Chapter 31
Chapter 31
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: Under World (4)
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-Ssssssizzle!!!
Acrid smoke filled the passage.
A horrifying scream shook my eardrums.
“KarAaaaaaaaaaa!!”
The Reptilians writhed in agony.
The more they struggled, the more entangled they became in the silver wires covering the passage.
-Snap! Crack!
The Reptilians thrashed as if having seizures, pulling out sharp, awl-like bones to cut the wires. A dull, metallic screech echoed as the silver wires were scraped.
“You think they’ll cut that easily?”
Oh-jin let out a smirk as he watched the struggling Reptilians.
The wires, reinforced with Seong'yuseok and infused with a copious amount of mana, were not about to snap from the likes of a Reptilian’s attack.
“KaaaaaaaAAA!!”
Realizing the wires wouldn't break, the Reptilian horde began to hesitantly retreat down the passage.
The ones lucky enough not to be caught in the wires turned to flee.
Just then.
-Craaaash!!!
“KuRAaaaaaa!”
With a ferocious roar, the body of a fleeing Reptilian was launched forward like a cannonball.
Thwump!
The intense impact sent ripples through the tangled wires.
“That thing is…”
Oh-jin turned his head toward the monster that had thrown the Reptilian like a cannonball.
It was a monster more than twice the size of the other Reptilians.
Dark red muscles, like a king’s armor, covered its body.
‘A Reptilian Champion, huh.’
The Reptilian Champion blocked the path of those trying to flee, roaring fiercely at them.
With terrified expressions, the Reptilians turned back to face Oh-jin.
“Gurkaaaa!”
At the Champion’s command, the Reptilian horde gathered together and began to push through the passage.
They joined forces, pushing the corpses of the Reptilians tangled in the wires forward, like trying to shove a bus out of a ditch.
-Screech! Screeech!
The silver wires groaned as if screaming, stretched taut with a metallic shriek.
‘This is the limit.’
Oh-jin clicked his tongue.
He channeled mana into the shooter on his wrist.
Whirrrrr!
Slicing the Reptilian corpses into pieces, the wires retracted back into the shooter.
“KuRuuuuuuuUU!!”
Did it think this was its chance?
The Reptilian Champion let out a roar, pulling out a massive awl-like bone.
The Reptilian horde that had been pushing the corpses scrambled up the walls and charged.
[Heh. The worthless creatures are putting up a desperate struggle.]
Vega said with a sneer, crossing her arms.
“That they are.”
Oh-jin nodded and raised his spear.
Crunch! Craaack!!
A brawl ensued.
Oh-jin’s spear swept fiercely through the Reptilian horde.
-Bzzzzzt!!
“KaraaaaaAAAc!”
With every swing of the spear wreathed in blue lightning, another Reptilian fell to the ground.
So many Reptilians had already died tangled in the wires that the remaining ones charging in weren't much of a threat.
-Thud!
“GuRuAaaaaa!!”
Unable to watch any longer, the Reptilian Champion stepped forward.
“Too late.”
You should’ve charged with them from the start.
-Thump! Thump!
Each time the Reptilian Champion stomped its feet, a heavy vibration echoed through the passage.
With the rest of the horde already slaughtered, the lone Reptilian Champion charged forward, thrusting its massive awl-like bone.
“Hoo.”
Clang! Clang!!
He blocked the bone awl with an upward swing of his spear. Then, spinning around, he swung the spear low.
Crack!
The swiftly swung spear struck the Reptilian Champion’s knee.
It staggered. Its posture crumbled.
“KAaaRacC!!!”
Letting out an unintelligible scream, the Reptilian Champion thrashed about.
It seemed determined to create distance, recklessly swinging its bone awl as it retreated.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Thwang!
With a loud noise, a wire shot out.
-Clang!
The Reptilian Champion reacted quickly, swatting the wire’s weight with precision, like hitting a baseball with a bat.
The wire ricocheted and embedded itself in the wall of flesh.
“KuRarara!”
Having deflected the wire, the Reptilian Champion looked at him with what seemed to be a smug expression.
“The bastard’s grinning.”
Pfft.
With a chuckle, he infused mana into the shooter on his left arm.
Whirrrrr!
The wire pulled taut, launching his body forward as if he were using dimensional maneuver gear.
—He let the momentum carry him forward.
“Hup!”
Readjusting his grip on the spear with his right hand, he put all his strength into a thrust, like a lance charge!
-Squelch!
“KaaaaaAAAA!!”
The full-powered thrust pierced the Reptilian Champion’s eye.
The Reptilian Champion let out a scream and grabbed the spear embedded in its eye.
That was the end.
“Changnoe.”
Bzzzzzzzzzt!!
“KraaaaaRac!!!”
Blue lightning traveled down the spear and fried the Reptilian Champion’s brain.
Thud!
The Reptilian Champion’s massive body collapsed to the ground with a heavy sound.
“Hoo.”
He caught his slightly ragged breath and pulled out the spear.
[You’ve grown quite accustomed to using Changnoe.]
“I’ve been practicing hard for the last three weeks.”
On days when nothing else was going on, I’d wake up at dawn and train with the Stigma of Lyra until sunset.
I still can’t use it as naturally as when I had the ‘blessing’, but compared to when I first barely managed to succeed with the skill, I’ve made leaps and bounds.
[Hmm. It’s not a skill that can be mastered so easily just by practicing hard, though.]
Vega shrugged, as if she was tired of being surprised.
“Alright, shall we collect the spoils?”
Hehehe!
Oh-jin let out a silly grin and set his spear on the ground.
He pulled a knife from his thigh sheath and cut open the Reptilian’s corpse.
‘The Seong'yuseok’s size is… not that great.’
After extracting the Seong'yuseok from the Reptilian’s corpse, Oh-jin clicked his tongue in disappointment.
Just because a monster was high-grade didn’t guarantee it would have a large, high-quality Seong'yuseok.
In extreme cases, a 7 or 8-Star monster might yield a Seong'yuseok worse than an Ant-horn’s.
‘Well, these scraps are practically worthless anyway.’
After all, the main dish—a Seong'yuseok the size of a basketball—was waiting for him.
[A Seong'yuseok of an unsettling color.]
The Seong'yuseok extracted from the Reptilian Champion was, as expected, black.
—A variant’s Seong'yuseok.
It was a type of Seong'yuseok that could only be harvested from extremely rare variant monsters inside gates.
‘Though it seems they’re not so rare anymore.’
He’d encountered so many variants lately that the black Seong'yuseok felt more familiar than the usual blue ones.
“Do you get that same unpleasant feeling from this one?”
he asked, holding out the black Seong'yuseok to Vega.
She lifted the black Seong'yuseok with both arms and turned it over and over.
[It’s faint, but I can feel the same energy as before.]
“Hmm.”
Oh-jin examined the black Seong'yuseok with narrowed eyes.
‘So there really is a connection between the power of the Black Stars and these variants.’
Weren’t the black slimes he encountered in the cave last time also carrying black Seong'yuseok?
It made no sense for a large number of variant monsters to ‘coincidentally’ appear in a gate where a holy relic imbued with the power of the Black Stars lay dormant.
‘Does that mean there’s a holy relic imbued with the power of the Black Stars buried here too?’
He didn't know.
In Lee Shin-hyeok’s memories, all he saw was the monster rampaging.
[Hmm. This is an unsettling place in many ways.]
Vega said, her eyes narrowing as she looked around the flesh-covered passage.
“I know.”
Oh-jin, who had been lost in thought while holding the black Seong'yuseok, eventually clicked his tongue and turned away.
For now, he set aside his thoughts about the true nature of the black Seong'yuseok.
‘There’s no point in worrying about it now.’
He didn’t have the luxury of wasting time on useless thoughts.
“Let’s go.”
After collecting the Seong'yuseok from all the Reptilian corpses scattered in the passage, Oh-jin continued onward.
A nagging feeling remained, like being interrupted in the middle of taking a shit.
‘As long as it makes money, I don’t care.’
Blue or black, what does it matter?
No, in fact, the variant Seong'yuseok sell for more, so an increase in variants is a welcome development.
‘Plus, I can absorb the power of the Black Stars.’
Though he didn’t know exactly what the power of the Black Stars was.
He was certain that it was a great source of strength for him right now.
-Squish, squish.
He went deeper into the passage.
He was ambushed by a few more Reptilian hordes along the way, but he wiped them out without any trouble.
After walking for about thirty minutes.
“Ooh.”
At the end of the passage.
In the center of a cavern covered in dark red flesh, he saw a giant of flesh, curled up like a chrysalis.
The giant of flesh had its eyes closed and was perfectly still, as if in a deep sleep.
‘Holy shit, seeing it like this is no joke.’
Was it about ten meters tall?
It was much smaller than what he had seen in Lee Shin-hyeok’s memories, but it still radiated an immense pressure.
—That monster is fucking strong.
The intuition flashed through his mind.
“Ssp.”
He took a deep breath to calm his pounding heart.
He raised his left arm toward the giant of flesh, aiming the wire shooter.
-Thwang! Thwang! Thwang!!
Fired with a strong recoil, the wires embedded themselves in the giant’s body.
Drip.
Dark red blood poured from where the wires had pierced it, but the giant of flesh showed no reaction.
‘Changnoe.’
Bzzzzzzzt!!!
Blue lightning flowed through the wires and scorched the giant of flesh.
As expected.
This time, too, the giant of flesh didn’t even twitch.
“Heh, what’s the point of being strong, you bastard? Huh?”
A grin spread across Oh-jin’s face.
True, the giant of flesh was so intimidating that just looking at it made his knees weak.
‘But so what.’
It’s just a sealed moron that can’t even lift a finger.
No matter how big it was or how suffocating its presence felt, there was no reason to be afraid.
[So that is the sealed monster.]
“Yeah. The one that devastated Seoul Station in the first playthrough.”
Oh-jin nodded and approached the monster of flesh, still curled into a ball.
“But well… as you can see, right now it’s just a big pushover!”
He looked up at the fleshy monster with greedy eyes.
‘To think I can get a Seong'yuseok this easily.’
That bastard, Lee Shin-hyeok.
He’s so damn useful.
“Alright, let’s kill it quick.”
Oh-jin gripped his silver spear and activated his Stigma.
“Hyaah!!!”
He got close and thrust his spear.
Pshuk!
Flesh parted and blood splattered.
“Hup! Hah! Chaa!”
Letting out powerful shouts, he continued with a fluid series of attacks.
Slashing, stabbing, twisting.
With every swing of the spear, blood and flesh flew.
‘Puhaha! This is actually kind of fun.’
How should I put it? It feels like beating up a very realistic punching bag.
No, it’s closer to hitting one of those punch machines in front of an arcade.
“Die, you lump of shit!”
Beating the hell out of the helpless mass of flesh was a great way to relieve stress.
‘Relieve stress and make money!’
What a wonderful job this is!
‘Thanks, Shin-hyeok!!’
I seriously owe you my life!
“Hahahahaha!!”
Just as he was excitedly swinging his spear.
Squelch.
—The giant of flesh opened its eyes.
“Huh?”
Oh-jin’s expression hardened.
‘What the hell is this.’
Why did it suddenly open its eyes.
[My child. Did you not say the monster was sealed?]
“I-I did! Of course it is!”
He nodded hastily.
“The bastard can only open its eyes like that! It can’t move!”
It seemed the seal Lee Shin-hyeok mentioned was the type that only restrained the body, leaving the consciousness intact.
‘Right.’
It doesn’t matter if its consciousness is still there—
-Ruuuuuumble!!
The giant of flesh rose to its feet.
“KAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!”
A horrifying roar echoed, the kind one might hear at a gathering of an antisocial pseudo-religious cult that worships demons from hell.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Four arms sprouted from the mass of flesh and furiously pounded the walls.
“Oh, fuck?”
Why is this thing moving?