The Chimera's Absolution
The fifth floor was the strangest space in the entire Chimera Dimension.
In the sky, the moon, stars, and sun hung simultaneously while a bluish galaxy flowed across the floor.
Sally laughed brightly as she scooped stardust into both hands.
Then she scampered over to Kang Yoonsoo.
“Dad, Dad, look at this! It’s so pretty!”
“It’s fake.”
“Waaah! Mom!”
Shanette patted the devastated Sally, whose innocent heart had been brutally shattered.
White scanned the surroundings for prey, baring his fangs.
“Grrrrr……! Larumakro?”
Suddenly the space across from them rippled, and a faint silhouette emerged.
It resembled a human, yet it had no hair and its entire body was pitch-black and unnaturally formed.
What stood out most was the sword attached to its right arm.
A jet-black longsword sprouted from its right palm, its tip razor-sharp.
A cracked voice flowed out.
“Foolish…… alchemists……”
The boss monster of the Chimera Dimension.
Homunculus Labian slowly tilted its head.
The vast space twisted violently.
Labian controls the Chimera Dimension.
📍 Objective: Defeat Labian to escape the sealed Chimera Dimension.
They could only leave this place by killing the boss monster.
Now they had no choice but to fight with everything they had.
Labian isn’t a monster that can be taken down in a single strike.
This battle would have to be drawn out into a war of attrition.
Kang Yoonsoo extended his right arm.
“Summon 54 Dark Landworms. Summon 400 Evil Chimeras.”
Dark Landworms gnashing their teeth ferociously and savage Evil Chimeras poured out.
An undead army of over four hundred.
Kang Yoonsoo pointed at Homunculus Labian.
“Kill it.”
A ferocious battle began.
Sally wrapped flames around both hands and shouted.
“Flame Armament!”
A salamander’s magic that added a fire attribute to weapons.
In particular, the undead at the front had their entire bodies engulfed in roaring flames.
Since they felt no pain, being wrapped in fire didn’t shock them much.
Moreover, their attack power rose dramatically.
Landworms and chimeras armed with full-body flame armor charged savagely toward the homunculus.
“Annoying…… and weak……”
Homunculus Labian swung its left arm downward vertically.
A portion of the dimension tore open, and ferocious chimeras burst out.
The flame-clad undead legion collided head-on with the grotesque chimeras.
A battlefield where corpses and flames scattered everywhere.
The chimeras Labian summoned used binding and disruption skills to throw the field into chaos.
The undead legion pushed forward not with individual strength, but with sheer numbers.
Kang Yoonsoo swung his greatsword and severed a chimera’s neck.
Shanette, whose Fragment of Power was gradually opening, sliced through chimeras using her monstrous strength.
White charged like a storm toward the strongest being—Labian.
Weaker prey could never satisfy his bloodthirsty instincts.
“Urrnokra—!”
The white wolf beast’s claws aimed for the homunculus’s nape.
Labian swiftly swung the sword on its right arm.
Clang—!
After exchanging a single blow, White growled in frustration and retreated.
It wasn’t an opponent he could defeat in a one-on-one frontal fight.
Above all, Labian’s sword was no ordinary blade.
It had repeatedly parried White’s attacks with ferocious force—attacks that should have shattered any normal iron sword.
“How pathetic……”
Labian sneered and moved its left arm.
It drew a light sigil in the air and shouted.
“Alchemists, behold……! The terror of the remnants you discarded……!”
Blue mana flowed around Labian and spread across the entire space.
Suddenly, the corpses of fallen chimeras began to twitch.
Severed heads, cut-off legs, severed fingers—every piece writhed.
The corpse parts tried to attach themselves to the allied undead to inflict agonizing shocks.
At that moment, Kang Yoonsoo shouted.
“Corpse Explosion.”
BOOM—!
“Ugh……!”
The chimera corpses near Labian exploded in an instant.
The blast was intense; even the twitching body parts were pulverized into dust without a trace.
Corpse Explosion was a powerful skill, but using it recklessly would drain mana in no time.
Yet Kang Yoonsoo unleashed the explosions without hesitation.
“Corpse Explosion. Corpse Explosion. Corpse Explosion.”
BANG—! BOOM—! KABOOM—!
Corpses detonated in succession.
Though the remaining remains still twitched, they could no longer inflict meaningful damage.
Labian glared at Kang Yoonsoo with murderous intent in its eyes.
“You…… dare interfere with my revenge……!”
Labian, who had stayed behind its chimera army until now, stepped forward itself.
The longsword on its right arm pointed at Kang Yoonsoo as if thirsting for blood.
However, Kang Yoonsoo did not engage in a one-on-one frontal duel.
“Life Drain.”
A blue-white aura flowed from the tip of his greatsword, sucking away Labian’s lifespan and vitality.
Labian swung its blade with even greater fury.
Yet every time Labian approached, Kang Yoonsoo slipped away to another spot.
As if he already knew exactly where it would move.
He hurled small bombs, triggering explosions.
KABOOM—!
High-temperature blasts swept over Labian’s body.
Each time, parts of its body were damaged and its life force was shaved away.
“You rat bastard……!”
Labian drove its right-arm sword into an allied chimera.
The impaled chimera screamed in agony as it shriveled up.
In return, Labian’s vitality recovered and the sword’s destructive power increased.
“All of you…… will die……!”
Labian hacked through the undead indiscriminately.
This was the true terror of Homunculus Labian.
Even when its life force dropped, it could stab its sword and instantly absorb stamina and mana.
As expected of the Chimera Dimension’s boss monster, it was an extremely troublesome opponent.
Countless undead were reduced to powder by Labian’s hand, and a significant number of chimeras had also died.
However, thanks to Kang Yoonsoo’s continuous bomb throws, Life Drain, and the coordinated attacks of his allies, Labian’s vitality was rapidly decreasing.
Just as the battle seemed to be wrapping up.
Light flashed from the far side, and four people appeared.
“Hoo, we finally made it up—huh?! What the hell is this?”
Lee Kanghyun couldn’t close his gaping mouth in shock.
The others were the same.
The battle with the boss monster was far more intense than they had expected.
Chimera corpses lay scattered everywhere, and the area looked like a battlefield after a full-scale war.
“Let’s join in. I’ll support from the rear, so take the front line.”
Shin Hanul spoke calmly.
The party quickly regained their composure and nodded.
“Sword Soul!”
The swordsmen activated their unique skills in unison and charged into the fray.
While they worried about Kang Yoonsoo’s group’s safety, Shin Hanul was thinking from a different angle.
The boss’s health has dropped significantly.
Though Labian fought fiercely, it looked utterly exhausted.
Its method of absorbing the chimeras’ life force was frequently nullified by the bombs Kang Yoonsoo kept throwing.
If things continued this way, Kang Yoonsoo would claim the boss monster hunting achievement and that sword.
That cannot happen.
Shin Hanul bit his lip and pulled a neatly folded sheet of parchment from his backpack.
A magic scroll inscribed with mid-tier magic.
Scrolls that activated their magic simply by being torn were extremely expensive.
It was an item he had obtained from the clan after swearing to reach level 100 in a short time.
Wasting it would bring not only self-reproach but also a warning from the clan.
There’s no room to be picky now.
Without hesitation, Shin Hanul tore the scroll apart.
A strange mana flowed out and gathered in the air.
What formed was a sleek spear of lightning.
Mid-tier magic, Lightning Javelin.
Just being near it caused blue electric currents to crackle and spark.
Not stopping there, Shin Hanul shouted.
“Mana Release!”
A unique skill of the Sorcerer class.
It temporarily opened limited mana to greatly empower a single spell.
The Lightning Javelin grew even larger, transforming into a size capable of sweeping across the battlefield.
With this, I can finish it!
Shin Hanul stared at the distant Labian.
Though there was distance, he was confident he could hit it accurately.
“Everyone, get back!”
At Shin Hanul’s warning, the people on the battlefield hurriedly split to both sides.
He hurled the Lightning Javelin with all his strength.
The spear of lightning flew while trailing blue currents.
His magic struck Labian’s chest dead center.
CRACKLE—!
Fierce currents wrapped around it, and pitch-black smoke rose.
The battlefield fell silent. Labian, who had been on the verge of death, seemed to have perished.
Shin Hanul let out a relieved smile.
It’s over. Definitely.
At that moment.
A massive hand swept the black smoke away.
Homunculus Labian stood tall, completely unharmed.
Not only that.
Labian had absorbed the lightning and grown even larger and more powerful.
Fierce currents flowed nimbly around its razor-sharp blade.
“Foolish creatures……! You have brought death upon yourselves……!”
Homunculus Labian has absorbed the mid-tier magic.
The power sealed within the sword has been released and lost vitality has been restored.
Everyone, including Shin Hanul, wore expressions of shock.
It absorbed magic?
The information about the homunculus they had obtained from the request had contained no such detail.
Shin Hanul’s trump card had instead triggered the awakening of a boss monster that had been on the brink of death.
For a moment, everyone lost their will to fight.
But there was one exception.
While everyone stood frozen, unsure what to do, a single man stepped forward.
Kang Yoonsoo indifferently leveled his greatsword at Labian.
Labian snorted.
“You would face me after I have become this strong……? How stupid……”
“You give better rewards when killed right after absorbing magic.”
Labian’s face twisted violently.
“You don’t even value your own life……!”
Labian swung its lightning-clad longsword with ferocious force.
Kang Yoonsoo lowered his stance and dodged the strike.
At that instant, brilliant radiance flowed from the silver mane wristguard on his arm.