Chapter 36
Chapter 36
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: Massacre at the Base Camp
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That's because the researchers and superhumans who were supposed to be guarding the place were all lying collapsed on the ground.
One glance was enough to tell they were no longer of this world.
All of them were bleeding out.
Choi Jung-hoon gazed at them for a moment with troubled eyes before quickly regaining his composure.
Then his face twisted in shock.
"No way... a dungeon stampede?"
Dungeon stampede.
A phenomenon where magic beasts overflowing from inside a dungeon burst out.
Because of it, there were even regions where humanity had lost its foothold to the beasts.
Gangneung was a prime example.
"Doesn't look like it."
Shin Yu-hyun shook his head at Choi Jung-hoon's muttered words.
"Take a closer look at the wounds."
"The wounds?"
At Shin Yu-hyun's words, Choi Jung-hoon peered carefully at the bodies strewn across the floor.
And soon realized.
"These are... sword wounds. And there are scorch marks too..."
Choi Jung-hoon spoke in a heavy voice.
The researchers and superhumans of Black Tortoise Hall hadn't died from magic beast attacks. These were wounds inflicted in battle between superhumans.
"Who the hell dares..."
Realizing this, Choi Jung-hoon ground his teeth.
The scene before them meant someone had raided the base camp and slaughtered members of the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan.
There were organizations at odds with the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan, sure, but none mad enough to launch an open assault and murder their members outright.
The Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan was the sword family known as the King of All Diseases among Korea's four great prestigious martial houses.
Yet these raiders had targeted their members.
It was tantamount to a declaration of war against the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan.
Without realizing it, Choi Jung-hoon let his killing intent flare.
At that moment.
"Vice Hall Leader."
"...Yes."
Hearing the low voice calling him, Choi Jung-hoon calmed his mind and turned to Shin Yu-hyun.
Shin Yu-hyun showed no agitation whatsoever.
Just like Clan Leader Shin Sung-il.
So composed.
Seeing this, Choi Jung-hoon felt ashamed for losing his cool and leaking killing intent.
As Choi Jung-hoon settled down, Shin Yu-hyun maintained his calm demeanor and began asking questions.
"When was the last contact from the base camp?"
"Today at noon."
"None after that?"
"The base camp at Arachne's Nest dungeon only reports in once a day."
For lower-tier 3-star dungeons like Arachne's Nest, contact frequency wasn't high unless it was 4-star or above.
"That's odd, then."
Shin Yu-hyun looked down at the bodies on the floor after hearing Choi Jung-hoon's answer.
The last contact was at noon today.
That meant the culprits had struck sometime after noon at the earliest.
"You're right. Definitely strange."
Choi Jung-hoon nodded in agreement.
The blood from the victims pooled on the base camp floor had already coagulated hard.
It looked like at least a day had passed.
So who had sent today's report?
"I'm sorry. This is my failure in oversight."
Suddenly, Choi Jung-hoon's face flushed red.
The people who had sent yesterday's and today's reports...
They were the culprits.
This was Black Tortoise Hall's responsibility.
They had failed to properly verify the reporting personnel.
"It's not your fault, Vice Hall Leader. If anything, it's mine as Hall Leader."
Shin Yu-hyun clenched his teeth.
Honestly, until arriving at the base camp, he'd only worried about the sword squad members' safety.
He hadn't even considered the dispatched researchers.
My oversight.
If he'd paid a little more attention, he might have thought of the base camp personnel and saved them.
But Shin Yu-hyun didn't remember every detail from his past life.
This incident, in particular, had happened after he was exiled from the clan.
He hadn't recalled it properly until hearing "Arachne."
Unaware of Shin Yu-hyun's thoughts, Choi Jung-hoon kept insisting it was his fault, bowing his head.
"No. This is on me. You were busy with an important mission when this happened, Hall Leader. I should have handled it."
Indeed, yesterday Shin Yu-hyun had been swamped preparing for the unidentified dungeon gate investigation.
But Shin Yu-hyun shook his head.
"It's neither your responsibility nor the reporting officers' in Black Tortoise Hall. Everyone followed protocol."
Using code phrases, secret frequencies on communicators, voice verification.
Black Tortoise Hall would have followed standard verification procedures.
The problem was...
"The culprits were one step ahead. There could be a superhuman who can mimic voices, or for encrypted comms..."
Trailing off, Shin Yu-hyun looked at one of the fallen bodies—a researcher in a white coat.
Among the corpses, this one was in the most gruesome state. Nails ripped out, fingers broken.
Not just that, but blisters from the nail beds all the way to the shoulders, the entire arm necrotic.
Torture marks from bacterial infection.
They must have tortured him for information.
Shin Yu-hyun turned back to Choi Jung-hoon.
"They tortured the researcher to extract codes or intel."
In truth, no one was at fault.
Only the base camp raiders.
"How dare they!"
Choi Jung-hoon gnashed his teeth in outrage. Not content with killing clan members, they tortured them to death.
Unforgivable.
"Then let's go tear those bastards apart."
Shin Yu-hyun said coldly, gazing at the victims in the base camp.
The raiders would pay dearly. He intended to repay them in full.
Arachne's Nest was a cave system like an ant colony, with tunnels at least 3 meters wide and spacious.
From the dungeon entrance, a winding main path led to the boss room, with side passages branching off to smaller chamber-like rooms.
In one of those many rooms connected to the paths, the Black Tortoise Sword Squad members who had come to conquer Arachne's Nest were imprisoned.
"Captain, what do we do now?"
Kim Hyun-seok, one of the Black Tortoise Sword Squad members, spoke with a worried face.
"We wait for the time to come. Once two days pass without contact, reinforcements from headquarters are due."
Lee Dae-young, captain of the Arachne's Nest conquest squad and a top 3-star swordsman, reassured his team.
"But..."
"Just hold out one more day. One more day, and we'll all make it out alive."
Lee Dae-young encouraged his subordinates.
The Black Tortoise Sword Squad sent to conquer Arachne's Nest had cleared the regular spider magic beasts.
All that remained was the boss, Arachne.
But before that, unidentified superhumans ambushed them, and they lost consciousness.
When they woke, they were locked in this room, the entrance barred with iron bars.
"Will they keep us alive until reinforcements arrive?"
Then Lee Jin-gyu, another squad member, spoke darkly.
"We can only hope. Otherwise, we watch for an escape chance."
"If not for these handcuffs, we could break out right now."
Park Young-taek, another squad member nearby, chimed in at Lee Dae-young's words.
The Black Tortoise Sword Squad had been disarmed, stripped of their barrier coats.
On top of that, they wore handcuffs made of mana-sealing stones that temporarily blocked mana use.
Thus, the squad couldn't access their mana.
"Even without mana, we could take down one or two."
Though mana was sealed, they could still use the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan's basic body techniques and skills.
If opponents weren't using Body Strengthening Technique, they could handle a couple.
"The problem is we don't know their goal."
"Why did they come here?"
"Not sure exactly, but those Iron Blood Syndicate guys might be after the boss. They ambushed right when we were going for it."
Lee Dae-young ground his teeth in response to Lee Jin-gyu's question.
They already knew their attackers were from the Iron Blood Syndicate, the infamous international superhuman villain organization.
One of their notorious executives was there.
But their objective remained unknown.
"Whatever it is, it must be important."
"Yeah. No way they'd come to a dungeon this close to clan territory otherwise."
Lee Dae-young nodded at Kim Hyun-seok's words.
The 3-star Arachne's Nest was just a short distance from Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan private land.
The clan saw the Iron Blood Syndicate as a thorn in their side, especially Clan Leader Shin Sung-il, who despised them.
Approaching the clan was high-risk for them.
Even more so while holding squad members captive.
Yet their presence meant some other purpose.
But for the squad now, survival mattered more than motives.
"Right now, surviving is key. Worry is how long Arachne can hold out."
"Exactly."
Lee Dae-young and the others nodded at Park Young-taek's words.
Arachne was strong among 3-star bosses, but bad matchup.
The dungeon hosted over ten 3- and 4-star Iron Blood Syndicate superhumans.
Half likely tackling Arachne, the rest doing something in other spider caves, they guessed.
"I'm worried about the rookie."
Finally, Lee Young-ho, the last squad member, spoke worriedly.
Earlier this year, a fresh recruit joined Black Tortoise Sword Squad. The green youngest at barely twenty, with decent skill.
To give conquest experience, they brought him on this Arachne's Nest run.
But an Iron Blood Syndicate executive dragged the rookie away.
"Same here. We can only hope he's safe."
Lee Dae-young said heavily.
Whatever the reason, it wasn't good.
"Hope nothing happens..."
"Don't worry. They're not interrogating for info."
For information, they'd have taken high-ranking Lee Dae-young, not the rookie.
Since not, some other purpose.
"Guess we just wait for the moment."
Lee Jin-gyu said, head still bowed darkly.
"Yeah. It'll come. Then we escape and save the rookie."
"Yes, understo..."
Suddenly, as Lee Jin-gyu replied to Lee Dae-young, Kim Hyun-seok nearby clamped a hand over his mouth.