The Regressed EX-Class Martial God Decided to Become a Thousand-Star Hunter - Chapter 29

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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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Chapter 29
Episode 29.
Whisk!
The hook ejected from Kim Han-yul’s wrist embedded itself in a ceiling beam of the Corridor.
The wire coiled tight and taut, her body lifting skyward as she vaulted clear over the right-angle corner in one sweep.
“Shriek—! Where are you—!”
Half a beat too slow rounding the corner, the Orc Centurion’s Glaive only scored the stone floor.
Wire Hook.
A Manifestation she’d hastily assembled and registered for indoor combat.
She’d erased the four-wheeled motorcycle.
Inside the Inner Castle, where Corridors and staircases and halls all tangled together, a vehicle was nothing but a coffin.
What she’d gained instead was this mobility.
To the ceiling, across walls, over railings.
The entire terrain became her foothold.
‘Bad team leader, if you’re going to put me through this, warn me first!’
While grumbling inwardly, Kim Han-yul kicked off the railing, her lips curving into a smile she made no effort to hide as she flipped her body upside down.
The world inverted in her vision.
The Magic Pistol in her hand swept into line and spat fire.
Thup! Thup!
The suppressed crack of gunfire.
The pistol’s firepower could lodge a bullet in an Orc’s hide at Centurion-rank, but not pierce it.
But that didn’t matter.
She’d never needed to pierce it in the first place.
The bullets were merely couriers.
“Shriek……! Ngh…… My body……!”
The Centurion’s movements visibly sluggish where the bullets had struck.
Manifested Deadly Poison Bullet.
An application technique: coating the warhead with the deadly poison she’d re-registered from her emptied Stock.
Layering one Manifestation over another Manifestation.
Tried it, and it worked.
Partly thanks to the extreme circumstances.
Ju Do-gyeom’s success with the Mark Two’s Manifestation Art had helped immensely.
The advice he’d given at the time.
Don’t place a ceiling on your imagination.
Without those words, she never would have managed it.
It was almost absurd.
‘How does he seem to know me better than I know myself?’
In any case.
Perhaps because she’d accomplished something she’d never even dared attempt before?
『Skill Swift Manifestation (Level 4) promoted.』
『Skill Precise Manifestation (Level 3) promoted.』
Both skills—one governing Manifestation speed, the other governing Manifestation performance—rose in rank simultaneously.
In a sense, it was only natural.
Throughout this brief chase, Kim Han-yul had erased, created, layered, and erased again.
A Stock reorganization that should have taken six or seven Dungeon trips now crammed into a single day—no, compressed into mere minutes of combat.
Her stats would be shameful if they didn’t improve.
‘If I’m going to keep up with our team leader, I’ll have to get used to this.’
At first, she hadn’t understood.
Ju Do-gyeom.
How could that man be so strong?
Now she was beginning to grasp it.
Whoosh!
The Glaive flashed past her vision.
Kim Han-yul swerved past it by inches and opened the distance, squeezing the trigger again.
Thup-thup-thup!
‘If you’d been fighting situations like this every time……!’
Getting stronger would be the only reasonable outcome!
Even now, pushed to her limit.
Her breath rising to her throat.
Every muscle in her body screaming.
Her mana reserves were scraping bottom.
Everything was.
She told herself to set it down, to rest.
And yet she laughed.
No—beyond laughter. Her brain was tingling, alive.
Two Orc Centurions hurtled toward her, radiating killing intent.
“Shrieeek! Human woman!”
“Shriek! We will kill you!”
Her exhausted body couldn’t keep pace with her will. The Glaive’s swing crept closer with each pass.
Her clothes tore. Blood spattered into the air.
And still, as she’d said, she laughed.
Not in her mind—but aloud.
“Ha-ha!!”
She was certain of it now.
‘I’m not sane either. Not anymore.’
It was Ju Do-gyeom who had awakened that truth in her.
‘I have only gratitude.’
The two remaining Orcs.
Drog and Murtar converged from her left and right, shrieking.
“Shriek! Mad woman, we kill you!”
“We will catch you and kill you. Shrieeek!”
Kim Han-yul watched the arc of their movements to completion.
Then she fired the Wire Hook toward the ceiling.
Whoosh!
Her body shot skyward in an instant.
Bang!
The two Orc Centurions’ Glaives shattered the floor beneath where she’d been.
Kim Han-yul materialized the Mark Two at their backs—its reload cycle complete.
The sensation of her mana reserves plummeting toward empty.
Her body sagged.
She understood.
‘This is probably it. The last one.’
Would this be enough to kill them both?
If not—so what.
There would be another way.
‘No limits. Not now, Kim Han-yul. Not when the Captain has come this far.’
Was Ju Do-gyeom’s fight any easier than hers right now?
She had no doubt the answer was no.
Kim Han-yul had seen it clearly.
The vast Banquet Hall.
Bargash seated on his throne, casually flicking his hand to deflect every bullet from the Mark Two she’d dropped—a wall of bullets meeting nothing but air.
Ju Do-gyeom, fearless enough to stand against such a monster.
‘If I’m to keep chasing after him…!’
I have to do this.
No matter what.
As she steeled herself, the Mark Two finished materializing in perfect form.
Drog and Murtar’s faces went white at the sight.
They had watched too many of their brothers turned to riddled corpses by that weapon.
“Shrieeek!”
“Flee!”
Both Orcs yelled and hurled themselves to opposite sides of the wide Corridor.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!
The barrage poured forth regardless.
Murtar, whose movements had grown sluggish under the onslaught of Manifested Deadly Poison Bullets, finally became a sieve of holes and collapsed to the floor with a groan.
“Ughhhh…!”
Thud!
And the other Centurion, Drog—had he survived?
He had.
“Shriek! Damn human bitch!”
Cursing, he pushed himself up from the floor and charged at her falling form once more.
‘Geez, they’re really toughing out those Manifested Deadly Poison Bullets over there.’
Kim Han-yul clicked her tongue and answered with a grin.
“Quite resilient, aren’t you? You’re worse than a dog, pig.”
“Shrieeeeek—! I’ll kill you—!”
Drog lunged forward, wild with rage.
“Try me!”
Kim Han-yul provoked him again and was already leaping skyward with her Wire Hook when something changed.
Whoosh—!
A sound like something cleaving the air.
Through the window, an enormous shadow plummeted.
Both Kim Han-yul and Drog’s eyes snapped toward it.
And they saw.
Bargash, smiling as he fell.
A contradictory sight.
Which told them everything.
That whatever had happened to him, it wasn’t something done to him.
‘What the hell is this?’
Amid the confusion.
The Orc Centurion, Bargash, who had tumbled onto the castle’s Mid-level Barrier, sprang to his feet.
‘Simply pushed back?’
Through shock, thought followed.
‘Then is that…… going to be all right?’
Ju Do-gyeom.
Her team leader, who had now lost his sight, was fighting by sound and vibration alone.
And she had already heard that his movement was restricted in heavy rain.
‘To draw him back indoors again……’
wasn’t it?
Before that thought could finish.
Another figure leaped out through the window.
There was no need to wonder who.
A scream burst involuntarily from her lips.
“Team leader—!”
“Shrieeek—!”
Right in front of Kim Han-yul, Drog’s Glaive came flying.
‘I don’t have time to worry about others!?’
She dodged him by inches and landed on the ground, immediately locating Drog’s position.
Her body surged forward.
Her heart pounded, warning bells clanging madly in her skull.
Was it fear for herself, tension over Drog?
No.
Without meaning to, her eyes kept drifting beyond the window.
Toward Ju Do-gyeom standing calmly atop the Mid-level Barrier beneath the downpour, and toward Bargash.
‘I have to help.’
Her own danger troubled her.
But she believed that side was the real threat.
She thought she’d grown used to Ju Do-gyeom’s recklessness by now, yet nothing could prepare her for this.
‘He’s actually insane. Blind, relying only on hearing—why in the world would he go out there—!’
There had to be limits to boldness and valor!
Even as she sensed Drog bearing down on her, Kim Han-yul clenched her jaw and searched for a gap through which to throw herself down onto the Mid-level Barrier.
Beyond the rain.
She saw Bargash’s blood-drenched mass fire toward Ju Do-gyeom like a cannon shot.
‘No—!’
A scream rose to her throat.
Just before it broke free.
A fist like a cannon struck empty air.
And at the same moment.
A curve so disturbingly beautiful it seemed at odds with that brutish axe cut through the rain.
The Orc Centurion Bargash’s head fell to the ground an instant later.
“…….”
Even watching it with both eyes, she couldn’t comprehend what had just happened.
‘…She can’t see?’
Fighting by sound alone?
‘How in the world did she manage that?’
In that downpour?
Her long lashes trembled of their own accord.
『Dungeon Clear achieved.』
『Restriction effects deactivated.』
『Lost senses restored.』
『2-Person Party Play in progress. Reward bonus increased by 50%.』
『Contribution measured: 19%.』
『Clear reward Mana Stone granted.』
『Two of your current Stats will increase significantly at random.』
『Agility Grade raised: D => D+』
『Mana Grade raised: D => D+』
『Significant gap between user level and Dungeon difficulty.』
『Additional reward granted.』
『One learned Skill receives substantial system proficiency bonus.』
『Skill Manifestation Art (Level 6) promoted.』
Messages cascaded through her mind like a waterfall.
Her depleted Mana refilled, and her body felt weightless.
And the promotion of Manifestation Art.
‘Level 6?’
She’d crossed the wall that most Hunters called their limit.
Two new Stock slots materialized in her mind with crystal clarity.
Not one.
Two.
The Limit Break reward for breaking through the wall had arrived.
‘Which means…’
No matter how dangerous it gets, she’d never be able to stop chasing after Ju Do-gyeom.
A shiver crawled up her spine like electricity.
“GRAAAAHHH—!”
Drog’s savage roar, wild and feral.
A killing intent so thick it numbed her entire body.
He rushed forward, hefting a Glaive he’d seized, and swung it down.
Her senses snapped sharp.
An idea for using the new Manifestation Art Stock struck her like lightning.
‘Manifestation Art—Deadly Poison Grenade.’
Hum—!
A dark-blue sphere formed in her palm.
Kim Han-yul hurled it at the charging Orc Centurion, Drog.
Drog swatted at it dismissively with the flat of his hand.
A foolish choice.
‘Bang.’
Pfft—!
A round fired through the silencer struck the grenade just before it met Drog’s palm.
Boom—!
A cloud of deadly poison erupted with the blast.
Though her Manifested Deadly Poison fell short of what master toxicologists could brew, inhaling it in such thick clouds made all the difference.
“Hack—! Cough—! Gak-gak—!”
After that characteristic orcish snort, Drog choked and gagged, stumbling backward out of the poison haze and collapsing to the ground.
His already greenish face had turned a sickly purple.
A black shadow fell across Drog’s head as he clawed at his own throat.
It was Kim Han-yul.
Smiling, but her eyes were glacial.
Fear flickered in Drog’s gaze.
Click—!
Kim Han-yul manifested a Machine Gun into her last remaining Stock slot and spoke with a grin.
“Bye-bye, pig.”
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat—!
Rounds poured out in rapid succession, drilling straight through the space between his brows.
The thick orc hide and sturdy skull were pierced through in an instant.
Blue blood, peculiar to monsters, trickled down beside Drog’s limp head and pooled on the floor.
“Phew…….”
Kim Han-yul exhaled a long breath.
“You did it, Han-yul.”
Flinch.
“Really, you startled me. How do you appear without a sound like that?”
“Well done.”
At Ju Do-gyeom’s praise—delivered in his usual unfazed manner—Kim Han-yul found herself speaking.
“Hmph, you think you can smooth me over with cheap compliments? You’re really underestimating me.”
Yet her face brightened, beaming with pleasure despite her words.
Her body twisted and curled of its own accord.
She decided not to care.
‘The team leader isn’t looking anyway…….’
The thought cut short.
Her round eyes widened.
They met the cleared gaze of Ju Do-gyeom’s pupils.
“…….”
“That…….”
Ju Do-gyeom let out a soft chuckle and turned his back wordlessly.
That made it worse.
Kim Han-yul’s face flushed crimson.
Ju Do-gyeom’s voice reached her.
“Come along. There’s more to see.”
Not returning?
She wanted to ask, but the words wouldn’t leave her lips.
Her face was far too hot to manage a long conversation.
“……Yes.”
Her reply came out small as an ant’s whisper.
* * *
Banquet Hall.
Ju Do-gyeom stood before the throne where Bargash had been seated, and felt deep along the inside of the armrest until his fingers found a groove. He pressed it gently.
Click-click-click-crunch—.
The wall behind the throne cracked open, revealing an underground passage leading downward.
Kim Han-yul’s mouth fell open.
A question rose to her lips: how did he know about this?
But she didn’t ask this time.
Was she still embarrassed?
No, that wasn’t it.
Kim Han-yul wasn’t the type to dwell on what had already happened.
‘What’s done is done. Why worry about it now?’
She didn’t ask for a purely practical reason.
By now, she’d grown somewhat accustomed to this side of Ju Do-gyeom.
‘If it’s our team leader, it wouldn’t be strange if he knew a couple more things like this. Sure, sure.’
It was progress, if anything.
Down into the underground passage they went.
As she followed Ju Do-gyeom down a gently spiraling staircase, something caught her eye on the wall.
Her voice spilled out almost reflexively.
“Wait? That looks exactly like the Goddess Statue we saw in the Temple?”
And unlike the one she’d seen before, this one hadn’t been broken in half.

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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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