Chapter 165 (1/2)

“No wonder why…” Su-hyeun muttered.

Pitapat, pitapat—

Su-hyeun closed his eyes and felt the sound more clearly. He couldn’t feel anything other than the heartbeats. It didn’t make sense with Su-hyeun’s incredible senses. But still, he could hear the sound. That meant this heart was huge, and the heartbeat was absurdly loud.

As Su-hyeun knew, there were only a few monsters with a heart that size. And, among them, there was only one monster that lived under the ground or near the sea or a river.

Rumble, rumble—

The ground began to shake. No. It wasn’t the ground that was shaking. It was something under the ground.

<<It’s the Titan Turtle!>>

The Titan Turtle began to move. Su-hyeun opened his eyes wide but stood up with a calm face. The tremor, sounding like an earthquake, grew louder.

Grrr, Grrr—

Miru bared his teeth and roared. The Titan Turtle had such a menacing presence. In fact, the Titan Turtle was more dangerous than any monster Miru had ever met.

“Hey, Miru,” Su-hyeun called.

Purr—

At Su-hyeun’s call, Miru began to fly up, carrying Su-hyeun on its back. Soon, the ground that Su-hyeun and Miru had stood upon shook apart. Debris flew into the air.

Rumble, rumble—

Crack, crack—

The ground turned upside down, and the trees that grew on it fell down. Su-hyeun was convinced, watching what was happening.

<<I guess the reason why the monsters stopped attacking us is because we entered the territory of the Titan Turtle.>>

The Titan Turtle was one of the gigantic monsters. Moreover, before Fafnir had appeared, the Titan Turtle had been eating everything that it could see. It was the same for the other monsters. After Fafnir, the head of the monster army, disappeared, the Titan Turtle ate other monsters as food. So, it was natural that the other monsters didn’t go close to the Titan Turtle, which was now the top predator in the food chain.

Grrr, Grrr—

Miru began to roar louder. At first, Su-hyeun though Miru was frightened by the Titan Turtle. But his reaction was a little off for that.

“Why, Miru? What’s going on?” Su-hyeun asked.

Grrr, Grrrng—

It wasn’t a fear reaction; it was close to excitement instead. A giant shell started to appear. Miru reacted without rhyme or reason at the grey turtle.

<<Does he want to fight? No. I don’t think so.>>

Su-hyeun knew that Miru didn’t like fighting much. In terms of personality, Miru was very similar to Su-hyeun. Unless it was a necessary fight, Miru didn’t like to fight against strong opponents for no reason.

<<Then, maybe…>>

Su-hyeun looked down at the Titan Turtle, which was sticking its head out from its shell.

<< Does it have the Cintamani?>>

Miru was a descendant of the Dragon King. He didn’t like it yet, but he was. If the Cintamani was closely related to the dragons, it explained why Miru reacted like this.

<<I guess the Titan Turtle has been keeping the Cintamani,>> Su-hyeun thought.

The Titan Turtle was one of the monsters that survived the war and still stayed in this world. But, for some reason, it had remained in the forest and hadn’t moved. The Titan Turtle, Su-hyeun knew, was a monster that ate anything it could find, without rest. There must be a reason that the monster’s appetite was suppressed for so long.

There were two options. First, there might be something suppressing its appetite. Or second, Fafnir’s influence might still exist. And in either case, it was very likely that it had the Cintamani.

<<All the more reason to hunt this thing.>>

Su-hyeun had no intention of avoiding the fight against the Titan Turtle from the beginning. So, he thought it was a good thing if the Titan Turtle had the Cintamani. The trial would go more smoothly.

Su-hyeun flew up high into the sky, riding Miru and closely observed the Titan Turtle. Its huge shell was dozens of times bigger than the World Cup stadium. It almost looked like an island. In terms of size, this monster was comparable to Ouroboros. But that didn’t mean that Titan Turtle was as dangerous as Ouroboros.

<<The purpose of this trial is to kill the Titan Turtle.>>

On the other hand, the Ouroboros of the 30th-floor’s trial was just the background of the trial. It wasn’t a monster that he had to kill that time.

Su-hyeun calmly muttered as he reflected the Titan Turtle with his sword, Balmung, “I guess today we’re playing for keeps.”

***

There were two ways for awakeners to attack dungeons. The first was to enter the dungeon with overwhelming power. People usually gathered as many other awakeners as possible. That usually happened when there was no detailed information about the dungeon or when there wasn’t much time before the dungeon outbreak. And, most of the time, Su-hyeun had to attack dungeons that way. Because he always had to raid the highest difficulty newly appeared dungeons. He couldn’t go into dungeons with much information.

And the second way was to prepare for the attack with plenty of information. That was much easier than the first option. Even with fewer people involved, people could know the weaknesses and patterns of the monsters. People usually used that method when they attacked low-grade dungeons. Monsters that appeared in those dungeons were pretty obvious, so there was already a lot of information about them.

That was the biggest difference between Su-hyeun’s past life and his current one. Unlike his past life, Su-hyeun had most of the information about monsters ahead of time. And that was a greater weapon than any sword, right at the moment.

Slash, slash—

Scratch, scratch—

Thin scratch marks were carved onto the back of the Titan Turtle.

Swish, swish—

Roooaaar—!

The Titan Turtle stuck its head out, revealing its teeth to Su-hyeun. It was the reaction that Su-hyeun had expected.

[Leap.]

Su-hyeun quickly jumped up and increased the distance between himself and the Titan Turtle. Soon after that, he snapped his fingers.

Boom, boom, boom—!

Kyaaaak—!

The Flame skill exploded along the sword scratched in the turtle’s shell. The Titan Turtle stuck its head out and screamed in pain. The huge body of the turtle trembled for a moment. At the same time, Su-hyeun flew over the shell of the Titan Turtle again.

Scratch, scratch—!

A sharp blade began to cut the shell of the Titan Turtle again. Since it was too hard, he couldn’t cut deeply even with magic in his sword. But this was enough. He didn’t plan to cut through it all at once, anyway.

<<I think it’s almost ready,>> thought Su-hyeun.

The Titan Turtle was a monster known for having the most durable defensive power in existence. It was pretty agile compared to its size, but it wasn’t so agile that Su-hyeun couldn’t avoid it. The attack pattern was also very simple. Su-hyeun’s strategy was simple; slow but steady. The moment Su-hyeun broke the Titan Turtle’s shell, the actual attack would start.

<<Right…now…>>