Chapter 41

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Translator: Ryuma

Chapter: 41

Chapter Title: The Shadow Spirit Exposed

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Han Seoryeong stared at Kang Seol with a blank, dumbfounded look.

Suddenly, he had turned icy cold, and she gazed at him in utter confusion.

"W-What are you talking about all of a sudden? Are you feeling okay, mister?"

No one's shadow was missing.

To spot the cunning and vicious Shades, you had to watch for that first and foremost.

Kang Seol had checked it right from the moment she approached him yesterday.

In other words, he'd been playing along all this time.

Acting the part of a bumbling, gruff guy soothing a poor woman's wounds.

'As expected, Shades showed up.'

Kang Seol recalled the words of the boundary stone mage who'd registered his spirit pouch.

- Oh, right, and there's apparently some annoying trouble brewing nearby.

- Annoying trouble?

- A few of the adventurers who came to help just... vanished.

- Missing?

- That's the word going around internally. But with the Magic Tower stretched thin right now, any search effort's gonna take time.

The missing adventurers had surely fallen to the Shades standing right before his eyes.

Kang Seol waited for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her reply.

A moment later.

Han Seoryeong—or whatever was wearing her skin—responded to him.

"Why are you acting like this... Mr. Kang Seol... You're scaring me."

"What happened to the real Han Seoryeong? No, when did you kill her?"

Shades mimicked Han Seoryeong's voice once more.

"You said I seemed like a good person, mister..."

"Cut the act—it's revolting. And get your words straight. I said she seemed like a good person. The dead Han Seoryeong. You're just a fake aping her personality."

"You knew all along... You've been deceiving me from the start?"

"I wasn't trying to deceive you—you deceived yourself."

"You dare... dare toy with me?"

"For a pathetic parrot mimicking a corpse's personality, you've got way too much ego."

"I've earned it. Heh, I was only thinking of fooling you, but to get fooled myself... Keh heh..."

Shades' body gradually blackened. Just like Kang Seol's shadow summons.

"You've done well... But now that you're here, it's too late."

The eyeless corpses nearby chimed in to back it up.

"Too... late..."

"You'll join us... soon enough."

The eyeless corpses yammered on. Then, something black abruptly burst from their bodies.

Swish...

Thud!

The corpses toppled from the shock, and the black tendrils wrapped around Han Seoryeong's form.

Ssssss...

"Han Seoryeong... Her vitality was so paltry, barely a snack. What about you? The feast we've craved? Even if you're bland, I'll grind your bones to dust. That ought to quench this rage."

Her mouth ripped to her ears, a serpentine tongue lolling out.

Kiiii... Kiiiiii...

Even the Ventas circled her, snarling as if baying to slaughter the human fast. Drain his vitality for the banquet.

It was terror incarnate.

Deep in enemy lines, his sole ally had been the foe plotting deceit from the outset.

Yet Kang Seol watched Han Seoryeong and the Ventas with an unchanging expression.

- Faced them without prep? Run. Can't? Fight! Gonna lose? Die, you trash! Nah, even I couldn't take a fully powered Shades...

Kang Seol scratched his nose.

"Well, this is..."

"Come—offer your vitality!"

With that cry, Han Seoryeong's body detonated.

Crack... Crunch!

Clothes and gear shredded apart as she morphed into Shades' true shape. But even now, it couldn't beat Kang Seol.

Huuuuuup...

Shades gaped its maw and sucked in the wind.

Kiiiiii!

Kiii!

The Ventas started getting dragged into its mouth.

Crunch crunch!

Kiii!

Crack. Crackle...

Shades kept ballooning larger. With every Venta absorbed, nonstop.

Shades rasped at Kang Seol in its warped voice.

"Betting on that feeble power of yours?"

"......"

"But it won't save you from us."

"We'll see."

"Keh heh heh... I'll carve that lesson into your flesh."

Shades swung its massive arm at Kang Seol.

Whirlic-!

Kang Seol's hand shuddered, spraying black energy.

Clang-!

"Grk... Another one?"

Moonlight Knight Karuna parried the arm upward at a diagonal with his Moonlight Sword.

Struck dead-on by the blade, it neither sliced nor yielded—instead, metal clashed against metal. A testament to Shades' ironclad hide.

Whoooong...

"Dangerous, Master. Fall back."

"You think?"

Kang Seol obeyed Karuna, retreating a single step.

Just one step.

His face said even this much retreat meant no chance of losing to trash like you.

"Filthy... pests!"

That nonchalance only fueled Shades' fury.

Shaaaack-!

Shades' body swelled without end.

Swish-!

Kwaaaaaang-!

"Kuh..."

Sizzle...

Crescent Moon Karuna reeled back hard. But he steadied himself at once.

Before, he might've crumbled easily—but the new gear on Karuna, plus his massively boosted stats, let him hold even in Crescent Moon.

Huaaaang...

'Already?'

Boosted stats meant boosted proficiency too, no doubt.

Now he could charge Moonlight Ascension even faster.

"Keh... A puny human summon defying this Shades, spirit of shadows? Pathetic—utterly pathetic!"

Words aside, Karuna's aura unnerved it—Shades kept inflating itself.

"Hya!"

Whoooong-!

Kagagak-!

"Die! Die!"

Kwang-! Kwaang-!

Tadadadada-!

Shades hammered Karuna with a barrage, shoving him back relentlessly.

At this rate, defense would crack before any counter.

Srrrrk...

Ominous black aura cloaked Shades' form.

"Hahaha! Forgot? Night is my domain! End your pathetic thrashing now..."

"Kruaa!"

Karuna roared and flung Shades off. Then surged to Moonlight Ascension's final stage.

Huaaaaaang-!

"That your limit? Then no more need to watch! I'll pulverize you entirely..."

Ujjijijik-!

Shades ballooned massively again.

Now dwarfing even Mountain Sorcerer Jamad. Full Moon Karuna was mighty, but Shades' momentum edged it out.

Then, that instant.

Kang Seol grinned at Shades.

"Nope. Time's up."

- But if you slipped the vitality solvent to Shades just like my journal said? Loves sweets, so easy to fool. If you did—thank this genius Grizz!

"...Thanks, genius Grizz."

Clunk.

Shades' smug face contorted. It clutched its jaws shut.

"Bwoooup..."

"What... uwoop..."

Kang Seol asked oh-so-casually.

As if he'd foreseen it all.

"Cocoa go down smooth?"

"Bweeeeeek..."

Shades vomited up the Venta mass it'd slurped.

Kang Seol smirked at the spectacle.

"Told ya—don't guzzle stranger's drinks."

"What did you... what'd you do to me? Uwoop..."

Shaaaa...

The former Venta lump sagged limply, flashing weakly. And shadow spirit Shades shrank fast.

Far smaller than Han Seoryeong's first shift. Just like the other spirits Kang Seol had live-captured.

"This can't... can't be..."

"Pick your marks better next time. Can't just mug an undercover cop, y'know?"

"W-Wait... Don't kill me. Spare me, and I'll serve you—I swear! Spirits must honor oaths!"

The Venta lump thrashed to reform. But Kang Seol wasn't watching idly.

"Too much hassle. In you go."

Click-

Kang Seol touched his belt.

Click.

The black spirit pouch sprang open.

Click.

Then the white one too.

Shades, knowing the fate of spirits inside those pouches, wailed in horror.

"N-Nooooooo!"

Whooooooo-

"Kiiiiiik!"

The man-hunters Venta and Shades sounded utterly wretched.

Like Aladdin's Jafar, sucked lampward against his will—clawing earth, shrieking.

"Let go! Me... me!"

"Nope."

"Won't... let you off... regret..."

"Kiiing!"

Whiriririp...

Click.

Click.

Kang Seol let out a deep sigh.

"Huu..."

A torrent of sponsorships flooded in as viewers erupted in cheers.

Tap... tap...

Kang Seol's belt pouches held white and black.

They rattled stubbornly.

Clink... clink...

But no spirit ever escaped a pouch once sealed.

Soon, the white pouch—Venta's prison—yielded first.

Flash...

Pure milky radiance bathed belt and Kang Seol alike.

So divine, it wondrously proclaimed its presence to all around.

'Not over yet.'

Clink...

The belt now Milky ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Way, even Shades quit struggling. Another shift ignited.

Kwaaaaaaaa-!

This one boomed with sound.

Flashy beyond measure for mere gear. Stars twinkled skyward—colors erupting, flaunting hues.

Zzzzzzzt-!

Dark and bright lights swirled midair, then streamed back to Kang Seol's belt.

Like constellations realigning.

Huaang-!

Stars briefly crammed his belt.

The tempest faded into silence.