NOVEL WEB Chapter 23
“What’s up with the good mood?”
“Get back to work.”
“Hmm. Why is it just me? You’re slacking off too!”
“…….”
“No, I just mean that casually. So, where’d you go?”
“I went to check out hope.”
“Hope? What hope? Hope to end the disease?”
“No, for the lost ones.”
“The lost ones? I always wonder what you’re talking about… Aha! Let’s go together!”
[Your Culinary Skills (D) Lv.1 reached max level. Culinary Skills (D) Lv.1 → Culinary Skills (D) Lv.2]
[Hunger (E) Lv.7 reached max level. Hunger (E) Lv.7 → Hunger (E) Lv.8]
Besides that, swimming and diving reached level 6, and suggestion reached level 3.
[Mountain Tyrant (Worg {Amorphous} Lv.17] [EXP 6411 / 28454]
[Body Length 1.45m] [Height 70.4cm] [Weight 42.1kg]
[Strength 118] [Agility 133] [Stamina 201] [Magic Power 52]
The title didn’t change. Even after taking down the lord of the sewers and the sewer monster, I was still called the Mountain Tyrant. Is this title just better than the other two? Or is there a reason I can’t have them?
Well, I doubt I’ll be visiting the sewers again.
And I leveled up to 17. I was already pretty trim from the start, but now eight out of ten passersby would say I’m a wolf. The other two would probably just think I’m a monster, considering my black color.
Is there a black wolf…?
I feel like I’ve seen them in movies, but never at a zoo. Plus, my stamina just crossed 200, but I’ve never felt tired, so I’m not really sure. Speaking of which, what’s the point of a stamina stat?
[Stamina: Affects vitality, toughness, and resilience]
The description I checked using suggestion went like this. I understand vitality and stamina, but toughness? Isn’t that just a game term? Something about being CC’ed quickly…
[Tough (强靭): Sturdy and resilient]
Turns out, it’s not really about CC recovery but more like defense. I guess stamina represents health, stamina, and defense.
It seems stamina is a lot more important than I thought. This might explain why the monster wolf took so little damage from my attacks.
And not just stamina, I got an overall boost from leveling up. My magic power increased by 2 for every level, and going from 49 to 52 probably has to do with having experienced mild mental fatigue. Suddenly, I thought of Euna’s stat of 316 magic power, and my mind blew.
Forget Euna at 300, what about that guy in the 400s? How much magic did he even use? That sweet sensation of omnipotence that lures you into a coma state with magic… I’m better now due to the level-up, but thinking about feeling that urge every time I use magic…
Anyway, the important part is that I overcame one disaster. Now, the only thing left is to thoroughly search the rooms I have yet to explore.
…….
Even though I already knew it, some of the flesh chunks in the room were human. Before searching the room, I had something to do first.
I can’t start a fire down here, nor can I call anyone. I dug a pit in the stone floor and gathered them together for burial.
No grave or tomb and no relatives to come looking, but at least it’s better than drowning them in polluted water like some kind of aquatic burial. After burying them, I searched the room. Most of what I found were poisons and strange chemicals like flasks, but there were also records of their research.
[November 15, 2066…]
I closed the book. The content was what I expected, and it was unpleasant. Cursing the Rat Man inwardly, I searched the room and discovered an egg.
[Dragon Worm (In Fables)]
There were several dragon worms, but only one had survived as an egg, and the rest dried up like mummies. I didn’t get a chance to eat last time… I thought about it and then dropped the idea.
The dragon worms were on the wire. They couldn’t enter the sewer, so they must have been waiting for their fallen comrades endlessly. Would eating just one really make a difference?
Looks like I’ve run out of things to find. I jumped over the pit and crawled back up the slope. Upon seeing a bright light, I reflexively used weak stealth.
“Huff… Huff…”
I don’t know where they got it, but they were fully suited up from head to toe in gas masks, protective suits, and boots… completely shielded. I chuckled at the sight. Did they just come from the fire department? Aren’t they hot in that getup?
Their breathing was ragged. The blood on the protective gear already indicated they had fought once. Probably those rats I couldn’t spot.
No matter how you spin it, they’re still monsters. If they dealt with those, they were undoubtedly hunters. With no escape route, a bit wasteful to spend skill points, but I opened the [Available Skill List].
[You have acquired Stealth (D) Lv.1]
[Weak Stealth (E) Lv.8 has merged with Stealth (D) Lv.1]
[The proficiency of Stealth (D) Lv.1 has reached max level. Stealth (D) Lv.1 → Stealth (D) Lv.4]
[Remaining Skill Points: 6]
After fighting the monster wolf at level 7, I hadn’t used my skill points at all until now. A delayed wave of magic swirled around me, but the creature just shone its flashlight all around and didn’t spot me.
Still, it seemed they felt something was off. Even with D-rank, level 4 skills, I wasn’t completely hidden. I thought about using suggestion, but it seemed unnecessary, so I dropped it.
Anyway, it’s bizarre that no one noticed the disaster in the sewage system from the novel. There wasn’t even a hint of anyone discovering it before the disaster struck. Maybe someone did spot it, but they might have died… Can hunters even die in the sewers?
The rats were weak, and piranhas weren’t a real threat either. But that’s just based on my experience. What if the rats attacked in numbers? Unlike me, they could aim for vital spots, so I couldn’t be sure. I didn’t want to stir the pot unnecessarily, so I made a quick exit out of the sewer.
A suspicious location was clearly visible. The Vice Team Leader jumped over a trench over ten meters wide and squinted around.
“Ah, damn.”
It’s so damn humid. The curse of wearing a gas mask. It took not even a second for the Vice Team Leader to regret lifting the mask and put it back on.
Measuring his patience with deep breaths, the gas mask fogged up. After a quick look, there was a desk and a chair, and a door that seemed to lead further inside.
Ha, they really went all out. With all that effort, why not just live outside? No wait, that was probably how they avoided detection.
Having built in such a place, it wouldn’t be discovered. In this deep underground, even magic detection would be difficult. They weren’t a bunch of rats.
If I hadn’t sensed any fighting, I would have just assumed it was a janitor or something.
…But why is no one around?
I definitely sensed something earlier, but aside from a couple of wandering rats, it was oddly clean. It was like someone had already taken care of it. There were bloodstains, but no corpses. Perhaps the owner of the presence I sensed earlier had done it? While pondering, the Vice Team Leader found a journal on the desk.
[November 15, 2066: After many years of research, there are no results. I need to find suitable materials to create —]
‘This is a skip.’
Perhaps they were worried someone would read their journal, so they skipped the subject. But with most writings, you can usually infer the context. Unless they wrote it in code or something.
Well, they probably thought nobody would come to this place anyway. So the security is probably like this. The Vice Team Leader continued reading the journal with damp eyes.
[December 17, 2066: I finally found it. The suitable material was —]
[April 6, 2067: I succeeded in the fusion! But it was a failure. The — that lived for only five hours rejected me and died.]
[June 25, 2067: I need more — . I was thinking about that when they came. They told me they would supply me with — .]
[June 27, 2067: They kept their promise. They provided me with plenty of — in just two days. Good. I can continue my experiments.]
[September 8, 2067: Second success in — fusion. But it’s still not my desired result. I need something stronger and more tenacious.]
A confusing jumble of words.
[January 6, 2068: Finally succeeded. I have locked the — in a cage. After reviewing my results, they promised to supply me with more — .]
[June 9, 2068: It rampaged. But it calmed down quickly. I thought there was no rejection, but it appears there was. I’ll need to get more — .]
[November 6, 2068: After inserting more — eyes, the rejection calmed down. How did this result come about? More experiments are needed.]
Eyes? Rejection? Were they trying to create life? Homunculi? Chimeras? I’m not knowledgeable about alchemy like the Vice Team Leader, so I can’t think of much. Then the Vice Team Leader noticed a mound of soil bulging out. The stone floor was cracked, and the only spot where soil had piled up was as if something had been buried there. As the Leader began to dig, he grit his teeth.
“So, it’s a chimera.”
The omitted subjects were chimera and humans. These crazy bastards were using humans as materials to create chimeras. But what really puzzled me was the content of the journal.
The alchemist stated he had locked the chimera in a cage. However, the heavily damaged cage wasn’t in a condition to hold anything, and there was nothing left inside.
The journal mentioned ‘it rampaged.’ Did the chimera go wild and eat the alchemist? Were the signs of struggle between the alchemist and the chimera? So many questions. Is there a secret passage? The Vice Team Leader searched hard but found nothing.
“Huh. It’s me…”
He called the team leader. Little did he imagine that a lone wolf had devoured both the alchemist and the chimera.
The power of stealth was incredible. When it was weak stealth, there were occasionally people who noticed me, but now I could walk down the main street without anyone noticing. I felt less like I was using stealth and more like I was invisible. Still, running into a hunter would be troublesome, so I was sticking to the outskirts.
This should be good enough. Once I released the dragon worm from the sewer, the wary dragon worms flocked to me. They were probably scared I’d eat them.
“Grrr!”
I gestured for them to go, and the dragon worms looked around timidly before inching closer. I stepped back to give them space, and a few of them flew up holding eggs.
According to suggestion, they were indeed from fables. They were larvae, right? Were they the larvae of a fairy dragon?
I felt a bit let down with the word dragon. Should I have just ignored them and eaten? No, it’s fine. There will be another chance next time. Thinking positively, I’ll just say that I let them go to help them out.
…….
The dragon worms drifted away. Among them, two danced as if to greet me, and they were kind of cute and funny.
I briefly watched the dragon worms leave and recalled the sewers. I tried to leave no trace of the Rat Man, but after sensing someone’s presence, I decided to leave the journal behind. Chemicals and toxins could be misused, so I disposed of them in the trough.
The rest, since the hunter had gone in, would handle the cleanup. Disposal of the bodies or the recovery of the sewer. And most importantly, the greatest achievement of taking out the Rat Man was…
‘Baek So-yul.’
By defeating the Rat Man, she wouldn’t have to experience ‘any incident.’ Thus, inevitably, the ‘witches’ disaster’ that would occur in the future would also be avoided.
[Destruction Chance 100% → 99.98%]
0.02%. The system notified me of the altered probability. I gave a wry smile.
‘Just 0.02%?’
No, wait, do I need to say it’s a whopping 0.02%? To stop a disaster that could strike a whole city and only having a 0.02% chance… I couldn’t help but painfully realize just how precarious this world is. But the clear fact is that I saved a world that had a 100% chance of destruction by 0.02%.
A slim chance for this world to avoid destruction has emerged. Isn’t that enough?
[You have earned 0.02% of virtue]
[Evolution route is now available]
Virtue. An element not mentioned in the original text.
[Evolution route]
[Path of Marang (魔狼)] – Conditions not met
[Path of Human (人化)] – Conditions not met
Looks like evolution through consumption like amorphous gel isn’t possible. Like how I evolved into a Worg by consuming it. That’s a bit of a bummer. There are two routes open, but those just indicate a path without revealing a specific entity or race. I decided to use suggestion.
[Path of Marang: Evolve into a higher species of Worg]
The higher species of Worg. Since Worg is a wolf… It means evolving while still being a wolf. The higher species of Worg? I’m pretty sure the monster wolf’s species name was High Worg…
This can’t be right. Feeling a sudden unease, I wiped the message from the Path of Marang and checked the Path of Human.
[Path of Human: Evolve into a Werewolf]
One side is a wolf, and the other side is a werewolf, huh? Was evolving into a Worg a mistake? Sure, if I had to choose, I’d probably go with the human path, but…
Neither option appealed to me. I could theoretically transform into a human if I wanted. Changing just the appearance isn’t hard. If I made my vocal cords change, I could pretend to be a person too, as long as no one checked my emotions.
Guess I’ll need to think a bit more. Since I can’t evolve into either right now, the conditions to do so remain a mystery. It was as if the system was rejecting inquiry.
While contemplating which evolution would be better, I arrived in Gwangalli. Time had passed, and the sun was setting.
Gwangalli Waterside Park. People drinking with fish as their side dish. People passing by with skewers. Even though monsters are appearing and the world is a mess, it seems life hasn’t changed much for the people. Those laughing and chatting all looked so joyful.
“……”
Will there come a day when I can sit with people again? A day when I can sit down without a care in the world, laughing and chatting freely?
‘How foolish.’
I’m doing this to make that happen.
Let’s just wait a little longer, a little longer.
So that people can enjoy their time just a little bit more.
I took a necessary nap until they vanished.