Chapter 114
Chapter 114
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 114
Chapter Title: ACT.20 Ruined World (6)
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“I, I… *cough*!”
He coughed up blood before he could answer.
Dark, dead blood spilled out.
I hesitated, reaching for a potion, but he shook his head, seemingly aware of his own condition.
“Not me… help… Harrington…”
Those were his last words.
His head slumped, strength gone, and even his labored breaths ceased.
I watched him for a moment before getting up and calling for Alpha.
“Scout the area again. Go in the opposite direction from the path we took from the campsite. There must be someone else.”
Alpha faded and disappeared.
I had a pretty good idea.
The footprints I'd found at the campsite were clearly two different sets.
My target was the Black Steel Dragon, which is why I came this way first, but it seemed this man had acted as a decoy to save the one called Harrington.
He couldn't have gone far.
If he went too far, the threat of the Black Steel Dragon might disappear, but he would be attacked by countless monsters.
‘Pentagon Eagle.’
I mulled over the name as I approached the Black Steel Dragon's corpse.
*Stab!*
I sliced open its soft belly, reached in, and pulled out the Black Steel Dragon's inner core.
This first.
[Black Steel Dragon's Inner Core (A)]
An inner core formed within a Black Steel Dragon that feeds only on Black Steel Ore its entire life.
It contains the properties of Black Steel Ore, and consuming it significantly increases the Stamina stat.
Traits that raise stats are rare, but consumable items that permanently increase stats are even rarer.
The Black Steel Dragon's Inner Core, in particular, would be worth at least 100,000 coins. If there was competition, the price could go even higher.
‘Not that I plan on selling it.’
I tossed the black, jelly-like object into my mouth.
It dissolved and vanished before I could even chew.
Immediately after.
[You have consumed the Black Steel Dragon's Inner Core. Your Stamina stat has increased by 4.]
[You have acquired the trait, 'Diamond Body (S)'.]
[Conditions not met. It will be inactive.]
It was eye-opening news.
Diamond Body.
One of the top-tier traits, it grants armor-like defense without wearing any.
Although it's a defensive trait, it's a great one for any combat type to have.
The difference between having to dodge an attack before counterattacking and simply tanking the hit while attacking is huge.
‘Getting traits or skills is a matter of chance, so I wasn't expecting much.’
I figured the rewards were more generous because the difficulty had increased.
The unmet condition was probably related to my Stamina stat.
The condition for Diamond Body to activate is a Stamina stat of over 100.
Fortunately, it doesn't have to be a pure investment; the total just needs to be 100, including bonuses.
‘An unexpected gain.’
As expected, effects on myself work just fine.
If they didn't, I would have had to wait until returning to Earth even to use items, which would have been a hassle.
I thought myself lucky and began to mine the Black Steel Ore.
I used my strength to pull the Black Steel Ore from the dragon's body.
I examined the forearm-sized piece, confirmed its quality was decent, and put it in my inventory.
It's a shame a considerable amount was lost due to Alpha's attack.
Still, should I be glad this one is intact?
I reached out and snatched something glittering near its forehead.
[Crystal of Blackness (S)]
A crystal so black it looks like a hole in space.
Its use is unknown.
The 'Lord of Darkness' trait is powerful.
But, paradoxically for such a powerful trait, it wasn't considered top-tier by simple calculation.
The reason was none other than the difficulty of its 'Transcendence'.
Some S-rank skills and traits can undergo 'Transcendence' to gain even greater power.
The required materials and methods are killer, but it's still somehow achievable.
Lord of Darkness, on the other hand, has the highest difficulty of all.
This is because its materials are incredibly difficult and esoteric to obtain.
‘But if I can travel back and forth from here, that's a different story.’
Something for which you can't even find a clue on Earth can be obtained here just by hunting a Black Steel Dragon.
As long as I can reliably return to Earth, this is the best method.
I grinned, then cleared my throat and composed myself.
Alpha had returned.
“Let go, let go! Dammit! Who the hell are you guys!?”
A young man, bound tightly in ropes of darkness like a caterpillar, was squirming around.
Another unfamiliar face.
Since he was from 'Pentagon Eagle,' I thought he might be someone I knew.
“Alpha. Put him down.”
“Ugh!”
No mercy.
I gave a wry smile at Alpha's actions and focused on the man, who was still trying to figure out the situation.
[Using the skill, 'Extreme Eye'.]
[Character Information]
Name: $*#($
Gender: Male(@!)
Str[email protected])%$*.......
As expected, checking the status window with Extreme Eye was pointless.
As I stared at him, demanding an answer, his eyes darted around before he spoke cautiously.
“I'm Harrington Dicloy. And you are?”
‘Dicloy?’
I paused at the familiar name, then spoke naturally.
“Kim Se-hyeon.”
“Kim Se-hyeon? Strange pronunciation, but I can understand you fine.”
Harrington let out a short, deep sigh and got to his feet.
“These soldiers… are they your men?”
“Something like that.”
“Geez. You could at least explain. You just grab me out of nowhere, how am I supposed to know if you're a friend or foe…”
Muttering, Harrington stood up, his gaze fixing on something behind me.
It was the corpse of the Black Steel Dragon.
Harrington stammered, pointing a finger at it.
“You killed that Jewel Dragon? For real?”
“Jewel Dragon?”
“Ah, I don't know its real name. I just called it that because it has jewels hanging all over its body. Anyway, you killed that thing?”
He must have mistaken the Black Steel Ore for jewels.
Diamonds are often treated more like gems than minerals, and since it didn't seem like an important issue, I just nodded and moved on.
“Th-Then, by any chance…”
“The other man was beyond help.”
“…”
Harrington staggered over to where I pointed.
Seeing the man leaning against a tree with his eyes closed as if asleep, Harrington looked up at the sky and muttered softly.
“…Dammit.”
I wondered if he was genuinely sad about the man's death, but his next mutterings cleared up that doubt completely.
“Useless bastard. What am I supposed to do if you die already? You were supposed to get me back to Earth, weren't you? Worthless piece of trash.”
…Of course not.
I'd already figured out who he was from his name, so I had some idea of his personality.
Dicloy.
I'd never met a normal person with that surname.
“Now it's my turn to ask the questions.”
Harrington reacted with a 'what is it now' expression.
His irritation hadn't completely vanished, but he was keeping it somewhat in check.
He was being cautious, seeing how I casually commanded Alpha and the other soldiers.
“Why are you here?”
I looked Harrington straight in the eye.
There's no way to get here except through the King of Disease's final pattern.
His presence here, despite that, was clearly suspicious—an anomaly that put me on high alert.
Depending on his answer, I might have to kill him right here.
“Why am I here…? I don't understand the question.”
Harrington frowned slightly.
He genuinely seemed at a loss as to how to answer my question.
“The question is how you got here from Earth.”
“What!?”
The mention of 'Earth' got an immediate reaction.
Harrington's eyes widened, and he shot to his feet.
“Earth!? Did you just say Earth! Don't tell me you're from Earth too!? Damn! I can't believe I'd meet someone from Earth here! Right, now that I think about it, a unique name like that would come from Asia!”
Unable to hide his joy, Harrington excitedly spat out his words like a machine gun.
“How did you get here!? Ah, that's not what's important! Do you know how to get back? Oh, dammit. I want to get out of this godforsaken place as soon as possible!”
“…”
I thought his speech felt strange; it was like something run through a translator.
The limits of automatic translation, perhaps.
Just as I thought, a translation trait. If the rank is mediocre, so is the performance.
“Answer my question first. Then I'll tell you.”
When I lowered my voice, Harrington glanced at Alpha behind me, flinched, and nodded.
I don't know the fine details of what's happening in other countries at this time.
I only know how the major events unfolded.
I need to find out what exactly happened over there.
“How did you end up here?”
“Damn, that's what I want to know. I was in the middle of clearing a gate, and the moment I felt like I'd been caught in a pattern, I opened my eyes and I was here.”
“Where did the gate open?”
“Your Street in Washington… but would you even know it if I told you?”
“That's enough.”
It wasn't particularly helpful information.
While Seoul was suffering from the King of Disease, Washington was being attacked by an S-rank monster.
But that monster doesn't have this kind of power.
And it's a few chapters too early for a Disaster-class monster to appear.
At this point in time, it's impossible to travel abroad, so there wasn't much more I could deduce.
The only possibility that came to mind was…
‘The Order.’
The Order was the one that gave the Dark Moon guild the dimension stone and strengthened the gate.
Since they're a massive organization with branches all over the world, it's entirely possible they did the same in the US.
“So, what about my question? Do you know how to get back?”
“…I do.”
“Th-Then let's go right now! If you get me back to Earth safely, I'll reward you! I don't know if you've heard of it, but I'm the brother of the master who leads the Pentagon Eagle, the biggest guild in the United States! If you tell him you saved my life, he'll definitely give you a huge reward!”
I raised my index finger to signal for quiet, and Harrington quickly shut his mouth.
The fight with the Black Steel Dragon had been quite loud, and monsters were slowly gathering.
The Black Steel Dragon's bones are nearly as good as its ore, but unfortunately, this wasn't the time for that.
“Harrington. How well can you fight?”
“Not as well as you or those soldiers, but I can hold my own.”
Harrington thumped his chest a couple of times with a clenched fist.
I couldn't check his status window, but from what I could sense, he was around A-rank.
He wasn't just dead weight.
“Is that so? Then kill about 100 monsters in this area and come back here.”
“A-A hundred?”
Harrington, who had been so confident just a moment ago, stood with his jaw dropped.
With the monsters gathering, the danger level of the barrier must have risen.
To allow Yurgan to focus on the magic circle, I needed to reduce the number of nearby monsters once more.
“Yes. One hundred.”
“A-Are you crazy!? Maybe you could do it, but not me!”
“Don't you want to go back to Earth?”
“What does that have to do with…”
“It's related. If there are too many monsters nearby, returning to Earth is impossible.”
Since I, the one who claimed to know the way back, said so, Harrington had no choice but to agree, looking half ready to cry.
It's a hundred, but there are E and D-ranks mixed in, so simply reducing the numbers isn't that hard.
As long as he can escape if he encounters a high-ranking species.
“Dammit. Fine. I just have to kill 100, right?”
“Even weak ones are fine.”
“If that's the case…”
Harrington scratched his head and started to walk away.
‘Well, that takes care of my objective here.’
I stared for a moment in the direction Harrington had gone.
‘His’ brother, huh.
The corner of my mouth, hidden by my hand, twitched upward.
What should I do with this treasure that just rolled right up to my feet?