Chapter 20
Chapter 20
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: How the Rank 1 Hero Protects the World
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However, was this really the best choice?
As I ran, the screams and wails echoing around me forced me to constantly question my judgment.
Right now, I didn’t have any wide-area skills capable of taking out over 80 percent of the monsters, and my stamina was limited.
So, at this point—whether it became fodder or killed the boss monster—quickly targeting the boss was the best option.
But if everyone died while I was taking down the boss monster, what would be the point?
Shouldn’t I go back to that hellscape and rescue at least a few people right now?
Had Lee Woo-yeon, who’d raced ahead down this path, thought the same?
The arrow pointing the way ahead would occasionally shift directions to guide me.
Following it, I spotted traces of Lee Woo-yeon everywhere. Corpses of monsters melted by flames, and other monsters swarming those bodies.
Had the witch’s house been this gruesome? These were far too dangerous to call mere breadcrumbs like in Hansel and Gretel.
Fortunately—or unfortunately—the area wasn’t too vast, so it didn’t take long before I caught sight of Lee Woo-yeon soaring through the sky.
He soon stopped at some point, circling in the air as if pondering, then landed atop a nearby building.
I stopped as well. The arrow was definitely pointing here.
“……Is this really it?”
I didn’t want to believe it, but no matter how I twisted and turned, the arrow didn’t budge.
Lee Woo-yeon spotted me standing still and descended from the rooftop to the ground.
The wings vanished from behind him as he landed. Well, of course.
The place we needed to enter wasn’t a normal building.
The arrow pointed to the stairs leading down to Gangnam Station subway.
“Why underground, of all places?”
Lee Woo-yeon grumbled. He’d effectively lost his powerful weapon.
I didn’t care much where the boss monster was, so I caught my ragged breath from the sprint here.
Useless damn tin can.
“But why’d you come? I work better alone.”
Before I could snap back at that, Lee Woo-yeon waved both hands.
“No offense. You seem experienced. But you could get caught in my wide-area attacks.”
“……Calling me ‘you’ like that is seriously annoying.”
“Can’t help it if I don’t know your name. Didn’t seem like you were gonna tell me.”
Sharp as ever. I turned my head away, having no intention of sharing it, and he shrugged.
“I won’t pry in a situation like this. If we make it out alive, well……”
If we make it out alive, then what?
Lee Woo-yeon trailed off, then smirked as some thought struck him.
“We’ll talk then, us.”
“……Fine.”
I nodded too.
At first, I’d pegged him as a sly fox from his dramatic entrance, but stepping up to handle things as the situation worsened showed he wasn’t all bad.
Some suspicions lingered, but…… his skills were undeniably top-tier. Hard to believe he’d built them in just five years.
Even if this fox turned out rotten, I needed his help to take down the boss monster right now.
And he probably needed mine too.
“What do you think the boss monster is?”
I pointed underground and asked.
We called them monsters in general, but they were living creatures native to the dungeons.
You could predict what kind based on the surroundings.
Bulls in grassy plains, vampire bats in caves, wyverns in vast mountain skies.
Underground dwellers were usually magic-attribute monsters that hated sunlight.
Noble beings corrupted into orcs were magic-attribute too, but orcs didn’t use magic.
So whatever lay beyond this underground was magic-attribute—and far higher rank.
“Got any guesses?”
Lee Woo-yeon didn’t seem to have a clue.
Makes sense. Regardless of his skill, the system’s cruelty required experience to even roughly gauge.
“Yeah, I do.”
Silent Darkness of the Tomb.
The name of the spell I’d shattered earlier was familiar. Sickeningly so.
Tomb, silence, darkness.
Too many hints. I sighed.
A nightmare tried to resurface.
“It’s a lich.”
Lich.
An undead created by a dragon to guard its lair.
Like corrupted orcs, it was a walking skeleton wielding magic-attribute spells.
But unlike near-mindless orcs, liches possessed brilliant intellect and retained memories from life, making them a real headache.
Lee Woo-yeon frowned at my words.
“A lich? That skeleton skull from games…… the one I know?”
I’d barely played games back in Korea, so I hesitated a bit. Well, it did look like a skeleton.
“……Yeah, that’s it. Never fought one before?”
“Nope.”
He shook his head.
His clear record put him at Rank 2—practically No. 1—so he’d cleared most Korean dungeons, yet never encountered one?
Surprising, but I got it soon enough.
Right, this world hadn’t spawned the final dungeon yet. The ‘dragon.’
My own experience with liches came from that dragon too.
In Tartarus, entering the dungeon to tackle ‘Optatio,’ the first thing to greet the raid team was one of those liches.
“Liches are usually humans—mages in life—who transform. Makes them tough for fellow mages.”
I gave him the rundown on lich traits and drove the point home.
“You can’t take it alone.”
Magic fundamentally defied natural order, creating miracles.
In system terms, magic was classified as magic-attribute, so it wasn’t very effective against same-attribute monsters.
I’d never seen a human mage sling spells strong enough for an S-rank lich like that.
Lee Woo-yeon probably couldn’t either.
Which meant we needed a plan.
I outlined mine, and he clicked his tongue after hearing it.
“Got it, but if it really is a lich…… that puts too much on you. You sure you can handle it?”
“No choice.”
“Guess we can only hope your guess is wrong……”
I shook my head.
“Nah, boss spawns aren’t some ‘coincidence.’ Told you, right? That’s just how the system bastard operates.”
This was definitely a custom job by the system, tailored to its prime target: Lee Woo-yeon. The worst matchup for him.
He smirked, fully grasping it.
“Ha, that damn bastard.”
The curse sounded so wrong coming from that angelic face.
But it was justified.
If Lee Woo-yeon faced the lich solo, the bad matchup meant he’d likely die without clearing—and everyone trapped in this zone would too.
The system had overlooked one thing, though.
Me being here.
I tapped the sheath at my waist.
“Ready? Let’s head down.”
* * *
The underground was pitch-black. Power was out. I drew the Apex Light Sword from its sheath.
Its faint white glow illuminated the surroundings.
Lee Woo-yeon asked.
“Been wondering since earlier—what’s with that sword? Holy sword or something?”
“……Something like that.”
I glanced at him as I answered.
“Won’t do you any good coveting it. Fundamentally doesn’t suit mage classes.”
“I’m not a mage—I’m a magic swordsman. And I wasn’t coveting it anyway.”
He swung a blade invisible in the darkness with ease.
Sharp whoosh.
“I’m plenty satisfied with my Levatein.”
Levatein, huh? Grand name for a sword.
“But you keep switching between polite and casual speech. It’s disorienting. Pick one.”
“Sure? Then I’ll drop the formalities.”
“Stick to polite.”
We traded banter, but neither of us let our guard down.
My eyes were adjusting to the dark.
No signs of people in Gangnam Station. I’d figured if the station was in the zone, crowds would be trapped inside. Weird.
A few possibilities.
The station had emergency shelters for dungeon breaks, so maybe they’d bunkered there…… or the boss monster had already gotten them.
‘Smells like blood.’
I gripped my sword tight. No telling when or where the boss might pop.
Should I use it? Even if it blows my cover…… Lee Woo-yeon’s faint face hovered beside me.
But as always, time didn’t wait for me to leisurely decide.
My dark-adapted vision suddenly blazed bright.
“Ugh!”
Startled by the sudden shift, Lee Woo-yeon grabbed my arm and yanked me behind him.
I bit my tongue at being dragged like useless tin, but couldn’t protest.
Click. Lights flickered on throughout the dark Gangnam Station interior. Flashy signs buzzing to life with their signature hums……
Lee Woo-yeon groaned as he took in the sight.
Hundreds of people stood frozen, rooted to the ground.
Red vein-like tubes pierced the necks of the immobile crowd.
The veins pulsed, swallowing something. I gritted my teeth; Lee Woo-yeon covered his mouth.
“Energy Drain……”
Undead like liches needed energy to move. So they sucked life force from the living like this.
The victims—drained alive—could only roll their eyes toward us.
Like saviors descending into hell.
Tears welled in their pleading gazes.
Save us, please.
The hundreds of umbilical-like tubes draining their life converged at the station’s center.
Those life-devouring lines plunged into one figure’s mouth.
A corpse that had once been human. Rotting flesh, white bones. A massive crown atop its head. Grotesque.
A system message appeared.
- You have encountered the boss monster.
- S-Rank Monster: King Possessed by Specters
- Converting and relaying the monster's thoughts into language.
As the message said, text in human language floated above the decayed king’s head.
Merciless destroyers…… not one…… shall be spared……
I gripped my sword.
Yeah, I don’t plan on sparing you either.
In that moment, thoughts of hiding my identity, my pathetically weakened power, or the gut-wrenching pain from forcibly dispelling that magic—all vanished.
Only one rose.
What can I do right now?
Before Lee Woo-yeon could raise his sword, I charged first.
Nymph’s Wind whipped into a frenzy, mana concentrating on the blade.
Mid-charge, I summoned an item from my inventory.
A slight weight settled on my shoulders.
I felt Lee Woo-yeon, following behind, falter.
“What the……!”
Behind my sprinting form, a long white cloth billowing light trailed in the wind.
Ridiculous in modern society, but I didn’t care.
This item was my only option right now.
- Equipping ‘Cloak Honoring the Hero.’
- This item can only be used by players of the Hero class.
- Using this item manifests the maximum stats your soul remembers. Activation time: 00:10:00
- Status window updated due to item equip.
Player Name: Wandering Pilgrim
Lv. 79
Trait: Piercing Talon
Class: Hero
Stamina: 3020
Strength: 2515
Agility: 1782
Mana: 750
Skills: Flame of Soul Extinction lv.max, Return from Death lv.max, Indomitable Will - on
The Apex Light Sword, once so heavy it made my arms shake just to lift, now clung perfectly to my hand with a smooth feel and feather-light weight.
As if welcoming me back.
Yeah, I kept you waiting, didn’t I?
I swung the sword.