D-Rank Constellation Hunter… Stuck Without Internet! - Chapter 8

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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 8
Why couldn’t such a simple condition be met? The answer is straightforward.
Destroying over 80% requires proportional firepower, and the destruction criteria itself remains ambiguous.
Moreover, this Dungeon appears to have been granted self-regeneration capabilities.
Even if high-level Hunters deploy their strongest skills, they can only collapse roughly 50% of this Dungeon.
So instead of pushing high-ranking Hunters into the Dungeon to suffer needlessly and rescue the trapped person, I chose to substitute the offering with someone of a lower grade.
It’s more convenient that way.
‘After all, there’s no guarantee that clearing the Dungeon even once means they’ll never emerge again.’
Though I could ensure they never do.
[ If you wish, I can not only clear it but also exact full vengeance upon those who threw you in here. ]
– But… if you give me equipment like this and clear it for me, won’t that cost you a lot of money?
After deliberating for quite some time, that was the answer he produced.
This is the first time I’ve met someone worried about a Constellation’s finances.
Perhaps my display of wealth hasn’t been sufficiently impressive.
When I was human, money caused me considerable suffering, but for the nearly 300 years since becoming a Constellation, I’ve lived in ostentatious splendor like no other.
He worries about many things.
[ Don’t help me, then? Is that it? ]
Only now did he seem to realize this wasn’t the time for him to be concerned about me.
I could see him frantically shaking his head back and forth.
In a moment, he’d be begging with his hands clasped.
It would be endearing, but I shouldn’t tease him too much.
“Well then, what should I do for you…”
[ Go into that Cave, crouch as low as possible, and cover your ears. ]
This is a shabby server, like a hole-in-the-wall shop.
If I were to operate by sponsoring items, it would certainly consume considerable time.
But sending something down carries too much risk. There’s even a chance the server connection could sever entirely.
I wonder if I’m giving too much from the start, but if I don’t do at least this, he won’t accept that I’m on his side.
I placed my hand on the screen, infusing it with divine power.
Ha Gyuhyuk didn’t question my words in the slightest and hid inside the Cave.
[ Confirming pathway to the 34R7h World, transmitting divine power. ]
Fundamentally, a Constellation’s sponsorship descends through the Sungdo system.
This allows observation of multiple worlds simultaneously and reduces spatial-temporal constraints.
Merely hearing an unmodulated Constellation’s true words or witnessing their true form causes ordinary lifeforms to vanish without a trace.
This holds true even for the Constellation with the least accumulated karma.
Therefore, the Sungdo system exists both for the Constellation’s convenience and to protect lifeforms in lower worlds.
Even sending down an avatar requires passage through the Sungdo system.
However, when Constellations wish to display their power independent of Sungdo’s authority or desire direct intervention, they can transmit their power directly to those lower worlds.
We call this act an Oracle, though it’s far too destructive to truly deserve the name.
If necessary, one can descend in true form and speak true words.
This occurs only when one has genuinely resolved to harbor malice toward that world and bring about its annihilation.
Ordinarily, I only bestow an oracle when a client requires power beyond what Sungdo’s system can provide.
Since it consumes dozens of times the karma required through the system, I rarely resort to it.
‘There’s no time for the usual methods. The boy looks like he’s about to die.’
I exhaled a small breath into the void.
The formless respiration soon took on the faintest violet hue. I infused it with Earth’s location—more precisely, Ha Gyuhyuk’s position—and sent it forth.
“Gyuhyuk, this is my smallest breath.”
* * *
Calamity descended from the heavens.
Even with his ears covered, Ha Gyuhyuk could sense it.
The earth trembled as a force capable of annihilating the world crashed down and struck.
Despite pressing his body flat against the ground, he shook violently.
Countless stones poured from the cave ceiling.
Had the gentle breeze flowing from outside not wrapped around his body and shielded him from everything that fell, his fragile frame would surely have been crushed.
That breeze seemed to block out sound to some degree as well.
“Ah, ah, really….”
This was supposed to be salvation, yet it was terror incarnate.
Though muffled, a deafening roar still echoed from outside that threatened to burst his eardrums.
It was a miracle the cave hadn’t collapsed.
Ha Gyuhyuk could only lift his head long after the silence returned.
Actually, “long after” was a misnomer.
When I checked the actual time, only five minutes had passed. Of that, I’d probably spent about four minutes lying flat and trembling.
Just a few dozen seconds. That was all. I staggered to my feet and stumbled out of the cave.
[ The Constellation of Spectation and Care says it did its utmost. ]
There was nothing before my eyes.
I couldn’t call it destroyed. Truly, nothing existed.
The moment I stepped beyond the cave, an endless void stretched before me—a nothingness so vast I could have fallen into absolute darkness.
As I barely managed to stand at its edge, the breeze protecting me gently pushed my body back inside.
As if to say: venture further and you perish.
“….”
My mind went blank.
Before my thoughts could produce any result, a clear window appeared along with a door leading outside.
Like a person bereft of all sense, I moved my feet and crossed through that door.
That being called a Constellation had accomplished in an instant what no human could achieve—something that would take ages even to imitate.
For no other reason than that I had asked for help.
The declaration that had flickered before my eyes moments ago resurfaced in my mind.
[ The Constellation of Spectation and Care proclaims its intervention in your life and death from this moment forward. ]
【 You have achieved your first Achievement! 】
【 You cleared a Dungeon two or more ranks above your own. 】
【 You cleared the Dungeon by your own strength alone. 】
That Constellation does not treat me as a being who lives in this world.
So what this means is that any Achievement he accomplishes here will be interpreted as his achievement alone.
When an Achievement is accomplished, it’s recorded in the Hunter-exclusive system.
Who accomplished which Achievement.
Moreover, anyone can look up which Dungeon was cleared by whom and what percentage they contributed. There are no secrets here.
“Hey, what is this?”
“Ah, so….”
Ha Gyuhyuk began walking as if entranced by something. Regardless of whether those around him recognized him or not. Regardless of whether they spoke to him or not.
Never before had his surroundings been so completely invisible to him.
In a Dungeon he’d initially thought he was entering to die, I achieved an unbelievable Achievement, and somehow I made it out alive.
I witnessed only the tiniest fraction of that being’s power floating in the sky.
This entire situation felt like a lie.
I came to a halt in front of the Hunter Association Building—a place I’d never wanted to return to.
Everyone was looking up at the sky. I lifted my head as well.
[ The Constellation of Spectation and Care gazes upon humanity. ]
[ The Constellation of Spectation and Care smiles. ]
Overlapping with that, another window visible only to me appeared.
[ The Constellation of Spectation and Care reveals its Epithet to you. ]
[ ‘The Finisher of Entangled Endings’ requests to become your Constellation. ]
‘The Finisher of Entangled Endings?’
From the name alone, I couldn’t possibly discern what kind of Constellation it was.
There was once an era when you could identify who was who simply by a Constellation’s name.
That was the period when they frequently came and went in the world, allowing information to be gathered.
But I know this much from high school classes.
When a Constellation reveals its Epithet ‘first’, it’s typically one of two situations.
‘Either a clear expression of affection toward the target, or the most intense warning.’
Based on the reaction being shown to Ha Gyuhyuk, it seemed closer to the former.
Yet after witnessing that infinite power just now, I couldn’t simply accept it as goodwill.
So what this amounts to is that a Constellation with such tremendous power is offering sponsorship to none other than a D-rank Hunter.
For no reason whatsoever.
‘There’s nothing for them to take from me.’

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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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