Chapter 100
Theseus was the test examiner of the 20th Floor, so he had various authorities relevant to the test. He could even interfere with the test to some extent, as long as it didn’t break any rules, and he had the power to observe every minute detail of the test.
Even though right now he had lost the majority of his authority, there was still one thing he knew.
[The body of the Sea Turtle has been designated as the testing site.]
[Defeat the Sea Turtle and obtain the Stone of the Sea.]
The contents of the test.
He might not have been a player directly participating in the test, but as long as he was a test examiner granted authority by the Administrators, he could at least know the contents of the test.
“Do you trust that brat?”
In the stalemate that had gone on for a while, Theseus was the first to speak.
Suhtahr didn’t say a single word. However, Theseus pretty much knew what the Giant was thinking without having to hear a word from him.
“You’re wishing for that guy to pass the test and return with the Stone. Am I wrong?”
“Shut up.”
“This was pretty much a gamble, so what will you do if it fails?”
The Giants who had stayed silent for a while began to move.
Since Olympus knew about this, the era would change in one way or another. There was even a chance the second Gigantomachy would happen sooner.
Of course, the Giants knew this as well.
“…He’ll succeed.”
Suhtahr raised his head to look at the stretching Sea Turtle.
“Because the Elder decided it will be so.”
The unconditional faith of Urpha.
Suhtahr was standing here on that faith alone.
The other Giants were the same. The ten Giant Rankers who had followed Suhtahr were all thinking the same thing.
Waiting for the test to finish, Theseus smiled.
‘You dumb Giants.’
He had heard that YuWon had won against a Ranker before. However, even someone like YuWon wouldn’t ever be able to pass this test. There was no way he could defeat the tens of thousands of monsters inside the Sea Turtle and the Sea Turtle itself.
‘He’ll definitely fail the test.’
Theseus trusted that without a doubt.
Since the test was already out of his grasp, he could only wait here for it to end.
‘When that happens…’
Theseus slowly but tightly grasped the trident in his hand.
‘I’ll wipe out the Giants, and acquire the Stone of the Sea.’
Crash—!
Thump—!
The bodies of the Sea Snakes were torn to pieces and flung in all directions.
After clearing the path in an instant, YuWon increased his speed. He didn’t have enough energy to spare to kill all the monsters that were chasing him.
“Kyao—!”
The cries of the Aqua Dragon were heard from directly behind him.
The salty smell of the sea became more intense.
YuWon put strength into the hand equipped with 「Kyneē.」
[Activating Stealth.]
Shwoo—
YuWon’s image disappeared from his position instantly. It was 「Kyneē’s」 ability to erase his sounds and presence.
Even though the difference in 「Kyneē’s」 creation method and YuWon’s power didn’t allow him to use [Perfect Stealth] like Hades, he could at least conceal his body for a moment.
“Kyargh—?”
The Aqua Dragon that had charged at YuWon hesitated momentarily.
It had definitely aimed to grab YuWon and eat him in an instant, but its target had suddenly disappeared.
“Kngh—”
The Aqua Dragon sniffed. Its sense of smell had been trained in the salty and fishy waters of the sea, and as it focused on the noise, it could quickly find YuWon’s position.
However…
Crack—!
That short moment where the Aqua Dragon hesitated in confusion was enough for its life to be taken.
YuWon’s knee axed the Aqua Dragon’s neck. The dragon limply fell on the ground with its broken neck, and YuWon stepped on its corpse to jump upward.
Woosh—
“Gyaaaaaah—!”
An uncountable number of Sea Snakes slithered.
YuWon looked at the Sea Snakes under him and pulled mana into his sword.
Fwoooosh—
[Holy Fire x Kyneē]
Bzzzzt—!
「Kyneē」 exploded with the [Holy Fire] and burnt the bodies of the gaping-mouthed Sea Snakes that were below him into crisp.
[Heaven-Slaying Star’s completion rate has increased by 0.001%.]
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[Heaven-Slaying Star’s completion rate did not increase.]
[Heaven-Slaying Star’s completion rate has increased by…]
The completion rate of the [Heaven-Slaying Star] was soon reaching completion, but it did not increase as much as before.
It was a shame.
[Completion Rate: 99.041%.]
YuWon thought that if he got lucky, he might be able to see the completed form of [Heaven-Slaying Star] through this test…
‘But that’ll probably be a bit hard.’
Woop—
YuWon stepped on thin air again. Using the effects of 「Hermes’s Treads,」 he easily jumped over one Sea Snake and swung his sword at the next.
Shick—
‘I’ll ignore the ones I can.’
There wasn’t a need to hunt every single one of them because the goal of the test wasn’t hunting to begin with.
Wooshh—
YuWon focused on the energy flowing out of 「Kyneē.」 The sword resonated with the 「Divine Sea Crystal」 that was located pretty far away. It was so faint that you would miss it if you lost focus, but it wasn’t hard to gauge the approximate direction.
Badump—
The beating of a heart could be felt through 「Kyneē.」
‘Is it stuck inside the mana heart?’
Rather than a normal heart, Sea Turtles, like Dragons, used a ‘mana heart’ to move. Using its mana heart, mana is distributed all over its body, and that would circulate its blood. For them, their mana heart wasn’t much different from a human heart. It was smooth and sturdy like a rock, but like a human heart, it was the core of the Sea Turtle.
Based on the size of the Sea Turtle, its mana heart would be enormous as well. YuWon guessed the mana heart was probably bigger than a house.
“Kyaaaagh—!”
Wooo, waaah—
The path that was created by the [Holy Fire] had closed quite rapidly.
The number of monsters that resided in the ocean was close to infinity, and the inside of this Sea Turtle was no different from a small ocean.
He needed to open the closed path again. There was no other way than to break through.
Shink, fwooosh—
Bzzzzt—!
YuWon didn’t spare any mana as he swung his sword.
The inside of the Sea Turtle that was infested from floor to ceiling with monsters was pitch black, which clouded his eyes, and so YuWon could only rely on his other senses.
Shlik—
Fwick—
A squirt of blood stained YuWon’s cheek. A small wound had formed. He ended up with a hair-thin slice.
Shwaak—!
Chik—
Soon after, YuWon’s sword slashed a monster that had approached him. The monster was cut in two without even being able to scream, and YuWon checked its body with [Cinder Eyes.]
Its body was like a mermaid, but it was a monster with sharp claws like a praying mantis on its hands. It was a Rake Mermaid.
‘Their numbers are slowly increasing.’
The deeper he went inside, the more the number of monsters increased.
There were limits to just illuminating his vision with [Cinder Eyes] and trudging forward. If his small wounds kept piling up, he would inevitably collapse.
‘I’ll change my approach.’
YuWon’s eyes dimmed down.
Thanks to his enhanced senses, it wasn’t completely dark, but it became as dark as night for him. In the pitch black surroundings, only the cries of monsters could be heard.
In the next moment…
[Sensory Field]
Woosh—!
YuWon felt his surroundings coming into view centered around him.
And just after that, YuWon remembered that Rake Mermaids lived in groups.
Flip—
Shsh, shshshsh—
Many Rake Mermaids lunged at YuWon, and their blades were thrust through his body. But…
Crack—
Only the sound of the mermaids colliding could be heard, but they didn’t cut anything.
On the contrary, the ones who were cut were the mermaids.
Shwaa—!
The Rake Mermaids were bisected between their upper and lower bodies. YuWon, who had dodged the Rake Mermaids’ attacks and counterattacked, still had his eyes closed.
‘This is much better.’
He had been thinking about this wrong. When the environment became dark, his first thought was to use the [Cinder Eyes,] which he had been using for quite a while after his return because he thought it to be the perfect skill to regain his lost sight. However, in a situation like this, [Sensory Field] was much better than [Cinder Eyes.]
‘While I’m focusing solely on my sight, it’s natural that the [Cinder Eyes’] battle prediction would become weaker. In a situation like this, it’s better to give up sight entirely.’
Sight was the sense that humans relied on the most out of the five major senses. However, after a decent increase in Perception and familiarizing oneself with battles, the number of senses that one could use in battle also increased.
[Sensory Field] was such a skill that increased these senses.
In this moment, having closed his eyes, YuWon was able to pour the focus he would’ve had into sight into all his other senses.
Shsh, shshshsh—
Fwooosh, bang—!
YuWon weaved between the monsters while blasting [Holy Fire.]
As he used multiple skills in succession, his mana was being used up rapidly, but it was all to maintain his speed forward.
“Hah—”
His breathing became rougher. Moving without resting his body had been draining his stamina. His mana was the same.
No matter how much his mana and stamina regeneration had been boosted by ‘night,’ his current self was like an empty jar. And even if a jar was to be constantly filled with water, it wouldn’t be able to keep holding water if it was leaking.
‘How much longer can I fight?’
Even as YuWon advanced again and again, he kept checking his body’s situation.
‘Halfway now.’
It had already been an hour since he’d entered the Sea Turtle’s body.
Even though he had fought all this time while controlling his strength a bit, he had used about half his mana.
But that was still fine…
Badump—
…Because the sound was close.
‘No, it might not be fine.’
As the sound grew closer, the number of monsters also increased a lot.
The number of monsters he could sense reminded him of ants. With this many of them, there were probably about the same quantity as all the monsters YuWon had fought on his way here.
‘Were they protecting the mana heart or the Divine Sea Crystal?’
The Sea Turtle probably had a self-defense mechanism of its own.
“Chiek—”
As YuWon arrived where the mana heart was, his feet stopped for the first time in an hour.
The monsters that had charged at him like bulls had all stopped moving. They were moving differently while circling around a central thing.
Their movements weren’t to attack YuWon. They were moving to protect something.
Badump—
And the thing at the center of them was obviously the mana heart of the Sea Turtle.
Shwoo—
YuWon opened his eyes which had been clenched shut. As he used [Cinder Eyes,] the blurry surroundings became bright.
Badump—
Badump— Badump—
The mana heart beat slowly but powerfully.
A scarlet stone was the Sea Turtle’s mana heart.
Around the mana heart the size of a house, many monsters had already gathered.
“Grrrr—”
“Kyahaa—”
“Skwoooo—”
Thousands of monsters were gathered in one place. It looked like a party. If their sizes were smaller, he would have believed he had found an insect nest.
‘I’ll need to get through that.’
It was certain that the 「Divine Sea Crystal」 was inside that mana heart.
It was truly within his grasp.
Clench—
YuWon grasped his blade and put strength into it. He could no longer spare any strength or mana.
Bzzt, bzzzzzt—
The power pouring out of 「Kyneē」 grew stronger.
“I only did one thing.”
Hephaestus had said that the 「Divine Dark Crystal」 itself was the perfect item. Because of that, when he was making 「Kyneē」 at YuWon’s request, he only focused on one thing.
“All I did was create a vessel in which you could put all the power that item had.”
The original 「Kyneē」 used by Hades was famous for its [Perfect Stealth.] Because Hades’s personality and fighting style was originally stealthy, he had commissioned it to have a related ability when 「Kyneē」 was crafted.
“If my guess is right, this…”
Vwing—
On the back of 「Kyneē」 on YuWon’s hand, a yellow eye opened.
“…Will become an item that could rival my father’s Lighting Bolt.”
[Summoning ‘Hell.’]
