Chapter 131
Chapter 131
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 131
Chapter Title: Grand Mantis
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Chapter 131
The fourth chamber before they knew it.
The appearance rate of mantises was steadily increasing.
"U-yeong, arrows!"
With Yeon-su's shout, three arrows flew out at once.
It was possible because she had archery skill traits rather than enhanced vision.
U-yeong held his defensive stance in place, blocking the mantis's attack once.
The three arrows dug into the joint of its left front leg, its chest, and one of its compound eyes.
"Kieee!"
The mantis let out a pained screech.
For a normal monster, damage to the eye would have been quite fatal, but that wasn't the case for a mantis.
An insect's compound eyes had no vision issues even if some parts were destroyed.
"Wind magic incoming!"
Air Bombs triggered chain explosions around the mantis's head.
It wasn't particularly strong in raw destructive power compared to other spells, but it was excellent at disorienting the enemy's senses in situations like this.
Won-ho didn't miss the opening, slamming his axe into the middle of the mantis's right rear legs.
Crack—
The mantis was so huge that they couldn't reach the joints far higher than human height, but A-Rank strength enhancement didn't care about such things.
The mantis's leg snapped off like a tree branch, exoskeleton and all.
"Hraaah!"
Without stopping, Won-ho swung his axe to the opposite side.
With a fierce whoosh cutting through the air, the leg right behind it shattered as well.
Losing two legs on one side meant it could no longer support its body.
The mantis flailed its remaining four rear legs, trying desperately to stand, but in the end, its long abdomen crashed to the ground.
"Time to finish it!"
It was Healer Deok-jin's command.
Yeon-su pulled her bow so taut it seemed it might snap.
Jeong-geun began a long incantation to prepare a massive spell.
Won-ho was slicing off the mantis's front legs to eliminate any chance of interference.
The mantis instinctively swung its front legs to block Won-ho's attacks,
"Not on my watch!"
Clang—
But U-yeong slipped in to intercept.
Thanks to that, Won-ho could focus purely on attacking, swinging his axe with brutal force.
Crack—Crack—
The mantis's front legs were second to none in hardness, but they couldn't withstand repeated axe strikes to the same spot.
Cracks formed in the exoskeleton, and once it started crumbling, the shell shattered uncontrollably.
Finally, the mantis lost complete control of its right front leg.
That meant one entire side was now wide open.
"Watch for the explosion!"
Jeong-geun shouted once he confirmed it.
Won-ho and U-yeong, who had been close to the mantis, quickly retreated.
At the same time, a powerful spherical blast flew out, detonating near the mantis's head.
Boom—
Air Explosion, the advanced form of Air Bomb.
While Air Bomb was weak but multiple orbs exploding at once, Air Explosion created a single massive detonation.
The sudden air current turned the epicenter nearly into a vacuum, so it couldn't be dismissed as a mere air blast.
Cracks spiderwebbed across the mantis's head.
The impact from the Air Explosion was one thing, but the pressure differential caused internal fractures it couldn't withstand.
And for the final blow, Yeon-su released her drawn bowstring.
It was an arrow designed purely for destructive power, with the entire shaft made of metal.
She mainly used it against mid-sized or larger monsters with strong defenses.
The plan was to punch straight through the head already battered by Jeong-geun's spell.
And as hoped, the arrow struck the mantis's head dead-on.
Boom—
"?"
But the result was far beyond what Yeon-su had expected.
She thought it would succeed just by penetrating the head after all the accumulated damage, but the upper part of its head blew clean off like it had taken a bomb.
Moreover, the arrow kept going, embedding into the chamber ceiling and collapsing that section.
Seeing this, the Vice Guild members all simultaneously looked toward one spot, as if on cue.
"...Hunter Jeong-hyeon?"
There stood Jeong-hyeon, shrugging with another mantis corpse in front of him.
Two mantises had ambushed the chamber this time.
Even for Jeong-hyeon, handling both physically would have been tough, and the party wouldn't have had the leeway to focus on mining anyway.
So they had split: Jeong-hyeon took one, and the Vice Guild members handled the other.
'Tsk, maybe I should've just watched.'
He had used neutral property magic enchantment, but how did they figure out it was him right away?
It had to be a reflexive glance at Jeong-hyeon since it defied their common sense.
In any case, by the time Won-ho was cutting off the two rear legs, Jeong-hyeon had already laid his mantis low.
No matter how tough a mantis's exoskeleton was, it was no match for a mace.
He climbed on its back and pounded its waist into pulp, and it died on its own.
It hadn't been able to put up much fight after he jammed a neutral property dagger into its front leg anyway.
'Well, at least I confirmed neutral property magic enchantment works on others too.'
Like with the dagger, it seemed neutral properties suited projectile weapons lacking raw power especially well.
It practically turned them into entirely different weapons.
"How did you do it?"
Meanwhile, Yeon-su, who had felt the arrow's enhanced power most vividly, rushed over to Jeong-hyeon and asked.
Of course, Jeong-hyeon answered nonchalantly.
"It's a secret."
"..."
"Since only I can do it, you don't need to worry about it."
Yeon-su returned to her spot, thoroughly dejected, even as Jeong-hyeon smiled brightly.
But it was the truth, so what could she do?
Unless there was another hunter with the Trait Shop trait, no one else could apply neutral property magic enchantment to him.
Anyway, with the two mantises dealt with easily,
"Alright, back to work."
Jeong-hyeon clapped his hands and said.
They had shown up when the mining was nearly done anyway.
Both forked entrances already had piles of cave orc corpses and other insect monsters.
Jeong-hyeon had learned by chance, but stacking bodies at the entrances reduced monster ambushes.
'Seems like they sniff the smell and turn back unless in large numbers.'
Of course, when they did come, the numbers were greater.
Maybe the ones that retreated called reinforcements.
Even so, they couldn't overrun Jeong-hyeon, the wall of grief, pouring through the narrow entrances.
'These could fetch a decent price if butchered properly.'
Jeong-hyeon poked at the mantis corpse here and there, thinking idly.
He felt like he'd lost his初心 since getting some money lately.
Back then, he'd always stop by the workshop when hunting new monsters to learn which parts sold for money, but now that he wasn't strapped, he lacked that enthusiasm.
'Well, these big ones are a pain to process anyway.'
The most valuable part was probably the front legs, but he couldn't exactly haul those off.
They were twice his height; impossible to carry in the gate.
As he mused idly, the mining sounds tapered off, and Won-ho approached.
"We can head out soon."
"Oh, then shall we go?"
The party members had already packed their gear and were ready.
No need to collect the mined merrillium, and the tools just needed to be strapped to their waists, so no reason to dawdle.
Their expressions were completely different from when they first entered the gate.
They had thought they were walking to their deaths, but the difficulty was lower than expected, so naturally.
Of course, Jeong-hyeon was at the center of it.
Watching them, Jeong-hyeon thought for a moment before speaking.
"I think the gate is nearing its end."
"Already?"
"Well, two mantises at once means we've long passed level 5 gate difficulty."
The party members briefly looked puzzled, then nodded in agreement among themselves.
Mantises were too strong to appear this frequently in a level 5 gate to begin with.
Two showing up together explained why the previous four attempts had failed.
But Jeong-hyeon's thinking was a bit different.
"And I don't think it'll end at this level."
"What do you mean?"
"There'll probably be some brutally tough ones at the end."
If he had to cite evidence, it was the "gems" keyword in the gate name.
He didn't know what form the gems took, but as a mission gate, there had to be an objective, likely stealing those gems somehow.
They had reached this point fairly easily, but would a mission gate hand over the gems that readily?
'Absolutely not.'
To reiterate, Jeong-hyeon never trusted his luck.
There might be "억까" forcing bad luck as per internet slang, but it wouldn't just say, "Thanks for coming this far!" and hand over the gems.
At minimum, there'd be a boss monster assigned.
If it were that easy, the previous gate office teams would have cleared it.
Their specs weren't so easily outmatched in experience or rank.
Anyway, with Jeong-hyeon getting serious, the other party members tensed up as well.
"Hope it's not some ridiculously over-the-top boss mob, that's all."
Jeong-hyeon said with a slight smile.
Honestly, after getting the enhanced doll stronger than the entire Jeongjin raid team as a precaution, nothing would surprise him much.
'Probably just a cave worm or some golem or whatever.'
That alone would suffice as a level 5 mission gate boss.
No, checking general mission gate cases, even that would rank as extremely difficult given the personnel limits.
But when Jeong-hyeon and the party arrived at the entrance to the fifth chamber—larger than all previous ones combined, truly deserving the term underground plaza—
"......"
They were all speechless.
Even Jeong-hyeon, who had vowed nothing would faze him.
'This crosses the line, damn it...'
At this point, it felt like the system was trying to kill him specifically.
Jeong-hyeon and the party simply couldn't believe the boss monster—or rather, boss monsters—before their eyes were real.
'Ah, I must still be dreaming. Today was the day we were supposed to enter the mission gate.'
Someone—whose identity shall remain undisclosed—thought that.
"Grand Mantis..."
The boss monster's name slipped out as Deok-jin's jaw dropped.