Chapter 199
Chapter 199
Chapter 199: The Cradle of the Spirit King (2)
Translation: godtl
Wha......
Ugh! Fuck!
What the hell kind of place is this?
Absolute fucking nightmare!
No way...... Our spirit children......
The chat window was flooded with expressions of intense disgust.
Though he couldn't see it,
"What the hell......"
Si-mun's reaction was no different from those in the chat.
And he wasn't wrong.
Spirits of various colors, arranged by their attributes.
Spirits in the forms of animals, humans, or similar beings—
Kyaaah!
S-stop! It hurts too much!
My legs! My arms!
—were being disassembled in every conceivable way.
And that wasn't all.
Ah, no! I'm gonna burst!
My insides......
Ughhk!
Spirits were being haphazardly injected with something through mysterious devices and machinery.
It didn't matter whether the injections were through their mouths, ears, or entire bodies.
The spirits, swelling up like balloons before bursting, screamed in agony without pause.
The colorful hues extracted through these processes—
likely the essence or blood of the spirits—flowed through transparent glass tubes,
Aaaaah!
—before surging upward into a massive, rainbow-hued pillar at the center of the room.
Above all else,
"Eheheh! These little ones here—all dead!"
"These ones too—dead!"
Gigantic giants were ruthlessly carrying out these brutal acts.
And alongside them,
"You idiots! I told you to adjust the output!"
"How many times do I have to say it? We need to conserve the Spirit King's power now!"
Upper-level Dragonkin—Naga—with multiple pairs of arms attached to their serpentine lower halves.
"Tch. I should've kept my mouth shut."
"This is why lower-tier giants are useless!"
The Naga were commanding the giants amidst this carnage.
"Hey! You there, you lower-tier moron! Go flip the regeneration switch again!"
At the command of one Naga,
a giant stomped toward a massive flower bud nearby.
There were four more of these flower buds in total,
and three of them had already withered,
their petals drooping limply, blackened.
The giant approached the faintly glowing blue flower bud and—
"Heehee! We'll fix you right up, little ones."
—grinned as it pressed down hard on the large magic circle at the center of the bud.
Zzzzzzzzt!
A blue light erupted from the flower bud, traveling through the connected glass tubes—
-Uuuugh!
-Aah! Please, stop......
-Just kill me already......
—and revived the corpses of the spirits that had died.
The spirits' bodies, which had been disassembled in various ways, were restored as if nothing had happened.
But to Si-mun's eyes, this brutal process didn't just appear cruel.
No.
It was hard to see it that way.
Because—
'The structure of this facility......'
The atrocities being committed in this brutal facility, its very design—it was all too familiar to Si-mun.
Sure enough—
The Philosopher's Stone suddenly spoke up,
'Yeah.'
Si-mun nodded before the stone could even finish.
'This entire place is a human transmutation facility.'
Not the path Si-mun was currently using—
but identical to the human transmutation facility located in the exact opposite direction of where he and the Philosopher's Stone had agreed to go.
As if confirming Si-mun's thoughts,
[The Constellation Black Goat glares with displeasure, thinking, 'How the hell are those damned giants performing human transmutation?!']
The Constellation Black Goat reacted.
Soon after,
[The Constellation Black Goat narrows its murderous eyes at the scene, muttering, 'No, is it because of the Naga? Well, it doesn't matter which.']
[The Constellation Black Goat has issued a mission.]
Black Goat, seething with rage, issued a mission.
Si-mun immediately opened the mission window to check its contents.
[Mission]
Destroy 'everything related to human transmutation' within the Cradle of the Spirit King.
Reward: 10,000 Achievement Points
Had the Constellation's displeasure been that severe?
'Well, I have to clear it anyway. But to give 10,000 Achievement Points...'
At the reward of 10,000 Achievement Points, Si-mun's eyes widened slightly.
But only for a moment.
'With how much I've been spending lately... To get a windfall like this...'
Who was he to refuse such a delicious offer?
Si-mun opened the chat window he had tucked away in the corner of his vision.
"Everyone, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to go full tryhard mode for a bit. I'll be muting the chat for now."
The flood of protests came instantly.
But he had only turned on the chat out of obligation.
His gaze had been fixed on the Cradle of the Spirit King this whole time.
"I'll leave the ambient sounds on, like before."
Unable to read the chat any further, Si-mun quickly adjusted the mute settings.
The moment he closed the window—
Kiiiiing—!
A sharp tinnitus rang out from his left eye.
"These brainless fools!"
A towering figure over two meters tall.
The Naga's four arms twitched in irritation, her slit-pupiled yellow eyes brimming with annoyance.
And for good reason.
"They've already killed half the test subjects again!"
Because half of the spirits they had just revived using the regeneration switch were already dead.
To which—
"Heh. What can you do? Delicate work like this was never suited for big, dumb brutes like them."
The Naga mixing reagents nearby let out a small, mocking laugh.
"Which is exactly why they came begging to us, no? We've dabbled in spirit arts in the past, after all."
"Still, even the Queen is being too indifferent about this. To think she'd pair royal researchers like us with... those things..."
"Oh my. No matter how frustrated you are, you shouldn't blame Her Majesty."
The mocking Naga's expression instantly turned stern.
"Do you really think the Queen wanted to help those idiots? If the Second Dragon Emperor hadn't personally requested it, we wouldn't be lifting a finger."
"True. Her Majesty despises vulgar things more than anyone."
"Besides, the Giant leadership must have some brains after all. They made sharing knowledge of human transmutation a condition, didn't they?"
The sternness on the Naga's face melted away again.
"You know as well as I do—ever since the Alchemy Constellation vanished, the only way to obtain knowledge of human transmutation is through that crazy bitch from the other side."
Her slit-pupiled yellow eyes glimmered with thick, greedy desire.
"Our wise Queen always looks to the future. Who knows how the Giants got their hands on human transmutation knowledge, but with it, we Nagas could usher in a second golden age—"
Her praise for the Queen.
Her dreamy-eyed speech about their race's future.
But in an instant, the Naga's gaze turned vicious.
"Who's there?!"
Her head snapped toward the source.
Before she knew it—
Creak.
Each of her four arms had conjured a different form of ice magic.
A level befitting the highest tier of Dragonkin.
But—
"I was hoping to listen a little longer..."
A voice so terrifyingly decadent.
At the same time—
"But you just had to call her 'that crazy bitch,' didn't you?"
The magic in the Naga's arms fizzled out the moment she laid eyes on the well-built, handsome man whose voice matched his appearance.
To be precise—
"......"
It dissipated on its own.
The Naga who had been casting four spells at once now stared at the suddenly appearing man with slightly flushed cheeks.
"......"
Even the Naga who had been venting her irritation earlier was now gazing at the handsome man with dreamy eyes.
"Ah!"
"W-who are you?"
The Naga shook her head vigorously to regain her composure, her face immediately filling with wariness as she spoke.
"This place should only have our Naga kind... Wait. Are you... are you really dragonkin?"
Her eyes, brimming with confusion, scanned the handsome man before her. The companion by her side wore the same bewildered expression.
"He definitely seems like dragonkin..."
"A Dragonian? No, his appearance doesn't quite match..."
As if dragonkin could sense something about their own kind, their faces remained clouded with confusion.
"What's going on? What are you all— Oh my!"
"W-who is that?"
Other Naga who heard the commotion and gathered were equally perplexed. Their slightly flushed faces turned to scrutinize the suddenly appeared handsome man.
"Are you perhaps an envoy sent by the Second Dragon Emperor?"
The Naga who had first cast the magic cautiously inquired, to which the handsome man responded with a gentle smile.
"Unfortunately, no."
"Ahh..."
"Gasp!"
Small sighs escaped from various directions—though not because of the man's negative answer.
The Naga blushed and averted their faces, yet their gazes remained firmly locked on the man's features.
"Well, it seems I won't need to go looking for trouble."
The handsome man smiled again, eliciting dreamy sighs from the Naga, before—
Screech!
With a sharp ringing sound, he uttered his command.
"Annihilate all the Giants in this place."
His words seeped into the Naga like a divine whisper.
"...Yes, my king."
"We obey your command."
Their dazed expressions instantly twisted into demonic visages as they—
"Die, you fools!"
"We'll freeze you all to death!!"
—unleashed a torrent of magic across the Spirit King's Cradle.
The Spirit King's Cradle.
A place usually filled with the screams of spirits now—
"Gyaaah!"
"Aaagh!"
—echoed for the first time with the shrieks of the aggressors.
The reason was simple.
"Magnum Water!"
"Glacial Strike!"
From cascades of azure water—
To blizzards of white frost—
A dazzling array of high-level water-attribute spells rained down upon the Giants.
"W-what the hell are you doing?!"
"These sea bastards have gone mad! It— It hurts!"
Caught off guard by the sudden assault, the Giants howled in pain. Among them, the weakest seven-meter-class Giants even began to perish—but that was as far as it went.
"Damnable snake-tails!"
"Treachery! We'll execute you!"
True to their reputation as one of the Galaxy Arena's supreme races alongside the dragonkin—
"Die, you vile serpents!"
BOOM!
The Giants swiftly rallied, roaring in fury as they swung fists and legs the size of houses.
Was Si-mun's command solely for the annihilation of the Giants?
Unlike the relentless barrage of 6th and 7th-star spells from the Naga—
Crunch!
Squelch!
—they completely neglected defense, leaving them utterly defenseless against the counterattack.
Of course, thanks to their initial strike and the high-tier magic only seen among elite Diamond-ranked players, the Giants also suffered considerable damage.
And so—
"We must... annihilate them..."
Crunch.
As the last Naga was crushed beneath a Giant's fist, the Spirit King's Cradle fell into a brief lull.
"Ugh!"
"It hurts! It's so cold!"
Truly befitting 6th and 7th-star water-attribute magic—even the mighty physiques of the Giants struggled to recover from the lingering effects of the spells.
Among them—
"What the hell was that?! Why did those sea bastards suddenly go berserk?!"
—a clothed Giant, standing out among the ten-meter-tall naked ones, bellowed in outrage.
To which—
"We don't know either!"
"D-did they run out of prey?"
The half-naked giants answered with frightened expressions, but that was all.
Their foolish replies only served to fuel the anger further.
"Shut your mouths if you're going to spout nonsense! Or I'll smash your skulls in before you can finish!"
The well-dressed giant roared even louder, and the half-naked giants, clutching their wounds, promptly fell silent.
Amid that silence—
Thud.
A light footstep, incomparably lighter than that of a giant, echoed through the air.
Naturally, all the giants turned their gazes toward the source—
And saw him.
"Dragonkin?"
A man with horns sprouting from both sides of his forehead.
"There was still one left?"
The well-dressed giant's eyes narrowed in hostility.
"No... You're not a Naga."
He scrutinized the horned man with narrowed eyes.
Then—
"That's it! It was you!"
The giant's eyes, which had been narrowed, suddenly widened.
"You're the cause of this mess!"
"Not bad for a mid-tier giant. Your brain actually works."
Si-mun let out a dry chuckle, unfazed by the giant's murderous glare.
Naturally—
"You damn little bug, how dare you—!"
The mid-tier giant immediately hurled a fist the size of a house straight at Si-mun.
BOOOOM!
A sound like a building being flung through the air erupted.
Yet, despite facing a fist of that magnitude, Si-mun remained utterly composed.
"Guess I'll have to go all out this time."
Si-mun flexed his hand, his movements fluid and razor-sharp.
At the same time—
Click.
Something long sprouted from behind him.
A dazzling, platinum-hued polyhedron, densely packed together as if formed from countless facets.
'That... is that a tail?'
The mid-tier giant tilted his head in confusion upon confirming it was indeed a tail—
But before he could react further, the platinum tail left a trail in the air and shot toward him in an instant.
CRACK!
His consciousness shattered.
And it wasn't just the mid-tier giant.
"B-Boss!"
"In one hit?!"
Si-mun emerged from the mid-tier giant's chest, gripping a massive heart in one hand.
His gaze met the horrified giants—
Squelch.
As the signal of the mid-tier giant's heart being crushed—
"G-GAAAH!"
"KUH—!"
The giants, a top-tier race in the Arena, experienced slaughter for the first—and last—time.
Corpses, each with gaping holes in their chests.
Hiss.
White steam billowed from the dead giants' chest cavities.
Amid the rising smoke—
"Tch."
A handsome man standing two meters tall.
Si-mun clicked his tongue briefly.
The reason was simple.
'They all vanished...'
The spirit-human transmutation facility, a joint project between the giants and the Nagas.
The spirits who had been suffering within it—
Sssss.
The moment the facility ceased functioning, they all turned into ashen particles and dissipated.
-It couldn't be helped. You knew the moment we got here, Oppa.
A cheerful voice echoed from his chest.
-They were forcibly regenerated, but the spirits were already worn down beyond recovery.
"Sigh. I know, but still."
Thanks to the knowledge engraved in the Obsidian Tablet,
Si-mun had known the moment he arrived.
That the spirits here were screaming in agony—but nothing more.
That they were only being forcibly kept from death by the spirit-human transmutation facility.
"There's one thing I don't understand. Spirits are ethereal beings, right? So why attempt human transmutation with them?"
-I don't really know either. Let's just destroy everything here first. We won't find any answers now anyway, right?
"Was already planning to."
At the Philosopher's Stone's words, Si-mun nodded.
'Black Goat's mission was to annihilate everything related to the spirit-human transmutation here, after all.'
Si-mun flicked his fingers—
CRASH!
BOOM!
And began smashing every facility in sight.
Then—
Aah...
At the very center of the area—
The rainbow-hued pillar, formed from screams, vanished.
And something became visible.
"Hm?"
An object placed at the center of the light pillar.
Just as Si-mun was about to step toward it—
[All facilities within the Cradle of the Spirit King have been destroyed.]
[Special conditions met. Hidden Boss, 'Chief Researcher Ingmar,' has appeared.]
Familiar messages blocked Si-mun's path.
"WHO DARES DESTROY MY LABORATORY LIKE THIS?!"
A deafening roar shook the air.