Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Episode 4. Deceptors (5)

Splash!

Kim Suhwan’s head was rolling on the floor. It happened in the blink of an eye. Blood was everywhere. Lee Jihye’s face was covered in it. Lee Jihye was frozen like a rock; she couldn’t move a finger.

It was natural that she was frozen with shock, but what happened was unnatural. The person she’d thought was a beginner had an impossibly fast hand with the coldest eye that she had ever seen. She was looking at me and the beheaded Kim Suhwan without moving.

I left frozen the Lee Jihye alone, and I looked toward where Kim Suhwan had come from. “How long are you going to be hiding like rats? Come out.”

Clap! Clap! Clap!

When I finished talking, a clapping sound came out from the darkness. The unit leader and the sub-leader came out. They were supposed to be dead.

I smiled. It was a real smile. I was having fun in this interesting situation.

The Sub-leader and the Necromancer, Kim Inpil, was the mastermind behind all this. He had planned and executed all this. He had controlled Kim Suhwan’s body to deceive us.

I thought Kim Inpil the Necromancer could only move one or two Goblins, but he was able to control a dead body without difficulty. Maybe his high Mana compensated for his lack of skills.

‘So he intentionally controlled a Goblin and pretended he couldn’t do it well enough.’

Kim Inpil had demonstrated his skill by controlling a Goblin with his Necromancer skill. The movement of the Goblin had been bad, but it was all planned by Kim Inpil. If he didn’t plan all this from the beginning, I’m sure he couldn’t have calculated that much.

Ha!

I didn’t expect to encounter such an evil human. He was more like a devil than a human. He took two beginners, who would have been refused by all the other guilds, and made them walk deep into the dungeon. He dragged them around without any break for a while and then brought an army of monsters to separate the attack unit.

He was not a normal person; he was meticulous, so I was quite sure that Kim Inpil would come back to me. If he wanted to take all the Cores, he didn’t need this kind of plan. I thought that he must have a thirst for blood.

I was one of his prey, so I waited for him to come to find me. He approached me with malicious intention and raised his sword. What he’d done was an unforgivable crime that had to be punished.

If I didn’t like Lee Jihye, I would have killed him in a heartbeat by cutting off his head, but instead, I let her lead the situation for a while.

”I’ve had an interesting experience.’ It was totally worth the wait of a few days.

“Did you know from the beginning?” When he saw my big smile, Kim Inpil asked me the question, confused.

“The smell of the dead body was too strong to ignore.” I moved my shoulder up and down. It wasn’t just the smell. The facial expression was unnatural and the intonation of the voice was strange. There were so many clues. If Lee Jihye was not in such an extreme situation, she would have known that Kim Suhwan was a moving dead body.

“Wow, you’re smarter than I gave you credit for. It would have been rather natural if you didn’t know.” Kim Inpil’s face was surprised. The normal reaction in the middle of a cave surrounded by monsters for a few days would be going crazy or getting sick. I wasn’t normal by human standards for sure.

If I was a human, that is.

“But why, why did you do this…?” Lee Jihye put herself together and asked with a voice overwhelmed by shock and confusion.

Kim Inpil opened his arms wide. “The dungeon is an amazing place, really. Nobody would know if someone died here. It’s almost impossible to find the dead body as well. I think I got caught once, maybe, but anyway, this is an open killing field.”

On the website where the awakened heroes were sharing information, there were some murderers mentioned on the board. Maybe Kim Inpil and Yoon Hyuksu were the murderers.

Lee Jihye kind of laughed out of anger. “You guys are crazy. You planned all these just to kill people?”

“It’s not just murder.” He pulled out a classic notebook from his pocket. “I need to write a diary. If I kill more, my skills and Mana go up as well. When I was awakened, my diary became like.”

Every awakened hero had their own weapon that synced with their vibes. Kim Inpil’s diary was an object with all this madness written inside, so I was sure that his diary was his weapon. I didn’t need to read the diary to understand that. If his diary changed when he awakened, that meant that he started his diary before becoming an awakened hero.

“Murderer…!”

“Haha! Correct. I’m not an undertaker. Can you believe that I used to work at a convenience store before awakening? I was quite famous around the Incheon area because my hobby was to cut out eyeballs while my victims screamed to beg me to save their lives. Well, I collect eyeballs.”

That was a famous story around the Incheon area. There were many dead bodies without eyeballs found in the area. The serial killer who was on the headlines of media and newspapers was standing here.

Lee Jihye covered up her ears, but Kim Inpil didn’t even care and kept talking. “My friend here is also very famous. He is the crazy serial killer who rapes and breaks women’s necks. He is definitely crazy! We found a common interest, so started to work together. Yoon Hyuksu was the one who used his chasing skill to chase you guys. I was really worried that you guys were already dead. Huh! I’m so happy that you guys are alive. Really.”

He was using his chasing skill not to chase monsters, but humans. Yoon Hyuksu laughed, showing his teeth. Everything was planned when they organized the attack unit.

“So that was why you guys took the beginners.”

“Of course! If not, why would we take two beginners?”

“And you were acting when Yoon Hyuksu disappeared.”

“Ah, that? I needed to get Kim Suhwan, and for that, I needed to collect some monsters. Someone who has a lot of experience in the dungeon usually cherishes his life. When Yoon Hyuksu wasn’t coming back, I thought it was all over! We risked our lives as well to do this. So forgive us, ok?

“That’s all you have to say?”

“Haha! If you are hoping that you can defeat us or anything…that hope is just stupid, so give up.”

Krick. Krick. With a grotesque sound, Kim Suhwan’s head settled back on his neck. Then, Kim Suhwan stood up. He still smelled like a decomposing body.

“Now! Two on three fight. One of us doesn’t need any break at all. You guys are really tired, but we aren’t. If you stayed quiet, I would have killed you with less pain.”

“You just talk too much.” If he was talking about something useful, I would have listened to him. If he was a useful fellow, I’m sure I would have tried to make some jokes to get along…but I just hated a useless thing that talks way too much.

I didn’t move right away. He was a reward for Lee Jihye, who had passed my test. Well, it was me who had made this test and let her pass, but who cares? I was happy with the result.

Lee Jihye and I looked at each other. “Your choice,” I said. “Should I let them die, or do you want them to live?”

“Mr. Randalf, what are you talking about?”

“Choose.”

Lee Jihye realized that it wasn’t a joke. She was able to feel that I’d changed since the moment I told her that she had passed, and she’d seen me slash Kim Suhwan’s head off with a single blow.

I was the last card she had. I was her last resort. She knew that, so Lee Jihye said as if someone was squeezing the sound out of her, “…Kill one of them. Mercilessly. But keep one so that we can get out of this place.”

“Who lives and who dies?”

“I don’t know, but just keep one alive.”

“Good. I will kill Kim Inpil. Yoon Hyuksu, hmm. I will try to keep him alive.”

“P…please. Please.”

I couldn’t keep myself from laughing. It wasn’t a difficult favor.

Listening to our conversation, Kim Inpil and Yoon Hyuksu started to laugh for an unknown reason. “Bravo! You guys are pieces of work, really! Amazing!”

Kim Inpil looked shaky. He dropped the formality and smiled coldly.

“Bugatti Veron is mine. It’s too much for you anyway. I want you to struggle so that I can have more fun!”

Slash! In the blink of an eye, Kim Suhwan’s body lay in front of Kim Inpil, split in two. Before the blood had even started to spread, I was in front of Kim Inpil. “I should cut your tongue before anything.”

Slash! The sword went right into Kim Inpil’s mouth.

“Ughhhhhh!”

“You told me it’s fun to pull out the eyeballs while your victim is alive?” My strength was 78pt thanks to the bonus points from my title, so it was much higher than the human standard.

I pulled out Kim Inpil’s eyes with my hand without mercy.

“Kughhhhhhh!” With excruciating pain, Kim Inpil started to froth at the mouth.

Yoon Hyuksu, who was used to killing, stood frozen looking at the scene of madness.

I pulled out his eyeballs and told him, “Maybe it is not so fun for you now. Well, I understand why.” I left Kim Inpil to suffer in pain. Torture was not my thing, but Lee Jihye asked me to kill him mercilessly. If I left Kim Inpil like this, he would die slowly in excruciating pain or be eaten alive by monsters.

When Kim Inpil’s concentrating power was gone, Kim Suhwan’s neck dropped onto the floor. I cleaned up my bloody hand on Kim Inpil’s jacket and took Kim Inpil’s diary from him. I checked the diary with my Mind’s Eye and found out it was a waste to let him keep it. It was a good item to have. I put the diary in my pocket and looked around.

Now I need to take care of the other one.

Cling! As soon as I looked at Yoon Hyuksu, he dropped his sword. He raised both of his hands to show me that he’d surrendered.

“P…please don’t kill me.”

“…This one is just boring.”

Kim Inpil was slightly more interesting. I’d lost my interest. I pulled out my sword from Kim Inpil’s mouth and stabbed Yoon Hyuksu’s stomach, avoiding critical organs.

“U…ugh!” Yoon Hyuksu bent over and started moaning.

“Ugh…” Yoon Hyuksu looked at me as if he wanted to blame me for something. I guess he thought it was too much that I attacked him while he surrendered.

It would be ridiculous for Lee Jihye, but every person and devil became selfish when it came to their lives. Even a murderer wanted to save his own life. When I made eye contact with Yoon Hyuksu, Yoon Hyuksu avoided it immediately.

I told him with my low voice, “Lead us. If you take too long, you will die with bleeding, but I think you have an hour if I don’t pull out the sword.”

Yoon Hyuksu had no choice.