Chapter 252: Great Echomind Hunter
"Wait, what... did it just die from a single metal bullet?" Dhruv exclaimed. His eyes remained fixed in place as he couldn’t believe what he was witnessing. He was about to question the authenticity of the incident but stopped after realizing that the cosmos wouldn’t lie like that.
Even after this, he wasn’t ready to believe that he had just killed a tier 4 monster... who had trapped him inside his dream for the past how long with just a single bullet.
Dhruv was surprised, but someone was even more surprised than him and it was Azarex. Seeing a monster appear out of nowhere in front of him like that was something worth surprising, after all.
"W-what is that, master?" Assuming a defensive position, Azarex mumbled as he signaled his bony hand toward the now-dead monster.
"Master!!??" Noticing that his master was still in a daze, he shouted once again trying to get his attention.
"Huh! Yes! What were you saying?" Listening to a voice coming in his direction, Dhruv was forced to calm himself down. Accepting the reality, he looked toward his guardian and signaled him to ask the question again.
"Why is there a monster... there? Is it the same one that was invisible all this time? Is this the monster you were warning about? But... why does it appear to be dead?" Getting the chance, Azarex began to ask all sorts of questions.
"Hmmm! It was the same. And the reason it is dead is that I killed it with a metal bullet, apparently..." Somewhat embarrassed to praise himself like that, Dhruv didn’t pay attention to his guardian and instead began to look at the status.
After getting the kill notification, he was so surprised that he had forgotten to check the name of the monster.
[You have killed the monster: Great Echomind Hunter.]
[You have earned 50,000 CC]
[You have earned exp.]
[You have le...]
[You have...]
[You have leveled up]
’Great Echomind Hunter... even the name of it emphasizes the fact that it was something that specializes in metal attacks,’ Dhruv thought, looking at the name of the monster.
After understanding the name of the monster, Dhruv was able to clarify the point that the monster uses some sort of mind attack... some kind of dream spell in his case. But along with the answers came a question as well.
’It drove me into the dream realm... But how does it target monsters? I mean, they can’t be dreaming or anything like that, can they?’ Dhruv thought, looking at the corpse.
Even after pondering for a while, he couldn’t get the answer. Dhruv put it back into his mind and took notes to remember himself when he would be looking at the core of the monster.
With everything clear, he turned his vision down and began to count how many levels he had gained after killing the monster.
’It almost leveled me four... hmm, that means it must have been slightly higher in its tier.’ A smile appeared on his face as he saw the increased levels of his status.
Dhruv was happy to see his level increase like this, but he didn’t want to, or maybe even couldn’t forget how much he had to suffer to earn that. Even though it was sweet to see the level increasing, he wouldn’t want to suffer that again.
After the warden, this was the only monster that had put him in a place where he really was about to die. Dhruv didn’t know the fact, but he was infinitely so close to dying in his dreams multiple times... but all of that got spared because he had an ability... an evolving ability.
If he didn’t have Illusion resistance, his end wouldn’t have been good.
While in the middle of his thoughts, Dhruv remembered something. Turning to face his guardian, he asked, "Azarex, how many hours have I been asleep?"
The moment this question left his mouth, Dhruv could see his second guardian’s expression changing to a somewhat awkward look. He was about to ask the reason for that but stopped as the answer to his question came.
"Hours? What are you talking about, Master? It hasn’t even been more than ten minutes since you went to sleep." Azarex replied with a straight face. Even though many questions were swirling in his mind, he kept a straight face.
"..." Even though Dhruv had suspected that there might be some time difference between the dream he was experiencing and reality, he hadn’t thought it would be this significant.
"Okay! So, all these things happened in just ten minutes." Dhruv thought aloud as he couldn’t wrap his head around this fact.
"What happened, Master?" Seeing a worrying expression on his master’s face, Azarex couldn’t help but ask the question.
"Hmmm! Nothing... The monster is a mental-type monster, and it had caged me inside my mind for about three or four days." Answering the question, Dhruv found an abnormality in his memory.
’What is going on... Why am I forgetting the things about the dream.’ He had begun to forget about the incident that had happened in the dream as if it was never a part of his mind.
"What!? How dared it try to do that to you?" In a fit of rage, Azarex turned to attack the monster. He quickly canceled his mana manipulation after realizing the fact that the monster was already dead and he was once again late for the action.
Turning toward his master, he bowed, expressing his deepest apology, he muttered, "I’m sorry, Master, for my inability to keep you safe... You were always right, Master, and Alaric is the best one to keep you safe..."
Noticing that his second guardian had begun to mumble something strange and appeared to be going in the depression route, Dhruv hurriedly ordered, "Forget about that... go bring me the core of the monster."
Looking at the back of his guardian, Dhruv couldn’t help but get excited to observe the core of a unique tier 4 monster.
’It’s time to peek at its core and reveal the secret that the monster was holding.’ Dhruv thought, rubbing his hands in excitement.
’Hmmm! Talking about cores... weren’t there many cores littered all around the caves?’ Thinking this, Dhruv remembered him entering the core.
At that time, finding these cores hadn’t really made sense, but somehow he had concocted a story about some monster evolving and leaving the core, which had convinced him...
But.. now, now that he was thinking about it he could find tens of loopholes in that tiny story. Not going to counter every loophole, Dhruv created another scenario as to why the cores were scattered on the floor like that.
’Sooo, this tentacles monster had purposely left the core here so any monster that tried to seek shelter in the cave from the thunder would be drawn by the core. We don’t get that captive by the core, but I’m sure that isn’t the same case for the monsters...’ Dhruv thought, a smile appearing on his face.
’After the monster appeared in this part of the cave and began to greed for the core... then this one monster attacks. After killing the monster, it maybe consumed all the higher-tier cores and left the others ones on the floor for the future victims...’ He was really proud that he could make sense of it.
He was about to applaud himself but stopped after remembering that the last time he had thought the same... but... but was far from right.
Before he could delve further into the web of thoughts, Azarex reached him with the core of the monster in his hand.
"Here, master..." Saying these words, he handed out the core.
"It is big.." Dhruv exclaimed while extending both of his hands. He was forced to extend both of his hands to get the core because it really was big... the size of it was slightly bigger than that of a football.
Knowing that he was the one to kill it, he thought of getting to see the description of the item. Within a second, a status appeared in front of him...
...
[Name: Great Echomind Hunter’s core]
[Rank: Rare]
[Tier: Ⅳ]
[Description: The Great Echomind Hunter’s core is a rare item, originating from a deceased Great Echomind Hunter. This core contains....]
[Enchantments: Mana Source, Status]
[Mana Source: The Great Echomind Hunter’s core functions as a remarkable source of mana. It can be tapped into to replenish the user’s magical energy, making it a....]
[Status: When invoked, the core can display the status of the goblin shaman at the time of its death. To show the status, say the word, ’Display’ while holding the item.
Note: If the user doesn’t send their own mana to the core, then the core will consume its own mana necessary to activate the enchantment.]
...
’Hmmm! Isn’t it almost the same..’ Dhruv thought as he read the description.
’What am I talking about? It was bound to be similar after all there wasn’t anything interesting with the core of this monster that was not present in any other...’ Thinking this, Dhruv focused on the last enchantment of the core.
"Display," he whispers.
