Chapter 225: Fantasy Lost Paradise (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 225: Fantasy Lost Paradise (2)
Slash!
With a sharp cutting sound, the head of a locust vanished.
Jinhyuk dashed forward without hesitation, swords gripped in both hands.
"Keeeeeek!"
"Kieeee!"
He had already slain countless insects, but there was no end in sight to the endlessly swarming horde.
It was then.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
With an earth-shaking rumble, a monster of monstrous proportions appeared directly ahead.
It was a Heracles beetle, known as one of the largest insect species.
Crash!
Even though he deployed a shield made with 'Glacial Shaping', Jinhyuk's body was thrown several meters to the side.
The impact felt as if he had collided head-on with a 20-ton truck.
But the onslaught didn't end there.
Skitter!
Just as he heard a crawling sound along the ground...
'Below!'
Sharp legs burst out from the soil.
The 'Black Sand Centipede'.
With a body length well over ten meters, it was known as the most vicious species among centipedes.
Without even a moment to catch his breath, Jinhyuk quickly leaped aside to create distance.
However, the beast was slightly faster.
Hundreds of legs instantly surrounded Jinhyuk.
"Kieee..."
Two bright yellow eyes stared directly at Jinhyuk.
Sizzle!
As the saliva dripping from between its fangs touched the ground, acrid smoke billowed up.
That was undoubtedly a bodily fluid mixed with acid and poison.
"I get that protecting the tree is your instinct... but you should still pick your battles."
Could it not see the corpses of its fallen comrades who had died after blindly rushing headfirst?
"Kieeeek!"
The centipede's maw split wide open.
A deadly poison engulfed the surroundings.
Golden roses and grass melted away.
It seemed as though no living thing could possibly survive within that acrid smoke.
But at that exact moment.
The poison that had heavily obscured his vision vanished in an instant.
[Unique Ability 'Thousand Poisons' has been activated!]
A dense mist, incomparable to the poison spewed by the Black Sand Centipede, began to flow out.
The martial arts of the Tang Clan, which he had copied in the Elf Forest.
Thousand Poisons.
The ultimate technique of a prestigious family renowned for their poison arts was recreated through Jinhyuk's hands.
"Kii... Kreeeeek!"
The Black Sand Centipede writhed in agony.
No matter how high its poison resistance was, it wasn't enough to withstand Crane's-Crest Red Poison, which could dissolve a human into a pool of bloody water in under a minute.
To begin with, the poison this creature was accustomed to and the poisons of the Murim were fundamentally different.
"It's such a vicious ability that I was reluctant to use it against humans, but against you guys, I can use it to my heart's content."
Jinhyuk gathered the black mist.
The smoke soon took the shape of skewers.
It was a form inspired by Alice's unique ability, Blood Lord.
If he combined these poison-laden skewers with the 'Fire Element'...
There would be no more efficient way to hunt bugs.
Whoosh!
The poison and fire merged together.
What followed was a rain of fire that seemed straight out of an apocalypse.
* * *
Boom! Boom!
Crash!
Ugly craters began to form wherever the skewers struck directly.
The mana consumption was extreme, but it couldn't be helped.
Without an area-of-effect skill like this, it would have taken far too much time to penetrate their defenses.
Using the 'Sword Demon Emperor Stepss' once more, Jinhyuk leaped high into the air.
His target was a butterfly fluttering around to dodge the skewers.
Jinhyuk landed softly on the butterfly's back.
The butterfly, utterly dazed by the rain of fire, had not yet realized that Jinhyuk had climbed onto its back.
'As expected, you need to be at this height to see the weak point.'
The white jade, visible only from the sky.
That was the source supporting the White Tree.
Whoosh!
Belatedly sensing something amiss, the butterfly struggled desperately to shake Jinhyuk off.
With his senses already distorted, maintaining his balance was no easy task, but Jinhyuk kept his footing with acrobatic agility.
'Not yet... not yet.'
Clutching one of the skewers in his hand, he gathered his mana.
To get the perfect angle, he needed to steer the butterfly a bit more to the right.
Paralyzing the butterfly's sight and smell with his poison, Jinhyuk subtly maneuvered it to create an angle for a javelin throw.
And the moment the White Tree and the butterfly's antennae aligned in a straight line...
Crackle...
The gathered mana and poison condensed into a two-meter-long spear.
Jinhyuk hurled the spear.
A gust of wind sliced through the air.
Five dark red circles were drawn in its wake.
Boom!
The spear, breaking the sound barrier, created an ear-splitting sonic boom.
In an instant that was almost simultaneous...
The spear collided head-on with the white jade.
KABOOM!
The absurdly powerful throw shook the entire castle.
The resulting shockwave bent all the golden roses and grass to the side.
However.
"Tch!"
Despite maintaining the perfect angle and power, the white jade was not destroyed.
It was only slightly cracked, still retaining its glow.
"Groooooo!"
A horrific shriek echoed from the tree.
After such a rampage, even the tree must have realized.
That pouring out mass-produced bugs was utterly meaningless.
And...
That a single human possessed enough power to threaten its very life.
"I am the ruler of this land. Tangrasil."
For the first time, a deep voice resonated from the trunk of the White Tree.
Tangrasil.
While it couldn't compare to Yggdrasil, the World Tree of Norse mythology, it was still a giant tree capable of forging its own myth given enough time.
The fact that it had started speaking was proof that the previous attack had hit home.
"How dare you not only trespass into this Lost Paradise but also wound me. Do you truly wish to die?" Tangrasil demanded.
At the same time, a faint mana began to rise from Jinhyuk's body.
"I have no desire to die. More importantly, a talking tree... how fascinating. If it weren't swarming with bugs, I would have sold you to Rick right away."
"W-what? Sell me?"
"I know a middle manager who mainly deals in rare things like you. He'd probably pay a handsome price... but because of the bugs, I'm debating whether to just burn you down."
Jinhyuk smiled brightly.
At his mockery, Tangrasil was temporarily left speechless.
It was only natural.
It had lived a noble life, revered as sacred by the spirits.
Even Ograkun, the King of Giants, had never dared to treat it with disrespect.
Yet, what was this?
Why was a mere human, who wouldn't even live for a hundred years, speaking with such sheer arrogance?
"...I see that you have adapted to the curse of the barrier I deployed. But do you truly believe that is the only curse I can wield?"
"Well, I'm sure you have more prepared. But since the previous curses were so disappointing, I'm not expecting much."
"You will surely regret those words."
[Tangrasil activates the 'Second Curse'!]
[Designates one intruder and absorbs twice the amount of mana they expend in battle.]
[Target: Player Kang Jinhyuk.]
It didn't matter whether he used a sword, a bow, or magic.
If the target directly engaged in combat, this broken curse would absorb twice the amount of mana they expended.
This was precisely how Tangrasil and the giants had been able to protect this fortress for so long.
"How is it? Even the Sword Masters and Archmages the Empire boasted of, and the masters of the Murim, knelt before this curse. Soon, you too will share the same fate as those arrogant fools!"
"Admittedly, it is a bit tricky."
No matter how much he attacked, if twice his mana was absorbed... in the end, it was like drinking seawater.
It meant the more he attacked, the more he would lose.
"It is too late for regrets. The sin of stepping into my domain shall be paid by using your flesh and blood as nourishment."
Tangrasil solemnly pronounced his death sentence.
Of course...
"Then I'll use your body as firewood for a campfire. Since you're so big, you'll easily burn all night long."
Jinhyuk was not one to be intimidated by such words.
"To the very end...!"
Rumble!
As if an earthquake had struck, the ground began to writhe.
Tree roots surged toward Jinhyuk at an incredible speed.
* * *
'...Hooked.'
Jinhyuk's eyes narrowed.
A 12-star barrier possessed a unique characteristic that prevented the deities on the upper floors of the Tower from peering in.
In other words, here, he could unleash his abilities to his heart's content without worrying about the eyes of those Egyptian bastards.
Knowing this, Jinhyuk had used three questions on Tangrasil.
And he had obtained the answers to them.
[Unique Ability 'Judgment of Anubis' has been activated!]
[All of the target's stats are reduced by 50%!]
Status windows popped up one after another.
"W-what on earth is this...?"
Sensing something wrong, Tangrasil writhed its entire body.
It probably couldn't comprehend it.
As a mere ruler of the middle floors, it would never have had the chance to encounter the power of high-ranking deities.
However, the true shock was only just beginning.
Aside from debuffing the target's stats, the Judgment of Anubis possessed another effect.
Namely...
[You can now designate a challenger.]
Designating a challenger.
Slash...!
Even without pointing it out in words, the target had already been decided.
The roots were severed entirely, spraying green fluid in all directions.
"Aaaaargh!"
Tangrasil let out a pain-filled shriek.
[Undead monster 'T-Bone' has been designated as the challenger.]
[Because the ability was used without the gaze of the Egyptian deities, the potential of 'Judgment of Anubis' rises to its absolute limit!]
[Necromancer-related stats temporarily increase to Lv.100.]
[Time Limit: 0h:4m:59s]
The tiny skeleton warrior was no more.
In its place stood a knight over two meters tall, clad in full black armor.
A blue light flared from its hollow, abyss-like eye sockets.
This was an entity considered one of the strongest among the undead.
A Death Knight.
A realm that could only be reached in the distant future, after countless experiences and growth...
T-Bone had bypassed it all in an instant through his designation as the challenger.
"Y-you fool! Do you not know that attacking me only surrenders your mana to me?"
"Sorry, but the challenger's attacks aren't considered my direct attacks. Besides, since he's undead, he isn't affected by the curse either."
There was a reason he had brought T-Bone here instead of Alice or Wolyeong.
Out of the three, T-Bone was the only one perfectly suited for this situation, which was why Jinhyuk had chosen him.
"No... That can't be!"
Tangrasil hurriedly checked the mana within its tree.
It was true.
Naturally, the wound from the severed root should have healed instantly.
Yet, for some reason, the wound remained.
Throb! Throb! Throb!
The terrible pain was the same.
"I do not know what trickery you have pulled, but... do you truly place your faith in a mere toy? A Death Knight that is, at best, only on par with a Sword Master?"
"Not all Death Knights are created equal."
At least at this very moment.
Even Abraham, the Grand Sword Master the Empire boasted of, or the ten greatest masters of the Murim, would be no match for T-Bone.
Because the power of a high-ranking Egyptian deity had fully blossomed.
"Master."
T-Bone stood before Jinhyuk, sword and shield in hand.
"Your command."