Chapter 322, Dawn (3)
Jung Haseong and Seo Esther. And now, a clash between them and the revealed Beast. Who would've thought the hunters, locked in a standoff with the two fake Beasts, would manage to make it all the way up to this transford floor?
What's ridiculous is that this side feels the sa way.
"What were those idiots doing?"
Enzo was montarily surprised to see the Koreans appearing behind him.
Blood-soaked shoulders. And gear torn in multiple places. The clear evidence of severe injuries on those Koreans' bodies allowed for a mont of understanding.
"They must've healed up in a rush with potions. In reality, there's no way they're actually in good shape."
He could tell that his comrade hadn't simply let them go without a reason.
But
"Huh."
Enzo understood the circumstances, and perhaps that's why everything began to feel strangely unfamiliar.
"Really..."
And yet, it was their employer who had accurately predicted the appearance of a break-type mutant monster—sothing that had never once erged in this world before—and had even pinpointed the exact location where the gate would open.
"Even with full support from such incredibly capable backers... they're losing here?"
Heh heh!
"Hunters from a country so hard to even find on this globe?"
Enzo laughed loudly, his throat still gurgling with blood. The current situation was so astounding to him that such a hollow, bitter laugh escaped him.
***
Then how did the Korean hunters break Enzo's expectations and co to that place?
"Ugh...!"
Five minutes earlier—back when the ceiling of the gate still resembled the depths of night.
"H, Hunter Seo."
"..."
"Hunter Seo Esther! Can you hear ?"
Just monts ago, Esther—who had been providing support from the rear—suffered a serious internal injury when one of the Beasts found an opening and drove its claws into her. And unless a body has been surgically enhanced with alien technology, an ordinary lifeform is bound to feel pain. The Guildmaster of the Magic Tower fell into neurocardiac syncope due to the severe pain, and now Jung Haseong had to hold off two Beasts in her place, leaving him with even less chance to administer any kind of treatnt.
Fwoooosh.
Jung Haseong lit a fire around the fallen Esther to keep the bone-mask group from approaching.
But then.
Kiek, kiek, kiek.
From beyond the flas, a faint giggling echoed like an auditory hallucination.
"No matter how I think about it, this isn't just my imagination..."
Stamina and magic power can't be infinite. Besides, power shouldn't be limitless. So why on earth don't they ever seem to tire?
"They're actually getting faster as ti goes on."
Boom!
Now the combustion has weakened noticeably.
Just before losing consciousness, Esther concentrated all her remaining focus to cast a powerful curse that would be difficult to dispel. Naturally, its effects were still influencing the battle.
And yet, the Beasts in front of him showed an oddly minimal response to the curse—just as the hero had suspected. They dodged Jung Haseong's flas like startled rabbits, and even summoned their monstrous strength to counter occasional slashes from the [Sunset Sword].
"Could it be the effect of an item?"
The Beasts perford with such intense power, as if they were constantly drawing strength from so deep well. They unleashed skills relentlessly, seemingly without tiring.
"I should have done this earlier.
Good job!Could this really be just talent? I never expected that guy to be this strong.
Jung Haseong was an exceptional superpower. Thanks to his natural talent combined with relentless effort, he even managed to push the beasts back montarily. One of the masked marauders had an arm completely charred and rendered useless. Unfortunately, Jung Haseong had chosen the wrong strategy from the very beginning.
It seems waiting for them to get more exhausted will be difficult.
They were rely wearing unrolled skins—nothing more than combatants on the inside, propped up by so item's power. While their enemies hesitated, caught in weighing their chances, these beasts had already, bit by bit, finished regenerating.
Crunch.
The beast, whose arm had been incinerated by Jung Haseong's skill, began to regenerate it in secret. Then, seizing the exact mont when the black-haired man turned his focus toward his fallen comrade, the creature sprang forward like a coiled spring.
"-!!"
At this, the Korean gave up his distance.
"Haseong-ah..."
"Don't be so scared."
"I've said it over and over, but the very attribute that made humanity what it is now has beco your own limbs—how incredible is that? How magnificent a talent uniquely yours..."
But this ti was different.
Perhaps because he had already faced off against a body-enhancent type at the seaside once, or maybe thanks to the recent trials he overca at the Tower of the Thousand People, Jung Haseong, based on his accumulated experience, calmly activated his skills even as the enemy closed in.
Bam!
It was a blazing attack, on par with a dragon's ultimate move. When the young man ignited the flas, including his own body within the blast radius, the beast—who had just reached to grab Haseong by the head—couldn't even dodge. It was roasted alive.
"Kwaaaahhh!"
Calm. Calm. Calm.
Jung Haseong fought hard not to feel any sympathy at the sound of the enemy's screams. And as a result of that effort, he was able to raise his sword without so much as a tremble in his hand.
It was at that very mont—the decisive blow that would finally turn the tide was struck.
"Aah!"
"Heup...?"
A massive silver moonblade suddenly burst through the broad-chested beast blocking the way—its curved, single-edged arc like a fierce crescent moon. The weapon pierced clean through both the beast and Jung Haseong's waist, cutting through them as one.
What a d**n... ****!
The beast that had served as a living shield, unsurprisingly, spat out a stream of curses at its own comrade. But the one who had launched the attack rely shrugged lightly, offering an offhand remark that made little sense.
You're still got one more left anyway. I already used mine dragging those thugs back here myself.
Jung Haseong collapsed before he even had a chance to make sense of the English he'd overheard. The blade had scraped near his internal organs, sending an icy chill rippling through his entire body in an instant. And now he understood—why so many legends depict the Grim Reaper wielding a scythe.
"H, heuk."
The sensation of his organs being sliced by cold steel was, without a doubt, a feeling closely resembling a prelude to death.
Swish!
While Jung Haseong's body stiffened in shock, the bone-masked enemy yanked the crescent blade out with brutal force—regardless of whether it would tear through his own comrade as well. Naturally, the result was massive blood loss.
The naless pseudo-beast moved in to finish him off—intent on killing the Korean hunter once and for all while he was bleeding profusely and barely conscious.
In fact, the aning of the situation being sealed with a single strike was exactly this.
[Ting!]
With a sound eerily similar to the collision alert from a back door parking—
[Physical damage has exceeded 80%.]
[According to settings, a counterattack will now be executed automatically.]
Although the expression beca sowhat rigid, a vibratory frequency of impressive height still emanated from the red blade.
"Huh?"
"Wait, that..."
And with this single phrase, inaudible to any human on Earth, the battle concluded.
CRRRAAAAACK!
"Ugh!"
"Heugh!"
Recognizing Jung Haseong as its true master, the [Sunset Sword] swiftly subdued the enemy in an instant. Had its ego-function and chatter setting been enabled, the blade might have boasted on its own. Layer upon layer of its master's magic, embedded deep within the legendary item, was rapidly transmitted by Alphawl's advanced sorcery.
[Auto Notification: Master! The mana stored in the cylinder is critically low. If this condition continues, it may cause inconvenience, such as failure to activate core functions.
If you'd like to rapidly replenish mana—
→ (Strongly recomnded: Try invoking a Word of Command right now!]
..pared to the ti in the Mimic City, the storage capacity was far lower, so the result was relatively underwhelming.
"Keugh... cough."
Jung Haseong was extrely flustered as he hurriedly took out a potion and drank it.
"Cough, cough...! No, what just happened...?"
He had no idea what had just happened. He'd closed his eyes for a mont, thinking this was the end—fully expecting to bite the dust right then and there.
"Why is the sword suddenly...?"
The enemies clinging to him had suddenly been struck by a burst of light from the sword—
and, inexplicably, turned into undefinable chunks of stone.
"What on earth is this?"
A reddish glow emanated. The beasts that were just wildly rampaging were now in an unwelling state of transformation. That ant, from this point on, all they had to do was take so frozen pogranate jam or perhaps diluted ruby. The enemies, now transford, stiffened in place in unstable postures.
"Could it be... petrification?"
It's true that among dungeon monsters, there are so that can turn people into stone...
I've never heard a case report about petrification of this color. And more importantly, the light ca clearly from my sword, didn't it?"
Tuk.
Even as Jung Haseong belatedly pulled out a recovery potion to treat Seo Esther, he refrained from touching the petrified enemies carelessly. If the chanism was truly the sa as standard petrification, a strong external impact could instantly break the status effect.
"Heugh!"
"Hunter Esther? Are you awake?"
Seo Esther soon woke up.
"Huh! What is this?"
As soon as the curse-type awakened opened her eyes, that very question filled her mind. But Jung Haseong had no way of answering it either.
[* * * It will inform you of the status. No repairs are currently needed.]
How could a primitive possy grasp the fact that a magical sword from a binary star system beyond the known universe had, for the first ti in ages, summoned the strength to protect its chosen master?
"..."
But even Haseong knew this one thing.
"This too... must be thanks to that Hunter."
The sudden activation of his legendary item's hidden functions—it had to be due to that certain Hunter who had made waves in the Mimic City. Could it be that the sword had been so shaken by the sheer monstrous power of that blonde Hunter... that it finally "opened its eyes"?
Even back when that cultist nearly burst my chest open, nothing like this petrification ever happened. That's the only lead I've got."
For a fleeting mont, the image of a hunter's back he'd once seen surfaced beneath his eyelids. But now wasn't the ti to be sentintal.
"Whoa."
Jung Haseong took a deep breath and rose to his feet at once.
"This isn't the ti for this. Hunter Esther, we need to move quickly."
"Move?"
"Hunter Kim hasn't co back yet. The fight over there might have gotten more intense than we thought...!"
At first, they had simply hoped that the fourth S-rank would join them on their own. But in hindsight, that was no different from waiting for a ripe persimmon to fall under a tree.
"Keeng!"
So they began slaughtering monsters indiscriminately and made their way out of the room toward the corridor first.
"Oh my."
"Right. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't feel any magic...!"
In the process, they realized that the structure of the ant-nest rooms had changed slightly with the passage of ti.
"It's the sa as Heaven's Revolving Maze."
"Was that... oh, do you an the dungeon that originally existed before the anatomy caused the [Six-Legged Corridor] to appear?"
"The internal structure changes according to a specific cycle. Based on research so far, it usually shifts one space at a ti in the sa direction—kind of like how a revolver operates."
With the judgnt of a seasoned veteran—practically a walking hunter encyclopedia—the confusion quickly subsided.
"Hunter Kim Giryeo, who was engaged in battle in the corridor, is definitely on this upper floor."
"Ah! There are no stairs leading down!"
"This phenonon won't cause much of a difference in our positions. As long as our attack isn't too late!"
They discovered a staircase leading to another floor, located just beyond the plains where they had originally been fighting. That ant, from this point on, all they had to do was take down the one-eyed hounds that were packed into that narrow space—and hurry to reinforce their teammate...
"Kreurung!"
Keung!
As the ferocious assault of the S-rank hunters began to part the path like a miracle of the Red Sea, Seo Esther, who had been running alongside him, suddenly voiced a concern.
"Ugh... I, it's just, you know."
"Yes?"
"But maybe, Kim Giryeo... might not be in the best condition right now, you know?"
Whooosh!
Just monts ago, Haseong couldn't even bring himself to take a sip of the mana recovery potion—how, he had the bottle jamd in his mouth, locking eyes with her in utter bewildernt.
That he might not be in best condition—
"Ah, I don't even know if I should be saying this, but..."
Seo Esther had known this information for quite so ti, but she had sensed it was a weakness the other person was trying to hide—so she'd tactfully kept quiet until now. However...
"If we were any other ti, he'd have already taken down at least one S-rank hunter by now!"
First, let it be clear: everything she's about to think from this point on is a complete misunderstanding.
"Soone who would rcilessly execute a criminal, even one as pitiful-looking as Su Yetwi. That kind of person hasn't returned to us until now. This is strange."
It's a huge misunderstanding.
"...I'm worried."
However, from Seo Esther's perspective, the current situation felt suspiciously like it might have stemd from that particular issue of Kim Giryeo's.
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