Chapter 52 : Into the Dungeon
Chapter 52: Into the Dungeon. (10)
Lee Ji-jun, who had been spreading the curtain of blood, clenched his teeth.
“Ghk!”
If he let up his strength even a little, it felt like the Bater beyond the gate would burst out into the outside world.
But.
‘It’s bearable.’
He wasn’t drawing out a massive amount of blood to create a three-meter spear like when he had faced Instructor Nike.
All he was doing was spreading the blood as thinly as possible to plug up the torn protective barrier of the gate.
Bater had weak physical strength, so if he kept pushing like this, it wouldn’t break through.
‘The problem is…….’
Lee Ji-jun lifted his head.
Inside the closed-type gate, a man was struggling.
He looked as if he had fallen into deep water and was slowly suffocating.
‘Choi Yong-gi.’
The first emotion he had felt upon seeing him was curiosity.
During the Dio Guild selection process, Choi Yong-gi had attacked an S-rank hunter and proudly secured his acceptance.
Back when Lee Ji-jun had been in the Superior Guild, most hunters grovelled in front of high-ranking hunters.
It wasn’t simply because they feared the power of S-ranks.
If you looked inside, a guild was structured just like a large corporation.
Earning merit and achievements to raise your rank was outdated.
There was no need to deliberately choose a difficult path.
Riding an invisible faction was the fastest road to success.
Hunters filled with ambition were desperate to get on the direct line to the representative, become subordinates of executives, or join the team of an S-rank awakener.
When your rank went up, your annual salary rose, and you could even transfer to another guild for a high buyout fee.
The fact that more money led to a more abundant life.
That hadn’t changed, whether before or after monsters appeared.
And yet.
“Grrrk!”
Choi Yong-gi groaned as he was struck by Bater’s mental attack.
A question arose in Lee Ji-jun’s mind.
‘What on earth are you doing this for?’
A closed-type gate would close on its own once time passed.
Of course, the accumulated damage in the meantime would be unspeakable.
Even so.
‘To stake your own life.’
Fighting monsters was no child’s play.
You could suffer trauma that would never wash away.
You could become disabled from an injury.
You could become a vegetable, lying on a bed for the rest of your life.
Black veins bulged out across Choi Yong-gi’s body.
Bater was gnawing away at both his mind and body.
Perhaps.
‘……he might die like that.’
Lee Ji-jun didn’t think of himself as a good person.
In his teens, he got into fistfights at the drop of a hat, and he had even stolen things from small neighborhood shops.
But he also had a kind side.
His remarried mother gave birth to his stepfather’s daughter.
With his prickly personality, Lee Ji-jun hardly opened his heart to his half-sister.
However, as he watched his sister, who had been a newborn baby, take her first steps, go to kindergarten, and become an elementary school student, affection gradually built up.
Before he knew it, Lee Ji-jun had accepted his sister as family.
It was the day of his sister’s ninth birthday.
“I want to go to the amusement park with big brother.”
Lee Ji-jun chuckled softly and patted his sister’s head.
While they ate churros together, rode the attractions, and went into the haunted house.
He thought that if happiness existed, maybe it was something like this.
Until a monster fell from the ceiling and smashed the Viking ride.
In that accident, no fewer than 248 young lives became stars in the sky.
Lee Ji-jun awakened while screaming in agony, clutching his sister’s corpse.
“Kkieeek!!!”
At the sharp scream of the Bater, Lee Ji-jun snapped back to reality.
This was the limit.
Even Choi Yong-gi’s pupils had turned black as he panted for breath.
There was no one held responsible for his sister’s death.
Monsters were no different from natural disasters, not man-made calamities.
As it turned out, the monster that had appeared at the amusement park had escaped due to negligence by the hunters on duty inside the gate.
The hunters had been distracted by stealing magic stones from the dungeon and failed to properly close it.
The media made a huge fuss for a while, but with endless incidents and accidents erupting, it quickly died down.
Even now, Lee Ji-jun still had nightmares about that time.
Before he knew it, hatred and distrust toward humans had settled deeply in his heart.
There were no good people or bad people.
They simply pursued their own interests.
And yet.
“Why are you doing this, really…….”
Watching Choi Yong-gi fight against the evil spirits, thoughts followed one after another.
‘To save someone?’
‘For honor?’
‘……Or, a sense of justice?’
Choi Yong-gi drew a magic circle and cast a spell on himself.
It was probably to brainwash himself and forcibly awaken his consciousness.
“Cough!”
Choi Yong-gi spat dark-red blood from his mouth.
It was hard to endure even a single mental attack from a Bater.
Yet he was holding out alone against countless Baters.
Lee Ji-jun knew that Choi Yong-gi was hiding something.
But.
‘……to think it was to this extent.’
It couldn’t even be explained with the word impressive.
Choi Yong-gi’s mental strength was to the point of being mysterious.
Without realizing it, Lee Ji-jun looked up at Choi Yong-gi with eyes full of awe.
He knew it too.
Hunters saved citizens safely from monsters.
That was their duty.
But wasn’t that just nominal?
The Baters densely surrounded Choi Yong-gi.
Now his entire body looked pitch black.
“Ah.”
A gasp escaped from between Lee Ji-jun’s lips.
He was trembling all over, engulfed by a sinister aura, but.
Never did Choi Yong-gi’s two eyes lose their light.
He looked like a valiant hero straight out of myth.
Demi God, the Greek etymological root of the word hero.
In other words, a demigod (半神半人).
For the first time in his life, Lee Ji-jun witnessed an unknown existence that had surpassed humanity.
Blood would not stop flowing from his torn grip.
The world might very well be ending at this very moment.
A blazing fire rose up in Lee Ji-jun’s chest.
‘If only I could fight alongside you.’
He wrung out every last ounce of strength he had and clenched the blood shield with both hands.
The ground shook.
Lee Ji-jun turned around.
Jincheon and the Superior Guild had managed to block the Monster Wave once more, but.
In the end, they were breached on the nineteenth.
The monsters surged toward them.
They had eight simple eyes and eight legs attached to their heads and chests.
From their mouths protruded vicious jaws that moved side to side.
Their name was.
Gum Spider.
They were monsters with long spider silk hanging from their abdomens.
If their webs were cut, they naturally died, so the method to deal with them was clear, but.
Their threatening jaw joints and swift movements made them extremely troublesome.
The Gum Spiders pushed their way to the final defensive line in an instant.
Bang Su-hwan raised his shield and blocked the monster horde.
“Ghk! Isn’t it still far?!”
For that stubborn guy to say something like that, it wasn’t an exaggeration.
‘He’s barely holding on.’
If a Gum Spider were to pounce on Lee Ji-jun, with both hands occupied as they were now, he would be completely helpless.
“Choi Yong-gi!”
Lee Ji-jun shouted as well, squeezing out the very last drop of blood.
“Please!!!”
How should I put it.
Even though my eyes were closed, everything in front of me was clearly visible.
Several people surrounded me.
‘Who are they?’
Each and every one of them wore a purple mask.
When they removed the masks, their faces were revealed.
All of them were Choi Yong-gi.
They were me.
Each expression was different.
Some were angry, some laughed excessively, some even cried.
In truth, I wasn’t that expressive.
After working in a factory for nearly thirty years, my emotions had completely dried up.
Even when I saw something funny, it wasn’t funny.
Even when I saw something sad, it wasn’t sad.
Could they be my hidden emotions?
One of them stabbed my abdomen with White Revenge.
“Keuk!”
I knew it wasn’t real, but I felt such extreme pain that my hair stood on end.
Thud thud thud!!
They stabbed me from all sides.
Why was I attacking myself?
It must have been because Mister Eden had cast a magic spell on me.
Soon after, black things began to slither closer.
They too tried to attack me, blowing pitch-black breaths.
Swish.
One of my clones attacked Bater.
Normally, Bater did not take physical damage.
However, the ghost-type monster screamed as it was cut in half.
“Kiiek!”
That was when it began.
The war between the clones and Bater started.
The ones that looked like me swung White Revenge.
Bater responded, his robe fluttering.
Pure-white trajectories danced in the darkness like constellations.
Everything flowed slowly.
A banquet of evil hordes and the Purple Devil.
‘Ah, what a spectacle.’
It was a horrifying situation, yet such a magnificent sight that it plunged me into ecstasy.
The reason they fought was me.
Their objective was me.
A fierce battle began, solely to claim me.
The evenly matched battle gradually tilted in one direction.
Judging purely by combat power, the Purple Devil side was stronger.
In one-on-one combat, the Purple Devil had the advantage.
However, while Bater continued to emerge endlessly, the Purple Devil rapidly dwindled.
‘This isn’t a Monster Wave.’
As if they were being produced infinitely somewhere…….
I hesitated.
‘Replication?’
Aside from mental domination attacks, Bater possessed a self-replication ability.
To deal with them, I would have to summon even more magic circles.
‘Would my body be able to endure it?’
If a war of attrition continued, the Awakener’s Balance would be heavily depleted as well.
In that case.
I focused all my senses.
The flow of air, the acrid smell, the direction of the sticky aura enveloping my entire body…….
Only then did I notice a subtle change.
Unlike the Baters that moved with programmed regularity.
There was one drifting leisurely, roaming freely across the battlefield.
It was larger than the other Baters.
The gleam of light flashing inside its skull was exceptionally intense.
That one.
‘That’s the main body.’
I drew White Revenge from its sheath.
Amid the chaotic war.
I approached it.
The main body noticed and quickly widened the distance between us.
‘There’s no time for a game of tag.’
I was afflicted by Nike’s curse and couldn’t use hero abilities for 24 hours.
But I didn’t care.
I kicked off the ground and used <Infinite Acceleration>.
Surprisingly, Speeder’s skill applied 그대로.
It didn’t even deduct from my balance.
This was the world of consciousness.
Since it wasn’t reality, I was free from the curse.
In the blink of an eye, I reached the main body.
‘Die!’
I thrust the tip of the blade.
The knife pierced through the robe and lodged itself in Bater’s heart.
The skull’s eyes widened even more.
“Kiieeek!!!”
Countless Baters screamed.
Each of their robes swelled as if about to burst.
The main body Bater also spewed light from its mouth as its body expanded.
That’s when it hit me.
A closed-type gate closes once the monster is eliminated.
But if a mana explosion occurred in this narrow space.
“Damn it!”
I wrapped my body in Super Kid’s <Aura of God> and hurled <Judgment of the Superhuman> with my fist.
Boom!!!
At the same time as the massive explosion, I woke from my consciousness and was flung outside the gate.
Thanks to my hero abilities, I managed to make it out safely.
I broke my fall on the asphalt, spinning two and a half times in midair.
The protective gear I was wearing had turned into rags, but I staggered, braced myself on the ground, and regained my balance.
Slowly, I lifted my head.
‘Where am I…….’
The first person I saw was Lee Ji-jun.
He was bleeding heavily from his hand as he looked at me.
Next.
Bang Su-hwan, holding up his shield and blocking the swarm of spiders.
Finally.
Pa-sseuk.
The spider at the very front shattered into pieces and scattered in the wind.
For Gum Spiders, their long spider silk was their lifeline.
When the gate—their stronghold—closed, the spider silk also vanished.
With the main gate now closed.
The remaining gates closed one by one.
The swarms of spiders that had been flooding across the bridge like strings of candy instantly turned to ash.
“……You bastard.”
“Hyung-nim. You did it.”
Lee Ji-jun and Bang Su-hwan’s eyes glistened as if they were about to cry.
Cheers erupted from the opposite side of the bridge.
They had realized that the main gate had collapsed.
There was only a brief moment to savor victory.
Thud.
The bridge shook as an earthquake struck.
“Grrraaah!!!”
It was a roar that shook the air itself.
Had a new monster appeared?
No.
With the main gate closed, the multi-gate issue had been resolved.
It was the cry of a powerful mature entity that had already come out of the gate.
‘This roar…….’
A boss monster that even S-ranks had failed to exterminate.
Commonly known as the Gatekeeper of Hell.
Lee Ji-jun reached out his hand to me.
I grabbed it and stood up, but my legs gave out and trembled.
“Hyung-nim! Are you okay?”
Bang Su-hwan ran over and supported me.
I wasn’t okay.
After a life-or-death struggle with Bater, I was completely battered.
My ears rang on one side, my abdomen throbbed, and nausea welled up.
Even so.
I gripped White Revenge by the back of the blade and walked forward.
“Let’s go. We have to see this through.”