Kyaaaack!"
The situation was dire.
Screaming sounds echoing everywhere.
An emergency evacuation order blaring relentlessly.
Multiple mist bundles suddenly appeared and continued to create new victims.
"If this continues, we'll end up like them!"
Assistant Lim shouted.
The mist bundle was not a monster that could be caught at his level.
Furthermore, of all things, the mist bundle was a presence that triggered his most painful trauma.
Thunk!
"Huh? Where are you going, Assistant Lim!"
Suhoh was startled.
Assistant Lim, the only hunter in this place, was running away!
Assistant Lim, who barely avoided the mist bundle's attack, was alone and escaped outside the exhibition hall.
Should he follow him?
Suhoh hesitated for a moment, then moved his body.
However, his direction was the opposite of Assistant Lim's.
Thump!
Suhoh ran to the corner of the exhibition hall and picked up a fire extinguisher.
"I don't know if this will work, but…."
He couldn't run away leaving others behind.
Suhoh ran towards where the mist bundles were gathering, holding the fire extinguisher.
Scream!
White powder sprayed and covered the mist bundles.
[Growl!]
Of course, it was an attack that didn't contain magic power, so there would be no significant damage.
However, it was not difficult to temporarily suppress their firepower.
"For now, it's done."
Fortunately, Suhoh confirmed that the fire extinguisher was effective, so he continued to move the end of the fire extinguisher and sprayed other mist bundles.
Scream!
[Growl!]
[Roar!]
Meanwhile, he looked around.
Suhoh found a fallen friend and supported him.
"Are you okay?"
"Sniff."
My friend's face was covered in tears and snot.
"Hey, snap out of it!"
Suho shook his body, but his eyes remained vacant.
Slap!
Even if it meant hitting him, I forced him to come to his senses.
"Su, Suho?"
My friend's eyes finally regained focus.
Suho's gaze briefly flickered downward.
"Did you sprain your ankle?"
"Let's get out of here for now."
Suho quickly surrounded my friend.
Thanks to the fire extinguisher, the movement of the mist bundles had temporarily weakened. There was no opportunity to escape except now.
"Sob. What about Professor Jo?"
My friend, who was being carried by Suho, asked tearfully.
If you were an art student, you knew that Professor Jo was a Hunter. But he was nowhere to be seen in this urgent situation.
"Weren't you requesting support from the Hunter Association earlier?"
There was no need to say more after that.
Suho's words made my friend breathe a sigh of relief.
We left the exhibition hall.
But leaving the hall was not the end.
The outside was even more chaotic.
Zoom!
[Growl!]
"I can't believe it didn't just stay in the exhibition hall."
Suho chewed on his lips.
It seemed like the entire museum was filled with mist bundles.
"It's a breeding-type beast. It's really nasty."
I thought all we had to do was get out of the exhibition hall.
"Aah!"
"Help me…!"
"When is the Hunter coming?"
People were trembling everywhere.
The Korean University Art Museum building had obvious passageways.
Stairs and elevators.
But mist bundles were wandering down every path.
"If we go like this, people will be in danger."
Suho quickly assessed the situation.
All escape routes were blocked, and the number of monsters was increasing.
If things continued like this, he didn't know what scared people would do.
Jumping out of the window was not an option, and blindly rushing out would only make the situation worse if someone turned into a monster.
"If I can provide them with some means of self-defense, maybe it will help."
Suho lifted up the fire extinguisher he had brought and shouted, "Attention, everyone!"
A few people who were trembling with fear looked at Suho.
"We have a way to fight against the monsters!"
"...!"
More people turned their heads in their direction at those words, and saw the fire extinguisher in Suho's hand.
"Ah, I see!"
"Right! With a fire extinguisher….!"
"We can kill the monsters!"
The eyes of the previously frightened people sparkled with hope.
Suho felt uneasy.
'Well, I can't really kill them. But does it really matter?'
For now, it was important that he had given them hope.
The people scattered to find fire extinguishers.
"I found one!"
"I found one too!"
Those who found fire extinguishers cheered.
Those who couldn't find any started to think. There couldn't have been that many fire extinguishers on one floor in the first place.
But it was enough for now.
Suho shouted to them, "You don't all need to carry fire extinguishers! Those with fire extinguishers, follow me!"
The faces of those with fire extinguishers fell.
Now he realized that he had inadvertently placed the burden of fighting on those with fire extinguishers.
Suho stepped forward and aimed the fire extinguisher at the mist.
Chwaaaaaa!
Action was now more important than words.
The firepower of the mist had visibly weakened.
The faces of those who saw this became brighter.
"We can beat them!"
"Great! Me too!"
Chwaaaaaa!
They gained confidence and began spraying fire extinguishers.
"Great! Let's keep pushing forward like this!"
Suho continued to lead the charge, pushing the mist back, with people following cautiously behind him down the stairs.
At that moment,
[Kraaaaah!]
The problem was that the mist bundles were also attacking from behind.
"Ahhh!"
"There's more behind us!"
People who were barely stabilizing themselves were thrown back into panic.
Urgh!
People were running down the stairs in a frenzy of fear.
Suh-oh bit down on his teeth.
"We're almost there."
If they kept going like this, they would all collapse on the stairs together.
Suh-oh let his friend go down, saying,
"Okay, from now on, you can go by yourself, right?"
"Huh? What about you?"
His friend looked at Suh-oh in bewilderment.
Suh-oh shouted to the people holding fire extinguishers.
"I'll take care of the back, so please make way for the people in the front!"
"Okay, got it!"
Finally, Suh-oh turned around and went back up the stairs.
"I don't know what I'm doing."
A blind person was pretending to be a hunter.
But there was nothing he could do.
His body moved first.
Shwaaaaah!
Suh-oh's fire extinguisher attacked the mist bundle that was coming from behind.
Then, suddenly, it stopped.
"…Huh?"
[What happened?]
The powder that was being sprayed with great force suddenly stopped.
At the same time, the mist bundle that was relentlessly pushing them back and Suh-oh's eyes awkwardly met in mid-air.
"Ha."
Suh-oh laughed bitterly.
"We're screwed."
[Kraaaaaah!]
The mist bundle attacked Suh-oh.
Vroom!
A blue smoke engulfed him.
And that too multiplied into a new mist bundle…
At that moment.
Shu-waaaah!
[…?!]
The mist bundles finally faced each other.
The deep, dark abyss that lay within Suh-oh.
The Mist Borne, born from the remnants of magical power, was a feeble creature that moved only by instinct. At the same time, if there was enough fuel, it could become incredibly powerful and endlessly multiply, making it a troublesome beast.
So, what was the best fuel for it?
Living creatures, and humans with abundant vitality were the best fuel, burning like dry firewood.
In that sense, the Guardian was an unparalleled prey for the Mist Borne.
However, at that moment,
"Shwaack!"
As the Guardian was devoured by the Mist Borne,
it was swallowed up by the abyss-like darkness within the Guardian's body.
[…Kra?]
The bewildered Mist Borne looked around.
There was an endless abyss all around it.
But then, from the deepest part of the abyss, someone was looking at it.
The Mist Borne snarled fiercely, emitting blue smoke.
[Kraah! Kraa! Kraa…?]
But no matter how much it barked, there was only an empty echo.
Suddenly, the Mist Borne realized that it was not just someone in the abyss looking at it, but rather the entire massive abyss itself was looking down at it with saliva dripping from its mouth, like a delicious meal.
[Kyaaak?!]
Startled, the Mist Borne tried to flee, but the abyss opened its mouth wide.
Puh-shik.
"…Huh?"
The Guardian looked puzzled.
The Mist Borne, which had just attacked it, suddenly dispersed into the air.
And the human body that it had possessed was reduced to ashes and crumbled to the ground.
But then…
[The Mist Spawn has been defeated.]
[You have fulfilled the completion conditions of the 'Secret Quest: Courage of the Weak'.]
"…What?"
Suddenly, a message appeared in front of Suho's eyes, causing them to widen in surprise.
[Your level has increased!]
Flash!
A bright light enveloped Suho's entire body.
Suho's friend, Kim Daehyun, managed to barely escape outside of the art museum.
Thump.
As soon as he stepped outside, his legs gave out, and he collapsed weakly.
Daehyun's gaze instinctively searched for Suho, but he was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Suho? Have you seen him?"
"Who's that? Oh, the guy who was fighting with a fire extinguisher earlier?"
People remembered the student who had bravely fought with a fire extinguisher, but there was no sign of Suho.
Someone hesitantly spoke up.
"He went back up to help some others escape."
"Wha… he's still in there?"
The crowd murmured in shock.
Someone muttered with a glimmer of hope in their voice.
"But he's a Hunter, he'll be okay, right?"
"Suho's not a Hunter!"
Daehyun shouted desperately, his voice filled with urgency.
His words were even more shocking.
"What? He's not a Hunter?"
"He's not even a Hunter, how could he…!"
All eyes turned towards the art museum.
Suho was… still trapped inside, unable to escape.
Just then, the Hunters arrived after receiving a report.
"Over here!"
It was Im, the assistant professor, who had fled first and led the Hunters back to the scene.
Im breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that everyone had managed to escape the art museum unharmed.
"Thank goodness. Everyone made it out safely."
"I convinced myself that choosing the best way as a Class E Hunter, but when I saw people, I felt guilty that I was cowardly.
"But how did everyone else make it out?" The hunters who came with Instructor Lim looked at the people with curious expressions.
In such an isolated space, where Mistborn appeared, how could so many people have survived? It was fortunate, but they were curious about the circumstances.
"More importantly, there are still people trapped inside!" Daehyun shouted urgently.
"Suho is still in there…!"
"Suho? Suho is still inside?" Instructor Lim turned her head to the art museum in surprise.
"If it wasn't for Suho, we would all be dead!" Daehyun's words made everyone's expression grim.
The hunters asked curiously, "Is this Suho a hunter? What is his rank?"
"He's…an ordinary person."
"What? How could an ordinary person…?"
As the hunters were about to ask for more details, a ominous sound echoed from the art museum.
"….!" Everyone turned their heads in that direction.
Dark magical power surged over the museum building.
"Oh no. Has corrosion begun?"