Chapter 40
[Kraaaaaaaagh!]
Veiled of Server's roar shook the entire underground dungeon.
Its red eyes shone with killing intent and mockery as they stared straight through Hong Man-gi and Lee Yu-han.
Han Young-mi's spirit hid behind Hong Man-gi, desperately trying to remain calm.
"B, be careful."
Leaving Han Young-mi's trembling voice behind him, Hong Man-gi suppressed his anger and adjusted his grip on his sword.
His eyes shone coldly.
Every nerve in his body seemed stretched to its limit.
The opponent was clearly more than a D-rank Hunter should normally be able to handle.
But there was nowhere to retreat.
He needed to resolve Han Young-mi's injustice.
And he needed to put an end to this cursed dungeon.
"Pathetic insects are struggling desperately...."
Veiled of Server sneered as it slowly moved its enormous claws.
The monster's relaxed attitude only seemed to make Hong Man-gi's fighting spirit burn hotter.
His grip around the sword tightened.
Then it happened.
Lee Yu-han suddenly charged forward first.
"Fight me!!"
Fear still remained on his face.
But the "Stone Gauntlets of the Iron Fist" were firmly wrapped around his hands.
"You damn monster! I'll fight you first!"
With courage difficult to believe from an F-rank Hunter, Lee Yu-han rushed toward Veiled of Server.
His fist flew toward the monster's face.
[Bam!]
The stone gauntlet struck its face directly with a heavy impact.
Lee Yu-han's fist definitely connected.
For a brief moment, the monster's head tilted slightly backward.
"I did it!"
Lee Yu-han shouted in celebration.
But only for a moment.
Veiled of Server calmly straightened its head and gave a twisted smile.
The wound on its face disappeared in the blink of an eye.
'W, what...?'
Self-healing.
And an incredibly fast recovery speed.
"Hmph. Pathetic."
Veiled of Server instantly kicked Lee Yu-han in the stomach.
There was no time to dodge.
"Guh!"
[Crash!]
Lee Yu-han was sent flying like a piece of paper and smashed violently into the wall.
There was no doubt his new stone gauntlets had dealt real damage.
But Lee Yu-han had never imagined that the monster would possess a healing ability.
Overwhelmed by pain that made his organs feel twisted, he briefly lost consciousness.
"Yu-han!"
Hong Man-gi urgently shouted.
At that moment, Han Young-mi's desperate voice rang in his ears.
"Mr. Hong Man-gi! Be careful! I think that creature can revive memories from battles with Hunters, absorb those abilities, and make them its own! Even when I fought it before, it definitely used techniques I'd never seen before!"
Han Young-mi's words were shocking.
Absorbing combat memories and copying abilities.
It was one of the worst abilities imaginable.
'If that's really true....'
If Hong Man-gi used his many different skills and then lost, Veiled of Server could absorb all of them.
It would become even more powerful and unpredictable.
That could create a disaster for any Hunters who entered this place in the future.
'Then there's only one option.'
Hong Man-gi bit his lip.
'I just have to fight.'
He came to one conclusion.
He needed to seal away his active skills and fight using only pure swordsmanship and physical ability.
It was an extremely dangerous gamble.
However, against an enemy with such a strange and terrifying ability, there seemed to be no other choice.
"Good."
Hong Man-gi tightened his grip on his sword and slowly walked toward Veiled of Server.
His steps were heavy.
But they did not hesitate.
They carried a calm but powerful fighting spirit, like the silence before a storm.
"Oh? You want to fight me one-on-one? Interesting. I'll enjoy watching your final struggle."
Veiled of Server seemed to understand Hong Man-gi's intention and smiled even more cruelly.
The atmosphere in the underground cavern became painfully tense.
Hong Man-gi.
Veiled of Server.
Their gazes clashed like sparks.
* * *
Suffocating silence.
Hong Man-gi and Veiled of Server stared at one another while testing each other.
The first one to move would inevitably create an opening.
Time passed slowly under the crushing tension.
[Swoosh!]
Veiled of Server broke the silence first.
It swung its enormous claws toward Hong Man-gi's upper body.
The sharp sound of air being cut echoed around them.
Instead of blocking the attack directly, Hong Man-gi turned his body slightly to the side and let the claws pass.
At the same time, he changed the direction of his greatsword and launched a sharp counterattack toward the monster's side.
His movements were as natural as flowing water.
[Clang!]
The creature quickly blocked Hong Man-gi's sword with its other arm.
The sound of metal striking metal rang through the cavern as sparks flew.
"Not bad, insect!"
Veiled of Server growled and unleashed a series of attacks.
[Clang, clang!]
[Crack, crack!]
Claws.
Fists.
Even its twisted horns.
Unpredictable attacks constantly pressured Hong Man-gi.
But Hong Man-gi did not panic.
Like an experienced martial artist, he avoided or redirected the attacks using the smallest movements possible.
His speed and precision were completely different from when he had been F-rank.
The experience and abilities of countless souls seemed to have blended into his body and awakened an instinctive sense for combat.
Every time the greatsword collided with the creature's claws, powerful waves of mana spread through the area.
Hong Man-gi's arms became numb every time he blocked an attack.
However, perhaps because the passive skill "Fighting Spirit" had activated, his will to fight only burned more fiercely.
The more HP he lost, the more power seemed to rise from deep inside him.
"That swordsmanship of yours... I've seen movements like those somewhere before."
Veiled of Server spoke while blocking Hong Man-gi's sword.
Hong Man-gi continued watching the monster, searching for an opening.
The creature attacked even more violently.
Hong Man-gi suppressed the pain and responded calmly.
He carefully read the monster's attack patterns and waited for an opening.
[Clang! Kaaang! Boom!]
Sword strikes cut through the air.
Claws slammed into the ground.
Their battle was fierce yet strangely beautiful, almost like a living painting.
Hong Man-gi's sword was smooth yet sharp.
Veiled of Server's attacks were wild yet cunning.
"Haa... haa...."
Sweat covered Hong Man-gi's forehead.
His breathing became heavier.
But his eyes were still alive.
Meanwhile, Veiled of Server was slowly becoming impatient because of Hong Man-gi's unexpectedly strong resistance.
Hong Man-gi did not miss that moment.
'Now!'
The instant the monster's attack slowed for even a brief moment, Hong Man-gi moved.
Instead of using the Breakthrough skill he had gained before, he simply ran forward with all his strength.
His greatsword shot in a straight line toward the monster's chest.
Toward the heart hidden beneath its thick fur.
[Pierce!]
With a horrifying tearing sound, Hong Man-gi's greatsword pierced directly through Veiled of Server's heart.
The monster's red eyes widened in disbelief.
"K, kraaaaagh! Th, this... is impossible...!"
Veiled of Server groaned in pain and stepped backward.
Black blood burst from its chest like a fountain.
The monster staggered and tried to pull the greatsword from its chest.
But its strength was already disappearing.
Hong Man-gi gathered the last of his power and pushed the greatsword even deeper.
"This is your end."
For the finishing blow, he used the skill he had received from Hunter Park Si-hoon.
"Vacuum Annihilation Slash."
A single strike that could only be fired once.
Since this was the final blow anyway, the monster would not have a chance to learn the skill afterward.
There was no reason to hold back.
"Die!"
[CRACK!]
The greatsword completely destroyed the monster's heart.
Veiled of Server's enormous body collapsed helplessly onto the ground.
The light of life quickly disappeared from its red eyes.
A moment later, its body began turning into white smoke and scattering through the air.
"W, we won!!!!"
Lee Yu-han shouted from where he had fallen and was still groaning in pain.
Hong Man-gi breathed heavily and collapsed onto the ground.
It felt as though every bit of strength had left his body.
Still, a tired smile of victory appeared on his face.
* * *
The killing intent and pressure that had filled the underground cavern disappeared as if they had never existed.
For a while, the only sounds were Hong Man-gi's heavy breathing, Lee Yu-han's quiet groans, and the faint sobbing of Han Young-mi's spirit.
Perhaps because the nightmare-like ruler of the BX-0 Dungeon had finally met its end, the dungeon had become unbelievably quiet.
"Haa... haa...."
Hong Man-gi barely supported himself by planting the Bloodline Sword into the floor.
Every muscle in his body screamed.
His mind was buried beneath extreme exhaustion.
Aside from the finishing blow, he had fought a top-level boss using almost no active skills.
He had relied almost entirely on pure swordsmanship and close combat.
The price had been greater than expected.
Still, his face showed both the joy of surviving a brutal battle and the relief of finally resolving Han Young-mi's injustice.
"I, is it over, Hunter Hong Man-gi? It's really over, right?"
Lee Yu-han asked with a trembling voice from where he sat against the wall.
His face was covered in sweat and dust.
The hands wearing the "Stone Gauntlets of the Iron Fist" were still trembling slightly.
For an F-rank Hunter, a desperate battle against a top-level boss he had never experienced before must have felt like living hell.
"Yeah, it's over, Yu-han. We finally did it."
Hong Man-gi answered with a tired smile.
At the place where Veiled of Server had completely disappeared, two items remained, shining beautifully just like always.
Lee Yu-han looked at one of them and shouted.
"Th, that is...!"
His eyes widened.
His gaze was fixed on a strange mana stone about the size of a fist resting beside the monster's armor.
Unlike ordinary mana stones, it shone with brilliant golden light as if it had been made from pure gold.
Faint waves of mana moved across its surface like heat haze, almost as if it were alive.
"A Gold Mana Stone... is that really one?"
Hong Man-gi also muttered quietly.
It was a legendary item he had only heard about.
A treasure said to drop from bosses of the highest-level dungeons at an extremely rare rate.
It contained such an enormous amount of concentrated mana that its value was almost impossible to calculate.
"Hunter Hong Man-gi, that's really, really a Gold Mana Stone, right? I'm not seeing things, am I?"
Lee Yu-han rubbed his eyes in disbelief and moved closer.
His voice was filled with excitement and awe.
With just this one mana stone, they could easily afford the small shop they had dreamed about.
Perhaps they could afford far more than that.
Hong Man-gi quietly nodded and picked up the Gold Mana Stone.
It felt heavy.
At the same time, he could feel an enormous amount of mana flowing through his palm.
He carefully placed the mana stone into his inventory.
Then his eyes moved toward another strange object lying beside it.
It looked like a pale, cold fragment of an animal skull.
Faint ancient-looking letters were engraved across its surface.
'Is this an item too?'
The moment Hong Man-gi picked up the bone fragment, a status window appeared in his mind.
