Chapter 220

It would be a lie to say I wasn’t worried at all. After all, wasn’t Aaron Stingray currently in a temporarily weakened state?

Of course, I still didn’t fully understand things like ‘modules’ or ‘replacement rate’ and whatnot, but at the very least, I knew Aaron wasn’t in perfect condition.

And on top of that, the opponents were the Dwarven Guards.

There were over fifty of them—the ancient protectors of the legendary Dwarven Kingdom, only ever spoken of in stories.

So this time, even for Aaron, wouldn’t it be difficult…? That’s what I thought.

But just like always—

That concern turned out to be utterly useless.

Bang! Bang! BAAANG! KA-KRANGGG!

“……”

Uh…

What exactly was I watching right now?

That one getting its thickest armor plating crushed like tofu by Aaron’s barehanded straight punch looked like a Dwarven Guard Shieldbearer.

The one being split clean in half by a knife-hand strike appeared to be a Dwarven Guard Decurion, and the one screaming its death throes as its artificial heart was torn out—that had to be a Centurion.

“Uh… Uhh……”

Something was definitely off.

Evangeline couldn’t come to her senses as she watched the Dwarven Guards getting shattered alongside everything she thought she knew.

Though she was already struggling to block the flying debris in real-time from her ‘premium seat’ on top of Aaron’s head using a magic shield, the real reason was—it all just felt so unreal.

‘…This… this can’t be right.’

She may have turned into a little girl now, but she was once a proud witch, known by the moniker ‘Blood Witch.’

She had accumulated knowledge of all forms and types of magic across races, and had fairly ample real-world experience to boot.

And yet, watching Aaron fight, a certain thought began creeping in.

‘W-Was I… wrong all along…?’

Maybe her knowledge of the Dwarven Guards had been mistaken.

There was no way those legendary Dwarven Guards could be crushed like tofu by a man’s fist, right?

And wasn’t it strange that such beings suddenly popped up and attacked them?

It’s not like they triggered some hidden ancient defense mechanism or anything!

Yeah, maybe she had it wrong all this time.

No, not just about the Dwarven Guards. Maybe everything in her head was wrong—misremembered and flawed. Maybe the knowledge still lingering in her mind had gotten warped when she turned into a child.

Was she really the same ‘Evangeline,’ once called the ‘Blood Witch’?

That’s how overwhelming Aaron’s combat power was—it shook Evangeline’s very sense of identity.

Even though his replacement rate had plummeted sharply due to being unable to use the [Cloud Spider] and [Corpse Eater] modules, he wiped out over fifty Dwarven Guards in less than a minute and clicked his tongue.

“Looks like I’ll need to raise my replacement rate again. I can definitely feel myself getting tired more than usual.”

“……”

“What’s wrong?”

“…It’s nothing.”

She was too tired to even try making a sarcastic comment anymore.

Come to think of it, he’d always been like this since the first time they met.

On the surface, he just looked like a handsome guy who took fitness seriously as a hobby—but when he actually fought, he could beat down most [Mystics] in an instant.

As Evangeline dumbfoundedly mulled over all this, Aaron tilted his head at her.

But he didn’t pry further. Instead, he began inspecting the remains of the Dwarven Guards.

“A [Mystic] I haven’t seen before. Do you know what it is?”

“Dwarven Guar… No.”

No way those were Dwarven Guards.

But then, what were they?

Her curiosity now piqued, she began inspecting the fragments beside Aaron. And soon, her expression turned to one of horror once more.

‘Aren’t these really Dwarven Guards…!?’

Burning artificial hearts.

Golden, solid metallic frames.

This pile of shattered components—there was no mistaking it. The machines Aaron had demolished in bulk were unmistakably the legendary Dwarven Guards.

But the shock didn’t last long.

Because something even stranger began to happen.

Ssshh. Ssshh.

Snow started falling out of nowhere. Just moments ago, the air had been mild, but now it was chilling to the bone.

She turned her head, sensing a powerful magical presence from somewhere—and saw the space warping. And from within that rift emerged a towering woman.

“Snow Woman!? Why is a Snow Woman here!?”

There had never been a moment more fitting for the phrase “out of the frying pan and into the fire.”

The Snow Woman’s bluish-white glowing eyes flickered as she soared through the air, charging at Aaron and Evangeline.

“B-Be careful, Aaron! If a Snow Woman touches you, your bones will—”

Thunk!

Without hesitation, Aaron drove his fist straight into the Snow Woman’s face. The monster was sent flying dozens of meters and shattered into a clump of snow as it crashed.

Ah. That had to hurt.

While Evangeline was half out of her mind, lost in stunned amazement, another anomaly began.

This time, a flock of sirens suddenly flew down from the sky to attack, and just as an earthquake started to rumble, a group of cyclopes began hurling massive boulders at Aaron.

And that wasn’t all.

Iron Hogs, Elder Tree Spirits, Fungus, Goblins, Banshees, Nagas, Ghostmails, Mummies, Blade Mantises, Mononoke, and so on.

All sorts of [Mystics] born from mythology or primal human emotions began charging at them with hostility—without any warning signs.

“Hiyaaaaaaaaah!?”

Though Evangeline kept shrieking in fear at the oncoming disaster, Aaron calmly protected her while systematically smashing through the incoming monsters.

Boom! Crack! WHAM!

Even though one would think he’d grow tired from the endless monster waves, Aaron only seemed to gain more strength, rampaging more fiercely than before.

Eventually, it became a scene of one human fighting hundreds of monsters with nothing but his bare hands—and the most ridiculous part was that the human won.

KRRRUNCH!

With a final blow, Aaron burst the massive eye of a 30-meter-tall giant and pulverized its head mid-air before landing safely on the ground.

“A-Aah……”

It was a disaster.

A literal mountain of corpses.

The bodies of hundreds of monsters piled high like a hill, and their intermingled blood flowed to form a small sea.

The only slightly fortunate part was that the blood of [Mystics], unlike human blood, wasn’t all red—so it looked marginally less grotesque. But even so, it was still a horrifying sight.

And Aaron stood at the center of it all.

His suit was soaked with monster blood, and his once-neatly groomed hair was a disheveled mess… but the one still standing was unmistakably him.

“Seems like it was a monster wave.”

After the large-scale monster hunt ended, Evangeline offered her own analysis.

We were currently having the Dwarves transport the corpses of the [Mystics] I had slain.

Some would be used to make new equipment for me and my team, and the rest were going to be repurposed into the Dwarves’ civil engineering gear.

“Monster wave?”

Of course, I already knew what that was, but I purposely asked Evangeline. The little witch had been too shocked to speak for a while now, so I didn’t want to miss this chance.

Even if it had been an unavoidable situation, rampaging like that in front of Evangeline clearly hadn’t been a good idea. No matter what, she was currently a child—and also a [Mystic].

“A monster wave is a phenomenon where a massive number of monsters converge in one place all at once. It usually occurs when a powerful creature—like a dragon that commands a vast territory—decides to settle in a new region.”

“So there are turf wars even among [Mystics], huh.”

“But of course. Even in areas already undergoing ‘Otherworld Transformation,’ if a higher-tier being appears, it overlays another dimension on top. Dragons are the apex race, after all, so it’s only natural that they become the new rulers.”

“In that case, wouldn’t every continent eventually become dragon territory?”

“That is indeed the case. Outside of the few regions ruled by the ‘Divine Race,’ most are governed by dragons. They reign like emperors, dividing their territory among lower-tier [Mystics] and receiving offerings befitting that rank. However…”

Evangeline’s expression darkened.

“I cannot fathom why such a thing would happen here. At the very least, I don’t sense that a new member of the ‘Divine Race’ or the ‘Dragonkin’ has overlaid a dimension in this area…”

“……”

Evangeline tilted her head, clearly confused—but I already knew the answer.

The reason, of course, was that the ‘Author’ I met had set it up that way.

He wanted me to grow stronger faster than planned and fulfill the role of protagonist. He was also afraid that he might not be able to support the transmigrators much longer.

That’s why he designed things like this—to pour in episodes so I could power up quickly.

In other words, the Author had given me a “burning event.”

‘Didn’t think it would be like this though…’

I thought the episode would start a bit later. At least after returning to New Valhalla City.

After all, we were currently in the middle of a ‘Dwarf Village’ episode, and the original story’s main setting was always ‘Trinity Academy.’

But the fact that he started throwing episodes at me before that meant…

‘He must be in a real hurry.’

He didn’t specify a concrete time earlier, but maybe his window to act as GM was even shorter than I thought.

‘I’d better start preparing myself.’

The monster wave that hit today had probably been on the easier side. That meant future episodes would likely pose much tougher challenges.

As the Author had mentioned, due to my overpowered specs as ‘Aaron Stingray,’ the difficulty might get scaled up.

Well, either way—

‘Time to check the rewards.’

If the goal had just been to clear out monsters for loot, the Author would’ve told me to use the ‘Hunting Ground Ticket’ I still had left.

Sure enough, there had been a reason why he didn’t.

During the monster wave earlier, every time I took down a [Mystic], I’d seen pop-up notifications for new special rewards.

I had just turned off my attention for a while because I was too busy dealing with the incoming creatures.

As I made my way back to the Dwarf Village, I started reviewing the backlog of ‘Special Reward’ logs—and soon widened my eyes and let out a sound without meaning to.

—–

[Shop Level has increased. Lv.2 → Lv.3]

[Shop Level has increased. Lv.3 → Lv.4]

—–

[Achievement Unlocked]

[First to hunt a Snow Woman.]

[Achievement Unlocked]

[First to hunt a Cyclops.]

—–

……

……

……

—–

A cascade of system logs, seemingly without end.

“What is the matter, Aaron?”

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

That’s what I said in response to Evangeline’s question, but I had to work hard to keep my face composed.

No. Author-nim.

If you thought I’d just say thank you for all this generosity—oh, YES! You’re absolutely right.

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