Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 136

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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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136
Through the voice flowing from the essence embedded in the rock, Jerex learned an ancient method of traversal that would allow him to move from the Eastern Continent to the Western Continent.
“Hmm… It’s simpler than I expected.”
[Draw the formula I just explained on the ground and place the essence of fire in the center. The path of fire will open. Throw yourself into it, and you will arrive at the Eastern Continent. Remember this well. Without the Ice Dragon’s Heart, you will…]
“Don’t worry. I have no intention of dying. Then, I’ll reach the deepest part by ten o’clock tomorrow morning, Western time.”
After ending the communication, Jerex pulled a watch from his pocket to check the time. It was already three in the morning. I had to steal the Dragon Heart and venture even deeper into the deepest part than this place.
Time was running short.
I moved my feet swiftly upward.
I had been moving all night, but consumed by desire, I hadn’t even felt fatigue.
First, I had to steal the Dragon Heart. Parchem’s safe was the thickest in the Sleeping Fire Mountain Range. Without the palm prints of the two people who originally locked it, not even Parchem or the Master could open it.
It was one of the first things I had created when I came here.
“I prepared for a moment like this. Keke.”
When I designed the safe, I had created a backdoor that only I could open. It wasn’t something anyone could access just by knowing the location—only a dwarf could use it, making it effectively a backdoor only I could utilize.
I returned to the Workshop.
Since I had no intention of coming back, I selected only valuables and stuffed them into a bag.
“I’ve been in this cursed place far too long…”
After packing my belongings, I took one last look around the Workshop. I had been here for a full ten years. I had no desire to associate with filthy beastmen or other races, but I had no choice if I wanted to obtain the essence of fire.
But now, it was time to be rewarded for those days of endurance.
With the essence of fire I already possessed and the Dragon Heart in hand, I could create an item worthy of legend.
Turning over various ideas in my mind, I headed toward Marcelo’s House, which stood beside Parchem’s Workshop.
He would certainly be asleep at this late hour, but deceiving the keen senses of a cat beastman was not easy.
I pulled out a lamp shaped like a long-spouted kettle from my bag.
I carefully rotated a sharp awl to drill a small hole in the door, then pushed the lamp’s spout through it and lit the flame above the lamp.
Gray smoke settled heavily and slowly spread into Marcelo’s House.
I set down the lamp and waited quietly.
After about five minutes, I lightly tapped the door handle with a hammer.
The door handle and lock disintegrated and fell away.
I could have spent time picking it, but time was scarce. Besides, in a few hours, I would already be gone to the Western Continent. There was nothing to worry about.
I pressed a mask to my face and tied the straps tightly behind my head.
Entering the house, smoke lay thick on the floor. It was a gas potent enough to put even an ogre to sleep, but my dwarf body, specialized in mining work and resistant to gas and dust, allowed the mask alone to protect me from its effects.
I slightly opened the bedroom door.
A small creaking sound escaped as the interior came into view.
Marcelo lay sleeping, oblivious to the world.
I closed the door again and slowly made my way toward the Basement.
I knew the structure of this house very well. It had originally been my residence, after all. However, I had deliberately moved far away because I despised seeing Parchem’s meddlesome face.
The Basement was filled with Marcelo’s miscellaneous belongings.
“Filthy beastman.”
Unlike when I had used it, the Basement was completely disorganized.
I carelessly threw aside the clutter blocking one wall. Since the house had excellent soundproofing, I no longer needed to fear making noise.
After clearing the objects away, I placed my hand on the exposed wall. It was the wall that adjoined Parchem’s Workshop.
Jerex smashed the brick wall with his hammer.
Behind the brick, tightly packed earth was revealed.
Jerex tapped the earth with his hammer, striking it repeatedly.
The seemingly solid earth crumbled like sand, creating a hole just large enough for Jerex to squeeze through.
The collapsed earth flowed like water, accumulating in the basement of Marcelo’s house.
Jerex entered the hole and repeated the process, tapping away at the earth to carve out a passage.
After advancing about ten meters, a metal wall appeared.
Jerex touched the wall and found the backdoor he had created.
“What? What is this?”
The backdoor was still there, but additional magic had been layered around it. Jerex examined what kind of magic had been cast.
“Damn Parchem! He set up an alarm spell!”
Parchem had cast an alarm spell across the entire vault. The moment the vault was breached—whether through the backdoor or any other means—Parchem would know.
I checked the time. It was nearly six o’clock now, the hour when the blacksmiths would wake.
There was no time to reconsider. I had to reach deep into the mine tunnel and carve the rune into the floor within four hours.
“I’ve come this far already. There’s no turning back now.”
With my resolve hardened, I adjusted my bag strap and gripped the hammer tightly.
I wasn’t confident in my speed, but I was prepared—fail to act, and I would die.
“Hah….”
I swung the hammer at the section where the backdoor was located.
Crash!
I had originally planned to open it quietly, but if the alarm spell was going to sound anyway, noise didn’t matter. Speed was what mattered now.
[Beeeeeeeee———-]
I pushed through the deafening alarm and entered the vault. In the center of the modest vault sat the Blue Dragon Heart.
“Oh….”
The Blue Dragon Heart gleamed like a transparent jewel with a blue luminescence. I forgot that I needed to move, captivated by its beauty.
But the alarm snapped me back to reality, and I quickly shoved the Blue Dragon Heart into my bag.
* * *
“What… what is this?!”
Parchem jolted awake at the loud noise. He wasn’t alone. Everyone on the street had awakened.
“Seal the entrance!”
Parchem rushed out of his house and redirected several security guards who were running toward the sound to guard the entrance instead.
“Marcelo! Where is Marcelo?!”
Parchem looked for Marcelo, but his absence troubled him. A sensitive cat-kin like Marcelo couldn’t possibly sleep through such a racket.
“Master! What’s happening?!”
Jae-in, jolted awake, covered her ears and spoke to Parchem.
“First, turn off the sound! Come here!”
Parchem pulled Jae-in toward the vault in the workshop.
As Jae-in and Parchem raised their hands simultaneously to open the vault door, the deafening noise finally stopped.
“Now I can breathe….”
Jae-in rubbed her ears.
“Gasp… gasp…”
Parchem’s breathing came in ragged, desperate gasps, and Jae-in followed his gaze.
“…Where did it go?”
The Blue Dragon Heart had vanished.
Parchem leaped into the vault and surveyed the surroundings.
“Jerex! You shameless, fat-furred bastard!”
“Jerex?”
“Only Jerex could bore a hole like this.”
Parchem thrust his head into the opening and peered inside.
“Damn… this won’t do. He sprayed sleep gas.”
Every door in Marcelo’s house was opened for ventilation, but Jerex was nowhere to be found.
“Is Marcelo alright?”
“Yes, it’s just sleep gas. He’ll wake up later. More importantly, guards! Has anyone left the Forge District since midnight?”
“No one has left since midnight, sir.”
“…What is he thinking?”
“Master! A passage to the Underground Mine Tunnel has been breached!”
Another guard reported to Parchem.
“He went underground?”
“Is there another passage in the underground that leads elsewhere?”
Jae-in asked, bewildered.
“No, the Underground Mine Tunnel is sealed. Even if he’s a dwarf, he shouldn’t be able to tunnel his way out… In any case, I’m pursuing him.”
“We’re coming too.”
A search party was immediately organized, and Jae-in and Bae Na-young followed.
“Isn’t this an old, abandoned mine tunnel? He went this way?”
At a fork in the tunnel, Parchem found traces of Jerex and tilted his head in confusion.
“Why?”
“It’s a tunnel that goes deeper. Moving further and further from the surface. What is Jerex thinking?”
The search party quickened their pace. Though Jerex was notorious throughout the Mountain Range for his foul temperament, he wasn’t stupid. He clearly had something in mind, and they had to stop him.
Jerex had made no attempt to hide his tracks, demolishing all the barricades of the abandoned tunnel.
“Hurry! He hasn’t gone far!”
The search party steadily closed the distance. Less than thirty minutes had passed since the traces were left.
* * *
“Huff… huff… huff…”
I had been running for hours on short legs, carrying a heavy load.
I had only taken what was essential, but since my tools were all heavy, my shoulders felt like they might tear off.
My breath came up to my throat, but I moved my feet frantically. If I stopped and got caught, even as an exiled dwarf, Parchem would never forgive me. On top of that, I’m carrying the essence of fire now. If those bastards discover this, they’ll take it and kill me without hesitation.
Jerex paused briefly and pressed his ear against the wall, feeling the vibrations to gauge the distance of his pursuers.
“Damn… thirty minutes behind? They’re fast.”
Jerex had a luminous stone attached to his forehead, but it wasn’t bright enough to illuminate the darkness of the abandoned tunnel. Without dwarf vision, I wouldn’t have been able to run this fast.
I finally reached my destination—the deepest part of the mine tunnel dug into the Sleeping Fire Mountain Range on the Western Continent.
I set down my burden and, chisel in hand, carved a magic circle into the stone.
The deafening crash of hammer and chisel striking rock should have drowned out everything else, yet Jerex kept glancing over his shoulder, certain he could hear the footsteps of his pursuers drawing closer.
I moved my hands faster.
“D-done!”
Having hastily excavated the roughly two-meter magic circle, Jerex drove the chisel into the stone and opened a communication channel.
“It’s finished! You’re ready on your end, right?”
[We finished preparing long ago. What took you so long?]
“…The pursuers are coming. Start now.”
[Fine. Place the essence of fire in the center of the circle you drew.]
Jerex did as instructed, setting the essence of fire at the center and stepping back.
[Is it placed?]
“Yes. The flames are spreading across the magic circle.”
[Good? Kekeke…]
I felt something sinister in that laughter.
[Did you truly believe you could steal a dwarf’s treasure and walk away unscathed?]
“What have you done?!”
[It’s a shame to waste the Ice Dragon’s Heart, but destroying the Western Continent’s greatest workshop has its appeal. And disposing of a traitor at the same time—even better.]
Jerex realized the betrayal and tried to remove the essence of fire, but the uncontrollable flames forced him to retreat.
“Damn it!”
[Show your respect. Behold Salamander, the Avatar of Fire itself. An entity that will incinerate even your rotten nature. With this, all the trash of the Western Continent will burn…]
The communication cut off.
“No… No!!! I can’t die! I just got my hands on the Dragon Heart!”
Something lizard-like erupted from the magic circle. The creature, roughly three meters from head to tail, was not particularly large, yet its entire body was composed of roaring flames.
The heat radiating from Salamander, the Avatar of Fire, melted the stone beneath it, and the scorching waves reached even Jerex where he stood.
“Ha… haha… hahahaha!!!”
Jerex’s mind shattered under the relentless inferno.
Salamander’s tongue flicked out as if savoring a delicious meal before it.
Then, engulfed in the colossal flames that filled the mine tunnel, Jerex was consumed.

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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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