Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 61

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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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9. Final Dungeon (9)

 

The crying sound echoed again.

 

This time it was clearer and felt like a real child asking for help.

 

It was that well-crafted of a lure pattern.

 

I clenched my hands into fists.

 

‘If this continues… this isn’t a test.’

 

‘Someone keeps tampering with the Final Dungeon.’

 

Just before the mist ended, the crying suddenly stopped.

 

Instead, the floor vibrated very faintly.

 

“Stop.”

 

Yuhan Seong said firmly.

 

At the same time, thin pattern-like things spread beneath the mist.

 

Mana vibrations spreading like ripples.

 

And snap.

 

It was the sound of something breaking again.

 

I immediately shouted.

 

“Back!”

 

The students retreated almost simultaneously.

 

The patterns on the floor erupted upward.

 

Black tentacle-like shadows shot up in multiple branches, tearing through the mist.

 

Lee Hae-sol swallowed a scream.

 

“This isn’t a test mob, is it?!”

 

Hyun I-seo quickly caught on.

 

“External entity. It’s dungeon contamination!”

 

Yuhan Seong drew his sword.

 

His expression was firm and the air around him trembled briefly.

 

“…Someone is tampering with this dungeon.”

 

At that moment, one of the shadow tentacles swung toward me.

 

“Hali!”

 

Yu Hee ran over and pushed me away, but as the tentacle burrowed into the floor to strike us, I pulled a potion bottle from my bag and threw it right in front of me.

 

It shattered with a crack and light exploded.

 

The tentacle disappeared as if burning in the light.

 

But it didn’t completely disappear.

 

‘The purification… only half-worked on this type.’

 

‘This isn’t just ordinary contamination.’

 

Yuhan Seong said briefly.

 

“Reorganize formation.”

 

The students took their positions.

 

I caught my breath and recalculated the potion amount.

 

Instead of crying, now there was a low humming sound.

 

It was a mechanical, metallic resonance.

 

The sound of the dungeon itself shaking.

 

And beyond the mist, something very faintly cracked as something began to reveal itself.

 

The form emerging from beyond the mist was an existence not recorded in any Final Dungeon records.

 

The texture of its mana was different.

 

Not the rough, simple waves typical of dungeon monsters, but an irregular, forced flow as if ‘injected’ from outside.

 

I instinctively held my breath.

 

Yuhan Seong raised his sword first and said.

 

“Everyone back. This isn’t a test mob.”

 

Swoosh.

 

As the mist cleared, the form was completely revealed.

 

Four legs, two arms.

 

However, the joint positions were twisted and the torso was abnormally long, creating an unpleasant shape mixing human and beast silhouettes.

 

The face part was even more horrific.

 

Where eyes should be were only empty holes, and the mouth was torn open with sounds similar to the earlier crying still leaking out bit by bit.

 

“This…”

 

Yu Hee lowered her voice.

 

“It looks like some kind of test subject…”

 

“Not a test subject, it has ‘strings’ attached.”

 

Hyun I-seo raised his fingertip to point behind the creature.

 

There were thread-like strings made of mana extending deep into the mist.

 

I swallowed hard.

 

‘Right. This scene… I remember.’

 

In the original work, this monster was called a ‘contaminated construct.’

 

A device someone secretly inserted to distort the path before reaching the Final Dungeon’s deepest part and separate the students from each other.

 

The problem was that in the original, this only appeared once.

 

Right now, there were multiple strings on its back.

 

Two, three… no, much more than that.

 

“Behind… there are more.”

 

I said almost in a whisper.

 

The students flinched slightly.

 

Only Yuhan Seong spoke without wavering.

 

“Everyone take positions.”

 

The monster slowly raised its head.

 

And it began moving forward, bending and extending its legs in a strangely twisted manner.

 

The speed was slow, but the approach itself was strange.

 

It moved not by touching the ground, but as if grasping space itself.

 

Lee Hae-sol muttered quietly.

 

“Is that… movement even possible inside a dungeon?”

 

I didn’t answer.

 

It was difficult to answer.

 

The moment the monster completely entered our view, the students simultaneously took attack stances, but I reached out my hand and said urgently.

 

“Wait! That thing has different attack patterns from regular mobs. If you attack the body, it’ll reflect back!”

 

Yu Hee immediately asked back.

 

“Then where should we hit it?”

 

“You need to cut the strings on its back.”

 

I pointed in the direction with trembling hands.

 

“As long as those strings are maintained, the monster will keep regenerating.”

 

Yuhan Seong nodded.

 

“Then we’ll move separately. Hyun I-seo, Lee Hae-sol. Read the vibration patterns and open a path.”

 

Hyun I-seo took a breath.

 

“…Possible. The mist is being pushed away from here. The space is shaking abnormally.”

 

The monster let out a cry-like breath.

 

This time it was definitely identical to a child’s crying.

 

And immediately after, the entire floor shook.

 

Yuhan Seong shouted firmly.

 

“Don’t scatter!”

 

At that moment, the monster disappeared.

 

To be precise, only its ‘front appearance’ had disappeared.

 

I swallowed my scream.

 

“Behind!”

 

The students all turned around at once.

 

The monster was standing right behind us, very close.

 

It even made a sound like laughing with its mouth torn open.

 

The monster twisted its body and raised its hand.

 

Its movement was so fast and so light that it was closer to a ‘living being’ than any monster we’d encountered in the Final Dungeon.

 

Yuhan Seong reacted first.

 

His sword swept through the air and struck the monster’s wrist.

 

However, instead of the sound of metal clashing, there was a dull resonance that deflected slightly.

 

“High reflection rate.”

 

He said through gritted teeth.

 

The monster tilted its head and looked at Yuhan Seong’s attack as if it found it interesting.

 

Then it twisted its limbs, moving at abnormal angles as it burrowed between the students.

 

Yu Hee quickly shouted.

 

“I-seo, grab the left side!”

 

Hyun I-seo’s reaction was a bit slow, but thanks to his ability to read mana flows, he immediately followed the monster’s movement.

 

White magic burst from his fingertips.

 

Bang.

 

The flow of power twisted and the monster’s body turned halfway around.

 

But it didn’t fall.

 

With its arms stretched long, it continued moving while dragging along the floor.

 

I bit my lip.

 

‘This… it’s much stronger than in the original.’

 

Originally, cutting one string would have reduced the monster’s movement by half and slowed its regeneration, but this monster was already mimicking movements in multiple directions simultaneously, as if it had been separated into several pieces.

 

There was a high possibility that there were multiple ‘controllers.’

 

“Hali!”

 

Lee Hae-sol called out to me.

 

“First, where should we hit it!”

 

I said while opening my bag.

 

“Don’t attack! If you hit it, it’ll just reflect back!”

 

Yuhan Seong turned around briefly and asked.

 

“Then what should we do.”

 

“We need to cut the string. That string connecting to the mist from behind its back.”

 

Just as Yuhan Seong was about to nod, the monster leaped toward Lee Hae-sol.

 

Fast and almost screaming.

 

Lee Hae-sol’s eyes widened.

 

It was too close to dodge.

 

In that moment, Hyun I-seo threw himself forward.

 

He pushed Lee Hae-sol away with his arm and took the attack in his place.

 

A scream-like impact sound rang out.

 

Bang.

 

Hyun I-seo rolled on the floor and the monster landed right in front of him.

 

As it twisted its mouth into a grin as if mimicking a human face, a dark, thin string swayed slightly behind its back.

 

This was the moment.

 

I pulled a small bottle from my bag.

 

‘Dispersive marking potion.’

 

Originally intended for rescue teams to locate positions during emergency evacuations, it was a small experimental creation designed to spread along specific flows when it touched stable mana.

 

I drove the bottle into the dungeon floor.

 

Thunk.

 

The liquid spread and the mana flow on the floor began to become visible.

 

White lines were faintly connected toward the monster’s back.

 

“Over there!”

 

I pointed toward the string direction as if shouting with my finger.

 

“Cut the string to stop it!”

 

Yuhan Seong ran toward that direction.

 

But the monster turned toward Yuhan Seong even faster.

 

The end of its arm flew toward him and Yuhan Seong raised his sword to block it.

 

There was no metallic sound.

 

Instead, a strange resonance like ‘the sound of colliding space’ spread.

 

Yuhan Seong’s feet slid backward as if slipping.

 

It wasn’t being pushed back by force, but felt like space itself was pushing.

 

I gritted my teeth.

 

‘That thing really isn’t moving by itself.’

 

The monster immediately changed direction and headed toward Yu Hee this time.

 

His eyes wavered slightly.

 

“Wait!”

 

I shouted.

 

“Don’t waste time! Someone needs to hold that string!”

 

Lee Hae-sol took a breath.

 

“…Then I’ll go.”

 

“No!”

 

Hyun I-seo shouted.

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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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