The Duke's Son :Re
Chapter 56

Chapter 56

[You have entered the Troll Lord’s Dungeon.]

Jae-Hyeok was nervous on entering the dungeon, but he didn’t hesitate and hurried forward. Hopefully, the dungeon’s structure would be as complicated as a maze. He needed a suitable place to lose Theodore’s pursuit.

However, the deeper Jae-Hyeok went, the more his expression fell. The dungeon remained a single huge cave with no forks.

It was a one-way tunnel.

Jae-Hyeok could only continue forward.

Are there any traps or ambushes? It was frustrating. He would be isolated between Theodore and the Troll Lord if he kept moving forward.

“First things first... ”

Jae-Hyeok took out all his poison pouches and poured out the black sand filled with the Leech King’s poison.

It was unlikely that a Named undead would be affected by poison, but he hoped it would slow down Theodore’s pursuit at least a little.

There is only one way to increase my chances of survival in this situation.

The Troll Lord raid.

Before Theodore arrived, he had to kill the Troll Lord in the hopes of leveling up as much as possible. That way, he could grow his strength and avoid being surrounded on both sides. Though slim, it was his best chance to win against Theodore.

Just because it’s Named, that doesn’t mean it’s invincible.

Jae-Hyeok thought about the lion statue’s words.

The lion statue had told him that the resurrected Theodore would barely be able to swing its sword after four months of recovery, and it wouldn’t focus on Jae-Hyeok before then. Yet, he had encountered Theodore in less than half a month—far earlier than expected.

Jae-Hyeok had no reason to doubt the lion statue’s assessment. Most likely, the monster migration had drawn Theodore to the area where it then sensed him. Jae-Hyeok relaxed slightly. It was likely that Theodore could only exert less than 1% of its strength.

Although Theodore had been using the great migration to nourish itself, slaughtering a few hundred monsters wouldn’t shorten a Named monster’s recovery by much.

If Theodore could recover after only a few hours of hunting, then that would mean its level was low in the first place.

Jae-Hyeok left footprints in the poisonous sand as he sped up. Since he had decided to kill the Troll Lord, he didn’t intend to waste time.

......

“Guruk... ”

Jae-Hyeok reached the end of the dungeon ten minutes later and found a white troll sitting alone in the middle of a huge space.

Perhaps because of some innate royal instinct, the white troll sat on a boulder crudely shaped like a throne.

Contrary to Jae-Hyeok’s expectations, the troll was surprisingly small. It was only 130 centimeters tall and proportioned as any newborn would be.

The moment it saw Jae-Hyeok, it looked happy, as if it had been waiting for its subordinates’ arrival.

It appeared both young and lonely.

Nevertheless, Jae-Hyeok didn’t feel any sympathy for it, not only because it was a monster but also because Jae-Hyeok couldn’t afford to hesitate.

The Troll Lord’s chiseled muscles and thick veins gave Jae-Hyeok the impression of rocks reinforced with steel bars.

That’s right.

The Troll Lord’s appearance was incredibly intimidating, and just as ants didn’t sympathize with elephants, Jae-Hyeok couldn’t spare any feelings for the troll. He was just nervous about the situation.

The Troll Lord’s red eyes lit up like wildfire after noticing that Jae-Hyeok was a human. Was this human the reason its subordinates, who should have rushed over to bow their heads, were nowhere to be seen? Furious, it roared, “Kuweeeeeoh!”

The Troll Lord’s roar pulled Jae-Hyeok from his thoughts, and for the first time, he noticed how bright the cave was.

There’s no way that a monster could set up something like night stones or torches. Jae-Hyeok raised his head. Above, he could see a small, round light in the high ceiling.

Then, his vision adjusted to the light, and he registered the blurry blue sky above.

I’m in a crater? The rock walls also look dark and bizarrely shaped. This must be the interior of an extinct volcano... Good.

The crater would be Jae-Hyeok’s escape route.

The mouth of the crater was around three hundred meters high up, and the walls were steep, making it impossible for an ordinary person to climb out. However, Jae-Hyeok’s standards were different. He didn’t easily consider things impossible.

Bang!

He released mana from the soles of his feet and jumped more than 20 meters in one leap, landing on a protruding rock. Then, he looked around for the next perch he could jump to.

“Kuraaah!”

There was a sudden sound that made Jae-Hyeok’s ears ache as if they were going to burst. It was the cry of the Troll Lord chasing after Jae-Hyeok up the wall.

It had used King’s Roar, creating a shockwave that shook the rock under Jae-Hyeok’s feet.

Jae-Hyeok kept his balance.

The most important thing for a martial artist was the strength of their lower body. He had trained himself to maintain stable form even in the face of crashing waves.

I thought it would be slow. Jae-Hyeok watched the Troll Lord rapidly close in on him.

Slash!

At the last second, a lightning-fast beam of light pierced the Troll Lord’s heart three times.

It was the sword-drawing technique. Having trained in the technique for more than ten thousand times a day, Jae-Hyeok’s swift sword had narrowly exceeded the newborn Troll Lord’s perception.

“Kuruk... ”

The Troll Lord’s axe, which had been about to fall toward Jae-Hyeok’s head, stopped.

Slash!

Finally, Jae-Hyeok swept his sword across the Troll Lord’s neck, and it fell off the rock perch.

Rumbleeee!

The Troll Lord’s densely muscled body boasted a tremendous weight. When it smashed into the ground, a cloud of dust rose up, and when it settled, the Troll Lord was getting up from the center of a pit.

Jae-Hyeok’s expression didn’t look very good.

Its wounds are shallow... Jae-Hyeok rubbed his own wrist, which felt as if something was torn.

He had stabbed the Troll Lord in the heart and cut its neck, but there was hardly any blood on his hwando.

The Troll Lord’s defense exceeded Jae-Hyeok’s offense.

The problem is that my blade has become dull. If I make it back alive, I’ll have to buy a weapon first.

Because of the continuous battles, his hwando was in terrible condition. It was even chipped in several places. He worried that it would soon break if he continued to use it.

It’s a shame.

Even B-class players carried at least one epic item.

Although hwando might be the symbol of the Kang family, his blade was just an ordinary sword that wasn’t classified as an item. He might not be B-class, but thinking of it now, it was strange that he wasn’t given a weapon that was an item, even if it wasn’t epic.

Jae-Hyeok calmly sheathed the hwando, which made a grinding sound as it chafed against the scabbard. Suppressing his new doubts, he started to run along the cliff.

He hadn’t spotted any more footholds, so he decided that running up the cliff was better than jumping.

“Kuwaaah!”

A white shadow followed him as he sprinted along the near-vertical cliffside, its kicks shattering the rock beneath its feet.

It was the Troll Lord. It had already recovered from its fall and was moving at an incredible speed for its small size.

A vicious club grazed past Jae-Hyeok’s back and interrupted his feelings of admiration.

Jae-Hyeok clung close to the cliff and dodged another attack before using his Skill. A black aura rapidly condensed into two scythes, striking the Troll Lord in the side and the back.

However, there was no way a C-class boss would fall to one Skill. The Troll Lord gritted its teeth to endure the pain as it swung its club to fight back.

Jae-Hyeok struck it in the wrist with the sword-drawing technique before throwing a dagger.

Bam!

“Kiyaaaaak!”

Unlike the broken hwando, the epic dagger pierced the Troll Lord’s left eye easily. It fell back to the bottom of the crater, writhing in pain.

“Tsk.” Jae-Hyeok clicked his tongue when he saw the Troll Lord was still alive.

He picked up his pace. He had reached about a third of the way up to the mouth of the crater. The sky beyond the crater already looked much bigger than before. The Wind Spirit’s Boots that he’d obtained after killing the senior instructor were a great help.

Bang!Bang!Baaang!

However, the Troll Lord interfered with him; it pulled the dagger out of its eye socket and chewed the eyeball that emerged along with it. Then it struck the cliff with fists that were as big as watermelons.

Why is it eating that?

Jae-Hyeok swallowed his disgust and concentrated his mana in one hand before slamming it into the cliff. He’d been forced to stop running and use this move to try and keep himself from falling. But it was useless. The Troll Lord punched nonstop, causing cracks to break out along the walls and show signs of collapse.

A wide smile appeared on the Troll Lord’s face.

It seemed to be treating Jae-Hyeok as caught prey.

That was a big mistake. I will proceed as planned. The newborn Troll Lord should know who it was facing. Why had Jae-Hyeok tried to escape from here? It wasn’t out of fear of the Troll Lord but to avoid Theodore.

Baaaaang!!

The top layers of the crater’s wall collapsed in a rock slide, taking Jae-Hyeok with it.

“Kuhahat... hat?” The Troll Lord laughed excitedly when it saw Jae-Hyeok falling, but its expression soon hardened.

It had noticed the look in Jae-Hyeok’s black eyes as he kicked off one falling rock after another to quickly approach it.

The Troll Lord was a natural ruler and knew what that uncharacteristic quiet gaze meant. They were the eyes of a predator, like itself.

“Kuweeeeeoh!”

The Troll Lord finally recognized the danger and hurriedly swung its club.

It remembered that the human’s sword was so weak that it couldn’t pierce its neck and chest, so it focused on counterattacking rather than being wary of Jae-Hyeok’s attacks.

The Troll Lord had misjudged the situation because this was its first time in actual combat. It should’ve been wary of the numbness spreading from the wounds that Jae-Hyeok had created with his hwando.

[The Thunderbolt Sword has been activated.]

The thunder tribulation was a phenomenon that even struck fear in S-class players at the peak of level 150. Now that Jae-Hyeok’s blade was wrapped in transcendent thunder energy, it was powerful despite its dull edge.

Jae-Hyeok’s hwando burned and tore through the Troll Lord’s thick skin, muscles, and then heart.

“Kuaaaaak!”

However, a king did not fall easily.

Even as the tip of Jae-Hyeok’s blade crackled in its heart, the Troll Lord swung its club with all its power and struck him in the side.

Jae-Hyeok went dizzy from the pain of his broken ribs and torn organs.

The Troll Lord’s attack was so powerful that the protective magic embedded in his Lion’s Castle uniform was completely smashed.

“Know the honor of being buried with the symbol of the Kang family.”

Jae-Hyeok raised his spirits by mentioning the name of his family, and narrowly escaped being killed.

His magic power was comparable to a level 50 magician, and his mana was concentrated to the extreme in the hwando embedded in the Troll Lord’s chest.

Then, he released it.

Flash!

Jae-Hyeok had applied the Kang family’s mana control technique to the extreme. The hwando exploded with power, and Troll Lord couldn’t even scream as it died.

Blood gushed from its mouth, staining the falling fragments of rock that were still crumbling from the walls.

“......”

Jae-Hyeok’s eyes were still serious despite the victory.

His crisis had just begun.

How long had he been watching? The purple eyes of the Death Knight shone at the entrance to the cave.

Jae-Hyeok was about to speak when the Death Knight spoke first.

“Impressive. However, you aren’t that demon. Who are you?” It realized that he wasn’t the Yaksha.

Suddenly, a mysterious echo rang out. Jae-Hyeok turned and discovered that the hwando, which had been cracked after exploding inside the Troll Lord’s chest, was floating in the air.

"......?”

What’s this? Jae-Hyeok’s eyes widened in bewilderment.

The hwando began to emit a red light from the cracks along its length.

[Iyarugt is born.]

The true symbol of the Kang family emerged.

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