Chapter 178 (1/2)
Chapter 178 – The Chosen Ones (3)
Sungjin paused from eating the strawberry yogurt that had come out as a dessert and looked at the notes that Dalupin had handed him last night.
‘Information pertaining to the City of Crimson Moon.’
‘Hrm… This was a really strange place…’
This chapter was a particularly bizarre place, even among the twenty or so chapters he had seen. The monsters that would appear in the other chapters were creatures that one could have read about in fairy tales or novels, but this place contained monsters that were completely otherworldly; they would appear and disappear like ghosts from nightmares. They were typically aberrant creatures with incomplete forms.
‘Back then… I recall that we barely cleared it…’
Sungjin had narrowly had cleared the chapter after losing several of his allies the last time.
“The boss is called Tezer…”
‘What was it again…’
Sungjin looked at the information sheet. The name of the boss was ‘Tezer’burunda’bas’.
“Tezer’burunda’bas… How should I put this… It has a freely changing form made of… floating faces of angry spirits that are bunched up like slimes.”
Hiroaki asked,
“It’s made of floating vengeful spirits that are bunched up like slimes?”
“Yeah. That… That’s the only way I can describe it… It’s made of all kinds of vengeful spirits: laughing ones, crying ones, angry ones…”
Sungjin wanted to describe the boss, but it was not easy to find the proper words. He gave up and listed points that they should pay attention to.
“You’ll understand when you see it. What’s special about this guy is that when a part of its body falls off, it will move independently. However, it can’t be damaged. Only the biggest piece can be wounded, so aim for that.”
The ‘Chosen Ones’ wrote down simple notes or silently nodded their heads as Sungjin spoke. Baltren raised his hand and asked,
“Master Hunter. What about the Hidden Boss?”
Sungjin did not have anything to say about that, since he himself had never encountered the Hidden Boss of this chapter. Sungjin replied truthfully,
“I don’t know either. Since the Hidden Boss is unknown… Be careful. Don’t force yourself to kill it, and if it seems difficult, call me immediately. Understood?”
From Sungjin’s perspective, it would be great if the Chosen Ones could kill the boss and grow in strength by themselves, but it would be a huge loss if someone died while doing so. He had only gathered seven Chosen Ones so far, but the Darker than Black’s shop owner was gone, and Sungjin only had two Holy Water of Baptisms left. Because of this, not one of them could be allowed to die if he wanted to create the party of final ten hunters.
“Then, I hope to see everyone at dinner time in good health.”
“Indeed.”
“See you tonight.”
The hunters separated and returned to their respective dimensions. Sungjin sat alone at the joined tables in Ninety Nine Nights, which Dalupin now left connected together, and gazed over the empty spots.
‘Well… When I saw the future yesterday, no one had died so… There shouldn’t be anything in particular, but…’
In any case, it was likely that no one would die. That is, so long as Sungjin did not do anything strange that was ‘capable of changing the future’ similar to when Edward had cast spells at his allies’ backs.
‘But more importantly…’
Sungjin took out a Holy Water of Baptism from his vest. There were two remaining. It was now Chapter 17. Until Chapter 21, which Sungjin did not know anything about, only Chapter 18, Ser’corist Prison, Chapter 19, Khadhi Azel Magic University, and Chapter 20, Demon King’s Castle, remained. From these four chapters, he had to select two additional Chosen Ones.
‘But there were only eight people at today’s dinner…’
It meant that the possibility of making a new connection did not exist.
‘Then, for now, I’ll not worry about it and just focus on clearing the raid.’
Sungjin believed that this would not be too difficult to do and finished the remaining yogurt.
*
Late at night, in a medieval city where the streets were lit up by shabby torches, the sound of a metallic object scraping against something could be heard.
Creak… Creak
It was unknown if it was a human or an animal, but the moans of some creature could be heard.
Guuuoouuuu…
Above the clock tower that was located at the center of the city, a crimson, full moon could be seen rising. It was an exotic sight. This place which emanated a terrifying atmosphere was Chapter 17, ‘City of Crimson Moon’.
‘Last chapter was great since it was on a warm beach… Here, the atmosphere is too…’
Sungjin waited for the other hunters to appear as he complained to himself.
Pew~
The other hunters appeared one by one, and surprisingly, a familiar person came into view. It was the tall, blue-eyed monk, Mahadas.
“Oh!… Mr. Kei. By coincidence, it seems that we will be able to carry out this raid together.”
“Indeed, that seems to be the case.”
“As I thought… Is this because there are not many people left in the raids anymore?”
“That’s a possibility.”
Previously, when they had finished Chapter 14, there were about 6700 hunters remaining. Though it was impossible to know the exact number of people remaining, it was likely that there were approximately about 2-3000 hunters alive. As it was a five man raid, there would be about 400 to 600 parties and because of this, it would not be particularly difficult to meet with an acquaintance.
“This is the second time that we’ve been partied together since that time at the Castle. It’s a pleasure, K.”