Chapter 57
I’m translating the chapter into HTML with the chapter title first, then novel-style paragraphs. The only special formatting here is the section break, so I’m keeping the rest as flowing prose.CHAPTER_TITLE: Chapter 57
Yoon Sang-hyuk was looking through the mist, or rather, up toward the black mountain peaks that stretched high into the sky. The sight of those jagged ridges, sharp as a demon’s teeth, stirred up a brief memory of the years he had spent surviving in Eternal World.
The Steel Mountains. Even in the past, Yoon Sang-hyuk had not visited often, but he had come here from time to time as a hunting ground.
He took a step forward, then turned his head back before entering the fog-shrouded area. There, the elite forces of the American Absolute Guild and the German Dragon Slayers Guild were waiting.
Their numbers were twenty-five and twenty-four respectively. Fifty in all, including Yoon Sang-hyuk.
Yoon Sang-hyuk entered the mist. First, he planned to try entering the Steel Mountains alone. The world of Eternal World, now realized on Earth, might not be exactly the same as the game, after all. He wanted to find out whether entry was possible alone, without needing a fifty-man raid.
He walked in a straight line toward the direction where he had seen the peaks a moment ago. Fog wrapped around him, and even the ground directly ahead was hard to make out. He held out a hand and could barely see the tips of his fingers, which showed just how dense the mist was.
Even with his high mental power and the passive skill embedded in the Mask of the Chaos Lord, Eye That Pierces Falsehood, he could not get his bearings inside the fog. After what felt like more than ten minutes of walking, Yoon Sang-hyuk let out a small sigh.
The fog vanished.
But instead of the entrance to the Steel Mountains, he found himself back where he had started, standing before the place where the Absolute Guild and Dragon Slayers Guild members had been waiting.
Just as in Eternal World, he could not enter alone.
"Ready?"
At Yoon Sang-hyuk’s question, Richard Polsen and Manuel Mateus, standing at the head of their two guilds, nodded.
"I’ll say this again: don’t even think about running off with the gear we lent you. Because of your guilds, the whole of the United States and Germany could end up taking the hit."
"You really have changed a lot since before. Straight-up threatening people now and everything."
At Richard Polsen’s words, Yoon Sang-hyuk answered coldly.
"Did that sound like a threat?"
"Ahem, no, not at all. Anyway, don’t worry. There isn’t a single fool brave enough to steal from the Masked Lord after he lent them an item."
"Treasures make greedy fools out of stupid people."
"If anyone does, I’ll chop off his head first. Happy?"
Yoon Sang-hyuk turned away.
"Don’t get greedy. Only up to the Black Knight Zone."
"Okay!"
As Yoon Sang-hyuk set off at the front, the elite members of the two guilds, led by Richard Polsen and Manuel Mateus, followed behind him. It was the moment the Steel Mountains had manifested in reality, and the first raid force was entering.
Once inside the fog, he headed straight in the direction he assumed the Steel Mountains lay. Before even five minutes had passed, he emerged from the fog. Unlike before, what greeted Yoon Sang-hyuk and the others this time was a land made entirely of black iron.
They had reached the entrance to the Steel Mountains.
"See yourselves out when you're done."
With that, Yoon Sang-hyuk started walking again. He would move separately from the others. Coming in required a raid force, but leaving did not matter at all, whether one person went first or not.
"Hmm."
He raised his head and looked upward.
Unlike what he had seen from outside, he could not take in the entirety of the Steel Mountains at a glance. As if some spatial expansion spell had been cast within the fog zone, the mountains were several times more vast than they had looked from the outside.
The two guilds seemed to be doing one last round of checks before setting out, and for now they showed no sign of moving.
Yoon Sang-hyuk began his proper ascent into the Steel Mountains. He climbed the pathless slopes with long strides. This mountain range, made entirely of black steel, was the Steel Mountains. Not a single tree, not a blade of grass could be found anywhere.
After climbing for more than thirty minutes, Yoon Sang-hyuk stopped.
His gaze fixed on something far away. A black shape was moving, very slowly.
"Long time no see."
The massive figure looked like a suit of full plate armor mounted as decoration on a fortress. A being some four meters tall, covered from head to toe in black armor, was the Black Knight that appeared in the Steel Mountains.
It held a huge tower shield in one hand and a morning star with sharp spikes jutting from its rounded head in the other.
The Black Knight was a golem, but it looked anything but clumsy. In fact, considering its four-meter height, its form was remarkably sleek and sharp.
As a matter of fact, the Black Knight possessed agility comparable to a human’s, if not greater. On top of that, it was made of adamantium, a metal with terrifying durability.
"It can even use aura."
For anyone whose class was swordsman, the skill Aura was something they had to learn. The Black Knight could use it. Each one was a boss-level monster that had to be tackled by a full raid party.
And naturally, the Red Knights and White Knights above it were immeasurably stronger than the Black Knights.
Yoon Sang-hyuk put the Sword-Recognized Dragon Emperor Admarion into his inventory and instead took a hammer from his subspace.
It was Braki’s battle hammer, the same one he had used to smash undead skulls in the underground mass grave beneath Brandel.
When fighting a golem made entirely of metal, a blunt weapon was far more useful than a sword.
Woom, woom.
He swung Braki’s battle hammer through the air a few times. Feeling how perfectly it fit his hand, Yoon Sang-hyuk let a faint smile cross his face.
He approached the Black Knight at an unhurried pace, as though out for a stroll. He did not bother hiding his presence. Once he crossed into its detection range, the Black Knight turned toward Yoon Sang-hyuk.
At the Black Knight’s immense presence, which he had not seen in a long time, and the raw force unique to it, Yoon Sang-hyuk gave a light chuckle.
Kurururuk-
Was it trying to say something?
The resonance made by the Black Knight spread through the surroundings. Slowly, the Black Knight began to move. What had initially seemed like a slow motion suddenly became so fast it was hard to follow with the eye.
Whoom-
It swung the tower shield, larger than Yoon Sang-hyuk himself, straight at him. Yoon Sang-hyuk easily slipped past the imposing shield attack and struck the tower shield with Braki’s battle hammer.
Clang-
With a violent metallic crash, the Black Knight staggered backward. A Black Knight strong enough to require a fifty-man raid could not overcome Yoon Sang-hyuk’s power.
Still, one thing was certain: compared to any monster he had fought since returning to reality, the Black Knight was genuinely powerful.
"Good!"
At the thought that he could finally enjoy some real resistance for the first time in a while, Yoon Sang-hyuk let out a pleased shout.
Whooom- Crash-
The Black Knight’s morning star dropped vertically. The weapon, as large as Yoon Sang-hyuk’s torso, slammed into the steel ground. Metal fragments sprayed in all directions. Yoon Sang-hyuk leapt aside to avoid the morning star, then rushed straight at the Black Knight.
In an instant, the space ahead of Yoon Sang-hyuk warped. Then, as if nothing had happened, it returned to normal. Over and over, the space twisted and restored itself. Each time it did, Yoon Sang-hyuk folded space and closed the distance to the Black Knight.
A step across space.
In the blink of an eye, Yoon Sang-hyuk reached the Black Knight’s back and brought Braki’s battle hammer down hard on the thigh of its left leg.
"Crush!"
The innate skill contained within Braki’s battle hammer, Crush.
Boom-!
The Black Knight’s massive body shook. A crack spread across the thigh that had been struck. As the Black Knight turned, it aimed its tower shield at Yoon Sang-hyuk. Wrapped in dense black aura, that shield would surely injure even Yoon Sang-hyuk if it landed cleanly.
He folded space again. Taking the Black Knight’s flank, Yoon Sang-hyuk struck the already damaged thigh once more.
Boom-boom-boom-
Dodging the Black Knight’s attacks left and right, he kept battering the same spot again and again.
Kururururuk-
Letting out a bizarre roar, the Black Knight drove its morning star straight down into the ground. Right on cue, Yoon Sang-hyuk kicked off the earth and flung himself into the air.
Kwaaaaaa-
Centered on the point where the Black Knight’s morning star had struck, a circular crater tore open in the ground. It was the Black Knight’s skill, Earthquake. Had he remained on the ground, there was a high chance he would have been stunned. Of course, with Yoon Sang-hyuk’s resistance, he would likely have resisted Earthquake, but there was no need to take a hit he did not have to.
Earthquake was not only meant to inflict stun; it also carried considerable impact damage.
As if it had been waiting for him, the tower shield came flying toward Yoon Sang-hyuk in midair. The Black Knight had lowered its stance fully, braced the tower shield against its shoulder, and used a shield charge.
"Blink."
Yoon Sang-hyuk vanished without a trace. When he reappeared, he was high in the sky behind the Black Knight.
"Haah!"
Yoon Sang-hyuk threw his weight into his fall and brought Braki’s battle hammer crashing down.
Clang- Crash-!
At last, the Black Knight’s thigh, which he had hammered dozens of times, shattered. Unable to maintain its balance with half the thigh torn away, the Black Knight dropped to one knee.
When raiding, suppressing the enemy’s mobility was basic common sense. Now that one leg had been destroyed and its movement restricted, dealing with the Black Knight was easier than turning over one’s palm.
Of course, if he let his guard down, he could still be struck, but Yoon Sang-hyuk was the strongest in Eternal World, the man who stood behind the mask of the Masked Lord.
Kururururuk-
In a final desperate struggle, the Black Knight twisted its body and attacked with its tower shield and morning star, but its strikes were nowhere near as sharp as before. Yoon Sang-hyuk evaded them with only a few steps and continued to pound the Black Knight’s body without pause with Braki’s battle hammer.
Crash- Crash- Crash- Crash-!
Every time Braki’s battle hammer slammed into the Black Knight, thunderous blasts and metallic shrieks rang out.
"Good, good!"
Yoon Sang-hyuk kept shouting "good" over and over as he battered the Black Knight.
The Black Knight slowly lost its shape. Still, as expected of a Black Knight made of adamantium, its durability alone was exceptional.
It took more than five minutes of merciless pounding before he finally managed to separate the Black Knight’s head from its body.
"Phew."
After using his strength properly for the first time in a while, he felt refreshed. Yoon Sang-hyuk put Braki’s battle hammer back into subspace, then sat down on the Black Knight’s head, which had rolled across the ground, using it like a chair as he caught his breath.
Experience has increased.
A pleasant message followed.
As expected of a raid-type monster that required fifty people to take down, the experience was substantial. Even so, to raise his level, he would need to kill several thousand Black Knights.
After resting for a moment, he stood and put the Black Knight’s corpse into subspace. If he took this out and handed it to Lee Chul-woo, the blacksmith would probably grin so hard his face would split.
But the corpses he obtained from this hunt would not go to Lee Chul-woo. They would go to auction, limited to Korean companies only.
For Korean players to level up and develop, player-related businesses had to develop as well.
The body that would handle the auction would be the Player Association, which would soon be established. His plan was to put some weight on Lee Hyung-seok’s shoulders once he became the president.
Yoon Sang-hyuk raised his head and looked toward the summit of the Steel Mountains, then muttered, "The feel is the best, and the experience is the best too. I should make this place my main hunting ground from now on."