B-Rank Dungeon, Witch's Forest (8)
Mutated Human (Lv. 60)
The status window confirmed the wretched state of the man before my eyes—or rather, what was left of Krum.
The thing standing there had long since ceased to be human. When we first crossed paths, he hadn't even broken past the low forties, but now his level hovered near sixty. And his appearance… good grief, his appearance was an absolute nightmare.
Gore, severed limbs, and jagged fragments from the monsters slain throughout this dungeon were grafted haphazardly across his entire frame. It was beyond revolting—it bordered on eldritch horror.
More alarming than his grotesque visage, however, was the fact that he had thoroughly dismantled Yeong So-so.
I wanted her to get knocked down a peg, sure, but I never imagined she'd get crushed before we even reached the boss room.
I shifted my gaze to So-so, who lay crumpled on the ground, completely unconscious. Bruises and jagged blade gashes covered her body from head to toe. Given the total absence of refined martial forms in those wounds, she hadn't been outmaneuvered by technique; she had been overwhelmed purely by raw physical power. Holy hell. If this abomination could overpower a monster who drank rare elixirs like water, its physical parameters had to be several times greater than mine.
"Sh-Shrink… ing…"
"What did you say?!"
A faint murmur slipped from So-so's lips. Shrinking? What was shrinking? I leaned down, straining to catch her ragged whisper.
"The perimeter… is closing in…"
With that final gasp, her head slumped, and she lost consciousness entirely. Closing in? What the hell did that mean?
I snapped my head around to survey our surroundings. Sure enough, the dungeon's boundary, which previously spanned tens of kilometers, had begun constricting inward like the shrinking safe zone in a battle royale game. If anyone touched that collapsing perimeter, they would undoubtedly meet a horrific end.
My mind kicked into overdrive. Behind me, trembling members of Krum's former guild stared in sheer terror at the husk that used to be their leader. Dozens of unaffiliated solo adventurers were pinned to the earth, suffocating beneath the monster's suffocating aura. If things continued like this, every single one of them would be massacred or ground to dust against the shrinking boundary.
I couldn't let that happen.
Channelling mana directly into my vocal cords, I roared across the clearing, "Parties one through ten, breach the boss room immediately! Everyone except Selena, Kidd, and Hilder—get inside that chamber and slay the boss as fast as humanly possible!"
"What about you, Leader?!" someone shouted back frantically.
"I'll hold this freak off until you clear the boss! No questions, no arguments—move your asses into the dungeon right now!"
Damn it all, this was precisely why I hated stepping into leadership roles. Countless eyes locked onto me, wide with awe, convinced I was making some grand, heroic sacrifice. I waved my arm in an urgent shooing motion, and realizing the severity of the situation, they finally bolted.
Skrrrrt—!
The massive double doors groaned open, and within seconds, scores of adventurers vanished into the threshold.
Now, only seven of us remained on the field. Wait. One, two, three, four, five… six… seven? I glanced over my shoulder and spotted a young girl standing quietly behind our lines. It was the very same girl who had been exiled by the monster before us—the one who had taught me mana harmonization.
"Shilpa?"
"Affirmative. Surely you understand why I stayed?"
"Don't tell me… you read my mana flow back then?"
"Also affirmative."
She knew everything. She knew what I had been observing the day she was banished, and she knew I had slipped into the shadows using Stealth the previous night to snap the limbs of several troublesome men.
Since my cover was blown anyway, I gave a helpless shrug.
"Under no circumstances should you interfere this time," she added flatly.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say. Just keep the buffs coming."
"Acknowledged."
Our impromptu five-man squad expanded to six: a half-baked spellcaster, a self-proclaimed divine archer, a pure-hearted playboy, the Heavenly Murder Star, a stoic buffer girl, and finally, a transmigrator. It was a chaotic mess of an ensemble, but right now, it felt more reassuring than a hot bowl of hearty soup.
The instincts of a former number-one ranked gamer—one who had conquered titles across smartphones, tablets, laptops, and custom rigs—surged through my veins. In my mind's eye, the battlefield transformed into a familiar screen, complete with glowing boss health bars hovering over the grotesque target. It was merely a trick of my imagination, but it grounded me completely.
"The target is just an elite mob at level sixty," I commanded, my voice turning icy and clinical. "Its elemental weakness is fire. Treat it like a hydra: unless we sever and incinerate simultaneously, it will regenerate indefinitely. Blondie, Heavenly Murder Star—take the vanguard!"
"Haaah?! How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me Blondie?!" Hilder barked.
"Heavenly Murder Star, huh? Sounds pretty badass, Leader!" Selena chirped.
Despite their grumbling, both moved into formation without hesitation.
"Aaaagh—!! AAAAAGH—!!"
With an ear-splitting shriek from the elite mob, our life-or-death confrontation began. We were facing a semi-S-rank infectious variant. Dropping our guard for even a split second meant instant death, so I focused my senses to their absolute limit.
"Selena! Guard!"
"On it!"
Craaang—!!
Even though the beast had merely lashed out with an arm, the sheer concussive force sent Selena hurtling backward into a sturdy tree trunk. Fortunately, thanks to her recent level gains, she didn't lose consciousness from the impact.
"Shilpa! Cast Haste on Heavenly Murder Star! Put Strength on Blondie!"
"Acknowledged."
Shilpa flicked her staff, unleashing twin currents of magical enhancement. Selena bolted back into the fray in the blink of an eye, while Hilder held the front line entirely on his own.
KABOOM—! CLANG—!
Every single clash carried enough weight to tear ordinary limbs from their sockets. Yet, bolstered by the buff, Hilder gritted his teeth and held his ground, deflecting an onslaught of aberrant arms with violent parries. His stubborn stand carved open an opening.
Kidd has activated Surefire Shot (B+)!
Thwip—!
Watching from the rear, Kidd loosed a silver bolt that streaked across the clearing, piercing squarely through the monster's skull. The moment the shot found its mark, Kidd snapped his fingers.
FWOOSH—!
A fine thread trailing behind the arrow ignited, setting the abomination's entire upper frame ablaze.
"AAAAAAAGH—!!"
A horrific cacophony tore through the air. The blended wails of Krum and dozens of devoured beasts threatened to rupture our eardrums, but one man pushed forward through the deafening noise without flinching.
Mana Reinforcement.
Pure mana surged through both my arms, meeting the deep internal energy that coalesced into vibrant sword qi along my blade. Two fundamentally incompatible energies blended through meticulous control, triggering an explosive amplification in power.
Second Form: Blazing Lotus Scorch
Zzzzzzzt—!
My crimson-glowing blade erupted with hundreds of swirling embers—far denser than anything I had previously manifested. Two to three hundred fiery motes hovered in the air before hurtling forward in unison.
"Well now, arrows can't quite match that kind of volume… but how about this?!"
Kidd has activated Rapid Shot (B)!
Kidd's arrows tore into the flesh golem first, carving jagged trenches across its bulk. Instantly following, my blooming flames swept in to incinerate every remaining scrap of putrid meat. Under this relentless combination, the golem's putrid mass began to crumble into ash.
Yet it was far from finished.
Mutated Human has activated Contempt for the Weak (A)!
A pitch-black miasma billowed from the golem's core. Tendrils of dark fog shot out toward the lingering monsters watching from the woodline, draining every ounce of biological nourishment the instant they connected. It was a vile ability perfectly suited for a titan woven from stolen carcasses.
Fresh flesh began knitting over its charred frame, but Selena and Hilder, fueled by Shilpa's Strength enhancements, cleaved through the regenerating mass before it could stabilize. As the layers of rotten meat disintegrated completely, Krum's core lay exposed.
"End it!" I yelled.
"You got it—!!!"
Selena lunged forward, driving her spear straight through what appeared to be Krum's heart.
Squuuurt—!
The spear impaled deep into the chest cavity, and for a fleeting instant, everyone present believed victory was ours. But that was when catastrophe struck.
Ssssssh—!
The parasite cast aside Krum's ruined husk, transfiguring in a split second into a viscous, shapeless slime. It flung Krum's skeletal remains directly at us to blind our vision, before shooting across the grass at blistering speed.
Its destination was unmistakable.
"Stop it…! Stop it right now!"
"What's wrong, Leader?! It's just a dying remnant—"
"Look where it's running!"
Lying limp and unconscious right before the boss chamber doors was Yeong So-so.
The infectious organism had abandoned its spent vessel solely to claim a vastly superior host. Only now did the grim truth click into place. The reason this monster had been so easy to bring down wasn't because our tactics were flawless; that towering flesh golem had merely been an incubator meant to amass nutrients. Having gorged itself on enough biomass, it was ready for its true metamorphosis.
Ssssshh—!
Using Yeong So-so's formidable frame as its seedbed, an entirely new calamity was preparing to hatch.
"Dammit all!"
It was checkmate. Kidd's arrows couldn't even scratch the surface of the hardening black cocoon. Slashing at it with blade or blasting it with spells proved equally futile against the hardened shell. My instincts screamed at me to flee into the boss chamber, but if that nightmare followed us inside, every single adventurer would be wiped out in an enclosed abattoir.
"……"
Was this what it felt like to stand beneath a guillotine? No matter what we threw at the cocoon, it remained utterly unscathed, pulsing with sickening vitality as it prepared to emerge. The instant it broke free, that blade would fall upon our necks.
Thump—! Thump—!
The sinister aura clinging to the shell swelled exponentially, expanding the cocoon's mass until—
KABOOOOOM—!
With a deafening roar, the shell ruptured wide open.
Step…
Step…
Emerging languidly from the shattered casing was a long-haired woman. But her striking crimson eyes, once brimming with haughty fire, had dulled into bottomless black abysses. Her face was an emotionless mask, radiating a chilling void that chilled my marrow. The fiery passions and temper that once defined her had been thoroughly excised.
Instinctively, I took a cautious step forward and called out, "Are you alright…"
Demonic Spirit Steps (S)
In less than a tenth of a second, her foot slammed against the earth.
A shockwave detonated beneath her heel, hurling shattered bedrock and soil like high-caliber artillery shells. Selena and Hilder, stationed at the vanguard, were struck full force by the debris. Jagged stones tore through their flesh, instantly knocking them out of commission.
The next half-second was a blur.
Like a single frame hidden within a high-speed video, both vanguards were hurled into the distance, and before anyone could process the motion, her presence materialized elsewhere. Appearing behind Kidd in the blink of an eye, she delivered a brutal roundhouse kick into his side.
CRACK—!
The sickening sound of shattering vertebrae echoed through the clearing.
Shivering in horror at the realization that all of this had unfolded in a mere half-second, I swung my sword on pure reflex.
SWOOSH—!
Steel met only empty air. Not a trace, not a whisper of her presence lingered where she had stood. Drawing a sharp breath, I frantically scanned my surroundings, but I couldn't locate a single trace of her aura.
Huuuuh…
I released a single, trembling breath. It hadn't even been a second since my swing missed.
Yet in that minuscule sliver of time, Shilpa, who had been channeling support magic beside me, was flung spinning through the air before violently cratering into the earth. The sheer leg power required to send someone spinning through a full 1440-degree rotation in midair was unfathomable.
Cold sweat cascaded down the back of my neck. A single millisecond of hesitation in this deadly contest of reflexes meant instantaneous death.
Tap—!
The instant faint footfalls rustled the grass, I lunged forward with outstretched hands.
"Ah."
Her kick arrived far faster than my reach.
Death.
Uncompromising, absolute death stood inches from my face. It didn't matter if I relied on berserk fury, mana, or internal arts—there was no escaping this lethal execution.
0.001 seconds.
0.002 seconds.
0.003 seconds.
The sheer atmospheric displacement began lacerating the skin above my eyes.
⟨ Elena: Teleport (S+) ⟩
A violent gravitational pull wrenched my body backward, yanking me out of harm's way and depositing me dozens of paces away in a heartbeat. I spun around to find a familiar figure hovering gracefully in the air above, gazing down at me.
A mage with flowing violet hair. One of my raised characters, bearing the name of [Control]—no, [Collision].
"To ensure your rescue, [Collision]. I have arrived."
At long last, reliable reinforcements had stepped onto the stage.