Chapter 95

Chapter 95

The passage was dark. But to Zeon’s eyes, it looked as bright as broad daylight.

His eyes did not miss a single scratch on the walls or even one pit gouged into the floor.

CRUMBLE!

Something crushed weakly beneath his foot.

Zeon reached out and picked up the broken object.

“A larval shell? Looks like some of them have already molted.”

As with any monster, Ghost Dragonflies became more dangerous the closer they came to adulthood.

The floor was full of larval shells.

It was clear that many of them had already molted.

“This is too fast.”

Zeon frowned.

Every living being in the natural world had a timeline.

The time it took for a human to be born, become an adult, and grow old.

Race and innate DNA might differ, but the time it took to grow and age was almost the same.

The same was true of monsters.

It differed by species, but within the same species, the timeline was nearly identical.

Ghost Dragonflies were no different.

The time from hatching from an egg, becoming a larva, and then becoming an adult was always consistent.

Naturally, the size of the larvae at the time of molting was also similar.

But the shells scattered across the floor now were all different sizes.

It meant they had all been born at different times.

And yet, they had all molted at nearly the same time.

This was something that could never happen naturally.

“Something must have forcibly induced their molting.”

It was a deduction only Zeon could make because he knew monster physiology so well.

Zeon continued walking, stepping over the larval shells.

The farther he went, the larger the cave became.

Both its width and height were expanding noticeably.

It was something that could never happen naturally.

But Zeon did not find it strange.

That was simply what a dungeon was.

Due to the failure of Terraforming, the remnants of Kurayan had become dungeons.

Ghosts caught in the gaps between dimensions, neither dead nor alive, clinging to existence.

Some dungeons even changed at will, like living creatures.

The dungeons Zeon knew were places like that.

So it would not be strange at all if a wide-open space suddenly appeared.

Just like now.

Only a moment ago, he had clearly been inside a suffocating cave, but Zeon was now standing on a vast plain beneath an open sky.

The space had changed in an instant.

BZZZZZ!

What greeted Zeon there was a swarm of countless Ghost Dragonflies.

The swarm of Ghost Dragonflies was filling the sky pitch-black.

Even Zeon had never seen such a large swarm of Ghost Dragonflies.

“Now look at this.”

Zeon’s eyes shone coldly.

What he focused on were the eyes and wings of the Ghost Dragonflies hovering in place.

Their eyes were as red as blood, and unknown patterns glowed on their transparent wings.

“Artificial berserkification. As expected, someone tampered with them.”

No wonder he had felt uneasy from the moment he entered the dungeon.

Old man Clexi being trapped by the Hell Moles was strange, and so was the dungeon where two species that could never be compatible were coexisting.

Everything was unnatural.

That was when it happened.

WHOOOSH!

The Ghost Dragonflies hovering in place all flew toward Zeon at once.

The swarm of Ghost Dragonflies poured down like meteors.

Zeon used Sand Walk and evaded the Ghost Dragonflies’ attack.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!

The place where Zeon had been standing a moment ago exploded as if it had been hit by bombs.

It was a self-destruction attack.

Ghost Dragonflies were living creatures too.

Naturally, they valued their own lives.

There was only one reason they would abandon their lives so recklessly and self-destruct like this.

“Something happened to the queen.”

BZZZZZ!

As if answering him, the Ghost Dragonflies attacked one after another.

A swarm of Ghost Dragonflies poured down like rain.

The sound of their wings was terrifying enough on its own.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!

Explosions erupted in succession.

Zeon avoided all of them by a hair’s breadth.

Flames surged in like a tidal wave, and tremendous pressure crushed down on his entire body. But even amid all those threats, Zeon’s expression did not change at all.

No matter how many Ghost Dragonflies there were, they were not more numerous than the grains of sand scattered across the desert.

There was sand spread throughout this dungeon as well.

“Claymore!”

The moment Zeon spoke, the nearby sand exploded.

The sand burst apart like Claymore, that old killing weapon.

Each tiny grain carried power comparable to the steel balls of a Claymore.

Countless grains of sand collided with an uncountable number of Ghost Dragonflies.

THUD, THUD, THUD!

The grains of sand pierced holes through the Ghost Dragonflies’ wings and penetrated their huge eyes and bodies.

The Ghost Dragonflies broke apart, tore open, and were dismantled.

A huge hole opened in the air where Claymore had exploded. The swarm of Ghost Dragonflies that had filled that space had been erased.

If another Awakened had seen this sight, they would have been too shocked to close their gaping mouth.

That was how tremendous the power was.

BOOM! CRASH!

Zeon cast Claymore one after another.

Each time, a mass of Ghost Dragonflies was erased from the world.

Claymore was a Skill that consumed an enormous amount of mana. Yet Zeon unleashed such Skills in succession as if it were nothing.

Ghost Dragonflies that had lost their wings and had their bodies torn apart fell.

The sight of the Ghost Dragonflies falling helplessly looked pitiful. But Zeon did not spare even a glance for the falling Ghost Dragonflies as he walked.

There were no longer any Ghost Dragonflies blocking his path.

Zeon passed through the remains of the Ghost Dragonflies and arrived at his destination.

There, an especially enormous Ghost Dragonfly lay.

A monstrous Ghost Dragonfly that seemed to measure twenty meters from head to tail.

“The queen!”

The monstrous Ghost Dragonfly was the queen.

But her condition was horrific.

Her once beautiful, transparent wings were gone, as if they had been forcibly torn off, and her long, beautiful tail had been snapped in half and was lying on the ground.

Translucent shells were scattered here and there across the floor.

The Queen Ghost Dragonfly was on the verge of death.

Her legs trembled as she gasped for breath.

Zeon approached the Queen Ghost Dragonfly. Then he saw seven spikes embedded in her back.

The spikes were arranged like the Big Dipper.

Zeon pulled one of the spikes free.

Even then, the Queen Ghost Dragonfly could not resist.

That was because her strength was already spent.

Zeon examined the spike carefully.

There was a magic circle engraved on its surface, making it clearly an item.

“The lingering trace of magic power...... This was the work of a Tamer. They forcibly accelerated her molting.”

Insect-type monsters molted several times over their lives.

Each time they molted, their bodies grew larger and their strength became more powerful.

But they did not molt whenever they pleased.

Only when enough mana had accumulated, and their bodies and minds had matured sufficiently, could they move on to the next stage.

As Zeon saw it, it was not yet time for the Queen Ghost Dragonfly to molt. Yet an unknown Tamer had forcibly accelerated her molting.

“The reason to force her to molt...... was it for the wings?”

Zeon recalled Briel’s words.

She had said that the wings of a freshly molted Queen Ghost Dragonfly were unaffected by gravity.

If the Tamer had coveted the Queen Ghost Dragonfly’s wings, then this was something they would certainly have done.

A remarkable Tamer would undoubtedly have the ability to force a Ghost Dragonfly to molt.

“But is this something a Tamer could do alone?”

Zeon looked around.

This was a dual dungeon with two bosses.

No matter how powerful a Tamer was, it was impossible for them to suppress all these monsters and control them as they pleased.

An accomplice clearly existed.

The question was whether the accomplice was an individual or a faction.

“It’s most likely a faction.”

Not only had they discovered a dungeon in the desert, but they had also infiltrated it while avoiding the watchers.

That would have been impossible unless they were a faction.

Zeon shook his head slightly and waved his hand. Then tremendous flames rose and swallowed the Queen Ghost Dragonfly.

In an instant, the Queen Ghost Dragonfly became a handful of ash.

***

A man and a woman were walking through a deserted desert.

The woman wore a loose robe, and the man beside her wore an equally loose outer garment.

Both had their hats pulled low, hiding their faces.

“......”

The woman suddenly stopped and raised her head. Then the man beside her opened his mouth.

“What is it?”

“The queen is dead.”

“Is that so? Looks like she finally stopped breathing.”

“It wasn’t time for her to die yet......”

The woman tilted her head.

She had calculated precisely before acting.

Though she had forced the queen to molt and torn off her wings, she had thought the creature would recover sufficiently with time.

But contrary to her expectations, the queen had stopped breathing.

“It seems an unexpected variable occurred.”

“That may be.”

The man nodded. But he did not look particularly troubled.

His mission was to protect the woman, who was a Tamer.

Once they entered Neo Seoul, his mission would end.

He deeply disliked concerning himself with anything outside his mission.

At the man’s indifferent attitude, the woman frowned slightly, then relaxed her expression.

‘Well, anything beyond this is none of my concern. I completed the commission safely.’

She was a Grade B Tamer.

Though she was a Tamer, she could not tame every monster. If she could, the ruler of this desert would have been her, not the monsters.

The number of monsters she could tame was extremely limited, and taming a monster above her own grade was even more impossible.

In particular, it was impossible to tame the boss of a dungeon, regardless of grade.

A dungeon boss possessed a clear ego.

A monster with such a strong ego instinctively refused to be subjugated by a human.

The Queen Ghost Dragonfly had been the same.

As the queen at the apex of a swarm, she possessed a powerful ego, and there was no way the woman could subjugate her with her own ability.

The reason she had been able to subjugate the Queen Ghost Dragonfly and even force her to molt was entirely thanks to an item.

The jeweled necklace around her neck.

The jewel set in its center scattered seven colors in all directions.

It was a gem known as the Rainbow Gem.

That was why the necklace was called the Rainbow Pendant.

‘A Grade S item......’

The hand with which she stroked the necklace trembled.

It was not hers.

It was a Grade S item the man beside her had temporarily lent her.

The power of a Grade S item was truly terrifying.

It had temporarily raised her ability, which was only Grade B, to Grade S.

Thanks to that, she had been able to temporarily subjugate the Queen Ghost Dragonfly and her legion.

Thanks to that, she had been able to forcibly accelerate her growth and make her molt.

Everything had been done to obtain the Queen Ghost Dragonfly’s wings.

In the process, a raid party had entered unexpectedly, causing them to lure the party toward the Hell Moles.

But thanks to the man assisting her at her side, every problem was resolved smoothly.

‘Who on earth is he?’

She did not know the man’s identity.

From beginning to end, the man had never removed the hat pulled low over his face.

But she knew that he was tremendously strong.

It was because of the ability the man had shown inside the dungeon.

If he set his mind to it, she would be turned into a lump of meat in an instant.

After walking in silence, they arrived at Neo Seoul before they knew it.

They arrived not at the slums, but at the gate that led directly into Neo Seoul.

In front of the gate, the man said,

“We part here.”

He extended his hand to the woman.

It meant he wanted her to return the Rainbow Pendant he had temporarily lent her.

The woman bit her lip hard.

She truly did not want to return it. But she had to.

Forcing herself, she unfastened the Rainbow Pendant and returned it to the man.

As the man stored the Rainbow Pendant and the Queen Ghost Dragonfly’s wings in his subspace, he said,

“We’ll meet again for the next commission, Claire.”

“When will the next commission be?”

“You’ll be notified when the time comes. Until then, rest well.”

“Yes!”

The woman called Claire answered in a trembling voice.

Once they entered Neo Seoul, the two walked in different directions.

After passing through a bustling district, the place the man headed to was City Hall, the tallest building in Neo Seoul.

The Awakened guarding City Hall greeted the man politely.

“Welcome. The mayor is waiting for you.”