Chapter 48 – Count Dimitri’s Castle Ruins (4)

Peng Long took a glance behind him. The room was littered with corpses of spiders. Spiders that were burnt to death, sliced to pieces, head kicked in and bitten to death by a wolf.

Giovani rebuked him from ahead.

“Hey, what are you doing, Chinese man? Get on.”

Peng Long looked forward again. The other four hunters, the Genie and the Wolf, were all in the elevator waiting for him.

“Ah, ok.”

Peng Long then took his spot on the elevator.

‘Clang clang clang clang’

Once all the Hunters were in place, the Elevator began to rise again; the metal scraped against the walls.

While the Elevator was moving, Peng Long glanced at Dominic’s face for a moment. His face was as pale as death, without a hint of vitality. The Vampire’s curse seemed to have sucked not only the stat points but also his motivation.

It was understandable; 30 minutes left in his life with the clock ticking away. Then suddenly

‘Sniff sniff sniff’

The large wolf went around the Elevator smelling everyone. Peng Long glared at the wolf.

Ever since ‘Ahenna’s Forest’ where he had almost perished upon being bitten by wolves, he had come to hate them unconsciously. The Korean hunter then issued a command.

“Cain, settle down.”

With one command the wolf obediently walked over and sat next to his feet like a tame puppy. Just a moment ago the Wolf was ripping the Spiders apart like a ferocious beast.

‘He sure is loyal to his master’

While he was lost in thought, Kei suddenly spoke to him

“Mr Peng Long.”

“Ah... Yes?”

“Do you have any abilities that allow you to fire multiple shots at once?”

Peng Long thought for a moment before replying.

“Ah, well I can use Split Arrow. I...”

He began to try and explain to them verbally, but instead, he stopped and opened up the status window of his bow to simplify things.

Dragon’s Claw Bow – Bow of Johan

Heroic Bow – Strength A Dexterity B

Active skill

Split Arrow (III)*

After the initial arrow hits, several magical arrows gets fired in the same general area. Cooldown 5 minutes.

Dragon’s Eye (III)**

Fires an audible arrowhead to sense enemies out of the line of sight. Cooldown 5 minutes.

Bow wielded by the leader of the legendary 4 Great Thieves, Johan.

It is said that the effectiveness of the bow greatly depends on the wielder.

“It’s like this.”

Kei read the status window briefly and nodded.

“Then when I give the signal, shoot as many arrows as you can into the suits of armor.”

Peng Long tilted his head.

‘Hmm? Which suits of armor?’

Peng Long wanted to ask, but Kei already turned his head towards the Genie and gave him instructions.

“Soldamyr, prepare your Chain Lightning.”

“Understood, Master.”

While Peng Long was still out of it, the Elevator stopped moving.

“Ding!”

Accompanied by the bell, the Elevator doors opened. Unlike the first floor where they were greeted by dancing couples and music, and the spider swarm on the second floor, the third floor was dead silent.

In the long corridor, there was nothing but rows upon rows of empty suits of armor donned on top of Mannequins.

“What kind of room is this? Where are the enemies?”

Giovanni asked. Peng Long thought to himself

‘How did this man know that the next floor will have suits of armor?’

Peng Long also doubted that the man would answer his questions. Kei gestured to him and said

“Ok begin shooting. Aim to hit as many enemies as you can.”

‘Enemies?’

Peng Long was filled with questions, but he decided to act as he was asked to. Starting with the ‘Blood Curse’, he knew far too much. Even details not displayed on the ‘Information sheet’.

Peng Long looked up at the ceiling. High above, a Chandelier was glistening where it hung.

‘That should work.’

He aimed for the Chandelier and shouted

“Split Arrows!”

His arrow accurately hit the Chandelier, and once it struck, dozens of magical arrows appeared and scattered all over the room. It hit a majority of the suits of armor standing in neat rows.

“Intruders detected.”

“To Arms”

“Defend the master”

The Mannequins wearing suits of armor came to life, brandishing their weapons. Their speed wasn’t all that impressive.

Giovani readied his axe and shield. But Sungjin held him back.

“Wait for it... Wait for it.”

The Suits of Armor came alive and began marching towards the elevator in a single file, perfectly in sync with their footsteps.

“Just a bit more...”

Kei waited just a bit longer, and then he gave the Genie the signal.

“Soldamyr.”

The Genie immediately chanted an incantation.

“Murderous thunder, Jump from foe to foe!”

At the same time, Kei shouted out the same incantation as the Genie.

“Murderous thunder, Jump from foe to foe!”

Sparks of energy began to gather in their hands.

“Chain Lightning!”

“Chain Lightning!”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

A blinding light shot out from both hands and flew towards the approaching army. The suit of armor in the front was hit and was lit on fire, while the lightning continued to jump from suit to suit. Those hit by the lightning fell one by one.

Only a few survived the attack and were standing on the far end of the room.

“Let’s go!”

The heavily armored enemies looked very tough, but due to the fact that they already took damage from the lightning bolt earlier, they were easily broken by even Giovani and Dominic’s attacks.

The third floor was cleared in the blink of an eye. The Hunters quickly boarded the Elevator and took their places.

The elevator began to climb again.

*

Sungjin searched his memories.

‘What was on the fourth floor again?’

He remembered. It was Frankenstein’s monster room. It wasn’t very fast, so it didn’t prove to be very threatening, but it had such a high HP that it took forever to kill.

‘I think last time we attacked it nonstop for close to 10 minutes...’

The Frankenstein’s monster felt like a mid-boss. In fact, in terms of HP, it had a higher hp than any other enemies Sungjin had fought so far; even greater than Count Dimitri’s himself. It was inevitable that fighting Frankenstein’s monster would take a bit of time.

Sungjin looked down at his two swords, Moon Specter and Blood Vengeance.

‘...I guess it wouldn’t be bad to test out how high my specs really are.’

But

“Ugh...”

Dominic held his forehead and began to moan. There was no time to waste. He had to try his hardest to pull through. Sungjin turned to Soldamyr.

“Soldamyr, do you have any debuff magic that lowers the enemy’s defenses?”

“Of course.”

“Then use it right away on the enemy that will appear.”

“Acknowledged.”

Sungjin turned to the other hunters and said

“Please give me a hand with the next one. Attack it with everything you’ve got.”

Peng nodded, Mahadas gathered his hands into a Prayer and answered.

“Certainly.”

‘Ding!’

The Elevator stopped, and the bell rang. The fourth floor was a laboratory. Unfamiliar tools and unknown chemicals lay all over the place.

And at the center was a Giant, who stood still with his eye closed. Once the Hunters entered the floor, the strange contraption surrounding the giant began to move.

It injected strange chemicals into the giant’s chest, and sparks of electricity zapped its head.

“Kraugh!”

“Let’s go!”

Sungjin yelled as he dashed forward. Soldamyr chanted a spell.

“Fragile body, broken will, Weakness!”

A strange black light appeared over its head.

‘Pew’

Peng Long’s arrow hit its head dead on, but Frankenstein’s Monster wasn’t something that would die with just that. Sungjin ran in brandishing his Dual Swords.

“Haa Yaah!”

He ran in shouting.

“Taho!”

Mahadas came flying in with a kick. Sungjin’s swords impaled deep into the monster’s chest, and Mahadas’s kick landed square on its chin.

*

‘Clang Clang Clang Clang’

The Elevator began moving up again. Sungjin looked behind him. The Frankenstein’s Monster lay there bloodied and in pieces.

‘This time it took about... a minute?’

Last time with all five Hunters it took almost 10 minutes, but this time it ended much quicker. Sungjin looked down at his swords.

‘The damage is on a whole new level compared to last time.’

The other hunters wouldn’t know, but Sungjin could tell the difference after having fought the Frankenstein’s Monster the second time.

‘...I might really be able to complete the raids by myself...

Sungjin took a look at the people around him.

Like a true monk, Mahadas showed no change in his state; he was standing peacefully.

But Giovani and Peng Long’s expressions looked grim. Even though the Raid was progressing well, they looked concerned. Sungjin thought to himself,

‘It must be because of the Contribution level.’

He understood their feelings somewhat. If it were something like a desert or the cemetery where he could go alone, they wouldn’t be able to tell just how much contribution Sungjin was taking. But from beginning to end, the party members could directly see just how much Sungjin had taken for himself; watching 70~80% of the contribution points being monopolized right in front of their eyes must have felt very threatening.

Even if they were weaker than Sungjin, these people were all within the top 0.01%; one of the strongest representatives of Humanity. They knew by experience that if they fail to grow stronger now, they will die for sure later on.

The cause of why Dominic acted rashly wasn’t difficult to guess.

‘But it isn’t as if I could afford to simply stop my growth...’

This was a dilemma, and Sungjin was fully aware of the implications. Becoming stronger meant weakening his allies, and in most cases indirectly getting them killed.

Becoming moderately stronger was better for his teammates, but Sungjin had become immensely powerful in the last five Raids.

Even Mahadas, who survived until the late game in the previous life, was having difficulty squeezing out any respectable amount of contribution points. Whereas, without Sungjin, he could have potentially gotten as much as 40% contribution.

And this side effect could only grow worse over time. The rich grows richer and the poor grows poorer.*** Just like in reality.

The strong takes the larger share of the contribution and grows even stronger. Back on Earth, Sungjin had been part of the poorest of the population. But here, he was part of the richest... No. He was simply the richest one of all.

Once again, Igor’s words echoed in his mind.

‘Isn’t this just like how the world works?’

Sungjin bit his lips. Igor was definitely a vile man, but his words continued to stick in his mind. Sungjin shook his head. He decided to erase Igor from his memories.

‘This is the last time I monopolize all the points. Using the points from this round, I will obtain ‘that item’ from ‘Darker than Black’... and this won’t happen anymore.’

He will clear the boss together with the team but leave the trash mobs alone for the others to take. And for himself, he will hunt enemies while jumping from raid to raid. With this method, the current dilemma will naturally resolve itself.

‘This game is structured this way’

Sungjin replied to the memory in his head.

‘Just because the structure is retarded does not mean that I have to act like a retard as well.’

Sungjin steeled his heart. This was the last time when he was going to be manipulated by the system. Starting with next raid, he will freely travel between dimensions.

‘Ding!’

The elevator bell rang as the door slid open. This was the fifth floor; the final level. In front of them, stood a well-dressed Count Dimitri waiting.

[Warning!]

[Boss Monster ‘Thousand Year Count’ Dimitri has appeared!]

TL Notes:

*- Ability and item name from the game called “Kingdom of the Winds”, by Nexon (which is more than 20 years old now)

**- Reference to Hanzo from Overwatch. (lots of Koreans complain that the one and only archer in Overwatch is a Japanese man, despite Koreans having far more legendary archers throughout history.)

*** 부익부 빈익빈 富益富 貧益貧 – Literal Translation is ‘Wealth brings more wealth, Poverty brings more Poverty. Somewhat philosophical. Those who are rich know how to make money and do what is necessary to improve continuously, those who are poor do not know how to make money and do not do what is necessary to improve falling behind further and further.

With this, we have now released 50 chapters of Master Hunter K. Oh but there’s more!

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