Record of a Thousand Lives

All eyes were on one man. It was Kang Yoon-Soo.

“I know the interior of the excavation site,” hereiterated.

“What did you say?” Ramax asked.

“I’ll guide you.” Kang Yoon-Soo brazenly proposed something unbelievable.“But, reward me with contribution points for every person we rescue,” he added.

The association members openly expressed their disgustforhis brazen proposal.

“Are you kidding us?! You want to strike a deal with people’s lives?!”

“How can we believe that you know the way around the excavation site?”

However, Ramax shook his head andintercededon behalf of Kang Yoon-Soo.“Hold on. We can believe this youngster. I’ll personally guarantee it.”

It was all because the valuable artifactsKang Yoon-Soo had brought back had earned him Ramax’s trust, and hisproposal had thus piqued Ramax’s interest.

Ramax asked,“You know the interior of the excavation site very well?”

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“Yes,” Kang Yoon-Soo answered.

“We have no choice but to go with you then, if what you’re claiming is true. Howmanycontribution points do you want per person rescued?” Ramax asked.

“1,000,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

One would need to submit at least three or four well-preserved artifacts to earn1,000contribution points, but he wanted1,000contribution points per person rescued? It was not that the people’s lives were worthless, but his proposal was a very brazen one.

Ramax could not help but frown atKang Yoon-Soo’swords no matter how much trust he had builtup.He said,“That’s too much. I can’t accept that proposal.”

“I’ll receive the contribution points only after hunting down the boss,” Kang Yoon-Soo added.

Ramax and the association members were stunnedbyhis words. Ramax asked,“What? Do you meanyou’ll kill the boss that showed upat theexcavation site?”

“Yes.” Kang Yoon-Soonodded.There was no wayhe would pass up the opportunity to hunt thehighlyrewarding monsters rightbeforehis eyes.“I won’t receive the contribution points if I fail to kill the boss monster in the excavation site,” he continued.

“Hmm…” Ramax wasleft witha dilemma.

A boss monster appearing in the excavation site was definitely something they had not predicted. Leaving the situation as it waswould not only delay the excavation schedule, but also cut offall thefundingtheywere receiving.

Ramax pondered the matter for a while, then finally said,“Alright, I’ll accept your offer.”

Kang Yoon-Soo, Shaneth, and the members of the Red Rock Excavators all wentto theexcavation siteunderneaththe large rock. The basement of the excavation site was as large and wide as it hadalwaysbeen, and the eerie silence gave even more suspense to the situation.

Kang Yoon-Soo stood at the forefront,and Shaneth, as well as the other members,followed right behind him. However, some of the associationmembershesitated to follow him.

“You can trust him. You'll be more at ease if you do,” Shaneth said toalleviate their uneaseas she hurriedly caught up behind Kang Yoon-Soo. The members of the Red Rock Excavators deliberated for a while before following suit.

KangYoon-Sooeasily navigated around themaze-likeplace; no, more than that, it seemedas ifhe knewexactlywhere he was going. Even the most competent pathfinder would have beenunable to walkthrough such a labyrinthine area so quickly.

They were almost at thefar endof the excavation site when they suddenly heard voices.

“Ah! Look! It’s a person!”

“Thank goodness! We’re saved!”

The voices came from survivors of the artifact excavation team. They had ended up where they were after running away from the boss,and they wereexhausted andcovered in all sorts of injuries.The association members wrapped up their injuries with bandages and passed some water they had brought along for thesurvivorsto drink.

The group increased in number when the survivors joined,butKang Yoon-Soo was still at the forefront, leading them. Whenever he turnedon a forked road or passed by unfamiliar terrain,he found another group of survivors. Thescene that unfolded rightbeforetheir eyes seemed like magic to the association members, and they could not believe it at all.

An associationmember who was astounded by Kang Yoon-Soo’s navigationskills could not hide his curiosity and asked Shaneth, “How does heknow the excavation site like the back ofhishand? Is that youngster a seasoned explorer at his age?”

“Well,you might be right… but if it’s Kang Yoon-Soo,you would have to include swordsman, necromancer, alchemist, and clairvoyant as well,” Shaneth said inresponse, shockingevery one of the association members.

Kang Yoon-Soo kept finding survivor after survivor,andthe last of them to be found wasa boyhiding by himself. The boy gulped down the water he was given andsaid, “I was the last onewhowas chased by the boss monster.”

The survivors confirmed that everyone they knew had been rescued, and only thencouldRamaxbreathea sigh of relief. He said,“It’s really fortunate that nobody died. The only thing left for us to do is to escape from this excavation site.”

At that moment, a loud sound reverberated from across the tunnel. It was not the voice of a human, but rather a cry thatresembled the screeching sound of tearing metal.

“Kirigryaaaah!”

“It’s the boss monster! It’s that monster that tried to kill us all!” a survivor whispered while trembling in fear.All of the survivors gulped as they waitednervously, and even the members of the Red Rock Excavators could not help but be filledwith unease.

Just whenthe large shadowy figure was about toemerge from the far end of the tunnel,Kang Yoon-Soo raised his right arm and said, “Summon White.”

A large white werewolf suddenly appeared out of nowhere,still bearing theChain of Obedience on its neck. Those present suddenly frozein fear.Shaneth was surprised as wellby White’s appearance.

If White wereto roar here,it was obvious that they would be easily found by the boss monster. However, Whitewas behaving unlike its usual self.Itjust quietly stared down at Kang Yoon-Soo without making a sound,then growled quietly in the werewolf language.“Grrrrr… Orkan,arukiran,ramikurunra,ramir,urnokra.”

It might have sounded like meaningless growls and grunts to others, but Kang Yoon-Soo fully understood what the beast was saying.It meant, “Grrrrr…Human, I donot trust you. Youare weaker than me and your temper is bad. What I mean to say is, you look like your father’s dick.

“But I changed my mind when I saw the ancient wolf that came out of your wrist device. Auron, the wolf of strength, is revered andworshipedby all wolves! If Auron has helped you,there must be a reason why. I have decided to serve you as my master.”

Then, the chains around its neck slowly cracked andfellto the ground—the ‘Chain of Obedience’ had come off. Whitehaddecided to serve Kang Yoon-Soo as its master.

White was not aggressive or wild at all, even though ithad beenreleased from forced obedience, and it looked at Kang Yoon-Soo the same way a dog would lookloyallyat its owner.

Kang Yoon-Soo said, “White.”

“Charnoroki?”White replied.

“Be the bait and lure the boss monster away,” Kang Yoon-Soo ordered.

“Karukur…”It was a command that White would have usually disobeyed, but it nodded and ran toward the other side of the tunnelinstead.

“Oh my god…”someone said. The onlookerscould not believe their eyes.

Werewolves were usually well known to be wild and aggressive monsters;a fully grown adult bull would be ripped to shreds if a werewolf swiped it with its razor-sharp claws once. And yet,that werewolf was listening to the commands of a human?

All eyes were on Kang Yoon-Soo after White listened to his commands and left, and the way people looked at him suddenly changed. It was now difficult to believehe was merely a simplepathfinder.

It was then that White’s loud roar, followed bythe sounds of battle, rang outfrom thefar endof the tunnel.

“Let’s go,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

The survivors and the excavators hurriedly left toward the surface. However,astrong vibration suddenly approached them from behind just as they were about to reach the exit of the excavation site. It was the same kind of vibration Shaneth had initially felt when they were excavating artifacts.

“Kirigruriyaaaaah!”

The boss monsterwas a dragon made out of bones. It has two large wings with not a single patch of hide covering them, and its skull had two glowing red eyes.It was a gigantic and grotesque monster.

[Bone Dragon, Skeltrodon (Boss, Level 174) has appeared!]

Bone Dragons were ancient creatures believed to have been lost in history.Theyusually roamed alone, unlike other boss monsters, butthe dragonwas still intimidating nonetheless.Ithad beentrapped underground for a long period of time,so it appeared to be smaller than a normal dragon, and its teeth were dull; but the core embedded deep within its bones still shone brighter than anything else that existed in the underground.

TheBone Dragon beat itsskeletalwings, charging quickly toward thegroup in midair.

“Kyarrng!Rokra!Urnokra!”White roared as it suddenly charged and jumped up toward theBone Dragon,slamming into its wings and disruptingits flight. The survivorsscreamedas they ran out of the excavation site, but one person was pushed down by the wave ofbodiesand fell down.

“Huk!”Someone fell with a groan.

“Leader!” someone cried.The one who had fallen wasRamax.

TheBone Dragondid not fail to notice the old man, and itbreathed outimmensely hot and destructiveblack fire from its bony mouth.White jumped back to avoid the black fire, and theBone Dragonquicklytook theopportunity to fly and charge toward Ramax.

“Hing!”

Ramax closed his eyes as he curled up, awaitinghis fate of being ripped to shreds by theBone Dragon.

Clang!

Kang Yoon-Soo blocked theBone Dragon’s attackin a split second, however, and Ramaxtook thechance to escape out of the excavation site.

TheBone Dragondid not pursuethe groupafter they had left the excavation site. It was as if it treated the excavation site asthe boundary of its territory.

“Thank you!”

“We survived thanks to you!”

The survivors started to gather around Kang Yoon-Soo as they thanked him one by one.

Ramax, whohad survived by ahair's breadth,saidin a trembling voice, “Thank you so much! I would’ve been dead if it weren’t for you!”

However, Kang Yoon-Soo ignored their gratitude as if he could not hear them at all. He readied Ravian’s Longsword as hequietly said, “Let’s go.”

“Alright!” Shaneth repliedenthusiasticallyasshe readied her Death Scythe, and thepairentered the excavation site once again.

Whitegrowledwith its claws out as theBone Dragonlookedat its enemy through its glowingredeyes. The dragon suddenly reared up and let out a deafening roar.

“Kirgriyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”