Hindriad's merciless attack was a few metres away from Jain and with the injuries he had , he knew he would be done for if he got hit.

Jain felt his power strength and speed increase once more and thanks to that , he jumped to the side - barely avoiding the deadly attack from the humanoid monster which aimed to claim his life. Jain didn't know if it was because of the power because he could barely feel the pain from his wounds , however , this enabled him to move unhindered.

The monster lunged at him almost immediately after he dodged , it was relentlessly throwing fierce punches and kicks which Jain could barely avoid , this time Jain was not foolish as before - choosing to tank the attacks. The more Jain stared at the monster which increased the ferocity of it's attacks - the more Jain was convinced the thing was once human.

All factors Jain had collected pointed him to that truth , but there was a little problem in this reasoning -

if the Queen had the ability to convert humans into monsters then why was there only one converted human ? it surely felt reassured with an army of every type of monster under its control judging by its swarm of ants, and if it had a trump card like this , why didn't it use it from the start because monsters tended to go all out if they feel the slightest threat from an enemy.

𝑼𝒏𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏-𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒄𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒍𝒚 , 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒆 - 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏'𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒉𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒅𝒖𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒐𝒏 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒖𝒔...

suddenly , the image of an egoistic hunter flashed in Jain's mind - a hunter which was supposed to accompany him but hadn't been seen ever since he left a while ago.

𝑰𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒏'𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒎 , 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒕 ? 𝑯𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒖𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈 - 𝒊𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒏'𝒕 𝒃𝒆 !

The humanoid monsters in front of him was undoubtedly Hindriad ; 'it' had taunted Jain when he was down , Jain was sure Hindriad was as scornful as that monster , even the monster was as tall as him , and the monster's ingenious to take down Jain with small attacks slyly was undoubtedly very similar to that of a human's.

Jain was knowledgeable to some degree , and he knew that insect type monsters couldn't just mimic the shape ,power or intelligence of a human right off the bat , certainly not in the country of Voz.

𝑨𝒍𝒍 𝑰 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒊𝒈𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒕 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇

It was easier said than done, Jain didn't even have the slightest plan to how to bring Hindriad back to his senses, heck, he didn't even know if he could bring him back.

This type of problem-solving was for veterans and geniuses like Vin , but unfortunately, he was currently engaged in a battle - Jain had caught a glimpse of him leading the large numbers of ants to who knew where , before he disappeared from his vision.

Jain hadn't made an impactful move yet despite having the power to allow him to counterattack , all he was doing was jumping back around the place to create distance between him and the monster-fied Hindriad.

He was hoping to salvage the situation without having to resort to violence , because he didn't know what other tricks it had up its sleeve

" Hey , you..you... uh? "

Jain found himself dumbfounded as he moved around , avoiding the monster's attacks. He actually didn't know what to say - what would he say to a monster like Hindriad who aimed to reap his life , would he even listen to him ? forget listening to him, was this monster Hindriad the same as the one before - did he have a shred of humanity and self-consciousness left?

A few minutes passed after Jain tried to engage a conversation with Hindriad who was presumably the monster.

Hindriad seemed to be losing his stamina as his jabs and kicks were becoming slower up until he completely stopped and simply stared back at Jain , screeching at him- Jain presumed that Hindriad wasn't in his right senses , or something had taken over him otherwise he wouldn't be attacking Jain to begin with.

From what he had seen so far, Hindriad was supposed to be Jain's protector or guide disguised as simply company to help him to get the 'Magic Core' , after all it wasn't really safe for Jain to be in the dungeon even if Violet could pull some strings and allow a low ranking hunter like him to be there.

𝑺𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑯𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒅 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒎𝒆.. 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒉𝒊𝒎.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

" You ,why are you attacking the person you're supposed to be protecting ? "

***

" You , why are you attacking the person you're supposed to be protecting? "

Hindriad heard a very familiar voice call out to him in the dark abyss of his shattered consciousness , the pieces slowly came back together and he regained a level of control over his own body , the control was only enough to temporally restrain himself for attacking the merchandise - that boy Infront of him , even though it'd be hard to with his drained stamina.

Hindriad remembered - remembered why he was there and remembered the large sum of stellars promised to him if he could protect the boy ,which was why he restrained himself from hitting the foolish looking boy.

" bring both the kid and the core without a single scratch on them and I just might make those 15 stellar coins a 100 "

The words replayed In his head like a broken record , making him realise the gravity of what that meant.

He quickly glanced at Jain with fear of the merchandise being damaged and alas, his fears were true. Jain was covered with blood and wounds , but they weren't deep as to become fatal just little shallow cuts on his arms and legs.

Ignoring the shallow cuts and slight bruises , the brat looked to be in good condition which shocked Hindriad to the core.

𝑯𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒃𝒆..

Hindriad remembered what the damn lady had said when he described the boy - " He is weaker than your average Hunter "

𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒈𝒖𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒌 ? 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂 𝒋𝒐𝒌𝒆 ! 𝑵𝒐𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒍 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒑𝒉𝒚𝒔𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒔 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒌 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒓𝒖𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒓𝒎 !

Hindriad could feel the pressure of Jain's aura as it majestically swayed around the place.

Jain stared at Hindriad with bright yellow eyes as if analysing him like a veteran warrior or as if he was thinking of several ways he could kill him.

Hindriad shivered.

𝑴𝒆 , 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 ? 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒍 !

Infact , Jain had gotten so strong that Hindriad couldn't think of a way that he could possibly defeat him - Hindriad's past self that is.

Right now , Hindriad had an awareness that he was several times stronger than himself from a day ago , however , he didn't take this newly accumulated power as his own. His own cells had been rearranged and his DNA merged with that of a monster insect. He was many levels physically stronger than his past self , which was what gave him a bit pride over surpassing his previous shackles in power , This also made him fume with a bit of anger - that brat easily surpassed his past-self as if it was child's play.

Hindriad knew that there was no way someone as strong as Jain could have been kept under wraps this whole time and only to be revealed now so he must have acquired his power very recently, after all as a high ranking hunter ,Hindriad had several connections and he knew each and every strong people in Voz through them - there was no way a small boy like Jain could have avoided his radar - which is why he was pissed at him.

It took several years of hard work and sweat for Hindriad to become a B+ hunter , yet this small brat surpassed him in what - a few months , weeks or days ?

The modified body reacted with his anger and Hindriad could feel his fingers twiddling involuntarily. His feet followed and walked forward towards Jain.

A strange fluid leaked from the slightly cracked razor sharp fingers of Hindriad.

Poison.

Any cornered monster will do everything to win against an enemy, even humans were like this - becoming shameless and cunning to get what they want.

Hindriad could feel the pull of his monster side getting stronger , it was only a matter of a few minutes or even seconds before it got out and lunged at Jain.

Hindriad tried to resist the control , but the harder he tried - the stronger the pull became. Hindriad knew that his genetic and physical modification definitely had something to do with that Insect Queen , he had known immediately after gaining his consciousness and finding himself enmeshed in slime after that Insect Queen fell on him that nothing good would come out of him trapped there.

Monsters didn't keep prey alive to begin with , they either ate it or left it after killing it so Hindriad instantly knew that the monster was up to something nasty.

Despite that , Hindriad was grateful that the modification had been boosted his power level and gave him quite the abled body, he now was undoubtedly an A rank now perhaps even higher. The problem was keeping his sanity with the gained power

Hindriad felt a bit of anger once more - He had been promised 100 stellar coins if Jain was returned without a scratch , Jain was already harmed to a certain degree where the cuts couldn't be called scratches no matter how insignificant they looked and even at that moment Hindriad's body was involuntarily trying to harm Jain even more , he would undoubtedly lose a large sum of stellar coins on if Jain returned wounded , he would have to forget getting any stellar coins if he brought him back with a missing limb.

" Grr...Run..Run....b.... "

Hindriad tried to warn Jain , he would be definitely he killed by the poisoned claws.

But his words all came out jumbled.

The poisoned claws had a potency of danger higher than the poison belonging to the murderous ants. Immediately after entering the body the poison attacked the cells ,most of the poison travelling to the organs , devouring them or rather breaking them apart as if it was acid.

A victim would die less than a minute after being attacked. Hindriad didn't know how he knew this , he guessed it was information which had been engraved with him during the process of being turned into a monster.

The boy seemed to be confused hearing Hindriad's words , Hindriad had no doubt his words sounded inaudible to him.

Suddenly and swiftly the monster side won over the body and used It lunge at Jain with the poison claws ready to kill him.

This time Hindriad didn't even lose consciousness and could only watch as if he had rented out his body.

Soon after the sound of crunching flesh followed - Hindriad's heart plunged into despair.