Chapter 174

===================

Translated by Pratt

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

===================

Grim reaper. It was a being commonly called a reaper. It was far too powerful to be simply dismissed as a demonic beast, and to some extent it was even capable of thought like a human. Like a specter, it moved only as a spirit body without a physical fleshly form, and its estimated rank was a monster above A-rank. In another dungeon, it would have been fully capable of serving as the boss. Yet that kind of monster had appeared out of nowhere. The problem was that not a single Awakened in Neo Seoul had ever experienced a Grim Reaper before. Dungeons where Grim Reapers appeared as bosses were extremely rare, and like this dungeon, they were all far away from Neo Seoul. That was why they knew neither its danger nor even its existence. To the Awakened who were only staring blankly, Zeon shouted once more, “Get out of the way, now.”

“Fuck! Who are you yelling at?”

“What’s so scary about that thing?”

The West District Awakened instead glared at Zeon irritably. Even though a demonic beast they were seeing for the first time stood before their eyes, not one of them thought it was frightening. Even if the opponent was an A-rank demonic beast, they had enough confidence to put it down. They truly had the combat strength for that.

The problem was compatibility.

The offensive power of mechanized Awakened was heavily skewed toward physical force.

Of course, they could use techniques such as flame projectors and compressed air rounds through attached parts, but their primary attacks all used their mechanized bodies.

On the other hand, the Grim Reaper had no physical body.

Physical attacks did not work on its spiritized form.

Meanwhile, the Grim Reaper could harvest human souls with its huge scythe.

Tseuuuu!

The giant mole demonic beast was rapidly drying up.

The Grim Reaper was absorbing its vitality as well while harvesting its soul.

That was how the Grim Reaper increased its own power.

“A specter-level thing. This alone is enough.”

Thin silver thread shot out from a mechanized Awakened’s wrist.

The silver thread wrapped around the Grim Reaper, but because it had no physical body, it only passed through uselessly.

But the mechanized Awakened was not disappointed.

That was because he still had a hidden move left.

As the small generator mounted in his abdomen activated, an enormous current was instantly generated.

The ultra-high-voltage current flowed through the silver thread.

The mechanized Awakened was confident that the Grim Reaper’s scream would soon be heard, but the situation he expected did not occur.

The current he produced only gave the Grim Reaper pain on the level of a mild sting.

That was enough to anger the Grim Reaper.

The Grim Reaper swung its huge scythe toward the Awakened who had fired the current.

Ssgaaaak!

“Huh?”

Even though he had been cut by the huge scythe, not a single wound appeared on the Awakened’s body.

The Awakened who had been cut blinked, then burst into loud laughter.

“Haha! What the hell, it’s nothing at all…”

Suddenly his voice cut off.

“What’s wrong?”

“Hey! Quit joking arou…”

The moment the nearby Awakened tried to speak to him, he toppled backward like a log.

Thud!

The face of the fallen Awakened was deathly pale, devoid of all color.

That was because his soul had been harvested by the Grim Reaper’s scythe.

Not only that, the Grim Reaper had also sucked out the vitality remaining in the fleshly body.

Paseuseu!

In an instant, the Awakened’s flesh shrank, then scattered away like powder.

All that remained was the body made of machinery.

Even though it had absorbed the Awakened’s soul and vitality, the Grim Reaper did not look pleased.

The size of the body was not exactly the size of the soul, but it still affected it to some degree.

The size of the soul it had obtained with such effort from swinging its scythe was far too lacking to satisfy the Grim Reaper.

Kieeeee!

The Grim Reaper’s rage exploded.

The soul with no nourishment had only stoked the Grim Reaper’s anger.

Shigaaaak!

The Grim Reaper attacked the other Awakened.

“Fuck! This ghost bastard.”

“Die!”

The mechanized Awakened fought the Grim Reaper.

But their attacks did not work on the Grim Reaper.

Meanwhile, the Grim Reaper swung its scythe and steadily harvested their souls.

“Kyaaa!”

“Save me!”

The screams of the mechanized Awakened rang out.

“Fuck! What the hell is this…”

Cha Jin-cheol’s eyes widened.

His subordinates were dying before his eyes.

If they had at least fought valiantly and died, it would have been somewhat better, but this was just a one-sided slaughter.

“You son of a bitch! Come at me.”

Cha Jin-cheol roared and thrust out his right arm.

Wiiing!

At once, his arm transformed and became a long cannon.

Ppang!

A round was fired from the cannon barrel.

It was a railgun fired by electricity.

It was much smaller than the huge railgun used when bringing down the mammoth, but it was still an incredible weapon in terms of power.

Seureuk!

But the railgun round he fired passed hollowly through the Grim Reaper’s spirit body.

The Grim Reaper turned to look at Cha Jin-cheol, who had attacked it.

At that instant, ghost fire bloomed in the Grim Reaper’s eyes.

Its gaze was fixed on the Jailer’s Rope hanging from Cha Jin-cheol’s waist.

Heuuuu!

As if bewitched, the Grim Reaper let out a bizarre groaning sound.

With its characteristic drifting movement, it flew at Cha Jin-cheol.

To be exact, it was aiming for the Jailer’s Rope Cha Jin-cheol possessed.

“Fuck!”

Cha Jin-cheol cursed and fired the railgun repeatedly.

But the rounds only passed through the Grim Reaper uselessly, and before anyone knew it, it had already arrived right in front of Cha Jin-cheol’s nose.

You must dodge immediately. If you are cut by the Grim Reaper’s scythe, your soul will suffer severe damage.

“I know that.”

Cha Jin-cheol barked and hurriedly retreated.

The Grim Reaper stuck to him.

It felt as though nothing would be able to stop it.

That was when something unexpected happened.

Thud!

“That’s enough, you sack of bones.”

Someone had struck the Grim Reaper hard.

It was Levin.

Like the Grim Reaper, Levin was in a ghostified state.

Ordinary physical attacks could not damage the Grim Reaper, but if one was in the same ghostified state, it was a different story.

Bzzzt!

Purple current flared from Levin’s whole body.

Kieee!

Struck by the purple current, the Grim Reaper let out a painful scream.

The electricity produced through generators had barely affected it, but it had suffered damage from the electricity emitted by an Awakened.

At that moment, flames of ultra-high temperature engulfed the Grim Reaper.

Zeon had fired a Fire Missile using the Thermo Gauntlet.

Once electrical and flame attacks were added together, even the Grim Reaper staggered after suffering heavy damage.

“Die, you skeleton bastard.”

Mandy transformed into Eloy and unleashed her attacks.

Under the continuous barrage, the Grim Reaper took heavy damage and reeled.

It had shown itself extremely strong against physical attacks, but it was badly affected by attacks with various attributes.

Zeon walked toward that Grim Reaper.

The dragon’s aura contained in the Thermo Gauntlet exploded outward.

At that moment, the Grim Reaper instinctively trembled in fear.

No matter how much it was an A-rank demonic beast, it could not compare to a dragon.

The Grim Reaper hurriedly distanced itself from Zeon and flew toward Cha Jin-cheol.

“You bastard. Can’t you fuck off?”

Cha Jin-cheol threw a furious punch.

But once again it did not work on the Grim Reaper.

The Grim Reaper passed through Cha Jin-cheol’s fist and seized the Jailer’s Rope at his waist.

Poohwahk!

In an instant, ominous black light exploded from the Jailer’s Rope.

“Kuh!”

“What is that?”

Blinded by the intense light, the Awakened shut their eyes without meaning to.

When they opened them a moment later, Cha Jin-cheol had vanished without a trace.

“This can’t be!”

“Captain!”

The West District Awakened frantically searched the area, but Cha Jin-cheol could not be found anywhere.

Zeon said to Levin, who was still in his ghostified state, “Try to find him.”

“Got it, hyung!”

Levin flew out and searched the whole area.

But nowhere were the Grim Reaper or Cha Jin-cheol discovered.

Levin undid his ghostification and said, “He’s not there, hyung. I think they already went far away.”

“Then it looks like it took him to its nest.”

“If it’s the nest, do you mean the place where the dungeon core is?”

“Most likely.”

“Why did it kidnap him specifically?”

“That item.”

“Huh?”

“It seems to be because of the item called the Jailer’s Rope.”

“Why that?”

“It felt like an item carrying the grudge of some being.”

It was not that rare for an item to carry the lingering thought of its original owner.

But most such lingering thoughts were only slight regret or desire, so with time they naturally disappeared.

The grudge remaining in the Jailer’s Rope, however, was not on that level.

Even while sealed, it was emitting grudge so strong it made the skin tingle.

That was why Zeon had said that Damian had released poison into Neo Seoul.

While the seal remained intact there was no problem, but once the seal was undone, trouble was bound to erupt someday.

“Still, since it was auctioned off in the West District, I had been somewhat at ease.”

Most of the West District Awakened had replaced the majority of their bodies with machinery.

Because of that trait, curses like grudges did not affect them well.

“The moment it entered here, the seal weakened, and the Grim Reaper carried him off. It seems this dungeon is related to the jailer somehow.”

Zeon did not know what exactly the jailer was.

But since the item Cha Jin-cheol had possessed was called the Jailer’s Rope, there was a high chance that the master of this dungeon was related to it.

“For now, let’s find the Pegasus Raid Force first.”

“Ah, if it’s them, I know where they are. I saw them while I was searching for the Grim Reaper.”

“Really?”

“I’ll guide us.”

Levin started walking in front.

Zeon, Brielle, and Eloy followed behind him.

The remaining West District Awakened looked at one another for a moment, then hurriedly followed too.

“Let’s go together.”

“Goddamn it!”

They had realized that joining up with the Pegasus Raid Force was their only option.

Squad One’s leader bit his lip hard.

‘To think the captain would be kidnapped as soon as we entered the dungeon.’

It was a situation neither Cha Jin-cheol nor they had anticipated at all.

That was why they had been completely unprepared.

Fortunately, as Levin said, it was not that difficult to find where the Pegasus Raid Force was.

From far away, the base protected by Guardian’s Wing was visible.

Levin went in front and opened the way.

Whenever there was some creepy stretch in the middle, Levin ghostified and searched it first.

There was no demonic beast that could harm ghostified Levin.

Even if an unexpected demonic beast occasionally appeared, Eloy drove them all back.

Thanks to that, the party was able to safely arrive near the base.

The faces of the West District Awakened who followed behind were full of astonishment.

‘What on earth is this party?’

‘What’s with this composition?’

Zeon the sand mage, Eloy with terrifying offensive power, Levin who could ghostify freely, and lastly a little brat in a suspicious pointed hat.

It was a combination that should not have matched at all.

But unexpectedly, their combination was displaying tremendous power.

At the center of it was Zeon.

‘So it’s not just that he awakened a rare ability. Does that mean he’s also good at judging people?’