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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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Jang Jo-joon was searching the neighborhood again after having returned to the supermarket to bring Kang Ha-young and Lee Eun-ji with him.
During their search, Kang Ha-young, who was sniffing the air, located the Serious Raiders who were still fleeing from the Dullahan.
“I smell… fresh blood…”
“Let’s go.”
They pursued them, but the Raiders escaped just before they could be caught, and Jo-joon found himself facing the Dullahan.
Jo-joon hadn’t expected them to use teleport. By the time he fired Abyssal Maw at them as they were enveloped in light, they had already vanished.
“Damn it… Those bastards…”
Jo-joon hadn’t imagined that he would encounter the Dullahan here. Moreover, having absorbed a considerable amount of magic from its clashes with the Raiders, the Dullahan had grown strong enough to summon its skeletal steed.
“Ha… This is fucked up.”
Thus, the Serious Raiders inadvertently passed the Dullahan buck to Jo-joon and his companions and escaped.
The moment Yoon Ji-ho glimpsed Jo-joon’s distorted and fragmented form, his only thought was to escape. The idea of joining forces with Jo-joon or helping his group never crossed his mind. He just had to run.
“Oppa, I don’t think those guys got far… but this guy is the problem now.”
Kang Ha-young, who faintly sensed the fleeing Raiders, said that they had to deal with the monster in front of them first.
She instinctively felt wary of the Dullahan. Her instincts screamed that it was a formidable monster.
“Those bastards… Not only did they escape, but they also illegally dumped this trash on us…”
Jo-joon vowed to kill and sacrifice the Raiders if he ever encountered them again.
‘They gave me such a big gift, so I should repay them with death.’
Jo-joon tended to forget favors, but he never forgot revenge.
“Haa… Haaaaa…”
Meanwhile, the Dullahan raised its head while staring intently at Jo-joon who radiated the strongest magical energy among the three newcomers.
Red flames flickered in the skull’s eye sockets as it assessed Jo-joon’s magic power.
True to its nature of being drawn to those with strong magic, the Dullahan chuckled with its signature raspy breathing as soon as it saw Jo-joon.
It no longer cared about the Serious Raiders.
Jang Jo-joon, whose magic stat had surpassed 700, was the ultimate prey for the Dullahan.
“Haa… Haa… Haaaaa…”
“Oppa, that’s… It’s laughing, right…?”
“I’m not the only one who thinks so, huh?”
Jo-joon frowned and raised his hands, unleashing his tentacles.
The Dullahan tried to swat them away as usual, but it couldn’t.
Seeing the Dullahan’s greatsword move, Jo-joon twisted his hands, bunching the tentacles together.
The tentacles erupting from both hands intertwined, forming a fist that slammed into the Dullahan. The Dullahan quickly raised its greatsword vertically, barely blocking Jo-joon’s tentacle attack.
The Dullahan was pushed back. Unfortunately, its armor absorbed most of the impact.
The Dullahan was then bombarded by a barrage of skills from Jo-joon, including Abyssal Maw, and its armor began to shatter.
But the more it was hit by skills, the wider the Dullahan’s grin became. Sensing something amiss, Jo-joon stopped using his skills.
“Wh-what the hell is that…?”
“It’s… its flesh is growing back…”
The Dullahan absorbed the magic from Jo-joon’s skills, regenerating beyond its previous state, and flesh and muscle began to fill its skeletal body.
Soon, the Dullahan transformed from a meager skeleton into a well-built adult male.
Flesh filled the skull in its hand, revealing the face of an unknown man.
It was Koo Kyo-han’s face. The now fleshed out head of Koo Kyo-han kept muttering about its itchy neck and the need to tear away any and all necks, its words nonsensical.
“That thing… seems to regenerate the more it’s hit…”
Jo-joon muttered in dismay, and Eun-ji added.
“So it’s the type that needs to be attacked without skills…?”
“That’s right. Damn it. This is a first…”
This type of enemy was new to Jo-joon.
A type that grew stronger the more it was hit by skills.
If it were a typical Dullahan summoned by a Necromancer or naturally spawned, its regeneration wouldn’t be able to keep up with the damage, and it would have been destroyed long ago. But this was a being created through a special method: the awakening of the bloodstained choker.
It was a higher form of a typical Dullahan. It was considered a ‘Player.’
It was designed to be a counter to magic-based Players like Jo-joon, who relied heavily on skills rather than direct combat.
‘If I hadn’t intended to destroy it in one blow, I should have engaged it in close combat without using skills… but I had no prior information about this damn monster… Damn it…’
Jo-joon had planned to crush it with skills as usual, but that method would require him to expend almost all of his magic power.
He had seen this monster once before in the dream world, but most of those memories had already faded, and it was difficult to discern its strengthening ability from those fragmented scenes.
This was why knowledge was power. The apocalyptic world wasn’t kind to the ignorant.
“Ha…”
Among Jo-joon’s companions, only Merhere was skilled enough to engage the monster in close combat.
If Merhere, a master of combat, were here, she could probably have bisected the Dullahan while blocking its attacks with the help of the others.
But unfortunately, Merhere was stationed at the supermarket, just in case. Jo-joon, as one could see, was a terrible match against the Dullahan, and Ha-young didn’t have the power to face it without skills.
Eun-ji specialized in surprise attacks and assassinations, not close combat, and if she was hit by the Dullahan’s sword, she would be cut in half.
“Should we run back to the supermarket?”
“Should we? Let’s ask Merhere and Ah-ram for help. If the three of us try to take it down ourselves… it’ll be a real struggle.”
Of course, there was a way to kill it.
The simplest method would be for Lee Eun-ji, Kang Ha-young, and Jang Jo-joon to bombard it with skills until they depleted all their magic power, eventually killing the Dullahan.
But Jo-joon wanted to lure it to the supermarket and hand it over to Merhere and Ah-ram.
If he used up all his 700+ magic power to kill this one monster, it would take a considerable amount of time to recover it all, and such a display of power might attract other enemies in the vicinity.
It would be troublesome if a new enemy appeared while he was depleted of magic.
Moreover, Jo-joon now knew that his absurd Luck stat of 666 wasn’t simply good luck, but a strange value that brought him nothing but trouble.
He had realized this after his experiences in the Black Market and the dream world.
He needed to be cautious, especially now that he was far from his base, the supermarket.
He didn’t want to run into some random enemy and be forced into a life-or-death struggle.
Finally, he also wanted to test the power of the new hammer Ah-ram had acquired. He had a feeling that she could destroy this crazy monster with its booster function.
“It’s not immune to skills, so let’s just keep it at bay while we escape.”
“Okay!”
“Understood.”
Jo-joon, Eun-ji, and Ha-young ran without looking back.
Jo-joon occasionally blocked the Dullahan’s head with Twisted Carapace and tripped its skeletal steed with his tentacles. Eun-ji and Ha-young also helped to keep it at bay.
‘There are actually monsters I can’t easily defeat even with my magic power… so skills aren’t everything…’
Jo-joon realized this anew today, learning that he shouldn’t get cocky just because of his high magic capacity.
He expected a wide variety of enemies to appear in the future, and he didn’t know when he might encounter another irregular like this.
Against this type of enemy, they needed a powerful fighter like Merhere who was capable of tearing apart enemies without relying on skills.
Or a skill with higher firepower to obliterate it in one blow.
“W-we’re here! Mer! Merhere!!”
As soon as they reached the vicinity of the supermarket, Jo-joon called out to Merhere, who was surveying the surroundings from the rooftop.
Merhere, having already spotted the approaching Dullahan, drew her sickle and came down.
“A Death Knight…! Uaaah!!!”
Merhere roared, swinging her sickle at the Dullahan and its steed.
But the Dullahan nimbly dodged the sickle and jumped off the skeletal horse. The horse’s neck was severed by Merhere’s sickle, and it collapsed to the ground.
Jo-joon also called out to Ah-ram.
Ah-ram, who had been eating on the rooftop, immediately put down her bowl upon hearing the commotion and Jo-joon’s call, grabbed Excellent Means of Communication, and came down.
Bang!!!
Merhere easily dodged the Dullahan’s greatsword and pushed it aside with her sickle.
The monster’s chest was momentarily exposed.
“Unnie!! Dodge!!!”
From behind Merhere, Ah-ram swung Excellent Means of Communication horizontally while activating its booster.
Blue flames erupted from one side of the hammer as it struck the Dullahan’s chest with several times its usual speed.
Boom!!!
The armor shattered, unable to absorb the impact, and the Dullahan was sent flying.
Even it was helpless against such overwhelming force.
“Huu… Haaaaaaaa!!!”
The Dullahan screamed in pain and tried to stand up.
But before it could, Ah-reum, who had followed her sister down, sliced off the Dullahan’s arms with her twin swords while Merhere severed its legs.
Thump!!!
“Haa… We managed to take it down.”
Jo-joon, who was watching the women quickly dismember the Dullahan, picked up the head it had dropped.
“Haa… Haa… Neck… tear… Itchy itchy itchy itchy… Haaaa…”
Koo Kyo-han’s head continued to mutter the same words like a broken toy.
“Is this… still alive…? It keeps talking. I think I can enslave it.”
“Oppa… Isn’t it already dead since its head is separated from its body?”
“Is it? Well…”
Jo-joon was still uneasy.
‘The Abyssal Roach said it was killed by five very strong individuals. I’m almost certain it was those Focused Raiders. And they must have taken the choker. But when I encountered them, there were only four. So either one of them had already been killed by the Dullahan… or the one wearing the choker became the Dullahan.’
Of course, it was possible that one of them was simply absent, but Jang Jo-joon suspected that this Dullahan might have been a member of the Serious Raiders.
‘I feel like I can enslave this thing… The question is how to make it submit…’
Jo-joon grabbed Koo Kyo-han’s head and spoke to it.
“Hey. Hey!”
“Ah… Haa… My neck is itchy…”
Naturally, there was no response. Then, the sword at Jo-joon’s waist that was possessed by Yang Ji-sang vibrated.
“What?”
[How about… sticking me into its head? Like a public execution.]
“You?”
[It seems like its spirit is very unstable right now… I might be able to manipulate it.]
“Alright. Let’s try it.”
Jo-joon plunged the sword containing Yang Ji-sang into the severed neck of Koo Kyo-han’s head.
Thud…!
“Uaaah… Uaaaaaaaaa!!!!!”
Suddenly, Koo Kyo-han’s head, which had been mindlessly repeating the same words, screamed.
Since its head was severed, it shouldn’t have been able to speak or make any sounds without lungs, but it was best to ignore such minor details.
“St… st… st…op…!!! H… hu…rts…!!!”
Koo Kyo-han’s head screamed and drooled, as if in agony from whatever Yang Ji-sang was doing.
The opponent has submitted to you.
“I-it worked!!!”
Jo-joon quickly branded the screaming Koo Kyo-han on the forehead.
Sizzle!!!
“Aah… Aaaaa…”
Thus, Jo-joon acquired a new turret.
A very effective one.
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T/N – Oh damn. He actually enslaved the Dullahan. Talk about turning disaster into opportunity.
If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.
