For a mont, he truly believed everything would be fine. They’d finally joined forces with the Korean hunters—surely, things would be okay now. But the instant he laid eyes on that book, a wave of despair suddenly washed over him.
‘A grimoire...’
Every legendary item discovered so far had, without exception, originated from the magical planet Alphauri. So there’s no way this one would suddenly be the lone exception.
‘A true grimoire containing high-level sorcery!’
While Kim Giryeo stood frozen in shock—
Flutterrrr.
The figure in the bone mask raised the book. And the item, like a mad holy relic, began to move on its own. With a noise like a swarm of crows taking flight, it imdiately activated its stored magic—and the spell it unleashed was nothing short of a nightmare reborn.
“We have to hit the book...!”
“Kaagh!”
“Moom!”
“Waagh!”
“What is this...?!”
From a single point in the cave’s empty air, dozens of arms erged. This long, golden summoning then tangled and twisted explosively, rapidly expanding in size. It raised its ends and, with bizarre movents, groped around in all directions. Sothing had appeared—and it began charging, chasing away the creatures nearby.
“What is that? That’s disgusting!”
Of course, the word arms just now—was a comparison to Alphaurin anatomy, so the actual form of the summoned creature was bound to appear rather alien to any mammal.
‘As expected, that’s what it was...’
Shhhvrrk.
The graveyard of otherworldly arms was both supple and eerily swift. The golden tips, nearly transparent like ethereal beings from imagination, deflected all trivial primitive magic as they advanced.
And by the ti that golden wave crawling across the ground collided with the A-rank hunters—the battle’s outco had, astonishingly, already been decided.
“Ack!”
“My skills aren’t working!”
“Why is that thing passing through the barrier...?”
“Waaaah!”
“Everyone, fall back...!”
“Jin Noona!”
A ‘low-grade’ miracle that could even be triggered by primitive magic. At the sa ti, this was the kind of weapon highly effective against races with little resistance. All the A-rank hunters in the right corridor, relative to the spellcaster, were wiped out in the blink of an eye.
‘Damn it, all those who haven’t made it into the hallway yet...!’
That mass of golden arms carried within it the [Mana Burn] effect—a technique once commonly used in Alphauri. On Earth, it was sotis mistranslated as [Soul Strike]. Just grazing even the thinnest tendril caused a searing pain deep within the body, and the alien hands would grasp any prey they sensed had weakened. Within monts, every hunter had entered a state of continuous mana drain.
‘This is the worst.’
It was truly a terrifying sight. A-rank Hunters who had just appeared on the scene lost consciousness in re seconds. The summoned creature, which had erged from the book, sensed the very energy of living beings. Thankfully, the awakened individuals were able to escape the restraints on their arms just as their magic was nearly depleted, but...
‘That’s just barely surviving, not truly living.’
Is he really supposed to be grateful that no one has died yet from the [Mana Burn]?
An F-rank... No—now barely an E-rank—his pitiful eyes couldn’t even fully grasp the situation unfolding before him.
“Boom!”
By the ti the sound of friction reached his ears, even the left corridor had descended into chaos.
“Ahh!”
“Ugh!”
The S-rank hunters had tried to join the fight in their own way, but in the end, even their efforts were rendered useless before a legendary-grade summoned creature.
The spellcaster behind this summoning seed to be quite unskilled at handling third-party artifacts. One Earthling managed to exploit that clumsy control, diverting a single golden arm to their own restraints. As a result, the powerful [Mana Burn] effect damaged the items that had been binding him. And so—
Thud.
The summoner was soon free.
“_ _”
His face was hidden behind a mask, making it hard to read his expression—but Enzo Chiano straightened his posture with what felt like an air of deep exhaustion.
‘He must have pulled out that famous book to use it—at this point, hiding his identity no longer matters to him.’
Enzo gripped beneath his bone mask with the hand that wasn’t holding the book—and casually tore it off, discarding it completely. Seo Esther and Jung Haseong nearly fainted upon seeing a face they clearly recognized from sowhere. But Kim Giryeo, on the other hand, imdiately launched a decisive counterattack.
“Take your hands off the book right now! I’m saying this for your own good—keeping that artifact active shortens your lifespan!”
In truth, he was bluffing about the Book of Destruction carrying a lifespan-shortening penalty. Since it was widely known that Korea’s fourth S-rank possessed appraisal abilities, he attempted to use that fact to briefly deceive the enemy.
But Kim Giryeo’s attempt was in vain—it was dismissed without a second thought.
“Flap.”
Enzo didn’t waste any ti—he launched into another attack. With the [Book of Destruction] on cooldown, he imdiately drew upon his own awakened skill. The towering foreigner’s next target was the only Korean awakened one who hadn’t been caught by the swarm of golden arms.
“Huh?”
An F-rank and a B-rank hunter stood on the left side of the corridor. Ahead of them, two of Korea’s S-rank hunters were drawing the summoned creature’s attention—which ant Enzo had to take separate asures to deal with the others.
Crackie crackle crackle...
From a dark corner of the cave ca a faint sound—like that of a malfunctioning power line. Seonwoo Yeon sensed the danger approaching and tried to disrupt the caster, but no matter how she urged the wind, it was nearly impossible to match the speed of crackling electricity.
And so, in the end, that’s the end of the situation.
“Flash!”
As the enemy’s plasma shot straight toward him, Kim Giryeo, the target, muttered sothing unintelligible and pushed Seonwoo Yeon aside.
“This is bad.”
That was his final act. Just as he’d said—there was no clear way to dodge it, and leaving a B-rank Earthling in front of him would’ve only led to unnecessary collateral damage.
“Bzzzt!”
The blond hunter gathered every last bit of his mana and grabbed the association agent, pulling them down to the side. In that instant, the lightning bolt struck clean and direct—hitting its intended target without resistance.
Bang!
A weightless stream of energy had clearly collided with a human—and yet, a deafening boom rang out, pounding their ears.
“_ _”
Then what beca of the blond hunter who took the hit? Seonwoo Yeon instinctively looked toward where her comrade had been thrown. But the man struck by the high-temperature plasma beam didn’t look good at all.
“...!!”
Most of all, his head was exposed. The blast had gone beyond just burning away hair and scalp—it had fractured his skull. Anywhere else might have been survivable, but when half of a human’s face is blown off, survival is almost out of the question.
“Aaagh!”
“H, heup...”
“Ugh.”
They say that when the shock is too great, you can’t even scream—and this must’ve been exactly that kind of mont. Seonwoo Yeon couldn’t get back on her feet; she just gasped for breath, trembling.
And around that ti, the other two Koreans, convinced of Kim Giryeo’s death, lost it. The fearless curse user—who could usually eat calmly even while watching a well-made horror film—was now trembling, screaming at the top of her lungs.
“Clank.”
Jung Haseong was so depressed that he had now given up on any counterattack. The Sunset Sword slipped from his hand and clattered on the ground like a cheap plastic streak.
In fact, even though things had turned out this way, he had vaguely been expecting sothing from that man.
“This can’t be happening...”
Kim Giryeo.
He had stopped an Inoogi. He had even killed a Real Beast. Sohow, every ti a crisis hit, he was the one she could rely on to turn things around.
Korea’s hunters had witnessed scenes like that ti and again. But when the fourth S-rank—who had overco countless trials—fell so abruptly and helplessly, the built-up pressure shattered all at once, sending everyone into a state of panic.
“Ha.”
And only when his enemies were thoroughly crushed—both ntally and physically—did Enzo finally speak calmly. The large man with brown hair returned the [Book of Destruction], which had been clinging to his hand, back into his item box. Just as the alien had briefly warned, maintaining the summoned creature was draining his mana, pushing him closer to his limit. Moreover, he wasn’t the only one who had reached a critical point.
Ssk.
Enzo ripped off the continuous recovery device that had been attached sowhere on his skin and said,
“If using this legendary item really shortens your lifespan...”
Today, the AI voice coming from the translator sounds especially eerie.
“Well, if it’s for the job, I suppose I can afford to burn through a bit of lifespan.
But the next sentence that followed was so shocking that if an Alphaurin had heard it, they would have fainted from a completely different reason.
Enzo had just declared that he would gladly sacrifice several years of his life if it ant fulfilling the company’s duties.
“H, heuk...”
Thud!
As the golden summoner vanished, Hassong and Esther, who had been caught in its grip, fell onto the stone floor. Seonwoo Yeon trembled in fear at the scene before her, which looked like a manifestation of hell itself.
However, Enzo looked at the appearance of the Koreans and said with a smile.
“See? Just by turning a blind eye and bowing to one or two people, you can have the whole world beneath your feet like this.
“_ _”
“It’s a good thing to have sothing to do... It really is. I’m not interested in eternal youth or anything; I just want to be safe while I’m alive. You Only Live Once! You know that, right?”
That was the end of the conversation. Enzo, wondering what to do with the long-haired woman who was on the verge of passing out, turned his head upon realizing that the end of the corridor had grown noticeably brighter.
“Huh?”
It’s noon in the dungeon! Then according to the rules, the ant hole room has turned into one space again.
“What the. So that’s what happened to these bugs.
The room where a pile of A-rank Hunters had collapsed disappeared, and the inside of the gate fully reverted to its initial abduction state. As a result, the two Beasts who had faced off against Jung Haseong returned to this floor as well.
“It’s just like strawberry jam!
Hahaha.
As soon as Enzo spotted his fellow Beast, he approached and used an item. It was originally a cure specifically effects against curses, but it also worked broadly against all kinds of status ailnts—the appearance of [Holy Water].
“Cough!
“Cough!
As expected.
As soon as the first-grade [Holy Water] directly sourced from Europe was sprinkled, the red petrification imdiately cleared.
“H-Hy ain’t What the hell did that bastard do to ...?!
“That sword’s the problem! I swear, there was a light coming from that legendary sword!
“By the way, why the heck are you practically naked again? Don’t tell your mask and everything got wrecked in a fight with a [Doppelgänger] or sothing?
This is the mont when even the last bit of will to rebel disappears.
Enzo Chiano. That one Hunter alone already felt like an impenetrable wall—yet now, even the remnants of the Beasts that had been petrified on other floors have returned. Is this a dream? No... as expected, this has to be a nightmare.
“Anyway...
“Finally finished.
“As expected, dungeons really are a convenient system. You could say they’re like a natural EMP apocalypse
“...True, it was difficult to use a book like this out in the open, where too many eyes are watching.
Having been completely drained of energy by the [Mana Burn], Esther and Haseong could only roll their eyes to take in the enemy’s position. Seo Esther, despite her condition, still seed determined to retaliate once her strength returned—her eyes still carried a venomous gleam.
Tak, tak.
Haseong couldn’t snap out of his confusion; in fact, the mont the beasts began to move, he squeezed his eyes shut tightly.
Resignation and fear that rose up in an instant.
“...____”
“...?”
But as he shut his eyes and reflected in the darkness, he realized that—sohow—there had been an unfamiliar sensation stirring in his chest for the past few seconds...
“Wait.
What is this feeling? It felt like the pounding sensation one gets after downing about 400mg of caffeine. Without his own will, his heart began to tighten painfully, and in other words, he suddenly felt sothing like discomfort—or the anxiety just before a panic attack. Haseong, who had kept his eyes closed, was unfamiliar with this sudden change in sensation and abruptly opened his eyes wide again.
“?”
But no matter how deeply he tried to breathe, no matter what he did—the wild pounding of his heart refused to settle down.
“Wait a second, what the... what is this?
Moreover, it wasn’t just him—everyone present was experiencing the sa phenonon. Even Esther, lying sprawled with her thick violet hair spread like spilled blood. And the group of Beasts, who had been on the verge of cutting off the Koreans’ last breath, were now visibly shaken—started by this unknown sensation.
The S-rank Hunters, due to the very nature of their being, couldn’t quite comprehend the phenonon they were experiencing. But there was one exception. Just one person—
“_ _”
A B-rank tracker from a South Korean national agency knew exactly what this sensation was.
‘It felt like tuning a corner only to co face-to-face with sothing unimaginably massive—like the eye of a whale staring right at .’
Because this pounding sensation was an unnatural feeling she had often experienced at that very location.
‘...The overwhelming presence of soone with a vastly higher awakening level...’
If it had risen in just one small, localized area, it might have gone unnoticed. But when the entire space is filled with this intense explosivity, pressing the source becos near impossible. The beasts, tightening their grips on their weapons, glanced around, trying to locate the cause of this strange shift.
And at that very mont—finally, sothing moved on one side of their field of vision.
Slightly.
Soone who had been slamd into the wall so hard a crater-like dent ford was silently getting back on their feet alone.
Author Thoughts: Hi, from now on, I will update this novel 3 chapters/week. Thank you for all your support so for:)
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