Chapter 34
A sticky red liquid dripped from the ceiling and splattered onto the floor.
The liquid pooling on the ground gave off an unpleasant glow, like burning embers.
It was a clear sign that dense mana had seeped into it.
“Is that… really the same monster from the Association database?”
Seo Taegyeong asked hesitantly as he wet his dry lips.
His gaze was fixed on the center of the enormous cavern.
After making their way through the long, dark tunnels of the Red Iron Mine, the party had finally reached the vast chamber at its deepest point.
And in the middle of it, a gigantic monster was curled up like a small mountain of stone.
The Red Iron Carapace King.
According to the Association’s information network, it was a boss monster classified around the middle ranks of C-grade.
Normally, it was described as a giant insect-type monster covered in a thick shell. As long as hunters were careful of its heavy physical attacks and acidic poison, even an average C-grade party should have been able to hunt it without too much trouble.
However, the creature lurking before them was far too different from the outdated information.
Its savage, swollen body looked at least twice the size of an ordinary specimen.
On top of that, its shell, its many legs, and even the area around its mouth were completely covered in strange, overgrown red crystals.
The irregular, razor-sharp crystals looked like thick armor made of thorns that had grown straight through its flesh.
“It’s… hard to even breathe…”
Yoon Jia gripped her staff tightly, her face pale.
The density of mana radiating from the boss was on an entirely different level from the mutated monsters they had encountered earlier in the mine.
Every breath made their lungs sting.
The heavy mana made their blood feel cold.
The pressure alone seemed to push down on the party members’ shoulders.
With this much intimidation, there was no need to even debate its official rank.
The aura coming from it was no different from that of a monster at the very top of C-grade.
“Looks like the information hasn’t been updated in a long time. It probably fed on the concentrated mana deep inside the mine and mutated.”
Chaeho calmly spoke while lightly touching the handle of his sword.
His eyes carefully moved over the monster’s grotesque body, searching for any possible weakness or location where he could land a fatal blow.
“If we want the final clear reward, we have to kill that thing too. But if it’s beyond what we can handle, we retreat immediately. Seo Taegyeong, are you ready?”
Chaeho’s calm voice snapped Seo Taegyeong back to his senses.
He nodded firmly.
Whatever strange mutation had occurred, he was the party’s shield and leader.
His job was to stand in front and draw the monster’s attention.
Only then could the people in the rear safely unleash their magic, while Chaeho, their frontline attacker, slipped through an opening and dealt a fatal wound.
“We’re going in! Everyone, stay close behind me!”
Seo Taegyeong shouted at the top of his lungs and charged forward with his huge shield held firmly in front of him.
His heavy footsteps shattered the oppressive silence of the cavern.
The Red Iron Carapace King immediately noticed the intruders approaching.
It made an irritating grinding sound and snapped its head around.
An eerie light flashed from its deep red eye sockets between the crystals.
Kiaaaak!
With a shriek sharp enough to tear at their eardrums, the monster raised one enormous front leg toward the ceiling.
It came crashing down in a terrifying arc, like a gigantic red hammer.
Seo Taegyeong instinctively lowered his stance and adjusted the angle of his shield.
He focused his entire weight and mana into its center.
BOOM!
The entire cavern shook as though an earthquake had struck.
The heavy impact thundered against the surrounding rock walls.
“Kugh!”
A painful groan escaped Seo Taegyeong’s lips.
His legs, which had been firmly planted on the ground, scraped violently across the stone as he was pushed backward.
Normally, his thick special-alloy shield could easily deflect the attack of a C-grade boss and create an opening for a counterattack.
But after only one brutal collision, the center of the shield was already crushed inward like a sheet of paper.
The incredible weight of the crystals covering the monster’s front leg, combined with the unnatural strength granted by its mutation, was threatening to destroy the shield warrior’s defense in a single blow.
“Leader!”
Kim Dohyeon shouted urgently.
He brought the healing mana in both hands to its maximum output.
Pale green mana shot from his fingertips and quickly seeped into Seo Taegyeong’s shoulders and arms.
It barely held together the muscles that had nearly torn apart from the impact.
“Yoon Jia! Fire right now!”
Even while being pushed backward, Seo Taegyeong shouted until the veins in his neck bulged.
If they missed this chance, the monster’s next attack might completely shatter his shield.
Yoon Jia had already condensed mana at the tip of her staff to its limit.
Her eyes widened as she thrust the staff toward the Red Iron Carapace King.
“Fire Burst!”
A tightly compressed sphere of flame tore through the air with tremendous force and slammed into the monster’s massive body.
BOOOOM!
With an explosion that struck their eardrums, blazing red fire greedily swallowed the creature.
A wave of heat swept through the cavern and briefly blocked their vision.
However, even before the thick smoke from the explosion had cleared, the party members’ expressions stiffened.
Kiiiiiik.
The monster leisurely crawled out of the black smoke.
There was not a single trace of melted crystal or even a crack on its surface.
Instead, the red crystals simply glistened even more unpleasantly after absorbing the remaining heat of the flames.
There was barely even a scorch mark.
The powerful spell, filled with both destructive impact and heat, had struck the crystal armor only to scatter sparks and bounce off uselessly.
“No way… My fire magic didn’t even leave a scratch!”
Yoon Jia stumbled backward in disbelief.
The monster twisted its massive body once again toward Seo Taegyeong, who was panting heavily behind his crushed shield.
A heavy mass of crystal attached near its tail swept across the floor like a whip.
Their reliable frontline defense was being broken apart.
Their strongest rear-line firepower had also been completely blocked.
The party formation shook, and despairing fear was about to spread through them.
At that moment, Chaeho quietly steadied his breathing.
He closed his eyes.
Then opened them.
[Time Deceleration].
The monster’s horrible roar and the party members’ desperate shouts vanished in an instant.
It felt as though he had been submerged in deep, cold water.
Every sound in the world became distant.
Dust and fragments of stone that had been thrown into the air by the explosion slowly drifted downward, trapped in a thick and sluggish space.
Even the monster’s enormous tail sweeping toward them moved in broken, delayed motions, like a video that had been paused incorrectly.
Inside this world where everything had slowed to an extreme degree, Chaeho carefully moved his gaze.
Slowly.
Precisely.
Without even the smallest mistake.
He began analyzing the monster’s body as though he were taking apart a complicated machine.
Strength powerful enough to crush an alloy shield with a single hit.
Magic resistance strong enough to deflect the fire spell of a C-grade mage.
The reason is obvious.
Those red crystals grotesquely covering its body.
When hunting ordinary magical beasts or monsters with shells, experienced hunters usually targeted several obvious weak points first.
The thin gaps where sections of the shell connected.
The soft joints responsible for moving the legs.
Or the areas around the eyes, which had no choice but to remain exposed for sight.
Chaeho examined every one of those weak points in the frozen world.
But everywhere he looked, thick red walls blocked his vision.
The crystals have grown into even the gaps between its joints, like parasites.
The abnormally overgrown crystals had filled every section of its legs, completely erasing the gaps.
Even where the shell plates overlapped, sharp pieces of ore were tightly layered together.
There was not even the slightest space for the tip of a blade to enter.
Even the areas around its eye sockets had been invaded by thick red crystals, forming a natural helmet that thoroughly protected its vulnerable eyes.
Chaeho compared the angle of his wrist holding the sword, his footwork, and the monster’s weak points over and over again.
Was there even a single opening he could enter through with a sudden change in direction?
Could his sword break through those absurdly thick crystals head-on and reach the soft flesh beneath them?
No.
The conclusion was cold and clear.
With the limits of his current physical strength and the physical limits of the weapon in his hand, breaking through that crystal armor was impossible.
Even if he forced himself to search for a tiny gap and stabbed at it, there was a high chance the blade would slide across the hard mineral surface and miss its path.
Or worse, the sword could become stuck between the crystals and snap.
The moment a frontline attacker lost his weapon, his life was practically over.
Chaeho’s clear eyes grew cold.
There’s no point in keeping the skill active and waiting for an opening to appear on its own.
If he wasted time in this slowed world searching for a path that did not exist, he would only throw away one of the precious daily uses of his skill.
The longer the battle continued, the faster his allies would run out of stamina while relying on a single crushed shield.
Chaeho made his decision without hesitation.
He instantly released the deceleration energy gathered at his fingertips.
The strength in the hand holding his sword also loosened as he lowered his stance.
The world suddenly exploded back into its original insane speed.
Chaeho grabbed Seo Taegyeong by the shoulder strap and pulled him aside while lowering his body.
The two people behind them quickly moved in the same direction.
BOOM!
The monster’s tail missed them and smashed violently into the empty stone floor.
Sharp rocks flew in every direction while clouds of dust burst into the air.
Inside the chaos, Chaeho raised his voice firmly.
“Stop attacking! Everyone, fall back!”
His voice thundered through the tunnel, cutting straight through the noise of the battlefield.
A massive boss monster was rampaging right in front of them.
Yet he had just ordered everyone to lower their weapons and create distance.
For an ordinary party, such an order would have been almost unthinkable.
They would have desperately continued attacking because they did not want to give up the massive request reward in front of them.
Nor would they want to abandon a dungeon they had risked their lives to reach this far into.
And if they carelessly turned their backs and ran, there was always the danger that the pursuing monster would catch them from behind and wipe out the entire party.
However, the people listening to Chaeho were different.
Not long ago, they had personally experienced his precise tactical commands during a desperate ambush where monsters poured in from both ends of a narrow tunnel.
Seo Taegyeong and the others firmly believed that Chaeho’s words were the only reliable lifeline capable of keeping the party alive.
“We’re retreating!”
Seo Taegyeong did not even hesitate.
Still holding his crushed shield, he immediately threw himself backward without wasting time trying to draw the monster’s attention one more time.
“Canceling my mana!”
Yoon Jia and Kim Dohyeon also immediately dispersed the mana they had been preparing for their next spells.
They desperately ran toward the wide passage and opened up distance.
It was a smooth, perfectly coordinated retreat.
Not a single person questioned why they had to withdraw in such a desperate situation.
Chaeho watched until Seo Taegyeong had completely moved behind him.
Then he smoothly stepped backward as well, quickly leaving the monster’s attack range.
Only after the prey had already moved far away did the Red Iron Carapace King realize what had happened.
It let out a sharp, furious cry while violently twisting its body.
However, the party members had already escaped to a safe area beyond the reach of its terrifying front legs and tail.
“Huff… huff… Hunter Lee Chaeho. Is there some serious problem?”
After reaching a safe distance, Seo Taegyeong placed his shield on the ground and breathed heavily.
Large beads of cold sweat rolled down his forehead and dripped from his jaw.
“A frontal attack is impossible. Seo Taegyeong’s shield can probably withstand only two more hits at most, and Yoon Jia’s magic can’t even scratch that thick outer shell.”
Chaeho let his sword hang loosely at his side and calmly explained their current combat situation.
He did not bother adding that his own sword attacks were also unable to penetrate the red crystals.
“Th-Then what do we do? We can’t just give up and go back now, can we?”
Yoon Jia asked in a trembling voice while holding her staff.
If they retreated now, they might escape with their lives, but all the time and effort they had invested until now would be wasted.
On top of that, abandoning the dungeon after reaching the boss room could severely damage the party’s reputation.
“I never said we were going back.”
Chaeho shook his head and looked away.
His gaze settled on the Red Iron Carapace King in the distance.
The creature remained in place, breathing heavily while producing an unpleasant metallic scraping sound.
Absurdly thick armor.
Destructive power capable of breaking bones with a single blow.
Annoying resistance that deflected magic.
It was certainly a troublesome combination that would make most hunters curse the moment they saw it.
However, Chaeho had spent countless years as a porter observing the habits and behavior of all kinds of monsters.
And because of that, he knew something.
There was no such thing as a living creature completely sealed without a single opening.
The harder something became—
and the more confidence it placed in its own unbreakable shell—
the more devastating it would be when just one crucial part of that structure was forced out of place.
Its strength could become the very seed of its own collapse.
If I can’t break it from the outside with force, I just need to use a different method.
Chaeho’s eyes shone sharply in the darkness.
He carefully calculated the precious remaining uses of Time Deceleration available to him for the day.
At the same time, he quietly began constructing a new strategy in his mind.
A method that would completely shatter the rules behind that seemingly invincible mass of red crystal.
