An F-Rank Veterinarian Physically Heals an S-Rank Magical Beast - Chapter 70

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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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Chapter 70
With each thunderous step the Behemoth of Gluttony took—a creature as massive as a mountain range—the entire 14th Floor Gluttony Jungle convulsed as though struck by an earthquake. Towering ancient trees of the tropical rainforest, some rising dozens of meters high, snapped like dry kindling whenever they collided with its blunt shoulders, and the dense undergrowth was flattened beneath its colossal feet into something resembling a paved asphalt road.
The jungle’s ferocious predators, which moments before had been stalking Jin-hyuk’s party with predatory patience, had vanished without a trace. The house-sized venomous spiders, the vampire mosquito swarms the size of pterosaurs, the carnivorous plants lurking beneath the soil—all of them fled in panic before the overwhelming aura of the apex predator emanating from the Behemoth. It was a walking biological fortress, a disaster incarnate.
“Wow, the ride quality is actually better than I expected? I thought the toad skin would be slippery, but the leather’s so thick it feels stable, like sitting on a rock. The shock absorption is excellent too.”
Ma Dong-tak sat cross-legged atop the Behemoth’s broad, flat crown, laughing heartily. He seemed to be in high spirits, humming a tune while massaging his own muscular biceps.
“That’s all thanks to the thick layer of subcutaneous fat on this creature’s head, sir. A natural cushion. Are you all comfortable, elders? You suffered in its belly earlier, but breathing fresh air feels good, doesn’t it?”
Jin-hyuk stood between the Behemoth’s brows with his hands clasped behind his back, addressing the Murim Alliance masters. The alliance elders still flinched each time they heard the creature’s massive eyeballs rolling, gripping the ropes like lifelines.
“Well… Alliance Leader. Comfortable it may be, but this vicious demon could change its mind at any moment and swallow us again. My heart trembles at the thought. And if we were to fall from this height, even a martial master would leave no bones to bury.”
Namgoong Cheon shook his head as he gazed downward, his expression dizzy. They were easily dozens of meters above the ground—enough to trigger a fear of heights.
“Come now, Patriarch. You worry too much. This creature is now such a well-behaved companion that it would play dead at my command. Hey, lift your right foot.”
Jin-hyuk tapped the Behemoth’s brow with his toe and gave the order. The creature, which had been shaking the heavens and earth with its gait, suddenly halted despite its massive bulk, then obediently raised its enormous right foreleg high into the sky.
Grrrr… whimper.
The beast even exhaled through its nostrils as if begging for praise, its tail wagging gently. The sight of the jungle’s tyrant behaving like a puppy at Jin-hyuk’s lightest kick left the Murim Alliance masters utterly speechless.
“See? Perfectly docile. Since I cured the gastric ulcer it’s carried its whole life, loyalty to me is only natural—the way of nature itself. Now put it down. Keep moving straight ahead.”
Thud!
The moment Jin-hyuk gave permission, the Behemoth lowered its foreleg and resumed its ponderous march. Beris refused to set foot on the creature’s grotesque toad head and continued floating in mid-air, expending mana to keep pace, while Luna gently stroked the Behemoth’s rough skin with curiosity, soothing its remaining wounds with her spiritual energy.
“Roooaaarrr! Master! The path is wide open—I love running like this! I’ll charge straight through to the Floor 15 gate without stopping!”
Kim Chun-sam, galloping alongside the Behemoth, roared while belching cyan hellfire. The centaur with the soul of a street racer was absolutely thrilled, rearing up on his front legs and performing wheelies.
The one-sided jungle destruction march didn’t last long. Thanks to the Behemoth’s overwhelming breakthrough power, what would normally take an ordinary party several days to traverse—the heart of the 14th Floor Gluttony Jungle—was conquered in just two hours.
“Massive magical reaction detected ahead! Temperature and humidity are changing drastically! It’s the Dimensional Gate to Floor 15!”
Kim Chun-sam’s visor flashed urgently with the alert. The party’s gaze snapped forward in unison.
The densely packed tropical rainforest trees vanished as if they’d never existed, revealing a dead-end circular basin surrounded by towering cliff faces. And at the very center of that basin, a massive azure Dimensional Gate swirled with such force it seemed ready to devour the surrounding earth and tree roots, its maw gaping wide open.
“We’ve arrived. Bulky, you did well. You’re too massive to pass through that gate. If you forced your way in, you might get wedged in the dimensional rift and become sausage.”
Jin-hyuk gently patted the Behemoth’s crown. The creature, understanding it was too large to enter, stopped before the Dimensional Gate and exhaled sadly through its nostrils.
Grrraahhh…
It whimpered and rubbed its face against Jin-hyuk’s pant leg. Watching the jungle’s tyrant behave like an abandoned stray dog, Ma Dong-tak burst out laughing.
“This creature’s really bonded with us. It’s desperate to follow.”
“Now that its stomach’s clean, it seems to prefer praise over eating. Don’t worry, I’m not abandoning you. You guard this place. If anyone tries to climb to Floor 14, scare them off appropriately. And don’t let that gastric ulcer flare up again—eat grass instead of scavenging random things. Understood?”
The Behemoth nodded its massive head as if comprehending Jin-hyuk’s instructions.
“Everyone, dismount! We’re moving to the next floor. Check that nothing’s been left behind. Especially you Murim Alliance elders—you did settle all the loot you farmed from its belly with me, right? If I find even one item hidden away, the interest is ten times the value.”
The Murim Alliance elders jumped in alarm at Jin-hyuk’s chilling warning, hastily shaking out their empty sleeves to show they had nothing.
“Nothing, sir! Truly! The Alliance Leader searched even between our teeth and took everything!”
“Ha, just confirming. Then let’s enter. Chun-sam, take the lead.”
“Yes, sir! The Hell Rider opens the way!”
With Kim Chun-sam at the vanguard, followed by Ma Dong-tak and the Murim Alliance masters, then Jin-hyuk, Beris, and Luna, the party hurled themselves one by one into the swirling azure Dimensional Gate.
The moment they passed through the gate, the party was engulfed in overwhelming dissonance.
The oppressive, sticky heat of Floor 14 vanished without a trace, replaced by a biting, dry wind that froze the skin. Gone were the acrid bestial musk and grass scents that had assaulted their nostrils; instead, a sharp disinfectant reek and the nauseating chemical stench of formaldehyde permeated the air.
“Ugh, what is this smell? It’s like we’ve walked into some massive hospital morgue.”
Ma Dong-tak grimaced and pinched his nose shut.
The landscape before them bore no resemblance to their expectations. It was neither a cave nor ruins. The floor and walls were covered seamlessly in smooth, silvery-white special alloy, and from the ceiling, blindingly cold white fluorescent lights flickered at regular intervals.
The corridor stretched endlessly before us, its walls lined on both sides with thick iron doors sealed shut in an unbroken procession.
This place felt less like a tower from a fantasy world and more like the lowest level of some modern, secretive underground research facility or hospital—a space that exuded clinical dread.
[Floor 15: You have entered the Illegal Bioalchemy Underground Workshop.]
[Warning! The air in this location contains large quantities of unidentified chemical substances.]
“An underground workshop for bioalchemy? The name alone is ominous. This reeks of the kind of depravity those wicked alchemists from the Western Regions would perpetrate.”
Namgoong Cheon’s expression tightened as he fidgeted with the switch of his light sword.
“Kyaaaah! I-I’m so scared! I’d rather be back in the jungle! Why does the lighting keep flickering like this?! It’s straight out of a horror movie cliché!”
Beris trembled violently, pressing herself against my back. Though the scent of disinfectant wasn’t unpleasant to her fastidious nature, the eerie, artificial dread that emanated from this space itself was more than enough to shake her composure.
“Be quiet. I hear something coming from beyond those doors.”
I raised my hand to halt the group. From one of the thick iron doors lining the corridor, a sickening cracking sound and the pained groans of a beast seeped faintly through.
Screeeech— Bang! Bang!
Something inside was pounding against the iron door, trying to break through, each dull impact reverberating down the corridor.
“Ma Dong-tak, would you open the door for us?”
“Sure. Step back, everyone. No telling what might come flying out.”
Ma Dong-tak approached the sealed iron door. The locking mechanism was complex, but he had no need for passwords or keys. He grasped the door’s handle with his powerful hands and unleashed his raw strength.
Crunch! Crash!
The alloy iron door, easily a hand’s breadth thick, crumpled like paper under Ma Dong-tak’s overwhelming grip and was torn clean away. A suffocating wave of chemical stench poured through the gaping hole.
“Let me see what’s inside… Huh?!”
Ma Dong-tak recoiled in shock as he peered into the chamber. For someone who typically didn’t bat an eye at most monsters, this was a sight grotesque enough to make him flinch. The rest of us cautiously followed behind him to look inside.
“What… what kind of hell is this…?”
The Shaolin Monk stood frozen, so overwhelmed by the sight that he forgot even to recite his prayers.
The room was a vast operating theater and incubation chamber combined. In the center sat a surgical table stained with blood, and along the walls stood dozens of enormous cylindrical glass cultivation tanks—each easily twice the height of a man.
Inside those tanks, suspended in murky green preservation fluid, floated nightmarish forms.
A creature with the muscular upper body of an orc but the massive legs of a giant spider sprouting from its lower half.
A grotesque thing with a wolf’s head atop a bloated gorilla-like torso, its back grotesquely stitched with the torn wings of a bat.
Failed experiments in bioengineering—body parts from different beasts crudely sutured together with thick, crude black wire, following no pattern whatsoever.
“These are… chimeras. Artificial hybrid creatures made by forcibly grafting together the bodies of beasts.”
My voice had turned ice-cold. My gaze wasn’t fixed on the monsters floating in the tanks, but on the horrific surgical scars and stitching marks that covered their bodies.
Then it happened.
Crack! Shatter!
The glass of the largest cultivation tank nearest the surgical table fractured, then exploded with a dull bang. The murky green preservation fluid that had filled it cascaded down like a waterfall, drenching the entire chamber.
Grrrrr… Kyaaaagh!
From the spilled liquid, a grotesque chimera with a gorilla’s body and a wolf’s head rose to its feet. Massive iron spikes protruded from its body, and yellow pus oozed from the gaps between its stitched flesh. Its eyes had already lost all reason, bloodshot and wild from the agony of rotting flesh and a shattered mind.
[Floor 15 Monster: Discarded Bioalchemy Specimen Number 402]
[Traits: Rampage from Extreme Pain, Pain Insensitivity, Highly Toxic Body Fluids]
“Master! The creature is preparing to attack! Spread out into combat formation!”
Kim Chun-sam rolled forward and unleashed hellfire. The Murim Alliance elders also drew their blades in alarm.
“To create such a horrific abomination! We must cut down this monstrosity at once and free it from its suffering!”
Namgoong Cheon cranked his light sword to maximum output and charged toward the chimera. Ma Dong-tak also hefted his crowbar and prepared to leap forward.
“Wait. Stop.”
But Jin-hyuk stopped them with a voice colder and lower than ever before. The chilling killing intent in his tone made even Namgoong Cheon and Ma Dong-tak flinch and freeze in place.
Jin-hyuk stood with his gas mask cast aside, his eyes blazing with fury as he stared at the chimera. It was not anger at the monster itself. This was the academic rage that erupted when a perfectionist surgeon confronted the most abominable crime—one he could never tolerate.
“Look at that pathetic mess. The suture spacing is completely botched. No consideration whatsoever for muscle fiber direction—just crude wire binding. And on top of that, you shoved organs from different species together without any measures to suppress immune rejection? Of course the blood backs up and the tissue necroses. That’s not surgery. That’s butcher-shop level garbage stitching.”
Jin-hyuk clenched his fists, trembling with rage.
“You picked up a scalpel with this pathetic, worthless technique? It’s a desecration of medicine. What kind of bastard performed illegal surgery like this!”
His fury was not directed at the chimera’s hideousness, but at the incompetent surgical skill of whoever had created it. The fact that someone had wielded the art of handling life so crudely and superficially had struck directly at Jin-hyuk’s professional pride.
“Graaaaaahhh!”
The chimera, oblivious to Jin-hyuk’s rage, let out a pain-filled roar and swung its massive gorilla arm to strike him down.
“Ma Dong-tak! Kim Chun-sam! Dispose of that defective product immediately! Destroy it completely—don’t leave a single bone!”
“Roger that! The director’s furious! We’re going all out!”
The moment Jin-hyuk’s wrathful order left his lips, Ma Dong-tak shot forward like a bullet.
Crash!
Ma Dong-tak’s iron crowbar struck the chimera’s incoming forearm head-on. The poorly sutured limb couldn’t withstand the devastating blow—the seams tore apart completely, and the severed arm crashed to the ground.
“Shrieeeek!”
Unaware that its arm had been severed, the chimera opened its wolf jaws to bite at Ma Dong-tak’s throat. But in that instant, Kim Chun-sam’s hellfire back kick struck like lightning.
Whoosh! Crack!
Kim Chun-sam’s kick caved in the chimera’s face. As bones shattered, toxic fluid sprayed in all directions, but Beris, standing ready behind them, immediately deployed his magic.
“Don’t let that filthy fluid splash! Absolute incineration! Fireball!”
A massive sphere of flame flew forward and engulfed the fallen chimera. The fire instantly reduced the decaying corpse to ash. The failed creation, writhing in agony, finally vanished without a trace.
“Tch. Disgusting things. Perform surgery like this and just abandon the patient?”
Jin-hyuk looked down coldly at the chimera’s charred remains and clicked his tongue.
That was when it happened.
A crackling noise emanated from an old speaker mounted in the corner of the operating room, followed by a voice.
[Ah, microphone test. Can you hear me? So you are the intruders. Quite impressive combat power, I must say.]
It was a chilling voice mixed with mechanical distortion, like fingernails scraping across a chalkboard.
[Thank you for incinerating my failed creation so cleanly. That waste had terrible mana efficiency, so I was finding it tedious to dispose of. Welcome to the 15th Floor Evolution Clinic, experimental subjects.]
“Evolution Clinic? What kind of nonsense is this? Are you the director here?”
Jin-hyuk glared at the speaker and raised his middle finger.
[Oho, quite the foul-mouthed specimen. Indeed, I am the great creator of life transmutation, the genius surgeon designing the perfect ultimate lifeform….]
“Genius my ass. Hey, you unlicensed quack.”
Jin-hyuk cut off the voice from the speaker and issued a cold threat.
“I just saw what you stitched together, and you don’t even know the basics of suturing. As of today, your medical license is revoked. Not that you ever had one. I’m going to prosecute you for medical law violations and illegal biomedical experimentation, so get ready.”
At Jin-hyuk’s declaration, the Mad Scientist beyond the speaker fell silent for a moment, then burst into a grotesque laugh.
[Kahahaha! Medical license? Medical law? You dare measure my magnificent evolution by the shallow standards of criminals! Fine then, prove how capable you are before my perfect ‘successes’!]
Screech! Whirrrrr—!
The moment the Mad Scientist finished speaking, hundreds of iron doors lining both sides of the corridor began opening simultaneously.
From the darkness came the rough breathing of beasts and the sharp sound of claws scraping against the floor. Hundreds of bioweapons—far more refined and lethal than the failed creation they’d just defeated—poured into the corridor.
“Hey, Ma Dong-tak. Kim Chun-sam.”
Jin-hyuk cracked his neck side to side and pulled the largest chainsaw from his medical bag.
“Yes, Master!”
“Just say the word. I’ll destroy everything.”
“Send all those illegally modified vehicles crawling out of there straight to the scrapyard. This unlicensed clinic is being seized entirely today.”
The true terror of the 15th Floor was unfolding—a full-scale war between the chimera legions of an unlicensed alchemist consumed by madness and a capitalist doctor wielding the violence of commerce.

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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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