Solo Leveling Novel Chapter 142

Chapter 142: Chapter 142

The last restriction was finally undone.

Finally gaining the freedom of movement, the ‘owner of the dungeon’ left the boss chamber and strode outside the Gate. It was the Chieftain of the Orcs, ‘Guroktaru’.

Its entire body was covered in black tattoos, seemingly not leaving behind even a single patch of empty skin.

Tattoos signified victory to Orcs. These were proof of how many battles this creature fought and how many enemies it had slain so far.

“Guroktaru!”

“Guroktaru!!”

The Orcs waiting for the Chieftain in front of the Gate chanted out its name and lowered their heads.

On the other hand, Guroktaru raised its head towards the ceiling without saying anything.

‘……’

Because, it was getting rather noisy up there.

It had been some time since the advanced scouts took away a few of the warriors while declaring that they would conquer this castle of humans.

However, they still hadn’t ended their battle yet?

A sweating Orc received the furious glare of its Chieftain and hurriedly explained the situation.

“High Orc warriors are aiding humans.”

“High Orcs?”

Indeed, High Orc warriors were strong. Regular Orc warriors wouldn’t be able to fight against them. Meaning, it was now time for the Chieftain to step up.

“How many?”

“Three.”

Even if their opponents were strong, what a shameful notion it was for dozens of great Orc warriors to fail at subduing only three High Orcs.

“Pathetic….”

Guroktaru’s expression crumpled.

The Orcs were scared stiff from the Chieftain’s anger and began trembling like leaves. It was then, the Orc great warriors that had been left behind by Guroktaru’s speed, finally emerged out of the Gate one by one.

There were a total of five out-of-breath Orc great warriors.

Confirming that all of its guards had escaped from the Gate now, Guroktaru gestured at the Orc making that report with its chin.

“Lead the way.”

The Orc lowered its head and stood at the front. The Chieftain and its guards strode right behind. Meanwhile, lights of madness were burning furiously within Guroktaru’s eyes.

‘Insolent b*stards….’

It was now time to demand appropriate compensation from the High Orcs, who dare to interrupt the hunting of the Orc warriors.

***

Suddenly finding himself left behind along with ant monsters, Park Jong-Su was feeling rather dumbstruck at the moment.

“Hyung-nim…..”

“Leave me for a bit, okay? I need time to think.”

Kiiieeehhk-

Keeck, keeck…

Ka-ahahak!

Being surrounded by over twenty of these monsters, no, ‘summons’, Park Jong-Su was getting this close to abandoning this raid altogether.

Not only that….

Well, this guy over there. This one guy, with a far bigger physique and with wings on its back. Wasn’t that guy the same mutated ant monster that made an utter mockery out of the rank S Hunters?

This guy’s horrifying level of magic energy was making Park Jong-Su’s skin crawl just by being near the dang thing.

‘If I think about a creature like this turning on us…..’

He suddenly thought that the rank S Hunters willing to fight against this thing were a rather amazing bunch of folks, instead. And, at the same time…

‘Hold on a sec….’

…And, at the same time, a certain suspicion bloomed in his head.

Just what was the identity of Hunter Seong Jin-Woo controlling this mutated ant monster as his summoned creature?

‘Didn’t Hunter Seong Jin-Woo solo this guy, too?’

When his thoughts reached that point, his heart began pounding even harder.

‘No, wait. I’ve gotten sidetracked.’

Park Jong-Su shook his head to throw away all the distracting thoughts.

Indeed, he needed to think about whether to continue on with this raid along with these monsters or not, instead of wasting time on nonsense like how strong Hunter Seong Jin-Woo was or what his true identity could be.

‘Okay, so… let’s say that we give up on this raid.’

If so, then how should he explain the result of this raid to the reporters waiting outside?

Could he say, Hunter Seong Jin-Woo had to suddenly leave the assault team and therefore they couldn’t afford to advance forward anymore?

Or, they had to give up on the raid because they got too scared of the new ‘friends’ Hunter Seong Jin-Woo summoned here for them?

‘What kind of an embarrassment would that be…..?’

Didn’t matter which excuse was used, it’d become a source of ridicule for them, probably for forever.

Park Jong-Su clenched his teeth.

‘Fine. We go forward.’

Did it really matter if they were scared of these summons? At the end of the day, weren’t they Hunter Seong Jin-Woo’s slaves?

When Park Jong-Su thought about this, his mind calmed down just a tad.

‘I mean, seriously. These guys are Seong Hunter-nim’s summoned creatures, so they won’t do anything weird to us, right?’

Park Jong-Su’s confidence filled eyes shifted over to Beru, and the latter approached the Hunter after sensing his gaze.

‘Heok….’

The confidence of a few seconds ago evaporated real fast, and Park Jong-Su could barely squeeze out a trembling voice.

“L-let’s get going.”

Rather naturally, he began speaking in a super-polite tone. However, Beru showed no reaction even after hearing Park Jong-Su’s voice. No, ‘it’ just stood there and simply stared back.

Wondering if his manner of speech was still not good enough for this creature’s whims, Park Jong-Su became even more polite in his tone.

“Should…. Should we get going now?”

Even then, Beru showed no sign of budging from the spot.

Park Jong-Su’s consciousness was gradually getting fainter as he had to stare longer and longer into the powerful glare of the creature in front of him.

It was then, Jeong Yun-Tae approached him from behind.

“Hyung-nim, will we be continuing with this raid alongside these guys?”

Park Jong-Su was already feeling jittery, so when his deputy began pressing him, he ended up blurting out in anger.

“Just keep quiet, will ya?!”

The words, ‘Or, why dontcha become the leader of this assault team and tell these things we’re going to give up’, almost jumped out of his throat but somehow, he managed to swallow them all back down.

Park Jong-Su glared daggers at the poor Jeong Yun-Tae for a bit before shifting his attention back to Beru.

Gulp.

His dry saliva went down the throat all by itself. Park Jong-Su desperately wanted this awkwardness to go away as soon as possible.

But, then suddenly a thought popped up in his head.

‘Could it be that this guy can’t understand what I’m saying here and that’s why it’s not moving?’

When Park Jong-Su’s thoughts reached this point, he forced his facial muscle to contort into an ungainly smile. And then, he pointed towards the interior of the dungeon.

“In front. Forward.”

In that moment.

Pii-shook!

The mutated ant monster disappeared instantly, along with the sound of a bullet leaving the silenced gun.

‘….Uh?’

Where did it go?

Even before Park Jong-Su could scan his vicinity with puzzled eyes, Beru returned to his original position.

Taht.

Beru then pushed forward something held in his hand towards Park Jong-Su’s face.

‘W-what the heck?’

When the flustered Hunter took a closer look, he realised that the mystery object was actually the head of a monster.

Not only that, it was the helmet of one of the most powerful undead monsters, Death Knight, with a rotting head still trapped inside. It dangled oh-so innocuously in the hand of the mutated ant monster.

“U-uwaaaahk?!”

Park Jong-Su freaked out and plopped down his butt, real hard.

The other members of the assault team also were jolted into stunned silence and hurriedly gathered around Park Jong-Su.

Beru disinterestedly scanned the Hunters now grouped together in one spot, then tossed the Death Knight’s head away somewhere. He loudly screeched out to the rest of the ant monsters.

“Kiiiieeehk!!”

With that, the ant army began to march forward in perfect order.

‘……’

Beru looked down at Park Jong-Su still on the ground for a little while, before he slowly turned around and followed after the marching ants. The Hunters hurriedly checked out Park Jong-Su’s current condition.

“Hyung-nim!!”

“Chairman, are you alright?!”

“Are you okay?”

Park Jong-Su replied to them with a stupefied face.

“Uh, uh. I’m okay.”

His body was fine. But, for some reason, his heart ached, instead. It felt as if he got ridiculed by a summoned creature.

‘There’s no way that’s true, surely not….’

Indeed, a summoned creature couldn’t have possessed such a level of intelligence. Whatever the case may be, though – he couldn’t give up on this raid now that he even got humiliated somewhat like this.

Park Jong-Su dusted off his butt and got back up.

“Let’s go, as well.”

The expressions of the Hunters stiffened up.

“Eh?”

“You want to follow after those things?”

“How can we go on a raid with monsters? I won’t do it.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Park Jong-Su spat out a groan as if he was feeling annoyed now.

Was there a need for him to waste his breath convincing these folks with words here? He quickly searched for the head of the Death Knight discarded by the mutated ant monster and picked it up.

“Heok!”

“H-hey, isn’t that the head of a Death Knight?”

“A Death Knight, you say??”

The experienced Hunters among the group recognised the helmet of the Death Knight and gasped out in pure shock.

Park Jong-Su calmly explained it to them.

“You are all aware of how much Magic Crystals coming out of high-ranked monsters sell for, yes?”

Gulp.

Hunters swallowed their greedy salivas.

“All we have to do is to follow them and simply pick those Crystals up.”

The expressions of the Hunters, filled with dissatisfaction up until a second ago, gradually brightened up. That was an expected and perhaps, inevitable reaction in this situation. Park Jong-Su used a question to end his speech.

“So, anyone still unwilling to continue?”

Hunters moved in an even more orderly fashion than the ant army. Those who had already advanced far forward looked back and called out to Park Jong-Su.

“Chairman? What are you doing at the far back?”

“Please hurry up! We might leave you behind, you know?”

“Hyung-nim, how long are you planning to stay there?”

Park Jong-Su bitterly smacked his lips.

“Well, I’ll be… these people. Seriously.”

And so, the momentarily-halted raid of the Knight Order Guild recommenced from this point onwards.

***

Jin-Woo directed his gaze below him.

People, roads, cars, buildings, rivers, trees, mountains, mountains, and even more mountains – the scenery kept changing every time he blinked over and over again.

‘So fast.’

Kaisel’s unrestricted speed had reached a truly gobsmacking level.

If he was a simple, regular powerless person and not a highest-ranked Hunter out there, then he wouldn’t have been able to withstand the air pressure his body was being subjected to right now.

Even then….

Despite this amazing turn of speed….

Jin-Woo was getting more and more anxious.

The signals from his soldiers were still getting to him, but they were gradually getting weaker.

Not only that…

‘Status window.’

[MP: 8,619/8,770]

From a short while ago, his MP began declining as well. That definitely was not a good sign. Because it could only mean that the High Orc Shadow Soldiers were repeatedly being destroyed only to get revived again.

‘An enemy on the level of destroying my Shadow Soldiers are aiming for Jin-Ah.’

Grit.

Jin-Woo’s expression hardened.

Even if not a single strand of his little sister’s hair was harmed, he swore to never let this enemy get out of there alive. Murderous rage filled up in Jin-Woo’s eyes.

‘Faster. Faster!’

Kyaaahhh-!

Kaisel heard Jin-Woo’s order and screeched out again, before increasing its speed even further.

***

The High Orc warriors were indeed strong. Unfortunately, they were still no match for the Orc Chieftain, Guroktaru.

The Orc’s leader left behind its guards in the corridor and stepped forward to fight all by itself. And then, while easily evading the attacks of the High Orcs, pulled out a scimitar sheathed on its back.

“Is this all you have?!”

The interior of the classroom was filled with the corpses of the Orcs. Even at a casual count, there were 50 of them here.

Over 50 of its underlings were done in by these three High Orcs.

“Make me enjoy this more, warriors of the High Orc race!”

The Chieftain’s rage was transferred directly into merciless swings of its curved blade.

Guroktaru’s scimitar drew elaborate arcs in the air and began shaving away the High Orcs, their armours and all.

“Ahh!!”

“Kyaaahk!”

The screams didn’t come from the High Orcs, naturally, but from the mouths of the humans hiding behind them. Guroktaru’s forehead creased up in displeasure.

‘Annoyingly noisy.’

After taking care of these High Orcs, those bugs would be next.

Guroktaru sliced off an arm of a High Orc and chopped it up in fine pieces until it got eventually bored of doing that, and spun on its heels to cut off the opponent’s neck clean off.

Slice!

When that happened, other Orcs who had retreated outside the classroom because of the High Orcs all began raising loud cheers.

“Guroktaru!”

“Guroktaru-!!”

It was then, Guroktaru’s brows quivered.

The headless High Orc morphed to black smoke before reverting back to how it was originally, right in front of its eyes.

‘Is this shamanism?’

Even after the Orc Chieftain cut and sliced its enemies several more times, the story remained the same.

“Kuwahk!”

Guroktaru eventually became really frustrated and roared out. It had sliced and hacked these High Orcs numerous times to death, yet they all reverted back to their original shapes again and again.

‘It won’t be hard killing them hundreds, thousands times.’

However, there would be no end in sight if that happened.

Even right now, that d*mn voice in its head was repeatedly ordering Guroktaru to kill humans. As a matter of fact, the Orc was beginning to suffer from a migraine as the voice continuously rang inside its head.

But that didn’t mean it could ignore these High Orcs and try to kill the humans, either.

‘….Time to finish this.’

Guroktaru rolled its brain into gear.

If these High Orcs were creations from some kind of sorcery, then without a doubt, there must be a shaman controlling them somewhere. Guroktaru had fought against many different kinds of sorcery in the past battles, and therefore, it subsequently knew how to end this dirty trick once and for all, as well.

‘That female!’

That human female, standing far behind these High Orcs and holding her breath! Although faint, she was somehow connected to these High Orcs.

Guroktaru’s eyes gleamed dangerously.

‘So, is it you?’

The monster’s target for its murderous rage was redirected to her. The moment Jin-Ah met Guroktaru’s gaze, her entire body shuddered uncontrollably.

That human female definitely knew something – Guroktaru decided as so, and pointed at Jin-Ah while glancing behind itself.

“Kill that human female!”

Even before its words were finished, the guards observing the fight from the back rushed forward to carry out Guroktaru’s order.

Then, the High Orcs ignored Guroktaru in front of them to desperately block against the advancing guards.

‘I thought as much.’

Indeed, the Orc Chieftain’s guess was correct.

By seizing the opening created from the High Orcs being held up, Guroktaru stood before Jin-Ah.

“So, it was you.”

The Orc used the hand not holding the scimitar and grabbed Jin-Ah’s neck, before lifting her up.

“Ah….”

The female, with her airways squeezed tight, couldn’t even scream properly. This caused Guroktaru to tilt its head.

It was such a weak, slender neck that it’d get broken just from the monster squeezing a little harder than usual. But, how could such a weak human manage to complete a high-class sorcery that changed warriors into immortals?

There was a simple way to find out.

‘Kill her and I’ll see.’

And, just as Guroktaru began squeezing the female’s neck to snap it in half….

Kiiiaaahhk-!

From afar, the cry of a Sky Dragon resounded out.

< Chapter 142 > Fin.