My Assigned Hunters Climb the Tower - Chapter 40

========== CHAPTER 40 ==========

Kang Hoon slumped down and groaned. The other hunters, who had been full of themselves while catching larvae earlier, were also overwhelmed by the massive boss’s oppressive aura and backed away.

Go Gyeol muttered quietly while checking the fluctuating viewer approval ratings and the boss’s status window.

“Ji-hyeon-ah. Mom’s here.”

Kang Ji-hyun gritted her teeth and raised her staff again. Just as the red mana swirled and the flames of the second purification were about to soar, Go Gyeol grabbed her wrist tightly.

“Stop. If you use magic now, we’ll all die.”

“What are you talking about! You want me to just leave that filthy thing alone? Move, I’m going to burn it all to a crisp!”

Kang Ji-hyun shouted hysterically, but Go Gyeol’s eyes remained cold. He pushed Ji-hyeon back and called the youngest, Kang Hoon, over. Then, he whispered something very quietly and quickly into his ear.

Kang Hoon’s eyes widened. The boy looked at Go Gyeol for a moment, then nodded with a determined expression and began sprinting toward Hwang Tae-ja, who was commanding from the center of the battlefield.

“Hey, Go Gyeol. Why are you sending the kid over there? And why did you stop Ji-hyeon?”

When Lee Seong-ha asked curiously, Go Gyeol pointed at the massive Avatar of Beelzebub and opened his mouth.

“Remember the Butcher we saw in Arcadia? This guy’s the same type. It’s a monster that eats mana.”

“It eats mana?”

“Yeah. It’s not just defending. It uses the incoming mana as nutrients to reproduce in real-time. Look at that.”

Go Gyeol’s fingertip pointed toward a mage hunter who was shooting flames from the middle of the lobby.

At that moment, Hwang Tae-ja’s brow furrowed severely after hearing Kang Hoon’s whisper. He looked like he couldn’t believe it, but recalling the bizarrely accurate foresight Go Gyeol had shown on the first floor, he immediately turned and roared toward the battlefield.

“Everyone, stop using magic! Withdraw your mana! Right now—!”

However, there was someone faster than Hwang Tae-ja’s shout. It was a mage hunter who had lost his reason, consumed by fear and disgust.

“You filthy monster bastard! Burn to death! !!”

A massive fireball, as if to swallow everything, shot out from the tip of the staff toward the Avatar of Beelzebub’s head.

“No! Stop, you idiot!”

Hwang Tae-ja swung his greatsword as if throwing it to forcibly twist the fireball’s trajectory, but the magic, already having left the staff, had reached right in front of the Avatar of Beelzebub’s compound eyes.

At that moment, a bizarre sight unfolded.

The moment the fireball, which should have exploded, touched the fly’s shell, it was sucked in silently like a stone falling into a swamp. The heat and light of the flames vanished into the fly’s body without a trace, and instead, the creature’s massive abdomen swelled up with a grotesque pulsation.

Pudeudeuk, pudeudeuk—!

A pile of eggs mixed with black mucus poured out from the fly’s rear like a waterfall. And before they even hit the ground, the things that burst out of the shells were not the maggots from before.

They were a swarm of ‘adult flies,’ the size of a newborn baby, with legs covered in wire-like bristles and compound eyes that looked like a grotesque distortion of a human face.

“Ki, kiiieeeeek!”

Dozens of baby flies flapped their wings, soared into the air, and rushed toward the hunter who had just cast the magic.

“Aaaargh! My leg! Let go!”

The lobby was once again filled with screams at the tragedy that unfolded in an instant. Hwang Tae-ja gritted his teeth and looked back at Kang Hoon.

“……That manager was right. A monster that eats mana and reproduces.”

Hwang Tae-ja’s gaze turned to Go Gyeol, who was standing by the wall in the distance. Go Gyeol didn’t avoid the gaze and indifferently pointed at the Avatar of Beelzebub with his chin. It was a silent pressure, saying, ‘Now that you know, act.’

Lee Seong-ha, watching the scene, put his arm around Go Gyeol’s shoulder and clicked his tongue.

“Hey, Go Gyeol. Did you see Hwang Tae-ja’s expression? His pride looks completely crushed. But those baby flies, they look truly vicious. Ji-hyeon has closed her eyes entirely, hasn’t she?”

Indeed, Kang Ji-hyun was turning her head away while gripping her staff tightly. A swarm of flies resembling human faces—her patience had already exceeded its limit.

“Seong-ha-ya, stop the small talk. We move once Kang Hoon gives the signal.”

“How? If we use mana, those monster bastards will be born again.”

Go Gyeol pulled out one of the items he had bought at the mart before entering the tower from his inventory.

“I told you. If mana doesn’t work, we just use something that isn’t mana.”

What Go Gyeol brought out was not hunter equipment. It was dozens of boxes containing large-capacity vinegar bottles that you would only see at a grocery store.

“……Vinegar?”

Kwon Do-geun asked, adjusting his mask as if flustered.

“Boss, you aren’t planning to kill that massive monster with vinegar, are you?”

“Why would I kill it? I’m just trying to feed the guy until it’s full.”

As Go Gyeol indifferently opened one of the vinegar bottles, a sour and pungent smell quickly spread through the damp cave.

That was the moment. The Avatar of Beelzebub’s tens of thousands of compound eyes, which had been trying to tear the hunters apart while craving mana, all turned toward Go Gyeol at once. The buzzing sound of its wings became sharper, and the creature’s massive snout squirmed grotesquely.

Go Gyeol threw the opened vinegar bottle to the feet of the Avatar of Beelzebub without hesitation. As the transparent liquid poured out from the bottle that had fallen to the floor, the Avatar of Beelzebub rushed at it like crazy. It stuck its long snout into the floor and began to suck up the vinegar as if it had found the most delicious feast. Even the baby flies that had been attacking the hunters were drawn to the floor where the vinegar was flowing like magnets.

The surrounding hunters watched the scene, dumbfounded. The monsters that even the Rank 1’s sword couldn’t pierce were being neutralized by mere vinegar.

Go Gyeol didn’t look at the people standing blankly. Instead, he made eye contact with Hwang Tae-ja, who couldn’t hide his flustered expression in the center of the battlefield. Go Gyeol’s cold gaze pierced Hwang Tae-ja.

‘What are you doing? Give the order already.’

There were no words, but Go Gyeol’s chin gesture and gaze were clearly commanding. It was pressure to move quickly and handle the situation now that he had taken command.

Hwang Tae-ja flinched and came to his senses. He glanced at the numerous vinegar boxes Go Gyeol had brought out, then immediately raised his greatsword and roared with a voice that shook the battlefield.

“Listen, everyone! Deliver those vinegar boxes I had prepared in advance to the hunters immediately! Grab one each and throw it near the boss’s mouth! We’re numbing their senses!”

Lee Seong-ha let out a short sigh, “Wow……” at his shameless declaration. Hwang Tae-ja didn’t care and continued to give instructions confidently as if he had designed everything himself.

“Everyone, hurry up and take the vinegar out of those boxes and throw it! Right now!”

As soon as the order was given, the nearby hunters rushed to the boxes piled up at Go Gyeol’s feet. They each grabbed a vinegar bottle and began desperately throwing them at the Avatar of Beelzebub and the baby flies.

“There’s more vinegar here! Take it!”

“Throw it toward the mouth! Keep them from thinking straight!”

The cave, which had been a scene of chaos, instantly turned into a bizarre ‘cafeteria.’ Thousands of bottles of vinegar burst, filling the cave with a sour smell, and the Avatar of Beelzebub, as if drunk on the smell, forgot about the hunters and began licking the floor.

Lee Seong-ha whispered to Go Gyeol while watching the real-time reactions.

“Hey, Go Gyeol. Where did that bastard’s conscience go? He said he prepared it because he ordered it. Aren’t you frustrated?”

Go Gyeol turned off the tablet and answered indifferently.

“What’s there to be frustrated about? Hwang Tae-ja sets the stage, and we can just rest in the shade. And he needs to draw aggro like that so they don’t notice when we land the final blow.”

Go Gyeol stared at the Avatar of Beelzebub, whose wing-flapping had slowed down as it got drunk on vinegar.

Go Gyeol reached into the space once again. What he brought out this time was not a vinegar bottle, but large-capacity baking soda bags filled with white powder.

“Seong-ha-ya, tear this open and float it in the air. As wide as possible.”

At Go Gyeol’s instruction, Lee Seong-ha took the bags as if snatching them, even though he had an expression that said he didn’t understand.

“Hey, I’m seriously going to call you to clean my house later, okay?”

As Lee Seong-ha grumbled and swung his staff, the countless white powder pouring out of the bags floated into the air, ignoring the laws of gravity. As the fine powder filled the lobby ceiling, a strange scene was created, as if a thick white fog had settled inside the cave.

Go Gyeol took out another vinegar bottle and cast his gaze toward Hwang Tae-ja, who was standing in the center of the battlefield. And very briefly, he nodded.

Hwang Tae-ja didn’t miss that signal. He raised his greatsword high to play his role on this bizarre stage Go Gyeol had set up and shouted.

“Hunter Lee Seong-ha! Pour the vinegar on them right now! Soak them completely!”

“I will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean; I will cleanse you from all your filth.”

As Lee Seong-ha swung his staff widely, dozens of vinegar bottles floating in the air due to gravity were flipped over all at once.

Chiiiiiiik—!

Sour liquids poured down like rain, soaking the heads of the Avatar of Beelzebub and the baby flies. But instead of avoiding it, even while their whole bodies were getting soaked in vinegar, they didn’t perceive it as an attack. Rather, drunk on the more intense vinegar smell, they were busy flapping their wings and licking the liquid pooled on the floor.

Hwang Tae-ja captured that split second when they were completely off guard.

“Now! Pour it all out!!”

Hwang Tae-ja’s roar shook the cave. Lee Seong-ha instinctively looked at Go Gyeol. When Go Gyeol nodded quietly once more, Lee Seong-ha’s fingertips bent sharply downward.

At that moment, the countless baking soda powder floating like fog in the air gained the acceleration of gravity and poured down like a waterfall onto the heads of the vinegar-soaked flies.

Chiiiiiiik—!

The moment acid and alkali met, a ‘chemical reaction’ more terrifying than the laws of physics began to swallow the entire cave.

The vinegar covering the flies’ bodies combined with the white powder, and an enormous amount of white foam erupted in an instant. The bubbling foam instantly filled the Avatar of Beelzebub’s compound eyes, wings, and abdomen, where its spiracles were concentrated, without a single gap.

“Kie, kiiieeeeek?!”

The monsters that had been full of themselves while eating mana were now twisting their limbs in a ‘foam hell’ that didn’t contain a single drop of mana, and began to let out their death throes.

“Seong-ha-ya, use gravity to push the foam inside their bodies!”

At Go Gyeol’s quiet whisper, Lee Seong-ha twisted his staff. As the pressure of gravity was applied, the bubbling white foam was forcibly shoved into the gaps of the Avatar of Beelzebub’s exoskeleton and into its massive snout.

“Gu, gulluck! Keuuueooeok!”

The Avatar of Beelzebub flapped its wings like crazy, but the wings, tangled in foam, couldn’t exert any power. The baby flies also died, convulsing as if their limbs were melting, buried in the foam piled up on the floor. For creatures that reproduced by absorbing mana, the foam poison that blocked their oxygen supply and choked their airways was practically their natural enemy.

“Now! Everyone, pick up your weapons and strike physically!”

Hwang Tae-ja didn’t miss the opportunity and roared as he leaped. The golden greatsword struck heavily toward the neck of the Avatar of Beelzebub, which was flailing around, unable to see ahead as it was engulfed in foam.

Kwajik—!

A single blow, delivered with pure muscle strength and the weight of the sword rather than mana, blew away half of the massive fly’s head. Following this, other hunters rushed in and began to hack at the monster trapped in the foam.

The inside of the cave instantly turned into a bizarre landscape mixed with white foam and green blood.

[Notification: 2nd Floor Boss ‘Avatar of Beelzebub’ defeated!]

[Confirmation: Republic of Korea Sector Pioneer Team – 2nd Floor cleared!]

As the massive body of the Avatar of Beelzebub slumped to the floor and stopped convulsing, a fanfare announcing victory rang out throughout the lobby.