Chapter 137
Chapter 137
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 137
Chapter Title: Jackpot
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Whooooom......!!
Juter's body had collapsed, but the formation still trembled violently.
Vast amounts of information poured in like a tidal wave.
As expected of an alchemical array crafted by a dragon.
-Hah...... Hah......
Setsuna reached out over the undulating black silhouette, exhaling heavily as she focused her mind.
Without them, she might have already collapsed from overload.
-B-Blood, avoid it!! It's going to explode any second!!!
She shouted while forcing the black silhouette—writhing like a living creature trying to burst out of the formation—back inside.
"Controlling it seems impossible?"
Woojin kicked Juter's severed head aside and approached Setsuna.
Woojin stared at the black silhouette.
A chill ran down his spine.
Just looking at it tightened his throat.
Surprisingly, the instant he laid eyes on that form, nothing but that single word filled his mind.
'Did he really... create death?'
Woojin's body trembled.
-Alchemy's results vary with the materials used. But... the ones thrown in here are utterly insane.
As Setsuna said, Juter had crammed all sorts of horrors from his pouch into the formation.
But the most horrific material of all was undoubtedly his own blood.
"No way to control it?"
-Take a look.
Setsuna grabbed Woojin's hand.
"......!!"
In that instant, Woojin's vision went dark.
Absolute blackness. Nothing visible.
And then,
With the roar, his vision snapped back—and his body was soaked in cold sweat.
"Th-This is......"
It was utterly unlike anything he'd experienced.
Nothing like game death.
True death.
Formless death granted existence through alchemy.
Just facing it conveyed exactly what death entailed.
"......A truly horrific creation."
Woojin gritted his teeth to shake off the prickling numbness flooding his body.
"Just release it."
Then—
Shockingly, Juter's severed head spoke toward Woojin.
Thud— Thud—
A Dragon Child soldier entered, hoisted Juter's headless corpse, and positioned it by the head.
The others fitted the head onto the neck like assembling a mannequin.
A grotesque half-attached sight, but Juter paid it no mind, pulling another potion vial from his pouch and chugging it.
"It's an ongoing alchemical ritual. Suppressing it that way only worsens the backlash, you know?"
Once the vial was empty, his severed neck regenerated in a flash.
"Puhah—."
Juter yanked off his suffocating mask.
The face beneath was nightmarish.
Melted-and-twisted skin shedding white like a serpent's molt.
Crack...
His skin split open.
Mucus-smeared eyeballs, crusty as if packed with gunk, sprouted across his face.
His form felt eerily familiar.
A human golem.
'Experiments on his own body, huh.'
At least golems died from decapitation...
"What the hell......"
Goun froze, speechless at the absurdity.
"Tch, interrupting at the crucial moment... You, elf. Hold still. This won't end with you half-crippled."
Head reattached, Juter lumbered toward Goun.
"Don't butt in above your station."
Slam――――!!!
Juter's outreached arm ballooned massively, swatting Goun.
"......Cough!"
Goun flew several meters, smashed into the wall, and crumpled.
Juter dragged his now torso-sized arm toward Woojin.
Drag— Drag—
Transformed like a dragon's forepaw, it was clad in black scales, razor claws jutting from each finger.
"Don't do pointless crap."
Juter scowled at Luen nocking an arrow and Irurin channeling magic.
Flash—!!
But they'd ignore his warning.
Kaboom—!!!
The released arrow blazed with light.
One of her master skills: [Mystic Arrow].
But a Dragon Child soldier flung its arms wide, shielding Juter.
Crunch...
Tremendous power—but the soldier greedily slurped Luen's mana.
"......Damn it."
Irurin gnashed her teeth at the sight.
If it devoured a Mystic Arrow, her spells wouldn't land.
'Use that magic I found...?'
Her thoughts tangled.
On guard in the lab, she'd luckily spotted the magic tomes.
Among them, a rank 1 grimoire caught her eye: [Space Distortion].
A spell warping the foe's space.
Top-tier rank 1 devastation.
But the caster backlash was monstrous.
'Lose an arm, maybe...'
Flesh to take bone.
Gulp—
She pondered worst cases.
'Right. I planned to claim this place as a base with the rift stone anyway.'
Becoming the dungeon boss.
Unspoken, but it meant binding to the dungeon eternally.
"Hey, you. Told you no pointless crap?"
Sensing her intent, Juter lashed out without hesitation.
The giant arm snatched her instantly.
"Kyaaaak......!!!"
Irurin shrieked as bones threatened to shatter.
"Stop......!!!"
Luen unleashed a volley at Juter.
Dozens of arrows vanished, blocked by his Dragon Child guards.
Mana-engorged, they roared fiercer and charged her.
"Hmm—."
Humming amid the chaos, Juter hurled Irurin with full force.
Thud—!!
She slammed the wall and collapsed unconscious.
Goun's body crushed.
Irurin out cold.
Luen swarmed by Dragon Children.
Situation: dire in seconds.
"Ah, seriously. If you'd just obeyed quietly, I really meant to let you walk."
Juter shrugged at Woojin.
"Really had zero interest in you lot. Just wanted to experiment on the tiny one—but you keep poking, so plans changed."
Regretful headshake, lips curled smug.
Lame act.
Never planned release.
"......Let's do this."
Stick to Plan A.
-But... no decent materials!
"Ogre eyeball, minotaur horn, chimera head, uh, what else..."
Hearing Setsuna, Juter bragged his ingredients instead.
"Ah, yeah—that arm. From some big shot... Sword Emperor? You wouldn't know."
Juter flailed his crude arm.
"Handled hands better than most. Curious, so chopped and kept it."
Woojin glanced at Irurin instinctively.
Good—she's out, missed the drivel.
Alchemy's ironclad law.
Results hinge on material value.
To quash this spell: offer superior value.
Tap—
Juter loomed before Woojin.
"So quit. Dragon corpse? Useless."
Infuriatingly true.
Even dragons: singular apex.
Not topping his racial cocktail's worth.
"Oh, right! Added dragon too. Figured you'd wonder—so tossed in a black dragon eyeball. Shared viewing."
Maniacal laughter erupted.
No dragon body possible... but glee at hope's crush had him belly-laughing.
Hubris.
Everything per his design, Juter smugly assumed.
'Laugh it up.'
Underestimation breeds gaps.
"Yeah. No corpse beats your mix."
Woojin met his gaze.
"Exactly! Drop the nonsense and ju—"
Words died.
Face froze.
"So I'll try something alive."
"Y-You, th-that... where?!?"
"None of your business, brat."
Woojin shoved the egg into the brink-of-explosion formation.
Groooaaar――――!!!
Pure white light flickered within the black mass.
"N-No......!!!"
Setsuna's chant rang—a colossal hand erupted from the floor, shoving him back.
"Outta the way...! Damn you...!!!"
Juter's scream pierced.
Gulp—
Woojin's ears rang deaf.
'Please...'
Alchemy with live subjects.
Maybe he's the madman.
But not blind madness.
Altering a set result with add-ins? Never reverts.
Like Juter's tweak to the [Debilitation]-active array.
'Condition: superior materials...'
Satisfy that, flip chance to sure thing.
'Those two: off the table.'
In game terms, that's how it'd pop.
'......Got it!!'
The result thrummed in his skull.
'......Wait?'
Not over.
Gazing at the array, Woojin sensed anomaly.
Fingertip tingle.
'What...?'
Splaaaaash――――!!!!
Dazzling radiance—unrivaled—erupted from the array.
Woojin knew instinctively: this unseen phenomenon.
Even game-untriggered trait.
"Ha, haha... Jackpot."
Woojin smirked at Juter's ashen face.
Then—a massive turtle head ripped the formation asunder and surged forth.