The All-Time Best Talent was F-Class Purification - Chapter 31

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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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31
Chapter 31 – An Elite Talent Awakened as an F-Rank Purifier
Lee Ji-young was observing the corpse of the fallen scorpion with meticulous attention. Her expression was grave.
“Something’s wrong.”
“What do you mean?”
“These creatures are far stronger than ordinary D-Rank monsters. Their shell hardness, their internal mana reserves—everything. It’s as if someone forcibly enhanced them.”
She turned to face me.
“The pure mana flowing through this mine—they’re consuming it and mutating. The longer we stay, the stronger they’ll become.”
Her analysis was precise. And it gave us one more reason to hurry.
“We need to move quickly. Before they evolve further.”
I wiped the bodily fluids from my dagger and looked ahead. The darkness still ran deep, and our exit remained distant.
“That marksmanship just now—that was no ordinary skill.”
After the battle ended, Lee Ji-young casually secured her magical artifact in response to my comment. What had resembled a pen moments before had transformed into a sleek silver mana pistol with an elongated barrel.
“Association-issued equipment. Valkyrie MK-4. The penetrating power is quite serviceable.”
She deftly holstered the pistol inside her coat and adjusted her glasses. The crimson glow beyond the lenses was gradually fading.
“What’s truly remarkable is you, Guild Master Lee Tae-hyun.”
Her gaze lingered on the purification dagger in my hand.
“Reversing mana circuits to collapse monsters from within… that’s theoretically possible, but executing it in actual combat at that speed? Extraordinary.”
“Merely a technique acquired through experience.”
I deflected appropriately, but internally remained vigilant. She was A-Rank. An A-Rank specialized not in combat prowess but in perception and analysis. It was only a matter of time before she unraveled the principles of my purification.
“Let’s move. Lingering here will only summon reinforcements.”
I changed the subject and took the lead. Park Jae-jung followed silently behind me, while Lee Ji-young positioned herself in the center of our formation.
We traversed the rubble of the collapsed mine shaft, descending deeper underground. The 400 Meter Underground Level—a region barely excavated even during the Steel Fang Guild’s heyday, an unexplored frontier.
With each step, crystal fragments scattered across the floor chimed softly. Wherever the flashlight beam touched, the raw mana stones embedded in the walls reflected an otherworldly, hauntingly beautiful luminescence.
“It’s so… bright.”
Park Jae-jung spoke quietly, shield held forward.
“Underground should be dark, but here… the cave itself seems to emit light.”
He was right. The crystals protruding from walls, ceiling, and floor all emanated a soft blue radiance of their own. While visibility was advantageous, it also meant we were equally exposed to them.
“Stop.”
Lee Ji-young issued a warning. She removed her glasses again, staring ahead with her naked eyes. Her crimson pupils contracted to narrow slits.
[Eye of Truth]
Where her gaze fell, I perceived an illusion of crimson mana lines weaving through the empty air like a spider’s web.
“Fifty meters ahead. At the crossroads, to the right.”
She whispered.
“An ambush. They’re hiding inside the wall. Larger than those scorpions from before, with denser mana signatures. Five of them.”
She wasn’t merely providing locations.
“Their shells are a mixture of crystal and metallic compounds—physical resistance is extremely high. However…”
She drew her mana pistol and designated targets.
“The third segment of the abdomen. Where the carapace overlaps—that’s the only weak point. The mana flow is severed there.”
“Understood.”
Park Jae-jung nodded. I adjusted my grip on the short sword. This was what support from an A-Rank Appraiser meant—seeing all of the enemy’s information laid bare like the palm of your hand before the fight even began.
We cautiously approached the Crossroads as she had instructed. On the surface, it was nothing more than an ordinary Crystal Wall, but it appeared different to Lee Ji-young’s eyes.
“Three, two, one.”
The moment her countdown ended.
Bang!
A blue mana bullet fired from her pistol. The projectile cut cleanly through empty air, striking a single point on the seemingly featureless wall.
Crack!
“Kyieeeek!”
The wall shattered, and a massive Crystal Scorpion that had been hiding in a state of invisibility shrieked as it tumbled down. The creature, its vital point in the abdomen struck with precision, convulsed across the floor.
It was a signal.
Rumble—
The walls and ceiling collapsed inward as four more scorpions burst out simultaneously. Each was the size of a house, their tails dripping with a sickly cyan venom.
“Coming!”
Park Jae-jung roared and rolled across the floor.
[Taunt Roar]
A crimson wave rippled outward, forcibly locking the creatures’ attention onto him. The scorpions unleashed their venomous stingers at Park Jae-jung in unison.
Clang! Clang-clang-clang!
Park Jae-jung twisted his Gigas Shield diagonally, deflecting the stingers away. It was a perfect fusion of a B-Rank shield’s durability and a C-Rank veteran’s technique. But the creatures’ strength was formidable. With relentless physical attacks pouring down, Park Jae-jung’s feet gradually slid backward.
“The two on the right—I’ll handle them!”
I charged to the right to ease Park Jae-jung’s burden.
One scorpion swung its massive claw. I slid across the floor, evading the strike. The moment I slipped beneath its belly, Lee Ji-young’s voice echoed in my ear.
‘Third segment.’
Without hesitation, I thrust my purification dagger upward.
Squelch!
The blade pierced the soft flesh between the gaps in its hard carapace.
“Purify.”
Sizzle—!
Pure white energy penetrated its body. The creature didn’t even have time to scream before it crumbled from the inside out. Before I could even confirm its massive form losing strength and collapsing, I was already rushing toward my next target.
That was when another scorpion approaching from behind raised its tail, aiming for me. The timing was too late for me to react.
Bang—!
A sharp gunshot rang out, and the scorpion’s tail snapped to the side. The joint had been precisely sniped just before the stinger could fire.
I turned to look back. It was Lee Ji-young. She held her pistol in one hand, her expression cold as she blew away the smoke. Her crimson eyes were already searching for the next target.
“Don’t get distracted. My bullets are expensive, you know.”
I laughed and gave her a thumbs up before diving into the scorpion whose stance had crumbled.
The battle was one-sided. Fighting with prior knowledge of enemy positions, striking weak points with precision, and backed by flawless defense. The combination of an A-Rank Appraiser, a C-Rank tank, and an unconventional dealer was producing synergy beyond expectations.
The last scorpion fell, and silence returned to the Mine Shaft.
“Phew…”
Park Jae-jung lowered his shield and caught his breath. Shallow scratches marked his shield’s surface, but its function remained intact.
“It really is convenient. Knowing where enemies will come from—the stamina consumption is less than half what it would normally be.”
Park Jae-jung marveled at Lee Ji-young. Instead of answering, she furrowed her brow and pressed her temples repeatedly.
“Ugh… my head is pounding.”
She retrieved a small bottle of pills and swallowed two. It was clearly a penalty from using her Truth Eye—cerebral overload. This was undoubtedly why she, an A-Rank Hunter, couldn’t serve on the front lines and worked as an Appraiser instead.
“Are you alright?”
When I asked, she waved her hand dismissively.
“Don’t worry about it. Occupational hazard.”
She put her glasses back on and approached the corpse of the fallen scorpion. She picked up one of its shattered shell fragments and inserted it into a portable analyzer.
“Look at this.”
She showed me the analyzer’s display. The graph was fluctuating abnormally.
“These creatures have internal mana concentrations exceeding three times that of normal specimens. Such levels are absolutely impossible to occur naturally. This means their energy source has changed.”
Her gaze turned toward the Crystal Cave deeper in the Mine Shaft, glowing even more brilliantly.
“Someone—or something—has artificially altered the mana environment of this underground space. With pure, powerful energy.”
Her sharp eyes fixed on me.
“Much like your purification ability, in fact.”
I feigned ignorance and shrugged.
“Perhaps it’s just a mystery of nature?”
“You’re lying.”
She stated it bluntly but didn’t press further. For now, survival took priority over finding culprits.
“It’s this way.”
Lee Ji-young pointed deeper into the cavern.
“The mana flow is converging in that direction. Their nest—or the source of this catastrophe—must be there.”
“Let’s go.”
We moved forward again. After descending for some time, the narrow Mine Shaft widened into a vast Underground Cavern.
We stopped simultaneously, overwhelmed by the sight before us.
It was a forest. Not of trees, but of towering crystal pillars densely packed together—a Crystal Forest. Crystals sprouted from ceiling, floor, and walls alike, radiating blinding light, and countless monsters wandered between them.
And at the heart of this forest, a colossal crystal cocoon pulsed like a heart, radiating crimson light as if drawing all illumination into itself.
“What is that?”
Park Jae-jung asked. Lee Ji-young lowered her goggles and gazed at the cocoon with her Truth Eye. In that instant, her face drained of all color.
“…An… egg.”
She explained in a trembling voice.
“Not a mere monster… it’s gestating a queen. The moment it hatches, it won’t just be this Mine that collapses. The ground within a 10-kilometer radius will cave in entirely.”
She turned to face me.
“We have to stop it. Right now.”
“Ten minutes.”
Lee Ji-young spoke with a pale face, her eyes fixed on the massive crimson cocoon ahead.
“That’s how long until the mana concentration inside the cocoon reaches critical threshold. If we don’t destroy it within ten minutes… the queen hatches. And then all three of us die.”
The queen’s hatching meant the collapse of this Mine, this entire region. There was no choice. We had to break through.
But despair blocked our path.
“Grrrrr…”
“Screech! Screeeech!”
Hundreds of monsters filled the Crystal Forest. Not only the scorpion-type Crystal Scorpions, but humanoid stone creatures that erupted from the ground, crystal golems as well—all converging to form multiple layers of blockade, cutting off every route to the cocoon.
“There are too many of them.”
Park Jae-jung swallowed hard. The Gigas Shield trembled faintly in his grip—not from fear, but from the overwhelming surge of mana pressure bearing down upon his entire body from ahead.
“Jae-jung.”
I called to him quietly.
“We’re breaking through the center. There’s no flanking route, no rear escape. We look forward and run straight ahead.”
“But to pierce through this many…”
“You have to open the path.”
I met his gaze directly.
“You can do this. You’re not the C-Rank you once were.”
Park Jae-jung’s eyes wavered for a moment before hardening with resolve. He adjusted his grip on the shield.
“Understood. Trust me and follow close. Your back is safe with me.”
“Team Leader, I need covering fire. Target the golems’ joints.”
“Don’t order me around. I know what I’m doing.”
Lee Ji-young grumbled, but she was already cranking the output of her mana pistol to maximum.

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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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