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Chapter 5

This view was also familiar. Even in Valhalla, whenever someone were to see me fighting, they tended to leave me alone. I looked at the monstrous man I had just killed and sensed that something was not right.

I picked up the black sword that had fallen to the ground. It had a length of approximately eight feet, a very long sword that an orc or a giant might use.

I stood up and inspected it. This didn’t look like a sword.

I turned around to look for Jang Hyeok, but I suppose he misread my purpose.

“…The sword is yours, Mr. Lee. We won’t say anything about…”

I shook my head. That was not what I meant.

“What is the key to clearing this S-rated gate?”

Jang Hyeok was evidently trying to be calm. He was now the leader of the guild, so he had to be strong for the others.

“There are two ways to do it. One way is to kill the boss monster, the more conventional way to clear the gate.”

“What about the other?”

“It’s to discover the dungeon’s secret…”

“Discover?”

“That’s why we set up a camp to do research. If we find all the hidden secrets and collect the artifacts from the gate, then it will be cleared.”

“I see.”

“As a company, we chose to do the latter way. What you are holding is one of the artifacts. I assume it’s a Balmung, the sword from the legend.”

This was going much simpler than I had thought.

Discovering the secrets of the gate? I didn’t care about that. History? I was busy studying for the GED. What did you expect?

I would rather just kill the boss monster. How simple was that?

“Let me get this straight. If I kill the boss, then that’s it. Am I correct?”

“…Yes. The strongest monster is the boss.”

I then called the interpreter over.

“Repeat after me in their language.”

“Oh… sure.”

I turned back, holding Balmung in my hands. Then I said what I wanted to say.

“Don’t waste my time. Come out now.”

Everyone was quiet. They didn’t understand what I was trying to do. I urged the interpreter to translate it quickly, and so he did.

I didn’t know what he was saying, but I could hear him shouting out some words.

I then spoke again. “Come out. Now.”

That was enough. I put the sword down and told everyone to step back.

I took a deep breath and stomped on the ground. It fractured below my feet. As I did it once more, the sword Balmung began to glow.

A blinding light shone brightly, and after a moment, the atmosphere changed.

As the light dimmed down, we could see the figure of a man in front of us. He didn’t have hair or reproductive organs. He was evidently not a human. In fact, instead of arms, what came out of his torso were two sharp swords. To be more specific, his arms were two Balmungs.

Yes, the sword Balmung had indeed transformed itself into a man.

All of the Ko-gu-Rea guild members gaped in surprise to see this monstrous show. It looked even worse than the previous enemy.

He opened his mouth, and a long, screeching sound rang out.

“#####, #######.”

“He says that everything has a flow… He is asking why you are not following that flow.”

That was laughable. Everything had a flow? That was really just bullshit.

“Mr. Interpreter, you don’t have to translate anymore.”

A voice from the back reached my ears.

“Can we do anything to help?”

It was Jang Hyeok. I looked at his face that was full of mixed emotions. Confusion, helplessness, and guilt swirled around in his eyes.

It was understandable. I could definitely empathize with that.

However, needing their help, huh? Well, I had something to ask them. I guess they really could answer my question.

“I don’t know much, but is an S-rated gate always like this?”

“…What do you mean?”

I pointed at the monstrous man.

“It’s just physical ability, but he is twice as strong as my brother. The monster I defeated a while ago was about similar in strength to my brother.”

Jang Hyeok understood what I meant. He froze.

“It’s just physical ability, but that’s how I feel. I don’t think this is an S-rated gate.”

Let me be clear that I was not looking down on the Ko-gu-Rea guild, but this amount of members was definitely not sufficient for this battle. If I were not here, they would all end up dead.

This was a strong guild that had managed to clear four S-rated gates, but this was not a normal gate.

Hyeok, with a gloomy face, answered. “I’m sorry, Mr. Lee… We don’t know anything about it.”

I turned my head to face the monster.

“Let’s think about it after getting out of here. I think this is the boss.”

Suddenly, the man stood up. As he prepared to attack, the two swords attached to him glowed in bright, golden light.

As I mentioned before, in Valhalla, the people above others in power were known as masters. Masters, however, had different levels as well—beginning, mediocre, and expert levels. Their aura’s colors are indigo, gold, and red, respectively.

Lee Ho’s aura level was a darker gold. The monster in front of me had a brighter gold aura. The Western Emperor, in fact, had a golden aura too, but his power was already similar to that of a red aura Master.

Then this monster, Balmung—I decided to call him Balmung since he had transformed from that sword—came after me. I saw that he was aiming for my throat. I was able to dodge his attack, and I wondered who else could have reacted that well.

If Lee Ho were to come face to face with this type of enemy, he would surely receive some damage. I was a bit worried about him. He did have talent, but… I didn’t know if he could manage something like this.

For me, it was easy to block his attack. That was why I could still think of something else while fighting.

When I managed to dodge his blow, I could tell that Balmung felt surprised. Then, a sudden shockwave spread out all over the place. I could see his eyes; they were shaking. I wondered what he was thinking; it could either be excitement or fear.

“###.”

“I don’t care what he is saying.”

He would be turning into a corpse soon, and then all he would be able to do was scream.

I grabbed his shoulder, and two things happened simultaneously.

He kicked my chest to push me back at the same time as I broke his two legs, causing him to collide with the wall. Because of that, he couldn’t land well. He lifted his head to look at me, and he was sneering.

That didn’t matter. I looked over his body and saw that he was recovering. It seemed to be something like So-Eun’s ability. I think there had been a healing skill inside him.

However, that would be of no use to him. I had met these types of enemies before, and I knew just how to crush them.

My red aura was flowing freely from my body.

After completing his recovery, Balmung once again rushed toward me. His blade was aiming for my forehead, and I dodged it easily. I grabbed his shoulder and simply ripped one of his sword arms off his body.

What was interesting was that his blood was red. I thought that he was not human, but he did have the same blood as us.

“Urgh…”

I ripped off his other sword arm.

Balmung tried to resist and launch a counterattack, but I dodged it again and ripped his leg off.

After a short while, both of his legs had been regenerated. Just as I thought, he had a healing skill. What I didn’t expect was how fast it was working.

I grabbed his leg and exerted great force until I managed to get to the bone inside. I tilted my body to the side and kicked his chin. As his body flew up into the air, I pulled on his leg and ripped it off.

He fell with a loud thud and tried to raise his head weakly. Before he could do anything else, I used his severed leg to attack him.

Crash!

I smacked him so hard he collided with the wall, leaving a broken hole in the shape of his figure imprinted on the surface. I threw his leg to him and noticed that his mouth was bleeding. I ignored it and walked forward.

This guy was a battle junkie. Even after all that, he was still charging toward me.

Interesting.

I raised one arm to block his approaching fist and the other arm to guard against his sword.

Mr. Han had told me that this place is related to Nibelungenlied. He also told me that Siegfried and Gunther were here. I could suppose that he was one of them. I clenched my fist and punched the monster hard.

Balmung’s sword was smashed into pieces. A piercing scream came out of his mouth, but I ignored it and kicked his chest.

Crash!

Again, he collided with the wall.

I rotated my body and kicked him again, this time aiming for his head. He fell down to the ground, writhing in pain. I stepped forward, and as he tried to get up, I stomped on his neck so that he could not rise.

He rained punches on my leg, but it was no use.

I put greater and greater force on the foot that was holding him down until I heard his neck bone break. Again, I stomped on him.

Crash!

When I looked down at Balmung, he was shivering.

“##… ###…”

I stepped back for a bit. He tried to move back as well, but the wall was blocking his way. He was cornered.

I came nearer to him and ripped his neck off. I stomped on his arm again and smashed his body down.

His scream echoed around us, but I ignored it. I struck his mouth.

Crack.

His mouth was distorted. I smacked him again.

Crash!

Again.

Crash!

Again and again. This time, I aimed for the heart.

Crash.

I could see my reflection through his eyes, and I had no emotions on my face. I looked like a person who was killing ants without any interest in them. His body was regenerating quickly, so I continued my barrage of unceasing attacks.

I continued doing it until his healing skill was of no use anymore. He was dying. It was an easy process. I could see that he was begging for his life, but, of course, I ignored it and smashed his neck.

That was the easiest way to defeat those with healing skills.

Give them unending pain to the point that they didn’t want to heal themselves anymore.

They would realize that regeneration was meaningless. They would even consider it a curse for letting them suffer continuously.

That was how they chose to die. The terrible despair would definitely make it happen, and that was exactly what I gave him.

I struck his head again.

The entire dungeon was vibrating, and a new portal was forming nearby.

The gate had finally been cleared.