The Former Empress Roughly Hides Her Abilities - Chapter 483

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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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Yeo Joo Saves the World
Part 3, Episode 87

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[ Dungeon Collapse Rate…… 86% ]

After sending Lee Dan Woo and Moon Na Rin ahead first, I swallowed a quiet sigh.
I’d held back my despair and anxiety in front of the children—I couldn’t let them see weakness now.
‘So it comes to this in the end.’
The Apocalypse Cult’s prophecy and Sa Ma Jung’s incident no longer mattered.
But now that the collapse of the Gimpo Gate was upon us, the path ahead seemed impossibly bleak.
“Ah, really.”
My hands, trembling without my notice, made a mistake.
I dropped the potion I’d been pouring over the wounded man’s chest and neck.
“And I’m already low on supplies.”
I murmured as if it were nothing and retrieved another potion, this time applying it with far greater care than before.
‘This time too, I can manage it somehow…… right?’
The Sama Guild hunter had nearly lost his life—he’d been struck in a location where vital blood vessels converged.
Without the Trauma Healing Potion, he would have died.
I felt sorry for him, collapsed and unconscious, but watching the wound close, I steadied my trembling heart.
I’d overcome countless dangerous crises before this. I could manage it again.
“This isn’t my first time facing an SS-Rank.”
Wakellas’s Bio-Mother had been SS-Rank too.
The monster’s grade had shifted even during the clear.
Even if we couldn’t prevent the dungeon break, that didn’t mean everything would end.
If we could just escape the explosion from the Gate rupture safely, there might be a chance afterward.
It was a stroke of luck, just as Kang Han had said, that the Gimpo Gate had spawned in a quiet hospital park.
‘Thank heavens it wasn’t in the heart of Jamsil or Jongno.’
I comforted myself with this thought.
‘Fire-type skills do seem particularly effective against this parasitic monster.’
Right now it was just Sa Ma Young and Yang Hwa Yeon, but with the help of more fire-type hunters from outside, there might be a chance at victory.
Who knows?
Just as the Bio-Mother—an SS-Rank like this one—couldn’t withstand my Purification Ability, another hunter’s skill might have a herbicide-like effect on this parasitic monster.
“Hm?”
I lifted my head from the wounded and stared at the parasitic monster’s black tendril.
‘Surely not.’
Was my Purification skill the key this time too?
By then, the Sama Guild hunter’s bleeding had stopped, and Lee Yu Eul approached to signal it was time to evacuate.
Following Lee Yu Eul, who was helping move the injured, I turned over the hypothesis I’d just formed.
If—if Purification is poison to this parasitic monster as well—
then everything could be stopped.
The dungeon break that would devastate the Gate’s surroundings, the people being attacked by the freed SS-Rank monster—
‘There’s no harm in trying it, right?’
We’d have to pass through the Gate anyway to evacuate.
And like the limbs of a squid or octopus, the parasitic monster’s branches were all stuck there.
‘I’ll try using my skill on the way out.’
With that resolve, as I headed toward the Gate, Yoo Myung Hwa shouted toward us.
“Wait there! Don’t come any closer—it’s too dangerous!”
The path to the Gate was blocked by the parasitic monster.

[ Dungeon Collapse Rate…… 89% ]

“The remaining personnel will move with our healer, Yeo Joo!”
Kang Han glanced my way once, slashed through one of the parasitic monster’s tendrils, and shouted.
He was confirming that Lee Yu Eul was properly protecting me.
Crack-crunch!
Slash!
All manner of cutting sounds rang out from every direction.
But those trying to escape through the Gate weren’t only people.
“Damn it! The Gate’s nearly blocked!”
The parasitic monster occupied the Gate’s surface so completely that there wasn’t even a crack for a person to slip through.
“Get whoever can out of here, now!”
In response to Kang Han’s shout, having barely secured space, the hunters who’d been waiting in front of the Gate began slipping through one by one, escaping the dungeon safely.
Though I’d suddenly become the furthest from the Gate, I wasn’t particularly anxious.

[ Dungeon Collapse Rate…… 88% ]

The collapse rate had actually dropped slightly thanks to the final burst of attacks meant to create space for people to escape.
Then something brushed against my foot.
From somewhere else, a black tendril was moving toward the Gate.
‘Now’s the time.’
I’d thought the opportunity would only come when I reached right before the Gate.
Without hesitation, I used my skill.

[ Using skill ‘Dark Purification’. ]

Zap!
The tendril that became the target convulsed as if electrocuted.
So the Purification skill really was the answer?!
“Yes—!”
The moment I clenched both fists in triumph—

[ ! WARNING ! ]
[ ! WARNING ! ]
[ ! WARNING ! ]

My vision flooded with red alert windows, and at the end of them came a new message.

[ The Parasitic Monster (SS) has found a new host! ]

A chill ran down my spine and across the nape of my neck.
Before I could even comprehend what was happening, I shoved Lee Yu Eul’s back away from me—hard.
“Yeo Joo!”
Lee Yu Eul stumbled, her voice calling my name sounding panicked, but I couldn’t hear her.
A much louder sound erupted from all around at the same moment.
Crash-crunch!
The tendrils that had been targeting the Gate shot upward toward me all at once.
Clang-clang-clang—!
Jung Je Hwa’s Protective Barrier activated to shield me, but it couldn’t withstand an SS-Rank’s assault and shattered repeatedly with a sound like breaking glass.
Roaarrr!
Sensing my danger, Na Baek Ho thrashed his claws wildly and bit at the tendrils, roaring.
“Ugh!”
I didn’t stay idle either.
I backpedaled hard and rolled, trying desperately to escape the parasitic monster’s grasp.
But this entire dungeon was the parasitic monster’s domain.
“Let go!”
A black tendril latched onto my left hand in the split second the barrier broke.
It wound around my entire arm with incredible force, seizing me.
Crack-snap!
“…!”
For a moment I couldn’t believe the sound came from my own body, but then a pain like a tidal wave—so intense I couldn’t even scream—washed over me.
Hidden by the black tendril coiling around it, I could tell anyway.
My entire left arm had been crushed.
But the agony didn’t end there.

[ The Parasitic Monster (SS) injects darkness for Hallucination Effect. ]
[ Does not apply to ‘Yeo Joo’. ]
[ The Parasitic Monster (SS) is absorbing ‘Yeo Joo’s’ energy. ]

“Aahhh!”
From my shoulder where the parasitic monster gripped me to my wrist, a burning sensation spread, and the world suddenly spun.
It was the vertigo that came from sudden blood loss.
Sure enough, between the parasitic monster’s greedily writhing tendrils, red blood mixed with a golden, gleaming liquid dripped steadily down.
A translucent liquid full of glittering particles—
An alien sight, but a familiar one to me.
I’d seen it every time I extracted my blood to create Elixir for Purification Potions.

[ ! WARNING ! ]
[ The Parasitic Monster (SS) has found the energy source to evolve to a higher rank! ]

Evolve to a higher rank when it’s already SS-Rank?
Instantly, the pain vanished—my mind snapped into focus like lightning.
That, at least, I had to prevent.
The parasitic monster becoming something I truly couldn’t touch at all.
“A blade.”
My mind suddenly filled with the Short Dagger stored in my Subspace.
As if possessed, without a moment’s hesitation, I gripped it in my right hand and raised it high with all my strength.
Thud!
Clang-clang!
Even as the protective barrier formed and shattered around me, the sounds hammered against the rational and thinking parts of my mind.
That’s when it happened.
Shrieeeeek—! Shrieeeek!
The parasitic monster screamed.
No—countless vines that had been trying to reach me were burning with screams echoing in their writhing.
In the midst of the flames, I was submerged in a blue sea.
The pale blue fire flickering before my eyes wasn’t hot at all.
The flames that tickled my cheek were only warm.
But gradually, the fire began to fade in color.
From blue to sky-blue, from sky-blue to water-blue.
The fire that grew progressively lighter eventually transformed into pure white.
“Sa Ma Young?”
My heart dropped.
The fire is supposed to be blue.
It shouldn’t lose its color.
“Sa Ma Young!”
In response to my anguished cry, the white flame flared up.
Thump, thump.
At the sound of footsteps, I tried to push myself up.
But my arm was still caught, so I could only manage to raise my head.
“Yeo Joo.”
The parasitic monster’s wall crumbled as if to clear a path for him to reach me.
Around Sa Ma Young as he walked toward me, a flame darker than darkness flickered.

[ Sa Ma Young has transcended his limit! ]
[ Sa Ma Young re-awakens as SS-Rank. ]

I couldn’t feel joy even as the System message filled my vision.
“…Ah.”
Because Sa Ma Young beyond that message was entirely black.
As if consumed by the flames, Sa Ma Young’s face had melted pitch-black—the only thing I could recognize about him was one thing.
His crimson eyes.

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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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