Chapter 97
Chapter 97
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 97
Chapter Title: The Giant Scorpion's Barrier
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A giant scorpion charged at Kang Jin-hyuk, its entire body gleaming with golden light.
Kang Jin-hyuk swung his bat once more at the massive pincer reaching for him.
In that brief instant as his aura clashed with it, Kang Jin-hyuk caught sight of the scorpion's surface rippling slightly.
An arthropod's exoskeleton shouldn't absorb impacts like that.
He guessed that the ripple was something akin to his own aura.
Kang Jin-hyuk dodged the giant scorpion's follow-up counterattack by ducking low, then retreated well out of range.
"Did you figure something out?"
Cheon Sang-ho approached him, figuring Kang Jin-hyuk wouldn't have blocked and retreated from an attack without meaning if it had just been a fluke.
"I think I have a rough idea why our attacks aren't getting through to that scorpion."
"So it's not because it's tough."
"I'd almost prefer that... Its body is protected by something like a thin membrane."
"You're saying a single membrane is blocking all our attacks?"
Nothing on Earth could do that with any known material.
Kang Jin-hyuk continued his explanation to the stunned Cheon Sang-ho, manifesting his own aura for reference.
"This is what covers that scorpion's body—something with a similar feel. Keep that in mind."
"Keep it in mind...? Does that power have some weakness?"
"No. I mean 'keep it in mind' literally."
The implication in Kang Jin-hyuk's words was "endure."
There was no way to physically pierce the aura, so for now, they'd have no choice but to probe blindly through trial and error.
'If that power really is like aura, it must be consuming MP to maintain.'
In a drawn-out fight, the giant scorpion's MP would eventually run dry, and the barrier would likely collapse.
"This is going to be a long battle."
Kang Jin-hyuk warned Cheon Sang-ho to prepare himself mentally.
"Does dragging it out give us a real shot at winning?"
"We'll see."
"Brute force it is, then."
Cheon Sang-ho adjusted his stance with a faint smile.
It was a simple, crude approach, but sometimes that beat overthinking.
Kang Jin-hyuk and Cheon Sang-ho kept their focus on the scorpion's tail while moving nimbly.
Positioned symmetrically opposite each other, they forced the scorpion to hesitate over which to attack first.
Alternating its guard between left and right drained the giant scorpion's stamina faster than usual.
But Kang Jin-hyuk and Cheon Sang-ho couldn't preserve their own energy perfectly either.
Under Qatar's scorching sun, sweat poured from their bodies like rain.
Their clothes were soaked through as if they'd fallen in water, and their breathing grew steadily rougher.
"We're going to collapse first at this rate..."
With no other choice, Kang Jin-hyuk rummaged through his inventory and pulled out a potion.
It wasn't an HP recovery potion—he grabbed the stamina booster he'd used once before.
The drawback was the agony the next day, which made him hesitant, but he had no time to worry about that now.
"Here, take this."
He pulled out another and tossed it to Cheon Sang-ho.
The potion slipped precariously between the scorpion's pincers and reached Cheon Sang-ho's hand intact.
"This is..."
Cheon Sang-ho recognized the potion at a glance.
"You're saying we finish this today."
Dragging the fight into tomorrow would leave their bodies heavy as lead from the potion's aftereffects, turning the tables against them.
Cheon Sang-ho decided to go along with Kang Jin-hyuk's plan and downed the potion.
As the bitter liquid slid down his throat into his stomach, new vigor surged through his heat-exhausted body.
Kang Jin-hyuk swung at the giant scorpion with all his revitalized strength.
If the exoskeleton's protection operated on the same principle as aura, it should consume energy faster with repeated use.
His hunch proved spot-on.
Each hit from Kang Jin-hyuk's aura forced the scorpion's barrier to expend mana regenerating itself.
"Grk."
Sensing the crisis, the giant scorpion's movements grew far more frantic.
Kang Jin-hyuk grinned as a wildly swung pincer nearly took his head off.
"It's starting to struggle now."
He could feel the moment he'd been waiting for drawing near and redoubled his assault.
Though the giant scorpion wanted to focus on Kang Jin-hyuk's onslaught, Cheon Sang-ho wouldn't allow it.
From the right came a barrage of baseball bat strikes; from the left, a shower of sword slashes.
The giant scorpion countered furiously with both pincers.
Unable to just take the hits, it occasionally threatened their lives with stinger strikes from its tail.
But both were seasoned hunters, unscathed by such telegraphed attacks.
"It seems to be getting anxious."
Cheon Sang-ho effortlessly evaded the scorpion's stinger.
The overly forceful motion made its trajectory glaringly obvious—an amateurish strike.
"Anxiety means there's a reason it can't afford to let time drag on."
Believing a little more pressure would do it, Kang Jin-hyuk closed in tight on the giant scorpion.
His vertically swung bat was blocked by a pincer, but unlike before, the result was different.
The golden sheen on the pincer faded, turning black.
Kang Jin-hyuk was certain that meant the protective membrane had vanished from that spot.
"Now! Hit it fast!"
While Kang Jin-hyuk grappled with the giant scorpion, Cheon Sang-ho charged in at the signal.
He swung his sword with full force at the scorpion's arm.
Unable to maintain its barrier, the giant scorpion lost its right pincer to the blow.
Body fluids gushing, it retreated rapidly.
Unable to scream as an arthropod, the giant scorpion shuddered violently to express its pain.
"A couple more like that, and it's done."
"Why bother with a few strikes? One good hit will finish it."
Kang Jin-hyuk intensified the aura concentrated in his bat even further.
The giant scorpion instinctively knew a direct hit in its current state would shatter its bones.
Survival instincts kicking in, it turned tail and fled without looking back.
"Huh? Has it lost its mind?"
After all the trouble under the blazing sun, it tried to run now that things weren't going its way.
Kang Jin-hyuk wasn't about to let that slide.
Cheon Sang-ho, having downed a stamina potion himself, had no desire to postpone this commission till tomorrow either.
As they pursued, they watched the giant scorpion vanish into a hole leading underground.
The pitch-black void inside gave off no light, so Kang Jin-hyuk and Cheon Sang-ho halted warily at the entrance.
"Got anything we can use for light?"
Without a word, Kang Jin-hyuk handed Cheon Sang-ho a flashlight.
Flicking the switch on the hefty flashlight unleashed a beam that pierced deep into the hole.
Cheon Sang-ho let out a small gasp of admiration at the lighthouse-like brilliance.
"Where do you even get something like this?"
"Pretty sure it's only 50,000 won on X or whatever. No big deal."
The beam illuminated far into the hole, but no sign of the giant scorpion appeared.
It would've been nice if it were a straight tunnel, but it curved windingly.
"Guess we'll have to go in ourselves to find it."
"Well... A scorpion probably didn't set up any traps."
Kang Jin-hyuk let Cheon Sang-ho, holding the flashlight, lead the way into the hole the giant scorpion had made.
The light revealed trails of body fluid leaking from the scorpion, stretching along the tunnel.
"Follow these traces, and we'll find it."
Cheon Sang-ho started down the fluid-marked path.
"How is this massive hole holding up without any supports...?"
Kang Jin-hyuk marveled at how the enormous tunnel maintained its shape without a single brace.
Normally, the weight of the soil would've caused it to collapse.
Yet the giant scorpion's tunnel was pristine, without a single dent.
"It might look fine, but any shock could bring it down."
"Then fighting in here would be impossible."
"Let's try luring it back outside."
Kang Jin-hyuk and Cheon Sang-ho figured they'd soon catch up if they pressed on.
But the tunnel stretched endlessly, with no sign of the giant scorpion's presence.
"Looks like it properly dug this out while isolated."
No one could excavate a tunnel this size in just a day or two.
Not only was it incredibly long, but it branched into countless paths.
Without the body fluid traces on the floor, Kang Jin-hyuk and Cheon Sang-ho would've been hopelessly lost inside.
"We might not wrap this up today."
"Better to head out, regroup, and come back prepared."
Wandering here when the stamina potion's side effects hit would spell disaster.
Kang Jin-hyuk pulled out his phone to check the time.
"It's only 4 PM, so let's scout a bit more before pulling back."
Cheon Sang-ho nodded and led the way deeper into the tunnel.
Then, at a fork splitting into two paths, he stopped with a grave expression.
"Why the sudden halt?"
"...The traces are gone."
The flashlight beam showed no more of the giant scorpion's body fluid on the floor—it had followed steadily until then.
"Did the wound clot already?"
"The timing of the cutoff is too perfect for that."
The traces vanished right at the split, as if deliberate.
"It's too clever for a scorpion's intelligence, but..."
"Monsters before scorpions."
"Exactly."
The giant scorpion was an unknown new breed with zero intel.
Assuming low intelligence in that situation would be premature.
"There were plenty of forks before, but this is the only one splitting into exactly two."
"And we've got exactly two people."
"From the setup, it screams trap."
Assuming it wasn't coincidence but intent.
It was clear the giant scorpion meant to lure them in one by one and pick them off.
"So, we retreat here?"
Cheon Sang-ho let out a short laugh at Kang Jin-hyuk's question.
"Can't do that."
He handed the flashlight back to Kang Jin-hyuk.
Then he turned toward the left tunnel.
"I can manage fine without it, so you keep the flashlight, Kang Jin-hyuk."
"Feeling confident, huh."
"Running errands for the Association gets you used to this sort of thing."
With Cheon Sang-ho taking the left tunnel, right was automatically Kang Jin-hyuk's path.
No one knew yet which side the giant scorpion was waiting on.