LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 2. Reincarnation (2)
Wait, this might be good instead?
I calmly reviewed the situation I was in.
Suddenly, a gigantic red bird appeared in the middle of the street. At the same time, this bird blocked the path of a child who was passing through an alley.
“Kyaaaaaaa!”
As the bird let out a tearing scream…
“Kyaaaahhh! Mooooom!”
Before long, a loud noise erupted.
The child instinctively ran away, bawling in tears, while the bird swiftly snatched the child’s backpack.
It had stopped the kid in an instant.
“Hiiik!”
But thankfully, the bird didn’t seem to be as hungry as I was.
The huge bird merely poked at the child with its beak, showing no signs of wanting to eat.
‘Amazing! There’s avian life in such a distant galaxy! That theory must be right! Creatures on planets with magic must share many similarities with us…!’
I watched their commotion, wrapped in excitement for a moment.
“Ugh.”
Still, I had to calm down.
After all, there was a bird right in front of me.
‘This body certainly must have the memory of the corpse. Yes. I’m capable of eating birds.’
Finally, I encountered a wild animal worthy of hunting.
And as the greatest Great Mage of the era, I was in a situation where I could kill that monster with just a cough.
‘Once I finish adapting to the magic power, this little planet will be easy to dominate.’
Then the remaining issue was the time it would take until I could use magic again…
“Huh?”
That moment.
I focused on the wings of the giant bird chasing the fleeing child. A strange shimmer could be seen near its feathers.
But that wasn’t all.
At the same time, I felt something rising from beneath my feet…
In other words, something emerging from the surface of this planet.
‘Ugh?’
A viscous, cold liquid.
The feeling of it brushing against every cell in my body.
‘This is…’
Magic power.
For the first time since my reincarnation, I sensed the magic power of the planet Earth.
“Is this the magic power of Earth?”
I yelled out loud.
Then I immediately prostrated myself on the asphalt, limbs spread out like a dog. I couldn’t help it.
Oh my gosh. Magic power of the planet Earth.
“This is?”
So much.
Too, too, too much!
“No wonder my adaptation is happening so fast. I felt the mana so quickly after only a few seconds of being here…!”
The adaptation period to magic power is the time it takes to perceive the mana of a new environment.
But there shouldn’t have been such a gap on Earth.
If other planets are like soaking your feet in a bucket-sized amount of mana, here you’re thrown into a pool of abundant mana!
“Unbelievable. Is this real? Heeek, how could such a treasure land exist?”
I was so moved I nearly buried my face in the ground.
A windfall!
In a place with such rich magic power, I could do anything!
But wait a moment.
“Ah.”
Just as I was lost in the sweetness of the magic power, I suddenly felt a quiet gaze from afar.
“Kkiiiik? Kkiruruk.”
“…”
When I finally looked back, the child and the monster bird had stopped their tussle and were staring at me blankly.
Yeah. That was fair enough.
A sudden appearance, screaming while crawling on all fours.
‘I drew attention for no reason.’
Ahem. I awkwardly stood up.
I was planning to slip away naturally just like that.
“Ah, ah…”
But the situation didn’t go that way.
Soon after, the child under the shadow of the monster bird opened his trembling mouth.
“Ajeossi!”
He looked directly at me and shouted.
And added a few more words.
“Pl… please help…”
The child’s voice was filled with fear, while the gigantic bird rolled its eyes and watched him closely.
“Help me!”
It seems Earthlings are taught to ask the passing adults for help if something dangerous happens.
Well, but why do you have to ask an alien like me for rescue?
“Help?”
“The monster… Please save me! Samchon.”
What if this alien wasn’t a great mage like me by chance?
I replied with a relaxed tone.
“Sure, I’ll help.”
The small Earthling looked up at me with a tear-filled expression, now relieved.
“But…”
However, that expression didn’t last long.
I pointed toward the translucent plastic bag in the child’s hands. The one he’d been happily eating before.
“If I catch that bird, will you give me that?”
“Huh?”
“That one! That one!”
There has to be give and take, right?
I said firmly, and the child looked perplexed before finally responding.
“Ice cream? Th-this is what I was eating…”
“Kieeeek!”
“I’ll give you! I’ll give it to you! Please save me!”
This was a bit unfair.
Just as the beast was crying, the child jumped forward in surprise.
‘Running with your back facing a predator?’
As he started rushing toward me, the gigantic bird flapped its wings and took to the air.
The monster bird soon swooped down toward the child at lightning speed, like an arrow.
“Hey! Move!”
I immediately stepped forward to protect the child. The gleaming claws of the grotesque bird were rushing toward my face, but I wasn’t scared.
‘Hah.’
As the number one Mage Commander who protected a planet, I could separate the bones and flesh of that thing with just a flick of my hand… oh, but no magic is coming out.
“Huh?”
That moment of hesitation was brief.
Contrarily to the confidently cast wind magic that failed…
The giant bird’s claws confidently tore through the brick wall nearby.
Bang!
Yeah. The loud noise I heard earlier was this sound.
“Kyaaaaaaaaa!”
The bird soared back into the sky.
And it began to circle over my head, screeching loudly.
While I was stepping forward, the child in a hat quickly made his escape.
Meaning, I became the new target of the monster.
“Hahaha, what is this? Nervous in a new environment? I’ve been through these kinds of situations before. Hahaha.”
I shrugged off the earlier mistake with a hearty laugh.
Then, I reached out again, casting magic towards the whirling monster.
Explosive magic, water-based, summoning magic, curses, everything.
After trying a myriad of spells in just 10 seconds, I finally realized.
“M-Magic isn’t coming out…?”
“Huh?”
This can’t be right! This shouldn’t happen! No, it can’t. I can’t use magic!
“Why? Why, of all things!”
With so much mana around? My incantation was definitely correct but nothing was happening!
That means…
“Kyaaaaa!”
I was now in the shadow of that gigantic (and presumably carnivorous) bird, with no means to protect myself.
“…”
The contemplation didn’t last long.
“Help me! Save me!”
“Kyaaaaa!”
I shouted for help just like that small Earthling as I dashed away.
What the hell!
“Kyaaaaa!”
“Crazy planet! What kind of trash planet has something like this roaming around?!”
I was really scared.
That enormous bird, whether it was hungry or just playing with the child, chased after me now with a ferocious intensity that was different from before.
Damn it, I can’t even use magic! How am I supposed to catch such a huge creature?
“Heeek!”
But those ugly struggles were brief.
I finally uncovered the source of the discomfort I felt since my reincarnation.
Kkiirrrrk!
A chilling wind sound echoed from above.
This sound was the giant bird descending, and its sharp beak could pierce the fragile body of the Earthling at any moment.
I was so scared that I ran even faster…
But suddenly, a terrible pain shot up from my right knee.
“Ugh!”
I crashed to the cement floor without warning.
That’s right. This body…
‘Has a disability in the leg…’
It shouldn’t have been running.
For a moment, my mind turned cold.
As the monster bird was about to pierce me with its beak, I fell on the flat ground with nothing around.
This is it.
“Cough…”
I reflexively squeezed my eyes shut.
Thud!
At that moment, a tremendous noise struck my ears. Along with the sound of something crunching that should be heard when a solid spike pierces through bone.
“Hiiik…!”
Huh?
“…Why doesn’t it hurt?”
Wait a minute, there’s no pain.
I opened my eyes that I had squeezed shut and was met with a shocking sight.
“Huh?”
Right above where my head had been, the monster bird was dangling down.
Upon closer inspection… its beak was stuck in the gray ground.
And given how rapidly it hit the ground, small craters surrounded the bird as if meteorites had fallen.
“Could it be…”
I kicked the fallen bird gently with my foot. But the bird showed no sign of moving, so my doubt quickly turned into certainty.
“Did it just bury its head in the ground all by itself?”
Is it a bird brain?
“Hah.”
This creature had zoomed in with the intent to pierce my upper body. At a terrifying speed.
Yet as I suddenly tripped in an open area, did it crash into the ground instead?
“Considering the angle it’s stuck, that’s exactly what happened?”
I looked dumbfounded at the dead bird, which had flown dangerously at an angle and crashed to the ground.
A bird that flies in such a dangerous manner and kills itself by burying its head into the ground?
I was almost eager to ask a scholar on Earth how such a foolish creature even came to be.
“Huh.”
Anyway, I was lucky it fell.
I sighed in relief. Just as I finally felt at ease, the pain I had forgotten returned.
“Ah!”
Gurgle. My stomach screamed.
Come to think of it, this all happened because I was trying to find food.
‘It must be edible, right?’
I carefully set about righting the fallen bird.
With no obvious place to grab, my hands naturally reached for the bird’s slender neck.
‘Since it is a species on the same planet, its amino acid structure must be…’
But just then, as I began observing the bird.
A commotion erupted from the corner of the alley.
Of course, I turned my head in the direction of the sound.
*
“Police Ajeossi! Hurry, hurry!”
“Ah! Don’t run ahead!”
“Some samchon took my place! We can’t be late!”
In the complicated alley of a studio apartment complex, three people were running.
The woman with black straight hair at the front furrowed her brows at the child’s voice.
‘There must have been a casualty.’
She was currently responding to a report and was on her way to the scene.
An incident had occurred where a C-Class Monster, the Beginner Killer, had escaped from a nearby gate.
‘Please, I hope I’m not late!’
The Beginner Killer, a bird monster that breeds in the sandy desert area gate.
The Beginner Killer was originally rated as a monster of about E-Class risk.
The reason being that it had a soft body, making it manageable with ordinary Earth weapons without magic.
However, the rating of the Beginner Killer was suddenly upgraded explosively at some point.
“Was the last confirmed location here?”
“Yes!”
“It’s dangerous, so you all stay here.”
The Beginner Killer, which had a foolish-looking face and soft body, lulled rookie hunters into complacency.
In reality, it was a beast capable of achieving speeds exceeding those of missiles.
Hunters below C-Class would die instantly without even a chance to see the monster coming.
“I’ll handle it…”
But at that moment, the hunter assigned to the association witnessed a peculiar scene at the scene.
“Huh?”
The gigantic, ominous bird known to have killed numerous hunters, the one with the title “Killer,” was now captured, dangling in the hands of a certain man.
“Y-You…?”
A monster whose speed was difficult even to follow with the eyes… had met its death at the hands of that chilly-faced human.
‘Could it be that he caught it and smashed it down to the ground?’
The hunter paused, instinctively scanning the dented ground surrounding him.
It was after that when his eyes locked onto the thin figure of the mysterious man.