-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Harpoon Snake's Cradle
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Horrified, Seora quickly kicked off the ground. But perhaps in her panic, she missed her footing and leaped to a spot far from the gate.
Sticking flat against the cave wall, Seora stared blankly at the egg.
“The dungeon’s boss monster hatched? Don’t tell me… that was the boss monster?”
The creature that tore out of the egg was a crimson snake, unlike the others. But perhaps because it was newly hatched, it was incredibly small.
…Then isn’t this my chance? If I kill it quickly before it becomes a three-hundred-meter-long snake!
“Ugh!”
Damn. Distracted by the baby boss monster, she had forgotten about the mother that laid the egg.
Sensing a poisoned harpoon flying toward her, Seora hurriedly threw her body to the other side. Then, the harpoon from its tail came flying.
“It’s just one thing after another!”
It was truly endless. The small baby snake suddenly began to grow at an incredible speed. And it was growing to be twice the size of the other snakes.
The harpoons on its tongue and tail tip were also markedly different from the others. They were a dark, blood-red color, as if soaked in blood.
“I wondered why the dungeon was called a ‘cradle’ instead of a ‘snake den,’ and it was because a baby boss was going to be born here?”
Damn it. From now on, I can’t just overlook a dungeon’s name.
What should I do? That boss monster looks anything but ordinary. Should I leave this to the raid team and run? Or should I just fight? What if something goes wrong and someone dies?
“Aish! Ah, wait, time out! Give me a second to think!”
But the mother that had given birth to the baby boss seemed to be no ordinary snake either. Its attacks were too fast, leaving no time to think.
It wasn't like she could just ignore the poison and charge in! What should I do…
[The boss monster ‘Harpoon Snake’s’ rank is excessively high. Evolving to Magical Beast rank!]
[Warning! The dungeon cannot withstand the boss Magical Beast's power! The dungeon is shaking!]
[Dungeon Break is accelerating!]
“…What?”
Seora’s eyes widened.
A Magical Beast… a Magical Beast? That was a rank higher than a monster… It referred to creatures that weren’t just driven by slaughter but possessed intelligence, even reason.
Indeed, the dawdling boss snake seemed to have realized it couldn’t kill Seora in one go. And also that there was plenty of food outside the gate.
The gate the snake was looking at had already turned from blue to green, symbolizing a Dungeon Break.
“No!”
If a Rank 2 Magical Beast—not just a monster—got out, it would be the advent of a true catastrophe.
“Administrator! Administrator! Control the gate! Close the gate!”
Seora shouted into the air while dodging another attack from the mother snake.
[Administrator: ｡ﾟ(ﾟ∩´﹏`∩ﾟ)ﾟ｡]
Unbelievable. The Administrator was sobbing.
He had said creating dungeons wasn’t his will, and it seemed controlling a Dungeon Break was also impossible for him.
Damn it. What can he do, and what can’t he do?
No, this wasn’t the time to think about that.
‘What do I do? Should I tell the raid team, even at the risk of being exposed?’
While Seora was faltering under the mother snake’s attacks, the boss Magical Beast was already slipping out of the gate.
Seora’s face hardened. This was bad. There was no time to go get the raid team.
They must have heard the message about the break accelerating, but seeing as they still hadn’t come out, it was probably better to just give up on that plan.
In that case, the only way is…
[Administrator: (´—ω･)︻┻┳══━]
“I guess I have no choice but to shoot it down myself.”
Seora made up her mind. She grabbed the mother snake’s tail harpoon as it flew at her again, spun her body, and plunged it right back into the mother snake.
*Shaaaaaa!* The snake’s agonized shriek shook the cradle. Without sparing it a glance, Seora kicked off the ground. Her form shot out of the gate in an instant.
Though little time had passed, the outside was already a chaotic mess.
The reporters who had come for coverage were busy screaming and running away, while the civil servants and guild Hunters were fighting against the Magical Beast. But they wouldn’t last long.
‘I need to create some distance.’
She climbed back up the tree she had hidden in before entering the gate. This was definitely the best vantage point.
“Activate skill.”
[Activating skill ‘Field Domination’!]
This was the first time she was using a skill after becoming an S-rank. And yet, without anyone telling her, she knew instinctively what to do and how to do it.
“Deploy field.”
A red cube appeared in mid-air. At the same time, Seora’s left eye also turned red.
Something like coordinates floated into her vision. The red eye specified a space.
[Area set. Temporarily dominating the designated field!]
The red cube instantly expanded, enveloping the head of the rampaging boss Magical Beast. At this sight, the Hunters who had been bleeding while fending off the beast froze for a moment.
The snake, encased in the cube, thrashed wildly but couldn’t break free. After all, what Seora had designated was the snake’s head itself.
Seora gripped her sniper rifle and took her stance.
[Skill ‘Field Domination’ resonates with ‘Hit’. Destructive power increases. Accuracy increases.]
[Weapon ‘Hit’s’ bullet transforms appropriately!]
The barrel of the gun began to glow red. The moment the cube was perfectly centered in her scope, Seora pulled the trigger.
The formidable magical power of an S-rank Hunter, pooled at the muzzle, shot through the air. The magical bullet pierced straight through the red cube.
*KABOOM!*
A tremendous roar shook the world. It was such a deafening sound that the fighting Hunters and the fleeing people had to clamp their hands over their ears, unable to even scream.
*Splat, splat.*
For a single moment, after the world-shaking roar vanished, the first thing to be heard in the ensuing silence was the sound of a heavy liquid splashing onto the ground.
People hesitantly raised their heads.
“…What is this?”
“My god…!”
The head of the Rank 2 boss Magical Beast, whose arrival was like a cataclysm, had been completely blown away.
*Thud, thump!* The giant, headless body collapsed sideways, spraying blood everywhere. For the death of a Rank 2 Magical Beast, it was an incredibly clean, yet miserable, end.
A massive shock swept through the area in front of the gate.
And as for Yoon Seora, the one who had created this scene…
“Holy shit.”
She really couldn’t help but swear.
So I became an S-rank, and now I can blow away a Rank 2 boss Magical Beast in one shot.
…Is this for real?
“Not just a monster, but a Rank 2 boss Magical Beast… how was that one shot?”
Should I attribute this to the weapon’s effect? Or the skill’s power? Or maybe a combination of the two?
“Either way, it doesn’t change the fact that I’m completely broken…”
There was no life reversal quite like this.
[The boss Magical Beast of the Rank 2 Dungeon ‘Harpoon Snake’s Cradle’ has been defeated!]
[Highest Contributor: Yoon Seora (S-rank)]
[First in Korea to successfully hunt a Rank 2 Dungeon boss Magical Beast solo!]
[An amazing achievement has been accomplished!]
[As a reward for the achievement, the skill ‘Poison Resistance (S-rank)’ has been granted.]
[Obtained item ‘Poisoned Harpoon’.]
[Obtained item ‘Harpoon Snake’s Core’.]
[Item….]
Countless messages poured in. Staring blankly at them, Seora fumbled to put Hit back into her inventory.
“It’s filled up a lot in such a short time.”
Her inventory was now full of expensive items.
She even got a Poison Resistance skill, probably for killing the venomous snake. There was certainly a reward for taking down a Rank 2 boss Magical Beast by myself, but…
“If this gets out, the expectations for me will grow even bigger, won’t they?”
Oh, great. A Rank 2 dungeon, of all places, and the boss monster was a Magical Beast. Bad memories were trying to surface.
Seora shuddered.
“No. I really have to quit.”
The problem wasn’t that two of her superiors were powerful. How many S-ranks had she run into in this short time! She hadn’t realized it before, but this was the perfect environment to get caught.
Forget about Song Hanna’s suspicions or whatever, I’ll just quit first.
“Alright. I’ll tell them as soon as I get back. It’s perfect, since I came near a Rank 2 dungeon today anyway…, huh?”
Muttering to herself, Seora instinctively turned her head toward a gaze she felt from somewhere. It wasn’t that she sensed anything strange. It was an instinctual movement.
And then.
‘Huh?’
Her eyes met someone’s directly.
