A Hunter on Borrowed Time Keeps Surviving - Chapter 19

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 19.
The far end of the Research Institute’s corridor was unusually dark and silent.
The fluorescent lights had gone out completely in this section, and the water had deepened until it reached his waist.
“Be careful. The Boss Room is just ahead.”
Si-ul stopped and alerted Zero to this fact.
In truth, Zero had already sensed it.
A half-crushed iron door was visible ahead, and he could feel a thick concentration of mana leaking from within it.
The unmistakable premonition that something powerful lay waiting crashed over him.
“Let’s regroup before we go in.”
Si-ul spoke with Zero in front of the Boss Room.
“This dungeon’s boss is a King Slime. It’s a hundred times the size of a regular Slime, and the more you attack it, the more it divides its body to create subordinates.”
Si-ul explained the strategy along with the contents of the dungeon manual he’d heard from Park Jung-gi.
“A direct approach against something like that would be suicide. So we’re going to….”
Si-ul’s Inventory opened.
“Use this.”
Si-ul withdrew a small metal device and placed it on his palm.
A white disc shape. A green circuit pulsed at its center.
『 Monster Adhesive Bomb 』 ― Grade A
Upon attachment, it reacts to the monster’s mana and detonates after 10 seconds.
Si-ul rolled the bomb in his hand and let out a wry chuckle.
“It’s a single-use device that costs 100 million won.”
Zero didn’t know what 100 million meant and simply tilted his head in confusion.
“It’s wasteful, but a weapon of that cost comes with guaranteed power. One of these should be enough to finish off the King Slime.”
Zero gazed at the bomb with sparkling, curious eyes.
“Your job is simple. When the subordinate Slimes around the King Slime rush at you, block them with Fire Magic just like before.”
“King!”
“In the meantime, I’ll approach the King Slime and attach this bomb.”
Si-ul emphasized that this part was especially crucial.
“Once I attach it, I have to get as far away as possible within 10 seconds. Otherwise, the blast will reach us too.”
Thanks to his Die Until Death Trait, Si-ul himself could afford to take risks in his approach.
But Zero could not.
“Don’t step forward under any circumstances. You fight only from the back. Understood?”
“King!”
Zero fluttered his wings once.
It was his way of signaling readiness.
Si-ul nodded and stepped toward the Boss Room entrance.
“All right, let’s go.”
* * *
The Boss Room was a vast main laboratory space.
Each wall soared high as if designed to accommodate experimental equipment, and the ceiling stretched endlessly upward.
It was the largest boss chamber Si-ul had ever seen in a dungeon.
“Wow.”
Si-ul released the exclamation involuntarily.
But it was not directed at the scenery.
At the entity occupying the center of the laboratory.
He had gasped at the sight of the King Slime.
【 Continuous Quest Generated! 】
【 Eliminate Mortal Threats 】
Directly remove the obstacle posing a threat to life.
Obstacle Danger Level: 10
Success Reward: 3 Level-up Points
“It’s absurdly massive….”
The manual’s description of the King Slime being a hundred times the size of a regular Slime was no exaggeration.
An enormous gel mass, swollen like a mountain, sat plastered against the center of the laboratory.
Its upper body towered toward the ceiling, its lower body spreading across the floor.
Sheer mass alone was overwhelming.
Si-ul instinctively stepped backward.
Squelch—.
“…?”
Just as Si-ul stood on guard, the King Slime’s center rippled.
Its massive body made its form unmistakably clear.
‘What is this?’
The King Slime had been watching Si-ul since he entered the Boss Room, its gaze fixed squarely upon him.
Despite spotting an intruder, it made no move to attack—it simply kept rippling its belly.
There were no subordinates charging on its behalf, yet its composure seemed oddly tranquil.
But soon enough, Si-ul understood what it meant.
Roaaaarrr!!
The King Slime’s belly split open like a mouth, and water came gushing from the gap.
No—”gushing” wasn’t even the right word.
It erupted. It deluged.
If this was what facing a tsunami felt like, Si-ul now had his answer.
“Ugh… ugh…!”
Si-ul’s mind went blank for an instant.
The deluge swallowed the Research Institute whole in seconds.
He was slammed by the current, and his vision vanished.
The Boss Room was now eighty percent submerged.
“Gak!”
The water depth: roughly seventy meters.
Si-ul’s body was caught in the vortex and dragged down into the abyss.
He thrashed his arms frantically, but his sense of direction was already gone.
Cold water and crushing pressure clouded his consciousness.
‘Ah…’
Unable to hold on any longer, he gasped—and his lungs filled with water.
Drowning.
Si-ul’s consciousness faded to black.
* * *
Thump!
A searing wave spread from deep within his chest.
【The Trait ‘Die Until Death’ activates.】
His torn lungs regenerated; the water that had filled them was driven out; breath returned.
“Hah!”
Si-ul’s eyes snapped open beneath the surface.
‘I… I’m alive…!’
At that same moment, something seized him from behind.
“…?!”
His body was yanked upward with force.
A heavy pressure squeezed his waist.
He turned to see teal-blue scales.
Zero had extended his tail long and wrapped it around Si-ul’s waist, his wings beating steadily.
Swish! Swish-swish!
Zero cut desperately through the water, climbing toward the surface.
At last, their combined effort broke them above the surface.
“Gasp!”
Si-ul gulped oxygen, breathing hard.
Zero, meanwhile, never stopped his wings.
He kept flapping relentlessly, hovering in the air, holding Si-ul fast so he wouldn’t sink again.
“Thank you, Zero… I’m alive because of you. Well, I did die once, but… anyway, thank you.”
Si-ul stroked Zero’s tail that coiled around his waist, expressing his gratitude.
Zero answered not with words but with even more vigorous wing-beats.
“What on earth is happening…”
Si-ul stared downward with a pallid face.
A massive shadow glided through the submerged Research Institute.
The King Slime slipped and churned through the water below.
As if boasting how swiftly it could move in this environment.
‘I can’t even get close—not with that thing down there.’
The Boss Room, viewed from the air, had transformed into something utterly alien.
The floor was invisible.
The Research Institute had become one vast aquarium.
“Park Jung-gi’s briefing never mentioned anything like this…”
Si-ul’s confusion gave way to a slow shake of his head.
‘Why should I be surprised? If every pattern and variable were known, this Dungeon would already be conquered.’
A variable sharp enough to make the back of his head tingle in the Boss Room is perhaps the most natural occurrence.
It was the same when he faced the Giant Golem’s sealed chamber, the same when he struggled against the Shaman Orc’s healing magic.
‘Whatever comes, I push through it. That’s my job.’
Si-ul steadied himself and looked down again at the water below.
He watched the King Slime darting through the depths, trying to read the pattern of its movements.
‘In an environment like this—not solid ground—I can’t move faster than it. The skills I have are hard to use underwater anyway.’
Si-ul’s gaze shifted naturally toward Zero.
“Zero, can you pull me through the water like before? I can’t even get close to this thing on my own strength.”
“Wark!”
Zero answered without hesitation.
“Thanks. You’re solid.”
Si-ul smiled and stroked Zero’s head.
Then he opened his Inventory.
『 Monster Adhesive Bomb 』
“Stick this on that thing, then pull us straight up into the air. Got it?”
“Wark!”
“All right, count to three and we go.”
Before diving, Si-ul took one last deep breath.
“One, two….”
Zero’s tail extended longer, coiling firmly around Si-ul’s waist.
“Three…!”
Splash!
The moment he slipped below the surface, he felt the King Slime’s dense Mana even through his skin.
Zero plunged forward without hesitation, eyes fixed ahead.
Thud, thud-thud-thud.
“…?”
In the distance, a portion of the King Slime’s body tore away.
That chunk transformed into dozens of Slimes.
‘Damn.’
Si-ul grasped the King Slime’s intent immediately.
‘So it won’t even let me get close….’
His suspicion proved right.
The Slimes rushed forward in unison, as commanded.
Fast as bullets.
Seeing the translucent masses closing in from all sides, Zero opened its mouth with swift reflex.
Whoosh—!
Fire Breath erupted, but the flames evaporated instantly in the water.
Zero’s pupils trembled in alarm.
If this continued, dozens of Slimes would grab them and they’d drown beneath the surface.
Then, rising bubbles carried Si-ul’s voice.
“Keep going!”
A short blade shot from Si-ul’s hand.
Slash—!
The Tracker’s blade curved on command, slicing through the Slimes.
The sliced Slimes split instantly and multiplied, but it bought them precious seconds.
Whoosh!
The blade was recalled.
Si-ul glanced at Zero with eyes that said he could hold these creatures back just like that.
‘I’ll handle these. Don’t you stop.’
That intention reached Zero through his gaze.
From that moment, Zero no longer hesitated.
Eyes locked only on the target before it—the King Slime—it beat its fins more fiercely.
Si-ul fended off the Slimes rushing from both sides with the Tracker’s blade.
Cutting, multiplying, blocking, splitting again.
After grueling repetition, Si-ul and Zero finally reached the King Slime itself.
Glub—.
The massive gel mass bulged, swelling its body.
It meant to swallow Si-ul and Zero whole.
‘All the better.’
Si-ul’s lips curved upward.
He hurled the bomb in his hand with every ounce of strength he possessed.
Splat!
Despite the careless throw, it stuck perfectly thanks to the swollen body of the King Slime.
In an instant, the green circuit at the bomb’s center shifted to red.
The bomb had reacted to the King Slime’s Mana.
“Zero!”
Si-ul shouted, expelling his last breath.
Ten seconds.
They had to escape the chamber within that window.
Zero understood immediately and pivoted sharply.
With the bomb clinging to the King Slime behind them, both figures sprinted toward the exit with all their might.
But in that moment, Si-ul’s and Zero’s eyes widened simultaneously.
“Gurrrrrr!!”
The entire surroundings were packed with Slimes.
The path back was nowhere to be found.
It couldn’t have been found.
The ones they’d cut down on the way in, the ones they’d blocked, the ones they’d only forced to multiply without eliminating.
All of those results had merged into one, filling an enormous tank to the brim.
Translucent masses pressed against each other, advancing toward Si-ul and Zero.
‘Breaking through this in ten seconds? Straight up?’
By any logical measure, it was impossible.
Yet they couldn’t afford to surrender here.
Zero twisted his body with feline grace.
Expending even the energy he’d been holding in reserve, he carved frantically through the current.
Wings and tail thrashing in unison, he swam with desperate urgency.
“Gurrrrrr!!”
The Slimes would not tolerate this.
They surged forward viciously, determined to trap him here, to prevent any escape.
Whoosh!
The Tracker’s blade spun, slicing through the Slimes.
Si-ul refused to yield in spirit.
He kept throwing his dagger until his shoulders burned.
Of course, with each throw, the enemy’s numbers only swelled.
Dozens of Slimes latched onto Si-ul’s body by the second.
He could no longer throw daggers, and his weighted body rendered Zero’s wingbeats useless.
Then a notification banner flashed across the edge of Si-ul’s vision.
『 Detonation in 1 second. 』
“……!”
Si-ul spun frantically and pulled Zero into his embrace.
It didn’t matter that Slimes clung to him.
The baby dragon’s small body buried itself in Si-ul’s arms.
In that moment.
Boooooooom—!!
The Monster Adhesive Bomb detonated.
The Hunter with a Limited Lifespan Continues to Survive
Author |
Kutsumatsu
Publisher |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Chief Editor |
Editorial Department
Published by |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books
Address |
7F Gwangseong Building, 28 Bongeunsa-ro 114-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
UCI |
G720:N+A063-20260731071
Blog |
blog.naver.com/dreambookss
Twitter (X) |
@dreambookss
Submissions |
[email protected]
Copyright © Samyang C&C — The contents of this book may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written permission of Dreambooks.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————