Chapter 321

His skin seared in an instant.

'Ah, now that things have come to this, I remember an article I read before.'

SIZZLE...

As the skill discharged, the lightning user's disguised short bob flared upward in a wild arc. At a glance, he looked almost like a cat whose fur had puffed up from static electricity—almost endearing.

But the aftermath of his power was anything but amusing.

'Come to think of it, that S-rank Hunter Enzo... wasn't his nickname in the local news "Zeus" or something like that?'

Now that he thought about it, Enzo's original appearance did suit that mythological title rather well.

But the instant Giryeo's skin was scorched by the artificial lightning, he made a split-second decision.

'This isn't someone I can afford to stall against!'

If he had noticed the Earthling's attack even half a second later, his entire skull would have been charred to ash.

So the question was—how was he supposed to survive this crisis?

'If I start worrying about conserving my items now, I'll end up cooking soup on the ferry to the afterlife.'

SWISH.

At that moment, the man's sambagean eyes shifted downward.

Even after improving slightly, his awakening level was still below D-rank.

But just as Enzo had predicted, there was a reason someone with such a feeble body had managed to survive this long.

SQUEAK.

'Ugh... Honestly, I wanted to save this for the absolute last resort, but...'

Giryeo moved without hesitation.

The biggest obstacle was the net of red lines surrounding him—

a spell produced by a necklace-type artifact that consumed the wearer's energy to activate.

Unlike the [Shroud of the Underworld], this magic operated under completely different rules.

So if he deliberately reached out and touched it again—with this hand, wrapped in smooth black leather gloves—

!!

The S-rank Hunter standing in the corridor noticed his prey move immediately, thanks to his superior reflexes and eyesight.

Unable to predict exactly what his opponent intended to do, he chose the simplest solution.

He launched a merciless, all-out attack on Kim Giryeo without hesitation.

But that was the wrong choice.

Enzo should have run.

"Ugh!"

The mage with the faded fake-blond hair was trying to kill his opponent as well.

You shouldn't hit people recklessly.

You shouldn't kill people recklessly.

Modern humans are taught those obvious principles diligently from childhood.

But the soul standing here was different.

No—from the very beginning, the man named Giryeo had never regarded the being before him as an equal.

"Keugh...!?"

Even after being reincarnated into such a frail body, the core quality that defined his soul had never changed.

Arrogance.

That uniquely overbearing attitude remained intact.

The Alphaurth struck back.

Using the [Gloves of Midnight], he absorbed the powerful red net surrounding him and, through the item's special function, reflected it directly back at its caster.

'As expected of an S-rank Hunter—his reaction speed is ridiculous!'

Naturally, it would have been ideal if the bars themselves proved fatal, so Giryeo had been careful about where he placed them.

'Those damn reflexes let him shift his position slightly.'

The net barrier that had once easily imprisoned an adult man roughly 170 centimeters tall reappeared—

this time compressed to about the size of a basketball.

It was now too small to trap anything larger than a little bird.

But because of where Giryeo had placed it, that tiny cage became a terrifying weapon.

"—...!"

Giryeo had aimed so that the lines would cut from his opponent's skull down through his chest.

The enemy, still wearing Brooklyn Morgan's appearance, recoiled in horror.

Thanks to his superhuman physique, he managed to mitigate some of the damage.

But even so, the net's fine threads caught Enzo's neck and the lower lobe of one lung.

He couldn't even scream properly.

THUD!

The enemy clutched his throat and collapsed, writhing in agony severe enough to look almost pitiful.

And because he had been forced to tear himself free from the binding net, further injuries were inevitable.

Blood poured endlessly from his neck, which looked as though it had been sliced apart like an apple attacked with a paring knife.

And his chest...

was in even worse shape.

'His respiratory system is destroyed.'

Before long, the S-rank Hunter was drenched in sweat, wheezing like a patient choking on severe congestion.

'I was originally aiming for the brain.'

His lungs—often called the heart of a mage—had been torn apart.

How could he possibly complete a spell in that condition?

Giryeo's earlier judgment had been correct.

And in the end, that was enough.

Enzo's eyes rolled back until only the whites showed, and his struggling body went limp.

Overwhelmed by pain, he lost consciousness.

'Well, the result was good. I guess that's what matters.'

But even after seeing that, the ruthless alien refused to believe the enemy had been completely neutralized.

So he decided to take one small precaution.

'That's what you get for attacking first, you bastard. Consider this the price for pushing me that far!'

TAP, TAP, TAP.

The archmage swiftly drew his green longsword and jabbed it into the enemy's wound.

Giryeo used his Epic-grade item in the least glamorous way imaginable, successfully coating his opponent's injuries with deadly poison.

Then he immediately turned around and left.

'Time to regroup with the other victims.'

From the perspective of someone weak, the Beasts were not the only threat.

If Giryeo happened to run into that one-eyed A-rank monster he had seen outside the Gate while he was alone, he would be finished.

So he quickened his pace, intending to reunite with the Korean Hunters.

But only a few seconds later—

'Huh?'

Giryeo was struck by a tremendous shock and stopped dead at the edge of the corridor.

'H-huh?'

He had thought something seemed strange ever since they came running from that direction.

'W-what is this?!'

The scenery at the end of the corridor was completely different from before.

This dungeon was structured like an ant nest, divided into narrow "paths" and broad "rooms."

The room where Jung Haseong's group had been fighting had clearly contained dry trees and winding paths.

But what now lay before Giryeo was a brilliantly glowing garden filled with phosphorescent light.

Something major had changed.

'The cave-like corridor stayed the same, but the plain connected to the end was replaced?'

RUSTLE.

The Alphaurth magician sharpened his senses and carefully examined his surroundings.

'That's it. The room itself shifted. It's like an elevator brought up a different boss room...'

He quickly understood the situation.

'The color of the sky changed too.'

Only moments ago, the ceiling had been pitch-black, like the depths of night on Earth.

But in the blink of an eye, it had turned a bluish shade reminiscent of dawn.

A dungeon imitating the passage of time.

How pointlessly elaborate.

And compared with the changes taking place on the planet itself, the transformation of the dungeon's scenery was unfolding at an alarmingly rapid pace.

'They even added obnoxious events like this. Every little thing could seriously complicate the raid.'

Apparently, this Gate altered its internal structure according to the phase changes of the artificial sun embedded high in the ceiling.

Giryeo resumed walking.

RUSTLE.

Just as he had noticed when he was first captured, the remnants of the Beasts had established their own safe zones inside the dungeon.

But even as Giryeo deliberately followed the route toward one of those shelters, he tilted his head in confusion.

'Why go to all the trouble of setting up a base inside a dungeon? What do they even gain from blowing this place up—other than crashing the KOSPI?'

'Oh my.'

PONG. PONG. PONG.

Even without focusing, he could hear a clear sound drifting from somewhere ahead.

'Somehow, this...'

To summarize the scene at the far end of the reversed second floor—

'I feel like I just learned something I really didn't want to know...'

It was already surreal enough that the ground was covered in plants shimmering in shades of brown and pale white, like autumn silver grass.

But right in the middle of that autumnal garden stood an enormous flower bud.

Its broad leaves were folded over its body almost as though it were bashfully covering its chest.

'It's the dungeon boss.'

Because the area was so densely populated, the one-eyed Beast that had been driven out must have wandered in from somewhere else.

But at least Giryeo recognized the creature in front of him.

More importantly—

he knew this species well.

The creature, wrapped in soft, leather-like skin, was nothing less than a carnivorous "animal."

Using the sort of PIXY brand identification tags commonly seen on Earth, it would be described like this.

[Sunflower]

[Grade: A]

[Description: A boss creature that remains largely inactive and is constantly guarded by several mid-sized quadrupedal monsters hiding throughout its spawning field.]

For the boss of an A-rank dungeon, it seemed surprisingly weak at first glance.

If one simply dealt with the irritating moth-like creatures swarming nearby, the stationary flower itself could be killed easily enough.

So did that mean a sorcerer like Jung Haseong, who specialized in wide-area magic, could clear this place as casually as chewing gum?

'This is insane.'

That assessment was not wrong—

provided the boss never left the field where it had originally spawned.

But the world was full of exceptions.

Take the axolotl, for example.

Also known as the Mexican salamander, this creature could, depending on its environment, go its entire life without undergoing full metamorphosis, retaining the appearance of its larval stage.

This phenomenon was called neoteny.

However, assuming there was no metabolic disorder, if an axolotl needed to migrate from its habitat as part of a natural process, its body and functions could undergo a dramatic transformation.

So then—

why was the word "salamander" included in the creature's name in the first place?

'No way... These damn Beasts...'

And why had Alphaurth classified the dungeon boss standing before the Archmage under a title like "The One Who Longs for the Sun"?

[Sunflower That Faced The Star]

[Grade: S]

[Description: It has been confirmed that this creature rapidly matures into an adult form after leaving its normal spawning area.

The cause is believed to be the environmental difference between its homeworld's designated feeding zone and the planet it currently occupies. When threatened by factors such as destruction of the feeding zone or nutritional deficiency, it ventures outside—where genuine solar energy exists—and enters an overgrown state to preserve the species.

In that state, it indiscriminately consumes nearby enemies before dying after producing embryos.]

[Observed Reward Item Table]

[{0} Limited to post-escape: Elixir of Immortality...]

According to information previously verified on Alphaurth, the monster had been concealing its true form.

In a sense, it was another example—much like the Flower Baron—of a creature whose level of power differed drastically depending on whether it was inside or outside its dungeon environment.

Leaving aside all the unnecessary research details, that alone was enough to understand the situation.

[{0} (Only after escape) Elixir of Immortality]

The monster dropped valuable loot only after transforming under certain conditions.

That was why Alphaurth's magicians had gone to great lengths to cultivate the species.

But would the Earthlings really see this creature any differently?

'Definitely. One hundred percent. There isn't any other obvious reason for these Beasts to be doing this. And now that I look closely, there's even a clearly artificial barrier surrounding the area. If someone else clears the boss before they can act, that would ruin everything.'

A substance from another world that could almost perfectly prevent aging.

With that discovery, the alien mage finally understood the intentions of the enemies who had seized control of the Korean Gate.

'Those sorcerers are planning to deliberately destroy the dungeon so they can fatten up the boss!'

It was selfishness in its purest form.

'Good grief. They're doing exactly the same thing as those marine-creature overlords somewhere else. These lunatics are sacrificing people just to harvest magical ingredients!'

They did not care whether the capital of some peninsula nation survived or collapsed.

It was none of their concern.

Obviously, they intended to obtain the elixir and leave.

'Well, Alphaurth used to think exactly like that too, and that's precisely why we kept causing all kinds of disasters...'

After discovering the Gate boss and spending roughly a minute organizing his thoughts, Giryeo reached a conclusion.

'Then it's simple. If we kill that boss while it's still in its juvenile stage, it's over.'

He needed to find some way to bring Jung Haseong and Seo Esther here so they could eliminate the source of the problem.

Giryeo was now roughly at the level of an E-rank Hunter, but he still had no chance of defeating a high-tier monster by himself.

So he began searching for a passage leading to another floor.

'H-huh?'

The moment he noticed a passage behind the boss that seemed to descend to the lower level—

every tiny hair on his body stood on end.

THUD. THUD. THUUUD...!

Because that sound suddenly reverberated through the previously silent cave.

"Crazy...!?"

How are you even alive?

There wasn't even enough time to voice the question.

By the time Giryeo turned his head, the other man was already right in front of him.

Like a ruthless actor who had skipped every line of dialogue in the script, his opponent offered no warning and made no attempt at conversation.

He simply unleashed a spell.

"WAAAGH!"

What terrifying firepower.

The plasma was so intense that it made the lightning attack Giryeo had endured in Japan look like a joke.

'Right. Now that the barrier from the [Sacred Tree Seedling] has been destroyed, of course this was bound to happen!'

As expected, merely grazing the attack was enough to cause serious injury.

Giryeo looked down at his right leg.

From his kneecap to his shin, the flesh had been badly burned.

"Wait..."

Now that he thought about it, the pain in that area felt strangely familiar.

The more he considered it, the more it seemed as though some lingering magic might still be lodged there as well.

'Oh my. Oh my god.'

There was no time to waste on such thoughts.

Barely keeping his collapsing body together, Giryeo somehow forced himself upright despite his charred leg.

Then he turned toward the direction from which the attack had come—

and saw something horrifying.

DRIP. DRIP. DRIP...

Blood fell from the man's body in thick, clotted strands, so viscous that it looked more like syrup than liquid.

Enzo Chiano had appeared again.

And he looked exactly as he had before.

The back of his neck had been torn open like a gazelle mauled by a lion.

The wound across his chest had not improved either.

No—

if anything, the injuries looked worse than before, the damaged flesh grotesquely swollen.

"Hmm?"

The item called [Doppelgänger's Jealousy] was useful for concealing one's identity.

But because it altered the user's physique itself, it inevitably came with several serious drawbacks.

'Was hiding your face all you needed?'

The man now standing before the alien had a massive, bear-like build.

Enzo Chiano had abandoned his pathetic impersonation of a dead person.

Now, only the bone mask remained hanging over his head.

That meant the Awakened's distinctive original physique was fully exposed.

"......"

GRRRR... GRRRR...

Despite the strange wheezing noises escaping from his damaged respiratory system, Enzo had walked all the way here while seething with rage, as though the pain meant nothing to him.

One glance was enough to tell—

he was in terrible condition.

"That's why he couldn't even hit a single slow-moving target."

But no matter how bad Enzo looked, could his condition truly be worse than that of someone whose awakening value was only 33AW?

The net-like offensive barrier had punched holes through the organs beneath his sternum.

On top of that, the front of his neck had been sliced open.

As anyone could see, the opponent was gravely wounded.

No potion could restore him immediately from injuries like those.

And yet Kim Giryeo instinctively felt defeated the moment he realized he had failed to kill the fake Beast instantly.

Even if that monster simply closed his eyes and blindly unleashed area-of-effect attacks, Giryeo would still be finished.

COUGH. COUGH...

But Enzo, now reduced to making little more than beast-like noises, seemed unable to unleash any large-scale magic.

Instead, he summoned only a thin stream of electricity concentrated at a single point.

CRACKLE!

Just as the blond Hunter desperately threw himself aside to dodge—

the situation changed dramatically.

BOOM!

A deafening explosion erupted nearby, every bit as violent as the roar of superheated plasma expanding through the air.

"-!!"

Enzo, who had finally regained some measure of focus, was struck by the sudden burst of flames beside him and staggered backward.

After all, recoiling from intense heat was an instinct shared by every living creature.