Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 151

Chapter 151: Chapter 48. Guardian (4)

The horn on the monster’s forehead reminded me of a unicorn. However, the monster’s mana felt different from that of a unicorn. It looked like a holy being, but it felt somewhat different to be called one.

At a glance, the monster resembled a deer, but its face looked similar to that of a dragon and its legs those of a horse. I wondered what the monster was.

‘Was it a Chimera?’

I thought that if one could concoct different parts of different animals, they could make such a monster.

However, the summoned monster was too vigorous to be a Chimera.

I couldn’t figure out what the monster was, so I opened the Mind’s Eye to identify it.

Name: Kirin

Statistics:

Strength 105, Intelligence 100, Agility 90, Health Point 80, Mana 105, Potential (480/???)

Comments: Males are called ‘Kis’ and females ‘Rins’. Kirins are the finest of all the animals with hair. They are also divine animals, which were the center of all directions. Kirins were imaginary monsters, but people’s wishes have brought them to this world.

Skills: Deification (Epic), The Child of Kirin (Epic), Imagination Barrier (Ex Epic), ???, ???

I had gotten better at the skill of the Mind’s Eye, and it was now an epic skill. Despite the improvement, some information about the Kirin was still unknown. All I could guess was that the Mind’s Eye could not interpret the different nature of Kirin’s mana.

‘Kirins were imaginary monsters,’ I thought.

I focused on this phrase particularly: imaginary monsters. In other words, this Kirin was ‘created’. I supposed that the reason why it was created was that if a real god or a divine monster was summoned, they would break the balance of this world. Therefore, imaginary monsters, when summoned to this world, were recreated and were downgraded from what they truly were.

I guess that the three-legged crow went through similar processes. According to tales, they could eat dragons. However, the three-legged crow, which was beckoned during the previous life, was slightly inferior to the Demonic Dragon.

Grrr!

The Kirin roared, and even the people standing far away from it noticed its presence.

“Kirin!”

“Oh, the true guardian has appeared!”

However, the cheer only lasted for a while. The surrounding environment started to change. The Sun was stretched into nine different directions, and the top of the mountain transformed into the sea.

I immediately realized that such changes were the result of a barrier.

The Kirin was a divine monster. When it figured out who I really was, the monster became aggressive.

‘In terms of bare statistics, I am stronger…’ I pondered.

However, the problem was the skills. One of the Kirin’s skills, the Imagination Barrier, was an epic skill, and I could not even imagine what the other two skills were, as the Mind’s Eye could not figure them out.

‘I don’t think it will let me go unscathed,’ I contemplated.

The Kirin moved its huge body. Then it tried to step on me.

Boom!

At the same time, a tsunami struck. Everything was fake in the Imagination Barrier, even the landscape. However, I could still get hurt by the attacks. The barrier separated me from the rest of the people, and there were only the Kirin and me inside.

The people merely watched me fought with the Kirin from the outside.

For a moment, I thought about what to do. However, the answer was simple.

I took out the Sword of the Emperor.

The sword turned dark and absorbed all of the lights nearby. The Sun, which stretched out into nine directions, was hurt. However, when I activated the Dark Sword skill, the hurt was lessened.

“I will teach you a lesson.”

If I had not been to the Underworld, the fight would have been harder. I could have even lost. However, I pushed through my limits while I was staying in the Underworld. What I learned there was not just a stepping-stone. I could use the skills that I had developed in circumstances like this.

Of course, I would not kill this Kirin even if I could.

I needed it to surrender to me and obey my orders.

A monster like this could make Pandemonium cautious. Furthermore, humans seemed to exalt this monster. At the same time, the Kirin seemed that it didn’t want to harm them.

I thought about combining the Kirin and humans and having them attack Pandemonium’s dungeons or his demons. Such a strategy would save a few months for me.

Boom!

Thunders struck from the clear sky.

When it came to statistics, the Kirin and I were very close. Besides the strength, I was superior to the monster in the rest of the other areas. However, skills were as important as statistics. One of its skills, the Imagination Barrier, was tricky to fight in and against it.

What happened in the Imagination Barrier could easily explain why the word ‘imagination’ was in the name of the skill. Multiple events, which were impossible to happen in reality, occurred continuously within the barrier.

Gulp!

The Kirin stuck up its nine tails and engulfed one of the nine Suns. Then it breathed out heavily, spitting the Sun.

The Sun was thrown at me. Looking at it, I became more cautious about the fight.

“This fight won’t be easy,” I muttered.

I needed to take this fight seriously. The battle with the Kirin was going to be tougher than I expected.

“Paranormal.”

[You have activated the blessings of Paranormal!]

[Thanks to the high Mana (110) and Intelligence (105). The rate of growth of mana increased by a factor of 1.2.]

[Your mana will increase by six for the next 30 minutes.]

After I had been to the Underworld, I experienced another change. Thanks to the overwhelmingly high statistics, the item efficiently increased. A skilled craftsman did not blame his tools. I was already very powerful in the first place without any help of tools or skills. Therefore, as I picked up items, they became more efficient.

Anyway, my total mana became 116. Such a value was far larger than that of the Kirin’s. With such a large amount of mana, I was going to strike the Sun, which was coming towards me, and break it.

I let the Flame of Arrogance burn even brighter. On top of that, I added the power of the Lightning God. I used this combination when I fought with the Titans.

“I’m neck and neck with this monster when it comes to output power.”

Although I was caught inside an imaginary world, I was powerful enough to shatter the illusion. I was overwhelmingly powerful, and I was already beyond the real world. The imaginary world wouldn’t be much different from the real world; my power would be beyond its limit.

The only obstacle I could think of was the fact that I was lazy.

When the Flame of Arrogance and the power of the Lightning God combined, the result became a sphere similar to the Sun, which was approaching me. Then I threw it at the Sun.

The sphere struck the Sun. When they collided, they created a huge noise and explosion. The explosion burnt everything in the imaginary world, and the Imagination Barrier started to crack.

Crack!

The Imagination Barrier could not hold such a large amount of output, and it was starting to break down.

The Kirin freaked out and raised its horn. The horn started to burn and reinforced the barrier. The cracks disappeared, and, in the blink of an eye, the barrier recovered to its previous form.

“I need to completely crush it,” I urged myself.

This barrier surrounding me was cumbersome. Even at this moment, all kinds of natural disasters were created within the barrier and were coming at me. Some of the disasters were earthquakes or erupting magma. Of course, I would not get hurt even if one of those got me. However, I had to do something to end this fight.

Once again, I gathered the Flame of Arrogance. Unlike the last time, I was going to create an even larger flame and completely crush the barrier.

This time, I did not just borrow the power of the Lightning God. Instead, I put the Lightning God himself inside the Flame of Arrogance. The Lightning God did not seem to like this idea; he hesitated for a moment. However, he soon surrendered and went inside the flame.

A large amount of power was now concentrated into the volume smaller than my fist. Despite the small volume, the concentrated power was much stronger than that of the previous attempt.

Then I threw this small sphere at the barrier.

The sphere traveled at a very fast speed and hit the barrier. As soon as they collided, the sphere started sucking everything around it.

The fate of the Imagination Barrier was the same as everything else.

It broke down and was sucked into the sphere.

The Kirin’s horn burnt again. However, the rate of recovery was slower than the rate at which the barrier was falling apart. The barrier was going to break apart.

–Stop it!

Suddenly, a woman’s voice rang inside my head.

I realized that it was the Kirin’s voice.

–If this power leaks, everyone outside will die!

At first, I thought that the Kirin tried to recover the barrier because it did not stand a chance without any help from it. However, I realized that the true motivation was to protect the people outside the barrier from our fight.

I wondered if the Kirin wanted to protect the people because their prayer brought it into this world.

What really interested me was the fact that I could communicate with the Kirin. I started to consider that things might be a lot easier than I had expected.

I wanted to figure out the Kirin’s true motivation and thoughts.

“Do you want to save them?”

–You are so evil. How can you kill such innocent people?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. You started attacking me first. I only tried to defend myself.”

–Whatever!

I fully stretched out my wings.

Then, confronting the Kirin, I snickered.

“They are vagabonds. They don’t have anything else to do and nowhere to go. They have come this far, only relying on me. Haven’t you heard their prayers? Do you really think that they want to spare their lives?”

I knew the answer to my question. Most of the people who followed me had come this far to rest. They were tired of pain and fear. That was the reason that they had followed me this far, hoping that I would lead them to heaven.

They did not wish to live anymore.

The Kirin, which absorbed all of their prayers, must have known about their wishes, too.

I turned around and looked at the crowd of people on Earth.

“They don’t care who they follow at this point. Even if they know that I’m evil, if I promise them that I will avenge them, they will gladly follow me. If anyone can lead them to paradise, they will follow that person even if that person is eviler than I am. You know all these, but you decided to attack me just because I’m an evil being.”

I had led the people this far, and they truly believed in me. I was sure that their prayers were based on their beliefs of me.

–Then are you saying that you’re not evil?

The Kirin didn’t seem to understand what I just said. In order to prevent any further misinterpretation, I told it more about myself.

“I am wicked. In fact, I am more wicked than anyone. However, I am not evil to ‘everyone’. There are only two types of people I reserve my wickedness: my enemies and those whose powers I took.

Humans did not fall into any of those two categories. They were not hostile to me in the first place. Even if they were, they could only do so much damage to me. The Kirin seemed to have understood my message, and it spoke again through my head.

–I see… Fine… I believe you. However, please stop tearing down the barrier.

“I don’t know how to recollect the energy that I emitted. Do what you have to do.”

I crossed my arm and observed. The Kirin, whose body was about 30 meters long, turned around as though it was tired of dealing with me. Shaking its body, the Kirin focused on recovering the barrier.

Soon, the Kirin took out the barrier and landed on the ground.

It was no longer hostile to me, but it looked very tired.

However, the Kirin moved forward and stood in front of the people as though it still had a task to do.

Then the Kirin’s entire body started to burn and transform.

Shortly, a naked woman appeared.

She had red hair, which seemed like it was burning, and she looked somewhat surreal. The woman did not look so different from other humans besides the horn on her forehead.

However, people were amazed at her magnificent figure.

“My name is Lin. Your prayers have brought me here.”

Gulp!

Everyone around her held their breaths. They couldn’t keep their eyes off her.

The people were looking at her because not only was she beautiful, but she also had a very strange vibe.

“Unfortunately, I cannot take you to heaven. I can help you ‘dream’ about heaven, but after all, it will be just an imagination. Do you still want me to help you?”

The crowd turned silent. They had already imagined heaven many times in the past. What they really wanted was to be happy in the real world.

“I do not know what to do,” Lin continued to speak. “However, I do despise those who have bothered you. I will punish those who have trampled our land and taken everything we cherish.”

Wong!

Lin’s horn was burning again.

The flame spread and went into the tens of thousands of people gathering at that place.

Then Lin went on with a strong voice.

“And…the one who will finish all the chaos will rise from this crowd. That person will be a great king or queen and the true guardian of this country.”