# Chapter 85
“Mungchi!”
When Iyeon waved his hand cheerfully, Mungchi shook his head once and came running. The blue tiger that had been nimbly leaping between trees had transformed into the small baby form they usually saw by the time it jumped into Iyeon’s arms.
“Did you have fun?”
Mungchi flew at Iyeon like a headbutt without even slowing down, and Iyeon would have fallen over if Sano hadn’t grabbed his arm to steady him. The baby tiger, not realizing how much it weighed and completely unaware that it had nearly caused Iyeon to land hard on his behind, showered its owner with affection. Iyeon had to work hard not to drop Mungchi during all its squirming.
“Mungchi, have you seen the nightmare elephant by any chance?”
As Iyeon naturally set Mungchi down, starting to feel the strain, he asked this question, and Mungchi tilted its head. Of course, there was no way Mungchi would know the name humans had given to the variant.
“You know, the one with the long nose that walks on four legs and sprays smoke from its feet.”
At this explanation, accompanied by hand gestures, Mungchi blinked several times. Its gently swaying tail stopped abruptly. After pressing its paws firmly on the ground a few times, Mungchi turned its back to Iyeon and led the way. After walking a few steps, it stopped and looked back at them, causing Iyeon and Sano to exchange glances.
Mungchi guided them to a place where the roots of a thick tree were exposed, creating a cave-like hollow. There, they found the nightmare elephant huddled up.
“Were you with it?”
Mungchi made a sound like “keeeng” and wrapped its tail around Iyeon’s leg. To remain calm even after seeing the nightmare elephant—could this be related to the master-servant relationship? This one could technically be classified as a mammal too… Whatever it was, it was a strange phenomenon. Iyeon, Sano, and Mungchi observed the nightmare elephant’s condition from behind some bushes a short distance away.
Purple mist sprayed by the nightmare elephant had spread visibly around the tree. They couldn’t approach too closely since inhaling the smoke would be dangerous. While the nightmare elephant didn’t have any attack techniques other than its smoke, making it relatively easy to capture using Sano’s or Iyeon’s abilities…
“It… doesn’t it look injured?”
Iyeon muttered, squinting at the variant hidden in the shade. Though it was too far to see clearly, there were signs of injuries on its head and stomach. Unlike the head wound, which seemed to be just a minor bruise, the stomach wound looked more like a stab wound.
At first, Iyeon naturally assumed Mungchi had attacked it, but he soon changed his mind. If Mungchi had attacked, the nightmare elephant wouldn’t have survived. With Mungchi eliminated from the list of suspects, the most likely possibility was…
“Those people, what kind of investigation were they doing?”
Iyeon muttered with an incredulous expression.
Jaekyung’s client was a black market merchant. Though Iyeon had never visited the variant black market, he’d heard that not only low-level variants but also mid-level variants were frequently traded there. Usually, the purpose of illegal variant trading was for display or showing off.
But if Jaekyung had caused the nightmare elephant’s wound, the client wasn’t planning to sell this variant merely as a display. That left only one possibility: the nightmare elephant’s special ability.
The smoke that causes hallucinations when inhaled.
“All this for a mere Level 1?”
Sano muttered mockingly. Though his tone was unpleasant, he wasn’t wrong.
Despite appearances, the nightmare elephant was still a variant. No matter how good one’s equipment was, a person who wasn’t a hunter couldn’t easily cut through its skin. Based on Jaekyung’s words, it seemed they hadn’t been accompanied by a hunter during their analysis. For two ordinary people, a faint mark would have been the limit.
Like the light stab wound on the nightmare elephant’s stomach now.
But rare cases like the nightmare elephant were also analyzed by national research institutes. They would have certainly researched the source of the smoke it emitted. Yet, if there hadn’t been any notable use found, it meant there were no results.
Jaekyung couldn’t have been unaware of this information.
Iyeon’s eyes, which had been staring confusedly at the nightmare elephant, blinked once. When he looked at Sano, he seemed to have reached the same conclusion and just nodded slightly.
No way.
*
“We’re back.”
“Hyung! Why are you so late? What happened to your leg?”
“Iyeon-ssi!”
When Sano, Iyeon, and Mungchi entered the hotel room, the people who had been sitting together waiting for them jumped up with relief. Jaekyung, Hyegang, and the merchant who had pulled his hat down low and was wearing a mask.
“How did it go? What about the nightmare elephant?”
The first to approach was Jaekyung. After looking around Iyeon and Sano, Jaekyung realized the nightmare elephant wasn’t there.
Iyeon didn’t miss the complex emotion that flashed across his eyes at that moment.
“It rained all night. The traces were washed away completely. It probably disappeared outside the forest.”
The conditions had been terrible. Even the people who had only stayed in the hotel could tell how harsh the weather outside had been.
“I’m sorry to the client who initially requested this… but it’s already out of our hands. I think it would be better to report this to the Superpower Management Office and follow the formal procedure.”
When Iyeon shrugged and spoke to the client, the man only let out an annoyed groan, as if faced with a predicament.
“I’m sorry. Since we failed, I’ll just take the initial payment.”
Iyeon said this while discreetly showing his leg. He looked severely injured from any angle.
There wasn’t much the client could say to someone who appeared to have done their best on the request and was now politely apologizing. There was nothing that could be done about it now anyway. The client, who had been standing silently, abruptly stood up and strode out of the room.
As Jaekyung was hurriedly trying to follow, Iyeon grabbed his arm and whispered lowly.
“We need to talk, don’t we?”
Jaekyung flinched and looked at Iyeon. It was the moment suspicion turned into certainty.
“Always thinking about using others.”
“…Sorry.”
Jaekyung responded dejectedly. Iyeon let go of his arm as if satisfied. Jaekyung glanced at Iyeon, then ran toward the client who was just disappearing down the hallway.
“What’s going on?”
Hyegang asked, bewildered.
“I’ll tell you when Jaekyung-ssi comes back. What I have are just suspicions.”
Iyeon, whose leg was starting to hurt again, sat on the edge of the bed. Mungchi, who had likewise jumped onto the bed and was sitting pressed against Iyeon’s side, was gently stroked as Iyeon grumbled.
“That variant otaku.”
From the beginning, Jaekyung had neither intended to investigate the nightmare elephant nor had any plans to catch the one that escaped.
Jaekyung, who had disappeared following the client, returned sooner than expected. He said the client was very angry and had no more business here, so he left ahead.
Jaekyung, who entered the room again while checking everyone’s reactions, immediately knelt down.
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m glad you’re at least sorry.”
Being used in various ways without knowing the circumstances couldn’t have been pleasant. When Iyeon naturally spoke in a sharp tone, Jaekyung hung his head even more dejectedly.
“Enough of that, just explain it to me.”
“Well… I recently heard through an acquaintance that a nightmare elephant had been captured.”
While it was relatively common for low-level variants to be captured by ordinary people, mid-level variants around Level 5 were rarely captured. Not only were they more likely to be eliminated than captured, but hunters also received missions and were dispatched before they could be caught illegally. Even the acquaintance who had informed Jaekyung said it was a very rare occurrence.
The person who had caught the nightmare elephant was one of the famous merchants in the variant black market. He was known to stop at nothing to increase the value of his merchandise. As soon as Jaekyung heard this news, he dropped some bait to his acquaintance.
‘Nightmare elephant? I heard it has a smoke sac. That guy really hit the jackpot.’
Of course, it was nonsense. Anyone who had even glanced at a national research institute report would immediately know there were no such findings.
However, Jaekyung had quite a reputation in the field, and it was common knowledge that the current published research on variants wasn’t perfect. People were inclined to believe what someone who was considered an expert said.
When the request came to remove the nightmare elephant’s smoke sac, Jaekyung set a few conditions.
To provide an open space where the work could be done. To provide an alibi that wouldn’t raise suspicions even if Jaekyung went far away.
And not to bring a hunter.
“So that your hunter wouldn’t actually attack the nightmare elephant and cut open its stomach, right?”
“Exactly.”
Jaekyung took a firm stance, claiming he could remove the smoke sac by himself and that unfamiliar people would only get in the way. However, the merchant argued that since they were dealing with a Level 5 variant, a minimum level of insurance was necessary.
“So he seduced you.”
“I should have known…”
