Free Web NovelThe narrow, towering spire offered only two choices. Go up the stairs, or go down.
Above, the dolls were still pouring down in a clattering, menacing flood, while below, the B-rank Hunter stood there quietly watching Chase.
'Ha!'
No matter how aggressive he was, no matter how much he enjoyed charging straight in, that didn’t mean he was some idiot who couldn’t even read a situation. Chase grasped it instantly.
'So this is a trap?'
No, judging by the attitude from the start, it didn’t even seem like the bastard had any intention of hiding it.
But if he had really laid a trap with Chase himself as the target, that was madness.
In an S-rank Gate where you never knew when you might die, the bastard had picked a fight without even properly measuring his opponent’s abilities.
*I thought there was something off about him from the moment I first saw him, but to act this stupidly even now.... *
With a mocking curl to his lips, Chase turned his back.
Whoooosh—
The dolls pouring down from above were threatening, each of them a different Rank, but he didn’t hesitate for even a second before launching flames straight into the mass.
Fwoooosh!
The crimson blaze shot out with astonishing precision and instantly set the stairs above ablaze.
“Aaaagh!”
“It hurts! It hurts!”
The dolls burning alive twisted their bodies as they let out screams like real people. The sight of them writhing in agony and melting away made the atmosphere even more savage.
The air brushing his skin burned hot from the effect of the flames. It was close to pain, but for someone long accustomed to this temperature, it was an unmatched source of dopamine.
The dolls at his feet collapsed into ashes in an instant. Chase’s flames stubbornly pursued them, burning away even the last scraps of their remains.
Crackle, crack....
Watching the sparks spit and snap without emotion, Chase twisted his mouth and turned back around.
“You were planning to kill me... with something like this?”
“.......”
Like the dolls that had burst into flame in an instant, his adrenaline was blazing through his veins.
The calm reaction of the Hunter in front of him only stirred Chase’s competitive instincts further.
“Hey, you... brat from Korea.”
“Yes.”
“Do you know what my hobby is?”
Still, the bastard gave no proper reaction. Chase dragged the corner of his mouth even higher and continued.
“At this point, going around Dungeons and killing monsters is just... boring as hell. I’m much more interested in something else instead.”
Before he even finished speaking, the dolls started surging down again with another clattering wave. This time he didn’t even bother turning around, only stretched out a hand and fired off flames.
Boom—!
After a blast like an exploding bomb, another wave of dolls collapsed all at once.
Chase continued speaking as he came down the stairs one step at a time.
“It’s funny, really. How many people in this world do you think are stronger than me? And yet what I do is... clear Dungeons like this and protect people who take that for granted. Don’t you think that’s ridiculous too?”
“.......”
“I think I deserve better treatment. Maybe a statue, at least. You know, like those scenes in hero movies when you’re a kid.”
“.......”
“And of course, they should overlook the little bad things I do too.”
He snapped his fingers in the air, and a small flame sprang up at once. When the Hunter’s gaze fixed on it, Chase explained with open delight.
“For reference, the bad things I do are playing with Hunters like you before I hunt them down. Honestly, I was hoping you’d be at least a little stronger. It’s more satisfying when they’ve got something worth breaking.”
“For example?”
The Hunter, who had stayed stubbornly silent the whole time, finally spoke. Chase answered without hesitation.
“Who knows. Your country’s got that newly awakened Hunter, doesn’t it? The fire-type.”
“Ah....”
“Or that famous S-rank guild master from your country would be fine too. That pretty-faced Hunter? I’ve always wanted to test myself against a mental-type Hunter. I’ve wondered whether someone can really be called S-rank just because they control minds a little.”
“Hm....”
Even words that were almost pure provocation drew only a lukewarm response.
'Is he scared?'
Maybe he was. Maybe he was the type who at least had enough common sense to know you never turned your back on a predator chasing you.
No longer hesitating, Chase came down the stairs and closed the distance.
Fwoosh!
The flame blooming in Chase’s hand flew in an instant and grazed the Hunter’s shoulder.
“Ugh....”
Seeing the Hunter reflexively clutch at that shoulder as pain flared, Chase lifted the corner of his mouth and tossed out,
“You can start running now. I should at least have some fun too.”
If that bastard’s indifferent reaction came from pride rather than a will to survive, then his expression would twist soon enough.
As Chase recalled the faces of Hunters whose pride had lost to survival instinct at the last moment, he lightly licked his lips. What would this one do?
Would he still refuse to bow and look for some other way? Or maybe call for an ally....
“It’s funny. I wasn’t even trying to provoke you....”
“.......”
But the answer he got was unexpected.
“Then I’ll run!”
...No, not entirely unexpected, but still.
For the brief instant Chase faltered at the absurdly brisk answer, the Hunter had already turned and was rapidly running down the tower.
Tak tak—the sound of footsteps pounding down the stairs rang hollow through the narrow corridor.
Meanwhile, behind Chase, the dolls were still multiplying as they came at him.
“.......”
A strange irritation rising in him for the first time in a while, Chase dropped the thought and started chasing the Hunter down the stairs.
The spire towering high above ground, strangely enough, ran just as deep below it.
“Hey! If you were going to run, you should’ve run for the surface. Going underground is just choosing to die faster, isn’t it?”
He shouted after him to provoke him, but got no real answer.
'Why the hell is he so fast?'
The bastard’s build was absurdly good for a mere B-rank Hunter. But build and awakening Rank didn’t necessarily match, so Chase had brushed it off. Even so, the speed at which he was racing down the spiral staircase was excessive.
In the end, Chase grabbed the railing and threw himself downward.
Boom!
He planted a foot against the stairs, slid down in one smooth sweep, and landed—only to see the Hunter right in front of him. But after flicking a glance at Chase, who had caught right up, the Hunter immediately yanked open a door set into the wall.
'...A door?'
A door? In the wall of this massive spire structure?
He felt an instinctive sense of unease, but Chase had no choice except to follow him inside.
And there, a vast, intricate structure had been woven together with suffocating density.
He could see a floor where enormous gears meshed and turned as though driving something. Debris was scattered everywhere, and bodies that looked like “dolls” were piled across the ground like corpses.
What filled his vision was so huge it didn’t even feel like part of this narrow tower anymore.
Creeeak, kreeeak—! Clank, thud!
Massive gears meshed endlessly, producing a heavy, grinding roar.
But more astonishing than anything else... was the mana.
'Ha!'
To think the source of the mana permeating this tower was a space buried this deep underground. The sheer amount of mana was so enormous that even Chase, an S-rank Hunter, shivered for an instant.
'An S-rank Gate really is on a different level.'
He had wondered what the hell was producing all these shabby dolls, and for it to be this very “tower”... just confirming the enormous mana was enough for Chase to grasp the structure of the Dungeon at once.
If that was the case, then if this structure collapsed, would the Gate collapse too?
Chase was briefly thinking about clearing the Gate when he suddenly raised his head. The space was wide, but it was a dead end.
“You came here knowing about this place? Then you might as well have walked in here to die.”
Speaking in a mocking tone, Chase looked straight at the Hunter standing some distance away and watching him. With every step he took closer, he drew more fire up from inside himself.
Boom, boom, boom!
Melting away the human-shaped dolls rushing in from behind as if it were nothing, Chase kept walking.
Thump, thump....
For the first time in a long while, his heart was pounding hard.
The mana here was immense. Maybe enough to surpass even the power he himself possessed. It was possible that a single S-rank alone wouldn’t be enough to erase this structure.
Standing in the heart of such overwhelming mana naturally heated his body. His innate competitive instinct, his irritation at his opponent, his interest, and the adrenaline and dopamine from everything else....
They were all things that burned.
The immense mana filling the space began resonating with the mana inside Chase’s own body. As if it were flowing through his bloodstream, it boiled hot.
For flames meant to kill nothing more than the B-rank Hunter in front of him, their form was absurdly large.
'He’s going to die anyway, so does it matter whether I burn him up or melt him down?'
Just before releasing the flames he had gathered, Chase said to the Hunter,
“If you beg, I might let you live.”
Of course, even if he begged and pleaded, Chase had no intention of sparing him.
But instead of begging, the Hunter shifted his gaze past Chase’s shoulder.
'What is he looking at?'
“Figures. A high-rank Hunter really is different. To melt that many dolls down all at once.”
Admiration? At a time like this? Chase’s brow twitched at the utterly incomprehensible response. But whether he cared or not, the Hunter stared behind him as if it were genuinely fascinating, and then... suddenly burst out laughing.
“Hahaha!”
“What’s so funny? Have you gone mad with fear?”
“I get told I live without thinking things through all the time, but even I’m not this bad.”
What the hell did that mean?
He couldn’t make sense of it at all. But the bastard went on in a truly delighted voice.
“The door melted shut... so how exactly are you planning to get out?”
“What?”
“Still, not my problem, right? I can get out.”
At those words, Chase spun around sharply.
The sight of the dolls that had surged in behind him melting together into one mass and completely blocking the door stirred instinctive revulsion. But more important than that was... the sealed door, just as the bastard had said.
The vanished exit.
'Wait. What did he just say?'
Chase stared at it, then turned his head back.
“What did you just say....”
“I meant exactly what I said. I can get out.”
The moment Chase saw that crooked smile of provocation, he stopped hesitating and fired the flames from his hand.
But just before the flames could reach him, something cube-shaped flashed near the bastard’s hand, and in an instant—
“You motherfucker!”
The massive flames Chase had launched dropped to the floor without ever touching the Hunter.
Booom!
The huge blaze swallowed part of the nearby structure and erupted with a deafening roar. Letting out a disbelieving laugh as he stared at his own raging fire, Chase looked up at the ceiling.
So this had been a trap.
Fury boiled up at how cleanly he had been caught, but he calmed down again just as quickly. Because in practical terms, it was impossible for Chase Holt—the strongest fire-type, a born degenerate, a man who hunted Hunters for sport—to have his life threatened....
But Chase’s thoughts never got any further.
Because in the next instant, the entire space caved in under monstrous gravitational pressure.
KWA-AAAANG—!!!
As pressure fell upon the massive Gate energy now beginning to react to the flames, it truly lived up to the name cheat key—the entire space detonated at once with a colossal explosion.
The great tower collapsed in an instant.
