Chapter 170
Chapter 170
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 170
Chapter Title: Friendship? (3)
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How could night and day feel so utterly different?
Even in the same space—the first floor of the department store—the enveloping darkness weighed heavily on their shoulders.
Or perhaps it wasn't the darkness, but the monsters. Having completed their encirclement, they didn't charge in; instead, they prowled restlessly around the edges.
Siwoo muttered to himself.
Was this standoff truly necessary? The tense deadlock dragged on.
The longer it lasted, the more a thick sheen of sweat trickled down his back.
The red eyes surrounding them from all four directions blinked like warning lights, heightening the tension, yet the beasts made no move—as if waiting for something.
Still, this perilous standoff bought them time to talk with Sharon.
"Any guesses?"
"None. But something's off... With this many, even if homunculi usually hide in pocket dimensions, we'd have spotted them during the search."
Siwoo agreed with Sharon's assessment.
This wasn't just one or two.
Likely dozens—hundreds, considering the building's size.
And they'd never spotted a single one?
"Are homunculi usually that intelligent?"
"It depends on the number and shape of their eyes... but you've seen them. They're no better than beasts."
"Then what's this? It feels like someone's commanding them."
"Commanding...?"
Siwoo began explaining what he'd assumed Sharon already knew.
"First, they've hidden from our searches so far. They maintained 150-meter intervals to lure us without showing themselves.
Finally, they kept their distance until we reached the dead center of the department store—where we can't escape—then closed the net all at once. Doesn't that seem suspicious?"
It was far too calculated.
Beasts no better than animals, moving in perfect unison like a single organism.
Homunculi... commanding...
A certain witch flashed through Sharon's mind.
"Ah... no way."
"Something ring a bell?"
But Sharon quickly dismissed her own hypothesis.
No, that couldn't be.
If she were here, there'd have been far greater chaos by now.
A massive disaster, no doubt.
They'd encountered these black dogs about three months ago. If the "Witch of Cowardice" were behind it all, she wouldn't cause something this small-scale.
Besides, hadn't the Witch of Cowardice last appeared during the Chernobyl incident?
She'd vanished from the mortal realm for decades.
"No, let's focus on getting out of here first."
"How many can you take with your remaining mana?"
"About twenty. You?"
"...I'll see when we try."
At least Siwoo was far calmer than expected—a relief.
Even Sharon, with her extensive hunting experience, saw this as a dire situation.
Action movies aside, in real fights, sheer numbers could overturn even overwhelming skill gaps.
No one would blame them for feeling fear under the oppressive encirclement and the growling monsters on all sides.
Yet Siwoo showed no such signs.
Without him, Sharon might have been the one panicking.
His composure was infectious, cooling her own head.
"Reliable, aren't you?"
The words slipped out unbidden. Siwoo glanced at her in mild surprise, then chuckled softly.
"Their numbers are growing."
"You mean we should move now?"
"The sooner, the better. But there's a problem. The encirclement at the entrance is weirdly loose."
Sharon scanned the surroundings as Siwoo spoke.
Sure enough, one area had fewer glinting eyes.
"I've got an idea. Ignore it if it sounds off— you've got way more experience."
"What is it? Let's hear."
Siwoo quickly shared his observations and conclusions. Time was short; his words came fast.
"The entrance net is loose, but the escalator to the basement—another exit—is densely packed. They're deliberately herding us toward the entrance. Assuming they have that level of smarts."
"So we shouldn't head for the entrance?"
"Circumstantially, we're prey lured here. No reason to let us go easily."
Sharon nodded.
Siwoo's theory made sense.
If they just wanted to chase them off, no need for this elaborate net.
"So, my plan: slip through the underground mall to the subway. What do you think?"
In such crises, people usually rushed at the obvious path.
But Siwoo had pieced together the clues for an accurate read.
"We'll go first. I'll break through the front—you cover only when I can't react. Conserve your mana as much as possible. If a real threat pops up, you'll need your strength more than I will."
And without a hint of fear, he positioned himself toward the densest cluster of glowing eyes.
Sharon was quietly impressed.
"Alright, your lead."
"Now..."
Siwoo's foot slammed the ground.
The acceleration was so explosive—even Sharon flinched—the black dogs lurking near the decorative lights recoiled visibly.
"Run!"
Clumps of shadowy particles gathered in his right hand, forming a sword.
At the same time, a ribbon sprouted from his lumbar region, lashing sharply at the surroundings.
-Grrr! Grrr!
-Kieeeek!
The tense silence shattered; the department store erupted into pandemonium.
Clothing racks, cosmetics, jewelry displays—nothing escaped the destruction.
Some flew dozens of meters from ribbon strikes, others lunged with bared fangs, more chased after the fleeing Sharon and Siwoo.
"Ah!"
Sharon cried out, raising her wand.
Three black dogs had leaped to block Siwoo's path.
Their speed was a blur to the naked eye.
Like a motorcycle gunning full throttle to ram a pedestrian—similar force and velocity.
The old Siwoo might have blocked but been shoved back.
But through these battles, he'd analyzed his weaknesses.
His shadow laws handling close combat were physically frail spells.
Tiny magic circles in particle form disrupted big spells but lacked raw destructive power.
Pure, dense mana overwhelmed them too.
To compensate, he'd learned elemental magic from Sharon—earth attributes.
Imbuing shadows with heavy, dense earth qualities added weight and solidity.
If his old weapons were feather dusters, now they were solid iron clubs.
-Thud!
A truck-collision sound echoed.
The homunculus chunked mid-air, blasted away.
Not an everyday sight.
Normal humans lacked such athletic prowess.
But the feedback proved it: weight amplified destruction exponentially.
-Kyaaaooo!
Before Siwoo recovered, a ceiling-launched beast dove like an air-to-ground missile.
Too late to adjust stance.
His wide overhead swing left no time for left-hand shield block.
In that split-second gap.
Siwoo reshaped the sword that had just felled the homunculus—no hesitation.
Longsword to straight spear; he angled it toward the airborne foe.
The impaling was gruesome.
-Kieeeek!
Amid the horrific screech, Siwoo dissolved the spear to soften the impact, then pressed forward.
Fluid as flowing water.
Odd, really.
Siwoo hadn't trained his body beyond magic fights.
Not even taekwondo, that rite of passage for Korean boys.
His early homunculus hunts were sloppy sword flailing—or rather, he was flailed by the sword.
Yet now his body moved instinctively.
As if muscle memory ingrained: weapons formed before thought, striking fatal openings effortlessly.
Smoother than his brutal clash with Della.
-Kieeeek!
Sharon watched, half-dazed, as Siwoo carved through the encirclement on the run.
She'd worried at first.
Siwoo's experience paled next to hers, numbers or not—enough to panic any civilian.
-Whoooosh!
A ribbon whipped like a sharp lash, simultaneously repelling two homunculi lunging at Sharon's back.
Shield bash with body weight downed another; a stomp crushed its skull.
All without looking—deflecting rear attackers while facing frontal ones.
One word came to Sharon's mind.
Unyielding fluidity.
No snags in thought or action—total freedom.
His movements were seamless.
No pauses, no breaks in flow.
Like a seasoned hunter, he seamlessly reshaped weapons, slaughtering homunculi relentlessly.
Thanks to him, Sharon escaped the net without swinging her wand once.
In that blink of distraction, Siwoo felled three more.
Even Sharon, a mage on the demonic path, felt awe at his inexplicable martial prowess breaching the peril.
Skills like his came from brutal, relentless self-abuse.
Could that technique fell Della despite magical inferiority?
Was it possible Siwoo had truly beaten her?
Even absurd delusions arose.
Amid spraying fluids and screams, Siwoo silently blazed the trail.
The seemingly unreachable escalator entrance appeared.
-Grrrrrr...
"Hoo..."
Yet the homunculi didn't aggressively block; they maintained distance, reverting to the initial standoff.
Siwoo wiped sweat from his chin, scanning around.
He was stunned.
The teeming horde had thinned to a countable few.
All those swarming, exhausting beasts now retreated, tails tucked.
What to say?
No real thrill.
His first homunculus kill had him jubilant despite backlash pain—efforts rewarded.
But this one-sided dominance? Less triumph, more disbelief: Did I really do this?
"At this rate, no need to run."
They'd hunted nightly for homunculi anyway. Siwoo's take: why flee after bagging so many?
"Still, better safe. More might be lurking."
Surprisingly, Sharon urged caution.
Suspicious elements lingered, but including reinforcements, Siwoo had claimed about eighty.
The rest made roughly a hundred total.
One million won each? One hundred million.
Untouchable in normal work—pocket change from corpses.
With that, no relying on Siwoo.
Of course, Sharon claimed no full ownership.
Their pact: Sharon got hunting crystals, traded for lessons. But she wasn't that shameless.
Just the remaining twenty? Twenty million minimum. Enough for next quarter's minimum dues easily.
Such thoughts briefly clouded her judgment.
"I'll clean up the rest."
Sharon raised her wand.