Became a Mechromancer - Chapter 66

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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 66.
How Many Layers? (3)
“By the way, Bom-i.”
-…?
“What landmark are you using as your reference right now?”
At Dooho’s question, Bom-i blinked her round eyes.
Puff.
The creature then puffed out her chin and spoke.
-Master, surely you’re not testing me, ribbit?
“Just checking, you know.”
-Well, master, since those creatures are rock crawlers….
Bom-i’s webbed hand gestured toward the screen as her words trailed off.
There, a jagged cliff face came into view.
-…there’s nowhere else but Wind Path Cliff where rock crawlers would be found, ribbit.
-The frog’s right. Crawlers favor cold winds.
When even Isto chimed in, Dooho nodded in agreement.
Come to think of it.
Bom-i’s speech pattern felt clipped and rough, but that was just how she sounded.
‘Quite sharp, this one.’
How much time had passed?
Clang, clang.
The transport vessel piloted by Bom-i gradually slowed as it traversed the rugged rocky terrain.
Everyone looked ahead as a narrow rocky gorge appeared on the main screen.
Whoooosh.
A fierce, biting wind clawed viciously at the transport vessel’s hull.
Phew.
“What kind of wind is this….”
Hmm.
-Mechromancer, sir. With conditions like these, there should be quite a number of crawlers.
At Hawkeye’s confident assertion, Dooho swallowed hard.

A fissure in the fractured bedrock—barely wide enough for a single transport vessel to pass through.
Bom-i asked.
-Master, what should we do, croak?
Duho gazed at the rough cross-section of the grayish-white stone mountain beyond the screen.
Should we disembark and proceed on foot?
But the wind is howling far too fiercely for that….
“Can we enter through here?”
-No problem going through, croak!
“Let’s do it. But tell me immediately if it becomes too dangerous.”
-Unit 43 knows no limits, ribbit!
With Bom-i’s cry, his webbed hands moved frantically.
Deft manipulation—striking countless mechanical levers and buttons like a pianist at the keys.
Whirrrrr―.
The boxy frames jutting from both sides of the transport vessel smoothly retracted inward.
Whoosh─ click-click, crunch!
As the chassis narrowed, dozens of auxiliary mechanical arms hidden beneath the vessel’s undercarriage emerged and gripped the protruding stones of the bedrock.
While the four articulated legs took massive strides, the auxiliary hands below pushed and pulled the transport vessel with precision.
A mobility like some hybrid of spider and centipede!
But inside….
Thud!
-Wh-what the—?!
Isto bounced from his seat as the transport vessel lurched violently while ascending the cramped stone fissure.
Bang! Crash!
His head struck the ceiling, and he tumbled to the floor before barely regaining his balance and standing.
Isto glanced to his side.
Hawkeye, with his long limbs, gripped the safety bar on the vessel’s wall firmly.
On the opposite side, Duho had deployed nanobots and was hovering in midair, bracing himself against the surrounding walls.
Bang! Thud! Crash―.
Oof? Agh? Agh?!
Only Isto, with his short limbs, tumbled about helplessly.
He barely managed to steady himself.
-Can’t you drive straight?!
Just as the frown marks appeared on Isto’s LED eyes.
Screeeech!
Bom-i’s hands, which had been pulling the control levers frantically, stopped.
Thud.
As the transport vessel came to a halt, an abrupt silence descended.
A chilling quiet, as if we had entered the eye of a typhoon.
-Wh-what is it?
ROOOAAARRR―!
Bom-i’s cheeks puffed up indignantly.
-What are you expecting from a transport ship, you silly thing!
-But isn’t that too much!
Just as Duho was about to stop her.
-Bom-i, can we replace the transport ship’s damper at the Parts Shop?
Hawkeye’s rational question.
At those words, Bom-i’s gaze turned toward Duho, the one with decision-making authority.
-If it’s possible, right?
The creature’s round, dark eyes seemed to appeal intensely for approval.
Duho chuckled and answered.
“Let’s check it out at the shop later.”
Bom-i, beaming with joy, answered as if it were nothing.
-By the way, dampers are expensive, you know!
Starting the aircraft up again with good spirits, Bom-i began chattering away.
-It’s not just about hardware damping, but software damping too…. We’d need a lift to raise our Unit 43…. And this and that….
For a while, Duho’s group had to endure both the rough rumbling of the transport ship and Bom-i’s chatter simultaneously.
And as Bom-i’s words were coming to an end.
Beep—.
A single red dot appeared in one corner of the transport ship’s main screen radar.
Clunk. Thud, thud-thud. Tap!
Bom-i’s hands moved swiftly to cut off the mana power.
Whirrr… Pshhh.
Only residual mana remained, keeping just the main screen alive.
At the sudden stop, Isto asked.
-Why are you cutting the power?
Shh.
-Be quiet, you silly thing.
Hawkeye, seeing the red dot on the radar, pulled the scope and asked.
Bom-i.
-Are we waiting until the beast disappears?
-Y-yes, that’s right….
Watching Bom-i wrap her webbed hands around her head and crouch down, Duho understood.
‘That’s how she reacts because she’s a non-combat unit.’
An aircraft designed for resource gathering and transport. Bom-i, who prioritized survival and evasion over combat.
Isto approached Bom-i.
And he removed the headset from her neck, placing it on her head.
Bom-i looked up in surprise.
Isto turned around, making his LED eyes round.
Ahem!
-Finally, it’s my turn, right?
Isto stepped forward with eager confidence.
Creak.
He climbed the ladder and opened the hatch.
Whoooosh—.
Rough wind clawed viciously around the hatch.
Dueho stared intently at the rock face displayed on the main screen and the red dot marking on the radar beside it.
For just a moment, Dueho’s face went blank like a robot, its light extinguished. Then he returned to normal and watched the two climbing the ladder.
Wait.
“…Hold on.”
-…?
* * *
After a brief meeting.
Isto and Hawkeye exited the transport ship.
Whoosh.
Dueho pulled out a palm-sized monitoring device from the Garage and set it down.
Bom-i, who had been peering down at the magnifying lens attached above the monitor, asked.
-Master, are you poor, croak?
A cutting question.
Dueho laughed awkwardly and scratched his cheek.
“I don’t have many points.”
-Don’t worry. I’ll work hard to earn points for you going forward, croak.
Bom-i shifted stance and burned with loyalty.
Dueho nodded, then tapped Hawkeye on the lower section of the monitor visible beyond the magnifying lens.

The screen immediately switches to Hawkeye’s first-person perspective.
Hawkeye.
‘Check the location you saw on the radar.’
At Duho’s command, Hawkeye’s scope zooms in, and the screen zooms with it.
And then.
The Rock Crawler appears on the monitor.
My first impression of the creature.
‘…Disgusting.’
Grayish-white mottled skin similar to rock.
Where eyes should be, only vertical slits gape open grotesquely.
Then the Crawler moved.
Rather than walking on legs, its entire body flowed across the stone surface as if being sucked into it.
Ugh.
I really can’t stand watching this.
This time I switched to Isto’s perspective.
‘Isto, get closer to the rock face.’
-Understood.
As Isto approached the cliff below and looked around.
Duho, furrowing his brow, stared intently through the magnifying glass.
The shape of the sheer cliff.
Rock face with distinct grain, as if vertical columns were densely lined up.
“Just as I thought—columnar jointing.”
Duho’s lips curved upward.
I recalled stories I’d heard while working at the Workshop.
「Crawlers are terrifying because they mysteriously dislodge stones and send them falling.」
Newcomer Hunters often get crushed to death by rocks?
In an environment like this, it makes sense.
Of course, geological investigation wasn’t the purpose.
A glance.
I checked the remaining time on the Main Quest.
[00:24:32]
For this, I need to finish cleanly.
Duho gives the order.
‘Hawkeye, shoot.’
Duho lifted his head and looked at the transport ship’s main screen.
Whoosh—.
A luminous arrow flew in an instant and struck something, sending it tumbling.
None other than the Rock Crawler.
‘One down.’
Crackle crackle crackle.
Switching the monitoring feed to Hawkeye’s perspective, a grotesque sound echoed as another rock wall crawler emerged from the crevice, only to disappear into the fissures between the stones.
‘At this rate, when will we ever capture them all using normal methods?’
Duho switched the monitoring back to Isto and shouted.
Isto!
“Unleash everything you’ve got!”
Understood!
-It’s my turn!
Blazing heat flowers bloomed across Isto’s chest.
The frozen rock surface melted under the intense temperature, and stone dust cascaded downward.
The moment his fist entered the backswing.
CRAAAASH—!
With a deafening roar, Isto’s knuckle-wrapped fist drove deep into the lower section of the rock wall.
SCREEEECH!
Cracks spider-webbed outward in all directions.
Tick, tick-tick.
The sound of shattering stone echoed throughout the entire rocky gorge.
Hawkeye!
“Fire the steel arrow near Isto’s feet!”
-Yes, Mecromancer!
Whoosh. Clang!
The steel arrow embedded itself in the rock beneath Isto’s feet.
Snap.
Isto grabbed the arrow and yanked it free.
Duho shouted again.
“Bom-i, pull back behind the transport ship!”
-Ribbit!
ROOOAARRR!
The transport ship reversed at high speed.
The thick cable connected to the arrow went taut.
-Huh?! Waaahhh?
Isto was dragged forward in an instant.
And then….
CRRRRUUUUMMMMBLE!
The entire cliff face began to collapse with terrifying force.
As the massive rock formation crumbled, something grayish-white that had been hiding within came pouring down like a downpour.
Pitter-patter-patter.
An unsettlingly vast swarm of rock wall crawlers.
[You have gained experience points]
[You have gained experience points]
[You have gained experience…]
An unexpected downpour of experience points.
And on top of that.
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Lev…]
It had been ages since I heard the level-up notification.
And then, immediately after.

[Main Quest Achieved!]
Reward: Biotic Assimilation Lv.1 (Passive Skill)

When Duho clenched his fist tightly.
Just from the experience points alone, we’d already surpassed the extermination of more than five Crawlers.

[Overachievement Bonus Granted]
Reward: Metal Manipulation Mana Consumption Reduced by 5%
“That’s it!”
Bom-i’s round eyes, fixed on the magnifying glass, had swollen to the size of a bun.
Duho’s command ability was in a completely different league from the previous leader.
And on top of that, the overwhelming combat prowess of teammates I’d thought were dead weight.
‘Could we actually make it down to the adamantium vein this time, ribbit.’
That was precisely when it happened.

[Hidden Quest Triggered!]
◈ Eliminate the Crawler Queen (0/1)
Time Limit: 30 minutes
Penalty for Refusal: Abyss Layer 1 Annihilation
Success Reward: 3,000P
Accept / Refuse
Upon reading the refusal penalty, I couldn’t help but laugh.
“The system is still hostile, I see.”
-Master, th-three thousand points, ribbit!
Three thousand points—no trivial sum.
But.
‘How am I supposed to find the Queen in thirty minutes?’
My gaze shifted from the debris to the cliff’s fractures.
Narrow passages were visible within each crevasse.
As I examined the Hidden Quest again, my eyes caught on the time limit.
Thirty minutes….
What if this wasn’t a time constraint meant to be insufficient, but rather a window provided because the task could be completed within it?
I murmured to myself while observing the Crawler colony’s habitat.
‘The Queen must be inside that cliff, or perhaps at its center?’
Like a queen ant.
An explosive approach wouldn’t be a bad option right now.
Having made my decision, I pressed accept and was about to issue orders to Bom-i when—
Kwaaaang!
An enormous pile of rubble exploded outward in a violent burst.
From within emerged a beast unlike ordinary Crawlers—a grotesque creature with a distended, elongated abdomen.

-Kieeeeeek!
An unforeseen emergency!
The tremendous roar’s shockwave caused the transport vessel to lurch violently.
-Wh-what is that thing!
Just as Isto clenched his fist and lunged forward to strike—
On the transport vessel’s roof.
Hawkeye, startled, reflexively drew her bowstring and released.
Fwip—!
A luminous arrow cleaved through the air, piercing a clean hole directly between the beast’s eyes.
Thud.
The unnamed beast collapsed.

[Hidden Quest Completed]
Reward: 3,000P
-Huh?
-Croak?
-???
What the…?
“That was the Queen?”
A notification window appeared before Duho, who stood dazed.
[World Announcement]
The collapse of South Korea’s Abyss Layer 4 has been postponed.
※ Rock Wall Crawler Queen Annihilated
Only then did everyone erupt in cheers.
Woooooah!
Yes! Ribbit! Croak!
.
.
.
Some time later.
Whirring, click!
Bom-i’s transport vessel, its mechanical arms extended below, swiftly collected the magic stones.
Then one of Bom-i’s mechanical arms halted as it cleared away the collapsed debris.

Inside the rock where the Crawler Queen had burst forth.
An ashen glow emanated softly from within.
Bom-i’s voice echoed through the transport ship’s loudspeaker.
Master!
-It’s not mithril, but Echo Metal, ribbit!
Everyone gathered around the ore vein.
An Echo Metal ore vein we’d discovered as a bonus.
Bom-i wanted to mine it immediately.
“I’ll reduce your farming time later.”
Bom-i stared at the ore vein on the main screen, then extended the transport ship Pardan’s arm.
Thunk, clatter, boom!
Bom-i blocked the ore vein entrance by piling nearby rocks in front of it.
‘She’s quite meticulous.’
As Duho turned to leave, Isto was watching the blocked ore vein.
Then that guy spun around.
Oh, indeed!
-Duho’s choice was correct, sir!
“Huh?”
-If you’d chosen Main Quest A, you’d have gotten nothing!
-I’ll remember that Macromanser is unlucky, sir.
Hawkeye gave a thumbs up.
At the backhanded compliment, Duho furrowed his brow and spoke.
Enough!
“Let’s go to Layer 5.”
-Huh? Come back home~ or not?
Seeing Isto ask in confusion, Duho answered.
“I said it when we left the Garage earlier. You lot are going to work up quite a sweat.”
And soon after.
The air rippled like water as a gate opened toward Layer 5.
D-Duho?
-You must come back home!
Duho paid no mind and gestured while pushing his body halfway through.
Come on, come on
* * *
And at that same moment.
Throughout the pitch-black forest of buildings in Yeouido, lights began turning on simultaneously.
And….
Following the global announcement, foreign hunters’ access surged, causing major domestic websites to crash all at once.
Became a Macromanser
Author |
Keongangh-e
Publication Date |
February 25, 2026
Publisher |
TalesYX
Website |
https://talesyx.com
Email |
[email protected]
© Keongangh-e, 2026
This publication is protected under copyright law and may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without permission.
UCI |
G720:N+A277-20260210015.0066

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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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