Record of a Thousand Lives

The fifth floor of theChimera Dimensionwas the strangest. The sun, moon, and stars were all up in the sky at the same time, anda galaxy flowed through the floor.

Sally smiled brightly and scooped up a handful of stardust in both of her hands. She ran toward Kang Yoon-Soo andexclaimed, “Papa! Papa! Look at this! It’s really pretty!”

“It’s fake,”Kang Yoon-Soorepliedindifferently.

“Waah!Mommy!” Sally wailed.Shaneth consoled the little girl whose childhood had just been ruined.

Meanwhile,White was looking around trying to spot any prey it could hunt.“Grrrrr…!Rarumakro?”

Spacedistorted in the distance, and something with a barely visible formemerged. Its shaperesembledthat of a human, but it had no hair and its body waspitchblack; it did not look like a human being at all. What stood out was its right arm, which had a sword embedded in it;the blade that protruded out of thehumanoid creature’s handwas very sharp.

Theentity’scracked voice slowly flowed out.“You… stupid… alchemists…”

[The homunculus Ravian (Boss, Level 132) has appeared.]

It was the boss of theChimera Dimension.

Homunculus Ravian slowly tilted its head, and thewide-openspace started to distort.

[Ravian is the entity that controls theChimera Dimension.]

[You can escape from theChimeraDimensionafter defeating Ravian.]

They could no longer take it easy and hadto give it their all now, because they could only leave this place after defeating the boss monster.

‘Ravian isn’t a monster you can defeat in one strike,’Kang Yoon-Soo thought.This was a battle of attrition.Heraised his right hand andsaid,“Summon 54Dark Landworms. Summon 400Evil Chimeras.”

SeveralDark Landwormspoured out into the roomgnashing their razor-sharp teeth, accompanied bya vicious horde ofEvil Chimeras.It was an undead army that numbered close to 500.Kang Yoon-Soo pointed toward the homunculus Ravian and ordered, “Kill it.”

An intense battle broke out.Sally wrapped both of her hands in flame as she shouted, “Flame Equip!”It was the spell that could imbue weapons with fire.

The undeadinthe vanguard had their whole bodies burst into flame, but theywere not fazed at all because they couldfeel no pain from the burning. In fact, their attack power significantly increased after theywerecovered in flames.A landworm and a chimera, both set ablaze,charged toward the homunculus.

“Annoying… weaklings…”The homunculus Raviancut space open with a downward sweep of its hand, and dozens of chimeras charged out of the opening.

All hell broke loose between theflaming undeadand thegrotesque-lookingchimeras astheyclashed against each other. It was a battlefieldfilled with countless blazing corpses—whetherthey weremoving or not.The chimeras summoned by Ravian used their vines to bind the undead army, but the undead fought by relying on theiroverwhelming quantity of troops, not on individual quality.

Kang Yoon-Soo swung his greatsword and cut open the neck of a chimera. Shaneth also cut down a chimera; her strength hadbeen steadily increasing asIgnus’ power fragment slowly integratedintoher.

Meanwhile,White charged like a storm toward Ravian; itsbloodthirst could not be satiated by the blood of weaklings.“Urnokra!”it cried as it aimed its claws at the homunculus’ neck.Ravian quickly swungitsright arm to block the blow.

Clang!

White growled at Ravian before retreatingright after exchanging a few blows, realizingthat Ravian was not someone it could win against in a one versus one duel. In addition, White realized that Ravian’s sword was not an ordinary sword. A normal sword should have been shattered, but Ravian’s sword was fine even after exchanging numerous blows with White’s claw.

“Ridiculous…” Ravian muttered. Itdrew a pattern withitsleft hand, shouting, “Watch, you alchemists…! Watch how terrifying what you threw away has become…!”

Ravian was suddenly surrounded by waves of blue manathatspread out all over the floor. The corpses of the chimeras strewnacrossthe ground suddenly started to twitch. Even the body parts,includinga split-open head, abisected leg, and a severed finger,started to squirm. The corpses and body parts of the chimeras lunged toward the undead and clungto their bodies.

It was at that moment that Kang Yoon-Soosaid, “Corpse Explosion.”

Boooom!

“Euk…!”Ravian grimaced.All of the chimeracorpsesarounditsuddenly explodedwith massive force. The explosion turned every chimera corpse and body part into dust.

‘Corpse Explosion’ was a powerful skill, but constant use of it would immediately drain the caster’s mana. However, Kang Yoon-Soo did not hold back and relentlessly cast one explosion after another.

“Corpse Explosion. Corpse Explosion. Corpse Explosion.”

Bam!Boom! Boooom!Boooooom!

The sound of corpses exploding reverberated across the entire floor.

Ravian looked at Kang Yoon-Soo with killing intent and said, “You punk…You dare hinder my revenge…!”It had been staying behind the chimera army, but now it startedto walk toward the front.Itpointed the longsword initsright arm forward as if itwerethirsty forKang Yoon-Soo’sblood. However, Kang Yoon-Soo had no plans to fight him head-on.

“Life Drain.”A green aura flowed out of Kang Yoon-Soo’s greatsword andstarted to drain away Ravian’s HP. Ravian swung the sword in a flurry of rage, but Kang Yoon-Soo simply ran away whenever Ravian got close to him. It was as if he knew what Ravian’s next move was.Then, he began throwing bombsat Ravian.

Booom!

Ravian’s body was swept up in the explosion, and a part ofitsbody wasdamaged whenever Kang Yoon-Soo threw a bomb at him.

“You cockroach bastard…!” Ravian swung its sword at a chimera besideit, and thechimera shriekedin pain before drying up. As soon asit was consumed, Ravian’s HP recovered, and the swordgrewstronger as well.

“You will all… die…!”Ravian started to slash away at all the undead that approached. This was the reason whythe boss monsterwas so scary.Ithad the ability to use its sword to drain someone else’s HP whenever its own HP ran low.It truly earnedits title as the boss of theChimera Dimension.

Dozens of undead, as well as chimeras, turned to dust by Ravian’s hand. However, Ravian’s HP still rapidlywent downbecause of Kang Yoon-Soo’s relentlessbomb-throwing,his use of LifeDrain,andjointattacks from the other party members.

Just asthe battle was abouttoend…

“Phew, we’ve finally made it…Heck! What is this?” Lee Kang-Hyunsaid, his mouth hanging open from shock. The others with him were no different.The battle with the boss monster was much more intense than they had imagined. The whole floor was a mess, withchimeracorpsesscattered everywhere, and it was as if a war had been wagedacross it.

“Let’s jointoo. I’ll provide support from the rear, and you guys take care of the front,” Shin Han-Yul said. The others came back to theirsensesand nodded in agreement.

“Spirit of the Sword!”TheSwordsmen cast their uniqueclassskill and ran toward the battlefield.

While theotherswere worried about the safety of Kang Yoon-Soo’s party,however,Shin Han-Yul had other concerns, thinking,‘The bossmonster'sHP has depleted quite a bit.’

Ravian was visibly tired from fighting, and his pattern of draining the chimeras had been nullifiedbyKang Yoon-Soo’s continuous bomb throwing. If thingskept goingasthey had, the achievementof completingthe hunt and the sword would bothgo to Kang Yoon-Soo.

‘There’s no way I’ll let that happen.’Shin Han-Yul bit his lip, thentook out a parchment from his backpack; it was a magic scroll for an intermediate-gradespell. A magic scroll that could letonecast a spell just bytearing itwas very expensive. He had managed to receive a magic scroll from theclanwith great difficulty only after he swore an oath to reach Level 100. He would receive disciplinary action from theclanif heused it carelessly.

‘I don’t have the luxuryof being picky.’Hetore apartthe magic scroll, and strange mana flowed out from it beforegatheringin one spot in midair. The manatransformed intoa spear that crackled with blue sparks;was the intermediate-grade spell, LightningJavelin.However,Shin Han-Yul did not stop thereand cried,“Mana Release!”

Mana Releasewas the uniqueclassskillfor Sorcerers. It allowed the user to release a portion of their mana to amplifya spell and increase itspowermultiple times over.TheLightning Javelingrew in size,making itbig enough to sweep the battlefield.

‘I can do it with this!’Shin Han-Yultook aim at Ravianin the distance. There was much ground to cover, but he was confident that he could accuratelystrike the target.

“Everyone take cover!”he shouted. His party members moved to evade the trajectory of the Lightning Javelin after they heard his warning. He threw the spear with all his might, and it was surrounded with a blue electrical current as it flew across the battlefield. It accurately buried itself in Ravian’s chest.

Bzzzt!

The lightning from the javelin spread out,and black smokerosefrom the target. The room was filled with silence asthosewondered if the immobile homunculus was dead or alive.

Shin Han-Yul let out a smile and thought to himself,‘It’s over. I’m sure of it.Heh.’

At that moment, a large hand swiped away the black smoke;the homunculus was standing upright and had not sustained any damage at all.Not only that; Ravian hadabsorbed theLightning Javelin and grownlarger and more powerful. Its sword was now covered in the same blue current that had once surrounded thespear.

“You foolish humans…! You have chosen death for yourselves…!”

[Homunculus Ravian has absorbed an intermediate-gradespell.]

[The hidden ability of the sword has been awakened.]

[All HP lost has been recovered.]

Shin Han-Yul andhis party wereastounded.

Magic absorption? Therehad beenno suchthing in the quest information provided. The secret weapon Shin Han-Yulprepared hadended up helping the boss monster that was on the verge of being defeated, allowing it to evolve and become stronger.

At that moment,those present allhadlooks of despair on their faces… except one person.While the others wereat a lossaboutwhat to do, a single man walked towardthe boss monster. Kang Yoon-Soo pointed his greatsword at Ravian.

Ravian scoffed and asked, “You plan to go against me…?Foolish…!”

“You give better rewards after you’ve absorbed magic,” Kang Yoon-Soo saidindifferently.

Ravian’s face crumpled in rageas it exclaimed,“You don’t… seem to value… your life…!”Itaggressively swung its longsword,butKang Yoon-Soo ducked and avoided the attack.

At that moment, the silver bracer Kang Yoon-Soo was wearing glowed, and a bright light shot out of it.