Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Crackle-.

– Captain, did you see that?

Kang Young-chan’s voice came through the earpiece.

Kim Hwan-soo grunted in response.

“Hmph…. Yeah, I see it.”

Two, no—all the other squad leaders listening to the radio are staring at the same spot.

The most ornate and largest hut.

From there, ominous black smoke was rising.

– What should we do?

“The atmosphere is unusual. Only Sergeant Kang and I will head toward the smoke. The remaining sergeants, join your squad members. The squad leader, report to the division immediately.”

– Aye!

Kim Hwan-soo drew his sword and swung it with all his might toward the sky.

CRASH-!

The moment the limp sword straightened into a perfect line, a tremendous sound erupted.

Sonic Boom.

It was the explosive sound produced as the sword tip surpassed the speed of sound.

“That should be loud enough for him to hear.”

Kim Hwan-soo’s action was a signal to call out to Kang Young-chan.

He could have explained it over the radio, but this method was far more intuitive and effective.

He’d summoned Kang Young-chan this way several times before.

“Were you nearby?”

Not long after the deafening roar echoed, Kang Young-chan could be seen running toward them from afar.

As he drew nearer, his form became clearer. Kim Hwan-soo first frowned, then pinched his nose.

“Young-chan, go wash yourself in the river or something.”

“What? When you called me, where were you?”

“You stink.”

“Saying it’s disgusting right to my face? That’s too much.”

Kang Young-chan stripped off the clothes he was wearing.

His damp shirt, pants, underwear, even his shoes—everything.

Rustling around.

“The captain’s skills are indeed clean, aren’t they?”

He approached the cleanest-looking Red Oak corpse and peeled off its leather garment.

Scrub-scrub-.

Kang Young-chan wiped the blood off the Red Oak, whose body was covered head to toe in leather clothing.

After roughly cleaning himself, he rummaged through the corpses again and put on an intact leather t-shirt and pants.

Kang Young-chan wasn’t particularly large, but the Red Oaks were stocky and short, so the top hung loosely and the pants looked like shorts.

“Is that enough?”

“Much better. But seriously, how do you manage to find stuff like that to wear?”

“Enough, enough. Let’s drop that. Tell me what you plan to do about that thing over there.”

The billowing black smoke only grew thicker.

It wasn’t the thick gray smoke from a fire.

A complete black cloud.

An ominous and unusual sign.

Records show that black clouds always appeared during past monster hunts that claimed countless victims.

It felt like something was about to happen at any moment.

“Youngchan, if things get dangerous, I’m running. Got it?”

“Heh heh. Don’t worry. I’ll protect the captain.”

“Alright. I trust you.”

With those words.

The two charged toward the dark clouds at full speed.

***

POW!

[Quest cleared.]

Dojae reappeared.

It was the spot where he had been standing before accepting the quest.

‘Check quest.’

[Quest]

Category: Main

Content: You have met the minimum requirements. To regain your full power, you must gather the scattered fragments. (Achievement Progress: 3/7)

Restrictions: None

Reward: ???

Failure: ???

‘The golem’s heart, eyes, nerves… Eilatra, Altein…’

Dojae grasped the concept.

The scattered fragments were passive skills beginning with ‘Golem’.

And to recover the remaining four fragments, he had to meet the other great beings.

‘The problem is, I have no idea when or where they’ll show up.’

Both Eilatra and Altein had assigned quests entirely on their own whims.

He had no clue.

I didn’t like the idea of just twiddling my thumbs and waiting, but for now, there was no way to communicate with them.

‘But…. There’s something off about this….’

Clothes unchanged, sword unchanged, posture unchanged.

But all the Red Oaks were gone.

“Where did they all go?”

Had they all fled while Dojae was gone?

Not a single living Red Oak was in sight.

“Good. Might as well test out my skills?”

Swish-.

Dojae closed his eyes.

And he began to visualize the flow of mana circulating through every corner of his body.

The heart, the largest and brightest source of light.

From that abundant reservoir, large stems connected to the head, arms, and legs.

And from the trunk, branches spread out like blood vessels into hundreds of strands, finally reaching another large light on the back of his right hand.

But here, something slightly strange occurred.

The mana emanating from the heart failed to mix with the mana on the back of the hand. Instead, it circled around it before returning.

In doing so, it gradually chipped away at the mana on the back of the hand, absorbing the fragments. The amount absorbed was by no means small.

‘So this is what being sealed means. If the seal were to break…’

Dojae thought.

If the mana on his palm, the [Sealed Memory of the Right Hand], were unlocked, he might be able to make that vast amount of mana his own.

Clank.

This time, Dojae casts and equips the Golem Armor.

Fortunately, as Altein had said, there were no emotional disturbances or annoying notifications.

‘I suppose I should be grateful for this.’

Wearing the Golem Armor gives him a new sensation.

He had thought it would be just a simple, sturdy armor, but feeling the intricate details made it entirely different.

The mana seeping from his body like steam filled the gaps between each stone composing the armor. That mana acted as the joints, while also providing cushioning and insulation.

Much like the subcutaneous fat between skin and muscle.

‘Alright, time to try this control thing.’

The Golem’s nerves were a passive skill.

There was no specific activation condition.

Just as when using the golem’s eyes, he began to manipulate the mana within the golem armor, treating it as an extension of his own body.

Clank-.

The stones encasing the arm peel away and move toward the hand.

The stones clumped together, forming a stone ball the size of a basketball.

Without stopping there, as he manipulated the mana, the sphere floated up onto his palm.

To an ordinary person, it would have looked like telekinesis magic.

However, the sphere Dojae created could only be made using stones from his own golem armor; he couldn’t use just any stones around him.

Proof of this could be seen in his left arm, exposed like a sleeveless shirt.

Whoosh-!

As Dojae twitched his fingertips, the stone orb shot forward in an instant.

The distance was 5 meters from Dojae.

It took 1.5 seconds to reach its destination.

‘It’s short range, but it could be useful, right?’

Considering its weight and size, 1.5 seconds was by no means a slow speed.

What if we reduced the size here and increased the Seokgu?

Puff-puff-puff-puff-puff-puff-puff-puff-

Pebbles about the size of candy balls embedded themselves into the rock.

It feels like firing a shotgun.

Zzzzzz-.

I’m experimenting with the skill’s utility over and over.

A powerful surge of mana pulses through my temples.

‘Something’s definitely off.’

Realizing the unease he’d felt since earlier wasn’t just his imagination, Dojae sprinted up the steep hill.

And Dojae could see it.

The black clouds engulfing the battlefield.

***

“Second Lieutenant.”

Son Jeong-gyu called out to Shim Yeong-jin.

Shim Young-jin wipes away the sweat and dried blood as he answers.

“Hm?”

“Did our class president happen to come with you?”

“Hmm… You’re from Class 3, right?”

“Yes. I’m Son Jeong-gyu from Class 3.”

“Then the class president for Class 3 is Mr. Do Jae, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Shim Young-jin shook his head.

He was the last to arrive, and Dojae hadn’t been there yet.

“He’s probably just running a little late. Why, are you worried?”

“Not really. All the other class presidents are here, but ours still hasn’t arrived…”

“He’ll be here soon. Nothing serious, right? He’s strong enough that even our uncle acknowledges him.”

“Yes… Thank you.”

Unsatisfied with the answer, Son Jeong-gyu moved on to another person.

“Commander, have you seen our squad leader by any chance?”

“Hmm, Third Squad Leader? I was just talking to him on the radio…”

Song Hoon fiddled with the radio.

He tried switching channels and turning it off and on, but only static came through.

“Is the radio not working?”

“Not just Third Squad Leader, but the Commander and First Squad Leader can’t get through either?”

As he spoke, Song-hoon pointed his finger somewhere.

It was the dark cloud spreading near the Bravo Line.

“It seems to be because of those clouds…”

The radios had gone dead the moment the dark clouds appeared.

That wasn’t all.

All electronic devices, including smartphones, either lost connection or started acting strangely.

Just like when they entered the dungeon.

But we couldn’t just hold onto a radio that wouldn’t even communicate anymore and wait for Dojae.

Boom!

A majestic trumpet blast echoed.

Red Oaks began charging forward, kicking up thick clouds of dust.

“All hands, prepare for battle!”

***

“Captain, I think we’ve fallen into a trap?”

“That’s my thought too.”

The two entered the dark cloud.

They had been circling the same spot for ten minutes.

“Heh heh, where on earth did this cute little bastard who pulls stunts like this come from?”

Kang Young-chan licked his lips.

He wanted to fight right now, but the problem was he didn’t know how to escape from here.

Trapping and tormenting an enemy like this was the method he hated most.

“It doesn’t seem like an illusion.”

Kim Hwan-soo said.

Red Oak priests couldn’t wield such high-level mental magic.

So that meant it wasn’t an illusion, but real.

Kim Hwan-soo was battle-hardened enough to be jaded on the battlefield, but unfortunately, he had no experience in this particular area.

Had he lived as a hunter and explored dungeons, he might have encountered something like this at least once.

But the nature of being in an extermination force made it difficult to gain the diverse experiences hunters did.

And the same applied to Kang Young-chan.

Hop- hop-.

“What are you trying to do?”

“What else? Trying to jump up!”

Pwooak-!

Kang Young-chan’s legs, bulging as if about to burst, pushed off the ground and shot skyward.

But as if there were an invisible wall in the sky, he slammed into something hard and fell back to the ground.

“Ouch. My head…”

The sky was blocked, and the ground kept spinning him round and round in the same spot.

S-rank Awakener Kang Young-chan and A-rank Awakener Kim Hwan-soo—this formidable force had become nothing more than helpless scarecrows.

“Ugh. I’m tired. I’m just going to sleep.”

“What? We need to figure out how to escape.”

“I already tried.”

“Still, we have to do something…”

Kwoong-!

Kang Young-chan glared at Kim Hwan-soo.

A crushing pressure descended upon Kim Hwan-soo.

“Captain. I told you I’m tired.”

A and S.

Just one rank difference.

Yet that single rank difference rendered Kim Hwan-soo utterly immobilized.

‘Hmph, and you call yourself an experimental subject.’

Even if artificially created, an S-rank is still an S-rank.

Kang Young-chan, who became S-class thanks to Kim Hwan-soo, seemed to follow Kim Hwan-soo’s orders well, likely due to his secret weakness. But his beast-like temperament could erupt at any moment.

What if Kang Young-chan went all out, determined to take everyone down with him?

I wanted to avoid that situation at all costs.

Besides, since orders had been given for now, I had no choice but to accommodate him to some extent.

‘A lowly brute who knows nothing but fighting. If he completes the mission, it’s goodbye.’

Kim Hwan-soo began moving, leaving Kang Young-chan with his eyes closed.

Monsters weren’t even in sight, and even if there were, what kind of monster could touch Kang Young-chan’s body?

Scratch-.

Kim Hwan-soo advanced, leaving marks on the floor.

One mark every 50 meters.

He barely managed to recall the countermeasure for being trapped in a repeating space, something he’d heard long ago from a senior hunter.

’17…. 18…. 19….’

The spot where he needed to draw the twentieth mark.

Kang Young-chan appeared, already snoring with his nose pressed against the previously drawn mark.

‘One kilometer, huh.’

The length of the space they were trapped in was 1 kilometer.

After checking again, no matter which way they went, they always ended up back at the 1km point.

‘Then there must be a point between the 19th and 20th markers that binds the space.’

Kim Hwan-soo narrowed the distance by modifying the markers.

It was a task requiring time and labor, but it was the only method available for now.

‘It should be somewhere around here.’

CRASH!

At that moment.

Suddenly, the space shattered, and something burst forth.

“Captain!”

“Lee Sergeant?”