World's Strongest Survivor-Chapter 61

The Proper Way to Backstab

KWAHHHH!

"Ah, shit! It's back again!"

At Kichan's frustrated shout, Seowoon and the martial artist charged forward.

"What are you doing?! Run, all of you!"

A skeleton just over two meters tall appeared, emitting golden light, wearing a crown on its head, holding a sword in one hand and a staff in the other. Without a second glance, the party turned and bolted.

CRACKLE! BOOM!

Golden sparks shot from the staff, narrowly missing them. The ground split with a loud rumble.

"Don't get any closer!"

Lim-in shouted, but the aggro of the monster they'd faced several times already was annoyingly persistent.

To fully draw the aggro away from the party, someone had to buy them as much distance as possible.

Screech!

The creature lunged in a blur, slashing its sword.

Seowoon barely deflected the flaming white sword with a counter-blow, blood and pus oozing from his injured arm.

As Seowoon evaded and circled the monster without retreating, Lim-in gritted his teeth and prepared to throw his weapon, but Seowoon shouted,

"Don't take the aggro! If it switches to magic patterns, we're screwed!"

That was why he was risking everything to keep the monster focused on him up close.

—"Hyung, that should be enough!"

As Kichan's voice rang out in the team comms, Seowoon looked for an opening to retreat.

'Overhead slash, thrust, diagonal sweep...'

As he dodged the attacks exactly as predicted, the monster let out a furious roar.

KRAAAHHHH!

'Now!'

CRACK!

As the roar echoed, a status notification popped up, but Seowoon ignored it. He reached for the creature's knee and shattered the kneecap with a precise bone-crushing technique. The monster staggered and fell to one knee.

Without looking back, he sprinted away — but behind him, a heavy wave of mana surged.

CRACKLE!

"Gah!"

Being within the range of the monster's roar inflicted a debuff that reduced both magic resistance and toughness by 50%.

Even with his high magic resistance halved, the incoming shock magic was brutal.

To protect Lim-in, Seowoon took the full brunt of it. He barely managed to ground the electrical blast using his footwork, but his entire body was scorched black.

"Just... run!"

Only after running a great distance did Seowoon finally catch up to the rest of the party and collapse to his knees, face down on the ground.

"Hyung!"

Lyle's healing brought him back just enough to lift himself and exhale a ragged breath.

"Phew. That monster bastard... that was close."

"I told you not to push yourself so hard. My heart's about the size of a bean now."

Seowoon nodded at Lim-in's words but gave a bitter smile.

A few days ago, after forming their team and debating how to lure out the Specter, they had their first encounter with that thing.

Unluckily, exactly 24 hours later, the monster had appeared right in front of them.

Even though it was only a brief skirmish, it was almost a total wipe. Just remembering that moment sent chills down Seowoon's spine.

Since then, for whatever reason, the monster hadn't been hunted. But ominous alert messages kept repeating over the following days.

[Ding! Epic Monster: The Wraith of Kutrapa has successfully hunted a player.]

Five players were lost that way.

The Epic Monster continued to roam the dungeon, ambushing players. Sometimes they spotted it with cracks in its bones — evidence that other teams had tried to take it down.

That's how they learned two things:

There were teams attempting to hunt it.

And no one had succeeded.

'Its regeneration is broken as hell. Hunting it is practically impossible.'

So Seowoon formed a hypothesis.

The gemstones that spawn the Specters.

The meaning of this place: Kutrapa's Sanctuary.

And the awakened wraith labeled an Epic Monster.

Three facts, one theory. Something straight out of a game storyline he'd seen before.

Since then, they'd been avoiding the monster and gathering gemstones.

'If my theory is right, someone else will notice it too — whether by luck or skill.'

And when that time came, it would be his moment to strike.

Until then, they had to keep running, even if it meant risking their lives.

"But why the hell doesn't that damned monster trigger any detection spells?"

Seowoon didn't bother explaining.

After all, everything was still just a theory — nothing was proven yet.

"It's Epic, isn't it?"

"Epic my ass."

Kichan, who rarely swore, spat out the words with uncharacteristic venom.

Seowoon had already taken major damage three times by now, so it was understandable that he felt that way.

Two more days passed like that.

The number of remaining survivors hadn't changed, and in the meantime, they encountered the same wraith again—its body cracked all over as it limped around in the distance.

Even while fleeing from it, Seowoon's lips twisted in certainty as his hypothesis grew stronger.

***

"Finally found it."

Behind a warrior who had drawn a sleek sword, nine players of various types gathered their gaze.

A gemstone embedded high in the ceiling at the farthest corner of the dungeon cast a soft golden glow.

As the warrior tightened his grip on the sword, a line of red energy about a foot long surged above the blade.

He leapt up and thrust his sword into the gemstone in the ceiling. The moment it struck, the entire dungeon trembled with a loud echo.

"Tch! Tougher than I thought."

Almost as soon as those words left his mouth, a monstrous scream echoed through the air.

—KRAAAAHHH!

***

At first, the entire dungeon trembled slightly. Then, as the bone-rattling roar spread in all directions, a notification sound rang out like an omen.

[Ding! Yeo Haoran's squad has begun hunting the Epic Monster.]

Seowoon, who hadn't expected the system to announce it so kindly, twisted his lips and stood up.

"Everyone, hurry!"

He sprang to his feet and opened the map—sure enough, a corner of the otherwise pitch-black map sparkled with light.

Seowoon and his team dashed toward it without hesitation.

—KWAHHH!

—THOOM!

—GYAAAH!

As the grim sounds of battle echoed in the distance, the group crouched down and hid their presence.

The sound was coming from an area completely walled in, with only a small entrance. Entering the chamber directly would be a huge risk.

"Ten."

"Three."

"Ten."

"Ten."

"Three here."

"I have no clue."

While using a Silence spell to whisper quietly, only Dump tilted his head and replied in confusion.

Each person estimated the number of enemies based on the presence they sensed, but Dump, who hadn't learned any magic and only knew a few basic martial arts forms, couldn't detect anything.

"Then ten already in, and eighteen more yet to come. They'll be here soon."

That was the main reason they were waiting outside instead of rushing in.

Saeid nervously bit his nails and spoke up.

"If they manage to kill it..."

He couldn't take his eyes off the chaos where the intense battle sounds were erupting. Seowoon calmly reassured him.

"I get that you want the Epic Monster's loot, but let's stay focused. Our goal isn't the monster. It's climbing as high in the rankings as possible. No matter how great the item, if we don't have coins, it's as good as useless."

That reminder helped Saeid steady his anxious heart. He realized he'd been so greedy, he'd forgotten what really mattered.

Even though Seowoon said all that to Saeid, he couldn't deny his own desire for the Epic Monster either.

"If we could steal it, that'd be ideal."

In any game, the most exhilarating moment is stealing the last hit on a monster from an enemy.

As he had that thought, a booming voice echoed from inside the chamber.

—"Unless I'm distracting it, hold off on the magic!"

Yeo Haoran shouted while fending off the white-flamed sword with his own, drawn sword exuding sword energy.

They had lost a team member in their initial panic when they first encountered the monster, but its attack pattern was overly simple.

From afar, it fired golden electric blasts. Up close, it swung a flaming sword.

And since its sword swings repeated in only three patterns, for someone as skilled as Haoran, pinning it down wasn't difficult at all.

—CLANG! CRACK!

Deflecting a heavy downward strike, Haoran smoothly shattered the creature's ribs. The wraith threw back its head and screamed.

—KRAAAAH!

[Due to the Wraith's Fury, its magic resistance and toughness have been halved.]

The notification rang out, but Haoran didn't even blink.

There was no way he'd ever let something this low-level even land a hit on him.

Meanwhile, Seowoon lay flat outside the chamber, growing increasingly anxious.

Though he'd given Saeid a convincing speech, he couldn't shake the worry that the Epic Monster would fall, and they'd miss the timing, ending up with nothing.

"Come on, hurry up."

Had his wish come true?

"Hyung! A notification spell just went off."

Despite the Silence spell, Kichan whispered, and the whole team held their breath.

Thirteen players appeared at the chamber entrance, rushing in like the wind.

"It's them."

The ones who had been slaughtering players near the dungeon entrance.

Seowoon recognized a few familiar faces and nodded.

"There are three more to go."

"Maybe the rest decided to lay low?"

"Maybe. It wouldn't be a bad outcome if the number of players dropped here."

After all, if they hadn't managed to fill their team either, they would've made the same choice.

As the new team entered the chamber, a sudden uproar erupted.

Screams and combat noises intensified dramatically.

"Perfect timing to make our move."

With those words, the team lying prone stood up.

Peeking into the chamber while hiding at the entrance, they saw pure chaos.

The wraith, its body shattered, swung its staff with effort. Several chests lay scattered around. The two teams were fiercely battling, each trying to guard the cracked golden gem embedded in the ceiling while also fighting each other.

Although Seowoon had never seen him in person, it was obvious who Yeoh Haoran was among the countless players.

There was no way someone capable of slicing off the hand holding the Wraith's staff in an instant with crimson sword energy would go unnoticed.

Perhaps the damage had exceeded the limit— the Wraith dropped to its knees, head bowed, and the blue glow from its hollow eyes vanished.

At that moment, a golden gem shone and began restoring the Wraith.

"Wipe them all out!"

As he commanded, swinging his sword energy like a storm through the battlefield, Limin spoke with a stiff expression.

"I didn't want to believe it, but that bastard really showed up."

"You know him?" Kichan asked.

"He's the top disciple of the Sagang Sect. In our world, they call him the strongest post-modern martial artist of all time."

The strongest of all time.

Even in martial arts novels, that was a title rarely used. Anyone bearing that title would, of course, have the skill to match.

Seowoon glanced at Kichan, who hadn't shown this much tension even when facing that lunatic obsessed with men. He clapped him on the shoulder and spoke.

"Isn't this the perfect opportunity? Unleash everything."

At Seowoon's words, the group pulled out gleaming white gems from their subspace and threw them into the cavern.

A total of twenty-one gems fell into the center of the chamber. Though the enemies, who had been locked in fierce combat, noticed Seowoon's group at the entrance and prepared to confront them, their attention was quickly stolen away by what came next.

Nearly 500 Specters surged into the cavern, their howls filling the air, creating a chaotic and awe-inspiring scene.

— Kyaaahhhhh!

— Haaaahhhh!

Players were swept up and thrown into disarray by the storm of Specters, while the Wraith, now glowing at the eyes again, rapidly regenerated. Amid it all, the masterful swordsman cleaved through both players and Specters indiscriminately with blinding sword energy.

"At this rate, we're done for! We need to team up and take out the monsters first!" someone shouted.

Seowoon's eyes lit up.

"Like hell we will. Crush them!"

With the Wraith standing tall again and the Specters swarming the battlefield, Seowoon's party plunged into the chaos between the two warring teams.

In the wide chamber, they split from the group and charged three players—a pair of mages and a knight—who were trying to fend off the Specters.

Naturally, the three couldn't withstand the sudden onslaught.

Crunch!

Kichan crushed the knight's helmeted head with a blood-iron mace, blood spurting from the gaps in the armor.

"Watch out! They're flanking us!"

"They're the ones behind this!"

Some players, who had been on alert for Seowoon's group, shouted in panic.

But the Wraith and the swarm of Specters left them no room to react—Seowoon's party moved freely amid the confusion.

Seeing Limin cleave through a group of flying Specters with ease, Seowoon commented,

"It was hard gathering them. Just push back a bit. Anyway, the agaro's all on them now."

To Seowoon's party, equipped with weapons blessed with holy water, the Specters weren't much of a threat—just annoying flying pests.

But to the other players, it was a different story.

They couldn't deal with the monsters unless they used magic.

So inevitably, players clumped together around mages to hold them off.

There were exceptions, of course.

"The strongest of all time, huh..."

As Seowoon watched Yeoh Haoran fend off the Wraith's attacks while slicing through flying Specters with a single sweep of sword energy, his gaze lingered.

[T/L: Read extra Chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : https://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]

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