The Chimera Dimension Seals
The Chimera Dimension’s third floor.
The pocket dimension was vast and alien.
“Salamander Sally, summon. White Wolf Beast White, summon.”
Kang Yoonsoo pulled an adrenaline potion from his pack.
He drank one himself, then handed the rest to White and Sally.
“Papa, what’s this?”
“Potion.”
“Tasty?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow!”
Sally drank the potion and immediately made a face.
“Hngh. It’s not good? It’s bitter!”
“Bitter is good.”
It was a strange answer.
White growled and refused to drink.
Boss monster pride. He had no intention of accepting a drink offered by a mere human.
“Korunok! Urnokra!”
“Limakurel.”
At Kang Yoonsoo’s words, White flinched. Then he snatched the glass bottle and gulped the adrenaline potion down in one go.
Shanette looked at him curiously.
“What did you say to him?”
“I told him it’s good for stamina.”
“……”
They began hunting.
“Kyarrk—!”
The chimera spat out thorny wooden vines.
Starting from the third floor, the chimeras began using binding skills.
Kang Yoonsoo dodged the vines with quick movements and swung his greatsword.
Thwack—!
His blade split the chimera’s skull in two.
The massive creature spewed blue blood, convulsed, and collapsed.
“Huuu—!”
Sally fought with fierce flames. Her form had changed from a girl into a blazing lizard.
Salamander Sally has changed into lizard form.
The flames she breathes are more intense than in human form.
Movement speed on flat ground has increased.
Heat is amplified in desert environments.
However, she can no longer use flame magic.
Once transformed, the spirit’s flames grew even fiercer.
Shanette swung her scythe to cut off the chimeras’ escape routes.
White Wolf Beast White carried out a massacre. As the boss monster of the Ultika Ruins, his ferocious strength swept the chimeras away completely.
They hunted chimeras faster than anyone else around them.
‘Just who are they?’
Shin Hanyul’s party kept fighting while inwardly marveling.
Then something changed.
Ziiing—!
Suddenly, every Terminal vibrated at once.
When they checked their devices, a horrifying message appeared in red text.
An abnormal flow of mana has altered the space.
Grade A Containment Zone — Chimera Dimension has been sealed.
All entry and exit is now restricted.
Everyone looked stunned.
One man rushed toward the exit.
Walking along the path that once sparkled like the Milky Way would let them leave the Chimera Dimension.
But the light had vanished into darkness, and the exit was gone.
The man cried out in panic.
“W-what is this?! We were just about to leave!”
Panic spread in an instant.
The chimeras did not miss the opening.
“Kirrrk—!”
“Aaaagh—!”
Two people were torn apart by savage claws in seconds.
Kang Yoonsoo watched the scene with cold eyes.
‘It’s begun.’
The despair of being unable to escape would greatly affect the battle.
But those words did not apply to Kang Yoonsoo.
He knew how to escape the sealed Chimera Dimension.
He raised his voice.
“Everyone, stay calm. If you kill the boss monster on the top floor, you can leave this place.”
“What?”
“How do you know that?”
The people questioned him with irritation.
Kang Yoonsoo made no effort to convince them.
“Believe it or not, that’s your choice. But if you want to get out of this mess, that’s the only way. If you want to live, fight.”
That was the extent of his goodwill.
Without his help, these people would have all died without even knowing the exit existed.
Telling them the way out was already more than enough.
Anything more would only be a loss for him.
“I believe in you, Kang Yoonsoo. We just need to give it everything we’ve got, right?”
Kang Yoonsoo nodded at Shanette’s words.
Meanwhile, Shin Hanyul’s party was equally shaken.
“What do we do, Hanyul hyung?”
“I’m not certain, but for now we have no choice but to trust what he said.”
Shin Hanyul calmly began chanting.
“Ice Bringer! Fire Down!”
Powerful magic rained down on the chimeras.
Sharp ice shards tore into them while fierce flames scorched their flesh.
When a chimera was left on the brink of death, four swordsmen rushed in and finished it off.
Even in this situation, Lee Kanghyun was impressed by Shin Hanyul’s composure.
‘As expected of the White Lion Clan.’
Lee Kanghyun looked at Shin Hanyul’s cloak.
The White Lion emblem cloak, given only to members of the White Lion Clan.
Made from wyvern leather that did not lose durability even in flames, it looked both sturdy and impressive.
Shin Hanyul was the only White Lion Clan member in their party.
The other four men wanted to join the clan by getting on his good side.
As time passed, more deaths began to occur.
People who had been calmly maintaining formation started to panic from the sudden change, breaking their balance.
“U-uaaagh!”
“S-save me!”
Yet Shin Hanyul’s party fought desperately and survived.
You have defeated 100 Alchemical Mixture Chimeras.
Would you like to proceed to the next floor?
Before they knew it, they had cleared the third floor.
The party members looked exhausted, but Shin Hanyul firmly shook his head.
“I understand the situation has changed suddenly. But if we rest too long, that man will take the sword before us.”
That was why Shin Hanyul’s party was aiming for the top floor of the Chimera Dimension.
Information obtained while completing a secret request from the Alchemy Clan.
The boss monster on the fifth floor of the Chimera Dimension possessed a rare sword.
A sword of Rare rank or higher was valuable in itself and sold for an extremely high price.
If it had high attack power or special abilities, its value would multiply several times over.
Shin Hanyul spoke coldly.
“If we stand around dazed, we’ll die anyway. We’re going for the boss on the top floor, just like we originally planned. We’ll reach it before they do.”
Meanwhile, after finishing his hunt, Kang Yoonsoo activated his Necromancer skill.
“Mass Corpse Resurrection.”
One hundred chimeras rose as undead.
The skill level of Mass Corpse Resurrection increased.
Mass Corpse Resurrection’s skill level has increased.
The number of undead that can be stored in the summoning system has increased to 700.
Even though they had started late, Kang Yoonsoo’s party reached the next floor first.
There was no time to waste.
Shin Hanyul’s party also ascended to the fourth floor of the Chimera Dimension.
* * *
They were the only ones who had reached the fourth floor.
Everyone else was either struggling below or had died before making it this far.
The chimeras on the fourth floor were large and powerful.
They bound feet with wooden vines and stabbed with long spears that extended from their bodies.
Even their claws, once short like daggers, had become long and sharp like longswords.
With White and Kang Yoonsoo in the lead, the party fought fiercely against the chimeras.
When wooden vines approached, Sally burned them away with flames.
Shanette swung her scythe with force.
“Kerrrk—!”
Dozens of chimeras gathered at once.
When monsters clustered together, they were hard to kill.
In fact, the hunters often ended up being the ones hunted.
Kang Yoonsoo pulled a powerful small bomb from his pack.
Every bomb he threw struck a chimera’s mouth or vital point and exploded violently.
Kwa-kwang—!
“Kyarrk—!”
The chimeras screamed in agony as they burst apart.
While the explosions left them staggering, Sally’s flames and Shanette’s scythe finished them off cleanly.
Thanks to the adrenaline potions, Kang Yoonsoo’s party kept slaughtering chimeras without tiring.
Meanwhile, Shin Hanyul’s party was struggling.
“Kuaaagh! Save me!”
One of the swordsmen in the front line cried out in panic.
He had failed to remove the wooden vines in time and was now completely bound.
Shin Hanyul was chanting a large-scale ice spell and had no spare mana to burn the vines with fire magic.
The others were too busy fighting to help.
In the end, the swordsman was overwhelmed by the chimeras.
“Aaaagh!”
“I-I’ll help you!”
Just as Lee Kanghyun tried to rush over, Shin Hanyul shouted sharply.
“Lee Kanghyun! You idiot! Stay in position! If you break formation, the tide of battle will turn!”
“B-but……!”
“We can’t sacrifice the many for the few. That’s the basics of combat! If you want to join the White Lion Clan, stay in your spot!”
Lee Kanghyun gritted his teeth and held his position.
The swordsman bitten by the chimera ultimately lost his life right there.
Several hours later, the battle finally ended.
You have defeated 100 Alchemical Mixture Chimeras.
Would you like to proceed to the next floor?
After the fight, only Kang Yoonsoo’s party and Shin Hanyul’s party remained.
The battle had been that brutal.
Kang Yoonsoo’s level had risen to 57.
Once again, he resurrected the slain chimeras.
The number of undead chimeras stored in the summoning system had reached 400.
Everyone was exhausted after the battle.
The survivors were all covered in wounds.
“Let’s treat our wounds quickly and move to the next floor.”
Shin Hanyul took healing potions from his pack.
High-grade potions worth ten gold coins each.
They were supplies provided by the clan.
Shin Hanyul carefully applied the potions to the injured, using them sparingly.
The bleeding wounds slowly began to close.
At the same time, he glanced toward Kang Yoonsoo.
Kang Yoonsoo’s party had also taken considerable damage, though not as much as Shin Hanyul’s group.
Shin Hanyul had been saving the precious healing potions for the boss fight.
Even small injuries could have a huge impact on the next battle.
Recovery and rest were just as important as combat itself.
‘Everyone’s tired and hurt. But our side will recover from injuries much faster. Even if we rest for at least thirty minutes, we’ll still reach the top floor first.’
If the opportunity arose, they might even defeat the boss monster before Kang Yoonsoo reached the final floor.
But Shin Hanyul’s expectations were completely off the mark.
Kang Yoonsoo pulled healing potions from his pack with an indifferent expression.
He applied them to Shanette’s and Sally’s wounds.
White growled reluctantly but eventually accepted Kang Yoonsoo’s touch.
Kang Yoonsoo poured the expensive healing potions without any hesitation, as if they were water.
When the wounds seemed to heal too slowly, he simply took out more potions and dumped them on.
Sally returned to her girl form and rolled around openly in the potion puddle.
“Wow! Sally hates water, but this feels so good!”
Shin Hanyul’s party, who had been carefully rationing their potions, stared at them in a daze.
Even the healing potions Kang Yoonsoo used worked far better than Shin Hanyul’s.
Their wounds recovered in an instant.
‘W-what the hell?’
Shin Hanyul doubted his own eyes.
Unless they were top-grade potions made by a master alchemist, healing potions did not work that fast.
More than anything, what shocked him was that Kang Yoonsoo himself had not used any potions at all.
Did that mean he had not taken a single wound during that fierce battle?
Shin Hanyul tried to observe more closely, but Kang Yoonsoo’s party had already disappeared.
They had ascended to the fifth floor ahead of them.