A Hunter on Borrowed Time Keeps Surviving - Chapter 38

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 38.
As the fog lifted, the Boss Chamber finally revealed itself in its entirety.
The space was larger than expected.
Black mire and murky puddles stretched endlessly, with submerged stone fragments beneath providing irregular footing.
Si-ul’s first concern after his vision cleared was to account for his party members’ survival.
Fortunately, the Choshinseong team was unscathed.
Some were on their knees, gasping for breath; others had collapsed entirely and couldn’t stand, but one thing was certain—they were all alive.
“Phew.”
Si-ul allowed himself to relax at last.
Looking around, he noticed the cyan target marker he’d seen floating in the fog coincided exactly with where his teammates now stood.
It confirmed that the enemy he’d observed had indeed been the one battling the party.
Where the target had vanished, Heo Min-ho stood rooted.
His hand, still gripping the Lake’s명검, remained rigid with tension.
‘He fought brilliantly despite the chaos. That’s Min-ho for you.’
Though Si-ul thought this, Heo Min-ho’s complexion looked far from well.
His face had gone pallid, and his lips trembled faintly.
“Is everyone all right?”
At Si-ul’s loud query, the dazed party members began to collect themselves one by one.
“So that was you, Si-ul? Thank goodness—we’re alive because of you.”
One team member wiped cold sweat from the nape of his neck as he spoke.
Another spat onto the sodden earth and joined the conversation.
“This Dungeon is absolutely nightmarish! Where does a demon-like monster like that come from? It transformed into our dead grandfather and attacked!”
Si-ul seized the opportunity, asking everyone the same question he’d been wanting to raise.
“Did you all encounter the same enemy? A monster with the boss’s exact appearance?”
A monster with the boss’s exact appearance—that phrase said everything needed.
“Could it be the boss’s Clone Creation?”
“If it was, it was absurdly powerful….”
“Exactly. I nearly saw the gates of the afterlife.”
The party members spilled their experiences freely, evidence of an exhausting battle.
“To see my grandfather, gone over a decade now, like this….”
“I fought a Hunter who died in a raid with us.”
“I got off easy, then. It was my uncle by marriage—only knew him from photos.”
“I knew it was a fake, but I still couldn’t bring myself to cut its throat….”
Si-ul listened carefully to his teammates’ accounts, synthesizing the information.
As expected, direct testimony made the picture far clearer.
The monster wearing the boss’s form was more than just strong.
It possessed intelligence and advanced Transformation ability, choosing faces that would shake its opponent—a monster nearly equivalent to the boss itself.
‘Creating clones of this caliber isn’t usually possible….’
One party member, apparently thinking along the same lines, broached the subject.
“Isn’t that strange?”
“What is?”
“The records only mentioned the boss using Transformation. Nothing about Clone Creation. And those clones were nearly as powerful as the original.”
Si-ul added his own contribution, noting this seemed like a crucial point.
“The boss may have awakened a new ability, or it could be a hidden trump card saved for the final moment. But what’s certain is that defeating those enemies just now must have had significant impact. Producing eight clones of that quality would inevitably drain massive amounts of magical power.”
Everyone nodded in agreement with Si-ul’s reasoning.
Yet notably, the team’s leader, Heo Min-ho, remained silent.
“Min-ho, are you all right?”
“Hm? Ah, yes. I’m fine….”
When Si-ul studied his expression, Heo Min-ho answered in an unsteady voice.
He still seemed caught in the aftermath of combat.
“Who did you face?”
At Si-ul’s question, Heo Min-ho hesitated before answering.
The silence stretched, and everyone turned to look at him. Finally, Heo Min-ho spoke in a quiet voice.
“A dog.”
“Pardon?”
“My pet dog. It crossed the rainbow bridge a month ago.”
He stared down at the Lake’s명검 in his hand.
The image of the monster’s blood on the blade’s tip kept bringing back the memory of severing his pet’s neck.
“I suppose I’m still lacking. To be shaken by a fake—it shows my shortcomings.”
Heo Min-ho smiled bitterly, his head bowed.
“No, you handled it perfectly. Thanks to you, I’ve conserved my own strength.”
Si-ul patted Heo Min-ho’s back and infused him with encouragement.
He meant every word.
Because Heo Min-ho had eliminated one of the clones, Si-ul had managed to preserve a Hidden Bullet.
Before the boss fight, a single Hidden Bullet was invaluable.
“So where’s the main body? All the clones are dead, the Fog Barrier’s gone—why isn’t it coming out?”
That question found its answer soon enough.
Scraaape—.
A long shadow stretched across the corner of the Boss Chamber, emerging from behind the rubble of collapsed stone.
The Choshinseong team and Si-ul both sensed instinctively what they were facing.
“There!”
Every eye fixed on a single point.
A body too large to hide completely behind the rocks was crouching there, refusing to come out.
It was unmistakably the boss’s true form.
And its condition was dire.
Scales across its body were shattered in places, and its belly was deeply gashed, dark blood crusted over the wound.
Its breathing was ragged—barely dragging itself forward.
As for magical power, it was weaker even than the clones they’d just fought.
The moment Si-ul saw this, certainty crystallized within him.
“Creating eight clones was truly its last gambit.”
The party members nodded, sharing the same impression.
Morga of Sin, the true boss of this Dungeon, had been gravely wounded in its battle with Jang Jin-young and was now too weak to fight anymore.
That’s why it had torn off fragments of its own power to send in those clones.
Unable to fight with its own body, it had created proxies to battle in its stead.
‘If I charge in and sever its neck, this is over.’
Si-ul let out a thin smile at how anticlimactic the finale had become.
“Let’s finish this and get out.”
At Si-ul’s command, the Choshinseong team surged forward as one.
But in that instant, a transparent light erupted from the swamp floor.
“What—what is this!”
The two party members at the front slammed into an invisible wall and bounced backward.
Si-ul stopped short.
A semi-transparent barrier materialized in a semicircular arc.
It sprawled widely around the boss’s main body at its center.
『 Only those who have slain the boss’s clones may face the true form. Those without qualification cannot enter the barrier. 』
The party members’ faces fell.
“What kind of rule is this!”
Si-ul read the message and turned his head.
Only two people qualified: himself and Heo Min-ho.
Heo Min-ho, realizing this, began walking toward the barrier.
But he didn’t make it a single step before his body swayed.
“Min-ho!”
Si-ul caught him as he nearly collapsed, supporting him.
“Hyung!”
“What’s wrong? What happened!”
Heo Min-ho said nothing.
He pressed one hand to his temple and drew shallow breaths.
His complexion had grown worse than before.
“I’m sorry… I think I need to rest.”
Since beheading the boss’s clone, Heo Min-ho had been barely hanging on.
The face of the one he’d cut down kept flickering before his eyes.
“Could someone get a Heal Potion?”
“I’ll administer it!”
Even if his body was intact, he wasn’t in any condition to rejoin combat immediately.
Heo Min-ho himself must have recognized this, as he gave Si-ul a pleading look.
“Don’t worry. A boss in that condition is more than I can handle alone.”
Si-ul placed a gentle hand on Heo Min-ho’s shoulder and reassured him.
“Don’t overextend yourself.”
“I won’t. I’ll handle it safely and return. You rest properly, then get ready to wrap things up with the others.”
At last, Heo Min-ho smiled.
“Si-ul, please finish this cleanly! We’re counting on you!”
“You’ve got this! Make that vile snake pay for what it’s done!”
Buoyed by his team’s cheers, Si-ul approached the barrier.
The moment his hand touched it, small ripples spread across its surface.
His body slipped through with a soft whoosh, drawn into the barrier’s depths.
“Chirp!”
A translucent small form suddenly leapt up and crashed headfirst into the barrier.
Zero wanted to fight alongside Si-ul and had attempted to enter as well.
But the impact threw Zero backward, and he landed hard on his rear in the swamp.
“Grrr…”
Once Si-ul vanished completely inside the chamber, the barrier grew thick and opaque.
Like the Fog Barrier before, neither Choshinseong’s team nor Zero could see beyond it.
Only Si-ul and the boss faced each other within that sealed space.
* * *
In the heart of the swamp, Morga of Sin—its body a tapestry of wounds—glared at Si-ul with venom.
“No use playing tough. Everyone knows you’re running on borrowed time.”
Si-ul spat in contempt and silently commanded the creature to stop its eye lasers.
‘I worried my weakened body might have changed the threat assessment. Glad that’s not the case.’
【Ongoing Quest Triggered!】
【Remove Threat to Life】
Directly eliminate an obstacle that poses a mortal danger.
Obstacle Threat Level: 10
Success Reward: 3 Level-Up Points
The boss’s true form was indeed Threat Level 10, and meeting the conditions, the quest had naturally manifested.
For Si-ul, it was a golden opportunity.
A source of Level-Up Points had appeared before him in a state vulnerable enough to be easily claimed.
“You lasted longer than expected. Goodbye.”
Si-ul raised the Hidden Roulette and spoke his farewell.
The barrel aimed precisely between the boss’s crimson eyes.
“Shhh—!”
But then Morga of Sin’s body convulsed.
Its black scales began to liquefy and warp grotesquely.
“Huh?”
Si-ul’s finger halted on the trigger.
The boss’s elongated frame began to contract.
Its jaw receded, its skeletal structure twisted and realigned.
The transformation was instantaneous.
The boss’s form compressed into the shape of a human.
Wet strands of hair, narrow shoulders, a young and delicate face.
“…!!”
Si-ul’s eyes widened in shock.
In its final moment, Morga of Sin had unleashed one last Transformation.
The human form it had assumed was that of a twelve-year-old child.
“You twisted bastard…!!”
Si-ul’s eyes blazed wide as fury poured from his voice.
The creature had mimicked someone who should never be touched—one of the Deceased.
Lee Hyeon-woo. Age twelve.
A tragic Deceased, swept away by a mudslide on the Orphanage Rear Mountain.
“Si-ul…”
A familiar voice cut through Si-ul’s eardrums.
Si-ul lowered the gun, his face drained pale as he faced the boy.
A face he hadn’t seen in sixteen years, now standing before him once more.
Hyeon-woo had been his cherished foster brother, raised in the same orphanage.
“Brother… don’t kill me… it still hurts…”
The boy sobbed, his hand trembling over his bloodied body.
It shattered Si-ul’s composure.
“Brother, I’m sorry… I couldn’t keep my promise…”
Words he’d only heard in nightmares.
To hear them now, Si-ul’s face flushed hot, cycling between red and purple.
And in that same instant, rage erupted from deep within him.
“You damned bastard!!”
It was the moment Si-ul had raged most fiercely since becoming a Hunter and stepping into the Dungeon.
A Terminal Hunter continuing to survive—
Author |
Clutsmats
Publisher |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
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Editorial Department
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Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books
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G720:N+A063-20260731071
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Submissions |
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No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books.

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