The Crazy Battle God Has Returned - Chapter 38

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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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A Mad Swordsman Returns – Chapter 38

Colossal screens materialized throughout the Star Battlefield.
What displayed upon them concerned the ongoing event.
The situation unfolding across the Snake Ruin was being broadcast live on those screens.

“Hmm, judging by their appearance, they seem to be human.”
“Looks like an event opened from Earth. A Dungeon conquest, perhaps?”

Certain events were broadcast to players.
Dungeon conquest events were among them. Beyond that, there were also events where players could place coin bets. Unfortunately, this Snake Ruin was not one of those.
Unfortunately, this Snake Ruin was not the case.

“Who knows. I don’t either. But I suspect it might be a Dungeon from the martial arts world.”
“The martial arts world? How can you tell?”
“Watch how they fight.”
“Watch how we fight.”

Their movements possessed discipline. Especially when observing how they executed their techniques with practiced precision, stepping through footwork patterns as if following martial training.
It was clear they had learned martial arts somewhere.
It means he learned martial arts somewhere.

“I don’t know the details, but martial artists from that world must have been twisted by some force, becoming those monsters. Or perhaps not.”
“Fascinating.”
That’s interesting.

Players who had entered through different routes were pushing forward, breaking through the Twisted Venoms blocking their path and navigating the traps and labyrinths.
But not all were faring equally.
But not everyone was like that.

[Stop! Damn it, stop!]
Stop! Damn it, I said stop!

The route chosen by the greatest number of players.
Countless players were being struck down one after another in that passage.
By none other than.
No one else but you.

[Hmm….]

In the hands of a fellow player.
Maezato Oju—a man gripping a sword that dripped blood with each step.
He was navigating the Labyrinth with a contingent of players in tow.
Yet his method was, to put it mildly, extraordinarily unconventional.

[Go.]
[U, uuh… uaaaaaaah!]

Oju was using the players as tools.
To breach the Labyrinth’s passages and absorb the countless traps scattered throughout.
At his command, a player surged forward, only to be pierced through by cascading blades and arrows from all directions before collapsing.

[Next.]

Oju carved through the Labyrinth with astonishing velocity.
Naturally, not every player obeyed his commands without question.
Some among them dared to refuse.

[This, this damn! Anyone can see it’s a trap….]
[If I’m eliminated here, the Lord won’t let me off…!]

But it made no difference whatsoever.

Slice!

The instant the players resisted, a horrific sound accompanied their bisection—those who defied him fell in two halves.
Literally instantaneous.
No one saw it coming, no one could react.

“Insane—what kind of blade speed is that?”
“Doesn’t he possess a unique ability as well?”
“Yes. We don’t know exactly what it is, but….”

Even observers could only shake their heads in awe at such mastery.
Oju succeeded in breaching the Labyrinth through such means.
Was it finally over? The players dragged along in his wake exhaled in relief.
But this was merely the beginning.

[Come to think of it, there were marks in this event.]
[What? What do you—cough, hack!]

Maezato Oju’s blade began carving through the players.
Every single one who had entered with him—none were spared.
The players vanished into light, their faces etched with disbelief.
Maezato Oju did not stop there.

[A place where death doesn’t stick. Might as well cut freely.]
[What—what is this! What’s happening!]
[Uaaaaaaagh!]

Maezato Oju waited at the maze’s exit, ruthlessly hunting down players who barely managed to escape.
As if no one but himself would be permitted to pass through.
The spectators grimaced at the gruesome spectacle.
Ran was among them.

“This is insane. There has to be some restraint, but this…”

Ran shut her eyes tightly.
She had anticipated this much. But he had exceeded even that. A murderer swinging his blade like a madman, unable to control his impulses.
That was Maezato Oju, the player.

‘And they call someone who kills without hesitation the successor.’

Ran exhaled deeply.
At least there was one saving grace—this event had something called the Snake Marks.
When a player was eliminated, you could claim the marks they had collected.
With that, she could fabricate some excuse.
She contemplated how to handle her country’s media.
And then it happened.

“…Huh?”

An odd scene entered Ran’s vision as she was lost in thought.
Right beside the screen broadcasting Maezato Oju, someone else was being broadcast.
A man with his face hidden behind a mask was moving through the Corridor.

Screeeeech!

[A deafening roar!]

“This is….”

A Corridor with no escape. Poison Humans emerging endlessly. And weapons wrought from blood wind and shadow, slaughtering them without mercy.
The man advanced through the Corridor, massacring the enemies blocking his path.

“No, wait… that….”
“This doesn’t make sense. What am I even looking at?”
“Does that human know no fear?”

The players couldn’t help but gasp in admiration.
Ran was no different. Her eyes widened with shock.
It was a sight she couldn’t believe even with her own eyes.

“He’s wielding martial arts at that level while casting magic too?”

Wielding martial arts with exceptional skill—that was possible.
Similarly, commanding powerful magic was certainly feasible.
But wielding both simultaneously was impossible.
Most shocking of all was the sheer power of the magic.

‘Shadow magic? But the power is… far too strong.’

Weapons forged from shadow were cleaving through the Poison Humans.
Such a sight was impossible unless his Magic stat was extraordinarily high.
But did his martial arts fall short in power?
Not at all.
Fists wrapped in blood wind were tearing apart bewildered enemies.

‘Both Strength and Magic stats are high? Is that even possible?’

It was impossible. It shouldn’t exist.
Yet since it was unfolding before their eyes, it was not impossible.
Did a player like this truly exist in the Bronze and Silver tiers?

“Hey, did you see? How many has he taken down now?”
“How would I know? But even being conservative….”
“It looks like over 100. And he’s doing it alone.”

A player capable of single-handedly hunting that many Poison Humans.
Ran felt a surge of curiosity. She wanted to know who that player was.
At the same time, unease crept into her heart.

‘What if.’

Maezato Oju, who was cutting down players of the same caliber.
That man, advancing while slaughtering Poison Humans.
If things continued this way, those two would inevitably collide.

‘What if Oju were to lose?’

Ran’s body trembled at the ominous premonition that suddenly surfaced.
So she shook her head, cast off the anxiety, and desperately wished.
That Oju, that reckless brute, would win this time as he always did.
For the first time in her life, she found herself praying.

* * *

A breathless battle raged on.
In the Corridor with no retreat, Poison Humans swarmed from all sides. Their attacks carried an unmistakable intent to kill.
Yet it was they who met death.
The path Han Yu-sung carved was littered with the corpses of Poison Humans.

[Grraaaaaaah!]

Shhwooosh!

Of course, Han Yu-sung was not unscathed.
The sheer number of enemies was overwhelming.
How many had he faced? Easily over two hundred. He could not evade every attack.
A poison-tainted dagger slashed across Han Yu-sung’s face.
Blood trickled down his cheek in crimson rivulets.

[Finally got through… Cough!]

Han Yu-sung licked the blood at the corner of his mouth and delivered a crushing blow to the Poison Human’s skull.
The creature collapsed, torn asunder by the blood wind.
The last thing it saw was—

‘Why… is this bastard laughing…?’

Han Yu-sung’s face bore an expression of genuine delight.
Though his body bore countless wounds both large and small, he continued to smile. In truth, he was genuinely enjoying himself in this moment.
Fighting against multiple enemies in endless combat was one of the forms of battle he savored most.
Yet even such pleasure could not last forever.

[Ugh, cough…!]

Crunch!

The sickening sound of bone being crushed echoed through the Corridor.
Doku, his heart shattered in a single blow, stared at the human before him with bloodshot eyes.
Those eyes held nothing but shock and disbelief.

[Cough! A… a monster like creature…!]

With those final words, he breathed his last.
Han Yu-sung clenched his fist and swiftly searched for the next opponent.
But there was no one left. All the Doku that had filled the Corridor lay fallen.
Han Yu-sung shook the blood from his knuckles.

[You have defeated over 200 Doku.]
[You have been awarded 50 Snake Marks!]

“Is that all of them?”
[Had you not crushed them all yourself, I confess my liver would have failed from the terror of merely watching. Still, that was a magnificent battle!]

Kakasha chattered away.
Han Yu-sung smacked his lips with disappointment. As he moved to continue forward, a sudden wave of dizziness washed over him, and he staggered despite his resistance.
Only then did he realize his body was covered entirely in wounds.
Moreover, the poison the Doku had injected coursed through his entire system.

‘A troublesome Dungeon indeed.’

Han Yu-sung clicked his tongue.
In truth, the Doku were not particularly strong when judged purely by physical capability.
There was only one reason they were so vexing.

‘They all use poison.’

Every monster in this ruin wielded poison.
Route 10 was where these poison-users congregated in droves, and with a deadly toxin zone layered on top of it all, the danger was inescapable.
I’d brought along several items with poison resistance effects—like the Adaptive Necklace—before venturing here, but even those couldn’t fully shield me from toxins this virulent.

‘There are two primary methods to neutralize this poison.’

Han Yu-sung scavenged the surroundings while using the Spirit of Blood Ghost to mend his wounds.
The lacerations covering his body had faded somewhat, but the poison lingered. The Spirit of Blood Ghost possessed no effect to regenerate status ailments.
He rifled through the corpses of the poison-users and discovered something.
Fortunately, the search didn’t take long.

[Poison-User’s Inner Core (Common)]
· The inner core of a poison-user fallen into monstrosity. Small and fragile.
· When consumed, it expels some of the accumulated toxins from the body.
· However, excessive consumption causes adverse effects.

Whether it was because they’d transformed into serpent-like creatures, these poison-users dropped inner cores that possessed the effect of expelling toxins to some degree.
In other words, the key to conquering the Snake Ruin was to advance through the dungeon while consuming these inner cores appropriately.

‘Stockpiling plenty of inner cores is essential.’

They would prove invaluable when facing the boss monster here.
And beyond this method, there existed one more way to neutralize the poison.

“…There it is.”

Han Yu-sung, chewing on an inner core as he walked, discovered something else.
At the end of the corridor, something glimmered with radiant light.

[You have discovered the Purification Spring!]
[Drinking the spring water will purify the accumulated toxins from your body.]

Spring water that purified poison.
Throughout the Snake Ruin, such purification springs were positioned strategically or concealed in various locations.
A gesture of mercy, one might say.

‘Without even this, I would’ve been completely poisoned and eliminated.’

There were limits to building poison resistance at this level of progression.
Without a gimmick like this, clearing the ruin would have been nearly impossible.
Han Yu-sung exhaled deeply as he felt the toxic miasma dissipate from his body.

[Hmm, surely we’ve disposed of all the enemies by now? They said this was the most difficult route, yet it’s proving rather underwhelming.]
“I wish it were that simple.”
[In truth, even as I spoke those words, I knew they made no sense.]

Dungeon conquest events were never so straightforward.
This was supposedly the highest difficulty route—it couldn’t possibly end like this.
Both Han Yu-sung and Kakasha, who had raised the point, understood this well.
Above all, he sensed countless presences emanating from far ahead.

‘Damn. Feels like there are hundreds of them.’

Two or three times the aura of all the poison creatures he’d faced so far.
But that wasn’t all—he detected the presence of an exceptionally powerful poison creature among them.
Han Yu-sung walked toward the end of the corridor.
As he opened the firmly sealed door, a vast cavern revealed itself.

[This is….]

Kakasha let out a whisper of astonishment.
Not only were the walls and floor on all sides covered in poison, but the space was packed with what appeared to be hundreds of poison creatures.

[Ugh, even for someone of your caliber, this might be… difficult, wouldn’t it?]

Kakasha’s voice carried a note of concern.
But what mattered to Han Yu-sung now was something else entirely.
His gaze was fixed on the poison creature standing at the deepest point of the cavern.
It was larger than the others and clad in heavy armor.
And the moment he saw it.

Ding!

“Huh?”

A cheerful notification sound rang out, and something appeared before Han Yu-sung’s eyes.
It was a Quest window.

[Emblem Quest.]
[Eliminate the special poison ‘Singular Toxin’ lurking somewhere in the Cavern.]
[Reward: Snake Emblem x 600.]

A smile played across Han Yu-sung’s lips as he read the quest details.
He couldn’t help but smile at the situation.

“So it’s true—the route that grants the most emblems.”

I could ignore it and move on without consequence.
But since I’ve come this far, I wanted to claim the greatest reward this event had to offer.
In that sense, this quest was an opportunity I couldn’t afford to miss.

“Might as well go for it.”

Han Yu-sung clenched his fist and began moving forward.
Toward the Cavern where countless enemies awaited.

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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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