Chapter 74 – Boss [Legion of Darkness]

<A tiger leaves its skin when it dies, a person leaves their name when they die.>

This old Korean proverb underwent a slight revision in 2030.

Thanks to technological advancement, one more phrase was added.

<A tiger leaves its skin when it dies, a person leaves their name when they die, and a Superhuman leaves their Mana when they die.>

Not just Superhumans, but all fantastical beings that appeared in the world after the Cataclysm left Mana behind when they died.

For example, if a Monster or Superhuman with 100 Mana died, exactly 100 Mana would remain in that spot.

Like the spirit of the deceased, the Mana would linger at the place where its owner died for a while before eventually dispersing after a certain period.

Humanity only barely learned this fact in 2029, nine years after the Cataclysm.

It was an obvious thing, if you think about it.

Until the Mana measuring device, jointly developed by Korea’s KAIST and America’s MIT at the end of 2028, was commercialized and distributed in 2029, information acquisition regarding Mana, Monsters, and Superhumans was done entirely through Detectors who possessed the Detector Skill.

It was a case where, due to efficiently managing a small number of personnel, it remained unknown until machines replaced humans, and only then was it revealed.

When the fact that the Mana of a deceased being lingers at a location for a period was announced, humanity began to think, ‘Perhaps we’ve found a semi-permanent power source?’

It was because of the imagination that if the Mana of the dead—be they Superhumans or Monsters—remains, then that leftover Mana could be collected and used as a power source.

Of course, such imagination remained just that—imagination.

At least until May 1st, 2042, when Siguk was executed, no proper method to collect the Mana of deceased beings had emerged, even in theory.

[Torture Technician Lee Siguk, Notification Incident, Skill March of the Dark Legion, Activation Condition Met.]

As soon as he received that message, numbers floated before Siguk’s eyes like a hologram.

<1007000/1000000>

‘…….’

Siguk silently gazed at those numbers.

No more messages came.

As if its sole purpose was to inform him of this condition, there was no further communication after that.

‘March of the Dark Legion…….’

This D-Rank Skill, whose very nature was utterly unknown.

The message of ‘activation condition met’ that flew to him and the mysterious numbers that appeared before his eyes.

‘…….’

The first thing that came to Siguk’s mind was the fact that the dead—whether Superhumans or Monsters—leave behind Mana.

‘Don’t tell me…….’

Siguk looked at the Black Dragon.

The giant reptile, which looked more like some transcendent being than a Monster, was sneering down at the Hunter camp he had created, now cleanly vanished.

Siguk’s gaze this time turned to where the Hunters had been.

The place where only Ivan Ivanov remained alive, vomiting blood and gasping for breath.

Looking there, Siguk deployed his Detector Skill.

The Mana floating around Ivan Ivanov like a specter or a mist came into view.

Not displayed as a specific number, only visible as a mist-like form through the Detector Skill, and with no way to use it—an existence Siguk had always ignored.

The Mana of the dead.

The thought that perhaps March of the Dark Legion might use such Mana of the dead struck Siguk’s mind.

“Grrr!”

The Black Dragon snorted.

It opened its mouth again.

From its gaping maw, along with a cough, acidic gas that hadn’t been fully expelled spewed out.

The expressions of the living watching that black gas, which seemed to pollute even the air, darkened as much as the gas itself.

“Guh-luk-!”

Ivan Ivanov coughed up blood and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Сука!”

Spitting out a curse, Ivan Ivanov got up from his spot. He pulled a comprehensive potion from the first-aid kit strapped to his side, downed it in one go, and threw the bottle behind him.

Being a product made by an American pharmaceutical company, its efficacy was good, quickly filling his Life Force and Mana to full.

“Our country’s pharmaceutical companies only think about lowering unit costs. That’s why they only develop cheap crap that D-Rank Hunters eat. In contrast, American companies produce everything from cheap mass-produced items to top-tier luxury goods.”

He wasn’t expecting anyone to listen.

In a situation where death seemed certain, Ivan Ivanov was just spitting out words he had kept bottled up inside.

“It’s not just the pharmaceutical sector. It’s like that in every field. Our country is third-rate now. We have to admit that. And yet, those damn old folks and nationalist bastards only think about the Soviet era when we were first-rate. Stupid bastards. The situation of the Motherland is that we lag behind not just America but even Korea in every field except nuclear weapons. Do you think the saying ‘Nigeria where it snows’ came out of nowhere?”

Ivan Ivanov unfastened the circular shield strapped to his left arm and threw it.

“Why do I, the Russian president, use items that are all American or German-made? It’s because they’re unreliable. Even Chinese-made items would be more reliable than Russian ones.”

He pulled out a small, round rod-like object from the pouch fastened on the opposite side of the first-aid kit.

When he infused Mana into it, the roughly 15cm rod instantly became a 3-meter-long spear.

“Shield American-made, armor American-made, spear German-made. This is the reality of the weapons used by the Russian president, the Shield of the Nation.”

Ivan Ivanov raised his head.

High above, the Black Dragon was looking down at him.

Ivan Ivanov laughed like a half-madman and shouted.

“When I became an A-Rank Hunter, I thought I might be able to change this fucked-up reality of the Motherland somehow, but in the end, I’m going to die here to you, bastard. But I won’t die quietly. I’ll struggle to the end before I die.”

Ivan Ivanov stopped laughing.

He assumed a serious combat stance and glared at the Black Dragon.

The Black Dragon looked down at Ivan Ivanov and snorted.

Ivan Ivanov looked at the Black Dragon and uttered what might be his last words in this world.

“If by any chance, if by any real chance I get out of here alive, I will definitely kill that bastard Yuri Glerovsky. How is this an A-Rank Dungeon? It’s an off-Rank Dungeon.”

With those words, Ivan Ivanov tightly closed his mouth.

“Grrr-!”

The Black Dragon merely snorted.

It just stood still, looking at Ivan Ivanov as if inviting him to come.

Ivan Ivanov, holding his breath for a while, timing his charge.

For five minutes, he scanned the Black Dragon’s entire body, which seemed full of openings yet showed no gap to strike. Finally, when he took a step forward for his final blow…

‘…….’

“Grr?”

Both Ivan Ivanov and the Black Dragon could feel it.

The enormous Mana beginning to gather toward the hill where the final rally point was located.

Ivan Ivanov’s gaze followed the Black Dragon’s toward the hill.

‘…….’

And he could see it.

Siguk standing on the hill with his arms spread wide, and the massive lump of Mana beginning to coalesce into a sphere before him.

In an era where fantasy became reality, dragons that only appeared in legends frequently appeared before people’s eyes.

As Boss Monsters of B-Rank Dungeons or as Monsters in A-Rank Dungeons.

The abilities of dragons, which appeared very rarely, were terrifying.

Their majesty, flying freely through the air and spewing fire or Acidic Fluid, was enough to make countless Hunters give up on Raids.

But still, they were Monsters.

They were beings whose skin tore, who bled and died before the attacks of high-Rank Superhumans armed with high-grade items.

In that respect, the Black Dragon, who would be given the name Reaper of Moscow, was clearly a being on a completely different trajectory compared to the dragons Hunters had hunted before and would hunt in the future.

‘There’s no way a request with that level of reward would have been easy from the start.’

Siguk took a step forward.

He looked at the Black Dragon, who was snorting as it looked at Ivan Ivanov.

‘On the contrary, it’s an absurdly strong bastard, to the point where the reward seems stingy.’

Siguk spread his arms.

‘If I manage to catch it……, if this Skill becomes my hope…….’

In a state where his Mana and Life Force were fully replenished by potion consumption, he stared intently at the Black Dragon and quietly recited in his mind.

‘March of the Dark Legion.’

At that moment, all of Siguk’s Mana drained away.

The drained Mana coalesced into a spherical shape in the air 50 meters in front of him.

The spherical mass of Mana emitting a purple light began to rotate.

Centered on the rotating spherical mass of Mana, the Mana of the dead, spread like mist in all directions, began to gather.

Absorbing the Mana of the dead from the tropical rainforest in the rear and the basin in the front like a sponge, the mass of Mana gradually grew in size.

“Grr?”

The Black Dragon, who had initially dismissed it as just some insignificant last-ditch effort, looked at Siguk with suspicion for the first time.

And it was startled.

“Grr?!”

Its ominous golden eyes wavered.

Meanwhile, the mass of Mana grew larger and larger, finally becoming a sphere massive enough to swallow the Black Dragon whole, floating in the air.

“Grrrrrr…….”

The Black Dragon, uncharacteristically, watched the sphere with extreme wariness.

The mass of Mana, which had been rotating for a while, gradually slowed its spinning speed.

Soon, it stopped rotating completely.

A strong tension hung between the sphere and the Black Dragon.

“Grooooooo-!”

The Black Dragon roared and spewed Acidic Fluid toward the sphere.

The Acidic Fluid flew straight and hit the sphere head-on.

But the sphere didn’t budge.

“Grrr…….”

Looking at the sphere, unharmed even by its strongest weapon, the Black Dragon took a step back for the first time.

And the next moment, the sphere flashed once and then split into tens of thousands of pieces.

A group of faceless soldiers clad in black armor, armed with black swords and shields—the Dark Legion finally revealed its form.

“Grooooo-!”

These pure masses of Mana, without sound, face, or will, quickly flew toward the Black Dragon and attached themselves to its body.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

“Grooooo-!”

The Dark Legion soldiers silently stabbed the Black Dragon’s skin with their swords.

Before the swords made of pure Mana, the Black Dragon’s skin split and tore with terrifying ease.

“Grooooo-!”

The Black Dragon roared in pain and spread its wings.

But its wings were already tattered with torn membranes, putting it in a situation where it couldn’t even take flight.

“Grooooo-!”

The Black Dragon roared in pain.

Instantly, black thorn-like things appeared in the air, as many as the number of Dark Legion soldiers, and flew like arrows toward the Dark Legion attached to its body.

Thud! Thud-thud! Thud-thud-thud!

“Grooooo-!”

However, the Dark Legion instantly scattered, evading the attack, and the Black Dragon screamed as it felt the pain of its own poison thorns embedding all over its body.

The scattered Dark Legion clung to the Black Dragon’s body again.

And then, they mercilessly stabbed the Black Dragon’s skin even more.

“Grooooo-!”

The Black Dragon finally collapsed onto the ground.

Already, a significant number of the Dark Legion had penetrated its torn skin and entered its interior, gnawing at its body from the inside.

“Keh-huk-!”

Siguk vomited blood.

Even blacker blood than the dark red blood that had been streaming from his eyes, ears, and nose gushed out from his mouth once more.

Life Force: 15300/15300, Mana: 0/7300, Concentration: 30%

The Concentration, which had dropped to 30%,

“Grooooo…….”

By the time the Black Dragon’s roars were gradually becoming pitiful, had fallen to 17%.

And at that moment, a Telepathy flew into Siguk’s mind.

[What the hell are you!]

Though unseen and unheard, Siguk could intuitively feel who the being sending him Telepathy was.

[Let’s make a deal. I’ll send you four cleanly back to the outside world. And I’ll close the gate I created between your world and mine like this.]

The Black Dragon, who had treated the Hunters like cockroaches or ants, had effectively declared surrender.

But Siguk had no intention of making a deal with it.

To be precise, he didn’t have the mental capacity to do so.

“Keh-huk…….”

Siguk, vomiting another basinful of blood.

The Telepathy grew even more urgent.

[If this continues, both you and I will die. It’s better for both to live than for both to die. So hurry and let’s dea…….]

‘Kill!’

Siguk’s simple will was conveyed intact to the Dark Legion.

“Grooooooooo-!”

The Dark Legion that had infiltrated the Black Dragon’s interior stabbed its organs indiscriminately.

The dragon heart, said to contain tremendous Mana, was torn, and the stomach, which could be called an Acidic Fluid sac, was slit open lengthwise.

Some headed toward the brain.

Thud! Thud! Thud!*

The Dark Legion’s swords mercilessly stabbed the Black Dragon’s massive brain.

“Grooooooooooooo-!”

The Black Dragon let out one last long roar.

Life Force: 15300/15300, Mana: 0/7300, Concentration: 1%

As Concentration reached 1%, Siguk’s consciousness was completely cut off from the external world.

Whether the Black Dragon was dead or alive, Siguk could no longer know.

In a state where all cognitive functions except his own thinking had vanished, and as even that cognitive function was gradually fading…

[Request Successful, Dungeon Clear, Reward Distribution.]

With that soul-stirring message, Siguk completely lost consciousness.