My Assigned Hunters Climb the Tower - Chapter 18

========== CHAPTER 18 ==========

Kang Hoon had lost consciousness, and Kwon Do-geun was barely standing with his eyes open.

Kang Ji-hyun steadied her whip with trembling hands and braced herself against the floor.

“Haa… haa… Hey, Go Gyeol… I seriously thought I was going to die….”

Lee Seong-ha muttered, spitting out blood-tasting saliva.

However, Go Gyeol walked out from among the ruins of the collapsed golem, nonchalantly checking his watch.

“Two minutes behind schedule. Stamina is definitely the problem.”

“Th-this crazy bastard, seriously….”

Just as Lee Seong-ha was about to spit out an insult, Go Gyeol picked up an item that had popped out from the debris.

“You’re lucky. This is pretty decent for a mid-boss drop.”

Go Gyeol smiled coldly at his colleagues sprawled on the floor.

“Alright, 10-minute break. Loosen up your muscles in the meantime. The boss monster is three times tougher than this one.”

At those words, a scream mixed with despair rang out. Go Gyeol listened to the sound as if it were sweet music and added an item called ‘Cardio Hell’ to the next training schedule.

“Ugh…. My arms are seriously going to fall off.”

Lee Seong-ha threw the crushed steel pipe he was holding onto the floor. It was something he had picked up during the battle to use as a blunt weapon. Since he couldn’t use mana, he had to rely on raw arm muscle to beat the targets, so his palms were already a mess with burst blisters.

Kang Ji-hyun also leaned against the wall, gasping for air. Her shoulder, which had been swinging the whip, was twitching slightly.

“Hey, Go Gyeol.”

Lee Seong-ha glared at Go Gyeol as he sat on the floor.

“Are we really not allowed to use mana until the end of the dungeon? I almost got crushed to death by that bastard earlier.”

“I told you. The monsters here get stronger in proportion to the concentration of pure mana. The moment we emit mana, even the boss at the end will go berserk and come running.”

At Go Gyeol’s cold response, Lee Seong-ha thumped his chest as if feeling wronged.

“No, I’ll concede a hundred times over that Kang Ji-hyun is an exception! She’s a ‘Witch’ class, so she’s a literal lump of mana. But why can’t I use my ‘Gravity’? Isn’t gravity a physical law that exists in everything in the universe? Doesn’t it have nothing to do with mana!”

Go Gyeol turned his head nonchalantly to look at him in response to Lee Seong-ha’s protest.

“It has everything to do with it. A lot.”

“What? How?”

Go Gyeol picked up a mannequin finger rolling on the floor.

“Hunter skills are broadly divided into two types. ‘Phenomenon Realization’ and ‘Law Interference’. Natural elements like fire or water amplify already existing elements, but your gravity is different. Do you think gravity is generated inside your body?”

“Well… it’s my skill, so I guess so?”

“Wrong. You consume mana to twist the ‘space’ around you. You distort space to create artificial gravity levels. In other words, the engine of your gravity skill is 100% mana. Just as exhaust comes out when an engine runs, the moment you use gravity, mana waves spread throughout this entire dungeon.”

Lee Seong-ha’s jaw dropped.

“Then… does that mean everything that isn’t a natural element is a mana-based operation?”

“Exactly. The more a skill interferes with concepts or laws, the overwhelmingly higher its reliance on mana. If Kang Ji-hyun’s light arrow is a bullet, your gravity is like the electrical energy that powers the gun. It means the moment electricity flows, you get caught by the tracking device.”

At Go Gyeol’s clear explanation, Lee Seong-ha was left speechless and just picked up the crushed pipe again. Kang Ji-hyun, who was listening from the side, chuckled and chimed in.

“In the end, it means you’re a corpse without mana too. Go find a sturdier pipe, Mr. Gravity User.”

“Ah, seriously…. In my next life, I’m awakening with fire or water or something. What is this, having skills but having to break my body? Wait. Hey, then what about that kid? Curses are strictly a mana-based class too. He’s been openly spewing curses since earlier, so why aren’t the monsters going berserk?”

At Lee Seong-ha’s question, Kang Hoon, seemingly curious as well, opened his swollen eyes wide and looked at Go Gyeol. Go Gyeol nonchalantly glanced at the black haze shimmering at Kang Hoon’s feet and opened his mouth.

“Curses are different. To be precise, the main ingredient isn’t mana.”

“What does that mean? How can a skill go off without mana? He’s an Awakened too.”

As Lee Seong-ha narrowed his eyes as if he didn’t understand, Go Gyeol added in a languid yet chilling voice.

“The power of the Curse-type is ‘human emotion’. But Kang Hoon isn’t using his own personal emotions.”

Go Gyeol paused for a moment and stared straight into Kang Hoon’s eyes.

“Curse Hunters are like a kind of antenna. Even at this very moment, the massive negative emotions poured out by billions of people around the world—hatred, sadness, obsession, jealousy. It’s a method of sticking a straw into that vast ocean and drawing it out.”

“What? The emotions of the entire world’s population? Is that possible?”

Lee Seong-ha shouted in astonishment. Kang Hoon, who was listening from the side, also turned pale.

“It’s possible, so he uses it. Mana has clear limits depending on an individual’s capacity, but as long as humanity is alive, negative emotions are like an inexhaustible spring. Curse skills are a way of borrowing energy from that massive ’emotional trash can’. That’s also why mana detectors can’t catch curses. How would you even visualize emotions?”

“My god… then does that mean he gets stronger the more unhappy the world is? That’s a total cheat code.”

As Lee Seong-ha clicked his tongue, Go Gyeol retorted coldly.

“Cheat code, my ass. Imagine the filthy emotions of billions of people passing through your body as a conduit. Do you think you could stay sane? It’s not because Curse Hunters lack mana that they eventually go crazy or become monsters. It’s because their souls get contaminated from taking in the ugliness of the entire world with their whole bodies in real-time.”

At those words, Kang Hoon looked down at his hands. He finally realized the reason for the unpleasant chill he felt every time he used a curse, and why the screams of tens of thousands of people who weren’t him rang in his ears.

He felt a heavy sense of responsibility and fear at the same time, realizing that his power wasn’t simply ‘his own’.

“Hey, kid. You… you really have it rough. I’ll just stick to swinging my steel pipe.”

Lee Seong-ha patted Kang Hoon’s shoulder with a sympathetic look. Kang Hoon bit his lip firmly instead of answering.

“Enough chatter. We’re at the food court soon.”

As soon as Go Gyeol’s words fell, the shutter of the food court, which had been tightly closed, rolled up with a bizarre sound.

Drrrk, kwa-ang!

Finally, the shutter of the ‘Food Court’, the deepest part of the Arcadia Shopping Mall, rolled up completely.

Contrary to the expectation that it would be full of darkness, the place was shining dizzyingly with the strange phosphorescence emitted by rotting ingredients past their expiration date and the flickering of fluorescent lights.

“Is this finally the end?”

Lee Seong-ha took the lead, gripping his crushed steel pipe firmly.

Thousands of canned goods and burst flour sacks were rolling around on the floor. Every time they took a step, a squelching sound could be heard, and a nose-stinging stench vibrated through the air.

Just then, the owners of the ‘Food Court’ revealed themselves from behind the display shelves.

Kki-ik, kki-ik!

They were small metal lifeforms made of canned goods combined in a bizarre way, and small box monsters that rolled quickly on shopping cart wheels.

The party members tensed up and gripped their weapons tightly, but the result ended so quickly it was anticlimactic.

Kkang! Kwajik! Hwi-ik-!

Every time Lee Seong-ha’s pipe swung, a pile of cans turned into scrap metal, and every time Kang Ji-hyun’s whip cut through the air, the boxes were shattered and scattered.

When Kang Hoon lightly sprinkled ” from behind, the monsters couldn’t even keep their balance and rolled on the floor.

And….

The battle ended in less than 5 minutes.

“……What? Is this it?”

Lee Seong-ha looked around, bewildered. There was nothing moving on the floor anymore. Compared to the Cart Golem that was the mid-boss earlier, this wasn’t even a snack.

“They said this was the final boss of the Arcadia Shopping Mall. What’s with the lackluster performance?”

Kang Ji-hyun also seemed dumbfounded, grumbling as she brushed off the debris from her whip. Kang Hoon sat on the floor, seemingly relieved, and let out a sigh of relief.

“Thank goodness…. We can leave now, right?”

However, Go Gyeol alone did not smile. He was staring at a huge stainless steel door that filled one side of the wall in the middle of the empty food court.

“Not a chance.”

The party members’ gazes turned to Go Gyeol at his low voice.

“Did you forget why this dungeon’s name is ‘Arcadia’? Behind the flashy exterior, the ugliest reality is always hidden.”

Go Gyeol strode over and pointed to the heavy iron door attached to the wall.

On the door, [Fresh Storage] was written in red letters. Sub-zero cold air and a terrible stench of blood were flowing out from between the cracks in the door.

“You can consider everything before this as just a ‘check of the expiration date’.”

“Hey, hey…. Don’t tell me the boss is inside there?”

Lee Seong-ha asked, looking fed up. Instead of answering, Go Gyeol pulled the heavy lever with all his might.

Kwareureureung-!

What poured out as the heavy iron door opened was not just cold air.

It was a terrible grudge that felt as if thousands of corpses were exhaling at the same time, and a clear murderous intent to freeze all life force. Hundreds of meat hooks hanging from the ceiling swayed, creaking and groaning, following the flow of wind that had vanished without a trace.

“……What on earth is that.”

Kang Hoon stepped back, his teeth chattering. The things hanging on the hooks were no longer meat. Debris from the shopping mall, broken mannequins, and unidentified black organic matter were piled up in layers to form a huge ‘tower’.

And at the top of that tower, the owner of this space, the ‘Butcher’, was sitting.