Chapter 23: 23

The third floor of the Chimera Dimension was wider than the first two floors.

“Summon Sally. Summon White.” Kang Yoon-Soo summoned the two and took out some adrenaline potions from his backpack. He drank one, then gave one each to the two summons.

“Papa, what is this?” Sally asked.

“Potion,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied curtly.

“Is it yummy?” 

“Yes.”

“Wow!” Sally exclaimed as she drank the potion.

However, her face crumpled after drinking the potion. “It’s not yummy… it’s bitter!”

“Bitter is delicious.” Kang Yoon-Soo said something strange to the child.

White growled at Kang Yoon-Soo and refused to drink the potion—it had the pride of a boss monster. It had no plans to drink anything given by a mere human. “Korunok! Urnokra!”

“Rimakurel,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied. White flinched after hearing Kang Yoon-Soo’s words, and drank the adrenaline potion in one gulp.

“What did you say?” Shaneth asked curiously.

“That it’s good for sexual stamina,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“…”

They started their hunt.

***

“Kyarururuk!” The chimera spat an annoying set of vines out of its mouth. The chimeras starting from the third floor had a binding skill to tie their targets down.

Kang Yoon-Soo avoided the vines with his agile movements, swinging his greatsword.

Pukeok!

His greatsword split the large chimera’s skull in half, and its body let out a fountain of blood before lying dead on the ground, spasming.

“Fwoooooh!” Sally fought while breathing out an intensely hot fire. Her form was no longer that of a young girl; rather, she had morphed into a fire lizard.

[Salamander Sally has morphed into a lizard.]

[The salamander’s fire breath is stronger in lizard form than in human form.]

[The salamander’s movement speed across flat terrain has increased.]

[The fire breath burns hotter in the desert.]

[However, flame magic cannot be used in this form.]

The spirit’s flames started to burn more fiercely in her lizard form. Shaneth had also taken up her scythe and started to cut down the chimeras.

White went on a rampage that resembled a one-sided slaughter more than an actual fight. The title of the Yultika Ruin’s boss was befitting of the ferocity with which it massacred the chimeras.

However, one person stood out when it came to the speed at which he hunted chimeras..

‘Who the hell is he?’ Shin Han-Yul and his party could not hide their admiration as they watched the battle.

It was at that moment that tragedy fell upon them.

Bzzz...!

The wrist devices on all of the Travelers started to vibrate, and a horrible message appeared on the screen in bold red letters.

[A strange flow of mana has caused changes in the dimension.]

[The A-Grade Forbidden Area, the Chimera Dimension, has been closed.]

[Entry into the dimension has been restricted.]

The Travelers were shocked by the message, and one man ran hurriedly toward the exit. One could normally leave the Chimera Dimension after crossing a shining path that resembled a trail of stars. However, the shining stars had disappeared into the darkness, and the exit had disappeared with them.

The man shouted in a panic, “What the hell is this?! We were just about to leave!”

That panic instantly spread among the adventurers inside the dimension. The chimeras did not miss the opportunity to charge at the adventurers.

“Kirururuk!”

“Ack!”

Two people were instantly ripped apart by the chimeras’ vicious claws. The fact that one could not leave this place had caused panic and distress, and it had affected the combat ability of the adventurers.

However, that was not the case for Kang Yoon-Soo. He knew the way to escape from the closed-off Chimera Dimension. He just coldly observed the situation, thinking, ‘So it has begun.’

Then, he shouted loudly, “Everyone, stay calm. We can leave this place if we kill the boss on the top floor.”

“What?”

“How do you know that?”

However, the adventurers took out their anger on him as they remained skeptical; but for Kang Yoon-Soo, he had no reason to convince them otherwise. He simply said, “You’re free to believe it or not, but that’s the only way to escape from this predicament. Fight if you wish to live.”

This was all he was willing to do for them. These people were actually supposed to die in this place; they were supposed to die trapped in the dimension. The fact that he had told them the way to leave was more than enough. Giving them anything more than that had no benefit to him.

“I believe you. I just have to give it my all and fight, right?” Shaneth asked. Kang Yoon-Soo nodded.

On the other hand, Shin Han-Yul and his party were flustered by the sudden development. One of his party members asked, “What should we do, Han-Yul hyung?”

“There’s no guarantee, but we have no choice but to believe his words,” Shin Han-Yul replied as he started to cast spells. “Ice Bringer! Fire Fall!”

As soon as he finished casting, powerful magic started to rain down toward a chimera. The sharp ice fragments tore the chimera apart, and a strong flame burned its skin. As soon as the chimera became incapacitated, four swordsmen ran toward it and slashed at it.

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Lee Kang-Hyun was surprised that Shin Han-Yul was able to remain composed even in such a situation. ‘As expected from the White Lion Clan,’ he thought as he looked at the mantle Shin Han-Yul was wearing.

The mantle, imprinted with the symbol of a white lion, was something the White Lion Clan only gave to their members. It was composed of a sturdy cloak and cowl made from wyvern leather, making it impervious to fire.

The only person from the White Lion Clan in his party was Shin Han-Yul, and the four of them had tried to appeal to him so they too would be able to enter the White Lion Clan.

More casualties started to appear as time went by. The parties, despite holding their ground and fighting with their lives on the line, started to crumble one by one.

“Ack!”

“Help me!”

However, Shin Han-Yul and his party held on, and they fought until the end.

[You have killed 100 chimeras.]

[Do you wish to proceed to the next floor?]

They had cleared the third floor somehow, and the party members now started to show signs of exhaustion. However, Shin Han-Yul seemed intent on carrying on. He said, “I understand the situation has drastically changed, but we might lose the sword to that man if we take our sweet time.”

The sword was the reason Shin Han-Yul and his party had been aiming for the top floor of the Chimera Dimension. He had received the information regarding the sword after clearing a secret quest from the alchemist guild.

The information had said that the boss monster on the fifth floor of the Chimera Dimension held a rare sword. A sword with a rare rating or higher was not only powerful; it would also fetch a hefty sum when sold. The value of the sword would also multiply if it had high attack power or a special ability attached to it.

“We’ll die anyway if we just sit around. We’ll kill the boss on the top floor as planned—and we’ll do it before them,” Shin Han-Yul said.

Meanwhile, Kang Yoon-Soo cast his necromancer skill after he finished hunting the chimeras. “Mass Raise Dead.”

A hundred chimeras turned into undead, and the skill level of ‘Mass Raise Dead’ rose.

[The skill level of ‘Mass Raise Dead’ has increased.]

[The total number of summons you can keep in the summon dimension has increased to 700.]

Kang Yoon-Soo’s party had advanced to the next floor first, even though they had started after Shin Han-Yul’s party. There was no time to lose, and Shin Han-Yul’s party went to the fourth floor as well.

***

They were the only people on the fourth floor. Everyone else was struggling for their lives on the lower floors, or had already died.

The chimeras on the fourth floor were large and powerful. They would use their vines to bind a target and use a long spear to endlessly stab at that bound target. The chimeras’ claws, which had each been as long as a shortsword on the lower floors, were each as long as a longsword and sharper on this floor.

White and Kang Yoon-Soo stood as vanguards, and their party aggressively fought the chimeras. Sally burned any vines shot out by the chimeras, and Shaneth swung her scythe with all her strength.

“Kirururuk!”

Tens of chimeras had gathered in one place, and it was not an easy task to kill monsters in large groups. There were many cases of the balance of power shifting in the monsters’ favor, causing hunting parties to be wiped out.

Kang Yoon-Soo took the powerful bomb he had made out of the backpack, and it exploded after coming into contact with the chimeras.

Boom!

“Kirururuk!”

The chimeras shrieked in pain as they were blown up all at once, and Sally’s flames and Shaneth’s scythe finished off any of the chimeras that had managed to barely survive the explosion. Kang Yoon-Soo’s party showed no signs of slowing down as they killed chimera after chimera thanks to the adrenaline potion.

Shin Han-Yul’s party, on the other hand, could not handle the attrition. “Gaaah! Help me!” a swordsman in their vanguard screamed as he got caught by a vine. If the vine could not be severed in time, he would be surrounded by other vines and wrapped up.

Shin Han-Yul was busy casting ice magic, and he did not have the opportunity to cast fire magic to burn the vines. The other party members were also busy fighting for their own lives, and could not afford to help the swordsman. The swordsman was bitten by a chimera in the end.

“Aaack!”

“I’ll help you!” Lee Kang-Hyun shouted as he tried to move toward the swordsman.

However, Shin Han-Yul suddenly screamed at him when he was about to move, “Lee Kang-Hyun! You stupid son of a—! Hold your position! It’s over for us if our formation collapses!”

“But…!” Lee Kang-Hyun protested.

“We can’t sacrifice the many for the few. That’s a basic part of tactics! Hold your position if you want to enter the White Lion Clan!” Shin Han-Yul replied.

Lee Kang-Hyun gritted his teeth as he held his position, and the swordsman that had been bitten by a chimera was killed on the spot by more chimeras.

After several hours passed, the battle finally came to an end.

[You have killed 100 chimeras.]

[Do you wish to proceed to the next floor?]

Only Kang Yoon-Soo and Shin Han-Yul’s party were left standing on the floor after the battle—that was how intense the fighting had been.

Kang Yoon-Soo’s level had increased to Level 57, and once again, he raised the dead chimeras. He now had 400 undead chimeras in his summon dimension.

The survivors were all exhausted after the battle, and the ones that had survived were covered in wounds.

“Tend to your wounds and let’s go quickly to the next floor,” Shin Han-Yul said as he took out a healing potion from his backpack; it was an expensive potion that went for ten gold coins a bottle, although it had been paid for by his clan, of course. He sparingly applied the potion to the wounds of the injured party members, and their wounds slowly started to heal.

Shin Han-Yul stole a glance toward Kang Yoon-Soo’s party. It seemed that although they had not sustained as much damage as his party, they had still taken quite a bit of damage as well.

The reason why Shin Han-Yul had shared the expensive potion with his party was to prepare for the boss fight as quickly as possible. A small injury sustained by a party member could often have a butterfly effect on the outcome of the battle. Recovery and rest were as important as the battle itself.

‘Everyone is tired and wounded, but we can recover much faster than them. Even if we rest for thirty minutes tops, we’ll be the ones reaching the top floor first.’ Shin Han-Yul calculated inside his head; in fact, he thought that they could kill the boss monster even before the other party would be able to enter the fifth floor, thanks to the expensive potion he had used.

However, contrary to his expectations, Kang Yoon-Soo indifferently took out healing potions from his backpack and applied them to Shaneth and Sally’s wounds. White growled as if to show its reluctance to receive the potion, but ended up submitting to Kang Yoon-Soo in the end.

Kang Yoon-Soo did not use the healing potion sparingly, and instead used it as if it were normal water. If he felt that the wound was not healing quickly enough, he would take out another potion and pour the whole bottle on the wound.

Sally had morphed back to human form, and she lay down on the puddle of potions, exclaiming, “Wow! I hate water, but this feels so good!”

Shin Han-Yul’s party that had shared a single healing potion sparingly could not help but blankly stare at them. In fact, the potions used by Kang Yoon-Soo were more effective than the one they had used. The wounds of his party had been healed in an instant.

‘Wha… What the hell is this?’ Shin Han-Yul could not believe his eyes. There was no way a potion could be that effective unless it were made by a skilled alchemist. What surprised him even more was the fact that Kang Yoon-Soo had not used any potions on himself. Had he not sustained any injuries from that intense battle?

Shin Han-Yul tried to observe Kang Yoon-Soo closely, but Kang Yoon-Soo and his party had already disappeared. They had reached the fifth floor first.

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