Record of a Thousand Lives - Chapter 156

Chapter 156
The third trial was finally over. It felt as if quite a long time had passed. While he was in the white space, Kang Yoon-Soo checked the details of the bone he had received as an additional reward.

[King of the Underworld’s Bone]

A bone left behind by the King of the Underworld. The space between the mortal world and the underworld will be distorted for a moment if it is crushed.

The King of the Underworld’s Bone was a very dangerous item, but it would be useful in the future.

Kang Yoon-Soo placed the additional reward in his backpack before preparing for the next trial. He thought to himself, ‘There are only two trials left.’

His surroundings slowly turned white as the fourth trial began.

***

Kang Yoon-Soo looked directly ahead. He was able to see, but he had no eyes, which could mean only one thing—he was not a human. His consciousness was trapped within a large structure.

“Hey, look here, hyung-nim! Are you really going to be boring and take the easy way?”

“Look at this little cutie. You still haven’t had the sweet taste of stabbing a monster in the belly, have you?”

“I’m hungry.”

“Don’t you dare touch the monsters! They’re all my prey!”

Various voices rang out around him.

Kang Yoon-Soo was conscious, but he was a rigid, immobile structure.

[Reorkan Empire Calendar Year 3, Month of Hope, Day 8]

[In the past, there was a man who was thrown into a ruin for no reason.]

[He hid from the strong monsters, and ate the flesh of dead adventurers to survive.]

[The man resolved to escape from the ruin as soon as he could.]

[However, that was impossible.]

[That was because he could not leave the ruin no matter how much he wandered around it.]

[He asked the adventurers who came to the ruin for help, but he was immediately attacked by them.]

[The man cried a river of tears, despairing at the fact that he could not leave the ruin.]

[He could not remember exactly when it started, but his body had slowly started to merge into the ruin.]

[His arms and legs clung to the hard stone walls, and he found it more difficult to stand up as the days passed.]

[He was becoming one with the ruin.]

[It was then that the man finally realized…]

[He had been swallowed up by the ruin.]

[However, it was too late.]

[The fate that had been forced upon him was to become the ruin itself.]

[The man realized one thing after becoming the ruin.]

[He realized that he would die if the treasure at the heart of the ruin were taken away.]

[At that moment, the man decided to protect the treasure at the heart of the ruin.]

[The man mercilessly massacred anyone who dared to enter the ruin.]

[Presently, a legendary group of mercenaries has infiltrated the ruin.]

[Wipe out the legendary group of mercenaries, and protect the treasure at the heart of the ruin!]

It was a strange trial, in which Kang Yoon-Soo was neither human nor monster. He had become a ruin in this trial. In other words, he was the dungeon itself.

[The ruin is made up of hundreds of interconnected rooms and passages.]

[Every room has a guardian stationed in it, along with some small treasures.]

[The ruin’s life force will slowly decrease as infiltrators steal the treasures.]

[You will die if the treasure at the heart of the ruin is stolen.]

[Current Life Force: 97%]

It was exactly as the explanation said; Kang Yoon-Soo was supposed to protect himself from the mercenary group. Just then, the actions he could perform as a ruin popped up in front of him.

[You can perceive everything that is going on in the ruin.]

[You can transform the ruin and install all sorts of traps.]

[Your life force will decrease if the stone walls or decorations in the ruin are destroyed.]

[You can consume a significant amount of your life force to move your body.]

The first thing Kang Yoon-Soo did was to identify the number of intruders who had entered the ruin.

[Current Number of Mercenaries: 1,841]

The mercenaries, who were armed with rare and top-class equipment, divided themselves into groups and scattered across the ruin.

“Where the hell is the treasure?”

“I think we’re lost…?”

“Let’s break the walls and find our way out.”

A seasoned explorer would enjoy the challenge and try to find the path to the heart of the ruin, but these hardened mercenaries had always hated wasting time figuring out the correct path. Thus, they began breaking the stone walls located across the ruin.

[87 mercenaries have begun destroying the stone walls.]

[Your life force has decreased by 2%.]

Kang Yoon-Soo’s life force decreased rapidly as the ruin was damaged. The mercenaries were not called a legendary mercenary group for nothing.

‘I should get up,’ he thought. He felt the ruin squirm a bit as he focused and gathered his strength.

[You are lifting your heavy body.]

[The ruin is coming to life.]

[Your visual range has shifted.]

[Your life force has decreased by 10%.]

Dddddruudrrruu…

The entire ruin started to tremble.

“Euoook!”

“What the hell is going on? Why is the ruin shaking?”

The mercenaries were surprised for a moment, but they stabbed their swords into the floor to balance themselves.

Kang Yoon-Soo stood up and thought, ‘The Kars Mountain Range.’

The Kars Mountain Range was a series of mountains much denser and wider than the Hatar Mountain Range, and Kang Yoon-Soo was a ruin so large that he could see the entire mountain range at once. His heavy body was weighed down by the stone walls he was made out of, but his strong arms and legs carried his weight as he started to walk.

[You have taken your first steps!]

[Your life force will decrease by 0.1% for every step you take.]

Kang Yoon-Soo was larger than the Colossus that had appeared in the Desert of Death, and every step he took was enough to shake the entire mountain range. With every step he took, he crushed various monsters and animals.

“Gueeeek!” The creatures cried out as they were crushed.

[You have massacred 212 wild animals and 17 boss monsters.]

[You have driven 92 species of wildflowers and herbs extinct.]

[You have completely destroyed the ecosystem of the mountain range.]

Dense clumps of trees were destroyed every time Kang Yoon-Soo took a step. He thought, ‘I can’t compare this to the previous trials.’

He had been a lowly criminal in the first trial, an Archmage with several restrictions in the second trial, and a useless spirit in the beginning of the third trial, but he was the very definition of power in the fourth trial.

‘It eats away at my life force, but that’s not a problem,’ he thought. He continued walking, but the mercenaries stubbornly held on no matter how much the ruin shook.

[You have taken more than 600 steps.]

[Current Life Force: 21%]

The distance between each of the ruin’s steps was massive, and Kang Yoon-Soo was able to reach a volcano just past the mountain range just by walking for a bit. Ordinary volcanoes contained enough heat to melt most creatures that dared approach it, but the one he had gone to was dormant.

‘I have to make it active again,’ he thought as he smashed the volcano’s crater.

[You have repeatedly smashed the volcano’s crater.]

[Your life force has decreased by 5%.]

Baaaaam!

With a loud explosion, the volcano that had previously only been covered in gray ashes suddenly erupted with burning streams of lava.

[The volcano that has been dormant for hundreds of years has reactivated due to external impacts.]

[The Alker Volcano is going to erupt!]

The red-hot lava spread across the mountain ranges and caused wildfires. A great many animals died from the eruption, and the ones that managed to survive suffocated to death from the thick black smoke.

Kang Yoon-Soo gathered his resolve for a moment. What he was about to do was something that was insane even by his standards, and even he needed time to compose himself. He thought, ‘I’m crazy…’

Then, he pushed his head into the crater.

Fssshhhhh!

[The stone walls are being melted by the lava.]

[The stone walls can withstand some heat, but they cannot do so for a long time.]

[Your life force will decrease by 0.5% per second.]

Kang Yoon-Soo did not stop at just pushing his head into the lava. He opened his mouth and chugged the lava as if it were refreshing cold water. It soon flowed into him and swept away the mercenaries.

“Huh? What’s that?”

“Lava! It’s lava! Lava is flowing in!”

Hundreds of mercenaries were swallowed up by the lava and died on the spot.

However, the mercenaries were not that fragile. They took out swords and hammers made out of ice.

“Oh, fierce winter chill! Send this heat to eternal slumber!”

“May this ice wall become a fortress and protect us!”

The mercenaries cast various spells to stop the lava from advancing, hiding behind a large wall of ice.

[Current Number of Mercenaries: 1,312]

Kang Yoon-Soo pulled his face out of the lava before his life force hit zero. He thought, ‘I killed around five hundred.’

The mercenaries would have already been wiped out by the lava if they were just a ragtag bunch, but the ones who had invaded Kang Yoon-Soo this time had the title ‘legendary’ in their name. That meant most of them had massacred countless large monsters or hundreds of people. They were not the type to die from just that.

[Various rooms have been destroyed because of the lava!]

[Your life force has slowly decreased.]

[Current Life Force: 3%]

‘I’ll die at this rate if I’m not careful,’ Kang Yoon-Soo thought. He shifted his vision again to look around the inside of the ruin. Not many of the monsters had died from the lava.

‘It’s a top-tier ruin after all,’ he thought. In this ruin, even the lowly goblins wore mid-grade armor, and the ogres carried sharpened greatswords. Additionally, the monsters in the ruin were not the mindless sort that might be found outside; they behaved systematically and moved around in orderly groups.

Kang Yoon-Soo focused his consciousness and possessed one of the monsters. As he overtook the smallest and weakest monster in the ruin—a gremlin—he thought, ‘It’ll be easier for me to be subdued by the mercenaries the larger the monster is.’

[You have possessed a grumpy gremlin.]

[You may not leave the ruin.]

[The possession will be released once the monster you possess dies.]

Gremlins were monsters smaller than goblins. Apart from their ability to fly and use low-level magic, they were generally useless and weak.

‘It’s still stronger than a normal gremlin since this is a top-tier ruin,’ Kang Yoon-Soo thought. He visited several rooms, going from door to door to stop the lava from flowing any further into the ruin. The rooms had magic doors, which he used to minimize the destruction caused by the lava.

Right as he was going through the rooms, however, he met a group of mercenaries.

“Ah! There’s a monster over there!”

“The one who kills the most monsters gets first dibs on the treasures later!”

The mercenaries looked greedily at Kang Yoon-Soo as they charged at him, but Kang Yoon-Soo nimbly avoided their attacks and swiped his claws at them. However, the mercenaries did not bat an eyelid, and merely snickered instead.

“Well, would you look at that. Not bad for a gremlin.”

“You’re the first gremlin to have ever avoided my sword. Why don’t you try dodging this as well?”

“Aigoo. Will you even be able to scratch my cheek with those flimsy claws of yours?”

It was impossible for a gremlin to survive a fight against a group of seasoned veteran mercenaries, and they soon stabbed Kang Yoon-Soo to death. His consciousness returned to the ruin, and his life force decreased again, down to a measly 0.8%.

‘I’m about to die,’ he thought.

Kang Yoon-Soo extended his strides as far as he could and returned to the mountain range. He then crouched down and proceeded to dig under a large mountain. Soon, he dug up an underground city that was filled with tunnels like an anthill.

“Aaaaah!”

“What the hell is going on?”

“L-Look at that! The ruin is moving on its own!”

The dwarves living in the underground city looked up at Kang Yoon-Soo in shock. They gulped at the sight of the ruin that was moving on its own; mesmerized by its presence, they completely forgot about the state of their underground city.

“W-What the hell is that structure?”

“It’s definitely not made by dwarves. Who built that thing, then?”

“How could someone who wasn’t even a dwarf build something as excellent as that?!”

“I think that’s a ruin. It looks old and worn-out, but I think it will look majestic if we fix it up a bit.”

The dwarves licked their lips thinking about that possibility. At that moment, Kang Yoon-Soo crouched further down and opened his mouth.

The dwarves looked at each other in puzzlement.

“What is it doing?”

“Is it asking us to come in?”

“Then… Shall I try working on it?”

The skill of crafting was a matter of honor and pride for the dwarves. Blinded by their desire to fix the ruin, they packed their tools and entered Kang Yoon-Soo’s mouth one by one.

Of course, none of them even thought of convincing the others not to enter the ruin—except for one dwarf. That single dwarf shouted as urgently as he could, exclaiming, “Stop! You crazy bastards! Who will fix our city if all of you go there?!”

Countless dwarves entered Kang Yoon-Soo and started to repair him.

[97 dwarves have made their way inside you.]

[The excellent craftsmanship of the dwarves has repaired the broken walls.]

[Your life force is slowly recovering.]

[Your maximum life force has increased by 135% due to the majestic designs engraved on your body.]