Episode 123.
[Kugh-ha!]
Dozens of huge blades sprang from the Chimera’s abdomen, trying to stab Jung Si-woo frantically. Its mana’s extremely weak flow made the attack unpredictable. Jung Si-woo raised his forearm and blocked it while swinging his rifle with his other arm. The rifle itself wasn’t sharp, but the mana blade created by Jung Si-woo’s concentrated mana cut him apart.
[K-augh-aaagh!]
“What a weird groan that bastard has…tsk.”
Even though he blocked it at the perfect timing, the gauntlet wrapped around his forearm was pierced through, and blood welled up from his forearm. Soo Ah-rin healed quickly, but it was inevitable that damage was accumulated. It couldn’t be helped but to be hurt at least once. His attack was too sharp and tough. Nevertheless, Jung Si-woo didn’t ask Caina to join the battle. The Chimera was strong and quick, but it was a wall that Jung Si-woo could surpass.
[Do you believe that you can digest all of god’s power?]
“Yes.”
The opponent was a chatterbox. He tried to provoke Jung Si-woo with useless words when they could focus on the battle while they were fighting. One of the reasons why it was so annoying was that they were too profound for him to ignore.
[Even if in the end you are swallowed by a god, and you disappear without leaving a trace?]
“Are you talking about yourself? You’ve been swallowed by countless monsters, too. So do you know who’s in charge right now?”
[…Haha.]
The Chimera’s attack patterns were very diverse. The Chimera, who freely transformed its body and moved anywhere to attack him, wasn’t likely to be made up of a fusion of only one or two monsters. But when Jung Si-woo pointed that out, the Chimera smiled brightly. The black shadow-like face created a fissure, and the unpleasant grey tongue fluttering made him feel uneasy.
[Yes, I don’t know who I am. At the dungeon’s creation, in an instant, while countless beings were tangled up, I lost my ego and became a clump of flesh rolling around. That was when he blessed me. That’s why I’m fighting with you here now- because he commanded me to bring you back!]
Did it mean that it rather enjoyed being selfless? No, it was the opposite. He pledged his loyalty because Metimoa defined him. However, it was unknown that if even that loyalty was nothing but artificial.
[So be swallowed!]
“By who’s wish?”
As Jung Si-woo charged the Charge Shot. Once it was prepared, Jung Si-woo shot out the magic bullet in the middle of the brawl. A terrible rupturing noise, followed by the flash separating the air, completely destroyed a portion of the Chimera’s body.
[Master, it somehow seems fishy.]
Caina, who recovered her saber, avoided his attack neatly, whispering to Jung Si-woo while stepping back.
[He’s still hiding something.]
“Yeah, that’s what I see too.”
[It is even more strange that he should have already lost more than 30% of his body, but there is no significant change in the total amount of energy.]
Perhaps he might be hiding a bigger secret. However, even by Jung Si-woo’s Dragon Sense, no significant change was…
“Hmm?”
[Kyaha!]
At the moment when Jung Si-woo thought that something was strange, Chimera rushed again. It was quick enough to blow away the important idea in a flash. It was as if a lightning bolt was dashing on the ground!
[Are you tired already? Your movements are slow!]
“Bullshit…”
The Chimera that crossed the space in an instant extended a blade! When he avoided it, the weapon that came out targeted his life. What popped out of it was his flesh, a formidable weapon that would begin to erode him away the moment it made contact. Not to mention its strength and speed, it was truly shocking to analyze his attack method in real-time and reproduce it in his way. How much potential did that body contain to make this possible?
“Oppa!”
“I won’t get hit!”
Jung Si-woo was quite relaxed in avoiding the first shot, but it was only the beginning. The mana flowing in his entire body suddenly accelerated, and gun barrels sprang up all over his body to shoot flesh bullets at once!
[It’s not over yet!]
“Khah!”
However, Jung Si-woo was able to desperately draw out the Dragon Sense to resist. It had been only a short while since he had familiarized the Dragon Sense. Hence, it was hard to detect each bullet and avoid them, but he was aware that he couldn’t avoid it all…!
“Ha!”
Jung Si-woo, who judged that he would take damage that couldn’t be healed by Soo Ah-rin’s healing this way, activated Stone Skin. Although the Mana operation began to tangle complicatedly as Skin Stone was added in a state with Combat Charge already being maintained at all times, Jung Si-woo’s will, which sharpened as an awl, controlled it somehow and even strengthened it by mixing the two. In a way, it was the activation of Cruel Charge in a defensive form.
“Kuaaaaaargh!”
The dozens of bullets were soaring through the air to erode Jung Si-woo’s body drummed into him. However, receiving all the shocks, Jung Si-woo took a step forward and swung the Rage Rifle. He couldn’t move in that brief duration when he fired the erosion bullet!
[Keugh!?]
The Chimera, who couldn’t guess that Jung Si-woo would spring forward through the fire, distorted his face. How come the bullet that should have surely penetrated his body was unable to pierce his bare skin?! However, no matter how much he analyzed it, there was no one to explain why. Instead, a hard, fierce blow containing all of Jung Si-woo’s might fell, crushing his face.
[Kiak!]
“Go to hell!”
If there was one more thing to be damned, it was that his recovery ability was superior to any average trolls. Right after the Rage Rifle had parted through his body, he recovered. Instead of the gun that had sprung up around his body, a muscular Blade Arm rose from his abdomen and precisely traced back the trajectory that Jung Si-woo swung just a moment ago, exactly in reverse. His Blade and the Rage Rifle collided head-on with a roar.
[The Chimera completed through the blessing of Metimoa-nim grows as it fights. With the genealogy of all living things inside, the rest only sprouts new possibilities as the environment stimulates them. You are also nothing but an ingredient for my growth?]
“Ha, the power…you’re clumsy!
Since it was an attack that flew in after he had swung with all his might, it couldn’t be avoided but blocked. However, it was impossible to catch up in a short time with the monstrous strength of Jung Si-woo, who destroyed Stone Mountain by lifting it. Jung Si-woo’s power, having reached an inexplicable state mixed with magic and force, struck him down in that manner!
“Ha…uh!?”
At that very moment, his body burst like a pudding. It wasn’t destruction. It had only transformed his body into a wide, thin sheet! It looked just like dumpling skin. A dumpling skin that was aggressively trying to make Si-woo the filling!
[Let’s be one in this way!]
“Where do you dare!”
The Chimera tried to envelop Jung Si-woo’s entire body, aiming at the timing where his body leaned downward, but Jung Si-woo’s lizard tail, which had been staying still until now, wrapped in Mana to cut it in half. Jung Si-woo, who used even the bladeless Rage Rifle as a substitute for the sword, wouldn’t have been unable to use a tail for a sword.
[Gaaaaaaargh!]
He shrieked and bounced away from him. Jung Si-woo swung his tail around and attacked the punk, placing a Charge Shot in the Rage Rifle again.
“Now, why don’t you copy the tail this time as well.”
[Hahaha!]
Then he indeed imitated it. Not one or two of them, but dozens of tails sprung out in an instant and flew at him. To that extent, it was enough to be called a tentacle and not a tail!
“Damn it, how the hell is that kind of a power hidden in that little body…wait?”
When he jerked his body in surprise to face it, Jung Si-woo succeeded in getting a hold of his train of thoughts again. No matter if the opponent was a Chimera, it was impossible to explain what he was showing. Specifically, the total amount of Mana he had in his body suddenly increased exponentially. There was only one hypothesis that could explain this.
“You bastard, by any chance…”
[Oh, have you noticed already?]
The reason why Jung Si-woo, who was equipped with Dragon Sense, didn’t realize until this moment was that his Mana was too strong or because his presence was too strong. Maybe even because he was limited to his knowledge until the end. After Jung Si-woo fired off the Charge Shot to blow up dozens of tentacles at once, as if something were bothering him, tap-tap, he kicked the floor he was standing on. Then he was convinced.
“Caina…that’s bastard, that’s a fake.”
[Hmm?]
“This boss room is the boss.”
Regardless that those were words normally hard to understand, Caina realized it instantly. He rushed in right after. The appearance of the two arms becoming colossal in a flash with hammers hanging at the ends resembled Jung Si-woo breaking through the first expanse at the beginning of the dungeon.
[Do you think that realizing it will make things different?!]
“It’s a situation that I’ve at least found out that you’re a more terrible hybrid than I ever imagined!”
When Jung Si-woo and the punk collided head-on again, he didn’t avoid the Critical Bullet shot by Jung Si-woo and received it by sacrificing a hammer and attacked with his hammer on the other hand.
[But it’s too late. I got everything I needed.]
The next moment Caina rushed in and tried to stop it, but surprisingly, the tentacles that soared from the bottom of the boss room anchored her entire body down. Her Mana could have cut off one or two, but the problem was the scale. Hundreds or even thousands of tentacle strands could not have been taken care of at once.
[Now all will become one!]
His monstrous roar was truly eerie. When the hammer blow that couldn’t be blocked even by Jung Si-woo’s tail threw his body into the air, the boss room began to compress instantly as if it had been waiting for this moment. The dumpling skin wasn’t something like a Chimera’s body. It was the entire boss room.
‘This son of a bitch…’
Jung Si-woo and Caina were never easy enemies. Still, it wasn’t elsewhere that he was relaxed, saying they could come simultaneously. The moment they stepped into the boss room, he literally had them on his palm, so he was able to take that attitude. The face-to-face fight with Jung Si-woo must have been to sprout as many possibilities as he said himself. And now that it was enough, it was time to absorb not only Jung Si-woo but also Caina and the rest of the party all at once.
He said he himself was completed, but it was a lie. Metimoa’s Chimera never could be completed! It only grew limitlessly by absorbing everything!
“But…”
At that moment, the tattoos engraved on Jung Si-woo’s arms turned deeply red. The Dragon Dignity vibrated the whole area, lifting the eyelids of the giant being.
“Having everything I need…is the same for me!”
Just as Jung Si-woo raised his arms as the boss room fully condensed and enveloped them all.
Soon after, a colossal explosion took place.
