Tearing the Gate Apart - Chapter 82
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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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Episode 82.
Ha Gyeong’s mind raced in overdrive.
‘Push through? Or retreat?’
His attack had clearly done serious damage to the dungeon wall.
Otherwise, things wouldn’t be in such chaos.
Ha Gyeong heightened his senses through Soul Stigma.
‘I feel it. The dungeon’s pulse. The malice hiding beyond it.’
This wasn’t simply a matter of breaking the labyrinth’s rules.
It was genuinely enraged.
At this uninvited intruder who’d crawled inside its body without permission.
Ha Gyeong adjusted his grip on Crimson Edge.
“We have to push through.”
“Pardon?”
“The dungeon isn’t collapsing. This is an attack. I’ll break through, so stay close behind me.”
Ha Gyeong didn’t wait for Dae Hyeonja’s response.
He simply threw his body forward.
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
Concentric ripples radiated outward with each footfall.
Transparent flames burned across his entire frame.
The mana amplification effect of Reactive Mana Armor was at work.
Ha Gyeong covered dozens of meters in just four strides.
Then, as one with Crimson Edge, he launched himself forward.
It was a strike with his entire body poured into it.
Boom!
A deafening roar tore through the air.
A tremendous shockwave exploded outward to both sides.
Ripple patterns etched themselves into the dungeon’s silver walls.
At the center, a long, jagged tear formed.
Like the pupils of a reptile or feline predator.
Ha Gyeong stopped moving for a moment.
‘Thank goodness. The shockwave burst sideways, so I barely took any impact.’
If it had transmitted directly like that, his entire body would have been torn apart.
He clung to the wall and peered into the hole.
A stunning sight unfolded before him.
The labyrinth’s true form resembled the internal organs or brain of some creature.
Countless tubes were connected in every direction.
Constantly shifting and changing shape.
Only then did Ha Gyeong understand why they couldn’t find the way out.
‘No wonder Soul Stigma couldn’t solve it.’
The dungeon clung to the ceiling.
Below it was a vast hollow cavity.
Within it, a yellow form crouched.
A monstrous spider with legs roughly fifteen meters long.
It continuously expelled silver substance from its rear.
Ha Gyeong understood instinctively.
‘That’s the Boss. It warps the labyrinth with that thread-like stuff and creates Liquid Cores too.’
He immediately pushed his body into the hole.
The cavity stretched hundreds of meters high.
Vertigo washed over him, but there was no time to hesitate.
Whether because of the cracks forming in the walls,
Or because the Liquid Cores’ proliferation rate had accelerated.
Whoosh! Bang—! Bang—! Bang—!
As mad sword dances erupted in all directions, Ha Gyeong’s urgency spiked.
He gestured to his teammates.
“There’s a space we can use to descend. Come this way, quickly!”
“That seems far too reckless.”
After confirming the height, Dae Hyeonja’s face had gone pale.
Even an superhuman Awakened One would die from a fall like this.
The other teammates didn’t look pleased either.
Yet Ha Gyeong explained calmly.
“The Boss is down there. We can’t give up and retreat.”
“I suppose that’s true, but—”
“I have a method. Just follow me. I’ll show you.”
Ha Gyeong immediately extended his left hand.
A simple, unadorned ring on his index finger glowed.
[Web Caster activated]
[Firing web toward target]
Whoosh!
A purple net shot out and stuck to the outer wall of the labyrinth.
It was both a pillar and material of the dungeon itself.
Following it down would lead directly to the Boss’s rear.
Ha Gyeong immediately dropped his body downward.
Whoosh!
The purple net stretched and extended.
Clinging to the labyrinth’s outer wall.
Halfway down, Ha Gyeong caught hold of Whisperer.
“The purple net slows descent considerably. John, think back to the skill Black Leviathan used.”
―Ah, that? Yeah, I get the gist of it.
John launched himself without hesitation.
A deep bond of trust had formed between him and Ha Gyeong.
The Web Caster’s net didn’t just slow descent.
There was no sticky sensation whatsoever.
Thanks to that, John arrived in the vicinity with ease.
Shortly after, his teammates’ voices came through Whisperer.
―We’re coming too!
John’s willingness to go first had given them confidence.
Ha Gyeong smiled and spoke.
“Thank you for trusting me.”
“Come on, a man from Florida can’t let something like this stop him. Besides, you already carved the path for us, bro.”
“I’m grateful anyway.”
“Heh.”
John laughed without pretense.
He seemed like a narcissist enamored with his own coolness.
Of course, Ha Gyeong had no patience for indulgent moments.
“Enough admiring yourself. Let’s keep moving.”
“Whoa! What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You didn’t understand. That’s why I said no chitchat—just follow me.”
“Ah, damn. How’d you know? Don’t use such hard words.”
“You said before you understood all Korean.”
“Some words I only know the vibe of. Not the exact meaning. But I’m really good at reading atmosphere.”
John being John, as always.
Even in dangerous situations, he couldn’t stop rambling.
Ha Gyeong ignored the last bit of nonsense and checked his teammates’ positions.
“From this height, you should survive the fall. Still, a platform or two halfway down would be nice.”
“Can’t you use that thing again?”
“Web Caster has a long cooldown.”
“Okay. So what’ll you make the platform from?”
“This.”
Ha Gyeong drew out the Resonance Staff.
It was just a secondary weapon, after all.
Going without it for a moment wouldn’t cause any real problems.
He immediately hurled his body downward.
Freefall time: approximately 3.5 seconds.
After dropping roughly fifty meters,
Ha Gyeong swung the Resonance Staff with force.
[Compression ability of the Abyss Challenger heightens the density of Abyss energy]
Thud—! Thump!
With Stage 5 Abyss Resonance plus the Compression ability combined,
The staff buried itself halfway with a dull boom.
It would easily support a few Awakened Ones.
After a brief rest, Ha Gyeong dropped his body again.
While transmitting to his teammates.
“You can use the embedded Resonance Staff to descend easily. The last person, could you recover it?”
―Yes, see you at the bottom. Thank you, Ha Gyeong.
This time, Park Jeong Jin’s voice came through.
He must have been the one jumping last.
Ha Gyeong descended along the gently angled silver pillar.
Coming to rest on the floor below.
Thud!
The distance from the staff to the ground was about sixty meters.
Thanks to the sloped structure, the landing was smooth.
[You have encountered Aurella, the Golden Queen, Boss of the Abyss Dungeon]
A system message appeared.
The title attached to the Boss was striking.
Ha Gyeong recalled dungeons he’d experienced thanks to his father.
‘Starting from Extreme Grade, things like that get attached. Void Grade doesn’t reveal the Boss’s true name.’
So he still didn’t know the Abyss ruler’s actual name.
His grip on Crimson Edge grew damp.
This was his first time facing an Extreme Grade Boss.
Even someone with Ha Gyeong’s iron nerve couldn’t avoid tension.
‘John needs to get here soon.’
If the Melee Dealer pulled aggro first, it could go very wrong.
The Boss raid could turn into a disaster.
Fortunately, someone descended to Ha Gyeong’s vicinity quickly.
“Hey! Bro. Missed me?”
“We were together the whole time until just now.”
“I’m impatient. Even a few seconds feels long.”
“Someone with a wife shouldn’t talk like that.”
“Why’d you bring up my wife all of a sudden? That just killed the mood.”
“Oh? I should give your wife a call sometime soon.”
“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa-hey! Bro.”
“Why switch to English and suddenly use Korean interjections?”
“I’m a foreign worker. What about it!”
Though Ha Gyeong bantered with John, he never let his guard drop.
His gaze remained fixed on Aurella.
It moved its eight eyes constantly.
It seemed to be aiming for something while pretending to do nothing.
Sure enough.
Aurella yanked the silver substance from its rear hard.
Crack!
The labyrinth’s pillar snapped instantly.
The teammates descending along Web Caster’s net and the Resonance Staff were…
In free fall.
Ha Gyeong cursed.
“Damn it! This is too high!”
“S-Should I catch them?”
Ha Gyeong and John glanced at each other.
The Resonance Staff was roughly sixty meters up.
Park Jeong Jin, who’d been highest, was falling from one hundred and ten meters.
Even if the Healer and Ranged Dealers wore light armor,
They easily weighed a hundred and twenty kilograms each.
Practically like ballista rounds.
Ha Gyeong gritted his teeth.
‘It’s too risky to do what John suggested. We could all get hurt.’
Yet he couldn’t just let them fall.
Never mind the raid failing,
They were comrades whose backs he was entrusted with.
Ha Gyeong erased the second option from his mind.
Instead, he pulled out lengths of Resonance Rope.
He was thinking he might do something with it,
When the silver liquid metal scattered across the floor caught his eye.
In that instant, a bolt of inspiration struck Ha Gyeong.
‘It hasn’t fully solidified yet. What if we use that?’
The silver substance Aurella expelled had varying hardness depending on the situation.
Hard as stone when forming walls or pillars,
But liquid when transforming into something else.
Yet what she’d just expelled was caught between states.
That could easily cushion the impact.
Ha Gyeong immediately pressed the Resonance Rope into John’s hands.
“Run! We need to move that stuff over there!”
“Got it!”
John seemed to grasp Ha Gyeong’s intent immediately.
The two ran like madmen, rope in hand.
The bouncy silver mass dragged along with them.
Soon the teammates landed directly on it.
Bounce! Bounce! Thud!
“Hagh!”
“Oof!”
“Gaaah!”
Different screams based on the height they’d fallen from.
Even cushioned, the impact couldn’t be entirely negated.
Park Jeong Jin, the last to land, let out a relieved sigh.
“Whew! I thought I was dead for sure. I’m alive thanks to you, Ha Gyeong. I don’t know how to thank you enough…”
“Don’t mention it. We’re teammates—saving you is the obvious thing to do.”
“Haha! Though there are plenty of raider guild members who wouldn’t do the same.”
He seemed to be referring to Raiders Guild.
Ha Gyeong turned back with a faint smile.
“We found the Boss. Now let’s fight properly.”
“Let’s go!”
John stepped forward with a swagger.
His speech and appearance were rough as a thug, but the atmosphere was far more lethal.
With John’s Pulling, the raid began.
Whoosh—! Boom!
“Screeeee!”
As the Flail struck her head, Aurella rose to her feet.
Her leg span had been roughly fifteen meters.
But her actual size was far more massive than expected.
And even just standing up
Sent strange tremors through everything.
Ha Gyeong instinctively grabbed his wrist.
‘What is this? Why am I feeling like this?’
Abyss exploration and dungeon raids were perilous work.
Which meant he always maintained some level of tension.
One moment of carelessness could be fatal.
Yet something felt profoundly different now.
Ha Gyeong looked around.
‘The team’s frozen too. This is… fear.’
He’d experienced Extreme Grade dungeons before.
The upper levels of the Abyss, not the Bottomless Abyss.
Though he’d been with Axis Prime at the time.
But not to this extent.
A killing intent so palpable it felt like piercing through bone.
Ha Gyeong sensed the reason.
‘The situation is different. Back then, Father and Uncle shielded us. Now I’m the raid leader.’
Responsibility was amplifying the fear of failure.
Yet Ha Gyeong carried none of his former weakness.
The tempering that began when he earned the title Ultimate Deserter,
Six years on,
Had forged him into a warrior with a heart of steel.
“Gaaaargh! Let’s go!”
A battle cry that was almost a roar.
His teammates regained their senses one by one.
Then the raid began in earnest.
Extreme Grade.
Aurella, the Golden Queen, Boss of the Bottomless Abyss.
Tearing Open the Gate
Author |
Moraetop
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Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
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Editorial Department
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No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books.
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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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