As expected of a Ruin called The Sun That Never Sets.
The moment they entered, the blazing sunlight was almost blinding.
No, it went beyond merely being bright. If Jeon Jae-woo stayed here much longer, he felt as though he might actually melt.
‘Are Myeolgeop and Lich all right…?’
It was a needless concern. There was no reason a Golem and an Undead would be affected by the heat.
But there was something bothering him even more than the scorching sunlight.
The enormous tree standing before them.
Jeon Jae-woo stared up at the colossal tree that seemed to pierce the heavens and thought.
‘…Is it physically possible for a tree to grow this large?’
He was not exaggerating. A single tree was genuinely the size of a small village.
Moreover, an extremely ominous aura emanated from it.
The aura surrounding an Undead such as the Elder Lich was sinister, but there was still something strangely natural about it.
This was different.
The very nature of the energy itself felt alien, as though it were fundamentally incompatible with human beings.
[‘The Sun That Never Sets’ Exploration Requirement: Eliminate the Corrupted World Tree before it drives all life on the surface toward death. (0/1)]
The moment the notification window appeared, Jeon Jae-woo became certain that this monstrous tree was the target of the Ancient-grade Ruin.
Jeon Jae-woo asked Myeolgeop.
“What exactly is that?”
[It is a Divine Tree, a tree said to aid the cycle and flow of life. However, it appears to be incapable of fulfilling its proper function at present.]
So that was why their mission was to eliminate the Corrupted World Tree.
Still, Jeon Jae-woo found himself underestimating the tree somewhat.
No matter how enormous it was, it was still only a tree. Surely something like this would be easy for a Golem like Myeolgeop?
“No matter how big it is, it is still just a tree, is it not?”
The Elder Lich chuckled and muttered.
“I doubt it, Maker. Watch carefully from now on, and you will understand why this Ruin was named The Sun That Never Sets.”
Sunlight was one of the most important things a plant needed to grow.
The tree before them cast a canopy vastly greater than the mulberry tree said to have stood in Liu Bei’s courtyard, and it was absorbing sunlight across its immense body, continuously increasing its energy.
And apparently, within this Ruin, that sun never set.
“Then are you saying we cannot defeat the tree as long as the sun remains in the sky?”
“Under ordinary circumstances, that would likely be the case.”
What kind of ridiculous condition was that?
Was this Ruin truly designed to be cleared?
‘Is this why they say Hunters from the major Hunter powers all have to work together to clear Ancient-grade Ruins?’
-RUMBLE!!
Hundreds—no, thousands—of roots tore through the earth while branches descended from above, surrounding Jeon Jae-woo and his companions from every direction.
‘…I take back what I said about it not looking that strong.’
Individually, they were merely branches and roots from an enormous tree.
The problem was their sheer size and overwhelming numbers.
The instant one of the roots shot toward Jeon Jae-woo—
-CRUNCH!!
Myeolgeop extended its Wrist Blade and severed the roots with a single strike.
But cutting the World Tree’s branches once did not end the threat.
Possessing absurd regenerative ability, the severed branches regenerated almost immediately and attacked Jeon Jae-woo again.
‘This is insane.’
As long as the sun remained in the sky, the tree could recover endlessly.
And sunlight was not its only source of energy. It was also absorbing power from the ground through its roots.
The Lich used a Skill resembling teleportation and carried Jeon Jae-woo far away.
Myeolgeop remained behind alone, fighting fiercely against the World Tree.
Several branches still tried to target Jeon Jae-woo, but the Elder Lich, which possessed three S-grade Traits, blocked every one of them.
‘This is reassuring.’
Having the protection of an Elder Lich with three S-grade Traits certainly made him feel secure.
More importantly, however, Myeolgeop seemed to be in some danger.
Several branches wrapped themselves around Myeolgeop’s arms.
Naturally, mere branches could not damage the body of a Golem like Myeolgeop.
But the instant they made contact, the branches began draining Mana from their target.
Myeolgeop immediately severed them and charged straight toward the World Tree’s main body.
Watching Myeolgeop’s battle from a distance, Jeon Jae-woo bit his lip.
“Will Myeolgeop really be all right by itself?”
The fight looked brutally unfavorable for Myeolgeop.
Even if it won, what if it suffered serious damage in the process?
The Elder Lich, however, remained completely unconcerned.
Despite lacking a tongue, the skeleton continued chuckling.
“Our Maker still does not seem to understand why a Transcendent-grade Trait is called Transcendent.”
“?”
“If all it could do was create a blade and swing it around, could such an ability truly be called a Transcendent-grade Trait?”
Did that mean Annihilation possessed other functions?
Apparently deciding that breaking through the encirclement of branches would be difficult, Myeolgeop temporarily withdrew.
Then Jeon Jae-woo’s eyes widened in astonishment.
The components of Myeolgeop’s body began rearranging and transforming.
-WHIRRR. CLANK. CLANK.
For a moment, Jeon Jae-woo thought he was watching a real-life transformation robot.
Sections of Myeolgeop’s body opened like doors.
Its body was only about the size of an adult man, yet all manner of powerful-looking weapons emerged from within.
-RUMBLE!!
The World Tree seemed to sense that something was wrong, and masses of roots surged toward Myeolgeop.
-WHIIIIINE…!!
Myeolgeop concentrated Mana into the Energy Cannons that had emerged from its body.
“This could be dangerous.”
For once, the Elder Lich’s voice turned serious.
‘Who is in danger?’
-HUMMMMM!
Despite being quite far from the battlefield, the Elder Lich immediately deployed multiple layers of Barriers.
Then the concentrated Mana was unleashed toward the mass of branches ahead.
-BOOOOOOM!!
Jeon Jae-woo grimaced against the blinding light.
The Energy Cannons spread their attacks across a wide area, triggering violent explosions as they collided with the branches.
The branches tried to endure through sheer numbers and regeneration, but they were gradually forced backward.
Jeon Jae-woo could not imagine where such tremendous energy was coming from within Myeolgeop’s relatively small body.
Whenever the World Tree seemed to hold its ground, Myeolgeop simply increased its firepower and forced the branches farther back.
Under that relentless pressure, it eventually pushed them all the way to the World Tree’s main trunk.
But the World Tree, the sole monster within an Ancient-grade Ruin, was no ordinary opponent.
With astonishing tenacity, it wrapped layer upon layer of branches around itself, desperately preventing Myeolgeop’s attacks from reaching its main body.
The battle reached a stalemate.
Myeolgeop, however, did not stop.
This time, the top of the Golem’s head opened, and something resembling a Solar Panel emerged.
-RUMMMMMBLE!!
Powerful energy from above began concentrating on Myeolgeop.
‘Do not tell me it is absorbing sunlight too, just like the World Tree?’
The never-setting sun was presumably a condition designed to make the Ruin harder to clear.
‘And it is turning that condition against the enemy.’
The sunlight was even more intense than the midday sun in the height of summer.
Its energy was extraordinary.
-RUMMMMMBLE!!
An immense amount of Mana soon gathered throughout Myeolgeop’s entire body.
Even Jeon Jae-woo, whose abilities as a Hunter were still undeveloped because he had awakened only recently, could tell just how much power was now concentrated within Myeolgeop.
‘Can it really contain that much Mana inside its body without destabilizing?’
The tremendous energy gathered within Myeolgeop then flowed toward its left arm, which had transformed into a Mana Cannon.
-BOOOOOOM!!
It unleashed everything forward at full power.
Light blazed from Myeolgeop’s eyes as a laser converged into a single concentrated beam.
No matter how many layers of branches the World Tree piled up, they could not stop it.
The beam finally struck the World Tree’s trunk head-on.
-SCREEEEEECH!!
“Ugh!”
Jeon Jae-woo covered both ears.
The sound produced when the beam collided with the World Tree’s main body felt as though it would tear his eardrums apart.
-HUMMMMM.
Seeing Jeon Jae-woo suffering, however, the Elder Lich murmured something.
A moment later, another Sorcery effect was layered onto the Barrier, freeing Jeon Jae-woo from the deafening noise.
‘As expected of an S-grade Trait.’
The Elder Lich was versatile in all sorts of ways, making it remarkably useful.
The Elder Lich pointed toward Myeolgeop, which was relentlessly overwhelming the World Tree, and chuckled.
“See? It has no difficulty handling the opponent alone.”
“…You are right.”
Compared to a Legendary-grade Ruin, this fight was certainly far more demanding.
This was merely the condensed version of events. More than three hours had already passed since the battle began after they entered the Ruin.
If Myeolgeop had been forced to fight while protecting its master alone, the battle would undoubtedly have taken even longer.
After Myeolgeop finally exhausted all the energy it had gathered—
-HISSSSS…
A massive hole had been blasted through the enormous tree trunk.
‘That really is incredible.’
Until now, Jeon Jae-woo had thought of Myeolgeop as merely a reasonably exceptional Golem.
‘It is not just reasonably exceptional. This thing is ridiculously powerful.’
Now he fully understood why Myeolgeop possessed multiple Transcendent-grade Traits.
Until now, it simply had never encountered an opponent that gave it a chance to reveal its full capabilities.
But the spectacle was not over yet.
-SQUIRM… SQUIRM…
Jeon Jae-woo sharply inhaled.
He had thought the battle was finished, but the World Tree was slowly repairing the enormous hole in its body.
It looked like some grotesque regenerative monster straight out of the Cthulhu Mythos.
‘It can recover even from that? Is this really a tree?’
As expected, was its regenerative ability effectively limitless as long as it continued receiving sunlight?
[…]…
Myeolgeop stared at the regenerating World Tree.
-RUMBLE!!
Then it suddenly began spinning its body, drilling into the earth and disappearing underground.
Confused, Jeon Jae-woo turned to the Elder Lich.
“What is Myeolgeop trying to do now?”
“Nothing particularly complicated. If the opponent’s regenerative ability is troublesome, then one merely has to remove the source of that ability.”
A short while after Myeolgeop disappeared underground—
The World Tree shuddered violently as though an animal were screaming in agony.
At the same time, Myeolgeop burst back through the ground.
It had tunneled beneath the earth and severed every one of the World Tree’s enormous roots.
“But even if it cuts them off like that, will the World Tree not simply regenerate them?”
“You still have not noticed? Creator, you will need considerably more training before you can properly sense Mana.”
“?”
“You failed to notice that throughout the entire battle, I have been channeling Death Energy into the ground.”
The source of the Elder Lich’s Sorcery was the energy of death.
It could be considered the natural opposite of the World Tree, which embodied living existence.
-RUMBLE!!
Myeolgeop deployed its panel once again and began absorbing sunlight.
Even more solar energy than before flowed into its body.
Apparently, a single Mana Cannon was no longer sufficient, because four additional Energy Cannons emerged from its shoulders.
‘…Do not tell me all of those are going to fire at once?’
-BOOOOOOOOM!!!
For a moment, Jeon Jae-woo thought the end of the world had arrived.
The instant Myeolgeop released all of its concentrated Mana at once, the beams blasted forward and completely obliterated three or four mountain peaks behind the World Tree.
[The Exploration Mission has been completed.]
[The ‘Sun That Never Sets’ Ruin is now the property of Jeon Jae-woo.]
Only then did a notification window appear before Jeon Jae-woo, announcing that the Ancient-grade Ruin had been cleared.
The aftermath of the explosion had yet to dissipate, leaving his vision hazy.
Jeon Jae-woo stared at the enormous mushroom cloud rising in the distance and thought.
‘…Myeolgeop is never going to suddenly stop listening to me or go berserk, right?’