Chapter 35
But Jonghyeon was no fool either.
‘This is Chairman Lee’s mansion. Even if something happened, the guards would rush over. Therefore, this is a trick!’
It seemed like a rather clever ruse, but it was a trick that would never work on Jonghyeon. A prodigy of cunning and tactics, Jonghyeon would never fall for such petty schemes.
‘Trying to teach a chrysalis how to curl.’
Still, Jonghyeon carefully read the rest of the document’s outline and the information regarding the dungeon.
The documents the agent brought were always based on precise intel. Except for the address, that is.
Even after he finished reading, Jonghyeon deliberately didn’t come out for quite a while. He watched the news on his smartphone and gathered information. Because the dungeon that had appeared near the orphanage was one of the more difficult ones, even for him.
Thus, Jonghyeon researched methods related to clearing the dungeon based on the information from his smartphone and wrote them down on the documents.
“I suppose I should head out now.”
Thinking he had stayed in the warehouse too long, Jonghyeon moved outside.
As soon as he stepped out, the mansion was quiet, as if nothing had happened. Then, he saw Butler Kim passing by in front of him.
Jonghyeon asked Butler Kim just in case.
“By any chance, wasn’t that Miss Bori who screamed just now?”
Butler Kim answered with his characteristic expressionlessness.
“Yes, that is correct. I ran over to check, and she said it was nothing.”
“Yes, I understand.”
Butler Kim seemed curious as to why he would ask such a thing, but as if busy with something, he quickly disappeared from Jonghyeon’s sight.
“I’m getting hungry too.”
Jonghyeon quickly returned to his quarters and ordered a meal. He had worried Bori might come by, but fortunately, nothing of the sort happened, and Jonghyeon enjoyed his food.
‘The food in this house is delicious no matter when I eat it. And I pride myself on having rather picky tastes.’
Jonghyeon’s tastes weren’t particularly expensive. Of course, he considered himself picky by his own standards, but it was only natural that his cooking skills were far below those of a first-class chef.
Even while eating, Jonghyeon constantly thought about the 6th stage dungeon.
‘Is it about time I challenged it?’
Setting aside the improvement of his skills and other benefits, he was curious about the doppelganger’s reaction now that his revenge had succeeded.
‘Alright! Let’s give it a go.’
Even if he couldn’t clear it, there was an escape function, so Jonghyeon figured he had nothing to lose.
After finishing his meal, Jonghyeon lightly stretched, then opened the watch’s function once again in the bathroom.
When he opened the door to Room 6, in the same place as before stood his doppelganger, identical to him.
-Welcome.
“Yeah. Nice to meet you too, you son of a bitch.”
Jonghyeon muttered a curse in a low voice. It was an emotion he hadn’t felt before because he’d been bewildered, but seeing a face exactly like his own triggered a reflexive revulsion.
-You’ve done something incredible. Haven’t you?
The distance to the sneering doppelganger was about 5 meters.
It was a distance he could cross in less than a second if he thrust with his Sotaedo. But neither moved an inch, glaring at each other as they continued to speak.
“Yeah. I ended up getting my revenge after all. How’s it feel?”
-What do you think you’ve gained from that revenge in the end? Honor? A bit of money? You’re still an idiot. If it were me, I would have founded a guild or joined a high-ranking guild the moment my revenge succeeded. Then you could have enjoyed far greater wealth and glory than you do now. You fool.
In truth, the doppelganger wasn’t wrong. Rankers who followed the elite path usually did just that.
In reality, he had returned to being a fixer now, but if he had established a guild or been recruited by a famous guild, he would have received a position of at least an executive or higher.
“I decide what I want to do. Don’t tell me what to do, fake.”
Jonghyeon threw back the same words that had bothered him before. However, the doppelganger looked at Jonghyeon and spoke as if entirely unmoved by such words.
-So. Is clearing a few small dungeons and teaching one little brat all you want to do? With that ability? You’re truly pathetic. Even after being treated like that, are you still satisfied with such a life? If it were me, I’d lure that little brat outside and kidnap her. Then hand her over to a guild in exchange for something you’d never see in your life...
Having heard that far, Jonghyeon could endure no longer.
“I’ll start by cutting out your tongue.”
Szzzzak-!
In an instant, the two Jonghyeons’ Sotaedos shot forward and clashed. If in the previous duel with Raven the black and white sword auras had harmonized, now, the sword auras scattered like two savage beasts tearing at each other.
As if they had made a promise, both raised the shadows around them and wrapped themselves in them.
-For a brat, it seems you’ve practiced a bit. But fundamentally, you’re soft!
Jonghyeon couldn’t understand what it meant by being soft. Having dealt with countless lives and monsters until now, Jonghyeon was someone who didn’t even bat an eye at death anymore.
But the doppelganger didn’t even give him time to think and began to press the attack fiercely.
Ting- Ta-taeng- Ting-!
Even against Jonghyeon’s changed sword stance, the doppelganger quickly adapted and countered. The battle of shadows was somewhat evenly matched, so Jonghyeon wasn’t completely suppressed, but he was still being pushed back.
They repeated such exchanges for about 30 minutes.
And in Jonghyeon’s mind, there existed a single word.
Death.
‘To think the word I’ve been most careful of and most mindful of while running dungeons until now has come to mind.’
At this rate, he would clearly die. The fierce battle of shadows had finally begun to affect even Jonghyeon’s range of movement.
“Kuk!”
He avoided the rapidly swirling shadows, widened the distance, and focused on defending against the shadows approaching through his own shadow.
But seizing that opening, the doppelganger’s Sotaedo forced Jonghyeon to take a cut across his left leg.
-That’s a bit of a shame. It was an opportunity to seal those fast legs.
His left leg throbbed with pain. The opponent was a lefty, just like him. He couldn’t use Jonghyeon’s characteristic feints like he could against other opponents.
Blood flowed down, soaking Jonghyeon’s ankle. Though he didn’t think it was a fatal wound, perhaps because it had been cut by sword aura, moving his leg was difficult.
‘As expected, is there no other way but that?’
It was what Jonghyeon had trained in for the past six months. With it, he had been able to defeat Parker, an A-rank assassin. Since Jonghyeon hadn’t been able to settle on a proper name for the skill, he had decided to call it ‘Rampage.’
It was truly an absurd naming sense, but Jonghyeon rather liked the name.
Having resolved to activate Rampage, Jonghyeon began to draw up all his strength from deep within his dantian.
Streams of qi erupted from Jonghyeon’s body in several branches, eventually covering his entire body.
He didn’t use Rampage often, but every time he did, Jonghyeon felt like his whole body would burst. It was difficult to suppress his exploding qi.
And the doppelganger watching that spectacle tried to rush in quickly, but Jonghyeon’s Rampage was already complete.
Ting-
The blade the doppelganger thrust in was blocked, and the doppelganger’s body was instantly repelled, crashing into the wall.
-Kuk. What is this? Is there any need to kill me while shaving away at yourself? Think carefully. Even if you don’t clear me, you can live well for the rest of your life now. You shouldn’t need to wear down your body.
“I’ll say it again. I’ll start by cutting out that tongue.”
Soon, Jonghyeon, covered in black qi, spoke in a low voice, and in that instant, his body vanished from where it stood.
Shuk-!
-Wha... what?!
Having completely lost track of Jonghyeon’s movement, the doppelganger panicked and reflexively looked behind.
It was because he knew Jonghyeon’s battle patterns, and because he thought that even he himself would go for the back in such a situation.
But when the doppelganger turned around, he was shocked once more.
-He’s not here?
The place Jonghyeon had seized wasn’t directly behind, but above.
The doppelganger sensed the sign of a vertical descent from above and quickly raised his Sotaedo to check Jonghyeon, but he was already a step too late at that point.
Jonghyeon had once again disappeared from sight.
“Now it’s really the back.”
By the time the words reached the doppelganger’s ears, a Sotaedo was lodged in his heart.
-Damn it. Why are you throwing away your body just to catch me? That skill only devours you.
“From the very beginning, this fighting style was made to eliminate you.”
Jonghyeon believed that no matter how much his fundamentals were honed, fighting the doppelganger would only give him a fifty-fifty chance. Rampage hadn’t been devised to eliminate the Red Rose Guild in the first place.
The skill he had trained while keeping the 6th stage dungeon in mind was precisely Rampage.
The moment it was used, extreme pain would invade the caster’s body, so he had devised this method based on the fact that the doppelganger wouldn’t use it.
And he had suddenly used that skill at this point.
If it was his own doppelganger, it would surely know whether the Rampage skill existed.
But in the end, the doppelganger couldn’t use it.
-Kuhak. Im...pressive. I’ll say it...again. I am...you. We’ll meet...again...soon. Kuaaak.
Even while coughing up blood repeatedly, the doppelganger spoke clearly and distinctly to Jonghyeon. But to Jonghyeon’s ears, it didn’t sound very important.
Only one thing was important: Jonghyeon had now overcome himself.
-Ding!
-Congratulations. You have cleared the 6th stage.
-You have passed the trial of the Awakened Challenger.
-Essential Passive [Dark Awakening] has been added, and all other passives have disappeared.
-You may now challenge to become a Transcendent.
-The third button on the watch has been activated. You can now find hidden bosses in existing dungeons.
-As a reward, you are granted physical restoration and the ‘Dark Awakening Earring,’ the mark of the Awakened.
Only after the clear announcement for the 6th stage came out did Jonghyeon’s whole body go limp.
“Whew. It exhausts me every time I use it.”
Jonghyeon barely had the strength to stand. This was the problem with his Rampage skill. Immediately after using the skill, he couldn’t do anything until his physical strength returned.
Though Jonghyeon had realized the method of gathering and handling qi called qi circulation during his six months of training, even if he practiced it, he would be defenseless for about an hour or more.
‘By the way, this is getting bigger and bigger in scale.’
Judging from the announcement, the moment he cleared the 7th stage, he would become a ‘Transcendent.’
He didn’t know exactly what that meant, but along with the message that a Dark Awakening passive had been created, he could instinctively tell that the shadows he could handle had increased.
Whereas before, handling shadows had always felt like some kind of shackle had been placed on him, now it felt no different from a part of his own body.
‘So that’s why I kept losing the shadow fight.’
Having no strength left to stand, Jonghyeon sat right down and held the earring to the watch.
[Dark Awakening Earring.
This earring is bound to its owner upon equipping and absorbs the surrounding darkness. The earring holds the absorbed darkness...]
The method of use was simple. Except that it might produce a slightly embarrassing scene.
The effect was simple as well. The darkness bound to the earring was also Jonghyeon’s. However, the merit this item provided was enormous.
Jonghyeon’s darkness ability peaked at night. His physical abilities were the same, because it was naturally dark at night.
But this earring was said to absorb the surrounding darkness and carry it around.
That meant, if a great deal of darkness accumulated in the earring, he would be able to fight in the day as if it were night.
“This is insane.”
Jonghyeon barely managed to speak through gaping jaws that wouldn’t close.
This wasn’t just at the level of a cheat item. No, to others, it might be a rather useless item.
But it was an item optimized for him. And perhaps the best among them. The synergy between the earring and Jonghyeon was beyond imagination.
‘But how do I pierce my ear?’
The earring was in the shape of a small piercing, and on the ornament was a very tiny black gemstone carved into the shape of a bird.
From the outside, it looked like nothing more than a small dot, but up close, it was an extremely intricately carved bird.
Jonghyeon worried about how to pierce his ear, then, thinking to hell with it, held the piercing to his ear.
Then, just like when the watch had equipped itself to him, the piercing was already attached to Jonghyeon’s ear, as if it had been pierced there from the start.
Suddenly wanting to see a mirror, Jonghyeon quickly went outside.
The door to the 7th stage was something he couldn’t clear even if he opened it now.
Jonghyeon thought he could take his time opening it.
‘Seeing as the watch’s function to find hidden bosses in dungeons has opened now, the 7th stage is definitely a place where I can hardly set foot.’
He would have to prepare slowly before entering. And since his body was too exhausted right now, he simply couldn’t enter.
Thanks to the reward, lacerations and various wounds had healed, but the accumulated damage to his body itself hadn’t recovered.
‘That aside, I really like this earring.’
Thinking that the design was prettier than expected and suited him well, Jonghyeon flung himself onto the bed.
‘Rampage puts far too much strain on the body.
And the moment he lay down, his muscles ached so much that he felt like mechanical sounds were coming from his entire body, like an old man in his eighties or older.
And this feeling didn’t change even when he practiced qi circulation.
If Jonghyeon used Rampage more than twice a day, his body might not be able to endure it.
Turning off the lights before sleeping, Jonghyeon suddenly felt a sense of incongruity. It was an inexplicable sense of wrongness, but Jonghyeon figured it was because he hadn’t awakened his darkness long ago.
‘I still lack training. But today, I’m too tired.’
Jonghyeon lay in bed and fell asleep the moment he closed his eyes. Thus, the night he cleared the 6th stage seemed to pass quietly.
But the next day.
“Ah, fuck!”
Jonghyeon had finally figured out the identity of the sense of incongruity he had felt. And rarely for him, a curse escaped his lips.
---------= Author's Afterword ---------=
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