Chapter 350: The Old Guard (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 350: The Old Guard (1)
Slash!
Squelch...!
With a gruesome sound of tearing flesh, the dryad's body collapsed.
"Ah..."
The brief gasp escaping her lips was steeped in nothing but despair.
It was only natural.
For the enemies who had appeared before them... were monsters that far transcended their comprehension.
Armor, shields, even the blessing of the spirits—none of it was of any use.
'I must... never let them reach Lady Uasis.'
But that thought was nothing more than a fleeting wish.
With a single clean slash, the dryad's head rolled onto the ground.
Thud!
The completely extinguished flame of life snuffed out even her final will.
In less than three minutes, the thirty-seven dryads stationed at the entrance of the ruins were completely wiped out.
Considering that each and every one of them was an elite handpicked from the village, it was an unbelievable result.
"How boring. I couldn't even shake the rust off my blade with this."
A slender man clicked his tongue.
The runes engraved on his ink-black sword still glowed faintly.
"This mission is not for satisfying your personal greed. Do not confuse our objective with your personal feelings."
At the man's words, a woman with short black hair stepped forward.
She, too, carried a thin, ink-black dagger and was examining the dryads' corpses with a cold expression.
"So cold. Work is meant to be enjoyed anyway... No matter how upright you act, those higher-ups won't give you a second glance."
"You..."
In an instant, a sharp aura clashed between them.
It was a terrifying pressure, enough to distort the mana drifting in the air.
The Old Guard.
They were rankers whom Nyarlathotep had painstakingly raised within the Tower. For thousands of years, they had served as Nyarlathotep's hands and feet, handling all the dirty work in the Tower.
They were loyal hounds and cleaners, and at the same time, powerhouses capable of conquering most labyrinths or ruins entirely on their own.
Another man closed his eyes and scanned the interior of the ruins.
His sturdy build and the longbow taller than himself in his hand made quite an impression.
"The player named Kang Jinhyuk is currently inside a cave, taking shelter from the storm. There are five of them... no, six if we include the True Ancestor. Hmm. He just... entered the cave. He must have sensed that the dryads were defeated."
"A cave? Isn't that place crawling with sleeping Black Scorpions? Besides, the inside must be incredibly complex."
"Ho. Do they have a guide among the six? Unless it's someone like you or Phesis, finding the right path in there should be impossible."
Various reactions burst out.
It was because they found it difficult to understand Jinhyuk's tendency to push forward so recklessly.
At the same time, their curiosity about what kind of result he would produce through this grew.
"As expected, he seems to know that the crown is in the Dunes of the Sun."
The largest man among the four Old Guard members stood up.
Clang!
A massive greatsword over two meters long slid into the sheath on his back.
"We're picking up the pace too."
"Are we heading straight into the Dunes of the Sun?"
"No, looking at his movement path, he must have headed toward the Antlion."
Snatching the item before their competitor was one way.
However...
Doing so left room for them to be ambushed from behind or leave loose ends.
If he happened to know a shortcut, it could become even more troublesome.
"We will go there, eliminate them, and secure the crown."
For a perfect mission.
Eliminating the competitor themselves was the most surefire way.
"That sounds fun."
"Do not kill Kang Jinhyuk. He is a pawn that Rick, the middle manager, is quite fond of."
"I'll try."
"Then, I'll take that as permission to kill everyone else."
Step.
Soon after, the four members of the Old Guard stepped into the gate.
* * *
Rumbleeeee!
"Kieeeeee!"
The Antlion roared wildly and thrashed about.
A prey whose range of movement was restricted in the sand.
Therefore...
It should have been normal to swallow him in a single bite.
It should have been over a long time ago.
Yet, that human was dodging here and there in an infuriatingly elusive manner.
As if he were deliberately dragging out the time.
[Unique Ability 'Blood Explosion' has been activated!]
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Boom!
Sand and droplets of blood clumped together and exploded.
Through his obscured vision, Jinhyuk traversed the sand using the 'Sword Demon's Spirit Step'.
Due to the nature of 'Ant Hell' where one sank deep, his speed was less than a third of his original...
But it didn't matter.
After all, speed wasn't the most important thing in this fight.
Just a little more.
Just a little bit more...
Jinhyuk continuously gauged the timing.
'I have to finish this before the bastards outside get here.'
Hastings' elites, who possessed both outstanding skill and information.
The fact that they knew the entrance of the ruins meant they surely had a good idea of where the crown was located.
'They must also be predicting our current location and the direction we intend to go.'
He had left markers from the entrance of the ruins to this place using 'Inescapable Net'.
To estimate their average speed by calculating the distance the enemy traveled per hour.
'According to my calculations... no matter what choice they make, we will be one step behind.'
They were much faster than expected.
Which meant they were monsters at least three tiers higher than he had assumed.
If so...
He had to choose a direct confrontation rather than trying to shake them off.
In a more advantageous location and situation.
With preparations ready to bait them.
And one of those conditions depended entirely on that Antlion.
"Kieeeeee!"
The Antlion charged once again.
Thinking about it again, the vitality of that massive creature was truly second to none.
Considering it was still perfectly fine even after taking direct hits from 'Blood Explosion', the trademark skill of the Decasus family head.
Jinhyuk swung the scythe made from the Ghost Tree.
Kikikik!
The single eye split horizontally, and...
Vrooooom!
Countless magic circles appeared in the air.
[6th-Circle 'Aqua Storm' has been activated!]
The chosen magic was of the water attribute.
Water droplets rotating at high speed drew a pentagram.
It was a great magic that excluded everything else to focus solely on pure destructive power.
"Take a refreshing bite of this."
Ruuuumble...
The streams of water merged into one and surged toward the Antlion's face.
……Boom!
The massive torrent of water completely blocked his vision.
However...
"Kieee... eeee!"
The Antlion was still alive and well.
Its wide-open maw instantly reached right in front of Jinhyuk's nose.
Whoosh.
The stench of rotting corpses assaulted his sense of smell.
Its teeth were about to snap shut.
It was the preparatory motion to tear its prey to shreds and swallow it.
……Now!
The moment he had been waiting for had finally arrived.
Jinhyuk threw himself between the teeth.
In an instant that was almost simultaneous...
Snap!
The teeth clashed together.
However, Jinhyuk's body had already slid down the Antlion's throat.
It was thanks to calculating the timing perfectly without a single error.
* * *
'That was close.'
Jinhyuk let out a small sigh of relief.
By distracting its vision with Aqua Storm and paralyzing its sense of smell with Blood Explosion, he had managed to buy about 0.3 seconds.
If he had been off by even a fraction of a second, he would have been shredded to pieces by those teeth instead of entering its body alive.
'The inside of this place is dreadful, no matter how many times I come here.'
His nose was so sore it felt numb.
The inside of the Antlion's body was incredibly hot and filled with a terrible stench.
Yet, the reason he endured all these risks was because there was something he absolutely had to obtain.
The inner core.
A spiritual beast of this size was bound to have an inner core that sustained its long life.
It was a crystallization of mana and, in a way, the heart that kept the spiritual beast alive.
To secure this, he had sent the rest of his party ahead.
'While I buy time, they will head to the Dunes of the Sun first through the hidden passage.'
Now, he just had to get past the final hurdle.
Jinhyuk headed deep into the Antlion's body along the squirming inner walls.
Fortunately, because the creature was so massive, there was enough space for an adult male to pass through comfortably.
How long had he walked like that?
The dark walls gradually brightened, and a space equivalent to a small room appeared.
He had finally reached the place where the Antlion's heart lay.
'There it is.'
He saw a bead glowing with a dark light, perhaps because it was steeped in poison.
That was the Antlion's inner core.
'Purifying this poison won't be easy.'
If entering this guy's body was the first hurdle...
Purifying the poison surrounding the inner core was the second.
If he carelessly touched it without knowing any better, he would surely dissolve into a puddle of blood in less than a minute.
In fact, in the past, one of the deities of the Demon World had touched that inner core with bare hands and ended up disintegrating within a week.
Jinhyuk carefully scanned his surroundings.
Crackle! Zap!
The area around the inner core was burning black.
It was a poison so dreadful that the word 'vile' naturally came to mind.
To neutralize it...
Fighting poison with poison.
Subduing poison with poison.
[Unique Abilities 'Thousand Poisons', 'Black Tears', and 'Blood Demon Qi' are fusing!]
Thousand Poisons, which controls a thousand types of poison, and the Black Tears obtained from the Wailing Witch.
To that, he added the Blood Demon Qi dissolved in his blood.
As the three abilities merged into one, a dark red light surged.
Ruuuumble!
When maximizing a single attribute in this manner, the burden placed on the body was also beyond imagination.
To obtain a powerful ability, one had to pay a corresponding price.
However, in this situation, he had to push forward even if it meant overexerting himself.
Throb! Throb! Throb!
It felt as if his veins were burning up.
Due to the aftermath of the rampaging mana, excruciating pain spread to every corner of his body.
Right then...
[Fusion successful!]
[You have acquired the Unique Ability 'Heaven-Destroying Myriad Poisons'!]
[Heaven-Destroying Myriad Poisons]
Acquisition Difficulty: SS
Description: Ten thousand poisons capable of destroying the heavens. Your understanding of the countless poisons existing in the Tower increases by 250%. Even the Sichuan Tang Clan, renowned masters of poison, or the deities of the upper floors would not dare speak of poison in front of this ability.
[The fused ability has been saved in 'World's Memories'!]
Good.
"Fuuu...!"
His breathing became much easier.
The poison around the inner core, which had been barely visible, now felt a layer thinner.
Where the poison flowed, what its components were...
It was because he had begun to perceive them much more clearly.
As Heaven-Destroying Myriad Poisons bloomed, a green light gathered at Jinhyuk's fingertips.
As his hand swept through the air, the poison gathered around the inner core slowly began to disperse.
Slowly...
He was almost there, but he didn't let his guard down.
With a bit more caution...
Cold sweat trickled down Jinhyuk's forehead.
As it was a delicate task requiring intense concentration, he didn't even breathe carelessly.
[The poison surrounding the inner core has completely vanished!]
Yes!
Jinhyuk barely swallowed the cheer that threatened to burst out.
The time had finally come to secure the fruits of his hard labor.
But just before he could lay his hands on the inner core...
Boom!
A powerful impact shook his entire body.
"Ugh!?"
The impact hadn't come from the inside.
From the outside, something had attacked the Antlion.
Sssss!
As the smoke cleared, a massive hole came into view.
And...
Beyond the circular opening that was over a meter wide...
Four men and women dressed in black revealed themselves.
There was no mistake.
They were the ones sent by Hastings.
"Of all times, it had to be now..."
He had calculated their speed at its absolute maximum...
But they had arrived here even faster than that.