I Became a Raid Boss

Just because you turn into a monster doesn’t mean your breeding abilities vanish.

In fact, it seems like your breeding capacity might actually increase when becoming a monster.

Once you become a monster, it was possible for previously different species to reproduce and give birth to offspring.

Da-eun, who was full of scholarly enthusiasm, asked with sparkling eyes after hearing me.

“That’s fascinating! How is that even possible?”

As for how that’s possible, well, I’m not exactly the expert here.

“I wouldn’t know! I’m neither a monster biologist nor a biologist!”

“Ah, right…”

Since I’ve been around in this world for a while, it’s natural I know more than Da-eun, but knowledge is a whole different story.

It’s the same in Earth, too.

The reason I started talking about this is that while I was handling the monsters rushing at me, this thought suddenly crossed my mind.

“It must have been a nice place long ago.”

Considering how swarming with monsters it is now.

I felt a bit happy to find prey that wasn’t tainted by mana after a long time, and they came rushing at me relentlessly.

Just like this.

Swish!

With a light slicing sound, the monster that lunged at me found its neck flying towards the sky.

The monster, with its jaws wide open as it rushed toward its prey, was caught off guard and met its demise, unable to recognize its gluttonous desire.

That guy’s corpse would become food for the hungry monsters.

It’s ironic that the one who rushed to eat becomes food for others.

“How annoying.”

I feel it’s a waste to keep letting out mana, and it’s too much of a hassle to take down just one of them.

I wish they’d just back off on their own; can’t they understand their place?

This makes me think that the saying wild animals have a keen instinct for danger might not hold true.

“Maybe they just see Kana as easy pickings?! Kana’s small and cute after all!”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

“What…?!”

Da-eun’s eyes went wide.

“Are you finally admitting that Kana is cute?!”

“…? Is that nonsense again?”

“Nonsense? Kana said it herself! It makes sense!”

“I didn’t say that.”

Seeing that Da-eun seems to be harboring a huge misunderstanding, I kindly decided to correct her.

“The notion that she’s easy pickings. That’s why Joanie can confidently say she’s small!”

“…”

Da-eun clamped her mouth shut.

From the way her eyes are rolling around, it looks like she’s trying to find a way out of this situation.

Then, she suddenly shut her eyes tightly.

“If acknowledging the truth is a crime…!! Then I shall bear the punishment of that crime…!”

“…Ah, sure.”

She spoke in a determined tone like a knight jumping into battle for a cause, and it somehow drained the air out of the moment.

I know that the best response to a clearly joking statement is to not react.

But ideals and reality always differ.

“Hmm…”

One span, two spans.

I slowly moved my hands to gauge the length.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m measuring.”

“Measuring? Measuring what?”

“How much I need to cut off to be the same height as me.”

Is it roughly around this much?

As I tilts my head while looking at my outstretched fingers, a heavy weight hung around my waist.

“Help me!”

“Cutting a bit won’t kill you! There are plenty of people who keep living after losing a leg.”

“But there’s also something called shock death…! People die all the time from losing legs!”

“Oh, I didn’t realize that. Then how about we forget about the legs? If I can just shorten the overall height, it doesn’t matter if it’s the top or bottom.”

“…That would actually kill you. No chance of revival at all.”

“But Joanie comes back to life, right?”

“Oh… I never thought of it that way?”

Da-eun mumbled something like ‘I was completely blindsided.’

And usually, when we get into such conversations, Selin would come to stop us, and this time was no exception.

“You two, I think you should stop with the jokes there.”

“Jokes?”

“…It was a joke, right? Please just say yes.”

“Uh… Yeah, it was a joke.”

Despite my words, Da-eun didn’t drop her uneasy gaze.

But it wasn’t my job to care about that; I brandished my sword.

Not for a surgery to reduce Da-eun’s height, but to deal with the monsters prowling hungrily.

Shortly after, it was only natural that the monsters’ heads would fly into the sky.

*

A new day broke, and our journey toward the central area continued.

We must have walked quite a bit since a far stronger mana than anywhere on the beach was pressuring our group from all directions.

In addition to the waves of strong monsters attacking.

Slash!

A massive shadow loomed before me.

The speed was so fast that I saw remnants of an afterimage, but my eyes didn’t miss its identity.

A gigantic claw packed with a heavy dose of mana.

If I were to get even a scratch from that, wouldn’t I just drop dead from mana poisoning?

Well, most people would probably get split in half before mana poisoning kicks in.

Even thinking so, I made no attempt to block or avoid the claw coming at me.

Just as the claw was about to touch my body—

Bang!

A golden light flashed, and the claw that was rushing at me came to a halt.

– Grroooaar?

The monster showed clear confusion as it encountered the golden wall that suddenly appeared to block its path.

Seeing its menacing face turn bewildered within a split second was quite amusing.

“Don’t understand? That’s fine. You don’t need to.”

Honestly, I don’t have a hobby of explaining myself to the dead.

Though it’s true some castle walls fancy corpses, I’m not one of those folks.

Clank!

– Thud!

Withdrawing my sword, I turned my back to the monster.

I heard a heavy thud behind me as something large fell to the ground, yet I didn’t bother turning around.

Da-eun gave me a fervent round of applause.

“Is this how you do it?”

“Yep! A true strong person never looks back at explosions.”

“…Is that so?”

I acted in a way that suited Da-eun’s request, but I still had no idea what meaning it held.

Romanticism is difficult, huh.

“So that’s the whole point of romance, huh?”

“Hmm… Is that it?”

Da-eun seemed to think so.

Well, as long as the client is satisfied, isn’t that what really matters?

I turned away from my unanswered question and spoke to Selin.

“Thanks to you, we handled this one easily again. I appreciate it.”

“Oh, it’s nothing. I was just doing my job.”

I originally planned to deal with the charging monsters on my own.

However, at some point after fending off a series of attacks, Selin suggested to me.

“Even though it might not be a big help… would it be alright if I assisted you in combat, Kana?”

At first, I declined her offer.

Whether the monsters attacked in groups or ambushed us continually, they weren’t truly threats.

Just a bother, really.

Given that situation, relying on Selin’s help felt like overreacting and overspending.

“How about thinking of it as an efficient investment instead of overspending? Sometimes you need a force of 3 on your own, but with two people, you can each use just 1. Plus, I felt a sense of guilt just watching while you fought.”

And so, Selin kept persuading me like this.

While I’d prefer to keep Selin’s full strength in reserve just in case, the words ‘Isn’t that the same for you too, Kana?’ left me speechless.

Da-eun also actively backed Selin’s words, so in the end, I allowed her to join the fray.

When it comes to a majority vote, there’s not much you can do.

It’s one thing if the situation was to my detriment, but since I knew how much power a cleric could wield in combat, I had no reason to dig in my heels.

In fact, with this arrangement, I found it more comfortable to handle monsters without worrying about injuries.

Because I could pour all my resources into attacking without needing to conserve energy for dodging or defense.

“The title of Apprentice Saint really suits you!”

“Thank you! You’re doing really well too, Kana!”

“Well, I should do well since this is just a normal meal for me.”

“I’ve trained my body to serve Edel as well, so I have to be good at this.”

“…Honestly, you just don’t say a word.”

Even in this back-and-forth where we can’t even determine a clear victor, it was amusing.

Giving a casual side-eye, I saw Selin covering her mouth while chuckling, making her signature laugh ring through the air.

Shaking my head, I remembered the original purpose I had slightly forgotten due to the monster attacks.

A house set a little distance off the road.

I had intended to check this place out.

“By the way, it’s still empty here, huh.”

I leaned my head forward to peer inside the house.

I didn’t mind not being scolded for peeking into someone else’s house without permission.

After all, there wasn’t a door to knock on, nor a homeowner to grant permission.

Even if I looked past the remnants of what once was a door, there was no hint of life inside.

Cough, cough! Ugh, the dust… Selin, do you perhaps have a spell to clean dust?

“Um, should I try to create one…?”

No, no need for that!

As I surveyed the powdery furniture covered in an overly thick layer of dust, I stepped outside.

Shouldn’t it feel refreshing to come out of a dirty place into a clean one? But because of the thick mana, that feeling didn’t really register.

As we moved closer to the center, houses that weren’t seen in the outskirts began appearing more frequently.

This not only indicated we were moving in the right direction but also evoked a sense of unease.

Because all the houses we had seen were eerily empty, not a single rat in sight.

“Wouldn’t it make more sense for there to be more people living as we get closer to the core, where the mana grows stronger?”

I thought that, yet the spectacle before my eyes presented the opposite picture.

‘Am I misunderstanding something here?’ That thought crossed my mind but fortunately, both of them didn’t seem to differ much from my thoughts.

“Guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

Once we reach the core, we should have the answers to all these questions.

With that in mind, I cast my gaze toward the horizon.

Over the horizon, where a menacing swarm of mana was swirling.

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