Chapter 20

Chapter 20.

 

Brilliant streams of light poured out, adding to their number one by one.

Before long, a flash so intense that he could not see anything burst outward.

[Ultimate Abyss Fragment opened]

[The Abyss Ruler’s Authority ‘Compression’ is embodied as a skill]

[A massive quantity of abyss energy is transferred]

SSSSSSSS!

‘Th-this is…!’

Lee Ha-kyung could not help being stunned.

A completely different class of abyss energy had come crashing into him.

It felt as though a force was trying to tear his whole body apart.

As if his flesh and bones were about to split from each other.

Even so, Lee Ha-kyung endured through the extreme pain.

[Cloak of Command Activated]

[Tyrant’s Bracelet Activated]

SSSSSS—

It was thanks to the artifacts protecting his body.

After some time passed like that, it became just barely manageable.

Lee Ha-kyung snapped his eyes open.

ZZZHWOOONG—!

A blue beam shot straight out in front of him.

It was the leftover abyss energy he had not fully digested escaping from his body.

A moment later, Lee Ha-kyung dropped to one knee.

‘Burning through all my mana and abyss energy turned out to help. If I had not, this would have been even worse.’

His condition was like a balloon that had been emptied out.

If there had still been something inside, it might have burst.

That was how enormous the amount of high-purity abyss energy transferred into him had been.

Lee Ha-kyung pulled up his awakened status.

He was curious how the new Authority would be displayed.

Name: Lee Ha-kyung

Refinement Rank: Stage 3

Skills: Wall-Walking Steps (A), Soul-Sever (S), Abyss Refinement (S), Kin-Eater (S), Soul Brand (EX), Distortion (Authority), Compression (Authority)

Artifacts: Reactive Magic Armor, Cloak of Command, Tyrant’s Bracelet, Restoration Veil, Ultimate Abyss Key (2/3)

‘So an Authority is just listed as an Authority.’

It was probably because it was too powerful a skill to be assigned a rank.

Lee Ha-kyung sprang to his feet.

Power was overflowing through his entire body.

It felt like he could use that fifteen-meter Soul-Sever one or two more times and still be fine.

Of course, he had no intention of trying something that reckless unless he absolutely had to.

Lee Ha-kyung recalled the overwhelming pressure from earlier.

‘What kind of monster has power on that scale?’

A monster with an entire dungeon inside its body.

Just imagining it made him feel helpless.

Before long, Lee Ha-kyung made his way through the tangled maze.

It was complicated, but finding the way was not especially hard.

He was just retracing the path he had taken earlier, and Soul Brand was giving him a rough sense of direction.

He was about to round a corner when he heard the Great Sage’s voice through Whisperer.

—Focus just a little longer! We are almost there!

The fight was a mess.

Fortunately, the team still had the upper hand.

Even so, the battle was dragging on.

After watching for a moment, Lee Ha-kyung clicked his tongue.

‘The Brood Sovereign is going crazy trying to multiply its underlings, and the raid team is running around breaking eggs.’

So of course the fight still was not over.

They were just stuck in a battle of attrition.

Lee Ha-kyung drew his karambit.

Whiiiing—!

Gray-white energy naturally gathered around it.

The length of Abyss Refinement was still the same as before, three meters.

But the blade itself had become nearly twice as thick.

Mana Refinement of that size was no easy feat.

Even a highly skilled awakened one would have had to squeeze out every last ounce of strength to pull it off.

But Lee Ha-kyung’s face remained perfectly calm.

‘This is easy.’

The feeling that he had grown yet again filled him with quiet satisfaction.

As he walked forward, Lee Ha-kyung activated Whisperer.

“I am joining you.”

—Are you all right?

“I have recovered enough. I will not be a burden.”

—All right. Then we will leave it to you.

“Sounds good.”

This time, Kim Sang-woo’s performance stood out.

He had kept the Brood Sovereign completely tied down the entire time.

Thanks to that, Lee Ha-kyung was able to approach the boss without much trouble.

But when he circled around to the rear, an unexpected sight greeted him.

‘Those are… eggs?’

Three lumps hidden behind the Brood Sovereign.

They were writhing so clearly that it looked as though hatching was only moments away.

Up to this point, the raid team’s ranged dealers had focused all their attacks on the eggs.

Under that relentless barrage, not a single Brood Eater had managed to hatch.

But apparently the boss had one hidden move left.

Splurt! Splurt! Splurt!

“Kieeek!”

“Krit! Krit!”

Three Brood Eaters burst out, tearing through their shells.

The instant they saw Lee Ha-kyung, they thrust their sharp forelegs toward him.

He swung Abyss Refinement without much thought.

Just like before, he meant to wipe them all out in one go.

But then the Brood Eaters suddenly stopped attacking and started backing away.

And at that exact moment—

[Brood Sovereign Ultimate Skill Activated: Overgrowth Surge]

[An unstoppable wave of abyss energy has been detected]

Something like a yellow fog spread outward.

Lee Ha-kyung knew it instinctively.

‘That cannot touch me. I have to avoid it, no matter what.’

He immediately threw himself backward.

But the Brood Eaters reacted differently.

They crouched down inside the yellow fog.

Then their bodies began swelling in size in an instant.

Swell! Swell! Swell!

It almost sounded like he could hear them growing.

Before long, the Brood Eaters had become nearly as large as the boss itself.

Lee Ha-kyung frowned.

‘Their abyss energy… it is almost on par with the boss now?’

At this point, it was basically the same as fighting four bosses.

[Brood Eaters have metamorphosed into Brood Devourers]

The grotesque four forelegs disappeared,

and the Brood Eaters’ mouths grew several times larger.

Rows of densely packed, razor-sharp teeth.

They looked like gigantic anglerfish mouths—

if not for the fact that they also had eight legs like spiders.

Thudthudthudthud! Crunch! Chomp!

The Brood Devourers bit wildly into both the walls and the floor.

The whole dungeon began to shake.

When Lee Ha-kyung had torn open just fifty centimeters of it, that alone had caused chaos.

So what would happen if these parasite monsters went berserk?

‘The Abyss of Infestation is going to convulse in shock, and then obviously an immune response will….’

Sure enough, the walls writhed and vomited something out.

Red monsters about the size of chimpanzees.

A pack of Hemobeasts.

At this rate, the whole place was going to descend into utter chaos again.

And that would give the Brood Sovereign breathing room.

Time to lay more eggs and increase its numbers.

Lee Ha-kyung adjusted his grip on the karambit.

‘This needs to end fast.’

Kin-Eater was still unavailable.

That meant he had to kill the Brood Sovereign using Soul-Sever alone.

Somehow, it felt like his normal output would be just a little lacking.

But now Lee Ha-kyung had a new weapon.

[The Abyss Challenger’s Authority ‘Compression’ increases the density of abyss energy]

TSUKYUNG—!

His three-meter Abyss Refinement abruptly shrank to half its size.

The blazing gray-white flames around it disappeared as well.

It almost looked like the second stage of refinement.

But Lee Ha-kyung knew better.

‘It is only smaller in size. The actual power is much greater.’

The next instant, the Brood Devourers lunged at him.

All three of them sprang at once and rushed him.

As though they had planned it, they attacked from three directions at the same time.

It was a desperate situation with no room to dodge.

Lee Ha-kyung kicked off the ground and shot forward.

Tap-tap-tap!

‘Not a chance!’

By charging straight ahead instead, he broke their encirclement in a single move.

The Brood Devourers ended up slamming only their heads into the floor.

KWA-BOOM!

Meanwhile, Lee Ha-kyung closed in on the boss monster,

the Brood Sovereign’s left flank.

Even in the middle of all that chaos, Kim Sang-woo still had aggro under control.

Because of that, Lee Ha-kyung had been handed a perfect opening.

‘It ends now.’

Sssst—

For an instant, everything around him went quiet.

His concentration had reached its peak.

He drew the karambit back as far as he could, then drove it forward in an explosive thrust.

He had unleashed Soul-Sever as a stabbing attack.

At once, Abyss Refinement doubled in length.

All while perfectly maintaining the form of a flawless blade.

Thrust!

Lee Ha-kyung’s strike pierced through the side of the Brood Sovereign’s head.

A boss monster’s outer shell was naturally monstrously tough.

And this one was no exception.

But the penetrating power of “Compressed Soul-Sever” was overwhelming.

Enough to split the Brood Sovereign’s body like tofu.

“Kkiiiieeeeeek!”

A shrill, desperate scream rang out.

Lee Ha-kyung yanked the karambit back out,

then slashed downward in a long arc as he fell.

It was an attack made by using the remaining force of Soul-Sever.

Shraaaak—!

The wound tore open in a long line, and a clear fluid came pouring out.

The staggering Brood Sovereign collapsed without strength soon after.

BOOOOM!

[Dungeon Boss, Brood Sovereign Defeated]

[Reward granted: ‘Overgrowth Ring’]

Keeping Abyss Refinement active, Lee Ha-kyung turned around.

The Brood Devourers were writhing as they changed back.

Their bodies were steadily shrinking.

Since the boss had died, it was only natural that the ultimate skill had been canceled too.

“Kkiik?”

“Kirik….”

The three Brood Eaters flattened themselves against the floor.

He could not read their expressions, but somehow they looked depressed.

Lee Ha-kyung let out a faint laugh and turned away.

There was no need to waste any more strength on them.

The Hemobeasts would kill them soon enough anyway.

Instead, he checked on his team first.

“Is everyone all right?”

—Yes! We will be right there.

The Great Sage’s clear voice came through Whisperer.

They had pulled off a win after overturning a crushing disadvantage, so of course they had to be thrilled.

Lee Ha-kyung spoke briefly with Kim Sang-woo.

“You should move quickly. I will keep the Hemobeasts occupied, so gather the loot first.”

“Yes, understood!”

Kim Sang-woo had become more and more respectful.

Of course, he had already been obedient ever since Lee Ha-kyung killed the Obsidian Titan.

But now it almost felt as if he were serving a superior officer.

A small smile tugged at Lee Ha-kyung’s lips.

‘He is so transparent. I like that.’

A little later, the back-line team members arrived.

The ranged dealers quickly took the hint and rushed over to the Brood Sovereign’s corpse.

The Great Sage, on the other hand, came over to Lee Ha-kyung.

“You worked hard.”

“It was nothing. Everyone did their part.”

“Heh heh! That is not how it looked to me.”

The Great Sage’s expression was bitter.

Then came a self-mocking evaluation.

“Until just a few days ago, I was brimming with confidence. The Void is a place allowed only to a tiny handful of pioneers.”

“That is not wrong.”

“So I thought an Incomprehensible-rank five-man dungeon would be easy enough to clear. But….”

If Lee Ha-kyung had not been here today, the result would have been obvious.

Most likely, they would have been wiped out before they even reached the dungeon.

They would never have made it past the wall that was Obsidian Titan.

And even if they somehow survived and managed to challenge the Abyss of Infestation, the outcome would have been the same.

Their only option would have been escape.

They probably would never even have managed a real attempt at the raid.

The Great Sage shook their head.

“Whew. Still, I suppose this will give me reason to pull myself together even more. If I challenge it again someday….”

The Great Sage trailed off.

Today had, for all practical purposes, been Lee Ha-kyung’s one-man show.

So why would he have any reason to come back with such an inadequate team?

Apparently, the Great Sage had assumed Lee Ha-kyung would not even give the idea a second glance.

But he only gave a light shrug.

“If the chance comes up, let us work together again.”

“Th-thank you.”

The Great Sage sounded sincerely grateful.

Once they finished gathering the loot, the raid team returned to the surface.

After passing through the gate, Lee Ha-kyung said goodbye to the others.

“Then I will see you at the exchange.”

“Yes, thank you for your work.”

This time, even the ranged dealers bowed politely.

The territorial attitude from before was nowhere to be seen.

All that remained in their eyes was respect.

Lee Ha-kyung smiled faintly and headed for the washroom.

After coming back from the Abyss, the first thing anyone had to do was wash off the contamination.

But then someone suddenly spoke to him.

“Hello, Mr. Lee Ha-kyung. Would you have a moment to talk?”

A slightly wrinkled shirt, a dark jacket,a bag with a laptop in it, and thick glasses.

He did not look like an awakened one at all.

When Lee Ha-kyung looked at him in puzzlement, the man smiled.

“Ah, my apologies. I am late introducing myself. I am reporter Moon Jeong-hoon from the National Journal.”