Chapter 75
Chapter 75
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 75
Chapter Title: The Calamity They Invoked
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"For now, how about I go with one other person, and we move around as a pair? The rest can stay behind to guard the mart."
Since I was the strongest at the moment, I figured it would be better for me to patrol around. The next strongest, Mer, would stay at the mart at all times to protect our home.
"Jun-ah, wouldn't a pair be too dangerous?"
"That's right, Oppa. At the very least, three of us should go together."
"Yeah, the Angels operate in threes as a rule."
Since they insisted, it seemed we would have to go in a group of three.
A certain intensity flickered in the women's eyes, as if to say they wouldn't let anyone else go alone with me, but that was probably just my imagination.
"Then who should I go with first..."
I was just about to decide the order for the scouting mission.
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— SQUEEEEEEEEEE!!!
"Ugh..!"
The Black Centipede had just died.
Simultaneously, a simplified will reached me: 'Five men, extremely strong.'
"What now?! What is it?"
"The Black Centipede just died."
"What? That crazy bug is dead..? My god."
"Hmm, for something to be able to hunt and kill that horrific bug... it means there's something quite powerful over there."
Extremely strong, five of them.
Five..?
'That raid team, the 'True Conquerors' or whatever, said there were five of them, didn't they...'
Could this really be a coincidence? I had a hunch that the ones who hunted the Black Centipede were the same guys I heard about from Moon Geun-oh.
"First, we should go check out where the Black Centipede died, as a reconnaissance mission. It bothers me a bit to have both me and Mer leave the mart at the same time..."
As I voiced my opinion, Eun-ji immediately shouted.
"Let's play rock-paper-scissors to be fair!"
"Ugh.."
Mer's expression wasn't good. It seemed she had some bad memories with rock-paper-scissors. Or maybe she was sad about not being able to go with me.
"Wow.. I won..! Finally!"
"Hmm. It's Ye-won unnie and me."
The results of rock-paper-scissors meant Ye-won and A-reum would be patrolling with me.
And so, the three of us grabbed our weapons and headed for the spot where the Black Centipede had died.
The Black Centipede had already traveled a considerable distance in the short time since it died.
"Wraaaaaah!!!"
"Kiaaa!!!"
We had only moved slightly away from our position, but zombies were swarming everywhere. There were no named zombies in sight, but the normal zombies were incredibly numerous.
"Uwaaa!!!"
Swoosh!
A-reum swung her dual swords relentlessly, decapitating the approaching zombies.
"Come forth..."
Ye-won summoned something from thin air.
I had never paid close attention to her fighting style before, so I always just assumed she summoned 'something' to fight, but seeing her up close like this, she was summoning a rather grotesque creature.
"Ye-won-ah.. what is that?"
"Huh? Ah, this is a Human-Faced Bird."
"A, a Human-Faced Bird?"
"Yes.. Hehe.. Cute, right..?"
More creepy than cute.
A white bird with a androgynous human face... It was downright chilling the way it laughed while tearing into and swallowing zombie flesh.
The Human-Faced Bird and Ye-won were rubbing their faces against each other, showing affection.
"You two seem to get along pretty well?"
"Yes.. These kids.. they don't betray me. Never.."
I'd felt it since the first time I had a physical relationship with Ye-won; she felt an intense loneliness. She showed slight symptoms of depression as well.
Her family circumstances seemed quite unfortunate... As long as they weren't monsters from outside the realm like Kishiria, her summons were absolutely loyal to their master, so it seemed she opened her heart completely to them.
She cherished her summons as if they were her children, one might say.
'Come to think of it, there was a skill like [Denial of the Mother] or something...'
I remembered it was a type of skill that sent summons into a frenzy.
'Unholy Queen... A class whose main specialty is summoning demonic beasts and inflicting strange curses...'
If we ever met one of these as an enemy, it would be a pain.
If they were hiding somewhere and sending summons to whittle us down, it would honestly be terrifying.
"Now, you come out too..."
But Ye-won didn't stop there and summoned more summons.
She used the skill Demonic Beast Trisummon.
This skill allowed her to maintain up to three summons simultaneously with virtually no mana cost.
Unlike me, who consumed mana every time I summoned the Black Centipede or Kishiria and couldn't recover it during the summoning, she could summon demonic beasts without any penalty. It was a quintessential summoner-exclusive skill.
"Wooah..."
One of the new summons she brought out was a black, dog-like creature with no fur and a mouth that split into four ways, and the other was some kind of insect, either a butterfly or a moth, with a sharp stinger on its tail.
Every one of them had an appearance far removed from Earth's creatures.
"Oppa.. Aren't these cute too?"
"Uh... Cute.. Almost on the level of the Black Centipede."
"Huh?"
"Ah, never mind."
Personally, if you're judging by appearance alone, the Black Centipede was the number one most disgusting. It was the undisputed champion.
Even though I summoned it myself, it still startled me whenever I bumped into it at night. The rest of the party felt the same way.
It was incredibly useful and smart, understanding commands well, but its face was just too hard to get used to.
Thinking about it that way, Ye-won's summons seemed a little cute... or was it just me?
Lately, I had only been seeing terrible things, so my sense of aesthetics was starting to get messed up.
I felt like I was going to go crazy at this rate, so I quickly grabbed Ye-won's cheeks and looked at her face.
"Wh-what are you doing..? It's scary.."
"No, you're just so pretty, Ye-won-ah."
"Ah.. Heung... Over here, this black one is Blackie.. and this butterfly is a Phantom Insect. The Human-Faced Bird is the same, but I haven't given any of them names yet. I wanted to name them together with Master... with Oppa."
"Alright, let's think about it together."
"Yes.. Hehe.."
I hugged Ye-won and stroked her head, and then A-reum shouted at us in an enraged voice.
"Uwaaaah!!!! You guys!! Stop messing around and help me now!!! I've been fighting alone this whole time!!! Uwaa!! Fuck!! Get lost, you zombie bastards!! You're stinking up the place!!!"
She had killed so many zombies in that short time that it was impossible to gauge just how many. Her entire body was covered in the rotten blood of zombies, making her look like a demon of carnage.
With A-reum's cheerful sword dance, normal zombies were sliced up like tofu, and special zombies were diced to pieces after being hit three times, crumbling into rotten flesh.
She was a one-woman army. She was putting on an absolute slaughter against the zombies.
"A-reum-ah! If you shout, you'll attract more zombies! Shh."
"Agh!! You crazy human!"
I killed the zombies approaching me while shouting. In response, A-reum glared at me and tore the zombies apart as if venting her anger.
And she just called me a crazy human in front of my Master.
A-reum's habits were impossible to fix. Of course, that rebellious side was part of her charm...
She acts so defiant against me during the day, but as soon as night falls, she gets all shy and can't move a muscle when she's impaled on my dick, moaning and whimpering. It's immensely satisfying.
Anyway, after killing zombies for about 30 more minutes and pushing forward, the zombies that had been approaching us suddenly vanished completely.
An artificial silence. This definitely meant the Black Centipede had wiped out all the zombies in the vicinity.
"We're near the spot.. Everyone, be on your guard from now on. We don't know what might show up."
"Yes."
"Hoo.. Understood."
Soon, after walking a bit further, we found asphalt stained black.
It was the trace of the Black Centipede's death.
"No one's here..?"
"They might be hiding somewhere..."
But if the Black Centipede died here... where did the Choker go?
Could the ones who killed the Black Centipede have taken it?
"Hoo..."
A foreboding sense that a calamity would occur somewhere I didn't know about washed over me.
"Let's go back for now."
"We're not going to look around anymore?"
"Yeah, I've seen enough."
Next time, I'd have to bring Hwa-yeong.
Thinking about it, the only ones in our party who could properly detect the presence of people were Ha-rin and Hwa-yeong. Since Ha-rin was currently absent, I had to make sure Hwa-yeong joined us next time.
'This is ominous.. Something feels incredibly ominous..'
We checked our surroundings to see if anyone was following us and returned to the mart.
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"Urgh..? Hey, you crazy bastard!!! Uwaa!! Fuck!!!"
Kwaang!!!
Kim Gi-sik, the White-Haired Berserker, screamed and was knocked away by a punch from a black figure.
As a vampire, he had the highest physical strength in the team due to his racial traits, but he was helpless.
There was nothing he could do but get beaten up.
"Goddammit!!!!"
"Prepare for battle!"
As Kim Gi-sik was knocked away, the Recorder Yun Ji-ho and the Leader Lee Seon-jae, realizing something was wrong, shouted and drew their weapons.
Yun Ji-ho's grimoire immediately floated into the air, and the chains he had summoned shot out from the book, wrapping around the black figure.
Perkin!
However, the chains shattered without even lasting three seconds.
During those three seconds, Lee Seon-jae swung his demonic sword, but it was all blocked by the greatsword the figure had summoned at some point.
"It's... useless!"
None of their attacks were landing.
The healer Cha Ji-tae trembled and stumbled backward.
A massive monster stood before their eyes.
The incident occurred about 40 minutes after the porter, Gu Kyo-han, put on the choker.
"Ah... it itches.."
Scratch, scratch...
From the moment he put on the choker, Gu Kyo-han complained that his neck was itchy, and eventually, he started scratching it until it bled.
It was as if he was possessed; he kept scratching his neck, saying it was itchy. Yun Ji-ho, who couldn't stand to watch, stepped in and told him to just take the choker off, saying he would wear it instead.
And then...
"Don't touch it!!! Get the hell away!!! This is mine!!!"
Gu Kyo-han snapped and shouted.
He refused any and all actions to take the choker from him.
He also scratched his neck even more violently.
"It, itches. It itches, it itches, it itches!!!"
Soon, when his fingernails had torn his flesh and blood was pouring out, he finally stopped scratching after Lee Seon-jae ambushed him from behind and knocked him unconscious.
"Hah... Hah... That's disgusting..."
"What the hell got into this bastard?"
"It's probably.. because of this choker. This thing... is much more dangerous than we thought. We need to take it off right now."
"I-I'll heal him first. He's lost too much blood."
Soon, a green light flowed from Cha Ji-tae's staff, and the minor wounds on Gu Kyo-han's neck vanished cleanly.
Next, to remove the choker, Kim Gi-sik reached for Gu Kyo-han's neck.
Grab!
"Th-this bastard... wasn't he unconscious?"
"He reacted unconsciously to stop us from taking the choker..? This is bad. The flow of mana is twisted.. If we take it off incorrectly... he might die."
Yun Ji-ho said, adjusting his glasses.
"What kind of bullshit is that?"
"It's exactly what I said. To put it simply, the choker and his body have fused. He might die if we take the choker off."
"Hah... Fuck..."
In the end, they decided to wait until Gu Kyo-han woke up.
Time passed...
"Ugh. Ughgh. M-my head.. my head is uncomfortable.. I need to scratch.. my neck is itchy.. my head is so uncomfortable.. I need to take it off.. I need to take my head off.. my head is so uncomfortable... Ahh..."
Gu Kyo-han, who had woken up alone, muttered.
Kim Gi-sik, who had excellent hearing as a vampire, heard his muttering and turned his head.
At that moment, Lee Seon-jae, Yun Ji-ho, and Cha Ji-tae were away, looting a nearby convenience store.
"Hey, you awake? Are you okay.... Uh...?"
In that instant, Kim Gi-sik saw it.
Flesh, blood, and organs pouring out of Gu Kyo-han's body as he stood up from his spot.
Gu Kyo-han melted away like ice cream.
Leaving only his blackened bones.
"Uh... Euh. Eh!! Hey!!! Fuck!!! Everyone, get over here quick!! I'm so fucking scared!!!"
Kim Gi-sik shouted frantically at the sight that made him feel like he was losing his mind.
Hearing his scream, the party, who were looting the convenience store, hurriedly ran to the building where Gu Kyo-han and Kim Gi-sik were.
"Th-this fucker... fuck!! What is this.. what is this...!!!"
In the meantime, Kim Gi-sik had broken down in fear, crying and sniveling.
Even though he and Gu Kyo-han weren't on good terms, they were comrades who thought of each other as such.
Comrades worthy of entrusting their backs to.
That comrade was now nothing but bones, with everything else melted away.
Click, click, click
With the sound of teeth chattering, Gu Kyo-han—the one who was now nothing but bones—stood up from his spot.
"Hoo... Hoo... Hoo.. Hoo. Hoo hoo hoo."
The black skeleton walked forward, making the sound of air escaping an empty tube.
"S-stay away!!!"
Despite Kim Gi-sik's fierce resistance, the skeleton reached out its hand.
The black, undulating energy that stained its hand was filled with death.
"Urgh..? Hey, you crazy bastard!!! Uwaa!! Fuck!!!"
Kwaang!!!!
With a punch from the skeletal Gu Kyo-han, Kim Gi-sik was knocked out into the hallway outside the room.
At that moment, Lee Seon-jae and Yun Ji-ho, who had been running up the stairs, sensed something was wrong and rushed into the room. Cha Ji-tae, who had been running behind them, also entered the room.
"It's... useless..."
Lee Seon-jae and Yun Ji-ho were being helplessly dominated.
Cha Ji-tae could easily deduce that the black skeleton was Gu Kyo-han.
"Th-this.. My magic isn't working at all."
"What the hell is that..."
A monster that absorbs mana in real-time as it gets hit by skills, generating a greatsword and donning armor.
A Dullahan appeared before their eyes.