Chapter 166: Horn of Despair (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 166: Horn of Despair (3)
The Moyong Clan, one of the pillars of the Five Great Clans.
Moyong Su was a standout talent even within that prestigious family.
This meant he had undergone grueling training to maintain his composure under any circumstance.
But this time...
Even the usually unflappable Moyong Su couldn't help but swear.
"Aaaargh! You crazy bastard!"
Ruuuumble!
This time, the ground began to shake violently from side to side.
It felt as if a massive earthquake was striking.
Mountains of piled-up treasures collapsed, and mysterious plant vines began crawling out from the fissures in the ground.
Finally, a scene truly worthy of the word "despair" was unfolding.
'Good. Very good.'
Jinhyuk nodded, looking thoroughly amused.
'If I blow it a couple more times, what else will pop out?'
'Will an ancient demon from hell be summoned?'
"Take your hands off that horn right now! Stop it, you lunatic!"
Moyong Su screamed at the top of his lungs.
Of course, he wasn't the only one.
"Damn it! Kang Jinhyuk! Are you trying to kill us all?!"
"Human! I'm low on mana right now! Hey! Get away! How dare a mere weed touch my noble self!"
"J-Jinhyuk! Please stop...!"
His own teammates were also screaming and running all over the place.
This was a scene of pure shock and awe.
Indeed.
Since this was the Tower of Trials, it had to present at least this level of hell.
Everyone seemed to have forgotten because they had been climbing the tower so smoothly lately, but this was the true face of the Tower of Trials.
"Kieeeeee!"
Boom! Crash!
The Black Scorpion rampaged once more, tearing through the piles of gold.
Anything caught in its claws was instantly sliced to pieces.
And the moment its stinger pierced someone, even a tank with stacked defensive skills would melt without exception.
"Aaaargh!"
"R-Run away!"
It was an utterly absurd sight.
The elite raid team was being wiped out without even being able to put up a proper fight.
"Ugh!"
Even Moyong Su was barely managing to hold his own against the Black Scorpion.
So, naturally, the others stood absolutely no chance.
To make matters worse, the man-eating plants, now fully emerged, began hunting the players one by one using their vines.
The second disaster, 'Predator in the Mud'.
Instantly grabbing players by their ankles, the plants flung them high into the air.
"Wh-What...?"
Their bodies soared into the sky.
They flailed against gravity, but only for a brief moment.
With a wide gape, a mouth lined with countless teeth opened at the center of the plant.
Digestive juices and unidentified fluids stretched out like cobwebs.
That was the end of them.
Crunch!
Chomp!
A thick fountain of blood sprayed into the air.
Having swallowed its prey in a single bite, the man-eating plant moved mechanically to seek out its next meal.
'I can't let this go on.'
Moyong Su grit his teeth so hard they nearly shattered.
He might survive the second, but if the third despair awakened, it would be absolute ruin.
'Even I won't be able to handle the third.'
The Horn of Despair, a relic capable of summoning a total of three despairs.
While each was known to be capable of destroying an entire nation, from the third despair onward, the scale of danger shifted to an entirely different level.
The difficulty spiked so drastically that even if he brought the entire elite force of his clan, they wouldn't be able to handle it.
But.
Looking at the bastard who was currently leaping around like a flying squirrel, repeatedly bringing the horn to his lips and pulling it away...
...there was no doubt he would blow it again.
'There's no way a lunatic like him would stop here.'
Judging by his past behavior, hoping for him to stop was a futile dream.
In that case...
Moyong Su's eyes narrowed.
His gaze shifted to the top of the altar.
Specifically, to the black bell resting on the pedestal.
'I will seize the Warning Bell and escape this place.'
The gate created by the Warning Bell could only allow a maximum of three people to escape. In other words, if you weren't among those three, you would bury your bones here.
Himself and Liaoyu... Only two slots were needed.
With this, the escape route was secured.
But Moyong Su's thoughts didn't stop there.
'I can't just break even after coming all this way.'
In truth, there was a secret hidden within that horn.
[The Horn of Calamity has the power to summon three disasters. However, if one survives for five minutes after the third disaster, a fourth event will follow—not a disaster, but a stroke of fortune. A fortune grand enough to surpass all four disasters.]
No one had ever attempted it before, but the ancient text he had discovered in the secret library clearly stated those words.
'The moment he summons the third disaster, I will snatch the horn from him.'
If he could claim the fourth fortune and then escape through the Warning Bell's gate!
Everything would conclude perfectly.
There was not a single flaw in his plan.
After all, he was the only one here who knew this secret.
"Liaoyu!"
"Yes...? Yes!"
"Follow me!"
Dash!
Moyong Su kicked off the ground and dashed forward.
* * *
'Just as expected.'
Jinhyuk's lips curled upward.
It was a trap.
After making a feint to go for the Warning Bell, once he reacted in panic...
'He'll immediately try to snatch the horn from me.'
It was so obvious how he was setting up the board that playing along with it was actually the hard part.
This was an area that required a fair bit of acting skills.
Jinhyuk put on a slightly panicked expression and quickly brought the horn to his lips.
And the moment Moyong Su stepped onto the altar's stairs—
Pwooooo!
The third blast of the horn echoed through the chamber.
It was starting.
Sssss!
Black smoke suddenly began to billow from the altar.
[The third despair awakens!]
While the Black Scorpion and the man-eating plants were despair-inducing enough, what appeared before them now was an entity on an entirely different level.
Hummmmm!
Roughly one meter in diameter.
A black sphere emitted a strange, vibrating sound.
To the ignorant, it might look like a mere oval, but that was only because they didn't know what this thing truly was.
'I finally get to see it.'
The third despair, the 'Thoughtform'.
An entity akin to a pure concept, existing solely to annihilate intruders.
A thin bead of cold sweat formed on Jinhyuk's forehead.
Facing a monster that would be difficult to handle even if his level were twice as high, it was only natural to feel tense.
Of course, this tension was of a slightly different nature than what most would feel.
It was the exhilaration of risking his life to play with a powerful enemy.
And, the anticipation of overcoming this formidable foe and landing a blow on that foolish Murim bastard.
"Whew..."
Jinhyuk calmed his breathing.
At the same time, he awakened all of his senses.
It was at that exact moment that the black Thoughtform twitched.
...The front!
At the speed of thought, a long spike shot out from the sphere.
Clang! Clang!
He barely managed to deflect its trajectory using his Fang.
The spike, grazing his blade, embedded itself into the ground behind him.
It was an attack possessing both incredible speed and precision.
But those two qualities weren't the real problem.
Slither...
Before he knew it, the spike embedded in the ground had already retracted.
It was like a bullet that required no reload time.
The process of attacking and retracting was absurdly fast.
Thud!
Thud! Thud!
In less than a single second, more than seven attacks rained down.
A continuous onslaught without even a hint of a wind-up. Because of this, Jinhyuk had to swing his sword like a madman.
"Whew."
Jinhyuk let out a low whistle.
If not for his honed reflexes and deeply ingrained experience, he would have been hit by that last attack.
Fortunately, Cheon Yu-seong and Teresa, who were further back...
"Is everyone okay?"
"Yeah. Managed to block it somehow."
"Me too."
Cheon Yu-seong and Teresa's voices drifted from behind.
It seemed they were all safe.
Alice, of course, went without saying.
However, not everyone had survived the Thoughtform's attack.
"Cough..."
"Ugh..."
Black, frothy blood spilled from the mouths of the players who had been pierced by the spikes.
Their hands and feet trembled violently.
"Aaaargh!"
"Graaaah!"
Blood vessels burst in the eyes of the stricken players. Bulging veins and swelling muscles created a grotesque spectacle.
This was precisely why the third despair was so terrifying.
The ability to turn those struck by its attacks into its minions.
Furthermore, since the turned minions also possessed the ability to infect others, the ripple effect would grow exponentially over time.
Creak, crack...
Their arms and legs twisted in bizarre angles.
And just like that, a tragedy of fratricide began.
An infected player bit the comrade standing right next to him.
"H-He bit me! This bastard bit me!"
"Are you insane?! It's me! It's me!"
The situation instantly devolved into utter chaos.
The front lines collapsed in a heartbeat.
Fighting was no longer the priority; running to survive was.
* * *
Amidst the pandemonium, Moyong Su, having bypassed numerous traps, finally grabbed the Warning Bell resting on the altar.
At almost that exact moment, Jinhyuk caught up to him from behind.
"You're too late!"
Moyong Su thrust the Warning Bell forward.
Hummmmm!
[The gate is activating!]
[A maximum of 3 people can escape the tomb. The gate will vanish the moment the last person passes through.]
[Note: The player who opened the gate must be included among the 3 escapees.]
His claim of being too late was true.
One of the only three slots now belonged to Moyong Su.
'Good.'
Moyong Su clenched his fist.
All that was left... was to get his hands on the horn.
He was almost there. Just one more step.
Crackle...
A dazzling radiance erupted from Moyong Su's sword.
Sword Gang.
The trademark of peak masters, boasting the ultimate cutting power.
"You'd better not think you can beat me in a one-on-one. With my current strength, I could even face the Black Scorpion alone."
"Wow. You bloated your stats with an elixir, yet you're talking as if it's your own strength. I'm genuinely curious, aren't you embarrassed to say that?"
"What... did you say?"
"Why act so angry? It's the truth. With your actual skills, you're at best on par with the Blood Ghost Troop Leader. Actually, considering the traits of the Demonic Cult and the Orthodox Faction, you might even be weaker."
"Are you... trying to call me a coward?"
"I'm calling you dirty, petty, and narrow-minded, actually."
The more Jinhyuk spoke, the paler Moyong Su's face became.
"This is far better... than being a loser who dies clinging to fair play in a fight."
"True, but hearing that come from the mouth of a noble member of the Orthodox Faction is pretty hilarious, don't you think?"
"..."
This time, he was completely struck dumb.
But only for a brief moment.
He realized that continuing the argument would only disadvantage him.
Dash!
Moyong Su, instantly closing the distance, swung his sword.
It was a fierce, sharp strike, befitting someone who had exponentially increased his internal energy by consuming a 'Mana Core'.
Clang!
But Jinhyuk deflected the attack by a hair's breadth.
He had blocked the Thoughtform's attacks; there was no way he would fall for something of this level.
"Your timing was good, but it lacked any real edge."
"It doesn't matter. Your neck wasn't my target in the first place."
Moyong Su's smirk deepened.
Before he knew it, the horn Jinhyuk had been holding was now in Moyong Su's hand.
This was his sole target from the very beginning.
Moyong Su threw the horn down to Liaoyu.
"Liaoyu!"
"Yes!"
"Blow the horn right now!"
"U-Understood!"
Without hesitation, Liaoyu brought the horn to his lips.
Pwooooooo!
A blast louder than any before echoed through the chamber.
[The 4th 'fortune' arrives!]
"We win!"
Moyong Su cheered in absolute certainty.
And...
"Thanks. For blowing the last horn."
Jinhyuk smiled faintly. As if he had been waiting for this exact moment.