I Just Subscribed and It’s the Best Hunter of All Time - Chapter 242
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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 242
From above, I watched as the Bone Dragon’s breath engulfed the fortified city below.
More precisely, it concentrated its assault on the front where the city gates stood.
That was where the enemy forces had gathered in their greatest numbers.
“Quite efficient, actually.”
That breath attack was essentially the combined effort of myself and the Bone Dragon working in tandem.
The Bone Dragon, having been resurrected once before, could not unleash its breath alone.
From what I knew, the Bone Dragon’s greatest power came from the sheer destructive force of its massive frame, not from the potency of its breath—so I hadn’t expected much. Yet it far exceeded my expectations.
Had I alone poured the same amount of mana into such an attack, achieving that level of devastation would have been far more difficult.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom―!
Meanwhile, below, my forces surged toward the city with relentless momentum.
―Front wall collapse confirmed! Advancing into the interior immediately!
―Left flank resistance crushed! Entering the interior!
The reports came almost simultaneously.
The voices of Maria and Cho Cheon-woong.
Hearing them, I looked toward those sectors and saw my troops pouring through the gates and into the city proper.
Under normal circumstances, even with superior numbers, breaching the walls would have taken considerable time.
There were defensive barriers, and the walls themselves appeared quite formidable.
But with a single breath attack shattering the barriers and collapsing sections of the wall, the assault became almost trivial.
Of course, the enemy did not yield without resistance.
A tremendous roar erupted―!
Suddenly, a brilliant blue beam shot toward my forces, and a deafening boom reverberated across the battlefield.
Boom, boom, boom, boom―!
Looking in that direction, I saw a metallic Golem-like entity.
However, its size far exceeded that of my own Golems.
Moreover, examining it more closely, its appearance differed somewhat. I could make out what appeared to be a control cockpit in its central section.
‘Is that one of those Giants?’
When I had only heard about them before, I wondered what the distinction was. But observing it now, it seemed the Giant was a type of machine that required a pilot to operate it.
A tremendous roar―!
The Giant advanced relentlessly and collided with my forces.
Yet it fought far better than I anticipated. It fired beams from weapons mounted on its shoulders in rapid succession, and using its enormous mass, it trampled and swatted aside my undead.
There were approximately twenty such Giants.
Far more than when they had invaded my Territory before.
‘Of course. One doesn’t deploy full strength to an expeditionary force.’
Those forces from before must have been merely a fraction of their true numbers.
Yet I felt no significant threat from this.
“Nox. Araktar.”
I issued commands to two of my most exceptional undead.
The distance was considerable, but it mattered not. My undead and I were bound as one.
“Concentrate your assault on the Giants.”
The moment Jung Han-sung issued his command, a portion of the undead forces shifted direction and began launching a ferocious assault on the Giants.
Boom, boom!
Crash!
Nox and Araktar’s performance was particularly striking.
Nox wielded his characteristic overwhelming strength to drive the Giants back, while Araktar spewed webbing that restricted the movements of multiple Giants.
Thud―!
The Giant pilots responded with desperate determination.
They fired cannons relentlessly and flailed their arms and legs wildly, attempting to shake off the undead.
Yet the effect was minimal.
Crash!
The webbing that Araktar spewed was not merely tough.
It possessed the property of instantly ‘solidifying’ in response to mana, and thus clung even more firmly as the Giants thrashed about, their violent movements triggering the webbing’s reaction to their mana.
Screeeech―!
The metal joints twisted and deformed as if crying out in agony.
In that instant.
Crack!
Nox tore away the mana cannon mounted on the Giant’s shoulder with his bare hands and hurled it backward with a swift motion.
Several undead caught it, manipulated it, and began firing it toward their opponents.
Boom―!
Jung Han-sung, observing from above, was unaware, but the Dwarves riding the Giants could not hide their shock.
What manner of undead were operating mana cannons?
No matter how convenient mana cannon operation was, it was not something that lower-tier undead like Skeletons should be capable of handling.
They did not know that Jung Han-sung’s Skeletons were anything but ‘ordinary’ undead.
Boom, boom, boom―!
As the chaos continued to intensify.
“We’re heading elsewhere.”
Jung Han-sung ceased his observation of the ground below and issued a command to the Bone Dragon.
The target was the most ornate and conspicuous building in the entire city.
Yet as he attempted to approach it.
Boom―!
Suddenly, beams saturated with mana began raining down in concentrated volleys.
“Interesting.”
Jung Han-sung evaded the beams alongside the Bone Dragon, his expression one of intrigue.
The moment he attempted to approach a specific building, attacks rained down with frenzied intensity. It was as if that building was practically announcing its own importance, was it not?
“There.”
Jung Han-sung extended his sword toward the building and drew forth his mana.
Boom―!
Immediately after, a bolt of lightning streaked toward the building. Yet before it could strike, a barrier materialized and intercepted the lightning.
“As expected.”
The barrier that had once spread across the entire city was now damaged. In other words, this was a barrier encircling the building itself.
‘I’ll have to handle this myself.’
The rest of my forces were already making steady progress in occupying the city.
So it only made sense that I should seize at least one of the most strategically important facilities.
“Once I jump down, assist our allied forces.”
I issued the command to Bone Dragon and gazed down at the expanse below.
The height was considerable, but it hardly mattered. I had my cloak, and truthfully, a fall from this distance wouldn’t kill me anyway.
The moment Bone Dragon aligned itself vertically with the building below.
Whoosh―!
I kicked off from Bone Dragon’s back and launched myself upward. Then, looking down at the building visible below, I raised one hand.
Normally, I would have channeled the power of lightning here, but Arthur’s words suddenly came to mind.
His instruction not to neglect the weapon he had bestowed upon me.
At that, I smiled and spoke.
“Divine Blade―.”
Intense mana began to swirl around my outstretched hand.
“Rodos, manifest.”
Immediately after.
A brilliant light erupted from my empty palm, and a radiant sword materialized before me.
The presence emanating from the blade instantly drew the gaze of everyone in the city.
Basking in all those eyes upon me, I raised both hands high and then swept them downward.
Shhhhhhhhhhhhh―!
And there was light.
In an instant, the brilliance was so blinding that everyone in the city stopped their combat and staggered.
But what truly shocked them came next.
“What, what is this.”
Someone muttered in disbelief.
They had every reason to be stunned.
The building that had been surrounded by a powerful barrier, along with the entire surrounding area, had been completely ‘vaporized’.
“Impressive.”
Even I was momentarily awed by the power that exceeded my expectations.
Rodos, wielded after so long, had become far more formidable than before.
Satisfied with that power, I soon discovered something in the crater left by the vaporization.
It was the Core sustaining the Territory.
“Ah.”
The dwarves, confirming that their lord’s residence had vanished, began dropping their weapons one by one.
Clatter―.
I landed beside the Core immediately after.
Landing lightly on the ground, I walked straight toward the Core.
Since the Core still hadn’t lost its light, the lord must have fled elsewhere. Perhaps he was never in the building to begin with, or he had escaped outside The Tower before Rodos fell.
But either way, it didn’t matter.
Clatter―.
The moment my hand touched the core, a message materialized before my eyes.
[Will you absorb this territory?]
“Yes.”
As I nodded, another message appeared.
[If the current lord does not cancel the procedure within 24 hours, the absorption will be completed successfully]
[24:00:00]
[23:59:59]
[23:59:58]
If the lord fled, I could proceed with the absorption just like this.
Of course, he could return and try to stop it, but then I would simply deal with him again when the time came.
Jung Han-sung confirmed the passage of time, then turned and shouted loudly.
“Surrender now and I will spare your lives! Resist and death is all that awaits!”
Even with such a declaration, some would still resist, but that posed no real problem.
Jung Han-sung walked out from the crater he had created with his divine blade and waited slowly for the situation to settle.
* * *
Approximately 20 minutes later.
In the end, Jung Han-sung had claimed the city.
The core was still in the process of being absorbed, but that would resolve itself with time.
“The lord never even showed his face,” Cho Cheon-woong said, observing the core sitting alone in the center of the crater.
Maria responded in a measured tone.
“Once he retreated, he probably thought there was no point in returning.”
She was right.
Had he intended to return, he would have dodged the attack and immediately counterattacked.
The fact that he hasn’t shown himself until now suggests he has completely abandoned his territory.
As they conversed, Baek-seol came rushing over from somewhere.
“Master!”
She called out to Jung Han-sung.
“Most of the facilities here are incredibly high-grade!”
“Is that so? How much higher?”
“They all appear to be 3 to 4 tiers higher than ours!”
“What? That much of a difference?”
Though Jung Han-sung had thought the facilities looked decent, he was surprised to learn the gap was so substantial.
Baek-seol nodded in confirmation.
“Even the barrier you destroyed was far higher grade than ours!”
“I did think the barrier was rather sturdy, but…”
At Baek-seol and Maria’s words, Jung Han-sung scratched his chin.
“I didn’t realize it was that advanced.”
Since Jung Han-sung had simply shattered it with consecutive breaths and Rodos, he hadn’t particularly sensed its durability.
His overwhelming power prevented him from discerning such subtle differences.
Because the strength was too overwhelming, it couldn’t distinguish the subtle differences.
Well, if I had struck directly with a sword, I might have felt something, but since both of us attacked from a distance, it was hard to gauge the impact.
“But if the facility grade is that high, why didn’t they invest much in their military forces?”
“Hmm. Actually, by those standards, their military wasn’t particularly sparse.”
“Really?”
Maria nodded and continued speaking.
“While their numbers weren’t enormous, they had quite a few elite troops, including Giants and the like. I’d say they were among the strongest in this region.”
“I see….”
In truth, the local lord’s position was rather unfortunate.
It would have been difficult to anticipate that Jung Han-sung and his forces were this formidable.
Generally, once a territory grows sufficiently strong, it aggressively expands by attacking its surroundings.
Jung Han-sung, however, showed little interest in his neighbors unless they provoked him first.
The last war had been quite some time ago.
That’s why the local lord had failed to accurately assess the true strength of Jung Han-sung’s Territory’s military.
“I suspect they judged the military strength to be unremarkable, seeing how they remained isolated within their borders.”
“So that’s why they launched a sudden attack.”
Of course, there were other factors—the local lord was in debt, circumstances were unfavorable, and so forth.
But those were details Jung Han-sung didn’t need to concern himself with.
“In any case, if we absorb this place, we can significantly raise our facility grade, can’t we?”
“Exactly! We can inherit their technology directly! Our Core grade will skyrocket all at once!”
At those words, Jung Han-sung smiled and nodded.
The gains were greater than I had anticipated.
“Good. Then let’s establish ourselves here for now and complete the absorption process.”
“Yes!”
Jung Han-sung issued his orders, then entered a relatively vacant building.
He needed to continue wielding his sword until the absorption process was complete.
‘Once everything is finished, I’ll need to climb The Tower again.’
My body still itched for more.
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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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