I Awakened as a Dark History - Chapter 3

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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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Episode 3
Water drained from the passages branching in all directions, leaving only puddles in the cavern.
The dome, now restored, separated the underwater realm from the cavern once more.
Yet that dome had failed to drive out the Monster Beasts that had already entered the cavern.
A fish-like creature passed through first, but what claimed the space was a bipedal Monster Beast—a Fishman.
With webbed hands and feet, wielding Tridents and the like, they had been gathering people from somewhere.
The living they dragged in alive; the dead they hauled in behind.
And they heaped them all together in one place.
Whoosh. Thud. Crack.
“Aaaah!”
Someone cowered in terror.
But some watched with wide eyes as the Fishman hurled another “person” down.
“Oh, Mom…….”
“Shh. No. Come here. It’s all right.”
An adult pulled the child forward into their arms, voice breaking with sobs.
The child cried out, but the adult did not let go.
The creatures’ purpose remained a mystery.
It seemed like they were inspecting prey, or perhaps seeking confirmation from someone.
Death could come at any moment in this process. Everyone held their breath, gripped by fear.
“The Hunters still haven’t come?”
“What if they kill all of us first?”
“The Hunters will come before that happens.”
“Has anyone seen my child? We got separated and I lost their hand.”
Hushed whispers passed urgently among the crowd.
Meanwhile, the Fishmen continued padding across the water-soaked ground, dragging more people in.
The Fishmen clacked their shark-like teeth together, producing grotesque sounds.
Then they abruptly turned to face the people.
The crowd hastily averted their eyes and shrank back.
Click. Clack. Click.
Clack-clack. Click. Clack-clack-clack.
The sound of teeth grinding continued as the Fishmen raised their Tridents high.
The adult holding the child reflexively tensed their arms and drew back.
And then…….
“Pour forth.”
An acrid smell of ash rose from somewhere.
Thorny brambles erupted from beneath the earth, entangling the Fishmen’s feet.
Clack-clack-clack-clack!
The sound of teeth created a cacophony of noise.
At the same moment, someone pointed upward and cried out.
“There! A Hunter! A Hunter!”
The people lifted their eyes, following that pointed finger.
High above, nearly touching the dome’s ceiling, hung the silhouette of a human form.
Backlit and shrouded, that figure stood clearly opposed to the Fishmen.
Clack-clack-clack-clack! Clack-clack!
The Fishmen snarled, gnashing their teeth as they hurled their Tridents.
But the opponent moved transparent wings with ease, evading the Tridents effortlessly.
Then, with a voice dignified enough to make the cavern resound, they spoke.
“How dare you challenge me. Such courage is admirable.”
With that peculiar manner of speech, flames kindled from the Hunter’s hands.
“Ugh, wish I could record this……. What a shame.”
The student beside them murmured regretfully, moved by the sight.
The Hunter hurled those flames toward the Fishmen.
Clack-clack-clack! Clack-clack!
The Fishmen shrieked in incomprehensible cries as they blazed in the flames. But many of them still lived.
With their beastly physical prowess, the Fishmen scaled the dome and charged at the Hunter.
In mid-air, the Hunter twisted freely, dodging their attacks.
Eyes the color of flame gleamed as they narrowed with delight.
Even the mouth, curving upward, seemed almost joyful.
“Creatures who know the pleasure of battle! Entertain me!”
Forgetting the flames they had wielded, the Hunter brought their fist down hard on the charging Fishman.
The Hunter moved again, leaving the crushed Fishman sprawled on the ground behind him.
He caught one that lunged at his back, hurled it to the floor, seized the Trident aimed at a vital point, and skewered the Fishman instead.
Unlike the Fishmen, helpless and flailing in open air, the Hunter moved freely through the void, spraying blood everywhere.
“Ahhhhh! A Hunter! A Hunter is here!”
“We’re saved!”
The crowd’s fists clenched as they roared their cheers toward the Hunter.
“Everyone, everyone……!”
Then a calm voice cut through the chaos.
Heads turned to find its source.
It was Choi A-rin—and suddenly the focus of all those eyes made her shrink back a little.
“Ahem. Yes. Well…. The Hunter asked me to evacuate you all while he draws their attention.”
“What? Did you find the way out?”
Someone cried out, voice thick with hope.
Choi A-rin realized in that moment that she had no idea how to escape the Dungeon.
And that she should have found the Gate beforehand.
“Oh, no. Not that. He said if the Monster Beasts swarm together, it’s hard to defend while fighting. He told us to just hide for now.”
“But what if we run into the beasts while separated from the Hunter?”
“Didn’t this Hunter come to rescue us? Why would he tell us to wander off on our own?!”
“There are injured people here who can’t move. What about them?”
As the adults’ voices erupted, Choi A-rin’s face went white.
Questions poured down on her from all sides—a situation she had never faced before, and it was not easy to bear.
Whooooooo—
A vast, piercing whistle cut through the uproar. People covered their ears and ducked.
“What is that sound!”
“Aaahhh!”
The water sounds they had forgotten about started again.
The roar of something enormous cutting across the water, drawing closer—no one would forget that.
Amid the pale, terrified crowd, someone grabbed Choi A-rin’s arm.
She spun around in alarm.
To her relief, it was a familiar face.
“A-rin! You came alone? Didn’t you come with Ha Cho-eun?”
Seeing her friend and her own parents, Choi A-rin felt her tension snap away.
The presence of a reliable adult lifted the weight from her shoulders.
And at the same time, she remembered her friend’s situation—the one she’d been trying to forget.
“Well, about that…….”
Choi A-rin hid the Notebook behind her back and shifted her eyes nervously.
The moment her guard slipped, her gaze drifted upward to her friend.
“He’s safe, though? We came together, but he’s…… that is, ah! The Hunter gave him a task at the junction! So we can all go together!”
Choi A-rin thrust her thumb up for no good reason.
It was a reflexive gesture born of tension.
Rumble!
Splash, crash!
Something burst from the passages connected to the main chamber.
Massive Gomchis with Fishmen perched on their necks opened their gaping maws.
Hissssssss.
As the Gomchis reared up, they easily reached Ha Cho-eun’s position.
Cho-eun and the Gomchis remained still, sizing each other up.
Cho-eun descended slowly toward the people nearby.
“I…… Hunter. The Monster Beasts…….”
“Why are you all still not evacuating?”
Ha Cho-eun scolded without even turning to look.
Choi A-rin felt strange about being scolded by her friend, but shamelessly shifted the blame elsewhere.
“The people won’t leave, so…….”
“You want to die here?”
The crowd flinched, then huddled behind the Hunter who had drawn near.
“It’s not that. How are we supposed to go alone? We don’t even know where the Gate is. The Hunter has to come with us!”
“It seems too dangerous for us to go without you…….”
“And there are injured people here. My wife is badly hurt and can’t move.”
Eyes the color of blood turned backward. In that moment, the crowd questioned their own vision.
The eyes they could have sworn were red flickered with a pale pink light.
“There are wounded?”
People nodded hurriedly.
Their faces had hardened, tension settling in where there had been none before.
“Then there’s no helping it. Stay where you are.”
Ha Cho-eun soared high into the air, raising one hand with a flourish.
“As a fairy blessed by the Teaching of the Flower Field, I cannot turn away from those in need.”
“Khack! Ughughughk.”
A strange sound cut through from somewhere, but no one noticed it.
The only Hunter’s bright laughter rang out too loudly toward the empty air.
“Come now, isn’t that right? Let’s protect these people together!”
The ground trembled as vines surged upward.
The vines wound around the people, beginning to weave a solid barrier.
Then the Hunter raised his other hand as well.
“Bloom wide! Broken or withered, let us open again and again!”
Pink petals emerged densely from the vines.
Those petals descended upon the wounded, mending their injuries.
The barrier, now thick with pink petals, no longer showed what lay beyond.
The last glimpse of the Hunter showed him darting frantically to evade the Gomchi and the Fishmen upon it.
The sluggish Gomchi and the Fishmen riding it seemed unable to ever catch that Hunter.
But the one in the thick of it felt differently.
‘I can’t hold on much longer.’
The number of Gomchi kept growing, and the Fishmen’s attacks grew ever sharper.
He wasn’t losing in speed, but his stamina could no longer sustain him.
And on top of that, strange boxes had been blocking his vision since a moment ago.
[Current Synchronization Rate]
25%
[Synchronization Rate decreases with each Skill used. Caution advised.]
[※Warning※]
[Synchronization will be severed if Rate reaches 0.]
“Everything’s a nuisance.”
Chloris fell back from the battlefield.
A fairy fond of meddling was not what this situation needed.
A Demon King who loved brawling was of little use now either.
In the end, he had to step forward himself.
He stood at the center of the dome on wings that were not his own.
The highest position always put his mind at ease.
Perhaps because it drew near the sky.
Near enough to carry his words to the heavens.
“Sky, hear me.”
Even though the dome and the underwater realm divided them, the sky remained at his side.
Clouds began to spread from beneath his feet.
They grew thicker and denser, darkening to a deep black.
[Current Synchronization Rate]
10%
[Synchronization Rate decreases with each Skill used. Caution advised.]
[※Warning※ Synchronization Rate is critically low.]
[※Warning※ Danger of desynchronization.]
[※Warning※ Danger of desynchronization.]
“Pierce through them all.”
Within the clouds, the sound of ice shards colliding came in faint cracks.
Soon the shards had become a massive awl.
Shrieeeek!
At first one or two Ice Awls fell, then they began pouring down like rain.
Enormous Gomchi Monster Beasts were pierced through by the Ice Awls, shrieking in agony.
Tap-tap-tap! Crack-crack!
A Fishman seized the bridle of a Gomchi Beast and raised his Trident.
Toward the Fishman who evaded the Ice Awls and attempted to hurl the Trident, he raised a single finger.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The Ice Awl twisted at its point and pierced through the Fishman’s body.
The Gomchi Beast, now without its master, became prey for the Ice Awls as well.
And the cost of controlling the skill drained away.
[Current Synchronization Rate]
0%
[※Warning※ Synchronization will be disabled.]
His mind was lucid as though waking from a dream, yet his body remained sluggish, as if he’d only just greeted the morning.
The only thing he could perceive within that haze was the fact that his body was plummeting toward the ground.
He knew with certainty he would die if he fell like this, yet his body would not obey him.
Strangely, sleep began to pull at him.
‘It’s over.’
His eyes slid shut gently.
Thump!
But his body did not strike a hard floor.
Ha Cho-eun forced his eyes open against the overwhelming weight of drowsiness.
‘A person?’
“I thought you’d be late. Thank goodness.”
The face was not clear to him.
The only thing he could make out was a pair of peculiar golden eyes. The figure smiled.
“Rest now.”
The gentle voice felt strangely familiar.
So he let his guard down and closed his eyes.

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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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