When I ca to, the first thing I noticed was the sound of sothing scratching against the ground, like hundreds of thin sticks scraping together.
Swish, swish, swish.
It wasn’t a pleasant sound. It reminded of the noise bugs make when they crawl through the thin walls of our ho…
Wait, hold on.
Was I supposed to be sleeping right now?
The mory of the last thing I saw ca rushing back. Right before I lost consciousness, I had been caught up in a dungeon break!
The boss…!
I imdiately opened my eyes and looked around.
Sothing warm and damp was surrounding .
I quickly figured out what it was.
A cocoon made by a monster…?
If that’s the case, the monster is most likely an ant or a spider.
I reached out and touched the filmy mbrane enveloping . The mont my hand made contact, I felt a squishy, viscous liquid.
And as soon as that liquid touched my skin—
Sizzle!
The surface of my skin started to dissolve slightly. The faint sll of burning at suggested the presence of acid.
But this wasn’t the sa as the past 19 years, when I couldn’t use magic to avoid detection by the system.
Even if my body was that of a frail young girl, my magical knowledge hadn’t disappeared.
With no ti to waste, I channeled mana into my fingertips and elongated my nails. Magical energy gathered at the tips, forming blade-like edges.
Rip!
The cocoon tore apart.
“The boss… isn’t here.”
I looked around, but there was no one else in sight. It was dark, and when I touched the walls, hard dirt crumbled under my fingers. It seed I was in an ant nest, just as I suspected.
With no ti to linger, I pressed my hand against the wall and began casting a basic detection spell.
Even at this elentary level, the spell could detect lifeforms within a 1-kiloter radius, which would suffice for now.
Mana flowed out of rapidly, and a ntal map appeared in my mind.
The tangled maze of the ant nest ca into view.
“There are more life signs here than I expected… Wait, no. For an ant nest, this might actually be fewer. And there aren’t any signs of younglings… That’s strange.”
I got a decent understanding of the layout, but there was a problem: the spell couldn’t differentiate between human and monster life signs.
That was because back in my Demon King days, I never needed to distinguish between the two.
“This room seems to be a storage area for food… specifically for long-term preservation.”
For invaders—monsters—human vitality, or mana, was the primary food source.
Naturally, my body must have looked like pri long-term sustenance to them.
But the boss was different. If she had been caught in the dungeon break with … Considering she’s an ordinary, elderly civilian, the ants likely wouldn’t bother storing her for long-term consumption. They’d paralyze her and eat her quickly.
That ant ti was of the essence.
I committed the map to mory, pushed off the ground, and dashed out of the room.
It wasn’t because I genuinely cared about the boss, nor was it a sudden burst of compassion unbecoming of a forr Demon King.
No, it was because if my sibling found out that a nearly seventy-year-old woman had died in a dungeon break because of , he’d have a heart attack. Worse, if he had to attend her funeral, he might actually pass out.
And I couldn’t let that happen.
Screee!
The mont I burst out of the room, a giant ant passing by the doorway spotted .
It was roughly the size of a midsize car. Judging by its less-than-sharp mandibles, it was probably a worker ant.
Its sharp legs and antennae turned toward , poised to strike.
I swung my hand down at the massive ant.
Slash!
A blade of magical energy extended from my fingertips, slicing through the ant’s midsection, severing its head from its body.
The whole thing happened in an instant.
Green blood splattered everywhere.
It seed that even worker ants couldn’t withstand this level of impact.
The ant’s multifaceted compound eyes, each resembling countless tiny lenses, flashed briefly with disbelief before it collapsed.
User "Jung Da-on" has defeated a monster for the first ti.
The system has categorized the monster.
Monster Identified: Worker Ant (D-rank).
The system chid in. This must have been the first instance of this invader species appearing on Earth.
Still, "Worker Ant"? What a lazy na.
Looks like it released pheromones…
My heightened senses, sharp from the detection spell, caught an unpleasant scent.
This could draw more of them. Annoying.
I made a quick decision.
Clenching my fist, I compressed the surrounding air into a single point.
Crunch!
The once-massive ant’s corpse crumpled into itself, crushed by the air’s pressure. If it had been a living enemy, this would’ve suffocated it instead. At least this was a relatively painless death.
I froze the compacted corpse like a ball of crumpled paper and hurried onward.
Using magic again after so long didn’t feel awkward. On the contrary, it felt liberating. Like a fish finally released from a tank into the open ocean.
Even with my current mana level at just 12… for soone of my caliber, that wasn’t much of an issue.
Casting large-scale spells would be different, but… Sothing about this situation feels off.
I pushed the thought aside to focus on finding the boss, but the oddity of the situation nagged at .
The man who had walked into the supermarket.
He had broken through my unique spell and entered the shop. Not only that, but he had sohow triggered a dungeon break.
None of this made sense.
There are only two ways to break my unique spell. One is knowing the exact thod to bypass it. The other is having overwhelming power to shatter the barrier outright.
The latter wasn’t the case. If it had been, the spell would’ve broken entirely, and I would’ve noticed.
That ant this stranger sohow knew how to enter The Thorn of the Millwheel, my unique spell.
But that’s impossible.
No one in this world should know about my unique magic. No one.
And even if they did, it’s implausible they could act within just half a day of my awakening as an S-rank hunter.
And to forcibly trigger a dungeon break?
Even if soone wanted to eliminate , this wasn’t sothing humans from Earth would co up with. Dinsional cracks don’t vanish after a dungeon closes. This thod would only lead to self-destruction.
None of it added up.
Crunch!
I crushed another ant as I pondered.
Who could it be?
“Oh my, what’s going on?”
“Does anyone have a way to contact soone outside?”
“No, I didn’t bring anything fancy like that…”
The reporters, now paralyzed by the ants’ venom, lay scattered across the floor. So murmured anxiously, their earlier excitent about catching a big scoop replaced by dread and despair.
“I’m sure rescue hunters will arrive soon. We just have to hold on.”
“This is a dungeon break! It’s an ergency. Do you really think they’ll get here that fast?”
“Well, panicking won’t help either, will it?”
“Besides, isn’t Jung Da-on sowhere in this dungeon? She might save us.”
Everyone’s eyes turned to one person: the supermarket boss, the elderly woman.
“Ma’am, what about Jung Da-on? Isn’t she caught up in this too?”
“She’s no hunter!”
The frail woman, who had been lying silently, suddenly snapped.
“What hunter nonsense! Do you think it’s good news that a kid got dragged into this ss? She hasn’t even graduated high school yet!”
Her outburst silenced the group, leaving a heavy sense of despair in the air. The reporters had pinned their hopes on Jung Da-on, and without her, they would have no choice but to await rescue, however far off it might be.
“Damn it, this is useless.”
“If she’d just given us a quick interview, we’d have left already!”
“How hard is it to answer a couple of questions? Seriously, ma’am.”
Tension rose among the trapped reporters, their frustrations bubbling over. Helplessness, fear, and anger churned together, leading to bitter words and frayed tempers.
And then it happened.
Swish, swish, swish.
The sound of thin legs scraping against the ground reached their ears, and all argunts ceased. The reporters froze.
Monts later, the swarm arrived.
“Hiiik!”
“Aaah! Help , please!”
Panic erupted as the monstrous ants filled the room, their antennae twitching ominously. Their compound eyes seed to scan the paralyzed humans, while acidic saliva dripped from their mandibles, hissing as it hit the ground.
One ant lowered its head toward the closest reporter, jaws opening wide.
“Help ! Please! Nooo—”
Crunch!
Thwack!
A sickening sound echoed as the ant’s head burst apart, spraying cold, sticky liquid everywhere.
Amidst the chaos, a girl’s voice rang out.
“Boss! There you are.”
The swarm of ants lay in heaps, their bodies crushed and lifeless. Standing amidst the carnage was a schoolgirl in a gray uniform sweater. Her long black hair glead, and though her shirt’s buttons were undone, her overall appearance was neat and proper.
Except for one thing: she wasn’t holding bubble tea or a snack.
In one hand, she clutched a massive ant’s severed head. In the other, she gripped a torn-off ant wing, chewing on it as if it were a piece of jerky.
“Hic!”
One of the reporters hiccupped in shock.
The sight was surreal, an image that would haunt them forever.
Everyone in the room knew her na.
Jung Da-on.
The 11th S-rank hunter in South Korea had just made her first appearance.
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