Chapter 132: Star, The First Mission (7)

[Himavat Breath]

In the divine snow mountain Himavat, which the Celestial ‘Goddess of Massscre and Destruction’ rules over, the ascetics secretly pass down this breathing method exclusively to their fellow ascetics. Since it was created to make up for the lack of oxygen in the mountain, it is excellent at boosting your power. However, using it before properly learning it can ruin your body.

· Type: State. Temporary skill.

· Effect: Detonate dormant power. Increase vital force.

[You have fallen into the ‘Berserk’ state.]

[You have fallen into the ‘Confused’ state.]

[You have fallen into the ‘Delirium’ state.]

…

[The explosion of your dormant power has significantly increased all your stats for 5 minutes!]

[00:05:00:00]

[00:04:59:99]

[00:04:59:98]

…

[The Celestial ‘Calamity Tiger’ widens his eyes in surprise upon seeing the new state you acquired.]

[The Celestial ‘Geminus’ is stroking his chin.]

[The Celestial ‘Twilight-Piercing Owl’ shouts at you to not do anything dangerous!]

Chang-Sun had no time to read the messages that were popping up nonstop. He was too busy suppressing his mana that was boiling up from the magic integrated circuit. He turned pale in a flash, and his spiderweb-like capillaries were revealed. His eyes had already become bloodshot as well, and the bulging veins on his temple looked like they were about to pop any second.

Those evidenced how hard it was to control the explosion.

Chang-Sun also received penalties like [Berserk] and [Delirum], making it more difficult for him to suppress his mana. However, he held out with all his might, knowing full well he would go insane if he let the boiling mana overwhelm him. He did not want to end up dying in futility due to mana deviation.

[The Skill ‘Kalokagathia’ has been activated, cooling down the boiling mana!]

[The State ‘Strict Tiger’ has been activated, enhancing your ability to think!]

Using [Kalokagathia], Chang-Sun balanced the state of his body and mana and activated [Strict Tiger] to think faster. He then felt as if the world around him had slowed down and the Elfin Root was moving in slow motion.

The system had given Chang-Sun five minutes, but he knew that was the maximum time limit. If he were to stay in this state until the timer ran out, his HP and mana would be depleted, ultimately resulting in his death. After all, he wouldn’t even have dormant power anymore. For that reason, he couldn’t use it for its entire duration. Taking that into consideration, he couldn’t really use it for a long time.

He planned to use [Himavat Breath] for only 5 seconds to minimize the aftereffects, so he had to finish everything by then. Using his enhanced ability to think and any other means necessary, Chang-Sun observed his opponent’s every movement and predicted its next move.

[The Skill ‘Beast Senses’ has been activated, locking onto all targets!]

Click!

Chang-Sun used the device in the middle of the spear to disassemble the Nameless Spear. With an explosion, five spearheads burst out of it and flew toward the Elfin Root. Choi Bu-Yong had installed those hidden weapons along with the fauchard mode during the Nameless Spear’s first upgrade.

In times of emergency, Chang-Sun could catch his enemy off guard by creating an explosion using the installed spearheads and gunpowder, but those weapons were dispensable, so he couldn’t use them again until Bu-Yong fixed the spear. Still, Chang-Sun could deliver a very secret yet critical attack with these weapons, so they were really useful during battles.

Whirl!

Seemingly taken by surprise, the Elfin Root held its wooden spear close to itself and successfully parried two of the spearheads, but the other three spearheads successfully stabbed into its chest.

Smack, smack, smack―!

‘A second has passed,’?

Chang-Sun assumed.

The spearheads created big holes in the Elfin Root’s body, continuing to push it backward. [Himavat Breath] had multiplied the damage of Chang-Sun’s attacks, hence the larger shockwave.

Just as Chang-Sun was about to swing the Nameless Spear again, the Elfin Root concluded that he could use his spear to fire similar weapons and harm it, so it stopped recovering with its branches. Instead, he instantly leaped high in the air using a nearby huge tree’s branches.

Two seconds.

Paah!

Holding two short spears as if they were swords, Chang-Sun narrowed his eyes.

‘I’ll take it out before it can heal its injury.’

[The Skill ‘Viper Eyes’ has been activated, aiming at the moving target!]

Rumble…!

Rather than going after the Elfin Root, Chang-Sun stopped controlling his mana. It instantly went berserk and gathered up in Chang-Sun's hands, moving so roughly that the air around him faintly shook.

‘Three seconds.’?

Chang-Sun spun and burst his mana to activate [Tiger Prowl] and [Tiger Disaster].

As [Tiger Kill] stormed around him, Chang-Sun used Zhen Jiao and the principle of rotational force to strike.

‘Four seconds.’

Rumble!

[The Skill ‘Black Mountain King’s First Claw’ has been activated, raging over the enemy!]

His attack was so strong that even Chang-Sun had to hold his breath. Feeling as if he himself was going to explode, he instantaneously closed in on the Elfin Root and fiercely poured out his attacks. With the beast’s sharp claw, Chang-Sun violently struck down the giant tree. The Elfin Root thrust its spear to stop Chang-Sun, but his attack shattered its body and wooden spear with ease.

‘Five seconds. This is it.’?

Chang-Sun gritted his teeth.

[The Skill ‘Black Mountain Tiger’s Second Claw’ has been activated, storming over the enemy!]

Adjusting his grip on the short spear in his right hand, Chang-Sun spun again in the opposite direction, making the gale, which had already been shaking the sky, blow in reverse and strike the Elfin Root’s face.

* * *

“Argh! Why haven’t I gotten any updates? I’m going to go crazy.” Kim Jae-Gyeong, the mining supervisor, tousled his hair in frustration.

It had been over an hour since Team L of the White Tiger Clan had gone inside the Gate to save the trapped miners. Unable to tell what was going on, he became really frustrated.

“Why haven’t they come out yet? They normally ask for more backups or have come out by now.”

“D-do you think something happened inside?”

“Are you freaking kidding me? Watch your tongue or that could actually happen. You don’t want them to get fucked, do you?”

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

“I-I mean…!”

Jae-Gyeong silently observed the Gate, which had turned ominously red this morning. The miners also got very worried. Just then, Jae-Gyeong suddenly sprang up from his seat because the Gate Portal turned black, which meant a Dungeon Break was about to take place.

“Shim! Yang! Call the Council!”

“H-huh? Ah! G-got it!”

The other miners were so surprised that they all started to run around chaotically with pale faces. If a Dungeon Break took place, the monsters in the Dungeon were going to pour out to the real world through the Gate. Although ‘Blue Jewel Island’ was considered a safe Dungeon because all the monsters inside had been exterminated, no one could tell what would happen if a Dungeon Break occurred.

Squeak!

Just then, a sportscar suddenly showed up. It skillfully drifted and quickly stopped before the miners, leaving a long skid mark and creating clouds of dust., the miners were about to angrily yell about what was wrong with the driver since it almost caused an accident, but their eyes widened instead when they saw the small sticker on its back window.

The people living in this generation might not know what that acronym stood for, but the miners all knew what it meant.

“The C-Council…?” Jae-Gyeong mumbled.

The sportscar’s wing door went up, and a woman slowly got out of the car. Holding a newly lit cigarette in her mouth, Cha Ye-Eun removed the safety lock of her revolver, which she had just finished loading, with her right hand.

* * *

“Let me meet the Tyrann.”

When Joachim Wolff had first made this request, Ye-Eun subconsciously facepalmed. Tyrann was Tyrant Lee Chang-Sun’s nickname in German.

‘These old men are doing it again…!’?

Ye-Eun gritted her teeth.

The Council couldn’t push around Chang-Sun right now. Just as the press reported, he was a celebrity that even the U.S. government drooled over, so the White Tiger Clan didn’t allow any other Clans and organizations to contact Chang-Sun.

That was why the Council’s higher-ups had entrusted all Chang-Sun-related matters to Ye-Eun. Although she had failed to recruit him before, she had fought together with him in ‘Yeti Hill.’ The higher-ups somehow thought Ye-Eun had become acquainted with Chang-Sun and that he was her responsibility because of that, so she had been ordered to at least prevent him from immigrating to another country.

Of course, Ye-Eun had thought she was going to go nuts when she first heard the order. She had never had a proper conversation with Chang-Sun, and the only interaction she had with him was when she silently nodded at him to express her gratitude after the Gate to ‘Yeti Hill’ had been closed.

‘Well, we do have a common factor that others don’t share.’?

Ye-Eun shrugged.

Among the deities that adored her, the ‘Twilight-Piercing Owl’ adored her the most, but she had recently been showing interest in Chang-Sun too. However, it wasn’t really special since there was the Illuminati.

In fact, it was difficult for Ye-Eun to become close to Chang-Sun. Although she wasn’t uncomfortable around him, she didn’t feel easy either. It was hard to describe, but she thought it was hard to interact with him because he made her feel that he was dangerous for some reason.

‘I could die.’?

Ye-Eun shook her head.

She had gone through countless life-or-death battles and had met the Winter King, but none of them made her feel that way. She had deep faith in her instinct since it was what made her who she was right now, but who would have thought the ‘something different’ that she had felt from Chang-Sun was going to turn out this way?

She couldn’t reject a high-ranking person’s request just because she felt that way, though, so she had wondered if she had to ask for the White Tiger Clan’s cooperation. However, Joachim wished to meet Chang-Sun as secretly as possible, so Ye-Eun had to think of another way. At that moment, Seok-Tae reported to Ye-Eun.

“The Tyrant is in a Dungeon right now. Miners got trapped in the mine near Hwacheon, and he and his team members were dispatched as a rescue team.”

Afterward, Ye-Eun asked for Joachim’s understanding and instantly headed to Hwacheon, not to his hotel. While they were heading to the Dungeon where the Tyrant was, Ye-Eun detected a new mana wave—Black Mana Force, the abnormal phenomenon that occurred right before a Dungeon Break. When she, Seok-Tae, Joachim, and Ernst got out of the car, Ye-Eun’s face was more serious than ever. The other three’s expressions were the same.

“The level of this Dungeon’s mana wave… Is this a four-star Dungeon or something?” Joachim asked Ye-Eun and Seok-Tae with a serious face when he smelled a certain scent. His lycanthrope-type ability developed his senses incomparably better than ordinary people. As a result, he now had an especially sharp nose that could detect unique mana scents. What he had detected now was unusually sticky and gloomy.

A Dungeon Break would be a deadly catastrophe. Although he hadn’t thought he was going to participate in clearing a Dungeon during his business trip in Korea, he was a devout follower of the benevolent warring goddess, so he couldn’t turn away from a crisis.

‘Even if they didn’t expect this Dungeon Break, this Dungeon is seriously poorly managed… Hmm!’?

Joachim frowned as he looked around.

This kind of Dungeon should always be under tight management, but this Dungeon was treated like a construction site. Aside from some protection devices, there were no one else, so Joachim wasn’t sure if he was really seeing a Dungeon of the country with many skilled Players.

Ye-Eun didn’t hear Joachim’s question since she had put her entire attention on walking carefully toward the Gate. Meanwhile, Seok-Tae just blinked since he didn’t know German.

Ernst quickly translated the question into English. “He asked if the Dungeon is a four-star.”

Finally understanding the question, Seok-Tae shook his head and used his limbs to explain and make up for his bad English. “No! No! That dungeon! One star. Okay?”

As an ordinary Korean, the only time he learned English was when back in high school.

“…!”

“…!”

Joachim and Ernst looked at Seok-Tae with widened eyes, making Seok-Tae break out in cold sweat and wonder if he had said anything wrong.

“Then that Dungeon was originally a one-star Dungeon?” Joachim asked in English, unable to believe what he had just heard.

Seok-Tae nodded and slowly continued, “All the monsters inside it had been exterminated, so it was being used to mine [Mana Ores]. This change is so sudden that we’re also greatly

Joachim held his breath. A one-star Dungeon without monsters was considered an F-Rank Dungeon, meaning even civilians could enter, so why was it suddenly showing an abnormal change? Of course, such a phenomenon had happened from time to time before. A monster that had hidden very well from the Players sometimes ‘evolved,’ causing the Dungeon to show this kind of change.

The problem was that it was rare for a Dungeon to become this dangerous even in such cases. No matter how stronger the surviving monster became, there was a limit to how much more dangerous it could make the Dungeon. If so, then only one theory could explain the current phenomenon.

‘A Double Dungeon…has opened.’?

Joachim gaped.

Due to an unknown cause, the Dungeon itself had ‘evolved,’ which was usually caused if a hidden Dungeon inside another Dungeon was opened. Of course… when two or more Dungeons were mixed together, it became impossible to determine their difficulty level since no one could tell how the Dungeons’ different terrains would affect one another. Their difficulty level sometimes decreased, but it also increased abnormally high from time to time.

Unfortunately, this Dungeon… had become dangerous enough to make even Joachim tense up.

‘The Tyrant is in this Dungeon, huh?’

Joachim narrowed his eyes and began to move since he felt like he had to deal with this Dungeon first to get what he wanted.

1. Himavat is the guardian deity of the Himalayas, but it refers to a snow mountain in the novel

2. A region in Korea