The All-Time Best Talent was F-Class Purification - Chapter 8

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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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8
Chapter 8 – An Elite Talent Awakened as an F-Rank Purifier
“Be careful. The corruption density inside is on an entirely different scale from outside.”
Park Jae-jung pushed forward through the Steel Gate, and with an unpleasant screech, the interior landscape revealed itself.
It was a Dome of unimaginable proportions, thick with the stench of decay. Dozens of Abandoned Chemical Tanks lay toppled across a space with ceilings easily tens of meters high and a floor vast enough to fit two or three soccer fields. Pools of indeterminate liquid lay scattered across the ground in shallow puddles.
The real problem was what filled that space.
“Steel-plated Slimes…”
Park Jae-jung’s voice was heavy with concern. About a dozen monsters prowled throughout the Dome, but they were nothing like ordinary Corrosive Slimes. These creatures were semi-transparent bodies wrapped in steel fragments like armor—living piles of scrap metal.
“Upper-tier E-rank. Even a decent C-rank Hunter party would need to prepare themselves to face three or four of these things. At that number… this place has already exceeded the standards of an E-rank Dungeon.”
He was right. The creatures moved in groups, patrolling the interior of the Dome like a coordinated unit. There was no way to reach the center of this space without getting through all of them.
I instinctively clenched my fists. My purification can annihilate monsters with mere contact. But these were different. Their corrupted cores were protected inside armor of uncontaminated steel.
‘Simple contact won’t be enough…’
Their solid appearance seemed like a perfect counter to my contact annihilation ability. Without direct contact, my power was useless.
“Director. Could I draw their attention from the front while you target their weak points from behind?”
“No.”
I rejected his proposal.
“Those creatures move in groups of three. We should take them down individually.”
I pointed to the patrol group closest to us.
“I’ll draw one’s attention first. The moment I move, Jae-jung, you block the path of the other two… and hold the line no matter what.”
Park Jae-jung stared at me for a moment, then nodded silently. He adjusted his grip on the Gigas Shield.
I held my breath and waited for the patrol group to draw closest to us. The instant they turned direction, I pushed off the ground and burst forward.
“Over here, you bastards.”
All three Slimes’ attention snapped toward me.
“Director. I’m coming.”
Park Jae-jung pushed off the ground and positioned himself between me and the Slimes.
Crash!
The Gigas Shield collided with the leading Steel-plated Slime, and a deafening boom erupted. Park Jae-jung was pushed back several steps despite the B-rank shield, but he perfectly locked down the legs of the other two. However, the remaining Slime circled around him and lunged at me.
I quickly rolled aside to evade the attack. The ground where it swept past was gouged deep by the hard steel fragments.
‘If that had even grazed me…’
I swallowed hard, remembering the pain in my side.
The creature turned again and charged at me. Watching its movements, I drew the short sword from my waist—reborn as E-rank through purification.
‘Good. Let’s test this.’
As the creature closed in, instead of dodging, I met it head-on and drove my Purification Blade down with all my strength against the steel armor wrapping its body.
Clang!
A dull impact reverberated through my wrist. But the blade didn’t break. Instead, the blade pierced through the creature’s steel armor and embedded itself in the core beneath.
Screeeech—
The steel armor began corroding rapidly from the point where the blade struck. Purification energy flowed through the blade, crumbling the creature’s steel defense from within like it was nothing.
“Kieeeek!”
It shrieked in agony and thrashed wildly. I seized the moment and thrust my hand through the corroded gaps in its armor. Then I shouted.
“Purify.”
The light of purification pierced through the creature’s core. Engulfed in the brilliance erupting from within, the steel armor collapsed with a resonant ku-gu-gu vibration. As the main body dissolved, the steel shell that had sustained it reverted to nothing more than ordinary scrap metal. White ash drifted like snow across the heap of debris.
“That… it works.”
Park Jae-jung’s excited voice came from behind. Even while struggling against two slimes, he had been watching my performance intently. Rather than surprise, he was delighted that our new tactic was effective.
“Jae-jung. Bind one of them at a time with your feet. I’ll shatter the armor!”
“Understood.”
That was when true teamwork began. Park Jae-jung, drawing upon the experience of a C-rank veteran, dazzled the two slimes with brilliant shield techniques and isolated them perfectly. I seized the opportunities he created, rushing in to shatter the creature’s armor with my short sword and finish it with purification.
One after another. We methodically eliminated the remaining elite monsters using the same approach. The final steel-clad slime vanished as a handful of dust.
I leaned against the Wall, breathing heavily. Having consumed nearly half my core energy, my entire body felt as heavy as lead. Park Jae-jung set down his B-rank Gigas Shield on the Floor and swept his sweat-soaked hair back. Fresh scratches were now clearly etched across the surface of his new shield.
“…Truly, vicious creatures.”
“Without you, we would have been annihilated long ago.”
“Without your short sword, my shield would have shattered to pieces.”
We exchanged bitter smiles. Though the battle was brief, our roles had become unmistakably defined. He held the line, I broke through. Simple, but it was our only formula for victory. This Dungeon could only be conquered by the two of us together.
The path leading to the center of the Dome opened before us. We dragged our exhausted bodies forward into the final chamber.
There, we encountered something massive.
Before the Steel Gate at the very heart of the Factory, leading deeper into the lower levels, a colossal form lay dormant. It was not a slime. A grotesque four-meter golem constructed from surrounding waste and broken machinery. A worn nameplate reading “Central Processing Facility Supervisor” was affixed to its chest.
“A mid-boss…”
Park Jae-jung’s voice dropped low.
“We cannot proceed unless we defeat that thing.”
At those words, an eerie red light burst forth from the single eye—like a surveillance camera lens—embedded in the center of the golem’s head.
Ku-gu-gu-gu-gung.
The waste and broken machinery scattered about the area began to be drawn toward the creature’s body as if pulled by a powerful magnet. Heavy metals collided and tangled together, and its form swiftly became larger and more solid. The nameplate reading “Supervisor” seemed mockingly irrelevant. This was a monster born for destruction.
“Behind me, sir.”
Park Jae-jung shouted, positioning his Gigas Shield before me. His broad back was a reassuring wall.
The golem began to move. Its first target was us, the intruders in its domain. A metal fist cleaved through the air, crashing down toward Park Jae-jung.
Kwaaang-
A tremendous sound echoed throughout the entire Dome. Park Jae-jung blocked the attack head-on with his B-rank shield, but unable to withstand the impact, his legs dug deep into the Floor as he was driven back several meters.
‘…He blocked it, but a direct confrontation won’t work.’
Watching his trembling arms, I analyzed the situation coldly. If he took a few more attacks like that, even a B-rank shield would not survive intact.
The golem’s assault continued relentlessly. This time, sharp steel fragments erupted from its opposite arm like machine gun fire. Park Jae-jung desperately defended himself, shielding his body with the shield. Clang-clang! Sparks flew as fragments struck the shield.
I used that opening to circle around to its flank, aiming my purification short sword at the joint of its leg.
Scritch-
With a sharp grinding sound, the blade left only a shallow scratch on its armor without penetrating. Its defense was incomparable to the Stoneskin Rat. Unlike the steel-clad slimes, the corrosion rate was significantly slower. The metal composing its body had far greater purity.
‘Is it not working?’
No. Looking closely, the armor where the blade had touched was faintly corroding. The purification energy was having an effect, but against its massive form and thick plating, the damage was negligible. Defeating it this way would take days.
The battle devolved into a war of attrition. Park Jae-jung desperately held the front while I relentlessly inflicted scratches from the flank, harassing the creature. But it possessed a worst-case ability that threatened to plunge us into despair.
Ku-gu-gung…
The creature paused its movements, then extended its hand toward the scrap metal scattered across the Floor. The metal was drawn to its body like a magnet, filling in the damaged sections of its armor. Self-repair capability. The damage we had inflicted so desperately was instantly restored.
“Damn it.”
A curse escaped Park Jae-jung’s lips. At this rate, there was no chance of victory. Only our stamina and core energy would be depleted first. He was already bleeding from the corner of his mouth after blocking several more powerful strikes. Clear cracks were visible across the surface of the Gigas Shield.
Even a B-rank shield had its limits. With each impact of the creature’s fist, Park Jae-jung’s knees buckled as if they might give way. Red blood seeped through the gaps in his gas mask, yet he made no sound of pain and repositioned himself. He was absorbing every attack meant for me with his entire body.
“Representative, we can’t continue. We need to retreat for now.”
Park Jae-jung shouted. His judgment was sound. Fighting like this would be nothing but a meaningless death. We barely evaded its line of sight and concealed ourselves behind the Abandoned Chemical Tank. The thunderous footsteps—*thud, thud*—squeezed at my heart.
“Gasp… gasp…”
We caught our breath, leaning against the Tank. Park Jae-jung stared at his dented shield with a bitter smile.
“A B-rank shield is nothing but scrap metal before that thing. There’s no answer in a direct confrontation.”
True to his words, every attack we’d unleashed had been neutralized, and our only shield was on the verge of shattering. Its singular crimson eye swept slowly across the surroundings, searching for us.
‘Is there truly no way…?’
As I watched the Steel Golem’s movements from behind the Tank, only one thought consumed my mind. Overwhelming power, a defense so impenetrable that even scratching it seemed impossible, and a self-repair ability that rendered all damage meaningless. I could see no path to victory.
*Thud, thud, thud.*
Its massive foot passed directly beside the Tank we were hiding behind. The ground trembled faintly, and corroded paint flakes cascaded down the Tank’s surface. I held my breath. Park Jae-jung, gripping his shield tighter, remained perfectly still, watching its every movement. Its crimson eye swept the area. Fortunately, it seemed not to have found us, and it turned back toward its original position.
“Representative.”
Park Jae-jung whispered through his gas mask, his voice barely audible.
“First, we need to secure an escape route. Facing that thing is impossible.”
Then, a thought struck me—perhaps I could reverse-engineer that source of power. My mind painted a mad gamble. The worn, corroded control device embedded in its torso, precisely near its core. The driving force that pulled the surrounding scrap metal toward itself.
Park Jae-jung’s judgment was accurate, but I shook my head and answered.
“No. There is one method.”

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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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