Translator: Nox
Chapter: 14 (Part 1)
Chapter Title: Toadfire Eggs
Toadfire Eggs
That question was somewhat expected. From the perspective of a monster like Guu, how would a chimera hunter like himself appear?
Just as Cheon Dowoon was about to answer, Kim Nari picked Guu up into her arms.
“Ahjussi, what did Guu say?”
“He asked what I really am.”
“Oh. Guu doesn’t know yet. Ahjussi is a native here.”
A brief silence followed her innocent reply. Cheon Dowoon couldn’t help but chuckle, surprised by her answer.
If she asked about his tribe’s name, maybe he should jokingly say the Mango Tribe—just to match the Coconut Tribe vibe.
Amused by the thought, he gently nudged Kim Nari’s back.
“We’re heading to the volcanic zone. If you want to come, go get ready.”
“I’m going! I’ll go with you, Ahjussi!”
With an excited face, Kim Nari ran off. Once she was gone, Cheon Dowoon turned to Guu.
“You probably figured as much already, but I’m a chimera hunter. I can understand you most likely because my body contains cells from your species.”
—So you really were a chimera hunter… But your appearance… No, never mind.
It wasn’t polite to pry. Guu remembered that common courtesy and cut himself off mid-sentence.
That reaction slightly surprised Cheon Dowoon.
“That’s all you have to say?”
—Yes. Why?
“It’s just unexpected. I thought you’d be bothered by it.”
Guu tilted his head, as if to ask, “Why would I be?”
That kind of response was strange to Cheon Dowoon.
Most people avoided chimera hunters. There was always prejudice—fear that they might suddenly lose control.
And that fear wasn’t entirely unfounded. There had been incidents caused by chimeras fused with monsters, after all.
Having spent half his life under that stigma, Cheon Dowoon found Guu’s reaction refreshing.
—And it’s not like I’m clueless. I’ve seen plenty of hunters’ memories. I know what a chimera hunter is.
No one would willingly volunteer for such a deadly experiment.
Human experimentation was banned by law.
Yet somewhere, such experiments were still carried out on living humans. Guu looked at Cheon Dowoon.
—You must’ve been a victim too. I don’t intend to blame you for using the cells of my kind.
In fact, there was no reason to blame him.
—As you probably know, most monsters have little to no concept of kinship. Even if I’m intelligent, that part hasn’t changed.
Monsters didn’t hesitate to devour one another when hungry. Forget kinship—survival came first.
Sure, there were some species with stronger familial bonds, but Guu’s kind wasn’t one of them.
To him, Cheon Dowoon—someone he shared meals and a home with—was far more important than monsters he’d never met.
When Cheon Dowoon didn’t say anything, Guu cleared his throat.
—Anyway. If you’re going to the volcanic zone, I’m coming too.
“You too? I can understand Kim Nari, but that place is dangerous—even monsters tend to avoid it. Are you sure?”
—No problem. I’m originally from the volcanic zone.
Cheon Dowoon was surprised by the unexpected answer—but also nodded in understanding. No wonder Guu radiated such an unusual energy.
If he hadn’t lost his power, he’d likely be at least an A-Class monster—maybe even stronger.
If he showed up in the human world, the Hunter Association might trigger a disaster-level siren.
‘I’d like to see what he looks like at full power.’
Cheon Dowoon gave Guu a pat before stepping out of the house.
“Alright, let’s all go together. With the three of us looking, we’ll find it in no time.”
He grinned. Thus began their mission to find glowstones—the magical “fluorescent lights” to brighten up their home.
* * *
Past the forest zone where Cheon Dowoon lived lay a dry, barren plain.
The forest was unusually hospitable for the Demon Realm. The barren land beyond—that was its true face.
Of course, saying the forest was “hospitable” was purely from Cheon Dowoon’s perspective.
To hunters, the forest zone was a place to avoid—swarming with monsters.
—I’ve got a question. We’re getting these glowstones just to brighten up the house, right?
“Exactly.”
Guu, perched on Cheon Dowoon’s shoulder, tilted his head in confusion.
—Then why not just go through a gate and buy something like that? A lantern, flashlight, or whatever. When you were sorting your supplies earlier, I saw you had quite a few return stones.
“That’s true. But where’s the romance in that?”
“Romance?”
“And it wouldn’t be any fun.”
“Fun.”
“I want to build my home entirely with my own hands. That’s more fun, isn’t it?”
Guu tilted his head. He couldn’t understand why anyone would choose the hard way when there was an easier option.
‘Or maybe... this *is* the easy way for him.’
From Cheon Dowoon’s perspective, whether there was “romance” or not didn’t matter—it was all easy either way.
They had been running for an hour since leaving the forest zone when they finally came to a stop.
“We’re here.”
Before them spread a new terrain.
The ground was cracked like it had suffered a long drought, and lava flowed through the fissures. Wisps of green toxic gas drifted upward as an added bonus. Bursts of molten lava occasionally leapt skyward, evoking a hellish landscape.
‘So this is what the volcanic zone looks like.’
Cheon Dowoon looked around with interest.
He had visited once during his time as a chimera hunter, but his memories from that mentally broken period were mostly blurred.
‘I only came here back then because I got lost.’
Even chimera hunters infused with monsters were engraved with commands to avoid high-density magical zones. Their resistance to magic wasn’t much different from that of ordinary hunters.
The fact that Cheon Dowoon was completely unaffected made him a true outlier.
“Where would the glowing stones be buried, I wonder. Guu, don’t you know anything? You’re from around here.”
“Hmm… all I know is that they’re supposed to be near lava.”
Guu tilted his head again.
“Come to think of it, how do people even know that glowing stones come from the volcanic zone? No one can even enter this place.”
“Oh, that. They probably found out by accident. Was it thirty years ago? A gate opened, and lava poured out. The gate had opened inside a volcanic crater.”
A naturally occurring gate.
Unlike the artificial gates created to travel between realms, natural gates opened randomly—no one could predict when, where, how big, or for how long they would remain open.
Sometimes monsters poured out. Sometimes seawater. Sometimes dirt.
If lucky, nothing would come through at all before the gate closed.
The day lava poured through one such gate was a day of hell.
A gate opened in the sky and stayed open for twelve days, spewing lava waterfalls.
An entire city was wiped off the map.
No matter how many powerful hunters gathered, they were powerless before that natural disaster.
“Apparently, some glowing stones came down with the lava.”
“I see. So that’s when people discovered their origin.”
Currently, there are eight known glowing stones in the human world.
All were recovered during that lava incident. No one has ever successfully mined them.
“Glowing stones emit white light, so they should be easy to spot. Let’s spread out and search. But don’t go too far.”
“Okay!”
Kim Nari and Guu each headed in opposite directions.
“Guess I’d better get started too.”
Where could the glowing stones be? Cheon Dowoon walked off, scanning his surroundings.
* * *
Kim Nari and Guu were searching the flatland. Cheon Dowoon headed for a slightly raised volcanic crater.
It wasn’t very tall—about the height of a three-story building.
But the crater’s circumference stretched over a kilometer in diameter.
“Pretty deep.”
Inside, lava boiled dozens of meters below. Peering into the crater, Cheon Dowoon grinned.
“Found it.”
Embedded along one part of the crater wall—glimmering stones. They were clearly glowing stones.
Fortunately, a protruding rock ledge sat right beneath it, perfect as a foothold.
The problem? There was already someone there.
A one-meter-long giant toad squatted on the ledge.
It was a Toadfire, the same kind of monster that had belched flame from Cheon Dowoon’s hands when he’d once burned a ramen packet.
This one drank lava and breathed fire—and it had claimed that ledge.
Long ago, the corpse of a Toadfire that had fallen into the human realm through a gate ended up in a research lab, and its cells were implanted into Cheon Dowoon.
‘It looks like it's sitting on something under its belly. What is that?’
He tried to get a better look, but the toad’s massive body obscured it.
The toad glared at Cheon Dowoon and then leapt into the air. When its heavy body landed, the ground shook.
It had aimed to crush him, but Cheon Dowoon had already dodged and was gone from the spot.
“What a hassle.”
Cheon Dowoon shot thread from his fingertips. It wrapped tightly around the entire toad’s body.
He also bound its mouth to prevent it from spewing lava.
If he pulled now, it would be shredded into dozens of pieces. But Cheon Dowoon stopped just short.
His gaze landed on something at the rock ledge where the toad had been.
‘Egg sacs...?’
The toad had been carrying three egg sacs under its belly.
-Grrrk!
The toad thrashed violently when Cheon Dowoon discovered the eggs. It was trying desperately to divert the predator’s attention toward itself.
Its logic was simple: if the predator ate it, it would be too full to eat the eggs and leave.
Most monsters lack any sense of kinship. Naturally, they don’t have familial instincts either.
But among such monsters, the Toadfire of the volcanic zone was a rare breed possessing both kinship and maternal instincts.
Cheon Dowoon stared at the toad, then jumped down onto the rock ledge. The increasingly anxious toad let out a deafening roar, still bound in threads.
-Grrrk! Grrrrrrrk!
The roar alone could rupture the eardrums of an ordinary person.
To Cheon Dowoon, it sounded like a plea—eat me instead of the eggs.
He picked up the three egg sacs. The gelatinous sacs contained hundreds of small eggs clustered together.
‘Strange. No matter how well-adapted it is to the volcanic zone, it shouldn’t be nesting inside a crater.’
Cheon Dowoon slung the egg sacs over his shoulder and returned to the toad.
“Ajusshi!”
Outside the crater, Kim Nari and Guu had gathered after hearing the toad’s roar.
-That sound earlier—was it from a fight with that monster?
“Not exactly. I found that thing nesting where the glowstones were.”
Cheon Dowoon pointed to the ledge where he’d seen the toad. Guu immediately understood the situation.
-The eggs must’ve fallen.
“So that wasn’t its actual nest.”
-Right. Toadfires are a species that carry their eggs on their backs. Even after they hatch,
the young ride on their parent’s back for a while. If the eggs were inside the crater, it must’ve been due to a predator attack.
The extreme heat from the lava had melted the adhesive on the egg sacs, making it impossible to reattach them.
Using its mouth to move them wasn’t an option either. Toadfires generated lava in their salivary glands.
In the end, the toad chose to protect the eggs with its own body.
It shielded the eggs beneath its belly, secreting mucus from its skin to keep them moist.
Cheon Dowoon examined the toad. Its skin was cracked and peeling from dehydration.
‘Monsters from the volcanic zone are supposed to be heat-resistant.’
If even such a monster’s skin had cracked this badly, it meant it had endured inside that crater for a very long time.
Hours. Days. Maybe even months.
Driven by sheer will to protect its eggs, it had stayed in place without eating or drinking.
It knew it would die once the hatchlings were born. It wouldn’t have the strength to climb out of the crater and would fall.
Its instincts warned it, but it refused to move.
The newborns would be healthy and would easily leap out of the crater on their own.
Clinging to that hope, the toad had accepted its fate long ago.
-What will you do with the eggs?
Guu asked. The toad, still bound in thread, couldn’t take its eyes off the egg sacs Cheon Dowoon held.
