Chapter 316 (1/2)
Act 3
Jii-iing, jiii-iiing—
Su-hyeun traveled on Hercules’s back once more, and after flying for a few minutes, he spotted a familiar color spreading on the skies above.
“Purple…”
A section of the skies was dyed in a purple hue.
Without a doubt, it was caused by a dungeon.
Even the aura he could sense felt the same as well. Su-hyeun decided to go and see alongside Hercules because of the familiar aura, and what waited for him at the destination turned out to be a purple-colored dungeon.
Hercules spoke, “Why are you freezing up like that? I thought you have already resolved yourself to fight?”
“Is that where the Giants show up from?”
“That’s right. That is the pathway that connects the world of the Giants to ours.”
The pathway—that was a perfect term to describe the dungeons.
Just like what Hercules said, a dungeon was indeed a portal—a pathway—that connected a different world to this one, and Su-hyeun had experienced several worlds inside the trials where dungeons were manifesting.
However, even then, an event like this would be the first time for him.
A purple color? That was the dungeon color with the highest difficulty that Su-hyeun knew of.
And also…
“The dungeon where Fafnir showed up was a purple one, too.”
When his thoughts reached that point, Su-hyeun shook his head.
This wasn’t the world he lived in. No, this was inside the trial, and the dungeon before his eyes didn’t produce a monster on the caliber of Fafnir but the race of the Giants.
Judging from what the administrator had said, Fafnir wouldn’t suddenly appear in a trial found on the 102nd floor. If that happened, the rise in the difficulty would have been far too much for just one floor’s difference, after all.
“They are about to come out,” muttered Hercules as he stared up at the purple-colored sky.
Su-hyeun too sensed a suspicious aura spreading about. This sensation was pretty familiar to him.
“The Sage Arts?” he thought.
It was similar to the aura he first sensed coming from the Bull Demon King and Sun Wukong, the two people that had mastered the Sage Arts.
“No, wait…It’s more similar to Bradley’s, isn’t it?”
The aura called “Dao energy” currently being spread around was far murkier, and all sorts of impure energies were also mixed with it.
Fwhoooosh—
A massive hand suddenly extended from above the purple skies.
Soon after that, gigantic faces and flesh-colored naked bodies began appearing one by one. These creatures’ eyes were pure white with no visible irises, and each of them was as big as a small mountain. They belonged to none other than the race of the Giants.
“One, two, three, four…there are 30 of them. Quite a few have shown up, I see.”
Hercules took out the large club tied to his back.
And before the Giants descended fully to the ground, he turned around and addressed Su-hyeun, “Now take a close look. Those things are the Giants, the opposers of the gods.”
“Opposers of the gods…?”
“It means, even from their birth, these creatures possess opposing nature to the gods. Their starting points might be similar, but the paths that they took were different. These things couldn’t become gods as a result. They are such types of monsters.” Hercules looked back at Su-hyeun once more. “How about it then? Are you still planning to fight them?”
Without saying anything, Su-hyeun stood there and studied the Giants for a while. Hercules must have taken that as Su-hyeun being afraid, and he simply turned around and got ready to pounce.
“If you wish to fight, then follow me. However, I won’t blame you even if you go back without saying anything. It’s not surprising that you’re scared. Well, it was fun sharing a meal with you.”
Ka-boom—!
Hercules leaped up, and the ground beneath him caved in and overturned. Soon after, he was high up in the air, and his club began crushing the heads of the Giants.
Su-hyeun continued to study the Giants that were extending their hands toward Hercules.
These creatures hadn’t mastered any unique discipline like the Sage Arts or anything like that.
“Creatures that are born with godlike qualifications from their birth, eh? No, wait…”
The way these creatures looked was quite different from the godhood the Bull Demon King had brought up in the past.
It was more like…
“The opposite of godhood—the predator. These creatures resemble that.”
These creatures were natural monsters—a species that neither could be classified as a man, god, nor even a predator.”
“Thirty days, hmm…”
Su-hyeun quietly observed Hercules as he fought them off for a little while.
Out of everyone that Su-hyeun had run into, the demigod’s physical prowess, which was on display as he swung the club to crush the Giants’ heads and suppress the monsters far larger than him, was second only to the Bull Demon King.
“Something will happen during that time period, in other words.”
Hercules had been battling these Giants all by himself for over 10 years by now, so Su-hyeun didn’t believe such a man would suddenly find himself in danger unless something unexpected happened.
“It’s not surprising to get scared, huh?”
Su-hyeun, moving and observing Hercules’s battle from afar, finally reached down to his sword.
“Well, I wonder about that.”
**
Splat—!
A Giant’s arm broke and hung limply. Hercules swung his large club then while kicking away the Giant’s arm and leaped up high once more.
Whooooosh—!
A punch from a Giant was descending to hit Hercules’s head, but right at that moment, Hercules also threw a punch in the direction of the huge fist.
Ka-boooom—!
Crack—
The one that was destroyed during the collision of punches was the Giant’s fist.
Every single one of its fingers was crushed and broken, and the Giant stumbled while retracting its arm. However, Hercules would have none of that. He immediately grabbed the Giant’s hide…
Griiiiip—
Fuu-wuu-wuuph!
And swung his arms with all his might. The Giant’s massive body became airborne and got flung away into the distance.
Fwhooooooosh—
KA-BOOOOM—!
The Giant flew far away and crashed into the ground, all four of its limbs breaking apart at the same time. The remaining Giants began faltering when several of their kin were killed off in an instant.
“That’s why I told you lot to come with a force that boasted triple-digit numbers.”
A voice came from over the shoulder of a Giant. The monster’s head quickly spun in that direction, but right at that very moment, the head powerfully swung in the opposing direction instead, along with a loud “smack!”
“The likes of you aren’t even enough to warm me up.”
While saying that, Hercules retracted the club he had swung just now. After sensing that the Giant with its neck bent in the wrong direction was gradually tipping over, he powerfully leaped up in the air again.
“Thankfully, those other creatures haven’t shown up. If it’s only these 30 individuals, then I can quickly take care of them and go back—”
SPLAT—!
It was right then that a familiar noise came from somewhere next to him.