I Became a Mythical Hunter After Killing the Golden Goblin - Chapter 37

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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 37. Giant Ant and
〚Unique-Rank [D] LV 20~25: Giant Ant (强巨蟻) Regular Soldier ×23 defeated!〛
〚Contribution Rate 100%〛
〚Reward: Navy Coin ×230, Unique-[D] Magic Stone ×23, Giant Ant Shell ×61〛
〚Experience 23,000〛
〚LEVEL UP!〛
〚Acquired 1 Bonus Point.〛
Squelch!
Having finally slain all twenty-three Giant Ants, I forced my trembling legs to obey, fighting through the dizziness from blood loss as I pushed myself upright.
“I have to… get back.”
Man-byeon transformed back into a bracelet and settled onto my wrist. I opened my inventory and retrieved a potion, bringing it to my lips.
I have to endure. I have to return. If I stop now, it’s over.
Even as I stand here, my younger sibling faces danger, and Gun-dan and the Saint are risking their lives to hold back the monsters. I must go. I must get there and stop them.
I won’t live as someone who only suffers. I cannot kneel before mere ant larvae.
‘This is not where I stop.’
With that resolve, I stepped over the corpses of the Giant Ants and moved forward….
Crunch!
“Gaaahhh!”
The moment I exited the chamber, something tore into me as if to trample my desperation itself.
They were elite Giant Ants. Having heard the signal from the regular soldiers, these creatures had waited for me to exhaust myself before launching their ambush.
Their powerful jaws pierced through my abdomen, hurling me backward while tearing away flesh from my right flank.
“No… this can’t…”
As I crashed against the wall after flying through the air, I understood with absolute clarity. Death.
And in that same moment came the realization: I had grown arrogant. I had risen a single stat tier and gained one powerful ability, yet I moved as though the entire world lay beneath my feet. The consequence of that hubris was a fatal wound. Death itself.
I was a worm. A worm crawling through the depths. And such a creature, having obtained a higher rank, had dared to strut about. Perhaps this ending was inevitable.
Casting pearls before swine.
“Ugh… no!”
I forced back the despair. It isn’t over yet. I cannot collapse here.
“Get… up…!”
Rise. Don’t break. Move!
“Help me…! Please help…!!”
The color drained from my lips, my face turning ashen. My right thigh, half-healed before, tore open again, and lacking strength, it hung limp from my body. My hollow right flank felt no pain at all, while the wound that had pierced through it was catastrophic—organs ceasing function, blood pouring forth.
I reached out my hand. A desperate plea that no one would answer.
“Fortune!!!”
Impossible. Fortune’s power could turn circumstances in a favorable direction, but it could never save a life slipping away. The Golden Tower had granted me immense wealth and strength, but it never intervened.
It’s over. My vision begins to fade. I don’t stop. I crawl forward regardless. Toward the elite soldiers approaching me.
Little by little… little by little… little by little….
At the end of those meaningless gestures lay desperation mingled with self-loathing.
It’s because of me. My sibling dies because of me. You fool!
Through closing eyes and fading ears came not hope, but only despair.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
The Giant Ant’s powerful mandibles bore down toward me.
“Ah…”
‘This can’t happen!!’
Please, please. My desperate prayer echoed endlessly within my heart, and in that final moment when colossal death was about to crush my skull with its mighty jaws.
Something I had believed impossible came to pass.
〚Unique Ability: Equivalent Exchange hears your desperation!〛
〚Unique Ability: Equivalent Exchange’s level rises!〛
〚The mighty consciousness of 〚Source〛 hears your desperation and forcibly tears through the limits, manifesting partially.〛
〚Unique Ability: Equivalent Exchange proposes to you.〛
〚Will you perform an Equivalent Exchange?〛
It was a miracle. A devil’s whisper I could not refuse. A lifeline I had no choice but to grasp.
‘Yes! I accept!’
〚Exchange complete.〛
〚Unique Ability: Equivalent Exchange grants you [Complete Recovery] and [Temporary elevation of Infinite Stats by two ranks].〛
〚Unique Ability: Equivalent Exchange raises your Bad Luck stat rank by one level as compensation.〛
〚Remaining Time: 10:00〛
It was instantaneous. My wounds healed completely, my mind became whole, and overwhelming power surged through my body.
I caught the elite soldier’s mandibles as they snapped shut to crush my head. My E-rank Infinite Stats didn’t merely withstand the Giant Ant’s tremendous strength—they allowed me to overpower it.
“Die.”
With a sickening crunch, I slammed the creature’s jaws into the ground and drew my blade, severing its neck in one stroke. There was no longer any need to exploit its weaknesses. My sword pierced through its scales and killed it instantly.
“Let’s finish this quickly. I’m in a hurry.”
There was no time for hesitation or admiration. I drew my flame sword and charged toward the elite soldiers rushing at me, cutting down four of them in an instant before breaking into a sprint.
I made no attempt to hide my presence. I simply ran. I cut down everything blocking my path. Halfway through ten minutes, the moment the Turtle in my pocket transformed into light to guide me, I discovered a man holding back dozens of Giant Ants without uttering a single scream.
His entire body was riddled with holes, and so much blood drenched him that it was a miracle he remained standing. His eyes held no light.
Behind him, a girl with a beautiful face marred by tears sat collapsed on the ground, pouring buffs and heals far beyond her limits toward the man.
Crack!
I gritted my teeth until they nearly shattered, drew a deep breath, and let out a roar.
“Come at me!!!!”
At a shout even louder than a lion’s roar, nearly a hundred Giant Ants’ heads turned toward me in unison.
“Aaaahhh!!!”
The Saint stopped using her skills upon seeing me. As the tension released, blood poured from both her nostrils, her eyes closed, and her body collapsed.
Seeing the younger sibling they had protected through such sacrifice, I drew forth my rage, and The Sun’s mana responded to my fury.
“I’ll kill every last one of you.”
In the underground darkness, a brilliant sun rose to illuminate and judge all things. Its flames wrapped around my body, and I charged forward.
A battle of one against over a hundred—it was a one-sided slaughter. Naturally, I was the one doing the slaughtering.
The flames that had barely penetrated the Giant Ants’ hard shells could not withstand The Sun elevated three ranks alongside my Infinite Stats and melted away. In my wake lay only the immense heat and the cleanly severed vital points of the dead Giant Ants.
The slaughter ended in less than five minutes. Once all the Giant Ants were dead, I immediately rushed toward Gun-dan, who still stood with his divine form manifested, and caught him as he collapsed.
‘Dangerous!’
His breathing was shallow and he was unconscious. His body was crumbling from manifesting his abilities beyond their limits, and the wounds carved across his entire form were beyond even the previous Saint’s ability to heal.
At that very moment, the Equivalent Exchange buff that had been active on me deactivated.
“Equivalent Exchange! I’ll pay any price! Please, save me!”
〚Unique Ability: Equivalent Exchange sinks back into the deep abyss of consciousness.〛
〚Unique Ability: Equivalent Exchange leaves a message that it cannot go any further and falls dormant.〛
〚An ability that has not reached the level of Authority forcibly awakened its consciousness through its own will.〛
〚A penalty is imposed. The use of Equivalent Exchange is restricted for 7 days!〛
“No!”
A method… I had to think of a method. A way to save Gun-dan. I couldn’t let this creature die here.
As I was pondering deeply, another Authority moved as if to show me the way.
〚Authority: Golden Tower shows you something.〛
〚Item: Staff of Asclepius [Mythic]〛
It was a divine artifact. A sacred relic of the great god known as the deity of healing and medicine.
Only then did I understand what Golden Tower was trying to tell me, and I didn’t hesitate.
“Privilege! I will use my privilege! I grant the Staff of Asclepius to Man-byeon!”
〚With this privilege, you can project exactly one item for 10 minutes, only once.〛
〚Item: Staff of Asclepius [Mythic-S+] has been selected.〛
Man-byeon, who had been transformed into a sword during combat, flew toward me before transforming into light and beginning to change form.
It was a staff—a weathered, crude wooden rod entwined by a serpent. The moment the divine artifact symbolizing healing and medicine grasped my hand, I instinctively understood its purpose.
“Glaukos.”
A resurrection spell derived from the name of one who had been struck by Zeus’s lightning and killed, and the first life that Asclepius brought back to life. As the miracle manifested, Gun-dan’s wounds healed in the blink of an eye, and consciousness returned along with his breath that had ceased.
True to its nature as the representative divine artifact of the god of medicine who could even save the dying, its power was truly remarkable.
I laid down Gun-dan, who had completely recovered despite being covered in blood, and exhaled a deep sigh of relief.
I had saved a future SS-rank Hunter. No, that was one thing, but I felt even more proud of the fact that I hadn’t merely watched helplessly as he died—I had saved him with my own hands.
I laid the unconscious Gun-dan carefully on the ground, cast a healing spell on The Saint who had collapsed beside him, then approached my younger brother.
“Please…”
I pointed the staff toward The Sun and used the final ability.
“Ophiuchus.”
Unlike the twelve signs of the zodiac, the unknown thirteenth seat—the serpent constellation. The highest Authority of Asclepius, the master of that place, manifests.
The serpent of the staff transforms into light and is drawn into the capsule where my younger brother sleeps. The serpent of light seeps into my brother’s body…
Then, it burst back out. As if the body had rejected it, the serpent circled around my brother’s master in confusion, then, as if it had made a decision, suddenly changed direction and was absorbed into me.
〚You have become the target of Asclepius’s final Authority: Ophiuchus!〛
〚The power of the thirteenth zodiac sign: the serpent constellation dwells within you!〛
〚An indescribably immense curse residing in your body is detected!〛
The serpent swiftly traced through my body, and a meaningful message emerged.
〚Attempting curse purification!〛
In that instant, tremendous pain overwhelmed me. It was a pain as if my entire body was crumbling and my soul was shattering into pieces. At the end of that pain I couldn’t even dare to scream through was an enraged misfortune.
〚Unique Ability: Misfortune bares its teeth and rages at the audacious serpent!〛
The serpent that had charged forward so boldly had reached the end of its role. It had to pay the price for touching a force it dared not touch.
The serpent caught in Misfortune’s will thrashed about, but it was insufficient to escape the power of Misfortune that had ascended one level through Equivalent Exchange.
That was when the sleeping Good Fortune, unable to bear the commotion, finally opened its eyes.
〚Authority: Heavenly Fortune begins to suppress the power of Misfortune!〛
The battle between the serpent and misfortune soon transformed into a clash between heavenly fortune and misfortune. The outcome was ultimately a draw.
Heavenly fortune, unable to fully recover its strength, could not suppress the vastly empowered misfortune. Yet misfortune was not strong enough to overcome heavenly fortune either.
And that created an entirely unforeseen gain. The serpent, which had been transforming back into a staff and fading away, left half of its corporeal form embedded within my body, apparently due to the assault from misfortune.
〚Authority: The remnants of Orpheus take root within the flesh!〛
〚Title: Blessing of the Serpent Constellation [Mythic-C+] is created!〛
Along with such messages, the time limit expired entirely and vanished as it was.

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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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