#046
Ji Taeuk began healing the severely injured soldiers one by one. Eunseok shot down a few bees that were flying towards the soldiers, breaking away from the swarm. Then he confirmed kills on the bees that had fallen to the ground after being hit by the soldiers’ guns, still buzzing and writhing.
“Aaagh! Fuck!”
Moon Bora cursed loudly amidst the swarm of bees engaged in fierce battle. After confirming that all team members were on the ground, dealing with the approaching bees one by one, Eunseok aimed his automatic rifle at the air buzzing with bees. Then he began firing at the swarm.
Ratatata-! Ratatata-!
With each pull of the trigger, a bee the size of a soccer ball dropped to the ground.
“Guide Lee! At this rate, there’s no end! We need to find the cause of the mutation!”
Han Cheolyong shouted, frantically swinging his sword and shield while surrounded by the swarm of bees. Eunseok stopped firing and ran to the soldiers who were tending to their wounds a short distance away. Unfortunately, it seemed there were already casualties, as two soldiers were laid side by side on the ground.
Eunseok glanced at the deceased and approached the commander standing next to them with a grim face.
“I’m Lee Eunseok from Baekho Guild. How’s the search going? Have you found the cause of the mutation yet?”
When Eunseok asked, the commander detached the radio from his shoulder and brought it to his mouth. After exchanging a few radio messages, he shook his head.
“Not yet, they say.”
The commander replied with a heavy face, glancing at the two deceased soldiers. Eunseok, at a loss for words of comfort, nodded and turned away.
Instead of rejoining the battle, Eunseok stood still and roughly estimated their movement route so far. The locations where mutants were discovered were quite close to each other. As he traced the path they had taken while catching mutants, Eunseok narrowed his eyes. While the points where mutants appeared seemed random, looking at the overall picture, the valley between the mountain peaks appeared to be roughly the center point.
Just as the bee swarm was almost cleared, as if on cue, a red flare shot up from a short distance away.
After confirming that the bee swarm had been dealt with, Eunseok approached Han Cheolyong.
“I’ll search separately for a while here. There’s a place I want to check.”
Han Cheolyong hesitated at those words.
“Don’t worry. I’ll just search and pull out quickly. If anything happens…”
Eunseok showed the flare he had obtained from the commander.
“It’s a purple flare. If you see this, please come.”
“But sending Guide Lee alone is…”
As Han Cheolyong was speaking, Moon Bora interrupted.
“We can’t send Eunseok alone.”
“But red flares keep going up, and if we don’t clear those, the soldiers will keep taking casualties. Isn’t it right for me, a non-combat personnel, to go quickly check and rejoin?”
Moon Bora exchanged glances with Han Cheolyong briefly before speaking.
“Then I’ll go with you. One less person shouldn’t make a big difference in dealing with the mutants.”
Eunseok hesitated for a moment at Moon Bora’s words, then nodded. Indeed, it seemed that even with Moon Bora briefly absent, the 1st Squad shouldn’t have much trouble defeating the mutants individually.
“Let’s go then.”
Eunseok informed Han Cheolyong of the direction where the red flare had gone up and turned around. Then he started running towards the valley he had spotted earlier.
Running up steep slopes is tough, but the real challenge is going down the mountain. Eunseok skillfully slid his feet between the trees, quickly descending the steep mountain. Moon Bora was following comfortably, matching Eunseok’s pace.
After quickly traversing the mountain like this, they finally saw a valley with clear water flowing.
“We should split up and search up and down since we need to find it before sunset.”
Eunseok suggested to Moon Bora.
“But…”
Moon Bora hesitated, checking the sun setting over the ridge. If they wasted more time in this situation with the sun setting, the situation might continue until tomorrow morning.
“But I’m a bit uneasy about sending you alone.”
Moon Bora expressed her opposition vaguely, as if not wanting to hurt Eunseok’s pride.
Eunseok agreed with Moon Bora’s concern. Certainly, if he encountered a mutant alone, it would be a dangerous situation for Eunseok, who wasn’t even a hunter. He had no intention of recklessly acting alone and getting injured, causing trouble for others. However, given the current situation, he thought this was the best choice.
“If it seems dangerous, I’ll press the emergency rescue button right away. Someone of your level should be able to run to me quickly, right?”
Eunseok said, tapping his smartwatch. The watch was equipped with location tracking and emergency rescue request functions. When pressed, it would immediately transmit the location to nearby hunters.
They started walking in opposite directions, with Eunseok going upstream along the valley and Moon Bora following downstream to search.
It was fortunate that he had studied whenever he had time after joining Baekho Guild. According to that, most mutants occurred due to prolonged exposure to the influence of undiscovered gates, or contact with or exposure to mana stones. Of course, there were also mutations with unknown causes, though rare.
In any case, unless it was an extremely rare special case, it meant there was an undiscovered gate or mana stone nearby. It would probably be somewhere in this valley. This was because the species of mutants they had dealt with today were diverse. If it was a place where various species were affected simultaneously, rather than a specific species, the valley where they gather to drink water was indeed likely.
Eunseok moved slowly, carefully scanning the clear, shallow valley water and its surroundings. As he jumped over large and small rocks moving upstream, Eunseok suddenly paused and fixed his gaze on the water surface.
As he stared, it indeed wasn’t an illusion. In the water surface reflecting the reddish sunlight setting over the mountain ridge, a strange green light was flickering.
That’s it.
Eunseok unhesitatingly stepped into the valley water and walked in. Wading through the knee-deep shallow water, he saw a green stone about the size of an adult’s fist between large rocks. There was no way such a large gem would be in a valley like this, so this must certainly be a mana stone.
Eunseok pulled the mana stone out of the water without hesitation. Though the color was different, judging by its size, it looked similar to what they got when defeating the boss in an A-rank gate dungeon.
Why this was here wasn’t for Eunseok to worry about. Having found the cause of the mutation, he needed to regroup with Moon Bora and go to where the team was.
Just as he was about to turn around and leave the water.
He saw something quickly approaching from across the water surface shimmering with sunset light. Eunseok reflexively fired his automatic rifle. Then a fish the size of a human head floated to the surface, showing its white belly.
The moment he saw the dead fish, Eunseok whirled around and started running out of the valley water. But he was a step too late. From all directions, huge fish-like creatures rushed madly towards Eunseok. It was similar to an attack by a large school of piranhas that had smelled blood.
There was no time to hesitate. There wasn’t even time to press the emergency rescue button on his smartwatch.
It was nearly impossible to take out all the creatures pouncing from every direction. After making a split-second decision, Eunseok backed up with land close behind him, frantically firing his gun in three directions.
Ratatata-! Ratatata-! Ratatata-!
He backed up with splashing steps, calmly shooting down the fish-like mutants one by one. After killing two, he felt a stinging sensation on the back of his calf. But there was no time to check his leg. In the current situation, getting out of the water with minimal injury was the best option.
Ratatata-! Ratatata-!
With each burst of fire, fish or water snakes floated to the surface. After taking out six of them this way, Eunseok finally managed to step onto a rock outside the water.
A glance down showed both his calves were covered in blood. Eunseok bent down and roughly tore off a mutant fish still clinging to his calf, throwing it to the ground.
Ratatata-!
After shooting the creature that was flopping on the rock with a piece of his flesh in its mouth, Eunseok turned his gaze back to the water surface. Above the valley water, now red with blood flowing from Eunseok’s calves, grotesquely mutated fish were jumping and thrashing about, trying to devour Eunseok.
Eunseok stepped back a couple more paces and unleashed a merciless barrage of gunfire on the water surface with his automatic rifle. Sparks continuously flew from the muzzle, and the acrid smell of gunpowder mixed with the scent of blood stung his nose. Only after using up two magazines did the water surface finally calm down. Eunseok quickly scanned the surroundings, confirming there were no more approaching creatures before finally removing his finger from the trigger.
“Urgh…!”
As the situation settled, the pain that had been almost numb suddenly flared up. Eunseok gritted his teeth and examined his legs. His calves, which had been submerged and fully exposed to the attack, were soaked in bright red blood. The tattered state of his pants made it clear that chunks of flesh had been bitten off multiple times.
“Eunseok-!”
Moon Bora’s urgent voice rapidly approached. She landed in front of Eunseok, almost flying as she jumped.
