I Awakened as a Dark History - Chapter 52

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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 52
Whoosh—
Thunk, thud.
The dungeon, carved from an enormous stone mountain, swarmed with Golems.
These Golems, formed from compressed rock, refused to shatter under ordinary attacks.
‘Good thing I prepared the bow beforehand.’
I nocked a Hanpuli arrow heavy with Magical Power onto the string.
“You won’t kill them unless you strike the core dead center,” Seo Il-hak observed.
“My skill takes time to destroy them. I apologize for the delay.”
Seo Il-hak pulled the Red Rope tighter in his grip.
The Golems threaded along the rope lost the light in their cores one by one.
It seemed to take roughly seven to ten seconds for each Golem to come to a complete halt.
“Still, if we count the Golems’ power source as life force, we’re lucky. You said they’re completely immune to poison, right?”
“Correct.”
Against such opponents, my matchups with Seo Il-hak were all wrong.
It was Yu Ho-yeon who soared through the air without pause.
Bang! Crash! Boom!
With relentless sounds of destruction, the Golems crumbled into piles of rubble.
Yu Ho-yeon had transformed the Steel Sphere into the shape of twin spears and hurled them.
The pair of spears flew in all directions, piercing through the Golems.
The spears moved with such precision that they never missed the cores—the Golems were utterly helpless.
It seemed they didn’t even need our help.
I turned my gaze from Yu Ho-yeon and asked Seo Il-hak.
“Should we leave the Golems to you and search for people from above?”
“There don’t appear to be any Flying Beasts, so it should be safe. I’m counting on you.”
I nodded and spread my wings.
As my wings beat the air, my body rose and Stone Mountain spread itself out before me in full view.
‘Nothing but desert all around.’
I banked wide around Stone Mountain.
With not a single plant in sight, the barren mountain was easy to survey without any special effort.
But I saw no sign of anyone climbing or fleeing the mountain toward the desert.
“This is getting tedious.”
I clicked my tongue and muttered.
Getting closer to Stone Mountain to look more carefully, I spotted holes puncturing the mountainside in various places.
At first glance, they looked like caves.
‘Did they escape inside?’
I immediately turned my body to report to Seo Il-hak.
At that very moment, something burst from one of the caves.
“What the—”
I plummeted downward at a near-freefall pace.
Something shot through the space where I’d been hanging.
Whoosh— whoosh—
The identity of that stone-made creature was easy to guess.
“Golems and Gargoyles? Seriously?”
Irritated, I drew my bowstring back quickly.
I fired several Hanpuli arrows at the Gargoyle.
But on its hard body, only faint cracks appeared.
I had no choice but to fly toward Seo Il-hak and Yu Ho-yeon.
Fortunately, Yu Ho-yeon spotted me first.
“Drive it this way!”
I obeyed his command and turned sharply around.
The Gargoyle pursued me relentlessly, drawing within striking distance of Yu Ho-yeon’s head.
Yu Ho-yeon stomped off one of the metal spears and launched himself upward.
A second spear flew in precisely as he reached the apex, becoming his foothold once more.
Rising high on the two spears as stepping stones, he grasped one and drove it down through the Gargoyle.
Crash!
The Gargoyle’s head came clean away.
I wheeled around and caught Yu Ho-yeon by the arm.
“Thank you. I wasn’t expecting a Gargoyle to appear so suddenly.”
“It’s nothing.”
Yu Ho-yeon summoned two steel spears and gripped them in his hands once more.
Watching him, I couldn’t resist asking out of curiosity.
“You could ride on those and fly, couldn’t you?”
“Not during combat.”
Yu Ho-yeon cut off my suggestion decisively.
He spoke like someone who’d already tried it.
“Really? That’s surprising. I didn’t expect that.”
“Only during combat.”
Surprisingly, Yu Ho-yeon answered with genuine sincerity.
“You can travel long distances at a leisurely pace. But moving quickly in the middle of a fight is unstable. Using them as a footrest for movement works best.”
I set Yu Ho-yeon down on the ground.
After setting down the Golem that Seo Il-hak had dealt with, he approached us.
“Are you alright?”
“Yes. I didn’t know there was a Gargoyle here.”
“My apologies. It was my oversight.”
I waved my hand to indicate that no apology was necessary.
“The structure made it hard to notice before getting close. It came out of the cave.”
“There’s a cave?”
Seo Il-hak’s brow furrowed slightly.
We both heaved a sigh, our thoughts aligned.
“It must have fled inside.”
“That seems likely.”
“We’ll have to go in.”
None of us were eager about it, but our decision had already been made.
I took the lead and guided the two of them to the cave entrance.
“When I found the cave entrance, the Gargoyle rushed out immediately. I wonder if the inside of the cave is actually a habitat for Gargoyles?”
Seo Il-hak shook his head firmly.
“Gargoyles are typically Beasts that guard the threshold of a territory. Moreover, the interior of a cave isn’t ideal for Flying Beasts to operate.”
In other words, there was no chance it dwelled inside the dungeon.
I belatedly compared the Gargoyle’s appearance with its environment.
Then Seo Il-hak’s meaning became clear to me.
And I let a bit of concern show.
“Oh, come to think of it, I’m a Flying Beast too.”
“Pffft!”
“Ahem.”
I hadn’t been joking, but both of them burst out laughing.
When I stared at them incredulously, they both clamped their mouths shut.
I understood Seo Il-hak might laugh, but I hadn’t expected Yu Ho-yeon to as well.
I shot them both a sharp look and walked forward with long strides.
The two quickly fell into step beside me.
“Now that you mention it, that’s true. We should be as careful as possible since there might be danger. Don’t stray from my side.”
“I’ll do my best.”
I rubbed my chin for a moment, thinking.
Come to think of it, whenever someone told me not to stray, I always ended up separated from the group.
I searched for the cave entrance with a feeling of dread.
And just as Seo Il-hak had said, there was a guardian at the cave entrance.
“There’s another Gargoyle.”
“Three of them. One at a time——”
“No.”
Yu Ho-yeon held up his palm to us and suspended his steel spears.
One spear lodged itself in the cave entrance.
The Gargoyle leapt out of the cave from the sudden attack.
Yu Ho-yeon hurled his remaining spear, piercing through the Gargoyles one by one.
The Gargoyles didn’t even manage to dodge; not knowing where the attack came from, they shattered.
Yu Ho-yeon didn’t stop there—he sent another pair of spears into the cave as well.
Fortunately, no more Gargoyles emerged.
“That should do it.”
Yu Ho-yeon summoned his spears back and gripped them in his hands.
“Let’s go.”
Seo Il-hak took the lead and entered the cave.
The interior of the cave was pitch-black. It bore no resemblance whatsoever to the dungeon caves they’d entered before.
The previous cave dungeons had been lit well enough to spot and capture Beasts.
But here, without a single source of light, he couldn’t see more than an inch ahead.
The one saving grace was Seo Il-hak’s meticulous preparation.
Seo Il-hak drew a Flashlight from his pocket.
Watching him, I offered a brief observation.
“Feels like we’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere.”
Neither of them disagreed; they said nothing.
The three of us tensed our guard and moved forward.
Plink—
At the sound of a stone dropping, I spun around sharply.
Yu Ho-yeon’s Steel Sphere reacted first.
Snap, crash!
The sphere, transformed into a spear, embedded itself deep in the cave wall where the sound had come from.
Then a human voice cut through the darkness.
“No—I surrender! Wait, no! I confess! I confess!”
Stumbling through the darkness came Hunter, filthy and disheveled.
Whatever ordeal he’d endured in the intervening time, his frame was caked with dust and dried blood.
Seo Il-hak withdrew Handcuffs from his pocket.
“Then put these on and follow us.”
“We’re not leaving right now?! Please, please let us out immediately! I don’t care if it’s just outside the cave! I’m begging you!”
He rushed toward us, his face drained of all color.
He offered no resistance whatsoever to the Handcuffs.
“Once we’ve secured the safety of the other suspects, we’ll move.”
At Seo Il-hak’s words, the man began thrashing about as though reason had abandoned him.
“They’re all dead by now! If we don’t leave now, we’ll never leave! Where’s the exit? Where’s the way out!”
His desperate plea for an immediate exit rubbed me the wrong way.
I grabbed his arm on Seo Il-hak’s behalf.
“What are you talking about. You think we came down here to rescue you? Keep quiet and follow us.”
“The entrance is disappearing! It’s closing off!”
He screamed as though his life depended on it, thrashing wildly.
But Handcuffs were already secured around his wrists.
We turned reflexively to look behind us at his shout.
The receding entrance was nowhere to be seen from this distance.
“Let me check it out.”
Yu Ho-yeon sent his Steel Sphere back along the path we’d traveled.
Contrary to my expectation that the sphere would keep receding into the distance, Yu Ho-yeon’s brow furrowed.
“It’s hitting something around where the entrance should be. The sphere won’t go any further.”
The Steel Sphere came whistling back toward us.
I clicked my tongue.
We’d gotten ourselves trapped in a Beast’s lair while helping these criminals.

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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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