Boundless Necromancer

Chapter 72: Trial of the 10th floor (3)

Chapter 72: Trial of the 10th floor (3)

Once upon a time, there was a man called the Lightning King.

An unidentified hunter who belonged to the group of one of only seven S-rank hunters in Korea.

Since he always wore a mask, no one knew his face, and his voice was never appropriately revealed. Therefore he reigned as a transcendent existence.

He never showed himself, but whenever a gate suddenly appeared like a disaster, the Lightning king always destroyed the gate, revealing his god-like power.

And after clearing the gates easier and faster than anyone else, he always reproached the hunters, who were busy running away.

‘I didn’t know how scums who couldn’t even settle these things could call themselves hunters.’

It may sound arrogant at first, but even though the forcibly conscripted hunters ran away for various reasons, he alone fulfilled his responsibilities.

He was entitled to say that because he was that kind of person and not anyone else.

Moreover, no hunter could refute the Lightning king.

But that was no surprise.

This was because it was difficult to find a strong hunter at the level of the Lightning king in the current hunter industry.

The Hunter Association even said this if you asked how much it was—

‘In the future, a hunter of the Lightning King’s level won’t appear easily in the hunter industry.’

He released and poured out lightning on rampaging monsters out of control…

After that, the sight of him scolding hunters who only coveted their rights while abandoning the duties they should’ve always done made the Lightning King into an S-rank hunter.

However…

Ever since the Tower of Trials appeared, the activity of the Lightning King, who had always handled all kinds of gates, had ceased.

It was because he was also helplessly dragged into the Tower of Trials just like everyone else.

What was worse was the difficulty he was dragged into wasn’t easy or normal, but Hard, which was known for being the worst. 

Nevertheless, the Lightning King grew stronger and faster.

The more he broke through all the trials, the more he began to regain the ability he had before, and in the end, he was ranked Number 1 in the Evaluation Rankings.

The Tower’s trial may have troubled him, but it didn’t kill him.

It was also the same for combined trials.

For the Lightning King, and Kim Seunghoon, who was currently playing an active role as a top challenger in the Tower of Trial, most of the other challengers were like a backdrop.

Only Oh Choonseok, a talented challenger who was said to be an ordinary person, was recognized as a challenger-like challenger for him, though…

Other than him, he felt that they were no different from the Hunters who had given up their responsibilities from the outside.

Until he saw Han Sungyeun in the trial on the 10th floor of the Tower of Trials.

“K-Kuhuuuugh…”

Seeing Kim Seungjun, who had just been playing politics, spilling blood like water, Kim Seunghoon was filled with pure admiration.

“This is different from what I expected…”

Originally, Kim Seunghoon thought that Han Sungyeun would get quite a few injuries, too, when the fight between Kim Seungjun and Han Sungyeun was about to break out.

Or, it would be a fight that had to waste a lot of time or put out quite a bit of the skill they both had.

However…

‘He overwhelmed Kim Seungjun in just a few minutes, huh.’

Kim Seunghoon’s expectations based on the Evaluation rankings were immediately shattered.

It was because Han Sungyeun suppressed Kim Seungjun immediately without showing all his skills, even though he expected him to spend quite a bit of time to achieve victory.

It wasn’t even a kill. He suppressed him.

He completely suppressed him by returning some of the damage accumulated by Kim Seungjun’s attack.

Han Sungyeun was quite relaxed even though he showed more strength than Kim Seunghoon had expected.

In other words, Han Sungyeun didn’t go all out.

Oh Choonseok, who was standing next to where Kim Seunghoon was sitting and watching the fight, also asked a question as though he was dumbfounded.

“Seunghoon Hyung-nim. Do you know Hunter— no, who that challenger named Han Sungyeun is?”

“…I don’t know. I had never seen such a person among the high-ranking hunters before.”

Kim Seunghoon, who had a reputation for being the Lightning king, had never seen such a strong person before.

It was the same for Oh Choonseok, who was originally an ordinary person.

“I mean, what kind of… crazy skill does he have? He blocked magic with a shield made of mana instantly and even absorbed some of the blocked damage, accumulated it, and released it as is. On top of that, he’s not a mage but a melee swordsman.

“It’s even scarier that he didn’t fight with all his might.”

“…Yes, that wasn’t all of his power. He was just toying around.”

“He’s good at fighting, I’ve never seen his face before, and his skill set is odd. Skills that aren’t originally obtained from the tower can only be obtained if you have the aptitude. But all his aptitudes are lacking in unity. Shield skill is close to the mage, but swordsmanship and movement skills are close to melee combat classes.”

Before the Tower of Trials appeared, [Skills] weren’t easily obtainable.

Innate talent had control over everything, and depending on whether or not you had an aptitude, it determined your possibility of acquiring it.

It wasn’t just that.

Even if you had an aptitude for combat skills, the process of effort would vary depending on how much of that attitude you had.

Some people could only acquire the skill by repeating the same skill acquisition method by doing it hundreds of times, but others could acquire it in less than ten times.

The world of hunters was completely driven by talent.

That was until this Tower of Trials, which allows you to acquire skills, appeared.

Then that means…

“Then it means that an ordinary person who was hitting rock bottom like me developed in the tower and became that strong.”

It meant that he was just an ordinary person like Oh Choonseok but became insanely strong through the rewards of the tower.

Moreover, when watching him fight, he had developed to the point where he was no different from Kim Seunghoon.

At that fact, Kim Seunghoon looked at Han Sungyeun and smiled softly.

‘An ordinary person who developed to a level similar to that of a top-ranked hunter, you say…’

Kim Seunghoon’s smile was full of surprise, as well as interest.

This was the second time that one of Korea’s top hunters, Lightning King, had had an interest in others.

***

Reaper Scans

***

“Ku-Kuhuuugh…”

Seeing Kim Seungjun crawling on the floor like a bug, I slightly frowned.

It was because I realized that the damage of the lightning bolt released by the Counter Shield was stronger than I expected.

I reduced the size of the shield in a moment and concentrated the energy on a small area to maximize the attack efficiency, but…

‘I was just going to inflict moderate damage and restrain his movement for a while…’

Be that as it may, I never imagined that I’d be able to take him down him this easily at once.

It was a pretty surprising result, perhaps because it was an attack done by Kim Seungjun with a do-or-die attitude.

‘Well, anyway, it looks like he’s gonna die soon looking at him crawling on the ground.’

Kim Seungjun was dragging himself with a hole in his stomach, somehow trying to get away from me.

Some people may feel bad at the sight of Kim Seungjun’s spiteful will to survive, but…

There was no other sight as refreshing as this for me, who was almost put in a situation on the verge of death just now due to Kim Seungjun playing politics.

And that was the same for the administrators who were watching me.

「 Administrator ‘Iron-blooded Monarch’ is inflated with pride at her contractor’s great performance. 」 

「 Administrator ‘Gluttony’ is astonished by looking at your overwhelming battle. 」 

「 Administrator ‘White Crane Sword Saint’ enjoyed your performance but feels a little sullen for not using the Ki sword. . 」 

The Iron-blooded Monarch was even acting conceited, as though she accepted my victory as her own situation.

Meanwhile, the White Cran Sword Saint was getting sullen because I didn’t use the Ki sword, the power he supported.

Well, actually, I was going to use the Ki sword as well, but Kim Seungjun had lost even before that, so I didn’t have much to say.

If I had known that Kim Seungjun would be this easily defeated, I’d have cut off his head by using Ki sword directly, without having to test the water.

It was then—

“I-Inventory…….”

Kim Seungjun, who was crawling on the floor, suddenly opened his inventory and took out a potion from it.

Looks like he took out a healing potion to heal his hole in the stomach, but…

‘There’s no way I’m allowing you to do that.’

As soon as I saw it, I quickly moved and trampled on Kim Seungjun’s hand, which was holding the potion.

Smash!

“Ku-Kuaaaaaaaagh!”

“It’d be better for you to stop struggling, you know.”

“P-Please… L-Let me use the potion…”

As though he was driven to the point of death, Kim Seungjun flailed around his arms in the air and made a sound close to begging.

It was hard to believe that he was the one who had just tried to kill me by playing politics.

But I couldn’t feel any kind of pity looking at that sight.

It was obvious.

“You probably thought everything’s gonna be alright if you beg after trying to kill someone, but…”

I wasn’t a saint, but I wasn’t an absolute villain either.

My will was clear, as much as I had a mindset close to an ordinary person.

“Don’t you think it’s a little bit too late to survive?”

Fighting fire with fire.

The right response to someone who tried to control others with power was to control them with power.

“Challenger Kim Seunghoon-nim, and Oh Choonseok-nim.”

I spoke to the two challengers with a cold smile, looking at this situation.

“I want you two to cooperate to not help challenger Kim Seungjun, even if something that’s not nice to see happens. Would that be okay?”

At those words, Kim Seunghoon quietly nodded his head as though he wouldn't interfere.

“…You don’t even have to mention it. After all, he’s a scum who tried to survive by using his silver tongue. Do as you wish.”

After that, it was a little bit later, but Oh Choonseok nodded his head in the same way and told me to do as I wished.

“Y-Yeah, please help yourself. Whatever the outcome was, I was going to kill him anyway.”

In the end, they agreed more willingly than I thought. Perhaps both of them were trying to get rid of Kim Seungjun eventually.

Normally, if it was the usual challengers I’d seen in the Tower of Trials, they would’ve been making a fuss about taking some of the items Kim Seungjun was equipping, but…

‘Since they’re top-ranking challengers, they aren’t doing such filthy things.’

Rather, it looked like they would’ve helped me if I had been cornered.

Of course, it was because Kim Seungjun was such a vicious challenger, so I was able to receive their consent easily.

Now that I have received their consent, there was nothing to hesitate for.

Craaacck…!

“K-kuhuughk! My hand! My hand is broken…!”

I immediately smashed Kim Seungjun’s hand bones, picked up his potion that fell to the ground, and read the description window.

「Rapid Regeneration Potion」 

「Rank : C 」 

「A regeneration potion made with special alchemy by grinding a troll’s magic stone.」 

「When the potion is consumed, the [Troll’s blood] temporarily flows through the body, and the body regenerates at a rapid speed.」 

「However, the concentration at which [Troll’s blood] is activated varies depending on the amount of potion the user takes. 」 

“You were trying to use a quite good potion there, huh.”

After reading the phrase that the concentration of [Troll’s blood] activated varies depending on the amount of potion the user takes, I immediately pulled out the top of the potion and spilled some of it on Kim Seungjun.

Fizzle.

Kim Seungjun, who was on the verge of death as he was slowly stopping to move, twitched and started to move again as I dropped a few drops of potion on his pierced stomach.

“W-Why…”

Kim Seungjun muttered to himself as though he couldn’t understand it, but I didn’t do this because I felt bad for Kim Seungjun or wanted to take him as a team member.

“Kim Seungjun-ssi, I have an offer for you.”

The reason why I used a little bit of potion on that bastard was because…

“Even now, if you take out all the items in your inventory and hand them over, I’ll use this potion to save you.”

Just like how he offered Kim Seunghoon and Oh Choonseok to kill me and share my items afterward.

I was also paying him back in the same way.

Of course, in fact, this was just an option that only delayed Kim Seungjun’s death.

Even though he probably knew that I wouldn’t have to keep this promise……

Kim Seungjun had only one option to choose from.

“Please decide.”

Kim Seungjun, who was nothing but a loser, wasn’t given a choice from the beginning.

——

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