Chapter 92
Chapter 92
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 92
Chapter Title: Securing the Dragon Heart
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Even when I placed my hand on the gate, I couldn't pass through. It just felt like touching a cold wall. It was the same as when the gate's capacity was full and no one could enter.
"That's why... no one ever came back?"
This gate was one-way depending on the side. We could enter freely, but it blocked us from leaving.
The horde of monsters rushing toward us was getting closer.
"Nayoung, I'm sorry."
"Why? I chose to follow you. And even if I don't know where this is, let's at least run until we find a place to escape."
"Yeah."
Giving up was enough in my past life. Plus, having someone guarding my side made this situation far better than before.
"But what about this?"
Nayoung placed her hand on the gate. Even if we couldn't pass, the monsters surely could.
"We can't let those things through."
Boom!
I channeled aura into my fist and smashed the tower. As it shattered, the light shooting into the gate vanished.
"Whoa!"
Nayoung's hand, which had been pressed against the gate, slipped right through.
Our eyes met. The gate was shrinking.
I rushed to Nayoung and pushed her through the gate.
"No! Oppa!"
Nayoung passed through, but the gate had shrunk too small for me to follow, so I pulled back.
At least Nayoung made it. Now I could breathe. If I smashed the rest and got out quickly before the gate closed, it'd be perfect.
First, I destroyed all the inactive towers. I picked up the core components from the wreckage. Homework for Jaein... no, a gift.
Before leaving, I glanced back one last time. The dragon's mangled corpse caught my eye.
Franklin had looked at the magic stone core in my chest and called it a dragon heart. Those words had felt like a hint back then. Taking that guy's heart might help Jaein complete the magic stone core.
And even if it didn't, it was an insanely expensive material to begin with.
The monsters were already sprinting from several kilometers away. At wyvern speed, they'd be here in seconds.
I hesitated for a moment, but it was too valuable to leave behind. I charged at the dragon. Blades extended from the backs of my hands, and I sliced clean between its chest and neck.
I pried open the flesh and pulled out a large, transparent gem-like stone. It had been drained of nearly all its vitality and blood, but even the faint remnants pulsed with immense life force. That confirmed it was the dragon heart. I held the tower components and dragon heart in each hand.
I turned to see the incoming monsters. Now just dozens of meters away. A wyvern flew at me with its jaws wide open. Taking down that one would've been easy, but behind it came hundreds, thousands more like crashing waves.
I maxed out my physical abilities with Boost and charged at the last remaining tower. I side-kicked it to pieces and kept running. I tossed the dragon heart and components from my hands first. To pass through the shrinking gate, I released Giantification and hurled myself forward.
The wyvern chasing me to devour me as I entered the gate snapped at my heels.
After passing through, I rolled on the ground. The wyvern's head made it halfway through before getting severed and thudding down.
Instead of the dim otherworld, the sunlight of reality welcomed me.
Along with lightning.
I raised my arms to block the sudden bolt crashing down from above.
The lightning split into branches, almost intelligently, avoiding me and striking around us.
"Oh my~ I thought you were a monster~ Sorry~"
A woman with strangely slow speech approached me languidly. Blonde hair, blue eyes, white woman with droopy, half-closed eyes giving her an incredibly sleepy look. If Jung Mingi the hunter had looked tired before, this one just looked perpetually that way.
"Amy Hunter, you should confirm your target before attacking."
"Oh~ You know me~?"
"American S-Rank Hunter Amy Gibbs, the one called the world's strongest? Of course I know you."
"Not sure about strongest~ Anyway, sorry~ Everything coming out of a gate is a monster, right~? And that armor looks just like one~"
Amy pointed at my armor.
"Well... I get it."
My armor was worlds apart from mass-produced stuff. It looked more like dragon or drake scales.
"How was it inside the gate~?"
"Full of monsters."
"Could I hear the details~?"
No one had returned from the gate, so she wanted the story. But I had more pressing matters.
"I'm a bit busy right now."
I brushed past Amy and went to the Mexican soldiers.
"My party should have come out from another gate. Please check if they're safe."
The soldier radioed on my words and gave me a thumbs-up.
Now I could finally relax and look around. Ogre corpses stretched out endlessly. With an S-Rank Hunter from America here, blocking ogres must've been easy.
"Hyung, I was worried you'd be gone for ages again!"
Sangheon came running.
"I knew Chairman would return safely."
Hyeongbin greeted me too.
"As expected. Impressive."
Sihwan gave me a thumbs-up.
"Thank goodness."
Yesul patted her chest. Maybe because she'd cried it out once, her expression showed a bit more. Just a little.
They must've fought hard after Nayoung and I went through. Everyone looked wrecked.
"Let's head back."
As I left with the group, Amy watched me from afar until the end.
* * *
Back at the lodging, after personal maintenance, I finally had time to sit calmly.
I boosted my stats and opened the status window.
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Name: Lee Jiseok
Job: Unemployed
Level: 53
Strength 143 (215), Stamina 147 (221), Agility 137 (206), Intelligence 60 (90), Vitality 2205, Mana 518
Skills: Regeneration A, Beastkin Body S, Resilient Mind S, Poison Resistance A, Keen Senses S, Tough Blood S
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There'd been no progress for a while after returning from Tellus, but killing the dragon bumped my level by 3. Or was 3 all?
Truth be told, even jumping into the gate, I hadn't been certain Nayoung and I could take it down.
Luckily, it wasn't at full strength, so we managed. If the dragon had fully recovered the power it used to freeze the ogres, no way two of us could've handled it.
It was fortunate for Earth that the ice dragon didn't emerge first from the gate. It probably planned to melt all the ogres, reclaim its power, then come out. With the monster horde behind it, it wouldn't have cared about sacrificing the ogres as vanguard.
In the end, it worked out, and we gained a lot.
Considering an S-Rank Hunter's main stat is around 70-80, my boosted state was triple theirs. Of course, lack of skills still held me back, but the techniques I picked up this time rivaled skills.
I extended blades from the backs of my hands.
Red aura cloaking the blades from both made me feel like an alien character from a game.
And with Beastkin Body activated, two cores had settled in my chest. Heat gathered in one lung, cold in the other.
It wasn't just energy pooling in my lungs; new organs like dragon hearts had formed.
Circulating my vitality through the cores amplified the cold and heat.
This incident boosted my combat power several levels, and I got the dragon heart and tower parts too.
I clenched my fist, feeling the power surging through my body.
* * *
"What am I supposed to do with all this?"
Jaein's face paled as she arrived via high-speed jet.
"Make armor. Ogre leather armor."
"Uh..."
When there's a lot of something, people say it's a mountain, but this was literal. Ogre corpses piled dozens of meters high, with several such "mountains." Heavy machinery was still hauling and stacking more.
Jaein bowed her head and pinched her brow.
"But didn't you say we were short on ogre leather before?"
"Chairman..."
Jaein looked ready to cry.
"Don't be like that. Give it a try. I'll help."
She whipped her head toward me, about to snap, but sighed in resignation upon seeing my smile.
"Fine. I'll do it. My fault for signing the contract."
"I'll give you a gift if you finish well."
If I gave her the dragon heart and parts now, she'd ditch this and obsess over them, so I'd hand them over later.
"What first?"
I rolled up my sleeves.
"Preservation. Gotta keep them from rotting, but building a freezer for this volume will take time..."
"Ah, that? I can help. Got the core?"
"Yeah, haven't mixed it with the catalyst yet."
Jaein pulled two metal suitcases from the car.
"Didn't it explode last time? Gonna do it again?"
"Jaein, your words and face don't match."
Her tone was worried, but her eyes sparkled with eagerness to try.
"Ahem. Last time, that lunatic ruined the data."
"No interference this time, so no rampage. Start."
Jaein placed the two suitcases side by side on flat ground. Connectors popped out, linking them into one.
The core rose from one suitcase, a syringe of catalyst from the other.
"Doing it?"
"Yes."
The catalyst injected into the core.
Seeing the glowing red core, Jaein looked entranced.
"Done?"
I asked Jaein, who didn't respond.
"Ah, yes."
She handed me the completed core. I pressed it to my chest and covered it with my armor.
"Ah! You gonna just destroy them all? Burn with aura? Sounds good."
"No?"
I approached the nearest ogre mountain.
"Huuuuh!!!"
I exhaled the cold from my lung, circling the pile and freezing it.
"..... You caught an ice dragon, and now you've become one?"
"Without the core, I couldn't freeze it all. Just refreeze periodically until we build a proper warehouse, right?"
"Sigh... Fine. But it'll take a while. Brace yourself."
Jaein fretted over the time, but I had my ace up my sleeve and wasn't worried.
"Taho, remember what I mentioned before?"
"What?"
"Manpower."
"Oh, the guys from the drug factory were loitering on the streets, causing headaches. If you give them work, I'd welcome it. How many do you need?"
"20,000 for now?"
"Huh? How many?"
"20,000."
"Haha, thought Lee Jiseok Hunter was good at English, but numbers trip you up? Sounded like 20,000."
"Yeah. 20,000."
"..... Right now?"
"Right now."
".... I'll try."
Taho pondered the sudden request.