The Swordmaster Wants To Live Peacefully [EN]: Chapter 10

Swordmaster Wants to Live in Peace – Episode 10

Forest of Suffering (3)

The cave echoed with a deafening roar.

The tremendous volume reverberated through the cave, causing it to shake, but Yoo Seong-woo merely raised an eyebrow.

He immediately turned and threw a punch.

A fist larger than Yoo Seong-woo’s entire body hurtled toward him, packed with immense power.

“This is a bit…”

He defended against the powerful fist by raising his sword vertically but was pushed straight back and flung out of the cave.

In terms of pure brute strength, even a top-tier S-class Diver wouldn’t stand a chance.

He landed lightly outside the cave without a scratch. Another roar echoed from within, and the ground trembled.

Thump, thump, thump—the sound of something heavy echoed as the creature charged out of the cave on all fours.

Kuwahhhhhh-!!

“See, I knew it was a familiar face…”

* * *

“Right! Right! I said right, you bastards! Get your heads in the game!”

Red Dragon of Scarlet Calamity, Hong Seo-hwa.

The Guild Master of ‘Red Dragon,’ a large guild based in Sehyun City, and an S-class Diver.

She led five A-class Divers, cutting through the swarm of monkeys.

Swinging a sword glowing red with flames, she lopped off a monkey’s head while shouting.

“Are you freaking deaf?! If you want to lose your heads, keep it up, you bastards!”

“Understood!”

Her five subordinates were all A-class Divers belonging to Red Dragon.

They fought on, enduring her harsh words.

They knew her rough language was just her way of showing concern for their safety.

Finally, after finishing one battle, they prepared for the next.

Thump- thump-

Vibrations echoed from deep within the forest.

The faint sound of a roar.

The sound of something heavy colliding.

Hong Seo-hwa and the other Divers simultaneously felt an instinctive fear at the sounds coming from within.

They could tell just from the sound.

That sound was being made by the master of this forest.

It was clearly a powerful being that couldn’t compare to the monkeys they had been fighting.

“…Well, guys, looks like today’s the day we die.”

“What are you saying, Captain? I have a family to feed.”

“Why did a guy with a family come in here? Didn’t I tell you to stay out?”

“Come on, how could I stay out? If we can’t stop it, our families will die anyway.”

“You’re so romantic, yet not at all…”

Hong Seo-hwa chuckled.

Then, she stood up, dusted off her butt, and said.

“Alright, you bastards, let’s make some history. Since we were born as men, we should leave our names in history, right?”

“But Captain, you’re a woman.”

“You freaking clueless, unromantic bastard… You’re dead when we get back.”

* * *

Several hours had passed since the Divers entered the Abyss.

The Divers, who had split into four groups, dealt with the mid-bosses at the end of their respective paths and rejoined.

Four S-class Divers and twenty A-class Divers had gathered again.

They were all exhausted.

Fortunately, no one had died, but seven had suffered major injuries that made it impossible to continue fighting.

Even the people who were relatively unscathed had their equipment dented or soaked in blood.

The twenty-four-member strike force began preparations for the final battle.

They took out expensive potions from the small subspace bags [small pocket dimension storage] hanging on their waists to treat their injuries, and they tended to their blood-stained weapons.

After some preparation and recovery of stamina, Hong Seo-hwa took a deep breath and stood in front of the others.

“I don’t know if you all heard, but it seems clear that this boss is going to be a tough one.”

It was a hastily formed strike force to stop the Abyss Rush [a phenomenon where monsters from another dimension invade].

There wasn’t much internal information, and the only information they could rely on was what their predecessors had used in the past.

The monkeys, enemies they were seeing for the first time, were dealt with by recording their patterns on the spot, so there were quite a few injuries.

No matter how veteran the Divers were, it was an extremely difficult forced march.

Hong Seo-hwa bit her lip and exhaled the breath she had taken.

“But everyone knows that we can’t stop here. Even if we retreat here, the Abyss Rush won’t stop.”

Unless they catch the boss.

The monsters they had dealt with would soon come back to life and overrun the Earth.

That was the power of the Abyss’s heart, the Core.

At her words, the others nodded and gripped their weapons with determined expressions.

Among those Divers, one wore a strange expression.

‘Oppa [term for older brother], said he was going to watch, so what the heck is he doing?’

She wasn’t particularly worried, but she felt like she was.

She knew he would do well, but she felt uneasy in one corner of her heart.

She had also heard the sound coming from inside the forest while dealing with the monkeys.

The cause of the boss’s roar, which sounded angry, was definitely Yoo Seong-woo.

Hong Seo-hwa, unaware of Yoo Ji-woo’s feelings, raised her sword and shouted.

“Let’s go! Let’s go kill it!”

With Hong Seo-hwa’s spirited cry, they headed to the end of the forest, the high cliff where the boss was likely to be.

There, they faced a boss in a bizarre state.

A giant, balding gorilla with patches of missing fur here and there.

* * *

Several hours before the Divers arrived.

Yoo Seong-woo clashed with the boss in front of the cave several times.

The boss would swing his hands wildly, and Yoo Seong-woo would deflect them.

The boss had the upper hand in terms of pure strength, but Yoo Seong-woo was far ahead in terms of absolute skill.

“Where have I seen this guy before…”

Yoo Seong-woo deflected the boss’s punches with a relaxed expression.

He was trying to remember where he had seen him before, all while his right hand deflected the punches that were being swung with sonic booms.

And he wasn’t just deflecting them.

Each time the sword deflected a punch, blood flowed from the creature’s fist.

The blood flowing from his fist had already soaked the floor.

Soon, Yoo Seong-woo realized where he had felt the familiarity.

“…I remember. Mountain King. It’s Mountain King. You.”

Mountain King.

One of the monsters Yoo Seong-woo had subjugated when he first started making a name for himself in the Otherworld.

A monkey that reigned like a king in a small mountain range.

Of course, it wasn’t this big.

Compared to this guy, it was about half the size and not that strong.

It was a pathetic creature that was trying to reign as king in a small mountain.

But why did he recognize that guy’s power from this guy?

He had definitely killed him back then.

‘…Let’s not think too deeply.’

These things usually just give you a headache if you think too deeply.

It was enough to have resolved the immediate sense of familiarity.

Having resolved the knot in his heart, he was about to swing his sword to kill the Mountain King.

But he soon withdrew his sword and looked at the exhausted creature that had retreated.

Both hands were covered in blood, and his breathing was uneven and labored.

His fur was falling out in patches, as if he had gone bald from stress.

He looked so exhausted that he seemed like he would die soon even if he didn’t kill him.

“…Hmm.”

He turned his head and looked towards the forest.

There was still plenty of time before the Divers arrived.

“I should just weaken him appropriately.”

It must have been quite a difficult journey to get here.

Yoo Seong-woo decided and kicked off the ground.

The Mountain King instinctively raised his arms to guard.

But the moment Yoo Seong-woo’s foot tapped the Mountain King’s arm, the guard collapsed.

He rotated once in the air and planted his foot into the collapsed guard with his other foot.

A small foot compared to the large face made contact.

At the same time, a roar erupted, and the Mountain King was pushed straight back into the cave, kicking up dust.

Watching that, Yoo Seong-woo sheathed his sword, stretched, kicked off the ground, and climbed onto the cliff.

Then, he found a spot that protruded appropriately, lay down, and closed his eyes.

The humidity was quite high, but it was a decent place for a nap.

“If I had known, I would have brought a can of beer.”

* * *

“Why is that guy in that state?”

“Either way, isn’t it good for us? Guys! Let’s get him!”

They were also battered.

But he was even more battered.

His face was almost caved in from where he had been beaten, and his arms were full of wounds.

The Divers, realizing that the boss was in bad shape, burned with fighting spirit.

The S-classes each drew upon their magic and energy.

The A-classes who could fight were preparing to assist behind them, divided into front and rear ranks.

Soon, the battle began.

Those who could tank, the Divers with shields, stepped forward to draw aggro, and the magic-type Divers fired spells.

“Pour it on! [Flame Bullet]!”

“Pierce him! [Water Spear]!”

“Earth! Move according to my will and bind the enemy’s feet! [Earth Bind]!”

Colorful flames flew quickly from the right, and spears made of water flew from the left.

The ground surged up and grabbed the boss’s ankles, so the boss had no choice but to raise his arms to block the magic.

Besides that, countless colorful, iridescent lights poured down.

The boss, Mountain King, was helplessly pushed back by the Divers’ attacks.

It was too weak to be the boss of a 2nd-class Abyss.

Yoo Ji-woo recognized Yoo Seong-woo’s handiwork in the boss’s appearance.

‘Oppa did it…’

He said he was going to watch, so he must have headed to the Abyss’s boss.

But how the heck did he beat him up so badly that the boss ended up like that?

The boss of a 2nd-class Abyss was a monster capable of destroying an entire city on its own.

But how could such a monster be beaten so badly that he even went bald and couldn’t use any strength?

But Yoo Ji-woo was even more pleased by that fact.

“Pour it on! Kill him!”

The tankers blocked the Mountain King’s attacks with their shields.

Using the repulsive force, they bounced his arms away, and the S-class Divers rushed into the Mountain King’s chest, which was wide open.

Hong Seo-hwa, holding a red-hot sword, raised an even bigger flame and charged.

Yoo Ji-woo also rushed in with her sword covered in flames.

Baek Woo-hyun, the Thunder Sky Swordsman, a martial arts-style S-class Diver wearing a blue uniform, also followed with blue electricity wrapped around his sword.

The three weapons pierced the Mountain King’s chest.

A roar, flames, and electricity swirled, creating the smell and sound of burning flesh.

The Divers fell from his chest, and the Mountain King’s giant body collapsed.

The Divers momentarily wore bright expressions on their faces, realizing that they had defeated the boss quite easily.

But it didn’t last long.

Grrrrrrrrrr….

The sound of phlegm bubbling.

The sound came from the fallen Mountain King.

The stopped heartbeat began to be heard again, and the Mountain King slowly raised his body.

“This damn thing, attack again…!”

“No!”

Hong Seo-hwa, who was about to rush in, was stopped by an A-class magic-type Diver.