I Became a Mythical Hunter After Killing the Golden Goblin - Chapter 39
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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 39. The Final Wave (2)
Along with the massive influx of experience, I began wreathing my entire body in The Sun’s mana as I climbed atop the fortress constructed from the bodies of the Giant Ants.
Beyond the collapsed Corridor, anguished cries filled with rage echoed from the Giant Ants. The explosion I’d just detonated had claimed roughly thirty of them—all elite soldiers. Considering their caliber, I could confidently say my trap had succeeded brilliantly.
They grieved and raged at their comrades’ meaningless deaths, yet they did not stop.
No—they could not stop. The Queen’s voice, thick with fury, resonated from their rear ranks, compelling them forward.
That was the Queen’s power, her ability.
The Giant Ants began gnawing at the collapsed Corridor, reopening it. Though this menial labor fell to common soldiers, when the elite and royal guards pooled their strength, the passage tore open in moments. Within mere minutes, all four directions—north, south, east, and west—lay breached.
-Kiiiieeee!!!
The Queen commanded them: destroy the eggs first, even if it cost them their lives!
It was an order beyond comprehension, beyond acceptance—yet they could not refuse, could not rebel. The moment they glimpsed the mysterious Queen’s egg at the center of that colossal Chamber, a space they’d never seen before in the Nest, their reason shattered. The brainwashing etched into their minds awakened, and with bestial shrieks, they surged forward toward the egg alone.
“Min Cho-rong, now! Gun-dan, construct the fortress! Once they see the egg, they’ll attack it before us—we must hold! You protect only the egg and the capsule!”
“…Understood!!!”
“Yes!”
Min Cho-rong’s blessings and divine protection concentrated upon Gun-dan. Empowered by the Saint’s blessing, every one of his abilities amplified, Gun-dan moved into position.
Holy Fortress! Gun-dan slowly wedged his body into the gaps of the rampart.
“I will hold!!!”
For the first time, he cried out without stuttering, his voice thunderous. Golden waves erupted from his body like a tidal surge, engulfing the ramshackle fortress. A colossal barrier materialized, as if declaring that not a single step would be permitted beyond this circle, and it began to shield the stronghold.
A prodigy among prodigies—a Tank who had achieved SS-rank despite the difficulty of advancing in that role to higher tiers! As Gun-dan’s power manifested, I hurled myself without hesitation beyond the golden fortress.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Toward the Queen’s egg, its shell beginning to crack beyond the golden barrier, I swung my blade at the creatures charging forward like madness incarnate.
Slash! Slash!
Unlike when my Limitless stat had risen to [E-] grade through the miracle of equivalent exchange, I could no longer cleave through a Giant Ant’s body in a single strike. I could wound their carapace, but no longer bisect them.
Yet it mattered not. My expanded talent for the Limitless and my body, reborn through metamorphosis, made exploiting their weak points far easier. The Sun’s mana wreathing my blade delivered devastating wounds to those vulnerabilities.
I cut, and cut again, and cut once more. If one stroke failed, I’d deliver two. If two weren’t enough, I’d unleash three to fell the surging enemies.
At last, nearly ten of them fell beneath my blade despite the Queen’s powerful brainwashing!
-Kiiiieeee!!!
The Queen raged and commanded anew: slay those guarding the egg as well!
Some of the Giant Ants’ attention shifted toward me. Seeing this, I let out an incredulous laugh and drew forth what I’d reserved for this moment.
Among the ten additional bombs I’d extracted, the only two I hadn’t installed in the Corridor.
〚Item: Inferno Grenade [Advanced-A+]〛
Grasping one potent flame-bursting grenade in each hand, I hurled them toward the creatures charging at me.
Kaboom!! Krrraaash!!!
The grenades detonated spectacularly, unleashing a tremendous firestorm. The effect and destructive force rivaled the attack skills of a decent C-rank Hunter—this was no joke.
‘Changsung Group direct line. That bastard Lee Ji-yong, the so-called Saint—his power is similar to this.’
The flame ability of that irritating fool I’d struck once before produced a comparable effect. Of course, that talent recognized as a Saint, backed by generous support, would be far more formidable.
Yet it was more than sufficient—it exceeded what was needed to inflict fatal wounds upon the Giant Ants. The flames even began consuming the corpses of the fallen, burning ever brighter without extinguishing.
And this field was mine. I possessed absolute immunity to flame, and through the power of divine essence, heat itself became my potion.
As my mana and vitality rapidly recovered from the intense heat, I began to rampage freely.
“The Sun.”
A small sun bomb materialized above my palm.
The Sun bomb, modified slightly more than when I’d detonated it at the company before, left my hand and immediately delivered a follow-up strike to the Giant Ants burning and writhing in agony.
They were helpless. Had they fought under a proper Queen’s command without brainwashing, they wouldn’t have fallen so pathetically, but they had neither choice nor any path left open to them.
I became the grim reaper of the battlefield, moving like a madman. Unleashing The Sun’s mana recklessly, I moved without pause, swinging my blade to cut down my enemies. Yet paradoxically, my stamina and mana continued to surge.
The optimal situation I’d engineered was unfolding exactly as planned. The number of Giant Ants I’d slain kept growing, and fear was beginning to overwhelm the brainwashing that bound them—when!
Finally, the Queen Ant revealed herself directly, just before all her kin were completely annihilated.
The Queen Ant entered the chamber, leading her ten most cherished guards at the forefront.
-Kiiiieeeeek!!!!
With a colossal roar, she radiated mana and immediately began extinguishing the flames with earth that had been generated when the corridor collapsed.
“Tsk, is this where it ends?”
I clicked my tongue and pulled my body back. Now the real battle begins. Fewer than fifty Giant Ants remained, but these were the elite among elites who had survived to the end.
More than twenty of them bore wounds from the fire, but facing them alone was beyond my capacity.
“I must endure no matter what.”
About twenty minutes remained. I manifested the Wings of Arrogance and began pulling buff potions from my inventory, coating myself in enhancements.
-Kiiieeeek!
Seeing my preparations, the Queen Ant commanded her guards to kill the irritating one. Ten guards radiating overwhelming pressure advanced toward me. Their rank was [Unique-D+], powerful enough that even a typical C-rank Hunter couldn’t withstand their combined assault.
I drew a deep breath and sharpened my focus.
“Gun-dan! Twenty minutes! You must endure!!”
Honestly, it was an impossible command. No matter how much potential I possessed to become the world’s greatest tank, I was still a novice who’d only recently awakened my abilities properly. My level was too low to maintain my power for extended periods.
I’d already maintained my abilities for over thirty minutes—and now I had to last that long again?
The fact that I’d endured this long was thanks to Min Cho-rong squeezing out buffs and heals to her limit, and the mana potions I’d given her. Considering I couldn’t even last ten minutes in the previous battle where I nearly died, I was achieving incredible efficiency.
Though I was in a state where I could collapse at any moment, Gun-dan, his face pale, cried out.
“…Don’t…worry!”
The golden fortress wavered, then grew even more solid. His mythic-rank stat, the Sacred Body, which grew through sheer willpower to protect someone, had expanded.
But even so, it wasn’t enough to significantly alter the situation. The Queen Ant commanded all her remaining elite guards to destroy Gun-dan’s fortress, and they rushed forward like madmen.
Feeling the heat diminishing steadily, I realized I had to end this situation quickly and moved accordingly.
-Kieeeeek!!
The guards’ bodies were massive, and their movements were swift. But I had a trump card prepared for this moment.
The instant my eyes closed slightly as I charged toward the guards, then opened again, the crimson flames of The Sun flickering in my gaze caused their bodies to stiffen.
〚Unique-Rank [D+] LV 30: Giant Ant Guard has been afflicted with the abnormal status: Paralysis!〛
〚Unique-Rank [D+] LV 32: Giant Ant Guard has been afflicted with the abnormal status: Hallucination!〛
.
.
.
〚Unique-Rank [D+] LV 34: Giant Ant Guard has been afflicted with the abnormal status: Intimidation!〛
Fortune favored me. Nine out of ten guards were afflicted with abnormal statuses, and I had no intention of wasting this brief window. I dove between the glowing creatures and swung my blade without hesitation.
But my prediction shattered spectacularly. The moment I’d just incapacitated the first guard, the one unaffected guard realized his comrades had been afflicted and began ramming his body into them, forcibly removing their abnormal statuses.
“Damn it all, these bastards weren’t brainwashed at all?”
Possessing full intelligence and even countering my strategy! An unexpected variable. But there was no time to despair.
My ultimate technique ended with only three guards incapacitated and one killed. I’d even earned the wrath of the remaining six. Enraged by the fact that they, who should protect and guard their Queen, had fallen to mental attacks, they began manifesting their skills.
“This is insane! They’re using skills too?”
Monsters use skills. Perhaps it’s only natural. The monsters that appear in the Tutorial possess skills as well.
But using skills with stats at this level or higher—isn’t that cheating?
A dark aura flickered across the Giant Ant’s mandibles, and the moment they snapped shut in midair!
‘Danger!’
I threw my body backward on pure instinct.
Crack!
A phantom mandible materialized in the empty air, tearing through space before vanishing. Had I been even slightly slower, it would have been a fatal wound.
“What kind of absurd cheat is this?!”
I knew the royal guards would be formidable, but to this extent? At this rate, even deflecting them with Flowing Water Form would prove difficult.
If they attack from a distance like this, timing becomes nearly impossible to judge, and even if I deflect them, I’m only draining my own vitality.
-Shriek!
The royal guard cried out to its companions as its skill failed. Following the ally’s roar, all five mandibles shimmered with darkness, and five colossal phantom jaws materialized in the air.
“Damn it!”
They sealed off all sides, leaving no escape route.
‘I can do this. No—I must. If I want to live.’
Exhaling sharply, in that singular moment, my movements were flawless.
I deflected the first attack aimed at my head by pushing it upward with my left hand, then twisted my body slightly backward to let the mandibles targeting my arms collide with each other as I drove them apart with my shoulders, while the attack aimed at my legs I drove straight into the ground.
It was a beautiful sequence without a single wasted motion—but was the technique simply too advanced? Or was I simply unlucky?
The mandible that had been targeting my left arm curved slightly against my guidance and clamped down on my head instead.
〚Slumbering Fortune stirs within your body! Miracles cast a faint light upon you!〛
〚Skill: Flowing Water Form activates to deflect the attack!〛
Yes, that must have been it. Had heavenly fortune not blessed me in that precise moment, cause and effect would have aligned differently—the attack that should have crushed my skull instead struck empty air harmlessly before dissipating.
-Screech?
Their surprise was brief. Such an absurdly powerful skill couldn’t be used continuously—now it was my turn. I immediately wreathed my body in flames, gripped my blade, and charged forward.
Simultaneously, I transformed Man-byeon into a single weapon—a colossal hammer.
〚Item: Piston Puncher [Advanced-S]〛
Holding the blade, I fired it directly at the exposed gaps in their carapace.
Whoosh!
The moment the flame blade pierced through the nape of its neck in a blur, I kicked off the ground and swung the hammer down.
Acceleration and force combined, channeling tremendous power down through the embedded blade!
Crack!
The flame blade, now one with the hammer, pierced straight through the royal guard’s neck.
Experience flooded in and my level rose. The other guards immediately swarmed me, and I retrieved the flame blade that had emerged from the opposite side of the neck, immediately engaging them in combat.
The rest didn’t take long. It couldn’t even be called a battle—all I could do was endure, exhausting every trick in my arsenal.
After another ten minutes elapsed and only five minutes remained before the eggs hatched, the Queen, unable to restrain herself any longer, finally descended into battle herself.
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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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