[ROOAARR!]
Echidna's angry roar spread through the interior of the S-rank gate.
Ting-
[Your summoned monster has eliminated a Wyvern, an A-rank normal monster.]
[Your level has gone up.]
"Kiieekk!!"
The screams of Wyverns could be heard.
The black scythe that Echidna created, fire, and thorns dropped toward the Wyverns as if it were raining.
Ting-
[Your summoned monster has eliminated a Wyvern, an A-rank normal monster.]
[Your level has gone up.]
'Nice!'
KangWoo clenched his fists while looking at Echidna's great performance.
After noticing members of the same species in danger, more Wyverns came to help, but they couldn't do anything against the enraged Echidna.
'Yes! Kill them all!'
KangWoo smiled while looking at Echidna, who was killing the wyverns with a strength that exceeded his expectations.
Every time Echidna killed a wyvern, a blue message appeared in front of him, and his level increased at an incredible speed.
"Nice! This is what I call a summoned monster!"
KangWoo felt like a trophy husband who lived without doing anything.
Buer? Cerberus?
Echidna's strength couldn't be compared to the ones the monsters he was thinking of had.
'Although she consumes a lot of demonic energy.'
KangWoo felt a bit sad when he felt his demonic energy depleting.
At first, he was surprised after seeing Echidna completely annihilate the group of wyverns.
She was so strong that he couldn't believe she had lost against Reinald's party.
But that doubt was quickly answered after seeing that his demonic energy flowed out every time Echidna moved.
'So she became stronger after receiving my power.'
KangWoo finally understood what she’d been referring to when she’d said, “connected.”
Just like he was connected to his familiar spirit, she was also connected to him in the soul aspect.
'It's a bit different from Kim ShiHoon’s case.'
Kim ShiHoon's main source of strength wasn't demonic energy, but a stat called Qi.
Unlike him, Echidna's main source of strength was demonic energy.
Even if they were both connected to his soul, he could give more to Echidna than Kim ShiHoon.
[ROOAARR!!!!]
Crack-! Crunch!
'It isn't a bad thing.'
KangWoo's eyes shone after seeing that Echidna had eliminated most of the wyverns.
If he had summoned a buer or a cerberus, they probably wouldn't have become as strong as Echidna—even if they could absorb his strength.
'There's a huge gap in their potential, after all.'
It didn't matter how strong an ant became, it was still an ant. Every species had a hard cap on how much strength they could obtain.
Of course, you could say that that law didn't apply in a world full of players, but there was no way it didn't have any influence at all.
'In that sense, Echidna is great.'
She showed so much strength that KangWoo wondered if she wasn't actually stronger than him.
First of all, she showed more strength than he had initially expected.
'And…'
The fact that she could use his strength and become so strong meant that his growth also influenced Echidna.
'The stronger I get, the stronger Echidna will also get.'
Because KangWoo was getting stronger at a very fast rate, that was a huge bonus point.
It seemed like the clothes also got bigger when she grew in size.
Ting-
[Your summoned monster has eliminated a Wyvern, an A-rank normal monster.]
[Your level has gone up.]
A clear bell sound resounded, and silence fell to the surroundings.
[Oof, oof…]
The destruction was over.
Echidna was breathing heavily after eliminating the wyverns.
She returned to a smaller size as her body became covered with a blue light again.
"Oof…"
Echidna was about to cry while looking at the dress that was torn apart.
KangWoo patted her head.
"It's okay. Don't worry about clothes since we can always buy more."
"But…"
"Don't worry. I'm sure anything would look good on you."
* * *
"…"
After hearing KangWoo's words, Echidna finally stopped crying.
KangWoo kept talking with a harder tone.
"But don't do this anymore."
"Ugh…"
"I don't like people who can't control their anger and lose their minds."
It wasn't simply a matter of liking or not.
‘You may lose your life if you lose your rationality during a battle.’
"I… I'm sorry…"
Echidna lowered her head with a sad expression.
He felt bad about her, but he couldn't let it go.
'If I don't make it clear, something like this may happen again.'
Her being strong was good news.
He’d cheered for her when she’d returned to her original body and wiped out the group of wyverns.
But it would be a problem if he thought that what she did was okay because of that.
Just because the result was okay didn’t mean there wasn't any issue with the process.
"Don't do that anymore. Okay?"
"Yes. I won't get angry again."
Echidna anxiously nodded because she didn't want KangWoo to hate her because of what had just happened.
Because she was in a state of lacking affection, KangWoo had become someone very important to her.
KangWoo patted her head.
"I believe in you."
"I'm going to try even harder and become more of a help to KangWoo."
Echidna clenched her fists and began walking in search of the next target.
At that moment, her steps became messy.
"Ah…!"
"Are you okay?"
KangWoo grabbed Echidna before she could fall.
He saw Echidna breathing heavily and sweat dripping through her forehead.
'She overdid herself.'
It was the price she had to pay for using KangWoo's power and using more strength than she originally had.
"I… I'm okay. I still can move a b—"
"That's enough for today. Stay here and rest for a bit."
"But…"
"Stay here and rest."
Echidna trembled a bit and nodded after hearing his firm tone.
KangWoo laid her down on top of a stone and stood up.
"Stay here and rest for a moment."
"What about KangWoo…?"
"There are some things I must do."
After saying that, KangWoo walked toward the forest.
"Oof."
A short sigh left his mouth.
He could hear loud steps coming from inside the forest.
"There are approximately five."
There was no way that other monsters hadn't noticed a dragon that was almost 20 meters big fighting against a group of monsters.
KangWoo began warming up after sensing five giant ogres coming to where he was standing.
'It isn't going to be easy.'
KangWoo felt a bit burdened at the thought of fighting five giant ogres without the help of Echidna.
"Well, should I strain myself for the first time in a while?"
Receiving the experience that resulted from his summoned monster hunting was nice, but he also had to move from time to time.
Just like you needed to sharpen your knife for it to cut properly, you needed to keep fighting to maintain your battle sense.
Fwoosh-!
The Authority of Hellfire appeared on both of his hands.
A smile appeared on his face, and strong killing flowed out of his body.
After being fully covered by demonic energy, he didn't seem human anymore.
GRRRR!!
The predator of predators showed his sharp teeth.
* * *
“My level rose by quite a bit."
After finishing hunting, KangWoo checked the results.
His current level was 49.
He was about to reach level 50 and complete the sixth Awakening.
Thanks to hunting in an S-rank gate, his level went up from 41 to 49 in a single day.
It was a speed that had never been seen before.
It was so fast that if he told someone, that person would probably think that he had gone crazy.
‘There probably isn't any player that can hunt in an S-rank gate at level 40 in the first place.'
That was all thanks to his abnormally high stats compared to his level.
'My demonic energy also increased.'
KangWoo smiled after noticing that this demonic energy had increased a lot compared to before.
They didn't give as much demonic energy as demonic monsters, but thanks to their high ranking, he obtained quite a bit of it.
"Should I go back?"
To be honest, he wanted to farm a bit more and finish the sixth Awakening, but he was starting to feel tired.
'There's always tomorrow.'
With how many levels he had already increased that day, he had leveled up at an unbelievable speed compared to other players.
"Echidna, are you feeling okay?"
"I'm still a bit tired, but thanks to resting a bit, I'm okay."
Echidna joined back with KangWoo in the middle of his hunting.
Unlike her words, she looked tired, so he softly patted her head and spoke.
"Let's go back."
"I can hunt more."
"It's just that I'm also tired."
"Okay… Then let's go."
Her expression showed that she was relieved.
She didn't say it out loud, but it seemed like she had been overexerting herself.
After patting Echidna's head, KangWoo turned his body around and walked toward the gate's entrance.
"Oh. Let's buy new clothes on the way back home."
She was wearing KangWoo's outerwear instead of the dress that was torn apart.
Echidna nodded with her eyes shining.
"I'm okay with anything that KangWoo chooses."
"Okay."
She walked while grabbing his clothes.
As they walked outside, they were greeted by the night wind.
Since they were around a gate, the clothing shops were quite far away.
KangWoo walked toward a clothing shop through the shortest path that appeared on the map.
…Then they found themselves in an alley devoid of other people.
'If we go through this place and walk about 300 meters…'
KangWoo walked while looking at the map.
"KangWoo…"
At that moment, Echidna, who was following him from behind, pulled his clothes.
He tilted his head and turned around. Echidna opened her mouth with a stiff expression.
"I smell blood."
