Chapter 29

Translator: Roshi

A moment ago, inside the dungeon.

Hanuri disappeared before his eyes, but Kim Do-yoon did nothing and simply watched.

The Shadow Imoogi was attached to her, and besides, even if she seemed to have vanished, she was still clearly visible to his eyes.

The disappeared Hanuri and the shadow of the culprit.

‘Colorless and odorless.’

Perhaps because Hoik’s Go Du-ri, who had disguised himself as a human rather than a beastkin, had highly sensitive senses.

Just like animals do.

So he must have tried to find her using those senses.

But there was nothing to be felt from the transparent culprit.

The only thing he left behind was his shadow.

‘Where is he going?’

Kim Do-yoon slowly followed the shadow, pursuing him.

There was a high possibility that the missing hunters were in the place where the culprit was heading.

‘Kya-haha! Waaah... This is fun! Daddy... Can you see Hanuri?’

‘Yeah, I can see you.’

Perhaps due to her affinity ability, even though he couldn’t see her, her voice echoed in his mind.

There was no need to worry.

Just from seeing the shadow floating in the air, as if the back of her neck was grabbed by the transparent horned chicken’s beak, she seemed to be having a great time.

‘Kyaaa... Hanuri is flying...!’

Smiling at Hanuri’s excited screams, he continued chasing the transparent horned chicken, quickly crossing the field and reaching its end.

The end of the dungeon, where there was nowhere else to go.

But the transparent horned chicken did not stop.

‘Huh?’

As the transparent horned chicken flew toward the wall, the wall rippled and allowed the creature to pass through.

“......?”

Kim Do-yoon, arriving late, reached out to touch the wall with his hand, but it was solid.

‘I feel like I’ve seen this somewhere before... Ah!’

He remembered.

He should have recalled it right away when he saw the Red Horn, but since it had been so long, it didn’t come to mind immediately.

‘Where there are those multicolored horned chickens, that thing was always there. The most delicious one...’

It was an exceptionally delicious horned chicken, as it didn’t appear often.

Even now, just thinking about it made his mouth water.

Invisible Horn.

Wherever there were Red Horns or multicolored horned chickens, there would always be at least one of them.

And this transparent wall, disguised as a dungeon wall, was precisely its nest.

That creature had the habit of stealing others’ eggs or collecting interesting things around it into its nest.

Just like now.

‘No wonder no one could find the missing people.’

It was a perfect camouflage.

Even an S-Rank Hunter like Go Du-ri, armed with animalistic intuition, couldn’t find it.

Nothing could be sensed from this transparent nest.

Even touching it with his hand now was the same.

‘It was the same back then.’

Something like this had happened in the other world before.

An entire city had vanished.

Even an imperial swordmaster and a 7th-circle magician were deployed, yet they couldn’t find it.

‘It was by chance.’

Back when he had just crossed over to the other world and had not yet fully gained his Shadow ability.

At that time, Kim Do-yoon was merely at the level of an ordinary mercenary, and he found that nest purely by coincidence.

While trying to steal a Red Horn’s egg, he had bumped into empty air and discovered it.

It was not in a dungeon like now, but in an open field, where he suddenly ran into an invisible wall and realized its presence.

“I remember having a hard time opening it back then.”

As he reminisced for a moment, he quietly gathered his shadow.

The goblin club that Hanuri loved.

Swish!!

Without hesitation, he swung it toward the transparent wall.

Crash!

With a loud noise, the wall shattered effortlessly.

“Ah! Daddy!”

The moment the wall broke, the scene before him made Kim Do-yoon move immediately.

Hanuri was sitting atop a pile of eggshells, and in front of her stood a shadow with its beak raised.

It was clear at a glance what it had been about to do.

‘Where does this damn chicken think it’s going?’

He swung his shadow club at the shadow that was about to peck at Hanuri’s head.

People were huddled together on one side, as if trapped behind invisible bars, but this took priority.

……!!

The creature was startled and tried to flee, but it was too late.

Thud!!

A cracking sound came from the Invisible Horn’s head.

Thud…

Crunch! Crack!

With the sound of it collapsing powerlessly, murmurs spread among the people.

As the Invisible Horn fell, the invisible bars also disappeared.

“Oh! We can get out!”

“We’re saved!”

“But who is that person?”

“That’s not the Guild Leader, is it?”

“And who’s that kid?”

The people who had escaped from the invisible bars murmured amongst themselves.

“Hanuri, are you okay?”

“Umm? Daddy!”

Even though he knew she was fine, Kim Do-yoon checked on Hanuri just in case.

As expected, she was completely unharmed.

It seemed that even in her eyes, the transparent horned chicken was invisible, as she made no mention of it.

Instead, she was interested in something else.

“Daddy! Daddy! Look at this! It’s all colorful and pretty!”

Inside the transparent nest, a pile of eggshells was stacked high.

And there were still unbroken eggs.

It looked as if a field of flowers was in full bloom.

“Hehe.”

Seeing Hanuri running around as if in a flower garden, Kim Do-yoon signaled to the Shadow Imoogi.

‘We have to capture this.’

He couldn’t let such a beautiful sight go unrecorded.

The Shadow Imoogi seemed to agree, taking full 360-degree shots and even wide aerial shots of Hanuri.

“Excuse me.”

As he was contentedly watching her, one of the people who had been freed from the invisible bars approached him.

“Oh, I almost forgot. I came to rescue you. Hobbit? Hoit? Whatever, someone from there sent a rescue request.”

“It’s Hoik... I see, the boss requested a rescue…”

The bear-like man looked deeply moved after hearing Kim Do-yoon’s words.

“Huh? Daddy… This big one has ears! Just like Kkomi and Kkoma!”

“Hm?”

At that moment, Hanuri, who was in his arms, looked at the bear-like man and shouted.

Looking closely, she was right.

‘Is it a case like Go Du-ri? Was it called transformation?’

Among the people who had been trapped behind the invisible bars, some showed traits like tails, ears, and tiger stripes.

Of course, there were more ordinary humans among them.

“How did you…? Sir A-rang said humans wouldn’t be able to see…”

“Geum-ung! You stupid bear! I told you not to say things like that!”

A sharp-featured woman appeared beside the bear-like man and scolded him.

‘A wolf? A dog?’

Even though he already knew, they were arguing amongst themselves.

“Ugh, these idiots.”

And watching them with an air of familiarity, a man with pale skin clicked his tongue.

His skin looked even paler in contrast to his black hair.

‘A white tiger?’

Whatever their identities were, they seemed surprisingly well for missing people.

The hunters who looked human appeared quite exhausted, but none of them seemed to be injured or wounded.

Now, it seemed like he just had to take them out.

“No fighting! Doggie and bear can’t fight!”

As if fascinated, Hanuri watched the transformed animals, then squeezed in between the bear and the wolf with a stern expression.

Of course, given her size, she barely reached their waists.

“Huh?”

“Hmm? How does this tiny one know what we are?”

“You stupid bear, saying that just confirms we’re a bear and a wolf!”

“Ah! But she called you a doggie?”

“A dog? This foolish bear!”

“No, I didn’t say it, the little kid did…”

Just as their conversation was about to devolve into another mess, despite Hanuri’s scolding,

“Hanuri is not a little kid!”

Hanuri, who hated being called a little kid, put her hands on her hips in anger.

At that, their gazes shifted back to her.

“I’m not a dog, kid.”

“But you are a doggie… You have a tail, you have ears… And Hanuri is not a little kid…”

At the sharp-featured woman’s words, Hanuri seemed momentarily confused.

And in that moment, the bear took advantage.

“Puhaha! That’s right, you’re not a little kid. Don’t bother with that bad-tempered dog. Kid, you’ll get bitten.”

“What? Bad-tempered dog? Oh, you wanna go? Grrrr!!”

The sharp-featured woman let out a low growl, and suddenly, her silhouette rippled.

Then, fur sprouted all over her body, and she transformed into a blue-furred wolf.

“Oh? So you really want to do this? Grrrrah!!”

This time, it was the bear-like man.

He transformed into a bear with yellowish fur.

“…Their level is about the same as that kid’s, so let’s just leave them be. At least they won’t hurt her.”

“I wasn’t particularly worried.”

As always, there was no need to worry about Hanuri.

The Shadow Imoogi, now stronger than ever, was watching over her with sharp eyes, and the troll was still hanging around her neck.

Kim Do-yoon glanced at the pale-skinned man before shifting his gaze to the people behind him.

They were standing around hesitantly, observing the situation.

The pale-skinned man also glanced back before bowing his head.

“Ah, thank you again for rescuing us. If the boss himself requested help, it must mean even the deputy boss couldn’t find a way out… We nearly died, either by having our heads pecked open by that strange thing or by starving.”

A well-mannered white tiger.

Unlike the bear and the wolf.

And he was calm.

As if he hadn’t just been on the verge of death and then rescued.

“It was nothing. I had something else to do here anyway, so I just handled it along the way…”

Kim Do-yoon gave a brief response and refocused on his original goal.

Delicious food.

Although things had deviated slightly from his initial plan, he was about to achieve his goal with an even better outcome.

But then.

“Paw! Good boy! Hand! Well done! Hehe, now no more growling, doggie. Okay?”

The yellow bear sat in front of Hanuri, extending its front paw.

And beside it, the blue wolf lay flat in the same “paw” position.

Just as Kim Do-yoon was about to reach for his prize, he witnessed this bizarre scene.

“What… is that?”

Even the white tiger was looking at the scene in disbelief, while Kim Do-yoon calmly examined Hanuri’s energy from within.

‘After affinity… is it domination?’

One of the tangled energies completely unraveled, and out of the remaining eight, another slightly loosened.

It seemed that particular energy contained the power of domination.

“Why am I doing this?!”

“Huh?!”

At that moment, the two, who had unconsciously been under Hanuri’s control, snapped back to their senses.

It didn’t seem like the effect lasted very long.

‘It must have worked better on animals… but this could be dangerous.’

Unlike affinity, it was a risky ability. But for now, it wasn’t an issue.

‘I’ll deal with that later. Right now, the more important thing is…’

He decided to investigate Hanuri’s ability in more detail once they were home.

For now, there was something far more pressing.

He resumed what he had been about to do before Hanuri had interrupted him.

Without delay, he retrieved the dead Invisible Horn.

Now that it was dead, its invisibility had worn off, revealing a completely featherless, naked horned chicken.

It was quite an unsightly sight, so he wrapped it in his shadow.

‘It really was delicious.’

A chance to once again taste freshly caught Invisible Horn.

Of course, back then, the situation had made it impossible for it not to taste delicious.

Now, he was curious whether it would taste the same or if it had simply been nostalgia clouding his memory.

He quickly finished processing the Invisible Horn and turned around.

What remained now were the countless eggs and the colorful horns that had gathered as the transparent nest was revealed.

“Huh?!?”

“They’re charging! Everyone, take formation… wait, what?”

“…Huh?”

The colorful horned chickens that had flown in all at once calmly settled around Hanuri.

The hunters, who had been on high alert, were left feeling awkward as the situation resolved itself without any effort.

It seemed like both affinity and domination had manifested simultaneously.

“What the hell is going on?”

Leaving the dumbfounded people behind, Kim Do-yoon took Hanuri’s hand.

Then, he started moving toward the dungeon entrance.

*

The sight of monsters marching out in perfect formation, like a disciplined army, was bizarre.

It was the same for the reporters who had come to cover the rescue of the missing hunters from Hoik Guild.

As a result, the disappearance case of the Hoik Guild members was somewhat overshadowed.

- The abilities of the new S-Rank Hunter who rescued missing hunters from both an S-Rank and an A-Rank dungeon?!

- Who is the child standing beside the S-Rank Hunter? What is their relationship?

- Once again, he was accompanied by the baby angel!

- Hunter Bureau permits dungeon entry with a child?

- The strange behavior of monsters emerging from the dungeon!

- The satisfied smile of the S-Rank Hunter, what did he gain inside the dungeon?

The internet was flooded with nothing but news about Kim Do-yoon and Hanuri.

But the real protagonists of the story,

Ssshhh…

In front of a cauldron filled with a sound as clear and resonant as rain in a dry sky, they were entirely focused.

With every golden blessing that descended, a rich, savory aroma spread!

It was already delicious, by ear, by nose, and by sight.

“Daddy… when will it be done?”

“Just a little longer, just a little bit more. Eat your salad while you wait.”

“Vegetables… I don’t like them.”

Kim Do-yoon coldly handed her a plate of salad as she crouched next to the cauldron, looking up at him.

Finely shredded cabbage drizzled with ketchup and mayonnaise, the perfect companion to fried chicken.

Munch, munch.

Hanuri chewed the salad with a pout.

Then suddenly.

“Wow! It’s delicious!”

“Right?”

“Yeah, yeah! Hehe.”

Apparently, it tasted good enough that she ate it without complaint.

Watching her expression change as quickly as flipping a hand, he smirked before returning to a serious demeanor.

Fried chicken.

That crispy, juicy, golden-cloaked, noble creation.

The Invisible Horn was being reborn into exactly that.

How could he allow any distractions?

Not even the slightest mistake could be tolerated.