I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 206
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Episode 206
Ep. 206
Having overcome the first and greatest crisis, all that remained was to observe.
‘Volcano Worm, come forth.’
Until the master of the 84th floor appeared—the target that sharpshooter Choi Ihyeon was aiming for.
Meanwhile, back at Wonjin.
“Hold your ground.”
“I told you to brace your core and stand firm! Who’s the one getting pushed back?!”
Jia reminded Ihyeon’s command once more in her composed voice.
Ihyeon had not ordered Jia and the Knights to slaughter the monsters.
He had simply told them to hold their positions as much as possible.
Yet even that was no simple command.
*Whoosh—screech—!*
“Ugh!”
“It’s hot!”
Even with shields raised to form a wall, they couldn’t completely block the lava the monsters sprayed wildly in all directions.
Though they were holding on for now, it wouldn’t be long before members began to be unsummoned one by one.
As with missions of this kind, the key was maintaining a balance between the number of troops being consumed and those being replenished.
*Ping—! Ping—!*
Bolt, finished reloading, fired toward his target once more.
The blades of spears and swords bit into the monsters’ flesh.
Thus they exchanged words staked with their lives.
Jia, who had been observing the surroundings for a moment,
*Whoosh—thud—*
grabbed the Rex Lizardman’s spear backward,
*Boom——!!!*
and hurled it toward the head of one Volcano Drake.
A piercing sonic boom erupted so intensely it seemed to ignite the humid air itself—a sound that defied belief that it came from merely throwing a spear.
It was the one rampaging most ferociously, the one that had been irritating Jia since earlier.
The one that had been shaking its head irritably at the bolts being fired at its face
*Screech—*
collapsed to the side, pierced from its jaw through the top of its head, before it could even finish being annoyed.
*Boom—!*
“Whoa!”
“The, the captain took it down in one throw….”
The eyes of the Members who had been struggling to contain the creature’s thrashing nearby flickered slightly.
Though it had been thrashing the most and had accumulated quite a few curses, there should have been quite a bit left before it reached complete death.
Jia’s power to kill such a creature with a single spear throw was truly beyond reason.
*Whoosh—*
Regardless, the silver spear returned once more to Jia’s hand.
“Focus.”
“Focus! If anyone gets hit by blind lava and gets summoned back, it’s 100,000 reps of PT exercise number 11 after returning!”
“Eek! Number 11?!”
“And 100,000 reps at that?”
Well, I couldn’t exactly blame it on that, but the wall of Knights that the monsters faced had grown noticeably thicker and more solid.
And so the battle continued.
If anything, it was a tedious back-and-forth.
The Knights’ line wouldn’t break, but the monsters’ assault showed no signs of ending either.
Once a swarm of monsters rushed in, it was as if they called out to others—creatures that hadn’t been visible at first now approached the battlefield.
Elsie clicked her tongue as she watched.
“My Master has always been like this, but… I never imagined seeing something like this on the 84th floor.”
“Why?”
Elsie turned to look at Ihyeon with an expression of disbelief at his innocent question.
The words “How can you not know that?” nearly spilled out from her lips.
The 84th floor was never supposed to be cleared this way.
Unlike the previous floors, there was a bit more of what could be called herding, but it never went beyond two or three monsters at a time.
Actually, if one could even catch two or three of these creatures at once, that alone would be worthy of praise.
But what was this?
Using a wide-area taunt skill on the notorious lava plains of the 80s?
Summoning the Knights and waging an all-out war against the swarms that rushed in?
Though Dark Mages did gain higher weight classes on the 84th floor due to their characteristic use of Undead, even so, no one would ever attempt such a large-scale battle.
Even if one conducted a large-scale battle, there would be no confidence in defeating the Volcano Worm that would appear at the end.
Elsie had watched Ihyeon’s nonsensical strategies unfold right before her eyes all this time, but this strategy was even more absurd than before.
‘Well, things will probably get even stranger as we go higher… Is it strange to even comment on it anymore?’
Elsie let out a small sigh.
It was natural that difficulty increased with each ascending floor.
Of course, Hunters would grow stronger too, but they were bound to struggle and suffer madly.
Yet somehow, my Master was climbing through each floor using methods I’d never imagined before.
At this point, being surprised would be the stranger thing.
“Lava Lava is approaching from behind. Since I’m getting bored just waiting, I’ll go catch just that one and come back.”
“Sure, thanks.”
Ihyeon readily nodded at Elsie’s words.
The monsters hit by Jia’s taunt couldn’t find Ihyeon, who was draped in a shadow robe.
But there was no way to avoid some creatures occasionally passing through where Ihyeon was hiding.
That was also why I’d brought Elsie along.
Elsie kicked off the ground and dashed away in an instant.
The surroundings fell silent.
Ihyeon continued his concealment, listening to the faint hissing sound of steam escaping with a soft whistle.
‘It’s been a while since I’ve waited like this.’
A sniper’s true duty, after all, was to wait.
From spotting the target to cutting off its breath with a single shot—it all happens in an instant.
‘Shooting itself is something anyone can do.’
Placing the crosshairs on the target and pulling the trigger is something anyone can master after just a month at a training facility.
But to go one step further, a sniper must be capable of waiting endlessly for that single moment of fire.
No matter what happens before his eyes.
Perhaps when the squad members were being annihilated, his desperate attempt to rush out in an exhausted state was a disqualification as a sniper.
It’s the same now.
Jia and the Knights of the Evil God are putting on an impressive display, but in reality, the situation grows increasingly precarious.
Soon, the cooldown for resummoning will no longer keep pace with the rate of counter-summoning.
But I must wait.
For just one shot.
Whoosh—! Thud—!
Fortunately, Jia’s performance was nothing short of brilliant.
Throwing spears at precisely the right moments to relieve pressure.
And at the most precarious points of the line, she charged in headfirst, buying the Knights time to catch their breath.
That much was well done.
The massive bodies of the Volcano Drakes began falling one by one, and even the troublesome Golems were dismantled as their cores were exposed one at a time.
The Lava Lavas could be handled easily enough with just a few Knights working together.
The Knights numbered in the dozens, while the monsters numbered several times that.
As a Volcano Worm drawn to mass and blood, it would not simply pass by this place.
As Ihyeon was thinking such thoughts.
Thump, thump, thump, thump….
‘…It’s coming.’
An unusual vibration reached the ground where he lay prone.
Still faint, but I couldn’t even gauge how distant its source was.
“Master!”
Elsie, who had gone out to deal with a monster approaching Ihyeon, hurried back and called to him.
“Is this it?”
“…Yes.”
Elsie shuddered at the mere thought of it.
But what was even more absurd than that.
“It’s only been 20 minutes since we started! This is the first time I’ve ever seen a Volcano Worm this quickly!”
The strategy had only been underway for a mere 20 minutes.
Ihyeon smiled wickedly and spoke.
“Have you ever seen an S+ rank before?”
“That’s… no.”
Elsie hesitated briefly before shaking her head.
Ihyeon turned his gaze away from Elsie as if to say “as expected.”
Ilgyeok was the one who achieved the world’s first S+ rank and reached the 84th floor.
His strategy would surely take forms that even the Tower’s Spirits had never witnessed before.
I leaned closer to the scope with one eye, pondering the situation.
‘Come on.’
I had only heard vague information about the Volcano Worm—nothing concrete.
It was massive enough to swallow the earth itself, and its mouth bristled with countless teeth that pulverized prey in real time.
But wasn’t it still just a worm?
I examined the area occupied by Wonjin and the Knights, along with the swarm of monsters clustered around him.
No matter how massive it was, it couldn’t possibly devour all this ground.
Even as I gauged the approximate size of the Volcano Worm, the tremors radiating from the earth grew increasingly violent.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud———
Just when I thought the vibrations had grown strong enough,
“Hm?”
they shattered that assumption entirely, shaking the very axis of the earth.
“What the—?!”
“There! It’s coming!”
“Brace yourselves!”
The Knights, so engrossed in their fierce battle that they’d missed even significant changes, reacted instantly—a testament to just how violent the tremors had become.
The ground shook so violently that maintaining formation became nearly impossible.
The monsters too struggled against the tremors, unable to mount any coherent offense.
And then, immediately after.
Silence—
The tremors that had bewildered everyone vanished as if they’d been nothing but a dream.
But that was merely the beginning of catastrophe.
Crash— Roooaaarrr———!!
“…My God.”
I had to completely revise my assessment of the Volcano Worm as merely some insignificant creature.
A vast expanse encompassing not only Wonjin and the Knights, but roughly half the monsters surrounding them.
The diameter was approximately 100 meters.
That entire area began to collapse.
Like the drain cover of a bathhouse being ripped open.
It was a sight beyond all comprehension.
Could the earth truly be this fragile?
Then what of the creatures that clung to its surface to survive?
The ground fractured and split, while lava churned like blood from the depths below.
The Volcano Worm that devoured earth and drank lava.
Elsie wiped her brow with her palm, speaking in disbelief.
“This is bad…”
Elsie had visited the 84th floor several times before.
Each time, she’d had to face the Volcano Worm whether she liked it or not, and its size varied slightly each visit.
The variations were minor since it was the same floor, but they were distinguishable nonetheless.
But this one that had emerged now was in a different class entirely.
“Master, can you really kill that thing in one shot? The Volcano Worm isn’t just massive—it’s incredibly durable too!”
“….”
Elsie grew somewhat anxious and pressed Ihyeon for an answer, but he offered none.
He simply gazed through his scope at the battlefield where the foretold calamity descended and began to crumble.
‘It should be comparable to Behemoth.’
By now, I had witnessed my share of colossal monsters.
Among them, the Behemoth and Amogratl I’d seen in the Instant Tower ranked first in sheer size.
I’d thought surely nothing could be that massive, but I had to revise my expectations.
Though this creature might be smaller in dimensions, its individual power would undoubtedly exceed theirs.
Then, that enormous maw that devours the earth itself—
Fwooooaaaargh——!!
It pierced straight through the ground and erupted skyward.
In a single motion, the massive earthen body rose from the ground like a tunnel, climbing roughly five meters into the air.
“Kyaaaah!!”
The small island of earth at the mouth’s center rose upward.
That much was relatively fortunate.
But at the mouth’s edges—where the Volcano Worm’s blade-like teeth bristled like a forest—
Screeeech——!!
Crunch—!
Monsters that lost their footing tumbled and were ground to dust like insignificant insects.
Even the Volcano Drake differed little from the others, despite a slight time lag.
Meanwhile, the Volcano Worm’s body continued to rise higher.
Given its remaining strength and sheer size, it seemed capable of ascending a full thirty meters.
The ground where the Knights stood was beginning to grow perilously unstable, not just for the monsters.
For the Knights, battling monsters was no longer the issue.
Jia dissolved the formation and summoned the Members to the very center of the Volcano Worm’s maw.
A desperate moment where they seemed about to fall victim to this monstrous volcanic worm’s calamity.
Yet not a single Knight of the Evil God uttered a scream.
Rather—
“Kyahahaha! This is a first for me!”
“Using the legendary Knights of the Evil God as bait!”
“Now this is what I call a proper strategy!”
Even on the verge of being swallowed by the colossal monster, the Members laughed with savage delight.
Not merely because they were semi-immortal beings, endlessly cycling through summoning and unsummoning without true death.
It was simply the exhilaration of extraordinary combat.
Who would dare use such illustrious warriors as the Knights of the Evil God as mere bait?
There was only one reason such a strategy was possible.
The existence of a powerful master capable of positioning the Knights of the Evil God not as the main force, but as supporting troops.
Even as the ground beneath their feet was crushed like a grinder, the Knights of the Evil God gazed beyond the trembling earth with eyes gleaming with anticipation.
Like faithful awaiting the arrival of a savior.
Somewhere on that land, without a doubt.
Click—! Click—!
‘Breath held. Trigger pulled.’
BOOM——!!!
Because there exists a master who I have no doubt will reward their efforts.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————