62. Monsters (2)
Medusa ran wild, smashing all the Spartan warriors but one: Acrisius. Glaring at him, she swung her trident.
“Arghh!”
Managing to check her reflection on his shield, he avoided her attack, albeit barely.
That move amazed Jin-woo enough to make him admit how great it was. It showcased his excellent reflexes and his battle instincts that allowed him to apply his wisdom and knowledge of the surrounding terrain to his advantage immediately.
He looked like a typical hero. According to the Magic Eye of Information, he carried the blood of Zeus within him, but he wasn’t a direct descendant of him. Rather, it seemed that one of his ancestors was the god of thunder’s child.
When Acrisius entered the crevice of a boulder, Medusa hastily thrust her trident into it. Her curse and the Nectar she drank pushed her physical abilities to new heights, but her attacks remained fairly simple since she had never learned spearmanship from a professional. Her ability to petrify people often turned her opponents to stone, leaving her with few opportunities to gain experience in using it.
“Kiaaak!”
Medusa screamed fervently, but Acrisius remained calm. He lowered his posture in the cleft of the rock and began to say his prayers.
“Zeus, please grant me the strength to defeat this monster!”
[Zeus heeds Acrisius’ prayer.]
Lightning erupted from his sword, melting the boulder he was in. With his defenses gone, Medusa rushed in.
He raised his weapon, releasing a flash of lightning that temporarily blinded her.
Jin-woo shook his head at the sight, and Prof. Kim Dae-jin’s forehead wrinkled.
“That’s foul. Why do heroes always do dirty acts like that?”
“It’s just like watching a typical mythical story unfold.”
Defeating evil with the help of a god was all too common.
With Medusa unable to see him due to the dazzling light, Acrisius began his retaliation. He cleverly reflected the light emitted from his sword using his shield, focusing it on her face.
But Medusa was resilient. Her scales were thick and hard, and she had the ability to regenerate even from grievous wounds.
Jin-woo looked at her with the Magic Eye of Information.
[S]Medusa
‘Poseidon, you motherfucker.’
‘Athena, you evil witch.’
Medusa was the most beautiful and favored of Athena’s priests. However, Poseidon forced her to drink Nectar, putting her to sleep and ultimately leading her to become a monster due to the god’s interference.
Since Perseus cut off her head, her neck had become a weakness. Having lived before attached to a shield, she’s also developed a vulnerability to motion sickness.
She desires to kill Poseidon by stabbing him with a trident, the very symbol of the god of the seas.
*[S+] Curse of Petrification
*[S] Snake Body
*[B] Bad Luck
She was S-ranked, perhaps just below the level of an Emperor. Her physical abilities were indeed excellent, but her Curse of Petrification seemed to be the reason why her rank had risen so sharply.
Acrisius took the victory.
He moved quickly behind Medusa as she stumbled, knowing full well about her weaknesses.
Unlike the rest of her body, her neck had no scales, leaving her soft white skin exposed.
“Die, you monster!”
Just as Acrisius leaped and swung his sword against her neck, Jin-woo raised his hand slightly, shoving him away violently. His sword barely missed her neck.
Medusa looked at him in surprise. She then swiftly shifted her gaze to Jin-woo but stopped abruptly. Remembering her eyes would sting if she did, she couldn’t look at him properly.
“You look like you’re in trouble. Would you like me to help you?”
“Huh?”
“Feel free to pray to me.”
She blinked.
Acrisius grabbed his brilliant lightning sword and charged at her once more.
Poseidon abused her, turned her into a monster, and her death would be that of injustice. Even then, the gods treated her openly as prey.
She already sensed Jin-woo wasn’t just an ordinary person, and she was in a position to be hunted anyway. It wouldn’t cause her any more harm if she tried to trust him.
‘I’ll do anything… Help me!’
Acrisius reached Medusa before she knew it. However, the moment she closed her eyes tightly and prayed, a black wind blew around and protected her.
[The Evil God answers Medusa’s prayer.]
[Would you like to make a contract with the Evil God?]
A sweet voice rang in her ears.
When she nodded, Jin-woo smiled.
[Medusa has joined Team Ragnarok.]
[Medusa’s Curse of Petrification no longer affects anyone belonging to the Sanctuary.]
[The Evil God’s blessing begins to dwell in Medusa’s trident.]
Jin-woo bestowed immense amounts of power in her weapon. From its dull and crude state, it turned black and wriggled like a serpent.
Acrisius swung his sword towards her, who hurriedly thrust her trident forward in return.
At that moment, darkness broke out.
Quagga gaga!
Her mind blanked out, and Acrisius stiffened. He turned his head ever so slowly, his gaze landing behind her.
Clink!
The sight his eyes dawned upon made him drop his sword and shield on the floor.
The Serpent Forest had been blown away, and even the Spartan city a good distance away from them had been completely destroyed along with their military assets.
Medusa’s blank eyes and Acrisius’ shocked gaze met.
“Ah…”
Shriek!
Acrisius turned to stone and fell to the floor, giving the hero the futile and unfulfilling end.
After regaining her mind, Medusa threw her trident on the ground out of sheer fright and surprise.
“W-what is that? It scares me.”
Now left alone on the dirt, her weapon wobbled wildly. It was like watching an eel burn indefinitely. Prof. Kim Dae-jin held it up with both hands, looked at it with interest, then put it into his subspace.
Jin-woo took off his sunglasses and looked directly at her. When Medusa met his gaze, tears began to well up in her eyes. Even the snakes that served as her hair wept. It had been a very long time since she had gazed into someone else’s eyes like this.
Prof. Kim Dae-jin spread his hands and exclaimed, joyfully staring at her.
“Welcome to Team Ragnarok!”
“Ragnarok?”
“Yeah, we’re recruiting talented individuals like you.”
Medusa nodded but then hesitated. With her head slightly bowed, she glimpsed at Jin-woo.
“Am I not ugly?”
“Um, what…”
Jin-woo tried to answer but abruptly stopped talking.
She was beautiful, but her serpentine hair was honestly a bit disgusting. He thought about it for a while, hoping to find a solution, then took out a headband from his subspace.
“Come here.”
He gestured for her to move over to him.
He combed her snakes back with the headband, and Prof. Kim Dae-jin handed her the glasses that weakened the Curse of Petrification. Just flipping her sporadic snake hair back and making her wear glasses changed her appearance almost completely.
It became evident why Poseidon fell in love.
“Her hairdo now looks kind of reggae. It looks quite good with her, doesn’t it?”
“It does look pretty hip. Maybe you can be an idol now.”
She felt like a musician.
Medusa blushed and twisted around. It was the first compliment she had ever received since becoming a monster.
“Follow me. I’ll give you the strength and opportunity to destroy Poseidon.”
“Are you really going to?”
“Yeah, that’s why our team name is Ragnarok in the first place,” Jin-woo said, giving her an insight into their situation.
“Do you also have a grudge against Athena?”
“I was cursed not because of Athena, but because of the Temple of Athena’s rules. If the priests who broke the rules went to the underworld, she’d bring them back to the next world. I can’t forgive them for using my head as a weapon, but… I am willing to forgive her for cutting her hair.”
Her words moved Prof. Kim Dae-jin.
“That’s… That’s so nice of you.”
He began to cry.
Medusa hesitated but soon reached out and patted him on the back.
“I will make you the best of them all! Are you willing to follow me?”
“Huh? Oh, yes! Please!”
“Great! Our meeting will be legendary!”
The setting sun glinted behind the two.
Jin-woo watched them for a while, then took Perseus’ armor, got on the spaceship, and returned to base with Medusa. Since every subordinate of his belonged to the Sanctuary, they were all immune to her Curse of Petrification.
Medusa was impressed. Even when other people saw her, they didn’t think she was strange at all. She soon found out why.
“Hmm, its cooling efficiency is low. We need more coolers.”
“It lacks green too.”
“Well, then green smoke would be nice.”
“Good idea.”
The moment she saw the Underworld Conquerors, she realized how ordinary she was compared to them. There were also dragons all over the camp and an unidentified monster called Ferrora.
In particular, the general manager was a monster beyond her imagination.
“Medusa, right? Your slithers are noisy.”
“What?”
“Master likes silence. Fret not. I’ll provide you with etiquette education.”
The general manager took her away and trained her separately every now and then, and she received remodeling surgery from Prof. Kim Dae-jin for the rest of the time.
She shared the same room with Hercules, leading them to become quite friendly with each other.
Their transformations had been completed.
Hercules also became a member of Team Ragnarok. It would be quite a sight to see Zeus’ son destroying him.
He didn’t seem to mind it at all. Jin-woo even asked him once about it.
“Before I became a god, all they wanted me to do was die. And when I rose to their level, they kept making me do meaningless deeds, saying that it was for Olympus. My life in World Tree Land is far more valuable. After all, instilling hopes and dreams in young children is far more important than Olympus itself.”
Hercules’ generosity was immense!
The World Tree Land’s welfare impressed him, and he seemed to like what he was doing.
Above all else, he was the greatest hero to ever exist.
He had difficulty adjusting to his new reality, though he overcame it by working in the World Tree Land.
What the hell did the Olympians do to him? Considering Jin-woo’s battle against Persephone, he could make a rough guess.
Jin-woo decided to leave the low-ranked monsters to his subordinates and collect only the new-class beings himself. His next target was Typhon, who rested at the foot of Etna Volcano.
On Earth, he was a monster created by Gaia, the goddess of nature, and Tartarus, but the truth was a little different. He was a new-class being that appeared on his own in Tartarus.
Recruiting him would be no different than bringing all of his children to their side. Hercules killed most of them, but Jin-woo and Prof. Kim Dae-jin had a solution to that problem. If there was a soul in the underworld, it wasn’t even a matter of reviving it.
Prof. Kim Dae-jin and Medusa arrived in front of Jin-woo.
“Let’s go!”
“Whew!”
Prof. Kim Dae-jin shouted, clenching his fists, while Medusa clapped and cheered next to him.
Jin-woo examined her. Her headband was now a little bigger, and she was wearing a T-shirt with a smartphone in its chest pocket. Her glasses had also been replaced.
However, she showed no traces of modification. All that changed about her were external and aesthetic parts.
‘Well…’
He theorized her physical rank to have been raised significantly, but he didn’t attempt to identify her new abilities through the Magic Eye of Information. Doing so wouldn’t be any fun.
“This is the Team Ragnarok spaceship!” Prof. Kim Dae-jin exclaimed, proudly presenting a newly-built spacecraft. It was quite colorful and cartoonish, but its performance was equal to a more compressed modern battleship. It could even transform into a robot, but Jin-woo had already stopped listening to his explanation at that point.
“Let’s go for now.”
The sun was already setting.
Kidnapping Helios and making the sun chariot hover in the air indefinitely would keep the day eternal, but that would be cumbersome. Jin-woo got on the spaceship with them and headed to Etna Volcano.
“Ugh, motion sickness…”
Medusa bent down, the serpents on her head fainting and leaving their tongues sticking out.
Etna was an active volcano that constantly erupted lava, the cause of which was Typhon’s relentless rampages at the very bottom of it.
Typhon was also immortal because he was a god, which played against his favor. Anyone imprisoned and tormented with excruciating pain eternally would sooner or later break apart and be driven to insanity.
“Its volcanic field is quite large.”
“From the intel we gathered, it never stops erupting, it seems, yet the lava it pours never diminishes in quantity.”
Its volcanic field was as huge as a continent. A land of fire and ruin, neither gods nor humans dared approach it. A brilliant civilization once prospered around it, but they all perished the moment Zeus sealed Typhon down there.
“Let’s enter.”
“Are we going to be okay?”
“There is a barrier, but once we get past it, there shouldn’t be any problems.”
They entered Etna despite the explosions it exuded, knowing full well its high temperatures wouldn’t have any effect on their spacecraft. The spaceship ejected small spheres that began to explore their surroundings.
A holographic map immediately came to mind.
‘I think the genre has changed…’
Jin-woo laughed bitterly.
Soon enough, they detected a huge object deep inside Etna. It was three times larger than Arcana. According to the myths back on Earth, Typhon was tall enough to touch the stars, and spreading his arms would be enough for him to grasp the east and west ends, but he didn’t seem that huge.
Again, his myth had been exaggerated.
The spaceship approached the gigantic mass.
“That’s Typhon.”
A huge crust was crushing him and keeping him down. As lava continued to erupt and accumulate on top of it, its weight gradually increased.
In mythology, its upper body was described as human-like and its lower body akin to that of a snake’s, but it was just a winged giant. The magma congealing on his lower body was what made him look like a snake.
They landed on a hot rock next to him.
As soon as they disembarked from the spaceship, the scorching heat greeted Jin-woo, making him feel like he was in a sauna. Prof. Kim Dae-jin wore protective gear, and Medusa was just bare.
Medusa rushed out of the spaceship, seemingly delighted now that her motion sickness was gone.
“Aaaah! Zeus- Whoa!”
When he made a ruckus, magma surged. Barely able to push himself up, he got into a squatting position.
Typhon looked at Jin-woo.
“You… Did Zeus send you?”
The Titan stretched out its humongous hand and attacked him. However, with a light tap, Jin-woo made him stumble and collapse.
Typhon’s gaze filled up with anxiety and nervousness.
His opponent then released mana that, much to his surprise, froze the magma around him instantly. The scene made his reason return, which in turn swiftly made him realize he could never even touch the man in front of him.
“I’ll get you out of here and give you a chance to challenge Zeus. All I demand is your utter submission to me.”
“Zeus…!”
His face wrinkled when he heard the supreme god’s name.
“How are you going to get me out? I now have no tendons in my wrists and ankles. I can’t use my strength properly.”
Zeus had apparently taken those parts of him.
Listening to their conversation, Prof. Kim Dae-jin smirked, then intervened.
“Team Ragnarok will take care of that.”
“Team Ragnarok?”
“Yes, I am the leader of Team Ragnarok. And this is our first member, Medusa.”
The sudden introduction startled Medusa. In a fit of panic, she bowed to Typhon.
“Poseidon r-raped me and turned me into a monster. Come with us! Let’s get rid of the Olympian gods together!”
“… I take it you want to kill him as much as I want to kill Zeus.”
The deities’ victims could relate to each other’s experiences, allowing them to communicate quite deeply.
Typhon looked at Jin-woo.
“Alright, free me! If it means ending that bastard’s life, I’d gladly be a slave or anything you ask of me!”
“Then I shall establish our contract.”
Taking Typhon out of this place would finalize their contract. Fully aware of this fact, Prof. Kim Dae-jin smiled ever so slyly.
“Team Ragnarok’s first member, Medusa!”
“Yes, team leader!”
“It’s your time to shine.”
Medusa took off her t-shirt and removed her hairband. She then carefully removed her glasses and set them down on the floor.
Jin-woo wondered what she was up to.
Raising her gaze, she looked at the crust holding Typhon down.
Her snakes then stood up, their eyes glowing as red as hers. Prof. Kim Dae-jin stretched out his hand at that moment.
“Go!” He shouted.
Medusa opened her mouth wide and screamed, firing beams from her eyes. Her serpents opened their mouths as well, releasing dozens more beams.
Grugrugrurg!
Everything their attack touched became petrified. Soon enough, the crust that had been holding the Titan down turned to dust.
The sight made Jin-woo blank out.
Typhon reacted similarly, unable to close off his jaw.
“What…?”
“Uh-huh! I call it Petrification Beams!”
They created it by combining the Curse of Petrification and a small mana engine!
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