Monstrous Presence

Querehsha, under the alias of Baracs, went towards a building owned by the Hunter's Association. The moon hung high in the night sky as she observed the building.

'That boy…who is he? Why did he have that presence on him?'

She had decided she needed more information, so she'll use what these humans call the 'internet' to find out more about him. Breaking into a house was easy (though, unfortunately for her, there was no one home).

A quick search led him to finding his name. Sung Jinwoo, locally nicknamed the 'Weakest Hunter in the World'. And, yet, amongst all the humans, only his presence gave her pause. So she had to find out more. Which brought her here. The building housed the private information of all registered hunters in Korea. It wasn't the main HQ, but it would do for her.

Dropping from the building, her clothes dissolved, revealing her true form. A black, skin tight body suit hugged her, with sickly green greaves and a pauldron on her left shoulder. Small bug like horn protruded from her skull.

"First…to make sure things are quiet."

With a wave of her hand, a small gate opened, and mouse sized insects began pouring out of it. They scurried into the ventilation systems of the build, scattering throughout. As she approached the building, nearly leaving the alleyway, she could hear the commotion going on through her bugs.

What's going on down there?

The security cameras are going down!

Not just cameras, but motion sensors, too!

Where did all these bugs come from?

Sir, we may have a situation.

That was obvious.

No, I mean, there's someone approaching the building.

Ah, it seems that she was noticed. Casually walking out of the alleyway, she began crossing the street, where three 'Hunters' ran out of the building.

"Hello, humans. Don't mind me, just wanting to take a peek inside."

"Ma'am, this is government owned property, and we are closed for tonight."

"You say that like I care."

The three hunters got their weapons out.

"Oh?" Querehsha chuckled, "Believe me, you don't want this." She let some of her aura bleed out of her.

"Ma'am," another guard said, her body slightly shaking, "If you don't leave, then we'll have to remove you."

She raised an eyebrow, placing her hand on the hood of a car, leaning on it. "Really? I haven't done anything. But, if you'll choose violence…"

The woman seemed to grow a spine, and tightened on her weapon resolutely.

'Well, at least she can face death without fear…for a couple seconds.' She smiled, "Fine by me."

She tightened her hand on the car, gripping it, and throwing it faster than they could react. The car smashed into the woman, then embedded itself into the building, killing her instantly.

"Suin-" The guard didn't get a chance to cry out for their dead comrade, because Querehsha was infront of him. She swung upward, her now clawed hand slicing a tri-trail up him and snapping his spear into four pieces. As he fell, she turned to third guard, who was actually smart…for a human. He anticipated that she could blitz to him, so began to slice at what would have been thin air, but, as she had moved before thinking, she was now in the path of his greatsword…which impacted her neck, doing nothing.

The third guard looked horrified.

'That's a B-Tier weapon. What is-?'

He never got an answer, as she gripped the blade, snapped the upper half of it off, then impaled him with it. Walking into the building, she heard from her insects how the guards were responding.

I lost contact with the front entrance team.

Men, evacuate the building.

Sir?

Those guards were all C-Rank, same as you, and they're gone. I'll give you time.

Yes, Sir.

"Ah," she commented, "So we have a brave soul wishing to protect his people. Commendable."

She entered the plaza.

"If foolish."

She fealt his presence before she fealt his fist colliding with her face. What surprised her was that she did feel it. Her eyes drifted to the side, seeing the culprit. A man, with slick orange hair and glowing purple eyes, had a pauldron and gauntlet on his right arm, clenched into a fist that was against her cheek. He looked shocked, and it was clear that he was using all his strength to try to move her.

"Impressive. For a human, you actually made me feel that. Not much, but still…"

The man quickly backed off, then reappeared infront of her, his fist about to collide with her again. She caught the fist between her pinky and thumb…and squeezed. The man yelled in pain, falling to his knees before looking up at her in horror.

"What…what are you?"

She smiled, her teeth now fangs.

"Your better."

She raised him into the air, then slammed him down to the ground, then threw him through a wall. The subsequent smashing sounds told her that he was thrown out of the building, and possibly through another building. Her connection to the other insects told her that she was now alone in the building. Strolling through, her insects informed her where the information center was.

Human technology was…primitive compared to other worlds she's seen, but also more advanced in other ways. The spreading of information being one of them. Finding a computer, her insects began typing away while she stood, absorbing all the information.

"Sung Jinwoo," she muttered to herself, "Born to Sung Il-Hwan and Park Kyung-Hye, older brother and legal guarding to Sung Jinah-wait, Guardian?"

A quick search revealed that their mother was afflicted with Eternal Slumber, as result of people incompatible with Mana being in the presence of it for extended periods of time.

Querehsha searched up Jinwoo's records as Hunter, and was…mildly impressed. For being the 'weakest' hunter in the world, he has survived quite a lot. Over a hundred dungeon raids, with almost a fifth of them being D-Ranked. Now, while she didn't particularly care about the human ranking systems, she did know that E-Ranks have a hard time in E-Rank gates, let alone D-Rank. Yet this hunter survived multiple D-Ranks.

After getting his personal address and more legal information, she commanded the insects to dispose of the room. Dozens of computers were destroyed, the flooring breaking apart, as she walked out of the soon collapsing room. She now knew who Jinwoo was…now she just need to know why the weakest hunter in the world made her almost feel queasy when she first met him. And with no witnesses, she could hunt unabated.

Woo Jin-chul's eyes shot open. He could hear beeping next to him, and the clear signs that it was a hospital room. Looking around, he noticed that his arm was in a cast, and his entire body was in pain.

"I'm glad you're still alive," a hoarsh voice calmly said, "Jin-chul."

Jin-chul, with some effort, turn his head, seeing an elderly man with gray hair sitting in a chair next to his bed.

"Chairman Go!"

"I had heard about the attack," Go Gunhee calmly declared, "and I rushed here to make sure you were alright."

"Honestly, I thought I was dead for sure."

"Do you remember what happened? Who did this?"

"It's…it's a blur. They were smart, she was smart."

"She?"

"I don't know if it was just her, or if she had help, but, before she appeared, all our security systems failed. Cameras, doors, everything. The only thing working was our radios, but that didn't help. The front entrace saw her first, but they were killing before they could even report that they were under attack. I was near the plaza, and could hear how quickly is was going wrong, so I ordered the building evacuated."

Gunhee nodded approvingly.

"I then engaged her. She wore a black…dress of some kind, with green armor…and I'm pretty sure she's S-Rank, maybe National-Rank."

Gunhee's eyes widened in horror. "You're sure."

"She grabbed my hand and tossed me out of the building like I was nothing.

"I imagine that Baek Yoonho could do the same."

Jin-chul shook his head, "Likely, but not like this. When the fight first started, I caught her by surprise, landing an attack on her head, but she didn't even blink. She even said…" His eyes widened, which made Gunhee even more worried.

"Jin-chul."

"Actually, I'm not sure she is a Hunter. Whether registered or not."

"Would you like to explain?"

"Yeah. Because she said 'For a human, you made me feel that.'. Which means, whoever she is…she might've come from a Gate."

Gunhee leaned back, cupping his chin. "Do you think she might've been the boss of a dungeon break?"

"Given what she told me, it might be…wait, there was one more detail. Before the attack, as we were losing security systems, one of the employees mentioned that there were bugs swarming the place."

"Yes, when we investigated the place, we found that many of the systems had bite marks on them."

"The only dungeon break I can think of to produce something like that would be-"

"Jeju Island. You think she may have come from there? That she's the queen boss of the island?"

"It's only hypothetical, Sir. We shouldn't go too deep into it."

"Of course. But we should keep the possibility open. But it does question why this woman went to the information center."

"Sir?"

"When we recovered you, the entire floor was demolished. This woman was clearly searching for something or someone. We just need to find out who…before we find out in an obituary."

Author's Notes: Now, several things I want to make clear.

First, for the most part, I won't be bringing Solo Leveling Ragnarok elements into this story (with ONE, maybe two exceptions). This is because, not only am I only tasting that sequel story, but it's still ongoing, and I don't want to include lore that will be contradicted later one. The one exception to this will be much later in the story.

Two, you might be confused. If Querehsha want's to lie low, why did she just attack a government building. Well, in fairness...if Jin-chul died there (as she thinks he did), then no one would know who attacked it.

As always, leave a review, fav/follow, and I'll see you all next time, when we see Jinwoo's perspective.