Record of a Thousand Lives

The Yultika Ruin was like a wide, complicated maze, but Kang Yoon-Soo walked as if he knew the way. He navigated through the traps and dead ends with ease.

“How do you know the way so well? You even knew where the trapswere… No,never mind… You won’t tell me even if Iasked you, right?” Shaneth asked.

“Yeah.” Kang Yoon-Soo gave his usual short reply.

“I knew it…” Shanethpouted while sulking.

When they reached the end of the ruins, alarge door that gave off a bright white glow as if ithad beencarved from ivory came into view. The treasures of the ruins were right behind that door, but a large monster was standing in front of the doorto guardit.

“Grrrrrrr…! Ronok!”

It was the leader of the werewolves—the beasts whosoughtthe moonlight.

A werewolf possessed terrifying strength that could easily crush a bull’s head with one hand, but the monster in front of them looked much more terrifying than a normal werewolf. It was larger than a normal werewolf, and its long nails were razor-sharp likesawblades.

[Silver Beast of the Wild (Boss, Level 104) has appeared.]

The boss monster was unlike anything they hadfaceduntil then; it was a monster over Level 100 that was overthreemeters tall and covered in muscle, butit was also far more agile than it looked.

“Ritiek!Urnokra!”the beast roaredasit prowled.Itsrazor-sharpclawsappeared in front of Kang Yoon-Soo’s face in a splitsecond as itswiped down.

Clang!

Kang Yoon-Soo drew his greatsword and parried thebeast’s attack, but there was no way he could be a matchforit.Hiswristbentbackwardas if itwereabout tobreak, thenhis greatsword flew out of his hand—the difference in strength was clear.

“Watch out!” Shaneth shouted as she prepared to fight as well, but Kang Yoon-Soo waved his hand as iftelling her not to come close.

“Grrrrrrrr…!Urnokra…!”the beastroared as it swiped with both claws.

Swipe!

The beast swiped its claws in a cross-shaped motionand let out a deafening wind blast, but Kang Yoon-Soo avoided all ofits attacks.

“Urnokra!”the beast roared, grittingits fangs. It seemed irritated by the fact that Kang Yoon-Soo had managed to avoid all of its attacks.

Kang Yoon-Soo’s movements werenot fast; rather, they wereprecise. He knew the trajectory of thebeast’s attacks, and he avoidedthem allwith minimal movement. The beast’s clawsonly managed to graze the ends of his clothes and his hair, anditdidn’t manage to land any blows to him. He didn’t evenmakethe mistake ofletting himself bedriven into a corner, and he didnottrip once while avoiding the continuous attacks.

Shanethwatchedthe fight unfold before her, unable tobelieve her eyes. There was a clear difference in the physical capability of the two combatants, but Kang Yoon-Soo avoided every attack as if hehadalreadyexpectedit seconds before the beast attacked.

“Rakildrag!”the beast roared, staringKang Yoon-Soo down.Ithad to acknowledge the human in front of it. It couldnotland any attacks against this human!

Then, itslowly turned its gaze away from the human and looked toward Shaneth.“Grrrrrrr…!”

If it couldnothit Kang Yoon-Soo, it clearly neededto find another target. Shaneth jumped up andheldher scythe up as if she wereready to fight at any moment.

“Rakro.”

The beast suddenly stopped moving andlooked in the direction ofthe voice.‘Rakro’meant‘look here’ in the language of the werewolves.Itturned its gaze toward Kang Yoon-Soo.

Kang Yoon-Soo took out a bright stone from his backpack. It was the moonstone he had created in the smithy at Kerlin. He remarked,“Werewolves are obsessed with the moonlight.”

The moonstone let out a glow similar to moonlight, and the surroundings werecovered in the warm glow of the moon. However, the moonlight awakened thewerewolf’s aggressive instincts,and the beast startedrampaging.

[The boss monster, Silver Beast of the Wild, has started to rampage.]

“Karikradi!Urnokra!”the beast roared and charged toward Kang Yoon-Soo.

KangYoon-Sooeasily avoided the beast’saggressive charge. He calmly avoidedmore claw strikesby ducking andtook out the Black Iron Dagger. He threw all the daggers he had toward the beast,but they only managed to shallowly embed themselves in its body.

“Shaneth,” Kang Yoon-Soo called out.

“Yes?” Shaneth repliedtensely.

“I’m hungry. Cook me some soup,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied simply.

“…”

What kind of nonsensewashe saying while fighting against a boss monster…?

***

Shaneth had never dreamed of such a thing happening in her life. She never imagined that she would be cooking potato soup in a ruin filled with monsters, and in front of an aggressive boss monster on top of that.

“The soup is ready,”she sooninformed Kang Yoon-Soo.

“Bring out the alcohol too,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

“There’s no more alcohol,” Shaneth replied.

“In the front pocket of the backpack,” Kang Yoon-Sooreplied nonchalantly.

“Oh, this ismead. Has it been here all along?” Shaneth asked.

“I stole it,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“From where…?” Shaneth asked, dumbfounded.In response,Kang Yoon-Soosaid nothing.

Shaneth scoopedup a bowl ofpotato soup and grabbed the mead bottle.

“You stole it fromLady Hermia’s storage,didn’t you? I can tell from the packaging,” Shanethsaid accusingly.

Kang Yoon-Soo silently nodded as if to say she was correct,and only then didShanethgivethe bowl of soup and bottle of mead to him.

“Don’t do that again…” Shaneth warnedhim, seemingly havinggotten used to Kang Yoon-Soo. Then,she poured a scoop of the potato soupintoher bowl.

“Should I give him some as well?”she asked, sighing and looking towardsomething.

“No,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“Grrrrrr…”The beast growledhelplessly, panting as it lay on the floor.It was feeling thebacklashfrom accelerating and pushing its muscles to the limit, and now its body wouldnot listen to it.

Kang Yoon-Soo, on the other hand,did not seem to have even brokena sweat, and his breathing was calm as well. He had avoided all the beast’saggressiveattacks withminimal movement, but the beasthad goneall out and its stamina was depleted. In addition, the daggers thrown by Kang Yoon-Soocould notdig deep into the beast’s hide,but he had precisely targetedthe points between its muscles,causing immense pain.

“Urnokra!”the beast roared, failingto get up.

A moonstone had been embedded high up in the ruin’s pillar by Kang Yoon-Soo, and the eyes of the beast on the floor were fixated only onit.

The beast roared again as if to express its anger.“Urnokra!”

“What does‘urnokra’mean?” Shaneth asked curiously as she looked at the beast.

“It means ‘You look like your father’scock’,” Kang Yoon-Soo said emotionlessly.

“…” Shaneth just stared at him as if she’dhad enough. She eventually said,“I thought it meant something cool like ‘I’ll rip you apart!’ since he kept shouting it.”

“Thatisn’t this guy’s personality,” Kang Yoon-Soo said, as if he knew the beast very well.

The two got up after finishing their soup, and Kang Yoon-Soo walked toward the big white door.

“Karikradi!Urnokra!”The beast started roaring evenmore loudly, but Kang Yoon-Soo didnot pay it any attention ashe opened the door.

Creak…

The door slowly opened as soon as Kang Yoon-Soo lightly pushedit open.

Ordinarily, a ruin would not be so easy to conquer. The boss monster would usually attack with its minionswaveafter wave, and the door leading to the ruin's treasure would usually be shut tightly, only opening after the boss monster had been defeated. However, the YultikaRuin, whichhad the lowest difficulty among the ruins in thecontinent, onlyhad one boss monster, and the door leading to the treasure could be opened even without killingit. That washow lowits difficultywas.

A bright light escaped as the door opened, and Shaneth couldnot help but exclaim, “So that’s the treasure of the ruin!”

There was an altarin the middle of a large and majestic room,shining witha bright luster. The bright light was blinding, but Kang Yoon-Soo walked toward the altar withoutaverting his eyes. As he walked up the final steps toward the altar, he saw an item placedon it as if it weresome sort of offering.

Kang Yoon-Soo had obtained the treasure of the Yultika Ruin.