Chapter 11
Chapter 11
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: The Heavenly Slaughter Star Discovers a Dungeon
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The Heavenly Slaughter Star had discovered a dungeon.
While it rampaged, it felt like being submerged in water.
Consciousness remained, but hazy, like an observer watching the thrashing body from afar.
So when that consciousness snapped back into focus—bam!—Enoch scratched his cheek, feeling awkward.
‘It shouldn’t cause any problems… right?’
A clearing had opened up in the middle of the forest.
Tree remnants were scattered everywhere, as if they’d been thrown into a blender and pureed.
Naturally, the swamp bear that had directly provoked the Heavenly Slaughter Star had been torn to shreds.
Even traces of it were hard to find now.
‘For now… I should hunt down some more of them.’
This wasn’t the kind of combat experience Leone wanted.
Crackle—!
Enoch kicked off the ground.
*
[…This is definitely a problem.]
Undine recalled the Heavenly Slaughter Star’s rampage.
Not only was its power stronger than usual, but that ferocity shredding everything around it was dangerous.
A rampage like this one was fine for now.
She or Leone could easily stop it.
But if this happened when Enoch was out in public?
‘It’d be a tragedy.’
Either a massacre would unfold, or Enoch would die.
They’d be forced into a cruel choice.
To prevent that, it seemed they’d need to combine training to suppress the Heavenly Slaughter Star’s madness with ways to vent it.
The training to hold back its madness had been ongoing for three years already.
But the pent-up madness from those three years had apparently burst out now that he was away from Leone.
Well, that wasn’t hard to handle.
Worried it might explode if bottled up?
Just release it before then.
Once every few months, or even once a year.
Every now and then, letting loose like this in some deserted forest would probably feel refreshing.
[Leone, you listening?]
Undine sent a mental message through her bond with her contractor.
It didn’t take long for Leone, who was aware of the situation, to reach the same conclusion.
And so, with Enoch absent, his regular forest expeditions were decided.
*
Enoch picked a fight with whatever crossed his path.
After the swamp bear, he felt strangely refreshed, and he needed to build combat experience as Leone had instructed.
On top of that, born under the Heavenly Slaughter Star’s mandate, Enoch himself enjoyed battle.
Crackle—!
His hand became coated in lightning shaped like dragon claws, its form indistinct.
It was hand qi.
His mana, empowered by his authority, had manifested.
Those who could project mana externally to boost destructive power—like sword qi or hand qi—were called Experts.
The next level up, those who wielded gang qi where mana formed distinct star-like shapes, were called Masters.
The realm where one could manipulate natural mana through will alone, controlling external mana, was the Grand Master realm.
And those awakening the soul’s power, stepping toward divinity, were called Demigods—or Half-Gods.
Of course, even within Expert or Master realms, there were finer distinctions.
If one could simply project mana externally, it was low Expert.
When that mana took on a faint shape with inherent lethality—like the Sword Qi Wounds realm—it was mid Expert, and so on.
But Leone had said not to get too hung up on realms if facing an enemy.
Realms were just measures of mana control and physical development; they didn’t fully represent a person’s combat prowess.
She’d added this, though.
Higher realms do mean higher output, so be cautious.
No amount of skill lets an ant dodge an elephant’s stomp.
So Enoch resolved to hone his skills to that level.
Raising realms took time, and there was no guarantee nothing would happen before then.
So what was the solution?
Simple.
Train his technique until an ant could topple an elephant.
No way he’d pass up the fights in front of him.
Spotting a walking tree, Enoch swung his hand immediately, and the tree swung its branches in response.
Crunch—!
Branches shattered, sending splinters flying.
Enoch slipped through the gaps, spreading his hand wide.
Incoming branches.
He read their paths and swept his hand.
Pushing with his fingers, then hooking and pulling, advancing while dodging branches, twisting his waist to draw back his fist.
For a tree, breaking it beats tearing it.
With that simple thought, he swung his fist.
Crack—!
The tree’s trunk snapped halfway.
—Kkkrrr…!!
Enoch’s eyes gleamed as the tree howled in pain.
Now, with it launching a massive attack in agony, was his chance.
Snap—!
Electricity sparked at his toes, accelerating him.
The Heavenly Slaughter Purple Thunder Step, an evolution of the basic footwork Leone taught him.
Fast and fluid, weaving through the branches.
The faint afterimage looked just like purple lightning.
Now, one step from the tree.
He clenched his hand, recalling his technique.
Heavenly Slaughter Purple Thunder Claw, its first form.
Brutal Slaughter.
A form was a standardized bundle of motions.
With optimized mana flow and shapes, forms generally outpowered casual techniques.
So he roughly reworked the form.
Brutal Slaughter unleashed countless rapid strikes.
Compress those into a single path of combat.
Heavenly Slaughter Purple Thunder Claw
Brutal Slaughter—Unity
Fast and fierce.
Five bolts of lightning trailed his claws, shredding everything.
─────────────!!!!
Where the purple lightning scattered.
The monster’s corpse lay in six gruesome chunks, rolling on the ground.
*
[What a lunatic.]
Undine clicked her tongue in dismay.
What kind of madman reworks a form mid-battle?
One unexpected outcome, and he’d lose his life.
Lucky it succeeded; otherwise, Undine would’ve charged out immediately.
The cocky brat didn’t seem to have even a speck of doubt about failing.
[No sense at all, or just that confident.]
Grumbling, Undine sluggishly rose as Enoch, finishing his fight, showed signs of moving on.
This battle made nine already.
Sunset wasn’t far off, but the kid had no intention of heading back.
Youthful stamina?
Less young, more kid.
Thinking about it, brats always brimmed with energy.
Even Undine, a top-grade spirit, found it impressive.
[Oh?]
Then, Undine sensed something peculiar.
Heading this way, the kid would find it soon—might make things interesting.
[Or not?]
On second thought, she might be the only one suffering.
It pissed her off for no reason.
*
Enoch sped through the forest.
Even after multiple battles, energy surged through his body.
More than before entering the forest.
‘Is fighting just my nature?’
Well, it was the Heavenly Slaughter Star.
From what Leone said, it felt like the Heavenly Slaughter Star existed solely for battle.
“Huh?”
That’s when it happened.
Enoch’s senses picked up something subtle.
Not quite a presence.
Blended into the surroundings, yet mana swirled in dense vortices.
Somehow alien to the world, eerily so.
Enoch didn’t bother suppressing his curiosity and accelerated.
Purple lightning cut through the air; it didn’t take long to reach the source.
“This is…”
Enoch’s eyes widened.
At a glance, an ordinary cave.
But anyone who could sense mana would doubt their own head calling it ordinary.
Eight out of ten would be crazy.
‘Pretty sure this is what she called a dungeon.’
Leone had taught him.
Beyond artificial ones like wizards’ workshops or ancient facilities, bizarre spaces formed naturally.
Usually from stagnant or tangled mana flows, though some popped up out of nowhere—hard to define precisely.
Dungeons varied in origin and traits.
He’d heard of humans entering one and emerging as elves.
How that worked was secondary;
“Yeah.”
Enoch nodded firmly and stepped into the dungeon.
No grand expectations.
*
The dungeon’s interior was bizarre.
It looked like a normal cave, but oddly endless.
Even extending his senses out of curiosity, the swirling mana blocked them.
His regular senses weren’t dulled, though.
Enoch’s ears twitched, and hostility rose naturally.
Thud—! Thud—! Heavy footsteps.
At the clue signaling an enemy, Enoch’s lips curved up.
He hadn’t grasped the dungeon’s peculiarities yet.
But Enoch didn’t care much.
Crackle—!
Enoch shot forward as purple lightning.
[…Reckless or brave?]
Undine’s sighs grew at the sight.
Still, a conversation with Leone flashed in her mind.
‘Enoch hating humans isn’t really racial prejudice; might just be simple misanthropy.’
‘Isn’t that the same?’
‘When I first brought Enoch…’