Chapter 13. The Mace (3)
It was an unexpected attack.
In that split second, he twisted his body sideways to barely avoid a fatal blow, but the pain felt like half his body had been torn away. Jeonghyeon tumbled across the ground several times before crashing down.
"Fuck...!"
This was humiliation beyond humiliation.
He'd gotten too cocky, letting a pathetic low-level monster land a hit on him. Back when he was Solgaleh's awakener, he'd finished off even the weakest monsters without fail...
'Right... so without Solgaleh, I'm suddenly worthless?'
Jeonghyeon whipped himself mentally and staggered to his feet.
He'd already been done in by Gwiho, and now this—a Minotaur.
"You fucking bastards...! Do you even know who I am?!"
His right upper body, where the attack had struck, was a mangled mess; he couldn't muster any strength there.
Still, gripping the mace tightly in his left hand, Jeonghyeon stared straight at the Minotaur.
His right eye—the Demon King's Eye—was out of focus from the impact, but he could at least make out the monster.
"Zombie, huh? The kind that won't die until it's really dead?"
The boss, a variant Minotaur, stared back at him. Its dying body was forcibly stitched together and regenerating in a grotesque form that barely held its original shape.
Jeonghyeon sized it up slowly.
'Zombie... Zombies basically lose brainpower. They're practically idiots...'
As he'd predicted, the zombified Minotaur's attacks were nothing but simple straight-line charges.
But this zombie Minotaur felt no pain, so it barreled forward with reckless abandon, shattering its own body. Add its undead immortality, and it was far more threatening than expected.
"Tch!"
Jeonghyeon timed it perfectly, countering with the enemy's own momentum to slay the zombie Minotaur—but it wouldn't stay dead, reviving endlessly.
"Now!"
Boom!
"Enough!"
Boom!!
"Die!!"
Boom!!
By the fifth time he'd "killed" the regenerating Minotaur, a status window appeared before him.
Soon, the mace began to change form. Intricate engravings appeared along its elongated handle. The heavy striking head vanished, leaving only a thick staff and pillar-like body—a simple club.
"Damn it. Of all things, latent potential?"
An Epic Weapon at the peak of its value. The "Unknown" prefix marked it as one with untapped potential.
It would transform perfectly to match the user's mana once infused—a jackpot among jackpots.
But in Jeonghyeon's one-shot situation, it was useless.
"Watch out! Coming from the left!"
Philip's booming voice snapped Jeonghyeon out of his thoughts. Instinctively, he rolled forward.
Zombies should weaken with each regeneration, but this one felt beyond a standard C-rank dungeon.
'Or maybe... I've just gotten that weak.'
Either way, survival and clearing the dungeon were all that mattered now.
Jeonghyeon gripped the mace resolutely.
"Hey, Philip!!"
"Y-Yes!!"
"You got a good imagination?"
"Uh...?"
Before Philip could respond, the long staff spun through the air toward his face.
"Whoa!"
Philip caught it instinctively. It was the evolved Epic Weapon—the Unknown Mace.
"...?"
Jeonghyeon, his stamina nearly depleted, slumped lower as he explained to Philip.
"It's a shape-shifting Epic Weapon. Channel your potential, mana, abilities, and strength into it. The head will form into whatever you envision."
"I'll... I'll give it a try!"
Philip fumbled for the mace and assumed a stance, gathering his power.
"Damn... we've got a long way to go."
Epic Weapons weren't simple mana-fueled tools.
Each had unique activation methods as varied as their uses.
Just brute-forcing mana like that wouldn't cut it.
"Focus! Merge with the Epic Weapon! Unite them! It's not just about gathering power to protect someone—that's too weak!!"
"But...!"
Boom!!!
No time for detailed instructions—the Minotaur's attack swept over Jeonghyeon.
"Gah...!"
Jeonghyeon's eyes fluttered shut, his vision blurring.
His last sight was Philip, still fumbling to gather power, shouting in panic.
"Jeonghyeon-nim!!"
How many minutes passed? Philip dodged the Minotaur's attacks once or twice, but soon Jeonghyeon was on the brink of death.
He tried abandoning stray thoughts as instructed, but no power built in the mace.
"Please work!!"
No power came, and the Minotaur lunged from an unpredictable angle again.
"Urk!"
He rolled away with a proper breakfall, but the overwhelming force sent Philip flying too.
'How the hell did he dodge these insane attacks by a hair's breadth?!'
Fuming at his own helplessness—stumbling uselessly behind while attacks rained down—Philip's frustration boiled into anger.
"If he helped me... I should help him!!"
He'd thought he couldn't keep up with Jeonghyeon's overwhelming talent, that not hindering him was enough. Now, he regretted undervaluing himself.
"If you hadn't just stood there like an idiot watching, we could've taken it...!"
The mace gave no reaction, as if emotions were irrelevant.
"Uldran's awakener, mocked your whole life for lacking an innate ability...! And the first person to show you kindness...!"
Philip swung the mace wildly in the air.
If it didn't work, make it work. If not, find another way—that was Philip's creed.
"You said you'd protect someone! That you didn't want to lose anyone else! What good is protecting people if you can't even save the one right in front of you?!"
His furious shout seemed to connect. The Minotaur flinched mid-charge and halted.
Vrrr—
"Wha...?"
Before Philip's eyes, the Epic Weapon began to take form—on a level beyond ordinary arms.
The ornate pillar vanished into a thick column, the handle remained awkwardly gripped.
And a plain, round mace head with no apparent effects.
'Reflecting the user's level...?'
Philip was dumbfounded. The shabby form mirrored his own sorry state, drawing a hollow laugh. Yet hope flickered; he raised the mace with renewed fervor.
"Come on, then!"
"Groooaaarrr!!"
The Minotaur roared its final threat at the weary Philip, then charged with all its might.
Thud thud thud!
The ground quaked under its mass. Philip endured to the last moment, waiting for the perfect timing.
And when the enemy's head loomed right before him—
He swung the mace with everything he had.
Thud.
It arced slowly, like through water, lightly tapping the Minotaur's head.
Then a massive vibration—beyond Philip's comprehension—erupted. The Minotaur's body slammed into the floor, crushed flat and fused with it.
Kaboom—!
The explosive roar came only after it was formless mush.
"This... is an Epic Weapon...?"
Philip stared at the unfamiliar Epic Weapon status window.
"Sweat of Endurance... Value Proof...?"
As if praising Philip's decades of unwavering mace training—befitting Uldran's awakener—it was a sturdy, unyielding weapon.
Philip blankly lowered his head slightly forward.
The impact had bored a massive crater into the underground floor.
Too deep for the dungeon's artificial light to reach, shrouded in shadow. Realizing it embodied the total force of his lifelong swings, Philip nearly burst into joyous laughter—
"Ah, right! Jeonghyeon-nim!"
Only then did he remember Jeonghyeon and rushed to support him.
Dungeon Cleared. Returning to the world. Dungeon core mana stone oxidizing.
A sharp shattering like breaking glass echoed, and Philip, supporting Jeonghyeon, returned to reality.
"Jeonghyeon-nim! Hang on just a bit! I'll get you to the healers right away!!"
Hoisting Jeonghyeon on his back, Philip ran with all his might.
His vision gone, bones shattered, Jeonghyeon's heart was pierced by rib fragments, life ebbing away.
'Like this...? Dying so pointlessly? Shouldn't have let my guard down...'
'Pathetic. Can't even reach the Demon King, ending like this...'
As he hurled self-mockery and resigned to eternal sleep—
A vast, pitch-black void unfolded before Jeonghyeon. No sense of hands or feet, just endless darkness.
There, a status window appeared.
First Awakening Condition Met: Die
Acquiring one-time-only reward.
Reward: Demon King Shop
Available Purchases:
Perfect Recovery – Costs 300 Demon King Points
Current Points: 300pt
Feeling deep revulsion toward Malekith for predicting this all, Jeonghyeon also felt relief.
'Not dead yet. Still got a chance.'
He reached out an unseen hand and purchased Perfect Recovery.
When he opened his eyes again, it was the familiar hospital ceiling.