Chapter 181

Chapter 181

A fork in the path appeared before the Pegasus Raid Team.

Gesling, the exploration team leader, closed his eyes and sent mana flowing out.

GROOOAN!

At that instant, undead soldiers appeared from both passages.

They were filling the passages as they surged forward like a tide.

Then Gesling opened his eyes.

“The right passage. There are life signs there.”

“You heard him, right? Block the left passage and clear the right.”

Bronson, the clearing team leader, immediately gave the order.

The martial-type Awakened moved in perfect order.

CRASH—!

Under their attack, the entire left passage collapsed. Naturally, the undead soldiers were buried beneath the debris as well.

Now that they no longer had to worry about the left passage, the Awakened focused only on the undead soldiers surging in from the right.

“We have to find and destroy their cores.”

The ones who displayed their power then were the Awakened with detection Skills, including Gesling.

“They’re hiding their cores on the left side of their waists.”

While the martial-type Awakened held back the undead soldiers, the Awakened with detection Skills found the locations of their cores.

Then the magic-type Awakened precisely fired magic and attacked the cores.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!

With explosive roars, the undead collapsed. Then they never moved again.

With their cores destroyed, they could no longer revive.

That was the method the Pegasus Raid Team had found.

Instead of attacking blindly, they found the cores and struck them precisely, completely removing any possibility of revival.

After countless trials and errors, they had finally found a way to clear the ancient castle.

All of that was thanks to Lee Ji-ryeong buying time with his overwhelming might.

“Block them!”

At Bronson’s order, the martial-type Awakened stood in the way of the undead soldiers. While they held them back, the magic-type Awakened each prepared their Skills and destroyed the cores.

As they repeated that sequence, their defense and offense flowed without a single error, like a precision machine.

Lee Ji-ryeong silently watched the sight.

This was the reason he had created the Pegasus Raid Team.

He could have swept them away by himself, but if he did that, the raid team would no longer grow.

Only if the Pegasus Raid Team grew could he look toward a higher place.

Awakened who fought fierce battles like this grew quickly, became elites, and turned into a solid foundation beneath him.

One could never reach a high place alone.

There had to be people firmly supporting one from below.

Not charging ahead alone, but growing together.

That was why Lee Ji-ryeong had taken one step back and was watching the raid team’s attack.

Fortunately, until now, they had followed his expectations.

Though there had been more casualties than expected.

Suddenly, Lee Ji-ryeong’s gaze turned toward Levin.

Levin was releasing lightning while in Ghost Transformation.

Levin’s unique Purple Lightning burned away not only the cores but also the bodies of the undead soldiers whole.

It still lacked a little precision, but its power was far stronger than an ordinary lightning Skill.

That was why Lee Ji-ryeong coveted him.

Since he himself was also a lightning-type Awakened, he was confident he could raise Levin well. The problem was that Levin had no intention of coming to him.

Levin trusted Zeon greatly.

As long as Zeon was alive, Lee Ji-ryeong felt certain that Levin would never follow him.

‘Levin and Zeon, huh......’

At that moment, what rose in Lee Ji-ryeong’s mind was a balance scale.

He placed Zeon and Levin on either side of the scale and watched which way the weight would tilt.

‘Interesting.’

Contrary to his thoughts, Lee Ji-ryeong’s eyes turned cold.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!

Even at that moment, the Pegasus Raid Team was steadily clearing the ancient castle.

The undead soldiers were no longer a match for the raid team.

“Good! We’ll clear this in no time.”

“Push through like this.”

The Awakened’s confidence pierced the sky.

Just as the thought that they could clear the ancient castle quickly crossed their minds, it happened.

WHIRRR!

As if to shatter their confidence, the passage wall opened, and figures dressed as knights appeared.

“What now?”

“Undead knights this time?”

At a glance, they gave off a powerful presence that could not be compared to the undead soldiers.

Lee Ji-ryeong shouted,

“Everyone, be careful. These bastards are on a completely different level from the ones that appeared before.”

“Yes!”

Tension was clear on the faces of the Awakened as well.

They too could sense, to some extent, the power of the undead knights.

At that instant, the undead knights attacked.

WHOOSH!

Their swords cut through the darkness.

The martial-type Awakened who became the target shouted and swung his sword to meet them.

“Don’t look down on humans, you rotten things.”

He was a Grade C martial-type Awakened, and his main weapon was a sword.

His sword split into three in an instant.

One sword for counterattack, a second sword to create an opening, and a third sword for counterattack.

SLASH!

But his sword never reached the undead knights.

That was because the undead knight’s sword cut through both his sword and his body at the same time.

“Uh, uh!”

The Awakened opened and closed his mouth in disbelief, then fell to the ground in two pieces.

“Fuck! It’s aura.”

“The undead are using aura.”

“This is insane.”

Just as the Awakened said, an ominous black aura was rising from the undead knights’ swords.

The Pegasus Raid Team was greatly shocked by the fact that mere undead were using aura, something said to be usable only by Awakened of at least Grade B.

At that moment, lightning flashed in the passage.

Lee Ji-ryeong had fired lightning.

The Awakened had no doubt that the lightning would roast the undead knights black. But something happened that made them doubt their own eyes.

SHAAAK!

A black protective barrier appeared in front of the undead knights.

The barrier deflected the cluster of lightning to the side.

It broke immediately afterward, but it had still protected the undead knights from the lightning.

“Aura...... Shield?”

“This is maddening. What kind of corpse bastard can use Aura Shield?”

Among martial types, only Awakened of Grade B or higher could create Aura Shield.

That meant the combat strength of the undead knights that had just appeared matched that of Grade B martial-type Awakened.

Their strength was similar, but the undead knights held the advantage.

That was because they were undead.

Unless their cores were destroyed, they did not die no matter how severe their wounds were. Even if their heads were cut off.

On top of that, the undead knights could freely use aura.

Since they used aura for both offense and defense, it was actually the human Awakened who were being pushed back.

“Kraaak!”

“Kuhk!”

The Awakened standing at the front collapsed with screams.

They had been killed by the undead knights.

The problem happened afterward.

GROOOAN!

The Awakened killed by the undead knights rose to their feet.

“What the hell?”

“Why are they......?”

The eyes of the Awakened who rose again were filled with black energy.

The dead Awakened turned around and attacked their comrades.

“Damn it!”

“These bastards became undead.”

“If you’re killed by an undead knight, you become undead. Fuck!”

The Awakened were horrified.

To a raid team, death was like an untrustworthy friend.

Always at their side, and if they let their guard down even slightly, it could stab them at any time.

Because of that, they were always prepared for death, and they were confident they could accept it calmly. But reviving as undead was a completely different matter.

For the first time, fear appeared on the Awakened’s faces.

Lee Ji-ryeong noticed the Awakened wavering and gritted his teeth.

‘It cannot be helped. I wanted to face the boss while preserving as much strength as possible.’

Lee Ji-ryeong’s mana was not infinite either.

Using powerful Skills consumed a great deal of mana, and it took quite a long time to replenish it.

Because of that, he had only stepped forward when absolutely necessary, and thanks to that, he had been able to conserve a great deal of mana. But now was not the time to calculate this and that.

Even at this very moment, the Awakened at the front were being killed by the undead knights. Then they revived as undead and attacked their comrades.

For now, they were barely managing to hold them off, but once the number of dead increased at some point, the balance of power would collapse.

Their allies would decrease while their enemies continued increasing, reversing the advantage in strength.

He had to clean things up before such a situation happened.

“Whew!”

Lee Ji-ryeong breathed deeply and prepared to unleash his strongest Skill.

Crackle! Crackle!

Sparks surged strongly around his body.

Seeing that, Bronson shouted,

“It’s Lightning God’s Hammer. Vanguard, all of you, fall back. Hurry!”

Lightning God’s Hammer.

The supreme Skill that had made Lee Ji-ryeong what he was today.

The Awakened who knew its power hurriedly retreated.

Levin, who saw that, looked puzzled.

‘Just how powerful is it?’

It was then.

FLASH!

Lightning far more powerful than anything before burst from Lee Ji-ryeong’s body.

The blindingly powerful lightning struck the undead knights directly.

The undead knights tried to unfold Aura Shield and protect their entire bodies.

They seemed confident that since they had blocked it before, they could block it this time as well. But the result that appeared was different from what they expected.

SHATTER—!

With the sound of breaking glass, the black Aura Shields shattered to pieces.

The lightning struck the undead knights, who were no longer protected by Aura Shield.

The lightning dug straight into their bodies.

POP, POP, POP—!

The bodies of the undead knights burst apart like fireworks.

If it had only been that much, they might have been able to revive, but the lightning also burst their cores apart.

The undead knights no longer existed.

Only black ash remained where they had stood.

It truly looked like a hammer brought down by the Lightning God.

Eloy muttered as he looked at the devastated passage.

“That crazy bastard. How is that Grade A? Hasn’t he already reached Grade S?”

---

CRUMBLE!

Dust as fine as sand was scattering.

They were the remains of beings once called Interrogators.

Zeon had ground them apart with Exion.

The Interrogators did not revive.

That was because even their cores had been ground away.

When the Interrogators died, the Awakened who had been tortured also quietly breathed their last.

Even as they met death, they smiled.

That was because they knew they could finally find freedom only after dying.

“May you go to a good place......”

No more undead remained to block Zeon. Even so, Zeon did not lower his guard.

Among all dungeons, the worst were dungeons like this one, where the dead walked freely.

It was not merely because they were hard to fight, but because one faced unpredictable situations like this.

It was then.

SWISH!

A ghostlike being appeared, passing through the wall.

It was the Grim Reaper holding a large Reaper’s scythe.

The Grim Reaper pointed its scythe at Zeon as if warning him not to come any closer.

It was the Grim Reaper that had kidnapped Cha Jin-cheol.

As if it would never let Zeon pass, the Grim Reaper glared at him while its robe fluttered.

FLARE!

Ghost fire rose from the Grim Reaper’s eyes as it glared at Zeon.

“So you must be the final gatekeeper?”