Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: Second Phase
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"No need to be surprised. There's no rule saying master and disciple have to get along."
Irurin spoke to Woojin as she averted her eyes from Ratan's fiercely burning corpse.
"I guess that's true... but I thought you came looking for your master?"
"I did. To kill him if he was still alive."
"Ah."
"A year after my master vanished, the Red Tower completely collapsed due to monsters. That's when they discovered an underground secret lab."
"A lab?"
"It was a place for researching black magic. Just like this one. This is probably his handiwork too."
It seemed her lack of surprise wasn't just because of the dissection experiments.
"That's where I saw them. The disciples of the Red Tower, reduced to empty husks."
"...What?"
"All of them were at least Rank 3 mages."
Her words left everyone speechless.
"Exactly."
Stepping in for them, Irurin calmly and clearly pinpointed what Ratan had done.
"He experimented on his own disciples."
"What a complete lunatic."
If this were a game, some of those disciples might have been players.
No way something horrific like players becoming lab rats happens later, right...?
If it did, he'd be full-on field boss material.
As the thought of potential rewards crossed his mind even now, Woojin let out a hollow chuckle at his own absurdity.
"Anyway, even this isn't enough to finish him off."
[Kruk... Kruk...]
Ratan writhed persistently in agony amid the flames.
"It was the highest-grade fire magic I could learn from the spellbooks left in the Red Tower..."
Fire magic was certainly effective against undead, but it paled in comparison to a priest's holy power.
"Purification might do it."
"Really?"
"Yeah. With this."
Woojin pulled out the Pilgrim's Cross.
"Does it... take a full day or something?"
"Nah, no need. It's different from curse removal."
"Good thing. I didn't pack earplugs. I couldn't stand spending a whole day listening to his howls."
She took the cross from him.
"You sure you're okay with this?"
"Yeah. I want to finish him myself."
Irurin nodded and walked toward Ratan.
"Farewell, Master."
She held the cross before the burning Ratan.
Wuuuuung...!!
A soft silver light began to emanate from the cross.
[Purification activated.]
In a game, a log like that would pop up.
Chiik...!!!
[K-Krgyaagagak!!!!!!!]
But instead, as Irurin pressed the silver cross to Ratan's forehead, a scream erupted in place of any log.
...What's this?
Woojin watched Ratan thrash about.
Why?
This inexplicable unease.
It wasn't distrust of Irurin.
She was more composed and resolute as an adventurer than he'd imagined.
Just...
That thing's no ordinary corpse.
It wasn't a regular undead. It was the corpse of a grand mage turned undead.
Of course, Ratan was being purified steadily.
From the head touching the cross, his arms and legs crumbled into ash bit by bit—unlike when they burned in the fire moments ago.
"It's over."
Was it really ending like this?
So easily?
Woojin couldn't hide his lingering unease at Gowoon's mutter.
As Kahira had said, nine out of ten newly formed terrains were dungeons.
And if this place was a dungeon...
Ratan's the dungeon boss.
When tackling a dungeon boss—not your average monster—there was always one constant.
Wriggle—.
At that moment, Shinrok's corpse behind Ratan twitched.
Shaaaak———!!!!
Simultaneously, black light began pouring from Ratan's charred body.
"Watch out!! Phase 2's starting!!"
At Woojin's shout, everyone looked up in alarm.
[Th...is...!! You damn... bas... tard...!!!]
"...!!"
Ratan, who had been burning merrily, broke through the flames and seized Irurin's wrist with his remaining arm.
"Kyaaak!!!"
Irurin was slammed to the ground by the brute force.
Still ragged as ever, but with monstrous agility, Ratan climbed atop the fallen her.
[Die...! Die...!!]
He lunged to tear into her neck.
Shaaaak!!
In that instant, light shot in.
Bang—! Bang—!!
Kwa-gagagang———!!!
Ratan's body was blasted backward by the impact.
Tremendous power.
Woojin turned in shock.
My god.
As Luen drew her bowstring, silver arrows materialized from the darkness.
Shaaaak———!!
The shot arrow split into dozens of bundles mid-flight, raining down once more on the prone Ratan.
Mystic Arrows?
The master skill at the end of the archer skill tree, unlocked at level 99.
"Cough."
His shock at the arrows' power was brief; Woojin hurriedly tossed a potion to the blood-vomiting Luen.
"Don't push yourself."
He said that, but deep down, he wished she'd push a bit more.
A level 99 magic archer.
In this situation, she was overwhelming firepower.
[Kruk...! Krrruk...!!]
Yet despite Luen's devastating attack, incredibly, Ratan crawled out unscathed.
"Can... we even take that thing down?"
Gowoon's unwitting words crushed the party with fear in an instant.
...We came in the wrong place.
The thought hit him suddenly.
You know that feeling.
When a lowbie stumbles into a high-level dungeon.
In a game, worst case, you wipe, respawn, and escape the dungeon.
But here, a wipe meant eternal death.
Slap—!!
Woojin slapped his own cheek as hard as he could.
Everyone stared at him in astonishment.
"Get it together. Panicking gets us nowhere."
It was for them—and for himself.
Fortunately, his words seemed to ease the crushing fear; the party's eyes sharpened.
Crunch...
Crunch...!!
That was when it happened.
Ratan began devouring the scattered corpses around him voraciously.
Gulp— Gulp—.
Kuruk Kurruk...!!
His body started inflating like a balloon.
[Krrruk...]
Something was clearly wrong.
"Run!!!"
Kwaaaaang———!!!!!!
With a deafening roar, Ratan's swollen body exploded outright.
"Cough... Cough..."
Slammed into the lab wall by Ratan's explosion, Woojin painfully exhaled and opened his eyes.
[Kruk... Krrruk...]
A massive hole blasted through Ratan's gut, yet he was devouring corpses again.
"He's a total monster..."
With each corpse consumed, his wounds began regenerating bit by bit.
"A-Are you alright?!"
At Gowoon's cry, Woojin turned his head.
"Huk... Huk..."
Luen's breathing grew ragged beside him.
From Ratan's attack earlier?
Or backlash from overusing her skill?
Probably both.
She clutched her chest in agony, curled like a shrimp on the floor.
[Kraaaaa———!!!!]
That was when it happened.
Ratan, mid-feast, raised both arms and bellowed.
Twitch... Twitch...
The fallen corpses on the floor began to stir one by one.
"This is insane..."
Woojin muttered as dozens of corpses slowly rose.
[K... Kkuk...]
Ratan cackled mockingly through his shattered head.
"Run... away."
Barely able to lift her head, Luen gasped to the party.
"...We can't win."
She knew it too.
Even ill, she was the strongest among them.
That had been her all-out attack.
Its failure meant no options left.
Is this it?
Woojin gritted his teeth at her words, glaring at Ratan.
The monster now ignored them entirely, back turned as it gorged on corpses.
"...Huh?"
In that moment, he sensed something off.
Why isn't he eating that one?
He was battered from Irurin and Luen's assaults, even self-destructing.
To heal, he devoured corpses—yet ignored the prime catch right there.
Camilla's corpse.
Come to think of it...
Moments ago, Camilla's corpse had twitched.
As that memory hit—coinciding with Ratan's recovery—Woojin's eyes widened.
"No way..."
He looked at Shinrok's corpse on the lab table.
Thud—.
"...!!!!"
Woojin's eyes grew huge.
It moved?
Shinrok's ribs had trembled ever so slightly, laboriously.
"...He's alive."
That made sense.
Not a corpse, so Ratan hadn't eaten it.
"That changes everything."
He chugged the last intact potion from his battered pouch.
The pain eased a bit.
Fortunately, nothing broken.
I can barely move.
With a groan, he rose.
"You're not thinking of fighting, are you?"
Irurin asked worriedly.
"How the hell am I supposed to take that monster?"
He looked at Luen.
"Not me. You. You're the only one who can beat Ratan right now."
"Wait! Can't you see the Queen's condition? She can't push further!"
Gowoon blocked Luen's path, shouting.
"That's why we need to heal her."
"...Pardon?"
"Look closely. Out of all those corpses, Ratan's avoiding only Camilla's. Why? Shinrok's still alive."
"I-Is that true?"
"Wait... If it's not corpse blood but living Camilla's blood... she could be fully cured instantly!!"
Irurin cried out.
"Irurin. You handle those corpses. Protect Luen and clear a path to Camilla."
"But... what about Master?"
"I'll take him."
"Huh?"
"I'll bait him into the passage. Heal Luen in the meantime. Got it?"
"You can't do it alone!"
Everyone tried to stop him.
He'd survived Luen's attack.
"Of course I can't alone."
But then, Woojin smirked faintly and pulled something from his bosom.
"I've got something to rely on, though."
A small stone in his hand.
The Philosopher's Stone.