Chapter 51
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: 4-Star Monster
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“I don't get a lot of it, but I'll trust you anyway. You've saved me twice now. Even if you're a monster wearing human skin, I'll believe in you.”
“Really?”
“...Is that really the case?”
“Precisely, I'm half-human, half-demon. Ah! But don't worry, that doesn't mean I'm connected to Lee Chun-bae. I've lived honestly as a human for over twenty years. Except for that one time I nearly died to the orc.”
“What? Then that black energy back then...?”
“Yeah. I didn't know it myself, but there's a real Black Flame Dragon hiding in my left hand. It's like a stalker that's always eyeing my body.”
“W-Wait, this is hard to follow. Could you explain it from the beginning?”
“Sure. So...”
I started explaining from the day I first got the key. How I became the owner of this place, why I decided to become a hunter—everything in detail.
“I see.”
As my explanation continued, Assistant Instructor Song Hye-rin's expression gradually calmed down.
Just as I was about to breathe a sigh of relief thinking she understood, she opened her mouth with a cold look on her face.
“So in the end, you've deceived me twice?”
“W-Well, that's...”
She watched me flounder under her icy gaze, then suddenly burst out laughing.
“Pfft!”
“Huh?”
“Sorry. I'm actually not mad.”
“Huh?”
“Just... I felt a bit hurt, so I decided to throw a little tantrum for no reason. You know how it is—your head understands, but your heart feels a twinge of disappointment. Get it?”
“...No clue.”
“...Anyway, we're good now. All better.”
It was some incomprehensible talk, but I figured it meant my sincerity had gotten through.
'Problem solved. Anyway, solved.'
I let out a sigh of relief and opened my status window.
[Cha In-hyeok. Lv 20. (30.3%)] [Mana 8/30]
[Strength 62, Agility 62, Vitality 53, Intelligence 50]
'My experience went up by 30%?'
Unlike when adding dungeon crystals, I'd gained a massive amount of experience. Even for a 2-star dungeon, this was an astonishing figure.
Of course, in the long term, adding dungeon crystals was better for deploying more minions.
But in a pinch like now, where I urgently needed to level up right away, smashing the dungeon crystals was a viable option.
“Assistant Instructor Song, could you wait here for a bit?”
“What are you planning?”
“I'll just do a quick lap. Won't take long. Good thing I marked the coordinates in advance.”
I pulled out the golden key and flashed a bright smile.
There were six 1-star dungeons left in Yangyang. Even if they were just 1-star, destroying their dungeon crystals would net me a decent chunk of experience.
* * *
30 minutes earlier, dungeon second-floor passageway.
[Level Up!]
“Finally...”
Killing the last intern had leveled me up. The long, grueling ordeal of level 30 was over, and I'd finally reached 31.
“With this, no one can stop m—... Urk!”
Lee Chun-bae, who had been shouting confidently, suddenly clutched his chest and collapsed. His vision blurred, and a chill like frostbite swept over his entire body.
'What... is this.'
As his consciousness sank into the abyss, a strange wailing echoed in his mind.
Shh— Shhh—!
'What? What was I doing?'
Like someone with amnesia, he couldn't recall what he'd been doing moments ago or even where he was.
Then, his eyes fell on a human corpse. A single thought seized his mind.
'Right. Slaughter... It was fun.'
That was when voices murmuring from upstairs reached him. Soon after, a group of people descended the stairs, weapons in hand.
“Screams. Guess it's over?”
“But why does big bro keep killing people? It's not like it gains him anything.”
“How should I know? He says kill, so we kill.”
The All-Kill Guild members grumbled as they trudged through the swamp. That was when they reached the interns' corpses. Something burst out from below.
Splash!
A massive reptile over three meters long erupted from the water and pounced on one of the guild members.
“Argh!”
The attacked guild member was instantly paralyzed by venom and dragged off by the monster.
“W-What the hell! A lizardman?”
“That armor... No way, big bro?”
Recognizing Lee Chun-bae's outfit, the guild members hesitated and backed away. They couldn't decide whether to raise their weapons or not.
“Shhh!”
In the meantime, Lee Chun-bae snapped the neck of the guild member he'd kidnapped.
“Everyone, weapons up! It's an enemy!”
“Damn it! He's finally lost it!”
Lee Chun-bae, now driven solely by slaughter with no sense of self, faced off against the All-Kill Guild in the narrow passageway.
“No need to freak! I came prepared just in case.”
Kim Jun-su, in the middle of the group, pulled out a scroll. It was etched with an ice crystal pattern.
“Ice freeze magic! Kim Jun-su, you bastard! Good thinking!”
Oh Won-sang gave a thumbs-up and nocked an arrow. He planned to plant it right where the freeze magic hit.
Cold-blooded animals like lizardmen were weak to ice magic. They slowed even more and took extra damage from it.
'If I can take out big bro, I could take over the organization.'
Oh Won-sang wasn't the only one harboring such ambitions. The other guild members gripped their weapons, eyeing the boss position.
“Die, you son of a bitch!”
Kim Jun-su ground his teeth, staring at his left hand now missing two fingers. He tore the one-use scroll he'd bought with his life savings.
Shwaaaa—
A north wind blizzard began to blow.
“Kieeeek!”
Lee Chun-bae's body froze in the gale. Arrows from the archers rained down on him, shattering his hide and muscle hideously.
“Kiiiii—”
By now, Lee Chun-bae resembled a dissected human model, bones half-exposed, his body shuddering from the lingering chill.
“Now! Pile on!”
“Waaah!”
The guild members charged full force at the monster who had once been their guild master. Then... they were all sent tumbling by a fierce lizard tail swipe.
“What the— it has a tail?”
After the tail strike, Lee Chun-bae turned back, new skin already regenerating on his face.
“N-No way!”
“Shhh! The head...”
Lee Chun-bae raised his hand. Jagged bones protruded from his knuckles like steel claws.
“Should've aimed for it. Shhh!”
His bone claws pierced the bodies of nearby All-Kill Guild members.
“Cough!”
Another one died. But that wasn't the end.
Boom—!
A vibration that had started sometime ago.
“Damn, the dungeon crystal's destroyed.”
In the collapsing dungeon, the battle between one hybrid monster and the All-Kill Guild—now down to eight men—resumed.
But the mood was completely different. Unlike their aggressive charge moments ago, now everyone was playing it safe, watching each other.
'Keep fighting here, and we'll just get trapped and die inside.'
'Gotta run. While there's still bait...'
It started with the archer, Oh Won-sang. He fired arrows from the rear, then suddenly spun around and bolted up the stairs.
“H-Hey, where you going, you lunatic!”
Someone yelled, but it couldn't stop Oh Won-sang. No, it became the signal, accelerating the retreat.
The rear ranged dealers fled first, followed by the mid-line spearmen. Now only the frontline shieldbearers remained, unable to escape.
“Damn it...”
But even they were reaching their limit. Without spear and arrow support, they couldn't withstand a 4-star monster's attacks.
“Argh!”
They began dying from the front one by one.
Lee Chun-bae killed two shieldbearers, then pursued the spearmen. After killing two more, he chased Kim Jun-su out through the gate.
Outside the gate, 1-star guild members were lounging leisurely. Lee Chun-bae dropped in front of them.
“W-What? That monster?”
“Prey, shhh! Plenty!”
By now, not a trace of humanity remained in him.
* * *
“Damn, just a bit more and I'd have leveled up.”
I swallowed my regret at the experience stuck at 99.8%. I'd destroyed every remaining dungeon crystal, but still fell short of leveling.
At this rate, I couldn't be sure I'd beat Lee Chun-bae. I wanted to hunt a bit more before heading back, but Assistant Instructor Song stopped me.
“We don't know what's going on outside right now. Leveling's great, but shouldn't we check the situation first?”
“Hmm. True, if that guy's causing chaos, it'd be a big problem. Let's go check. Us.”
Assistant Instructor Song naturally took my hand. I tried not to think about it and turned the golden key.
I wondered if teleporting together with her would be okay, but fortunately, we arrived home without issue.
“This is...”
“Yeah, my house.”
I turned on the TV right away and checked my smartphone. Before I could even look at portal news, a breaking report came on TV.
“A lizardman chieftain appeared in Yangyang, Gangwon Province. Sounds right, doesn't it?”
“Yeah, definitely Lee Chun-bae. Any info on its location?”
“Not on TV. Nothing on SNS?”
That's when a video of the lizardman popped up in the latest feed. It was a familiar area.
[South Gate Market Lizardman Appears! Filmed risking my life for real. lol]- 1 min ago.
└Lmao crazy bastard. Why not run?
└Fr, dude's suicidal filming that.
└Legend. lol
Stupid move, but it pinpointed Lee Chun-bae's location.
“Found it! South Gate Market!”
“South Gate Market? Oh no, of all times...”
It was nearing 5 p.m. Peak hour when the market would be packed.
“Let's hurry!”
* * *
Fortunately, the market wasn't far from home.
Kyaaak!!
“This way!”
Finding the monster was easy. Just trace back against the flow of fleeing people.
“Crazy. Now I get why the news called it a lizardman.”
Arriving at the scene, we stuck out our tongues at Lee Chun-bae's appearance.
Gone was the bizarre human-lizardman hybrid. He was now a full lizardman.
Human blood smeared his mouth, his yellow-glowing eyes held no emotion. Even a tail had sprouted where there was none.
“Shhh! Shhhik!”
“Argh!”
Having forgotten human speech, Lee Chun-bae rampaged wildly—a mere monster.
Of course, that didn't make him any less dangerous. He'd crossed the gate without weakening at all.
'Probably due to the half-human half-demon trait.'
He'd even ranked up to 4-star since then, growing stronger.
'Can I win?'
The silver lining: people were already fighting him.
“Damn it! Where'd this monster come from!”
Surviving Merchant Association guild members. The association was originally a self-governing body for market vendors, so their guild building was inside.
Hunter Management Bureau staff, academy instructors, and assistants were arriving too.
In moments, over thirty 2-star hunters and two 3-stars surrounded Lee Chun-bae. Me and Assistant Instructor Song joined them.
“Assistant Instructor Song? What are you doing here. And who's that next to you?”
As we approached the battlefield, the instructor spotted Song Hye-rin and frowned.
“Came to help.”
“We don't need your help. It's dangerous—fall back. And you! Whoever you are, don't approach hiding your identity.”
“Damn it, is this the time to worry about identities?”
“Of course. Nothing's more dangerous than a knife at your back. Fall back. Come closer, and I'll treat you as an enemy.”
We had no choice but to stop at the instructor's menacing warning.
'This is insane. We should be combining forces, not this...'
But I couldn't reveal myself here. Unlike Assistant Instructor Song, I couldn't trust them.
“Shhh!”
“Urk!”
Meanwhile, Lee Chun-bae continued his slaughter.
'Damn, can't just stand here.'
That was when I spotted someone hiding in a corner of the market. Pretty close to the lizardman, too.
'Looks like they couldn't evacuate and are hiding. Wait... that uniform...'
School uniform. From my old high school. A female student.
'No way.'
Just then, the fight between the lizardman and Merchant Association escalated, spreading damage around. And that student's spot was right in their path.
'This is nuts. What are they doing? Save the civilians first!'
I stepped forward unthinkingly. The instructor raised his sword threateningly. But I didn't stop.
“Fall back!”
The instructor swung his sword with a warning shout.
“You fall back! What're you yapping about just watching from behind?”
I countered with my axe without backing down.