I Just Subscribed and It’s the Best Hunter of All Time - Chapter 241

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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 241
This wasn’t my first time seeing dwarves.
Yet witnessing that all the war prisoners were dwarves was undeniably disconcerting.
“These are all war prisoners?”
“Yes, sir. They arrived with strange siege weapons and attempted an assault, but we caught them.”
Baek-seol provided more detailed explanation.
From what I gathered, they had attempted a surprise attack but were intercepted by patrolling undead before reaching the village, suffering a complete defeat.
About half managed to escape, but the remaining half—roughly twenty—were now imprisoned here.
“So only forty dwarves attacked in total?”
“The dwarves themselves, yes, but there were many other things! There were creatures that looked like Golems!”
“Those aren’t Golems—they’re called Giants! Completely different!”
One of the imprisoned dwarves suddenly burst out shouting.
I furrowed my brow and glanced in that direction.
“If you’re a prisoner, act like one and keep quiet.”
“Who do you think you—”
I snapped my fingers. With a crackling sound, the dwarf who had been arguing trembled violently.
The other dwarves who were about to protest immediately fell silent upon witnessing this.
“Did you find out where they came from?”
“Yes. It was the closest Territory to here! It seems they recently relocated their Territory to this area.”
“Ah. The one reported before?”
“Yes!”
Originally, there hadn’t been any significant Territory near my domain.
But a few weeks ago, an entire Territory had relocated its base to this region.
Since the distance was considerable and they showed no obvious hostility, I had ignored them—yet they suddenly launched this surprise attack.
“Why did they suddenly attack?”
“I’m not certain. They just said their lord ordered it.”
“Hmm. Well, it’s rare for them to reveal such details anyway.”
I surveyed the imprisoned dwarves and gestured to Baek-seol to step outside.
Once we were outside, I spoke to her.
“How were you planning to respond?”
“We were preparing to mobilize forces and launch a retaliatory strike immediately.”
Baek-seol spoke in a measured tone.
“Preparations are complete, and we’ve been waiting for your arrival to proceed.”
“I see.”
A matter of this magnitude certainly warranted my approval. Though honestly, I probably wouldn’t have minded even if she’d conducted the war first and reported afterward.
“Very well. I’ll accompany you.”
“You, sir?”
“Yes. It’s better to finish this quickly.”
I had planned to spend the coming weeks confined to the Training Ground, honing my swordsmanship anyway.
So it was best to resolve this matter swiftly beforehand.
It would be far better than having my concentration broken by something happening along the way.
“Then I’ll mobilize the troops right away!”
“Do it.”
Baek-seol rushed to one side without hesitation and began issuing orders to the people around her.
The troops assembled at a remarkably swift pace.
In truth, most of the forces consisted of Golems and undead, so it was hardly surprising.
Of course, that didn’t mean there were no ordinary people among the troops.
The population of residents had grown considerably, and quite a few of them now served as Soldiers.
“Brother!”
“You’ve arrived.”
“Hello.”
Shortly after, Cho Cheon-woong, Maria, Seo Ryeong, and the others I had separately recruited from outside gathered as well.
I nodded and asked them a question.
“You all understand the situation, right?”
“Yes.”
“Of course we do.”
It seemed Baek-seol had already explained everything.
So I simply told them to finish quickly and come back, then waited for the rest of the troops to assemble.
“All preparations are complete!”
Not long after, Baek-seol announced that all troops had been mobilized.
I walked forward and surveyed the assembled forces thoroughly.
‘This is an astounding number.’
The sheer quantity of troops was enough to draw admiration from me.
There were roughly a hundred people alone. But there were almost as many Golems, and the undead numbered well over five hundred at a glance.
To assemble an expedition force of this caliber in just a few days would require a large-scale Territory.
And besides, this wasn’t even the full extent of my forces.
*Whoosh*
I pulled out bone fragments from my inventory and scattered them.
Undead rose from the ground. These were the most elite among my undead forces.
―Loyalty to the Master.
The undead with particularly strong consciousness immediately saluted or knelt upon seeing me, making their presence known.
I entrusted them with commanding the undead forces, then summoned Thunder Wolf and mounted its back.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes!”
My forces and I departed from the Territory to punish those who dared launch a surprise attack on it.
Of course, I couldn’t neglect the Territory’s own defenses, so I left behind a considerable number of troops.
Besides, a powerful protective barrier was already erected around the Territory itself.
Likely, any ordinary force wouldn’t even dare approach it.
‘I need to finish this quickly and return.’
I thought this while mounted on Thunder Wolf’s back.
The enemies probably had no idea they had awakened a sleeping lion.
* * *
There existed a city surrounded by towering stone walls.
Built upon exceptionally high terrain, the landscape was so treacherous that it was practically a natural fortress.
“How could it possibly be destroyed so brutally!”
In the very center of such a city, a dwarf sat within a building that gleamed with obvious opulence.
The dwarf was shouting with a face twisted in fury.
“I never ordered the city’s capture! I only asked for a surprise attack to inflict damage and withdraw, yet you were intercepted and utterly defeated!”
“B-but the enemy forces were far too powerful.”
“Weren’t those forces supposed to be merely tens of thousands of low-grade undead, excluding the Golems!”
The dwarf kneeling before him bowed his head in shame under the relentless barrage of reproach.
And it was true.
They had attacked the nearby Territory because I had judged it sufficiently manageable.
Military operations could fail.
But to fail so catastrophically that half the forces were captured and the remaining half barely escaped with their lives—that was an entirely different matter.
According to the reports of the surviving Soldiers, the battle had been utterly one-sided, with the enemy suffering almost no casualties whatsoever.
In essence, we had been completely crushed.
“Damn it. I should have been more cautious.”
The dwarf seated upon the throne-like chair exhaled a heavy sigh, his brow furrowed.
Even I had to admit this surprise attack had been far too hasty.
I had issued the attack order before fully comprehending the enemy’s composition.
But there was no choice.
I had already suffered one defeat in my previous location and fled in disgrace.
In that process, I had lost countless resources and talented individuals. To recover from that, I needed to expand my Territory aggressively.
And that was precisely why I had chosen this place.
My current stronghold was situated in a region where the territories of relative newcomers were concentrated.
So even with my forces significantly depleted, I had judged it entirely feasible to attempt an assault.
There should be a considerable technological gap as well. Even though I had relocated, the facility grades of my Territory remained unchanged.
The forces I had sent numbered only forty, but each one was a warrior capable of matching a hundred enemies.
‘Yet such warriors were defeated by mere undead?’
If it were due to overwhelming numbers, I could understand it, but apparently that wasn’t quite the case.
Two undead could match one warrior, or so the reports claimed. And these weren’t even high-tier undead—they were Skeletons.
‘What kind of Skeleton could possibly accomplish such a feat?’
As a dwarf, I could only feel aggrieved. Skeletons were the lowest-grade undead, and ordinarily they had strict limitations regardless of how strong they became.
Had I possessed deep knowledge of necromancy, I might have been able to discern something, but dwarves had no expertise in such matters.
And I had no necromancers nearby to consult.
“Regardless, I must prepare defenses. They may launch a counterattack.”
Still, apart from the humiliation of this defeat, I couldn’t simply sit here fuming.
The battle had occurred just two days prior.
Even if the enemy were to counterattack, there would be preparation time and travel time, so I still had some margin, but such matters required swift preparation.
“First, let’s raise the fortress walls to a higher grade. Deploy more defensive weapons. And do whatever it takes to recruit more mercenaries.”
“Understood!”
With those orders given, the lord of Dwarf City rose from his seat to personally oversee the preparations.
But then.
“L-Lord! Disaster has struck!”
Another dwarf suddenly burst through the door.
The dwarf’s face had gone ashen as he cried out.
“The enemies have reached our doorstep!”
“What?!”
The lord jumped in shock.
“Enemies? How is that possible? Right at our gates?”
His questions tumbled out in disarray, his mind reeling.
But the messenger understood perfectly and answered.
“It appears they possessed some means to deceive our detection magic! They’ll launch their assault on the city any moment now!”
“Damn it all!”
Naturally, his Territory was protected by enchanted barriers—ones that prevented unauthorized entry and alerted defenders to approaching threats.
Yet the enemies had breached those very barriers and reached the city’s threshold.
The fact that he was only now receiving word meant the outposts and garrison troops stationed to guard the perimeter had been completely annihilated.
“I’ll fight them myself!”
The lord hastily retrieved his equipment from his inventory, donned it, and rushed outside.
As the strongest military force in the Territory, the lord could be none other than the dwarf himself—currently at Floor 101.
He was a climber of such towering strength that the late arrivals who had settled in this region couldn’t even compare.
With him taking the field directly, no matter how elite the enemy forces were, they should be manageable.
“Huh?”
Yet the moment the valiant dwarf stepped outside, he witnessed something that left him stunned.
His gaze fell upon something colossal.
―GRRRRRROOOOOOAAAAAAHHHHH!
A creature of ivory bone hovered above the city, its wings spread wide.
It was the pinnacle of necromancy itself—the supreme undead. None other than the Bone Dragon.
The Bone Dragon announced its presence with a thunderous roar, then tilted its massive skull downward, gazing upon the city below.
Whoooooooooosh!
Mana began to gather within the Bone Dragon’s gaping maw.
Ordinarily, a Bone Dragon cannot breathe fire—the organs necessary for creating breath have long since decayed to ruin.
But a Bone Dragon commanded by a necromancer can accomplish something similar.
The necromancer’s mana flows through the Bone Dragon, which shapes it into devastating primal magic.
“We… we must flee…”
The dwarf whispered with a trembling voice, yet he knew the truth.
It was already too late.
And then.
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOM―!
An overwhelming torrent of mana swept across the Futuristic City, its currents laced with crackling azure lightning.
The barrier protecting the city seemed to hold it back at first, but it quickly became overloaded.
Crack!
The defensive shield shattered into countless fragments, and an artificial breath engulfed the city.

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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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