Chapter 168
Chapter 168
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 168
Chapter Title: Leader of the Corpse Grotto: Flame of Eternal Rest
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The leader of the Corpse Grotto.
The Flame of Eternal Rest.
The Flame of Eternal Rest sat upon its throne, awaiting those who sought eternal slumber.
Atop pitch-black bones.
A garment of magnificently blazing crimson flames.
From within a helmet shaped like a beast's head, red eyes gleamed fiercely.
True to its status as the boss of an upper dungeon, it cut an incredibly imposing figure.
For nearly a century, no one had entered the Corpse Grotto and made it all the way to the Flame of Eternal Rest.
Yet even so, the Flame of Eternal Rest steadfastly held its ground.
Unlike the Corpse Grotto's Phantasmal Beasts, which were driven solely by instinct despite possessing some intelligence, it had no means of conversing with them.
Thus, it silently guarded its post, hoping that someday a Pioneer would come.
And today.
Finally, a commotion echoed from the upper levels of the Corpse Grotto.
The unmistakable sign of intruders.
The Flame of Eternal Rest clacked its teeth together in swelling anticipation.
It was already eager to see what kind of Pioneer it would be.
So it fidgeted repeatedly on its throne.
Pondering what pose would make it look the strongest when facing the Pioneer.
In the end, it stretched both legs forward and laid its greatsword across them.
Come whenever you're ready.
As it stared solely at the entrance with that thought in mind—
KABOOM!
The ceiling collapsed.
Before it knew it, the Flame of Eternal Rest was rolling across the floor.
It was due to the sudden explosion.
The Flame of Eternal Rest betrayed its bewilderment.
In the instant before the blast, it had spotted two Pioneers.
One was a Half Dark Elf grinning ear to ear.
The other was a Sword-Tooth Clan boy with tears streaming down his face.
To appear from the ceiling of all places—every plan it had devised was ruined.
Thankfully, the Flame of Eternal Rest had some immunity to explosions.
So it mercifully avoided dying in a single scream-inducing blast.
But repeated explosions could prove dangerous.
The successive detonations filled the Flame of Eternal Rest with unease.
It hurriedly sprang to its feet.
Flames flickered around it as it swung its greatsword.
WHOOSH!
The wind pressure from a single swing blew away the smoke.
As soon as its vision cleared, the Flame of Eternal Rest moved to advance.
But someone reached it first.
The boy who arrived whipping his black tail—Hanok Wilbria.
Hanok thrust forward with Silver Knight's Charge Spear, adding even more spin.
Along with the gale swirling around his spear, it whipped around like a windmill.
CLANG!
The greatsword of the Flame of Eternal Rest clashed with Hanok's spear, unleashing a deafening roar.
Flames blooming from the greatsword splashed onto Hanok.
Yet Hanok's spinning spear at tremendous speed extinguished them all.
Moreover, the material of Hanok's armor had changed from before.
It was now laden with massive fire resistance.
Hanok's living armor, Haron, had instantly adjusted its composition for this battle.
As a result, Hanok blocked even the greatsword swings from the Flame of Eternal Rest head-on.
Each time Hanok's amber eyes flashed, a dizzying assault followed.
No matter how mighty the Flame of Eternal Rest, taking a spear infused with gales would grind its bones to dust.
Thus, the Flame of Eternal Rest began ramping up its firepower even further.
A blue flame surged from within its chest.
It was a flame of one level higher intensity than before.
The moment the blue flames spread across the Flame of Eternal Rest's body, Hanok judged it dangerous and immediately pulled back.
Then, a flame zone erupted around the Flame of Eternal Rest.
Hanok swiftly retreated to the edge of the wall and regripped his spear.
The flame zone blazed fiercely without fading.
Crack—crackle!
And from the floor, bony hands burst upward.
What emerged from the ground were bone species with flames flickering inside their ribcages.
Each armed with bone weaponry, they clacked their teeth.
In an instant, dozens of armed bone species filled the plaza.
On top of that, the flame zone activated by the Flame of Eternal Rest continued to burn.
The armed bone species charged at Hanok en masse.
At the same time, the Flame of Eternal Rest slammed its greatsword into the ground.
Roooar!
A ring of flames appeared above the Flame of Eternal Rest's head.
As the flame ring spun, the greatsword's blaze intensified.
The unique ability of the Flame of Eternal Rest.
The moment this ability activated, the Flame of Eternal Rest became immobile.
Inability to move was a fatal flaw.
But with such a critical drawback came a commensurate payoff.
Its other ability.
An explosive ability that overheated an area with a flame zone and obliterated it entirely.
Thus, the Flame of Eternal Rest had to be stopped the instant it activated Flame Ring.
Otherwise, a massive explosion would wipe everything out.
The armed bone species reaching Hanok launched their attacks.
Clang! Clash!
Hanok fought them off without giving an inch.
But for some reason, Hanok didn't close in on the Flame of Eternal Rest.
On the contrary, he kept his distance, letting it charge Flame Ring freely.
Doubt flickered in the Flame of Eternal Rest's glowing eyes.
It should be rushing to stop him right now, yet...
Why fight from so far away?
As the Flame of Eternal Rest puzzled over this, realization dawned.
The Half Dark Elf from earlier was nowhere in sight.
He had been there until they plummeted together, so where had he vanished to?
The man who had triggered that dangerous explosion.
The Flame of Eternal Rest heightened its senses.
Chill!
In that instant, it froze solid.
It had sensed a colossal power filling the area.
Creeeak—
Activating its eye-glow's piercing vision, the Flame of Eternal Rest looked downward.
Beneath the ground.
Deep below.
There was the Half Dark Elf, who had carved out a massive plaza.
He swung his staff like a conductor, repeatedly activating skills.
Then, his eyes met those of the Flame of Eternal Rest.
"Busted."
Leyzon's eyes curved into a slow smile.
In his grasp was a gemstone that had appeared at some point.
"Looks like you're confident in a firepower contest."
Ashen glow pierced through his mask, flashing sharply.
His smile now brimmed with manic glee.
The ecstasy of explosion, laid bare.
"Let's see who wins."
With those words, Leyzon poured even more fusion magic into it.
The black sun hanging in the underground space gradually swelled in size.
The Flame of Eternal Rest felt its mind growing hazy.
It couldn't fathom how vast the black sun would become.
Thus, it had only one option.
Whirrrrr!
To desperately spin its Flame Ring.
Leyzon's black sun kept expanding.
The Flame of Eternal Rest's firepower kept rising.
Each pushed their output to the max with grim determination.
Drip—
The Flame of Eternal Rest gathered so much heat that even its own body began to melt.
No matter how enduring, it couldn't handle more.
In the end, the Flame of Eternal Rest reached its limit first.
It raised its greatsword, fully charged, all the way overhead.
"Too bad."
At the same precise moment, Leyzon aimed his Staff of Abundance upward.
Poison vines and insects coiled around his arms and legs.
Yet Leyzon didn't so much as blink.
If anything, he looked disappointed at not being able to expend more mana.
"Would've been fun if your limit was a bit higher."
With that, Leyzon unleashed the black sun.
BOOM—
The black sun pulverized the underground ceiling as it surged upward.
The black sun bore down.
The Flame of Eternal Rest had no choices left.
Ting!
The flame ring spinning above its head halted all at once.
Simultaneously, the flame zone vanished.
Instead, overwhelming firepower poured from the Flame of Eternal Rest.
The walls and floor melted from the heat emanating from it.
The Flame of Eternal Rest swung its greatsword, wielding that supreme power.
The maximum firepower harbored by the Flame of Eternal Rest engulfed the underground space.
The floor melted away entirely, and even the air burned to nothingness.
And when Eternal Rest finally reached the black sun—
"Fierce Poison Fury."
Leyzon delivered the grand finale.
The Abyss devoured the Eternal Rest's firepower in turn and surged to the very end of the Corpse Grotto.
The Corpse Grotto quaked from the unexpected explosion, collapsing in places here and there.
Above the devastated underground space, now a smoldering wasteland.
Leyzon emerged leisurely from the shadows.
Before him lay the Flame of Eternal Rest, utterly crumbled to dust.
The Flame of Eternal Rest, which had waited endlessly for a Pioneer, scattered as ashes on the wind.
Not even its maximum firepower could touch Leyzon.
Thud!
Right then, Hanok burst through the crumbled wall, swinging his spear.
He had endured the explosion unscathed thanks to Steel Reinforcement [Special], as always.
"Achoo!"
Having inhaled dust, Hanok sneezed and shuddered.
"Leyzon, sir! Great job!"
Syria poked her head out next.
Eden perched on Leyzon's shoulder, surveying the blasted landscape.
Meanwhile, Leyzon scattered the ashes left by the Flame of Eternal Rest with a puff.
Among them appeared a single key left behind by the Flame of Eternal Rest.
Leyzon pocketed it immediately.
A key to the Hell Realm Dungeon.
With this, he had secured two of the keys to the Four Great Dungeons.
The keys to the Four Great Dungeons were special.
Once the first acquirer claimed one, no one else could obtain it.
However, if that first acquirer died, the key would melt away.
And then regenerate in its original key dungeon.
In essence, only one existed in the world at a time.
'Floating Isle and Corpse Grotto are special cases, so the key remained, but.'
The remaining Four Great Dungeons might differ.
This was an era 100 years past.
It wouldn't be strange if someone else had cleared a key dungeon and taken its key.
'Hope the last two are still intact.'
That was merely Leyzon's personal wish.
Leyzon decided to worry about it later.
Instead, he pulled a skillbook from his bag.
The two SS-grade skills possessed by the Flame of Eternal Rest.
Eternal Rest [SS] and Flame Ring [SS].
Flame Ring, in particular, was a skill used all the way to the endgame.
Thus, Leyzon absolutely had to acquire it.
"Alright, gacha time."
A probability-based random draw.
Leyzon fervently wished for the two skills as he opened the skillbook.
Soon, a skill seeped into the skillbook.
The moment Leyzon inspected it with eager eyes—
His expression gradually fell.
Ignition [A]
A useful skill if needed, certainly.
It was certainly a skill he could use.
But compared to the previous two, its priority was far lower.
'I've had good luck lately.'
About time for some bad rolls.
Leyzon accepted it positively and closed the skillbook.
"Hanok."
"Yes?"
"Let's roll again."
If gacha failed, maybe he was short on coins?
Time to farm the Infinite Skill Draw Dungeon.