A MONSTER WHO LEVELS UP

Chapter 41

"…!!!!"

With a deeply astonished expression, Kim Yu-Rin shot up from her seat.

It was a Leviathan.

A gigantic sea Monster that made the Han River seem cramped; its body like that of a snake and possessing a head similar to that of a dragon, it was sometimes referred to as the 'Imugi of Oceans' - and more importantly, it was a Monster that should not have existed in this river.

As implied, it was an oceanic Monster - not only that, a Monster dwelling in the deep seas.

There could only be two reasons why such a Monster made an appearance here.

'It's either a summon or there's a Fissure nearby.'

However, with the latter option, there would be a lot of accompanying Monsters, so it seemed the former was the most likely scenario here.

Regrettably, though - there was no time to debate on things like possibilities and what nots right now……!!

"I apologise, but I must go ahead. I'll compensate for it later!!"

Kim Yu-Rin wrapped her body in Mana and dashed like a beam of light towards the window.

*SFX for glass shattering*

Leaving the broken glass pieces behind, she rolled her body in the air and descended towards the Han River below.

***

The magical beast of the deep seas, a Leviathan.

As all the countless tales and folklores have told, a Leviathan was a Monster possessing incalculable strength. So much so, instead of calling it a Monster, it'd be far more correct to label it as a natural disaster.

However, that only applied when the creature was out at sea. Right now, it was confined to a river with limited amount of room for movement.

Kim Yu-Rin, with her sword drawn, headed towards the Leviathan that was raising its head out of the water.

However, her aim wasn't to kill the creature. No, it was about cancelling the summon. She had to destroy either the summoning magic circle engraved somewhere, or the summoning talisman.

But before all that, though - the priority laid with minimising the confusion and harm to the city itself. That's why she set the purpose of her first attack to 'Leviathan, faint for five minutes'.

This was only possible due to one of the special powers from the very unique Trait she possessed, also known as The Desideratum. Within the allowance of her Mana's capacity, Kim Yu-Rin could imbue her sword strikes with special conditions. And that condition would, even if it's only for a moment, become the reality that had to be carried out no matter what.

'My Mana…'

She bit down on her teeth at the sensation of energy deserting her body. She wasn't even aiming to kill the dang creature, nor to knock it out for an hour - it was just for a measly five minutes. Yet, the Mana expenditure proved to be incredibly severe.

"——!!"

With its head already breaking out of the water's surface, the Leviathan let out a huge wail that sounded like a ship's horn. Thankfully, that unbearable low frequency noise didn't continue for long.

Khwaaaaang!!

An explosion shook the surroundings.

Her entire body covered in blue Mana, Kim Yu-Rin's sword strike descended from the sky and properly struck the middle of the creature's forehead.

The Leviathan that was already quite irritated from the sudden summoning, crumbled back down to the water's surface with whites showing on its eyes.

Splaaaash!!

And as that giant body fell violently, water spray as vicious as a hailstorm spread out to everywhere.

"…Euk."

Kim Yu-Rin landed gently on the walkways on the side of the river, but stumbled a little before finally kneeling down on one knee. She was experiencing a bout of dizziness thanks to the depletion of Mana.

She still had around half of her total strength left

, but it was her first time spending that much Mana in a single strike ever since her rookie days; back when she still hadn't got the proper control of her own Trait down yet.

But there was no time to rest. She quickly wielded an artifact made out of a crystal, and right away, the voice belonging to a Knight in the Raven Order hurriedly leaked out from it.

"There is a Leviath… What did you say?!"

However, it wasn't because they had already found out about the Leviathan situation in the Han River.

- Miss!! There are chaos developing in the areas of Nam Mountain in Seoul, the Monster field in Gangwon Province, as well as in the city of Busan!! The situation in Busan is the most critical, as a Fissure is about to erupt there as we speak!!

So many incidents, all of them breaking out simultaneously.

"Miss Yu-Rin!!"

This was an unprecedented situation in her career as a Knight. And as she stood there, maintaining as much composure as possible while trying to come up with a countermeasure, there was a voice calling out to her.

It was Yu Sae-Jung and Kim Yu-Rin.

"Do not come here! It's dangerous!!"

Yu-Rin shouted out, but they showed no concern and came towards her.

"Are you alright? And what the heck is that thing?"

Kim Sae-Jin asked as he helped Kim Yu-Rin to stand up with the aid of Yu Sae-Jung. Yu-Rin replied in a complicated expression.

"…It's a Leviathan."

"…Huh?"

At the words containing a mixture of emotions, Yu Sae-Jung became speechless for the moment.

A Leviathan. That mythical Monster shouldn't even be here…

"But fortunately for us, it's only a summon. I just need to find the summoning medium which I'm sure is nearby. However, chaos is breaking out not only here and because of that, the available manpower is…. Can you guys lend me your help?"

A temporarily summoned Monster would be sent back to where it came from if the creature's powers were exhausted to a certain degree, or when the summoning medium disappeared, or when the summoning time expired. So, if the summoning medium were to be destroyed, then this disaster would easily be put under control.

And it was not too difficult to figure out where the medium could potentially be hiding; at the bottom of the river, of course.

The real issue was the time. With only five minutes, or ten with one more attack from Kim Yu-Rin, it was just not enough to scour the entire riverbed. But waiting for the summoning time to expire would cause too much harm to the city.

"We will help!!"

Yu Sae-Jung and Kim Sae-Jung replied in sync.

Yu-Rin gave them some simple instructions and then dived into the river. Yu Sae-Jung too, followed her right after.

However, only Sae-Jin took a step back.

He had no idea what this medium thing might be, but he figured that there would be some form of aura coming off of it.

As Sae-Jin took in the panoramic view of the river from a distance, his eyes changed to a golden colour.

The world brightened, and everything became much clearer. From the Leviathan, a green aura signifying the fainted state rose up. But seeing that the richness of the colour was becoming less vibrant, there didn't seem to be much time left.

He hurriedly searched the surface of the river for any signs of nearly imperceptible aura.

He couldn't see anything on the surface.

That only left the possibility of the underwater.

He continuously lowered the level of his gaze until he finally found it.

On the opposite side to where he was, a thick, wavering bluish aura - a fair distance away from him.

'That's it-!'

He ran towards the spot without a moment's delay, and then, jumped into the river.

As expected, the Whirlwind Dash was an incredibly useful skill that could be activated even while in water. He created powerful waves as he swam forward.

He needed three minutes to get to the spot where he detected the aura. As soon as arriving here, he quickly dived underwater.

The Wolf's eyesight was incomparably bright even while below the water's surface. Sae-Jin could see without trouble, the mysterious magic circle drawn on the bottom of the river, and a strange scale rooted in the middle of it.

He swam down and downwards, and when he got to the bottom, he first activated the Wolf's Claws. Since the magic circle was drawn with Mana, he thought that in order to destroy it he had to slice it up real good.

But before Sae-Jin could swing the extended nails…

The river water violently churned and vibrated.

Woooooooung—

The Leviathan was waking up. That horrid wail mimicking the ship's horn resounded again.

However, that wail was cut short with a Ppuck, a sound of powerful impact, and soon after, another set of rough waves travelled across the river's surface.

'…What the hell was that all about?'

Sae-Jin was slightly surprised by this sudden and strange development, but returned his focus back on the magic circle. Because he was under water, his movement was rather slow.

*SFX for swinging one's arms around underwater*

Sae-Jin swung his nails around several times, but there was no change.

'My Skill Level is too low to do this in the human's appearance.'

Reluctantly, he transformed both of his arms into that of the Wolf beast's. Almost instantly, his arms grew bigger and black fur sprouted out.

The Wolf's brutal attacks were vicious enough to cut through water.

"—!!"

He swung the claws as hard as he could.

And like that, the water was really cut apart.

In that brief instance, the water in contact with his claws evaporated.

'Wow.'

But again, there wasn't enough time to blankly admire the power of his claws. He swung his claws towards the magic circle like a madman.

Every time he swung the claws, the aura became weaker until eventually, it disappeared completely without a trace. When he took a glance at the bottom, even the magic circle had disintegrated.

And at the same time, the gigantic Monster threatening to cause an untold amount of damage had also vanished. Sae-Jin reverted back to his human appearance and tried to get back to the surface.

However…. that small scale at the centre of the magic circle entered his eyes. A sort of curiosity took hold over him. So, he reached out, grabbed it and swam back up to the surface.

"Phwoar!"

As he broke the surface of the water after completing his mission, the chaotic scene on the river banks assaulted his eyes and ears.

The sounds of sirens pierced the heavens; the soldiers in their green camo gear and their tanks were positioned above the bridges; and there were numerous Knights clad in Mana getting ready to jump into the battle littering the riverside.

Even though their attire and their roles were different, their reactions were remarkably similar to one another. All of them were in the middle of absent-mindedly searching the surroundings. That was because the cause of this emergency situation, the Leviathan, had just vanished into the thin air.

"Fuu…"

Sae-Jin watched them for a bit, before heading towards the shore.

But something else caught his attention again. This time, though, it wasn't some random stuff.

"Miss Yu-Rin!!"

It was Kim Yu-Rin, who was wearily swimming near the spot where the Leviathan used to be.

He swam out towards her position. His speed was really fast so it didn't take him long to get to where she was.

"Are you alright?"

"…"

Even though she nodded yes without saying a word, her pale face was saying otherwise.

"Hold on tight."

At his prompt, she grabbed his clothes tightly and asked.

"…Mister, Sae-Jin, Did you, do it?"

"Eh?"

"The… summon… cancel…"

"Ah, that. Yes. I got lucky and found the magic circle."

Kim Yu-Rin couldn't say anything anymore; she simply leaned her head against his chest and closed her eyes. It seemed that the price she paid to knock out the giant Leviathan twice was not a joke.

It was quite an obvious thing, if one thought about it.

The Leviathan was the king of the oceans, the legendary creature that even something like a Kraken would avoid getting into a tussle within the confines of the sea. She knocked out such a legendary magical beast not once, but twice - so, it'd be even more weird if she was perfectly normal afterwards.

"Hurry!!"

Stepping back on the solid ground, Sae-Jin handed Yu-Rin over to the rescue party. The emergency personnel quickly surrounded her and took her to a waiting ambulance.

"Miss Knight!! Are you okay?"

"Her pulse is normal!"

And just like that, all attention was focused on Kim Yu-Rin only, and he became completely forgotten all of a sudden. Sae-Jin carefully surveyed his surroundings for a bit, before taking a closer look at the thing clenched securely within his grasp.

A single, brilliantly shining scale.

So glossy and soft, yet stronger than any metal known to man, thus no blade could even think about leaving a blemish on it.

Without a doubt, it was a scale from the Leviathan. And the main reason why the magic beast of the oceans could be brought here with nothing but a summoning magic.

"…"

He then promptly swallowed it. He didn't even know why he did that. Just that, his instincts made him do it.

And right in that moment, a strange change occurred inside his body.

< 12. A Development that's not a progress (2) > Fin.

(TL: The "extra chapter goal" has been met thanks to all the generous sponsors. So, there will be more chapters tomorrow. Please look forward to it.)

(Apologies for the late chapter. Slipped out of my mind somehow.)