Chapter 279

Chapter 279

CRASH—!

WOOOOR!

With an explosion, a massive monster collapsed.

It was an Explosive Hippo, a Grade B monster.

The Explosive Hippo was a gigantic monster with a shoulder height of ten meters, and unusually, it sweated red. When this red sweat was struck by the attacks of other monsters, it exploded.

Because of that, most monsters did not dare even think of attacking an Explosive Hippo.

Explosive Hippos had ferocious temperaments and powerful aggression.

Their huge mouths were lined with teeth larger than adult men, and those teeth were sharp enough to tear through the hides of most monsters in an instant.

Because of that, most monsters did not dare even think of attacking an Explosive Hippo.

Even such a terrifying monster was nothing more than prey for another monster here.

Crunch! Crunch!

The monster tearing into the dead Explosive Hippo’s leg was a Gray Ogre.

The one who had killed the Explosive Hippo was also the Gray Ogre.

Even a powerful Grade B monster was nothing more than prey to a Gray Ogre.

The Gray Ogre’s two eyes were bloodshot as it tore into the Explosive Hippo’s leg.

The Gray Ogre devoured the Explosive Hippo’s leg in an instant. Thanks to that, strength overflowed through its entire body.

Grrrr!

The Gray Ogre looked around.

Not only the Gray Ogre, but many monsters had entered Moby Dick’s domain.

Among them were many monsters that possessed power and authority comparable to the Gray Ogre.

The Crimson Drake circling in the air was also a tyrant no less than the Gray Ogre.

All those monsters had come here, drawn by the unknown energy Moby Dick emitted.

Under normal circumstances, even the Gray Ogre would not have dared enter Moby Dick’s domain.

Moby Dick was not simply a large whale.

It was a monster of a far higher Grade than the Gray Ogre.

Its authority was also incomparably stronger.

It was powerful enough to swallow a Gray Ogre whole in a single bite.

Because of that, if the Gray Ogre saw Moby Dick, it would have had to tuck its nonexistent tail and flee.

The same was true for the other monsters.

Even the Crimson Drake, flying through the sky with such grandeur as though it were the overlord of the heavens, was no match for Moby Dick.

No matter how much the Crimson Drake bit at it, Moby Dick’s hide would not even be scratched. Its authority could not compare either.

To Moby Dick, the Crimson Drake was nothing more than an annoying mosquito.

Because of that, even the Crimson Drake normally busied itself fleeing whenever Moby Dick appeared.

The one fortunate thing was that Moby Dick was a monster with almost no aggression. If it had possessed strong aggression like other Grade S monsters, most monsters would already have vanished into its belly.

Escaping from Moby Dick, which moved freely through sand and sky, was impossible.

It was only because it had no aggressive nature that the monster ecosystem remained intact at all. Otherwise, it would have already collapsed.

Sniff, sniff!

The Gray Ogre sniffed the air.

Moby Dick’s scent was thick in the air.

Once it smelled that scent, it was certain.

For some reason, Moby Dick had weakened.

When Moby Dick was strong, merely smelling its scent made fear rise from deep within the Gray Ogre’s chest. But now it felt no fear at all.

That was proof that Moby Dick had weakened.

Moby Dick had gathered its remaining strength and unfolded Domainization, but it was absurdly weaker than when it had been whole.

Grrrr!

The Gray Ogre smiled hideously.

This was the perfect opportunity to devour a monster above itself and achieve an elevation of its standing.

Moby Dick was a mysterious monster.

Its enormous body itself was no different from a lump of miraculous medicine that could elevate monsters’ standing.

No one had told them this.

The monsters knew it instinctively. That was why, the moment they realized Moby Dick had weakened, they had flocked here.

From high-grade monsters like the Gray Ogre and Crimson Drake to lower-ranked monsters like Vampire Bats, all of them.

As time passed, even more monsters would likely gather.

Among them would be monsters even the Gray Ogre would struggle to face. Before they arrived, it had to devour Moby Dick and elevate its standing.

THUD! THUD!

The born hunter moved for the hunt of its lifetime.

---

Huff! Huff!

Archelon exhaled roughly.

Archelon’s stamina had now reached its limit. Even so, Archelon kept moving without rest.

The place Archelon was desperately heading toward was the center of Moby Dick’s domain.

The closer they drew to the center, the more the surrounding environment resembled the deep sea.

A deep darkness where not a single point of light entered, drifting grains of sand and tiny pebbles, and even tiny lifeforms floating through the air while glowing like plankton.

Though she had never seen it before, a scene that resembled the deep sea she had only heard of unfolded before her eyes.

“Ah!”

Kaylee forgot for a moment that Archelon was in a desperate situation and stared at the scenery before her.

It was a fantastical scene she had never seen in her life.

She had thought she had seen many beautiful sights while wandering the desert for so long, but none of them could compare to the scene before her now.

That was how fantastical the center of Moby Dick’s domain was.

“What on earth......”

Kaylee shook her head.

No monster she knew possessed authority like this. She wondered what Moby Dick truly was, to be able to unfold such authority.

Just then—

“Hmm!”

Lee Jung-ho suddenly let out a groan.

“What’s wr......”

Kaylee’s expression twisted just as she was about to ask why.

That was because an enormous pressure had suddenly pressed down on her.

Lee Jung-ho was clearly reacting because he felt the same pressure as she did. When she turned her head and looked, she saw Pabilsa and Claire trembling as well.

They too were desperately resisting the powerful pressure.

Kaylee’s eyes became bloodshot.

For now, she felt she could somehow endure, but she could not be certain how much longer she could last.

If this had been the usual her, she would have turned back at this point.

Taking danger head-on was not her style.

But now was different.

Archelon’s life was at stake.

She could not turn back now.

“Archelon! Let’s do our best. We just have to hold out a little longer.”

Huff!

As if it had understood her words, Archelon made a rough breathing sound.

At that moment, a faint light appeared in the distance.

The pure white light was emanating from the center of the domain.

The moment Kaylee saw the light, she felt strangely at peace. This was the first time she had ever felt such a thing.

Forgetting even that a powerful pressure was crushing her, she stared blankly at the white light.

At that moment, Lee Jung-ho’s voice awakened her mind.

“It is Moby Dick.”

“What?”

Only then did Kaylee come to her senses and look carefully at the pure white light. Then she saw an enormous whale floating inside the light.

A massive body whose size could not be measured. Fins extending from both sides of its body like wings. Large eyes that looked gentle.

It resembled a blue whale, but the enormous whale, several times larger than that, was unmistakably Moby Dick.

“How is that thing floating in the sky?”

Lee Jung-ho chewed his lip.

The enormous whale, whose body alone was over one hundred meters long, was floating gently in the air as though it were not affected by gravity.

It was a sight Lee Jung-ho’s common sense could not understand.

Many of the world’s laws had collapsed as a side effect of Terraforming, but the law of gravity had still remained. Yet Moby Dick looked as though it had escaped the law of gravity.

Lee Jung-ho’s expression turned fierce.

Only now did it truly hit him that the monster he had to hunt was a monster beyond common sense.

The sight of a gigantic whale over one hundred twenty meters long floating in the air while radiating white light was almost sacred.

He could not know how well his sword would work against such a massive monster.

Compared to that enormous whale, he was nothing more than a speck of dust floating in the air. Even so, he was not afraid.

Jin Geum-ho never gave missions carelessly.

He only gave orders that could be carried out.

That was because Jin Geum-ho, who possessed Heavenly Eye, could see the flow of the future.

He had given the order because he had judged that Lee Jung-ho could complete it.

In that case, Lee Jung-ho had no reason to be afraid.

ROOOAR!

At that moment, with monstrous cries, enormous monsters tore through the darkness and appeared.

The Crimson Drake, the Gray Ogre, and a Giant Spider so enormous it looked like a wolf spider inflated several hundred times.

All three were Grade A monsters.

The three monsters passed by Archelon as though they did not even see it.

Their only target was Moby Dick.

The sight of the three monsters charging forward without regard for anything else was frightening.

ROOOAR!

The first to attack was the Crimson Drake.

Flames fired from the Crimson Drake’s mouth.

It was ultra-high-heat flame, hot enough to melt the sand wherever it passed in an instant.

It was Fire Breath, the Crimson Drake’s Skill.

It could not compare to a true dragon’s Breath, but it still possessed enough power to devastate the surrounding area.

Flames intense enough to vaporize most monsters in an instant struck Moby Dick’s enormous body. Yet astonishingly, Moby Dick did not suffer any damage.

That was because the pure white light radiating from Moby Dick’s body blocked the Fire Breath.

The next attack came from the Gray Ogre.

The Gray Ogre swung its enormous club.

A red energy lingered around the club.

It was using aura like a high-ranking martial-type Awakened.

CRASH—!

The aura-covered club struck the pure white light. But just like the Crimson Drake’s Fire Breath, it could not break through the pure white light.

This time, the Giant Spider fired a web infused with venom.

Hissssss!

The moment the green web touched the pure white light, it gave off acrid smoke.

For some reason, even while being attacked by the monsters, Moby Dick did not counterattack.

It could have crushed the Giant Spider simply by swinging its enormous tail, yet it did not move at all.

It seemed that it could not move for some reason.

Perhaps the three monsters already knew that fact, because they attacked Moby Dick without paying any attention to defense.

CRASH—!

BOOM—!

Moby Dick’s shield of pure white light swayed dangerously under the Skills used by the three monsters.

Just then—

Medium-sized and small monsters appeared from all over.

Like ships that had seen a lighthouse in the dark night, the monsters charged madly toward Moby Dick.

WOOOOR!

ROOOAR!

The monsters roared and attacked Moby Dick.

Even so, they could not pierce Moby Dick’s shield.

Instead, monster after monster was swept up in the Skills of the Crimson Drake, Gray Ogre, and Giant Spider, losing their lives one after another.

Even so, the monsters charged at Moby Dick without so much as blinking.

The sight of monsters charging in, disregarding even their lives, was enough to sicken Lee Jung-ho and Pabilsa.

Pabilsa finally managed to speak.

“We must save Moby Dick at once. If it falls to those monsters like this, Archelon cannot be healed.”

“No. We will wait here.”

“What do you mean?”

“This is better, rather. Once Moby Dick exhausts itself fighting the monsters, I will step forward then and kill it.”

“Then we may not be able to save Archelon.”

“It is already an old turtle. Dying like this may be better for it.”

“What? You never had the slightest intention of saving Archelon from the start. We will move separately. Get off Archelon at once.”

SHING—!

At that instant, a cold blade touched Pabilsa’s neck.

It was Lee Jung-ho’s sword.

Holding the sword to Pabilsa’s neck, he said,

“I will say it once more. Until their battle ends, we will not move.”

A cold smile appeared on Lee Jung-ho’s lips.

Only now did he understand why Jin Geum-ho had sent only him and Claire to hunt a giant monster like Moby Dick.

It was because he had anticipated a situation like this.

A situation where they could blow their nose without using their hands......