Chapter 137: The Strongest Hatchling (3)
Kwang! Kwakwakwang!
Loud roars echoed through the sub-space.
Brilliant blue mana waves spread in all directions.
Two beings were busy dodging them. No — one person and one monster.
Subject 78 and Anu were blocking and evading Nidhogg’s attacks, draining its strength.
It was the first time subject 78, who had been living like a cripple in lethargy, struggled desperately to survive.
Even he couldn’t gauge why such a change of heart had occurred.
When he first saw Nidhogg, he did think it was cute, but that was all.
Right after that, he was summoned outside, so the emotion quickly cut off.
He thought it would be forgotten like that.
Then one day it suddenly came back and fired mana waves at subject 78.
Of course, subject 78, who had simply wanted to die as he was, made no response.
Nidhogg also seemed to think the sandbag shouldn’t break, so it only beat him until just before death.
If left alone, he would have died, but the sub-space did not allow his death.
Dozens of pure white orbs flew in from somewhere and completely healed all his wounds.
The moment he recovered instantly, he was once again exposed to Nidhogg’s violence.
After this continued for several days, he had no choice but to forcibly regain his will to live little by little.
Anu, who had been trying to awaken subject 78, was just a bonus.
“Hoit!”
Peobeobeobeong!
Nidhogg had now reached the level of not just firing simple mana waves but also causing explosions.
This was the result of steadily consuming Jin-young’s unique mana, Cyclic energy, and even the tentacle’s Void energy over time.
It hadn’t accepted psionic energy, so that was excluded. But that didn’t matter.
By Earth’s time, only three days had passed, yet it had already aged ten years and become several times stronger than when it had just hatched.
“I’ll draw its attention from the front, so you circle around and attack from behind.”
“Grrrr…….”
At subject 78’s words, Anu lowered his body to look for an opening.
Now, three days had passed by Earth’s time.
They weren’t just taking hits anymore either.
Tsztsztztsztz…
Subject 78 began properly raising his red mana.
When he had lost motivation, there had been no emotional fluctuation, so the red mana had remained quiet.
But now, to survive, he had drawn out the emotion of rage.
Somehow, he had become able to control red mana even more delicately than before he was kidnapped into the sub-space.
Because anger control was directly linked to mana control.
Kwaaaaaaaa-
Red mana spread widely across the sub-space like fog.
Tsztsut-
At that moment, Anu disappeared from his spot as if turning transparent.
“Kyuu?”
Nidhogg tilted its head while looking at the suddenly vanished Anu.
As expected of a hatchling. It was still difficult for it to show outstanding skill in every aspect.
In the meantime, the red fog surrounded Nidhogg’s body and began pressing down on it.
The grand plan was that once it was restrained, Anu would ambush it from behind and end it.
But they had overlooked one thing.
The opponent was not an ordinary hatchling, but the strongest hatchling.
In front of overwhelming talent, even the red-haired madman was nothing more than an ordinary person.
Shuuuuuuut-
The red fog that had filled the surroundings instantly gathered in one place and compressed into a small orb.
A red orb created right in front of Nidhogg.
“……?”
For a moment, subject 78 wondered if he had seen wrong.
Because it closely resembled the psychokinesis that Chae Jin-young had shown when he kidnapped him here.
In truth, psychokinesis wasn’t possible only with psionic energy.
Among basic magic, the most commonly used was psychokinesis.
And dragons were the grandmasters of magic.
Since Nidhogg had been a genius from birth, it could cast psychokinesis without anyone teaching it.
But that wasn’t the end.
Anu, who had successfully circled behind Nidhogg while hidden.
The moment he tried to silently pounce from behind.
Kwagwagwang!
The red orb flew toward Anu and caused a huge explosion.
Anu rolled several times in the air and barely landed on the floor.
Seeing this, Nidhogg clapped its small hands and burst into laughter.
“Kyahaha!”
“…….”
Anu was quite surprised by Nidhogg’s quick reaction and judgment.
Even though he had already experienced many surprising things since the hatchling was just born, it felt like new records were being set day by day.
『Let’s stop here for today.』
At that moment, the voice of the great one was heard.
“Just a little more… can’t I play a bit longer…?”
Then Nidhogg twisted its body cutely and acted spoiled.
It usually only laughed, but it could also speak.
Of course, such behavior had no chance of working on the great one, who had neither blood nor tears.
Shuuut-
Nidhogg was instantly dragged somewhere.
It was pulled into the barrier section prepared in one corner of the sub-space.
It was the area where time had been accelerated to hatch the egg.
At that time, only the space had been separated, and the background was a dull black.
But now it was not only much wider than before, but the scenery looked as if an entire mountain had been moved there.
A small cave in that place was Nidhogg’s nest.
It was a paradise where Jin-young’s unique mana and Cyclic energy were continuously supplied.
By Earth’s time, one day here flowed from a minimum of one year to a maximum of five years.
It was possible to make it even faster, but the problem was that it consumed too much Void energy.
Above all, since it was unknown what side effects time acceleration might cause, the plan was to gradually increase it.
“Aww… it didn’t work.”
When its cuteness failed, Nidhogg spoke in a sullen voice.
It went straight into the cave.
“Whew…….”
Only then did subject 78 and Anu let out sighs of relief and collapse onto the floor.
For subject 78 it had been close to a struggle for survival, while for Anu it had been closer to playing along.
It was because of the great one’s order.
The great one had judged that if Nidhogg stayed only inside the time acceleration incubator, it wouldn’t be able to develop social skills.
Thanks to that, both Anu and subject 78 were having a hard time.
“Grrrr…….”
After thinking carefully, Anu set one goal.
To quickly exhaust Nidhogg’s stamina, he needed to become stronger than now.
***
“Very desirable.”
Jin-young was satisfied with the training progressing in the sub-space.
The Hell training being done by Jacob, Dmitri, and Hong Jun-su.
And the indiscriminate and unsystematic training being done together by Anu, subject 78, and Nidhogg.
The most positive news was that subject 78 had finally started moving.
Moreover, he was now handling red mana even better than before, so there would soon be a chance to put him to use.
In particular, he would be a great help to Eun Ji-eun, who handled red mana.
Because he had the sin of blowing off Pigeon agent’s hand, the plan was to squeeze him dry to the bone.
After that, how to dispose of him would be left up to senior Pigeon to decide.
The next positive news was Nidhogg’s growth rate.
『The demonic sword’s Mystic Energy did help awaken Nidhogg, but it would have happened even without the demonic sword.』
“Yeah. It really liked my mana.”
『It likes Cyclic energy more than mana.』
“Already picky at such a young age, only wanting the good stuff.”
Because of Nidhogg, Jin-young had to give out quite a large amount of his unique mana.
It was because the amount it ate increased along with the time acceleration.
He had gathered a lot of Manastones and installed them in its nest, but that alone wasn’t enough to cover it.
So Jin-young absorbed a bunch of Dragon Heart mana stones and turned them into Nidhogg’s food.
He had also shared some with the colleagues who had cleared the Dragon’s Labyrinth together, so the quantity wasn’t that large.
Still, it was enough to cover its immediate meal needs for now.
『To increase the maximum limit of time acceleration, we need even more Void energy than now.』
Now even the tentacle was asking for food.
It wasn’t particularly surprising.
From the beginning, the only way for the tentacle to grow was through ‘predation’.
Considering this characteristic, it reminded him of how the Demon King devoured dimensions.
It made sense, since they had originally been the same body.
“Yeah. I heard a Disaster-grade Dungeon just appeared in France. While I’m there, I’ll also look for the missing Marc. He might be carrying Black Mana, right?”
Jin-young recalled what CIA Director Lily had said.
The sudden disappearance of a Zero-grade Hunter.
It was highly likely the work of the last remaining prophet, the Prophet of Jealousy called Liliana.
The problem was that her whereabouts were unknown.
Unlike Edgar Malone, who moved according to his mood, she was clearly very cautious and careful.
During GODS’s worldwide terror attacks, she was strong enough to seriously injure Russia’s Zero-grade Hunter Vladimir Zhukov.
Of course, she was still far from being a match for Jin-young.
『I ordered the variant to track the prophet.』
“Good. Before leaving for Europe… I should stop by the National Intelligence Service first.”
***
“I am a person far removed from politics. As the Director of the National Intelligence Service, my only duty is to protect the security of the Republic of Korea. GODS and various other villains, Dungeons, contaminated zones, etc. I will protect the nation and its people from all kinds of threats…”
A boring inauguration speech taking place at the National Intelligence Service building.
After the previous Director Yeon Jae-won was arrested on charges of colluding with GODS, Jeong Bo-hoon had taken over the position.
Just as stated in the inauguration speech, South Korea was still exposed to many threats.
Because of that, the parliamentary hearing essentially passed as a free pass.
Since Jeong Bo-hoon had been the one leading the GODS spy extermination operation, the National Assembly members had no justification to attack him.
Of course, all the members who could have attacked him had already been kicked out for being connected to GODS spies.
“Thank you.”
After finishing his inauguration speech, Jeong Bo-hoon exchanged greetings with the high-ranking government officials in attendance.
He didn’t waste time on greetings and quickly left the seat.
He hadn’t taken the position of National Intelligence Service Director to build a political foundation.
In fact, he hadn’t even wanted the position.
If it hadn’t been for the threats from the Awakener Intelligence Department agents who worked with him.
‘If Director Jeong refuses the position of National Intelligence Service Director, we will all resign.’
‘In the current situation, Director-nim is the only person fit to be the Director.’
‘Psycho… junior said that if someone else is appointed as Director, he will take responsibility and dismantle the National Intelligence Service. Please save us.’
He had no choice but to accept with tears in his eyes because of that last statement.
Since it had come to this, he decided to do it properly.
Whether as Director of the Awakener Intelligence Department or Director of the National Intelligence Service, his ultimate duty remained unchanged.
Jeong Bo-hoon entered the Director’s office instead of the Awakener Intelligence Department Director’s office he always used.
“…….”
He lost his words upon seeing the man who was already inside before him.
To be precise, he had a lot to say, but he was wondering where to start.
“Director… no, Director-nim, congratulations.”
“Hehe. Psycho agent. Did you come early just to congratulate me?”
“Of course. Who do you think I joined the Awakener Intelligence Department for?”
“Yes. It’s all thanks to my… never mind. So, there must be another main point, right?”
Jeong Bo-hoon didn’t think Chae Jin-young had come just to offer congratulations.
“Who is the next Director of the Awakener Intelligence Department?”
“Na Ji-hwan investigator.”
“Oh, senior Na? That’s really good news.”
Chae Jin-young’s eyes sparkled.
Jeong Bo-hoon closed his eyes for a moment, prayed for Na Ji-hwan’s future, and continued.
“That’s not the end, is it?”
“I really only came to congratulate you?”
“…….”
Jeong Bo-hoon instead felt uneasy.
He was sure there was some scheme behind this.
“Ah. Dolsae senior will come visit Director-nim soon.”
“Dolsae? Why?”
A bad premonition that something was coming hit him.
“Why else? Director-nim also needs to become stronger to continue protecting South Korea. Since I’m busy, Dolsae senior will take proper care of you.”
The bad premonition turned out to be exactly right.
“Then I’ll be going to Europe for a bit, so work hard until then. I’ll check later.”
“…….”
Jeong Bo-hoon thought that it might not be so bad if the National Intelligence Service was dismantled.
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