novelraw Chapter 16 : Chapter 16
Chapter 16 : Chapter 16
Chapter 16. Crossroads of the Scale
A cavern filled with glowing stones that emitted a faint light.
In it, there were two entrances leading to neatly carved, cave-like passages.
“It definitely has a scale drawn on it.”
On the wall between the two entrances, a balance scale was drawn, with the two passages positioned on each side of the scale.
Below the drawing of the scale, ancient characters from another world were written.
The Tomb Raider spirit's
“Weight of blood… collision of equal worlds… twelve constellations… a tilted balance… imitation of fall and ascension….”
Only a portion was interpreted, but when pieced together with the dungeon rules he already knew, he could roughly understand it.
It seemed there was more to it, but further interpretation appeared difficult with just this.
“Can you make anything of it?”
As he was staring at the mural, Jin Yu-seong approached and asked.
“It doesn’t seem to be much different from what I told you before.”
“How should we split the forces?”
“The balance on both sides needs to be right. Seong-cheol and I will be a team. Yu-seong, you go to the opposite side with Se-hee.”
Based on the practical evaluation rankings, it was a team of 1st and 4th place, and a team of 2nd and 3rd place.
“We’ll take the left.”
“Okay.”
There were no particular objections to the divided teams' strengths, so Lee Han-seong's team chose the left passage and moved, while the other team headed to the right.
A short while later.
The dungeon's starting point fell silent as the four of them disappeared into their respective passages.
Two figures appeared there.
“Two paths….”
Kang Min confirmed the two forked paths and briefly glanced between them.
“They've split the party in two.”
“Our priority target is Lee Han-seong.”
“Then it's the left.”
Kang Min activated the
But he did not head into the passage right away.
“……? What is it?”
As Kim Jin-ho urged him, who stood as if nailed to the spot, he raised a hand to stop him.
Kang Min's gaze was fixed on the drawing of the scale between the two passages.
“The most important thing in a dungeon raid is to figure out the dungeon's rules. And most dungeons hide clues to their rules at the starting point.”
“A scale means balance? Do the number of people entering both passages have to match? Right. That's why they also split into two groups of two.”
“Ho. You can manage basic reasoning. That's probably right.”
At Kim Jin-ho's guess, Kang Min looked at him with new eyes.
“Then do we have to split up too?”
“No, there's no need. Reading the explanation below, it seems the balance that needs to be matched is not the number of entrants, but the number of monsters killed.”
“You can read that stuff too?”
“I just memorized a few simple words that frequently appear in dungeons.”
Kang Min said so, then headed towards the left passage and activated the
“We'll avoid combat and quietly follow them.”
Kim Jin-ho also used
He was thinking of killing Lee Han-seong, and if necessary, the promising talents too, to snatch the dungeon's rewards and achievements.
***
The left passage was where Lee Han-seong and Park Seong-cheol's team headed.
-Squeak squeak.
Sssssst.
The sound of rats crying and something brushing past echoed continuously from inside the passage.
Shing.
The sound was getting closer, and Lee Han-seong, who was leading the way in preparation for the upcoming battle, drew his Demonic Sword.
“Get ready.”
At the same time, he unleashed the breastplate's
Thanks to the light from the glowing stones embedded in the walls everywhere, our shadows had spread in all directions.
It was the perfect environment to unleash Shadow Craft.
-Nyan-nyang!
[The Unnamed Constellation detects prey and awakens its hunting instincts.]
Perhaps because the opponent was a rat, the excited cat projection jumped down from his head to the ground and activated the breastplate's Shadow Craft on its own.
Smeaaar.
A black shadow colored the projection.
During the Awakener qualification exam, the projection had no physical force, so it could only pretend to hunt, but it was a different story when it gained physical force with Shadow Craft.
The cat, having swelled its body to the size of a 1-Star beast or larger with shadow as its material, was on a level comparable to a 3-Star beast.
‘So this is why it told me to choose Shadow Craft.’
At that moment, the cat hissed at the front, as if it had discovered something not yet visible to our eyes.
“Kyao!”
“…A cat? You can already materialize a living being with shadows?”
Park Seong-cheol expressed his surprise upon seeing the cat that had gained a physical form, but there was no time to explain.
“They're coming.”
Tududududu!
Amidst the heavy footsteps and vibrations of a rapid charge.
The enemy's form slowly began to come into view.
-Jjijik!
A giant rat 2-Star beast, a Big Rat, as tall as one's waist, was charging like a hound.
Jiiing-
At that moment, the sound of Park Seong-cheol activating Three-Foot Sword Makes Rivers and Mountains Turn the Same Color was heard from behind, and a pure white aura spread out.
His shadow, elongated by the aura's light, reached the place where the Big Rat was.
Ssk- Pat!
As soon as he confirmed the Big Rat's front paw touched the shadow, the shadow cat shot out like a black ray of light.
Kwajik!
The rat, whose charge was rendered futile, was hit by the cat's swinging paw and sent flying.
The cat bit into the neck of the Big Rat, which had become momentarily defenseless.
While the cat was engrossed in ending its prey's life, a newly appeared Big Rat attacked the cat from behind.
-Squeak!
Lee Han-seong, who did not miss that scene and captured it, threw the Demonic Sword of Gluttony.
He had connected a shadow from Shadow Craft to the Demonic Sword like a string.
Thanks to the buff from the Three-Foot Sword's aura, he was able to match the timing.
Shwaaek- Thud!
The thick murderous aura flowing from the Demonic Sword accelerated on its own to covet life force and embedded itself in the Big Rat's brow.
It was a throw that imitated the principle of Jin Yu-seong's first Awakening Skill, Dark Blade Rush.
Kwaddeuk- Kwadeuk-!
Immediately after, the Demonic Sword's
The Big Rat disappeared without a trace as wounds, as if bitten by a giant invisible mouth, appeared one after another.
Confirming its annihilation, he pulled the shadow attached to the Demonic Sword's hilt again to retrieve it.
“Nyaong-”
The feeling of the Constellation being pleased, as if it had believed in him, was transmitted through the inner connection.
However, this was only the beginning.
Dududududu…!
The vibrations were still getting closer.
‘Where is it?’
No opponent was visible in the passage ahead.
Even when trying to gauge the opponent's location through the vibrations, it was difficult to distinguish as the vibrations were felt from all directions.
Ki-ing.
He sharpened his five senses and the consciousness spread in the shadows to the utmost, preparing to respond no matter where the enemy appeared from.
At that moment, the cat perked up its ears and looked at the wall.
Thanks to that, he could figure out where the opponent would appear.
‘Beyond the wall…!’
As soon as Lee Han-seong realized that fact, numerous holes suddenly appeared on the passage wall.
-Jjijik!
Countless Big Rats charged towards us.
They had launched a surprise attack using the passages of the Awakening Skill 《Rat Hole》, which connects spaces.
“Seong-cheol! Get on the cat!”
“Got it!”
Right after the swarm of rats appeared, he activated the Riding skill while getting on the back of the cat that had returned to our side.
He reached out to Park Seong-cheol, grabbed him, and lifted him behind the cat.
“If we fight in one place like this, it'll only be disadvantageous for us. Let's get out of here for now!”
There were too many enemies.
Chwachwachwachwachwa!!!
He swung the Demonic Sword of Gluttony wildly at the ones blocking the front to open a path.
Naturally, some of them managed to avoid the sword's trajectory and reach us.
Tung- Kigik! Dddeuk!
“…Are you okay?”
“I'm unshaken!”
It was still bearable.
He had brought armor in preparation for times like these.
Tung! Tung!
The Dragon Scale Armor's
‘If he's that sturdy while on the cat, he'd be almost a fortress when standing still.’
This was thanks to the Dragon Scale absorbing 99% of the impact.
In the case of the cat, which collided with the most rats, its body was made of the shadow of Shadow Craft, so even if it was wounded, it was restored in an instant and didn't need defense.
On the other hand, Lee Han-seong, lacking both defense and regeneration, had to move a bit more actively.
Gurgle.
The basic defense of wrapping his body with the shadow of Shadow Craft was just insurance.
He made avoiding hits his top priority.
Through
It was truly three-dimensional maneuvering.
The distinction between front, back, left, right, up, and down became ambiguous.
Even while moving chaotically, the sword was constantly swinging.
Chwachwachwachwa!
The
Vertical slash, horizontal slash, diagonal slash.
From top to bottom, bottom to top. Left to right, right to left.
Just as he had linked drawing the sword and slashing before, he applied the
Sasasasasasasak!
It reached a point where he couldn't tell if he was swinging the sword or the sword was swinging him.
As he swung the sword in such a trance-like state, the hexagonal swordsmanship of Gobhan, absorbed during the History Alteration, naturally melted into Duren's slash-specialized swordsmanship, refining the level of
Sssssssssk!
The resistance he felt whenever he cut through the flesh of a Big Rat gradually decreased.
The Demonic Sword was also getting stronger as it devoured the Big Rats' lives, but more important was the change in the swordsmanship itself.
The grain between bone and bone, flesh and flesh, muscle and muscle.
The sword passed naturally along that grain.
[Conditions have been met, and the common skill
Lee Han-seong's
It was a change in the skill engraved on Lee Han-seong's body, not a change in the spirit Duren's skill, so a spirit promotion did not occur separately.
But this change would not disappear during Duren's future History Alteration and would remain to help change history.
It was then.
Woooong.
The aura, which had at some point turned crimson, was signaling that the activation condition for Park Seong-cheol's second Awakening Skill had been met.
When they connected their consciousness through Overmind, thanks to raising their spirit synchronization rate to their limit of 20% just like during the Sudden Rift incident, all the promising talents had unlocked their second Awakening Skills.
“Duck for a moment.”
Along with Park Seong-cheol's low murmur.
《One-Swing Sweep, Blood-Dyed Mountains and Rivers》.
Kwagwagwagwagwagwa!!!!
A blood-colored dragon shot towards the front of the passage.
The blood dragon ground not only the Big Rats that filled the passage, but also the walls and the Big Rats beyond them into flesh and blood!
The path was blown wide open.
The passage, which had a constant width, had become significantly wider from where the blood dragon passed.
At the power of the blood dragon, the charge of the endlessly rushing rats also faltered for a moment.
“Hoo… hoo.”
The two, who could finally move comfortably, caught their breath.
Lee Han-seong, suddenly worried about the team that went to the opposite passage, checked on them through Overmind.
‘They were also attacked by Big Rats….’
It seemed there was no need to worry.
Yoo Se-hee's 《Light of Purification》 had an unexpected effect.
‘The generation speed of the rat holes is significantly lower than ours. Did purification have this function too?’
Well, since rats are a symbol of filth and unsanitary conditions, it wasn't strange for them to be affected by purification.
Thanks to this, Jin Yu-seong's team could face the rats two or three at a time, instead of all at once like us.
Still, the speed at which the rats increased was faster than the speed at which they killed them, so they couldn't prevent the number of rats from growing over time.
When the number had increased to a certain extent, Jin Yu-seong activated 《Assassination Directive》.
Kwajik! Kwajik!
The rats' shadows gained substance and bit their masters from behind in a feast of betrayal.
-Kieek!
It seemed Jin Yu-seong was disappointed that the shadow rats also disappeared when their original bodies died.
But it was greedy to want more when dozens had been killed in the brief moment the shadows were active.
Kwajik! Kwajik! Kwajik! Kwajik!
With just one Assassination Directive, the swarm of rats that had been targeting them was on the verge of annihilation.
“Ah, this is bad.”
The problem was that the number of Big Rats killed in Lee Han-seong's team's passage had increased too much in an instant, breaking the balance of death between the two passages.
No matter how many rats the Assassination Directive killed, it was bound to be less than the number killed by the blood dragon of One-Swing Sweep, Blood-Dyed Mountains and Rivers.
Ddddddd! Thud! Thud!
With two vibrations and a feeling of falling, the passage where Lee Han-seong and Park Seong-cheol were, sank in stages.
Jin Yu-seong and Yoo Se-hee from the opposite passage tried their best to hunt the Big Rats and match the number of killed monsters as much as possible, but it was hard to keep up with the number swept away by One-Swing Sweep, Blood-Dyed Mountains and Rivers.
“They're coming again.”
Moreover, as if misfortunes come in pairs, the presence of a rat swarm approaching this passage, which had been in a lull, was felt again.
“If we kill more here, the balance will be even more broken.”
“For now, we have to run and endure without killing until the balance is restored. Run!”
He thought of moving as much as possible while the passage was not yet blocked by rats and sped off on the cat.
However, after a short while, the cat stopped in its tracks.
“Huh? Why did you stop….”
But he soon understood why the cat had stopped.
The Tomb Raider's
To pass here, they had no choice but to get caught in the trap or disarm it one by one.