Chapter 200
Chapter 200
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 200
Chapter Title: Chapter 37: One Day on the Battlefield (4)
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Whether he'd caught on to my intentions or not, Yang Tae-ho stepped forward as well, swinging his hammer in a wide arc.
“Forget about me and you'll be sorry!”
Kim Yul rejoined the fray, targeting the neck once more, as my spear struck the General-grade's knee dead-on.
Thud.
Along with a crisp, almost clean impact sound, a vivid crunch of bone grinding against the spear shaft transmitted up to me.
“Kkieeeek!”
The General-grade's body staggered, one leg twisted in an unnatural direction.
At the same time, Yang Tae-ho's hammer slammed into its side.
Even as blows rained down from multiple angles, it whipped its arms and tail threateningly.
In the process, Kim Yul and I picked up minor scratches.
Fortunately, no infection messages appeared.
“Over here too!”
Just then, Yang Tae-ho charged with his shield out front.
He bashed the General-grade with a thudding sound and pressed on one step further.
He kept driving it back, forcing it to block with its shield rather than dodge.
Even with one leg broken, the General-grade withstood Yang Tae-ho's strength.
In that brief moment, a gentle breeze began to stir.
Soon after, Kim Yul's phantom image, which had been drifting lazily in the air, dove down sharply.
In his right hand was the relic dagger I'd given him, and in his left, his usual one.
The air swirled fiercely around him as he gripped the two daggers of differing lengths in reverse.
‘Typhoon.’
It was a transformation born from overlaying wind-series reinforcement with water-series attribute mana concentrated on the daggers.
The same principle as the sparks that flew when I coated my spear in lightning mana.
I watched Kim Yul's trajectory and thrust my spear over Yang Tae-ho's left shoulder.
The General-grade, which had been grabbing the shield as if to fling it aside, hurriedly raised its hand.
Too close to Yang Tae-ho to use attribute mana freely.
I wrapped my spear in plain red mana, and as a result, it bounced off the General-grade's claw.
In the meantime, with both its hands tied up by the shield and spear.
Kim Yul twisted his body midair to evade the tail lunging for his chest.
He reached out as if embracing the tail, then slashed right through it.
A gale strong enough to make it hard to keep one's eyes open whipped up in an instant.
Black blood scattered in all directions, carried by the wind.
Kim Yul, his upper body drenched in black blood, took a kick from the General-grade.
With a clean impact, his body flew back.
But his expression was bright.
“Cut it off!”
As he said, the General-grade's tail had been severed.
Black blood gushed from the cleanly cut stump.
We'd stripped it of one attack method—a remarkable achievement.
But that changed once the flowing blood began to writhe and clump together.
I shouted the moment I saw the monster's blood moving.
“Fall back!”
Without a moment's hesitation, Kim Yul and Yang Tae-ho put distance between themselves and the General-grade.
In that gap, the black blood filled the void left by the tail.
It resembled tentacles or a whip.
Though the form differed from anything I'd seen before, there was no doubt it was Kerak.
I narrowed my eyes, fixating on the writhing Kerak.
‘Using it later than expected.’
If I were in that General-grade's position, I'd have deployed Kerak for an immediate attack.
Yet it only started using Kerak after sustaining multiple injuries.
That sparked a hypothesis.
‘There might be conditions for using Kerak.’
Like needing to whittle down its health or inflict wounds—something like that.
The cult hadn't relayed any specific stats on it, but it wasn't unusual.
Bihar lacked a systematic intelligence network to compile such data.
Gathering info from battles across regions wasn't easy.
‘Not like there's widespread internet.’
Even if they did compile stats in that situation, they wouldn't be accurate.
Cross-verifying with other Players was more reliable for these details.
Now that the General-grade had played its Kerak card, we couldn't afford to leisurely practice teamwork anymore.
“Hyung-nim, behind me. Kim Yul, ranged throws.”
I took the front line, directing position changes.
Their role now was to support me up front.
I drew on the attribute mana I'd been holding back until now.
The General-grade seemed to have recovered some mana as well and began preparing its magic.
About 20 minutes later, after three cycles of infection and purification, it was over.
“Kiek... kieeek...”
The General-grade, relentlessly pummeled by me, crawled across the ground like mush.
All that was left was to slit the throat of the fallen general, barely clinging to life.
Instead of driving my spear down, I hesitated for a moment.
“Hyung?”
Kim Yul, now on the ground, tilted his head.
Rather than answering, I withdrew my spear and crouched down.
Then I grabbed the General-grade's arm.
Even in the flooded surroundings, I'd beaten it so thoroughly that dust billowed; its muscles were torn, bones shattered.
As a result, the arm was utterly useless.
At best, it dangled limply following my movements.
For a moment, lost in thought instead of killing the ragged General-grade.
I pulled a familiar glass vial from my inventory and said.
“Ahel, do potions work on them too?”
Despite the urgency implied in my question, Ahel answered without asking why.
“Of course. Potions are compressed life force in the form of mana, after all.”
Perhaps she'd grasped my intent even without me explaining.
“Line up the bones first, then feed it.”
Her advice that it would heal properly that way confirmed it.
With Ahel's confirmation, I gripped the potion bottle and clamped the General-grade's throat.
‘First time facing an 8-star General-grade.’
No guarantee I'd encounter another 8-star General-grade anytime soon.
In that context, seeing the status window values naturally sparked thoughts.
Trait: Capitalism, Assimilation, Tenacity, Purification (lv.3 - 31.83%)
The proficiency had risen nearly 10% during the three infections and purifications.
‘Too wasteful to end it here.’
In an era of recycling trash, why not recycle a monster?
A regular Player might balk at wasting a potion on one due to cost.
But I'd long passed the stage of trembling over potion prices.
‘Discount rate's at 11% now.’
So, with a graceful curl of my lips, I locked eyes with the General-grade and said.
“You can take more, right?”
“Kki... kkieeek...?”
The creature's eyes, facing death while barely breathing, began to tremble.
* * *
Combat training against the 8-star General-grade proceeded three times in total.
The last round, it could barely use Kerak at all.
That turned my suspicion into certainty.
‘There are definitely usage conditions.’
I didn't know the exact mechanism, but there were clear constraints on using its blood.
Duration maxed at 40 minutes, cooldown up to 3 hours.
Even then, when it attacked with Kerak again after 3 hours, it only lasted 5 minutes.
‘Like it's not fully charged.’
Whether just this specimen or all of them, I'd have to check.
I should ask the cult if they have stats on it.
‘Probably not.’
Still, worth looking into.
‘If not, I'll make them.’
For now, confirming the hypothesis was gain enough.
Plus, nearly 20% proficiency boost in Purification from one subject.
I'd scraped every benefit I could.
“Whew.”
Standing atop the limp General-grade, I shook out my soaked hair.
My gaze drifted to my arm. Skin mottled and ruined, it naturally drew the eye.
Stains from being caught by the Kerak whip it'd made.
Amid the stains, wounds gaped where skin had torn.
‘Gonna have to wear long sleeves back on Earth.’
No doubt my family would worry if they saw my arms exposed.
I swallowed a shallow sigh and brushed off my arm, still faintly tingling.
Kim Yul sidled up beside me.
“Wanna do another? Should I wake it?”
After brief consideration, I shook my head.
Couldn't keep repeating this forever.
Perfect timing, as it had passed out.
‘No guarantee waking it would even work.’
From the looks of it, its Kerak ability had hit its limit too.
Time to wrap up.
“Finish it and let's move.”
I plunged my spear into the unconscious General-grade's head.
「Successfully eliminated enemy. Absorbing 267,261 contaminated mana.」
My brow furrowed at the familiar message.
Over 250,000 mana absorbed, but that was it.
‘No attribute mana details again this time.’
I'd killed no small number of General-grades so far.
Never once absorbed attribute mana.
I'd even yielded kills to party members with similar affinities.
No difference.
‘Maybe can't absorb if attributes don't match exactly.’
That would mean all the attribute mana from General-grades I'd killed had vanished.
‘Such a waste.’
Finding a matching-attribute General-grade was near impossible to begin with.
Thousands of attribute mana types existed.
Mages believed countless more beyond cataloged ones.
The mana tree was just compiled data on observed elements.
Undiscovered attributes wouldn't surprise anyone.
Odds of encountering a monster with my exact lightning attribute amid all that?
‘Can't spare them just because attributes don't match.’
This was what I'd pondered before starting today's hunt.
‘If General-grade attribute mana dropped as items.’
Then Players could trade them with matching-attribute holders.
‘Not shop-bought, so no discount issues.’
Could even auction them.
Once dropping as items, Player trades would boom.
‘Better than wasting attribute mana from General-grades like this.’
Jang Cheon-yu, whom I'd killed recently, had prime attribute mana too.
‘Magma.’
Per magic theory, top of 4th-tier attributes.
Maybe 4.5th-tier numerically?
‘Not quite 5th, but too advanced for plain 4th.’
Likely because it lacked wind elements in the molten state.
‘Contains oxygen and CO2 at base.’
But that didn't make it free-roaming wind.
Reason wind branched separately in the attribute tree.
‘As Ahel said, oxygen's essential for fire.’
Yet Bihar mages distinguished fire and wind.
‘Oxygen doesn't automatically mean wind.’
Wind requires pressure differentials, influenced by temperature.
‘Those are the foundational 1st-tier under 2nd-tier.’
Magic theory posits all living beings innately carry 1st-tier attributes.
‘But 1st-tier traits are too subtle to manifest like 2nd-tier—that's the core theory.’
Reason neutral mana is called 1st-tier.
People with 1st-tier aren't truly attributeless.
Just not distinctly pronounced enough to classify.
By this theory, magma's high grade stems from balanced oxygen, CO2, fire, earth, and hydrogen.
‘Known cases: under ten.’
Rarer than lightning-series, with nearly 100 documented.
Couldn't help but burn inside thinking of wasting it.
‘Every angle leads to the same conclusion.’
Dropping dead enemies' attribute mana as items would help Players.
That's why I planned to suggest it to the System.
As always, I sorted my thoughts and retrieved my spear.
“Ugh, it's really over now, right?”
Kim Yul stretched languidly, tension draining as he sheathed his dagger at his waist.
“Felt kinda long this time.”
Yang Tae-ho slung his shield on his back, relaxing.
“Honestly, felt sorry for it midway.”
“Plenty to pity.”
Monsters filled with thoughts of devouring humanity, in a world short on pity.
I brushed off Kim Yul's words lightly and shifted topics.
“By the way, Kim Yul.”
“Yeah?”
Not the time for pointless debates on monster sympathy.
Time to review the recent battle, analyze issues, and plan fixes.
“You're still swinging your daggers short.”
“Ugh.”
He flinched at the blunt critique.
Damn System