Chapter 298: What’s up with this punk? (1)

Translator: miraclerifle

Ju-Heon looked at the system window in disbelief. But he didn't think much of it.

He believed it was a temporary issue.

He focused and tried to use the skill again.

‘Tomb Destruction!’

And the moment he tried to focus his skill in his outstretched hand...!

[You are unable to use the skill.]

[It seems as if you would be able to use it if you left this tomb.]

‘This little punk.’

Ju-Heon looked at the system window with disbelief again.

He could tell what happened.

The Crow bastard had paused the skill.

‘This bastard!’

“Captain-nim?”

Ju-Heon tried using his other skills as well.

Unfortunately, Artifact Destruction, Dexterity, Stealth, Tomb Restoration, most of his skills were not working.

The only skill that still seemed to be working was his Tolerance. It still didn't want Ju-Heon to get hurt in a tomb.

But all skills that would help him clear a tomb were sealed.

The messages continued.

[You are advised to quickly leave the tomb.]

[There are much better tombs nearby.]

[The owner of this tomb is probably a useless artifact who is rude and petty.]

‘You're the one who is rude and petty, you punk.’

“What the hell is it doing right now?”

The rest of the team were confused after hearing Ju-Heon's statement.

"Captain?”

Ju-Heon was the only one who could see the system window.

It just looked like Ju-Heon was suddenly shouting at the air for no reason.

"What is it? Did something happen?”

"Captain-nim, is something wrong?”

Chloe and Seol-A looked toward Ju-Heon with concern.

Julian looked toward Ju-Heon with a look of disbelief.

“Are you unable to use your skills?”

“You figured it out?”

"Well, the aura I usually see when you use your skills is not visible. That damn Crow didn't disappear, did it?”

“That’s not it. It's stuck to me as usual. It’s just that......”

“Just that...what?”

“......Nevermind.”

“?”

“.......”

Keep your paws away, this bastard is mine. It’s mine!

Was Julian wrong to think that Ju-Heon looked like a Cat that was hissing with his fur standing straight up? Julian grabbed his forehead before looking back at Ju-Heon.

“Anyway, isn’t it bad if you can’t use your skills? From now on...”

“It’s not a big deal. It looks like I’ll be able to use it again once I get out of this tomb.”

“What? Then we should get out of here first...!”

Ju-Heon didn't seem to care.

It wasn’t as if he relied on such skills to clear tombs in the past.

He had even cleared this Tomb of Avarice without a single artifact in the past. It wouldn't impact his ability to clear the tomb.

Although he didn't know why the Crow was trying so hard to stop him, the fact that it was doing that must mean...

‘This must be an extremely good artifact.’

Maybe it was so strong that even the Crow was wary of it.

He was quite amused. He planned to take it because it had been his first artifact in the past, but now......

‘Looks like I now need to take it no matter what.’

Ju-Heon made up his mind and addressed his team.

"We will definitely take the artifact from this tomb.”

[!]

The Crow seemed quite anxious.

‘No, you little punk, that’s not it!’

The Crow worked hard to continue sending system windows.

[This is the tomb of a good-for-nothing bitch.]

[It is smarter to wash your feet clean and go to bed rather than get this bitch.]

But none of that mattered.

“Oh, it’s a female artifact? Even better. I was annoyed that most of my strong artifacts were male. I'll take this one and make it my partner artifact.”

[?!]

The Crow had dug its own grave.

It was at that moment. Julian gasped knowing that Ju-Heon could not use his powers right now.

“I guess we have no choice. We’ll have to clear the trials.”

"But 1,000 push-ups in 1 minute? Is something like that even possible?”

Jaeha laughed out loud.

“It’s fine, Dan might be able to do it.”

Jaeha poked Dan’s buff bicep, however...

Booboboboooooooooom!

“!”

The ground underneath Ilya suddenly shot up.

“Ilya!”

They were shocked. Only Ilya had shot up, as if the tomb was creating a stage for him.

“What the hell?!”

Ju-Heon remembered this from the past.

“It is deciding the participant to clear each trial.”

They were all shocked. Ju-Heon calmly added on.

“It’s supposed to be random. I guess you can call it a drawing of sorts.”

Ju-Heon wiped the bumpy orange wall next to him.

He could see Ilya’s name written on the wall in Toombglyph.

The tomb had randomly chosen a participant.

But it looked quite odd. It felt as if someone had forcibly changed the name.

It felt as if there was another name but someone quickly changed it to Ilya’s name.

Ju-Heon touched the pieces that had fallen off.

‘It looks like it was supposed to be my name......’

Ju-Heon peeked at his aura.

“Hey. Stupid bird brain.”

The Crow's aura that had been extended to the wall slowly seemed to crawl back.

It was as if it got caught in the middle of fixing the random drawing.

‘This little bastard.’

It didn’t matter.

“Congratulations, Ilya. You're the one who will clear this trial.”

“?!”

Ju-Heon found this so funny that he was clutching his stomach as he laughed. The rest of the team grabbed the back of their necks in anger.

“Seo Ju-Heon! This is not funny!”

“Why did they have to pick the weakest of the team?!”

Ilya could do all sorts of scam-like magic with his spell book artifacts but his body was as weak as a baby chick's because of the artifacts’ risks.

He even lost to Seol-A and Chloe in arm wrestling or running. [1]

Ju-Heon smiled brightly.

“Anybody on my team should be able to overcome a trial like this. Right?”

His smile was saying that he would kill anybody who failed. Ilya was sweating bullets.

“Yes, yes sir. This is like taking candy from a baby.”

‘Damn it. I'm fucked.’

At the same time...

[Huh? What the hell? What is going on?]

The artifact guarding the first trial tilted its head in confusion.

[Master told me to choose Seo Ju-Heon so I picked him.]

That was right. This tomb's master, the artifact of avarice, was oddly interested in Ju-Heon.

It's interest was understandable.

Ju-Heon was the most famous person in the artifact world.

‘The grim reaper of the artifact world.’

That was the title they gave this human.

Most artifacts wanted to mess with him and kill him. The guard was thinking that its master wanted to see Ju-Heon suffer as well.

Of course, its master seemed to be interested in Ju-Heon for a different reason.

Anyway, they had worked hard to create these trials to torment Ju-Heon for their master. But what?

[Why did the challenger change?!]

The owner of the tomb started getting angry after seeing that the challenger changed from Ju-Heon to Ilya.

Boooooom!

Boooooom!

The ground shook and they heard an angry voice.

[I told you to mess with Seo Ju-Heon.]

The guard artifact, well, the guard devil, became anxious after hearing the voice.

[I, I definitely chose Seo Ju-Heon, I don’t know what happened......!]

The devil urgently explained the situation.

[It’s probably the work of that damn bastard Crow that is with Seo Ju-Heon......]

The owner of the tomb revealed itself after hearing that.

[Crow? Are you talking about the moron imprisoned in the Great Prison?]

A young girl with white hair had appeared.

This was the artifact that had been Ju-Heon’s partner in the past.

Returning back to Ju-Heon’s group...

“Ilya, will you really be okay?”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Ilya, who had to face this trial of doing 1,000 push-ups in 1 minute, was sweating bullets.

He called it as easy as taking candy from a baby, but this was not humanly possible. He would die while he attempted it.

‘But the Captain will kill me if I fail.’

That meant that the results would be the same either way.

Jaeha laughed his ass off while watching Ilya struggling with the push-ups.

“Hey hey, he really can't do it, he absolutely can't do it. Can you even do a single push-up?”

‘Why I ought to!’

As he had that thought...

Booooooooom!

The ground shook and something suddenly appeared.

“!”

They were large bugs. They looked like centipedes with hundreds of legs but they were bigger than the average adult.

The centipedes approached Ilya.

Julian shouted toward Ilya.

“They plan on eating you if you fail the trial!”

Julian prepared to cast his thunderbolts.

He then urgently turned toward Ju-Heon.

“Hurry up and tell him how to clear it! This trial is not something a normal person can clear! Ilya is going to die......hey!”

Julian foamed at the mouth while looking at Ju-Heon.

Instead of telling Ilya how to clear it, Ju-Heon was leisurely sitting on the rope as if it was a chair and eating snacks as he watched.

“Hey! Your subordinate might get eaten!”

“If you don’t know how to clear it, why don’t you try analyzing it? What the hell are you doing? Aren't you supposed to be our strategist?”

“I know how to clear it but we don’t have the right artifact for it right now!”

"Then just leave it to that bastard.”

“#$#&!”

‘Damn! How the hell did this bastard clear this tomb without any artifacts?! Why is he making things so difficult when it could be much easier?!’

The team members all stepped forth to rescue Ilya.

“Ilya, hurry! If you don’t......!”

The centipedes shot out poison. It was a neurotoxin.

It hurt like hell.

Ilya, who was bitten by the centipedes, glared as if he was extremely angry.

"Fuck, I'm an S, not an M.”

Now that he thought about it, why the hell was he doing what this tomb wanted?

“Based on how these centipedes look, they’re definitely devil-type artifacts.”

“!”

Ilya then activated his Heirloom.

Flash!

He gave off an extremely overwhelming presence.

The centipede devils started shaking in fear at the chaotic aura coming out of Ilya’s body.

That was to be expected.

Ilya’s Heirloom was the artifact of the King of the Devils. Even if he usually suppressed his aura because he didn't want his appearance to change...

Boom!

[The King of the Devils is descending.]

[The King of the Devils is descending.]

Devil horns shot out of Ilya's head and his eyes and skin changed color.

A vicious fire covered the first trial area and ruthlessly started to destroy it.

“Hahahaha, eat shit you retards!”

He truly looked like a devil.

That wasn't all.

“You shitty bastards, who told you to make a trial like this?! You guys try to do it!”

An angry Ilya gave the devils an order. The centipedes anxiously looked around before quickly starting to move up and down doing push-ups.

And as that was going on...

Ruuumble, ruuummble!

Julian turned pale and shouted as the first trial area was being destroyed.

“Ilya! You can't just destroy it like that! You need to earn the proof of completion from the trial......!”

“Ah it's fine. We just have to head to the next one.”

Julian became anxious at Ju-Heon’s comment.

"What the fuck are you talking about?! He didn’t clear the trial! We need the proof of completion from the trial! How are you going to clear the tomb without it...?!”

“Hey dumbass, I got the proof a long time ago.”

“What?!”

Ju-Heon nonchalantly waved something around.

It looked like a chunk of gold at first glance.

This chunk of gold was actually the proof of completion you earned for completing each trial.

Julian's eyes opened wide.

“When the hell did you?!”

“When? Right when we arrived at this trial.”

The important thing here was not completing the trial; it was earning the proof of completion.

Furthermore, he had already cleared this tomb before. He knew where the proofs were located.

That was how he cleared the tomb in the past as well.

"Then why the hell did you make Ilya struggle for no reason?!”

“I was curious to see what that bastard’s Heirloom was. I wanted to know how strong it was as well.”

“?!”

He used the tomb to find out about his team members’ Heirlooms because they wouldn't tell him anything about it!

Ju-Heon put his hand on Julian’s shoulder.

“By the way, I am very, VERY interested in your Heirloom as well.”

“......!”

“I don’t know what it is, but it must be something good, right?”

His eyes flashed with greed.

“That’s why you are selected as the next challenger.”

‘T, this bastard!’

1. What a completely sexist statement. Chloe is understandable because she is a doctor who doesn't fight, but Seol-A is a trained fighter.