Chapter 239

Chapter 239: 239

The white-hot eye of the primal core didn’t look like an ordinary fire; it cast no illumination, yet its heat rolled across the granite floor blocks in heavy, invisible waves that smelled of scorched iron and ancient deep-sea loam. The three massive guardian entities lay twisted in the scrap heaps by the iron pillars, their locomotive-shaped skulls split down the center by the shockwave of the previous impact.

Across the aisle, the ruined iron hull of the Ministry cutter let out a final, hollow groan as the crushed diesel block settled into the gray silt, its searchlights dying out one by one until only the dull purple glow of the volcanic rock lit the chamber.

Jun-ho stood perfectly still right in front of the lowest anchor chain, his large boots planted two feet apart in the gray salt crust. The stone-gray slabs of the Ashen Monarch Core Plate sat thick and unyielding over his chest, his gray shirt damp with sweat from the pure density of the mana vibrating behind his ribs.

Right at the corner of his eye, the solid black status text remained perfectly steady.

[ Level: 39]

[ Mana: 2200/9000]

[ Active Trait: Ashen Domain (Phase 4 – 70-meter radius)]

[ Unassigned Points: 10]

He didn’t look back at the broken alloy armor plates cluttering the tracks. He focused his mind entirely on the ten fresh points waiting in his eye. To cross the Level 40 line and unlock the next tier of the Ash Monarch milestone, his raw physical output needed to break the ancient black iron links holding the core to the keel.

"Put all 10 points into Strength," Jun-ho whispered into his gray hood. ℯℯ𝘭.

[Attribute Allocation Detected: 10 Points to Strength.]

[Applying 100x Multiplier to Resource Logic...]

[Strength increased by 1,000. Current Framework: 7,000x Strike Weight.]

The reaction inside his muscle fibers was completely silent. There was no sudden explosion of wind, but his left arm grew dense, the skin turning slightly pale as the raw physical mass of his frame multiplied seven thousand times over. When his fingers tightened around the rough matte-black hemp wrap of The Ash Remnant, the air right around his boots let out a tiny, sharp pop from the sudden displacement of weight.

"Jun-ho, wait!" Eun-bi’s voice called out from the side of the ruined cutter bridge. She had her canvas bag slung tight across her waist, her gray flannel shirt wrapped twice around her ribs as she scrambled over the broken iron plates. Her bare fingers were moving fast as she jammed her silver registration key straight into the ship’s emergency terminal box on the bulkhead. "The main registry log inside this deck house is still live! The legacy guild directors left their encrypted private logs inside the sub-terminal! If I pull the key before the core drops, we can map out every hidden treasury vault in the central city!"

The small iron terminal door popped open under her scissors, exposing a thick, oil-sealed copper scroll that burned with a permanent, deep crimson mana logic. Eun-bi pulled it out, jamming it straight into her backpack next to the high-tier cores, a dry, sharp smile pulling at the corner of her lips.

"The logs are secure, Jun-ho," she said, her voice returning to that flat, public-sector drawl as she stepped right back to his side, her bare thigh pressing hard against his shins for stability on the moving gravel.

Lilith slid right up to his left arm, her long, exceptionally smooth legs cutting a clean line through the low purple mist of the floorboards. The tight crimson leather of her outfit was covered in a dull layer of sea crust, her narrow waist twisting with a lazy, deliberate rhythm that brought her voluptuous frame right against his denim trousers. Her massive, half-visible chest rose and fell in quick, deep gasps against his bare upper arm, her full red lips parting into a low, breathless murmur that carried the sharp scent of raw sulfur straight to his neck.

"The little nurse is done with her paperwork, big guy," Lilith whispered, her wide crimson eyes glowing with a lazy, dangerous fire under her long ink-black hair. Her long fingers caught the wet hem of his gray shirt, pulling his torso an inch closer to her shoulder with a teasing, hot friction. "The five-thousand-fold edge is ready, Jun-ho. Break the links... I want to watch you take the core from the inside of my skin."

Rea slid off the iron tracking rail right behind her shoulder, the high-slashed silk of her black tunic parting all the way to her upper thigh to show the long, smooth line of her leg under the purple light. Her golden-blue eyes spun slowly in a lazy, dangerous circle, her full crimson lips tightening into a thin, jealous line as she wedged her own voluptuous hourglass shape tight against Jun-ho’s opposite sleeve, her wild orchid perfume cutting sharp through Lilith’s sulfur incense.

"The demon girl is a bit too forward with her placement again, big guy," Rea murmured, her bare arm rubbing against his shirt fabric with a heavy, possessive friction that competitive edge turning her tone sharp. "The ledger belongs to the collective detail registry, not her private collection. Shatter the iron, Jun-ho—let’s clear this vault before the next fleet turns the corner."

Jun-ho didn’t shift his weight back from either woman. He raised The Ash Remnant with his left hand, the new black hemp wrap solid and dry in his grip. He didn’t drop into a defensive stance, and he didn’t use his back. He simply snapped his left wrist, driving the sharp matte edge of the seven-thousand-fold blade straight down onto the lowest purple anchor chain.

The sound inside the roundhouse wasn’t a standard blast; it was a localized thunderclap that shattered the massive four-inch link into thousands of tiny iron shards that blew straight into the granite walls. Without pausing, his arm cut through the dark three more times.

The remaining three chains snapped like dry twigs. The massive, three-meter black sphere lost its anchor framework instantly, dropping two feet through the air before hitting the concrete floor with a dull, heavy crunch that split the foundation wide open.

The raw white-hot fire inside the core didn’t expand outward; the moment the chains broke, the internal logic of the crystal collapsed in on itself, the black glass turning into a pile of fine gray dust that slipped through the cracks in the floorboards, leaving a single, glowing red primal gem floating three inches above the dirt.

[Target Neutralized: Sea King’s Vault Primal Core.]

[Experience Gained: 100,000 XP.]

[Applying 100x Multiplier to Resource Logic...]

[Total Experience Gained: 10,000,000 XP.]

[Level Up!]

[You have reached Level 41 (Tier 4 Milestone Achieved).]

[You have received 20 Unassigned Attribute Points.]

[Class Skill Unlocked: Monarch’s Decree (Phase 4).]

The gray notification boxes piled up across his vision in clean lines before vanishing, leaving only the ink-black text of his new level waiting on his screen. Jun-ho reached out his left hand, his fingers closing around the cold primal gem, slinging his canvas duffel bag over his right shoulder as they walked together into the dark drainage pipe at the back of the chamber.

Rea let out a short, soft laugh that sounded like silk sliding over stone, her golden-blue eyes spinning in a lazy, victorious circle as she led the way down into the dark, her long bare legs cutting a clean line through the grey mist. Eun-bi walked right behind her shoulder, her canvas bag slung tight, her sharp face set in a hard, stubborn line as they headed down toward the open sea, leaving the broken anchors of the Sea King’s Vault completely behind them in the dark.