"It’s still here..." Liam suddenly said, his blue eyes narrowing with an expression that instantly caught Tatiana’s attention.

She stopped looking around randomly and immediately turned toward him.

"What?"

Liam didn’t answer immediately. His gaze remained fixed on a single spot beneath the forest floor, his X-Ray Vision penetrating layer after layer of earth as though the ground didn’t even exist. The deeper he looked, the clearer the creature became. At first it had only looked like an enormous shadow, but now he could make out its entire body, and the realization made the corners of his mouth twitch.

"It’s way... way under us."

Tatiana frowned.

"Underground?"

Liam slowly nodded.

"And it’s huge."

There was genuine surprise in his voice. Even from this depth, the creature’s body stretched farther than he could comfortably see in one glance. It wasn’t merely a large worm. It was an underground predator that had evolved specifically to hunt creatures walking above it, its body resembling an armored tunnel of living muscle that coiled through the earth like a buried river.

Then Liam’s smile slowly returned.

"...I think it knew the moment we arrived."

Tatiana tilted her head.

"It did?"

"Mhmm."

He folded his arms casually.

"Slick bastard."

His grin widened.

"It’s watching us."

"It isn’t attacking because it’s waiting."

Tatiana followed his gaze toward the ground.

"Waiting for what?"

"The perfect opportunity."

Liam chuckled.

"It wants us to relax first."

"It probably thinks we’re prey wandering into its territory."

Tatiana couldn’t help smiling.

"So..."

She cracked her fingers.

"...what do you want me to do?"

Liam looked at her.

"Can you help lure it out?"

She nodded immediately.

"And kill it?"

Her smile became even brighter.

"Gladly."

The next second—

Whoosh!

Tatiana shot into the air with frightening speed before landing nearly forty meters away, right in the middle of the creature’s hunting grounds.

Her boots touched the earth softly.

Silence.

She stood there with both hands resting casually by her sides.

Then...

Thump...

Her ears twitched.

A vibration.

Tiny.

So faint that an ordinary human wouldn’t have noticed anything.

Thump...

Another one.

The ground beneath her boots trembled ever so slightly.

Tatiana smiled.

"It’s coming..."

The vibration suddenly became faster.

Thump...

Thump...

Thump...

She could practically hear the enormous body forcing its way through the earth beneath her feet.

Then—

BOOM!!

The ground directly below her exploded apart.

A gigantic mouth burst upward like a living trap.

Rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth spun inward toward a dark throat that seemed capable of swallowing an entire horse whole.

Tatiana calmly pushed off the air.

She leaped backward just before the jaws snapped shut.

CLACK!!

The sound echoed through the forest.

The beast missed.

She landed lightly several meters away.

The ground beneath her feet trembled again almost immediately.

"It already changed direction."

She smiled.

"So fast."

Again—

BOOOOM!!

Another eruption.

Another enormous mouth.

Another miss.

Tatiana flipped gracefully over it before landing somewhere else.

The vibrations immediately followed.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Every single time the creature attacked, Tatiana escaped at the very last possible second. She never counterattacked, never slashed downward with her claws, never even attempted to injure it. Instead, she simply smiled and continued jumping from place to place, making the monster waste enormous amounts of energy chasing a target it simply couldn’t catch.

Liam stood beneath a tree with his arms folded, watching the entire performance unfold with amusement.

"Good..."

he muttered.

"Keep irritating it."

The Bone Burrower attacked once.

Missed.

Twice.

Missed.

Three times.

Missed.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

Each failure made the underground vibrations more violent than before.

The beast’s movements became increasingly erratic.

It no longer circled patiently.

It charged recklessly beneath the earth, tearing enormous tunnels as frustration slowly overtook instinct.

Then...

Everything stopped.

Complete silence.

Tatiana landed gently on another patch of earth before looking around.

"...Gone?"

Liam smiled.

"No."

His eyes remained focused underground.

"I bet it never expected prey to dodge every single attack."

"He should be furious by now."

He raised three fingers.

"It’ll show itself in..."

He folded one finger.

"...three."

Another.

"...two."

The final finger slowly folded.

"...one."

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!

The forest exploded.

The earth split apart with a deafening roar as hundreds of tons of dirt were blasted into the sky. Massive tree roots snapped apart while stones flew in every direction, forcing Tatiana to leap backward several meters.

Then it emerged.

"KRRRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!"

The monstrous roar shook the trees.

Birds scattered into the sky in terrified flocks.

The creature towered over the forest like a nightmare brought to life.

Its body resembled an unimaginably gigantic earthworm, but any resemblance ended there. Thick layers of black armored plates covered its body from head to tail, each plate rough like volcanic stone and lined with jagged ridges that looked capable of shredding anything brushing against them. The enormous mouth occupied nearly the entire front half of its head, opening into a horrifying spiral lined with hundreds of curved ivory fangs that constantly rotated inward toward a throat that disappeared into darkness. Thick strands of saliva stretched between the spinning teeth before snapping onto the ground with hissing sounds.

Its skin was covered in scars from countless previous battles, while clusters of hardened bone spikes protruded along both sides of its body, giving it the appearance of a living battering ram. Small glowing crimson eyes sat above the massive mouth, glaring directly at Tatiana with unmistakable fury. Every breath it released sounded like steam escaping a furnace, and each movement caused the ground around it to tremble violently.

"KRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!"

Its roar echoed through the entire forest.

There was no mistaking it.

The creature was furious.

Liam was just about to comment when—

Ding!

A familiar blue screen appeared before his eyes.

⸻

[Beast Analysis Successful.]

Name: Bone Burrower

Race: Subterranean Predator

Level: Spawn Level 2

⸻

Strengths:

• Incredible underground mobility.

• Tremendous bite force capable of crushing reinforced stone.

• Thick frontal armor resistant to blunt attacks.

• Tremor Sense — Detects prey through ground vibrations within a large radius.

• Extremely durable while underground.

⸻

Weaknesses:

• Poor vision above ground.

• Soft tissue located inside the open mouth.

• Vulnerable neck joints beneath the first armored plate.

• Movement speed reduced significantly while fully exposed.

• Highly aggressive when repeatedly denied prey.

⸻

Liam blinked.

"...What?"

He read the screen again.

Then again.

His eyebrows slowly rose.

"This..."

He looked from the monster back to the floating window.

"...this thing literally tells me my enemy’s weaknesses?"

His mouth slowly opened.

"...That’s cheating."

No...

Calling it cheating didn’t even feel adequate.

This was practically handing him the answer sheet before the exam started.

His system wasn’t merely identifying monsters anymore.

It was exposing exactly how to kill them.

Liam couldn’t help laughing under his breath.

"What a ridiculous ability..."

He immediately looked toward Tatiana.

"Can you handle it?"

Tatiana slowly cracked her neck before extending all ten claws.

A wide grin spread across her beautiful face.

"Of course."

Then she lowered herself into a hunting stance.

Well...

Of course she answered like that.

She was technically a wolf after all.

And wolves...

Loved a good hunt.

The Bone Burrower answered Tatiana’s grin with another deafening shriek that rolled through the forest like thunder, the enormous creature lifting nearly half of its body out of the earth as layers of gray armored plates slid against one another with harsh grinding sounds, loose dirt pouring from between every segment while dozens of hooked legs hidden beneath its body dug into the ground to stabilize its massive weight. Its mouth opened wider than before, revealing countless rows of rotating teeth that continuously shifted position as though they were alive, while thick strands of saliva stretched between them before snapping onto the soil below.

Tatiana didn’t move.

She simply stood there with both hands hanging loosely by her sides, her glowing crimson eyes never blinking as she measured every movement the creature made.

Liam watched everything from behind with narrowed eyes.

His System had already highlighted the weak points floating before his vision like translucent markers only he could see.

Weaknesses:

— Soft tissue beneath the neck plates.

— Eyes vulnerable to high-speed attacks.

— Lower jaw cannot withstand heavy upward force.

— Momentum decreases drastically after every underground charge.

His lips slowly curled upward.

"Interesting..."

The Bone Burrower suddenly disappeared.

BOOM!!

The entire ground exploded beneath Tatiana’s feet.

Its gigantic mouth burst upward, trying to swallow her whole before she could react.

Instead of retreating...

Tatiana smiled.

Her body twisted in midair with impossible grace as she planted one foot against the side of the creature’s face and kicked off of it, spinning over its head before landing lightly several meters away.

The monster missed completely.

Its huge body crashed back into the earth before disappearing underground again.

Liam folded his arms.

"So that’s how it hunts."

Tatiana didn’t answer.

She simply waited.

A second later...

The vibrations returned.

The soil beneath her boots trembled rhythmically.

Left.

Right.

Behind.

The beast was circling.

Without warning another explosion of dirt erupted beside her.

The Bone Burrower shot upward again.

This time its armored tail whipped around with enough force to shatter trees.

Tatiana ducked beneath it, the tail passing over her head by mere centimeters before crashing into three enormous trunks and snapping them clean in half.

Wood splintered everywhere.

She stepped backward calmly.

"Hm..."

"So that’s your tail."

The monster let out another furious roar.

It attacked again.

And again.