The Final Boss Has Returned – Chapter 117
“Haah.”
Drakan roughly caught his breath, driving the Iron-Blooded Executor—drenched in sticky purple bodily fluids—into the floor of the boss room.
Before his eyes, notification windows cascaded into view.
[You have defeated the boss monster Swarm Lord of the dungeon ‘The Last Relic’.]
The content of the notifications was none other than the defeat of the Swarm Lord!
That was right.
Drakan had finally succeeded in raiding the dungeon boss monster, dragging along the Vampire King and the Wolf King.
Gazing at the disappearing corpse of the Swarm Lord, Drakan briefly recalled the battle.
Swarm Lord.
The dungeon’s boss monster, whose enormous brain was impressive—or perhaps comically grotesque depending on the angle—had possessed formidable hidden power.
The physical attacks from its tentacles, not to mention the debuff attacks using mental waves, had been fairly threatening. But the Swarm Lord’s misfortune was that its opponents were Drakan, the Wolf King, and the Vampire King!
With not one but two Over Ranker-class combatants joined by Drakan—whose physical stats were second to none—the Swarm Lord’s patterns had been completely countered, and in the end, the Swarm Lord had no choice but to meet its death.
However, that didn’t mean Drakan had taken it down with ease; his health had dropped considerably as well.
Drakan drank a potion from his inventory, and on either side of him stood the Wolf King and the Vampire King, covered in purple bodily fluids that had splattered from the Swarm Lord’s body.
[Calculating raid contribution.]
[Raid contribution calculation complete.]
[Dungeon ‘The Last Relic’ Raid Contribution Ranking]
[1st place. Drakan 100.00%]
[Congratulations! You have conquered the dungeon ‘The Last Relic’ with overwhelming raid contribution!]
Overwhelming raid contribution!
[Don’t ever disrespect Drakan-nim again. LOL]
[All the YouTubers are silent. LOLLL]
[The YouTubers are scrambling away in disgrace…….]
[Honestly, I see Drakan in a new light;]
[Drakan’s form ain’t dead yet.]
[King Ra Kan]
[Light Ra Kan]
[‘ILoveYouDrakan’ has sponsored 150,000 KRW.]
[‘SpecialGrade1BlackOx’ has sponsored 200,000 KRW.]
The generous sponsorships and chat messages pouring out from users who had watched Drakan’s display in the boss battle!
Seeing that, Drakan smiled and looked over the spoils left behind by the now-vanished corpse of the Swarm Lord.
[Highest-Grade Dimension Stone]
[Grade: Hero]
[Classification: Material]
[Durability: 10,000/10,000]
[A mysterious ore containing dimensional energy within. An essential raw material consumed in the creation of a Dimensional Gate.]
‘As expected, it gives a Dimension Stone.’
Drakan’s eyes gleamed coldly as he checked the item information.
Dimension Stone!
The item that was none other than the culprit which had sent Drakan and Yujin flying to this other world!
That item had once again fallen into Drakan’s hands.
“Contractor, now place the Dimension Stone upon the altar.”
The voice of Wolf King Robo reached Drakan’s ears as he held the gleaming Dimension Stone in his right hand.
Wolf King Robo.
In order to return to his homeland, he had spent over ten years studying the records and documents left behind by the previous inhabitants, so he had a rough idea of what the Last Relic’s role was and how it operated.
“Very well.”
Drakan lifted the Dimension Stone and headed up toward the stone altar installed atop the stairs, past the spot where the boss monster had stood.
Thud, thud.
In the silent boss room, Drakan’s footsteps echoed unusually loudly.
Finally standing before the altar, Drakan placed the Dimension Stone he held onto the altar.
At that moment.
The Dimension Stone placed atop the altar vibrated faintly, and a brilliant light surged up.
[The altar of the Last Relic and the Dimension Stone resonate with each other.]
[The Last Relic absorbs the Dimension Stone.]
A notification window appeared before Drakan’s eyes!
At the same time, the Dimension Stone on the altar transformed into light, and soon began to coalesce into a small sphere of light.
[It is a pleasure to meet you, Unregistered User. I am the administrative persona ‘Noah’ of the Special-Grade Dimensional Facility ‘Exodus’.]
A mechanical voice utterly devoid of humanity!
The administrative persona of the Last Relic, Noah of Exodus, had awakened.
Whenever Noah’s cold voice—taking the form of a sphere of light—resounded, the orb flickered.
[There is currently no registered user.]
[Reviewing records left in the Relic by the unregistered user.]
[You have been identified as a hostile entity of the ‘Hive Mind.’ Do you wish to proceed with user registration?]
“Sure.”
[Initiating user registration procedure.]
[Please place both hands upon the altar.]
Following Administrator Noah’s instructions, Drakan placed both hands on the altar, and soon, a brilliant light climbed up both of his wrists and wrapped around his entire body.
[User registration complete.]
[Warning! The facility’s contamination level is critical.]
[Purification is required to use the facility.]
[Do you approve the contamination purification operation?]
After completing the registration, upon hearing Noah’s voice, Drakan recalled that the quest objective was to purify the relic and nodded.
“I approve.”
[Approval complete.]
[Executing contamination purification operation.]
The very moment Drakan’s approval was given.
A blinding blue light burst from the altar in an instant, enveloping not only the boss room but the entire relic, extending even to the surrounding lands.
Fwoosh!
A wave of light poured out from the relic!
The blue wave of light covered the contaminated earth, and the scene of monsters struck by it collapsing one after another as if hit by an anesthetic, meeting their deaths, even looked sacred at a glance.
[Damn, isn’t this totally like a movie?]
[OMG, the visuals are insane;;]
[Wow, this quest is all-time great too.]
A spectacle that left even the viewers watching in awe!
Yujin, who had been fighting against the enemy army alongside lycanthropes and undead, also watched as the wave of light approached and bestowed death upon the monsters. Finally, he carefully sheathed the Holy Sword he had been swinging without rest.
“You have succeeded.”
A small voice flowed from Yujin’s lips.
He had instinctively guessed.
Drakan!
That he had succeeded in conquering the dungeon.
‘I believed in you, Drakan-nim.’
Yujin closed and opened his eyes, gazing at the relic from which the wave of light still flowed.
He had sent Drakan into the dungeon trusting him, and Drakan had repaid that trust by magnificently conquering it.
Yujin smiled, seemingly moved by that fact.
While Yujin was resting outside like that.
A quest completion message rose before Drakan’s eyes in the boss room, at the heart of the relic.
[The purification of the Last Relic ‘Exodus’ is complete.]
[You have completed the quest ‘Return to Ard World’.]
[Your level has increased.]
[All stats have increased by 134.]
Brushing aside the level-up messages, Drakan threw a question at Administrator Noah.
“Hey.”
[Yes, User.]
“When can I use this purification function again?”
Purification!
The miraculous function that had cleanly wiped out the massive enemy forces they had struggled against until now with a single wave of light!
Now that the main enemy of Phase 2 Broken World had been almost confirmed as the Hive Mind’s army, the fact that this ‘Purification’ would be of great help in future phase raids if it could be used freely was something anyone could predict without Drakan even needing to bring up his veteran experience.
[It can be used again exactly 3 years later.]
Three years in game time, one year in real time!
Since one year was more than enough time for Phase 2 to already be over, Drakan clicked his tongue.
‘Well, from a balance perspective, there’s no way they’d let people use such a cheat function easily.’
Drakan immediately accepted Noah’s answer.
Usually, such cheat functions were often set as one-time use only.
In this case, it wasn’t one-time use, but a 3-year cooldown was practically no different from being single-use.
Still, the reason Drakan had asked was because of a faint ‘what if’ possibility.
“Can the Dimensional Gate be opened right now?”
A second question sprang from Drakan’s mouth.
Dimensional Gate!
The means to return to Ard World, and the ultimate goal of conquering this dungeon!
The main point had finally flowed from Drakan’s lips.
In response to Drakan’s question, Administrator Noah began to answer, flickering.
[If you are referring to the large-scale dimensional gate function for migration, it is currently available. Please state your desired dimensional coordinates.]
“Dimensional coordinates?”
[If you do not know the dimensional coordinates, you may also place an object related to that dimension upon the altar.]
Following Administrator Noah’s subsequent explanation, Drakan took out the Tainted Moonstone Necklace from his inventory and placed it on the altar.
Swoosh!
A blue light rising from the altar enveloped the Tainted Moonstone Necklace.
[Analyzing item.]
[Item analysis complete. Dimensional coordinates specified.]
[Activating large-scale dimensional gate function.]
[A large-scale dimensional gate has been generated on the facility’s above-ground 1st floor.]
Noah’s rigid voice continuously rang in Drakan’s ears!
Realizing through those words that the dimensional gate had been generated on the relic’s above-ground 1st floor, Drakan sent a whisper to Yujin, then left the boss room with the Vampire King and the Wolf King.
Ard World!
The passage to return to the original world had finally opened.
* * *
Above-ground 1st floor of the relic ‘Exodus’.
Reminiscent of a Greek temple, inside the equally massive space where gigantic pillars lined up in rows supporting a stone roof, a single swirling black sphere floated gently in the air—several times larger than the unstable dimensional gate they had seen that day, yet stable in form.
“So this is the Dimensional Gate.”
Dimensional Gate.
I muttered in a low voice as I watched.
It hadn’t been long since I’d come to this other world, yet it felt like more than a year had passed.
“Drakan-nim. Thank you for your hard work.”
Yujin’s voice reached my ears.
I looked at Yujin and took out the spoils from my inventory.
“Dungeon spoils. Your share. Take it.”
They were probably useless items for someone of Yujin’s level, but that was precisely why I had to share them.
Of course, it wasn’t because I was grateful that Yujin had led troops to hold the line outside while I conquered the dungeon.
Public opinion!
It was to win the hearts of the users.
‘If I ended the joint operation while monopolizing the spoils like this, the users would praise Yujin for holding back the enemies outside without any reward, and they would bash me for monopolizing the spoils alone even though I conquered the dungeon thanks to Yujin’s tanking.’
If I were Verda, I would use this good bait to mobilize the Infinite Yujin Church and unconditionally try to ruin my reputation.
By framing me as a selfish, ungrateful Drakan who ignored Yujin’s help and monopolized the rewards.
To prevent that, and as the price for not losing the initiative in the flow of public opinion to come, handing over a few nearly useless spoils was a cheap price to pay.
With that thought, I handed the items to Yujin, and as I expected, he shook his head and spoke.
“Thank you for the offer, but I did not contribute to the dungeon raid. Therefore, I cannot accept those items. The spoils belong solely to you, Drakan-nim.”
To Yujin, who uttered exactly the expected answer, I pressed the bundle of items on him and said.
“Who was it that drew the enemy army’s attention outside so I could focus on the raid? If you put it that way, you contributed to the dungeon conquest too, so stop talking nonsense and just take it.”
He had to accept so I wouldn’t get bashed for being selfish.
I swallowed those words and smiled, and Yujin accepted the bundle of items I held out with an awkward smile.
“I will gratefully accept them.”
That’s right, that’s how it should be.
I smiled like that, left Yujin be, and approached the Dimensional Gate.
Now, it was time to return to Ard World once more.