I Awakened as a Dark History - Chapter 54

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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 54
I approached the water’s surface and examined the condition of the people trapped within.
The skin of the one who appeared to have been taken first was melting in patches across his body.
It looked as though a mountain had been overturned upon him.
And one word rose unbidden to my mind.
“This is insane—is this a digestive chamber?!”
I flew toward Seo Il-hak without hesitation.
As I plunged my hand into the liquid to pull him free, a searing pain shot through me first.
Splash!
Even so, the strength granted by Synchronization allowed me to haul Seo Il-hak out quickly enough.
I set him down in a patch of ground free from digestive fluid and approached the thorny thicket.
The thorns would shield him from the acid, but I couldn’t leave Yu Ho-yeon where he lay.
The thicket sensed my intention and split itself in two.
Yu Ho-yeon was unconscious as well.
It seemed clear that he’d been attacked during the journey here, just as I’d suspected.
At least he hadn’t fallen into the gastric acid.
I shook his shoulder and called his name.
“Hey! Yu Ho-yeon? Can you hear me?”
Yu Ho-yeon did not wake easily.
I had no choice but to move him as well to a place where the acid couldn’t reach.
“Sigh.”
Once both men were secured, my anxiety eased slightly.
I looked around, searching for an exit.
But I found neither the path I’d come through nor any other way out.
‘If I were the Demon King, I’d probably be able to break through…’
With high strength and the ability to wield fire, it seemed possible.
But the problem was what would happen when those two woke up.
How bewildered would they be to find a stranger suddenly appearing and rescuing them?
‘Besides, my Synchronization Rate would be insufficient.’
It felt far too wasteful to squander my current Synchronization Rate, which had climbed to ninety-eight percent.
I rested my chin on one hand and considered the problem in silence.
Splash.
“…ing.”
“Ah, what am I going to do?”
Would I have to wait for the two of them to wake up?
I examined the unconscious men.
If only I were a fairy—then I could wake these two immediately, much to my regret.
“Please… please…”
Splash.
Digestive fluid splattered up onto my cheek.
I wiped away the hot sensation with my sleeve and turned around, only to see a man whose skin was covered entirely in foam and blisters.
“S-save me… please save me.”
Most of his hair had already dissolved away, and the skin on his cheeks and arms was grotesquely contorted.
The moment he saw me notice him, he managed a thin smile of relief, as though my attention were some kind of good omen.
But the moment I folded my arms, that smile shattered like glass.
“P-please, I… I can’t move because of the paralysis…”
He thrashed toward me with increasing desperation.
His desperation elicited nothing but a hollow laugh from me.
Would this man have answered such a plea from someone else?
Had he done so, he wouldn’t have been assigned to stand guard in that place.
I could not fathom how one could ask others for compassion and mercy they themselves had never possessed.
“…”
But one thing was clear to me now.
What this monster beast had done to the two men during the journey here.
Apparently it had rendered them unconscious using paralytic venom or some skill as it dragged them down.
I examined both men’s bodies to confirm this.
Each bore thick puncture wounds on the neck and arms, as if pierced by a heavy needle.
“P-please…”
I turned my head away to shut out that voice.
But the cries that continued on only made my chest feel heavy with discomfort.
Something felt off, and at the same time, uncomfortable.
Eventually my gaze shifted once more toward that person.
Near his face, tear streaks glistened wetly.
Beside him lay a few bones settled at the bottom, and by their size, they didn’t appear to be human.
Probably a demon beast had dissolved away like that.
If so, a human wouldn’t last long either.
‘But why should I save a human?’
Heat still lingered on my hands and cheeks.
Like a burn.
It was the kind of heat that would blacken even flower stems and turn them into thorny thickets.
‘Let alone for someone shameless enough to sell out their own kind?’
Yet my heart had grown cold, as if frozen solid.
I turned my body the other way.
That’s when my eyes met those of the person lying on the ground.
“You’re awake?!”
“My body still can’t move, but yes.”
Yu Ho-yeon answered with difficulty, the aftereffects of the paralysis still lingering.
He looked at the humans in the gastric chamber for a moment, then spoke.
“You’re not going to save them?”
I shrugged.
“I told you from the start. I came here to help the Association Director. I didn’t come to rescue criminals.”
“Is that your ‘yes’ choice?”
Why was he asking the same question again?
I nodded as if it were obvious.
Then Yu Ho-yeon rephrased his question.
“So it’s not a skill, but your ‘yes’ choice?”
A skill is a tool, not the agent of choice.
The phrasing struck oddly deep in my chest.
I furrowed my brow and turned to look back.
The bones, blunted from melting, and the form of the remaining person came back into view.
I….
My heart….
‘Even so, a person is begging right in front of me while dying.’
I couldn’t be at peace with it.
And if I just watched people die without doing anything, my conscience would never settle.
My dreams would turn vicious.
Then I wouldn’t sleep.
If I don’t sleep, my mood suffers.
A bad mood becomes a bad attitude.
And then I might just stay unemployed forever!
Splash! Whoosh!
“Damn it, they’re all burned.”
In the end, I fished out everyone in front of me.
Perhaps because of the scorching pain, my mind cleared sharply.
If this digestive chamber was a space where pain could be felt, then….
“Hey, you over there. Can you protect the people?”
Yu Ho-yeon silently levitated two metal spheres.
I understood it as his way of saying he could try.
“When it collapses, please protect the people.”
I raised my hand and summoned my mana.
Mana spreading according to my will took on the shape of a pitch-black tree.
Falling Flower!
* * *
If it digested food and felt pain, then it was a living creature.
Unlike a Golem, which didn’t feel pain or eat, and simply drove intruders away.
Then unlike a Golem, poison would affect it too.
My assumption proved correct.
Each time black flower petals fluttered down, the entire cave shook violently.
Grraaahhh!
Screeeee— Shriek!
Stone grinding against stone created an orchestra of grotesque noise.
Thud!
A Metal Sphere shot from behind knocked the falling boulder aside.
I glanced back with gratitude.
Yu Ho-yeon smiled faintly, sweat beading on his brow.
He manipulated the Metal Sphere frantically while protecting the people lying beside him.
Soon sunlight began filtering down from above.
It was the dungeon’s manufactured light, but even that felt welcome after the oppressive darkness of the cave.
Thud—crunch!
The rocky mountain finally collapsed entirely, and the space we occupied opened to the outside.
Then the system window appeared before my eyes.
[Dungeon Zone 1, Rock’s Origin and Tomb, has been cleared.]
[Your Contribution Rate ranks first.]
Reading the text on the window, all tension drained from me.
“Phew.”
I was never setting foot in an unfamiliar cave again.
I made this silent vow as I approached the others.
The criminal I’d rescued flinched away at my approach.
‘Isn’t that rude to someone who just saved you?’
But I decided to set that thought aside for now.
I’d agonized long enough over whether to save him in the first place.
Instead, I slumped down beside Yu Ho-yeon.
“We’ll head out the moment the Association Director wakes up.”
I’ve been completely worn out. I’m exhausted now.
Yu Ho-yeon noticed my state and nodded.
“But it’ll take a while for him to come to.”
“You woke up fast enough.”
“That’s because I was prepared—the Paralysis Needle didn’t go in as deep on me.”
Indeed, Yu Ho-yeon was moving his fingers bit by bit.
I had no choice but to sprawl out with my legs stretched, lost in a daze.
As I let my body rest for a moment, what had just happened came flooding back.
No—it wasn’t just now.
At some point, I’d become less “myself” and more “skill.”
‘I almost let those people die.’
Of course, they were unrelated to me, criminals no less.
But if I’d abandoned people begging for their lives and let them perish like that—
When I released the skill, I would have felt that truth through my skin all over again.
It was obvious that it would have become a thorn of guilt embedded in me.
Was this a side effect of prolonged high Synchronization Rate?
I looked down at my hands.
The sensation of clenching them tight and then releasing felt strangely unfamiliar.
Like waking from a dream so deep you’d almost forgotten how to feel your own body.
I shook my head back and forth to dispel that sensation.
Fortunately, it didn’t last long.
Then I turned to Yu Ho-yeon.
“How did you know my condition? Because it’s similar to yours?”
……
Yu Ho-yeon turned his head away as if dodging the question.
Was he worried the others who were still awake might hear?
I cast a glance at the sole criminal who remained conscious.
The one who’d been desperately avoiding my gaze suddenly went rigid.
‘One strike to his solar plexus would knock him out, wouldn’t it?’
Just before my thoughts turned to action, a clearer voice came from beside me.
“It’s not because of those people that I’m not answering.”
“I wasn’t thinking anything anyway.”
“And if you strike a vital point with your strength, he won’t pass out—he could die.”
“Come on, he’s a Hunter. Surely not.”
……
“Oh.”
This guy! He’s got a real talent for entrapment questions!

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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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