The Weapon Genius: Anything I Hold Can Kill-Chapter 107: When Root Runs Deep

The sound was still there.

A slow, dragging scrape that didn’t echo right.

Too steady. Too alive.

Jin motioned with two fingers and the group shifted forward, low and quiet. No one spoke. Even Echo didn’t crack a joke which in itself was unsettling.

They were a good five minutes’ walk from the school by now. Vines climbed street lamps. Cracks spidered across the pavement. One of the old convenience stores nearby had a gaping hole in its side, like someone massive had smashed, probably to take some supplies.

The dragging grew louder.

Jin held his breath, straining to trace the direction. The air was colder here.

Echo stopped beside a low wall and crouched, one hand brushing the ground.

"It’s moving," he whispered. "The sound. It was north before. Now it’s..." He paused. "...closer."

A sudden clack echoed through the street, the sound of something heavy brushing against something metal. Maybe a signpost.

Jin scanned the alley up ahead, nothing but shadows under the moonlight.

He reached behind him, hand curling toward his back instinctively. The katana materialized once again with a flicker of light.

Echo stood slowly, eyes narrowed, head tilted like he was listening to something.

Then he whispered, "...Jin."

Jin turned.

And he saw it.

At first, it looked like a collapsed utility pole. Then he looked closer and realized the shape was vaguely humanoid, long limbs, hunched posture, part of it bent awkwardly, dragging behind like it was broken.

But it moved.

It didn’t walk normally.

It shifted forward.

Like its weight wasn’t meant for this surface, or it was used to stepping on something softer than pavement.

It passed through the broken facade of a building nearby, and a street lamp sparked as it brushed beneath it. For a moment, the flicker of the light caught its form full-on. novelbuddy.cσ๓

Jin’s breath hitched.

One of its arms was too long, knotted at the elbow. Its fingers dragged behind it, knuckles scraping against the asphalt like roots plowing through soil. Its chest, if it could be called that, was gnarled and lopsided, like something inside was still trying to rearrange itself into the right shape. And its head...

The head turned toward them.

There were no eyes. Just a hollow dip where a face should’ve been.

A hole in the shape of a scream.

It didn’t make a sound.

But every piece of glass nearby, windows, bottles, fractured phone screens, shivered.

Echo stepped back.

"That..." he said slowly, voice barely a whisper. "...looks like a tree."

Jin blinked, hard. Now that Echo said it, yes.

The surface of its skin wasn’t skin. It was bark. Grown in uneven layers, rippled with grooves like age rings, moss clinging to the crevices.

Before Jin could say anything, the creature moved.

But not toward them.

It turned, unnaturally fluid, its entire body bending like wood under pressure, and drove one arm into the side of a nearby apartment building.

There was no roar. No scream.

Just a deep, grinding groan, like timber giving way under centuries of strain.

The concrete shattered.

Steel bent.

Half the building collapsed inward, floor after floor crumbling in on itself as dust and debris erupted outward in a muffled boom.

Then—

DING.

A bright red screen exploded into their vision.

[System Alert: Joint Territory Emergency]

Invasive Entity Detected: Gugwe-mok

Quest Type: Defense Protocol – Multi-Territory

Affected Zone: Central Seoul Sector – Radius 4.5 km

Objective: Prevent incursion from Gugwe-mok.

Failure Condition: If entity successfully claims central ground, all active bases within affected zone will be forcibly absorbed or destroyed.

Estimated Entity Tier: [CLASSIFICATION UNAVAILABLE]

Time Limit: 07:00:00

Jin stared at the screen.

Gugwe-mok.

The name brought back memories from his childhood when he was a carefree kid with no responsibilies or any worries about life but sadly he wasn’t a kid anymore. He’d fought monsters, bosses, ability users. He’d seen limbs torn, blood spilled, buildings swallowed by the system’s weird physics.

But something about that name sent a jolt straight through his chest.

He swallowed. Voice rough. "That’s..."

He took a step back. The memory slipped in, uninvited.

He was small again. Maybe six or seven. Summer in the countryside, visiting his grandmother’s house in Jeongseon, far up in the Gangwon province. Quiet village. Pine-covered hills. The kind of place with no cell service and stars were too bright to look at.

He remembered running out toward the edge of the woods, chasing a firefly.

His grandmother had grabbed his wrist so fast it made him stumble.

"You don’t go into the forest alone," she said.

"Why not?"

"Because there’s something older than us living in there. And it doesn’t like uninvited guests."

She’d made him bow toward the tree line.

"You only go in if the forest lets you."

"What happens if it doesn’t?"

She didn’t smile. Didn’t soften her voice.

"Then it takes you."

"What’s it called?"

"Gugwe-mok."

The memory ended just as fast as it came.

Jin exhaled, sharp.

His hand tightened on the hilt of his katana. Echo looked at him sideways.

"You good?" he asked, voice still quiet.

Jin nodded once. "We have to move."

He didn’t explain.

Didn’t need to.

The thing was still focused on the building it had struck, pulling at it, fingers sinking into the structure like roots curling through rot.

But it wouldn’t stay there long.

Not if the system had issued a quest to defend the city as well as their base.

They had seconds before it shifted attention again and continued its destruction.

Jin looked toward the road. "Back to the school."

They didn’t stop running until the school gate came into view, and even then, Jin barely slowed.

His lungs burned, his thoughts kept flashing to the image, that towering figure under moonlight, and the building crumbling in silence.

It wasn’t chasing them but they ran as fast as possible anyways.

Seul stood by the gate, Joon was beside her, electricity crackling faintly around the two metal spheres floating at his side. The moment they saw Jin and Echo, they moved.

"What happened?" Seul asked sharply. "We heard something collapse out there."

Jin didn’t answer at first. His eyes swept over the courtyard — recruits clustered near the school’s central doors, muttering, wide-eyed, they were clearly shaking.

"What the hell was it?" Joon pressed. "Did something attack you guys?"

"No, nothing attacked us" Echo said. His voice came out flat, a little too calm for the situation. "But something very dangerous is out there."

Jin swallowed thickly and finally turned to the others.

"There’s a new quest," he said. "A joint one. The city’s under threat."

Seul frowned. "From what exactly?"

"A monster my grandmother told me about when I was a child," Jin said. "The system reeally does draw from places you don’t expect."

He met her eyes.

"It’s the Gugwe-mok."

There was a beat of silence.

"...It’s that bad?" he asked.

"It’s worse," Jin said. "We’ve never dealt with anything like that before, its sheer size alone is gonna be a problem to deal with."

Joon let out a short breath, glancing toward the open city beyond the gates. The metal balls floating near his shoulders pulsed once, a faint arc of electricity dancing between them.

"Still... we’ve taken down a boss monster before. That thing in the mall, remember? The Qi Sha."

Jin’s mouth opened, but it was Seul who cut in before he could speak.

"You say it like taking down the Qi Sha was easy," she said, her voice calm, firm. "We handled the Ye Ling on our own, sure. But when the system shifted it into one of the Qi Sha we got our asses handed to us multiple times"

"Without the Face of Honor," Jin finished quietly. "We’d all be dead."

Joon didn’t argue.

Seul went on, "Yeah, so don’t let it sound like we couldve done it on our own."

There was a pause, heavy with memory.

That was the truth.

And none of them forgot it.

"We can’t handle this alone," Seul said quickly. "What about the others? The people we’ve met, our allies?"

"I’m on it." Jin flicked open the system messenger, breath still uneven.

He typed fast, fingers stuttering slightly over the glowing keys, not because he didn’t know what to say — but because it mattered too much to mess up.

[Message to: Ryu]

Hey. It’s Jin. I know it’s late but... something’s happening. The system just pushed a citywide defense quest against something called a Gugwe-mok. It’s not like anything we’ve seen before. If you can help, or even guide us, we’d take anything right now.

He fired off another one — to the small group from the hospital.

[Message to: Mirae (Hospital Group)]

There’s something attacking the city. A monster — huge, slow, but dangerous. If any of you are nearby and can help, please let us know. Even a few people could make the difference.

And finally — the furthest reach — the ones he wasn’t even sure would read it in time.

[Message to: Seo Yewon]

Commander Seo — we’re in trouble. Something’s coming through the city. I know you’re far, but if there’s any chance you can send help... please. We’ll hold on as long as we can.

He let the screens fade, then turned back.

"They might not come," he said quietly. "Or they might come too late."

"Then we do what we can in the meantime," Seul said.

"Exactly," Echo nodded. "We hold the line."

Seul turned toward the cluster of recruits. "Most of them are rattled. We had to calm down two who tried to run the moment they heard the loud noise earlier."

"Can’t blame them," Echo said under his breath.

"But not all of them," Seul added. "Areum, Doyun, Hanuel — they didn’t flinch. They’re helping organize everyone and calm them down. Took charge before I even said anything."

Jin felt a flicker of something — pride, maybe. Gratitude.

"We’ll need them here," he said. "If that thing circles back this way, someone has to keep the building standing."

"And the rest of us?" Joon asked.

"We move out," Jin said. "Together. We can’t just wait for it to get closer."

Seul nodded, hand tightening around her weapon’s hilt. "What’s the goal? We fighting it?"

"No," Jin said immediately. "We’re not trying to kill it — we’re not even sure that’s possible right now. But we have to slow it down. Keep it away from this zone. Force it toward the empty sections if we can."

"Basically distract the unkillable nature-beast," Joon muttered. "Cool. Love that for us."

"Last time you were this sarcastic, we were nearly killed by that thing in the fire station," Echo pointed out.

"Yeah, and look, we lived." Joon grinned, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

"Let’s try to keep that streak going," Seul said dryly.

They stepped out through the gate as one, the four of them.

Behind them, the recruits inside were slowly getting into formation under Areum’s barked orders. Doyun was handing out equipment. Hanuel adjusted the map board near the courtyard steps, marking potential impact zones based on the monster’s heading.

Jin looked up at the sky — still dark, still scattered with stars.

But the air had changed.

The system hadn’t gone silent since the alert. It pulsed with faint blue lines in the air, like veins across the night sky.

It was warning them.

"We’re not ready," Echo said quietly.

"No," Jin agreed. "But we’re still going."

And then they moved.