23 – Humanoid monster – 1
In general, monsters are nothing more than animals with rather seriously high body specifications.
There is no concept of eating food just to live, and it is just an animal capable of almost semi-permanent activities with a very small amount of mana.
Until now, countless experiments have been repeated in numerous magic towers, but the secret of its tremendous efficiency has not been revealed.
Seeing them attack and eat humans, it’s not like they couldn’t eat the food themselves, but the monsters were strangely uninterested in anything other than humans.
All experiments in which animals were put into cages of captured monsters ended in complete failure. Animals trembled in the corner of the cage, and monsters ran rampant to catch humans outside the cage.
This was the reason ordinary animals and monsters could coexist in one forest.
Animals instinctively know that monsters are much stronger than themselves, so they avoid them and never touch them first.
Monsters also don’t hunt and eat animals for survival, and since the other side doesn’t touch them first, they’re also averse to this side.
Then carnivores also occasionally attack humans, so why aren’t they officially targeted like monsters? The reason was simple.
Like monsters, the purpose of living is not to attack and kill humans.
It was a monster that, when it saw a human, attacked without hesitation, and ran amok until all the humans in front of it disappeared or died.
There was a time when the population of a city was entirely devoured by a single monster. So, they hire adventurers like actual mercenaries and use them as subjugation targets while walking up to the bounty.
Moreover, the by-products also served as great ingredients.
So, I could say that it was impossible for a monster to live among humans.
ㅡKyaaagh!
Until I actually saw the monster that used to be Scarface screaming in front of my eyes.
I pulled out the block of wood that was piercing my chest. All kinds of lumpy things flowed out of the hole in his open chest.
His left arm was caught in his mouth. I couldn’t see where the two legs went. I rolled on the floor so much that my head was dizzy.
When the regeneration started, the left arm that had been bitten in his mouth was pulled out. Both legs, nowhere to be seen, were stuck in a nearby half-destroyed house.
I stood on the ground with my two legs intact. Even after seeing me correcting my posture, that monster leisurely brushed the corners of my mouth with its long tongue.
Since the fight itself was not established, it was only natural that he was so relaxed. I roughly threw the sword with all the teeth in my right hand nearby.
The sword itself was cut in half as soon as it fell to the ground, probably because it was barely holding its shape. It was only a one-time attack that passed by, but it was like that.
There was no way to feed an effective hit.
Even lower-class adventurers were ignorant of protecting themselves with mana, considering the fact that their fingers were dying, I had to swing my fist to feel the pain, but there was no way that my fist would eat a single grain of it.
Not only did I not have a suitable weapon, but I wondered if even if I used a weapon, I would be able to get a scratch on that rough armor.
By the way, that one is real metal. I tried to swing the knife, but I heard a thud, not a thud.
In the end, the only effective means of attack against that monster was a scroll with a magic circle on it.
There was still one more scroll left in the chest pocket. Likewise, it was drawn by Charlotte herself.
I had put the rest in a side-carrying bag, but it flew away while my body was smashed to pieces.
Perhaps he realized that the magic drawn on the scroll was dangerous, and later that monster kicked the bag away.
Since Purgatory was used earlier, the remaining one must be Abyss. It is a magic that can be detonated at the point of approaching moderately close, but it was not as easy as it sounds.
He never stayed near me for more than one second, probably remembering that he caught me and beat me and ate a punch.
After striking the head, it retreats, and when the body recovers, it comes and cuts the body into pieces with its claws.
It was a movement that would not have been seen by an ordinary monster. Because they rush to kill the human in front of them, whether or not they fall into a trap.
However, I was never going to use that scroll.
‘… … You seem to have the ability to learn.’
In my entire life, I had never heard of a monster possessing the ability to learn. If that was possible, the lowest level adventurers and low level adventurers would all die.
Some monsters were even written in textbooks on how to catch them. Since it was a method based on a lot of actual data, the hit rate reached almost 100% if there were no other variables.
If that was really a monster, a humanoid, and capable of learning, it wasn’t just a problem for this city anymore.
It was a matter of the level of contacting the royal palace and receiving official support. At any rate, if they start commanding the monsters, the damage will be beyond imagination.
They are barely making up for the heinous level of difference in body specs with the difference in intelligence, and if the difference in intelligence is narrowed, a little thought about what the exchange rate will be will lead to an answer.
And, by any chance, it was a bigger problem if a human turned into a monster, or a monster turned into a human and mixed in with people.
Both the former and the latter were likely to arouse bitter distrust in human society. Just the rumor that someone around you might be a monster right now is enough to cause a lot of anxiety.
information was needed. Information on which side it belongs to. And in order to get information, you shouldn’t have killed that guy hastily.
‘Assuming you have the ability to learn. If that’s the case, I’ll have to determine what level that is.’
There was little room for disagreement about the fact that the monster’s former form was Scarface.
Purgatory magic melted everything around, leaving only me and Scarface there. Unless he had been hiding in the ground and crawled out as soon as Scarface followed him.
The question is, how did it change like that?
It might be faster to talk. It seemed like a pretty good idea. Shouldn’t it be below anyway?
Even if I don’t answer by talking to him, there’s no damage coming back to me at all, and if he answers at all, it’s a huge benefit.
Moreover, that gesture. The gesture of pulling up the corners of his mouth and licking the area around him with his tongue as he saw me kicked and pinned to the ground was clearly a provocation towards me. It was well worth a try.
“hey.”
When I opened my mouth, the monster stopped.
“Do you understand me?”
ㅡQuaaagh!
The bastard let out a roar.
Stupid, I laughed inwardly. There, if you roar as if in response to my words, of course you will have doubts.
If you really wanted to hide the fact that you understood what I was saying, you should have remained silent from beginning to end, or you should have stopped talking and attacked.
This is half certain. It has enough intelligence to understand what I’m saying. Then all that was left was whether or not it could speak.
“It would be better if you didn’t work in vain. You understand everything I’m saying, right?”
It stopped roaring.
“I don’t know if your intelligence deteriorated more as you became a monster, or if your original intelligence was that much. If you wanted to hide your understanding, you should have attacked me instead of roaring on the spot, you bastard.”
The word he just threw had two goals. First, the purpose of distinguishing whether that is a humanization of a human or a humanization of a monster.
The Scarface I knew was someone who could never tolerate insults from people he considered inferior to him.
If Scarface really turned into that monster, it was clear that he would respond to the word intelligence.
The second goal is, of course, to spark conversation. If you stumble upon that provocation and open your mouth, that alone will achieve your goal to some extent.
Because simply understanding words and establishing a conversation are the difference between heaven and earth. And the results were soon apparent.
“Shut up!”
A voice that was much thicker than usual roared with anger. I knew it. I quietly laughed at Scarface, who had given up on pretending to be a monster after being fooled by a few simple words.
“As expected, I knew how to talk. I knew how to understand words. And then why did you imitate a monster?
As my provocation continued, the thick tail slammed the floor as if the blood was rushing to its head. Broken tile shards scattered here and there.
There were a lot of things I wanted to find out, but this was enough for now. Scarface was furious and charged at the ground with a thump and a crack in the ground.
As he bent his fingers halfway, the claws at the tips glowed eerily. Stones or metals would be cut off just by brushing against it, and my body was no exception.
I even predicted the attack. However, the speed at which his right arm swung was at a level that he could not follow with his eyes even though he was prepared.
Suddenly, the upper body was cut diagonally starting from the left shoulder blade. There was already a big gap, but it felt like it widened as I turned into a monster.
Before the severed part even landed on the floor, the claws dug into his neck. The hand was so huge that it pierced the neck and heart at the same time, protruding from the back.
Scarface, who stuck my upper body into his nails like a skewer, opened his mouth wide. Saliva dripped from between his jagged teeth. It looked like he was trying to chew his head off.
The experience of having your head chewed by this guy is a no-brainer. stimulated regeneration. The holes in his heart and neck were filled and his nails fell out.
Scarface’s attack was carried out so quickly that the lower half of his body, which was still standing alone, and the half-remaining half of his upper body were attached to it again.
He lost his balance and fell because his recovery took place while his body was lacerated horizontally by his nails.
Scarface raised a leg. This time I followed with my eyes, but my body did not follow. I slammed down the leg he had lifted.
The ribs that had been hit directly fell down and sang a terrible chorus.
The blood flowed backwards from the collapsed lungs and heart and spurted out of the mouth. ASAP. stimulated regeneration.
The foot that trampled on the chest was pushed up.
He looked down, his tongue hanging out of his wide open mouth. It seemed that he was trampling on me and feeling superior.
“Explode-“
Before I could finish my words, my hair was ripped off. A mushy feeling in the left skull seemed to have kicked it off and separated the head from the neck.
Hearing just the preceding word, he was startled and kicked it to block his mouth first. The experience of being hit directly by the deterioration of Purgatory must have left quite a bit of trauma.
The flying head froze in the air. Then, it started to return to the body that was still trampled under the feet of the monster.
I always think about it, but the sight of the body parts returning to be restored after being blown away aroused a feeling of uneasiness. The shape was also very strange.
Scarface tried to grab the head that was about to reattach to the body, but his arms struggled. Once recovery begins, nothing can stop it.
It was a fact that he found out while using teleportation magic and its precious three metals, Mithril, Orichalcon, and Adamantium, while he was in the Mage Tower.
When the body was restored to its original state, the guy jumped backwards for a long time while frightened, and opened the distance. The moment he was about to activate the scroll, he was in a position to run away without looking back.
If that guy runs away now, the trouble will be on my side, but I can’t let him do that. He reached into his chest pocket and pulled out a scroll.
And as soon as I took it out of my arms, it was torn to pieces and fell to the floor. It was a kind of special magic that Charlotte cast.
Examining these scroll fragments now, you will find nothing more than plain paper.
“ah.”
He let out a small sigh as if on purpose. I tried to use a scroll as a last resort on my face, but the method disappeared in vain.
It was much easier to create because it was the expression I had made many times whenever my attempts to die ended in failure.
Scarface’s lips curled up. A chuckle, a sneer mingled with screams was heard. You don’t even know that this is a trap, and you’re laughing because you’re having fun alone.
Now there is nothing to hold back, his movements have become much bolder. If just before, he was moving to somehow stop me from triggering the scroll, now he was moving purely to kill me.
My right arm was blown off by Scarface, who approached right in front of me in an instant. The knee joint was bent in reverse and smashed. The flanks were cut into chunks and the intestines spilled out.
In an instant, my whole body turned into a mangled piece of meat.
Of course, there were no exceptions to my recovery ability. The hideous-looking piece of meat quickly regained its original appearance.
Watching me restore my body right away, Scarface made a terribly ugly face and flicked his tongue.
“Yes, yes. A guy like you should be like this. It’s no fun if you die too easily.”
“…”
“Even a regenerative person feels pain anyway, right? Then there’s no reason why I shouldn’t beat you up.”
His head was shattered by a carelessly swinging arm. His vision went dark for a moment, but his recovery ability worked and it brightened again.
It was quite funny how he had been trembling for fear of being swept away by magic until just now, and then suddenly became energetic.
“Is this bastard laughing?”
“Oh, did you hear?”
The body was cut all over again. As I finished recovering, Scarface stepped on the back of my head and slammed my forehead into the floor.
Seeing that his head didn’t explode this time, he must have put a lot of effort into adjusting his strength.
“Among the regenerative monsters I killed in the past, the most persistent one lasted for about 30 minutes.”
Suddenly, the sound of a skull cracking was heard. I canceled the words that I did power control.
“Let’s test how long you can last.”
