The Knight of the Abyss
Yoon Sang-hyuk kept backpedaling without pause.
Each time he did, countless specters rushed toward him. More than a dozen of them at a time spat out Soul Cry without respite. He couldn’t evade every one; now and then, he took a hit. Each time, his body jerked.
He was a far cry from the first time he had faced these things in this place. The accessories he had looted from hunting specters had dramatically increased his resistance to dark attributes and his defense.
The place Yoon Sang-hyuk was being driven back into was a narrow, long corridor. Wide enough for three people to walk abreast.
A narrow passage was undoubtedly advantageous when dealing with multiple enemies. But if those enemies were specters that could pass through walls without resistance, then it became an almost absurdly disadvantageous battlefield.
Because the passage was so narrow, his movement was restricted, and the specters that suddenly burst through the walls were hard to deal with.
Shrrk-
He twisted his body to avoid one specter’s attack. At the same time, Yoon Sang-hyuk’s sword swept through another specter on the far side. He ducked low to evade a specter that came flying through the left wall straight for his head, then straightened and cut upward at another one diving for his legs.
He didn’t even have time to confirm that the specter had vanished before he was retreating again. In the end, Yoon Sang-hyuk managed to escape the narrow passage. Once he was out, the specters stopped pursuing him.
“What kind of place is this?”
It had been three months since he began hunting in the Abyss of the Ancients. One more day of hunting and he would level up. That was why he had decided to explore the parts of the first floor of the fortress he hadn’t yet visited and had stepped into this corridor.
He had hunted on the first floor for three months, yet still hadn’t found the stairs leading up to the second floor or down to the basement level. It seemed he would have to get through the corridor he had just been through in order to find the stairs to the second floor.
While recovering his health with a potion, he stared down the corridor.
He still didn’t know how long it was or how many wraiths would appear. He considered whether it would be better to turn back, hunt the respawning wraiths to level up, and then try again.
The hesitation didn’t last long.
Yoon Sang-hyuk started walking back toward the corridor.
“Slowly.”
Before, he had crossed it quickly, not knowing that specters would come through the walls. If he moved slowly and cleared the specters as they appeared, he might not have to take on so many at once.
It was only a possibility, but it was worth trying. The reason Yoon Sang-hyuk had been able to conquer so many dungeons alone in Eternal World was precisely because of this kind of stubborn challenge.
He sharpened his senses and didn’t let even the slightest presence slip past him. Moving slowly while maintaining such extreme alertness took a serious toll on his mind.
How long had he walked? Two wraiths suddenly flew in from the front. He stopped where he was and met them head-on instead of advancing further.
Swish-swish- Gyaaaah-
Holy Sword Idea cut down both wraiths almost at the same time. Turning with the motion, he slashed through the specters as they passed him. The wraiths shrieked as if being torn apart, then slipped through the wall and vanished.
Yoon Sang-hyuk tightened his grip on the sword. A chill crept in from his left. He stepped back and cut through the middle. The narrow corridor limited his movement. He kept his elbows tucked in and drove the force of his turn into the blade.
The specter flying through the wall was split cleanly in two and dispersed. The remaining specter had aimed for him at the same time, but it too became a sacrifice to Holy Sword Idea.
After dispatching the two specters, he stood still and waited for a while. Five minutes passed, but no other specters appeared. He resumed moving at a slow pace.
Kaak-
Three specters flew in, each aiming for his head, stomach, and legs. Yoon Sang-hyuk ignored their attacks and raised his sword vertically, bringing it down in a powerful slash.
The three specters passed straight through his body. Yoon Sang-hyuk flinched. It hurt, but it was bearable. This time, the wraiths attacked with a slight delay between them.
For Yoon Sang-hyuk, that was easier to handle. Even a hair’s breadth made a difference, and in that difference he could find an opening to evade and strike back.
He let the specters slip past by a sliver and continued slashing in rapid succession. Because he was keeping his elbows tight to his body, the blade couldn’t fully unleash its power.
But that didn’t matter. Holy Sword Idea dealt additional damage to dark-type monsters simply by existing.
The three specters were dealt with without much trouble. Before coming here, he had even wiped out a coordinated assault from more than ten specters. The limited space made this more grueling than before, of course, but three were still easy enough to handle.
He moved again. When a specter appeared, he no longer advanced; instead, he fought on the spot until he had dispelled them.
And so he continued onward, stopping and starting as he made his way through the corridor.
* * *
Kaak-
The last specter dispersed.
The end of the corridor was visible ahead, which meant this had to have been the final one.
“Hoo.”
This was the toughest fight he had had since he started hunting in the Abyss of the Ancients. Not only was the corridor insanely long, but the number of specters appearing at once kept increasing the farther he went.
By the end, he had been forced to fight ten specters at once. It had been extremely difficult to face enemies flying in from every direction in that narrow passage. If the corridor had been even a little longer, or if more specters had spawned at once, he might have given up and retreated.
But in the end, Yoon Sang-hyuk overcame the ordeal the corridor threw at him and stepped out.
The corridor opened into a large hall.
Across the hall, he could see stairs leading upward. Torches flickered along the walls here and there. Other than those torches, there was nothing.
“What a bleak place.”
The inside of the fortress was the same no matter where he went. There was no proper furniture to speak of.
Yoon Sang-hyuk started toward the stairs leading to the second floor.
“Go up?”
It was only a hunch, but he had a feeling something stronger than the specters on the first floor would appear on the second. If he went up without preparing properly, he was bound to get into trouble.
He stared upward for a long moment, then shook his head.
“If I’m going, I’m going after I level up.”
It was enough that he’d confirmed there were stairs to the second floor on the far side of the corridor. As he turned back to leave, Yoon Sang-hyuk froze.
Someone was standing in the center of the hall, where there had definitely been no one when he passed through a moment ago.
It was a being made entirely of blackness.
Unlike the specters he had faced so far, which had no clear form, this one unquestionably did.
It was a knight holding a greatsword as long as Yoon Sang-hyuk himself. Its face was hidden behind depthless darkness, making its features impossible to see. Only where its eyes might have been, two sinister red streaks burned through the gloom.
“After the Abyssal Specters, now an Abyssal Knight? The floor boss?”
Yoon Sang-hyuk tried speaking, but no answer came.
“You’re not going to let me pass even if I just ask nicely, huh?”
Instead of answering, the Abyssal Knight lifted its greatsword.
“That’s your answer? Fine. I’ve never backed down from a fight that came my way. You’d better be ready for that.”
He brought Holy Sword Idea up and drew it in front of his upper body.
For now, he would test its reaction speed.
Goooo-
He folded space and closed in on the Abyssal Knight before slashing. Yoon Sang-hyuk tilted his head. The Abyssal Knight had definitely been there right up until the moment he struck, but the instant he cut, it vanished.
The moment he felt something slick and sticky from behind, he used Blink to pull his body away.
Bang-
The Abyssal Knight’s greatsword slammed into the hall floor. Stone fragments burst upward. Seeing that, Yoon Sang-hyuk’s eyes sharpened. Unlike the Abyssal Specters, the Abyssal Knight possessed physical force too.
“One more time.”
He shouted briefly and closed the distance again.
I cut it, he thought.
Then the Abyssal Knight vanished. A greatsword aimed for his neck followed a split second later. He couldn’t hear the blade splitting the air, and no killing intent reached him either.
It was as if it existed only to hide. He managed to avoid the Abyssal Knight’s attack by the tiniest margin.
“Not easy.”
Just when he thought his attack had landed, it vanished. The physical greatsword cut through the air, yet there was no trace of its movement. Based on those two facts alone, the Abyssal Knight was a brutally difficult monster to fight.
So he changed tactics.
He pulled a round shield from his subspace. It was a mithril-made shield, blessed by the saintess, and possessed considerable anti-magic power.
He closed in on the Abyssal Knight again. This time he didn’t attack; he only approached. The Abyssal Knight swung its greatsword. Yoon Sang-hyuk pressed the round shield against his shoulder and braced for the impact.
Crash-
“Urk!”
The instant the greatsword and shield collided, an immense shock wave hammered through him. If that had been all, Yoon Sang-hyuk wouldn’t have spat up blood. After slamming into the shield with brute force, the greatsword passed straight through it and sliced through his body.
His bones and flesh had not actually split. And yet it felt so real that he almost believed he had been cut in half. For an instant, it was as though a cold blade had torn through him and moved on.
“Khuk-”
Leaning against the wall, Yoon Sang-hyuk finally coughed up another mouthful of blood.
“No wonder the levels come so easily.”
He wiped the blood from his mouth and pushed himself upright. The Abyssal Knight seemed to think he was no match, because it simply stood there.
“That arrogance is going to get you erased.”
For a moment, maybe it was his imagination, but the red glare leaking from the Abyssal Knight’s eyes seemed to deepen.
“I’m joking, I’m joking. Don’t get mad.”
He put the shield back into his subspace. Since the Abyssal Knight didn’t seem ready to attack immediately, he took out a healing potion and drank it.
“Thanks for that, by the way. Round two starts now.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk kicked off the ground. He slashed with his sword. No, he only pretended to slash, then spun his body around his left foot as the pivot.
Bang!
His body was sent flying again, smashed into the wall, then dropped to the floor.
“Damn it!”
He spat up blood once more.
With difficulty, he forced himself upright and drank another potion. His blood-smeared mouth curled into a smile.
“So that’s your weakness.”
One piece of the darkness making up the Abyssal Knight’s body had fallen away. It was from the place Yoon Sang-hyuk had cut the moment he was struck by the Abyssal Knight’s attack just now. Black smoke was rising in thick wisps from the spot where the darkness had peeled away.
“You bleed too, huh?”
The smile on Yoon Sang-hyuk’s lips deepened.
“When you attack me, only your sword isn’t physical? Is that it? But at that moment, your body becomes physical too. If I cut it, it gets cut. Right? Please tell me I’m right.”
The Abyssal Knight’s gaze darkened even further. If hatred, rage, and madness were all gathered together, they would probably look like that.
“That’s your answer?”