The All-Time Best Talent was F-Class Purification - Chapter 64

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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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64
Chapter 64 – An Elite Talent Awakened as an F-Rank Purifier
Forty steps. Fifty steps.
As my legs began to lose sensation, the end of the spiral staircase came into view. A rusted iron door. Beyond it, a faint violet light seeping through.
Creak—
I opened the door.
Whoooosh—
A deadly toxic wind that had been waiting for me crashed over my body. A thick violet mist obscured my vision. The world illuminated by the purifying light emanating from my hands was nothing but a gray wasteland of ruins.
Collapsed asphalt. Buildings reduced to skeletal frames. Vehicles so rusted their forms were unrecognizable.
The Ground Surface.
The land humanity had abandoned. The domain of monsters. And the place where I would be reborn.
I closed the iron door behind me.
Thud.
All light and sound from the world were cut off. What remained was only my ragged breathing and the howling of wind beneath my feet.
I closed my eyes for a moment and leaned my back against the cold iron door. The acrid stench. The violet gas smell that pierced my chest vividly brought back memories from just days ago.
“Back then… it was so loud.”
The day when contact with Blue Tower was severed and the terror of isolation descended upon us. Instead of waiting passively for death, we chose to act.
I was not alone.
Park Jae-jung leading the way, cutting through the darkness. Seo Eun-ha grumbling as she lit the way. Han Su-jin and Lee Ji-young guarding our rear. The five of us descended here together to survive.
Our objective was the fissures around the Research Facility. We needed to seal two gaping holes created by the blast’s aftermath.
“Block it! Quickly!”
“Captain, is your mana holding up?”
We shouted at each other, sweat pouring down our faces, and managed to seal two massive fissures. But that was our limit. Though reduced, the gas still erupted at specific times like the tide.
We had to escape upward at low tide, extinguishing only the most urgent flames to survive.
But now.
There is no one. No shouts from Park Jae-jung. No flames from Seo Eun-ha. Only me, alone.
I smiled bitterly and tightened the straps of my backpack. The pack on my shoulders felt heavy. Equipment and rations left behind by my comrades. That weight dug into my shoulders.
“This is all I can do.”
Now that I’m alone, could I immediately march toward Dominion to destroy it? Impossible. Should I hide in the Lower District and wait for rescue? No one will come.
Helplessness. That was what tormented me most.
So I took another step forward. What I do best. And finishing that remaining work we hadn’t completed. That alone was the only goal that could keep me sane and standing in this solitude.
I took my first step. The sensation of asphalt crumbling transmitted through the soles of my shoes.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
My footsteps echoed through Ruins Street. One step, two steps. With each stride, the air grew thicker.
A searing pain. But it’s familiar. Pain I experienced just days ago. The difference is that back then Han Su-jin was beside me casting healing, but now I must endure it alone.
“Purification.”
The toxins that had entered my body were washed away in white light. The pain was momentary, and purified oxygen and traces of mana coursed through my veins.
Even breathing has become a struggle now.
I thought of nothing. I simply moved my legs like a machine. Walking through the darkness, I suddenly felt as though I might see illusions.
The broad back of Park Jae-jung walking ahead seemed visible, and when I reached out to grasp it, my hand found only cold empty air.
I withdrew my outstretched hand and clenched my fist. Do not be consumed by loneliness. For now, focus only on enduring this weight.
Thud. Thud.
The sound of my footsteps on the asphalt seemed unusually loud. The mist swallowed even sound itself. My field of vision extended five meters ahead. Beyond that, the world dissolved into ash-gray nothingness.
I stopped and checked my wristwatch. The glass was cracked and fractured, but the second hand ticked steadily onward.
Four o’clock in the afternoon.
“It’s time.”
I looked up at the sky blanketed in deep violet clouds. Originally, this place had been where the gas that settled after the Calamity lingered gently like mist. But everything changed after the Research Facility explosion a few days ago.
The ground fissures I hadn’t managed to seal completely. The periodic explosions of highly concentrated contaminated gas that had been compressed within them. We called it the tide.
Whoooosh—. Gugugugugu.
My prediction proved accurate. The ground beneath my feet began to vibrate subtly. As if some colossal beast were exhaling from deep underground, thick violet smoke erupted from the cracks in the asphalt and manhole openings.
The density of the mist transformed in an instant. The silhouettes of abandoned buildings that had been faintly visible moments before vanished completely. This place had become a gas chamber—half air, half toxin.
The last time the five of us came here, we ran for our lives at this moment. We sprinted with our lungs burning, desperate to reach the Safe Zone in our gas masks before the gas filled the air.
But now I had nowhere to hide and nowhere to run.
And I couldn’t run anyway.
Inhale—.
Instead of fleeing, I drew the gas deep into my lungs. The agony of swallowing boiling water. My esophagus burned, and my cells screamed in protest.
My frail body, born as F-rank, sent signals of collapse as it failed to withstand the toxin.
‘Now.’
The moment death loomed before me. When every cell in my body cried out for salvation. The mana circuits near my heart spun with fierce intensity.
“Purification.”
Whoooosh—.
White light spiraled through my body. This was no mere detoxification. I was restoring my lungs, bronchial tubes, and blood vessels—which were dissolving in the toxin—to their original state.
But the toxin already inside me did not disappear. Purification merely transformed its nature. The gas of death converted into pure energy and flowed through my veins.
Crack. Thud.
The sound of bones resonating. Destroyed by toxin, regenerated by purification. This terrible cycle of destruction and rebirth. Through this process, my C-rank mana vessel was forcibly torn and stitched back together, expanding bit by bit, ever so slightly.
Growth in this world is not as convenient as a game. You must push yourself to the brink of death—truly to the edge of death—to break through your shell. For others, this is the hour they die gasping for breath. For me, it is the most agonizing yet the fastest time to grow.
Exhale….
I breathed out white mist. My body burned like a coal. I staggered forward, resuming my steps.
More terrifying than the toxin was the silence. A world where nothing could be seen and no sound could be heard. Only the weight of the backpack on my shoulders proved I was still alive.
“Damn it.”
Suddenly, I found myself missing the chaos of days past. Back then, we were shouting to survive, scrambling to help each other up when we fell. Now, all I heard was my own ragged breathing.
I shook my head to dispel the thoughts. Do not weaken. Save the memories for later. Right now, survival comes first.
That was when it happened.
Kieeeek—!
A sharp cry pierced through the mist. Simultaneously, dozens of crimson eyes gleamed from the darkness. A swarm of contaminated blood-sucking bats. Deformed creatures whose eyes had multiplied to four from exposure to the gas.
Would they remember? How five humans had passed through this place days ago and driven them away. And how today, one of those five had returned alone.
Flutterflutter—!
They descended upon me. I did not panic. I slowly raised my left hand, the one wearing the Alchemist’s glove.
‘I can feel it.’
It was a strange sensation. The aura I had felt as my rank increased. As my Purification ability grew, my sensitivity to detecting contaminated auras around me sharpened. I called this attunement.
Closing my eyes, I could distinctly sense the creatures rushing toward me. The wavelength of corrupted mana. A sickening bloodlust. My mana circuits vibrated in response to their wavelength.
Like tuning a radio frequency, the corrupted aura of the creatures and my purifying energy connected.
‘I’ve read it.’
I had deciphered their wavelength. If so, erasing them would be instantaneous.
“Purification.”
Fwoosh—!
White light spread silently from my fingertips. It wasn’t an explosive shockwave. Like gentle ripples, yet an absolute, irresistible wave that could not be denied.
Screech? Shriek!
The wings of the bats touched by the light hardened. No—the creatures that had been black were transforming into white ash. The very essence of these beings, composed of corrupted mana, was forcibly dismantled before my purification.
Whoosh.
Without my hand even touching them, dozens of bats suspended in the air became white powder and scattered.
Patter. Patter.
The remaining ash fell like snow onto my shoulders, onto my backpack. Dozens of attackers were resolved with a single quiet, overwhelming gesture.
I didn’t even brush the ash away before adjusting my backpack again. I felt no joy. This wasn’t a fight—merely clearing away the mist that obstructed my path.
I walked into the mist. The cry of a beast echoed from somewhere, but I paid it no mind. I had to keep moving. To that place we hadn’t fully sealed. Perhaps once I filled the remaining holes, my own hollow heart would be mended as well.
That was when it happened.
Scrape.
A faint sound mixed between my footsteps. It wasn’t the wind. A very quiet, secretive friction sound, like something being dragged across asphalt.
When I stopped walking, the sound stopped too.
I couldn’t see it. The gas at high tide was too thick for even the light of purification to pierce a meter ahead, but I could feel it. A prickling sensation on my skin. Someone was watching me.
Whoosh—.
From the left. My body reacted without time to think. I raised my left hand, the one wearing the alchemist’s glove, and instinctively wrapped it around my neck.
Clang—!
A dull metallic sound rang out, and sparks flew. A heavy impact transmitted through my shoulder.
“Ugh…!”
I deflected the impact and stepped back. Then I ignited the light of purification. There was nothing. Something had definitely struck me, yet no form was visible. Only the undulating purple mist.
‘Invisibility?’
No, it was different. The creature hadn’t turned transparent. It had dissolved into this thick gas. A body made of gas. Or something assimilated into the environment itself.
Whoosh—.
The sound came again. This time from behind. All directions were its domain.
A fight against an invisible enemy. An ordinary Hunter would have been paralyzed by fear, slashing at empty air until their throat was cut. But the creature had chosen the wrong opponent.
“I hate holding my breath.”
I gripped the white fang in a reverse grip and closed my eyes. Sight was meaningless. Instead, I opened my mana circuits and synchronized my wavelength with the surrounding air. That sensation I had felt when facing the swarm of bats. The ability to read the wavelength of corrupted aura.
What filled this space was gas without will. But this creature possessed will—it was a living being. No matter how much it disguised itself as mist, it couldn’t hide the bloodlust flowing from its core.
‘…Found it.’
Three o’clock direction to my right. A sticky, alien sensation approaching against the flow of the mist.
I waited with my eyes closed until the creature entered my effective range. Three meters. Two meters. One meter.
The moment it raised its claws, I opened my eyes and quietly intoned.
“Purification.”
Fwoosh—!
A white wave rippled outward from my body in a perfect circle. It was not an attack. Rather, it was a wave that forcibly cleansed the air within a three-meter radius around me.
Shhhhiiiing—
The mist parted as if by illusion. Where the white light touched, the toxic miasma evaporated, leaving behind a transparent layer of clean air.
And within that cleared space, the creature’s form was finally revealed, standing alone and exposed.
The true body that had been hiding in that murky haze. A grotesque amalgamation of wolf and reptile, its entire form coated in black, viscous slime.
The creature froze in panic as its camouflage was stripped away in an instant.
“Hello.”
Our eyes met.
Thrust!
There was no hesitation. My white fang pierced through its brow, striking the Ma Seok core hidden beneath the sticky slime with perfect precision.
Kieeeek—!
A brief, agonized shriek. My white mana flowing through the dagger erased its core from within. The creature’s gaseous body lost all form and collapsed.
Slither…
The monster melted into black liquid and seeped into the ground. I withdrew the dagger and shook off the filth.
Energy poured from the creature’s core into my mana circuits. Strength returned to my exhausted legs.
The monsters in this place are formidable. But they are equally nutritious.
“Haa…”
I breathed heavily. The surrounding mist crept back in, beginning to fill the empty space. But I felt no fear. In this fog, I was no longer prey.
I collapsed onto the ground for a moment. As the tension of battle faded, a sudden, ravenous hunger crashed over me. I opened my backpack and retrieved a high-calorie energy bar that Seo Eun-ha had dismissed as tasteless and shoved into a corner.
Crackle.
The sound of tearing wrapper seemed unusually loud. I took a bite. It was dry and grainy—like chewing sand. Now I understood why Eun-ha had discarded it.
“Still… I have to eat.”
I chewed and swallowed the energy bar with difficulty. My throat grew parched. I reached for my water bottle, but suddenly remembered the water Park Jae-jung had given me days ago.
‘Representative, please drink slowly. It will help your body.’
I found myself missing that clumsy kindness. Acutely aware once more of my solitude, I drank from the bottle.
“…Let’s go.”
I stuffed the remaining energy bar into my pocket and stood. The compass spun uselessly, but my senses were precise. Toward the source of the more acrid stench. Toward where the more concentrated contamination poured forth.
Toward the fissures—the ones born from my mistake, the ones we had failed to seal completely. In this endless fog, I was gradually, but undeniably, becoming a monster.

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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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