I Was Kidnapped By The Strongest Guild
Chapter 458: Divine Beast Battle

"Who should we take with us! Can you guess! Ding dong deng dong!"

Levinas sang as she chose which divine beast to take to the dungeon.

The one pointed to on "ding dong deng dong" was none other than the wolf divine beast.

Just as the wolf divine beast jumped up with joy, Gaeul continued Levinas's song.

"Deng du!"

With Gaeul's "deng du," Levinas's finger moved over two more times.

That's how the flaming black horse that Saebyeok was riding got selected.

"Whine..."

The wolf divine beast's ears drooped.

The other divine beasts that weren't chosen also showed their disappointment.

Feeling sorry for them, Bom approached me and whispered.

"Gyeoul, why don't we just take all of them with us?"

"I'd like to, but if we move as a group, we might startle people. There are so many large divine beasts."

"I see."

"That's why."

Unfortunate as it was, we should only take about three today.

Just as I was about to select the next divine beast, the black horse Saebyeok was riding raised its front legs.

"I have a good idea."

"A good idea?"

"Yeah. We could use magic to make the divine beasts smaller."

"Oh..."

That was a good idea.

I looked at Bom, master of transformation magic, but she just scratched her cheek.

"Unfortunately, it would be hard for me to maintain it with my mana."

"What if we lend you our mana?"

"Then Gyeoul wouldn't be able to fight properly in the dungeon."

That was true.

Thoughtlessly lending mana could leave us without any in a crisis situation.

'So shrinking them with magic isn't an option.'

That's disappointing.

Maybe it would be best to just take three after all.

As I was about to choose the divine beasts again, Saebyeok tapped my shoulder.

"What about the straw?"

"Straw... ah!"

Right, there was the straw Levinas had made that could shrink things.

Would the magic straw work on divine beasts too?

I approached Gaeul's backpack and opened it.

I was looking for the straw that should be somewhere in the bag, but it was so full of items that I couldn't find it.

"Gaeul, what's this?"

I discovered a red ball of yarn while rummaging through the bag.

The thumb-sized ball of yarn was so tangled that it was impossible to untangle.

"Pwetty."

"It's pretty?"

"Yeash."

Gaeul placed the red ball of yarn on top of her head.

For Gaeul, the red yarn seemed to be a sort of accessory.

"Yes. It's very pretty. You look like Princess Gaeul."

"...!"

Was she happy to be called a princess?

Gaeul jumped up with excitement.

I patted her head before continuing to search through her bag for the straw.

"Gaeul, what's this?"

A round pebble came out of Gaeul's bag.

I thought it might be a stone with precious memories, but Gaeul said something unexpected.

"Masta ishigoomah?"

"...I'm not sure?"

"Uing?"

"Huh?"

What was that about?

Maybe Gaeul had put it in her bag and forgotten about it.

Since it could be a precious stone to her, I put it back in the bag.

After searching through the bag for a while, I finally found the long straw.

It was the straw enchanted with Levinas's magic.

"Levinas, can we use this to make the divine beasts smaller?"

"Don't know!"

"You don't know?"

"Yeah! Levinas will try it!"

Levinas took the straw I handed her and approached the divine beasts.

She stuck the straw into the large bird divine beast, the Forest Keeper, and sucked hard.

Sluurrp-

The massive Forest Keeper shrank without limit.

From container-sized to car-sized, and then to pigeon-sized.

The Forest Keeper, now smaller than us, flapped its wings.

"Wow, it really shrank."

We made all the divine beasts in the park smaller.

The problem was that while their size had decreased, their appearance hadn't become younger.

Fortunately, Bom solved that problem.

"In this state, changing them to look younger won't use much mana."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Because they're small."

Bom's black mana flew toward the divine beasts.

Though the black mana might have looked scary, the divine beasts remained still.

"Whine?"

And so, baby divine beasts were created through Bom and Levinas's combined magic.

Now we could take all of them to the dungeon without any problems.

**

Yoon Hyunseo and Han Taehwi of the White Snow Guild.

They swallowed hard as they stared at the shimmering portal.

"I never thought we'd be tackling a level 4 dungeon by ourselves."

"We've grown a lot recently..."

Despite having the skills to clear a level 4 dungeon, they couldn't shake off their nervousness.

After all, in many ways, adventurers who cleared level 4 dungeons were called "real adventurers."

"Shall we... go?"

A sudden commotion made them miss their timing to enter the dungeon.

Why was everyone suddenly acting this way?

The two White Snow Guild members turned to look at what had caught everyone's attention.

'Huh?'

Children running energetically from the distance.

Yoon Hyunseo and Han Taehwi knew them.

They were fellow Academy students and the beloved children of Yeomyeong Guild - Gyeoul and her friends.

"Woaaah!"

"Hehe."

Behind the smiling, running children followed a bunch of animals.

Including the children, they were numerous enough to be called the twelve zodiac animals.

'...I wonder if there's a dragon.'

Yoon Hyunseo and Han Taehwi looked at each other, shrugged, and approached the children.

"Hey, kids."

"Ah!"

Gyeoul spotted them and ran over.

Looking closely, there was a small turtle sitting on Gyeoul's head.

"Gyeoul, what's with all these animals?"

"They're all divine beasts."

"Divine beasts?"

"Yes. They protect the beast-kin."

"Oh..."

Though they didn't fully understand, they got the impression it was something impressive.

After examining each divine beast, Yoon Hyunseo extended her hand to Gyeoul.

"Gyeoul, want to hunt together? It's been a while."

"Huh? Is that okay? I have a lot of companions today..."

"Gyeoul's companions are always welcome."

They weren't here to make money today anyway.

Yoon Hyunseo decided to join the children.

It was nice to occasionally meet like this in the dungeon since they frequented the same areas.

"Then I'll go get the entry permit."

"Okay."

Gyeoul went to the civil servant to get permission to enter.

Despite having sixteen divine beasts with her, she passed through easily thanks to Yeomyeong's name.

It's Yeomyeong, so there must be something special about them.

That's what everyone watching the divine beasts thought.

"Shall we go in now?"

"Yes."

As they all crossed through the portal, a vast wasteland appeared before them.

Dead grass, yellow clay soil, and rocks.

This was the territory of Tau, the bull monster that rammed everything with its massive horns.

"Kids, Tau is very strong and violent, so be careful, okay? Try to avoid the color red."

Yoon Hyunseo explained the dungeon to the children.

She added that they should be wary of Tau's horns, which were specialized for close combat.

"Are Taus very ferocious?"

"Yes. They're extremely violent and will charge at us as soon as they spot us."

Yoon Hyunseo led the children while acting as a protector of sorts.

Perhaps because the dungeon was so vast, they spotted monsters in the distance after crossing a small hill.

"Watch, I'll show you how to hunt Tau..."

Just as Yoon Hyunseo and Han Taehwi were drawing their weapons, something unexpected happened.

The young black horse was suddenly enveloped in black flames, instantly growing into a majestic war horse.

"Huh?"

"...?"

While the two White Snow Guild members were taken aback, Saebyeok mounted the horse.

Clop clop-

Saebyeok riding the flaming horse across the wasteland was quite an impressive sight.

Black fire trailed behind the galloping horse.

Everyone's eyes followed those flames.

"Woah...!"

"Saebyeok looks like a warrior."

Both the children and the White Snow Guild members were amazed.

And even the Taus, chewing on dead grass, were surprised.

"Moo?"

Just as a Tau raised its head from chewing grass, the black horse rammed into it.

Using its head, the horse lifted the muscular Tau from below, sending it flying high into the sky.

"Moooo!"

Enraged by the sudden attack, another Tau approached from behind the black horse.

As if the horse had eyes in the back of its head, it lightly kicked, striking the Tau's head.

Crack-!

With the sound of a skull breaking, the Tau fell backward.

A Tau approaching from the side, the horse's blind spot, was crushed by Saebyeok's outstretched fist.

'Amazing.'

The horse divine beast compensated for Saebyeok's lack of mobility.

The horse divine beast and Saebyeok made a great team.

Gyeoul found herself clapping without even realizing it.

"What in the world."

While Yoon Hyunseo stood with her mouth agape, the divine beasts one by one reverted to their true forms.

The butterfly divine beast flew up and put monsters to sleep, while the wolf divine beast grabbed their necks in its mouth and shook them violently as if trying to tear them apart.

"Cheecheep! Chikchik!"

"Yes. Chikchiki is fighting well too."

Among the divine beasts was one that looked like a mouse, and this mouse divine beast was like an arrow with a will of its own.

Pat pat pat-

The mouse divine beast jumped between the Taus, piercing through their bodies.

The monsters killed by the divine beasts were revived by the Forest Keeper to use as allies, then gathered in one place for easy cleanup.

"......"

Yoon Hyunseo and Han Taehwi, who had no information about divine beasts, could only be astonished.

The dozen or so divine beasts spread throughout the dungeon and, in less than a minute, created over a hundred Tau corpses.

Despite their extraordinary performance, the divine beasts weren't even breathing hard.

They simply wagged their tails as if they had just enjoyed a fun game.

Yoon Hyunseo glanced at Gyeoul standing beside her.

She had known Gyeoul was extraordinary, but all the amazing things she had witnessed until now were just a tiny fraction of the child's power.

Gyeoul herself was just smiling happily.

"Woah!"

Gyeoul raised her hand excitedly at the pile of Tau corpses.

Her tail was wagging rapidly.

"We're rich now!"

If they could hunt monsters like this every day, they could make money quickly, right?

While Gyeoul was rejoicing, Saebyeok came galloping back on the horse from the distance.

"With this many mana stones, we can develop the beast-kin village quickly."

"Ah."

That's right.

They needed to develop the beast-kin village.

Gyeoul's ears and tail drooped dejectedly.