Chapter 67
Chapter 67
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 67
Chapter Title: The Guardian Falls
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Seo Woo-jin was strong.
Strong enough to handle even typical heroes without using his hidden skills, whether they were B-rank or A-rank.
The strength he had gained from one-on-one sword training with Ban Slane couldn’t be measured by rank or level.
‘Impressive.’
But even Seo Woo-jin couldn’t help but admire Baek Si-woo.
An SSS-rank hero over level 50.
One who hadn’t just ridden the bus but had also put in the effort to grow stronger.
Baek Si-woo’s sword struck Rosie Ruby at a speed like light itself, true to its name ‘Lightning Flash’.
Rumble—!
Dust billowed up with a thunderous roar that shook the hallway.
And then...
Screeeech.
The creature’s head, charred black as if struck by real lightning, thudded to the floor.
[Level up.]
[Level up.]
Light burst from Seo Woo-jin’s body.
At the same time, the black space unfolded before him.
“Crazy...”
In truth, Seo Woo-jin hadn’t done much.
He hadn’t landed any significant blows, and it was Baek Si-woo who had delivered the finishing strike to Rosie Ruby.
All he had done was scratch its hide a bit and buy time.
Yet he had leveled up twice.
“That thing really was a monster.”
If he had somehow hunted Rosie Ruby alone, he couldn’t even guess how many levels he would have gained.
It offered far more experience than even Burtel.
“I wonder how many levels Baek Si-woo gained?”
Five? Six?
‘No, since his level is high, he might not have gained that many.’
He knew well that the higher your level, the exponentially more experience was required.
Taking that into account, Baek Si-woo probably hadn’t gained more than two levels at most.
Even that was only possible because Baek Si-woo had practically taken it down solo.
“He’s a freak in his own right.”
As expected of the leader of the elite friends.
Seo Woo-jin chuckled and scanned his surroundings.
“Interdimensional Demon King Chronicle.”
In the center of the black space sat the massive book, unmoved.
He reached out.
But as expected, he couldn’t touch it.
Seo Woo-jin smacked his lips and examined the book’s cover.
Hoping there might be a clue on how to touch it.
Besides the title, the cover was etched with countless patterns.
He couldn’t decipher their meaning, but for some reason, he suspected they were magic circles.
“Just in case.”
He began memorizing them.
They were far too complex and vast to remember everything.
“This calls for focus and selection.”
Seo Woo-jin memorized one relatively simple pattern.
He had no magical knowledge himself, but others did.
Among his team was Jin Tae-seong, the ‘Elemental Sorcerer’.
Those with magic-related classes might recognize it.
He planned to ask them to interpret the pattern.
As it became etched in his mind, the time in the black space ended.
Flash—!
With a bright light, Seo Woo-jin returned to reality.
“Hmm...”
It had felt like a long time in the black space, but almost no time had passed in reality.
Rosie Ruby’s head was still rolling around, after all.
“Waaah—!”
He heard Lee Ji-ah’s admiring cry.
“Amazing, so amazing! How did you slice that monster’s head off in one go like that?”
Had she already forgotten the ordeal of fighting Rosie Ruby?
Lee Ji-ah was bombarding Baek Si-woo with questions, her face lit up with excitement.
Seo Woo-jin chuckled and checked on the other team members.
He thought they’d all be exhausted after the life-or-death battle, but surprisingly, everyone looked great.
No, they looked refreshed.
Seeing this, Seo Woo-jin’s expression turned shocked.
‘Everyone leveled up!’
For so many people to level up...
It really drove home just how monstrous Rosie Ruby had been.
“Huh?”
Seo Woo-jin, who had been chuckling wryly, suddenly widened his eyes.
Someone he shouldn’t be seeing here had entered his view.
“...Eirin?”
Why was she here?
“Woo-jin.”
Eirin looked at Seo Woo-jin with her usual calm expression.
But she couldn’t hide the trembling in her eyes.
“I’m glad you’re safe.”
With those words, Seo Woo-jin realized she had come here looking for him.
He was honestly a bit moved.
“How did you get here?”
He asked to hide his slight embarrassment.
“We found traces of the Demon King at the site where you and the others went missing.”
Eirin briefly explained what had happened outside.
As soon as she opened her mouth, everyone focused.
Even Sung Yu-ra, who had picked fights at every turn, shut her mouth and listened intently.
“Kademain, huh...”
Rudain groaned.
The heroes felt little, but as a native of this world, he was different.
Hearing the Demon King’s name brought fear first and foremost.
“So the search parties all scattered too?”
“If it’s not just me who got separated, then yes.”
Eirin nodded at Rudain’s question.
‘This is bad.’
There were already more than one or two people to find here.
Excluding the knights reduced to chunks of meat, he had to find at least three of the elite friends.
And now there were even more...
How many of them could possibly survive?
No, was there even a way to escape this place alive in the first place?
But then.
“Huh? Mister! Look at that!”
Lee Ji-ah spotted something and called Seo Woo-jin.
“Hm? What?”
Her fuss shattered the heavy atmosphere, forcing him to turn.
Then he saw what Lee Ji-ah was pointing at.
‘A gem?’
Amid the ashes of the dead Rosie Ruby scattering in the air, a fist-sized gem gleamed.
Without thinking, Seo Woo-jin reached for it.
Though Baek Si-woo had the biggest claim to loot, Seo Woo-jin didn’t care.
The moment he saw the gem, an intense urge to take it surged within him.
“Be careful!”
Rudain issued a sharp warning.
Rosie Ruby was dead, but as a minion of the Demon King, there was no guarantee the gem it left behind was safe.
But Seo Woo-jin picked up the gem anyway.
At that moment...
The space began to collapse.
* * *
The Mana Engineer spread out a mana field.
To analyze the nature of this ruin-like place.
“Space-time?”
It took quite a while, but he confirmed the magic pattern imbued in the ruins.
Shockingly, it was magic that twisted concepts to create chaos.
“Amazing.”
A level of magic beyond his wildest dreams.
Clearly, no one short of a Grand Sorcerer could even imitate it.
“As expected of a Demon King ruin.”
The Mana Engineer was purely impressed.
And then despaired.
He realized his own magic skills couldn’t get him out of this space.
Riok, who had been guarding him with sword drawn, tilted his head.
“Is it a bad situation?”
The Mana Engineer’s expression had suddenly darkened, after all.
The Mana Engineer nodded.
He had no intention of hiding it.
“...Don’t you need to know what’s going on to respond?”
To cope with the situation.
“We can’t escape this place.”
Riok fell silent at those words.
The bad situation he’d imagined was maybe a powerful monster inside.
He hadn’t dreamed of being unable to escape.
“You mean...?”
“There’s only one way out. Defeat the Demon King’s minion.”
It wasn’t that there was no way at all.
“Then let’s do that.”
“Impossible.”
The problem was they absolutely couldn’t defeat that guardian.
If the entire search party of mid-to-high-level knights gathered.
And if he provided support, it might be possible.
But this was a place where space-time anomalies twisted together.
Assembling dozens of knights here?
That was as hard as slaying the guardian.
‘Even if we did, only a handful would survive.’
Through analyzing the mana pattern, the Mana Engineer had identified the ruin’s guardian.
It was none other than Rosie Ruby, infamous even in Demon Realm Heldein.
He didn’t know why it was here, but if it really was that thing, even he stood no chance.
As a Demon King minion, it truly was a monster.
So it was no wonder the Mana Engineer despaired.
“...But we can’t just give up.”
“Obviously.”
The Mana Engineer nodded.
It was close to impossible, for sure.
But as Riok said, they couldn’t just sit and wait for death.
For a mage’s pride, he had to find another way somehow.
“Let’s move for now.”
The Mana Engineer led the way, but not down the long hallway.
Straight to the wall.
Analysis had revealed the true path lay beyond it, not the hallway.
The Mana Engineer placed his hand on the wall.
Then drew up mana.
Or tried to.
Rumble—
A massive vibration suddenly shook the hallway.
“What?”
The Mana Engineer’s face filled with shock.
Not just because of the intense shaking.
Immense mana.
It raged like a typhoon.
He instinctively drew up mana to shield his body.
“Urk!”
Even so, he couldn’t withstand the onslaught, and agony surged through him.
‘What the hell is this...!’
He had never experienced a mana storm of this scale.
But though the Mana Engineer’s face twisted, it didn’t look so bad.
No, it was much brighter than before.
‘No way?’
There was only one reason for such a phenomenon inside the ruins.
Collapse.
The ruins were collapsing, dispersing the mana that sustained them.
For it to happen so suddenly...
‘The guardian is dead.’
Rosie Ruby dead?
The Empire had sent countless subjugation teams to kill it.
Some included top-tier knights.
Yet not once had they triumphed.
One reason Heldein subjugation had always failed was Rosie Ruby.
And now it was dead?
Unbelievable.
“...But I have no choice but to believe it.”
The space before him was shattering.
Cracks spread like fracturing glass, crumbling away.
“Uwaaaah!”
With Riok’s scream from behind, the ruins vanished.
And what appeared before them was the forest clearing where the gate had formed.