Chapter 172: Heuksan vs. The Skeleton
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 172: Heuksan vs. The Skeleton
“Do you not have family here?”
“I do. A father, a stepmother, and a stepsister.”
“Then is there anyone who would come looking for you?”
After asking about her family, he now asked if anyone would come for her. Heuksan looked at Vegas again.
She met his earnest gaze for a long moment before slowly turning her head toward the darkness beyond.
Her stepsister, Baek Seol-hyang, was an extreme realist.
She was quick-witted, as befitting her position as the chairperson of the World Returnee Association, and was a genuinely sincere person, even to her stepsister.
But before all that, she too was a returnee.
Having survived a harsh world, Baek Seol-hyang had a tendency to calculate everything before acting.
She was a perfectionist, after all.
That trait even applied to Heuksan, her newfound family.
Yet, even for her, there was one person to whom such calculations did not apply.
And in the end, that person was always Kang Ha-chan.
As irritating as it was, the one person who would come running the moment he heard she had disappeared was none other than him.
“It seems someone does come to mind.”
“...No one.”
“Cherish those people. If you do, you’ll be able to adapt and live here in no time.”
Heuksan scoffed at his words.
“Don’t talk nonsense. I’m never leaving this place.”
“You sound like a teenage girl.”
“Say that one more time and I’ll smash your mouth in.”
Vegas chuckled, then coughed again and leaned his body against the wall.
Blood began to seep through his bandages once more.
It was obvious his strength was fading.
When Heuksan had found him, his major organs and various parts of his body were already ruined.
The only reason he was still holding on was thanks to his own mental fortitude and the body of an S-rank hunter. In reality, his injuries were so severe that it wouldn’t have been strange if he had died at any moment.
“...The ones who attacked me had an aura completely different from any hunter or returnee I’ve ever met.”
“Are my words just air to you?”
“One of them, the one with the black gem embedded in his forehead… be careful of him. My gut tells me he’s dangerous.”
After saying everything she had told him not to, he smiled and his head dropped.
Heuksan watched him for a moment before speaking.
“Vegas.”
There was no answer to her call.
Seeing this, Heuksan stood up and generated red lightning at her fingertips.
Then, she casually touched his chest, right over his heart.
ZAP!
“Ugh!”
His heart started beating again, and consciousness returned. He raised his head with a startled expression.
“What do you think you’re doing, dying on me?”
“...Cough, was I gone?”
“Yeah. You left your last words and were on your way out.”
“Dammit. I really did something that doesn’t suit me.”
But Vegas had only regained consciousness for a moment; his complexion showed no signs of improving.
“Hey, you said if I clear this floor, you can get out too, right?”
“Cough, ahem, that’s right. According to the rules of the Tower of Revelation, you can only exit a floor you’ve challenged once it’s been cleared.”
Hearing that, Heuksan rose to her feet.
“Tsk. Don’t you die. Endure it out of pure spite.”
Heuksan swept her bangs back, and her red eyes flashed.
“I’ll at least let you die outside.”
As Heuksan turned and began to walk away, Vegas watched her back and wiped his mouth.
“Just like a teenage girl.”
Heuksan ignored him and kicked off a rock, leaping into the air.
It had already been nearly a full day since she’d entered this place.
Heuksan had figured out most of what she needed to know about the 23rd floor.
‘These rocks I’m standing on are all an illusion.’
She had spent the day jumping from place to place, but all she had seen were dimensional entities and rocks.
The conditions and the staircase needed to ascend the Tower of Revelation were nowhere to be found.
That was why Heuksan’s gaze turned to the endless darkness below.
A space that contained nothing but the blackness of the cosmos.
Heuksan stood at the very edge of a rock, looking down.
That was the only place left.
Crackle!
Red sparks of electricity jumped and danced around Heuksan’s body.
She may have suffered the disgrace of being beaten by Kang Ha-chan recently.
But she was someone who had reached the pinnacle of strength on her own in the dimension she’d been thrown into.
She was used to facing danger.
Effortlessly digesting the tension that rose naturally within her, she lightly pushed off the rock.
Soon, Heuksan’s body began to plummet toward the darkness.
She fell past all the floating rocks, her white hair streaming behind her as she continued her descent.
After a long while, when her surroundings were filled with nothing but darkness, Heuksan used the red lightning flowing from her body as her only guide.
Some time later, her eyes snapped open.
The scenery before her had changed.
One by one, lights began to flicker on along a path formed in the darkness.
Heuksan watched them for a moment, then began to walk.
“I don’t know everything about the Tower of Revelation, but…”
She began to mutter to herself.
“From what I can tell, it’s impossible to ascend from here unless you’re one of them.”
ZAP!
As she spoke, red sparks flew from her hand.
The sparks gradually began to take the shape of a sword.
“But they can’t take a guy who’s half-dead. They’ll need a new one.”
With the newly formed Bazra in hand, Heuksan’s eyes glinted with a red light.
“In that case, the best option would be to capture a healthy one.”
The moment she uttered those words, her silhouette blurred.
She closed the distance in an instant, and as her Bazra sliced through the wall, she plunged the sword into whatever was beyond it. Sparks flew wildly.
“Right? You dimensional entity bastards?”
Beyond the wall, a pitch-black skeleton revealed itself.
The skeleton, wielding a pure white spear made of dragon bone, did not break even against Heuksan’s Bazra.
“That’s a nice toy you’ve got there.”
Heuksan immediately lifted her leg and kicked the skeleton.
As the skeleton staggered back amidst a shower of sparks, Heuksan leveled Bazra and spoke.
“Then let’s see how much you can block.”
In that instant, red aura began to flow down Heuksan’s arm.
With an explosive surge of power, red lightning erupted in all directions, causing Bazra’s light to flare crimson.
KRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!
A high-output storm of lightning swallowed and blew away everything in the vicinity.
While she couldn’t match Ha-chan, Heuksan’s output was undeniably high.
She was, after all, a wielder of high-output aura even among S-ranks.
As the smoke slowly cleared, the black skeleton came into view, standing in a corridor of crackling red lightning.
The black skeleton hadn’t escaped the lightning storm unscathed; its bones were glowing red-hot.
But it hadn’t fallen.
Twirling its spear, the skeleton unleashed a red glint from its eye sockets toward Heuksan.
“Hoh?”
Smiling with interest, Heuksan let out another burst of red sparks.
Even so, her eyes were rapidly scanning her surroundings.
Because Vegas had warned her about something.
‘He said there were two skeletons.’
Since he told her to be wary of the one with the black gem in its head, that one was likely the most dangerous.
Knowing this well, Heuksan began to thinly slice her aura and slowly spread it around her.
The aura, spreading throughout the area, would detect everything.
Penetrating even the walls, Heuksan’s aura-sense focused on the skeleton before her.
At that moment, the skeleton slammed its spear into the floor.
As the spear drove into the ground, pure white bones erupted from the ground around it.
“Don’t try such pathetic tricks.”
Seeing this, Heuksan immediately slammed Bazra down onto the floor.
KRAAAAAAASH!
Shattered stone and bone fragments flew into the air.
Heuksan swung her leg, kicking several of the stone slabs.
CRACK—
BOOM!
While the skeleton was busy slicing through the incoming slabs with its spear, Heuksan dashed through its blind spot.
Running along the wall beside her, she instantly closed the distance to the skeleton and kicked off.
At the same time, she brought Bazra, which was violently spewing red lightning, crashing down toward the skeleton.
But the skeleton had no intention of going down easily. Using the fact that it had no muscles, it twisted its arm bone at a grotesque angle.
The spear spun, emitting a black aura as it moved to parry Heuksan’s Bazra.
‘Got you.’
A flash of light passed through Heuksan’s eyes as she swung Bazra down.
But the sword was no longer in her grasp.
A grim smile touched Heuksan’s lips as she landed on the floor, having bypassed the skeleton’s raised spear.
ZAP!
And in that instant, red lightning sparked to life in Heuksan’s hand once more.
The vanished Bazra had reappeared in her hand, crackling with electricity.
By the time the skeleton realized what had happened, it was too late.
Heuksan kicked off the ground and thrust Bazra toward the skeleton.
The exchange was over in an instant.
The moment Heuksan landed the final blow, driving Bazra into the skeleton, her body froze.
The red lightning that had been in her hand just a moment ago was gone, and her hand was now pressed flat against the skeleton’s ribcage.
As Heuksan’s eyes slowly narrowed, another skeleton appeared on the other side of the first.
This one had a black gem embedded in its forehead, and a portion of that gem was now shimmering, filled with a red light.
Seeing it, Heuksan realized what the creature’s ability was.
“...Aura absorption.”
By the time she understood, the skeleton in front of her was already moving its spear.
Seeing the weapon fly toward her, Heuksan tried to pull back, only to realize her body was devoid of aura.
No matter how much aura she tried to use, it was all being siphoned away by the gem-studded skeleton.
Too late.
As the spear tip closed in, Heuksan desperately twisted her neck. A spray of red blood erupted from the wound.
No matter how much she had trained her body, without aura, she couldn’t generate any real power.
“You rotten bastard.”
Amidst the spray of blood, Heuksan began to unleash aura from her entire body.
It was a gamble to see just how much it could take.
But that was only a viable strategy if the skeleton in front of her stood still.
Taking advantage of Heuksan’s lack of aura, it immediately swung its spear.
Even without aura, she was still Heuksan. She desperately dodged the attacks while pouring out her power, but the number of her wounds continued to grow.
She was managing to avoid any fatal blows, but she was beginning to see her limit.
‘How much more…?’
As sweat and blood mixed, Heuksan retreated, her eyes fixed on the skeleton’s gem. She saw that it was already completely filled with red.
And yet, aura was still not manifesting in her body.
Realizing this, Heuksan looked at the black skeleton and saw its clothes flutter.
Beneath the fabric, gems were embedded all over its bones.
The red light filling those gems indicated they were still a long way from being full.
Seeing this, Heuksan let out a breath.
“Fine.”
With that, her eyes began to burn red once more.
“Let’s see this through to the end and find out who wins.”