Chapter 36 – Inspection Office (6)

When the spear was stuck in the ground, the knight rushed at the Spear Master again, and the Spear Master, who had lost his spear, had no choice but to face the knight with bare hands.

Even without his spear and even wounded, an expert’s skills didn’t disappear.

Thud thud thud!

He blocked the sword with one hand while striking the knight’s armor with the other.

The black armor dented from the punches and was pushed back with each attack, but not even a small groan escaped from inside the helmet.

Rather, the Spear Master’s expression, who was blocking the greatsword, twisted in pain. Blood began flowing from his arm that was protected by internal energy. Somehow, the black knight had managed to penetrate the Spear Master’s energy and inflict damage on his body.

But the Spear Master couldn’t retreat to avoid the knight either. The gunman in the distance was vigilantly waiting for the two to create distance between them.

The spear bound by the woman’s ability also couldn’t respond to his call, putting the Spear Master in a dilemma.

The knight’s armor and the Spear Master’s arms gradually became a mess. The Spear Master’s arms grew slower, but the knight continued attacking regardless of his damaged armor.

During this, the spear that had been stuck in the ground and trembling began moving toward him little by little.

“It’s hard to hold on any longer! Hurry!”

The woman’s hand holding the spear was shaking greatly. It seemed she couldn’t hold his spear for long.

At her words, the knight’s greatsword became even faster, and the Spear Master’s arms became completely unrecognizable.

Swoosh!

But as if rewarding such hardship, the spear finally returned to him. The Spear Master had done his utmost to get his spear back despite accepting damage.

Though his arms were covered in blood, there was no problem moving the spear. The Spear Master swung his spear to knock the knight backward and then blocked all the bullets that followed.

The Spear Master hadn’t just been blocking attacks. Befitting an expert who had entered the transcendent level, he had grasped both the opponent’s swordsmanship and marksmanship in that short time.

The Spear Master bared his teeth and growled.

“I don’t know where you bastards have been hiding, but don’t think about getting out of here alive.”

At the Spear Master’s glaring and teeth-grinding appearance toward the woman, she screamed sharply.

“I said hurry!”

At her words, the Spear Master showed a puzzled expression. Her words weren’t directed at the gunman or knight.

Rustle.

As soon as her words ended, the shadow cast beneath the Spear Master’s feet began writhing and rising.

The flat shadow became increasingly three-dimensional as it rose, and eventually the shadow transformed into a black ghost-like figure holding a spear.

Sun-woo’s party was all surprised by the shadow’s appearance, but the Spear Master himself seemed completely unaware of the shadow’s transformation.

The shadow silently raised its spear, and

Thud!

The next moment, the spear pierced through the Spear Master’s back.

The Spear Master became bewildered.

He couldn’t understand the current situation. He looked down at the black spear protruding from his chest and made a dejected expression.

“I’ve lived as a summoned for quite a long time, but this is the first time I’ve seen such a technique. To think you had summoned like this hidden away.”

With the black spear stuck in his chest, the Spear Master knelt down. Blood poured from his chest like a waterfall, and the color drained from the Spear Master’s face.

The Spear Master, who had been looking down at his chest for a moment, raised his head and looked around.

Around him, his enemies were looking at him, and on one side, Erica, who had been unconscious, was somehow awake.

The Spear Master chuckled.

“It’s a shame to go alone like this. This is a gift.”

Suddenly, his spear shone brightly.

“No way, exploding spear! Get away! The spear will explode!”

Nan-seol, who had barely regained consciousness, shouted looking at the spear, but the spear was already beyond its critical point.

The black knight embraced the woman and Michael reflexively fell flat on the ground, but the light emanating from the spear seemed like it wouldn’t be stopped by such measures.

That’s when Sun-woo stepped forward.

“Die properly!”

Sun-woo shouted irritably and stomped his foot on the ground.

Thud!

At the same time, the ground where the Spear Master was standing sank downward. The surprised Spear Master looked at Sun-woo, but Sun-woo only sneered.

And earth poured down from above onto him who had sunk below.

“You bastard!”

The Spear Master’s scream-like voice was heard from underground, and simultaneously an earth-shaking explosion was heard.

Boom!

It was a shock that made the canyon tremble. The ground where the Spear Master was buried had dirt flying up several meters, and the party standing nearby couldn’t maintain their balance, but the shock didn’t last long.

Eventually, the Spear Master’s final self-destruction ended meaninglessly.

That’s when Sun-woo heard a voice.

[Level 4 contamination source eliminated. Grade experience greatly increased. Skill slots are full, so points will be awarded.]

What he had seen on his phone wasn’t wrong. The Spear Master had been contaminated at some point.

‘Weren’t summoned supposed to be immune to contamination? Then I might get contaminated at any time too!’

Moreover, those he had thought were traitor summoned were likely contaminated too. Next time he met them, even if he was in a hurry, he’d have to point his phone at them first.

***

This mission suffered great damage due to the Spear Master.

The Spear Master’s team was completely annihilated except for the female magician who was in a daze, and Sun-woo’s team also had Nan-seol and Hayden suffering internal injuries, while Sun-woo still had several unhealed broken ribs.

But surprisingly, Michael was the most enraged.

“My gun! I haven’t even finished paying for it!”

It seemed like a new gun he had obtained from that side’s association since the gun had been gleaming. Unlike with Sun-woo, they apparently didn’t give guns to Michael for free.

[Mission completed. Party member Min Sun-woo excellently performed his duties despite crisis situations. 400 points awarded. Points can be used for ability enhancement, equipment, or money. Awarded rewards can be used anywhere.]

Following that, a reward window appeared before his eyes.

[Min Sun-woo: 4 Star. Achievement Rate 97%]

[Additional Inventory 500p]

[Additional Skill Slot 700p]

[Additional Basic Recovery Potion 100p]

[Additional Basic Water 1p]

[Item Enhancement Stone 100p]

[Item Transformation Stone 1000p]

[100,000 won per point]

[Types increase as character level rises.]

[Current Points: 1,190p]

The points were quite high. Additional points from killing regular harpies, harpy contamination sources, and the Spear Master had been added.

Fortunately, the baby harpy that had escaped also seemed to have died getting caught up in the battle with the Spear Master.

Sun-woo was very troubled, but he had things to do.

He first refilled the recovery potions he had used up entirely and added skill slots. After that, he immediately closed the reward window.

Because the man he had seen at the association was approaching.

“Min Sun-woo? I received a mission about you from the Summoner. It seems you noticed something?”

From the cold-faced man emanated an aura that seemed like it would cut if handled wrongly, though it wasn’t internal energy.

“Yes, but they’re telling me to keep it secret.”

Sun-woo nodded with a dark expression, and the man sighed at Sun-woo’s words.

“Can’t help what you’ve discovered. Keep it secret as they say. And when you come to the association next time, come to the Inspection Office and I’ll give you additional explanations.”

Having said that much, he turned and returned to his party.

The black knight’s armor that had been half-destroyed just before had somehow returned to normal, and his shadow that had dealt the fatal blow to the Spear Master was no longer visible.

When he returned to the knight and woman, they soon disappeared from the canyon.

And next was the party’s turn. The injured Nan-seol and Hayden each took out internal injury medicine and potions from their reward windows to drink, and Daniel seemed to be buying additional equipment with a serious expression.

And Michael became tearful.

“Ugh. All for money. This mission is a complete loss.”

The party showed curiosity about what Sun-woo knew, but upon hearing that the Summoner said to keep it secret, they couldn’t ask further.

Shortly after, Sun-woo’s party also all disappeared from the canyon.

***

The canyon showed traces of destruction everywhere, dead harpies, and where the Spear Master had died, the earth had risen to look like a large tomb.

Next to the tomb, magician Erica was sitting with her head bowed.

Strangely, while all other summoned had returned, she had been left in this place.

A while later, when monster cries began to be heard again from afar, the space behind Erica turned black and circular.

The space soon transformed into a complete black mirror, and a woman burst out from within.

The woman who emerged was a slender Latin beauty. She was Caroline’s former comrade and now a spatial ability user who was an enemy of the summoned.

“Am I too late?”

Having burst out of the mirror and looked around, she frowned at the desolate surroundings.

She had hurriedly crossed dimensions upon information that one of the high-ranking summoned had been contaminated, but looking around, it seemed the situation had ended.

“Did those cleanup team bastards come and go first again? How can work be done properly like this?”

A man’s voice was heard behind her. It was the red-eyed man from the factory.

The woman’s eyes sharpened at the man’s words.

“Can’t be helped. Since the work of spreading medicine has been interrupted, there probably won’t be a shortage of personnel now.”

“Hey, you don’t need to get angry at me.”

“Thinking about what you did in Korea, I can’t help but be angry.”

The man seemed to be continuously getting scolded by the woman due to what he had done at the factory.

“But there’s someone left? A pheasant instead of a chicken?”

Erica raised her head. A red light briefly flashed in her eyes.

“I couldn’t understand why Spear Master acted that way, but now I understand. This is what being contaminated means.”

As she recalled the summoned and Summoners, she could immediately understand contamination from her own state of feeling instinctive disgust.

And she could also understand why the Spear Master had treated her that way. This disgust wasn’t something that could be stopped by human instinct.

“You really loved me, didn’t you?”

A sad light flashed in Erica’s eyes. Even amid such disgust, the Spear Master had tried to save her.

She turned to look at the man and woman standing behind.

“Are you those traitors?”

“The summoned bastards call us that. Well, there’s not much difference between bastards controlled by Summoners and us…”

“Will you come with us?”

At the woman’s invitation, Erica looked back at the Spear Master’s grave.

“Yes, let’s do that. But promise me one thing.”

“What promise?”

“There are people among the summoned I want revenge on. Leave them to me.”

“Hahaha, killing those bastards? We welcome it too. If you have the skills, you can kill them as much as you want.”

Listening to the man’s laughter, Erica deeply etched the people she wanted revenge on in her mind.

The gunman and gravity-using superpower user. And the black knight and shadow person. And the man named Sun-woo who used martial arts and moved earth.

In Erica’s mind, the image of Sun-woo sneering as he buried the Spear Master remained strongly.

“Shall we go too?”

At the man’s words, the spatial ability user sighed and opened dimensions again.

“Our name isn’t traitors. We have a cool name called ‘Recovery’.”

With the man’s words left behind as he entered the black hole, the canyon became quiet again.

After they disappeared and quite some time passed, monsters began appearing one by one in the place where the canyon’s ruler had vanished.