Chapter 8: Storm Aftermath
The next day.
Under a clear blue sky after the rain.
“It’s definitely stronger during a storm.”
Somewhere in the high valley of Monster Island, I mutter, staring at another thunderbird corpse on the muddy, rain-soaked ground.
This was the last thunderbird on the island.
Being top predators with wide territories, their numbers were far fewer than orcs or goblins.
Maybe annoyed by last night’s rampaging thunderbirds, the ogres and cyclops seem to be holed up in their own domains.
Thud.
Sitting on a rock overlooking the area, I slowly scan my surroundings.
I’m not afraid of an ogre showing up like last time.
Today, while hunting thunderbirds weakened compared to yesterday’s storm, I didn’t enter Berserker Mode once.
Compared to weeks ago when an ogre beat me, I’m several times stronger now. In Berserker Mode, I’d be even stronger.
I can’t lose.
“Time to prep for leaving.”
Planning to take the gem said to be embedded in the cyclops’s forehead before escaping, I stand up.
Step, step.
Strolling leisurely along the central ridge of Monster Island, I raise my fist.
Yesterday, after eating a well-cooked thunderbird in Berserker Mode, electric currents coursed through my body.
A fist of lightning.
‘…Sounds cool.’
It seems usable only in Berserker Mode, but for now, it’s more than enough.
I can sustain this state longer now, and there’s a thrill in thinking I might gain similar effects from hunting monsters with specific natural attributes.
This wasn’t in the secret lab’s journals, but I don’t care much.
Maybe it was meant to be recorded later, or the journal was misplaced, or it’s an unintended effect.
‘By the way.’
This body… isn’t it getting too strong? This physique, brutally forged for survival, feels almost excessive.
A frame rebuilt to exceed 2 meters, packed with denser muscles.
Thanks to maxed-out muscle fibers and nerves, this body can unleash explosive power unmatched by peers, and it can go beyond that in Berserker Mode.
As far as I know, only a handful of human weapons in this world have a body like mine.
‘Still, it’s wild that they exist.’
Two come to mind.
One’s an eccentric old man sponsoring the novel’s heroine, and another’s an ultimate war machine from a kingdom experiment who fell for the heroine…
‘Wait.’
…Both are tied to the original heroine.
Recalling some descriptions from “The Young Lady Monopolizes All the Interest” where those two appeared.
[Far away, Drakan, stroking his white beard, quietly watched the mercenary leader hitting on Nadia. After that day, the once-famous mercenary leader vanished from the city.]
[Escorted by Number Nine, Nadia’s carriage headed to the Empire’s Academy. Peering out at the scenery, Nadia tilted her head. Strange? Why’s there not a single person on the road?]
Cold sweat runs down my back.
Those descriptions once seemed humorous.
But.
Having ended up on this casually mentioned Monster Island, those lines no longer feel light.
[Drakan]
[Number Nine]
Just from brief descriptions of their bodies, they’re not inferior to mine, and they’re lunatics who’d actually deal with those tied to the heroine!
‘Never, ever getting involved.’
Nadia.
Repeating the heroine’s name from “Yeong-gwan-dok,” I vow to avoid her completely after escaping this island.
I’ve gotten strong, but this world’s crawling with monsters who can tear apart regions with mana-charged swords.
Take Iban Hellinger, coming to “subjugate” this island soon.
That guy can unleash sword gusts that make a thunderbird’s lightning look like a sneeze.
That’s not all.
His ship likely carries dozens of elite swordmages from the Hellinger family.
I can’t guarantee I’d survive their magic-infused sword strikes.
‘Maybe… she’s coming too.’
That monstrous woman who subtly tags along whenever her long-time crush goes somewhere far might be on that ship.
That possibility is why I rushed my escape plan for Monster Island.
[Karina]
In “The Young Lady Monopolizes All the Interest,” she’s described as a mage wielding devastatingly explosive wide-range magic.
‘This island’s biggest explosion might be her doing…’
Around the novel’s midpoint, there are hints that some of Iban Hellinger’s feats might be tied to her.
Even this “Monster Island explosion,” barely mentioned after the early parts, could be her work.
It’s entirely possible.
Karina, the sub-heroine who pines for the sub-male lead Iban Hellinger in “Yeong-gwan-dok.” Her obsession in pushing her unrequited love is intense.
I don’t want to be on this island when that madwoman’s wide-range magic comes crashing down.
“I’m leaving by tomorrow.”
Through my maxed-out vision, I judge I’ve got about a day. No trace of a ship on the distant horizon.
“The raft I made last time should do…”
That’s when it happened.
At the heart of Monster Island.
Below the sharp peaks around the towering dormant volcano. A ground-shaking roar echoes from the shadow of a boulder.
Thump…! Thump…! Thump…!
Grinning, I start walking.
Hoping, as my last gift before leaving this wretched island, it’s the cyclops with that rare gem.
“…The cyclops’s gem.”
In her cabin bed, the mage Karina.
Twisting her lush red hair irritably, she concludes.
“I’m definitely taking that thing. Otherwise, I’ll be too pissed.”
Her face is full of annoyance.
In the middle of being busy! Who dragged me out here! Not even a thank you! Acting like he’s doing me a favor?! Ugh! Iban Hellinger! Dirty, cheap jerk!
The more Karina, fed up with being dragged around by her crush, thinks about it, the angrier she gets. She bolts up, grabs a book by her bedside, and flips it open.
She knows that if she doesn’t force herself to focus elsewhere, her irritation will double.
Flip! Flip!
The book, her excuse for joining Iban’s ship, thankfully soothes her frustration a bit.
[Monster Encyclopedia]
Borrowed from the Magic Tower library, it details monsters across the continent.
Beyond habitats and danger levels, it lists resources obtainable from them.
This was her excuse to tell her childhood crush, “I was planning to visit Monster Island anyway.”
But few monsters on the island offer resources useful to her.
Just two.
The thunderbird’s intact corpse and the cyclops’s gem.
Even those are more for her eccentric master at the Magic Tower.
“Fine… I’ll at least score points with Master…”
Suddenly, her energy drains.
Coming all this way, Iban doesn’t even appreciate it, and there’s no big reward.
“If only there was a Magic Tower bounty…”
Like that criminal, Fauche.
But of course, that’s unlikely.
It’s been years since the Magic Tower put out a bounty on that mad alchemist.
Even adventurers lured by the reward couldn’t find him, so the odds of him being here are slim. Besides…
Bang!
That’s when it happened.
“Iban?”
“Oh, sorry.”
Turning excitedly toward the suddenly opened cabin door, Karina sees a swordmage holding a crystal glass.
“I wanted to give this to the lady.”
“Iban told you to bring it?”
“Haha. No, I…”
“Get out.”
Karina says coldly.
The startled swordmage asks again.
“What?”
“Can’t you hear? Get out. Who opens a lady’s cabin door without knocking?”
“S-Sorry.”
His already flushed face, likely from drinking, turns beet red as he scurries out.
A chilly remark stabs his back.
“No decent guys on this ship.”
Karina’s reactions are starkly different toward those she likes and those she doesn’t.
A drunk swordmage, not Iban, barging into her cabin isn’t amusing.
“Not even closing the door, these idiots are so annoying…”
Frowning, she tilts her head to close the door magically.
Then, her eyes widen at the view beyond.
“…Huh?”
The open door faces the ship’s bow.
A blue sky beyond.
In other words.
“Wait a sec.”
In the direction of Monster Island, she senses something unnatural in the sky.