I Became a Mythical Hunter After Killing the Golden Goblin - Chapter 92
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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 92. The Ancient Abyss Crawler—Imoogi
〚You have successfully completed the fourth wave!〛
〚Contribution is being calculated!〛
〚Rewards are being calculated!〛
〚Special Points exclusive to this Special Stage have been awarded!〛
〚The Special Shop will appear once the fifth wave concludes!〛
As the messages materialized, The Entity’s brow furrowed with displeasure.
“Too fast. Did you not tell me the pace should be slower than this? Well, what can one expect from such contemptible primitives dwelling on this insignificant speck of a world?”
At The Entity’s words, those following behind him bowed their heads in apology, as though they had committed the gravest of transgressions. Indeed, the pace was far swifter than they had anticipated.
“According to the intelligence you provided, we should have only just begun the fourth stage. Yet it is already complete…”
Where had this variable emerged from? The Entity turned his gaze, surveying the surroundings.
To the northwest lay the formations of what he recalled as China, a nation of considerable size; to the northeast, Russia; and to the south, the formations of South Korea—a nation so insignificant its name barely registered in his memory.
The Entity observed all three directions before his gaze settled to the northeast.
“Is the greater power truly coming from the larger nations?”
The Entity’s eyes descended as though gazing down from a great height. There was only one place from which all three nations could be observed simultaneously.
That place was none other than Baekdu Mountain.
It was astonishing—to be present at Baekdu Mountain while the Monster Wave raged!
Was this not the very location where the Imoogi had awakened and was now stretching its form?
“My apologies. The magical power emanating from the Imoogi is so overwhelming that communications cannot reach this far. I am uncertain of the precise cause.”
At the Subordinate’s explanation, The Entity clicked his tongue and nodded. It was not a significant variable after all. Irritating and vexing though it was, it posed no true threat.
“These insolent worms dare obstruct my designs.”
The Entity gazed at the mist before him—smoke that never escaped beyond the line upon which he stood. It was a barrier erected by the Imoogi.
For two hundred years since the Great Upheaval and the emergence of Calamity-class monsters, this barrier had been deemed impossible to dispel, having claimed the lives of high-ranking Hunters on numerous occasions.
The Entity extended his hand. It was not the hand of a human. The nails were elongated, the skin pallid, and scattered across it were scales of crimson hue.
Yes, scales as beautiful and lustrous as those of a reptile.
“How utterly base and trivial—a barrier befitting a worm that must crawl upon the ground for ten thousand years. How audacious to dream of becoming our kind. Presumptuous. Yet… intriguing nonetheless.”
The Entity drew his hand downward in a single motion, and the barrier parted.
Where his hand passed, the mist split asunder and opened a path. The Entity brushed his hand clean as though soiled, then advanced with haughty, arrogant grace.
Seven Subordinates followed in his wake. How far had they walked?
The Entity suddenly halted. His Subordinates grew uncertain, yet none dared pose a question. The Entity despised inquiries born from the trivial curiosity of lesser beings.
“It comes.”
Instead, The Entity murmured softly. The place was so silent that even his Subordinates could hear his words. They turned their gaze forward.
Simultaneously, the earth trembled, the mist receded entirely, the climate began to shift, thunder and lightning descended, and the roar of this land’s enraged sovereign consumed all of Baekdu Mountain.
-KWAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!
The apex predator had arrived—the Imoogi.
“That is… Asia’s Calamity-class monster!”
“Truly, it possesses the majesty befitting a Calamity-class designation!”
“The Imoogi, they called it, but that’s just a dragon… Ugh!”
One Subordinate who had spoken hastily covered his own mouth. In the next instant, flames consumed his body. Before he could even scream, he crumbled to ash and perished.
“How dare you, insignificant worm, compare our glorious race to that serpent?”
The Entity gazed upward with clear displeasure, then at the earth, then at the surrounding domain. Finally, it looked upon the Imoogi as one might regard prey.
“Insolent. How dare you look down upon me, you pathetic, half-formed garbage?”
The Entity swept its hand downward. A colossal body spanning hundreds of meters crashed into the ground without so much as a token resistance.
“Insolent. Insolent. Insolent!”
A roar erupted from the Entity’s maw.
It was incomparable to anything the Imoogi had ever unleashed.
-KRAAAAAAAA!!!
The sky clears. Barriers shatter and collapse. The mana suspended in the air trembles and holds its breath.
The Imoogi pressed its head to the ground before the Entity, eyes wide with terror and shock.
Its Subordinates bled from every orifice, yet clung to survival by grasping objects blessed with its protection.
Fear—that primal force granted only to the mightiest, capable of bringing all lesser beings to their knees—had manifested upon Earth itself.
Most of the monsters scattered in three directions at the Imoogi’s command, but the few low-grade demonic beasts lingering on this mountain collapsed dead upon sensing that Fear.
“A truly great race must possess such nobility and arrogance. You, however… are contemptible. A wretched thing that crawls through dirt. And yet, unmistakably, our blood flows through you. Yes, that suffices. I thought you unworthy, but you possess at least the minimum qualification.”
The Entity approached the trembling Imoogi, who sensed death itself drawing near, and stroked its body.
“Ordinarily, I would slay you merely for harboring such feeble blood. But today, I find myself in need. A cursed complication has left me wanting—one thing short of completion.”
In the Entity’s palm gathered a force of flame that could not be resisted—a power so immense and terrible it could incinerate the world entire, not merely a creature like the Imoogi.
“Choose. Will you surrender your Yeouiju and live on, or will you meet death alongside it? Do not squander the opportunity a great being bestows upon you, insignificant worm.”
The Imoogi lowered its head and chose. There was no hesitation. It understood this was the final chance.
The Yeouiju—the crystallized essence of power that had transformed a mere mutant serpent into the being known as Imoogi.
A form of inner core, much like the Dragon Heart possessed by that Entity. Yet while the essence of power could be regenerated, death allowed for no such recovery.
Having wandered countless dimensions through the Abyss and accumulated immense karma, ascension was nearly complete. To have the Yeouiju torn away now meant beginning anew, accumulating ten thousand years of karma once more. But…
Death would not even permit a second attempt.
The Imoogi opened its maw. Light coalesced within, and an enormous orb materialized.
【Take it, great Entity. And I beseech you—show mercy.】
The Entity collected the sphere with satisfaction. It floated suspended in the air before being drawn into the dimensional rift that opened behind the Entity.
“A great being does not break its word. Crawl through the dirt for another ten thousand years, pathetic serpent. I am curious how your journey will end.”
The Entity withdrew. Simultaneously, the Imoogi’s massive body shrank to roughly one-quarter its former size. It remained enormous, yet appeared diminished compared to before.
The Entity pointed in a single direction toward that creature.
“Go south. Devour everything those small things possess and struggle once more.”
Within the Entity’s mind, only one landmass remained clear. Among all nations, the smallest was South Korea. Thus, it decided to send the Imoogi there.
“Even as worthless garbage, you carry our blood—making you superior to the low creatures dwelling here. I am curious to see how you will fare.”
The Imoogi rose to its feet. It had become terrifyingly weak. Not as feeble as when it first generated the Yeouiju, but weak nonetheless.
The Imoogi was no longer among the world’s mightiest. A creature stripped of apex predator status possessed only one recourse in a world of survival of the fittest: the venom of desperation.
The Imoogi rose to its feet. Sorcery manifested as it began to levitate into the air.
【I shall depart now.】
It had every right to feel wronged, to rage, to seethe with irritation. Yet the Imoogi did not. Or perhaps could not?
In any case, maintaining propriety to the end, the Imoogi flew toward the direction the Entity had indicated. To forge a new Yeouiju once more. It would slaughter the contemptible, wretched natives of this land and harvest karma through their deaths.
‘They were always insignificant creatures anyway.’
The Imoogi remembered clearly. A world where the Abyss had opened less than a century ago. There could be no being stronger than itself.
That is precisely why it had chosen this world, made a pact with the System, and crossed over in the form of a Dungeon.
Even if the Orb of Karma—containing ninety percent of his accumulated karma—had been stolen, the remaining ten percent embedded within his very flesh would suffice to obliterate an entire nation.
The Imoogi calculated thus, and accelerated his descent.
I shall devour those creatures engaging my subordinates with haste, then descend further to carve out new dominion!
The ferocious and malevolent nature that had been suppressed by the dragon—one of the beings the Entity, no, the Imoogi most coveted—now revealed itself in full.
Scales stained obsidian gleamed and radiated power. The Imoogi’s maw gaped wide. A roar reverberated across the heavens.
—KWAAAAAAAAH!
The monsters awaiting the wave lost all reason and began thrashing about in frenzy. The System detected the anomaly and attempted to restrain both the Imoogi and the creatures that threatened to surge forward in madness.
“I shall indulge this for entertainment’s sake.”
At the Entity’s single utterance, the System’s restraint dissolved, and the Imoogi advanced southward alongside all the monsters.
From the fifth wave onward through the tenth—every monster that was meant to appear poured forth at once.
And as if that were insufficient, when the Entity tore a small crimson scale from its own arm and sent it flying, it struck the Imoogi’s body, transforming a portion of the black scales that had covered him into brilliant red.
“I do this because variables may yet emerge. You are worthless refuse, yet you dream of dragonhood—show me what you are capable of.”
The Imoogi roared. As the power of the Red Dragon surged through him, an overwhelming sense of omnipotence flooded his being—so absolute that he could not fathom why he had ever needed his own dantian.
A variable. Something that differed from before his regression. The Imoogi’s strength was not what it had been when he possessed the Orb of Karma, yet he had recovered at least eighty percent of that power.
The Imoogi hesitated no longer and pressed forward. With such strength, there was no exaggeration in calling himself the apex predator once more.
Thus a variable intervened in the Monster Wave, and as the Hunters who had successfully completed the fourth wave rested, a message materialized before their eyes.
〚Special Hidden Boss—Ancient-Rank SS—: The Imoogi, the Serpent that Crawls Through Ten Thousand Years of Abyss, has appeared!〛
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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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