Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 184

Chapter 184: Chapter 57. An Incomplete Awakening (2)

Kim Youra didn’t answer. But no, was it that she couldn’t answer?

When I looked at the expression in her eyes, I knew. She was still unable to grasp the situation because of me appearing so suddenly.

“If your response is too late, then I won’t be able to save her. I’d say you have about 20 seconds at most.”

I pressed her for an answer. It hadn’t actually been that long since Kim Minji’s life came to an end. If I wanted to, I could save her easily. Of course, she probably wouldn’t be able to maintain the same state as she did before, but it was possible to resume her life.

“Ah…ah…”

Kim Youra, who had just then recovered her senses, nodded.

“If I save your little sister, what will you give me in return?”

But that didn’t mean it was free. My generosity wasn’t large enough to just give something to this woman who wasn’t one of my own.

I was a demon, and, strictly speaking, this act was like a contract to me.

Not a contract under normal circumstances, but one that was very advantageous to me.

Since time was running short, she wouldn’t have room to make any different choice.

As for Kim Youra, there was nothing she could offer me, except one.

“My whole self…”

It was as though Kim Youra was saying this to me. All that her two eyes were holding was the pure desire to save her sister.

In the previous life, Kim Youra was no slouch of a Holy Woman.

She couldn’t have been. Martin’s aggression had only appeared because of me. It wasn’t supposed to be there originally.

And in the previous life, Kim Youra had fully awakened and taken her place as the Holy Woman who beat down the demons and monsters without mercy. Although she had never become very well known, she definitely had the dignity that the Holy Woman gives off.

I couldn’t know what effect an incomplete awakening would trigger, but I was a powerful man because of the fact that I had in my hands a previous Holy Woman.

I pulled a medicine bottle out of my magical pocket.

‘Although this is usually only used in the creation of a homunculus,’ I pondered.

I shrugged my shoulders. It was a liquid medicine that Gaparam made. It was the fruit of six months of effort, using the highest level ingredients obtained from the Tree of Origin, as well as various other expensive items he had purchased with the research grant that was given to him.

It had a much better effect than the elixir of life. This kind of drug wouldn’t apply well to a being that had achieved a higher level, but for just one ordinary human, there was nothing impossible for it to do.

Gaparam had made two of them in total, and one of them came to me. I mixed just a bit of my blood to the medicine.

At the same instant that my blood mixed with the substance, it turned a dark red color.

After that, I cleared away the rebar and forced Kim Minji to drink it. The substance, which dripped down her esophagus, soon spread throughout her entire body and quickly began regenerating it. In the case of her severed lower body, it could be reattached, but it didn’t do so. I had to use all of the medicine to make that process work.

The remaining half was for Kim Youra.

The blood stopped flowing, and Kim Minji’s complexion was rosy as her life gradually found its way back.

Then her eyes opened, and Kim Minji spoke with a puzzled expression on her face.

“Sister?”

“Aaah!”

Kim Youra tightly held her sister and continually bowed her head to me. It seemed as though her tears would not dry up, but it remained to be unseen whether this gratitude would endure until the end.

“Drink this.”

I held out the bottle with the remaining half of the liquid in it.

Kim Youra hesitated for a moment, and I continued.

“It will turn your condition around.”

Even now, the bubble continued to form over Kim Youra. It wasn’t a very pretty sight as this bubble formed over her skin, which had already suffered great burns. However, it was obvious that if she continued to not do anything like this, then she would soon destroy herself.

The problem was the side-effects that would come because it was mixed with my blood…

‘This is a contract of subordination. It’s a necessary act for me to make her drink my blood,’ I thought.

I considered taking her sister to use as a hostage, but if I did that, she wouldn’t be able to act completely on her own. If I wanted to make her go out and help me voluntarily, a contract would be an essential prerequisite. This was to prevent any potential situation.

However, as the blood of a demon would resist the godly power, there was a possibility that a situation would arise that would be impossible to undo. Actually, there was a high chance of this happening.

Still, I paid attention to her incomplete awakening.

The imperfect godly power was enough to swallow her entire body. If anything, couldn’t my blood play the role of neutralizing it? I decided to take this 50/50 gamble.

As the Holy Woman was already in my clutches, it wouldn’t be a big loss for me if she died, as long as she didn’t go over to Martin. In any case, with the forest, the sword, and the light that had just appeared, the “omen” had definitely become visible; and Martin would be making his way here. It was as if it wouldn’t be unreasonable to forcefully show off something else.

Gulp!

Kim Youra accepted the medicine bottle and downed it without hesitation. It seemed that she had seen her revived sister and thought that the drug itself couldn’t be harmful.

But…

“Argh!”

“Sister? Sister!”

Its effect was apparent the instant she drank it.

Her body became twisted, and the godly power and my mana began to become entangled.

“It’s a battle for control, then.”

I quietly watched this scene with my arms folded.

As I thought, there was a space left due to her incomplete awakening. My mana had pulled open and was permeating this place, promptly starting a turf war.

“Argh!”

Kim Youra’s whole body convulsed. Unlike the mana or godly power, her body was actually being healed little by little. Her burns disappeared, and her nerves returned to her legs, and even her posture, which had been twisted by her bad habits, returned slightly to normal.

“Hmm…”

I stroked my chin.

I wanted to observe this entire process, but an uninvited guest had interfered.

“Martin… He’s directly taking action!”

I couldn’t help but chuckle.

It was a spot several kilometers away from here.

I could sense a strong being slowly approaching.

This familiar scent was clearly Martin.

“He must have been anxious,” I speculated.

He deployed the monsters of the dungeon and completely held off the assault on the forest. In the end, Martin realized he was in a situation where it was impossible to obtain the sacred sword. Just when he was stomping his feet, the omen that foretold the coming of the true Holy Woman appeared.

It was at that point he had this thought.

If I beat around the bush, I was going to miss my chance again!

And so he himself had come to move toward this area.

‘Since you’ve shown yourself, don’t think you can get back alive,’ I mused.

Until now, I couldn’t find him because he was in hiding. But if he was in the midst of coming to the open and running over here like this, there was no reason I couldn’t catch him.

Although I thought he would bide his time just a little longer…

This was evidence that he was just that desperate.

Such that he was in a state where he didn’t realize the fact that this very impatience was what would tighten the noose around his neck.

With a haughty smile, I disappeared, covering my tracks.

The feast of light had spread over the sky.

As soon as Martin saw it, he realized that the Holy Woman had appeared.

This was because a similar event had occurred in his foresight.

He had lost the majority of his vampires, but if he could just get the Holy Woman, it wasn’t a loss.

“I’m going to go do it myself. All other monsters, follow me!”

With the combination of the monsters he had selected from his own dungeon and the monsters from this part of Korea, altogether he had about 30,000 troops.

A great battalion, reaching almost 20,000 monsters, marched forward with Martin at the lead.

The gargoyles had dyed the entire sky jet black. There were wyburns and king wyburns, too. There were all kinds of monsters squirming and starting to move on Earth.

Their destination was the place where that light had appeared.

“I can’t miss my opportunity this time. I’ll quickly get the Holy Woman and then go back,” Martin decided.

He had no intention of taking on Korea’s dungeon or its leader. It was unfortunate, but this was because the forces he possessed all fell short of that, both in number and in quality. But seeing this grand force, he simply let out a gasping sound, as if to marvel at how such an army had gathered.

<hr />

It could be that according to what Pandemonium had said, this may be Randalf Bruciel’s dungeon. It was irregular. It might lead to some incidents. And if there was anyone for whom it wouldn’t be strange to start an incident, it would exactly be Randalf Bruciel.

In any case, whether it was Randalf or not, Martin’s ultimate goal was to escape this place after obtaining the Holy Woman. If he could just get safely back to his dungeon, he had the confidence that he could keep out any enemy no matter how strong they were.

In other words, it would be fine if he could just pass this place safely.

“The m-monsters!”

“Save us!”

The monsters flocked together enough to stain the earth and the heavens jet black. From the perspective of humans, it was like a natural disaster they couldn’t avoid. The humans that had been moving to the center for quite a while were now swept away by the monsters. The monsters didn’t even leave a single fragment of bone in the areas they passed through.

This was all such a sudden occurrence that the humans were still unable to deal with it. All that remained were just a few of the awakened ones who escaped.

“I’m done waiting,” Martin firmly stated. “I’m going to extort the power of the Holy Woman and become more perfect.”

Perfect foresight!

If only that were possible, he thought he would have nothing to fear.

This Martin believed that no truly flawless being existed. Foresight simply gave one information, and, along with it, the ability to find out an opponent’s weak points. Martin’s pet theory was that, as long as they had a weakness, even an unimaginably powerful opponent couldn’t help but fall eventually.

That was why he took such a dangerous risk.

Even now, the warnings of his weakness continued to sound. The word “danger” flashed in his mind. But the thought that he could also miss this chance if he dawdled again, as he did in the forest, pulled him out toward this place.

“Is that…?”

It was right around when he had almost arrived.

Martin stared at a single form, floating in the sky, and frowned deeply.

It was a familiar face, one he had seen a few times before at the Auction of Devildom.

The mana he felt was also overwhelming, so much that it was strange he hadn’t realized it until he had just about arrived here.

“Randalf Bruciel!”

Randalf screamed, filled with astonishment.

Of course!

Was this spot really that bastard’s dungeon?

But he didn’t see any other monsters in the area around him. This meant that the guy was completely alone.

He was the very one who had been obstructing him, too.

“Kill that bastard. Take apart his flesh, cut off his head, and spread out his entrails!”

The almost 30,000 monsters raced to capture only Randalf Bruciel.

<hr />

I was limited in what I could do alone.

It was certainly beyond my ability to actually kill at least 30,000 monsters by myself.

I was just one person in the end—it didn’t matter that I had entered the realm of transcendence. Of course, I would have no problem taking on a couple thousand average monsters, but a considerable number of high-level monsters caught my eye.

Despite this, there was a simple reason why I had come out to meet them.

“Martin is here.”

I didn’t need any other reason.

Martin…he was within my field of vision.

I didn’t necessarily even need to deal with the other 30,000 monsters.

It would all be fine if I just killed him.

“About half of those monsters are captive to Korea. If Martin dies and his right of control over them disappears, they’ll probably fight among each other and destroy themselves.”

If I could just deal with Martin, then I wouldn’t even need to lay a hand on the other monsters.

They would probably just fight among themselves and meet their end on their own, so what would I need to dirty my hands for?

“It’s a spectacular sight.”

I stared at the monsters running toward me, my smile unchanging.

This was the first time I had ever faced such a large army before.

In my previous life, I had dreamed of such a scene, but the very situation that I wouldn’t have been able to realize because I knew my own limitations was unfolding before my eyes.

I had grown stronger.

So much that it was incomparable to the previous life!

There was a clear difference looking at the world now compared to when I was weak.

This was because I had gained that much additional strength and had learned the method of handling it.

I spread both of my hands.

Crack!

Thousands of sparks rose up from my whole body.

At the same time, a very unfamiliar power appeared within me.

It was in fact the Power of Domination.

“It’s a skill that gives you a small chance to control your opponent when you get them in a situation close to death. It looks like it’s just activating now because I’m fighting a huge army.”

Could there be a more appropriate skill for taking on a huge army all alone?

Buzz!

The Lightning God also sprang forth with a deeply excited spirit.

Fire and lightning shimmered all around me, prepared to fire at any moment.

“Well then…”

I cracked my neck once.

And grabbed the Sword of the Emperor and Rage.

“Let’s get started, Martin.”

Whether you win, or I win.