Walkthrough for the Transcendental Hunter's Ruins - Chapter 103
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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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Episode 103
Four days had passed since the conquest team entered the Ruin and never came back out.
South Korea’s Hunter Bureau was in full emergency lockdown.
For all practical purposes, the Ruin Conquest had failed.
But that wasn’t the real problem.
Sure, it was humiliating, but if they’d failed they should have come out. That’s simple.
So why hadn’t they?
If they failed, everyone should be exiting. Why aren’t they?
‘Could they have been wiped out completely? No chance to even run?’
Since around yesterday, Bureau Chief Yoo Jung-tae seemed to be losing his grip on reality.
His condition had been poor since the second day, but now his mind had simply gone elsewhere.
Messages kept arriving from above and below, asking him for explanations about everything.
But Yoo Jung-tae couldn’t respond to any of it.
Precisely because he had nothing to tell them—there was nothing he could explain.
‘Why? How did it come to this?’
Had he pushed for the Ruin Conquest too quickly, after all?
Should he have trained the hunters more thoroughly?
Or was there something about the Ruin that hadn’t been identified beforehand?
It was true that Yoo Jung-tae had rushed the Ruin Conquest somewhat.
He’d had no choice.
The Ancient-grade Ruin was relatively manageable, but more than one nation coveted it.
Yoo Jung-tae feared losing this optimal situation and golden opportunity that had come to the Hunter Bureau, so he’d pushed forward somewhat hastily.
If the end result had been good, it wouldn’t have mattered, but the outcome was like this.
That the preparations were perfect, separate from the hasty timing, was now nothing but an excuse.
‘How did things come to this…’
While he sat alone in self-recrimination, unable to do anything either way.
“Sir.”
“Huh…?”
“Hunter Jeon Jae-woo just made contact.”
At those words, light returned to Yoo Jung-tae’s listless eyes.
“W-what did he say?!”
If there was even a thread-thin hope now, it was Jeon Jae-woo.
If a single hunter was still alive in the Ruin, Jeon Jae-woo could conquer the Ancient-grade Ruin solo and pull them all out.
“He says he’ll try to conquer it on his own.”
“Ah… yes. I understand.”
But the gloom remained unchanged.
In all honesty, having heard nothing for over four days meant you had to assume everyone in the Ruin was dead.
Even if he conquered it now, the odds of the hunters returning alive were vanishingly low.
Jeon Jae-woo felt the same concern.
[Do not worry so, Creator. With a Doppelgänger’s abilities, death itself would not come easily.]
“That’s true, isn’t it?”
As long as they were breathing—no matter what state they were in—it would be fine.
With breath still in their bodies, he could put them in Heaven’s Box or bring them to Twilight Ruin and heal them completely.
They would have been trained on what to do if an emergency situation broke out.
Just as there were ways to increase survival rates even when trapped in a dungeon.
“Then you’ll begin the conquest immediately?”
At the Lich King’s question, Jeon Jae-woo shook his head.
“No. I can’t start from the beginning again.”
“Hmm? Then what?”
“The Ruin itself has characteristics that consume an enormous amount of time—I can’t afford to waste more of it here.”
If it’s a battle of attrition, the conquest time stretches even longer.
To save as many hunters as possible, he had to reach them as quickly as he could.
“But if you don’t enter the Ruin, how…”
Jeon Jae-woo pulled something from inside No-bum’s body.
A single sheet of paper, identical in size to an additional Conquest Token. But it was not a Conquest Token.
“We have the items, after all.”
It was an Intervention Ticket.
A ticket received long ago as a reward from a Ruin Conquest—an ability to intervene in a Ruin already being conquered.
“…Honestly, I thought it would be pretty useless, but look, everything finds a use eventually.”
“Lucky. Or… is that lucky?”
I need to use this to enter the Ruin and check the situation immediately.
But Jeon Jae-woo had no reason to use the Intervention Ticket.
He’d made rough preparations and was about to enter the Ruin directly when—
word came from the Hunter Bureau that the conquest party had safely emerged from the Ruin.
And they’d completed the Ruin Conquest using their own strength.
***
The Hunter Bureau’s conquest party had indeed fallen into crisis, just as people outside had worried it would.
In the early stages, the Hunters had advanced without incident.
But an unforeseen problem arose.
Ruins were notorious for throwing unexpected situations at you, and the problem was that frequency didn’t guarantee you’d have any proper countermeasure ready.
The undead beasts they’d clearly defeated rose again, empowered by Necromancy.
In truth, knowing the characteristics of a boss like the Lich King, reviving once or twice might’ve been expected.
They’d already accounted for that much variability.
But the Hunters had assumed the Lich King would have limits to its Mana.
Well, as a beast it surely must have limits, but from the Hunters’ perspective, it might as well have been infinite.
They’d knocked down a single undead more than ten times, and it kept rising again under the power of Necromancy.
Not just certain undead—thousands upon thousands of them, all the same.
As a result, the conquest party that had been charging forward so confidently found itself surrounded in the very heart of the enemy formation.
“The rear is in danger!! The healers are in trouble!”
“Tanks, fall back!!”
“We can’t! Who’s holding the front?! If the front collapses, everything ends!!”
……
Lee Su-ho, the commander of this conquest party, shook his head.
‘This… is a failure.’
It was clear from long experience—or even without long experience, it was clear.
This conquest was doomed.
The Lich King, the boss beast, had no special abilities beyond Necromancy, just as the initial intelligence had indicated.
The one overlooked fact was that its Mana reserves were absurdly vast, and it never stopped casting Necromancy.
‘I’m not even sure if there’s a limit to its Mana at all.’
Compared to the boss beasts of other Ancient-grade Ruins, it had already used an overwhelmingly greater amount of Mana.
It was like a zombie with infinite Mana.
Lee Su-ho glanced at Jeon Ji-woo.
Huff… huff…
Jeon Ji-woo, the conquest party’s sole glimmer of hope, was breathing heavily—clearly exhausted.
‘No. This won’t work.’
Setting aside the Ruin Conquest itself, if valuable combat assets like these Hunters got wounded through overexertion, that would be the worst outcome of all.
Lee Su-ho called out loudly to the Hunters.
“Everyone, let’s withdraw! The Ruin Conquest is suspended!!”
……!!
The party commander had declared the Ruin Conquest a failure.
The Hunters bit their lips in frustration.
They’d thought this time they’d finally succeed in conquering an Ancient-grade Ruin with their own strength.
But anger wasn’t the issue now.
“Uh… what’s this?”
One Hunter’s pupils began to tremble.
“Why? I can’t exit the Ruin.”
“I can’t exit either!”
“It was fine when we first came in?! Why not now?!”
When the Ruin exit became impossible, the Hunters fell into panic.
For some unknown reason, they couldn’t stop the Ruin Conquest.
Since continuing to fight offered no chance of victory, if things went on like this, the Hunters would be wiped out—all of them dead in this place.
Cornered completely, the Hunters’ minds began to crumble.
“Ah… my whole life comes to an end in a place like this…”
“Mom… Dad…”
“Damn it! Why do I have to die here?! Bring Yoo Jung-tae here too!!”
Some sobbed, some denied reality, some raged—all of them breaking in their own way.
No one stopped anyone from cursing at the Bureau Chief.
Lee Su-ho felt equally hopeless, but as an S-Rank Hunter and party commander, he refused to abandon his responsibility until the very end.
“Everyone, hold on however you can! When time passes, they’ll surely notice something’s wrong, and Jeon Jae-woo will conquer this Ruin in our stead!”
The other S-Rank Hunters also rallied their comrades.
“You mustn’t lose hope until the very end—you all know that! Find your strength!”
“……”
There was logic to it, but how in the world were they supposed to hold out until Jeon Jae-woo conquered the Ruin?
At this rate, they couldn’t even survive three more hours, let alone a full day.
It might be kinder to take their own lives and find a gentler death.
But then again—if they died here, would they be trapped forever as slaves of the Lich King, neither alive nor dead?
Yet the hunters did not know.
That the conquest team’s chances of survival—no, the very possibility of conquering the Ruin—had not yet dimmed.
“Haaah…”
Jung Hee-sung, one of the two pillars supporting the conquest team and an S-Rank Hunter, stared at Jeon Ji-woo with a bewildered expression.
‘What in the world is she doing?’
Jeon Ji-woo stood motionless, eyes closed, holding her blade in perfect form.
For what seemed like thirty minutes now, she had simply stood there without moving.
Even when the monsters rushed at her, some kind of barrier seemed to protect her—they couldn’t land a blow, yet she remained utterly still.
‘Is she… trying to train? In a situation like this?’
Had panic broken her mind entirely?
If what Jeon Ji-woo was doing could be called training, then yes—it was training.
But she hadn’t fallen into panic or mental collapse.
She was in a state of concentration, advancing to the next level.
Jeon Ji-woo, to whom the epithet “the greatest genius in hunter history” was not an overstatement, had grasped something new while carving through the monsters that filled the Ruin.
The final keystone to reach the ultimate stage.
-Kuuuuh…
In that instant, mana erupted from Jeon Ji-woo’s body, burning hot.
Yet her surroundings remained silent—like the calm before a storm.
“……??”
The S-Rank Hunters at the scene felt it in real time.
They witnessed a single person’s realm rising before their very eyes.
To directly witness a rise in realm with one’s own eyes was no common experience.
Least of all when advancing from an S-rank Trait to the next stage.
“Haah… haaaaagh!!”
Her ragged breathing transformed in an instant into a thunderous battle cry.
-Kuwakwakwakwa!!
The breakthrough had occurred at last.
In that same moment, Blade Aura Release exploded outward from every fiber of Jeon Ji-woo’s body.
-Kwakwakwakwabang!!
Picture a bomb detonating, except instead of shrapnel, countless fragments of blade energy scatter in all directions.
One could scarcely imagine the magnitude of such force without witnessing it firsthand.
“Kueeegh?!”
The Blade Aura Release burst forth in a colossal explosion, yet even amidst the chaos, Jeon Ji-woo maintained perfect control of her technique.
The razor-sharp fragments flew past her allies with precision, striking only the monsters.
The tidal wave of beasts that had been surging forward was driven back in a single strike.
“Wh-what?”
“How is this possible?”
“Hunter Jeon Ji-woo?”
The hunters stood stunned, unable to comprehend what had just happened.
Kim Yu-min watched Jeon Ji-woo and swallowed hard.
‘…Her aura changed again.’
Until now, it had been overwhelming strength that she could at least perceive and measure.
But seeing her now, Kim Yu-min could only acknowledge that Jeon Ji-woo had transcended any level a swordmaster could truly fathom.
‘Could it be… she’s become Transcendent Grade?’
〈Jeon Ji-woo〉 – Doppelgänger (Conquest Rights: 11 Remaining)
Description – A clone created from the Summoner.
Type – Doppelgänger
Traits – Blade Aura Release (S). Ego Sword (S). Divine Sword Unity (Transcendent).
A new Transcendent-grade Trait appeared in Jeon Ji-woo’s status window.
How an Transcendent-Grade Hunter Conquers a Ruin
Author
: Autumn
Created
: July 31, 2026
Publisher
: Aces Media
Editor-in-Chief
: Aces Media Editorial Team
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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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