I Awakened as a Dark History - Chapter 53

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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 53
When I clicked my tongue, Seo Il-hak’s expression turned sheepish.
I spoke in an deliberately bland tone to ease his embarrassment.
“This doesn’t look like an ordinary cave.”
“We need to be careful not to get separated.”
The criminal had despised the idea viscerally, but he had no choice.
If he wanted help from an S-rank Hunter, he had to follow.
We moved forward with the criminal at our side.
“What sort of beast did you encounter that caused your injuries?”
Seo Il-hak maintained his formal tone even toward the criminal.
It was the criminal, in fact, who had abandoned politeness.
“I… I don’t…”
“Don’t? Don’t what?”
“…I’m not sure, sir.”
He rushed to correct himself at my confused question.
Seo Il-hak glanced at me briefly, but I turned my head away as if I hadn’t noticed.
“It was too dark to see clearly, and besides… I didn’t manage to engage it properly.”
Fat lot of good that does us.
I clicked my tongue irritably.
The criminal’s shoulders trembled violently.
There seemed to be no way around it—we’d have to face whatever it was ourselves.
We continued forward, alert to every sound and shadow.
At some point, the hard rocky ground began to feel slightly softer beneath our feet.
I alternated my gaze between the floor illuminated by the flashlight and the ground beneath me.
“Doesn’t the ground feel a bit… spongy?”
“Gasp—hack! Hack!”
I barely said a word and this was the response I got.
I tried to fix the criminal with a sharp look to make him stop, but it was too late.
He was already hyperventilating, unable to steady his breathing.
“Association Chairman, something’s wrong with him.”
“It might be hyperventilation.”
The instant Seo Il-hak swung his flashlight toward the criminal—
“Aaaahhhhh!”
The criminal screamed as he plunged through the ground beneath him.
Only then did we realize that the earth he’d been standing on had been trembling like a swamp.
“It’s a trap!”
I quickly spread my wings and launched myself into the air.
I wasn’t exactly flying—my feet barely left the ground—but it calmed my nerves.
Yu Ho-yeon too spread a thin layer of Metal Ball beneath himself and stood upon it. But Seo Il-hak, who lacked such a skill, found himself in a very different situation.
“No… it’s not that spot that’s the problem. It seems like none of this is actual rock—”
Boom—!
A tremendous sound shook the entire cavern.
And a gaping chasm opened directly beneath Seo Il-hak’s feet.
“Damn it—!”
Seo Il-hak shot out a Rope made of skill, and Yu Ho-yeon swiftly hurled his spear to meet it.
Just as the rope was about to snag on the spear, the rock shifted.
Crack!
“It’s a Golem!”
The Golem that had suddenly risen up flicked the spear aside and hurled its body toward Seo Il-hak’s head.
Seo Il-hak’s Rope wound tightly around the Golem instead.
In that same instant, the gaping mouth of the ground sealed itself without a trace.
“No… no, Association Chairman?!”
Facing the sealed floor, panic flared in my chest.
As I called out to Seo Il-hak toward the ground, Yu Ho-yeon grabbed my arm.
“Look ahead!”
Clang!
In the darkness, metal struck metal, and sparks erupted.
Only then did I remember that Seo Il-hak wasn’t the only one we needed to worry about.
Golems had encircled us without our noticing.
Thud. Crack!
“Yeah, thanks.”
Yu Ho-yeon deflected the sudden attack hurtling toward me.
I managed to ward off the first strike, but our situation was far from ideal.
The darkness made it nearly impossible to see the Golem.
Conversely, the Golem seemed unbothered by the dark, attacking us relentlessly.
Crack! Bang! Thud!
Yu Ho-yeon hurled his spear through the darkness, responding to each assault from the Golem.
I couldn’t tell whether the shattering sounds were the walls crumbling or the Golem breaking apart.
Fortunately, as my eyes completed their dark adaptation, the Golem’s silhouette began to emerge faintly.
“Agh!”
The moment I could see it, debris from the collapsing Golem struck my head.
“Damn.”
I clutched my head and flapped my wings.
Yu Ho-yeon pulled my arm toward him.
“Don’t move around. Stay right next to me so I know where you are.”
To avoid getting in his way, I had no choice.
I pressed against Yu Ho-yeon’s side and felt along the ground.
With one hand gripping him and the other exploring the floor, I searched.
The floor, which had briefly softened, had returned to its rough, rocky texture.
Crash! Smash!
The relentless sound of Yu Ho-yeon’s spear shattering stone finally ceased.
As the whistle of his spear cutting through empty air followed, Yu Ho-yeon recalled his weapon.
“The floor?”
“It’s hardened. I’m starting to think this entire cave might be a trap.”
The situation was grim.
Honestly, losing the Criminal wasn’t a disaster, but having Seo Il-hak dragged away was dangerous.
And on top of that, there was no exit in sight.
I pondered for a moment, then glanced up at Yu Ho-yeon.
“……What if we let ourselves get caught and pulled in too?”
“What?”
Even invisible in the dark, I could hear his expression darken.
Before he could call me insane, I hurried to explain.
“We have no way of knowing where this cave took the Association chairman. But if we let ourselves get pulled in, at least we’ll find out.”
“And what happens to us in the process? Besides, you…….”
Yu Ho-yeon started to say something, then abruptly stopped himself.
His unfinished words nagged at me.
‘Was he about to call me weak? Say I’m not suited to this dungeon?’
He swallowed whatever he’d meant to say and continued.
“Either way, no. I’ll go instead.”
If he was willing to go himself, I had no intention of stopping him.
Yu Ho-yeon asked me for confirmation.
“Do you have a skill that can track me? Any tracking ability?”
“Hmm…….”
It didn’t seem like I did.
I thought for a moment, then remembered the Thorn Thicket.
“The Thorn Thicket. Couldn’t I use it like a rope and extend it?”
Yu Ho-yeon considered briefly, then held out his arm.
When I looked at him blankly, he spoke again.
“Bind it here. That skill doesn’t affect allies anyway.”
“Ah, well, about that…….”
I regarded his arm with considerable doubt.
“You’re planning to have the Thorn Thicket tied to you and let yourself be pulled in? I’m not sure I can break through these walls and find you.”
“If you don’t like it, you can wander the cave until you die.”
That sounded even worse.
When I made a resigned expression, Yu Ho-yeon held his arm out closer, as if to say there it was.
With a sigh, I finally summoned the Thorn Thicket.
The Thorn Thicket wrapped itself docilely around his arm, like a hedgehog drawing in its spines.
“After you tie this and go down, what’s your plan? I don’t think this trap just shuffles people around.”
Yu Ho-yeon immediately told me what I needed to do.
“When I stop moving and don’t respond, wrap me up with this skill. That much you can do, right?”
“Maybe?”
My answer had sounded far too casual.
I worried about it a moment too late, but Yu Ho-yeon didn’t seem to mind at all.
“And keep this skill active as long as you can. It doesn’t have a time limit, after all.”
My Mana reserves had limits, though.
Whether or not Yu Ho-yeon sensed my concern, he pressed on with his explanation.
“While this skill is active, I’ll stay conscious and counterattack. You don’t need to come after me. If this works, I’ll find my way back along the skill on my own.”
Worry over failure threatened to overwhelm me, but there was no room for such doubts now—we had to act.
I steeled myself and nodded.
“I’ll do my best.”
Yu Ho-yeon descended gently beneath the platform.
His footing transformed back into a Metal Ball, settling snugly in his palm.
As I waited quietly in place, the floor began responding again, shifting subtly.
“The ground’s getting softer.”
Which meant I’d be pulled down soon.
I stretched the Thorn Thicket as far as it would reach and waited.
Thud—!
The same sound and motion as before.
My eyes snapped toward Yu Ho-yeon.
The moment he nodded to me, his body plummeted downward in an instant.
“Hah!”
The Thorn Thicket unraveled like yarn wound too tightly, and I felt Yu Ho-yeon rushing away from me.
I poured all my focus into the skill to keep track of his position.
‘He’s going to be okay, right?’
I could feel the Thorn Thicket stretching long, but no response came from Yu Ho-yeon.
As planned, I quickly spread the tip of the Thorn Thicket wide.
Mana flowed out sharply as the Thorn Thicket expanded.
‘I can’t think of skills so simply. They’re like hair.’
You can’t feel every individual strand of hair.
Yet you can sense its existence through perception.
Much the same—I couldn’t see every part of the Thorn Thicket as if viewing it, but I felt the presence of the skill connected to me.
And the Thorn Thicket, spread wide, had one more effect.
Crunch-crunch-crunch—
It could inflict pain and debuffs upon the enemy.
The entire rocky mountain trembled as the cavern convulsed.
At this point, I began to doubt whether this was truly a rock mountain and cavern at all.
And that doubt kindled courage within me.
“At this rate, I might be able to tear a path open entirely.”
I poured Mana unstintingly into the Thorn Thicket.
The Thorn Thicket connected to Yu Ho-yeon swelled and began forcing the sealed passage open.
What I’d thought was rock shrank away from the thorns like a living creature, making it possible.
Once the opening grew large enough for me to pass through, I hurled myself inside.
Flutter-flutter.
My wing tips scraped against the walls of the narrow passage.
But I beat my wings faster still and broke through.
At last, light spilled from the end of the tunnel, and I emerged into a vast cavern.
“What is this……?”
I hovered freely and murmured aloud.
It appeared to be a spacious cavern, but the floor was completely filled with yellowish liquid.
In that murky water, I could make out the faces of strange Criminals and Seo Il-hak.
And the massive cluster that had become the Thorn Thicket.
I flew low, studying their forms.
And I noticed something odd.
“……It looks like the people are melting.”
It was disturbing—more than odd, it was chilling.

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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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