The queen ant, pierced clean through, couldn’t even let out a scream. Her body charred pitch-black as she fell to the ground. Thud! Her massive bulk hit with enough force to make the earth tremble, kicking up clouds of dust. And, thankfully, truly thankfully, the defeat message appeared.
You have defeated the Queen Ant (Rank C)!
It was a clean, decisive blow.
Thud!
“Hiiiiiik!”
“My God!”
People screamed at the sight of the queen ant’s corpse lying on the ground, but I didn’t have the luxury to care as a nauseating sensation surged up my throat. I brought a hand to my mouth.
“…Damn.”
A lump of red blood tried to rush back up my throat, and I forced it down.
I pushed myself too hard.
Still, I’d been lucky. I’d managed to complete the spell just before the queen ant tore into me.
What I’d used just now wasn’t something the system taught in its tutorial, nor something you could learn from ordinary magic-book items. It was a chant spell I’d personally devised back when I was the Demon Lord.
With ordinary magic, the required amount of mana is calculated precisely, like ingredients in baking. If you don’t have enough mana, the spell simply fails. Chant magic is different.
Magic is, at its core, a momentary defiance of the absolute laws of the world. Defying those laws is not something lifeforms are meant to do, and it demands a price. A mage pays that price with mana, the power of the soul.
Mana circulates through the body’s mana circuits, but fundamentally, the place where mana resides is the soul itself. Which means that if there isn’t enough mana, the soul takes the damage. If a mage uses magic beyond their station, they can vanish more fleetingly than a raindrop falling into the desert. It’s practically no different from suicide, but…that also means that if one is willing to bear the damage to their soul, they can use magic that should be impossible with their original mana capacity.
And in this regard, I had an advantage over ordinary mages. In my previous life, I’d wielded chant magic and elevated the very rank of my soul. If I used chant magic on a massive scale, the body of “Jeong Daon” would inevitably collapse under the strain, but killing a single C-rank monster was within reach.
Because many members of society agree with user “Jeong Daon”’s actions, ability restrictions have been lifted.
Potential Ability Rating: S-rank
Stamina: LV. 12 (No cap)
Strength: LV. 8 (No cap)
Mana: LV. 18 (No cap)
Overall Level: LV. 12
Recommended Dungeons: E–rank
On top of that, my feat of standing against a boss monster and saving civilians was recognized as a quest success. My body was reinforced further, making it feel like slapping glue onto glass that was about to shatter. Barely holding together, but still holding.
Maybe because I’d gone so far as to use chant magic, the increase in my levels was larger than expected. Still… it hurt like hell.
“D-Daon! Oh my goodness!” the lady boss called out to me in a panicked voice. But her concern was quickly drowned out by the voices of others.
“Just now, was that magic cast by Hunter Jeong Daon?!”
“No, how could a student who awakened today use something that incredible…?!”
“How did you do that?! You really awakened today, right?!”
The excited voices stabbed at my ears. With more trouble likely waiting even after leaving the dungeon, my brow furrowed on its own. Fortunately, I didn’t need to answer those annoying questions right now.
One of the reporters cried out, pointing at the ants, “L-look at that!”
Kiiiiiiiiik!
So many ants that they looked like a dark cloud were swarming toward the queen ant’s corpse.
“What on earth are the ants doing?”
“Hunter Jeong Daon, please answer us!”
I knocked aside the reporter’s hand as he thrust a microphone at me and let out a sigh.
Honestly, I wanted to tell them to shut up until we got out of this dungeon… but seeing how the lady boss was getting anxious too, I couldn’t just ignore them outright. “…It’s fine. The queen ant just died. They’re mourning her death.”
“Pardon…?”
I listened closely.
“We lost our queen! We lost our queen!”
“Our queen is gone!”
“We were attacked! An enemy has invaded!”
“Revenge! Revenge!”
To be precise, these weren’t voices humans could actually hear. I was simply interpreting the ants’ intentions, conveyed through pheromones, on my own. A former Demon Lord is, in many ways, closer to a monster than a human.
To ants, a queen isn’t merely a ruler. They live as a collective, and for that collective to survive, the presence of a queen ant capable of laying eggs is absolutely essential. Without a queen, the colony’s destruction is inevitable. That was why they must have poured all their efforts into creating a new queen. And yet, that hard-won queen had died before she could even lay eggs. It was only natural that they would be both grieving and enraged.
In the end, they too had merely been struggling to survive.
The reporters began whispering nervously as they watched the ants’ movements.
“This doesn’t feel right.”
“Wh-what do we do? Even if the boss monster is dead, what if the ants attack us again…?!”
And since humans couldn’t understand the ants’ words, they knew nothing of the ants’ grief. Only their own safety mattered. Right now, I was one of those humans too.
“It’s fine, I said.” I gestured at the empty air, then realized that everyone trapped here was a normal civilian who couldn’t see system messages, and spoke aloud instead. “In three minutes, we’ll be able to leave this dungeon.”
The dimensional rift is being repaired after defeating the boss monster.
The dungeon has been restored to an accessible state.
Time until dungeon escape becomes available: 00:03:00
The system will protect the user until dungeon escape.
Having slain the leader of the invaders, the dimensional rift was recognized as successfully defended, and at the same time, as a new territory “conquered” for humanity. Only then could the system, humanity’s collective intelligence, fully exercise its authority to protect humans. All that remained was to wait safely for three minutes.
“A-an escape message appeared?!”
“Whoa, it’s real. A shield formed around us!”
They couldn’t read the system messages, but as modern people with basic knowledge of dungeons, they quickly understood what I meant.
“Oh my goodness, Daon! We’re alive thanks to you!”
When the lady boss reached out to grab my blood-stained hand, I reflexively swatted her away. Her eyes widened in surprise.
“N-no, that’s not it… My hand is dirty. Please don’t touch it.”
The skin on the hand that had briefly held the lightning spear was burned so badly it was hard to look at, all charred black. On top of that, it was smeared with the blood I’d vomited, making it an absolute mess. If my relative, who always tried to drill proper hygiene into me, saw it, he’d probably panic, but there was nothing I could do.
As I tried to wipe off some of the blood with my school uniform vest, the lady boss grabbed my hand again. “What does that matter! Oh, Daon, you worked so hard! A young girl all by herself… oh no, your arm, what are we going to do?”
“It’s fine. Really. It’s just the skin that’s damaged.”
“But still…!”
She clutched my blackened hand and fell silent for a moment. Her wrinkled face seemed to hold a mix of relief at surviving, pride in me, and deep concern. She tried to wipe away the blood with the hem of her old clothes, but only ended up staining them further.
To be honest, this situation was a bit troublesome for me. Using chant magic had left my insides in a terrible state. I wanted to spit out the clotted blood somewhere people couldn’t see and tend to my mana circuits, but everyone’s attention was fixed squarely on me.
The reporters, now feeling more alive themselves, started buzzing again.
“That was incredible, Hunter Jeong Daon! An unbelievable performance!”
“Awakening just today and already at this level… wouldn’t you be able to go toe-to-toe with Hunter Hanul?”
“Amazing, truly! Not just your potential, but that sense of responsibility, protecting civilians like that!”
“And you even took such serious injuries… once we’re out, I’ll definitely write an article about your heroic actions!”
Wow. Praise like this really didn’t suit me at all. Goosebumps ran up my arms. Honestly, I hadn’t had any intention of saving the reporters. I’d just ended up saving them incidentally while saving the old lady boss… and that was all.
“Yes, please write a good article.”
Of course, I didn’t say what I was really thinking. My previous life was what it was, I wasn’t exactly equipped with such virtues. I’m a first-rate demon, after all. If something can be used, then you use it.
Hunters even do ads for major corporations, don’t they? Maybe I’ll start getting advertising offers too.
I’d heard that S-rank Hunters with good public images raked in ad fees so high they made your jaw drop. If the article turned out well, expensive endorsements would probably follow. Sure, I could make money by clearing dungeons and selling loot or items, but right now my level was only 12, and raising levels takes real, physical time. Ads, on the other hand, are easy money. Pose for a few photos or shoot a short video and you’re done. Given my household’s current financial situation, the faster and more money I could make, the better.
“Of course, Hunter Jeong Daon! You can trust m—”
“H-huh?! He disappeared!”
“Don’t panic. That just means we’re escaping the dungeon.”
Just as the system message had said, people began disappearing from the dungeon one by one.
I waved to the lady boss, who was still fidgeting and unable to hide her worry until the very end.
“Daon, why aren’t you leaving? Are you the last one?”
“Looks like it. Don’t worry, we’ll see each other again outside soon, Boss.”
Soon, the old lady escaped the dungeon as well. After everyone else had left, I was the only one remaining.
And then I…
I should have left too…
“…What?”
Why am I still in the dungeon?
Naturally, the system answered that question.
Due to a system error, dungeon escape for User “Jeong Daon” cannot be executed.
Whether or not that was acceptable was another matter entirely.
“…What?” I rubbed my eyes.
But despite that thoroughly undignified action, the message didn’t change.
Due to a system error, dungeon escape for User “Jeong Daon” cannot be executed.
Dungeon escape cannot be executed.
Dungeon escape cannot be executed?!
Nineteen years since being reborn… For the first time since my birth, a roar surged up from the depths of my gut. I dare say it was loud enough to shake an entire world.
“Hey, you brain-dead hive-mind piece of trash!”
Are you out of your mind?!