

Even after securing the hand, I didn’t leave the spot.

Instead, I took out the spear from the tutorial and wrapped it in the remaining cloth.

After soaking it with the oil I carried in the inventory, I lit a fire to create a torch.

Thus began my thorough search.

I crawled across the ground, meticulously checking each trace of pressure in the soil.

Consequently, I discovered tracks of monsters densely clustered in a particular area.

Following these tracks led me to a distinct footprint.

“Shoe…”

It was different from the marks made by webs and claws pressing into the ground. A slightly protruding oval shape, resembling the front end of a shoe.

Thanks to the multitude of monster tracks, only traces of it were left here and there, but it unmistakably seemed like a human footprint in appearance.

Crouching next to the footprint, I pondered briefly before rising and extinguishing the flame on my spear. I had started detecting the monsters’ mana again from behind.

‘Clear the mission first, verify afterward.’

Drawing my long sword and dagger, I saw the surface of the distant swamp beginning to ripple.

‘Around 90 left now.’

Seven gathered nearby. It promised to be a long night.

* * *

I discovered traces of the medium about three hours after my entry into the mission zone. By that time, I had slain over 80 monsters and acquired over 2000 additional mana.

After completing a battle and moving around, monsters would discover me and gather one by one. Then I would hunt them and move again. It was a hunting pattern that had solidified over hours.

However, since the end of the fifth battle, monsters had stopped gathering.

‘… Why aren’t they coming?’

“Could all the nearby monsters be dead?”

After waiting a little longer, I decided to relocate.

After moving for about 30 minutes, I began sensing the presence of monsters’ mana one by one in the distance. Preparing for another drive hunt, I moved forward.

At that point, a massive mana presence abruptly manifested within my detection range.

“What the…”

Startled by the sudden event, I halted in my tracks. This mana hadn’t appeared from outside the detection range. It suddenly surfaced from within the area.

Focusing on the mana’s location revealed the reason immediately.

‘It seems to be beneath the water.’

The swamp where the alligator monsters hid wasn’t particularly deep.

‘At most about 50 to 60 centimeters.’

Even if deep, only about 1 or 2 meters.

But this entity was situated even deeper, dozens of meters below.

Mana Detection operated with a spherical perception range centered around me. This meant I could only detect mana within a 300-meter radius spherical region. Thus, the vertical range narrowed towards the edges.

This explained how the entity could abruptly appear within the detection zone. I scrutinized the immense mana, incomparable to the monsters I’d hunted thus far, trying to gauge its scale.

My point of comparison was the fiercely burning mana of Han Changshik.

‘Is it about half that?’

In raw numbers, it was about 400 to 500 mana.

‘It seems like a sort of boss creature.’

“Looks like from Level 3 onwards, there’s a raid boss included.”

‘None of the monster mana has exceeded a hundred until now.’

Just as I reached this conclusion, I noticed something peculiar beside the boss monster.

‘What is that?’

Typically, mana detected by scouting techniques appeared as a burning form. It was the same for normal humans, players, monsters, and even plants.

As long as they were living entities, they had flickering flame-like mana.

However, the mana next to this boss monster was swirling.

‘A whirlpool…?’

Concentrating my senses allowed me to discern the mana’s movement more precisely.

As it turned out, a huge mana assumed the form of a whirlpool, and it was linked to a giant mana suspected to be the monster.

I realized, ‘No, it’s absorbing the mana.’

The whirlpool was siphoning mana toward the monster.

Understanding the significance of this phenomenon was not hard.

‘Absorb?’

Could the creature draw in mana like a player?

Within my mind, a bell began ringing that only I could hear.

‘What the hell is that bastard doing?’

My expression hardened unwittingly. Hastily, I headed in the direction of the two mana sources.

As I approached, the creatures around me began exhibiting behaviors different from before. Based on the previous pattern, they should have moved towards me.

But they remained still, not budging an inch.

‘Why?’

The scenario was abnormal. A sense of unease, vigilance, and apprehension welled within me. I was undoubtedly more tense than ever since stepping into this mission zone.

However, as I drew closer to the location of the strange mana form, my heartbeat began to slow down. Almost as if I was quieting myself to avoid being detected.

Suddenly, the huge mana moved, causing me to shiver.

Damned System.