Chapter 31

I Am Not a Reincarnator Chapter 31

Under World (4)

-Screeeech!!!

Thick smoke filled the corridor.

A horrifying scream shook the eardrums.

“KarAaaaaaaaaaa!!”

The group of reptilians writhed in pain.

The more they struggled, the more the silver wires entangled them.

-Clank! Clank!

The reptilians convulsed, trying to pull out their sharp bone spikes to cut the wires. The wires screeched as they were scratched by the blunt metal sounds.

“Not so easy to cut, huh?”

Oh Jin smirked as he watched the struggling reptilians.

The wires, reinforced with holy stones and infused with mana, were not going to be broken by the reptilians' attacks.

“KaaaaaaaAAA!!”

Realizing the wires wouldn't break, the reptilians slowly retreated to the back of the corridor.

Those lucky enough to avoid the wires turned to flee.

Then.

-BOOM!!!

“KuRAaaaaaa!”

With a fierce roar, a fleeing reptilian was launched forward like a cannonball.

Thud!

The intense impact made the entangled wires ripple.

“That’s...”

Oh Jin turned his head to face the monster that had thrown the reptilian like a cannonball.

A monster twice the size of the other reptilians.

Dark red muscles, like a king's armor, covered the monster's body.

‘A Reptilian Champion, perhaps.’

The Reptilian Champion blocked the fleeing reptilians and snarled fiercely.

The reptilians, their faces filled with fear, turned back to face Oh Jin.

“Gurkaaaa!”

Following the Reptilian Champion's command, the reptilians gathered and began to break through the corridor.

They pushed the dead bodies of the entangled reptilians forward, as if trying to push a bus out of a ditch.

-Creak! Creak!

The silver wire cables screeched and stretched taut.

‘This is getting tough.’

Oh Jin clicked his tongue.

He infused mana into the shooter on his wrist.

Sssss!

The wires, slicing through the reptilian corpses, returned to the shooter.

“KuRuuuuuuuUU!!”

Perhaps sensing an opportunity, the Reptilian Champion roared and brandished a massive bone spike.

The group of reptilians, pushing the corpses, charged forward, climbing the walls.

[Heh. These insignificant creatures are putting up a fight.]

Vega sneered, folding her arms.

“Indeed.”

Oh Jin nodded, raising his spear.

Crack! Crack!!

The ensuing melee.

Oh Jin's spear swept savagely through the group of reptilians.

-Zzzz!

“KaraaaaaAAAc!”

With each swing of the spear, charged with blue lightning, a reptilian fell to the ground.

Due to the large number of dead reptilians entangled in the wires, the remaining reptilians, even if they charged en masse, were not particularly threatening.

-Thud!

“GuRuAaaaaa!!”

Unable to bear it, the Reptilian Champion stepped forward.

“Too late.”

You should have charged together from the start.

-Thud! Thud!

With each rough step, the Reptilian Champion caused heavy vibrations in the corridor.

In the midst of the decimated group of reptilians, the Reptilian Champion, wielding a massive bone spike, charged forward.

“Huh.”

Clang! Clang!!

He raised his spear to block the bone spike. Spinning his body, he swung the spear low.

Crack!

The spear, swung at high speed, struck the Reptilian Champion's knee.

Stagger. His stance crumbled.

“KAaaRacC!!!”

The Reptilian Champion thrashed, emitting an incomprehensible roar.

He seemed to be trying to create some distance, swinging the bone spike wildly as he retreated.

“Where do you think you're going?”

Clang!

With a loud noise, the wire was launched.

-Clang!

The Reptilian Champion, reacting quickly, struck the wire's weight like a baseball bat.

The wire rebounded and embedded itself in the fleshy wall.

“KuRarara!”

The Reptilian Champion, with a smug expression, looked at Oh Jin.

“Brat, you're done for.”

Smirking, he infused mana into the shooter on his left arm.

Sssss!

The wire cable stretched taut, and his body shot forward as if in a 3D maneuver.

-Throwing himself into the momentum.

“Huh!”

Gripping his spear with his right hand, he thrust it forward with the force of a lance charge!

-Crunch!

“KaaaaaAAAA!!”

The spear, thrust with full power, pierced the Reptilian Champion's eye.

The Reptilian Champion roared, clutching the spear embedded in his eye.

That was it.

“Spear Lightning.”

Zzzz!

“KraaaaaRac!!!”

Blue lightning coursed through the spear, burning the Reptilian Champion's brain.

Thud!

The massive body of the Reptilian Champion fell to the ground with a heavy thud.

“Huh.”

Regulating his slightly roughened breathing, he pulled out the spear.

[Spear Lightning, you've become quite proficient with it.]

“After practicing hard for the past three weeks.”

On days with no other events, he would wake up early in the morning and train with the holy stone marks until sunset.

While he still couldn't use it as naturally as when he received the 'blessing,' he had made significant progress compared to when he first managed to use the skill by sheer force.

[Hmm. It's not a skill that can be mastered so easily, even with hard work.]

Vega shrugged, as if tired of being surprised.

“Well, shall we collect the spoils?”

Heh heh!

Oh Jin chuckled, placing his spear on the ground.

He pulled out a knife from his thigh and began to dissect the reptilian corpses.

‘The size of the holy stones... not much.’

Oh Jin clicked his tongue in disappointment after extracting the holy stones from the reptilian corpses.

Just because a monster is of a high rank doesn't mean it necessarily has high-quality or large holy stones.

In extreme cases, a 7th or 8th-class monster might produce a holy stone even worse than an Ant Horn.

‘Well, these scraps are practically worthless anyway.’

After all, a basketball-sized holy stone, the main dish, was waiting for him.

[The holy stone is of a disconcerting color.]

The holy stone extracted from the Reptilian Champion, as expected, was black.

—A variant's holy stone.

A holy stone that could only be obtained from the extremely rare variant monsters that occurred within the Gate.

‘But it doesn’t seem so rare anymore.’

Due to encountering so many variants recently, the black holy stones felt more familiar than the usual blue ones.

“Do you feel the same unpleasant sensation you felt earlier?”

He asked Vega, holding out the black holy stone.

She held the black holy stone in both hands, examining it from all angles.

[There is a faint trace of the energy I felt earlier.]

“Hmm.”

Oh Jin narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing the black holy stone.

‘There must be some connection between the power of the Black Star and the variants.’

The black slimes he encountered in the cave last time also possessed black holy stones.

It was implausible that the Gate, where a holy relic imbued with the power of the Black Star was sealed, would ‘coincidentally’ produce a large number of variant monsters.

‘Is there a holy relic imbued with the power of the Black Star buried here too?’

He didn't know.

In Lee Shin-hyuk's memory, only the image of the rampaging monster was visible.

[Hmm. This is a disconcerting space.]

Vega narrowed her eyes, looking around the fleshy corridor.

“Indeed.”

Holding the black holy stone, Oh Jin pondered for a moment before clicking his tongue and turning around.

He decided to put aside thoughts about the nature of the black holy stone for now.

‘There’s no point in worrying about it now.’

He had no time to waste on unnecessary thoughts.

“Let’s go.”

After extracting the holy stones from all the reptilian corpses scattered in the corridor, Oh Jin moved forward.

A lingering unease remained, but.

‘As long as it’s worth money, it doesn’t matter.’

Whether it’s blue or black, what does it matter?

In fact, the black holy stones from variants were more expensive, so the increase in variants was a welcome development.

‘And I can absorb the power of the Black Star too.’

While he didn’t know exactly what the power of the Black Star was,

It was clear that it was a significant power for him right now.

-Clank, clank.

He walked deeper into the corridor.

A few groups of reptilians attacked along the way, but he easily dealt with them.

After about 30 minutes,

“Oh.”

At the end of the corridor.

In the center of a chamber covered in dark red flesh, a fleshy giant lay curled up like a cocoon.

The fleshy giant, with its eyes closed, seemed to be in a deep sleep, showing no movement.

‘Damn, this is really something.’

It was about 10 meters tall?

Smaller than the size he remembered from Lee Shin-hyuk's memory, but it still exuded an overwhelming presence.

—This monster is really strong.

That was his instinctive feeling.

“Huh.”

He calmed his racing heart, taking a deep breath.

Raising his left arm toward the fleshy giant, he aimed the wire shooter.

-Clang! Clang! Clang!!

The wire, launched with a strong recoil, embedded itself in the giant's body.

Drip.

Dark red blood gushed from where the wire was embedded, but the fleshy giant showed no reaction.

‘Spear Lightning.’

Zzzz!

Blue lightning coursed through the wire, burning the fleshy giant.

As expected.

The fleshy giant still showed no movement.

“Heh, what good is being strong? Huh?”

Oh Jin’s lips curled into a smirk.

The fleshy giant was indeed intimidating just to look at.

‘But that’s all it is.’

After all, it was a fool, sealed and unable to move a finger.

There was no reason to fear it, no matter how large and oppressive it seemed.

[That’s the sealed monster.]

“Right. The culprit who devastated Seoul Station in the first cycle.”

Oh Jin nodded, approaching the fleshy giant.

“But... it’s just a big, helpless fool now!”

He looked up at the fleshy giant with a greedy gaze.

‘To be able to obtain holy stones so easily like this.’

Lee Shin-hyuk, you’re really useful.

“Let’s finish this quickly.”

Gripping the silver spear, he activated the holy stone mark.

“Yah!!!”

He approached and thrust the spear.

Poke!

The flesh split, and blood spurted out.

“Huh! Haat! Chaat!”

He continued a fluid series of strikes with powerful shouts.

Slicing, stabbing, twisting.

With each swing of the spear, blood and flesh splattered.

‘Heh heh! This is kind of fun.’

It felt like beating a very realistic punching bag.

No, it was more like hitting a punch machine in an arcade.

“Die, you lump!”

Beating the helpless fleshy giant was a great stress reliever.

‘Relieving stress and making money!’

What a wonderful thing!

‘Thanks, Shin-hyuk!!’

I owe my life to you!

“Hahaha!!”

As he was happily swinging his spear,

Creak.

—The fleshy giant opened its eyes.

“Huh?”

Oh Jin’s expression stiffened.

‘What’s this guy doing?’

Why did it suddenly open its eyes?

[My child, wasn’t the monster sealed?]

“Y-Yes! Of course!”

He nodded frantically.

“It’s just opening its eyes, it can’t move!”

It seemed the seal Lee Shin-hyuk mentioned only restrained the body while leaving the consciousness intact.

‘Right.’

Even if it retained some consciousness, it didn’t matter—

-Rumble!!

The fleshy giant rose.

“KAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!”

A terrifying roar, like a gathering of a cult worshipping a demon, echoed.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Four arms sprouted from the fleshy giant, striking the walls savagely.

“What the hell?”

Why is this guy moving?