Chapter 21. Record of a Thousand Lives
The inside of the fireplace was completely dark.
With nothing in sight, it felt like she was spinning tens of times in the middle of the air air
Plannk-!
Shannette stood up, holding her head with her hands.
She has never been so dizzy in her entire life.
Shaking her head and opening her eyes, a dark and expansive s.p.a.ce came into view.
At the same time, she saw travelers and chimeras engaged in battle.
Chang-!
Pazzzz-!
Puung-!
“Krrrrrr-!”
“Look, now"s the chance!”
“All right. Let"s finish it!”
A tall man stabbed a sword into the head of a grotesque looking Chimera.
The chimera fell to the ground with a horrible shriek.
The chimeras looked grotesque, as if they were formed by combining multiple creatures.
It wasn"t too difficult find chimeras with 6 legs, or even 3 heads.
They weren"t the only two people inside the Chimera dimension.
All around, there were tens of people ferociously hunting those chimeras.
Kang Yoonsoo held Shannette"s hand and helped her stand up.
He probably felt dizzy too, but he only had his usual blank expression.
“Krrrrr-!”
A herd of chimeras rushed toward them while howling.
The level of chimeras on the 1st floor was in the 40"s.
They weren"t particularly strong.
Shannette quickly took out her scythe and held it.
Kang Yoonsoo extended his right arm.
“Summoning the White Beast.”
“Kaimaxiron-!”
Crying fiercely, the White Beast appeared.
The boss monster"s mere presence was sufficient to attract the attention of everyone nearby.
Alarmed, the travelers hunting in the distance screamed.
“What, what is that? Why is there another monster all of a sudden?”
“Aaaahk! It"s a werewolf! Why is there a non chimera inside the Chimera Dimension?”
There were even some people who were pointing their weapons in this direction.
Kang Yoonsoo pointed at the chimeras.
“Kill them.”
“Ureno… Keukeung!”
The silver shackle around White"s neck vibrated.
The noose of submission.
As White had already been tamed, it would feel pain if it didn"t obey orders.
White bit down, grinding its fangs, and rushed at the chimeras.
“Urenokra!”
“Krrrrrrreuhk-!”
The chimera used its 3 legs and 5 heads to indiscriminately attack.
However, White used its sharp claws to tear the chimera"s flesh into rags.
After taking care of one chimera in no time, the white beast turned its attention to another chimera and attacked it.
Having tasted fresh blood, the beast"s wild nature exploded out.
White slaughtered the chimeras with awesome speed.
“Yeeyat!”
Shannette, too, took care of any chimeras that came in range.
The path the large scythe traveled was always accompanied by blood.
Drawing his big sword, Kang Yoonsoo went after the largest chimera.
“Krrrreuk-!”
He easily dodged the chimera"s foot attack, and swung his sword.
Puuck-!
Blue blood spewed out.
Kang Yoonsoo fiercely cut up the chimeras without mercy.
The destructiveness of the greatsword, which had been strengthened quite a bit, was much more horrifying than ordinary big swords.
Each time the sword swung, the chimeras" bones were crushed with precipitous sounds.
His swordsmans.h.i.+p, which only attacked weak points, combined with the destructive power of his greatsword, allowed him to transcended the level difference between them.
“All finished! Good job everyone.”
“Good work everyone.”
The travelers that were hunting in the distance plopped down to the ground, wiping the sweat off their brows.
In the Chimera Dimension, it was only possible to advance to the next floor after killing 100 chimeras on the 1st floor.
They waited to be summoned to the next floor while watching Kang Yoonsoo"s team fight.
One of the men tilted his head as he watched White.
“Look, that werewolf. Now that I look at it, doesn"t it look like it"s been tamed?”
“Tamed? What are you saying. This continent"s tamers having a hard time even taming a deer.”
“But, look at that. How can it fight with them unless it"s been tamed?”
“Hm. But, I"ve never heard of anyone ever taming a werewolf, not even from the natives…. Do they have a special training technique? The shackle around that wolf"s neck does look quite st.u.r.dy….”
They disappeared in the middle of that conversation.
They had been summoned to the next floor.
Soon, Kang Yoonsoo"s team also finished fighting.
Their vicinity was littered with the chimeras" body parts, and the ground was wet with blue blood.
Kang Yoonsoo"s level rose to 37, increasing by 2.
[You have destroyed 100 alchemical chimeras. Do you wish to move up to the next floor?]
Kang Yoonsoo delayed his reply.
“Kareeeeeung….!”
In the meantime, White had opened its mouth wide as it looked down on the chimeras" corpses.
That was because it has worked up an appet.i.te after the fierce fight.
Kang Yoonsoo pulled its leash hard and ordered.
“Do not eat.”
“Kareeeeeung…..!”
After fiercely staring at Kang Yoonsoo, White soon withdrew.
A tamed monster would come under the command of their tamer, but if the monster"s trust gets broken beyond repair it was possible that the taming itself could be undone.
One couldn"t handle a tamed beast as if it was a slave just because the beast has been tamed.
After searching the body parts of the chimeras, Kang Yoonsoo picked up a small, pink stone.
Shannette tilted her head in curiosity as she brushed her blood soaked hair off her face.
“What is that?”
“Look for more.”
The two people went through the chimeras" inner part for a long while.
[Heart stone of a low level chimera]
It was the cause of chimeras getting created from failed alchemy experiments, sinceit contained a glimmer of life force. Because no one knew how to use it, the heart stones were not considered valuable.
Kang Yoonsoo put all the heart stones into his knapsack.
“Raise corpses.”
The 100 chimeras in the vicinity were reborn as decaying undead.
Monsters that were killed by other people usually couldn"t be revived as undead, because their corpses were completely destroyed.
As the grotesque chimeras were transformed into undead, their appearance became even more hideous.
It wasn"t a bad idea to summon an army of undead to fight a war, but doing so would decrease the amount of experience they recieved.
"I will summon undead in order to fight the boss on the top floor."
Kang Yoonsoo would supplement their lacking fighting force with the undead.
This was the advantage of being a necromancer.
[Stored 100 evil chimeras in the summoning s.p.a.ce.
Available summons – 100 evil chimeras, 54 dark land worms, Sally the salamander.
Total storage s.p.a.ces – 345]
Kang Yoonsoo"s team went up to the next floor.
Inside the Chimera Dimension, stronger chimeras appeared on the 2nd floor than the 1st.
They could rarely be killed with a single sword strike, and they would attack until the end, even if they were critically wounded.
An even more fierce battle than previous ensued.
Extending his right arm, Kang Yoonsoo summoned a new being.
“Summon Salamander Sally.”
A young girl appeared from a swirl of flame.
After being summoned, Sally looked around the area.
Upon seeing White, the girl laughed happily.
“Wow! It"s a doggie!”
When Sally quickly ran towards it, White fiercely swung its claws.
“Korunok! Machiron!”
“Waaah!”
In response to White"s violent reaction, Sally broke into tears.
This was the problem with bringing out multiple summons.
If the different summons were not able to get along, it was possible the entire fight could be disrupted.
The stronger a summon was, the more distinct their personality would be.
It would test the capabilities of their summoner.
“Sally, coat our weapons with fire.”
“Wheeing. Arm with flame!”
Thick flames coated Kang Yoonsoo"s greatsword, Shannette"s scythe, and White"s claws.
Weapons coated with spirit fire become much more powerful.
When Kang Yoonsoo swung his sword, it created a small, fiery tornado.
Combining his swordsmans.h.i.+p with the power of the flame created an awesome destructive force.
The chimeras were overpowered, falling to the ground, a powerful flame growing from feeding on their corpses.
“Kareeeeuk!”
The chimeras shrieked in pain as they were killed.
The other travelers, who were watching Kang Yoonsoo and his team fight, couldn"t help but be astonished once again.
“A werewolf wasn"t good enough, now he summoned a spirit too?”
“Spirits normally don"t show their true form, do they?”
“Gosh, what the heck is that guy"s cla.s.s?”
They couldn"t understand it at all.
A traveler, a native of the continent, a monster, and spirit.
What the heck was this combination that had never been seen or heard of before?
[You have destroyed 100 alchemical chimeras.
Do you wish to move up to the next floor?]
Kang Yoonsoo, once again, delayed his response.
He gained 6 levels during the fight, raising his level to 43.
Kang Yoonsoo and Shannette went through the chimeras" corpses, searching for the heart stones.
After most of his mana had recovered, Kang Yoonsoo turned the chimera corpses into undead.
The observers were shocked.
“What? He even has a necromancer skill?”
“What the heck is his ident.i.ty?”
Kang Yoonsoo sent the evil chimeras into the summoning s.p.a.ce.
One of the men, who had finished his fight with the chimera, approached Kang Yoonsoo.
“I"m Lee Kanghyun. Pardon me, but may I ask your name?”
“Kang Yoonsoo.”
“I"ve been watching you for a while. Your swordsmans.h.i.+p is extraordinary. Any chance you would like to join us? We have four level 70 swordsmen and one sorcerer in our party.”
Lee Kanghyun gave an incredible proposal.
However, Kang Yoonsoo"s level was just over 40, much lower than theirs.
Considering the silver wrist guard he acquired in the Ultica ruin, which raised his physical strength, and his excellent swordmans.h.i.+p, it was understandable that they misjudged his level.
Before Kang Yoonsoo could shake his head, a tall, skinny man came up and placed his hand on Lee Kanghyun"s shoulder.
Judging by his robe and the wand that he had in his waistband, he was definitely a sorcerer.
“Kanghyun, leave him.”
“What? But…..”
“That man, his level is much lower than ours. His skill transcends ours, though.”
“What? Hanyul, what are you talking about?”
When Lee Kanghyun paused in confusion, Kang Yoonsoo slowly nodded his head.
“He"s right.”
Everyone around him was surprised.
Based on his swordsmans.h.i.+p, they all thought that Kang Yoonsoo was incredibly high leveled,.
The one called Hanyul approached Kang Yoonsoo and observed him.
“I"m s.h.i.+n Hanyul. Good to meet you. You certainly seemed different from those who are aimlessly traveling.”
Kang Yoonsoo did not respond.
Ignoring his silence, s.h.i.+n Hanyul continued.
“We"re targeting the Chimera Dimension"s boss monster. I a.s.sume you are, too?”
Kang Yoonsoo slowly nodded.
The Chimera Dimension was a hidden hunting ground, and only a few travelers knew about it.
Even if someone had a clue that pointed to this place, they still had to learn the pa.s.sword by resolving the secret quest of the alchemist clan.
There were some travelers who remained on one floor to continue hunting, but most of them were after the boss monster.
The rumor that the boss monster was in possession of a strange sword had spread widely.
However, many people succ.u.mbed to the chimeras, which grew more powerful with each floor, long before they reached the 5th floor.
No one had yet managed to make an attempt on the boss monster that resided on the highest floor.
“Let"s meet on the 5th floor. Although I"m not sure who will reach the top floor first.”
Having said that, s.h.i.+n Hanyul turned, leaving along with his group.
As he turned, a white lion pattern was revealed on the back of his blue robe.
One of the watching travelers was surprised at the sight of it.
“White Lion Clan! That man, he"s a member of the White Lion Clan!”
White Lion Clan.
It was one of the most respected traveler clans.
Most of the high level travelers were members of the White Lion Clan, and their fame was well known.
The leader of the White Lion Clan was especially capable, such that his fame was well established even among the continent"s aristocrats.
Since the White Lion Clan was made up of most of the high leveled travelers, it was the largest of all the traveler clans.
There was a widespread rumor that each clan member would receive a powerful item at each fixed level.
Shannette, who was standing beside Kang Yoonsoo, asked.
“Is his clan that great of an organization?”
“It is.”
Kang Yoonsoo stared at s.h.i.+n Hanyul"s back.
The white lion on the waving robe was roaring in the direction of the king"s throne.
The eyes of the white lion were white.
“I"ll destroy them, though.”