Chapter 685

“Lily nyaang!!”

I was struck by something and sent flying, and below, Yena was rushing over in panic.

Apart from the internal injuries, I had not been hit with a proper attack here, but unfortunately, I had to allow it this time.

[???]

[What the hell]

[Oh]

[?]

[Why is it like that?]

“Ugh, UAAAAAAH!!”

With his hands gripping his head, overwhelming power was being unleashed by an berserk Ryuin.

“Upper level? No, is it beyond that?”

The monster within the Iron Soul Sword.

The Iron Devourer is awakening.

Ding!

[Danger! A Catastrophe-level Boss has been revealed.]

[In the event that this boss is not suppressed or equally matched, the World Boss, ‘Iron Devourer, Cheolsigwi’ will appear in the world.]

[LV.160]

KWAHAAAANG!!!

With just a movement of Ryuin’s hand, mountains are uprooted, tens of thousands of rocks float up and begin to transform.

Each rock by itself seems to be as powerful as a Level 1 Sorcerer…

No, that comparison no longer holds any meaning.

‘It feels like an Intermediate Angel or Demon attack.’

That means any weak attack wouldn’t work.

I put away my hammer and instead drew a long spear from a small area.

The spear was made from a Level 1 Gemstone, taken from the collection in Uzu’s warehouse where Yena’s enemy’s treasures were stored.

The spear, an introduced treasure from a Level 2 Jewel, was much better than any weapon I had.

I immediately flipped the spear’s grip and twisted it toward the incoming rocks with all my might.

‘Spear’s Roar.’

A storm emitted from the spear and ground apart every rock.

Though the rocks were either sharp or blunt, none of them could land an attack before being ground down. Yena, who was beneath them, was left gaping but it didn’t have any greater meaning.

“Ughh… My head! My head!!”

Ryuin was going berserk.

Huge chunks of iron were already swirling around him, with another mountain of rocks floating up once more.

Though he seemed to be in great pain from his body and soul struggling to bear it all, using the power appeared to pose no difficulty for him.

I managed to grind down the rocks again, only to soon witness massive iron ores as tall as skyscrapers falling on me, both from the ground and sky.

KAWAAHNG! After grinding down the rocks once again, I turned the spear and aimed directly for Ryuin.

However, Ryuin was surrounded by dense rocks, stacked upon each other dozens, hundreds of times. It was difficult for me to break through with only my current strength.

All my powers have been replaced with spiritual energy, and all my weapons have been sealed away. My absolute strength was at the Lower level.

And furthermore, spiritual power generally favors ‘living beings,’ making it not as effective against the Iron Devourer, which is a ‘non-living entity.’

Though it wasn’t exactly easy to view the Iron Devourer as a completely non-living entity…

CRACK!

“Damn.”

After using it a few times, my weapon finally broke apart.

It wasn’t broken by the enemy, but my weapon had simply not been able to endure the Celestial Race’s techniques or the extreme force it was subjected to.

If I had Holy Power, I could have done some repair work at the least, but since that wasn’t the case, I discarded the broken spear without hesitation and drew out a new weapon.

[What]

[Huh]

[The weapon…]

[Lily, stop daydreaming and fight]

[Holy crap]

[Looks like they’re getting serious]

[That’s intense…]

A small mountain of iron flew toward me.

Literally, a ‘mountain’ was flying through the air. Using my new weapon, I conjured thousands of weapon doubles.

The new weapon was a halberd with a small axe at the spear’s tip, but I didn’t care and used the “Spear’s Roar” skill on all the doubles.

With thousands of storms battering it, the mountain was shredded, and I could feel Ryuin take a slight step back.

Still, the situation was unfavorable.

I discarded the halberd, which was groaning ominously under the strain, and drew another weapon.

After breaking quite a few of Uzu’s carefully collected weapons, all that remained in my hand was a tiny hand axe.

I had occasionally used a few Level 1 gemstones as well, but those seemed insufficient to change the tide of battle.

“Lily! Oof! Lily!!! Are you alright!!?”

“Too dangerous, please stay back.”

“Th-That’s no monster. How do you expect to defeat a monster that throws mountains?!”

“We need to get away quickly!!”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, definitely!”

“I understand. Then first…”

“Even if Lily is strong, this is impossible. Hiik?!”

After knocking down the large rocks flying toward Yena, I opened a gap in the space and teleported us dozens of kilometers away.

I handed her the remaining half of the Iron Soul Sword fragment while she trembled with fear.

For a moment, she seemed dazed upon receiving the Iron Soul Sword fragment, and then looked at me with a confused expression.

“Eh..?”

“It may not do much with it being only half. Please hold onto it. If I manage to bring the rest, it should awaken fully, I believe.”

“Wait, my head is… ”

“Then please stay here.”

“Lily…? Lily!”

After leaving Yena behind, I crossed back through the space to where Ryuin stood wrapped in countless rocks, now looking down at me.

He appeared remarkably composed.

‘This is strange.’

The Iron Devourer is a beast with almost no intellect.

Though not completely mindless and still strong, it was among the creatures that relied on instincts more than anything.

The Iron Devourer I knew would be aimlessly rampaging at this point or burrowing into the ground looking for iron ores…

“…”

But it was different this time.

The Iron Devourer was “cautious” toward me.

And that made sense given that I was standing here with just this tiny hand axe and not a single piece of iron.

The most possible answer would be ‘growth’ over the long years.

Its strength and rank improved, thus it wasn’t strange to assume an intellectual capacity arose as well.

“Looks like it gained some intelligence… can it speak?”

“…”

“Had quite an upgrade, I see. He didn’t used to throw rocks like this.”

He just used to ram himself or munch on things earlier.

BOOM!

When the Iron Devourer inside Ryuin’s body stretched out its hand, the ground between me and Ryuin split apart.

Living creatures nearby scrambled in the opposite direction of the disturbance, and the giant creatures of iron started to rise.

These creatures had shapes I had seen before—they were the monsters I had sealed away once.

They weren’t the real bodies or their abilities being emitted, but rather a decent imitation of the power that their bodies used to hold.

The iron creatures were exuding the energy of at least a Lower Angel or Demon Race while threatening me, but the true body of the ‘Iron Devourer’ did not grow in size, merely observing from behind.

[Whoa]

[There are so many?]

[Insane]

[About 50 of them?]

[Can Lily win?]

[Massacre time]

[We’d be done for out here. Damn…]

[Real]

‘An Iron Devourer that doesn’t inflate its body…’

The Iron Devourer was a monster I sealed away in the past.

Because I knew it well, the Iron Devourer also knew me well and understood that merely inflating its body would be considered a weakness.

I did have the power and skills to destroy its huge form before.

It would have combined these creatures into a single powerful ‘true form’, but it didn’t.

THUMP THUMP!

The iron giants charged.

A statue in the likeness of the Pharaoh, holding an iron-masked fist, shattered the ground while the iron human mimicking Lasty targeted me.

Thousands of iron chains attempted to bind me, but with my remaining hand axe, I crushed all of them.

I swept away the other half of the creatures sneaking up on me from behind and discarded the hand axe without hesitation.

In the end, the tool left to me was the hammer that was given to me at the start.

As soon as I was about to swing the hammer, the sky darkened.

WIIIIISH!

‘Griffin!’

KWAHAAAAAA!!

The iron monster with the wings and beak of an eagle and the body of a lion began to forcefully stamp down on me with its front paws.

I can withstand it as the Iron Devourer seems to be using some force, but it’s not too difficult to resist.

The real issue here is the two monsters that take advantage of this opportunity and rush toward me.

One is Lasty riding on a liquid iron river, and the other, Miow-Sin, with its claws flashing.

The iron monster that resembles Miow-Sin was about three times my size but for some reason, it was also attempting to use Miow-Sin’s techniques.

‘Is this because Miow-Sin sent it here? But has the Iron Devourer gained this level of intellect…?’

No matter what exactly happened during this period remained unclear, but I deduced that this wasn’t simply a product of the Iron Devourer’s individual abilities.

Even if the Iron Devourer had lived for a long time, it wouldn’t be capable of using advanced skills to this extent.

Whatever the case, my immediate task was to block those attacks.

I surged with spiritual energy and broke free from the spot, throwing all my force into my hammer.

The explosion engulfed the Griffin, Lasty and the iron Miow-Sin.

The reverberation also caused the creatures nearby to be half-destroyed, but the iron debris was simply absorbed back into the Iron Devourer without any issue.

CRUMBLE… CRASH!

The half-broken hammer falls to the ground and rolls.

My hammer with just the handle remaining.

Nevertheless, it had been somewhat useful since I entered the dungeon but it feels a bit regretful to lose it now.

[Insane]

[No weapons left?]

[Yikes]

[What now?]

[Who’s winning between the money or the Iron Devourer? They’re putting up one hell of a fight…;;]

“It’s over. Destroyer.”

“Huh, you can talk.”

“Impossible to win here without using… that thing.”

The Iron Devourer declared.

It is indeed a difficult task to defeat the Iron Devourer without proper weapons, Holy Power, or abilities, especially in my current situation where my strength has been capped at the level of an Intermediate Angel or Demon Race.

Even though I’ve held on well so far, I cannot reverse this scenario without resorting to either ‘Sacred Transformation’ or ‘Annihilation.’

But even so, I have no intention of using them.

The Iron Devourer showed a sign of bewilderment.

The reason is very simple.

“Because ‘Merely’ using such skills in this situation would be too costly.”

I’ll be bedridden for days after using it once. How can one use it carelessly?

Unless my opponent is someone like the Administrator or Black Lily… In fact, unless it’s ‘five Catastrophe-level beings,’ there’s no need to use it.

And the Iron Devourer isn’t among the particularly strong monsters.

Ryuin’s face, possessed by the Iron Devourer, twisted in disdain.

“Arrogant… it is!”

“But it’s the truth.”

“You’ll regret this… you’ll die.”