Chapter 192
Chapter 192
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 192
Chapter Title: Monsters of the Sacred Ground (3)
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Whoooosh!
A crimson sea covered in Ant-horns.
Oh-jin’s body shot swiftly across the surface of that sea.
The closer he got to the deep sea, the more intense the heat became, making it hard to even open his eyes.
‘Feels less like the sea and more like a volcano.’
In that case, did that make the Ant-horns filling the sea the lava flowing from that volcano?
Oh-jin enveloped his entire body in mana and activated the Stigma of the Toad.
His skin turned a dull gray, and the searing heat that felt like it would scorch his skin lessened slightly.
‘The physical enhancement effect is simple, which certainly makes it easy to use.’
It didn't just increase his strength; it boosted his durability and agility as well, boasting overwhelming performance in terms of versatility.
“Krrrrrk!”
“Kuuuooooooh!”
The Ant-horns shrieked as they swam swiftly through the sea.
Oh-jin used the Stigma of Canes Venatici to enhance his vision, scanning the swarm of Ant-horns that teemed like a colony of ants.
‘Found it.’
A buoy with the warning 'No Entry' floated among the Ant-horns.
It was the Colagrande family's management area, the one he had encountered while swimming with Vega.
‘The gate should be around here.’
And there was a high probability that a Dragon Vein was flowing inside that gate.
Oh-jin narrowed his eyes, looking down at the swarm of Ant-horns so dense it obscured the water below.
“So, I guess I have to break through that first.”
A technique with a single, powerful blow capable of piercing through a swarm of hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of Ant-horns.
Among the countless techniques Oh-jin could use right now, the one with the most destructive power was, without a doubt…
‘Lightning Body.’
Oh-jin's gaze turned cold.
It was a technique as taxing as it was powerful, but in this situation, there was nothing more efficient than Lightning Body.
“Charge.”
Bzzzt!
Holding the spear in his left hand, he let his right arm hang down.
A fiercely burning blue lightning coalesced on his outstretched right arm.
‘Charge, charge, charge.’
Two times, three times, four times.
With each consecutive use of Charge, the blue lightning blazing on his right arm grew even wilder.
“Kugh.”
The pain was like his skin peeling off and his muscles being torn apart.
His blood vessels twisted and tangled like rubber bands, and his mana circuits heated up intensely.
Just as the pain surpassed its threshold and he felt like his arm would simply pop and explode…
Bzzzzzzzzzt!
His right arm, once wreathed in blue lightning, transformed into lightning itself.
The range was from his fingertips to his shoulder.
An immense energy erupted from his right arm, which had become the flesh of the Thunder God.
“Krrk?”
“Kuuooo! Karrrrk!”
Had they sensed the ferocious aura of mana burning like a sun above them?
The gazes of the Ant-horns, which had been swimming madly towards the beach with their eyes rolled back, all turned to Oh-jin at once.
The Ant-horns trembled, looking up at the arm of the Thunder God.
Those swimming in the sea gathered at one point and began to stack their bodies on top of each other, forming a tower.
Just as the giant had risen from the sea before.
A massive colony formed from countless Ant-horns leaned towards Oh-jin.
The monster colony surged towards Oh-jin like a massive tsunami.
“Too late, you bastards.”
Oh-jin watched the approaching tidal wave of Ant-horns, a smirk twisting his lips.
He stretched out his right arm, now transformed into blue lightning.
“Part.”
Kra-
a-
a-
a-
a-
ack!
Along with his low murmur.
A blue thunderbolt shot out from his outstretched right arm, splitting the surging tidal wave in two.
A pungent, acrid smell pierced his nose.
The torn limbs and innards of the Ant-horns rained down with a patter.
“Haa, haa!”
Oh-jin gasped for breath, biting his lip.
Just how many of them had he killed in one shot?
A thousand? Ten thousand?
He couldn't know for sure, but one thing was certain.
‘This is insane.’
It had always been a technique powerful enough to incapacitate a high-ranking Awakened of Polaris in a single blow.
But with the seventh blossoming of the Black Heaven, its power had grown even stronger.
Of course, as its power grew, so did the recoil.
“Kuuuugh!”
Oh-jin bit his lip as he looked down at his right arm, which was now tattered like an old rag.
He had only unleashed a single thunderbolt, yet the sensation in his right arm vanished along with a pain like it was being torn off completely.
For a moment, his vision warped and his consciousness flickered.
‘I have to go now.’
He could see the bisected tidal wave of Ant-horns writhing and slowly starting to reform.
Thousands, tens of thousands of Ant-horns had been instantly killed by the lightning.
But the number of Ant-horns still covering the sea of San Fruttuoso was dizzyingly large.
If he missed this chance, finding the gate in the sea would be a distant dream.
“Hup!”
He kicked off, heading for the sea where the fragmented corpses of Ant-horns floated.
Splaaaaash!
A pillar of water shot up around Oh-jin's body as he plummeted vertically.
‘Kugh.’
Entering the sea, Oh-jin winced at the dizzying heat, as if he had plunged into a vat of boiling oil.
The sticky blood of tens of thousands of dead Ant-horns had dyed the once beautiful emerald sea a ruby red.
‘Stigma of Hippocampus.’
Whoosh!
Activating the Stigma of Hippocampus and kicking his feet lightly, his body shot forward as if propelled by a motor.
Was that all?
‘I can even breathe underwater with this.’
Realizing he could breathe freely in the murky, blood-filled water, Oh-jin swam fearlessly into the depths of the sea.
As he passed the spot where the warning buoy floated and went deeper into the sea, the heat intensified.
A terrible heat, as if he were diving into molten lava.
‘Found it.’
Oh-jin's eyes gleamed as he barely endured the fierce heat that threatened to incinerate his entire body.
What caught Oh-jin's eye as he dove deep was a massive underwater cave.
No, to be precise, it was a place that was *presumed* to have been an underwater cave.
‘It's completely smashed.’
Had it collapsed from the impact of the Ant-horn swarm emerging from the gate?
The underwater cave, which should have been protecting the gate like a hard shell, was in a state of catastrophic collapse.
“Kurrrrrrk!”
“Karararak!”
Hundreds of monsters swam towards Oh-jin, targeting him as he approached the gate.
Oh-jin twisted his body and thrust his spear fiercely.
Bzzzzzt!!
Blue lightning spread through the seawater, electrocuting the approaching monsters.
‘There's no time.’
I have to find the Dragon Vein quickly.
He narrowed his eyes and scanned his surroundings.
Between the collapsed rocks, he could see a gate emitting a bright light.
An immense amount of mana was flowing out from within the gate, as if it were running rampant.
‘There it is.’
Approaching the gate, Oh-jin gently closed his eyes.
A place created by the tangled flow of abnormally massive mana.
The Dragon Vein.
He slowly reached out his hand towards it.
‘Black Heaven.’
Rumble.
A black storm cloud erupted from his hand, spreading wide within the sea.
The black storm cloud enveloped the red mana that was boiling like a volcano.
‘Kugh!’
A dizzying amount of mana surged through the storm cloud.
As the Black Heaven greedily devoured the Dragon Vein, an immense amount of mana seeped into his body.
‘Still, there's less mana than before.’
He desperately held onto his flickering consciousness against the tidal wave of mana, guiding the Dragon Vein's energy into the Black Heaven.
The Dragon Vein's mana was absorbed completely into the endlessly vast black sky.
He could feel the temperature of the seawater, which had been boiling hot like oil, gradually cooling down.
And then.
Shiiine!
A brilliant light burst forth from the Stigma engraved on his left chest.
The seven strokes engraved next to the Stigma of Lyra.
He felt an eighth stroke being newly carved below them.
-Ding!
[You have successfully absorbed the Dragon Vein's mana!]
[The 'Stigma of Lyra' has been upgraded to 8-Star!]
8-Star.
He had finally stepped into the realm just one step away from becoming a high-ranking Awakened.
‘I was thinking it was about time for it to level up anyway.’
After reaching Lightning level 10 and acquiring the new skill Lightning Body, he had thought he might reach 8-Star soon, but he never expected it to happen by absorbing a Dragon Vein.
Oh-jin's eyes shone as he looked down at the eighth stroke carved on his left chest.
‘Anyway… is it over now?’
As he absorbed the Dragon Vein, he could feel the boiling seawater gradually cool and the wildly erupting mana disappear.
He couldn't see it from here, but since the Dragon Vein's mana was cut off, it must have affected the Ant-horns attacking the town.
He turned his head to look at the monsters that had been swimming towards him, and their movements were visibly much duller than before.
‘It ended more easily than I thought.’
Of course, it was only possible because Oh-jin possessed the unconventional power of the Black Heaven, which could absorb the Dragon Vein's mana.
It was a fact that he had been able to bring the incident to a close without much trouble.
‘Should probably head back now.’
The Dragon Vein's mana was gone, but that alone wouldn't make the Ant-horn swarm drop dead like puppets with their strings cut.
He would have to finish off the weakened creatures who had lost their source of power himself.
Just as he turned his body to head back to the beach where Ha-eun and Vega were…
‘Hm?’
He saw something among the debris of the collapsed rocks.
A fragment sparkling with a blue light.
‘…A sacred relic?’
No.
To be precise, it was the remains of a 'used' sacred relic.
Oh-jin narrowed his eyes, examining the area where the fragments of the sacred relic were scattered.
There were fragments of the sacred relic on each of the large pillars that would have supported the underwater cave, and traces of a massive explosion were visible around them.
There was only one conclusion to be drawn from these traces.
‘It didn't collapse due to a natural phenomenon.’
Someone had intentionally collapsed the cave and stimulated the Dragon Vein to make it go berserk.
‘Why?’
Oh-jin narrowed his eyes.
What could possibly be gained by making a Dragon Vein go berserk?
“……”
No answer to his question came.
The seawater that enveloped him like a shroud was slowly losing its warmth.
***
“Karrrrk!”
“Kuuuooooooh!!”
Monsters rampaged, covering the entire town.
Isabella had released her family's employees to block the surging monsters, but due to their sheer numbers, they were gradually being pushed back.
“Haa, haa.”
Beads of sweat trickled down her pale forehead.
Holding a golden, shining staff, Isabella let out ragged breaths.
‘I can't hold on like this.’
But she couldn't retreat any further.
The moment the defensive line she was holding collapsed, not only the tourists visiting San Fruttuoso but also the nearby town residents would be torn to shreds by the monsters' fangs.
“Hn.”
Isabella glanced up at the brightly shining sun and bit her lip anxiously.
“I'll hold them here, so everyone, please head towards the town.”
“What?”
“B-But we can't leave you, My Lady…”
“Are you thinking of disobeying the order of the next family head?”
Isabella's eyes shone coldly.
The employees hesitated, glancing at each other.
“If you aren't out of my sight in the next five seconds, you're all fired.”
“Y-Yes, ma'am!”
“We'll leave immediately!”
The employees, who had been glancing at each other, turned around with pale faces.
“Haa.”
Left alone, Isabella narrowed her eyes and turned to face the surging monsters.
Due to the 'curse', she felt a sharp pain in her left chest where the Stigma was engraved.
‘I didn't want to use my power during the day if I could help it.’
But in this situation, she had no other choice.
“Krrrrrrrk!”
“Kuuuooo!”
Isabella looked back at the monsters with cold eyes.
Flinch.
The movements of the monsters, which had been charging madly, stopped for a moment.
“Insignificant things.”
The thick, coppery smell of blood spread as a red aura enveloped Isabella.
Isabella leisurely extended her hand towards the monsters.
Pop! Splat! Squelch!
The monsters' bodies swelled up like balloons filled with air to their limit.
Blood burst like fountains from the bodies of thousands, tens of thousands of monsters.
“Haa, haa.”
Amidst the gooey blood, the Leech Queen clutched her chest, her face contorted.