Dark Fantasy Genius Demon Hunter

Encounter with the Goddess

Hoo-ung—

The sky opened.

And then light began to pour down.

“Oh, oh! Oh, God.”

“Oh, God.”

The prayers of the people, who had witnessed the unbelievable sight, grew louder.

Some trembled with emotion, while others wept uncontrollably.

The brightness quickly grew, and soon it became impossible to keep their eyes open.

As the people, buried in light, called out to the god, Gaon also called out to the god.

Theirs were nothing more than echoes without response, but Gaon’s call was different—it was answered.

“What… what is this?”

[I’ve been waiting for you to arrive here, Gaon.]

Gaon was startled.

It was a name no one knew, a name he had never shared with anyone since gaining the body of bones.

“…Who is it?”

A temple-like place, a voice that seemed to know him well, a voice that rang not in his ears but in his head, and more.

There were plenty of clues already pointing to a conclusion, but despite it all, Gaon still asked.

[You must have already guessed. The one who brought you here is me.]

“….”

It was as expected—it was the goddess.

Hearing the goddess’s words, Gaon couldn’t say a thing.

There were so many things he wanted to ask, so many questions he had, but when the opportunity finally came, he didn’t know where to begin.

[I know you must have a lot to say. But there’s no time for that.]

“What?”

Gaon raised his eyebrows.

[It wasn’t supposed to be like this, but Gaon, you gave up your divine power… I never thought you’d give it up so easily.]

The goddess’s voice was filled with regret.

Gaon’s anger flared at her words, and he yelled in frustration.

“What? Why are you blaming me? Who brought me here without permission in the first place?!”

[I’m sorry. But… that was the best I could do.]

“Hah! What an amazing excuse.”

Gaon scoffed, mocking the goddess.

[Please, save this world.]

“Forget it. Just send me back to my original world.”

Gaon remained unmoved, despite the goddess’s earnest plea.

But then, the goddess said something that made him waver.

[Your mother.]

“What?”

[I heard that the doctors there can’t cure her. I will heal her.]

“…!”

Gaon’s eyes widened in shock.

“Is that… true?”

[――, ―――. ――.]

However, the answer he longed for didn’t come.

The clear voice he had been hearing was now fading.

He had known that there would be consequences for letting his divine power approach zero, but he never expected it to happen this quickly, in this way.

The presence of the goddess, which had felt so near, was now becoming faint.

“You said you could heal my mother? Answer me. Please, answer me!”

[……Please.]

The faint, vague plea shattered Gaon’s heart.

The blinding light that had been pouring down on him had now disappeared completely.

“I deserve an answer before you go….”

His voice trembled.

Amidst the excited crowd, all Gaon could do was mutter in a shaky voice.

The unexpected encounter with the goddess left Gaon with many things to think about.

“She said she could heal my mother.”

His mother, who had suddenly fallen ill with an incurable disease.

The attending physician had said that research was ongoing for treatment, but there was nothing certain.

All Gaon could do, not wanting to helplessly send his mother away, was to continue life support until a cure or treatment was developed, hoping his mother wouldn’t pass away before then.

Given the situation, the goddess’s offer was an option Gaon could not refuse.

“…I need to see the ending. I need to see the ending.”

The Demon King’s army, and the defeat of the Demon King.

Gaon instinctively understood what the ending was.

It was the result of the world’s lore he had found while browsing the game’s homepage before starting, and the brief conversation with the goddess.

The world’s lore on the homepage introduced the world as one that was on the verge of destruction due to the Demon King.

The goddess had brought Gaon here, asking him to save this world.

What else could the ending be but the defeat of the Demon King?

Gaon didn’t think so.

It was certainly a distant goal.

Looking at his frail body, it felt even more overwhelming.

But, still, having a clear direction was better than being uncertain.

Now, he didn’t have to wonder how to return to his original world.

The goddess, who had brought him here, must have been desperate to save the world.

She was probably doing everything she could to stop the Demon King.

So, once the Demon King was defeated, the goddess, who had been tied to the Demon King, would have room to relax, and she could probably send Gaon back to Earth.

Of course, he couldn’t rule out the possibility of the goddess suddenly changing her mind, but Gaon decided not to think about that.

“Hah.”

Gaon sighed, releasing the tension in his chest.

This was the moment when he finally had a clear direction, unlike the previous days when he was just struggling to survive.

Gaon lifted his head with a clearer mind.

He was now in the plaza in front of the temple.

And there, he saw:

“Oh, God.”

“To witness the divine miracle of the god, after hundreds of years… I can die without regret now.”

“The ignorant ones said the god had forsaken us, speaking nonsense as if it were true. But no, the god was still watching over us.”

The scene before him was so chaotic that calling it a “flea market” would not be an exaggeration.

In the outskirts, in a shabby small temple where common folk would pray every day, a divine miracle had occurred for the first time in centuries.

People who had been late to witness the event were flocking toward the temple.

The plaza was now packed with people, as if it were a crowded market.

‘The high priests and holy knights dispatched from the main temple in the city’s depths must have contributed to controlling the access to the temple for ordinary worshippers.’

People’s conversations were now turning toward declaring this small temple a holy site.

Gaon made his way through the crowd heading toward the temple, leaving the plaza behind.

He entered a somewhat quiet restaurant and took a seat.

“Welcome.”

A waiter greeted Gaon.

Gaon ordered breakfast and sat down at a suitable table.

“By the way, sir.”

Gaon looked up at the waiter.

“Do you know what happened at the temple?”

The waiter, with a slightly flushed face, asked Gaon, who nodded lightly.

“I just came from the plaza.”

“Oh… I see. Did you see it with your own eyes? What was it like? I couldn’t see it because I was working here…”

“When will the food come? I’m really hungry.”

“Oh, yes. It will be out soon.”

The waiter, no longer bothering Gaon, stepped away.

At least, not bothering him.

“Yawn.”

A person stretched as they came down from the second floor.

It was a scene often seen in places that operated as both a restaurant and an inn.

The moment the waiter spotted him, her eyes sparkled as she rushed over.

“Paul! This is no time to be yawning!”

“Huh?”

“At the temple…!”

The waiter’s excited words made the person named Paul, who had just come down from the second floor, widen his eyes.

“Really? Is that true?”

“Yes! Other customers have already gone to the temple. You’re the last one!”

“What? They left me behind?!”

Paul, his eyes burning with anger, rushed to the door of the restaurant and flung it open, disappearing outside.

“…That’s why the restaurant is so empty.”

Gaon shook his head lightly.

It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for him.

He could quietly eat and sort out his thoughts.

“Your meal is ready.”

“Thank you.”

Gaon nodded lightly in gratitude and looked at his meal.

A stew made with vegetables and meat, and a large chunk of bread.

Based on the memory of the body he had now, it was quite a feast. But from the perspective of the modern Gaon, it was somewhat lacking.

‘It’s good.’

Even so, the taste of the stew, which he had just tasted, was quite decent.

Gaon tore the bread and ate it along with the stew.

As he ate, he continued to think about the dilemma he had briefly encountered in the plaza.

The dilemma about the ending.

In fact, Gaon didn’t exactly know what he had to do to reach the ending in this game world.

Of course, the goddess probably intended to explain everything to Gaon once he was summoned here, but Gaon’s decision to give up his talent for divine power unexpectedly disrupted the goddess’s plans.

So, Gaon had to figure out the conditions to reach the ending he had referred to, using the words the goddess had said when sending him here and the pre-information he had gathered from the game Another World.

“The goddess asked me to save this world.”

That meant this world was in a very dangerous state.

“But the god can’t be doing nothing.”

The goddess must have been doing her best to save this world in her own way.

“But it doesn’t make sense.”

Gaon tilted his head.

It was hard to believe, because based on the basic setting of Another World, it didn’t seem like the world was in that much danger.

A world where the Demon King had descended.

Naturally, the Demon King’s army had invaded, and most of the continent had fallen under the control of the Demon King’s forces.

Humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, beastkin, and others.

All the races had been pushed to the edges of the continent, forced to prepare for the final battle.

Then, just as they were preparing for the last stand, for some unknown reason, the Demon King suddenly returned to his original world.

The Demon King’s army, now leaderless, had been thrown into chaos, and humanity had seized the opportunity, waging the final battle and narrowly avoiding extinction.

A long time had passed, and now, the dark forces that had once been the Demon King’s army and humanity had managed to find a kind of balance.

“Ah.”

Gaon put down his spoon, which he had been using to eat the stew, and exhaled quietly.

He had finally understood the identity of the gap he couldn’t comprehend before.

“The Demon King is coming back. If that’s the case, the goddess’s plea to save this world makes sense.”

The defeat of the re-invading Demon King.

It was an overwhelming and distant goal.

“Catching even one monster was so difficult… but the Demon King… hmm.”

Still, Gaon didn’t give up in fear.

It was a nearly impossible task, but it was something that had to be done.

Because that was the only way he could save his mother.

That was the resolve he had made.

“To prepare for the battle with the Demon King, I need to improve my abilities. Before the Demon King returns, I need to reduce the forces that once served him.”

Although he had entered this world, the game’s interface wasn’t fully implemented.

“I checked, but there’s no status screen or inventory like in a typical game.”

However, it would be wrong to say there were no game-like elements at all.

Whether it was by chance or by design, the levels of combatants were expressed as levels.

“In the end, leveling up and growing is no different from the game-like aspects.”

To level up, Gaon would need experience points.

To earn experience, he needed to defeat mobs.

In this world, mobs were called Mazus, and they lived in contaminated areas.

So, to grow, Gaon would need to head into the contaminated zones.

Although the growth wasn’t like in games where leveling up happened automatically as experience was gained, it was still the same concept.

Gaon’s thoughts began to organize themselves.

Then, suddenly, he remembered something he had overheard about Mazus during the short time he had spent here.

“Damn it, you’ve caught them, right? You said a low-level Mazus is no match for you, right?”

“Crazy! No, that’s not it!”

“What do you mean?”

“Damn it. If I could catch Mazus, I’d be a Mazus hunter, not wasting my time doing this stupid crap!”

Those were the arrogant words, almost like a dying declaration, from Knife.

“P-please, save me. If you save me, I’ll give you anything. Money? If you go to my room, I’ll give you all the money I’ve saved. Really!”

“Money?”

“Y-yes! Although I only make enough as a low-level Mazus hunter to run an inn, I’ve been running the inn for a long time…”

The words of the innkeeper, desperately begging to survive, had included a key term.

Mazus hunter.

“Ah!”

At that moment, Gaon finally realized the path he needed to take.

A genius Mazus hunter in a dark fantasy world.