Chapter 046 – Count Dimitri’s Castle Ruins (2)

[3, 2, 1, 0 Raid commencing . ]

At the same time,

‘Creak’

The iron gates automatically opened inward . But no one was moving . They were watching Sungjin’s sword dance in a daze .

Sungjin held the Moon Specter and Blood Vengeance in a cross and tilted his head towards the entry way .

“Let’s go . ”

Sungjin stood at the vanguard . Followed closely by Giovani, Mahadas, Dominic, and finally Peng Long . With the exception of Sungjin, it was the original formation .

Inside of the iron gates was a large garden . Even though it was called a garden, it wasn’t like it was full of life . Dried and cracked potteries, broken pieces of glass, long dead flowers and twisted up trees, the garden was full of death .

“Woof! Woof woof!”

A dog’s barking could be heard from the inside . Two Doberman showed themselves, but they did not look like any ordinary Doberman .

Past the rotten cheeks, the teeth could be seen, and the eyelids were missing, showing the entirety of their eyeballs; They were zombie dogs . The hunters tensed up at their grotesque appearance . With the exception of Sungjin .

Sungjin slowly made his way forward . The zombie dogs backed up to keep a distance from him barking all the while .

“Snarl! Woof woof!”

They continued to threaten him . Ignoring them, Sungjin continued forward . Eventually, the dogs charged towards Sungjin .

“Kaa!”

Heavily decayed with nearly nonexistent skin, the Zombie moved much faster than a live Doberman . But

“Woosh Woosh”

With a flash of Sungjin’s two swords, the Dobermans were bisected instantly . Sungjin continued to walk up to the front door without any sense of caution or urgency .

He felt that something was missing . Looking behind him, the Hunters were all standing with their mouth agape . Only Mahadas was looking at the Doberman corpses . Sungjin shouted out to them

“Aren’t you coming? Come quickly; we have to go together . ”

At his words, the Hunters came running towards the Castle entryway . In front of the gates, there were five strange looking stones .

“You all read the information sheet, right? Let’s stand on top of each stone . ”

Obediently the Hunters followed his instructions . And once all five took their place, a bell could be heard ringing in the distance .

“Ding~ Ding~ Ding~”

And the hunters heard a voice coming from above .

“Ah, welcome! It’s been such a long time since we last had guests!”

Hunters all looked up towards the sky . A cloud of bats flew together and formed a single figure on top of the tower . It was in the form of a man with a long cape .

“How do you do? I am the master of this Castle . ”

The man whose face was whiter than the moon politely bowed to them .

“I am Count Dimitri . ”

He opened his mouth and smiled . His sharp fangs could be seen clearly . Everyone was taken aback by his fangs, but Sungjin had other thoughts .

‘Wait… Wait a minute…hold on . ’

“I have prepared a fun recreational event for our dear guests on each floor . ”

Sungjin quietly spoke to the Cube . It was barely audible .

“Operator, get me Al Zard . ”

The magic carpet emerged from within the Cube at his request .

“I have spent a long time preparing these fun little entertainments so you should have lots of fun . Enough that you wouldn’t want to leave ever again . Hu hu hu hu . . ”

The Thousand Year Count Dimitri let out a strange laughter . The Hunters watched him completely absorbed . But Sungjin was distracted; he was making a plan .

‘If I take Al Zard up to him and kill him now, wouldn’t the Raid be cleared?”

“I hope you enjoy your stay . ”

At the same time as his farewell,

“Creak”

The gates began to lift letting out rusty noises of moving gears . Before the Count stood back up from his deep bow, Sungjin threw Al Zard forward and shouted

“Flight”

The Magic Carpet opened itself . But

“Pew~”

Peng Long’s arrow flew first . Sungjin watched the arrow fly in surprise . The Arrow made it all the way in front of the Count’s nose, but with a ‘pop’ the Count reverted back to a large cloud of bats .

His laughter filled the sky .

“Hahahahaha~”

‘Damn’

Sungjin chased after the bats using Al Zard . He could hear the Count’s voice coming from the mass of bats .

“You can only play with me after you’ve finished with the other little recreations I have prepared for you . Please come to the top of the tower . Then, I will do my best to entertain you personally . ”

‘I don’t have time for that’

A high-speed aerial chase ensued . Sungjin chanted an incantation while chasing the bats .

“Murderous thunder, Jump from foe to foe! Chain Lightning”

A ball of lightning gathered in Sungjin’s right hand and was shot out of the Moon Specter like a bullet . But, a small portion of the bats separated from the main mass and prevented the main body from being harmed .

The bats that were hit by the lightning fell to the ground, but the masses of bats continued to escape . Once the bats reached the other side of the castle, they flew towards the moat . Sungjin began to recite a different spell .

“Incinerate everything in your…”

But while he was doing so, the bats began to enter the sewer built on the inside of the moat . Sungjin quickly finished off the rest of the incantations .

“…path! Fireball!”

He fired the fireball, but most of the bats made it into the sewer .

“Boom”

The fireball exploded and greatly damaged the entry way . Sungjin flew to the front of the sewer to look at it . It was very small .

It would hardly fit a human being, or even Cain (albeit he did grow bigger recently) .

‘…Welp . ’

Sungjin returned to the front entrance of the castle using the Magic Carpet, filled with disappointment . The hunters watched him return .

“Did you manage to catch him?”

Giovani asked . Sungjin knocked on the Cube next to him and replied

“If that were the case, this guy would have said something . ”

Sungjin glanced at Peng Long . Because of his arrow, the Count was able to get a bigger head start .

‘I can’t really tell him off though since all he wanted to do was help…’

Sungjin shook his head and entered the castle . The other Hunters followed suit . The interior of the castle was dark . Dominic looked over to the cube and said

“Operator, I still have that lantern from the Cemetery, right? Please take it out for me . ”

‘You don’t need it…’

Sungjin thought to himself, but he didn’t say anything . He didn’t want others to know this was already his second time experiencing everything . While the hunters were busy trying to light up the lanterns,

“Ti ta dii~”

From the dark, a violin and other classical instruments began to play an orchestral song . At the same time, the lights in the castle came on . On the first floor was a large corridor .

The previously pitch black ceiling was now brightly illuminated by chandeliers .

“Daa~ raa ta da~”

The classical music continued to play in the background while

“Hahahahaha~”

“Hohohohoho~”

Unnaturally laughing pairs of men and women appeared . The men wore a dress suit, and the women wore a fancy dress . The couples danced to the tune of the music, but each of them wore strange looking masks .

The hunters’ faces had various emotions displayed on them . Dominic muttered

“This chapter… just what…”

It was written in the ‘Information sheet’ but it was still odd to experience it first hand . Sungjin addressed the hunters .

“Don’t be put off by them, stay alert . ”

And in a moment during the middle of the song, suddenly

“Bang”

A loud smashing of the keys of the Piano could be heard, and the music stopped playing . Sungjin turned to the hunters and informed them

“Ok, it begins now . I will take care of most of them, so try to hunt safely . ”

“Keee ta taan~ ta ta taan~”

The elegant and graceful music was replaced with an eerie screechy sound . The dancing couples threw away their masks all at the same time .

“Ugh…”

Someone gagged upon seeing their faces . Behind the masks were deathly white faces, with fangs showing from their lips . Their faces twisted into a wicked grimace, and they began to screech .

“KYAA!”

“You’re supposed to bait one of them at a time and fight them, but…”

Sungjin muttered something . He held the Moon Specter and Blood Vengeance like a cross and charged alone into the narrow corridor . The well-dressed vampires also came charging towards Sungjin .

Unlike the other kinds of undead, these were extremely fast . But there was no way these vampires could match the power of Sungjin who was wielding Legendary Tier swords in each hand .

With each swing of his sword; heads, arms, and legs were cut off . While Sungjin charged onwards through the Corridor like a hurricane, a few stragglers began to attack the other four Hunters .

“Wait! Here they come! Careful!”

Giovani came to the Vanguard and raised his shield . Dominic raised his spear, and Peng Long nocked an arrow . But

“Taha!”

Mahadas dashed forward and kicked one of the vampires . He broke the chin of a female Vampire in a single blow .

He turned to face the Male vampire and said

“Overheat”

With the command, the gauntlet he wore glowed bright red . Using the bright red gauntlet, he landed a punch exactly on the vampire’s diaphragm .

‘Splat’

A strange sound erupted; A sound that was difficult to imagine that it could come from a human being .

‘Wheeze”

The Vampire let out a strange sound of agony . When Mahadas pulled back his fist, a large hole had been punched through the vampire’s stomach .

Giovani, who had been tense, lowered his shield . Dominic and Peng Long also relaxed their weapons for a moment .

“Taha!”

Mahadas began to hunt the multitude of Vampires with incredible speed and power . The Korean ahead of them already formed a mountain of vampire corpses . The three remaining Hunters glanced at each other .

They understood deep inside . This raid could probably be cleared with just the two of them . But Peng Long began loosing arrows towards the Vampires in the distance .

Giovani and Dominic saw that and also prepared their weapons .

“Uryah!”

They charged towards the Zombies .

*

‘Guard’ Dominic swung his Spear around, and couldn’t help but feel that this chapter was very strange .

‘The chapter is one thing… but the teammates, especially those two…’

Just surviving from chapter to chapter was a struggle . Had been a struggle . It was nice to get high contribution percentage, but survival came first . He had fought hard for the sake of his own survival first, and contribution second .

But there was something very different with this chapter . The Korean teenager who charged onwards, slicing off limbs of vampires like a human tornado using two swords . And the monk who beat the monsters to a pulp using his fist .

Between the two of them, he had to work hard to scrape together contribution points . He was also part of the top 0 . 01% of the best Hunters among humanity .

‘No matter how strong the allies are, they cannot gift contribution points…’

Dominic’s weapon was a Spear . It was a weapon designed to fight enemies from behind the cover of the tank . But right now, the tank Giovani wasn’t able to get any points either .

The Korean and the monk were rushing ahead killing everything in sight rendering defense and ranged support unnecessary . Peng Long had been able to try and get some contribution by shooting enemies far into the distance, but Dominic had no such ranged abilities . After considering his options, the only solution he could come up with was to charge ahead with his spear, even if he had to put himself at risk .

The Vampire whose jaws were shattered was wandering about in front of him .

“Yaaah!”

He charged forward and stabbed at the Vampire’s head with his spear .

‘Stab’

With a piercing noise, the Vampire died without even being able to let out a cry . He felt a rush of adrenaline upon hunting the undead .

‘What if… my teammates aren’t strong, but it is the enemies that are weak?”

Dominic thought as he charged towards another Vampire .