Chapter 86

[Translator - Helga ]

[Proofreader - Starfall ]

Chapter 86 – Dungeon Raid (3)

It was the first time.

Someone had figured out Kwon Hanul’s secret.

“…How did you know?”

His voice naturally dropped.

“The Sacred Beast Bloodline is extremely sensitive to energy.”

When they shook hands, it wasn’t just Kwon Hanul who sensed GG’s bloodline.

GG had also recognized Kwon Hanul’s—no, bloodlines—plural.

“I detected not just one or two distinct energies. Each one… felt overwhelmingly powerful.”

Kwon Hanul fell silent in thought.

A secret he could never afford to be exposed had been uncovered. The question now was how to deal with it.

“As I thought… you’re…”

At that moment, GG swallowed nervously before continuing.

“You’re the Hyukcheon Clan’s secret weapon, aren’t you?”

“…What did you just say?”

“There’s no point trying to dodge the question. I already know everything.”

GG nodded, wearing a satisfied expression, as though proud of having uncovered the truth.

“I saw it on YouTube. They say mega-corporations like the Hyukcheon Group run secret experiments to preserve their wealth and influence.”

Kwon Hanul tilted his head slightly.

Did they?

“There were tons of comments calling the video fake, but I didn’t believe them.”

“Well… maybe you shouldn’t have.”

“I knew I was right. Who would've thought I’d meet someone like you…”

GG’s eyes sparkled with curiosity. It was more than a little uncomfortable.

“What kind of experiments did they run to end up with someone who possesses so many bloodlines…?”

“That’s not the issue here.”

Kwon Hanul sharply cut him off.

“Now that you know my secret… I can’t just let you walk away.”

A faint killing intent rose from him. GG’s face turned stiff.

“Even if I talked, no one would believe me.”

“That’s not something you can count on.”

This wasn’t something he could just gloss over.

If his secret were exposed, there was no telling what would happen.

“Are… are you going to kill me?” GG asked, his voice trembling.

Kwon Hanul shook his head.

That would be a last resort.

“Join my team.”

GG’s eyes widened.

“I’m being serious.”

If GG joined Kwon Hanul’s team, he’d become family. There’d be no fear of secrets leaking.

Besides, the team was currently short-handed. GG wasn’t just a potential asset—he could very well fill the gaps and boost their overall strength.

“…I’m sorry.”

GG bowed his head deeply.

“Thank you for offering a free hunter like me a spot on your team. But… there’s still something I must do.”

“Is it related to the Pablo Family?”

GG clamped his mouth shut. It was clearly a refusal to answer.

“The Hyukcheon and Pablo Families only exchanged dungeons. There’s nothing else between them.”

So there was no need to hide it.

After a moment, GG slowly began to speak.

“…I have to find the bloodkin kidnapped by the Pablo Family.”

He kneeled in front of Kwon Hanul.

“Lord Kwon Hanul, I promise I won’t tell anyone about this. So please…”

“I understand,” Kwon Hanul replied without hesitation, surprising GG. “I didn’t seriously plan to kill you.”

It hadn’t been long, but Kwon Hanul had learned enough about GG.

At the very least, he wasn’t the kind of person to go around spreading dangerous secrets.

“Oh, by the way—what’s your name? Don’t tell me you’re not even going to tell me that?” Kwon Hanul asked. GG hesitated, then finally spoke.

“Gael Garcia.”

* * *

The next day, the group set off once again.

The second day wasn’t much different from the first. They reached the dungeon’s inner depths without much difficulty.

There, the team was forced to halt.

A massive wall, almost like a fortress, circled the core of the dungeon.

“I couldn’t get past this wall either.”

“Can’t we just climb it?”

In response to Kwon Hanul’s question, GG picked up a stone and hurled it at the wall with all his strength.

The stone shot upward, as if it would easily clear the wall—then suddenly curved mid-air and plummeted to the ground.

“I don’t know if it’s some kind of barrier or what, but once you reach a certain height, gravity reverses.”

So jumping over was out. Then what about breaking through?

Kwon Hanul lightly struck the wall to test it. The recoil made his fist ache.

“It’s solid.”

He scanned the wall carefully.

Then he noticed a column poking out just past the top of the wall. Atop the pillar sat a round egg.

It was the same egg that had appeared on GG’s map.

“The only way past this wall is to open that door…”

“Door? I don’t see any.”

Mei Hong tilted her head in confusion.

GG walked up to the wall and began feeling around with his hands.

“Here. Come take a look.”

The group leaned in where GG pointed.

A groove had been carved out—long and narrow, forming a rectangle.

“As you can see, there is a door. But with no handle, no keyhole… there’s no way to open it.”

This was the hardest part of raiding a ruin-type dungeon.

“Hanul, should we split up and look for clues?”

“Why not just smash it? It’s sturdy, yeah, but if we all hit it together, I bet we could crack it.”

“I think the answer lies in this door.”

Each of the three voiced a different opinion. But the one who needed to make the decision, Kwon Hanul, was focused on something else entirely.

“Captain? Are you even listening to us?”

“Ah, sorry.”

As he apologized, they noticed something in his hand: an old key.

He placed it against the door’s surface and turned it.

Click. With a metallic grind, the door slowly began rising upward, stone scraping against stone and shedding dust.

“What was that?”

The three of them stared at him in disbelief.

“What is that?”

“It’s a utility key I picked up in Vigo.”

“You could’ve told us you had something like that!”

Mei Hong muttered irritably while GG, still in a daze, mumbled, “As expected of a secret weapon…”

“Cut the nonsense. Let’s move.”

Following Kwon Hanul, the group stepped through the wall.

There was nothing.

No ruins like those they’d seen earlier.

No demons they’d hunted relentlessly.

Just a vast empty plain, with a single pillar at its center.

“There’s really… nothing here.”

“Seriously.”

Mei Hong and Kwon Hudon murmured as they looked around.

That’s when—

“…Everyone, stop.”

GG spoke up suddenly. His gaze was fixed on the central pillar.

Kwon Hanul quickly focused his senses and looked.

Something was wrapped around it.

Chitinous armor, insect-like. Dozens of legs. Segmented joints twisted at unnatural angles.

It looked like a—

“A centipede?”

Technically, it wasn’t a normal centipede. Its body wasn’t flat but long and cylindrical, and its mouth budded outward like a flower.

Was it asleep? Or dead?

It clung to the pillar, completely motionless.

“What kind of demon is that?”

Kwon Hanul asked.

GG, voice trembling, wiped the sweat from his brow.

Then he finally answered.

“I think… that might be a Behemoth.”

* * *

It happened in the early days, when dungeons first began to appear.

Back then, humanity suffered greatly due to the sudden emergence of monsters. Fortunately, a group later known as the “First Hunters” appeared and swiftly restored order amidst the chaos.

But shortly after, humanity faced yet another crisis—

An invasion by demons.

Unlike the mindless monsters, demons possessed high intelligence and a structured civilization. They organized themselves and launched a full-scale assault on humanity.

Though the war eventually ended in a human victory, the damage left behind was catastrophic.

And leading the charge for the demons were their living weapons: the Behemoths.

Strictly speaking, Behemoths weren’t demons. Though they were used as weapons, they weren’t standardized or uniform.

Their forms, appearances, and abilities varied drastically.

If there was one commonality, it was this: they were colossal—and monstrously powerful.

“Is that… a Behemoth?”

“I don’t sense any demonic energy. But it’s nested in this dungeon. That only leaves one possibility—Behemoth.”

GG’s intuition was sharp—sharp enough to detect Kwon Hanul’s hidden power.

And Kwon Hanul had heard about this before.

If you come across something in a demon’s dungeon that isn’t a demon, chances are, it’s a Behemoth.

That’s how widely Behemoths had been deployed.

“If that really is a Behemoth, we need to be extremely careful,” GG said cautiously. “Before it wakes up, let’s retreat for now—”

“Ha… Hanul…”

Just then, Kwon Hudon’s voice trembled as he called out.

“L-Look over there…”

Kwon Hanul turned his eyes toward where Kwon Hudon was pointing.

At some point, the Behemoth had uncoiled and was now raising its massive torso upright.

It had no eyes, so it was impossible to tell where it was looking. But there was no doubt—it was aware of their presence.

Crunch.

One by one, the Behemoth’s legs unfolded. Each time it flexed or extended, a grotesque cracking sound rang out.

Its mouth, once sealed like a flower bud, slowly opened wide. Without its throat, it almost resembled a blooming flower.

“%#&$%!!”

A monstrous roar.

It shook the entire dungeon.

At the same time, the Behemoth released a surge of magical energy.

In an instant, the sheer pressure of the energy wave made it difficult to even breathe.

“-#$&^!”

The Behemoth charged. Its massive frame slid across the ground like a runaway landslide.

“Scatter!” Kwon Hanul shouted, and everyone split in different directions. The Behemoth’s head crashed down on the spot they had just been standing.

“

-%$#^$!”

The Behemoth began pulling its embedded head out of the ground. Now was their chance.

Black Dragon Ascension Art: Basic Form

Echo Strike Style: Spiral Wave

Kwon Hanul activated his draconic energy and launched a Spiral Wave at the Behemoth’s body.

“Hyaah!”

He wasn’t the only one. Kwon Hudon, clad in his Dragonscale Armor, slammed into the creature. Mei Hong drew her Ghostblade and slashed a deep line across the Behemoth’s side.

But it wasn’t enough.

“-%$&$!”

The Behemoth coiled its body and lashed out with its tail like a whip. For such a massive creature, it moved with terrifying agility.

Kwon Hanul quickly crossed his arms in front of him.

Black Dragon Ascension Art: Basic Form

Guard Style: Hardened Wood

He deployed one of the six basic forms of the Black Dragon technique to block the blow. His arms absorbed the hit, but even that couldn’t fully withstand the impact.

“Ugh!”

Kwon Hanul was flung backward. So were Kwon Hudon and Mei Hong.

“It’s fast!”

“This thing isn’t going down easy…”

And then—

“The fifth segment!” GG shouted from a distance, carefully observing the Behemoth. “There’s a scar under the carapace of the fifth segment! That’s its weak spot!”

Everyone turned their eyes toward the creature’s segmented body. But its belly was pressed against the floor—they couldn’t see the scar.

“Must’ve seen it when the tail whipped around.”

That single detail was worth its weight in gold right now.

“Kwon Hudon. You and I will flip that thing.”

“Got it.”

“Mei Hong, when we do—use your Ghostblade.”

“Understood!”

After giving his orders, Kwon Hanul rushed at the Behemoth.

But as he took his first step forward—he froze.

Even with the Behemoth right in front of him, his instincts forced him to turn back.

To the pillar where the Behemoth had been coiled earlier.

The egg placed atop it… had begun to crack.

Crk!

With a loud crack, the egg split in two, and something inside began to rise.

It had two arms and two legs—humanlike. But its entire body was ashen-gray, like burned cinders.

A thick horn protruded from its forehead, and a smooth tail swayed behind it.

“What the…?”

Kwon Hanul murmured as the gray figure locked eyes with him.

“#@%42$.”

A bizarre sound emerged from its mouth.

“-[@%!@]?”

It tilted its head, as if confused.

“Ah… this is how humans communicate, isn’t it?”

Then it spoke—in perfect human language.

“I’ve been asleep so long… I didn’t even realize.”

Monsters don’t speak. They lack the intelligence.

But among dungeon-born creatures, there is one kind that can speak.

High-ranking demons.

“It’s far too noisy in here.”

Suddenly, the demon vanished.

Even with Kwon Hanul’s enhanced perception and senses, he couldn’t track it. Just as he began scanning in a panic—

Something grabbed his face. With tremendous force, it slammed him backward.

A dizzying sense of weightlessness overtook him, and he was thrown violently through the air.

Kwon Hanul barely managed to twist and land on his feet. When he looked up, he saw unfamiliar buildings—he’d been hurled outside the dungeon wall.

He tried to rush back in.

His teammates were still inside. Still fighting the Behemoth. If he didn’t act quickly, they’d be in grave danger.

“I dragged you here because I wanted to talk somewhere quieter.”

The demon blocked his path.

“You seemed calm, at least. So I’ll ask again: what year is it? Human years, of course.”

“Move.”

The demon stopped talking. Its gaze sharpened as it stared Kwon Hanul down.

“You dare interrupt me? Do you want to die? Feel the pain of your insides being shredded? Or live a life worse than a beast’s? Or perhaps…”

“I said move.”

The demon silently studied him.

“How bold, for a human.”

Its eyes narrowed.

“Then try. Move me by force.”

At that, Kwon Hanul’s draconic aura burst forth.

[Translator - Helga ]

[Proofreader - Starfall ]