Chapter 460

Since then, the background had been filled with the unceasing sounds of real combat.

Crackle!

During the single second in which the Archmage was analyzing Kang Changho's traits, an unusual vibration spread through the air.

'Lightning!'

It was a phenomenon unnaturally produced by a sorcerer through mana. When the artificial S-rank hunter on the far side of the dungeon unleashed their skill again, the space before them flashed white.

'Isn't that a little too much force for a mere test shot?'

Boom, boom, boom!

A deafening roar tore through the air, followed by the expected collapse.

As a consequence of wielding power beyond the limits of their body, the illegal clinic employee immediately lost the skin on their fingers after using such a powerful skill.

For reference, this was on an entirely different level from the minor cracking caused by dry winter air. It looked as though the flesh had been exposed to a powerful alkaline solution—the artificial Awakener's fingertips were visibly splitting apart.

'Agh!'

The attacker was the one who screamed.

Fortunately, the power of the skill was impressive enough to justify the price paid...

'Hunter Kang!'

The result was obvious.

Korea's S-rank hunter, standing at the pinnacle of physical enhancement, suffered severe injuries from the artificial lightning.

The moment the bolt struck, half of Kang Changho's body was charred black.

Of course, he hadn't been burned all the way through, but if an ordinary human had suffered injuries like that, they would have lost consciousness from the agony and started foaming at the mouth.

Smrk.

However, with a skill like his, pain was no longer the primary concern.

'In just an instant...'

His face.

His neck.

His arms.

Even the section of his waist that had been pierced by the dungeon's laser.

Everything was restored perfectly.

'Huh?'

'That's right now—'

'Someone clear away the lightning smoke! We have someone with a wind-type skill, don't we?!'

The illegal procedure crew finally noticed that something abnormal was happening.

In particular, the artificial awakened being who stood precariously close to the ceiling of the S-rank category witnessed the scene clearly with their superior reflexive vision.

'Recovery?'

Within the pitch-black smoke created by the charring and intense heat, an afterimage remained.

The instant Kang Changho took the lightning head-on, his powerful muscles had burst apart, scattering droplets of blood through the air.

And yet the torn flesh seemed to last for only an instant.

The scattered blood droplets were drawn back toward the surface of his body, and the wounds rapidly regenerated.

In other words, his body wasn't creating new resources to replace what had been lost.

Rather, the vessel itself seemed to be preventing any true destruction from taking place.

'I didn't even have time to drink a potion.'

The artificial awakened being was so stunned that they unconsciously spoke aloud.

'What...'

Of course, in a video game-like environment, you could simply press a button and restore your 'health.'

Reality wasn't so convenient.

To receive proper healing, you had to force yourself to drink the entire 300 mL potion contained in a crystal vial.

Then you had to let your body process it gradually and endure the effects carefully to avoid side effects.

Yet the opponent regenerated smoothly without any such trouble.

Before long, the entire enemy force was staring in shock.

'Hey! That orb artifact—charge it one more time, right now.'

'Uh, yeah. I... I'm doing it. I just took out the magic stone.'

The clinic's management began issuing orders in urgent voices.

'Whoa!'

And, as expected, the fully recovered physical-enhancement user immediately charged forward.

He was heading straight toward them.

'Buy me just a little more time!'

Seeing this, the curly-haired old man began berating his staff without pause, switching between everything from Classical Chinese to Slavic languages.

'No, this... this won't work. Just run.'

But even as the employees continuously applied patches that restored their bodies, their defensive line was relentlessly pushed backward.

'We can't keep up with his speed...!'

The amount of damage they could inflict on one another was roughly comparable.

Although there was a difference between natural and artificial abilities, everyone present was still top-tier personnel.

Naturally, there were moments when they managed to strike Kang Changho and break his shin.

And when they succeeded in counterattacking, they could tear deep wounds into his flesh.

That was how formidable the clinic's forces were.

'Could that possibly be... [Super Regeneration]?'

But every bit of that effort vanished in less than a second.

'A provisional skill that hasn't even been officially entered into international records... and a living hunter actually has it...!?'

When the skin of an armed artificial Awakened was torn, it took several minutes to regenerate.

Mana used incorrectly, almost like divine punishment, only slowed that recovery further.

And yet Kang Changho continuously restored his body until not even a trace of injury remained.

Crack!

Because his wounds barely lasted at all, he hardly seemed to feel any pain.

So when the overwhelmingly powerful opponent suddenly appeared right in front of him, the old man finally realized that his entire plan had collapsed.

'Let's retreat.'

But he couldn't even properly carry out that final thought.

The employees who had served as a human barrier fell far too quickly, leaving him with no sense that disregarding human dignity had ever been worth it.

'Oh my...'

Even the previously revealed upper limit of Kang Changho's physical enhancement had been wrong.

The moment he realized that, the third S-rank hunter of an East Asian nation immediately attacked the old man.

Using sheer, brutal physical force, Kang Changho crushed the man's sternum so he couldn't breathe properly and finally knocked him unconscious—a Korean doing whatever was necessary to subdue his opponent.

'Hmm.'

The alien quietly observed the scene around him.

'If I'd known Kang Changho was going to beat them all half to death anyway, I wouldn't have bothered holding back earlier.'

The blond mage's complaint briefly crossed his mind, but it no longer mattered.

The illegal clinic had been wiped out in the blink of an eye.

'That guy's awakened attribute and detailed skills really do have excellent synergy.'

By the way, once all the enemies had already been defeated, Kim Giryeo wondered what Kang Changho was rummaging around for.

From the perspective of Kim Giryeo, who had practically done nothing but watch, the following scene came into view.

Crack!

Kang Changho deliberately picked up the two differently colored crystal orbs the old man had possessed and crushed them beneath his shoes.

Apparently, he regarded dungeon items capable of summoning dungeons as things the world had no need for.

After completely destroying the artifacts, Kang Changho turned toward his fellow Korean and finally addressed him properly.

'Awakener Kim Giryeo.'

Perhaps he didn't know that Kim Giryeo had returned to hunter work.

'There were quite a few casualties here. As you've probably already seen, all of this was the result of necessary measures.'

'Well, I suppose you'd want to keep that incredible regeneration skill hidden.'

'Since it's already happened, can you just turn a blind eye this once?'

'That's not a problem. But you're not planning to kill me later just to keep me quiet, are you?!'

'Hahahaha.'

A brief exchange followed.

When Kim Giryeo casually tested him with some of the questions he'd been curious about, the man whose clothes had been reduced to rags answered him.

'That joke wasn't funny at all, but since you're an interesting person, I'll let it slide.'

With that, Kang Changho stepped closer to his fellow Korean.

'Anyway, seeing how you didn't resort to violence even with all this chaos going on... Ah, so revenge really wasn't your goal after all, was it?'

'Ah.'

The alien spoke as though something had only just occurred to him.

'Come to think of it... that. I was actually about to ask you about that too.'

'Yeah.'

'Why on earth has the word 'revenge' kept coming up since earlier?'

'That's...'

'And how did Hunter Kang Changho end up here?'

Smrk.

At that, those reptile-like eyes briefly rolled through the air.

'Since we've even signed a non-aggression pact, talking like this feels a little awkward.'

'Ah.'

'Still, ignoring a superhuman like this... The power and intelligence that managed to reach even this dungeon are intimidating. It's probably better to answer willingly.'

'Is that really the expression of someone who's afraid?'

'Consider yourself lucky. I've been in a good mood lately, so I'm even willing to listen to someone whose number I've blocked.'

He smirked briefly.

But in the end, the physical-enhancement awakened being maintained the same calm demeanor as ever.

'Let's start with the revenge part. Anyway, that was just a trivial misunderstanding.'

Surprisingly, Kang Changho was fairly amicable toward his compatriot.

As Korea's fourth S-rank hunter, he apparently had a rather gentle disposition toward good people.

That had already been corroborated through numerous incidents.

From his perspective, there was no real reason to torment a virtuous person.

'I just assumed that you, Kim Giryeo, were an artificially awakened being... and that you'd come here personally to take down the organization that ruined your life.'

'What?'

'Isn't that a pretty classic story? But it's not like I was taking the idea that seriously. It's just that, from what I knew, the only information I had about you was that you were a cancer patient.'

Tuk.

Kang Changho turned back toward Kim Giryeo and picked something up.

He retrieved the sunglasses that had fallen onto the floor and lightly dusted them off.

'And as for why I'm here, honestly, there isn't really any reason worth explaining.'

The first answer hadn't exactly been convincing either, but what he said next was even more unexpected.

Kang Changho simply claimed that he had come here 'because he was bored.'

'You came here because you were bored?'

According to what Kim Giryeo had heard from the national hero, Kang Changho had also caused quite a commotion over the [Elixir] incident not long ago.

Just how unbearably dull did his life have to be?

Eventually, Kang Changho explained it himself.

He had happened to become interested in artificial awakening and had traveled all the way overseas, getting involved in espionage work that had never really suited him in the first place.

Originally, he had only intended to quietly observe the experiments being conducted here.

But once he learned that they had targeted Jeong Haseong, he abruptly changed his plans.

'Originally, weren't you planning to side with them and go after the Korean?'

For the moment, the blond alien responded to that statement with silence.

'So this isn't some situation where agents from different government agencies happened to run into each other. You can relax.'

'Agent?'

'First of all, I'm not connected to any government work. Honestly, judging by the circumstances, it seemed possible that someone at your level might be involved in state affairs.'

'I'm not involved in anything like that either.'

'Is that so?'

Kang Changho placed the broken sunglasses back into their case and continued speaking.

'Anyway, I was just bored and poking around at things that caught my interest.'

The alien quietly nodded.

Then he finally asked the question he had been most curious about.

'Why did you tell me not to use my skill earlier?'

But he hadn't expected such an animated response.

'That's... [Iron Maiden]?'

'Yes?'

'Come to think of it, didn't you just come out of the [Iron Maiden] gate?'

Kang Changho suddenly widened his eyes, as though he had only now remembered something obvious.

'It's surprising enough that a gate that was never supposed to be cleared was actually broken, but for someone I know to come out of it... Well, I suppose it makes sense. The final room, [Iron Maiden], is said to have such exceptional defensive capabilities that even though it causes casualties, an S-rank should theoretically be able to withstand its attacks.'

Moreover, there was a specific reason the bluish-purple-haired man had reacted that way.

It was a rule even the Archmage knew well.

'Anyway, no matter how good a potion you used, if the spikes in [Iron Maiden] pierced your chest, you shouldn't use your abilities for a while.'

Kim Giryeo's expression briefly became uncertain.

'If the lungs have only just regenerated, using a skill can cause unavoidable side effects.'

'...!'

'More precisely, the probability is high. Most people live under the delusion that potions solve everything, so they wouldn't know that.'

And after hearing that, there was no way not to understand the truth.

'What?'

It was a genuinely shocking reason.

The consideration for another person that even the Archmage himself had once contemplated had been felt in exactly the same way by that mammal?

But there was one problem.

He had never been pierced through the chest.

In the first place, he had never actually used an [Iron Maiden] device properly.