Boundless Necromancer

Chapter 75: An oddball (1)

Chapter 75: An oddball (1)

Smaaaash!

「 Acceleration speed is increased by the effect of Boots of Swiftness (C+) 」

The one-sided massacre continued as I earnestly began to hunt.

「 Activating the skill 'Chaotic Sword-fighting play(C+).' 」 

「 Sword attack speed increases by 14%.」

「 Number of stacks - 7/10」

I increased my attack speed, which has been increased by various effects, once again through the Chaotic Sword-fighting Play skill and—

「Activating the skill 'Clandestine Shadow's Step (C+).' 」 

「You're stepping on the shadow of a living creature.」 

「Your strength temporarily increases by +3.」

I immediately took the flank of the entities that I felt I couldn't kill with a single strike, stepped on their shadow, cut its body in half, and killed it.

「 You have absorbed the soul of the Earth Snake. 」

「 Proficiency increased by 0.07% 」 

「 You have absorbed the soul of the Earth… 」

「 Proficiency increased by… 」 

「 You have absorbed the soul of the Ea… 」

「 Proficiency increased … 」 

Of course, while moving around, I didn't forget to immediately absorb the souls.

It was to raise my stats, but it was also because both my mana and stamina were being consumed little by little from moving so fiercely.

I wasn't surprised.

「 Power ‘Sword Ki Master’ has been active for 6 minutes. 」 

「 Mana cost increases by 12% 」 

「 Power ‘Sword Ki Master’ has been active for 7…」 

「 Mana cost increases by … 」 

「 Power ‘Sword Ki Master’ has been active for 8...」 

「 Mana cost increases… 」 

As the power of Sword Ki was strong, the rate of mana consumption increased frantically as I used it.

In order to replenish the mana I consumed in an instant, I had no choice but to use the insignificant Earth Snake's soul to make up for my mana.

An opponent of this size was only difficult to deal with because there's a large amount of them. Even if I absorbed them, my stats wouldn't improve much.

For that reason, I didn't feel like I was missing anything by using their souls just to replenish my mana.

Rather—

「You have defeated the Earth Snake.」

「You gain 1 contribution point.」

I decided to focus on the fact that I could get more contribution points like this.

Since I wouldn't be able to acquire proper skills, let alone increase my stats, if I absorbed only monsters of this level.

Such a realistic judgment made a path that led directly to the result.

「Currently, challenger Han Sungyeun's contribution ranking is 2nd place.」

It was because I stole the rank of Oh Choonsuk, who was carrying out a mass slaughter using magic.

"I mean, how can your hunting be faster than magic…!?"

Looks like Oh Choonsuk also noticed that fact. He consumed his mana more and tried actively hunting the Earth snakes, but…

「Using the soul of the Earth snake to replenish mana.」 

「Using the soul of the Earth snake to replenish stamina.」 

Stamina and mana weren't infinite, but finite resources.

And since I could refill those resources right away, it was inevitable for me to have better durability than Oh Choonsuk

As a result, even though Oh Choonsuk's hunting speed was gradually slowing down, I could keep the pace without getting tired and continued the slaughter.

「 ‘One Man Army’ achievement unlocked. 」 

「All stats increased by 1.」

Thanks to that, I was able to obtain an achievement that increased all my stats by 1.

However...

While Oh Choonsuk was falling behind, Kim Seunghoon was still smashing the heads of Earth Snakes at an insane speed, leaving his afterimages of lightning.

Pow! Pow! Pow!

As if bombs were exploding, a loud deafening roar could be heard from here and there.

If it weren't for the stats that I trained with Necromancy, it wouldn't be strange if I lost my hearing immediately.

It gave me goosebumps, and I couldn't help but admire him.

A sky beyond the sky.

Kim Seunghoon displayed overwhelming strength to the extent that everything I had experienced so far felt silly.

Should I say it was like watching a wild beast with its pretty in front of it?

It was surprising that he could make such agile movements even with a weapon like a hammer.

To think that his attacks contained power that most challengers would be driven to the point of death to use, and in addition to that, he was so fast.

'I'm even doubtful if he's really the same kind of human like us.'

I was even consuming the souls that allowed me to permanently increase my stats to keep this pace…

Without anything like my power, Kim Seunghoon right now was in a state of continuing his insane hunting skills purely with his ability…

「Contribution ranking」

「 1st place, Kim Seunghoon (196) 」

「 2nd place, Han Sungyeun (147) 」

「 3rd place, Oh Choonsuk (122) 」

I had caught up to some extent, but now the gap wasn't narrowing at all.

Even if I increased my contribution points, Kim Seunghoon's contribution points also went up as much as I raised them.

Despite the fact that he had already accumulated so many contribution points, Kim Seunghoon was maintaining the gap between us without getting tired.

Now was the time to admit things that should be admitted.

'If I continue to compete with quantity like this, I'll end up losing.'

It was a competition in which the starting line was completely different.

No matter how much power I drew out to the limit, I couldn't turn the tables with the contribution points in this state.

Yeah, this should be natural.

The Evaluation Ranking wasn't absolute proof, but it was an indicator of combat power to some extent.

How could I beat the person who was first place in the Evaluation Ranking?

There was no way to get ahead of him as I was being pushed by his durability, which was my only advantage.

However…

'The system said that the contribution points of this special task are given differently depending on the strength of each entity.'

In fact, the larger Earth Snakes gave some additional contribution points.

Recalling that fact in my head, I began to wait for that one moment.

The point at which the strongest monster appeared in the trial of the 10th floor.

Which was…

「 Half of the monsters on the 10th floor stage have been removed. 」

「 The dungeon boss ‘Darkness Devouring Snake’ has appeared. 」

The appearance of boss monster— that’s the condition for clearing this trial of the 10th floor.

"Now I'm finally starting to feel like I can win a little."

It was the moment when the light in the tunnel finally appeared.

***

Reaper Scans

***

Kim Seunghoon continued to observe Han Sungyeun's movements, even while killing all the Earth Snakes emerging from the ground.

It wasn't because he had enough energy to observe him, but because the scene he was watching was purely unbelievable.

Crash—!

With the speed that made even Kim Seunghoon flinch for an instant, Earth Snakes were brutally slaughtered by Han Sungyeun's sword.

One, two, three…

Several small snakes were killed in a single strike, and large snakes died while being split in half by the sword as their backs were caught.

In addition, his attack speed increased the more he swung the sword.

Watching this scene, Kim Seunghoon felt astonished and a little caught off guard at the same time.

'To think that kind of a monster wasn't originally a hunter but an ordinary person…'

He hadn't even thought that such a crazy monster could be hiding among ordinary people.

His pure talent was quite high, and he had an unpredictable number of skills, and the power of those skills was outstanding.

That wasn’t the end of it.

'His durability is on a whole new level.'

Even though he was spamming his skills like that, he didn't show any signs of exhaustion. Rather, he was fighting with the corners of his lips slightly raised.

Unlike his cold-hearted appearance a while ago, the current Han Sungyeun felt like a predator with a sword.

An oddball.

Han Sungyeun was a challenger that Kim Seungyun had no other words but to describe him like that.

Of course, Kim Seunghoon felt like he had a long way to go to match with him, but…

Originally, Kim Seunghoon was one of the top hunters in the Korean hunter industry.

Even if he lost most of the power he had when he entered the tower, that fact didn't change.

The fact that he was showing the signs of keeping up with Kim Seunghoon meant that his potential was completely different.

'A monster like him is appearing because of the tower's appearance, huh.'

He was surprised as he thought that only some kind of scum was increasing their numbers.

Kim Seunghoon was skeptical about the fact that Kim Seungjun or those who were worse than that bastard claimed to be hunters, but…

'Han Sungyeun is a challenger who's a completely different class from those guys.'

For this time, he couldn't deny the beneficial effect created after the tower appeared.

It was the moment when Kim Seunghoon began to have an increasingly strong interest in Han Sungyeun.

「 Half of the monsters on the 10th floor stage have been removed. 」

「 The dungeon boss ‘Darkness Devouring Snake’ has appeared. 」

"…!?"

Suddenly, such a message came up, and the ground began to shake rapidly.

Instead of panicking at the vibration that seemed like an earthquake, Kim Seunghoon immediately grasped the situation.

The trial had already progressed enough for the boss monster to appear.

By the time he fully embraced that fact, a huge Earth Snake was already in the middle of the field, flapping his earthen tongue.

Darkness Devouring Snake.

A dungeon boss, one of the monsters of all monsters that often appeared in field-type A-rank dungeons, materialized right in front of his eyes.

'Are you saying that a boss monster this strong is appearing…?'

Darkness Devouring Snake was a notorious high-ranking monster even in A-rank dungeons.

Despite its huge body being reminiscent of a dragon, the problem with it was its skill in narrowing the field of vision of all living things around it.

It was safe to say that there was almost no way to counter it, as it was none other than an ability to seal off the sense of sight.

Of course, it wasn’t like there was no way to handle it at all.

You could break through the reduced vision with a high level of mana resistance skill or an anti-magic skill comparable to that.

However, as well as the mana resistance, the comparable resistance skill had to be higher than that of Kim Seunghoon's right now.

Why?

Because Veil of Darkness was an A-rank skill, and for that reason, it had amazing skill detection.

With Kim Seunghoon's B+ Mana Resistance skill, it was difficult to overcome the skill detection of an A-rank skill.

'Cooperation or whatever, we might all die if I don't hurry.'

What was worse was that there were two other challengers, not just him.

Kim Seunghoon stormed across the ground under the pressure that he needed to resolve this situation somehow.

However…

Kieeeeeeeeeeegh—!

「 Due to the skill 'Veil of Darkness', your vision starts to narrow down. 」

「 In proportion to the amount of mana used, the field of view also continually gets smaller. 」

The moment the Darkness Devouring Dnake immediately activated a special skill, Kim Seunghoon stopped moving.

He had no choice but to do so.

As the movement was loaded with mana, the amount of mana used increased, and the field of vision reduced.

Therefore Kim Seunghoon had no choice but to stop using his mana and stare at the Darkness Devouring Snake.

The Mana Resistance skill immediately activated, slowing down the reduction of the view, but… 

'From now on, I need to continue the battle with a super sense rather than sight.'

That didn't mean that the situation of the battle had gotten better.

Oh Choonsuk was bewildered as though he couldn't see anything because he uses quite a lot of mana.

Han Sungyeun was also standing still, staring at the Darkness Devouring snake.

In other words, everyone wasn't so familiar with these kinds of enemies.

If he had a bit more mana resistance, he wouldn't have been pressured by skills like Veil of Darkness at all, but that was a useless thought.

Currently, Kim Seunghoon had lost all of his immense mana resistance by entering the tower.

Of course, after climbing the tower and repeating battles, he acquired a B-rank mana resistance skill, but that wasn't enough to overcome the A-rank hit detection skill.

Kim Seunghoon clenched his teeth and activated his mana throughout his body more and more strongly.

Bzzzzzzt…!!

Accumulate damage to the Darkness Devouring Snake as much as possible before he completely becomes out of sight.

And after that, deal with the Darkness Devouring Snake alone. Even if he was driven to the point of death with a lack of senses.

Hunting monsters has always been the hunter's duty.

That didn't change under any circumstances.

Leave all the small monsters to Oh Choonseok and Han Sungyeun, and finish this stupidly strong monster by himself.

That was the ideal solution for Kim Seunghoon in the current situation.

However… 

That plan of Kim Seunghoon was shattered the moment he raised the mana of the lightning.

Slam!

"…!?"

It's because there was someone who kicked off the ground faster than Kim Seunghoon.

The challenger that Kim Seunghoon admired throughout the trial.

It was Han Sungyeun.

——

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