Became a Mechromancer - Chapter 68

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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 68.
How Many Layers? (5)
Gulp.
Doo-ho swallowed hard.
And for good reason—he now faced five hunters arrayed before him.
One thing was abundantly clear.
‘They’re stronger than me.’
On Floor 5, where gravity itself pressed down like a weight, he doubted he could move with their fluidity.
The thought that finally surfaced was.
Should I have gone home after clearing Floor 4?
Should I pull them out now?
‘Open a gate and flee?’
Countless dark possibilities crowded his mind.
No.
This was inevitable.
It just happened to be today.
Exhale.
I drew a breath and steadied my emotions.
Whoosh.
Nanobots flowed from my hands, wrapping my entire body in a thin layer.
‘They won’t see it.’
I faced them directly.
Then.
The Yellow-haired Hunter craned his neck, repeatedly glancing behind Doo-ho.
Strange.
“…There was definitely a boxy-looking monster here?”
Doo-ho raised and lowered one eyebrow.
Damn.
‘He saw Bom-i’s transport ship.’
Isto’s voice resonated in Doo-ho’s mind.
Doo-ho, sir!
-I’ll handle it.
‘Stay put.’
-Then, what if I scare them with the transport ship, ribbit?
‘Denied.’
Unbelievable.
…This one really does underestimate humans.
Immediately after.
-Mecromancer, sir. I’ll clean them up with steel whips.
Ugh!
I’m telling you, just wait a moment!
-Why, why just me??
Doo-ho drew a sharp breath, then casually glanced behind himself before addressing the hunters.
“Was there something behind me?”
I figured I could act based on their reactions.
So that’s what I did.
Four hunters turned their blame toward their comrade, the Yellow-haired Hunter.
Sigh….
“See, I told you so.”
“I warned you not to let your mind wander!”
“If your body’s weak, go buy an expensive potion and drink it.”
The last comrade, rather than speaking, drove a knee kick straight into the Yellow-haired Hunter’s backside.
Oof!
The Yellow-haired Hunter’s eyes flared with indignation.
You bastard.
“It could’ve been a misunderstanding….”
Thwack, smack, crack!
Before he could even finish speaking, his comrades rained more blows upon him.
Isto’s voice echoed once more in Doo-ho’s mind.
-What are those guys?
‘Yeah. They seem like friends in a party.’
There didn’t appear to be any immediate danger.
‘Isto.’
-Yes?
‘Can you leak out just a little mana like you used to?’
-Easy as pie. Ahem~.
In an instant, the air around Doo-ho shifted dramatically.
Whoosh.
The bickering party members crashed onto their backsides.
A mana density so thick it couldn’t even be compared to their own.
Meanwhile, Doo-ho tilted his head in confusion.
Huh?
‘Why is it so weak?’
The Hansan Guild hunters I’d met in the Abyss Rift before had only backed away.
They’re collapsing?
Since Doo-ho had already started, I decided to see it through to the end.
“If you’ve finished your business, please be on your way.”
Doo-ho’s words were polite yet oppressive.
It certainly seemed to work.
“I-I’m so sorry!”
They apologized hastily.
‘Isto, withdraw your mana.’
-Yes, sir.
As the mana flowing around him dissipated cleanly, the party members felt a chill run down their spines.
The same thought struck all their minds simultaneously.
‘He’s been hiding his power all along!’
The party members realized that if they had been any more disrespectful to this man, it would have ended badly.
They were about to back away and leave at a distance.
Then the man with the sports-style haircut tilted his head curiously and asked.
Say, could you be…?
“Aren’t you someone who works at the Moru Workshop?”
“Oh, yes. That’s right.”
.
.
.
And soon after.
Both sides cleared up the misunderstanding.
It turned out that most of them were customers of the Moru Workshop.
In fact…
“Our earnings aren’t great, so we’re doing delivery work on the side.”
A party composed entirely of hunters specialized in speed, they called themselves the “Delivery Party,” responsible for deliveries across Yeouido.
Only then did Doo-ho understand the speed they had displayed moments ago.
‘No wonder they were so fast.’
Just as the puzzle pieces were clicking into place in Doo-ho’s mind.
-Mecromancer, sir. I’m faster.
Hawkeye’s calm voice suddenly interjected into his thoughts.
Doo-ho laughed inwardly at the absurdity.
‘What now? Can’t he let anything go?’
Anyway.
Doo-ho asked them.
“By the way, what brings you all down here at dawn?”
“Sigh. Our skills aren’t good enough. If we enter during the day, we get pushed around by other hunters.”
A colleague beside him chimed in naturally.
“We finish all the late-night food deliveries, then we time it like this to hunt in the empty dawn hours.”
At those words, Doo-ho let out a breath of relief.
Hmm…
‘It’s fortunate we haven’t crossed paths until now.’
Then he heard something unexpected.
“Actually… Ghost destroyed two entire floors, so our income dried up and we got pushed up here.”
Ah….
Just as Doo-ho felt a pang of regret, the Yellow-haired Hunter interjected.
“At first, I harbored quite a bit of resentment. My livelihood had been shattered, after all.”
“….”
“But then I realized—Ghost had actually lowered the Abyss difficulty for us.”
Two entire tiers easier. The party members’ touching testimonies spoke of their renewed resolve and the grueling climb to reach this point.
“…Even if we’re weak and panic easily, our escape skills are nothing short of miraculous.”
Hearing their stories, something in Doo-ho’s chest ached.
‘They were weak themselves, yet they charged forward without hesitation, thinking a demon was at my heels.’
Doo-ho spoke.
“If you need any equipment repairs, come see me. I’ll handle your gear at a discount.”
“Oh, we’d be grateful for that, truly.”
He’d merely glanced at the pouches in their hands when one of the party members volunteered an explanation.
“These are magic stones from ‘Rock-breaker Claw Crabs.'”
“Claw Crabs?”
“Yes. We’re so weak that all five of us together barely managed to catch one each. But since they infinitely reproduce whenever they lay eggs no matter how many we hunt, the profits are quite steady.”
The Yellow-haired Hunter asked.
“How did you manage to enter, Workshop hyung?”
“Just call me Doo-ho. I saw the global announcement earlier and came in.”
“Huh? Then you should’ve entered Floor 4.”
Ah….
“Actually, I came because I thought Ghost might have descended directly to Floor 5.”
The party members shook their heads at Doo-ho’s words.
They said he didn’t know Ghost at all.
“This time there were special circumstances, but from what I’ve observed, Ghost ascends one floor per month. So by now, he’s probably back home resting thoroughly.”
Watching their confident expressions, Doo-ho simply smiled faintly.
* * *
Shortly after.
The Delivery Party exited the Abyss, and Isto emerged from the Garage.
-I thought I’d turn to rust waiting here.
Hop.
The moment Bom-i came out, he scrambled up onto Doo-ho’s back and spoke.
Master.
-Move three steps forward and two steps to the side from where you’re standing now. Ribbit.
Doo-ho adjusted his trajectory according to Bom-i’s instructions.
Immediately, two main Quest windows materialized before him.

[Main Quest A]
◈ Defeat 100 Rock-breaking Claw Crabs (0/100)
Reward: 1080P Monitoring Device
Accept

[Main Quest B]
◈ Underwater Entry Rock-breaking Claw Crab Egg Extermination
Reward: Legacy of the Forgotten Craftsman
※Stats reduced to 2/3 until Quest completion
Accept
Doo-ho examined the two main quests and crossed his arms.
He furrowed his brow, clearly troubled.
And for good reason.
‘Both rewards are tempting.’
I review the reward for Quest A again.
At the Parts Shop, a 720P monitoring device costs 3,000 points.
I had never even checked the price of a 1080P monitoring device at the Parts Shop.
‘It looked far too expensive at a glance.’
It seemed better to use those points to upgrade one of their parts instead.
But.
The inconvenience of my current monitoring device keeps nagging at me.
Of course, Isto had procured a magnifying glass and installed it for me.
‘But the dot pitch magnifies so much that my eyes hurt when I look at it for long.’
Besides, with the Super Intelligence units’ firepower, defeating 100 crabs would be finished in no time.
But the reward for Quest B was equally difficult to refuse.
‘Legacy of the Forgotten Craftsman’
It was likely a Mecromancer-exclusive item.
The first nanobots came from something like this.
But what if it’s nanobots again?
“Isto, what happens if the reward for Main Quest B is nanobots again?”
-There are two possibilities.
“Two possibilities?”
-Either you obtain smaller nanobots, or the quantity of identical nanobots increases.
I recalled Isto’s earlier comment that my nanobots were somewhat large.
“Smaller is better?”
-Of course. The energy efficiency improves proportionally. Additionally, more nanobots are always preferable.
I agreed with that assessment.
An exclamation mark appeared in his LED eyes.
Master Doo-ho!
-What surpasses nanobots by far is ‘picobots’.
“Pico… Bot?”
-Yes, sir. Pico Bot can intervene down to the molecular bonding level. Which means it can affect human bodies or objects as well….
“Yeah, stop there.”
-Huh? Huh?!
I don’t need to hear about possibilities that won’t come to pass.
Anyway.
The reward was undeniably substantial, but something nagged at me.
‘I’ve never seen any posts on Hunter Gallery about anyone diving into the waters of Floor 5.’
Isto, reading my thoughts, quietly slipped into the Garage and returned moments later.
-Sir Doo-ho, this is hearsay, but….
“Go ahead.”
-They say in the early days of the Abyss, hunters went in with diving equipment.
“And?”
-They say they all died.
Uh….
A ghost story special rumor?
-Iron Fist, if they all died, who spread the word? Croak?
-Uh… a ghost?
Hawkeye dismissed Isto as beneath his notice.
Anyway.
An unknown zone and a penalty of ‘stats reduced to 2/3’.
I turned to Bom-i perched on my shoulder.
“Bom, can you go underwater?”
-Of course, croak!
Bom-i answered briefly, then added.
-Our Unit 43 is good at frog swimming too, croak.
I then checked the others.
“What about you all?”
-Totally doable, sir!
-I dislike the salt, but there’s no problem.
As I nodded, they vehemently objected.
-Rank A is better, sir!
Mecromancer, sir!
-A two-thirds reduction in stats is dangerous by any measure. Don’t be seduced by rewards you don’t understand.
-I haven’t been summoned for long, croak croak!
I nodded and opened the main menu.
I hadn’t checked my status since clearing Floor 4.

[Main]
E-Rank Lv.12
Experience: 4514 / 4544
Collection: Isto, Hawkeye, Bom-i
Skills: Metal Manipulation, Component Detection, Dimensional Entry, Nanobot Lv.7, Biotic Assimilation Lv.1
Available Stats: 49
Hmm….
‘I’ve only leveled up to 12 on Floor 4.’
So if I lose 2/3 of my abilities….
-You’ll become F-Rank Lv.37, ribbit.
“Right, thanks.”
-Does it feel real now, ribbit?
Looking at the numbers as Bom-i said, it does seem quite dangerous.
Well.
‘It’s hopeless without Hawkeye anyway.’
This time I opened up ‘Biotic Assimilation’.
[Lv.2 Required Stats: 10]
Low Pressure Resistance +5
High Pressure Resistance +10
Since raising Nanobot one level costs 50 stats, this wasn’t cheap either.
I understood up to this point.
Doo-ho reached out and accepted Main Quest B.
Main Quest A disappeared.
[Your stats will be reduced by 2/3]
Whoooosh―.
As my energy drained away, my body staggered as if crushed beneath a weight.
Quest B’s restriction activated immediately.
Turning around with a somewhat strained expression, I saw the others in an uproar.
Oh no, Doo-ho!
-What are you doing, you fool!
-So the adamantium mining was just a dream after all, ribbit!!!
Swoosh!
Screech! Screech!!
[You have gained experience]
[You have gained experience]
Wondering what was happening, I saw an enraged Hawkeye drawing his bow and frantically shooting the ‘Pickaxe Claw Crabs’ along the Coastline.
-I’ll catch those creatures and level you up, sir!
[You have gained experience]
[You have gained experience]
[You have gained experience]
[Experience gained…]
[Level up!]
A level up even amidst the chaos.
Isto and Bom-i made a fuss about it as well.
Urging me to hurry into the Garage.
Insisting they’d handle the Quest clear themselves!
Watching those two, Doo-ho invested his accumulated stats to raise the level of ‘Biomimetic Adaptation’.
[Biomimetic Adaptation Lv.2]
[You adapt to your surroundings.]
The crushing pressure that had been bearing down on my body eased considerably.
Though it was still difficult, of course.
I had a hunch.
‘Getting dismembered and then leveling up seem like separate matters?’
With that in mind, I used my stats again.
[Biomimetic Adaptation Lv.3]
[You adapt to your surrounding environment.]
[Biomimetic Adaptation Lv.4]
[Your adaptability to your surroundings increases.]
[Biomimetic Adaptation Lv.5]
[Your adaptability to your surroundings increases significantly.]
I’d spent considerable stats, but it didn’t feel wasteful at all.
Phew.
My calculations had paid off.
Doo-ho rolled his stiff shoulders and grinned.
“Reading everything carefully and developing the habit of finding loopholes through inference—that’s important.”
And one more thing.
“You three, do you have a reading comprehension problem?”
-…Huh?
-Croak?
-???
Doo-ho looked at the Quest window again.
『Your stats decrease by 2/3』
“Isto, who’s the subject of this sentence?”
-Huh?
“The stats of the Quest acceptor. In other words, my stats.”
Doo-ho tapped the window with his finger.
“And you lot are Collections, not part of my stats—you’re separate entities.”
-Ohhhhh!
Doo-ho gestured toward Hawkeye with a nod.
“Just now, Hawkeye was catching ‘Claw Crabs’ just fine.”
And as Doo-ho entered the Garage, he spoke.
“I have an idea. Come here.”
It was time for the operation briefing.
Necromancer
Author｜
Gungang E
Published｜
February 25, 2026
Publisher｜
Talesyx
Website｜
https://talesyx.com
Email｜
[email protected]
ⓒ Gungang E, 2026
This publication is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without permission.
UCI｜
G720:N+A277-20260210015.0068

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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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