I Awakened as a Dark History - Chapter 85

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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 85
Splash.
Whoosh!
I turned my body around again.
I hadn’t heard anything in particular, but there was an unsettling sensation, as if something were scraping against my back.
The researcher who had been chasing from the very rear caught my eye and smiled awkwardly.
I slowed my pace and moved to the researcher’s side.
“Please walk a bit faster. You’re falling too far behind.”
“Ah, thank you.”
When I gave the researcher’s back a gentle push, he picked up the pace slightly.
But his stamina had clearly depleted considerably, and he couldn’t muster much speed.
I grew anxious and checked behind me again, then pushed the researcher harder.
“Ugh!”
I must have been too eager, because the researcher stumbled.
At the sound the researcher made, everyone’s footsteps stopped at once.
The Leader looked over at us with concern.
“Is something wrong?”
“Oh, no. They were falling so far behind that I was trying to help them along… I suppose I got impatient. I’m sorry.”
Rather than making excuses, I confessed honestly.
The Leader looked around at the researchers for a moment at my words.
Their once-white coats had become grimy, and they all had deep dark circles sagging beneath their eyes.
“The researchers are certainly exhausted. Should we take a break and then continue?”
The researchers’ faces brightened at the prospect of sitting for even a moment and drinking some water.
Ordinarily, I would have agreed enthusiastically, but now I felt oddly uneasy.
Right now, I didn’t want to rest here.
Rarely, I raised my hand and voiced my dissent to the Leader.
“Wouldn’t it be better to hurry and get out so we can rest properly? I don’t think resting here would help much.”
At my unusual behavior, the Hunters looked at me with slightly surprised eyes.
Fortunately, they took my strange conduct seriously nonetheless.
The Mage even spoke up loudly in support of me.
“If the Healer says so, wouldn’t it be better to keep moving?”
The Leader rubbed his chin for a moment, then looked toward the researchers.
“The Healer has a point. Even if we rest here, we’ll grow tired again soon. It may feel like a forced march, but let’s push a bit harder.”
“Yes.”
The researchers answered in the voice of the half-dead.
Moving like something between the living and the undead, they shuffled forward again.
I checked behind me once more, then urged the researcher at my side onward.
The researcher clung to my arm like a lifeline and took another step.
The researchers seemed to suffer even more, having glimpsed hope of rest.
To anyone watching, they looked like amateur hikers trudging up a mountain, dragging their feet forward.
“Leader, how much farther do you think we have to go?”
“We’re almost there.”
Even the Leader’s words sounded like those of a hiking novice and a seasoned mountaineer combined.
The Leader pushed the researchers forward with words like “almost,” “just a little longer,” “almost there,” and “in no time,” cycling through them as if dispensing false hope.
Fortunately, the Leader wasn’t lying.
By Hunter standards it was quick; by the researchers’ standards it was only slightly less quick.
With the time sense of exhausted bodies, we must have walked for close to an hour.
Before us lay a path like a Stepping Stone Bridge across a vast, deep lake of lava, and at its far end, a Gate awaited us.
Color finally returned to the researchers’ faces.
“The Gate…!”
“Yes!”
The researchers threw both their hands up and cheered.
Too exhausted to cry out loudly, they whispered their cheers, and the Hunters laughed.
Watching fully grown adults, grimy and drained to their limit, rejoice was somewhat amusing.
Before sending the researchers ahead, the Leader picked up a few pebbles nearby.
Then, as if checking that nothing dangerous lurked ahead, he hurled them across the expanse.
Thunk.
With a dull sound, the pebbles sank into the lava.
Fortunately, no Demon Beast emerged from the lava.
Reassured, the Leader cleared the path for the researchers.
“The Stepping Stone Bridge only allows one person at a time. Please cross in single file.”
“Yes!”
The researchers answered with a vigor entirely different from before.
The Leader turned to An Je-hwan and asked for his cooperation.
“An, would you send the researchers across one at a time?”
“Understood.”
An Je-hwan lined up the researchers, who had been standing in a chaotic jumble, into a single queue.
He seemed to arrange them by whoever came to hand, rather than by rank or experience.
And without question, he placed himself at the very end.
I spoke to An Je-hwan, who had stepped beside me.
“You came to the back. You don’t have to wait until last, you know.”
“A leader can’t abandon his responsibility and slip away first.”
An Je-hwan answered as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, though in truth it was a difficult thing to do.
Few team leaders in this world chose to stand in the most dangerous position for their members.
In places where hierarchy and responsibility existed—not just between team and leader, but everywhere—it was always the same.
How common was it for those with responsibility to abandon it and claim only the rights?
I silently gave An Je-hwan a thumbs up.
An Je-hwan shrugged as though it were nothing, though he didn’t refuse the praise.
“Just in case, keep the Conquest Team alert. Don’t let your guard down.”
“Yes!”
The hunters kept watch over the lava surface and the surroundings.
Only one of the Tankers lowered his defensive stance and extended his hand to help the researcher climbing onto the Stepping Stone Bridge.
The researcher who stepped onto the Stepping Stone Bridge for the first time laughed with innocent joy.
“Wow, this reminds me of something I did as a kid. You know, how we’d walk on the sidewalk and think the red bricks were lava.”
Everyone laughed along with the remark, as though to ease the tension.
The Tanker carefully released his grip and spoke playfully.
“This is the real thing though, right?”
“…Now that you mention it, I’m actually getting nervous.”
The researcher crossed the Stepping Stone Bridge with cautious steps.
The Tanker then helped the next researcher up.
The researchers climbed onto the Stepping Stone Bridge one by one, like a train of cars.
It was the moment the first researcher to cross the Stepping Stone Bridge reached the Gate.
Splash.
‘That sound again.’
I instinctively looked around.
Until now I’d thought only I could hear such a sound, but this time was different.
Clang!
Every hunter drew their weapon at once. Yet they were still one step too late.
“Aaaah!”
A hand emerged from the lava and seized the researcher’s ankle.
The dealer who had been watching the lava surface threw his sword at that hand.
Thwunk—
The sword pierced through the extended hand, but it didn’t stop it.
The researcher was dragged straight down into the lava.
“Aaaaah!”
The scream instantly shattered the atmosphere that had been softening.
The Leader shouted to the researchers.
“The front two—get to the Gate! The rest, turn back!”
The two researchers at the front hurled themselves toward the Gate.
But at the researchers’ pace, it was impossible to outrun the Demon Beasts.
The Demon Beasts snatched them into the lava before they could even touch the Gate.
“Aaaah! Help me! Please…!”
“Kyaaaah!”
The sound of the Demon Beasts pulling the two people down into the lava was vivid and real.
But because they were taken, the others were able to escape.
‘It targeted the researchers running outward first, not the ones running inward.’
Intent. Calculated malice rooted in intelligence.
‘It killed people.’
And so people died.
A swell of emotion—
A weight of sadness settled in my chest.
Even knowing there was no time for grief, the emotion refused to let go.
‘Is this me? Or is it the skill?’
I’d maintained Synchronization for far too long, and far too often.
I had begun to doubt myself.
Splash.
But now was not the moment for such doubts.
I shook my head, trying to shake off the useless thoughts.
In the meantime, the researchers scrambled across the Stepping Stone Bridge in blind panic.
“Hurry! Hurry, go!”
“Move, now!”
Seeing them on the verge of trampling each other, the Leader raised his voice.
“Take your time! We’ll protect you! Choi Hunter, Yu Hunter!”
The Hunters called upon by the Leader launched themselves upward with explosive force.
They bounded lightly across the lava and landed on an empty section of the bridge.
Screech!
A hand stretched out once more toward the researchers gripped by terror.
But this time, we didn’t let it pass unopposed.
Clang!
The Dealer’s spear intercepted the outstretched hand.
The hand, webbed and tipped with long claws, was plainly not human.
As the hand struck the spear, it quickly vanished into the lava.
Beneath the surface, something like a fish’s tail flickered in and out of view.
I spun toward the Leader in shock.
“Wait—mermaids live in lava?! What kind of Demon Beast is that?”
The Leader’s face showed clear bewilderment at my question.
He stared at the lava’s surface with trembling eyes.
“I… I have no idea. There were never any Demon Beasts like that before?”
At the Leader’s words, shock flooded the faces of the Conquest Team hunters.
“You mean—a Sudden Occurrence is happening right now?!”
“Damn it! If that’s the case, we can’t engage the boss at all!”
At the Hunters’ outcry, the Leader’s expression crumpled with realization.
In a moment like this, he should have remained calm—instead, his inner panic spilled out completely.
The Hunters swallowed fear whole at the Sudden Occurrence in the S-rank Dungeon.
“No, listen—let’s prioritize evacuating the researchers first—”
“It’s coming again!”
The Dealer gripped his spear firmly, hearing only his comrade’s warning.
But with no information about where or how the attack would come, his guard was all but useless.
Splash!
A broad tail swept through the lava like a scoop, hurling toward the researchers.
The researchers on the bridge couldn’t dodge.
The Hunter on the bridge was too occupied defending himself to shield them.
Sizzle!
“Healer!”
In the end, I was the one who threw myself forward.
With wings, I could move freely even across lava—no one else could.
“Ah, it’s burning!”
I nearly let out a scream.
Lava cascaded down my arms and shoulders, hot beyond measure, beyond the point of mere heat—into true agony.
I brushed the lava away frantically and flapped my wings.
In the Hunters’ horrified stares, I saw only one face clearly.
“Leader! Should we prioritize protecting the researchers?”
At my shout, the Hunters finally turned their gaze toward him.
The Leader met their eyes and took a moment to steady his breath.
“We protect the researchers first. After that, we secure the bridge and evacuate everyone.”
“Yes!”
At last, the Hunters responded to the Leader.
But this was only the beginning.
Tension slowly settled over the faces of the Hunters and me.

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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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