Murim Login - Chapter 586

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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 586
Sometimes, certain truths are cruel and cold.
Those who face such truths often turn away from the reality before their eyes, unable or unwilling to accept their circumstances.
Much like I was doing now.
“…Human.”
When the Skeleton King’s voice shattered the silence and pierced my ears, I felt as though I were awakening from a long and terrible nightmare.
And in the next moment, I realized that all of it was not a dream, but reality.
‘He’s gone. Truly gone.’
Kim Hwa-jong’s face, finally meeting death, was serene, and joy lingered at the corners of his mouth, frozen in a gentle smile.
It was the smile left behind by one who had departed after fulfilling their final wish.
Yet I continued to let tears stream down his body, accompanied by questions that would never reach him.
Are you still cold? Is it still dark?
Perhaps the Noh Ji-sa I remember is still wandering through an endless winter night that will never end.
Perhaps he is searching for someone in the darkness, shivering from the cold, unable to see even an inch ahead.
That is why I could not stop.
That was why I breathed warmth into his body as it grew ever colder.
Thump.
A cold hand touched my shoulder. The Skeleton King’s subdued voice reached my ear.
“Human.”
“Leave me alone.”
“It is enough now. Stop.”
Those words were wrong. It was not enough. So I could not stop.
Just as I was about to roughly brush away the hand on my shoulder, the Skeleton King continued.
“He will not be cold anymore. So please… let that person go.”
“…!”
The moment I heard those words, why did all strength drain from my body?
It was truly a mystery.
Perhaps it was because the Skeleton King had used sympathy toward a human for the first time, or perhaps it was because that voice piercing my ears was unusually weak.
Or perhaps it was because of the visitors who had returned to this unnamed mountain ridge after the calamity had passed.
Crunch.
Careful footsteps treading through the snow.
Turning my head toward the sound, five figures—men and women—finally came into view.
Having exchanged greetings with them once or twice inside the Guild House, I had no difficulty recognizing who they were.
‘Members of the Peace Guild.’
They must have returned after sensing the change in the situation.
Already exhausted and wounded from their fierce struggle against the Behemoth before me, they stared at the fallen beast with vacant eyes, then slowly turned their gaze toward me.
And….
“No!”
“Guild Master!”
Shouts and screams echoed together.
Stepping over the corpse of Behemoth, they rushed forward only to find Kim Hwa-jong locked in an eternal sleep from which he would never awaken.
“How… how could this happen?”
“…Damn it. I knew it would come to this. I knew it!”
Voices heavy with sobs and anguish.
Though I was not there, I could vividly picture how events had unfolded.
‘He must have told them. You’re fine, so escape with Choi Team Leader.’
That was the kind of man Kim Hwa-jong was.
There existed something more precious to him than his own life—a young man who could be called both a young master and a grandson.
Standing motionless like a nail driven into the ground, watching everything unfold, I suddenly opened my mouth.
“Place Choi Team Leader…”
“Yes, yes?”
A rough, hollow voice—as if it belonged to someone else—spilled forth.
“Place Choi Team Leader beside him.”
“…!”
“Quickly.”
The Guild members, who had been staring blankly at me, soon grasped my meaning and nodded.
They carefully laid Choi Team Leader, who had lost consciousness after expending every ounce of strength, upon the ground.
The two men lying side by side bore no resemblance to each other, yet somehow they mirrored one another.
‘At last you’ve met, both of you.’
Without a word, I brought their hands together.
Perhaps it was mere fancy, but in that moment, the smile at the corner of Kim Hwa-jong’s lips seemed to grow brighter.
“Hunter Jin Tae-kyung. Wouldn’t it be better to wake the Team Leader…?”
To the careful words offered by one of the Guild members, I shook my head.
“It cannot be done.”
“But… but…”
“It is impossible. At least not now.”
I cut off his words firmly. I too had wrestled with this choice.
Had it been before Kim Hwa-jong met his end, I would have moved heaven and earth to awaken Choi Team Leader and allow them to meet face to face.
But…
‘It’s already too late.’
Kim Hwa-jong had already passed, and Choi Team Leader’s body, worn down by accumulated fatigue and pushed to its limits, was no longer whole.
Even if I forcibly restored his consciousness and used potions, the cost would return manifold, crashing down upon him.
Along with grief and rage whose depths could not be fathomed.
The dead find rest at the end of their suffering, but the living must carry that pain forward.
I learned that truth three years ago, and I could not awaken Choi Team Leader, whose body was far from whole, to face such cruel reality.
Yet one thing I could promise.
Before Choi Team Leader regained consciousness, I would bring back a gift—something to soothe, even if only slightly, the rage and sorrow he would feel.
Screeeech! Crack!
Without any preparatory motion, wind split apart at the tip of the spear I swung.
As the crescent-shaped vital energy carved through the massive body of the fallen Behemoth, the Skeleton King murmured like a sigh.
“Stop.”
Instead of answering, I swung the spear in my grip once more. Again. And again.
Schwick! Schwick! Splooooosh!
The body was cleaved into pieces, and the blood pooling in the corpse erupted like a fountain.
Now that the formidable mana Behemoth once possessed had vanished, it was nothing more than a lump of meat.
I carved through it without hesitation, like a butcher at work—until the Skeleton King could bear the sight no longer and bellowed.
“I said stop! What difference does this make…!”
I cut off his cry with a quiet voice.
“It makes all the difference. That’s why I’m doing this.”
“What?”
The Skeleton King asked, bewildered.
“What are you even talking about?”
I didn’t answer his question. Instead, I took a step forward.
In a single stride, I closed the distance of several meters, and Behemoth’s corpse loomed before me.
As I stared intently at the dismembered remains—so ravaged that no trace of its former majesty remained—I finally found what I’d been searching for.
Or rather, it had already announced itself before I could find it.
Hummmmm.
A faint tremor transmitted through the air. Simultaneously, I felt a turbid yet overwhelming aura.
“…Found it.”
I’d worried that the slash I’d unleashed earlier might have destroyed it, but fortunately, ‘it’ remained intact.
I muttered with an inward sense of relief and reached out without hesitation.
Whoosh, snap!
Through Void Grasp, ‘it’ flew into my palm, and I gazed upon it with a settled gaze.
Then, so no one else could hear, I whispered in my mind.
‘Appraise Item.’
Ding.
Item Window
[Behemoth’s Turbid Abyss]
Type
: Mana Stone
Grade
: Transcendent
Restriction
: None
Description
: The abyss and source of mana harbored by Behemoth, a named monster and primordial beast. However, for reasons unknown, it absorbed another form of mana, and the once-pure darkness became turbid and far more potent. Purification—a process both intricate and arduous—is required to utilize this.
But for some reason, it absorbed another magical force, and the pure darkness became murky and grew even more powerful.
To use this, one must go through a very delicate and difficult purification process.
The moment I confirmed the system window floating before me, my eyes burned hot.
Yet my mind remained colder and more composed than ever, spinning with calculation.
‘Behemoth’s Turbid Abyss.’
The system had never lied to me once until now. Therefore, the description inscribed in the information window would be absolute truth without the slightest error.
‘For some reason, it absorbed another form of mana. Yes, that must be it.’
Immediately after my conversation with Kraken, the questions that had been drifting through my mind over the past few hours began to arrange themselves in order.
Who was the culprit that gave the mana stone to Kraken and triggered the Monster Wave? Whose orders stood behind that person?
Why had Choi Team Leader, despite being so busy, left Seoul and come all the way to Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province? And why had another Monster Wave erupted here of all places?
And what did the description of the mana stone left behind by Behemoth signify?
‘Why. Why. Why.’
I posed the questions to myself and found the answers within myself.
After a span of time that felt like mere hours, I was able to derive answers to all my questions.
All except for one final puzzle piece.
‘Yes. Just one more.’
But I did not hesitate. I already knew where to find that last remaining puzzle piece.
“Why did you come here today?”
My question was directed at the Pyeonghwa Guild members present.
As the gazes of those around shifted toward them, the middle-aged Hunter who appeared to be the highest-ranking among them answered with a dark expression.
“Team Leader Choi had someone he needed to meet in utmost secrecy. It was a man whose appearance had been altered by illusion magic. He seemed quite anxious.”
“Who was he?”
“I apologize, but… none of us, myself included, know his identity.”
The middle-aged Hunter’s words were likely true. But I was not disappointed.
Because I had heard his identity directly from Choi Team Leader’s own lips not long ago—something not even disclosed to the temporary Security Team Leader.
‘Song Cheon-woo.’
The hero of the Great Cataclysm and the European regional director of Ares Guild.
And… a political rival standing in opposition across generations to Lee Jung-yong and Seok Go-jun, master and disciple.
However, I already knew of the temporary cooperative relationship that he and Choi Team Leader had secretly forged, and I was not fool enough to suspect Song Cheon-woo as the culprit.
‘There’s no reason for it. Not a single one.’
Song Cheon-woo was an ambitious man whom even time could not defeat.
Therefore, setting aside all other considerations, the very notion that he would attempt to kill Choi Team Leader, his reliable ally in pursuit of Seok Go-jun’s downfall, was absurd.
In the end, this meant the true culprit behind everything that happened today was someone else.
The person who would gain the greatest benefit from the deaths of these two.
The person capable of triggering a Monster Wave using an S-rank mana stone of astronomical value and rarity.
‘Seok Go-jun.’
The moment the final puzzle piece clicked into place, I understood what I had to do moving forward.
And I also realized that the repercussions of this choice I was about to make could reach those around me.
‘Then…’
I closed my eyes firmly.
There was no turning back now. This was something that had to be done, transcending right and wrong.
When I opened my eyes again, there was not the slightest wavering in my heart or voice.
“If the Team Leader should awaken in my absence, please tell him this, whoever you may be.”
“Yes? What are you…”
“S-Rank Hunter Jin Tae-kyung.”
A voice emerged—unfamiliar and hollow, as though it belonged to someone else.
“Effective immediately, I am withdrawing from the Peace Guild.”
“…!”
“…!”
The frozen expressions of those around me came into focus. Among them, a face twisted in anguish.
“You, surely you don’t mean…!”
“You stay here. Just in case—protect the people and the Guild.”
Those who must leave shall depart, and those who must remain shall stay.
I shook my head at the Skeleton King, who was attempting to dissuade me once more, then posed a question to the Guild members, now rigid as statues.
“Is there anyone capable of teleportation? Raise your hand.”
“H, hand.”
The Mage, who had raised her hand almost reflexively, asked with a dazed expression.
“B, but where to?”
“Jongno. Or rather….”
I continued, gazing at Noh Ji-sa, who had fallen into a slumber from which he would never awaken.
“Let us go to the Ares Guild.”

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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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