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After waiting for a while, I sensed movement as I held the Incomplete Product. Sniffing the fading scent, I stretched like a cat, shaking off my lethargy.

‘Took longer than I thought.’

The moment it got into the car, and I confirmed it with Insight, my eyes sharpened. A status equivalent to B-Class—most likely a tail.

‘Not sure where it’s going, though.’

If I follow, I might be led to its hideout. The car it got into soon merged onto the highway.

‘Hunter-only lane.’

A fast lane with no speed limit, only for Hunters. It swiftly accelerated to nearly 200km/h. As the Fairy settled on my shoulder, I covered myself with Shadows and Tentacles to avoid being seen, while it crossed the bridge from Gimpo to Ganghwa Island.

‘People are around?’

It was rare, but there were signs of life here and there. Perhaps they hadn’t abandoned the island due to its proximity to the mainland. After a short chase, it parked.

‘Where is it going?’

It walked a good distance before venturing into a more secluded area.

‘….’

I nodded inwardly, observing the diminishing signs of human presence. More likely than not, it was one of the hideouts where the scoundrels were holed up. I felt traces gathering at a reasonable distance. Thanks to the skill that evolved from Insight, I could see through the buildings and spot their figures.

‘My Insight can’t reach, though.’

Maybe it was experience, but I instinctively sensed they were scoundrels.

‘If that’s the case.’

No need to spare the tail. I unleashed my thorns, and it startled, reacting, but it should’ve reacted faster.

“―――!”

Its wrists and ankles were pierced and pinned to the ground, and before it could scream, I covered its mouth.

“…….”

After giving it a moment for the pain to subside, I released its mouth, only after seeing its face turn pale.

“……!”

Thanks to the effect of Intimidation, it trembled. Just as I expected it to comply, I heard a faint tearing sound from beneath my feet.

It was so quiet I wouldn’t have heard it without my auditory skill. Slowly, magic began to gather, as if to assert that this wasn’t a mistake. The pale face of the creature was regaining color. That could only mean one thing.

‘A trap?!’

I hurriedly dug through the ground, finding a torn scroll. It was designed to tear when pressure was applied. As I shredded the tail that wore a smirk like a Shadow, clusters of light began to gather.

‘……!’

I gathered my magic as much as possible. I resisted the scroll’s magic, but the clusters of light kept increasing. This was no ordinary scroll.

‘What the…?!’

This was definitely not a scroll made in the Square. It was as if it didn’t care about the user’s condition, forcefully executing it, a strong magical pressure bearing down on me.

‘Silent Mouth…!’

It had to be one of its tricks. I sensed something was off, thinking everything was going too smoothly. If I compliant, I’d fall into the trap they had dug!

“―――!”

Clenching my teeth, I resisted the magic embedded in the scroll as much as I could. But completely resisting the magic planted by Silent Mouth was tough. Even without its full power, it was a top-notch Mage.

‘Damn it…!’

***

The clusters of light flickered, and the waiting tails began to unleash their prepared spells in succession. Up to the third or even fourth sequence. A flood of various spells struck. The impact was strong enough to shatter the protective magic spread across the walls. No one could withstand this kind of magical carpet bombing. Confident of their enemy’s death, the tails wore twisted smiles. But soon, as the dust settled, I found myself frowning.

I couldn’t understand the situation. Yet, no matter how hard I thought, only one possibility came to mind.

“…Did it fail?”

The tail muttered in disbelief. How could this be? Had it actually resisted the powerful magic contained in the scroll created by Silent Mouth?

“So this was all it could do.”

The waiting tails gasped in surprise, and as they were contacting someone—

Hot heat began to rise.

***

My body trembled. The moment I lost focus, I’d be dragged somewhere. Ultimately, the depletion of my magic was pulling my deep magic to the surface. With gritted teeth, I exerted all my strength—barely managing to scatter the clusters of light.

“……!”

I took several ragged breaths. Was this the onset of mental exhaustion? My head felt slightly hazy. The magic embedded in the scroll was excessively vast for something just placed there.

‘I never expected it to come to this.’

I hadn’t thought I had been led into a trap, yet I had barely managed to resist. The trap might have been thwarted, but I realized I had been overly confident.

‘Things have been too smooth lately.’

Koo Sang-seop, Gu Ma-jun, Lee Baek-seom, the blind spot, the island off the west coast.

The reason I had maintained an upper hand over them until now wasn’t because I was skilled, but because they were unaware of my existence. And that advantage was slowly fading away. Having revealed myself several times, it wouldn’t be strange for them to start sensing something. No, perhaps they might have already grasped my existence. I couldn’t guarantee that this was the only trap they had laid. The Incomplete Product from Seongdong-gu was a bait from the start. It seems I was nicely tricked.

‘At least it’s a relief.’

I had been fooled, but I hadn’t fallen victim. I barely escaped thanks to resisting the magic of the scroll, but if I hadn’t…

‘…I might have died.’

How much the scoundrels knew was uncertain. Whether they were specifically hunting me down or if they were just vaguely gauging the situation, logically, what mattered was.

‘The trap has been thwarted.’

I caught my breath, feeling traces from a decent distance away. —No signs of Silent Mouth were present. So, there were no issues. While confirming that, my breath returned.

[Magic Regeneration (D) Lv.4’s proficiency has maxed out. Magic Regeneration (D) Lv.4 → Magic Regeneration (D) Lv.5]

My magic was recovering. I briefly set the Fairy down and slipped slowly into the Shadows.

‘—I’ll hunt you down.’

The extended shadows began to converge. It only took about a second to enter the building’s interior.

There were only six of them on the underground level. Besides, they were all tails. But that didn’t make them a threat. Gradually, black flames ignited, consuming the building’s interior. There was no smoke, but the heat was scorching the floor. Soon, I could see them squirming through my Insight.

‘They must be prepared in there…’

It was disadvantageous to fight underground, so I needed to lure them out. Shortly, they’d be unable to endure the heat and retreat upstairs. Night fell over the battlefield, identical to the hideout in the blind spot. The second floor of the abandoned building—there was a path connecting the underground to the upper levels. The creatures descending from the stairs were caught off guard by the black flames and hesitated before retreating. It seems they thought it would be safer to jump from the second floor than to descend to the first.

‘Clever but…’

As they opened the windows and dropped one by one, I pierced one through the shadow, killing it as another barely managed to grasp the window and was pulled back up by its fellow tails. Changing direction, they started running higher up the building, but that was fine.

‘As long as I leave two alive.’

That should be enough to extract information. It appeared all six of them were tails. In the end, thinking it was impossible to jump from the window, they fled up to the rooftop, while the flames slowly spread to the upper levels.

‘I won’t let them escape.’

Perhaps they thought it was hopeless. From the rooftop—at least five stories high, they jumped in different directions. Under normal circumstances, it would be either a suicide or they’d break something if they were lucky, but each of them was a Hunter equivalent to B-Class. Falling from five stories wouldn’t strain them. While they were dropping—I took down two of the closest ones, but the remaining three were scrambling away.

“…….”

I had been waiting below for them to come down through the window, but that didn’t seem to be a great plan. I sighed, watching them sprint in different directions.

‘Is it really worth the risk of their lives for this.’

If they were B-Class, they could be used anywhere. No, it would be better to say they reached B-Class due to the backing of scoundrels. Even so, I questioned if it was worth risking their lives.

‘Crazy bastards.’

The scoundrels of the heretical faction—I grind my teeth thinking about them. They must have lured them in with promises of creating their own world and that everything would end once the Elixir was complete. Not knowing that the Elixir itself was a mere fantasy that could never be realized. Mixing the blood of God’s creations won’t produce God’s blood.

‘…Whether they were fooled or not.’

What they’ve done until now can never be forgiven. I won’t let even a single tail or lackey remain. In pursuit, a storm of magic erupted as they resisted. I retaliated with my own magic. What had seemed balanced for a moment soon received the compensation of great magic, and ultimately my magic pressed down and subdued them.

“……!”

Unbelieving they’d been subdued, they attempted to squirm again, but I severed their throat with a shadow and took them down. Just two left.

‘The others.’

They were running without daring to look back. I feared that if I hesitated, they might slip outside my detection range, so I sprinted full throttle, shooting out my thorns. I severed the tendons of the one pinned to the ground and stuffed the flesh I had stored in my mouth to render it motionless and opened its pouch just in case.

‘One secured.’

I captured one. The other was barely escaping outside my detection range.

‘Thank goodness it’s an island.’

Ganghwa Island, close to the mainland and connected by a bridge, wasn’t entirely deserted, but signs of life were still sparse.

‘At this rate.’

I should be able to wrap this up before any commotion starts. No matter how fast it ran, it couldn’t match my speed. My status might be slightly lacking, but the difference in skills was immense. Before long, as I caught up to and took it down, the clusters of light began swirling. Its scroll. I immediately cut off its breath, and its corpse vanished somewhere.

‘…In the end, only one was captured.’

While it was a bit disappointing, killing it was certainly better than letting it slip away. I turned my steps toward the tail I had captured.

***

“Ha… look at this?”

Hong Yu-ri, sipping coffee through a straw, furrowed her brows in disbelief. The lingering remnants of magic—more importantly, her eyes. While she might have deceived others, traces always remain. In that case, she couldn’t hide the magical trail of pursuit.

“So you just went around flaunting your presence?”

The fact that a monster was brazenly roaming the heart of Seoul made Hong Yu-ri’s lips twitch in derision. Folding her hands and twisting her neck, her crimson eyes were growing darker.

“This time—I’m not letting go.”

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