The All-Time Best Talent was F-Class Purification - Chapter 16

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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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16
Chapter 16 – An Elite Talent Awakened as an F-Rank Purifier
My words dissolved without a trace, swallowed by the horrific sound that filled the Dome.
Kuoooo—
It was far more than mere noise. The very air itself shrieked with vibrations. The steel railings of the Catwalk beneath my feet trembled violently, and the massive stalactites hanging from the Dome’s ceiling, unable to withstand the oscillations, cascaded down onto the Acidic Lake below.
The creature no longer sat upon the Central Island. It had become an island itself—a fortress of flesh and corruption.
[The Contaminated Slime Lord has entered a berserk state.]
[It has absorbed the high-concentration contaminated energy in the vicinity and completed its secondary mutation.]
[Warning: The measured energy level has exceeded the threshold of a D-Rank Dungeon.]
The System Message glowed crimson, staining my vision. Exceeded threshold. Those words were nothing less than a death sentence—we had ventured beyond the realm of what we could possibly handle.
‘I have to escape.’
Instinctively, words like combat and conquest vanished from my mind. This was a calamity that transcended what even C-Rank Hunters could face, let alone E-Rank ones.
Looking down, I saw Park Jae-jung frozen near the Entrance Corridor, shield raised, his eyes visible through the gas mask trembling violently. A terror that overwhelmed even veterans who had crossed countless battlefields.
“Park Jae-jung! We have to run. Find an exit—”
The moment I cried out toward him, half of the Boss’s dozens of eyes fixed upon me, suspended in the void.
Kieeeek—
It shrieked and lashed out. Not with arms, but with dozens of bone tentacles erupting from its back, coalescing into a massive spear that hurtled toward me in a straight line.
Shuuung—
The air split with a piercing crack.
I had to dodge. My mind screamed the command, but my body refused to obey. The speed exceeded what my E-Rank physique could process. Even if I could react, there was nowhere to go. I was trapped on this narrow Catwalk.
As death approached, time seemed to slow.
I could see with crystalline clarity the bone spear’s tip rotating in a spiral, shredding the air. The moment it touched my body, I would burst apart before pain could even register.
There was no miraculous regression, no system intervention. Only the catastrophe born of my own miscalculation. I could do nothing but squeeze my eyes shut in resignation.
“Boss!”
Then, a shout erupted from below.
Kwaaang.
With the impact, a massive shadow materialized before me. An impossible sight unfolded before my eyes.
Blue light erupted from beneath the Catwalk where I stood.
It was Park Jae-jung. He had sprinted from the Entrance, leaped across the crumbling structure, and positioned himself between me and the attack.
The Gigas Shield in his hands blazed with an intensity I had never witnessed, forming a colossal magical barrier in the air. It was Park Jae-jung’s unique skill—Guardian’s Wall.
Kwajjik.
As the Boss’s bone spear collided with Guardian’s Wall, the magical barrier erupted with a deafening roar, scattering fragments. The impact sent Park Jae-jung’s body reeling backward, yet he did not yield an inch. His feet dug into the Catwalk’s railings, his entire frame twisting to absorb the force.
“Ughhhh.”
Blood streamed from his mouth, staining the inner glass of his gas mask crimson. A C-Rank Tank’s final defense, purchased with his own life force.
But the opponent was a mutated Lord.
Crack—crack.
An ominous sound. It came from the shield Park Jae-jung held—the Gigas Shield we had so painstakingly repaired.
Fine fractures began spreading across its surface. The blue magical circuits, unable to withstand the overload, were turning crimson.
‘No…’
I reached out, but it was already too late.
Crack—. Shatter—.
A sound like breaking glass erupted through the air—crystalline, yet brutal. The Gigass Shield had shattered into pieces.
The fragments of the B-Rank shield scattered into the void, and the Boss’s bone spear pierced straight through the space where the shield had been.
“Ugh.”
Park Jae-jung’s body flew like a puppet with severed strings, slamming hard into the Dome’s wall.
He hadn’t been pierced by the spear. The catastrophic shockwave from the shield’s destruction had hurled him backward.
Thud—.
He crashed to the Floor with a dull sound and lay motionless.
“Jae-jung!”
My mind went blank. I screamed, gripping the railing.
My partner… the shield I had given him… had shattered protecting me.
But the Boss granted me no time to grieve. Enraged that its attack had been blocked, it unleashed a more terrifying shriek and began preparing a second assault. This time, it wasn’t a single tentacle. The entire Acidic Lake convulsed, and dozens—hundreds—of acidic jets erupted like machine gun fire.
The targets were Park Jae-jung, collapsed beneath the Wall, and me, standing dazed upon the Catwalk.
Snapping back to reality, I realized Park Jae-jung wasn’t dead yet. If I gave up here, he truly would be.
‘Move. I have to move!’
I slapped my own cheek. My Core Energy was depleted and my legs trembled, but I was the leader of this party.
I began running across the crumbling Catwalk. Not to save myself—but to rescue the person lying below me. I threw everything I had into the air, hurling my body into the downpour of acidic rain.
Whoosh—.
The wind sound tore at my ears. Beneath my feet, the boiling Acidic Lake churned; above my head, the Catwalk collapsed inward; and ahead, the mutated Lord raised hundreds of tentacles.
I threw myself into the void. It was suicide. Yet my gaze remained fixed on one place alone—Park Jae-jung, embedded at the base of the Dome’s wall.
‘I won’t let you die.’
My E-Rank evolved senses made time slow. I twisted my body mid-air, calculating my landing point. The edge of the Acidic Lake, a narrow strip of exposed rock. I had to land there.
Crash.
The impact traveled from my soles through my spine to my brain. If my body hadn’t been enhanced, my legs would have shattered. I ignored the pain and instinctively rolled forward, dispersing the shock.
“Ugh.”
A groan escaped me, but there was no time to stop. I forced strength into my trembling legs and ran again. Just meters ahead, buried in rubble, was Jae-jung.
“Jae-jung. Stay with me.”
I shook him. The gas mask’s visor was half-shattered, and blood trickled from his lips. He’d taken the full impact of a B-Rank shield shattering with his bare body. That he was alive was a miracle.
“Ugh… L-Leader…”
Park Jae-jung’s eyes were unfocused.
“Run… away… I’m… finished…”
“Don’t say that!”
I urgently placed my hand on his chest. My Core Energy was also running dry, but there was no time to hesitate.
‘Please, stop.’
Like wringing out a dry cloth, I scraped together my remaining purification energy and poured it into his body. I couldn’t heal his wounds perfectly, but I had to erase the contamination from the impact that was consuming his life.
“Ugh.”
As faint white light flowed from my palm and enveloped his chest, his ragged breathing miraculously eased, and the blood trickling from his lips stopped. It wasn’t perfect healing, but I’d succeeded in dragging him back from death’s threshold.
I draped one of his arms over my shoulder. It was heavy, but thanks to the emergency treatment, I felt some strength returning to his legs.
“Remember our contract? You said betrayal means death. Letting you die alone would be betrayal too. So let’s get out together. Alive.”
He was smiling faintly.
But the situation was dire. The entrance we’d come through was already collapsed and blocked by the Boss’s first attack. Our escape route had vanished.
Kuoooo—
That horrific sound echoed behind me again. I turned to see the Slime Lord, now in its second transformation, staring at us with dozens of eyes.
It raised an enormous tentacle mass, bone and flesh intertwined. This time it wasn’t a feint. This was a decisive blow meant to crush us utterly.
‘Where can I possibly dodge?’
Left and right were the Acidic Lake, behind us was a sealed wall, ahead was the Boss. I wrapped my arms around Park Jae-jung and spun frantically, searching for any way out. There had to be something—anything.
That’s when it happened. The tentacle the Boss was about to bring down suddenly twisted grotesquely in mid-air.
Kwang—!
Its attack went wide, striking the wall directly beside where we stood. With a tremendous shudder, debris cascaded down, and I threw myself over Park Jae-jung, shielding him against the Floor.
‘…It missed?’
No. It was targeting us, but its body wasn’t obeying. The bloated mass, the grotesquely protruding bones, the muscles writhing of their own accord.
[Warning: Target’s energy has exceeded critical threshold and is running rampant.]
[Loss of bodily control.]
System Messages flashed before my eyes.
It had grown stronger, but simultaneously it was breaking apart. Its body couldn’t handle the massive surge of energy flowing back from the five devices we’d destroyed. It wasn’t attacking us—it was convulsing, wracked by the energy coursing through it.
Kwang. Kuung.
It thrashed its limbs in apparent agony, flailing madly. Its indiscriminate attacks began demolishing the Dome’s Ceiling and Walls. The Ceiling collapsed, and massive boulders plummeted into the Acidic Lake. This place would come down soon—there was no doubt.
Then I saw something.
Where one corner of the Dome’s Ceiling had caved in from the Boss’s assault, beyond the cascading earth and stone, a void of absolute darkness yawned open.
But the cross-section was strange. Not the rough stone of a natural Cave. Corroded but smooth—artificial steel H-beams and concrete structures were exposed.
‘What is that?’
In that instant, something struck me. The energy flowing from the Energy Supply Device had been channeling upward somewhere in the Ceiling.
‘Could there be another level above?’
This Dungeon wasn’t naturally formed. It was a massive artificial facility, deliberately constructed. If that were true, beyond that collapsed Ceiling might not be the monster’s domain—it could be another section of the facility.
But it was too far. The collapsed Ceiling was at the Dome’s edge, over twenty meters high. Without wings, I couldn’t reach it.
“Boss, look there…”
Park Jae-jung had seen it too. He raised his hand with difficulty, pointing below the collapsed Ceiling. There, the Boss’s rampage had caused the Wall to crumble in stepped layers, creating a precarious path leading upward.
“Can you make the jump?”
Park Jae-jung clenched his teeth and nodded.
“We have to find a way.”
I quickly gathered the fragments of the shattered Gigass Shield and pulled him to his feet, and we ran.
The Boss had no intention of letting us go. As it detected our movement, it unleashed a deafening shriek, firing dozens of bone missiles from its body.
Shuu shuu shuk!
“Run!”
I dodged the barrage of missiles and began scrambling up the collapsed Wall. Rocks crumbled beneath my feet, explosions erupted beside me. I practically dragged Park Jae-jung, pushing forward with every ounce of strength toward the top. My body was reaching its limits. My breath came in ragged gasps, my thighs screaming in agony.
The Boss’s pursuit was relentless. It tore its lower body free from the Swamp entirely and began crawling toward us, dragging its massive form. The Acidic Lake overflowed, surging up the Wall.
“Kraaaaahhh!”
Its enormous hand was about to engulf us.
With my last ounce of strength, I shoved Park Jae-jung upward toward the Ceiling Hole above. And then I threw myself after him.
Thud!
The creature’s hand struck the spot where we’d been standing just moments before, obliterating the entire wall. But we had already hurled ourselves into the Ceiling Hole above.
Thump, thump, thump.
In the absolute darkness, I tumbled across the cold floor. Instinctively, I rose and leveled my purification dagger toward the Entrance.
But the creature could not follow. The hole was far too narrow for its massive bulk to squeeze through. It could only rage from outside the opening, clawing frantically at the wall with furious shrieks.
“Hah… hah…”
We had survived. I lay sprawled on the floor, gasping for breath. My heart thundered wildly in my chest.

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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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