Despite the fact that Yu IlHan’s digging had been going on for more than one month, there was not a lot of progress.
First off, the ground was really too damned hard. The first tens of meters was easily breakable with the Death Driver, but from some portion onwards, they became so hard that the Keshna golem’s skin looked weak in comparison, and his bone screw was shaved away instead of the ground.
[Don’t you think the soil here has some uses?] (Liera)
“I’m more interested in the Baobab trees that grow rooted here.”
Perhaps processing the root of the Baobab trees would give birth to a master sword. Yu IlHan seriously pondered about that as he switched out the blunt screw and inserted another one with the help of the pile bunker.
From his smooth actions of switching the screws instantly and putting the Death Driver in, it could be seen that this wasn’t the first time he did it.
“So Liera, do you think you can find that light of salvation anywhere?”
[Hm……. Perhaps it’s impossible after all. Want a kiss?] (Liera)
“Thanks, but no thanks.”
While Yu IlHan and Liera were having a casual banter, Erta, who was on watch outside, shouted.
[There’s one coming! It’s one covered in fire!] (Erta)
“I thought I just killed one recently. Don’t you think that the frequency of their appearance is rising?”
[Yu IlHan, looks like you need to take care of it quickly. I can feel another one on the opposite side.] (Spiera)
“Tch, I can’t help it.”
Yu IlHan let go of the Death Driver, and shot up with Ruin Calling, reaching high into the air through repeated leaps. Until the moment he could conceal himself by completely exiting the monsters’ field of vision
‘Good, it’s done.’
[Do you know their positions?] (Liera)
‘Yes.’
Yu IlHan had spent almost half a year here, so he knew really well their patterns, weaknesses, and characteristics.
Whether it was fire, ice, lightning, or vibration, all of them had the characteristics that those properties protected their bodies perfectly, but once it was penetrated, the insides were relatively weak.
‘Although, it does bother me that I still can’t synchronize with the records I’ve absorbed from them even now.’
Yu IlHan checked the closest monster to him in mid air, and equipped his pile bunker. As the demons that appeared here were at least 10 times bigger than him, the 2nd option attached to the pile bunker would normally activate and would provide an additional 70% damage.
On top of that, many other conditions were fulfilled as well, such as Angels’ Support, surprise attack, and enemy being a life form. So compared to the first strike he dealt to the Keshna Golem, this attack may as well pierce through the skies. Without going to the 7th level, 6th level was enough to drill a hole through them.
“Hhp!”
With a short shout, he unfolded Ruin Calling. Compressed shockwaves shot out; with leaps and re-leaps activating simultaneously! Although there was no one to see him right now, since he was in concealment, he could be likened to a comet falling from the heavens.
[Critical Hit!]
[Kihiiiii!]
The pile bunker, which contained slightly more power than usual with the addition from Yu IlHan’s body weight and the weight of the inventory, directly struck the head of the demon burning in fire.
The moment they came into contact, the shot projectile disregarded its flames and bones and just broke through everything, but as expected of a 4th class, the demon instantly focused all the flames on its body onto its head and tried to melt the projectile as soon as it noticed.
“Dammit, was it too light?”
[Your line sounds like a defeat flag!]
Would the screw made of dragon bones really melt? Well, the reality in this hell was that it indeed did melt! Yu IlHan had to retreat after he had to be satisfied with just drilling a hole through it.
Even the demon could not completely vaporize the dragon bones. Yu IlHan just needed to melt it down and remold it.
[Kihiiiaaaa!]
“And the other one!?”
Yu IlHan checked with Spiera while jumping in the air, when he confirmed that the fire demon had noticed him and had enveloped its two arms in flames. She immediately answered.
[It will be in viewing distance within 2 minutes. Hurry up.] (Spiera)
“2 minutes……”
[Guguggaaaaaaaahk!]
No demons were easy, but Yu IlHan’s affinity with this fire demon that burnt everything it came in contact with, was especially bad.
Perhaps it would have been better if he just left this one for later – he thought leisurely, even while dodging the flaming punch by flying into the air. The heat radiating from the magic fire that crackled in the air made him sweat nervously.
He had already recovered the pile bunker as soon as he retreated from the first attack, and from some time onwards, his hand was grabbing on the Eight-tailed dragon spear. The spear was the best one to go with at difficult times! Of course, the exact reason was because the only weapon that could endure the heat.
“I really need to make a water attribute weapon some time.”
[You’re doing perfectly fine though.]
As if to prove Liera’s words, Yu IlHan agilely turned around in the air and slashed with his spear while charging.
The demon swung its arms rapidly, and as a bonus, the flames that enveloped the arms stretched out like a whip and tried to burn Yu IlHan, but he was already stabbing his spear into the hole he had made on the head last time.
[Critical Hit!]
[1 minute 37 seconds.]
[Wow, look at you, Spiera. You look totally addicted to counting down.] (Liera)
[Kggggggggooooooooh!]
“Hhp!”
No matter how much of a disparity in levels there were between them, Yu IlHan and the demon were fundamentally different in size. Moreover, Yu IlHan’s reaction speeds with Ruin Calling on, was akin to that of lightning, and when the demon just thought that it had blocked, he was already behind it, attacking.
[Critical Hit!]
[Kuaaaaak!]
The demon was blocking all attacks by constantly putting up high-energy flames on its body, but Yu IlHan’s Eight-tailed dragon spear was also enhanced through Eternal Flame, Blaze, and purple flames.
Although he couldn’t deal additional damage with his flames, this meant that they could cancel each other’s flames out, and attack the demon with the full strike of the spear.
Disregarding special abilities and whatnot while only considering pure defense, he already knew that these demons were weaker in that regard compared to other ordinary 4th class monsters. The Eight-tailed dragon spear was enough.
The problem was that they also knew of his weakness, and would resist without caring for the means if it came down to it.
[Yu IlHan, the surrounding land is beginning to color itself in red. There will be another one of those annoying attacks soon!] (Erta)
“Got it.”
Erta finished speaking and came into Yu IlHan’s armor. As angels couldn’t use their powers here, that kind of attack would deal a fatal injury on the girls as well.
[1 minute 14 seconds.] (Spiera)
[Kuhaaah!]
“Hhp!”
After Erta and Liera found safety, the demon roared and stomped on the ground, the nearby ground, bloodied by the sheer amount of mana from the demon, seem to crack into several parts, before shooting towards Yu IlHan, as if they were hot charcoal.
The most annoying thing was that this attack remembered the properties of the opponent’s mana, so unless he destroyed every one of them, he had to get hit.
[1 minute 03 seconds.] (Spiera)
However, Yu IlHan had the sturdy shield. Not just any shield, but the special smartshield that grew along with him in all of his battles, and could carry out his orders more faithfully than ever!
“Aegis.”
The moment Yu IlHan muttered that word with a firm will, the five shields that protected his sides at all times during this hellish picnic, due to his worries, started rotating rapidly centered around Yu IlHan.
Each of the shields rotated in their own orbits, and they would protect Yu IlHan perfectly from every angle.
It took a long period of time for Yu IlHan to learn and use this, but as always, life-and-death situations made everything possible. Once, his ribs were pulled out, and burnt a leg. And so, after that, he had developed himself to keep fighting in that state, even if he were forced to techno-dance in the middle of it.
“I’m going.”
[Do you really have to?] (Liera)
[48 seconds.] (Spiera)
“I said I’ll go!”
The moment the demon uses that attack, it would lose the control over its mana due to having to concentrate on the attack.
It didn’t become weak due to the loss of control or anything, and in fact, it would give up on controlling mana required to sustain its life, and its body would burn up hotter than the sun, so it would make him like he was burning just by nearing, but to Yu IlHan, who was the hero of fire, it was no different from after-work sauna!
The current him had 160% additional fire attribute resistance thanks to his armor. Considering that he was way beyond the realm of humans, there weren’t a lot of things in the world for him to be afraid about.
[41 seconds.]
“Haaaaaaaaah!”
With a shout, Yu IlHan leapt. tens, hundreds of hot bombs assaulted Yu IlHan, but they were all deflected by Aegis, orbiting around his body, and Yu IlHan would overcome the shock that assaults his body every time that happened, and re-leap to charge towards it!
[Khaaaaaap!]
“Huooooh!”
[28 seconds.] (Spiera)
The moment Yu IlHan approached the demon with Aegis protecting all of his body, Yu IlHan’s spear burned in bright white, and increased its size. He multiplied the blades into 8 by activating the option on the Eight-tailed dragon spear!
He imbued hundreds of tons of weight into each of those 8 blades. The fact that he was still able to hold the weapon, represented his overwhelming growth in strength.
“Get lost, to the hell you, Hhp, came from!”
[Kuguoooooooh!]
He couldn’t use the Great Cosmos-severing spear yet. However, it was possible for him to add a characteristic from another weapon, at anytime he wanted to. Yu IlHan thought back to the time he split apart the land on this world, as he swung with all his power, while imbuing the power of a blunt weapon into the spear.
[Ku, uaaaaaaaakakak!]
[Critical Hit!]
[The skill, Critical Hit, has become level 84.]
After the demon let out its final scream after using up all of its earth bombs and, failed to calm down the berserking on its body and had to meet Yu IlHan in a defenseless manner,
[??? ???? ?????? ???????????? experience]
The fire burning on its body died down, and fell down with a ‘thud!’. Spiera immediately spoke.
[19 seconds. Not bad.] (Spiera)
“There’s no time to rest. Dammit.”
Yu IlHan, who swore at Spiera’s counting, fed all the flames burning on his body, despite losing its owner, to the Eternal Flame, and collected the body into his inventory.
Damnably, the demon approaching him from far away was the worst of them all, the lightning-attributed demon. He had no equipment to resist its attacks, nor did he have any significant methods of attacking. This was one that he had to use tons of Breath and go at it with brute force alone!
“I really need to absorb the magic engineering knowledge faster to make something out of these corpses. Dammit.”
[IlHan.] (Liera)
“I’m busy. Please leave a message after the beep.”
Yu IlHan shot up into the air with a vague reply, and tried to conceal himself somehow before it reached him.
[It’s a comm from Mir. Although, it doesn’t look that urgent from the color of the signal.] (Liera)
“Beep………”
He checked, and there was indeed a call from the communicator. Yu IlHan pondered for a moment while looking at the lump of lightning that rushed towards him and the hole he had dug, but he still deployed the ability from the ‘Frog that leaped out of the well’ title, the ‘ability to return to the world he was born to regardless of which world he was in’.
It did not activate.
“……huh?”
Muttered Yu IlHan in confusion.
“Why doesn’t it work?”
[…… You do realize it really gets awkward when you make a joke at times like these, right? Why are you scaring me?] (Liera)
“No, I’m not joking. That’s strange. It worked well in other worlds.”
There was no way Yu IlHan would not have tested the ability, when he was meticulous to the point that he would actually tap on the ground on most bridges for stability checks. He had already tested coming back to Earth from a few different worlds, and had come here after checking that they did indeed work.
[Perhaps this world is an exception!] (Liera)
“You know well that that cannot be true. If I had to come up with exceptions, then I wouldn’t be able to do anything…… but really, why doesn’t it work?”
[Kihaaaaaaa!]
Coincidentally, the lightning demon that arrived at where he was, cried. However, Yu IlHan had already succeeded in concealing himself, and did not feel any danger, but right now that demon wasn’t the problem.
[Even we can’t exit this world as we please. Yu IlHan, why don’t you think calmly about this again?] (Spiera)
“Yes, I’ll activate it ag……ain?”
[The ability is only usable once per week.]
Yu IlHan’s body shivered. The ability already activated once? Not that it didn’t?
But that would mean, but…….
[So that is it. Although I didn’t want to believe due to the stark contrast in mana distribution…….] (Erta)
While Yu IlHan was confused at this unacceptable situation, Erta, who realized the truth first, muttered in a defeated voice.
[This place is Earth, isn’t it…….?] (Erta)
Yu IlHan had found out the truth about this world.
Author’s notes
DUN DUN DUN
The true story starts now.
Translator’s notes
DUN DUN DUN, PLOT TWIST.
(I owe 5 chapters still…) This chapter is a Thursday regular!