LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 56
Chapter 56
『You have entered the dungeon of the “Troll Lord.”』
Jaehyuk found himself unintentionally in the dungeon and felt a wave of tension wash over him.
However, he did not hesitate for long, urging his steps forward.
He hoped that the dungeon’s structure would be as complex as a maze.
In order to evade Theodor’ pursuit, he needed a place to hide first.
However, the Troll Lord’s dungeon was gargantuan in size but a one-way path.
Jaehyuk had no choice but to move forward.
“Are there no traps or ambushes?”
It was troubling. Progressing like this would only lead him to be isolated between Theodor and the Troll Lord.
“… First.”
Jaehyuk pulled out all the poison pouches from his bosom and poured out the black sand.
The sand was heavily drenched in the poison of the Leech King.
Though the chance for a named undead to be affected by the poison was slim, he hoped the poisonous sand would slightly slow down Theodor’ chase.
‘There’s only one way to increase the survival odds in this situation.’
A raid on the Troll Lord.
He had to kill it before Theodor arrived, hoping for the highest possible level-up.
Only then could he avoid being trapped and have a slight chance against Theodor.
‘Named monsters aren’t invincible.’
According to the lion statue, Theodor who had just resurrected was ‘only at the stage where he’d barely be able to swing a sword after four months of recovery.’
Currently, Theodor hadn’t even had half a month before he was forced to take action. The possibility of utilizing even one-tenth of his full power was slim.
Even considering that he acted quickly by exploiting the monster migration and growing by massacring the migrating monsters, this assessment did not change.
Trying to fill the ‘time’ needed for a named monster with just hundreds of monsters defied logic.
‘If he could recover to that extent with a few hours of hunting, it means Theodor’ level is fundamentally low.’
Having left his footprints in the poisoned sand, Jaehyuk increased his speed.
Now that he had decided to kill the Troll Lord, he had no intention of delaying.
“Grrr…”
Ten minutes later, upon reaching the end of the dungeon, Jaehyuk spotted a lone white troll sitting in the center of a gigantic chamber.
Was it the innate instincts of a lord?
Contrary to Jaehyuk’s expectations, the white troll sitting on a crudely broken throne was extremely small.
It was hardly 130 centimeters tall.
It clearly had the form of a child, just as it was born.
Somehow, it seemed to be waiting endlessly for subordinates who were not coming, as it showed a welcoming expression upon seeing Jaehyuk.
A young, lonely creature.
Jaehyuk did not feel any pity for it.
Not simply because it was a monster.
Its muscular body appeared as if covered in glued rocks.
Even the blood vessels were as thick and sturdy as steel rods.
Indeed, the appearance of the Troll Lord was incredibly intimidating.
Like how an ant cannot pity an elephant, Jaehyuk could not harbor any emotion toward it, only tension remained.
“RRROOAAARRR!”
The red eyes of the Troll Lord flared up like a wildfire.
It realized Jaehyuk was a human and was furious.
The beast howled as though accusing him of being the reason why the monsters, who should have run to him and bowed their heads, were silent.
This brought Jaehyuk to his senses, and he noticed that the cave was surprisingly not dark.
‘Monsters wouldn’t have been the ones to install night stones or torches.’
Jaehyuk lifted his chin up high.
A small, round light appeared on the distant ceiling.
Soon, as his vision adapted to the brightness, it caught a faint glimpse of a blue sky.
‘A crater.’
Noticing how bizarre the shapes of the rocks were and their dark hue, he realized this was the inside of a dormant volcano.
Which meant—
‘There’s an exit.’
The crater was the escape route.
The height of the cliff leading to the ceiling was easily 300 meters, and the slope was nearly vertical, making it unimaginable for an average person to climb.
But Jaehyuk’s way of thinking was fundamentally different. He didn’t carelessly argue about impossibilities.
Boom-!
With mana released from the mana circuit in his sole, Jaehyuk’s body leaped more than 20 meters in an instant.
As he found footing on a sharp protruding rock wall, he searched for the next place to leap to.
“KUURAAAAGH!!”
His ears rang painfully, as the Troll Lord, who was chasing him, let out a powerful roar.
〈King’s Roar〉
An intangible shockwave dangerously shook the very rock Jaehyuk stood upon.
‘I thought it would be sluggish.’
Jaehyuk did not lose his balance.
What mattered most to a martial artist was the strength of the lower body.
He had trained to stand firm, even amidst a sweeping tide.
Spaaang-!
A beam of light pierced the Troll Lord’s heart three times.
Having practiced drawing and sheathing the sword over ten thousand times daily,
Jaehyuk’s quick draw technique narrowly exceeded the newborn Troll Lord’s cognitive abilities.
“Grrk…!”
The axe, which was about to fall on Jaehyuk’s head, came to a sudden halt,
Swish!
Finally, a horizontal line drawn by the beam severed the neck of the Troll Lord flailing futilely in the air.
Thud!!
The Troll Lord, whose entire body was solid muscle, indeed boasted an immense weight. The ground it hit sank deeply, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Jaehyuk’s expression was far from good.
‘It’s shallow.’
His wrist felt as if it were about to tear apart.
Even though he pierced the heart and cut the neck, the amount of blood on the blade was minimal.
It indicated that the Troll Lord’s defense surpassed Jaehyuk’s attack power.
The problem was the blade was dulled.
‘If I survive this, I need to purchase new weapons.’
Due to continuous battles, the condition of his sword was terrible.
The blade had nicks here and there, and he worried it might break if he continued using it.
‘It’s unfortunate.’
Even B-rank players carried at least one epic item.
However, the symbol of the Kang family, the curved sword, was merely an ordinary blade, not classified as an item.
‘Why is that?’
Scriii-iiik, clothes threatened to rip as Jaehyuk calmly sheathed the protesting sword while suppressing his newfound wonder and started running along the cliff.
He wasn’t able to find stable footing.
He decided that running would be better than jumping.
“Crrooaar!”
Kicking at the nearly vertical cliff and sprinting forward, a white shadow accompanied him.
It was the Troll Lord, which had just fallen.
Its speed was enormous, unfitting for its size.
The savage club just grazed the back of Jaehyuk’s neck as he evaded by sticking to the cliff wall.
Deploying a skill, twin scythes of aura formed, stabbing into the Troll Lord’s side and back with a whoosh.
But a single skill would not be enough to bring down a C-rank boss.
Gritting its teeth, enduring the pain, the Troll Lord swung its club in retaliation.
Spaaang!
Jaehyuk struck its wrist with a sword draw technique and followed up with a dagger throw.
Thunk!
“Kuyaaaagh!!”
Pierced through its left eye by the powerful epic-grade dagger, unlike his worn sword, the Troll Lord thrashed in agony and fell once more.
“Tsk.”
Clicking his tongue, Jaehyuk confirmed the Troll Lord was still alive; his legs didn’t stop moving.
The sky beyond the crater appeared much larger than before.
He had climbed about a third of the cliff.
The 〈Wind Spirit’s Boots〉 received from a senior instructor had been a great asset.
Boom! Boom! Crack!!
The Troll Lord intervened.
Pulling out the dagger from its eye, it crushed and swallowed its own eyeball like it was nothing, pounding the cliff repeatedly with a massive fist the size of a watermelon.
‘Why would you eat that?’
Disgusted by the menacing antics, Jaehyuk concentrated his magic power into one of his hands and plunged it into the cliff.
Stopping his climb to secure himself from falling, it was a futile attempt.
Creaaak! Craaack-crack!!
The relentless punching from the Troll Lord caused the cliff to crack and begin showing signs of collapsing.
A broad smile spread across the Troll Lord’s face, believing it had finally cornered its prey.
It was a grave misconception.
‘Proceed as per the original plan.’
The newborn Troll Lord needed to understand its place.
Why did Jaehyuk intend to flee from here? Was it because he feared it? No, it was to avoid Theodor.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!!
The cliff rapidly collapsed.
“Kwahah… Huh?”
The Troll Lord’s expression froze upon seeing Jaehyuk, who, instead of being caught, floated in the air.
Having propelled himself off the cascading rocks, Jaehyuk’s black eyes locked onto the Troll Lord with extraordinary speed.
The Troll Lord, instinctively a lord, immediately understood what the eerily calm and set eyes meant.
Those eyes… they’re the eyes of a predator, akin to itself.
“Kurooo-aaaghh!!”
Finally grasping its situation, the Troll Lord swung its club urgently.
The monster remembered.
It recalled that the human’s weak sword failed to penetrate its neck and chest.
Thus, rather than guard against the attack of Jaehyuk, who was descending with a draw,
It focused on counterattacking.
A mistake committed due to its first experience in battle since birth.
The Troll Lord should have been wary of the prickling sensation on its skin the moment Jaehyuk pulled the sword hilt.
『The Thunder Sword is activated.』
Crackle!
A piece of thunder that terrified the greatest masters who achieved level 150 among S-rank players wrapped around Jaehyuk’s blade—though dull, it was potent.
The blade burned through and tore apart the Troll Lord’s thick skin and muscles, finally reaching its heart.
“Craaahhh!!”
But a lord does not fall easily.
The Troll Lord, with a sword lodged in its heart, fiercely swung its club and struck Jaehyuk’s side.
The intense pain caused by breaking ribs and shredded organs nearly made Jaehyuk lose consciousness.
The protective magic embedded in the Lion’s Castle uniform was shattered entirely, attesting to the might of the Troll Lord’s attack.
“Consider it an honor to be buried with the symbol of the Kang family.”
Uttering his family name to awaken his mind, Jaehyuk barely staved off fainting.
His magic power, comparable to a 50-level mage, was focused to the extreme in the sword lodged in the Troll Lord’s heart.
Then, an explosion followed.
Flash!
By applying the pinnacle of the Kang family’s mana technique, Jaehyuk detonated the sword, rendering the Troll Lord incapable of even screaming before perishing.
The interior violently ravaged, the blood gushing from its mouth painted the falling cliff debris an all-encompassing red.
“……”
Despite his victory, Jaehyuk’s eyes remained calm.
The real challenge began now.
『Remarkable. But you’re not the specter I know, are you?』
How long had it been observing him?
The Death Knight’s purple eyes narrowed slightly as it leaned casually against the entrance to the chamber.
『Who are you?』
Just as Jaehyuk was about to answer it, realizing that he was not Yaksha,
Bbbbbzzzz—
A mystical resonance reverberated everywhere.
Turning to look, he saw that the sword erupting from the Troll Lord was rising into the air, reduced to rags.
“…?”
What phenomenon was this?
Jaehyuk’s eyes widened as the sword began to emit a transparent red glow.
The cracks running along the broken blade shone with a bright light.
『A profound destiny of 〈Iyarugt〉 starts to emerge.』
The true symbol of the Kang family had revealed itself.
TL’s Corner:
Iyarugt has appeared. If you read Overgeared, this is the connection.