Chapter 82

The deeper they went into the dungeon, the more sinister it became.

‘Hmm…’

Kang Yuseong frowned.

Such an oppressive, chilling aura was something he had never experienced before.

It was a bizarre dungeon, as if brimming with resentment and curses.

That was the D-666 Dungeon.

Even he, who had been through countless hardships, felt a shiver down his spine, so how much greater must have been the terror felt by the exploration teams who had come here?

Yet, Kang Yuseong found himself trusting this dungeon even more because of it.

If there was a Necromancer in a place like this, he was sure to gain something from it.

Kang Yuseong stopped mid-stride into the dungeon and checked his Karma Power.

It seemed the time to reactivate Thieving Eye would come sooner than expected.

Checking his Karma Power, he realized he could reduce Thieving Eye’s cooldown to under twenty minutes.

Since only about ten minutes had passed since Thieving Eye was last sealed, it meant he could activate it again within ten minutes.

[Thieving Eye Cooldown Reduced.]

Kang Yuseong didn’t hesitate to shorten Thieving Eye’s cooldown.

Now, he could plunder another creature’s ability once every twenty minutes.

The cooldown now had about ten minutes remaining.

Kang Yuseong resumed his steps.

*Rustle.*

But how far had he gone before a sudden rustling sound reached his ears?

Kang Yuseong’s five senses sharpened.

*Rustle-rustle-rustle—*

And the next moment, a continuous sound of countless things moving followed.

At the exceedingly strange sound, Kang Yuseong closed his eyes.

In this pitch-black darkness, where nothing was visible, eyesight was useless.

Instead, his other senses, excluding sight, were pushed to their limits.

His hearing captured sounds from all directions, and his sense of smell detected a repulsive stench of decay.

The pervasive smell of death presented a level of horror that an ordinary person would find utterly unbearable.

But Kang Yuseong noticed a peculiar scent even amidst the decay.

‘This!’

It was a smell he had encountered before.

That acrid smell, mixed with sulfur!

‘Could it be!’

The Necromancer he had faced in the past.

The unique body odor he exuded was that of sulfur. These smells were what most troubled ordinary Hunters when raiding him.

The stench of decay from the corpses he controlled, combined with the pungent sulfur smell, was too much for regular Hunters to handle.

‘Is it him!’

Perhaps, it could be him.

The formidable being who would later give birth to a great evil and plunge the world into the aura of death.

Necromancer Undertaker.

The one known as the Undertaker of Death.

As soon as Kang Yuseong recalled that thought, he moved swiftly.

His five senses were now open to their absolute limit.

The tactile sensation through his feet, the sounds heard by his ears, the scent perceived by his nose.

Everything entirely replaced his sight, guiding Kang Yuseong forward.

The smell of sulfur intensified, the rustling sounds grew louder all around, and something squishy underfoot slowed his steps.

It was probably blood.

According to the exploration team, there was a vast lake here, like a pond of blood.

The very exploration team that reported countless corpses strewn about was eventually found as one of them.

*Thud, thud.*

Kang Yuseong moved slowly, utilizing all his senses.

In a situation utterly devoid of light like this, even night vision goggles were useless.

Because clumsy sight could sometimes hinder one’s ability to react.

However, Kang Yuseong already possessed senses that transcended human limits.

Combining all the sounds transmitted to his ears, his brain rendered the area in vivid three dimensions.

‘Thirty meters behind…a swarm of what I assume are insects…fifty meters to the front left…something heavy is moving. And behind that…’

Kang Yuseong frowned.

‘Behind that…something…’

He slowly turned his head in that direction.

That sound coming from behind it was…!

*Slurp, slurp, crunch! Crunch!*

It was the sound of something tearing at flesh and chewing on bones.

‘A monster!’

The object being devoured was likely a corpse.

A foul smell of decaying corpses had been present for a while, and something squishy kept brushing against his feet.

In this situation, if it was a predator, there was only one answer.

‘A Blood Slave.’

If the creature dwelling here was indeed the Undertaker, then the one tearing at flesh now was certainly a Blood Slave bound to him by a blood contract.

And that very Blood Slave was the entity Kang Yuseong had been searching for.

A summoned creature subservient to a Necromancer through a blood contract.

They weren’t one-time summons; they grew, gaining even greater power.

That was what a Blood Slave was.

Kang Yuseong smiled faintly.

At any rate, it seemed he had come to the right place.

But he needed to confirm if it was truly a Blood Slave.

The method of confirmation was simple.

*Hum—*

The sword in Kang Yuseong’s hand let out a low hum.

The hunt.

The hunt in this darkness was about to begin.

*Crunch! Crunch!*

The horrifying sound of bones being crunched echoed.

But to Kang Yuseong, that sound was a great boon.

Because it allowed him to pinpoint the creature’s location.

Then, at some point, the sound suddenly stopped.

‘…!’

An ominous silence filled the surroundings.

And Kang Yuseong felt it.

Something was approaching!

*CRASH!*

But in an instant, Kang Yuseong’s body was suddenly sent flying into the air.

A tremendous blow, as if he’d been gored by a mad wild boar, had struck him.

*Thump-thump-thump!*

Kang Yuseong quickly regained his balance in mid-air and landed, but the impact had been so powerful that even after stopping, he was forced back several steps.

His left arm, which had instantly expanded with Iron Armor to block the attack just before the creature lunged, throbbed with pain.

‘Hah, this bastard…’

Kang Yuseong adjusted his grip on his sword.

Monstrous strength, terrifying in its might.

And the problem was, he couldn’t pinpoint the creature’s location.

Judging by its power, it was a medium-sized monster. Medium-sized usually referred to monsters roughly two to three times, or even six to seven times, the size of a human. The impact felt like a steel wall had slammed into him.

With a body that massive, there should have been some indication of its movement, but there was absolutely none.

That implied only one thing.

‘Are you a Hunter too?’

Like a beast of prey hiding in the darkness, targeting a Hunter, it was likely concealing its massive body and glaring at Kang Yuseong from within the shadows.

A strange twist appeared at the corner of Kang Yuseong’s mouth.

Good.

This kind of unique fight excited him.

He closed his eyes.

‘It’s coming!’

He felt the subtle sound of the creature moving.

*CRASH!*

Kang Yuseong slid away from where he stood, and a violent explosion echoed as something slammed into the floor where he had just been.

‘…!’

But in that instant, Kang Yuseong’s expression changed dramatically.

*Swoosh!*

*Whoosh—*

Something else flew towards the spot he had just vacated.

Its speed was truly formidable, and Kang Yuseong barely managed to evade the attack.

But the next moment, he grimaced.

*Swoosh!*

This speed was simply unbelievable.

Two attacks had happened in the blink of an eye, and now a third attack was flying at him in rapid succession.

*CLANG!*

Kang Yuseong couldn’t dodge the third attack and activated Iron Armor to block it.

A massive impact instantly enveloped him, sending him soaring into the air once more.

Just then, something else plunged down towards him.

‘Ugh…!’

A relentless barrage of attacks, giving no room to breathe!

*CRASH!*

Being in mid-air, there was nothing he could do.

He reactivated Iron Armor, but a shockwave that felt like his bones were being crushed swallowed him whole.

*Thud-CRASH!*

“Cough!”

A groan escaped Kang Yuseong’s lips as he was slammed into the ground.

A terrifying attack speed!

If an expert of Kang Yuseong’s caliber couldn’t even evade it, it showed just how fearsome the opponent’s attack speed was.

But Kang Yuseong was thinking something else.

‘That creature…!’

At first, he thought there were at least two entities attacking him.

Otherwise, such a formidable attack speed couldn’t be explained.

The creature had launched its second attack simultaneously with its first, and its third attack at the same instant. Even if there was a difference, it was only a fleeting fraction of a second.

And looking at the trajectory of the attacks, they definitely weren’t launched by two separate entities. The strike points clearly originated from a single source, perfectly complementing the gaps in each attack.

But how could this be?

There was only one answer.

‘A mutant!’

There was a very high possibility that it was a mutant with multiple arms.

*Swoosh!*

At that moment, another attack was launched at Kang Yuseong.

*CRASH!*

He quickly rolled his body to evade the attack.

But a precise strike flew once again towards the spot he had just vacated.

“…”

*THUD!*

This, too, was an attack that gave Kang Yuseong no time to dodge.

*CRACK!*

His two forearms were encased in solid Iron Armor, and he used them to block the creature’s attack.

But Iron Armor couldn’t completely mitigate every impact.

As a throbbing ache, as if the bones protected by the Iron Armor were about to shatter, washed over him, Kang Yuseong gritted his teeth.

But that wasn’t the only thing tormenting him.

‘How…how can it be so precise?’

Both of them were in a terrible darkness where neither could see.

There was no light whatsoever; he couldn’t even see what was right in front of his nose.

In that case, the only senses he could truly rely on were hearing and smell.

While touch played a role, it was inherently very limited.

Kang Yuseong didn’t believe his hearing and smell were inferior to the creature’s.

Right now, his ears could pick up the sound of a needle dropping from a distant location.

If that was the case, it meant he should be able to discern and block the creature’s attacks. Just as he had been doing.

But even so, he couldn’t pinpoint the creature’s exact location.

If he could, there would be no reason for him to be pushed back like this.

Yet, the creature was pressing him, as if it could see right through him.

‘You bastard…’

Kang Yuseong slowly opened his eyes.

His eyes, too, were stained with darkness, emitting no light, yet Kang Yuseong could perceive the hidden world within the gloom.

Thieving Eye.

It had opened.

On the floor, countless abilities of the deceased, faintly discolored to gray, were visible, and all around, blue and green patterns gradually began to emerge.

Among them, there were patterns that shone with the clearest and brightest light.

Five patterns hovering directly before Kang Yuseong’s eyes.

Kang Yuseong grinned as he saw them.

‘Got you!’

He stared intently at one of those patterns.

The reason why the creature could launch such precise attacks.

A single pattern, shaped like a closed eye.

*Whoosh—*

Kang Yuseong stole the creature’s ability.

And a faint, wry smile appeared on his lips.

Because, before his eyes, the creature’s face, exhaling a repulsive breath, was faintly visible.

Chakra, Abyssal Eye.

The eyes of a predator, capable of catching prey even in the deepest darkness, were manifesting in Kang Yuseong’s own eyes.

“You’re dead.”

Kang Yuseong uttered quietly towards the creature with six arms wielding iron clubs.

*Whoosh!*

And he charged forward.