711
Chapter 711
"Damn it! G-grab it!"
As one of the hunters dropped the chain, the Nephilim that had been restrained escaped from the trap, spread its wings, and tried to soar upward.
KAAAAAAK!
When the Nephilim let out a horrible scream, the hunters activated the barrier device.
As the barrier dispersed the thunderous noise, the hunters took up their spears and stabbed the Nephilim in its side.
KWADUDUDUDU!
With the ultra-vibrating spear blade lodged in its side, the Nephilim could no longer struggle and collapsed to the ground.
After confirming that the body was completely immobilized, the hunters turned off the barrier device and reattached the chains to restrain the Nephilim.
"Damn it, pay attention! Do you have any idea how much this is worth?!"
When the attack captain shouted, the other hunters sheepishly put the restrained Nephilim into a cage.
With the battle inside the dungeon over, the hunters withdrew and the waiting porters came out to collect the byproducts.
The dungeons that appeared countless times across the continent after the Celestial War contained relics from vanished civilizations and rare materials.
Taking these out of the dungeon would fetch a high price, which is why adventurers rushed into dungeons in the early days.
However, the dungeons that emerged after the Celestial War were on a completely different level from the ancient dungeons of the adventurer era.
One of the biggest problems was the angels who had hidden on the continent after the Celestial War.
The surviving angels who spread throughout the continent dug into dungeons to recover their strength, and there they created Nephilim using their own blood to serve as guardians.
The adventurers who initially entered the dungeons were brutally killed by these Nephilim.
But they couldn't just abandon the dungeons.
The value of the relics and byproducts brought out by those who barely survived was too great.
Eventually, to conquer the newly formed dungeons, adventurers reorganized and created attack squads under the name "hunters."
Unlike in the past when they entered dungeons as parties, hunters moved systematically to hunt Nephilim and collect relics and materials from inside.
One reason this formation was possible was because the hunted Nephilim itself was worth money.
Nephilim created with angelic blood had no waste.
Since everything could be used as excellent magical materials, even dividing the profits among many people who moved systematically resulted in more money than when they were adventure parties.
In fact, the Hunter Guilds that jumped into this business early sometimes earned a small kingdom's annual budget every month.
As a result, more and more knights from small kingdoms were transitioning to become hunters.
If you were a Purple Knight, you would receive great treatment in the hunter world, and these days it was quite common to see Blue Knights as well.
Because of this, unlike before, it became more common to gauge the measure of strength by hunter rank.
The era of knights was fading, and the era of hunters had arrived.
Noah, a porter belonging to Zepetto Guild, one of the high-ranking hunter guilds, was also one of the aspiring hunter candidates.
Originally from the Delpoa Kingdom, Noah was the youngest in a family that produced mages.
Twenty years after the Celestial War, magical engineering had greatly developed across the entire continent.
And the Delpoa Kingdom, which had been proud as a magic powerhouse, was gradually declining along with it.
They couldn't accept the changes of the new era and only adhered to the old magic system, gradually becoming obsolete.
This was the opposite approach to the famous mage family Nirvana, which showed active interest in magical engineering and continued to develop it.
As a result, many declining mage families from the Delpoa Kingdom were absorbed into hunter guilds and jumped into processing ancient relics.
However, Noah's family rejected even this trend.
In the end, although they had once been a prestigious mage family that produced the chief magician of the Delpoa Kingdom, they had now declined to the point where hardly any of the family's territory remained.
To learn magic according to the old system typically required enormous costs.
However, by using integrated circuits created through magical engineering, it was possible to implement effective magic at a much lower cost.
Noah's family rejected such magical engineering and adhered to tradition, spending all their wealth and declining to their current situation.
And Noah, rejecting the frustratingly obstinate family policy, ran away from home to volunteer as a porter for Zepetto in order to become a hunter.
'Somehow, I will become a hunter and succeed.'
Unlike other porters, Noah had ambition.
He slept less than others and moved more.
Thanks to this, his performance inside the dungeon was significantly higher.
Although the incentive he received for this wasn't very large, he firmly believed that this small difference would become a big difference later.
Noah was saving money as a porter to apply to the Academy of Pannotia located in the southern islands.
He heard that Hunter Guilds enthusiastically welcomed graduates from Pannotia Academy because, unlike magic towers or knight academies, it provided education with practical curriculum.
Noah desperately wanted to enter there, graduate at the top of his class, become a famous hunter, and mock the elders of his family.
'I will succeed. I must succeed.'
Noah gritted his teeth and diligently collected byproducts, filling his backpack again and again.
Then something caught Noah's eye.
'What is this?'
There was something like a stone tablet buried in the soil.
The clever Noah didn't rashly touch the tablet and called for a supervisor.
"Supervisor! I've found something!"
Soon, the guild supervisor approached, examined the tablet Noah had discovered, and urgently called the hunters.
The hunters who gathered around the tablet showed surprised expressions at the overlapping characters.
"I'm certain, this is a marker for a double dungeon."
The dungeons that appeared after the Celestial War were summoned from past civilizations by the evil god Metatron, and sometimes civilizations would be summoned overlapping each other.
In such cases, characters would appear overlapped on stone tablets like this.
The important thing was that double dungeons contained more precious relics and byproducts than ordinary dungeons.
The Zepetto hunters' eyes gleamed with greed.
The attack captain said to the hunters,
"If it's a double dungeon, countless treasures better than what we've found will pour out. This could mean retirement with just one haul."
The hunters understood what the attack captain meant.
He was suggesting they not report to superiors, descend into the double dungeon, retrieve relics, and keep quiet about it.
Of course, this would require killing all other witnesses, but accidents inside dungeons were commonplace, so falsifying reports wasn't difficult.
Blinded by greed, the hunters agreed with the attack captain and decided to descend into the double dungeon.
The attack captain secretly called a magical engineer to detect the area where the tablet was found.
The engineer, moving with a detection device, soon found the entrance leading down to the double dungeon.
The attack captain unhesitatingly took the hunters and porters down the entrance.
The porters, who did whatever the hunters told them, followed without much thought.
But Noah was different.
'Judging by the signs earlier, this is definitely a double dungeon discovery. The procedure is to report to superiors and send a reconnaissance team first.'
He immediately noticed the attack captain was using a trick.
Noah followed behind the attack squad, vigilant of his surroundings in case something happened.
If something unexpected occurred, he planned to flee straight outside the dungeon.
And Noah's intuition proved exactly right.
"Captain! There are five Nephilim inside!"
The attack captain shouted urgently.
"A-rank hunters take the lead! Buy time for the mages to charge their magic!"
Just as he shouted, Nephilim with spread wings rushed toward the hunters.
While A-rank hunters held them back, mages passed charged ultra-vibration spears to the spear-bearers.
Skilled spear-bearers threw the ultra-vibration spears at the Nephilim, which lodged precisely in their hearts.
PUEOEOEK!
When the Nephilim hit by the ultra-vibration spears collapsed, the attack squad could catch their breath. Though they hadn't completely subdued them, it didn't seem too difficult to finish the job.
But then it happened.
WOOOONG!
Suddenly, cracks appeared in the wall, and a gate formed there.
Seeing this, the attack captain gritted his teeth.
"Damn it! The angel has awakened!"
Angels hiding in dungeons usually maintained hibernation to recover their strength, so they rarely showed themselves.
But occasionally angels would wake up and attack hunters.
The attack captain pointed at the gate opened in the wall and shouted at the mages.
"What are you doing?! Throw all the ultra-vibration bombs you have! All of them!"
If an angel emerged from the gate, their current forces would be insufficient to stop it.
Following the attack captain's orders, the mages hastily turned on the ultra-vibration bombs and tried to throw them toward the gate.
But then a massive wave came from the gate.
KURURURURURU!
Like a tidal wave, the pulse swept through the entire attack squad.
Surprisingly, all the weapons the hunters were holding lost power and stopped working.
"T-this..."
Without hunter weapons, it was impossible to even face the Nephilim right now.
When the hunters were in confusion, something slowly revealed itself from the gate.
Not only the attack captain, but all the hunters turned pale.
"C-Constellation......"
What appeared was not an angel, but one of the constellations that survived the Celestial war.
An intimidating being with thick armor, wings wrapped in light, and multiple arms looked down at the humans who had invaded its sanctuary, its eyes flashing.
【Worthless insects…….】
The constellation's will was transmitted into their minds.
Just hearing that voice caused the lower-ranked hunters to bleed from their ears and noses and collapse to the ground.
The porters were sprawled in a state where their survival was questionable.
Only A-rank hunters who could use Aura raised their swords and steadied their breathing.
But even they couldn't think of swinging their swords at the constellation.
Since the era had shifted from knights to hunters, people preferred to purchase and handle more expensive hunter equipment rather than properly training in Aura.
When the constellation completely emerged from the gate and stood before the hunters, an even greater pressure weighed down on them.
A-rank hunters driven mad with fear, half-crazed, charged toward the constellation with their swords.
"AAAAAAH!"
The constellation swept its hand once toward the hunters rushing at it.
PUBUBUBUBUCK!
In that moment, like insects bursting to death, the A-rank hunters immediately all became fragments scattered about.
THUD!
When the constellation took a step, vibrations spread throughout the entire cavern.
At that moment, all the attack team, magical engineers, and porters there melted into puddles of blood.
They had harbored vain desires and thrown away their lives.
The constellation, after killing all the intruders and about to return to the gate, seemed to sense something strange and turned its head.
【Is there still a remaining insect?.】
At the constellation's words, Noah, hiding between the rocks, covered his mouth.
He had barely survived by using an artifact he had stolen from his family before escaping to cast a safe zone spell.
Having learned magic in his family when he was young and mastered up to the second circle, he was able to activate the artifact.
Ironically, it was thanks to the old-era magic he had despised that he was able to avoid death.
But the constellation saw through the magic Noah had cast.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
As the constellation with its enormous body over 5 meters tall walked over, the entire cave echoed.
Noah was holding his breath within the safe zone spell.
'Please, please, please.'
At that moment, the rock where Noah was hiding exploded with a thunderous sound.
KWAKWAKWANG!
The constellation had discovered him hiding between the rocks.
【Insect, using such a pathetic trick】
Noah trembled all over as he watched the constellation reaching its hand toward him.
The constellation's huge hand approached him.
PAZIZIZIZIZIK!
The constellation's hand temporarily stopped, blocked by the safe zone barrier.
But the constellation laughed at it and tried to crush Noah along with the barrier.
KUGUGUGU!
The barrier felt like it was gradually being crushed.
Noah realized that death had come right up to his nose.
It was the moment when he was about to give up everything, taking the last breath of his life.
CHWAAAAAAAK!
Something flew in and blew off the constellation's arm.
Noah saw the constellation screaming in its final moment and a knight with blue glowing eyes swinging a sword, and then lost consciousness.