I Just Subscribed and It’s the Best Hunter of All Time - Chapter 28

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

#Episode 28.
Soldiers made of earth.
At first glance, that was all I could discern from their appearance.
While their forms alone couldn’t be called particularly threatening, the real problem lay in their sheer numbers.
‘There have to be at least three hundred of them.’
My rough estimate put their count well over three hundred, and even now, their numbers continued to swell in real time.
I couldn’t yet determine whether Sargon’s hand had touched them, but this wasn’t a situation where I could afford to hold back.
“Hah.”
I steadied my breathing and slowly drew power into myself. Then I looked ahead.
The earth soldiers were already upon me, but I couldn’t afford to let my vision narrow to only the enemies directly before me.
What mattered was the flow.
I had to see the broader current and move accordingly.
Whoosh!
The moment the earth soldier that had drawn so close raised its earthen blade.
Tap!
I lightly kicked off the ground.
Boom!
And a beat later, something exploded with a resounding crash.
It was the sound of the soldier that had raised its blade toward me bursting apart.
And that was merely the beginning.
Crash-crash-crash-crash!
Along the path I carved, the earth soldiers’ bodies exploded or shattered into fragments.
They seemed intent on overwhelming me through sheer numbers, but I left them no opportunity to encircle me.
After all, an encirclement only held meaning if they could pin me down, even for a moment.
Watching me move, one might have thought not that I was surrounded, but rather that I was a wolf tearing through a flock of sheep.
“Haaaah!”
Meanwhile, Cho Cheon-woong was putting on quite a respectable performance himself.
His weapon was a massive spear, which he wielded like a staff, sweeping away the approaching soldiers.
While not possessing the incredible speed I displayed, his skill was quite impressive.
Of course, the fact that I was drawing an enormous amount of aggro certainly eased his burden considerably.
I confirmed that Cho Cheon-woong was holding his ground well, then shifted my gaze forward once more.
Boom!
As I swung my blade, another soldier’s body exploded.
I observed this and reflected.
‘Their individual strength isn’t that high.’
While my own skill certainly played a role, even accounting for that, these earth soldiers weren’t particularly powerful.
At best, they were only marginally stronger than goblins.
Yet that very fact made me even more uneasy.
‘There’s no way this is all there is.’
My instincts continued to send me strong warnings, and no matter how many earth soldiers I felled, the ominous feeling refused to dissipate.
Even though Han-sung and Cho Cheon-woong were destroying the earth soldiers far faster than new ones appeared.
It meant the source of this ominous feeling wasn’t limited to just those earth soldiers.
Crash!
But that didn’t mean I could afford to slow my pace right now.
No matter how weak they were, if I let their numbers grow unchecked, it would become a burden eventually.
Rather, it was wiser to reduce their numbers as much as possible in preparation for other enemies that might appear.
“What matters is the flow.”
I recalled Arthur’s teachings.
By reading the flow and moving in accordance with it, I could minimize wasted effort.
So I swung my blade frantically, again and again.
By the time the earth soldiers’ numbers had dwindled to double digits.
Crash!
The anomaly I’d been wary of finally occurred. The fallen earth soldiers suddenly began converging toward a single point.
“Brother! Something feels very wrong!”
Cho Cheon-woong shouted loudly to me upon witnessing it.
Of course, I had already sensed the anomaly and was already moving in that direction.
The earth gathering at one point was steadily growing larger, and within moments it had expanded to nearly seven meters in size.
I approached the mass of earth at high speed, then without hesitation swung my blade.
Crash!
The earth mass’s body split cleanly in half.
But it was only temporary. Soon, as if nothing had happened, the severed portions moved smoothly and merged back together.
And even during this process, it continued growing larger, becoming even bigger than before.
“Onyx.”
It was then that I finally spoke to my familiar who had been observing this entire situation.
―You called, Master.
“Do you know what that is?”
―Hmm.
Onyx pondered for a moment before answering.
―The basic foundation seems to be an earth spirit, but I sense artificial traces in it.
“Artificial traces?”
―Right. A normal spirit wouldn’t express hostility like that unless provoked first. It wouldn’t take such an unusual form either.
“I see.”
I kept my gaze fixed on the mass of earth that was gradually taking shape as I asked.
“Does it have any weak points?”
―Smaller spirits can take damage from strong blows, but at that size, you’ll need to attack its core.
“Its core?”
―Yes. Like a golem. Actually, golems are modeled after the form of spirits.
By the time we finished that exchange.
That thing, which I wondered would never stop growing, finally ceased its expansion.
It appeared to be roughly twelve meters tall, and its massive frame alone radiated an overwhelming sense of pressure.
It was a colossal creature that made the massive monsters I’d faced before look pathetically small.
Yet at the same time, another thought crossed my mind.
‘Is this really something touched by the hand of an evil god?’
Its sheer size was certainly threatening.
But I didn’t sense anything inherently malevolent or vicious emanating from it.
And my suspicion proved precisely correct.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!
The earth trembled, and suddenly something erupted from the ground near the colossal spirit.
It was a viscous black liquid.
The black liquid surged upward before cascading down toward Cho Cheon-woong and me.
Crash!
I immediately drew my blade and slashed through the black liquid hurtling toward me.
The severed liquid writhed, attempting to recoalesce, but I gave it no opportunity, unleashing a flurry of consecutive strikes.
The thick liquid column shattered completely into fragments.
The black liquid reformed several times before shrinking to a size smaller than a fingernail and finally pattered to the ground.
“Ugh!”
Cho Cheon-woong, while not as effortlessly as I, was holding his own against the assault.
But the real problem lay elsewhere.
‘Was that the target from the start?’
While we both contended with the incoming attacks.
The spirit’s massive form had turned black. The liquid that erupted from the ground had been targeting the spirit all along.
The moment I witnessed the blackened spirit, I understood with certainty.
The source of that vague unease I’d felt. And what trap Sargon had prepared.
‘The spirit and the black liquid are separate entities.’
It seemed the earth soldiers that appeared earlier and the spirit they merged with were originally this chamber’s trial.
But that black liquid clearly emanated a foreign presence.
‘An impurity inserted by Sargon.’
Setting aside intuition, the evidence was clear.
The parched earth and twisted spirits possessed unmistakable consistency, but that black liquid—I couldn’t even guess what it truly was.
―Grrrrgh.
It released an ominous cry before withdrawing the liquid that had been attacking Cho Cheon-woong.
I looked up at it.
Originally it had resembled a massive earthen pillar, but now it was different.
Where its head should be, hundreds of eyes and a mouth bristling with saw-like teeth had manifested.
Simultaneously, tentacles resembling the liquid appendages that had attacked us earlier writhed across its torso.
“Ugh, this is the kind of thing that haunts nightmares, isn’t it?”
Cho Cheon-woong muttered with a look of disgust. I nodded slightly in agreement.
‘More threatening than those giants I faced before. More threatening than Onyx.’
Though we hadn’t properly clashed yet, I knew with absolute certainty.
This was no monster that should exist on the 26th Floor.
Perhaps the spirit from before also had another way to be dealt with besides a direct confrontation. It seemed quite powerful, after all.
But now, that fact was meaningless.
If this was a trap laid by the Demon God with such effort, it would naturally have sealed off any easy escape routes.
“B-but why isn’t that thing charging at us right away?”
“Who knows.”
No matter what, it was difficult to discern the intentions of such an unidentifiable monstrosity.
Was it probing us? Or was it looking down upon us with leisure? Or something else entirely?
Countless thoughts flickered through my mind in that brief moment.
But rather than dwelling on such thoughts, I cleared my head.
‘Dispel distracting thoughts.’
There was nothing wrong with formulating a strategy, but there was no need to inflate the opponent’s stature in my mind.
“If it won’t come to us, we’ll go to it.”
“Huh? W-wait!”
I had gleaned everything I could from its outward appearance. Now it was time to engage it directly.
With my thoughts neatly organized, I pushed off the ground lightly, leaving the bewildered Cho Cheon-woong behind.
Crackle, crackle, crackle!
Blue lightning enveloped my body, and almost simultaneously, my speed multiplied several times over.
Whoooosh!
And on top of that, black armor wrapped around my entire form. It was a transformation that happened in an instant.
Had the monster sensed the danger by then?
Screeeeeech!
The tentacles writhing across the monster’s body suddenly began raining down toward me all at once.
Boom, boom, boom—!
The tentacles crashed into the ground with deafening roars. But not a single one had touched me.
The monster couldn’t keep up with me as I truly accelerated.
In the blink of an eye, I reached the monster’s body and swung my blade without mercy.
Craaaaaash!
The blade didn’t merely cut through the monster’s torso—it tore the cross-section apart violently.
Moreover, the lightning wreathing the blade burrowed into the monster’s torso alongside the slash.
—Screeeeeeeeeech!
This attack seemed to sting the monster quite sharply, as a cry of pain echoed out.
But my expression wasn’t particularly bright.
‘It’s recovering too quickly.’
My blade strike had properly burrowed into the monster’s torso, but the damage was repaired in less than a second.
―If you just keep attacking its torso like that, it’ll take several hours to bring it down. Master.
Onyx added his thoughts upon witnessing this.
Despite its altered appearance, the strategy itself remained the same.
The core. I had to target its core.
‘The problem is, I can’t see where it is.’
It was only natural, but I had been searching for its core from the very beginning.
But it wasn’t as simple as it sounded.
I tried to perceive not just what was visible on the surface, but the creature’s flow of power—yet everything around it remained shrouded in mist, blurred and indistinct.
―It’s probably because it’s a life form composed of mana.
“Composed of mana?”
―Yes. Its true nature is that of a spirit, after all. To find the core, you’ll need to look deeper.
“Easier said than done.”
My intuition wasn’t proving particularly useful at the moment either. The spirit’s overwhelming presence right before me was dulling my senses.
Regrettable, but unavoidable. Intuition wasn’t as convenient as detection magic, after all.
Pinpointing exactly what you sought and finding it was far more difficult.
I furrowed my brow and increased the distance between us once more.
Ssshhhhh!
The moment I drew closer, the creature began spraying corrosive acid from its entire body.
It appeared Cho Cheon-woong was struggling merely to deflect the tentacles hurtling toward him.
‘Still, there’s no need to worry about that.’
In truth, simply not dragging me down in a situation like this was already remarkable enough.
I refocused all my attention on the enemy.
“So all I need to do is find where the core is.”
―That’s true, but what are you planning?
“If the core won’t show itself, I’ll make it visible.”
I raised my sword.
Its rapid regeneration was troublesome, but I’d already confirmed that my attacks were effective.
The answer was simple then.
“I’ll keep cutting until I find the core.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————