Chapter 551: Eternal Spire[R-18] (70)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 551: Eternal Spire[R-18] (70)
My wounds had healed completely. And today was the day of the test Austin had mentioned.
A spar held in strict secrecy, with only a few guild leaders present as observers.
My opponent was Kang Hyun-woo.
‘I just need to fight him at the doppelganger’s level… and maybe I’ll test out what I just got.’
A few days ago, I had used the Unique Ability Unlock Ticket I received as a reward for clearing the special dungeon.
[Heavenly Star of Calamity (天煞星)]
-Grade: SS+
One of the 36 Heavenly Spirits (天罡) and 72 Earthly Fiends (地煞), this is an Ominous Star (凶星) that governs death and destruction, holding the authority of a ‘Baleful Star (煞星)’.
-All stats are doubled in combat situations.
-The authority of the ‘Baleful Star’ allows you to intuitively see through an enemy’s weaknesses.
-All stats +40.
-The more blood is spilled, the more the Baleful Star’s nature awakens, inflicting the user with murderous impulses and a berserk status effect.
-Failure to control it will result in the user devolving into a ‘Star of Ruin’ that will not stop until all life is extinguished.
‘It’s a shame it’s not the SSS-grade Purple Star (紫微星)… but the Heavenly Star of Calamity is still a brokenly OP unique ability.’
From what I knew, the Heavenly Star of Calamity was originally SSS-grade, but the reason for its downgrade to SS+ was simple. For all its immense power, it came with a fatal flaw.
True to its name as an Ominous Star, it granted its user insane combat prowess, but the more blood they saw, the stronger their murderous urges became, making it difficult to control. Eventually, they would transform into a homicidal maniac, meeting their own destruction. Without exception, every past wielder of the Heavenly Star of Calamity had walked that path, and all had ended in ruin.
I twirled my Crushing Staff, a smirk playing on my lips.
‘But that doesn’t apply to me.’
I had Absolute Resistance. The drawbacks of the Heavenly Star of Calamity were practically null and void for me.
‘However… the appearance of the Heavenly Star of Calamity must mean that someone with the Purple Star also exists somewhere in this tower.’
The Purple Star (紫微星).
The only SSS-grade ability among the 108 Stars.
There was a high probability that the ‘specific person’ Austin and his lackeys were looking for was the owner of the Purple Star.
I grinned.
‘This is getting interesting, isn’t it?’
Just then, Kang Hyun-woo, who stood before me, spoke.
“Why are you smiling like that? It’s creepy.”
“Ah, my apologies.”
I gave a slight bow and replied nonchalantly.
“Tsk, you understood everything I said, right?”
Honestly, I hadn’t heard a single word he said, but… he probably just explained the rules of the spar.
“Yep, yep~ Understood everything.”
I answered with a shameless smile.
“Then… let the spar begin.”
The guild leader of the Moonless Guild, Kang Hyun-woo—the man they called the future Sword God—drew his sword. A thin but sharp aura flashed from its tip.
I slung the Crushing Staff over my shoulder and stood casually, neither in a defensive nor an offensive stance, looking as if I’d just come out to play.
Kang Hyun-woo’s brow furrowed.
“I think I understand… why Yoon Jae-ho dislikes you.”
I grinned and retorted.
“Everyone’s got their own tastes, you know. A charming guy like me is bound to attract a lot of jealousy.”
*
Amidst the tense air, Kang Hyun-woo watched his opponent, swallowing dryly without realizing it.
‘He’s different… from a few days ago. What is this…?’
The man stood with his weight on one leg, one hand in his pocket, the other holding a bat slung over his shoulder, a casual smile on his face. On the surface, he looked like a completely non-threatening punk, but a chilling sensation crept down Kang Hyun-woo’s spine.
It was an illusion, as if the moment he made the first move, his own head would go flying.
‘It must be… a simple bluff… so why is this pressure—’
The killing intent radiating from Geum Tae-yang felt like a trap, waiting for him to step inside.
The man before him was no mere participant. He exuded the kind of pressure only a true powerhouse, one who had waded through seas of blood, could emit.
Kang Hyun-woo unconsciously tightened his grip on his sword, so hard that his knuckles turned white.
‘…There’s definitely something about him.’
But the man himself couldn’t have been more relaxed.
Geum Tae-yang twirled his bat and grinned.
“Hey, hey, you’re making me uncomfortable, staring so intently. I have a phobia of men, so if you keep looking at me like that—!”
In that instant, Geum Tae-yang’s form vanished from his sight.
“…What?!”
Kang Hyun-woo’s eyes widened in shock. He reflexively raised his sword, but it was too late.
A silver baseball bat came flying in from the left.
“—I’ll want to beat the shit out of you!!”
-CRACK!!!
A deafening explosion ripped through the air as the floor shattered. Kang Hyun-woo barely managed to block it by crossing his swords, but his forearms vibrated as if paralyzed, and he was pushed back.
“Ugh… What kind of power is…”
As Kang Hyun-woo gritted his teeth and corrected his stance, Geum Tae-yang slung the bat over his shoulder and laughed casually.
“Hey, hey~ Is that all you’ve got? How disappointing.”
That single, relaxed comment sent a shiver down Kang Hyun-woo’s spine.
*
The exchange between Geum Tae-yang and Kang Hyun-woo continued at a breathtaking pace. In the beginning, Geum Tae-yang was overwhelmingly dominant, pushing Kang Hyun-woo all the way to the wall. But once Kang Hyun-woo regained his composure, the situation quickly balanced out, and soon, the tables began to turn.
Flashes of sword light rained down, met by the resounding clang of the baseball bat. Their fight was no mere spar; it was filled with a deadly aura, as if lives could be lost at any moment.
The faces of the guild leaders watching turned grim.
“He’s a… a fucking monster…”
“To think there was another one like him besides that bastard Jin Seo-yun…”
“That’s a rookie? No way.”
“…I wouldn’t stand a chance against him.”
One by one, gasps of shocked astonishment escaped their lips.
Listening to their words, Austin’s gaze deepened.
‘Now. Now is the time to confirm if he is the man the gods spoke of…’
He carefully reached into his coat and pulled out a translucent, blue orb.
‘It’s a precious item that can only be used twice… but the possibility that Geum Tae-yang is the one has grown. I must confirm it now.’
Austin slowly infused the orb with his power. It began to emit a soft glow.
-Zzzzzing…
In that moment, golden letters slowly etched themselves onto the orb’s surface.
Name: Geum Tae-yang
[Owned Unique Ability]
Heavenly Star of Calamity (天煞星)
Austin’s eyes stared intently at the text below. A moment later, the grade of the unique ability appeared.
—SS+—
‘……Found him.’
At that moment, Austin’s fingertips trembled. The information the orb displayed was so clear that he could no longer deny it.
“Heavenly Star of Calamity… SS+ grade…”
The murmur escaped his lips.
‘It’s certain now. This man is… the one I’ve been searching for all this time.’
A secretive glint flashed in Austin’s eyes.
‘Jin Seo-yun… you’re finished now.’
His lips twisted into a sickening grin.
*
A good amount of time had passed since the spar with Kang Hyun-woo ended. The winner, naturally, was Kang Hyun-woo.
‘If I had won, things would’ve just gotten annoying~’
They would have graduated me from the training center on the spot.
And so, I was currently messing around, chasing after the girls.
Right now, of the three women walking ahead of me, I slyly lifted the skirt of the blonde beauty with the best figure.
“Hoo-wee~ Rachel’s panties for today are… a passionate red!”
“Kyaa!! Are you crazy?!”
-Thwack!
A heavy blow landed on the back of my head.
“You bastard! Stop lifting girls’ skirts!”
Seo Eun-ha’s fists rained down on my head.
“Ow! Seo Eun-ha is beating someone! This is domestic violence! A human rights violation~!”
Such commotions had become daily life for Seo Eun-ha and me, our relationship now something ambiguously more than friends but less than lovers.
I deliberately dodged Seo Eun-ha’s hands with comical movements, all while sneakily lifting the other girls’ skirts.
Of course, I wasn’t doing this just out of some perverted desire.
‘Heh heh… this is all part of my investigation.’
It was my own way of searching for the specific person Austin was so desperately trying to find.
While I was deliberately lifting skirts and making a scene, everyone’s attention would naturally focus on me. In that gap, I was secretly examining the auras of the other participants one by one.
However—
‘I’ve got nothing. I have no clue who that person is.’
The most likely candidate was Seo Eun-ha. Her cold personality, her remarkable skills.
But the problem was—
‘The unique trait I know Seo Eun-ha has isn’t the Purple Star.’
That’s why I couldn’t be sure.
‘What if… she’s hiding it?’
As the thought crossed my mind, my fingertips started to itch.
I grinned and appeared in front of Seo Eun-ha again.
“Hey, hey~ You’re not hiding anything today, are you? You don’t have a star sewn into your underwear or something, do you?”
“Do you want to die?”
-Thwack!
I got hit again and tumbled to the ground, but even then, my eyes were meticulously scanning the inside of her skirt.
“Black!”
-THWACK!!
“Die!!”
“Gak!”
I rolled away from Seo Eun-ha’s merciless punches and fled. I wandered around, muttering to myself for no reason.
“Aah~ Where could they be~”
As I mumbled and walked around, I sensed a presence in a narrow alley between two buildings. When I turned my head, I saw several men surrounding someone.
Looking at their name tags, I saw they were D-Group trash.
And when I saw the man and woman trapped between them, my eyes widened.
‘They’re both… from F-Group?’
It was surprising to see that F-Group members, most of whom had supposedly been eliminated recently, were still around.
The man had a somewhat gentle and naive look, and the woman next to him—
“Ooh… what’s this… how did a beauty like that escape my radar for two months?!”
Pink hair, and massive tits visible through her loose-fitting robe. I knew it instinctively.
‘Those… are tits I absolutely must have.’
I immediately and quietly approached the D-Group guys who were surrounding her. Unaware of my presence, they were chattering excitedly.
“Hey, hey, you’re from F-Group anyway. We’ll put in a good word for you with the Hwarang Guild. You get it? My older brother is a former participant, and he’s the guild leader there. So…”
A weaselly-looking guy licked his lips as he scanned the pink-haired woman up and down.
“That big-titted bitch next to you… if she services each of us once, and then services the guys at my brother’s guild, you’ll be able to survive comfortably from now on. What do you say?”
“I said no!”
The gentle-looking F-Group man stepped forward. He spread his arms as if to protect the woman and forcefully slapped the weasel’s hand away.
-Smack!
“Ah, fuck… you little pussy. I was trying to be nice. Who do you think you’re fucking with?”
Just as the D-Group guys started fuming and reaching for their blades, the F-Group woman was about to do something, but she stopped when her eyes met mine. I gave her a smile and deliberately began to clap slowly.
-Clap! Clap! Clap!
“Oh~ A man trying to protect his woman… what a beautiful sight.”
“What the hell, which moron is interrupting… us…?”
The moment the guys turned around, their faces instantly froze. Then, one by one, their legs gave out, and they collapsed to the ground.
“Moron? Hey, hey~ Do I look that easy to you?”
“Th-that’s… Geum Tae-yang…!!”
I twirled my bat and took a step forward.
“Is… is that really Geum Tae-yang…?”
“Idiot, look down! That shameless smile, that bat… and who else talks like such a fucking moron!”
“Moron?”
“Eek, it was a slip of the tongue, sir.”
I tapped the guy’s shin with my bat and gestured toward the pink-haired beauty.
“What was that you were saying just now? Something about offering a woman to a guild, having her service you one by one…?”
The guys’ faces instantly turned beet red.
“N-no! It’s a misunderstanding! We were, we were just joking!”
“That’s right! We really didn’t mean—”
I slammed my bat on the ground.
-KRAANG!
“Jokes are something I do. Like lifting a girl’s skirt in front of her? That’s cute enough to get a pass. But what you guys did… that’s just a crime. A crime.”
“N-no… it’s pretty much the same thing…”
“What?”
“Heek!”
I swung the bat through the air and chuckled.
“Alright, now you choose. Should I crack your skulls open myself right here? Or… are you going to get the hell out on your own?”
The guys looked at each other, their faces pale with fright. Then, taking the hint, they scrambled away, crawling on their knees.
“We’re sorry! We’ll never do it again!”
“W-we were just joking!”
Until they had completely disappeared around the corner of the alley, I deliberately kept swinging my bat and grinning for a good while.