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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
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Chapter 14
‘I’m just dipping my toes in.’
If things got even slightly dangerous, I’d bail immediately.
Summoning both Napoleon’s Rifle and the Twin Dragon Sword, I made sure I was fully prepared before looking at my status window.
==
Special Gate: Myeongnyang
- [Entry Requirement: A relic from the Joseon Dynasty]
- [Entry requirement fulfilled.]
- Would you like to enter?
===
“Yes.”
Normally, to enter a gate, you had to physically travel to its location.
For Myeongnyang, that meant diving straight into the whirlpool.
But since this was a quest, I could enter just by selecting Yes.
==
Entering Special Gate: Myeongnyang
==
"Ugh—!"
In an instant, darkness swallowed me.
A crushing wave of water rushed into my mouth and nose.
"Shit!"
Just as regret and the fear of drowning hit me, The Twin Dragon Sword trembled.
And the water parted.
"Cough—!"
Gasping, I spat out the salty seawater that had made its way into my mouth.
“Damn… that was close.”
Taking deep, stabilizing breaths, I looked around.
Shattered shipwrecks littered the seafloor.
And judging by the fact that my feet were touching solid ground, I was now standing on the ocean floor.
The faint glow of the Twin Dragon Sword illuminated the dark, watery abyss.
"Now I see why this place is considered unclearable.”
It was obvious why even the top three guilds and the government had given up on Myeongnyang.
‘How can you clear a dungeon if you can’t even breathe?’
Humans weren’t aquatic creatures.
Without gills, surviving underwater was impossible.
And this wasn’t the kind of place where you could just strap on an oxygen tank and call it a day.
The mana pressure was immense.
Just like how water pressure increases the deeper you go into the ocean, the mana pressure here was suffocating.
An oxygen tank would have crushed under the pressure the moment someone stepped inside.
Sure, high-ranking hunters could withstand some level of mana pressure, but only to a point.
To clear a gate, you had to fight monsters and find the boss room.
How was anyone supposed to do that while holding their breath and enduring mana pressure at the same time?
They wouldn’t even make it to the boss room before drowning.
‘If you couldn't swim, you'd have no chance at all.’
Not only did you need to fight, but you also needed to be a strong swimmer just to move around.
And that’s why, despite having a simple entry requirement, Myeongnyang remained an uncleared gate.
But I didn't have to hold my breath, nor did I have to swim.
Because as long as I held the Twin Dragon Sword, the water parted around me.
“All I need to do now is find the boss room.”
I walked leisurely across the ocean floor, heading toward the nearest sunken ship.
I had plenty of time, so I figured I could take it easy and search at my own pace.
But Myeongnyang wasn’t as easy as I had expected.
Creak—
“…Yeah, I should probably leave.”
A skeleton soldier in Joseon naval armor was staring at me.
Its empty eye sockets glowed with a sinister red light, sending a chill down my spine.
[Spirit Skeleton]
[Rank: B]
Spirit Skeletons were undead creatures who had died with unresolved regrets, unable to find peace.
A B-rank monster was strong enough that it normally took a team of B-rank hunters or a single A-rank hunter to take one down.
Yet here, in Myeongnyang, these near-boss-level B-rank monsters were everywhere.
‘D-rank difficulty my ass.’
Even an S-rank difficulty would be too generous.
Realizing my mistake, I immediately prepared to retreat.
Of course, the Spirit Skeletons wasn’t about to just let me leave.
Creak—
The skeleton raised its rusted katana.
I tensed, keeping my eyes locked on it.
But then—
Creak… Creak—
“?”
The skeleton suddenly started trembling, like a malfunctioning machine.
Then instead of attacking it lowered its sword.
“…What?”
I blinked in confusion at the non-hostile Spirit Skeletons.
Then, I noticed something.
My Twin Dragon Sword was humming.
Wooong—
As soon as I raised them, the skeleton soldier bowed deeply toward me.
Like a soldier saluting their superior officer.
‘Wait… could it be?’
I decided to test my theory as I approached another Spirit Skeletons, I held up my Twin Dragon Sword.
Sure enough it also bowed.
“So this is why the difficulty was D-rank?”
The sunken ships here belonged to the Joseon and Japanese fleets that sank during the Battle of Myeongnyang
And for some reason the fallen Joseon sailors had become Spirit Skeletons, guarding these wrecks.
Of course they would recognize my Twin Dragon Sword as Yi Sunsin’s weapons.
That’s why they wouldn’t attack me.
It was a surreal feeling.
These Spirit Skeletons were the very Joseon navy soldiers who had fought alongside me in the Battle of Myeongnyang.
Even if the world I remembered wasn’t this one, but a parallel version of it.
"This just got a whole lot easier."
I began gathering the Spirit Skeletons as I moved from ship to ship.
By the end, I had an army of eighty B-rank undead warriors standing in formation behind me.
Among the undead, I spotted a commander dressed in a general’s armor.
Though I couldn’t recognize who he had been in life since he was now just a skeleton his presence was reassuring nonetheless.
“Lead the way, General.”
Creak—
The commander stepped forward and began leading me toward the Japanese warship where the boss resided.
‘There's no way we can lose, right?’
I didn’t know who the boss was, but with 80 B-rank undead warriors by my side, I was pretty confident in a brute-force victory.
On the deck of the sunken Japanese warship, undead soldiers in Japanese armor were patrolling the area.
Creak—!
One of them spotted me, drew its katana, and charged.
But I didn’t even have to lift a finger.
CRACK—!
A Joseon commander’s sword struck, shattering the enemy’s skull into pieces.
“Damn, our commander is strong.”
As soon as the first Japanese undead fell, the others rushed in, turning the battle into a chaotic melee.
But there were only ten of them and I had eighty.
I had been meticulously gathering every last Joseon undead soldier from each wrecked ship before arriving here.
There was no contest.
Within moments, we had wiped them out.
With the deck cleared, we moved inside the warship.
The interior was unnaturally vast, as if it had been warped by magic.
At its center, a dark figure stood, shrouded in shadows.
A jet-black skeleton, dressed in full samurai armor from the Sengoku period.
"Shit, it's a Black Spirit Skeleton."
While Spirit Skeletons were undead that couldn’t pass on due to lingering regrets, Black Spirit Skeletons were even stronger, driven by sheer, unrelenting obsession.
An A rank undead monster.
The Black Spirit Skeletons slowly turned toward me, perhaps sensing the aura of the Twin Dragon Sword.
── Yi…Sunsin…!
It was speaking Japanese, but I could still recognize the name it was struggling to say.
"Yi Sunsin."
With a katana in hand, the samurai skeleton pointed its blade at me.
The battle had begun.
Clang! Clang! Crack—!
Eighty Joseon Spirit Skeletons swarmed the Black Spirit Skeleton yet somehow, it held its ground.
‘Huh… we're actually getting pushed back?’
I had assumed that numbers alone would be enough to overwhelm it, but an A-rank monster wasn’t so easy to defeat.
── Kuu…!
The armor of the Black Spirit Skeleton shattered, but in return, more Spirit Skeletons fell to its sword.
From the cracks in the broken armor, an ominous black energy seeped out.
‘Damn, this thing is strong.’
I am not actually going to lose… right?
Just as a slight sense of anxiety crept in.
—Twin Dragon Blades have detected a naval battle.
A status window popped up, and the Twin Dragon Blades unlocked a new trait.
==
【Unyielding Admiral】
Yi Sunsin never suffered a single defeat in naval warfare.
==
Vwoooom—
A blue light radiated from the Twin Dragon Blades, spreading over the Spirit Skeletons.
Immediately, the Black Spirit Skeleton, which had been overwhelming them, started getting pushed back.
—Arghhhh...!
“Oh, is this a buff?”
The Spirit Skeletons moved far more nimbly than before.
But they weren’t the only ones who received a buff.
The Twin Dragon Blades, which had been heavy and difficult to swing, now felt light enough to wield effortlessly.
‘Should I jump in too?’
At this rate, even if I left things alone, the Black Spirit Skeleton would probably be purified under the relentless assault of the Spirit Skeletons.
Its once-imposing armor was shattered, and cracks ran across its skull.
At this point, even a light tap might finish it off.
‘Ending it like this wouldn’t be satisfying.’
I steeled myself and raised the Twin Dragon Blades.
—Damn it!
‘Maybe I should wait just a little longer.’
Summoning the last of its strength, the Black Spirit Skeleton launched a desperate counterattack against the Spirit Skeletons.
But it was clearly its final struggle.
As its strength waned, it started getting pushed back again.
‘Now!’
Seizing the opportunity while it was immobilized by the Spirit Skeletons, I slipped behind it and swung the Twin Dragon Blades with all my might, aiming for the back of its skull.
Crunch—!
A heavy impact.
The Black Spirit Skeleton’s skull was obliterated.
[You have defeated Shogun Kurushima Michifusa!]
[You have cleared the Myeongnyang Gate!]
[Clear Rank: SSS]
The message confirming the successful gate conquest appeared.
And then...
[The spirits of the Joseon navy begin to ascend.]
As the Spirit Skeletons crumbled, the spirits trapped within them emerged, revealing their original human forms.
‘Wait… this guy…’
My eyes widened as I recognized the spirit that emerged from one of the fallen Spirit Commanders.
—Hey, you there! What are you standing around for? Come and help carry the cannons!
It was the very same guy who had once forced me to handle cannons during the Battle of Myeongnyang.
And he wasn’t the only familiar face.
—If I can fight alongside the Admiral, I’ll gladly lay down my life!
A farmer from Jinju, who had abandoned his plow without hesitation to follow Yi Sunsin in defense of his homeland.
—One more shot! Fire one more shot at that ship!
A navy gunner who had urged me to fire the cannons.
—Choi Seojun, over here.
The captain who had personally placed me on a scouting ship…
One by one, their faces surfaced clearly in my mind.
For six centuries, they had been trapped beneath the sea, bound to the battlefield of Myeongnyang.
Now, at long last, with peaceful expressions, they ascended into the sky.
Right after, the gate completion reward list appeared.
[A-Rank Titan’s Vajra Fist]
[A-Rank Vacuum Slash]
[A-Rank Shadow Step]
“Oh.”
I couldn’t help but be surprised.
All of them were A-rank skills, definitely rewards worthy of the struggle.
Of course, I couldn’t take them all. I had to choose one.
They were all excellent skills, but I didn’t hesitate.
‘Shadow Step, no question.’
Titan’s Vajra Fist was obviously a martial arts skill, and since I relied on artifacts, I had no use for hand-to-hand combat techniques.
Vacuum Slash was a sword strike skill, but with the Twin Dragon Blades and Napoleon’s rifle in my arsenal, I didn’t need it either.
On the other hand, Shadow Step was extremely useful.
Footwork techniques were invaluable for dodging enemy attacks.
[You have acquired Shadow Step.]
[Shadow Step has been added to your skill list.]
==
◆ Skill List
—Appraisal (E)
—Shadow Step (A)
—Transcendental Connector (EX)
==
As soon as Shadow Step was added to my skills, an old sword suddenly dropped in front of me.
==
「Ahn Wi’s Worn Hwando」
Artifact Rank: Epic
—It seems useful for clearing certain gates.
==
[PR/N: ‘Hwando’ refers to a traditional Korean sword, specifically a single-edged, shorter sword, often used as a sidearm, particularly during the Joseon era.]
It was the Hwando used by Ahn Wi, Yi Sunsin’s right-hand man.
An epic-rank artifact.
But it was in terrible condition, nearly broken from the wear of time.
Even if it was helpful in some gate strategies, compared to the Twin Dragon Blades, it was nothing more than a weaker alternative.
“Lame.”
I’d just sell it.
Shoving the Hwando carelessly into my bag, I wrote my nickname on the conquest record.
[Myeongnyang Gate Conqueror: Connector]
[Rank: SSS]
It was the first-ever successful conquest of the Myeongnyang Gate.
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
Join our Discord for release updates!
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