Chapter 166
“There is no fairy.”
“If you’re upset, why don’t you call her?”
“No, thanks.”
He didn’t want to call Luta, the fairy who unnecessarily intervened wherever Jung Si-woo showed off his existence. Even more so in this dungeon, where he didn’t feel the threat of death for a moment until they reached the boss room.
“But it’s a common pattern to let one’s guard down and taste bitter defeat…”
“Yes, I’d be disappointed if you didn’t say that.”
Jung Si-woo wondered why the armored orcs believed and followed Hecto so fervently as he passed this dungeon. Hecto was a violent god who ignored the individuality of everything and used it as his power, and Armored Orcs were variants that strengthened themselves with the power of Artifacts. He couldn’t get rid of the idea of being at odds with each other in fundamental ways, and neither could their ability to face it.
“But why did they…”
[Master, why don’t you think the other way around?]
Caina, who was no less eccentric about the dungeon than Jung Si-woo – annoyed by not facing strong foes – brought it up.
[Maybe they believe in Hecto because they are Armored Orcs.]
“Hmm?”
[Armored Orcs are aware of their imperfections. That may be why they wanted to combine the power of artifacts and the dissonance of their body into one under the power of Hecto.]
Jung Si-woo thought it was quite convincing, but the guys he had seen so far weren’t like that. If that were possible, there would have been no mechanical outbursts and no active skills.
[What if the Boss Monster is waiting for us in here?]]
“Then…rock-paper-scissors!”
[Hmm!?]
Jung Si-woo stopped thinking and thrust his hand out like lightning. Caina stuck her fist out in embarrassment. The winner was Jung Si-woo, who chose paper.
“Okay, if that’s the case, I’ll deal with him.”
[…That’s very cheeky.]
Caina was equally thirsty for the strong and took a right to fight in such a surprise attack, but she couldn’t beat her master. She stepped back with a pledge to bully him when training, and Jung Si-woo, who stood ahead with a proud expression, just smiled.
“Sometimes when I see you…I think you have nine lives.”
“I live like this because I have only one life.”
Carefully opening it, Jung Si-woo went forward, talking nonsense. Yong Se-ha, who knew that he wasn’t ready to challenge the boss yet, returned to his arms, and Soo Ah-rin blessed Jung Si-woo. It was his first blessing in the dungeon. Finally, Caina stared at the entrance to the boss room and muttered helplessly.
[There could be two bosses.]
“Then it will be a more exciting battle.”
[You mean you have no intention of giving away even after death, master…]
Jung Si-woo grabbed Punishment and bent his knees slightly. On the other hand, he opened the boss room without hesitation, expanding the dragon’s senses to grasp the room’s width, the boss’ location, and all information as quickly as possible.
First of all, there was one boss. It was an armored orc, and it wasn’t that big. Rather, it surprised him because he was similar to Jung Si-woo’s physique.
“Of course, even so.”
As long as the dungeon bound them, they couldn’t break the absolute proposition that the boss room opened, and they couldn’t move for three seconds. Although there was an unprecedented situation in which the boss opened the boss room door in a few dungeons recently, he couldn’t even be a player if it happened every time. I was personally vowing to declare a strike if it happened again.
That, fortunately, didn’t seem to be the case now.
“Okay, he recognized me, but he’s not moving!’
Although this dungeon was opened by Hecto’s ability, the basic part was subordinate to the characteristics of the dungeon, and so was the boss who appeared. At the moment when Jung Si-woo activated the dragon’s senses to grasp the potential of his appearance and internal body, he also noticed Jung Si-woo, but his eyes weren’t turning toward him.
“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
Jung Si-woo, who figured it out, immediately launched a Cruel charge and rushed to him. There was no time to waste even a fraction of a second. To reach him in the shortest time and feed him the strongest attack, he focused his whole body’s nerves and dreamed of harmony with Mana. The boss room wasn’t that wide compared to the vast temple’s appearance so far, so it was possible to reach his eyes within a split second.
And in that short moment, the possibility of infinite movement was established in his head…!
“Kaha!”
The impact of his hammer condensed on a point and exploded! The combination of Cruel Charge, innate power, and super strike targeting the immobilized target was truly amazing. It resulted in an excessive destructive force that instantly distorted the space. The group reflexively covered their ears.
[Aaah!]
Surprisingly, however, he responded to his attack. It was only a passive reaction because it failed to break the rule of not moving for three seconds, but it couldn’t ignore the effect of his passive defensive skills. That very passive skill was the problem.
“What?”
[Ahh…]
The armored orc, which failed to completely avoid Jung Si-woo’s attack, coughed up blood with a scream. However, that fact alone surprised Jung Si-woo enough. He just couldn’t believe what he saw.
“Maybe Caina was right.’
Just as his hammer was about to break his head, Jung Si-woo witnessed the mechanical device covering his entire body swell in response to the blow. That’s all right. Many of the armored orcs encountered in this dungeon had been equipped with defensive mechanisms. The problem was that it was over-flexible, powerful, and rigid. Half the destruction was enough to stop Jung Si-woo’s surprise attack.
“Huh!”
Of course, the results were surprising, but Jung Si-woo, who had fully postulated such possibilities, continued swinging. He spun his hammer in the air, again and again, using the recoil from his strike, but even more surprising was the mechanical device that constantly prevented his attack with only half the defense left.
“That’s why three seconds is meaningless. Isn’t it cheating to control the mechanism instead of the body that can’t move?’
When it was unclear who was cheating, three seconds passed neatly, and he regained his freedom.
[You little rat!]
At that moment, a sound of destruction rang similar to Jung Si-woo’s hammer when he hit him directly. A huge mechanical arm soaring from his abdomen hit Jung Si-woo’s chest in an instant! He successfully read the movement with the dragon’s senses, but he couldn’t completely avoid it, and he was blown into the air by the slight attack.
“Gasp!”
[Hmph, your body is so hard…!]
Despite invoking the Chaos scale at the moment of the attack, there was a pain that felt like his organs were rattling. It was quite a shock after a long time.
[Master!]
“No…I can still do it!”
However, as the armored orc did a while ago, a clear smile hung from Jung Si-woo’s mouth while coughing up blood. If he had known this would happen, he thought it would have been okay if he hadn’t caught him by surprise.
“That’s real!”
[Hecto says you’re real. But the attack you just displayed, which isn’t suitable for a warrior, makes me suspicious!]
The armored orc blasted him into the air. Mana wasn’t felt. To maintain and move such a mechanical device, it would be impossible without pouring all the mana that his body produced. Nevertheless, his movement was so fast that it was hard to understand that it wasn’t an active skill. By the time Jung Si-woo figured out his condition in the air, the sharp battle-ax he had changed his arm into was about to bisect his body.
[Warriors do not attack the unprepared! You’re disqualified!]
“Oh, no wonder your men are true warriors, aren’t they?”
[Die!]
Jung Si-woo, who wouldn’t lose in words even if he died soon, watched the ax descend toward him. However, he neatly avoided his attack by throwing his body sideways in the air by activating his battle sprint.
“Ha!”
[Did he just lead his body with Mana?]
[Strong tricks!]
Of course, Jung Si-woo’s evasive move was very different from Caina’s sophisticated skills. If Caina’s skills treated Mana and the body like the N-pole and S-pole of the magnet, Jung Si-woo just poured Mana into the battle sprint skill, adding Mana to the physical movement that should’ve otherwise been impossible.
[An ignorant waste, ignorant operation…that isn’t even the human way, let alone the way of a warrior!]
“You’re full of shit.”
In short, it could be said that he pushed the door open by pulling it open, but for Jung Si-woo, who had a transcendent body, the method may look better on him.
“I don’t care what you think of me or what you call me.”
Jung Si-woo landed on the floor without any strain and lifted his hammer with a smile. Mana was now boiling over his entire body, although he consumed much mana to prevent the terrible attack. The overwhelming amount of mana interacted with the world with the dragon’s senses, and it was amplified, strengthening his whole body.
“Come on; I’ll engrave what I think I am on your body.”
“Oh, it’s cringy.”
[Strong nonsense…!]
As soon as the armored orc fixed his position, he hit him with the same explosive acceleration as before, but Jung Si-woo wasn’t beaten as weakly as before.
“The rate of assimilation between you and the mechanical device seems extraordinary!”
[Do you recognize the greatness of Hecto now?]
In the air, Jung Si-woo’s hammer and the armored oak ax collided. It was repeated repeatedly, and a battle of terrible power and speed began, which horrified even the spectators. In the process, Jung Si-woo gradually figured out the guy.
‘It’s fun. It’s really fun.’
A smile was around Jung Si-woo’s mouth when he collided with the ax. The synchronization was so high that it could no longer be separated from the body, and it naturally became as natural as breathing. Indeed, Caina was right. The armored orcs, imperfect beings, met with Hecto and gained the possibility of perfection.
This small, armored orc in front of Jung Si-woo was proof of that.
“No, I’d be disappointed to call you an Armored Orc.”
[Hmm?]
Jung Si-woo activated the Chaos scale to cover his entire body tightly. It was also an expression of his willingness to pull out his power as if he were equipped with a dark red-scale armor.
“Isn’t that right, Hecto?”
At the moment, the air froze when Jung Si-woo said that. But the next moment, to his surprise, his enemy laughed face to face at him.
[Ha, you’re so quick to see things. That’s quite unexpected of you, human.]
That’s right; his enemy wasn’t an armored orc.
It was the avatar of Hecto.