Chapter 16
Chapter 16
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: Ice Gatling Unleashed
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There were still several shots left.
It was the exact same situation as before.
"Reminds me of what happened on the 8th floor."
Back then, too, he'd received a special reward at a miraculous timing, just like now, turning crisis into opportunity.
From the looks of it, the status window was definitely on his side.
It was just excessively impartial.
"Anyway, skills under 50 points... I wonder what they've got."
He began rummaging through the shop window.
The Alligator Warrior had taken damage from his Fire Shot anywhere but the leather parts.
However, that wasn't enough.
Even if the beast lowered its body to protect itself with its tough back hide, he wanted a skill powerful enough to rip through even that leather.
As he scrolled down once more in search of offensive skills...
"...!"
He found it.
A skill that just might turn the tables.
It was a mediocre spell commonly used by low-rank rear-line hunters, just like the Fireball he'd learned before.
Still, the reason he chose this one out of all the skills he could buy for up to 50 points...
It was because he trusted the suit he was wearing and his own potential, just like last time.
"This one it is."
"Doesn't matter. Every other ice skill starts at 70 points or more anyway. What choice do I have?"
If it weren't for this situation, he would've tried to squeeze out a 50-point skill for maximum value.
But it was best to cut losses quickly.
Out of all skills under 50 points, this was the only one that could take down the Alligator Warrior right in front of him.
This time, he felt a cold icy energy seep into his body.
If not for the helmet, he could've seen his breath fogging up instantly.
After waiting a bit longer...
Sure enough, his skill had reached a whole new level this time as well.
The small icy energy near his heart spread rapidly through the suit across his entire body.
And once everything was ready...
"Hoo..."
Guiding his body filled with the energies of both fire and ice...
"Kraaaah!!"
Toward the Alligator Warrior that had finally found him and poked its head into the floor he'd flown to.
Click.
"Kruk?!"
For the first time, he pulled the chilled trigger.
"Ice Shot, encounter!"
Bang!
Lee Miran stood on the glass wall of a high-rise building, watching the battle below.
She was quite flustered watching the 'male hunter' covered head to toe in a suit straight out of a sci-fi movie.
Above all, she was most shocked by his combat sense.
"That guy's... really a man?"
The ice bullet aimed at its head had been blocked by the Alligator Warrior's reflexes, hitting its arm instead and failing.
Normally, that would've decided the fight right there.
Because magic-type hunters usually had a 'cooldown' after using a spell of one attribute, needing time before the next one.
But what was this guy?
"Ice Shot, double ready."
Rat-tat-tat-bang!
"Kieeeek?!"
He was using magic like it was real bullets being chambered, nonstop.
His combat power seemed around the level of a low C-rank hunter, slightly stronger than Lee Seolgi, but the problem was his mana control.
"To rapid-fire spells of the same attribute like that... you'd need to be at least A-rank, right?"
That's why magic-type hunters always learned at least two different skills before entering a dungeon.
A single spell just wasn't efficient enough.
But this guy didn't.
He just kept firing the same type of magic over and over and over.
Until the enemy fell.
And to secure complete victory.
...That's what made it the most regrettable.
"Just a little more... if he were just a tiny bit stronger, he could've won."
The male hunter circling the Alligator Warrior huddled outside the building, continuously firing ice bullets.
He probably thought he was winning by now, right?
Of course, he was winning.
The Alligator Warrior, with habits identical to real reptiles, was extremely sensitive to temperature—appearing in cold places like Russia meant instant extermination upon spawn.
The ice bullets he was firing must be dealing massive damage for sure.
But.
Crackle...
"Here it comes...!"
Unless you threw a lizard into a snowfield naked.
A few hailstones wouldn't freeze it to death.
Especially since this wasn't some ordinary reptile—it was a top predator from the dungeon's lower floors.
"Kraaaaaah!!"
It wasn't just a big alligator cub.
"Tch, it molted after all."
For some reason, despite having perfectly intact limbs like an alligator, the Alligator Warrior had the snake-like ability to molt and change its body once it took enough damage.
When it shed its skin, all wounds healed.
No, beyond simple regeneration, the molted Alligator Warrior gained...
Ping! Ping!
"This is bad..."
...an 'immunity' to the ability that had dealt it the most damage before molting.
"Now, that male hunter's ice powers won't scratch the Alligator Warrior at all."
The Alligator Warrior no longer feared the ice bullets even a little.
Instead, it approached the man with a seductive tongue flick, as if daring him to shoot more. Seeing the monster's advance, Lee Miran finally decided to intervene.
For a man, he'd done remarkably well already.
Among all the hunters she knew, regardless of gender, no one had shown such outstanding talent.
...If she had a child with him, just how exceptional a talent could they produce?
Slurp.
"I can change my body shape with my ability as much as I want. Shouldn't be a problem, right?"
To make their first meeting under the fine title of lifesaver, Lee Miran licked her lips and tensed her legs to leap from the building at last.
But at that moment.
Rumble...
"...Huh?!"
It wasn't over yet?
And now the enemy even had resistance to ice attributes?
As if he'd anticipated that, the male hunter merged his two pistols into a single 'weapon' and raised it. Lee Miran relaxed her legs again, her face blank with astonishment.
Alligator Warrior.
The top predator of the 9th floor, said to be the strongest in the dungeon's lower levels.
He'd been studying this beast since high school.
Because he'd aspired to be a hunter since back then.
Thanks to that, he knew.
That if he kept hitting it, it would definitely molt at least once.
And that it would gain resistance to his Ice Shot as a result.
So he'd prepared.
'I trust in myself.'
Just like last time, when he'd followed his instincts and modified his Fire Shot-loaded pistols into a sniper rifle.
This time, too, he pressed his two pistols together in front of the molted Alligator Warrior, thinking this might work.
Like machinery reassembling, the pistols merged into one form.
Clunk.
In his hand was now a firearm heavier than the sniper rifle with its attached barrel—a minigun capable of firing hundreds of rounds per minute.
"Gained resistance?"
"Krruk...?"
"Then let's see you withstand this."
With those words, he braced the barely manageable minigun against the nearby vehicle.
Then he unleashed it until his mana was completely drained.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!
The sensation of his entire skin freezing solid.
Without the suit, white cold air would be billowing from every orifice.
It felt like crossing an icy continent naked.
A bizarre, chilling sensation that could lull him to sleep if he let his guard down even slightly.
Each time, he bit his lip hard.
Waking himself with pain, glaring only at the monster before him.
"Kieeek?!"
Even with 'resistance,' it still took damage, right?
It just didn't show as much as before—that could be overcome by overwhelming volume of fire.
Besides, there were people behind him now.
The kindergarten sister standing her ground to protect her fallen mother and speechless sibling.
And his one and only childhood friend.
Both were worth risking his life for.
That's why he couldn't fall.
Even if severe hypothermia made his body feel like it was blazing with cold flames.
"Grr..."
Even as the sensation of his body vanishing started from his toes upward.
"Urk...!"
Don't fall.
Stand.
Until when?
Until the enemy before him was pulverized.
Don't live groveling—stand and die.
Because he refused to taste the same filthy end as his previous life.
"Dieeee!!"
Boom!
The resistant alligator hide was turned to scars, scars to wounds, wounds to holes.
And finally.
Pop.
"Did I... really win?"
In front of the Hannam-dong Intersection Station subway entrance.
Level-up reward: +10 Points
Level-up reward: +10 Points
The Alligator Warrior, called the top predator of the dungeon's lower floors, had become a honeycomb riddled with holes.
And this was the moment when a male hunter first proved that masculine power could reach the dungeon's mid-layers.
...Thud.