noveldrama
Chapter 284
Chapter 284
[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
Chapter 284
It was just like when he challenged the power of the heavens.
Hunting the Blood Laplanta was, quite literally, laborious.
However, as the repetitive subjugations became second nature, the time required was drastically reduced. Now, it didn’t even take two minutes to hunt a single Blood Laplanta.
[Wow... It’s really not dropping at all.]
Mukho clicked his tongue.
As he said, Jeong-hoon had hunted approximately 5,000 Blood Laplanta so far.
Yet, he had only managed to gather 11 seeds.
With 89 more to collect, he had barely gathered one-tenth of the required amount.
“If it were just ten, I’d be done by now.”
As the difficulty increased, the required materials had jumped to 100.
Had the difficulty not increased, he would have already moved on to the dungeon where King Harmaunt lurked.
‘Master, how about taking a short break before continuing? A lot of time has passed already.’
As Anima pointed out, time was passing quickly.
However, Jeong-hoon had no intention of resting.
“If I hunt during the time I’d be resting, I can gather at least one or two more.”
[And you’ll collapse because of those one or two.]
‘Indeed. Even with divine power, there will come a point where you’ll be mentally exhausted.’
It was true that the repetitive hunting was taking a toll on his mind.
While hunting 5,000 Blood Laplanta without rest, Jeong-hoon had repeatedly utilized divine power to recover his body and mind.
Thus, he still had enough endurance left.
“Let’s keep going.”
Jeong-hoon re-entered the dungeon where the Blood Laplanta lay in wait.
* * *
100 Blood Laplanta Seeds.
The white pouch Jeong-hoon held contained exactly 100 seeds.
After several days of relentless hunting, he had finally succeeded in gathering all 100.
As a result, the accumulated fatigue in his body was no joke.
‘Humans need to sleep.’
Although divine power could expel physical fatigue, the prolonged wakefulness inevitably caused mental exhaustion.
However, there was no stopping now.
“We’re halfway there. Let’s keep going.”
Jeong-hoon turned his head to look at the portal beside him.
Next, he had to acquire King Harmaunt’s Heart.
[Hmm... The drop rate isn’t lower than this, is it?]
Of course, it was.
Even when challenging the power of the heavens, obtaining Harmaind’s Heart had been much harder than collecting Laplanta Seeds.
It would be no different this time.
“It’s fine. Even if it takes longer, it’ll be about fifteen days.”
Based on his calculations while hunting the Blood Laplanta, Jeong-hoon estimated it would take around fifteen days to collect 100 of King Harmaunt’s Hearts.
Jeong-hoon entered the dungeon and began subjugating King Harmaunt.
* * *
<It’s taking a while.>
Baal was watching the portal Jeong-hoon had entered with a satisfied gaze.
It had already been several days, but there was no word from Jeong-hoon.
“He’s probably struggling against La Planta. Its abilities are extremely tricky to deal with,” Harphael said with a proud smile.
<Is that so?>
“Yes! And the drop rate is absolutely terrible. No matter how hard you try, it’ll take at least two months.”
Even if someone managed to painstakingly collect 100 seeds of Blood La Planta, the next hurdle would appear.
King Harmount.
With a much lower drop rate and even more difficult abilities to contend with, it’s highly likely it would take more than a year to gather everything.
‘I wish he’d just give up here.’
If he gave up, it would make things easier.
Additionally, it would avoid upsetting the Lord and prevent any anger from being directed at him.
So, he sincerely hoped that human would give up.
One day.
Two days.
Five days.
A week.
A month.
Two months.
Even as time passed, the human did not reappear.
However, Harphael was not pleased with this.
The longer it took, the more it meant the human had not given up and was continuing the hunt.
Baal, aware of this as well, watched for Jeong-hoon with an unimpressed look.
<He might actually succeed.>
“That’s not possible! Defeating Blood La Planta is one thing, but King Harmount would take at least one to two years. Please rest assured and wait.”
Harphael was confident.
One to two years.
That was the minimum estimate.
Of course, it would require constant effort without rest to achieve it within that time frame.
If done more leisurely, it could take even longer, or perhaps never be completed.
Most humans didn’t possess the patience for something of that difficulty, so giving up was inevitable.
But Jeong-hoon emerged from the portal.
Harphael’s eyes widened in astonishment at the sight.
‘He’s already back...?’
It had been two months and one week since Jeong-hoon had entered the portal.
Harphael quickly regained his composure and smiled brightly.
Coming back a little over two months likely meant he was here to announce his decision to give up.
‘He lasted longer than I thought.’
Even two months was far beyond what ordinary humans were capable of.
Harphael greeted Jeong-hoon with a welcoming tone.
“Are you here to give up?”
“Pardon? What do you mean by that?”
Jeong-hoon tilted his head in confusion.
“Wait, didn’t you come back to give up?”
“Huh? I gathered all the materials, so what are you talking about?”
“...What?”
Harphael doubted his own ears.
What nonsense had this human just spouted?
“I said I’ve brought them all.”
Jeong-hoon, as if confirming what he’d just said, handed a pouch to Harphael.
“Is this… really true?”
Harphael took the pouch with trembling hands.
Inside were 100 seeds of Blood La Planta.
‘Phew, I was almost shocked for a moment there.’
No matter how closely he examined it, there were no signs of King Harmount’s heart or the shards representing the Ultimate Will.
It seemed Jeong-hoon had been so focused on the Blood La Planta seeds that he had forgotten about the rest.
Harphael smiled brightly and shook his head.
“You only brought the seeds. Go back and get the rest.”
Go back and gather them.
Those words were truly despair-inducing.
“Who said I only brought seeds?”
But Jeong-hoon flashed a grin and pulled out two additional pouches.
“...”
What’s this now? These pouches?
Harphael, with trembling hands once again, opened the pouches.
And then his eyes began to tremble as if an earthquake had struck them.
‘One, two, three…’
Slowly.
With a cautious heart, fearing the count might be off, he counted the hearts.
But unfortunately, the count was exact—100 hearts of King Harmount.
And in the other pouch were 10 shards perfectly representing the Ultimate Will.
“See? Isn’t that right?”
Jeong-hoon smiled brightly.
“...How did you manage this in just two months?”
“Hunting without rest made it possible.”
“Stop saying ridiculous things… Even without rest, it’s impossible in two months.”
“Then how do you explain these results?”
Indeed, there was no explanation for the materials Jeong-hoon had brought.
One way or another, Jeong-hoon had successfully completed the first task of acquiring the Ultimate Power.
“...It’s a success,” Harphael said, nodding with difficulty.
‘It’s fine… I did consider the possibility of clearing the first stage.’
He had already accounted for the possibility that Jeong-hoon might clear the first stage.
Although he had completed the task much faster than anticipated, Harphael was certain of one thing: there was absolutely no way Jeong-hoon would clear the second stage.
‘That’s fine.’
On the other hand, Jeong-hoon clenched his fist in triumph.
For over two months, he had devoted himself to hunting without a single moment’s rest.
In the process, he had to craft more than 200 additional Drop Rate Boost Elixirs and exhaust all his achievement points.
It had been an incredibly grueling journey, but Jeong-hoon endured with sheer determination to claim the Ultimate Power—and he had succeeded.
However, this was no time to rest.
He had only completed the first stage. Ahead of him loomed the challenge of the second stage.
“What’s the next stage?”
“...Wouldn’t it be better to rest for a bit first? You’ve likely not had a proper break while gathering the materials.”
“No, let’s start immediately.”
There was no time to waste. He was sustaining himself with divine energy, and he intended to push through to the end.
“...Ahem, the next stage requires you to hunt Puppets.”
“Puppets?”
“Yes, they’re replicas of Transcendents, perfectly mimicking them.”
“Hunting these Puppets is the task?”
“Yes, but there’s a catch. While hunting the Puppets, you must fulfill specific conditions. If you fail to meet these conditions, the attempt will be deemed an immediate failure.”
Specific conditions.
Jeong-hoon’s lips twitched in amusement.
[Wow, ‘specific conditions.’ What utter nonsense.]
‘That vile bastard is setting this up to make me fail somehow.’
Mukho and Anima muttered curses in unison.
‘This won’t be easy.’
Jeong-hoon anticipated that this stage would be several times more difficult than gathering materials.
“I understand.”
But no matter how challenging it seemed, giving up wasn’t an option.
He had been the one to provoke them by daring them to raise the difficulty. For that reason, he had no choice but to see it through and succeed.
“Then, off you go.”
With a snap of Harphael’s fingers, a new portal appeared before Jeong-hoon.
<Good luck.>
Baal’s crescent-moon eyes gleamed mischievously.
‘So, you think I’ll fail here, huh?’
Sorry to disappoint you, but that won’t happen.
Jeong-hoon met Baal’s gaze, offering him a confident smile and a firm nod.
“Fine. I’ll succeed and return.”
[Would you like to enter the Lv. 1,500 Puppet Training Grounds?]
The Puppet Training Grounds.
This was where the second stage of his trial would take place.
‘I’ll enter.’
As soon as Jeong-hoon expressed his intent to enter, his body was sucked into the portal.
***
The Puppet Training Grounds were exactly what the name implied—a training ground.
However, unlike a typical training ground, the 100-pyeong tiled floor was surrounded by a bottomless cliff that extended out of sight.
[Exiting the training grounds will result in disqualification.]
‘So, leaving this area is not an option.’
A space of 100 pyeong.
At first glance, it wasn’t a small area.
However, when battling a Puppet modeled after a Transcendent, it wasn’t exactly spacious either. Depending on the Puppet’s abilities, it might even feel suffocatingly small.
[The Puppet will now be summoned.]
Smoke began to rise in front of Jeong-hoon, and soon, a Puppet of a similar build to him slowly materialized.
[Lv. 1,500 Puppet]
[Conditions are now being applied.]
[Failure to meet these conditions will result in automatic disqualification, even if the Puppet is defeated.]
So, this was the “special condition” they mentioned.
Alright, what are the conditions?
[There are four conditions in total.]
Four? Hariel, that smug bastard, sure knew how to pile it on.
Jeong-hoon furrowed his brow as the conditions appeared before him.
[1. Defeat the Puppet with fewer than 100 hits taken. Hits taken that reach 100 will result in automatic disqualification.]
[2. Deal fewer than 100 effective hits to defeat the Puppet. Reaching 100 strikes will result in automatic disqualification.]
[3. Use a maximum of 5 skills to defeat the Puppet. Exceeding this limit will result in automatic disqualification.]
[4. Defeat the Puppet within 30 minutes. Exceeding this time limit will result in automatic disqualification.]
Each condition was extreme in its own right.
‘Seriously, even the number of hits I land is limited?’
The restrictions were absurd.
For the first condition, every instance of damage taken—no matter how minor—would count toward the hit limit.
Even if Jeong-hoon managed to block or counter the Puppet’s attacks perfectly, those would still count as hits received.
He would have to avoid the Puppet’s attacks entirely while landing his own strikes carefully.
But the real problem was that even the number of strikes he could land was limited.
‘I can’t afford to waste time testing the waters. I’ll have to dominate from the start.’
To make matters worse, the skills he could use were capped at five.
Using even one additional skill would result in automatic disqualification.
And then there was the time limit—30 minutes.
What a joke.
This wasn’t just a trial—it was designed to make him fail.
[Wow… this is just cruel.]
‘This is tougher than the Shadow King I fought before. To defeat something this strong under such ridiculous conditions is outright insane.’
Jeong-hoon shook his head.
“Still, I have to do it.”
This was a trial he absolutely had to overcome.
With a determined look, Jeong-hoon activated the Heavenly Demon Lord’s Dominion and charged toward the Puppet.
[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]