Chapter 56
Chapter 56
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 56
Chapter Title: Troll Lord's Dungeon
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[You have entered the [Troll Lord]'s dungeon.]
Jae-hyeok tensed up after unintentionally entering the dungeon.
But he didn't hesitate for even a moment, quickening his steps.
He hoped the dungeon's layout was a complex maze.
To shake off Deodor's pursuit, he needed a place to hide first.
However, the Troll Lord's dungeon was vast in scale but strictly a one-way path.
Jae-hyeok had no choice but to press forward.
'No traps or ambushes?'
This was troubling. Charging ahead like this would just leave him sandwiched between Deodor and the Troll Lord.
"...First things first."
Jae-hyeok pulled out every poison pouch from his inventory and scattered the pitch-black sand.
It was sand soaked in the Leech King's venom.
The chances of a named-grade undead being affected by poison were slim, but he hoped the poisonous sand would slow Deodor's pursuit even a little.
'In this situation, there's only one way to boost my survival odds.'
Raid the Troll Lord.
He had to kill it before Deodor arrived and gain as many levels as possible.
That way, he could avoid being cornered and have at least a sliver of a chance against Deodor.
'Named monsters aren't invincible.'
According to the Lion Statue.
The freshly revived Deodor was 'barely able to swing a sword even after four months of recovery,' it had explained.
And right now, Deodor hadn't even had half a month, let alone four. There was a high chance he couldn't exert even a tenth of his full power.
Even factoring in that he'd rushed into action to exploit the monster migration and had grown by massacring monsters during it, that assessment didn't change.
You couldn't make up for the 'time' a named monster needed just by killing a few hundred lesser ones. It defied logic.
'If a few hours of hunting could restore that much strength, then Deodor's level must be underwhelming to begin with.'
Leaving footprints in the poison sand, Jae-hyeok picked up his pace.
Having decided to kill the Troll Lord, he had no intention of wasting time.
"Gruk..."
Ten minutes later, when he reached the end of the dungeon.
Jae-hyeok spotted a white troll sitting alone in the center of the massive cavern.
Was it an innate king's instinct?
The white troll, seated on a crude throne of shattered rock, was far smaller than Jae-hyeok had expected.
Perhaps only 130 centimeters tall.
It clearly had the form of a newborn child.
As if it had been endlessly waiting for its subordinates who never came, it broke into a delighted expression the moment it saw Jae-hyeok.
Young and looking lonely.
But Jae-hyeok felt no pity for it.
Not just because it was a monster.
Its body was rippling with muscles like slabs of rock crudely patched together.
Even its veins were thick and tough like rebar.
That's right.
The Troll Lord's appearance was incredibly menacing.
Just as an ant wouldn't pity an elephant, Jae-hyeok felt no emotions toward it—only tension.
"Krwooooh!"
The Troll Lord's red eyes blazed like wildfire.
It had realized Jae-hyeok was human and flew into a rage.
Roaring like it was bellowing, Why haven't the monsters who should be bowing before me shown up? Is it because of you!?
Thanks to that, Jae-hyeok snapped to attention and noticed the cavern wasn't as dark as he'd thought.
'No way a monster set up luminous stones or torches.'
Jae-hyeok tilted his chin all the way up.
High on the ceiling, he saw a small, round light.
As his eyes adjusted, his vision caught a faint glimpse of blue sky.
'A crater.'
The rocks' bizarre shapes and dark hues suddenly made sense—this was the interior of an extinct volcano.
In other words.
'There's an escape route.'
That crater was his way out.
The cliff leading up to the ceiling was at least 300 meters high, with a near-vertical slope. A normal person wouldn't even consider climbing it.
But Jae-hyeok's standards for what was possible were different. He didn't casually dismiss things as impossible.
Thud-!
Mana circuits in his soles erupted mana, launching his body over 20 meters in an instant.
Lightly landing on a jagged rock protrusion on the wall, he scanned for his next jump point.
"Kuraaaat!!"
His ears rang painfully.
It was from the shrill roar of the Troll Lord flying after him.
[King's Roar]
An intangible shockwave shook the rock Jae-hyeok stood on perilously.
'I thought it would be sluggish.'
Jae-hyeok didn't lose his balance.
For a martial artist, lower body strength was paramount.
He had trained to stand firm even if swept by waves.
Splat-!
A flash of sword light shot like an arrow, stabbing the Troll Lord's heart three times.
The iaido and sheathing he repeated over ten thousand times daily.
Jae-hyeok's Kang Family Iaido was just barely faster than the cognition of a newborn Troll Lord.
"Gruk...!"
The axe about to fall on Jae-hyeok's head halted abruptly,
Slash!
And a horizontal sword flash sliced the flailing Troll Lord's neck in midair.
Boom!!
The Troll Lord, its entire body bundled in muscle, boasted tremendous weight. The ground cratered where it fell, kicking up clouds of dust.
Jae-hyeok's expression wasn't great.
'Too shallow.'
His wrist ached like it might tear.
He'd stabbed the heart and severed the neck, but there was little blood on the blade.
The Troll Lord's defense outstripped Jae-hyeok's attack power.
The blade had dulled—that was the problem.
'I'll need to buy a new weapon if I make it back alive.'
The constant battles had left the hwandō in poor shape.
With chips here and there, he worried it might snap if he kept using it.
'What a shame.'
Even B-rank players carried at least one epic item.
Yet the hwandō, symbol of House Kang, was just an ordinary blade, not classified as an item.
'Why?'
Creak, squeak!
Calmly sheathing the screaming hwandō that shrieked just from meeting the scabbard, Jae-hyeok suppressed his fresh doubts and dashed up the cliff.
He couldn't find proper footholds.
He judged running was better than jumping.
"Kuwooo!"
A stark white shadow kept pace beside him as he kicked off the near-vertical cliff like he was shattering it.
The Troll Lord that had just plummeted.
Incredible speed unfitting its bulk.
As Jae-hyeok marveled, a vicious club grazed the back of his neck.
He plastered himself to the cliff to dodge and unleashed a skill.
Pffft!!
Aura in the form of twin sickles stabbed the Troll Lord's side and back.
But a C-rank boss wouldn't fall to a single skill.
Gritting its teeth through the pain, the Troll Lord swung its club in retaliation.
Splat!
Jae-hyeok's iaido smacked its wrist, followed by a thrown dagger.
Puk!
"Kiyaaak!!"
Unlike the damaged hwandō, the powerful epic-grade dagger pierced its left eye. The Troll Lord writhed in agony and plummeted again.
"Tch."
Confirming the Troll Lord was still breathing, Jae-hyeok clicked his tongue as his legs kept moving busily.
The sky beyond the crater looked much larger now.
He had climbed about a third of the cliff.
The [Wind Spirit Boots] he'd gained from killing the senior instructor proved a huge help.
Boom! Boom! Kablooey!!
The Troll Lord interfered.
Yanking out the dagger from its eye, it chomped and swallowed the dangling eyeball, then hammered the cliff relentlessly with its watermelon-sized fist.
'Why eat that?'
Repulsed by the gruesome act, Jae-hyeok concentrated mana in one hand and jammed it into the cliff.
He'd stopped running to halt his fall and anchor himself.
But it was futile.
Crack! Craaaack!!
The Troll Lord's nonstop punches finally cracked the cliff, showing signs of collapse.
A thick smile spread across the Troll Lord's lips.
It treated Jae-hyeok like cornered prey.
A big mistake.
'Back to the original plan.'
The newborn Troll Lord should have known its place.
Why had Jae-hyeok tried to flee this place?
Not out of fear of it, but to evade Deodor.
Rumble!!
The cliff collapsed rapidly.
"Kuhaha... ha?"
Spotting Jae-hyeok floating in midair without support, the Troll Lord laughed gleefully before freezing.
It had locked eyes with Jae-hyeok's pitch-black pupils rapidly closing in, kicking off falling rocks one by one.
The serene gaze, unfitting the situation—what it meant was instantly clear to the innate king, the Troll Lord.
Those eyes... the eyes of a predator like itself.
"Kuwoooooh!!"
Finally grasping its peril, the Troll Lord desperately swung its club.
It remembered.
The human's sword had been too weak to pierce its neck or chest.
So instead of fearing Jae-hyeok's falling iaido strike, it focused on counterattacking.
A misjudgment from its first battle ever.
It should have heeded the prickling sensation in its skin the moment Jae-hyeok drew his sword hilt.
[Thunderblade activates.]
Crackle!!
The thunder dread that made even peak S-rank players over level 150 tremble in fear.
Jae-hyeok's blade, wrapped in a fragment of that transcendent lightning, was dull but mighty.
It burned through the Troll Lord's thick hide and muscles, reaching the heart.
"Kraaaaaah!!"
But the king didn't fall easily.
Even with the sword in its heart, the Troll Lord swung its club with full force, smashing Jae-hyeok's side.
Ribs shattered, organs shredded—the agony dazed Jae-hyeok's mind.
The protective magic woven into his Lion's Castle uniform was utterly shattered, testament to the Troll Lord's fearsome attack power.
"Perish with the symbol of House Kang and count it an honor."
Invoking his house to steel his mind, Jae-hyeok barely stayed conscious.
His mana, comparable to a level 50 mage's, concentrated to the limit in the hwandō lodged in the Troll Lord's heart.
The ensuing eruption.
Flash!
Applying the Kang Family Mana Operation Method to its peak, Jae-hyeok detonated the hwandō. The Troll Lord perished without even a final scream.
Blood gushed from its thoroughly pulverized insides, painting the falling cliff debris red.
"......"
Jae-hyeok's eyes remained sunken even in victory.
The real crisis was just beginning.
[Impressive. But you're not the Yaksha I know?]
How long had it been watching?
The Death Knight leaning against the cavern entrance narrowed its purple eyes.
[Who are you?]
As Jae-hyeok prepared to answer the one finally realizing he wasn't the Yaksha,
Whoooong-!
A mystical resonance echoed.
Turning his gaze, he saw the exploded hwandō from the Troll Lord's body floating in tatters in midair.
"...?"
What phenomenon was this?
Jae-hyeok's eyes widened in shock.
The hwandō began emitting a transparent red glow.
Cracks spread, light leaking from the shattered blade's fissures.
[<Iyaruguto> stirs to life.]
The true symbol of House Kang revealed itself.