Chapter 179: Everyone Else is a Guardian – 5
Another year passed. It had been 2 years since Yu IlHan had entered the dungeon, and it had also been 2 years and 2 months since the Earth had undergone its 2nd Great Cataclysm.
Of course, it was hard for Yu IlHan to feel that flow of time, as the dungeon was covered in red light without night and day, and Yu IlHan’s physical body had evolved a lot and now he was fine with almost no sleep.
Just that, he remembered the number of times he had opened the barrier which he opened every month when the angels told him the time. Inside, he would repair his equipment, resupply his consumables, make food, check his skill status, and train.
“Hm.”
Right now, after achieving 2nd anniversary in this life of hell, Yu IlHan was in deep thought with the scene in front of him.
“This is no longer hard either.”
[Yeah, right!] (Liera)
Retorted Liera with every bit of potential she had in her soul. Her eyes were also fixated at what was in the front.
Endlessly bursting flesh and drops of blood, resonating cries and screams. Here, was true hell. Of course, the difference was that the punisher and the punished had switched places!
[Kuuuwaaaak!]
[Kihik Kihiiiik!]
Various overlaid traps, ballistas that never lost sight of the enemy once targeted. It didn’t stop there, and there were drones which flew around to grab enemies, or pull them together, or tackled their legs, or just plain beat them up.
That, was the item that proved Yu IlHan’s growth in magic engineering!
Of course, he wasn’t able to push the monsters to their deaths with just that. Perhaps he would be able to kill them if they were normal 4th class, but it was nigh impossible to fatally wound these over level 260 demons, and Yu IlHan also knew that well.
So, all his install-type weapons and traps were focused not in attacking power, but in grabbing the attention of the enemies, and nullifying their movements. That, first, disabled their focused attacks on Yu IlHan, and second, enabled Yu IlHan to conceal himself more easily. Really, for Yu IlHan, that was more than enough.
The ones he trusted the most, and the one he sought to raise the most, were his physical body trained over numerous years, and his concealment, which now basically became one with him.
“Hhp!”
[Critical Hit!]
[You have earned ??847?34523? experience.]
Yu IlHan was more free than anyone in his own domain, and shook the insides of the domain with his spear that was more fatal than any other traps in the area, while taking the necks of the lower levelled ones first.
Yu IlHan, who had absorbed their records for two whole years through hunting, was now literally the same as having equipped eyes that scouted these demons. Now, he could read through their health, weaknesses, patterns, skills, and even simple thought processes!
[There’s around 50 here but he’s not even challenged!] (Liera)
[It’s 67, Liera.] (Erta)
[With this many here, they’re even committing team kills. They’re just hitting something like mad, but they don’t seem to recognize what they’re hitting.] (Spiera)
With bombs exploding everywhere as well as arrows flying from all directions, the demons were swept by away like mad. Naturally, attacks aimed at Yu IlHan were frequently missed, and oftentimes they would hit their allies. In fact, more of these demons were killed due to team kills than through his traps!
Yu IlHan was undergoing battle while moving around hectically, but realized that at this rate, they would not be able to land a single finger on him, tentacles included. Then, there was no meaning to his aggroed hunting.
A battle without thrills was akin to a practice stage! No matter how long he did this for, his skill proficiency would not rise.
“Did I go overboard with the artifacts?….. Should I decrease their numbers and fight up front?”
[Please don’t.] (Liera)
[Although you may be alright with it, we aren’t! I’ll really hate you if you keep doing such foolish things like this.] (Erta)
[I think it will be fine for Yu IlHan though…..] (Spiera)
[Stop with the baseless faith!]
He would have proceeded if this training was without a threat to his life, but since it was, he couldn’t remove his safety devices. Yu IlHan was pressured by the angels’ desperate request and nodded his head.
“Then I can’t help it. Let’s switch to level up mode now.”
Yu IlHan’s level was ‘still’ 195. No matter how much experience these demons gave him, unlike the worlds and dungeons full of monsters he had experienced prior to this, there was a limit to the number of these demons generated in this dungeon, and his growth had stalled.
[Stalled? STALLLEDDDDD?] (Liera)
“Ah, you’re noisy.”
Of course, it wasn’t just due to that. Another reason for the drop in his growth speed was because Yu IlHan was adamant in group huntng, and had to go around with a massive trail of those demons on his tail. However, if he killed everything in his sight without even bothering to fold his wings, then his level up speed would accelerate.
Although it did weigh on his mind that he hadn’t mastered the skills as he wanted to, he decided to believe that around two more skills would reach the master level by the time he received the 4th class mission.
“Well, then. I should start off by killing everything here.”
The moment he decided on that, he activated all the landmines within the area and caused a grand explosion. The destruction was one thing, but the instantaneous boom and flash was even more frightening.
There was no way these demons would get affected by normal light or sound, but Yu IlHan’s version was precisely made to affect them. He had thoroughly analyzed their abilities and made these so that they would disrupt their defense system!
[Kihik!]
[Kihaak!]
The moment all the demons in the area were nullified, he spat out a huge shockwave behind his wings and charged towards them by the repetition of leaps and re-leaps he was used to by now!
“Orochiiiiiiii!”
[Kroaaaaaaaar!]
This scene looked like it was from some shounen manga, but Yu IlHan and Orochi, connected through the Rule skill, focused their wills on the tip of the Eight-tailed dragon spear.
On the Eight-tailed dragon spear firmly gripped by his two hands, his level 99 Superhuman strength, the power of dragonkin raised by Dragonic blood, level 90 Blaze, and finally, the sharpness of the sword, which he needed the most right now, was imbued. This was literally everything Yu IlHan had piled up untilo now.
Wait no. One more thing.
“Hhp!”
While charging in a speed even he could not control, Yu IlHan swung his spear towards those that were blocking his vision. At that moment, demons in his range of all 6 directions as well as diagonal directions, all spurted out enormous amounts of blood!
[Critical Hit!]
[Critical Hit!]
[The skill, Spear of Untraceable Trajectory, has become level 83.]
[Critical Hit!]
Meanwhile, his spear took a step forward, and the number of strikes he could use at a single time, increased in number. Spiera shouted after seeing Yu IlHan dealing 5 strikes of the spear at once to one of the demons that was behind him, after he did a sudden turn.
[Does it even make sense to become proficient in such an absurd level of an advanced skill!?] (Spiera)
[Did IlHan do anything that was within your knowledge?] (Liera)
[Spiera, are you now afraid that your martial arts will be caught up by Yu IlHan?] (Erta)
[Shut up.] (Spiera)
The 14th mini war was triggered among the angels, but Yu IlHan wasn’t in the right mind to care about them. He had to defeat enemies in the most efficient way possible since although his level was near 200, and he had raised the skill level of Blaze and the Spear of Untraceable Trajectory a lot, they still consumed a lot of mana!
[Critical Hit!]
[Critical Hit!]
[You have mastered the skill, Critical hit. It becomes easier to find weaknesses even against enemies you meet for the first time, and the power behind critical hits increases by a large amount.]
BLood and flesh scattered in the air, as well as the heads of the demons. Even while moving faster than he could recognize, Yu IlHan pulled off escaping the eyes of enemies and concealing himself, and the screams and cries that filled the region also started to die down after a certain point.
[You have earned ?94?4512?453 experience.]
[You have earned 53?4435??501 experience.]
And finally, the moment arrived.
[You have mastered the skill, Leap. The limitations on the number of re-leaps, as well as the delays between each re-leap completely disappears. However, you must be careful as each re-leap will give a lot of burden to the physical body.]
[It is possible to evolve the skill into an advanced skill if you fulfill the skill evolution criteria.]
[3rd class magic stones 4,643,549/100,000]
[4th class magic stones 19,685/1,000]
[Blood of high magic species 201,559/1,000 L]
[Attain 2 achievements related to leap 2/2]
[The skill evolution criteria for the skill, Leap, has been fulfilled. Will you evolve the skill?]
“……Eh?”
Although he wanted to master the Superhuman strength skill first, he ended up mastering Leap first. Well, yeah. He had no complaints in that itself.
However, what the hell was with the insane skill evolution criteria? One hundred thousand 3rd class magic stones? One thousand liters of high magic species? Achievements related to leap?
Leaving aside everything else, one thousand 4th class magic stones… that was impossible for anyone other than Yu IlHan. Even Language required only 100!
‘Although, Language requires a 5th class magic stone too……’
If the Language skill went with quality, Leap skill went with quantity. Of course, that was according to Yu IlHan’s standards. He thought about what to do, but then remembered that he was still under battle.
[Kuoooooh!]
“Fine, fine. I’m coming.”
Yu IlHan, who replied as if he was going to play with puppies, did indeed play a lot with them. The final one remaining was the one with the most tenacious connection to him, the perverted vibration demon!
“Huooooooh!”
[Kihaaaaaa!]
Yu IlHan struck out with his spear after dodging all of those long and large tentacles.
[Critical Hit!]
The Eight-tailed dragon spear, which would have been deflected by the vibrations before, ignored all vibrations and just burnt everything. The sharp spear head hidden inside the flames split the demon’s head in half.
[You have become level 196. 2 Strength, 1 Agility, 1 Health, 1 Magic increases.]
“It gave me a single level after all of that.”
[No one’s giving you any levels, it’s you who’s raising it!] (Erta)
Yu IlHan snorted before collecting the corpses of all the demons, the ballistas and the traps. He didn’t forget to polish them for immediate use in the future, and with Eternal Flame which had been with him through countless battles, that much was as easy as pie.
And only after all that, did he gain the time to ponder about the evolution of the Leap skill.
[Evolving the Leap skill? Leap is the supplementary one in Superhuman strength, right?] (Liera)
[Although it started off like that, it should be completely different now. It’s a skill that has nothing to do with me since I’m not proficient in moving my body….. Liera, Spiera, do you two not have it?] (Erta)
Liera and Spiera both shook their heads.
[I’m the type to attract everything and smash them all at once.] (Liera)
[I was always careful with my steps in order to strike with everything with my spear. My mobility came after I became an angel.] (Spiera)
[You could have just said you didn’t…] (Erta)
Liera and Spiera decided to not talk about how they would feel like they lost out to Yu IlHan if they didn’t give reasons. Of course, Yu IlHan was busy thinking about the Leap skill, and didn’t care about their conversation.
“I should evolve it, right?”
[Unless you’re planning to eat all those 4th class magic stones or something, then yes, I guess?] (Erta)
Erta’s advice was effective. Yu IlHan shook away the final shred of hesitation in his heart and chose to evolve, and immediately, a portion of the magic stones and dragon blood in his possession appeared outside and covered his body.
And finally, the two achievements he attained related to Leap, ‘The Quickest’, and ‘The Frog that Leaped out of the Well’, as well as the records related to those two titles were all dismantled and sublimed into a higher form of record. Of course, he did not know how and why those two titles were achievements related to leaping.
[It’s strange that this skill is possible to be evolved alone in the first place…….] (Liera)
[Just what kind of results would it bring? I’m looking forward to it.] (Erta)
[No matter how grand the conditions for evolutions are, there are plenty of cases where the results aren’t up to par. Of course, I wish that was not the case, but if you expect too much, you may become disapp-] (Spiera)
The moment Spiera was about to continue, the dragon blood that enveloped Yu IlHan swallowed the numerous magic stones, and seem to change in property before being absorbed by Yu IlHan’s body.
The angels realized that the enormous quantity and quality of mana was changing into a form that they ‘knew very well’.
[…….Huh?]
[I think it’s for sure.] (Erta)
[But that ability is…… Hmm?] (Spiera)
While the angels were tilting their heads, Yu IlHan also started to understand the identity of the power surging inside him. And the fruit of that finally etched onto his retina.
[You have acquired the skill, Warp. The power of leaping beyond the extreme will distort spacetime and will lead you to the location you want. It is possible to transfer by using a large quantity of magic stones, and you are able to move to anywhere as long as it’s place you are in perfect comprehension of. It is also possible to bring others with you by consuming additional magic stones.]
“……”
After realizing the identity of the power that completely settled inside him, he felt a strange combination of freedom, emptiness, disappointment and joy, as he spoke.
“Let’s go home now.”
Representing the other two, Liera replied in a bright and worry-less voice.
[Okay!]
Author’s notes
So there were a lot of people who thought that IlHan will clear the dungeon! But you were wrong!
Translator’s notes