The All-Time Best Talent was F-Class Purification - Chapter 58

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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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58
Chapter 58 – An Elite Talent Awakened as an F-Rank Purifier
Three days passed like this.
Time was not on our side. The situation grew increasingly desperate with each passing hour.
When the tidal hour arrived, the area outside the Hideout became a literal sea of toxic gas—a concentration so lethal that even a minute without a gas mask would be fatal. Throughout the night, the anguished screams of monsters intoxicated and maddened by the gas hammered relentlessly against the shutter.
Boom!
Boom!
Screeeech—
The people inside the Hideout grew increasingly silent. Lee Seung-ryong’s party members huddled in the corner, exchanging anxious glances, while Han Su-jin’s fingertips had turned white from continuously charging magic stone batteries.
I couldn’t sleep. Four in the morning. Even as everyone else lay exhausted in slumber, I spread out the map and wrestled with the problem again and again. What could we do? Were we simply going to stare at the Blue Tower and suffocate to death together?
‘No.’
I shook my head. I had started this. I had to see it through.
The moment dawn broke, I made my decision.
“Moonglade members, please gather in the inner conference room for a moment.”
At my voice, my drowsy comrades stirred awake. Myself, Seo Eun-ha, Park Jae-jung, Lee Ji-young, and Su-jin. The five of us sat cramped around the narrow conference table.
“I think we should give up on contacting the Blue Tower. Three days have passed with nothing but silence—it means they’ve either abandoned us or intend to leave us to our fate.”
I unfolded the map on the table. I marked the area directly below Zone 99 with a red pen.
“There’s a limit to blocking the incoming gas. We need to cut off the source.”
“The source… you mean the Underground Level 3 Laboratory?”
Seo Eun-ha asked.
“That place is far and dangerous. Instead, we need to seal the vents where the gas is erupting to the surface.”
I pointed to the ground beneath the Lower District on the map—fifty meters below the surface.
“The pressure rising from below is seeping through fissures in the earth and leaking to the surface. We need to go down and physically seal those fissures.”
“Seal them…?”
Lee Ji-young repeated the question.
“How are we supposed to seal all those fissures across such a vast area?”
“We can’t seal them all, but if we seal just the main fissures, we can significantly reduce the gas rising into the Lower District. I plan to cover them with debris from the surroundings and solidify them with my purification.”
My comrades’ expressions darkened. They all understood where we would have to go.
“To the surface… you’re saying we should go down there.”
Park Jae-jung spoke in a low, heavy voice.
“Yes.”
I laid it out honestly.
“I know it’s dangerous. With the gas covering everything now, there’s a high probability the monsters have mutated to A-rank or higher.”
A brief silence fell. I wanted to resolve this situation that had arisen because of me.
“If we stay like this, we might die anyway. And… this is my responsibility too. It’s a side effect from me stopping the explosion, so I want to be the one to fix it.”
At my confession, Seo Eun-ha let out a small laugh.
“You’re being ridiculous. If you hadn’t stopped that explosion, we’d all be dead already. Why are you taking it all on yourself like that?”
“Eun-ha is right.”
Park Jae-jung nodded.
“It’s not your fault, Director. We were trying to survive, and because of you, we did. Now we just need to solve the next problem.”
“I agree. It’s better than sitting around and breathing in the gas.”
Han Su-jin quietly voiced her support as well.
The heavy stone lodged in my chest felt slightly lighter.
“Thank you, everyone. Then… let’s prepare.”
We explained the situation to Lee Seung-ryong and asked him to guard the Hideout. Though worry flickered across his face, he saw the resolve in my expression and silently opened the shutter for us.
We headed toward the Emergency Stairwell Passage on the outskirts of Zone 99—a rusted spiral staircase installed within the massive pillar that supported the city, connecting the Ground Level to the Lower District.
Creeeeak— As I pushed open the heavy iron door, a wave of frigid air and the stench of decay rushed from the depths below.
“I’m going down.”
Step by step. The sound of my feet on the metal stairs echoed through the hollow passage. Fifty meters. Not a great distance vertically, but psychologically it felt like several kilometers.
As I descended, the darkness deepened, and the sounds reaching me through the gas mask grew increasingly eerie.
“Grrrrr…”
The cries of surface monsters—creatures exposed to the gas, stripped of reason, their bodies twisted and deformed.
“Don’t let your guard down. We’re almost there.”
I reached the final landing. Beyond the exit, a thick violet mist filled the air. I gripped the Purification Stone and stepped outside.
Squelch. My foot sank into rotted mud. Ruins of collapsed buildings, rusted vehicles, and skeletal trees stripped bare. The land humanity had abandoned—Earth’s Surface.
And within that mist, crimson eyes flickered with malice.
“Kyaaaaa!”
Bursting through the fog was a Hell Hound—but not the kind we knew. Horns sprouted from its back, and its muscles bulged grotesquely. It was a mutated variant.
“Incoming!”
Park Jae-jung stepped forward and drove his Tower Shield into position.
Boom!
The collision was dull and heavy. Park Jae-jung’s body skidded backward a full meter.
“Ugh…!”
Even a B-Rank tank like Park Jae-jung cried out under the strain. Veins bulged along his forearms as he gripped the shield. A single charge, and he was already struggling. This was the power of a mutated A-Rank.
“Move.”
Then, Seo Eun-ha walked forward from beside me with an air of annoyance. She paid no mind to the gas choking the air around us, simply flicking her fingers with casual grace.
[Flame Bullet]
Snap— Boom!
A single shot. The Hell Hound’s head, which had been bearing down on Park Jae-jung, exploded in mid-air. The massive corpse collapsed without even a cry.
Park Jae-jung stared blankly, his eyes darting between his shield and the corpse. An overwhelming gap. This was the might of an S-Rank Hunter.
Seo Eun-ha blew away the smoke curling from her fingertips and glanced at me.
“Let’s move. The air here is absolutely disgusting.”
I nodded. We pushed through the mist, heading toward the Ground Fissure where red light seeped through.
Squelch, squelch.
With each step, the black mud clung stubbornly to my shoe soles. The landscape around us was desolate. Buses reduced to skeletal frames, streetlamps half-melted, and grotesque plants sprouting through the asphalt. This wasn’t a human city—it was a forest of fungus and toxins.
“Ugh… this is disgusting.”
Han Su-jin trembled and gently gripped my sleeve. Where her gaze fell, a vine-like plant in the shape of a human writhed against the wall.
“Don’t look at it, Su-jin. It’s not good for your sanity.”
I reassured her while keeping my eyes ahead. The weight of the Purification Stone backpack pressed on my shoulders, but heavier still was the weight of responsibility.
“Three hundred meters ahead.”
Ji-young pushed her glasses up and called out coordinates. The mana detector in her hand was vibrating frantically.
“The readings… are about to exceed the measurement limit. Over there.”
The mist parted, and a vast open space suddenly came into view. And then—
Kuuuuuu—
A sound like a colossal beast breathing. The ground had split open. A massive fissure roughly five meters wide and twenty meters long. From that gaping wound in the earth, purple gas erupted like a geyser, accompanied by a crimson glow.
“Wow… this is insane.”
Even Eun-ha was left speechless. It wasn’t merely smoke rising. Tremendous high-pressure energy was being shot upward from the depths below. Since that pressure was striking the Lower District floor directly, running filters from above was utterly futile.
“Let’s begin the work.”
I set down my backpack. The sight was overwhelming, but there was no time to be afraid.
“Park Jae-jung, Eun-ha. I need you to watch the perimeter. I’ll be defenseless while I work.”
“Don’t worry. Your back is safe with me.”
Park Jae-jung planted his shield down with a heavy thud and positioned himself in front of me.
“Finish quickly. The smell is giving me a headache.”
Eun-ha turned away with an annoyed expression, flames dancing at her fingertips.
I carefully approached the edge of the fissure. The heat and toxic fumes washed over me. I could feel my gas mask filter being consumed rapidly.
‘I need to cover it physically…’
I scanned the concrete debris scattered around. Fragments of collapsed building pillars, chunks of asphalt. I had to move them over the fissure.
“Hnngh!”
I grunted and rolled a large stone toward the fissure. But the pressure of the gas erupting from it was so fierce that even a substantial rock threatened to be flung away like a feather.
I pressed my hand against the muddy ground at the fissure’s edge. This contaminated earth, this rotting mud—if I purified it, its properties would change.
[Skill: Purification]
I burned away the impurities and toxins within the mud. As the moisture and contamination drained away, the soggy mud rapidly hardened into something like solid stone.
“It works.”
I had found my answer.
I stacked the concrete debris like a dam across the fissure, haphazardly layering them. Then I filled the gaps with mud and poured my mana into it, purifying everything.
Ssshhhhh—!
White steam rose as the mud hardened like cement, binding the debris together. The holes where gas was leaking gradually diminished.
Kuuung! Crash!
The pressure from below resisted, slamming against the pile of stones I’d built. The rocks rattled.
“No—I have to hold it.”
I clenched my teeth and poured more mana into the structure. Sweat from my forehead dripped into my gas mask, stinging my eyes.
“Boss! Nine o’clock!”
Ji-young’s shout. So focused on my work, I hadn’t noticed—my purification light was drawing unwanted visitors from the darkness. Were they creatures from the surface, drawn to pure mana?
[Mutant: Giant Tick]
A swarm of ticks the size of human heads was surging toward us, a writhing black mass. There had to be thousands of them.
“These disgusting things really—!”
Eun-ha reached out but hesitated. The insects were too close to me and the fissure. If she unleashed an explosion here, the dam I’d built might collapse.
“They’re too close!”
“I’ll hold them back!”
Park Jae-jung raised his shield and threw himself at the onrushing swarm of insects.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
The ticks slammed against the shield and burst apart. But they kept spraying acidic fluid, attempting to climb over the barrier.
“Su-jin! Cover Park Jae-jung!”
“Roger that!”
Han Su-jin panicked and increased the output of her mana battery. The blue light flowing from her hands formed a thin membrane over Park Jae-jung’s shield, neutralizing the acidic liquid.
“Eun-ha! Handle the ranged targets. Park Jae-jung will block the close ones.”
I shouted, pushing another stone into the fissure.
“Don’t order me around!”
Seo Eun-ha grumbled, but flicked her fingers nonetheless.
[Flame Arrow]
This time it wasn’t an explosion but penetration. Dozens of thin, sharp arrows of flame tore through the air, piercing the ticks in the rear with precision. It was delicate control unlike her usual style—suppressing the blast while maximizing penetrating power.
‘They’re all… fighting desperately.’
My comrades were buying me time. I squeezed out my last reserves of strength. The largest gas vent—if I could seal that, we’d be done.
I placed my hand on a boulder the size of a house. I didn’t have the strength to roll it. But I could manipulate the ground to make it slide.
Whoooosh—
I purified the mud beneath the boulder into sand in an instant. Friction vanished, and the rock slid toward the center of the fissure.
Thud!
The boulder plugged the hole. The surging gas had nowhere to go, hissing as it squeezed through the cracks around the stone.
Shhhhhhh—!
“Now!”
I shoved both hands into the gaps between the boulder and the fissure.
Pouring every ounce of mana into it, I burned away the earth and toxins in the air, then solidified it all. White light consumed the entire fissure.
Screech, clang!
It sounded like molten metal hardening.
Silence fell. The swarms of insects, confused as the purification light faded, scattered in disarray.
“Huff… huff…”
I collapsed to the ground. The massive fissure before me was now sealed solid with gray stone. No more gas leaked out.
“We sealed it…”
Lee Ji-young checked her measuring device.
“The readings are dropping.”
We looked at each other. Behind our gas masks, only ragged breathing could be heard, but our eyes were alive. We’d done it.
But relief was short-lived. My eyes were already searching for the next fissure. This was only the beginning. On the surface, there were still many holes to seal.
“Get up. We need to seal another one.”
Park Jae-jung extended his hand to me. I grasped that solid, reassuring hand and stood.
Huff, huff.
The gas mask filter made metallic sounds as it filtered my ragged breathing. Though we’d sealed the first fissure, exhaustion overwhelmed any sense of relief. Having pushed my mana to its limits, I felt a burning heat coursing through my veins.
“Boss, are you alright?”
Han Su-jin approached and placed her hand on my back. Cool mana from her ring flowed down my spine.
“Yes, thanks to you. Thank you, Su-jin.”
As I straightened up, I surveyed our surroundings. We stood at an intersection that had once been a bustling commercial district. A half-collapsed convenience store sign was buried in mud, and rusted cars lay tangled on the road, reduced to skeletal frames. Purple moss covered the bleached bones of the driver still seated behind the wheel, spreading like veins.
This place was a tomb frozen in time.

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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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