Chapter 27: Domain Opened

“Hey, Ion, you okay?” Hong Insu asked, eyeing Ion, who was clutching his plant pot and radiating gloom.

“Not okay. Don’t talk to me,” Ion replied.

“Tell your hyung what’s wrong.”

“Yeah, kiddo. Our ace is down—us mercenaries gotta help,” Bae Younghoe chimed in.

“Hungry? Want strawberry milk? Strawberries cheer you up,” Shin Minji added.

Ion sighed as the trio pestered him.

“Has anyone seen plants here?” he asked, hoping he’d missed some.

The response?

“Dude, it’s a desert. No plants here,” Hong Insu said.

“Deserts have plants. Ever heard of cacti, hyung?”

“Oh, right. Maybe this desert just doesn’t grow plants. Hang in there—one more week, and we’ll hit the dense forest.”

“A desert surrounded by lush forest should have plants. Succulents, at least. If this place was too harsh, my Sanse would’ve died.”

“Your Sansevieria’s alive ‘cause you water and care for it,” Hong Insu said.

Ion spoke listlessly. “I haven’t watered it since we got here.”

“What? Really?”

“Wow, we awakened can’t survive without water, but a plant’s tougher than us?”

“Resilient little guy.”

Despite the praise for his Sansevieria, Ion wasn’t cheered. One plant wasn’t enough to restore his mana.

“Thinking about it, glaciers and lava zones had plants. Odd. I’ll tell unnie—er, Team Leader—later. Since deserts are new, we should share details like this,” Shin Minji said.

“Lee Jina probably already knows,” Bae Younghoe replied.

“If she knew, she’d have told us,” Shin Minji countered.

“Maybe she didn’t think it needed sharing. Or assumed we’d know. Wait, you call her unnie?” Bae asked.

“Hong Insu calls her noona, so I asked to call her unnie, and she allowed it.”

“How old’s the kiddo?” Bae asked Shin Minji.

“I’m not a kiddo! I’m twenty-six. Unnie’s thirty. She was a soldier pre-Cataclysm. Cool, right?”

“Adult kiddo, then.”

“Not a kiddo!”

“Haha, how long you gonna call people kiddo, ajussi?” Hong Insu laughed.

His laughter drew eyes. This truck held only mercenaries.

“Peanut Corps sub-leader called me kiddo too,” a mercenary said.

“You’re thirty-five. Total kiddo,” Bae replied.

“Thought he was messing with me at first.”

Three more mercenaries, now friendly, joined the chatter. The mood was lively.

Smooth progress allowed for casual banter.

Ion thought, This isn’t the time, but the silly talk eased his anxiety slightly.

Another week passed.

Finally, a change disrupted the smooth progress.

“Monster alert! S-rank monster!” a Hunter shouted.

Finally, Ion thought.

He should’ve sensed it first, but his low mana dulled his perception.

The team’s demeanor shifted, gearing up swiftly—donning armor, drawing weapons and items.

Ion pulled his sword and leapt off the truck.

In Hunter and Hero, S-rank monsters, unlike A-rank and below, bore names of Earth’s mythical creatures: Cerberus, Siren, Sphinx, Phoenix, even Azure Dragon or Jang sanbeom.

Grrr…

Before them stood an S-rank beast, Cerberus, with three heads. It could crush A-rank insect monsters with a single paw, despite their 3-meter size. Drool dripped from sharp teeth, corrosive enough to melt A-rank armor and bone on contact.

“Shields up!” a mercenary with a wide-range shield skill protected the collection team and trucks.

Combat began, splitting into groups: Jin Seongha and ranged support (healer Shin Minji, shielder Liman, buffer Bae Younghoe) tackled the S-rank; others handled A-ranks.

Screech!

“Ugh, gross! Stop spawning!” Hong Insu yelled, trapping insects in shadows and burying them in sand.

Clang!

Lee Jina’s ice arrow pierced a buried monster’s forehead, freezing and shattering it.

Hunters paired up to down monsters one by one.

Whoosh.

Ion’s flaming sword incinerated five giant insects in succession.

He no longer hid his strength, driven to end battles quickly and reach the forest.

Jin Seongha…

Grrr! Boom! Thud!

Each flash of the Black Cloud Sword sent Cerberus’s heads whipping left and right. One foreleg was already severed, rolling in the sand.

Just a Level 1 field S-rank to him… like a thrilling game.

No need to help. Jin Seongha might finish the S-rank and aid the A-rank group faster.

As combat continued, minor injuries occurred, but they reduced monster numbers successfully.

Then—

“Watch out! Cerberus is moving this way!” a Hunter shouted.

One of Cerberus’s heads stretched, eyeing the A-rank fighters. Its vertical pupils contracted, turning blood-red.

“Fire! It’s gonna breathe fire!” Hong Insu stammered, signaling to dodge.

“Argh!”

“Damn it!”

Most evaded, but Hong Insu and others couldn’t escape the fire’s range. In a desperate moment, they grabbed return stones—but a small figure stood before them.

Boom!

Ion faced Cerberus’s flames, hand outstretched, a green orb forming.

Pollution Purification

Blue flames were sucked into the orb.

Whoosh.

Those cowering behind Ion were too shocked to breathe.

Ion, unfazed, drew the orb closer. The spell purified pollution into life energy but couldn’t redirect it.

Instead…

Ion compressed the flame-filled orb to pill-size and swallowed it.

The mana used for Pollution Purification was restored.

“Good pollution,” Ion said to Cerberus, almost grateful.

Grrr…

Cerberus bared its teeth, black smoke rising as if preparing another blast.

“Make it stronger this time.”

Is he insane?

What’s he saying?

Is he okay?

Hunters whispered, but Ion was fixated on mana recovery.

“Ion Corps Leader, move!” Jin Seongha shouted, grabbing Ion and tossing him toward the dodging Hunters.

“Ow! You okay?” Hong Insu caught him.

Ion’s eyes were wide. Tossing a person so easily?

His heart raced more than when facing Cerberus’s flames.

No time to gape—surviving insect monsters, undeterred by their kin’s burning corpses, charged.

Screech! Shriek!

As Ion prepared to fight, a chilling aura stopped him. Golden mana radiated from Jin Seongha.

He’s using his reserved skill.

Eternal Serendipity

A 23-hour cooldown skill, not to be used lightly. When an awakened lands a hit, there’s a random chance for a critical strike, amplifying damage from 50-60 million to 500-600 million.

Eternal Serendipity turns all hits into critical strikes for a set time.

Jin Seongha, wielding the Black Cloud Sword, leapt high.

Bang! Thud! Crash! Crack! Roar! Slam!

Painful sounds echoed.

Thud!

Cerberus fell.

Then, thud, thud, thud!—its three heads dropped in succession.

Huff.

Landing on Cerberus’s severed neck, Jin Seongha caught his breath and launched toward the A-rank monsters, as Ion predicted, to assist.

Combat ended, leaving a mountain of monster corpses.

Hunters, too exhausted to rest, sprawled among them.

“Ugh, brutal. Worthy of S+,” Hong Insu groaned, using an insect carapace as a pillow.

Shin Minji healed his shoulder wound.

“The forest will be worse, right? Monster-dense, no rest time,” she said.

“If we could return to Earth for one day to regroup, it’d feel less intense.”

“No-return clear’s the goal. No choice.”

The collection team arrived with mining gear. S-rank corpses offered rich byproducts, and Jin Seongha had skillfully avoided damaging them. Collection Team 1’s leader bowed with respect.

“Thanks, Jin Seongha Hunter. Makes our job easier.”

“Do your best.”

Jin Seongha nodded and moved on, his gaze fixed on Ion, who was rubbing his temples and heading somewhere.

Why’s he coming to me?

Ion felt Jin Seongha’s stare but ignored it, heading for the cargo truck.

“Jin Seongha Hunter, got a minute?” Lee Jina intercepted him.

Relieved, Ion staggered to his Sansevieria, burying his face in its leaves. He felt alive again.

As Cerberus’s dismantling finished and Hunters trickled into tents—

BOOM!

A massive roar startled even Ion, face buried in leaves.

The desert quaked like an earthquake. Ion rushed out, spotting a towering sand dune. Beneath it, a pitch-black hole absorbed light, swallowing sand and monster corpses, growing larger.

“What the—?”

“Run! It’s a sinkhole!”

“Use flight items!”

Some activated emergency items to float, others fled to safety.

“Help!”

“Save us!”

Two collection team members clung to the dune’s edge, calling for help. Jin Seongha and Lee Jina ran, but too late.

Swish.

A pale hand emerged from the hole, each finger larger than a person, with no nails and translucent skin revealing bluish veins.

Crunch.

The hand crushed the two collectors effortlessly.

It paused, then groped the edge, the hole widening. If it grew further, the hand’s owner might emerge.

Wooosh.

Hunters’ spines chilled. This was beyond any monster they’d faced. Instinct screamed to flee.

That finger… no way.

Ion approached the hole, heart pounding.

“Ion Corps Leader, snap out of it!” Jin Seongha grabbed his arm, then blinked, puzzled, not looking at Ion but at something else.

Something only he saw.

“A new system window!” he said.

“Me too!”

“Same here!”

Hunters stared at the air, eyes wide, combatants and collectors alike.

“Giants…? Level? What’s that mean?” Jin Seongha muttered.

Ion took a deep breath. “Jin Seongha Hunter, what does the system window say exactly?”

Jin Seongha read aloud:

“‘You have encountered the Giant Race for the first time…’

[You have encountered the Giant Race for the first time.

Giant Domain Opened.

World-Earth enters Level 4.]”