Chapter 115: Void Energy (3)
“Ugh… You cowardly bastard, ambushing me like that.”
Dolsae muttered while gulping down an expensive elixir.
He had taken a direct hit to the chest, but it wasn’t fatal.
If he hadn’t been circulating mana at that moment, the blow might have pierced a vital spot and killed him instantly.
“Did he predict this…?”
The brutal—no, the “advisory”—training from his junior to always keep mana circulating and resist Creep poison even when idle.
At first, he had thought it was just harassment.
It was far more efficient to conserve mana for combat rather than waste it resisting poison.
Unless you were a Zero-grade Hunter who could afford to squander mana, the standard approach was to behave like Dolsae had.
He marveled at Psycho’s foresight.
Of course, Psycho had genuinely just wanted to make Dolsae’s life miserable, but Dolsae had no way of knowing that, so he thought whatever made him feel better.
Boom!
In the meantime, a woman flew toward him and crashed deep into the ground beside him.
It was Nia, the cowardly GODS villain who had ambushed him earlier.
Dolsae quickly flew toward the upside-down Nia and activated his “Berserk” ability.
“Groooar!”
His entire body flushed red as his muscles swelled.
He slammed both fists downward.
Boom boom boom!
Her body was driven even deeper underground.
It was a somewhat cowardly and underhanded strike, but Dolsae didn’t care.
She had struck first with treachery.
Since it had already turned into a dirty fight, he intended to drive the nail in completely.
Bang! Bang! Boom boom boom!
He hammered relentlessly to keep her buried underground.
Only after both of her legs had completely disappeared into the earth did he stop.
“Heh heh, this is what happens when you ambush me. Now to go help my junior—”
Sss—
At that moment, a faint afterimage of Nia appeared right in front of him.
Boom boom boom boom—
A far more powerful strike than before slammed into Dolsae.
He was sent flying several meters backward in an instant.
Thanks to preparing in advance, he had managed to block with both arms, but the impact still reverberated through his entire body.
“Heh, is that all you’ve got?”
Even so, the corners of his mouth twitched upward.
Sssss…
Faint smoke rose from the arms that had blocked the blow, but outwardly he looked perfectly fine.
If he hadn’t strengthened his body with Berserk, those arms would already be broken.
It had been quite a close call.
Still, having blocked it, Dolsae stood proud.
Nia approached him in a similarly unscathed state.
Dressed neatly in a red suit, her cold demeanor made her look like a highly trained professional assassin.
Tss-ts-ts—
Black mana flowed from her body.
“Fine. Let’s do this properly.”
Dolsae also released blue mana as he muttered.
Both were unarmed, pure physical-type Hunters.
The outcome would be decided by who had the tougher body and the stronger mana.
Having already taken two hits, Dolsae had a rough sense.
When Berserk was active, his physical abilities held a slight edge.
The problem was the considerable gap in mana levels.
The key was to force his opponent to exhaust her mana first.
Dolsae planned to invest mana only in maintaining Berserk and conserve as much as possible.
Taat—
He leaped forward in a frontal assault.
His strategy was to overwhelm her with superior physicality and drain her mana.
But at that moment.
Kwaaaaa—
An enormous amount of black mana erupted from Nia.
Dolsae instinctively held his breath, disrupting his rhythm.
Swoosh—
She slowly clenched her fist and thrust it toward him.
Dolsae had been caught off guard, but he couldn’t back down now.
He threw his own punch at the same time.
BOOM!
Their fists collided, and a massive mana explosion swept through the surroundings.
Psssh…
Amid the swirling toxic fog and clouds of dirt.
“Cough…”
Dolsae, sprawled flat on the ground, turned his head to the side and spat out a mouthful of blood.
Squelch. Squelch.
Nia slowly approached, stepping through the thick Creep.
“Damn it, she’s disgustingly strong.”
Dolsae struggled to get back on his feet.
The constant poison trying to invade his body and mind every second made it even more difficult.
“To think you’re this weak. Korea is nothing but trash except for the False Prophet.”
Nia spoke fluently in Korean.
Hearing Korean come from a foreigner momentarily surprised Dolsae, but that was all.
Her dismissive words toward him and other Korean Hunters ignited his anger.
“Grrrrraaaah!”
Roaring, Dolsae charged toward Nia.
Boom boom boom—
He rushed forward with the intimidating force of an enraged bull.
But in Nia’s eyes, he was nothing more than a small dog recklessly charging in.
Boom!
With another punch, Nia knocked Dolsae flat again.
The powerful impact to his head caused his eyes to roll back.
She immediately hooked his leg, slamming him down fully.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Boom boom boom!
She stomped on him repeatedly, driving him deep into the ground.
Splash—
Her sharp heels pierced through not only his mana barrier but also his reinforced suit and skin, drawing blood.
Even in that state, Dolsae kept circulating mana to prevent the Creep from corroding him.
However, the amount of mana a 2nd-grade Hunter possessed was limited, and it became his shackle.
No matter how much mana he wrapped around himself, Nia’s attacks tore straight through.
“If you’re trash, act like trash and stay down.”
Nia vented her frustration from being humiliated by Psycho on the far weaker Dolsae.
But her mood still hadn’t improved.
Rather than killing him outright, she felt like toying with him more.
“While Prophet Zhang Weiren punishes the False Prophet, you’ll serve as my plaything.”
As Nia grabbed Dolsae by the collar and lifted him.
Swoosh—
A sharp sound came from behind her.
She immediately tried to deflect or catch it by turning.
Paaaat—
“…!”
Blinded by an intensely bright light, she opened her mouth in shock.
Instinctively realizing it was too dangerous to block or deflect, she tried to dodge.
But the pure white holy power had already engulfed her.
***
Chae Jin-young threw a white orb toward the dying Dolsae.
It was one of the orbs he had found in the hell ruins.
That much should be enough—he had taken plenty of hits, so his mind should be clear by now.
It was time to give him a chance to fight back.
Of course, whether he could turn the tables using the orb was entirely up to Dolsae.
If he couldn’t even manage that, Chae Jin-young would no longer be able to help him grow any further.
“I wonder how this thing was made.”
Setting Dolsae’s situation aside for the moment, Chae Jin-young examined the massive sphere he had pulled in with psychokinesis.
He had already silenced the thousands of screaming monster mouths attached to it with psychokinesis.
He had planned to immediately absorb the black mana and void energy inside the sphere and discard it.
But after catching a fleeting glimpse of another world’s scenery, curiosity arose.
For just a split second, something like a portal had appeared on the sphere’s surface, revealing an unfamiliar landscape.
He couldn’t tell if it was Renard, but the probability it was another dimension was high.
『Only Godfather would know.』
The tentacle also seemed unable to guess what kind of technology was involved.
Since learning that Godfather was the leader of the Hell God Religion, Chae Jin-young wasn’t particularly surprised.
More than that, he grew curious about whoever had brought this enormous, powerful sphere here.
It definitely wasn’t the villain currently fighting Dolsae.
“Let’s take it for now.”
『Good.』
At Chae Jin-young’s words, the tentacle emerged from the portal and wrapped around the massive sphere.
The monsters, along with the sphere itself, resisted by emitting demonic energy.
Crackle… Boom boom boom!
But they succumbed to the tentacle’s overwhelming power and were sucked into subspace.
“The guy who brought this—could he be with the White Knight?”
『No. He seems to be heading this way alone.』
Because the poison and pressure were far stronger than in other contaminated zones, it was difficult to sense mana, but that posed no significant obstacle to the tentacle.
“No need to search around—nice.”
As it drew closer, Chae Jin-young also found it easier to distinguish the enemy’s mana.
Soon after, a figure emerged through the toxic fog, radiating tremendous black mana.
No—upon closer inspection, it looked less like a human and more like a goblin.
Its heavily distorted expression suggested it was furious about having the sphere taken.
“I wondered which bastard dared interfere with the plan… but I think I know who you are.”
Chinese words flowed from the goblin’s mouth.
Of course, Chae Jin-young, who couldn’t understand them, lightly ignored the creature.
Jacob, who would have handled translation, had been left behind in Nine City anyway—and he had no intention of conversing with it in the first place.
“False Prophet. Father told us not to fight you, but you’re extremely tempting…”
The goblin’s mouth shut mid-sentence.
Chae Jin-young had forcibly closed it with psychokinesis.
The creature tried to move its lips, but no matter how much force it exerted, it was impossible.
In this situation, it had no choice but to attack.
But its entire body was restrained by psychokinesis—not even a finger could twitch.
Ku ku ku ku…
Of course, it could still release black mana.
Dark red mana flowed from its body, and its form gradually began turning golden.
“What the hell. A golden goblin?”
Chae Jin-young looked at it curiously for a moment, but that was all.
His original plan was to quickly absorb the White Knight’s mana and energy and return to hell.
He had no time to waste on small fry like this.
Crack crack— Crunch!
The golden-tinted limbs of the creature snapped.
The sound was less like breaking bones and more like crumpling metal.
Apparently, it wasn’t just the color that had changed—its body had turned to metal.
Of course, no matter how hard it became, it couldn’t withstand Chae Jin-young’s psychokinesis.
『How… is this even possible…』
The utterly bewildered golden goblin transmitted its voice through mana.
Godfather’s warning echoed in its mind: no matter how wildly you struggle, he is an opponent you can never touch.
It hadn’t wanted to ignore the warning, but with the artifact stolen, it had no choice but to attack.
Moreover, the impulse to defeat the False Prophet and take everything from him had been impossible to suppress.
In this situation, it had to at least escape with its soul.
It tried to pull something from its subspace bag, but in its haste, it exposed its hand to Chae Jin-young.
Shuu—
Naturally, Chae Jin-young snatched the bag away with psychokinesis.
『I can’t let you take everything…』
And those were its last words.
“Go chat with your friends.”
Crunch crunch— Crack crack!
In an instant, the golden goblin was bent and compressed.
Tss-ts—
The tentacle emerged, wrapped around the crumpled golden goblin, and rapidly absorbed its mana.
It also quickly infiltrated its mind and extracted useful information.
And so, Prophet Zhang Weiren departed without accomplishing anything, leaving behind the massive sphere artifact, a large amount of black mana, and the latest GODS intelligence.
Truly a golden goblin that gave everything it had before leaving.
“Anything useful?”
Chae Jin-young reached into the creature’s subspace bag and checked its contents.
Images of the items inside flashed through his mind.
Potions, various enhancers, poisons, magic stones, and so on.
Nothing particularly useful to Chae Jin-young. Of course, Department Head Kim at the secret research division would be delighted to receive them.
Then he discovered an unfamiliar artifact.
He took it out directly from the bag.
“What’s this used for?”
It was a golden coin slightly smaller than his palm.
A considerable amount of mana was condensed within this small artifact.
He decided to examine it later at the secret research division and continued walking.
Sss…
The toxic fog blocking his path parted to either side.
Like Moses parting the Red Sea, Chae Jin-young advanced.
Since the golden goblin had departed this world, both the poison and pressure had returned to normal levels, easily pushed aside even by weak psychokinesis.
As he continued forward.
Swoosh—
An arrow of enormous size flew toward him, emitting green poison.
When he tried to catch it with psychokinesis, it resisted with dark sparks.
It was unmistakable.
『Void energy.』
“Let’s make this quick.”
Chae Jin-young concentrated the widely spread psionic energy into one point.
Not at himself—but at the pale figure far in the distance.
Shuu— Ts-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
In an instant, the White Knight was trapped inside a psionic storm.
Shwoooo—
The White Knight was delivered straight to Chae Jin-young along with the storm.
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