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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
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Chapter 08
In the 21st century, ‘Gates’ rifts from which monsters emerged began to appear in masses, and those who hunted these creatures were called Hunters.
However, Gates were not exclusive to modern times.
Though rare, they had been observed in the past, and monsters and awakened individuals had existed back then as well.
In 15th-century Joseon, those with supernatural abilities were known as ‘Monstrous God’ wielders of unnatural power and spirits and they were widely feared.
The child is a god of monstrous strength and chaos.
—Confucius did not speak of such things as unnatural power or spirits.
Even the great sage had turned his eyes away from those who wielded the power of the monstrous and the divine.
Joseon refused to acknowledge them as ordinary people.
They were neither fully human nor fully monsters beings that inspired both awe and terror.
Eventually, Joseon gathered these individuals into a single specialized military unit:
‘The Monster Hunters’.
And they were given a single mission:
‘Slay the monsters’.
Hunt and exterminate the yokai.
Yi Sunsin had been one such Monster Hunter, a man born with supernatural abilities.
Yet despite his origins, he had risen through the ranks, earning recognition and the title of Admiral.
So, it was only natural that Yi Sunsin would be hunting down Bae Seol, who had turned into a monster.
To Yi Sunsin, Bae Seol was not only a deserter and a traitor but also an abomination that needed to be purged.
More than that, taking him down would be a way to restore his honor, which had been tarnished by his unjust dismissal.
But there was a problem.
Ahn Wi was with him.
At first, I thought nothing of it. But the more I considered it, the stranger it seemed.
‘If history played out as it should, Yi Sunsin was reinstated the day after meeting Ahn Wi.’
Yet here he was, still in his Baekgui Jonggun robes, still searching for Bae Seol.
That meant Yi Sunsin had not received the king’s decree of reinstatement.
If he had, he wouldn’t still be wearing the white robes of a dismissed officer.
“How long have you two been traveling together?”
“Let’s see… I met the Admiral at Noryang, so it has been fifteen days and two more.”
“And you’ve been searching for Bae Seol this entire time?”
“That is correct.”
Ahn Wi’s words made my stomach sink.
If Yi Sunsin had been delayed by more than fifteen days, that meant he had been unable to prepare for the Battle of Myeongnyang during that time.
For him, that was a critical loss of time.
‘We need to catch Bae Seol immediately.’
If we wasted any more time here, there was a real possibility that the Battle of Myeongnyang could be lost.
I had to get Yi Sunsin to Hoeryong in Jangheung, where his fleet of twelve ships awaited him.
And to do that, we first had to hunt down Bae Seol, who had become a Geuseundae.
“Let’s start by searching the valleys.”
“…But are you certain that Bae Seol has become a Geuseundae?”
“I once happened to witness a Geuseundae wandering the mountains. There is only one such creature in this region, which means it must be him.”
“Meeting you is a stroke of fortune, Master Choi.”
With that, I set off toward the valley, guiding Yi Sunsin and Ahn Wi to places a Geuseundae would be drawn to.
As a shadow-dwelling yokai, the Geuseundae favored cool, dark places.
“But searching the shadows is too vague.”
Yi Sunsin's voice was steady as we moved.
He wasn’t wrong.
The mountains were vast, and shadowed places were everywhere.
Valleys, caves, under rocks, beneath the shade of great trees…the sheer number of possible hiding spots was overwhelming.
If Bae Seol had crossed into another mountain range, we would have to search the shadows there as well.
“You’re right, Admiral. If we rely solely on finding shadows, it will take far too long to locate Bae Seol.”
“Then, do you have another method?”
“Yes. We should look for crows.”
“Crows?”
“The Geuseundae is a yokai that hates all life. If it is in the area, it must have killed the nearby animals. And where there are corpses, scavengers will gather, especially crows.”
Crows were the most common scavengers to be found near dead bodies.
“That’s a brilliant approach!”
Yi Sunsin’s expression shifted to one of admiration.
“I have never heard of the Geuseundae being a creature that despises life. You are quite knowledgeable about yokai, Master Choi.”
This particular trait of the Geuseundae, its hatred for all living things was only discovered in the 21st century.
Since these creatures had always remained hidden, evading Awakened Hunters, it had taken modern research to fully uncover their nature.
In the 15th century, where structured studies of the supernatural did not exist, this knowledge would have been virtually impossible to obtain.
“I have a deep interest in the subject and have studied it extensively.”
I gave a vague excuse, but neither Yi Sunsin nor Ahn Wi questioned it.
To them, as long as I was a Seonin, there was nothing strange about what I knew.
And so, we began our search not just for shadows, but specifically for places where crows gathered.
Along the way, we encountered wild beasts, and it was Ahn Wi who took care of them.
As Yi Sunsin’s trusted officer, he, too, had once been a yokai hunter, trained in yokai extermination.
Shuaaak—!
With a single swing of his massive greatsword, a charging leopard was cleaved in two.
Even by modern standards, that level of strength was rare.
‘At least an A-rank Awakened.’
In today’s world, an A-rank Awakened was top-tier capable of leading a major guild’s combat team.
And Ahn Wi was not just strong; he was also a seasoned veteran.
As expected from one of Joseon’s greatest warriors.
While traveling with Ahn Wi, I learned many things from him.
“Master Choi, you are not used to combat, are you? Your technique is crude.”
“In what way?”
“You must not let your energy be so easily seen.”
He gestured toward my Napoleon’s Rifle.
Earlier, I had shot a charging wolf, and during each shot, my mana had visibly surged around the rifle.
Ahn Wi clearly disapproved of that.
“You must learn to conceal your energy.”
He demonstrated by channeling his mana into his greatsword.
‘Hwoooosh…’
A clear blue aura appeared around the blade then, as if sucked inward, it vanished.
The greatsword now looked completely ordinary.
Even with the naked eye, it was impossible to tell it contained any energy at all.
“Revealing your power so openly is the foolish way of the Ming. Only those who crave attention would do such a thing.”
According to Ahn Wi, exposing one’s power was idiotic it simply told the enemy exactly how strong you were.
"In Joseon, we do not use external energy, but rather internal energy."
In other words, hide your strength.
To be honest, I hadn’t even realized Ahn Wi was an Awakened at first.
I had been too busy marveling at how absurdly sharp his greatsword was despite not being imbued with visible mana.
‘This is different from modern combat.’
In the 21st century, Hunters did the exact opposite.
Since their enemies were only monsters, there was no need to conceal their mana.
In fact, modern battle standards judged a Hunter’s strength by how much mana they could unleash in combat the flashier, the better.
Ahn Wi, however, considered that nothing short of suicidal.
Given the era, it was understandable that perspectives differed.
But as I thought about it, Ahn Wi’s view made far more sense.
When fighting humans, the warriors of Joseon far surpassed modern Hunters.
I don’t know how long I wandered through the mountains under Ahn Wi’s combat training.
“We’ve found it.”
Yi Sunsin, who had been walking ahead in silence, muttered under his breath.
Immediately after those words, the harsh caws of crows echoed through the valley.
Kaak! Kaak!
“Ugh.”
A wave of rotting blood filled my nostrils, so intense that I instinctively covered my nose.
In the middle of the valley, where the air was eerily cold, lay a mountain of animal corpses.
And swarming over it were hundreds of crows.
"So you were hiding here all along."
Yi Sunsin’s gaze turned razor-sharp.
His piercing eyes settled beyond the pile of bodies onto the entrance of a dark cave.
A cave so deeply shrouded in blackness that even the night itself seemed pale in comparison.
And yet, within that black abyss, there was something.
Something even darker.
“Bae Seol.”
The darkness stirred.
It was no longer human.
Bae Seol, now fully corrupted into a yokai, had become a Geuseundae.
‘This is no ordinary Geuseundae.’
Bae Seol may have been a deserter, but before that, he had been a highly trained warrior.
He was a three-star commander commanding the 12 fleet warship navy.
A man of such caliber, having fallen into corruption his power as a yokai would be nothing short of monstrous.
But Yi Sunsin didn’t hesitate.
He strode directly into the cave.
It was an incredibly reckless move.
But neither Ahn Wi nor I stopped him.
For one simple reason, Yi Sunsin was stronger than any Geuseundae before him.
The strongest Awakened in Joseon.
By the time of the modern era, no Hunter questioned the fact that Yi Sunsin had been the most powerful Awakened in Joseon’s history.
But the extent of his abilities remained a mystery.
It wasn’t because of a lack of records.
There were plenty of accounts.
But the records were so unreliable that they contained nothing but nonsense.
The Admiral cut a warship in half.
His sword unleashed a blade of energy over 9 meters long.
If these records were taken literally, Yi Sunsin had been a being beyond even S-rank Hunters.
Srrng—
And now for the first time I was about to witness the truth with my own eyes.
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
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