Chapter 22: Return to Hope

A new boss (Krompf) has been born within the Barrier Zone. The barrier remains active.

The monster mutated from Park Jae-hong was a Krompf.

A massive figure resembling a gorilla, covered entirely in brown fur.

Originally, it was a giant monster standing seven meters tall, but since Park Jae-hong’s lower body was crushed beneath a pile of rocks, only its upper body was visible.

It didn’t have a right hand, making it seem less threatening—but appearances were deceiving.

Kooheeooong!

The Krompf’s roar shook the cave as if it might collapse.

Its upper body alone was nearly five meters tall.

One of its forearms was thicker than an adult’s torso, and its head was large enough to easily bite a person.

Four long, sharp fangs stretched vertically.

Its pointed ears twitched constantly, trying to sense something.

Kkwaang. Kwang-kwang-kwang!

The Krompf violently struck the rocks pinning its body.

The rocks shattered instantly, and the Krompf grabbed its crushed legs with its hands, tearing them off like chunks of meat.

Kuwaaaak!

Letting out a scream full of agony, the Krompf used only its upper body to smash all the surrounding rocks.

Because of this, the cave showed signs of imminent collapse.

Yet, Kim Seo-jun remained calm.

He had predicted that if Park Jae-hong transformed into a monster, the cave might collapse.

“There won’t be many chances to deploy the Psionic Barrier.”

Since his internal martial art was still at a basic stage, using it repeatedly wasn’t feasible.

Urrrurung

The shaking of the cave intensified.

Kwa-rung. Kwak-kwang. Kwang!

The Krompf began climbing upward, breaking through the rock piles to escape the cramped cave.

Kim Seo-jun cautiously led the others, secretly following behind the Krompf.

After several dozen seconds, Kwaaaang!

A massive explosion echoed, and light poured into the space where the Krompf had emerged.

Hope bloomed on the faces of Kim Seo-jun and everyone else. But at that very moment,

Kurururung

A tremendous vibration shook the ground, and both the cave and the newly created escape route began to collapse.

“Run at full speed!”

Kim Seo-jun shouted.

He conjured a psionic barrier, forming a thick shield within a three-meter radius.

Jjeoong. Jjeoong!

Rocks collapsed, pounding and pressing against the barrier.

The immense force pressed down on Kim Seo-jun, but he endured it with all his might.

The brief opportunity created by Kim Seo-jun was not wasted.

Shin Woo-jin and the hunters sprinted toward the exit at full speed.

When Shim Jae-duk was the last to escape to the surface, Kim Seo-jun retracted the psionic barrier and unfolded the Thunderclap Divine Scroll.

Ssuaaak

Moving at dazzling speed, Kim Seo-jun flew out through the hole the Krompf had made.

When he landed, an unexpectedly cool sensation swept over his chest.

Startled by the sudden chill, Kim Seo-jun rubbed his chest and looked around.

The area was very vast.

A wide basin-like space formed by the collapse of the great cave.

Ahead, he saw hunters who had come out first being struck and thrown aside by the Krompf.

The sight of the giant Krompf without lower body swinging its fists at hunters looked almost surreal.

Kim Seo-jun himself had never seen such a massive monster up close.

The Great Bruk and Gondora were both under four meters tall, which felt somewhat believable. But the Krompf’s upper body alone was nearly five meters, its overwhelming presence immense.

“Leave that thing to me and carry the injured up!”

If the hunters stayed here, Kim Seo-jun would find it harder to deal with the Krompf.

Hunters who hadn’t mastered martial arts like himself could only be a hindrance, not help.

So he wanted to send them away quickly.

On the other hand, Shin Woo-jin didn’t want to leave such an enormous monster to a young student and run away.

But he also felt it.

Neither he nor his fellow hunters could be of any help to Kim Seo-jun.

“Everyone, get out of here!”

Supporting a hunter whose leg had been broken by the Krompf’s swing, Shin Woo-jin hurried toward the upper edge of the basin.

Two other hunters and Professor Shim Jae-duk followed in a rush.

Kim Seo-jun was left alone.

The Krompf picked up small rock fragments and launched them with a Celestial Bow Shot to prevent others from following.

Celestial Bow Shot interception.

The stones changed direction mid-air according to Kim Seo-jun’s will and hit the Krompf’s eye precisely.

Kuwaaaaaak!

The Krompf clutched its burst eye and wildly swung its fists everywhere.

Kkwaa-gwang. Kwaaang.

Rocks shattered and large boulders scattered.

The monster blinked with its remaining eye and spotted Kim Seo-jun.

Then, pounding the ground with its thick arms like pillars, it charged toward Kim Seo-jun.

“If Kim Seo-jun struggles against a half-crippled monster like that, he wouldn’t be Kim Seo-jun.”

He adopted the footwork stance of the Asura Extreme Slash.

Though massive, the monster’s attack patterns were simple, and without its lower body, its movement was slow.

As Kim Seo-jun lowered his stance and gripped Aronite tightly,

Pwahak!

Aronite traced a light path and grazed the Krompf’s arm.

Serrrk

The left arm, looking as solid as steel muscle, was cut clean off.

The Krompf screamed and rolled on the ground.

Kim Seo-jun approached and relentlessly swung Aronite again and again.

Each strike ripped the Krompf’s face wide open, split its chest, and tore flesh chunks away.

His movements were too fast to track.

In front, behind, beside, and above the Krompf, Kim Seo-jun left only afterimages as he slashed repeatedly.

Brutal violence.

The Asura Extreme Slash was a merciless and savage sword technique.

Amidst the spray of the Krompf’s blood,

Kwoong

The Krompf finally collapsed.

But it was not dead.

If it died, the Rift closure would begin immediately, so it had to be kept alive.

Kim Seo-jun looked up toward the basin’s upper edge.

Shin Woo-jin and the others had already reached the top, about forty meters above.

Looking back at the Krompf,

The giant gorilla-like monster blinked one eye and breathed heavily.

The Krompf was horribly mangled, unable to move even a finger.

“Should last about five more hours.”

Kim Seo-jun immediately estimated it would take around five hours for the Krompf to die.

For a martial artist trained in internal power, assessing their own or others’ physical condition was not difficult.

“Shall I go now?”

Though it was a shame to miss out on the magic stone that would come from killing the Krompf, there was no way to finish it off now.

Returning to Earth was far more important.

Just as Kim Seo-jun was about to leave, something strange caught his eye.

“A glove?”

A black half-fingered glove lay alone beside a broken shard of glass.

The glove was carelessly placed near the Krompf’s panting side.

Feeling reassured that the situation was over, Kim Seo-jun picked it up.

[Gravity Glove]

-Consumes 1 mana per use to greatly reduce or increase the weight of an object touched.

-Weight adjustment range: reduced to 1/100 up to 100 times heavier

-Cooldown: –

An artifact with astonishing effects.

Wearing the glove made it possible to reduce an object’s weight to one-hundredth or increase it a hundredfold.

“Who secretly stashed this artifact?”

It must have fallen during the fight with the Krompf. The problem was, if such an artifact existed, why hadn’t they thought to use it while trapped in the cave?

Had they known about it earlier, there would have been no reason to use the Black Magic Stone on Park Jae-hong and mutate him into a Krompf.

Kim Seo-jun was deeply puzzled as he picked up shards of glass scattered nearby.

[Fragment of the Cylinder of Secrecy]

-A piece of the Cylinder of Secrecy, which concealed a special artifact.

Kim Seo-jun understood the reason only after reading the description that appeared before him.

“The cylinder was hiding the artifact, so no one knew what was inside.”

Someone must have secretly taken the Cylinder of Secrecy intending to monopolize the artifact once they escaped.

But the cylinder broke after being hit by the Krompf, dropping the artifact.

“Even in life-threatening situations, they can’t let go of greed.”

It was human nature to hold onto secrets and artifacts for the future instead of risking everything to escape immediately.

Kim Seo-jun smiled bitterly and put on the Gravity Glove.

He then touched a nearby rock with his gloved hand.

Instantly, he understood how to use the artifact.

Visualizing weight reduction at its maximum, the rock lifted easily with one hand.

Thinking of Mun-ga, Kim Seo-jun began lifting rocks around him and throwing them far away.

Before long, he had cleared a path down to the basin floor.

There, he found the corpses of two bosses.

The massive Great Bruk, riddled with torn wounds and a hole in its heart, and the Gondora, whose upper body had been blown away by Kim Seo-jun’s own hand.

He planned to bring the two corpses back with him.

Boss monster corpses could be sold at an enormous price on Earth.

Their skin or bones could be used to craft attribute-infused weapons, and the faint mana in their blood could be extracted to make artifacts or artificial magic stones.

“With these two, I can make at least 500 million.”

Of course, he didn’t intend to swallow all the profit alone.

Others had contributed to taking down the Great Bruk.

But he wasn’t foolish enough to split the profits evenly in six parts.

“I’ll take one hundred million and let them have the rest.”

He decided to keep at least four hundred million for himself.

He first dragged the Great Bruk’s corpse up to the top of the basin, then went back down to retrieve the Gondora’s.

But on the cut surface of the Gondora’s missing upper body, something glinted faintly.

It looked like a spine, but three white feathers were embedded inside it.

“What’s this?”

Kim Seo-jun pulled them out.

[Return to Hope]

-Burn the feathers to transport all living creatures within a three-meter radius to the nearest Rift entrance.

The incredible description left Kim Seo-jun momentarily stunned.

The “Rift” mentioned likely meant the Rift entrance.

With these feathers, it was possible to teleport to the Rift entrance from anywhere.

Though single-use, there were three feathers, so multiple chances.

“In that case, I can bring the Krompf’s magic stone as well.”

This would neatly finish closing the Rift.

Kim Seo-jun gathered the feathers and lifted the corpse.

He then approached the Krompf, whose breathing was now faint.

“At least, I won’t ignore the danger your family faces.”

To the being that was no longer a monster but Park Jae-hong, Kim Seo-jun spoke those words and drove Aronite into the Krompf’s heart.

The life quickly drained from the Krompf’s eyes.

The boss in the Barrier Zone has been defeated. The barrier will close soon. [00:59:58]

As expected, the Rift closure message appeared.

Kim Seo-jun split open the Krompf’s heart and found a blue magic stone inside.

Unlike with the Gondora, no black magic stone appeared.

“So not all bosses drop black magic stones…”

He had hoped to collect and study the black magic stones, but now it was impossible.

“Maybe this monster also has artifact-like feathers?”

Curious, Kim Seo-jun examined the Krompf’s waist.

He sliced near the spine with Aronite and inspected.

“There it is!”

As expected, something was hidden inside the spine.

Three small beads about the size of a fingertip.

Blue, white, and gray beads resembling the candy kids loved.

Kim Seo-jun took them out.

[Orb of Attribute (Water)]

-When consumed, allows breathing underwater for 10 minutes.

[Orb of Attribute (Thunder)]

-When consumed, allows shooting one million volts of lightning from the hand.

[Orb of Attribute (Metal)]

-When consumed, grants steel-like skin for 5 minutes.

All artifacts possessed amazing abilities.

Though single-use, their utility was immense.

Kim Seo-jun packed the orbs carefully and checked the Great Bruk’s corpse.

But no special artifacts were found there.

“Artifacts seem to come only from monsters mutated by the Black Magic Stone.”

This was valuable information.

Looking around at the huge boss monster corpses scattered nearby, Kim Seo-jun took a rope from his backpack and tied the three corpses together.

Then, wearing the Gravity Glove, he grabbed the massive bundle of bodies.

“Around 90 kilograms?”

Even reduced to one-hundredth weight, the monster corpses were still incredibly heavy.

In the past, Kim Seo-jun would have struggled to lift 90 kilograms, but now with internal power, it felt light.

Quickly climbing the steep basin wall with the corpses, Kim Seo-jun reached the top.

Hunters gathered around him.

Though they looked puzzled about why Kim Seo-jun had killed the Krompf, they didn’t ask—assuming he would explain himself.

But Shim Jae-duk lacked patience.

“No, Kim Seo-jun! What do you mean killing the boss monster? We barely survived and found a way to return, so why kick that away?”

Maybe because hope had appeared again,

Shim Jae-duk grew agitated once more.

Kim Seo-jun looked at him indifferently.

“If this is how it’s going to be, then I consider our agreement null and void.”

“W-what? What does that mean… Hoo. Fine, I’ll stay quiet.”

Shim Jae-duk immediately softened.

“One last warning. If you ever act like that in front of me again, I won’t show you any mercy.”

“Y-yeah, I got it.”

As Shim Jae-duk calmed down, Kim Seo-jun drew a circle about six meters in diameter on the ground and called everyone inside it.

“Do not step outside this circle.”

Giving strict instructions, Kim Seo-jun took out a white feather from his pocket.

He raised the Solar Divine Art in the hand holding the feather. Suddenly,

Hwarrruk

The feather was engulfed in flames.

In an instant, it burned down to the core.

Piiiiing—

Light shone from the core, shooting up like a pillar three meters in radius from ground to sky.

Kim Seo-jun, his companions, and the boss corpses were all swallowed by the pillar of light.

When the light faded,

Nothing remained on the summit of the unknown mountain.