Chapter 176

“What? Kamish’s Egg!” Beru said, jumping with surprise.

Suho seemed puzzled. “What is it? Do you recognize the name?”

“Of course I do! Kamish is...” Beru spoke effusively, describing the red dragon for Suho’s benefit.

Suho nodded after the shadow ant had finished. “I see. So it’s the egg of a dragon that my father encountered when he was younger.”

“Yes. Kamish was one of the Rulers’ war captives in the war against the Rulers. He probably laid this egg before going out to war.”

Suho felt an odd feeling come over him. “Hmm. Perhaps...”

Will the dragon that hatches from this egg become the successor of the King of Dragons?

This thought naturally came to him as he stared at Kamish’s Egg. Judging from his past experiences, it seemed very likely to be the case.

Laura, who’d been listening to this conversation, continued on. She relayed the message Cha Haein had sent along with the egg. “Ms. Cha suggested putting this inside the Shadow Dungeon.”

“Right,” Suho said, nodding.

Haein had thought quite deeply about what to do with the egg after she had found it in the Grave of the Dragons. It would be a waste to throw it away, but she hadn’t felt comfortable leaving it where she had found it. Then she’d thought of Suho’s Shadow Dungeon. No matter the kind of monster hatched from it, as long as it was in the Shadow Dungeon, there would be nothing to worry about. It was a great idea.

𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

“Thank you for telling me. I think I’ll do as my mother suggested,” Suho said, thanking the secretary immediately.

Laura opened the second case. “And these are the high-quality mana stones you asked for.”

Suho and Beru seemed taken aback since there were multiple stones in the case. “You brought three?” Suho asked.

“Yes. It wasn’t easy, of course. There are so few high-quality mana stones on the market at the moment, and the bidding was very fierce.”

This was the second year since the Great Cataclysm had occurred. The hunter industry was still in its budding stages. Much remained to be developed, and there were never enough resources. The high-quality mana stones that hunters brought back from dungeons were the rarest resource of all. Scientists and hunters alike were eagerly snatching up every single one they could find, which meant the price was also intimidatingly high.

“They must have been very expensive. Thank you,” Suho said.

“Don’t mention it. You saved our boss’s life. This was nothing.” Laura promised to bring him more stones if they acquired more later.

“Now to the real business at hand...”

Laura’s face became rigid as she glanced at her men, who had come into the Woojin Guild’s office with her. They all filed out as if on cue.

“I’m going to mention something that’s for your ears only,” she said.

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about my guild members revealing anything,” Suho said.

“Understood.”

The only members of Suho’s guild were Dogyoon and Esil, anyway, and they weren’t the sort to go around leaking secrets.

Dogyoon actually tried to follow the Scavenger Guild members out, seemingly frightened, but Suho stopped him. “Dogyoon, you probably need to hear this, too,” he said.

“I hardly think this is necessary, actually...” Dogyoon was feeling anxious these days, given how Suho’s activities were becoming more and more high-profile. There was no way for him to leave, however, since most of the non-combative work fell to him.

Esil sat down beside Suho, apparently unconcerned.

Suho pushed the USB stick Laura had given him into a laptop, and the secretary called up the videos on the drive as she explained. “Please take a look at this video...”

“Christopher Reed?” Suho said. The face on the screen was that of Christopher Reed, the S-rank hunter from the U.S. who had recently been killed by Thomas.

“We discovered this during a recent investigation. Christopher Reed had been attending regular therapy sessions after becoming an S-rank hunter.”

Laura was right. In the video, Christopher was speaking to a therapist.

“I don’t know why I feel so empty these days...

Do you think the others also feel this way?”

He looked very fatigued, and the therapist didn’t seem to understand him.

“Chris, the hunters I have spoken to thus far describe the opposite feeling.

They feel amazing, drunk on the power that fills them.”

“So why do I feel different?”

“Sometimes people will feel anxious... when they realize that they have experienced incredible luck.

This condition may improve as you adapt to your power.”

“Do you mean to say that it’s because I became an S-rank hunter?

You’re saying it’s like winning the lottery.

But you see,

what I feel is slightly different.”

Christopher continued to explain his feelings, a grave look on his face.

Laura showed Suho other videos of the regular sessions, in chronological order. Most of the conversations were the same.

“I still feel on edge.

I think I’ve grown too weak.”

“What makes you think that?

Chris, you’re an S-rank hunter.”

“I have no idea.

I’ve become stronger than most other hunters, and yet I personally feel weaker than before.

In fact, I want to become stronger.”

As Suho watched, he exchanged a heavy glance with Laura.

She nodded. “Yes. His feelings are identical to what my boss was feeling until recently,” she said.

The videos continued to play in order, though they were not very different from each other.

“...I want to be stronger.

No... I think I

can

be stronger.

I have no idea how, however.”

“...I’ve given this some thought.

Perhaps there is some extreme potential hiding inside of me.

Something that makes me stronger than an S-rank hunter.”

At a certain point, a change came over Christopher’s expression. He grew confident.

“I... I think I’ve found a way to become stronger.”

“That’s fabulous news, Chris.

What method is this?”

“Well... It’s a secret.

But I’m certain of it. If I use the method they taught me, I know I can get stronger.”

“‘They?’ Who are ‘they’?”

“‘They’?” Suho repeated.

Suddenly, all expression vanished from Christopher’s face. Suho felt a chill. The man’s eyes were empty, like his soul had left him. The constantly empty, dispirited look on his face was gone.

Christopher then looked into the camera, which had recorded every single session, and smiled slowly.

“I don’t think I can answer that question.

If I did, I’d have to... In any case, thanks for all your time.”

Laura paused the video and explained, “He never went to see the therapist again. He bought himself a luxurious mansion and began to live a life of hedonistic pleasure.”

It was common for hunters to pick up such habits. It was normal for anyone, regardless of age or gender, who had suddenly come into massive wealth to display it extravagantly—history had proven that over and over again.

Laura had investigated this seemingly normal behavior, however, and discovered something odd. “I found that a considerable number of the people who were invited over to that mansion went missing.”

“M-missing? Were they murdered?” Dogyoon asked, looking scared.

Laura shook her head slightly. “Hmm... Well, ‘murdered’ might be one way to put it. It wasn’t quite murder, however. We found large amounts of Stardust in his mansion.”

“Stardust? Is this the same Stardust I think it is?” Suho asked.

“Yes. It’s a mana enhancer that’s quite widespread in Korea as well.”

Suho suddenly turned to Esil. Stardust had been developed by low-ranked demons in an effort to mimic bloodstones, which were monopolized by demon nobles.

Esil nodded, frowning. “It seems that there are demons in that country as well.”

This wasn’t surprising. Even now, the demon realm drifted about in the dimensional rift, torn into multiple pieces. There was no way that these fragments of the demon realm were only connected to South Korea. It was likely that demon factories existed not only in South Korea, but also in the United States and everywhere else in the world.

“Demon factories, you say... I know quite a bit about Stardust myself,” Laura said. “But demons are not the reason that my boss killed Christopher.”

Suho gave Laura a puzzled look. She brought up a photo of the interior of the mansion that Thomas had destroyed. Some brave reporter had risked his life to get inside and take a picture.

“According to the reporter, Christopher began practicing a strange religion,” Laura said.

“A strange religion?”

“Yes. The day after the reporter published his article, he vanished from the face of the earth. We assume he is dead, but we recently found a note he left behind.”

Laura clicked the mouse, moving to the next photo. A line of text appeared on the screen.

—Church of the Outer Gods

Everyone went wide-eyed with surprise.

“The Church of the Outer Gods,” Laura said gravely. “That is what members of this religion call themselves.”