Evolution Theory of the Hunter

“This is invincible?”

The Mantis raised its body once more as soon as he finished his words. Its back that had been twisted to the point that it seemed broken was recovered at some point.

It was like this as I thought.

I opened my mouth while clicking my tongue.

“That’s invincibility.”

“An annoying guy I see.”

“It’s better than ignoring damage.”

I dashed towards it while kicking off the wall.

The Mantis made a metallic sound while showing its teeth.

Its sharp nails targeted me at the speed of light.

I deflected it using the Dancing Sword and approached it.

“Kik?”

“Uaaa!”

And I tossed him backwards after grabbing its waist.

A smash that incorporated pro wrestling suplex technique. It wasn’t something I learned, just imitating. From the sensation I felt throughout my body, its backbone probably got shattered into dozens of pieces.

“Kyak!”

“Damn!”

However, I had to retreat from the guy that slashed at me even after being smashed into the ground.

I understood to some degree with this.

Being invincible meant ignoring all damage received. However, it’s not that the attack itself is nulled.

It meant that I couldn’t destroy it like a cow horn. It becomes a lot easier to face if it’s like this.

I received a transmission from Dr. Suresh.

[We have confirmed it just now. That’s a mantis type monster. It’s true that we have put it in after designing. However, we have definitely not added such a function to it. In the first place, we didn’t think that such abilities could exist.]

It did sound like an excuse but I didn’t think it was a lie.

Just copying a dungeon was huge work. However, if America was really able to create a Mantis that had an invincibility option then that could be seen as original creation not cloning. There was no way people that could create such a thing would ask me for help because they couldn’t create a mere reward system.

“I understand. I will trust you for now.”

[Please come out if you feel that it’s dangerous.]

“No, it’s fine for now.”

[Then, then is there anything we can help…….]

I suddenly thought of something the moment I was going to say that it was fine.

At the very least, this dungeon was under the control of the laboratory. In that case, they would be able to know the number of monsters in it and the location of particular monsters.

“Can you find out where the Mantis leader is?”

[I will look for it.]

“Please tell me as soon as possible.”

After ending the transmission, I swung the Dancing Sword.

The Mantis that was jumping at me got deflected back again.

“What are you going to do? That thing won’t die you know? Wouldn’t it be better to go out?”

“We just need to locate the leader. Then those things are nothing.”

They don’t die. But that doesn’t mean that a weak thing becomes strong.

At least, it has no choice but to be meek in front of me.

I slowly approached the Mantis that took out its head from the wall.

It straightened its back as if trying to intimidate me. It looked exactly like how animals are said to intimidate enemies by making their figures look larger.

Also, there’s a characteristic to those that try to do so.

It’s that they’re weak.

“Am I scary?”

“Kyak!”

The thing got its body stuck in the wall once more. This time, it was a force strong enough to cause the concrete inner wall to get destroyed and its head to go through it.

I attacked the leg of the Mantis that was getting its head out of the wall.

It lost its balance and collapsed on the ground with a cracking sound. I continuously struck whether it was the left leg, both shoulders, back, or spine.

“Kieek! Kyak!”

“You’re noisy!”

“Kyaht!”

“I said shut your mouth!”

“Kyaat!”

The Mantis made a threatening cry as its head got crushed to the ground.

I flung the Dancing Sword on that guy’s head.

Edward opened his mouth with a bitter expression as I was beating it up as if drumming.

“Is there a need to go to that extent……?”

“We need to tie him down until we know where the leader is.”

“You’re not wrong but…….”

His line of sight went towards the screaming Mantis.

“What. Are you feeling sympathy for your fellow monster or something?”

“For one thing, I’m not a monster, and secondly, how about just tying it up instead of beating it up like that?”

“If there’s a rope that can die up a level 7 monster that is.”

I tried searching in the Delta Store just in case.

Of course, it wasn’t like there weren’t things like rope. However, it was only at level 1. I didn’t think that such a rope could suppress this guy.

Just beating it up was more comfortable in various ways.

The Dancing Sword attacked on its own so it wasn’t like I lost my strength too.

I waited for Suresh’s call to come while diligently beating it up.

However, unlike how Suresh told me to wait for a minute, a call didn’t come from the laboratory even though 30 minutes had passed.

I found it difficult to stall for more time so I tried using the rope as well but it was concluded that it would be difficult.

An hour passed like that.

The moment I was thinking that we had to leave this place.

A message appeared in front of my eyes.

– Attempting the impossible is a beautiful thing. You have obtained a new skill through effort.

– New ability ‘Armor Penetration’ has been added.

[Stats : Strength 750 Endurance 1,550 Reflex 850 Concentration 700 Defense 700 Psychokinesis 2,000 Armor Penetration 0]

I was able to confirm the addition of the new stat through the manual.

The new ability added after psychokinesis. However, the acquirement method was different as psychokinesis was something I got from the Endurance stat passing 1,000.

In other words, it was the same method as obtaining the Effort skill.

Wait a minute…….

This meant that I wasn’t using the Effort skill properly until now.

I knew that there were abilities pertaining to repeating a particular action.

The things I obtained through that were physical ability strengthening things such as Concentration or Reflex.

There was nothing harder than training such things on my own. Also, after obtaining 5 such skills, I didn’t think to get more skills. I had been thinking unconsciously that those were it.

However, another stat appeared in front of my eyes.

This meant that I was able to create many more abilities.

“What are you doing?”

“Ah. I was just thinking for a bit.”

“How about leaving now? Even if the Mantis isn’t powerful you’ll be done in without being able to do anything if a few more appear.”

“No, I think there’s a method.”

“What are you…….”

“Wait a bit.”

I checked the remaining Reward Points for now.

The amount remaining after raising Endurance was about 50,000.

I increased Armor Penetration by one for now.

After confirming that it rose by 100 at once I started beating up the Mantis once more.

“Kyaak!”

Its reaction was strange. It did scream before as well but it didn’t feel like it was in pain. However, this time I definitely felt that pain was mixed in its scream.

This meant that damage was going through to the guy that had invincibility.

For it to be an ability that can even penetrate a invincibility stat.

This is pretty good.

I used the Dancing Sword to continuously beat it up and slowly raised the Armor Penetration stat.

And the moment it passed 500.

“Kyaaaa!”

The Mantis’ right shoulder, the metallic exoskeleton became broken in an unsightly way.

Once I smashed down on its left shoulder it’s arm dangled. The Mantis collapsed on the ground while making a moan that sounded like it was in agony. Perhaps it was thanks to beating it senseless for a full hour, it had already pretty much lost its will to fight.

I opened my mouth while clicking my tongue.

“Monsters these days don’t have any backbone.”

“Are you even human…….”

Edward looked at me as if he was fed up.

This guy was feeling empathy for the Mantis as I thought.

The Mantis that had its entire body dismembered made a final scream and drooped down.

For all limbs to be cut off and then have a sword in its heart for it to die, it was monster with tenacious life force.

Since it had invincibility on top of that, normal hunters would have had no choice but to escape.

Twitch!

“Hm?”

The thing that I thought was dead started moving little by little.

However, it only twitched a bit since its limbs were all cut off and attacking was impossible.

However, for it to not die even after its heart has been pierced.

Edward stuck his tongue out as if he was astonished.

“This is…… a guy with quite some life force.”

“I think it’s more the invincibility than the life force.”

“Invincibility?”

“Yeah. It doesn’t die before the leader dies. That’s why it’s still alive even after having its limbs cut off and his heart penetrated I suppose.”

“I see.”

“It won’t return to the void since it’s still alive. Ah. They said that items don’t appear in this dungeon in the first place.”

It was still uncertain as to whether it was connected to the Alpha system or not.

But well, since I obtained an ability called Armor Penetration it can be said that I got a much larger harvest.

Beep.

A transmission came from Dr. Suresh belatedly.

[We have located the leader!]

“You didn’t contact in an entire hour. How did that happen?”

[The transmitter isn’t perfect yet. We have tried to contact you several times but…….]

“Well, it’s fine. Where is the leader?”

[For now, go straight through the passage…….]

I started thinking while listening to Dr. Suresh’s explanation.

It might be possible that these people knew the existence of the Mantis. There’s the fact that communication was cut off for an hour and it was suspicious that the transmission got reconnected as soon as the Mantis was caught.

However, I decided to be tricked for now.

If the place I’m at is a dungeon, then I am able to survive through any situation using the Immortality + Escape Scroll combo after all.

I slowly traveled through the dark passage. A knocking sound could be heard from behind my back.

It was the sound of the Mantis with its limbs cut off hitting the ground while moving. I looked momentarily to see if it regenerated its own body and attack but it seems it doesn’t have such abilities.

But I put Edward at the back just in case.

A 2 way passage appeared.

[To the right.]

I moved on Dr. Suresh’s command without a word.

It was clear that the laboratory could see the inside of the dungeon like it was the back of their hand. How I’m fighting, where I am, and what kind of conversation I was having seemed to be clear to them.

It didn’t quite become a reason to suspect Dr. Suresh but it was difficult to believe that communication was cut off just during the battle with the Mantis.

However, there was no reason to put me into danger here when you think about it.

Maybe if I had already installed the Space Expansion Marble. There should be a mountain of things they should gain from me so there was no need to pointlessly put me in danger or use me as a guinea pig in an experiment and make me mad.

Half in doubt.

It would be possible to make a conclusion once I got to the end of this dungeon.