The All-Time Best Talent was F-Class Purification - Chapter 66

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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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66
Chapter 66 – An Elite Talent Awakened as an F-Rank Purifier
Crash!
The first creature to charge at me was a mutated wolf with four arms. Its jaws snapped at my throat. I gripped the white dagger and drove it upward beneath its chin.
Squelch!
The blade pierced through its jaw and burrowed deep into its brain. Under normal circumstances, that would have been the end of it. But these creatures were made of gas—monsters that continued moving even with their brains destroyed. Four front claws raked frantically across my tactical jacket.
“Die.”
I whispered the words curtly, channeling mana into the blade.
“Purify.”
Whoosh!
Pure white light erupted from the dagger’s edge. The contaminated mana inside the creature’s skull was forcibly decomposed from within. It didn’t even have time to scream. The red glow faded from the wolf’s eyes, and its massive body crumbled to ash and scattered downward.
Patter, patter.
I had no time to brush away the remains. The next creature, and the ones after that, were already surging toward me like a tidal wave.
Shriek!
This time it came from above. Insectoid mutants that had been clinging to the collapsed subway structure rained down like a downpour. Enemies surrounded me on all sides—front, back, left, right, and from above.
“Hah…”
My breath caught. If Park Jae-jung were here. If he could form an iron wall to block their advance while I cleaned them up from behind, this would be nothing.
But right now, there was no one to guard my back.
I gripped a massive concrete shard rolling across the floor with my left hand, the one wearing the Alchemist’s Gauntlet.
Crack!
The gauntlet’s grip-correction function activated, allowing me to lift the heavy stone effortlessly. I hurled it toward the descending swarm of insects like a baseball.
Smash!
The lead creature’s head exploded. But the ones behind simply trampled over its corpse and kept coming.
“Disgusting, truly.”
I didn’t stop moving. Stop, and I’d be surrounded. Surrounded, and it’s over. I kept moving relentlessly, clambering over the collapsed debris at the sinkhole’s edge.
Clang! Clang! Squelch!
Slash, block, thrust. Dagger technique? I’d already forgotten such things. This was pure desperation for survival. The white dagger became an extension of my arm, dancing through the air, burning everything it touched to ash.
Each time I purified a creature, its mana flowed into my circuits. My mana pathways filled and emptied in an endless cycle. For a normal Hunter, this would have been the moment of mana depletion and collapse.
But every time I killed one of these creatures, my energy recharged as if I were swapping out a battery. The problem was my physical stamina.
“Huff… huff…”
After about an hour, my breathing grew ragged. Sweat poured down like rain, obscuring my vision. My tactical jacket was torn to shreds by their claws, and small wounds were accumulating across my shoulders and thighs.
‘I’m exhausted.’
Even with my body enhanced to C-rank, the sheer number was overwhelming. More than anything, my mental fatigue had reached its peak. The pressure of knowing that a single moment of lost focus meant my throat would be torn out.
I fell back and positioned myself against a collapsed pillar. Before me, dozens of monsters still glowed with crimson eyes, drooling. No matter how many I killed, their numbers didn’t decrease. It was as if they were continuously pouring out from within the sinkhole itself.
“…Something’s wrong.”
I looked down at my hands, breathing heavily. The gauntlet was caked with blood and ichor. And within it, mana churned violently.
My mana capacity had clearly exceeded its limits. Just moments ago, I’d absorbed dozens of C-rank mutants. By the total amount of mana I’d consumed, I should have already filled the reserves of not just a B-rank Hunter, but an A-rank one as well.
So why.
‘Why isn’t my rank increasing?’
Normally, when Hunters absorb mana beyond their threshold or achieve enlightenment, their vessel shatters and their rank rises. I’d experienced that myself when advancing from E-rank to D-rank, and from D-rank to C-rank—the sensation of my body burning and my shell breaking apart.
But not now. My magical power overflows, yet it merely seeps outward without expanding my vessel.
‘Is this my limit?’
Is it a miracle that someone born F-rank has climbed to C-rank? Have I hit the wall of innate genetic destiny?
Kieeeek!
A massive bear-shaped mutant charged at me without giving me time for idle thoughts. I reflexively ducked and drove myself into its embrace. There’s no time for synchronization. I simply force my way in.
Crack!
White fangs pierced through its heart. An explosive burst of purification light. It shrieked and crumbled to ash. Another tremendous surge of magical power flowed into my body, yet again there was no change. Like pouring water into an already-full cup, it simply overflowed.
“Damn it.”
I spat out a curse tinged with irritation and kicked at its corpse.
That’s when it happened.
Uuuung. Gugugugugu.
The ground beneath my feet trembled. A heavy resonance echoing from the depths of the Sinkhole. Simultaneously, the surrounding air grew heavier. A signal that the gas, which had briefly subsided, was about to surge forth again.
“Here we go again.”
The tide. When gas concentration thickens, they grow stronger and more frenzied. I’m already struggling, and now they’ll get even stronger?
I surveyed my surroundings. A mountain of corpses I’d created. But beyond them, I could see shadows of new monsters drawn by the scent of gas.
It’s endless. This isn’t combat. It’s a war of attrition. And the loser in this war of attrition can only be me. I tire, but they do not.
‘I need to change my approach.’
I carved through them while my mind raced. Why are they gathered here? Simply to kill me? No. Their gaze isn’t on me—it’s on the Sinkhole behind me. The high-concentration gas rising from below. For them, it’s sustenance and lifeblood.
Then.
“I need to overturn the table.”
I made my decision. It’s impossible to stab each of these creatures to death one by one. Then I must eliminate the source. I need to block or destroy the hole where that gas emerges.
But how? Physically blocking it is impossible. And I don’t have the ability to stop the gas.
‘No, I do.’
My eyes gleamed. The only authority I possess. The power to erase contamination and restore essence.
With my left hand wearing the Alchemist’s Glove, I gathered the surrounding debris. Rebar, concrete, and bones from the monsters I’d just killed. I wove them together haphazardly to create a temporary Barricade. It won’t hold long, but it will buy me time to catch my breath.
I crouched behind the Barricade and peered down into the Sinkhole. Purple smoke rose from the pitch-black darkness below. Like the breath of a demon.
Synchronization.
I closed my eyes and sent my consciousness downward. Deep. Far deeper than I expected. It seems the collapse of the Underground Level 3 Laboratory floor had torn through to the Underground Bedrock Layer beneath it.
And at the end of it, I sensed something massive and alien. A sensation like a boil swollen with pus. It’s not infinite energy from Earth’s core. It’s a ruptured earth vein from the explosion, or concentrated Ma Seok energy that the Research Facility had been storing, leaking out.
‘The quantity is substantial, but… it’s not infinite.’
Then the answer is clear. If I can’t block it.
“I’ll just drink it all.”
It was a mad thought. The volume of gas pouring out now is hundreds, thousands of times my magical capacity. Drink all of it? My stomach would burst. No, before that, my C-rank body wouldn’t withstand the toxicity and would dissolve.
But is there another way? Either I dry up and die here, or become monster food. If I’m going to die anyway, isn’t it better to eat until I burst?
And suddenly, a question I’d been harboring struck me.
‘Why won’t my rank increase?’
Perhaps. The reason my vessel hasn’t shattered is because the impact is insufficient. The magical power of a few C-rank monsters can’t crack my hardened shell. What if I need to strike it with an overwhelming force I can’t handle, like swinging a hammer?
“Ha, haha….”
A hollow laugh escaped. In the end, it’s another gamble. Just like when I entered the Hidden Dungeon for Mother’s Hospital bills, or when I proposed a 5:5 contract to a C-rank tank despite being F-rank.
I’ve wagered my life at every critical juncture of my existence, and I’ve won every time. This time is worth the bet too.
Boom! Boom!
The Barricade shook. They were ramming it. Time was running out.
I pushed myself to my feet. Instead of vaulting over the Barricade, I turned and sprinted to the edge of the Sinkhole’s rim. Beneath me stretched a thousand-foot chasm. At its center, a pillar of violet gas erupted like a waterfall.
“Let’s go.”
Without hesitation, I hurled myself into the void.
The monsters’ roars faded as wind screamed past my ears. I surrendered to gravity, pulled into the gaping maw of that hellscape.
Whoooosh!
A wind so fierce it felt like my eardrums would split. But it wasn’t wind—it was a horrific shriek of highly compressed Ma Seok gas rushing backward through the narrow Passage, a sound that made my skin crawl.
My vision flooded red. The white barrier of purification that had cloaked my body had long since been stripped away. My bare skin was exposed.
Like diving into a waterfall of hydrochloric acid. My skin burned, my eyes felt like they were melting, and waves of agony hammered every inch of my body.
“Aaahhhhh…!”
The moment I opened my mouth to scream, poison rushed in. My esophagus burned away. My stomach twisted. This was suicide. By any measure, absolute madness.
But I forced my eyes open. I concentrated mana into my burning corneas, clawing back my vision. Through the darkness, the Floor rushed toward me at terrifying speed. The Floor? No—something violet and liquid-like shimmered below.
‘Groundwater?’
No. Gas. So densely concentrated it had liquefied into a pool. If I crashed into that, my body would disintegrate on impact.
Crack!
I gripped the white fang and drove it into the bedrock beside me.
Screeeech!
Sparks erupted. The short blade scraped across stone, slowing my descent, but the kinetic energy from the fall was still catastrophic. My arm felt like it would be torn from its socket. My shoulder joint popped with a sickening sound.
“Hold on…!”
With my left hand—the Alchemist’s Hand—I clawed at the Wall as well. Steel fingers carved into the rock like tofu.
Screeeee. Thud!
As my speed diminished, I twisted my body and landed.
Splash.
I’d absorbed what impact I could, but my knees screamed in protest. The viscous violet liquid pooling on the Floor sprayed in all directions. I staggered to my feet.
“Gasp… gasp…”
I couldn’t breathe. The air here was 0% oxygen, 100% poison. Any ordinary creature would have died instantly, unable to survive even a second.
But I was alive. My heart pounded wildly, forcibly burning the poison that rushed in and converting it to mana.
I lifted my head and surveyed my surroundings.
Words failed me.
The Sinkhole entrance I’d seen from Ground Level was merely a small hole. This was a vast cavern. A grotesque space, as if the Earth’s own entrails had been laid bare.
Every surface was covered in violet crystals. Rock melted by the explosion’s heat had crystallized when mixed with the gas. And at the center—barely ten meters from where I stood.
Kuoooooo.
The ground had split open. An irregular Fissure roughly five meters long. But the pressure erupting from that gap was like a typhoon. This was the source. The root cause of everything, and the main course I had to consume.
I staggered toward the Fissure. With each step, the pressure pushed me back. Like swimming upstream against a raging current.
“Come here, you bastard.”
I collapsed directly before the Fissure, in the spot where the pressure was most intense. The ground was scorching hot. The hem of my tactical jacket singed and crumbled from the heat.
I drove the white fang deep into the Fissure’s edge. A conductor. A straw to connect me with that colossal energy.
“Hhhh…”
I closed my eyes.
Death looms inches away. My C-rank body has already reached its limit. Blood seeps from countless ruptures in my skin, but even that evaporates instantly upon contact with the toxic miasma.
I’m terrified. Honestly, I’m going mad with fear. If I fail here, not even my corpse will remain. No one will ever know how far I came or what I accomplished.
But.
I have to go back.
Back to the Office where Park Jae-jung waits. Back to the Living Room where Seo Eun-ha complains. Back to the Hospital where Mother is. To do that, I must break through this barrier. If it won’t shatter, I’ll destroy it anyway.
Synchronization. Maximum output.
Whoooosh!
My mana circuits began to resonate. Through the short blade and through my body touching the Floor, I felt the wavelength of that colossal energy. It was violent. Scorching. And vast beyond measure.
An amount my vessel could never contain. Like trying to catch a dam’s water in a paper cup. But I didn’t set the cup aside. Instead, I punched a hole through its bottom.
Absorb.
Craaaaaaash!
In that instant, a waterfall of power cascaded into my body. Pain? There were no words for it. It was like molten metal being injected directly into my veins.
Screeeeeeeech!
A scream tore from my throat. I couldn’t suppress it. My vision flashed white. My blood vessels swelled beyond capacity and burst. Dark crimson blood gushed from my nose, mouth, and ears.
[Warning: Mana Circuit Collapse Initiated.]
I’m dying. At this rate, I’ll explode within ten seconds. My instincts screamed at me to stop, to release my grip, to flee. But I clenched my teeth. They shattered.
Not yet.
I’d steeled myself for this much pain. The threshold of death? I’ve crossed it dozens of times already. I’ll wear that threshold smooth with my footsteps.
Instead, I intensified the absorption. As the incoming mana destroyed my body, I immediately channeled purification to regenerate. Destruction and regeneration. Collapse and reconstruction.
A war erupted within me. The toxin tore at my flesh while purification knitted it back together. The cycle accelerated. In that frenzied whirlwind, I faintly sensed something.
Crack.
The sound of a solid, transparent wall deep within my soul fracturing.
More…
I laughed, spitting blood. I thought it came from my lips, but it was from my throat.
Come in more…
It’s not enough. This won’t break it. Come at me like you’re trying to kill me.
Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle.
The Fissure answered my provocation by belching forth an even more massive plume of gas. Violet light consumed me. My form was no longer visible. Only a precarious, fierce white flame burning at the center of that maelstrom proved I was still alive.
Time vanished. Sensation vanished. Only one thing remained.
Consume. Devour it all and claim victory.
Only that manic obsession sustained me.

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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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