Episode 37
“I really don’t have a moment of peace.”
As his fame had risen, Jonghyeon had much more to manage. With Bori causing an accident on top of that, he was in a state of considerable stress.
Completely unaware, the dinosaur monster was bound by shadows and began to take a beating.
Thud— Squelch—!
‘Relieving stress like this isn’t right, but…’
Before he knew it, Jonghyeon was relieving his stress on the monster. Even as he butchered the monster bound by shadows, shrieking, Jonghyeon continued to survey his surroundings.
‘If my prediction is correct, the boss here is probably…’
But no monster that appeared to be a boss was found by Jonghyeon’s eyes. Though he had hunted through more than half of that vast area by nightfall, he couldn’t see the boss he was searching for.
‘There’s no way a B-rank dungeon without a boss monster exists.’
It occasionally happened among C-rank dungeons. Bosses were rarely absent when there were many sub-boss-class monsters, or when the number of individual creatures was very high.
But since no such dungeon had yet been discovered among B-ranks, Jonghyeon didn’t let his guard down until he fell asleep.
It was because many bosses in B-rank dungeons had high intelligence.
Fortunately, since the monsters in this dungeon were large monsters, they made very loud sounds when moving, so Jonghyeon no longer needed to stay up all night.
‘Come to think of it, I stayed up for two nights dealing with that C-rank Raman.’
The dwarf race called Raman, standing about 1 meter tall, had been very tricky to clear alone.
They basically used weapons similar to poison stingers, and their speed was so fast that they were difficult to deal with. Added to that, they were fairly intelligent, so he remembered that whenever Jonghyeon let his guard down even slightly, they attacked from somewhere.
In contrast, while the dinosaur monsters were tricky to hunt, their presence was easily felt, which was why Jonghyeon could sleep.
Thud—
‘Damn. I had just fallen asleep.’
Not long after Jonghyeon had fallen asleep, he was woken by a fairly loud noise nearby.
He had thought that if it was a dinosaur monster, he would quickly deal with it and go back to sleep, but the vibrations felt from the ground made him quickly come to his senses.
‘This… isn’t a normal monster. A boss-class has finally appeared.’
After tremendous vibrations, something sprouted up about 20 meters from where Jonghyeon had been sleeping.
“What is that?!”
Its identity was none other than an Imugi.
Imugi.
In the East, it was called a yong, and in the West, a dragon—a creature in the stage before evolving into such a being.
The size of the risen Imugi was incomparable to any monster Jonghyeon had seen until now.
‘Why on earth is an Imugi in a B-rank dungeon?’
He was full of questions, but it wasn’t a situation where he could just keep thinking.
The Imugi was clearly looking in Jonghyeon’s direction. It seemed to cover about 1 meter with each step.
‘This can’t be handled with a short sword.’
Having made a quick decision, Jonghyeon didn’t draw his short sword but instead took out a keyring.
And as he took the keyring out of his pocket, the sleeve of his clothes rose slightly.
His watch was shining.
But there was no time to think about it carefully.
‘Don’t tell me the hidden boss here is an Imugi?’
Finishing his thought there, Jonghyeon drew a sword from the keyring and manifested it with considerable ki.
The manifested sword was about 2 meters in length.
He thought it was just right, since it would be difficult for Jonghyeon to wield if he drew it any longer.
‘How on earth do I catch an Imugi?’
His abilities weren’t the issue.
In reality, when such a large monster was discovered as a boss-class in A or B-rank dungeons, the guilds clearing it would retreat.
Of course, if the guild itself had the capability to handle it, that wouldn’t happen, but usually there was a separate disposal team for handling such large monsters.
Even among the guilds ranked from 1st to about 10th, aces would form teams to handle them separately.
Not only was the size great, but the abilities it used were no joke, and large bosses were that much more dangerous.
Should he just run?
This wasn’t even at the Korean government’s standard; it was an issue that should be referred to the World Dungeon Committee for handling.
Jonghyeon worried endlessly even as the monster approached. Of course, he wasn’t thinking of running.
‘How on earth do I kill this lizard?’
The sword he had drawn exceeded 2 meters, yet it seemed like it wouldn’t even embed halfway into the monster’s neck.
It was a large boss that wouldn’t die just from a few scratches.
For a moment, Jonghyeon thought it would be easier if there was a health bar like in a game, but this was no distance for idle thoughts.
‘Alright. It’s night. Now is my time.’
He didn’t even know why he had such confidence. The only thing backing his confidence was that it was night.
But Jonghyeon thought that was enough. Above all, the earring.
From earlier, it felt like it was endlessly absorbing the surrounding night.
‘It’s not simply shadows gathering.’
He didn’t think shadows were gathering. As soon as night fell, he could feel Jonghyeon’s earring absorbing the surrounding darkness.
It felt like the flow of ki, yet that feeling was different from ki as well. Something with slightly higher purity. If both shadows and his own ki were derived from somewhere, the darkness the earring was absorbing had slightly higher purity.
Jonghyeon quickly climbed a tree and leaped, slashing at the Imugi’s right arm.
“Kieeeeeek!”
But rather than cutting the right arm, it only left a slight wound mark, and Jonghyeon was sent flying by the Imugi’s thrashing.
He couldn’t pour sword ki distinctly into the 2-meter sword like a short sword, so he had only coated the tip with ki. But since he had seen even a minute effect, Jonghyeon smiled slightly.
The feeling of facing an Imugi about 15 meters tall as a human was indescribable.
Jonghyeon felt as if he were fighting deep waves.
The Imugi’s presence was that powerful.
A smile that an ordinary person couldn’t even imagine.
“It’s still just a lizard!”
Jonghyeon spoke words to shake off the mounting pressure and began to concentrate. What Jonghyeon felt was that this single Imugi was more dangerous than when he had dealt with the Red Rose Guild. But at the same time, it was enjoyable.
Wasn’t he facing that monster alone, which others wouldn’t dare face even with a party of fifteen?
Identifying the Imugi’s attack patterns bit by bit, Jonghyeon slowly began his assault. He could have used Berserk, but there were some dungeons where clearing wasn’t achieved even after catching the boss, so he couldn’t use it carelessly.
‘The tail this time.’
As Jonghyeon expected, the Imugi swung its tail as its next attack after swinging its arms twice, and Jonghyeon agilely rode up the tail, manifested another axe at the tail, and struck down with it.
He had manifested the axe using quite a lot of ki, concentrating ki at the blade’s edge.
“Kiiiiiik-!”
The Imugi shrieked and thrashed its tail, which was cut about one-third by the axe, and Jonghyeon jumped straight up to climb another tree.
But even the tree Jonghyeon climbed was broken by the Imugi’s swung tail, forcing him to roll on the ground.
It was then.
Ziiiiing-!
Sensing tremendous energy gathering from the Imugi’s mouth, Jonghyeon felt that now was the time.
“Release!”
In that instant, darkness that seemed to swallow all surrounding light began to pour out from the earring.
That darkness was far thicker and darker than the shadows Jonghyeon normally used. Pitch-black, literally.
That darkness instantly created a barrier defending Jonghyeon.
Fwoooom-!
A horrifying red flash emerged from the Imugi’s mouth and surged toward Jonghyeon.
But that red light beam soon disappeared, as if devoured by the darkness barrier.
Rather, the darkness acted as if angry, trying to rush out and devour everything even though Jonghyeon was controlling it sufficiently.
‘I thought my control had definitely improved.’
He thought that was the case even when handling shadows. But the darkness accumulated in the earring seemed to be of a different class from the darkness he could handle.
Though it was darkness that clearly felt like a part of him, its form seemed to possess an ego, constantly trying to escape Jonghyeon’s control.
With its breath disappearing without a trace, the Imugi roared and charged at Jonghyeon again.
But whether human or monster, the more excited one became, the more gaps appeared.
There was no reason for Jonghyeon, a skilled hunter, to miss that moment.
‘Originally, I had only conceptualized this.’
Jonghyeon focused on the high-purity darkness given to him.
Controlling it very delicately and slowly, he moved the darkness into the shape he envisioned in his mind, and finally the darkness began to take on one form.
That form was a spear.
A giant Dark Spear. It was one of the three methods Jonghyeon had thought of when he obtained the earring.
The first was the darkness barrier that blocked the breath, and the second was the Dark Spear.
His control was still clumsy, so the shape wasn’t exact, but it became a sufficiently sharp spear, and Jonghyeon put his strength into releasing the darkness.
Sshhhhhhiek-!
The Imugi tried to defend by swinging its tail at the black spear flying like an arrow, but its tail was half-severed and the spear lodged straight into its back.
“Kieeek!”
The Imugi groaned, seemingly in great pain. But without panicking, Jonghyeon immediately displayed his maximum speed and began climbing up the Imugi’s back with both feet.
Finally, having climbed to the Imugi’s head, Jonghyeon poured all remaining ki into the 2-meter sword he held.
Squelch-!
That black sword, driven in with brutal force, pierced through the top of the Imugi’s skull to its jaw.
The Imugi collapsed without being able to scream anymore, and Jonghyeon atop its head, too.
“Uwooooo!”
He began falling vertically.
Jonghyeon quickly used shadows to weave a net and threw his body onto it.
“I almost died falling after catching the Imugi.”
Only then could Jonghyeon see the watch that seemed to be the culprit behind all of this.
After dealing with the Imugi, the light disappeared from the watch and it began calmly displaying the time again.
The watch was playing dumb. Jonghyeon thought it would be nice to know the watch’s usage in a bit more detail, but there was no time to complain.
Right there, Jonghyeon began dissecting the Imugi.
In the case of a Fixer, when clearing a dungeon, the leather, teeth, magic stones, etc., obtained from it all belonged to the state.
But items were an exception. Therefore, Jonghyeon dissected the Imugi.
Usually, items were typically held or worn by the boss, but in the case of such large monsters, they were often found around the corpse or inside the body.
“Here it is!”
What Jonghyeon found with joy was the Imugi’s inner core.
It was the decisive reason the Imugi could unleash its breath. At the same time, as the Imugi’s power was contained within it, it would surely contain plenty of ki.
Without hesitation, Jonghyeon consumed the Imugi’s inner core on the spot.
“Ugh. It tastes terrible.”
The taste was foul, but he could feel tremendous ki beginning to melt into his lower abdomen.
Of course, he couldn’t melt the entire inner core at once. The biggest reason was that his body couldn’t withstand it.
‘About 20% of it has melted now.’
But even that 20% replenished as much ki as Jonghyeon had used to catch the Imugi. If he slowly melted the rest going forward, Jonghyeon’s vessel would clearly become sturdier and larger, so he couldn’t hide his joy.
‘But I can’t be satisfied with just this.’
The Imugi’s inner core was merely an item to be consumed.
Up to B-rank dungeons were fairly cleared worldwide. About 200 or more B-rank dungeons appeared each year, and 99% of them were cleared.
And since many of them were duplicates, the items had their own established names.
The Imugi’s inner core wasn’t a common item, but it was an item that steadily appeared about 4 to 5 times a year.
A-rank dungeons. Among them, the dungeons that appeared fewer than 30 times a year still held many unknown items. They would surely be filled with items incomparable to the Imugi’s inner core.
‘That’s the ultimate goal. This absurd world. I’ll become the strongest and change it.’
---------= Author’s Afterword ---------=
Go, Imugi…