Chapter 39
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: Empty House Raid
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One day before the second hunt for the “Lava Stone Tyrannosaurus.”
In the dead of night, three men climbed the volcano.
Not satisfied with their inventories, they also carried bundles on their backs.
Hiding their presence as they ascended the mountain, they unpacked their loads above the crater.
“Dump it quick.”
“Huff, rushing things always ruins the lines.”
“Lines? You mean a bloodbath.”
They chuckled a few lines before tossing their cargo into the crater.
“Shouldn’t it go splash if you throw it in the lava?”
“It’ll melt, so more like sizzle.”
“Who cares, you idiots. Let’s get down.”
The three men vanished once more.
And five minutes later.
A red-haired angel hovered above the crater.
Azazel, the third-floor administrative angel.
A vein of anger throbbed on her forehead.
“Humans... how can they be this foolish?”
She left behind a lament that would draw a scoff from any regressor.
***
The next morning.
Five sacred beasts advanced, toppling jungle trees in their path.
Giant crocodile Kampfsus, terror bird Diart, black panther Hamillodon, saber tiger king Rexmillodon, hexagon dragon Hexaceratops.
All the bosses from the five dungeons, excluding the unfinished glutton Andrewsakus.
Gonghyeok checked their status atop the terror bird Diart.
[Sacred Terror Bird Diart]
Level: 15
Strength C+. Agility B. Durability C.
Will D. Technique E. Mana E.
- A boss monster reborn as a sacred beast through purification of soul and body.
- Possesses skills Swift Charge (C), Sacred Beast Coordination (B-), Spirit Obedience (A).
- Performance depends on the Spirit Summoner’s power.
- Upon breaking level 300, title changes from “Sacred” to “Holy Beast.” Generates 1 special ability.
- Upon breaking level 1000, title changes from “Holy Beast” to “Divine Beast.” Generates 3 special abilities.
Gonghyeok scratched behind the neck of Diart, now his possession.
Ororong! Orororong!
The house-sized big-headed ostrich made cute noises and acted spoiled, terrifying the surrounding hunters.
“Nathaniel.”
-Yeees~
A tiny seraphim rose from Gonghyeok’s hair.
-Why’d you call?
“Sephirot stage two. How many seconds can you manage?”
-Well, sacred powers depend a lot on the user’s character...
Gonghyeok chuckled and stroked the hidden Nathaniel in his hair.
“Earlier, this Diart you’re riding now shat a huge pile... Could you possess something like that?”
-120 seconds. I actually respect you.
Nathaniel spoke with a desperate face. Her jaw trembled from unprecedented terror.
Gonghyeok cackled and fiddled with her drooping wings.
A few days ago, Gonghyeok had sliced up the “Deep-Sea Whale” boss in a hidden underwater dungeon off the uninhabited island.
The reward he picked up was the holy relic “Hornpipe of Ascension.”
Using it as a base, he evolved Sephirot from stage one Malkuth to stage two “Yesod.”
Yesod’s archangel is Gabriel.
Its authority: purification.
It offered huge bonuses for purifying spirits and corpses, enhancing sacred beast creation skills and purification skills invisibly.
“Gonghyeok-nim, all positions set.”
Soma’s voice came from below.
About 200 hunters had come out today to take down the Lava Stone Tyranno.
Forty of them had completed “job advancements.”
Advancing required learning three skill coins related to the job.
In these hard times when survival was tough, let alone skill coins, few had advanced.
Some had advanced haphazardly based on scavenged skills.
But for now, they were useful.
‘Tech that flops later, so they’ll struggle to make a living, but whatever.’
He’d told Soma to advance later.
He’d yielded the second floor’s Vajra Guardian to advance Soma to “Vajrayana” on the fifth floor.
-Ah, it’s billowing up all puffy.
Smoke rose from the volcano, signaling the second hunt.
Every hunter on the island turned their gaze to the volcano.
The crater’s rim crumbled.
The crater, once easy to escape, no longer fit the monster’s enlarged body.
The monster’s remaining eye locked precisely on Ju Gonghyeok from dozens of kilometers away.
Kraaaaaah—!
As the monster’s roar echoed, the title switched to “He Who Fucked Over an S-Rank Magical Beast.”
[Title “He Who Fucked Over an S-Rank Magical Beast” equipped]
[When facing magical beast monsters, Strength, Agility, and Will stats rise by 25.
When fighting them, magical beasts enrage easily.]
The crescent blade sword used last time had its edge chipped slicing the thing’s skull.
Instead, he drew Yataedo.
Blade alone 2.28 meters. Total with hilt, 2.8 meters. Sacred flames clung to the sword.
[Sephirot stage 1 Malkuth open. Limit time 60 minutes]
[All stats +50! Sacred flames bloom across body, forming a barrier!]
[Consuming mana to summon “Angelic Wings”]
Seeing their master’s authority activate, the sacred beasts howled.
Ororororo!
Kyaaauung—!
[Sacred Beast exclusive skill “Spirit Obedience (A)” activated]
[Spirit Summoner Ju Gonghyeok’s authority flows into the sacred beasts]
[“Flames of the Spirit” bloom across the sacred beasts’ bodies]
[All stats +20]
Heat and sparks trailed feather tips, fur cloaked in flames.
Sacred beasts wreathed in beautiful fire strode forward.
A fearsome sight.
The watching hunters felt reassurance mixed with strange futility.
‘Even if the boss was these five sacred beasts instead of the Lava Stone Tyrannosaurus, could we have taken them down?’
As hunters shivered at one man’s might, that Ju Gonghyeok shouted to them.
“Everyone! Know this? Tyranno meat tastes like chicken!”
“Huh?”
“What’s that outta nowhere...”
As people looked puzzled, Gonghyeok’s hand pointed at the tyranno.
Kraaaaaaaa!
The monster charged down the slope. Straight toward the clustered hunters.
“Shouldn’t we check tonight? Raid starts!”
Sacred beasts spread out, ready to intercept the tyrannosaurus.
“What’s with the random meat joke?”
“Oh, I heard dinosaurs evolved into birds.”
Gonghyeok’s cheerful tone left hunters exasperated but loosened up, summoning their avatars with lighter movements.
Gonghyeok murmured with his usual cheerful smile.
‘Of course, the odds of you tasting tyranno meat are lower than it tasting yours.’
Monster and hunter, each thinking they were the hunter.
A third hunter sneered at the contradictory pair.
-I’m truly in awe of your character.
***
The southern commander, Omer Ashk, stood alone atop a rocky mountain.
He stared at the distant fire-spewing monster with utterly defeated eyes.
“Lava Stone Tyrannosaurus.”
Last time it was five stories tall. Now it felt like seven.
Two stories more meant nearly 1.5 times bigger.
Though smaller, the five boss monsters cloaked in spirit flames and 200 hunters moved in perfect sync.
Standing out was Ju Gonghyeok, who’d awakened Sephirot stage two Yesod.
Truthfully, most hunters were just extras.
The real fight was Gonghyeok one-on-one with the tyranno.
‘They really made that to be caught?’
Omer felt a slight unease.
If Ju Gonghyeok weren’t here?
‘Could the remaining 2,999 hunters really take down that damn tyrannosaurus?’
“He’d heard from the devil’s dungeon-clearing information that it was catchable.”
But...
Kraaaaaaaaah!
Flames from its mouth vaporized an area. A kicked sacred beast hit a cliff, triggering a small landslide.
‘How the hell do you catch it?’
Was there a hint hidden somewhere?
He’d slain all six bosses himself just in case, but found nothing.
Omer Ashk ground his teeth.
‘No, that’s all excuses. Damn it!’
No way to catch it? Only for him.
A hero was fighting it evenly right before his eyes.
Shouting impossibility before a man proving it possible meant nothing.
Omer couldn’t become a hero.
That’s why he contracted with the devil.
He watched the magical beast and hero with bitterness.
‘I’ve already done what I can.’
Omer recalled his current self.
Even a murderer was fine. Get stronger, stronger, enjoy everything.
Survival, women, money, power.
The devil he contracted with, Rahu, said:
After humans perish and the dimension’s absorbed, another world follows.
In that world after, he’d enjoy it all.
For that...
“Kill, kill, and kill again.”
Kill as much as possible, exit the third floor first, and the best rewards would drop.
Devils were strictly results-based.
Find quests yourself, rack up results yourself.
And the easiest to rack up? Murder.
“I... will get stronger.”
A half bat wing unfurled from Omer’s right shoulder.
Riding the uninhabited island’s hot updrafts, he flew north.
***
“Vajra—!”
From Soma’s Thousand-Armed Vajra Guardian (S-), the forbidden curse “Demon-Slaying Thunderclap” and counter skill “!!Revolution!!” fired in sequence.
Lightning carrying dozens of times the damage struck the monster’s face.
But the face that took the thunder head-on bore only faint scorch marks.
The monster’s remaining eye rolled down indifferently.
Like looking at an ant before squashing it, its gaze met Soma’s.
Kwaaaang
A massive foot plummeted toward Soma’s head.
“Soma-nim!”
Imagining Soma crushed underfoot, his comrades screamed.
“Almost died there.”
Orororo! Ororong!
Behind them hung Soma from Diart’s large beak.
Right before the stomp, Diart had Swift Charged to snatch and rescue him.
“When does that thing go down?”
Muttered a hunter creating a swamp under its feet to trip it.
200 hunters had been hammering it for three hours straight, yet the monster looked fine.
The sacred beasts’ white flames had long faded.
Could reactivate in an hour, but hunters were exhausted against an enemy that shrugged off everything.
“We’ll get it.”
Soma declared firmly after dismounting the beak.
“It’s a trial because we can solve it. And...”
His rocky fist clenched tight.
“Otherwise, falling to hell means nothing.”
Light flowed from the Vajra Guardian, a new forbidden curse about to activate, when a shout came from behind.
A messenger.
“Retreat! Everyone retreat!”
“What? We’re not done yet. We have to take it down somehow...!”
“Commander Ju Gonghyeok’s orders! He says he’ll handle this place, so everyone else return!”
The pale-faced messenger yelled on.
“The western murderers and other hunters are attacking our main base!”
Everyone’s faces hardened.
The home base, stripped of elites, had been burglarized.