Monster Heavenly King - Chapter 99
Only Noblemtl
99. Trace
The place we arrived at with Seol-ah’s guidance was a mountain located not far from the castle that we could not reach.
Han Ji-hyun exclaims in admiration as she looks at the mountain.
“Wow, there’s a place like this too.”
She, her younger sister, and Han Ji-soo have been conquering the fourth floor for quite some time.
I was proud of myself for knowing most places, but I never thought there would be another place like this.
I realized anew how vast each floor of the labyrinth is.
-I thought there wouldn’t be many people here.
“That’s nice to hear.”
It was true that the most famous castle in this area was the one that could not be reached.
And, it is true that for that reason, not many awakened people come to this side.
So naturally, I assumed there wouldn’t be many people here, so I guided Hyunseong and his group here.
and,
“Ugh…”
As if to show that Seol-ah’s thoughts were right, as soon as they approached the mountain, zombies began crawling out of the ground to welcome Hyun-seong and his party.
Among them, there are some who approach with a slow, staggering pace.
“Keeeeeek!!”
There were also zombies who greeted them with loud screams.
Hyunseong cuts off the head of an approaching zombie in one breath.
The headless zombie’s body rolled along the ground due to the inertia of its running motion.
“If there aren’t many people, it’s a perfect place to level up.”
I haven’t been able to hunt properly lately because of various things going on.
The group follows Hyunseong and each raises their weapons.
A torrent of skills swept through the zombies.
Although the number has decreased, only small mobs were affected by the skill.
Zombies with distinctive features either avoided skills or moved forward as if they were unaffected by them.
Crunch!
Hyunseong cuts the zombies in half with an eerie sound.
However, no matter how much I cut, the number did not decrease.
Zombies constantly approaching, as if they were demons crawling out of hell.
furthermore,
“Ku …
Now, even zombies that were not human in shape were appearing.
A giant ogre zombie.
I thought it was the territory boss, but when I saw that there wasn’t just one, I realized I was wrong.
“There are, there are a lot of them?!”
Han Ji-hyun speaks while crushing a zombie’s head.
She alone had already taken down dozens of zombies, and together with her party, they had killed hundreds of zombies, but the number of zombies crawling out of the mountain was even higher.
Could it be that the monsters kept piling up because there were no human footsteps?
Inside Hyunseong’s skull, dark red eyes sparkled.
“This is just the right amount for loosening up!”
“Is that it?”
Han Ji-soo looked at the zombies still crawling out, wondering if she had seen things wrong.
The number of zombies was so huge that it made you wonder where they were hiding.
But, having come this far, I couldn’t back out.
The group took up their weapons again, thinking that since Hyunseong was here, things would work out somehow.
The battle continued for quite some time,
[Level up.]
A system window that appears near the end of a battle.
“Whoa, that was hard.”
“Keruk.”
“Mr. Rush, here’s a towel.”
“Thank you, Chwiik.”
“Leveling up is starting to get tough.”
Hyunseong opened the status window, his jaw clacking.
[Name: Kim Hyun-seong.]
[Race: Skeleton Lord]
[Characteristic: None]
[Level:41]
[Strength: 25 (+6)]
[Stamina: 17 (+3)]
[Endurance: 19 (+2)]
[Agility: 17 (+2)]
[Magic Power: 21 (+4)]
[Remaining points: 1]
I fought zombies all day and only gained one level.
Even though there were not only normal zombies but also some pretty strong ones, it was still like this.
-It’s time to go to the next floor. If you think about it, you’ve leveled up a lot on the 4th floor, right?
‘That’s true.’
When going up from the 1st floor to the 2nd floor, 16.
When going up from the 2nd floor to the 3rd floor, 22.
When going up from the 3rd floor to the 4th floor, 31.
And, currently on the 4th floor, 41.
Considering that I went up quickly on the first floor because I was low level, I went up the most on the fourth floor.
“It’s true that catching the boss makes you level up faster.”
This must have come this far because I caught those cockroaches and the bone dragon.
I think I could only get half of it with just regular hunting.
I came out hunting for the first time in a while, but I felt like it was a waste of time because my level wasn’t going up very well.
“Tsk, aren’t there any dungeons around here?”
-Well, there’s nothing here that I know of.
“Then there’s nothing I can do.”
It’s not like there’s any good item that I absolutely have to get.
It’s impossible to search this wide space without knowing whether it exists or not.
Rather than spending time here, it seemed like it would be better to find another dungeon or go to the 5th floor, even if it was far away.
As I was thinking that and trying to move to another place.
I felt someone approaching.
-What, someone is coming.
‘This is also a labyrinth, so people looking for a hunting ground with few people will come.’
Hyunseong wearing a robe with two disciples.
I was planning on leaving this place anyway, so I didn’t care and just tried to get out.
“Excuse me.”
He came from over there and started talking to me.
A voice I’ve heard somewhere before.
“How long have you been hunting here?”
When he turned his gaze, he saw an Awakened person he knew.
I never thought we’d meet again like this.
“Oh, we haven’t been here that long either. But we think this place is a bit strange, so we’re going to leave.”
Han Ji-hyun, who intervenes between herself and the Awakened One and answers on their behalf.
It seemed like he interfered out of fear that his identity would be revealed, but there was no need for him to do so.
Because the other person also knows his true identity.
-What, why is he here?
‘It’s not strange even if it exists.’
No matter what floor it is on, if something happens, you have to go.
Hyunseong pulled back his deeply-pushed hood and chattered his teeth.
The awakened ones who spoke to them were,
“It’s been a while.”
An Awakened member of the Labyrinth Association and the Homeless Squad.
It was Lee Su-ho.
He looked at Hyunseong and opened his mouth with a puzzled expression.
“Why are you here?”
“Haven’t you seen Community? I’m a celebrity these days.”
“I saw it.”
Lee Su-ho also had no choice but to frequently visit the community to gather information.
However, at some point, the skeleton discovered on the 4th floor became a hot topic.
Lee Su-ho knew from the moment he first saw the skeleton that it was Hyeonseong.
‘There can’t be two skeletons like that.’
I thought it would go to the 4th floor soon when I first met it on the 3rd floor, but I was surprised that it went faster than I expected.
“What I mean is… no, but do you also do community?”
“This is basic knowledge.”
“… … ”
Lee Su-ho makes a dumbfounded expression.
Han Ji-hyun’s eyes widened at the sight of Hyun-seong talking to her so naturally.
“Do you two know each other?”
“We met briefly on the third floor. This is my group.”
“This is Lee Su-ho from the Labyrinth Association’s Homeless Squad.”
“Oh, yes. It’s Han Ji-hyun. This is my younger sister, Han Ji-soo.”
Monsters and Awakened ones are partying up together and hunting zombies.
I pinched the back of my hand without anyone knowing, wondering if I was dreaming, but I felt vivid pain.
“Have you found a case similar to mine?”
“Huh? Oh, I looked for it, but I couldn’t find any suitable information.”
“Well, I guess so.”
I didn’t really expect it.
If you look at the way the association guys act, even if they had that information, they would have hidden it on purpose.
“So, why are you here?”
“I think there have been a lot of missing person cases here recently.”
“Because it’s similar?”
It’s not like it’s happening, it’s the same.
Hyunseong tilts his head at the ambiguous answer.
Then he shrugged and answered.
“We don’t just move when someone reports it. If the Awakened haven’t been seen for a while, we check out the places with the most missing people based on the information we get from those sightings. The vagrants might have made a new base.”
“indeed.”
As new strongholds are created, the vagrants’ range of activities will expand further.
In order to prevent that, it was necessary to look around at places where signs of an incident were visible.
It’s a method with a lot of holes, but it’s not bad as a preventative measure.
“But as soon as I got there, I saw someone there and tried to check if they were a homeless person or not.”
But I never thought it would be a skeleton I knew.
I thought that fate was truly mysterious.
Hyunseong’s jaw clenched as he recalled when he arrived here.
“But, I don’t think anyone lives here?”
The undead who welcomed them as soon as they arrived.
If there were living beings, there wouldn’t be that many undead.
“Really? Hmm… Then there’s no place around here where the Awakened could have gone missing. Did they enter a castle they can’t access?”
“That’s not it either.”
“? You seem strangely confident.”
“We’re using it as a base. When I asked the owner, he said no one has come in yet.”
“…?”
Lee Su-ho makes a face as if he doesn’t understand English.
It seemed that I always saw that kind of expression on people I met at least once.
“So… you mean you entered a castle that you couldn’t enter? And you met the owner there?”
“that’s right.”
“… … ”
Lee Su-ho makes a face of disbelief.
Is there a castle that you can’t go to?
It was a fairly famous place among the many wonders representing the labyrinth.
How can you say that it’s a given that you not only went to a place like that, but even met the owner?
I couldn’t help but wonder what on earth this skeleton was doing.
“Don’t you believe it?”
“It’s hard to believe, but… I’ll believe it.”
Hyunseong doesn’t seem to be the type to brag, and he had no reason to lie to himself.
“Anyway, if there are no missing people in the castle that we can’t go to, then what happened if they disappeared around here?”
Lee Su-ho opens the 4th floor map on his smartphone and looks around.
Hyunseong, who was watching it, clicked his teeth.
“What happened and the conclusion is simple.”
“Simple?”
“There’s no reason for him to disappear, and if he’s not a vagrant, there’s only one reason left. This place is a labyrinth, isn’t it?”
Monster.
All the Awakened people who visited here said they were attacked by monsters.
but…
“To the zombies?”
Zombies were a very weak type of monster even on the 4th floor.
Weaker than some of the monsters that appear on the 3rd floor.
There were quite a few entities that appeared to be mutants.
‘But, it’s a bit… that an Awakened person who had cleared up to the 4th floor was attacked by those zombies and couldn’t even escape.’
No, it was very hard to understand.
Moreover, among the missing, there were not only Awakened people like Idiots but also Awakened people of considerable age.
The fact that they disappeared from here too made me wonder what had happened.
Hyunseong clenched his teeth as if he was frustrated by Lee Suho’s words.
“So, what I’m saying is that there’s a monster here that’s so strong that even a seasoned Awakener can’t defeat it.”