Translator: Vine
Translated At: Nyx Scans
Chapter: 130
#130. The Unending Quest
2022.12.08.
As the haze of light that had filled her vision faded, the first thing she discovered was a white marble floor.
They had moved successfully.
Through the door, to an unknown space called the 'Scales of Choice'.
'Annihilate all surrounding monsters?'
The sudden quest given to them had clearly said so.
Eunha, readjusting her grip on her parasol, lifted her gaze and quickly surveyed her surroundings.
Right beside her was Ayeon, holding her hand tightly, and beyond them, she could see Yoo Hwan, Siwoo, and Yijun.
It seemed they hadn't been scattered as feared.
So far, no monsters were visible, except for the five of them.
"Hey, that quest just now..."
"Yeah. I saw it too."
Yoo Hwan and Yijun said, their eyes sharp as they scanned their surroundings.
"I was wondering where we were being moved to all of a sudden... What on earth is this place? It looks like some kind of temple."
As Yoo Hwan said, this field called the 'Scales of Choice' had a landscape like an ancient temple.
Eunha, without relaxing her grip on the parasol, meticulously examined her surroundings.
First, she checked the ceiling.
It was a hemispherical curve, as high as the sky.
On its black background, small dots that looked like stars were densely embedded.
A sight as if the Milky Way of the universe had been moved here.
Pillars, densely engraved with unknown crests, were arranged in a line along the central path, and at its end was a massive golden... scale (天秤).
Eunha's eyes narrowed.
Is that just a decoration, an objet d'art?
Or perhaps... the 'Altar of Eternal Rest' mentioned in the quest window might be referring to that scale.
"Oh, awesome."
Then, someone's voice, tinged with admiration, was heard.
It was Ayeon.
"Unnie, look at this. Don't you think this would fetch a pretty penny if we put it up for auction next year?"
Her index finger was pointing at the... silver armor, arranged in neat rows and columns on both sides of the temple.
Ayeon lightly tapped one of them.
Toong—
A hollow sound echoed lowly inside the temple.
It meant that the inside of the armor was empty.
"Hmm. Is there no way to put it in my inventory..."
The moment Ayeon was about to touch the armor again.
[Sister.]
As a yellow message window flashed before Eunha's eyes,
Rumble, rumble, rumble...
The entire temple began to vibrate heavily.
And from somewhere, the sound of a pipe organ was heard.
At the quiet yet magnificent melody, as if resounding in a cathedral, everyone straightened their spines.
'Something is coming.'
Their premonition was soon correct.
Shring—
[Lv.??? 'Guardian of the Altar' recognizes intruders.]
The silver armor, which had been standing motionless, drew a longsword from its scabbard.
Flash!
A chilling blue glint shone eerily from within the empty helmet.
And it wasn't just one.
Chak! Chak! Chak!
[Lv.??? 'Guardian of the Altar' recognizes intruders.]
System windows appeared one after another, and the armor stationed throughout the temple began to slowly awaken.
As if some invisible energy were being transmitted, one by one.
By the time they came to their senses, they were already completely surrounded by the 'Guardians of the Altar'.
And.
[Annihilate all surrounding monsters and offer them to the Altar of Eternal Rest. (0/666) | Reward: ???]
The quest window, appearing before their eyes once again as if urging a choice.
While everyone held their breath, the first to move was the Monkey King Yoo Hwan.
"I have no idea what's what, but I know well enough that we have to defeat these things."
Kwaang—!
A massive fist, slammed down without warning.
Fshhh...
The 'Guardian of the Altar's' hard armor shattered in a single blow.
White smoke rose from between the armor pieces, which had broken like shards of glass.
[Annihilate all surrounding monsters and offer them to the Altar of Eternal Rest. (1/666) | Reward: ???]
Yoo Hwan roughly rummaged through the shattered armor fragments with the tip of his foot.
As expected, the inside of the armor was empty.
Meaning, he could confirm that there was no need to attack the creature twice.
'And one more thing.'
A monster shattered by Yoo Hwan's bare fist, even though he wasn't in his 'released state'.
Although its level was displayed as '???', it wasn't a difficulty that would give him, an S-Class, any trouble.
At most, it was probably estimated to be between Level 30 and 40.
Meaning, apart from the large number of monsters, there should be no problem.
In fact, it was better than facing those boring larva creatures near the root.
At least now, he could feel the thrill of the fight a little.
Crack.
Yoo Hwan, cracking his knuckles, glanced back and said to the other four.
"There are five of us, so if we each take about 130, it should be over quickly. Can you do it?"
Yoo Hwan's lips curved upwards, as if testing their spirit.
At that,
"No."
A short reply came from Yijun.
Swish.
Slowly taking off the leather gloves he was wearing, Yijun parted his lips once more.
"100 per person is enough."
Whip!
Having taken off his gloves, he extended his hand to the left.
And he grabbed the helmet of the 'Guardian of the Altar' that was just then about to attack him from that direction with one hand.
However, only the helmet was in his grasp.
The 'Guardian of the Altar', with both hands free, raised its sword high to split Yijun in two.
The sword, falling towards Yijun's head, suddenly stopped in mid-air.
"I'll take the rest."
"Alone, you mean?"
"..."
Yijun, who smiled silently at Yoo Hwan's question, instead of answering, slowly released his grip on the monster's helmet.
And the next moment.
Srrk...
The 'Guardian of the Altar', which had dropped its arm as if falling, slowly raised its sword again.
What the tip of that sword pointed to was finally.
[Lv.??? 'Guardian of the Altar' recognizes a new intruder.]
—Not Yijun, but another 'Guardian of the Altar' standing behind him.
The preparations were finished, and now, only a single command was needed.
"Kill."
Chaeng!
The swords of the 'Guardians of the Altar' clashed fiercely.
From then on, the battle in the 'Scales of Choice' began in earnest.
Maestro Baek Yijun, Monkey King Yoo Hwan, Phantom Thief Kang Ayeon, Baekrang Shin Siwoo, and the Princess of Dark Flare, Cha Eunha.
The five of them scattered and took their positions without any prior arrangement.
And.
[Annihilate all surrounding monsters and offer them to the Altar of Eternal Rest. (371/666) | Reward: ???]
In the blink of an eye, half of the 'Guardians of the Altar' were defeated.
The sight of them falling helplessly at the hands of the S-Classes was truly like autumn leaves falling.
Kaang—!
At the sharp metallic sound, Eunha glanced over.
Nearby, Siwoo had struck a 'Guardian of the Altar' forcefully.
At a glance, it seemed he had simply struck with the edge of his hand, but Eunha had accurately captured it.
The ice that had quickly enveloped and then disappeared from Siwoo's hand edge, just before it touched the armor surface.
If he used his skills openly, the battle would be much easier than now, but Siwoo didn't.
It was partly because he didn't want to reveal the fact that he used ice and water as much as possible, and partly because there was no problem in defeating the 'Guardians of the Altar' even without using them.
"Aww, you cowardly bastards! Come at me one by one, one by one!"
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Meanwhile, a black shadow, Phantom Thief Kang Ayeon, traversed the air, stepping on the monsters' helmets as if they were stepping stones.
Though she was grumbling discontentedly at the monsters, in reality, she herself was just as cowardly.
She believed that if she just dodged around like this, the others would take care of them.
'I've done my part, haven't I?'
She had protected the support unit members while Unnie was away, and then entered the Root of Incubation and defeated the guardian alone.
Isn't that more than enough to fulfill her role?
Hmm.
No matter how she thought about it, anything more than this didn't make sense from a cost-benefit perspective.
She would just lightly pretend to deal with the monsters that came at her, then, seeing an opportunity, naturally pass them on to other hunters.
They would take care of it then.
As they were each dealing with the 'Guardians of the Altar' in their own way.
"..."
Eunha stood blankly, watching their battle patterns.
She hadn't been like this all along.
While Yoo Hwan, Siwoo, Yijun, and Ayeon were dealing with the monsters, Eunha too had defeated quite a number of them, and was about to do so again.
However...
'Something's strange.'
Even though she was standing still like this, no monster rushed towards Eunha.
Not a single one.
Monsters were supposed to attack humans they saw nearby.
What was commonly called the 'first-strike system' was that.
Of course, there were rare cases of creatures that fled or hid from battle.
As was the case with the fairy-type monster she had encountered at Bokgye Mountain, if there was some reason to protect their own bodies.
However, the situation Eunha was in now was a little different.
The golem-type monster in silver armor, the 'Guardian of the Altar', unlike the fairy-type monster from Bokgye Mountain, was indiscriminately attacking the nearby hunters.
Thus, this conclusion could be drawn.
Only Eunha was being excluded from their 'hostile targets'.
'...Why?'
Eunha lowered her black gaze and stared blankly at the parasol in her hand.
Come to think of it, it seemed something like this had happened before.
When was it?
Her black eyes, lost in thought, slowly sank and then faintly sparkled.
'An Unknown Gate.'
There, where she had been trapped for a long time, Eunha had encountered the Level 30 'Red-Eyed Black Tiger'.
She had killed countless black tigers, and even ate them.
The reason was only one: to survive.
What was the result of that?
Eunha recalled her memory just before meeting Siwoo, that is, just before escaping the Unknown Gate.
At that time, surely...
'The black tigers started to run away when they met me.'
Some argued that the reason why killer whales, originally ferocious in nature, were gentle only to humans was because they harbored memories of being massacred by humans.
Eunha thought that the reason why the black tigers of the Unknown Gate had started to kowtow to her at some point might be a similar concept to the killer whale theory.
However... if that were the case, even if the black tigers were so, there would be no reason for the 'Guardians of the Altar' she had just encountered here not to attack Eunha.
Whirl— Crack!
Eunha, leaping gracefully, struck the neck of a monster trying to attack Ayeon with her parasol.
[Annihilate all surrounding monsters and offer them to the Altar of Eternal Rest. (653/666) | Reward: ???]
"Unnie, thanks!"
Ayeon, who had been dodging around so well, waved lightly from afar.
However, Eunha didn't turn her gaze towards Ayeon but stared at the shattered armor fragments at her feet.
'...As expected.'
It was the same just now.
Just before she struck with her parasol, the monster had definitely turned its head and spotted Eunha.
However, it didn't change its target from Ayeon to Eunha.
Even right before its armor was shattered by the parasol.
With that incident, Eunha was strongly convinced.
For whatever reason, these 'Guardians of the Altar' did not attack Eunha.
Even if Eunha were to shatter their helmets like glass.
Even after that, the battle continued in each of their sights.
[Annihilate all surrounding monsters and offer them to the Altar of Eternal Rest. (660/666) | Reward: ???]
And before long, they were on the verge of completing the quest.
There were no injuries.
With so many skilled individuals, enough to represent a country, gathered here, it was a natural result if anything.
"The Altar of Eternal Rest the quest mentioned was indeed that."
Rewrapping the loosened bandage on his wrist, Yoo Hwan looked ahead.
A massive golden scale, located on a white marble staircase.
Every time a monster was defeated, its corpse was automatically moved onto the scale's pan, and soon, a white flame would erupt and consume it.
Under the assumption that this place was a temple, the white flame looked like a kind of sacred fire (聖火).
"I think this is the last one."
Thump.
A 'Guardian of the Altar' was unceremoniously thrown to the floor by Siwoo.
Soon after, the armor shell, engulfed in a dazzling light as it had been until now, was moved onto the scale in the blink of an eye.
Swoosh...
The monster disappeared cleanly with the white sacred flame, leaving not even a fragment behind.
"It was less than I thought."
Yoo Hwan, who had watched the last one being offered to the altar, turned around with a whip.
It had been the right decision for the S-Classes to gather and enter the 'Scales of Choice'.
If the personnel who had entered this place were just ordinary B-Class or C-Class hunters, it wouldn't have ended so simply.
This was something possible only because it was them.
'Especially...'
Yoo Hwan scanned the figures standing before him one by one.
First, he set aside Phantom Thief Ayeon, who hadn't properly participated in the battle, and then also excluded younger brother, whose skills were already proven.
Then, what remained were Yijun and Siwoo.
Yijun, who had manipulated over 100 of the more than 600 monsters to become allies.
And the young man from Wolf, who had subdued the monsters with his bare hands, i.e., with only his physical abilities, without any particular skills.
Yoo Hwan too had been busy dealing with monsters and couldn't observe their battles carefully, but it was certain that both of them had defeated a number not inferior to Yoo Hwan's.
'I'd like to have a match someday.'
Pushing aside the simmering desire for a fight for now, Yoo Hwan turned his gaze and checked the system window.
He couldn't just leave the outside to Roje, the military otaku kid, and the Wolf guy forever.
Now that all the monsters were annihilated, the priority was to receive the reward and get out of here.
However...
"Hmm?"
Yoo Hwan's eyebrows twitched slightly.
After staring at the system window with unreadable eyes, he quickly turned his head and checked his surroundings.
The quiet interior of the temple.
Only after confirming that not a single monster remained, did Yoo Hwan turn his head back to the system window.
"..."
A heavy silence descended.
Yijun, Siwoo, Ayeon, and Eunha were also silent.
Perhaps they were all seeing the same thing.
[Annihilate all surrounding monsters and offer them to the Altar of Eternal Rest. (665/666) | Reward: ???]
—The quest window, which had still not ended.
