Chapter 42 – Anomaly (４)

‘The Ancient Evil.’

It was true.

Somewhere in this dungeon, he could feel a presence similar to the Ancient Evil he’d sensed not long ago, when he obtained the Second Heart.

‘…No way.’

But Gijun shook his head.

‘That can’t be.’

Right.

It was absurd.

‘I must be tense. I need to focus.’

Gijun stroked his cheek, pulling himself together.

Meanwhile, the party members were buzzing with excitement.

‘Where else would I get this?’

‘When would I ever party with someone like him again?’

It was an honor, plain and simple.

Gijun’s current trajectory was nothing short of extraordinary.

Inside the guild, there wasn’t a single person who didn’t know the name Baek Gijun.

Everyone already knew that Woo Jimin was backing him to the hilt, aiming to forge him into a world-class Superhuman.

To be in the same party as a Superhuman like that—it was an honor in itself.

‘In just a little time, he’ll climb so high I won’t even be able to look him in the eye.’

‘Maybe this is the last time.’

They all knew.

If not today, working alongside Gijun would become impossible.

And just keeping pace with a Superhuman of this caliber, hunting in sync with him, would plant the seeds for tremendous growth in them.

“Understood.”

“Leave it to us!”

The Superhumans shouted and moved as one.

Even without Jun’s explicit direction, they knew exactly how to draw the monster’s attention.

They were Superhumans who had grown up hearing themselves called elites, after all.

‘Alright, then…’

As the Superhumans advanced toward the Urtuka, the Urtuka lunged toward them in turn.

‘First, slow its mobility to the limit.’

The Urtuka was already a beast of terrifying speed.

The most efficient way to handle it was to cripple that mobility.

‘Then…’

Strong Wind.

He had to shred the creature’s wings as fast as possible.

Cwoooosh!

The Two-Horned Urtuka tore through the air toward the Superhumans.

Ha Seol stood at the front, shield raised, while close-range dealers flanked her left and right.

At the rear, the Healer and an archer kept the beast pinned.

Just as the Two-Horned Urtuka closed in on the Superhumans…

Shoooosh!

A savage wind coiled around the Urtuka’s wings.

And with that…

Crack! Cra-cra-crack!

A hail of snapping, splintering sounds burst from the creature’s wings.

Creak, groan—Craaaack!

Shards of the steel-like wings exploded outward.

“Behind me!”

Ha Seol shouted.

At her cry, the Superhumans scrambled into position.

A movement utterly free of wasted motion.

Clang! Clang-clang-clang!

The barrier Ha Seol conjured blocked the wing fragments completely.

In that instant, the Urtuka’s gaze shifted.

Toward Jun.

And the beast swung its massive wing.

Fwapp-p-p-p!

Steel shards erupted from the wing’s edge.

“B-Be careful!”

Ha Seol’s cry reached him.

Not that it mattered to Jun.

Tang! Clang-clang-clang!

The Strong Wind barrier he’d already raised deflected every last shard of steel.

But that wasn’t all.

Kiiiiieeeek!

Urtukas dove toward Jun in an instant.

At least ten of them.

And they were blisteringly fast.

They closed to within a breath of Jun’s face.

But Jun was smiling.

Not a trace of panic.

At the same time, he pushed off the ground.

Heading straight into their midst.

His entire body wrapped in Strong Wind.

Chwaaaaack!

With every step Jun took, geysers of blood erupted from the Urtukas’ bodies.

The combination of Strong Wind and Orca’s Footsteps.

An absurd synergy that let him wound enemies just by moving.

Of course, Jun’s attack didn’t end there.

Kwa-kwa-kwang!

Plunging into their center, he unleashed a barrage of Fireballs indiscriminately.

Flames from the Fireballs spread in every direction in an instant.

The fire, naturally, didn’t harm Jun at all.

Because his whole body was wrapped in Strong Wind.

Instead, the Urtuka closest to Gijun felt even more excruciating pain from the fierce flames of the Fireball fused with Strong Wind.

“Ha…!”

A chill ran down his spine.

How could anyone look at that and think he was just a mage?

But the awe was brief.

This wasn’t the time to stand around gaping.

In an instant, the melee dealers who had lunged forward and the archers’ harassment converged on the Two-Horned Urtuka.

Kaaang!

Ha Seol too slammed her shield.

A wave of force rippled out from the shield, blanketing the area.

Ha Seol’s aggro skill dragged the Urtuka’s attention back to her.

‘Excellent, as always.’

A smile touched Gijun’s lips.

By now, most of the Urtuka that had been trailing him were cleared out.

The ones left were already moving toward Ha Seol…

‘My turn, then.’

Gijun moved.

He needed to find a good position.

To concentrate his strikes on the wings, he had to keep moving.

Standing still in one spot made it hard to land focused blows where he wanted.

Even more so when the monster was flying through the air.

‘Here.’

He soon stopped, planting himself in place.

A blind spot where the creature’s wing was laid bare.

Gijun cast Strong Wind again.

Pukang! Kakakang!

With another burst of cracking sounds, fractures began to spread across the creature’s wing.

Fireball next.

Three Fireballs split the air, rushing toward the creature.

Kwaang!

The Fireball exploded against its right wing.

Striking the wing with pinpoint accuracy, the Fireball erupted into a raging blaze that spread across the entire wing.

Kyaaaaaaah—!

*

Kwaaang!

The Two-Horned Urtuka.

It crashed to the ground.

One of its wings was already a shredded mess.

Its body was so broken it could barely move now.

The fall had snapped all the joints and tendons in its legs.

“Three minutes? It took three minutes?”

“This is really…”

Skill so incredible it was hard to believe even seeing it.

The Superhumans were stunned.

They knew the strategy for taking down a Two-Horned Urtuka.

But this was fast.

Too fast.

‘Who else but hyung¹ Gijun could pull this off?’

Even using a spell like Wind Cutter, it’d be impossible.

Sure, Wind Cutter was powerful, but its casting time was long.

And even if you got the cast off, hitting the exact spot you wanted wasn’t easy.

After all, mages were meant to be protected.

Wasn’t a mage’s skill measured by how well they exploited the gaps created by the Tanker and melee dealers while staying in the back?

But Gijun was clearly different.

He seized his own position and carved out his own space.

So even for the tankers and melee dealers, the fight had become immensely easier.

The only thing they had to worry about now was aggro.

The Urtuka that had been clustered around the Guardian were already cleared out.

Then.

Whoosh!

Jun’s Fireball.

It revealed itself.

“Get down!”

Jun shouted.

Boom! Boom! Crash!

It was the moment the indiscriminate bombardment began.

The Superhumans moved frantically too.

Making sure the Urtuka’s aggro didn’t shift to Jun.

And they kept harassing the bastard, accumulating damage steadily.

Under the combined assault of Jun and the Superhumans, the Urtuka’s body grew more and more covered in wounds,

and before long, the Urtuka fell.

“Whoa!”

“No way…!”

“Five minutes? It only took five minutes!”

Everyone erupted in cheers.

The time spent defeating the Guardian was a mere five minutes.

A truly unbelievable speed.

But Jun had no time to celebrate. He moved toward the Control Stones.

‘I need to activate five. There should be about seven Control Stones in here…’

While the Ure side activated one, it meant Jun had to activate at least the equivalent of 2.5 Control Stones.

‘Time’s tight.’

The Superhumans from Ure were no pushovers either.

No matter how strong he’d gotten, they were still existences he couldn’t afford to ignore.

Vwoooom!

The moment Jun placed his hand over the Control Stone, it blazed with light.

To activate a Control Stone, you had to analyze its circuits and flow Mana through them accordingly.

‘Okay.’

For Jun, of course, this was like taking candy from a baby.

Flash!

The black Control Stone began to radiate a green hue in an instant.

“…”

“A monster. For real.”

Of course, the Superhumans’ shock was only natural.

Analyzing and activating the Control Stone’s circuits in under a minute.

But at that moment, Jun’s expression darkened again.

The joy of victory fleeting, a deep furrow was already carved between his brows.

The reason was, once again, that déjà vu.

‘…Again.’

It was unmistakable.

Right now, from this Control Stone, an aura very similar to the Ancient Evil was flowing out.

‘Just what the hell is happening?’

This didn’t feel right.

Maybe they had stepped into a dungeon far more dangerous than they had imagined.

*

“Done!”

Time passed, and the Superhumans from Ure had also activated one Control Stone.

“Hoo… that was damn hard.”

“Drives me crazy.”

They already looked like death warmed over.

Some were injured, and all of them were completely drained.

“The difficulty is no joke.”

It couldn’t be helped.

The Guardian they were facing now was a Long-Horn Gorgot.

Yet another monster you’d only see in a Level 5 dungeon.

To make matters worse, they were unlucky.

That bastard was a Golem-type monster, its entire body encased in stone.

Thanks to that, Park Gangseok’s lightning magic couldn’t deal proper damage.

“Good work, Gangseok.”

“It was nothing.”

Park Gangseok wasn’t exactly thrilled with the situation either.

But it wasn’t a disappointing outcome, either.

“Still, we cut it down in under ten minutes. At this rate, that’s incredible speed.”

The time it took to take down the Guardian was just over nine minutes.

Despite the elemental disadvantage, this pace wasn’t bad at all.

“This Dungeon — we’re finishing it in under eight hours, no matter what.”

“Sounds good.”

“Let’s move!”

With that, they ended their three-minute rest and got moving again.

No sooner had they started than they were face-to-face with another Monster.

Their bodies were already worn out, heavy as lead — but they couldn’t stop.

If anything, they picked up the pace, cutting down Monsters and pushing forward faster than before.

And so, roughly an hour passed…

“A Control Stone!”

They’d found another Control Stone.

“What’s that?”

“It’s not in the data.”

The Guardian they now faced was a type that had never appeared before.

“Damn it.”

As expected — another hurdle.

A Monster with no known strategy, and of all things, it had to be the Guardian.

Then Park Gangseok spoke.

“It’s fine.”

In fact, Gangseok was smiling.

“That one — it’s more than manageable.”

“…You might have a point.”

Gangseok’s words weren’t empty bravado.

The Monster that had appeared was a bird.

A bird with six wings, its entire body covered in crimson feathers.

“Honestly, this one’s way easier than that last one.”

A living creature was far preferable to a stone-clad Golem.

Moreover, an aerial Monster posed no real problem for Gangseok.

“Okay, let’s go right now.”

They moved toward the Guardian.

Their strategy was textbook.

The physical-type Superhuman took point, with Gangseok and the Healer in the back.

The front opened up space, and Gangseok stabbed into the gaps.

Their rhythm was clean, stripped of any excess — textbook and precise as they took down the Guardian.

With the second Guardian down, they let out a cheer of relief.

“Nice!”

“A lot faster than last time, right?”

“You said it!”

“Now if we just activate the Control Stone…”

Gangseok approached the Control Stone, analyzed its circuits, and activated it.

A green light burst from the stone.

“Good. Now, onto the next…”

But then.

A deep rumble shook the air.

The Control Stone trembled.

And from its peak, a beam of light erupted.

The beam began to blast an intense green radiance toward a single point…

“Huh?”

“This…”

“What — what the hell!”

All of them stared wide-eyed in shock.

“No… fucking way.”

“What kind of bullshit is this!”

Someone couldn’t help but curse.

Because this phenomenon — it was the signal that all Control Stones had been activated.

“…Then that means…”

“You’re saying Hwarang already activated all the Control Stones?”

“That’s insane!”

Of course it was.

They’d only just managed to activate two themselves.

And the other side had all five?

How the hell was that even possible?

“But… this is clearly…”

Yeah.

And yet, it was undeniable.

Beams shooting from the Control Stones meant every single one had been activated.

“Fuck… what the…”

Everyone stared at each other, faces blank with shock.

But then.

“Th-that… what is that?”

Something even more shocking happened.

“What is it?”

All eyes followed where one Superhuman pointed.

Their gazes landed on the same direction the light beams had just erupted from.

“Why’s that color like that?”

“Wasn’t it green just a moment ago?”

“Right. But it’s starting to change now.”

The green light shifted.

Into black.

A phenomenon never once observed before.

“Fuck… what the hell is that now?”

As if that wasn’t enough, black clouds began rolling in across the Dungeon’s sky.

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1. Hyung — a term a younger man uses for an older man or brother; literally “older brother.”