Monster Heavenly King - Chapter 45



Only Noblemtl

45. The Forge of the Canyon

After breaking up with Lee Su-ho, Hyun-seong muttered to himself as he wandered around the third floor.

“It reminds me of the old days, dammit.”

It was a rugged mountain range that brought to mind the Sipmandaesan Mountain, the headquarters of the Cheonmasingyo sect.

It was the same when I ran away from the Cheonmasin Church, and when I returned to Sipmandaesan to get the Cheonmas’ head.

I vividly remembered complaining about living in a place like this.

‘And the leader of the Murim clan who said he would conquer that place was also a madman.’

Not long after he defeated the Heavenly Demon, the men who had been keeping their tails down in fear of the previous Heavenly Demon suddenly attacked, saying they would uproot the evil cult.

The excuse was plausible, but the reality was that the leader of the martial arts world was gaslighting the entire Central Plains in order to do something crazy like leave his name in the history of the martial arts world.

There have been several instances in the history of martial arts where the Demonic Cult invaded with the intention of subduing the martial arts world, but this was the first time that the Central Plains invaded with the intention of subduing the Heavenly Demon Cult.

‘He got angry and asked me why I was living in such a shitty place.’

They didn’t do anything, they just barged in and did it.

How dumbfounded I was when I heard that.

Bam! Bam!

“Koooooooooooo!!!”

A fierce roar echoed along with the sound of trees breaking.

A thumping, periodic ground shaking.

“It looks like a pretty large monster. Is it an ogre?”

The third floor also had many different types of monsters.

However, what is different from before is that while the second floor mostly had monsters that moved in groups, the third floor mostly had monsters that were strong even when they were just one individual.

Sakonghyun seemed to vaguely understand why it would take two years for an ordinary Awakener to achieve enlightenment without support.

‘It’s hard enough to catch the guys on the second floor with ease.’

A party that was able to conquer the second floor without any problems could be wiped out on the third floor just by hunting one ogre.

In a fight, numbers are the enemy’s strength, so it is necessary to assume that the allies and enemies are equal or have similar skills.

However, in a labyrinth where magic and systems exist, those words are virtually meaningless.

Because a single strong entity could take on dozens or hundreds of others.

‘This applies not only to monsters, but also to Awakened Ones.’

The 6th floor is the front line of the labyrinth.

If all the Awakened who entered there and all the Awakened who are on floors 1 through 5 fight, wouldn’t the Awakened who reached floor 6 have a high probability of winning?

The world has become that irrational,

‘The deeper you go into the labyrinth, the more absurd it becomes.’

-A world with only humans? From my perspective, that’s even more amazing.

The world that Seol-ah lived in was home to many races, including monsters, orcs, elves, dwarves, and demons.

Boom! Boom!

The rumbling grew louder and louder, and a huge giant emerged, snapping a thick tree like a branch.

The ogre glanced at him and let out a low growl as if he didn’t like it.

“Bones, nothing to eat.”

An ogre extending its palm to crush itself, as if a person were crushing an insect.

Boom!

A cloud of dust rises with a sound like a bomb exploding.

however,

“Crunch?”

The ogre drew a question mark above his head.

He clearly struck down the bone.

But, I couldn’t feel my palms touching the ground.

The dust settles,

“Profit!”

Rashi appeared, blocking the ogre’s hand.

Veins stand out against rock-like muscles.

At that moment, a small shadow ran up the ogre’s arm.

“Keruk!”

The guy who reached the ogre’s shoulder in one go tried to cut off its head.

All I did was draw blood lines on the skin.

A guy who retreats in a hurry due to the stinging pain.

“Profit!!”

As the ogre’s hand disappeared, Rashi charged forward with his sword, roaring loudly.

Seol-ah’s sword rang as she watched the goblins and orcs fighting the ogres.

-That’s a huge step forward.

When he first came in, his two disciples couldn’t even properly deal with a single monster.

I thought about returning to the second floor and leaving them behind, but at their strong request, I allowed them to stay.

And in just a few days, the two of them grew to the point where they could fight one.

‘Maybe Lee Su-ho set it on fire.’

Did it ever occur to you that if you got off here, you would never be able to catch up again?

Hyunseong thought like that and took out Seol-ah.

“Then, should I take the other side?”

Hyunseong muttered like that and headed into the forest.

Bryn and Rash couldn’t tell because they were obscured by the commotion of the ogres, but there was more than one monster coming here.

The other one is-

Shasha Shasha.

Because he was a hunter who moved stealthily, not a warrior.

The faint sound of brush rustling in the quiet forest.

-How long are you going to stay still?

‘Stop grumbling, I know.’

Hyunseong lifted Seol-ah up with a soft sigh.

To be exact, he stabbed himself in the stomach with a knife.

Then,

Phew.

“Keeeeeek!!”

A roar of pain echoed through the air.

Before he knew it, a giant spider had descended upon him, within arm’s length of him.

Although the intention was to destroy Hyunseong in one fell swoop, it was this side that was waiting for him to come closer.

‘Because these guys don’t show up easily.’

It was necessary to make it appear that he was being treated well.

Even though he was himself, it was difficult to track down a guy who couldn’t properly reveal his appearance.

Seol-ah, whose body was covered in spider saliva, blood, and venom, muttered in a complaining tone.

-Ugh, I feel sick. Hurry up and get over it.

“You have no sense.”

-There is no sense, but there is a feeling.

“Oh my, this is a tricky sword.”

-It’s okay for someone as picky as me to be picky.

“Yes, yes.”

As he swung his sword with an answer, the impurities on the sword’s body were blown away and scattered to the ground.

Hyunseong muttered as he looked at the giant spider that had landed on the ground.

“It’s so dirty and big.”

If there was a legendary human-faced snake, would it be this big?

I had a feeling it might be, but I couldn’t see the person’s face.

The guy who fell straight to the ground.

Eight eyes were turned towards him.

Chewing gum…

The poison that flowed from the wound he had inflicted melted the ground.

Could it be spider venom?

The guy’s eight legs moved.

Even though the huge mass was moving at a fast speed, no significant sound was heard.

“Keeek!”

The guy’s legs rushing towards his skull with a shrill scream.

It felt like a giant scythe was being swung.

As he dodged the front paw, the tree behind him was pierced in an instant.

“It’s scary.”

I just swung my leg, but it had that much power.

I tried to cut off the guy’s leg stuck in the tree with a knife,

Kak!

Because of its hard outer shell, it could not be cut down.

A tougher shell than you might think.

The guy who pulled out his leg noticed that Hyunseong’s attack had not penetrated his outer skin and rushed at him without hesitation.

“Oh my, I’m rushing in without even looking at my opponent’s moves.”

Even as a hunter, he could be called a lowly being.

Because it was a cornered rat biting a cat.

and,

months!

This time, the sharpened sword energy of Hyunseong cut off one of the giant spider’s legs.

A guy screaming in pain as his leg disappears.

“Keeeeeek!!”

A giant spider that flails its remaining seven legs and quickly spreads distance.

It was a speed that made it hard to believe he had lost a leg.

The guy up the tree shot a spider web towards me.

“Yeah, when you say spider, you think of spider webs.”

I guess it was used because it was a desperate measure.

“You picked the wrong person to use.”

As he swung Seol-ah vertically, the spider webs flying towards him split apart.

“Keeek?!”

A guy who looks perplexed, never thinking that his web would disappear into thin air.

The shock was all the greater because the giant spider’s web was something that even the Awakened found difficult.

When you swing your sword, the sword energy flies along the same trajectory.

The guy didn’t have time to react and fell under the tree, taking in the sword energy.

Hyunseong, who didn’t miss the gap and cut off the giant spider’s windpipe.

-Still an absurd feat. Last time you cut water, and this time you cut spider webs. Are you cutting them all?

“Not everything. You can only ring what you can ring.”

Its scope only expands according to one’s own realization.

The spider that had been wiggling finally ended its life and disappeared as experience points.

And the system window that came up.

[Level up.]

“I said this is good.”

Hyunseong grumbles, his teeth chattering as if he is satisfied.

It was one of the things I was most satisfied with when I went up to the third floor.

Monsters give a lot of experience points.

It’s on a completely different level from the second floor.

‘On the second floor, I was hesitant to go up even after killing a bunch of monsters.’

On the third floor, each monster was stronger, so the experience points given seemed to increase in proportion to the difficulty.

The level that was stagnant on the 2nd floor has risen to the 3rd floor, rising by three levels.

[Name: Kim Hyun-seong.]

[Race: Skeleton Knight]

[Characteristic: None]

[Level:25]

[Strength: 16 (+5)]

[Stamina: 11]

[Endurance: 13]

[Agility: 11]

[Magic Power: 13]

[Remaining points: 5]

At this rate, it might evolve soon.

The normal mobs are like this, so I wonder how much it would go up if I killed something like an area boss.

‘It’ll be that hard to deal with.’

Maybe it was difficult for him right now.

Even though he has become stronger, he is still considered weak in terms of the system.

Even if you manage to defeat the area boss, it won’t be easy to deal with it as it is several times stronger than a normal mob.

-Sir, take care of your items.

Hyunseong collects the item from the giant spider at Seol-ah’s words.

In the past, I had been throwing away the items I had gotten from hunting monsters, but now that I had a bag, I was steadily collecting them.

-How much does this cost?

‘I don’t know either.’

[Giant Spider’s Outer Shell]

[Rating: General]

[The hard outer shell of a giant spider. It can be processed and used.]

“It’s available on the third floor and needs to be processed, so I don’t think it’ll be that expensive.”

I don’t know if it will be expensive after processing.

Since I had never experienced the life of an awakened human, I couldn’t really get a feel for it.

‘I guess I’ll have to go up to the second floor and empty out my bag later when it’s full.’

You can leave the handling to Sakonghyun.

With that in mind, I headed to where my disciples were fighting, and I saw that they had already defeated the ogre and were having a lucky breakfast.

“Is it fast?”

Who would have thought that I’d finish it while I was catching a giant spider?

Perhaps he had been underestimating their competitive spirit.

Hyunseong first opened his eyes and struck his teeth at Brin.

“Rest in the nearby hideout.”

“What will you do, Master?”

“I’m looking around nearby.”

“Keruk.”

Undead that don’t need to rest are perfect in this regard.

Because I could have done more with my spare time.

Hyunseong, who was wondering which direction to head to next, climbed up a tree and looked around.

however,

“huh?”

I noticed smoke rising in the distance.

It wasn’t a fire, but it seemed like someone was using fire.

“Are they vagabonds?”

Maybe the other Awakened were just taking a break.

Hyunseong, who seemed to be thinking for a moment, headed towards the direction where the smoke was rising to check.