novelraw Chapter 17 : Chapter 17
Chapter 17 : Chapter 17
Chapter 17. Midpoint
“It’s a trap.”
Spiderwebs formed from shadow material were spread all over the passage floor, walls, and ceiling.
It was the Awakening Skill of a 3-Star beast, the Shadow Spider, called 《Spider's Nest》.
“There are no Shadow Spiders nearby right now, but if we touch the spider's nest, it will use its second Awakening Skill, 《Return》, and appear in an instant.”
Looking at the range of the spider's nest, it was likely that not one or two, but dozens of them would appear at once.
The path ahead was blocked by a trap, and a swarm of rats was closing in from the other five directions.
It was truly a dilemma.
Thud!
Fortunately, while they were moving for a moment, it felt like the passage rose a step, as if the balance had been somewhat restored, but it was still tilted lower than the other passage.
“We probably shouldn't kill more yet, right?”
“Yeah. But the Big Rats can't touch the spider's nest either. Even if they fight among themselves, the weight of death will accumulate.”
“Then, we have no choice but to block them here. Come, Turtle Ship!”
Doodoong!
As Park Seong-cheol's
It was a structure sufficient to be used as a rampart and fortress to buy time until the balance of the two passages was matched.
“Inside!”
The cat carrying Lee Han-seong and Park Seong-cheol quickly entered the turtle ship.
The turtle ship summoned by
There was no need to go all the way to the entrance; they could just temporarily turn the outer hull into an illusion and enter the ship directly.
Thump!
As soon as they entered the ship, the re-materialized outer hull blocked the Big Rats that were following behind.
But the Big Rats' Awakening Skill, Rat Hole, possessed the power to easily pierce even the dungeon's passage walls.
-Jjijik!
Ddddddeuk!
With a sound like something hard being scratched, holes quickly began to form all over the turtle ship's outer hull.
In fact, it was impossible to block an Awakening Skill with the rare skill
“At this rate, it'll be breached soon!”
“No! It's still okay.”
Watching the holes grow from the size of a fingernail to the size of a fist, Park Seong-cheol slammed his Three-Foot Sword into the deck of the turtle ship.
Woooong!
The aura of the Three-Foot Sword spread throughout the entire turtle ship and repaired the parts where holes had formed.
It was a repair made possible by utilizing the characteristic of a summoned entity that continuously consumes mana while being maintained, not just ending after one summon.
-Jjijik!
Deuk… deuk… deuk… deuk…
Just like when the creation of rat holes exposed to the Light of Purification was slowed, the speed at which the rat holes were trying to form on the turtle ship also slowed down.
But it was not without a price.
Stagger.
Park Seong-cheol staggered as if his legs had given out from the rapidly consumed mana.
Thanks to using the Three-Foot Sword stuck in the deck as a cane, he didn't fall, but he looked to be in a difficult state.
It seemed he couldn't last long.
“How much longer do you think you can hold on?”
“Normally, the summon duration when doing nothing is about 5 minutes…. Right now, calculating the continuous repair, maybe 1 minute? No, 30 seconds?”
“Hmm. That's enough.”
Since Jin Yu-seong's team, who had grasped the situation here, was diligently hunting in the opposite passage, there was no need to hold on for long.
Thud!
About 10 seconds before the turtle ship was to be de-summoned.
The passage rose again.
The balance of both passages was finally matched.
“From now on, let's match our hunting speed with theirs.”
“Okay.”
“You just focus on defense as much as possible.”
“Let's do that.”
One-Swing Sweep, Blood-Dyed Mountains and Rivers was sealed for the time being.
If he used that, the balance would break too quickly.
Paaaat!
Finally, the turtle ship's time limit ran out, and it scattered into particles of starlight.
At the same time, the Big Rats that the turtle ship had been blocking began to pour in like a tsunami.
The first to reach were the ones that had clung to the ceiling of the turtle ship and then fell.
Gurgle. Tat! Tat!
Right after the cat did a double jump using the shadow of Shadow Craft cast in the air as a foothold.
Chwachwachwachwachwa!
Lee Han-seong, riding on top, hacked and slashed at the Big Rats falling defenselessly with his Demonic Sword.
Kwajik-kwajik-kwajik-kwajik…….
Gluttony swallowed the corpses on its own, so there was no need to collide with them.
Of course, the rat swarm that poured in from all directions immediately rushed at them.
Pabababak!
The cat, stretching the shadow of Shadow Craft like a spiderweb in the air and hopping on it like a tightrope acrobat, was truly moving everywhere.
“Nyan-nyan-nyan-nya!”
[The Unnamed Constellation, drunk on its hunting instincts, goes on a rampage.]
A primitive hunt of scratching with front paws and tearing with teeth unfolded.
Moreover, as the hunt continued, the cat's level was gradually rising.
The acquisition of karma through slaughter increased the influence the Constellation could manifest externally.
The gap between the cat and the rats was so overwhelming that they could afford to leisurely kill the Big Rats one by one, matching Jin Yu-seong's team's hunting speed.
Tong- Tong-
Since the physical force that could be granted by Shadow Craft also included elasticity, the cat's movements as it bounced between shadows became faster and faster.
Lee Han-seong also joined the hunt, matching the accelerating hunting speed.
Each time he brushed past a Big Rat, the Demonic Sword he slyly extended harvested the ones that gathered like moths to the flame of the Three-Foot Sword's aura, one by one.
How long did that dazzling time of slaughter last?
“Hooo….”
Perhaps all the nearby Big Rats had been dealt with, as no new ones appeared.
But the number of rats still alive in both passages was not the same.
“No matter how I look at it, there are more Big Rats in our passage than in Yu-seong's.”
“Well, for now, we can just move according to their progress.”
Even after Jin Yu-seong's team dealt with the Big Rats they encountered, the number of Big Rats surrounding us was not small.
Since they also knew the situation over here, Jin Yu-seong's team moved quickly to find their next hunting target.
Tuk. Tuk.
While Lee Han-seong stopped hunting for a moment and was observing the situation over there, the cat was playing with the rats, batting them around without killing them.
“They've also reached the trap section now.”
The spider's nest trap, where mishandling the connected dozens of nests would lead to facing dozens of 3-Star beasts.
Jin Yu-seong easily disarmed the trap with Shadow Craft.
Ssssk.
He carefully separated just one spider's nest from the cluster of dozens.
It was possible because both the Shadow Spider's web and Shadow Craft used the same method of manipulating shadows.
Paat!
As he shook the completely separated spider's nest, its owner popped out.
A pitch-black spider the size of a Big Rat.
-Kishit!
The Shadow Spider tried to capture Yu-seong's team by manipulating the shadows that formed the spider's nest on the floor.
But its spider's nest was already under the control of Jin Yu-seong's Shadow Craft.
-Kishit?
The creature looked around to seek help, but soon realized it was alone and hurriedly moved towards another spider's nest.
But that action was too late.
Hwoong-!
Yoo Se-hee's lantern was already swinging towards the Shadow Spider.
Paseok!
Perhaps due to the affinity between light and shadow, the Shadow Spider, its head smashed by the lantern, died instantly.
In the meantime, Jin Yu-seong had already separated the next spider's nest.
Separating the nest, summoning the Shadow Spider, hunting.
This three-beat rhythm interlocked like gears, and the number of killed monsters soared rapidly.
Matching that, Lee Han-seong's team was also finishing off the remaining Big Rats.
Dddddd… Thud!
The passage tilted again with a feeling of ascent.
This time, the balance tipped towards Jin Yu-seong's team.
“I'm sure we matched the number of kills.”
“Don't tell me… the weight of blood for a 3-Star beast and a 2-Star beast is calculated differently!”
It was a hypothesis that suddenly came to mind, but it was plausible.
The moment the balance tipped, Jin Yu-seong's team had temporarily stopped hunting.
In that gap, we continued to deal with the remaining Big Rats.
“I think I have a rough idea of the difference.”
The death of ten 2-Star beasts was equivalent to the death of one 3-Star beast.
It also matched the future theory that life force increases tenfold with each Star increase.
‘If I calculate it this way, I'll have to be careful when catching the 4-Star dungeon boss.’
The weight of blood that tilted the passage by one stage was roughly equivalent to three 3-Star beasts.
When it first tilted by two stages, it was when they had caught more than 60 Big Rats with One-Swing Sweep, Blood-Dyed Mountains and Rivers, so that should be about right.
But the 4-Star dungeon boss, just one of them would be equivalent to the lives of 100 Big Rats, so if caught incorrectly, the passage could tilt by three stages at once.
And considering that these kinds of stages usually consist of 3-5 stages, a single mistake could cause the tilt to exceed the limit and one passage to collapse completely.
Lee Han-seong, keeping that danger in mind, dealt with all the remaining Big Rats.
Then, to restore the balance, he hurried to the spider's nest trap he had discovered earlier.
Ssssk.
Remembering what Jin Yu-seong had done, he separated the spider's nest with Shadow Craft.
Perhaps because Jin Yu-seong's proficiency in Shadow Craft was higher, the separation speed here was a bit slower.
But they had only one user of Shadow Craft, while this side had two.
‘Still, since His Constellation-ness is helping, it won't be too slow.’
With a little more practice, it seemed he could quickly catch up to Jin Yu-seong's speed.
“Ha… do you have two minds or something? No, considering the skill called Overmind, it's not impossible, is it?”
However, in the eyes of Park Seong-cheol, who didn't know about the existence of the Constellation, the task of him disarming the trap with the cat seemed to be done entirely by his own processing power, and a sound of admiration escaped him.
Pat! Seogeok!
He summoned the owner of the separated spider's nest, and Park Seong-cheol dealt with the spider.
Dddddd… Thud!
Only then, as if the balance was finally restored, both passages returned to their original state.
From then on, the users of Shadow Craft in each passage took on the role of separating and summoning from the spider's nests, controlling the pace of the hunt.
However, Jin Yu-seong, as if showing off his Shadow Craft skills, always finished separating a beat earlier and waited for this side to finish.
‘Are you telling me to follow?’
He didn't say it or convey his will outright, but he could feel Jin Yu-seong's intention in that action.
Perhaps the Constellation felt it too.
“Nyaaaa!”
[The Unnamed Constellation, refusing to lose, puts more effort into the Shadow Craft manipulation.]
The Shadow Craft unfolded by the cat becomes slightly faster.
Lee Han-seong also focused on Shadow Craft to keep up with Jin Yu-seong's spider's nest separation speed.
Since the Constellation was teaching him the standard method from the side, all he had to do was follow it.
Ssssk!
‘Proficiency is….’
As he separated the spider's nests, the proficiency of Shadow Craft was also soaring steeply.
The time Jin Yu-seong waited gradually shortened.
And so, after dealing with the spider's nests one by one for a while.
Ssk!
Finally, when it was time to deal with the last spider's nest, Lee Han-seong and the cat could separate the nest at the same speed as Jin Yu-seong.
Though they were two, they were ultimately one, which meant that Lee Han-seong's Shadow Craft proficiency had reached a level equal to that of Jin Yu-seong, who was 20% synchronized with the Old Man of the Mountain.
It was an unprecedentedly steep growth.
Pat. Seogeok!
And as they dealt with the last Shadow Spider, Park Seong-cheol's Three-Foot Sword turned crimson.
He was ready to unleash One-Swing Sweep, Blood-Dyed Mountains and Rivers at any time.
Jeobeok-jeobeok.
After passing the spider's nest trap section, it was quiet for a while.
A passage where both Big Rats and Shadow Spiders had vanished.
At its end, a cavern of a similar width to the starting point awaited.
***
“Is this the destination?”
“No, it seems to be a kind of midpoint.”
Lee Han-seong said, discovering a passage similar to the one they had passed through on the other side of the cavern.
It was firmly closed now, but it seemed that if they met the conditions here, the door would open, and they would move on to the next area.
In the other passage, Jin Yu-seong's team had entered a similar cavern.
“A temple…?”
The first thing that caught their eye was the structure located in the center of the cavern.
The arrangement of stone pillars in a rectangular shape looked like a Greek temple.
“He said there's usually a strong enemy or a reward at the midpoint. Let's check inside.”
Nod.
Lee Han-seong's team moved their feet into the temple and could soon see the scenery inside.
“That is…!”
And the two of them couldn't help but be surprised at what they saw inside the temple.
In the relief position where a giant divine statue would normally be, stood a statue carved in the image of the Sun Sovereign, the first Apostle of Earth, famous as the Apostle of the Sun Constellation.
“Why is there a statue of the Sun Sovereign here?”
Considering the dungeon originated from another world, it was very strange for the image of an Earth-side Apostle to be here.
At the foot of the statue was an altar, as if making an offering to him, and on the altar sat a treasure chest with ornate decorations.
As they got closer, the ancient characters of another world engraved on the side of the altar came into view.
“The Apostle chosen by the Sun Constellation after crossing over to a new world… takes the first step on the crossroads of ascension using the collision of worlds.”
“…Crossroads of ascension?”
“It seems to have something to do with the Crossroads of the Scale dungeon.”
Suddenly having a guess, he turned his consciousness towards Jin Yu-seong's team.
They had also entered a similar temple, and the structure of the temple was mostly similar.
Perhaps because they were looking at the altar under the statue, Jin Yu-seong was highlighting the otherworldly characters in his surface consciousness.
-‘This looks similar to the characters we saw earlier. You can interpret it, right?’
As the ancient otherworldly language written on the altar was shared through their connected consciousness, the Ancient Knowledge in Lee Han-seong's mind interpreted its contents.
“…The Apostle of the Epicenter Constellation left behind in the world of origin. Awaiting the time when the crossroads of ascension will be completed, preparing for the start of the world collision.”
“Crossroads of ascension and world collision… If the same words came out from both passages, it seems important.”
Park Seong-cheol muttered after hearing the interpretation of the inscriptions on both altars.
But Lee Han-seong's entire attention was focused on the words ‘Apostle of the Epicenter Constellation’.
The image of the statue that Jin Yu-seong and Yoo Se-hee happened to look up at was transmitted through Overmind.
Perhaps because it was an Apostle from another world unknown to Earth, the two of them were simply admiring the beauty of the statue.
‘……!’
Upon confirming that face, Lee Han-seong felt his blood run cold.
It was an unforgettable face.
Not in the present, but in the future before his regression, the owner of that face was famous for being a being that shocked the entire world.
The Apostle of the Epicenter Constellation who stood at the pinnacle of all vampires.
The 12-Star Progenitor and Founder, Prometheus.
The face of the enemy who assassinated the Sun Sovereign in the Great War 10 years later was there.