The Returned Hunter Has Awakened to a Hidden Class - Chapter 45
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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45
Chapter 45
Reverse Clocktower (2)
Tick-
Kim Jun opened his eyes.
It was the 2nd Floor again.
“Damn it.”
He was flustered during the first regression.
‘What? Why am I suddenly back on the 2nd Floor?’
He simply thought it was a spatial movement trap. Dungeons often had warp traps too.
But during the second regression, Kim Jun realized.
The wall crack he had intentionally destroyed was completely gone.
The clock gears that Andras had slashed were also back in their original positions.
“This isn’t spatial movement.”
Kim Jun’s face hardened.
“Time itself has been rewound.”
Tick-
Tick-
That sound was heard again.
That ominous rhythm that had been following him since the 1st Floor.
During the third regression, Kim Jun began his analysis.
‘There’s definitely a pattern to this sound.’
The sound that was leisurely on the 1st Floor gradually got faster as he climbed each floor.
And at some point, it explosively accelerated and time was rewound.
Fourth regression.
“Andras.”
“Speak, Master.”
“This time we’re going to experiment.”
Kim Jun stood in the middle of the 2nd Floor corridor and said.
“Let’s try staying completely still.”
“Still?”
“Let’s measure the time.”
The two stopped in the corridor.
Tick-
Tick-
A sound ringing once per second.
Kim Jun measured time by counting his heartbeats.
‘One, two, three…’
When exactly 120 seconds had passed.
Tick-
Tick—
The sound subtly quickened.
“It changed.”
“I heard it.”
Andras noticed it too.
They continued waiting.
Another 120 seconds later.
Tick-
Tick─
Tick-
Tick─
“It gets faster every 2 minutes.”
Kim Jun muttered.
And the final 60 seconds.
Tickticktickticktick-!
The sound burst out in rapid succession like a machine gun.
Flash-!
[Reverse Clocktower – 2nd Floor]
Only after the fifth regression did Kim Jun grasp the pattern of the ‘Reverse Clocktower’.
2 minutes, 2 minutes, 1 minute of ticking.
In other words, he had to reach the boss within 5 minutes.
The moment he entered the ‘Reverse Clocktower’, he couldn’t exit until defeating the boss.
All that remained was to charge upward even faster.
[Reverse Clocktower – 3rd Floor]
He had already identified the positions of the mages.
Without even looking, he dispatched them by extending his sword energy.
[Reverse Clocktower – 4th Floor]
He broke through the 4th Floor in an instant too.
Kim Jun completely ignored unnecessary enemies. He only cut down enemies blocking his path and passed through.
[Reverse Clocktower – 5th Floor]
The red-robed mages on the 5th Floor prepared their fireballs, but.
「Dragon Slash」!
He swept them all away with a single strike that burned the entire corridor.
[Reverse Clocktower – 6th Floor]
Tick-
Tick─
“Two on the left, one on the right.”
“There’s also one straight ahead, Master.”
Andras cut down both sides while Kim Jun broke through the front.
[Reverse Clocktower – 7th Floor]
Tick-
Tick─
Tick-
Tick─
The sound quickened again.
His record was better than before, but he couldn’t be satisfied here.
Even if he regressed again, he needed to at least experience the 8th Floor.
So the 7th, 8th, 9th times…
“This is already the 15th time.”
He had already counted fifteen regressions.
His best record was the end of the 9th Floor.
He recorded patterns each time and searched for breakthrough methods, but there still wasn’t enough time to reach the boss.
Even if he reached the 10th Floor within 5 minutes, he didn’t even know what kind of creature ‘Chronos’ was.
“We can just cut it down anyway, Master.”
“That’s true.”
Now the mana problem was solved, and stamina and patterns weren’t major obstacles.
The problem was time. He needed to at least encounter it to analyze it.
*
16th regression.
It was different from the start.
Kim Jun threw his body forward and rolled to build up speed from the moment he began.
Without stepping on the railings, he twisted his body to slip through the narrow gaps between the gear shafts.
There was no need to look back.
With a single graze of his blade, the red-robed mage collapsed.
Before the corpse even hit the ground, he was already running to the next floor.
“Faster!!”
“Got it!”
The most troublesome 8th Floor.
Metal chunks periodically fell from overhead, and the floor constantly shook.
Normally, he would have waited for the timing when the traps stopped to take each step carefully.
Swish-!
But now it was different.
Kim Jun instead threw his body into those trajectories.
Rather than taking the falling moment head-on, he twisted just half a step to the side.
The tips of his hair were cut off, but he didn’t care.
Right now, he couldn’t stop for even a single breath.
The moment his flight-like acceleration was interrupted, he would regress to the 2nd Floor again.
9th Floor.
This place was relatively simple.
The problem was the knights’ formation and the mages protecting their rear.
Shields were raised up, and staff tips lit up all at once.
Normally, he would have had to dodge the magic that would pour down like arrows.
Slash-!
「Dragon Eater」 and 「Crimson Blood Sea」 crossed to draw a massive cross.
The knights holding shields were cut in half and fell, and even the mages hiding behind them were sliced through.
[Reverse Clocktower – 10th Floor]
Finally, a new record.
What spread before his eyes was a horde of monsters that mixed the forms of giant hourglasses and beasts.
Those covered in sand ran on all fours like wolves, yet their upper bodies had human forms.
Long sand fangs protruding from their elbows split like blades, and their empty eye sockets had grains of sand flowing down from within.
“How annoying.”
When Andras swung 「Crimson Blood Sea」, one of the sand monsters was split cleanly in half.
Kim Jun didn’t slow down.
As if carried by the wind, he cut across between the monsters.
Wherever the crimson sword energy passed, sand and blood scattered together.
“Andras!”
“Got it!”
Before the words even finished, Andras was already reading Kim Jun’s intention.
Andras’s 「Crimson Blood Sea」 swept the side path clear, emptying the space.
Thud-
At the same time, he grabbed Kim Jun’s leg with his arm.
“Kill the boss!! Master!!”
Whoosh-!
In an instant, Kim Jun’s body was catapulted up like a bow and flew toward the Boss Room entrance.
Crash-!
Kim Jun entered the Boss Room through the gap in the door.
And at the end, the master of the ‘Reverse Clocktower’ revealed itself.
[Boss : Chronos the Reverser]
[Grade : C]
[Level : 1]
[Health: 1 / 1]
Chronos, the boss of the ‘Reverse Clocktower’, stood there.
‘Only 1?’
It was an absurd number for a boss.
Pathetic health that would be hard to believe even for a minion.
However, Chronos’s appearance was anything but pathetic.
A form that mixed human and clock.
The upper body was like a skeleton doll, but clock hands and gears were turning throughout its torso.
The giant hourglass on its back pulsed like a heart, and red light rotated like needles in its eye sockets.
What caught his eye most was the staff in its hand.
A scepter made of interlocking black iron and golden gears.
At the tip was embedded a hazy glass orb, within which hour and minute hands endlessly crossed and rewound.
‘That must be the 「Scepter of Reversal」.’
Kim Jun instinctively knew what it was.
The power to reverse time.
It definitely originated from that weapon.
Tick-
Tick─
Even at this moment, time was flowing.
Before regressing again, he would unleash sword energy to bring it down.
Kim Jun steadied his breathing and raised his sword.
The most basic technique passed down from Sword Saint Valderion.
“「Slash」.”
The simplest swordsmanship.
It had neither power nor flashiness.
Only ‘speed’ existed in this technique.
However, simplicity was the most perfect form.
At that moment, black flames wrapped around Kim Jun’s sword.
Crimson fire flowed down along the blade tip, then explosively extended in a straight line.
Whoosh-!
The power concentrated in an instant was released as sword energy.
That crimson line allowed not even a breath, rushing straight toward Chronos.
A majestic yet merciless single slash.
Like pronouncing judgment, it cut through the air and struck down toward the enemy.
And just as it was about to reach right in front of it.
Ticktickticktick-!
[Reverse Clocktower – 2nd Floor]
Kim Jun exhaled sharply.
He was certain he had hit it properly this time.
Still, there had been gains.
The number ‘Health 1’ that floated there arrogantly as if daring him to kill it if he could.
And the 「Scepter of Reversal」 that Chronos held in its hand, seeming to twist time itself.
“「Berserk」.”
Thanks to rampaging in the Heavenly Realm, 「Berserk」 which had been a D-rank skill had risen to B rank.
[「Berserk B」 activated.]
[Current rage level : Stage 1.]
[Current effect : Attack Power +10%/Agility +10%]
[Warning: Loss of self-awareness possible upon reaching anger threshold.]
What if he maintained「Berserk」constantly and kept activating「Acceleration」?
The「Blue Abyss Talisman」would handle the mana, and if that wasn’t enough, he could burn health with the「Lion’s Talisman」.
“I’m ending this now.”
He runs.
No, he flies.
Kim Jun was now flying.
He no longer touched the ground.
Speed that used the air itself as a foothold to propel forward.
“Master! Go ahead!”
He heard Andras’s voice from behind, but it was already impossible to hear.
Like that, 3rd Floor, 4th Floor, 5th Floor.
Without a moment to breathe, straight to the 10th Floor.
Tick-
Tick─
The clockwork sound had gotten slightly faster, but there was still plenty of time.
At this rate, clearing was possible.
And the Boss Room.
Chronos the Reverser revealed itself again.
Kim Jun didn’t hesitate.
“「Slash」.”
It was when the sword energy wreathed in black flames reached right in front of Chronos’s nose.
Hiss-
‘It’s smiling?’
The monster’s lips slowly curved upward.
Tickticktickticktick-
The clockwork sound accelerated.
Flash-!
Once again, regression to the 2nd Floor.
“That’s strange.”
“Did it fail? There should have been enough time.”
“Right.”
He had even activated「Berserk」and spammed skills while climbing up.
Yet even so, regression occurred right in front of Chronos’s nose.
Kim Jun slowly closed his eyes, opened them, and muttered.
“…So it’s coming at me this way?”
Kim Jun’s eyes narrowed into slits.
Clearly just before, Chronos had been grinning even before the sword energy could touch its nose.
The regression that activated simultaneously with that smile.
‘…It’s unrelated to the ticking. That thing used the Scepter of Reversal itself.’
If that was the case, the story changed.
This wasn’t simply the Clock Tower’s pattern, but meant it was the boss’s active skill.
“It’s gotten more complicated.”
Perhaps he would have to spend even more time.
In terms of having to figure out the pattern and find a countermeasure.
But Kim Jun shook his head.
“I have no intention of doing that.”
The twenty-first regression.
His body had already perfectly memorized the route.
Kim Jun and Andras broke through the floors with identical movements.
Like machines, without wavering.
2nd Floor, 3rd Floor, 4th Floor…
Without catching their breath even once, all the way to the 10th Floor Boss Room door.
There was plenty of time.
As the door opened, Chronos’s form once again filled their vision.
A bizarre form that seemed human yet was entangled with clock hands and gears.
The「Scepter of Reversal」was still held in its hand.
Kim Jun slowly opened his mouth.
This time, he wouldn’t give it any opportunity.
Writhe-
Mana surged violently.
It boiled hotly within his blood vessels, burning his nerves.
[Skill: 「Draconic Incantation」 activated]
[Mana consumption: Enormous]
[Insufficient mana will be converted from health through the「Lion’s Talisman」.]
Pain as if his blood was combusting itself washed over him.
He could clearly see his health being carved away, but Kim Jun didn’t blink an eye.
『Don’t move.』
Space solidified.
A pressure that devoured even the air, a weight like a dragon’s roar settled over the room.
Chronos’s shoulders stiffened, and the arm gripping the Scepter of Reversal trembled.
It had clearly tried to activate the Scepter of Reversal, but.
『Kneel.』
Kim Jun’s voice struck down clearly.
The incantation Kim Jun uttered was the highest-grade dragon’s incantation that only an extreme few among incantations could handle.
“…!”
The massive hourglass shook as grains of sand shot upward in reverse.
But it couldn’t activate, creaking like cracked glass before stopping.
There was still plenty of time.
The Scepter of Reversal was sealed.
Chronos’s pupils wavered.
However, its kneeling body could no longer move.
The hand gripping the Scepter of Reversal trembled, but even resistance wasn’t permitted.
Slice-
The blade passed through.
Chronos’s body split along a single line.
[You have defeated the boss ‘Chronos the Reverser’!]
[Items obtained:「Scepter of Reversal」, 「Hourglass of Reversal」]
“Master.”
“Yeah?”
“May I dismember the corpse?”
Kim Jun chuckled.
“Please do.”
Slice slice-
Chop chop chop-!
“Fucking piece of shit. Being so damn annoying.”
“…;”
The language Andras used seemed to have developed somehow… well, whatever.
It’s time to return to the girls.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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