Survival Story of a Sword King in a Fantasy World

Midsummer Night’s Evil Spirit (4)

As the hallway filled up, dark human-like figures slowly approached.

Ryu Han-bin immediately swung his sword, smashing the corridors and the ceiling.

More parts of the mansion collapsed and crumbled, piling up in the hallway.

“Okay, that should’ve bought us some time.”

However, the evil spirits began to crawl through the fragments.

“Hoo… ….”

“Hoooooo…….”

Unlike before, it passed through the ruins instead of removing it.

Artis and Emil looked at each other.

“It looks like they’ve quit imitating the souls of the dead.”

“They’ve been caught, so they don’t have to anymore.”

Everyone looked nervous.

Their fear had been overcome, but they still had no means of defeating them.

If not even Latna’s four major powers worked against them, what could they do to defeat them?

The evil spirits cast a shadow.

“Keeeeek!”

Ryu Han-bin quickly kicked up the ruins off his feet, leaving them suspended for a short moment in the air and blocking the incoming whips.

‘The whips hit the floors and the walls before.’

It could be possible to block the shadows with them.

Poof!

But the whips easily passed through the ruins and struck Ryu Han-bin.

‘It didn’t work?’

The whips lashed at him again.

This time, he tried to defend himself using his bare fist instead of using things around him.

He pushed his arm forward in an attempt to clash against the weapon using his iron fist!

‘It passed through everything, but it didn’t go through my body!’

The whip didn’t go through Ryu Han-bin before, even though it was aimed at Artis and Emil, and he thought that meant he could use his body to block and counterattack.

But he thought wrong.

The whip passed through his punch and struck Han-bin’s stomach.

A loud cracking sound echoed across the hallway.

As he stepped back, Han-bin furrowed his eyebrows.

‘What’s up with these guys?’

He couldn’t catch the opponent no matter what he did, yet they could hit him at will.

‘There’s nothing we can do but avoid it now, right?’

Emil mumbled as he swallowed his saliva.

“The moment they attack, they seem to have a way to hit only the target. I haven’t heard of a monster with such great ability…”

At least, it was clear that they weren’t up against common monsters.

Otherwise, with such an overpowered ability, it would’ve been infamous.

“What should we do, Artis?”

Artis responded calmly.

“Let’s run away. If we remove the core, they’ll disappear. We don’t have to deal with them directly.”

* * *

The evil spirits were quick.

They floated in the air and could glide through any obstacles in front of them.

It was natural for them to be fast.

However, Han-bin and his party were faster.

“Aaaaahhh!”

Screaming, Ryu Han-bin ran in a straight line.

He stomped forward so hard the floorboards cracked as he charged freely through every obstacle in front of him.

In a sense, he was similar to the evil spirits.

He, too, passed through walls. The only difference was that instead of intangibility, he smashed everything in his path.

Bang! Bang! Boom!

The chaser could safely pass through the walls, but the one being chased crushed everything with ignorant force.

However, it didn’t make sense for the one breaking things to be faster than the one who could glitch through them—that required immeasurable strength to pull off.

“Wow, crazy…”

“Tha’s beyond human power.”

“No matter how legendary a Valtara warrior is, I never thought they would be this powerful…”

Artis, Effir, and Emil all felt dumbfounded as they followed after him.

Everyone had a look of utter surprise on their faces.

Han-bin and his party ran away nonstop as they kept an eye out for the core.

Series after series of ear-splitting noises resounded throughout the ruined mansion, which used to be dominated by an eerie silence.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

How long did they run?

The evil spirits that were chasing were no longer visible.

For now, they had left them behind.

Ryu Han-bin said, looking at where they came from.

“They will follow us soon. We don’t have much time.”

Not only did they run in a straight pattern, but they also left traces behind.

They were easy to find.

“We have to come up with some sort of plan before they get here…”

Effir looked around and tilted her head.

“But what is this place?”

* * *

Han-bin and his party stood in a large stone chamber that was blocked from all directions.

The stone chamber itself was nothing special.

It was just a plain-looking room built with bricks.

However, it had a half-erased magic circle in the middle. Chains and shackles hanged from its ceiling, and half-rotten monster corpses and bones littered all over its floors.

Artis took a closer look at the stone chamber.

“Is it some kind of magic lab?”

Dumbfounded, Han-bin replied.

“Looks like a slaughterhouse to me, though.”

“The two are a little similar in the first place.”

Artis immediately went into an investigation.

Emil also did the same.

The two had a conversation, sprinkling waves of Mana and Prana everywhere.

“Is this place related to the appearance of the Dungeon?”

“It’s likely to be that way.”

When a ‘unique’ place appeared like this in the original Dungeon, it was where the core was often located.

The two shed energy as they continued to search for the core.

After a few moments, Emil spoke, his words carrying uncertainty and concern.

“It looks like this place was used to study the Devil’s powers…”

Artis began to feel nervous.

“Is it the Devil’s Followers? Did Aliens do this?”

“Probably so, but that’s not the problem.”

At that time, Artis had a similar expression.

“I can see what you mean, Priest. But are you sure?”

They both found something similar, but they found it hard to believe.

Effir asked quietly.

“What’s wrong with the both of you?”

Emil and Artis replied in turn.

“There’s so little left that I don’t know who did what here.”

“I can only guess what’s going on with the residual energy…”

“It seems that the evil black spirits are acting as the core of this dungeon.”

Han-bin tilted his head.

“Isn’t the core supposed to be an Artifact?”

“Right. That’s how it should be…”

Artis frowned while deciphering knowledge from the mana wave.

“Why is it connected this way?”

The remaining energy that the two had grasped was showing them the same information.

The core of the Dungeon was moving and had the same wavelength as the evil black spirits.

“Looking at these traces now, the evil black spirits are not monsters. They are some kind of Artifact.”

“But Artifacts don’t exist like that.”

“That’s right. We need more information…”

“It’s impossible at my level. We need a higher-level Spiritist.”

Han-bin, who was listening, frowned.

“Wait.”

With no way to defeat the spirits, the only chance they had was getting rid of the core.

But the core was the evil black spirit?

“Aren’t you just saying there’s no way to fight them?”

“No, if we do more investigation, we might find another way…”

Artis abruptly stopped talking as he heard a familiar voice.

A gloomy groan echoed.

“Hoo…….”

“Hoooo… ….”

Beyond the darkness of the stone chamber, evil black spirits appeared one by one.

They had caught up to them.

Emil looked back at Ryu Han-bin in a hurry.

“What should we do?”

Should they run away?

Or should they finish looking at this place and find another way?

Ryu Han-bin made a decision.

“Investigate everything as fast as you can! I’ll buy some time!”

Pulling out his black greatsword, he stood in front of the evil spirits.

It wouldn’t work even if he swung it anyway, but it was better to show hostility.

‘This way, they will only target me.’

The giant warrior burst into a loud war cry while assuming a stance.

“Come! I will be your opponent!”

* * *

The evil black spirits rushed at Han-bin.

“Keeeek!”

They slid through the air and stretched out a shadow towards him.

Black whips began to beat Ryu Han-bin in a row.

Han-bin also tried to fight back with his weapon.

“Taaaats!”

But he remained to be the only one getting beaten up.

Smash! Smash! Smash!

Tried as he might, none of his attacks connected against the bodies of the spirits.

Well, he didn’t expect them to work in the first place.

‘I have no choice but to buy some time while getting hit!’

Blocking off all the attacks with his body, Han-bin threw himself into the middle of the group of black spirits.

As the distance narrowed, the way the evil spirits attacked changed.

Instead of a whip, they made various weapons using the shadows and began to attack them with full force.

Han-bin was hit with pitch-black swords, spears, and even maces.

Explosive sounds rang out one after another.

Bang! Baaaaang!

Ryu Han-bin was beaten continuously.

No matter how hard he swung his sword, it just passed through, and no matter hard he tried to defend himself, the spirits just ignored it.

Emil gave out a horrified look.

“Even if he’s a Valtara Warrior, is he going to be okay?”

Han-bin’s defense was high enough for him to hold on and brace himself against the onslaught, but he was bound to lose sooner or later.

“We have to find another way…”

Spreading out his Mana’s wavelength, Artis felt nervous.

They couldn’t find any leads.

They were in big trouble. If it continued like this, Ryu Han-bin was…

“… going to die?”

Effir could only blink in disbelief.

Han-bin was holding on too well.

No matter how many times he got hit and hit, he never faltered.

It wasn’t like him falling and getting up again. He didn’t even fall in the first place!

Artis and Effir shook their heads.

“He’s taking the blows way too easily…”

“Can he endure it until the sun rises?”

Ryu Han-bin, who had been beaten, shouted.

“Hey! Are you guys just playing around?”

The evil spirits’ attack didn’t pose any danger to him as of the moment, but that didn’t mean he could continue getting beaten forever.

Besides, he was feeling a sense of uneasiness.

‘Although the attack is still monotonous now…’

They only materialized at the moment of impact.

It made Ryu Han-bin’s arms and legs pass through them.

What if they attacked the inside of his body like that?

No matter how great Han-bin’s ability was, if his heart or intestines were the ones that had been attacked, there was no way for him to defend.

‘That’s a really huge problem!’

Ryu Han-bin continued to strike them as the pressure built up.

It was still all in vain.

Again, the blade just passed through the evil spirits.

However, since he couldn’t be damaged either, he tried all the risky moves he could think of, even the backspin knuckle, which required him to swing his arm as wide as possible.

By chance, one of the black spirits also swung its mace, aiming at his forearm.

The timing of both sides overlapped exquisitely.

Boom!

The shadows scattered along with the explosion!

Ryu Han-bin’s eyes widened.

‘Huh? I can feel it?’

“Hoo……”

With a strange groan, the spirit retreated.

The shaking of the stretched shadow made it look surprised.

Han-bin Ryu glanced down at his arm.

He definitely felt it just now.

He clearly hit the opponent.

But why?

‘Why did it work this time when nothing else worked before?’