Chapter 307. Deep Furrow (2)
“Wait a second.”
Of course, no matter how well-equipped we are, at least a basic safety check from the owner’s side is essential.
“First, let’s test the appraisal skills before touching anything.”
Hold on.
The sharp-looking hunter glanced at his gloved palm and said this, making Ha-seong forget for a moment that the other party was younger than him, and he promptly stopped his actions.
“Hmm….”
The silence lasted only for a moment.
Gi-ryeo examined the monster meticulously as if he were a real appraiser, his gaze soon stopping at a specific part of the enemy.
The words that followed from the fake appraiser were concise.
That S-Class Monster has a clear weakness.
Its wrist is poorly constructed.
So, burn that part first like a cutting machine.
After that, hunting will definitely become much easier.
“Got it.”
With the National Hero’s straightforward response, the dungeon quickly filled with a fierce noise.
Whoosh!
To be exact, the heroes launched the first attack.
When facing the extremely rare mild-natured beings that don’t attack humanity first, the principle is to put everything on the first strike.
“────!”
An unknown high-pitched sound reminiscent of tinnitus erupts in his ears.
A white entity resembling humanity but not quite human screamed as it commenced its actions, spurred by the young man’s initial attack.
Thud, thud, thud.
Perhaps due to its statue-like rigid armor.
There was no visible movement of joints, and the monster attempted a long-range physical attack from its spot.
But how could a being without tools perform long-range combat like a human?
Thanks to the high-elastic material on its scalp.
‘Hair as a primary weapon?’
Long strands dividing into dozens whipped around like a living whip.
The pure white monster that appeared before them stood a towering 5.5 meters. And due to its massive size, its weight was certainly not light.
Bam!
As the thick artificial hair slammed the ground, fragments flew.
Jeong Ha-seong bent down and narrowly dodged a whip strike, attempting to attack the hair.
However, the opponent’s shell was sturdier than he had imagined.
‘It felt like the flames hit directly, but it didn’t even get scorched.’
The appraiser behind said he indicated its weak point.
Yet, no matter how much he looks for a gap, that wrist must have at least minimum defense.
Thus, Ha-seong seemingly thought he couldn’t melt its weakness with a broadly spreading flame. Lifting his equipment, he concentrated his magic power.
Then, utilizing the S-Class’s extraordinary physical abilities, he sprung forward like a spring with his calf muscles.
‘Dragging it out doesn’t do any good. Let’s cut it in one go.’
The master of the tenth floor belatedly recognized this and tried to block humanity’s approach with a grand whip strike, but the heroes countered it all, slipping through.
Sometimes even giving up a bit of their sides, they rapidly closed the distance.
Now accustomed to the dark scenery, he could sufficiently sense the enemy’s magic flow in this state.
Using this sixth sense, at that moment when he hit all the tangled monster’s hair…
Gasp!
The national hero used a running start to leap into the air.
After gaining some height, he twisted his waist and poured all his strength into striking the enemy’s weak point.
Like a high-powered laser cutter, he compressed the heat and infused it into the divine blade, leaving a bright trail of flame in the air.
Successfully hitting the wrist, unlike the other parts he had struck, a cheerful snapping sound followed…
Crack!
Not only that. As one of the monster’s hands fell off, someone shouted from behind.
“Jeong Ha-seong, get back!”
Speaking with some level of confidence in his partner, the appraiser’s words came.
Like a renowned professional, Jeong Ha-seong, without the annoying question of “Why?”, immediately shifted his position upon hearing that.
The Fire Mage covered a tremendous distance with a single leap.
And at that exact moment.
!!!
A sharp high-frequency sound once again settled in space.
The dungeon monster’s wail.
Copying humanity in a poor way, it displayed odd behavior after losing its wrist.
Like a puppet with its all-important thread severed.
The monster wobbled dangerously, suddenly releasing an overwhelming beam of light from the destroyed part, enough to blind anyone looking at it.
Ha-seong felt the area above his eyelids suddenly become bright and warm, blocking his sight.
‘Breaking the wrist causes a new attack pattern…!’
However, long before he could set up any defensive stance, the situation resolved itself in an instant.
Soon, the boss monster exploded with light.
It was so sudden that even an S-Class Hunter could hardly perceive it, yet Kim Gi-ryeo stopped it.
Kim Gi-ryeo…
‘Huh?’
But how on earth did he stop it?
Ha-seong was currently in a state of vision penalty, having closed his eyes.
Thus, the information he received was quite fragmentary.
He discerned that an energy explosion difficult to block erupted from the monster.
The flow of this magical power quietly dissipated like cosmic stillness the moment someone stepped in.
“……?”
With sharpened senses due to the blinded vision.
Even with his heightened reflexes, he found it impossible to gauge the delicate presence of the monster’s attack, which was casually avoided by the capable individual.
‘It felt like a tsunami rolled up to my front, only to vanish like a mirage.’
Instantly, the hairs on his skin stood on end.
Long ago, Ha-seong had cooperated with several defensive-type hunters on a trial basis.
Yet, even those protection specialists he met back then weren’t nearly as impressive as this.
How could a boss’s attack—let alone one fired by an S-Class like himself—be calmly absorbed?
“Mr. Kim, are you ok…?”
The national hero opened his eyes for a moment amid the chilling sensation.
However, even in a twisted appearance, he could see that the man in the suit was perfectly fine. So, before the dizziness worsened, he promptly closed his eyelids once more.
Because of this backdrop, Gi-ryeo could hide the fact that he was unscathed.
“I told you I’d help just this once, right?”
Now that he confirmed the primitive mage had also closed his eyes again, it was time to proceed according to plan.
Swipe.
The new equipment of the alien hunter, dubbed “Gloves of Midnight.”
This manufacturing was specially modified and could also be referred to as “Memory.”
And the tool required only one thing, with no casting time or necessary magical power.
‘Of course, this time it registered perfectly!’
The first priority of magic storage!
So, with all preparations complete, the reincarnated great mage activated the glove function without a hint of hesitation.
Boom!!
The opponent’s weak attack was downgraded to mere child’s play as a beam of magic power was neatly gathered and shot out fluidly.
Crackle!
This was the true worth of the modified gloves.
A tool that allowed even incurable Alphauri to wield magic couldn’t miss this.
Yet, although the stored circuit inscribed on the cloth couldn’t compare to the neurons of a brain, it still had considerable limits.
At least in the combat level of Earth, he could unleash firepower directly like this, something no other F-Class could ever dream of.
The great mage crushed the monster’s most troublesome part: its head.
The whip-like hair that had flailed like Medusa’s was sent flying, meaning that annoying long-range attacks could no longer be attempted.
‘This function is pretty good.’
Hehe…
The blond alien was feeling puffed up again in front of this splendid achievement.
With the only gap in his powerful body sealed—his wrist having been targeted—only a miserable end remained for the enemy.
“Jeong Ha-seong! Let’s proceed with the assault again.”
“Ah… yes!”
Zzap!
Earlier, it was sturdy, yet now even a regular fire explosion caused it to crackle and drop pieces of its armor.
Nevertheless, as expected of an S-Class boss monster, the battle continued for a while longer.
But the creature, having lost its head in an instant, had little hope left.
Swinging its massive single arm, it exchanged attacks with Ha-seong a few times, eventually succumbing to a flame explosion spell struck at its wrecked neck, leading to the monster’s complete destruction.
Sparkle!
“What is this light…?”
“It’s the raid reward.”
Soon, as the tenth-floor boss’s health ran out.
Ha-seong noticed a bright light bursting forth near his nearby blurred vision. This was a hunting reward.
Feeling a certainty that he had overcome the tower’s final trial, a profound sense of relief washed over him.
Yeah. Relief.
‘I guess this isn’t a bad way to end, is it?’
At the dungeon’s entrance, his foolishness struggling with special effects was a source of embarrassment.
Yet, having made it to the end, he thought killing a total of 17 heads while keeping his eyes shut was quite an achievement worth bragging about.
‘With such a performance, I doubt I’ll feel guilty requesting a proper team from that guy.’
Soon, a smile lingered on the young man’s lips.
“Finally….”
But when he opened his eyes again, predicting a gate clear.
The number one ranked challenger was overwhelmed by an unknown sense of unease.
“Hmm?”
His vision had yet to revert.
Of course, based on the phrases that came to mind when the trial began, it was reasonable to assume they hadn’t yet left the ‘space’ of the tower, so the curse remained intact.
But why on earth hadn’t he generated an exit or tried an escape spell yet?
“Jeong Ha-seong!”
As the Korean hero pondered this bewilderment.
It was the assistant on the left who first noticed the anomaly of the tenth floor.
If the statue they encountered was a monster with gathered raid data, as with numerous bosses, it would have likely shown a unique technique like this at the PIXY site.
[I shall be reborn.]
Kugugugu….
From the scattered debris, ominous sounds emerged.
The final boss of the White Tower, white like a plaster statue on the outside, was filled with a mysterious blue mineral like a human’s blood inverted.
Yet, from the fragments of the monster that had gotten shattered during the fierce battle with Ha-seong, suddenly, only this blue mineral melted and surged upwards.
From the white shards, a single-colored blood flowed out thickly like points.
Moreover, this substance quickly gathered in one place…
“Open your eyes! Jeong Ha-seong, you need to see it and avoid it!”
There was no time to chat.
The internal structure of the tenth-floor monster swiftly transformed into a long spear.
The menacing tip pointed towards the main culprit that had turned him into this state.
The spear charged toward the hero.
“Ah!”
However, by this time, Ha-seong finally understood his companion’s words.
‘Magic energy!’
The power flowing from that spear was not at all discernible through the awakened’s sixth sense.
So, in a hurry, Ha-seong opened his eyes again. Yet, a fatal problem covered his pristine pupils.
Ugh…!
Understanding!
Damn, the curse of the reversed vision.
The number one ranked hunter had no choice but to roll away in a random direction, avoiding the spear’s charge.
But an astonishing thing happened.
The misdirected blue spear twisted in the air with a whistling sound and headed towards the enemy, who still had his back turned.
“Don’t tell me!”
In truth, the monster’s desperate action wasn’t designed to be extremely dangerous.
Yet, due to the special environment of the [White Tower], that attack had, unfortunately, become an ultra-high-level pattern.
● Charge indefinitely until it hits target¹
● However, if continuous physical damage is maintained with an epic-level weapon or higher, the attack will cease along with the blood’s breaking
From the challenger’s perspective, the world had flipped upside down; how could he strike such a rapidly approaching spear?
‘It’s impossible.’
At that moment, a fast-calculating magic scholar reached his conclusion.
For the number one ranked hunter to finish this pattern alone would be almost miraculous.
“Why is it getting faster…!”
So it became clear.
‘Before we entered, you bragged that you’d guarantee a 100% survival rate if you were my companion, and albeit simple, I suppose a magic scholar wouldn’t have made such a simple miscalculation and humiliated himself.’
The speed at which the spear charged accelerated over time.
Ha-seong tried to respond to it but ultimately misjudged the direction to dodge and lost his balance completely, tumbling down.
But at that moment of impact with the ground, without realizing it, he closed his eyes.
The tenth-floor boss’s rampage quietly came to an end without a whisper.
● The target¹ mentioned here refers to one challenger’s body’s center.
This was information easily understandable even for appraisers from Earth, as multiple spearheads only sought the blood of the hunter.
It didn’t discriminate against the appearance of the entity to obtain the blood.
Thud!
Crackle!
The spear that had charged down from the sky pierced through the skin of another, mixed with water and keratin, signaling the end of the trial.
Whoooosh…
Simultaneously, the gate exit that appeared confirmed their success.
‘What? I heard the White Tower’s trademark is automatic escape. Were they perhaps giving me time to collect loot this time because of the curse?’
As could be inferred from the recent description, the alien halted the surged resurrection of the monster with his body.
On top of that, he had whimsically released [Protection] from the center of his body.
In any case, it was a spear that stopped only upon correctly piercing someone.
‘Did they judge the center of an Earthling to be the belly button? At least it’s fortunate that it’s not the lung.’
It was at this moment.
Gi-ryeo looked somewhat dissatisfied despite achieving his main goal of saving Ha-seong.
‘There was so much damage that the ground cracked….’
Compared to the upper-ranked awakened, his strength was lacking; in the process of halting the spear, he had been shoved back a full 7 meters.
Gi-ryeo glanced scornfully at the long damage mark left on the dungeon floor while pouting his lips.
‘If I were at my prime, I could have cleared the trial in a much more refined way.’
With all his advanced magical knowledge, why did he always have to rely on such foolish methods?
Although the plan succeeded, the more he continued thinking, the less satisfied he became.
At that moment, he recalled the impressions Ha-seong felt throughout their dungeon raid.
‘…For some reason, I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately.’
He was growing tired of being stuck in a pathetic powerless position with so little strength.
He felt embarrassed and frustrated.
‘Could this sudden anxiety be all thanks to that reagent I bought in Tokyo?’
Now that he mentioned it, he’d also forgotten to cross-verify it with the Association’s machinery.
Gi-ryeo, with a lazy expression of annoyance, rubbed his head and leaned over the spear that remained in front of him.
If he had dealt damage, it would’ve turned back into liquid long ago, but due to the lack of strength, he had eventually opted for the remaining stopping method, so the trial’s form remained intact.
Thud.
And around this time, the other attackers approached the challenger’s side as they had been pushed back.
Gi-ryeo hesitated to extract the foreign object but proceeded with an explanation.
“Ah, Jeong Ha-seong, I saw it with the appraisal skill earlier…”
