Even if I Make It Roughly, Ex-rank Items Continue to Accumulate - Chapter 139
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Even Hastily Made Ones Keep Stacking Up as EX-Rank (139)
Just Working Hard
Seosan, Chungnam.
A dock in that place.
“Ugh… the tide just isn’t right today.”
Among the anglers lined up in a row, a middle-aged man grumbled. With his scruffy beard and skin darkened black from the sun, he had the face that could be called the very model of an angler.
Normally, no one would dare argue with someone who had such a veteran-among-veterans face in the fishing world, but today wasn’t normal.
Weekend.
It was a time when more than a few office worker fishing enthusiasts had come to take refuge at the dock for the holiday.
The man who clicked his tongue at Mr. Kim’s words was one of them.
“Come on, Mr. Kim. Haven’t you been fishing once or twice? Why so many complaints?”
“But today is too much! At this rate, we’ll have to pack up without catching a single fish.”
“Geez. Take it easy. Don’t rush.”
“Ugh… tsk.”
Mr. Kim grumbled and turned his head away sharply.
Seeing this, Mr. Choi, who had been arguing with him, let out a chuckle, but feeling somewhat sorry, he put some bait in his fishing bag and said.
“Well, it’s not like I don’t understand your feelings.”
“…Why is this guy acting like this? All of a sudden.”
“It’s because there’s been complaints coming from here and there lately. Most people here are probably giving up their precious weekends, what little time they have, to come fishing, but hardly any fish are being caught.”
“Hmm. So you do know about it?”
“Of course I know. Well, I’m someone who comes here just to smoke a cigarette while looking at the sea, but how frustrated must those who come hoping to catch some fish be? I understand them all.”
“Right! People like me are going crazy with frustration!”
Finally finding someone who understood his feelings, Mr. Kim excitedly launched into a passionate speech. It was just as Mr. Choi was listening quietly to that pouring voice and letting out a hearty laugh.
Suddenly, bewilderment leaked from him.
“Huh?”
“Anyway, so I’m thinking about moving to a different spot… Hmm? What’s wrong?”
Mr. Kim stopped talking and turned his head sharply.
And seeing Mr. Choi’s fishing rod shaking wildly as if he had gotten a bite, he too became wide-eyed with his mouth hanging open.
“You, you caught one?”
How did this happen?
Catching fish at the dock wasn’t particularly strange in itself.
However, as they had been discussing, the problem was that fish hadn’t been biting at all lately. It was so bad that none of the people fishing here today had managed to catch any fish.
That had certainly been the case…
Whiiiiik!
“Wh, whaaaat?”
Before he knew it, Mr. Kim’s own fishing rod was also shaking wildly.
It was a strong bite. Strong enough to break the fishing rod.
However, this strange occurrence was just the beginning.
“Hey! I caught one too!”
“What the. Wh, why is this happening all of a sudden?”
“Did these things come swarming in a pack…?!”
Surprised voices burst out one after another from the procession that filled the dock. As a result of immediately turning their heads to look around, all of their fishing rods were bending like crazy.
“M-Mr. Kim. What’s going on here, all of a sudden?”
“Good grief. That’s what I’m saying.”
Mr. Kim completely forgot about his grumbling and exchanged words with Mr. Choi, both looking utterly bewildered.
There was no joy at finally catching fish.
If only one had barely been caught, it might be different, but like this, all at the same time.
Moreover, the fact that everyone at the dock got bites at the same moment was clearly an abnormal phenomenon.
“C-could it be an earthquake coming?”
The fact that fish come near land just before a disaster occurs was all too well known.
To Mr. Choi’s anxiety, Mr. Kim added a comment.
“Or it could be that a Gate has appeared. That also releases mana.”
“Huh, what on earth is this….”
Splash splash!
The situation was getting increasingly serious.
Several fishing rods couldn’t hold up and snapped with a crack, and the school of fish had now swarmed to the dock enough to be visible to the naked eye.
“This is disgusting….”
As if struggling for survival, they bumped into each other. Not knowing they were ramming their heads into the breakwater, they desperately tried to come up onto land.
Following the other anglers, Mr. Choi and Mr. Kim also hurriedly packed their luggage. Whether it was a Gate or a disaster, either way, they had to leave this place.
It was the moment they shouldered their bags.
―Rumble.
The ground shook.
“…Huh?”
“What was that just now?”
Wondering if it was an illusion, they hesitantly turned their heads.
Then it happened again.
―Rummmble.
Once more the ground trembled.
At the same time, the surface of the sea they were looking at was rippling strangely.
―Rummmmmble.
Waves were coming. Waves that were getting increasingly fierce.
“Something, something’s coming!”
“Run away!”
At that final moment when everyone was fleeing in panic.
“Oh, oh my! Aaah!”
The one who accidentally stumbled and fell, thus ending up several steps behind the others who had fled first, only Mr. Kim.
Kim Il-guk, an ordinary 53-year-old office worker and angler from South Korea, was the only one who could witness it.
―Crackle!
In the high sky beyond that sea.
The sight of Crimson Lightning and multicolored hues weaving brilliant light as they violently collided.
And….
That crimson lightning was actually pushing back against the five-colored mana, a battle that could truly be called a spectacular sight.
“Wh-what in the world is….”
His mouth gaped open as if it might tear.
* * *
…Lee Si-hyeok swallowed hard as he watched the battle that had entered a brief lull.
The laboratory had already been half-destroyed long ago.
The test tube that had contained Necrosis had shattered completely, and holes were punched through various parts of the outer wall, allowing seawater to leak in.
Even so, since it was such a sturdy bunker, there was no danger, but he couldn’t just stand by and watch any longer. The performance verification had already been completed.
“Stop! Please stop now!”
Lee Si-hyeok, who had been taking shelter in a corner with a barrier artifact deployed, shouted loudly.
However, Lumibra and the Golem still glared at each other. Though both were in tatters all over their bodies, the atmosphere was extremely murderous.
Lee Si-hyeok quickly stepped between them.
“…Dear?”
“Master?”
Only then did the menacing atmosphere disappear.
The mana that had been pressing down suffocatingly lifted, and they, who belatedly noticed Lee Si-hyeok, called out to him in their own ways with surprised expressions.
“Please stop this now. If this continues, something really serious will happen.”
Only 10 minutes had passed.
Yet the bunker had reached the point of being destroyed.
From what he could see, the released mana seemed to have affected even the water surface above, and if it went any further, Hunters might be dispatched.
“Th-that, Master.”
The Golem, who belatedly noticed water trickling in through the hole in the wall, rolled its eyes. The murderous intent from just moments before was nowhere to be found.
“That, this wasn’t done on purpose….”
“It’s fine, this much can be fixed with repairs.”
“I-is that so! What a relief!”
“Don’t be happy about it though.”
“….”
He turned his head away from the Golem, who immediately shut its mouth, and shot a sharp look at Lumibra.
She too avoided his gaze while covered in dark ash all over her body.
“Ahem. Dear.”
“No, but even so, shouldn’t Lumibra have been more careful?”
“Why are you only picking on me? That child participated too….”
“You were the one who stepped forward first in the first place, Lumibra. If you had stayed still, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“That child looked restless too!”
Lumibra shouted as if she felt wronged.
However, the Golem shrugged as if it knew nothing, and when Lee Si-hyeok let out a deep sigh after confirming even that behavior, Lumibra pressed close to him.
“B-but thanks to that, we were able to clearly understand the artifact’s changes too. Thanks to me.”
“…Yes, well. Thanks to that, I was also able to learn that Lumibra-nim’s confidence doesn’t always speak the truth.”
“That’s!”
Lumibra’s teeth ground together with a grinding sound. The grip that had been gently holding Lee Si-hyeok’s arm tightened with force.
“Kkeuk?!”
He immediately struck away the arm and distanced himself.
“Don’t stick to me! It’s already disgusting enough!”
“Disgusting, what do you mean by that!?”
“I need to organize my thoughts! Don’t follow me!”
Indeed, the black ash that covered Lumibra was entirely the result of the thick fur covering that body being burned by mana.
The thought of such a thing transferring to his body was horrifying just to imagine.
Lee Si-hyeok fled to the rest room to escape them, his face showing utter disgust.
“Ugh, really.”
Of course, it wasn’t simply to run away.
He needed time to organize his thoughts.
Time to summarize the information he had just obtained.
‘…I never thought Lumibra-nim would actually be pushed back by that golem.’
Confidence doesn’t always represent the truth. Just as he had said, surprisingly often the golem wielding the Soul-Pursuing Harpoon pushed Lumibra back.
Until the battle began, he had thought Lumibra would overwhelm in every aspect, but the golem wasn’t being pushed back at all.
Perhaps because of that, scenes of her being flustered appeared frequently.
‘It’s probably because of the ability that was added this time.’
The ability with the property called ‘Luminous Extinction’ that was newly born from the combination of ‘Bright Light’ and ‘Necrosis’.
When the message simply appeared, it wasn’t well understood what kind of property this was, but this time he could know for certain.
‘Luminous Extinction is… literally that property.’
First, Bright Light is connected to ‘life’, and Necrosis is linked to ‘death’.
Because it wields light and because it plunders life force.
It’s natural logic.
So when these two meet, it’s natural that they would have opposing reactions and not combine, but Lee Si-hyeok succeeded in coordinating them in a certain way.
That was a method that could achieve new results while maintaining both properties as they were.
It was sequentially repeating life and death.
‘That’s why it’s Luminous Extinction.’
Like a fire turning on and off.
Like something appearing and disappearing.
It steals the ‘life force’ that is the component of Crimson Lightning, the effect of ‘Bright Light’, from others through ‘Necrosis’.
It would be appropriate to see it as extinguishing others’ fires in order to light the fire of life.
And while the original Bright Light had limits in output because it only used the mana of one user, this overcame all those limitations.
The stronger the opponent, the stronger the mana that could be plundered, so it actually became more manageable.
“That’s probably why Lumibra-nim was pushed back. Because she possesses tremendous mana.”
“I wasn’t pushed back.”
To his muttering as he tried to organize things alone, an unexpected answer came back. Lee Si-hyeok sighed at the presence he felt from behind.
“When did you come again?”
“Just now.”
“What about the Golem?”
“That child seemed sorry for damaging the bunker. It’s trying its best to repair it somehow by itself.”
“And aren’t you sorry, Lumibra?”
“Ahem. Of course I’m sorry too. But since that child is working so hard, one person like me…”
Crash!
At that moment, the sound of something breaking came from the laboratory.
“…It seems to just be working hard.”
“…”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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