I’m Here to End This Fight

Chapter 249 New Quest (1)

As Yuri entered the passage, he halted immediately instead of moving forward.

The door slammed shut behind him, as if cutting off any chance of retreat.

Bang-!

A heavy thud echoed from behind, but Yuri didn’t even glance back. He kept his focus straight ahead.

‘This is unexpected.’

Before entering, the place had been shrouded in darkness. But once the door closed, luminous stones appeared on the ceiling, lighting up the passage.

Yuri meticulously examined his surroundings.

The floors, walls, and ceiling were all smoothly polished and clean.

Nothing seemed particularly unusual.

However, Yuri’s nose kept twitching.

‘This smell….’

It appeared to be an ordinary passage, yet there was a subtle, dangerous aura wafting through it.

And there was also a faint oily scent that had been teasing Yuri’s nose for a while now.

The smell was so faint it was almost imperceptible, but Yuri had been around it too often recently to not recognize it.

‘Could it be?’

As if realizing something, Yuri’s eyes gleamed, and he began to walk forward.

He took about ten steps.

Clack-.

A small vibration and a peculiar noise came from beneath his feet.

And then—

Swish-!

A silver flash aimed at Yuri.

Seeing this, he smirked, realizing that his guess had been correct.

‘As expected.’

The familiar atmosphere and the oily smell gave it away.

As he had expected, the first obstacle on the first floor was a mechanism trap.

Woosh-!

Yuri easily dodged the silver blade and licked his lips lightly.

‘Let’s see how spicy the traps in hell really are.’

His body blurred as he dashed forward.

Yuri moved like a black shadow, darting forward as traps in the passage sprang to life, attacking him from all directions.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh-!

The traps were varied, fast, and extremely threatening.

But Yuri, who was now perceiving time differently thanks to his enhanced movement techniques, calmly observed the traps.

He noted the number and types of traps triggered.

He didn’t just pass by; he deliberately triggered other traps as well, carefully examining their mechanisms and how they functioned.

Despite this, his speed was comparable to an ordinary Black Sword Corps soldier running on flat ground.

Boom— Crash crash!

Silver traces crisscrossed the narrow passage.

But none of them could touch the black shadow.

Whoosh-.

Yuri dodged an iron ball that was hurtling toward the back of his head and narrowed his eyes.

‘It’s quite spicy.’

This mechanism trap was the first gate of hell.

It was roughly on par with the difficulty of the 7-star level mechanism trap in the Red Cave quest, where Yuri had set a new record in his first year.

That notorious mechanism trap, which had claimed the lives of many Dragon’s Cradle cadets, appeared as the first gate of hell difficulty.

No, in some ways, it was even nastier than the 7-star level.

The trap-embedded section was significantly longer.

‘When does this end?’

The 7-star difficulty mechanism trap could be overcome after about 50 meters.

However, the first gate of hell difficulty seemed to stretch on endlessly, even though he had already traversed at least 100 meters.

‘Others will have a tough time with this.’

Of course, as long as it wasn’t for time measurement, others could eventually break through if they carefully dismantled the traps.

Though it would take quite a long time.

But for Yuri, that wasn’t an issue.

‘Looks like I’ve seen enough.’

Having gauged the trap’s extent, he didn’t need to waste more time.

Zap-.

Thin strands of lightning climbed up Yuri’s legs.

Bang-!

With a loud crack, his figure vanished.

Yuri reappeared, crossing several meters in an instant.

Zap!

Lightning flickered again, and the trap triggered belatedly, slicing through empty air.

And this repeated several times.

The straight passage, the winding path lined with traps.

Yuri dashed through the first-floor zone, traversing several hundred meters in an instant.

Finally.

“Oh?”

Two passages appeared before him.

Confirming that there were no more mechanism traps, Yuri paused and examined the signpost in front of the paths.

[Exit] || [Second Floor]

‘So, if I take the left, I receive the reward and end it here.’

After glancing at the word “Exit” once, Yuri never looked that way again.

Without hesitation, he entered the path to the second floor and disappeared.

One second after Yuri left.

Bang-.

The belatedly triggered trap echoed through the passage, reverberating in the empty space.

From the moment Yuri entered the first gate of hell difficulty to when he reached the second-floor entrance, only about four minutes had passed.

* * *

Three minutes and five seconds after Yuri entered the second floor.

Tap tap-.

Footsteps echoed as a person appeared on the third floor of the hell difficulty.

It was, of course, Yuri, who had passed through the second-floor gate and arrived at the third floor.

The second-floor gate was also a mechanism trap gate, similar to the first floor.

The traps were even more dangerous than those on the first floor, and the passage was even longer, but Yuri had actually reduced his time.

On the first floor, he had taken his time to look around, but on the second floor, he didn’t waste any time.

Still, he had cautiously navigated the traps, so it had taken around three minutes.

‘Not bad.’

He had been on guard, thinking the quest had been adjusted to target him.

But contrary to its “hell difficulty” name, Yuri had passed through the first two floors without much trouble.

Of course, this was only “not bad” from Yuri’s perspective. It would be a different story for others.

Arriving lightly at the entrance to the third floor, Yuri chuckled as he looked at the dark passage.

“They turned off the lights completely?”

The familiar atmosphere and the familiar oily scent ahead clearly indicated that there were mechanism traps further along.

Naturally, the traps would be more challenging than those on the second floor, and he would have to navigate them in the dark.

“Hmm……”

Instead of proceeding into the passage, Yuri rubbed his chin for a moment.

“Oh?”

Then, as if he had thought of something good, he grinned, drew his sword, and summoned his demon sword.

Instantly, a golden light enveloped Yuri’s sword.

After sticking it into the darkness, he cocked his head before invoking resonance.

Buzz—.

The cold golden sword glowed in the darkness.

But upon seeing this, Yuri’s expression turned to disappointment.

“Aw, come on, this is useless.”

The light from the demon sword and the holy sword didn’t spread; it just circled around the blade.

It was useless unless it was illuminating something very close.

Failing to use the demon sword and the holy sword as torches.

“In that case…”

Yuri swung the holy sword and struck the nearby wall.

Bang-!

Not slicing, but smashing it was his goal.

The holy sword achieved its purpose, shattering the gray wall into dozens, hundreds of pieces that scattered to the ground.

Yuri swept up the fragments and stuffed them into his pouch.

“Let’s go.”

Without a hint of fear, he threw himself into the darkness.

And with his first step—

Bang-!

With a powerful shock, the ground exploded, and Yuri’s body soared over 20 meters with a single leap.

Moving through the pitch-darkness, Yuri began navigating with all his senses on high alert.

If he had struck like lightning through the first and second floors, his movements now were more like floating through clouds.

Then, as his speed slowed and he approached the ground.

Yuri pulled a stone from his pouch, lightly stepped on it, and leapt forward again.

This was the method he had used to set the unbreakable record for the 7-star level mechanism trap in the past.

But Yuri’s movements were now much lighter and freer than back then.

His skill in the Cloud Step technique had improved as much as his prowess had advanced.

Clatter-.

The stone Yuri had stepped on flew dozens of meters backward and fell without power.

Fortunately, that was not enough to trigger a trap, allowing Yuri to fly through the air and clear 400 meters in an instant.

Just as he launched off another stone—

“…?!”

Sensing danger, Yuri twisted his body in midair.

Swish-.

A transparent silver thread narrowly grazed above his forehead.

If he hadn’t sensed it, his head would have been cleanly severed—Yuri’s spine tingled from the close call.

But his troubles didn’t end there.

Zap-.

Due to his hasty maneuver, Yuri slid along the ground.

The ceiling opened, and light poured in.

Luminous stones that had been hidden until now suddenly appeared.

Naturally, Yuri, who had adapted to the darkness, momentarily lost his vision.

And then—

Swish swish swish-!

Sharp energies shot at Yuri from all directions.

‘This…?!’

It was as if the trap had anticipated exactly how he would react, seamlessly linking one trap to another.

It was then that Yuri realized whose handiwork this mechanism was.

‘Ah, that crazy old man! Using this against me!’

The trap system utilizing darkness, light, and silver threads was the very method that he and Segyung had devised to capture Johan.

To be precise, it was a system Yuri had proposed and Segyung had refined.

Segyung had used that exact system to trap him.

It was ridiculous to Yuri.

The saving grace was that he was the creator of this mechanism and had worked on it with Segyung, so he knew the principles better than anyone else.

‘Do they really think I’d fall for… hold on?’

Yuri

initially intended to dodge the traps using the methods he knew.

But suddenly, his spine went cold.

His expression immediately hardened, and he quickly swung his sword to defend the front.

Clang, clang, clang—.

He deflected the barrage of traps in an instant.

‘Tsk, just as I thought!’

Yuri realized the traps operated differently than he remembered and clicked his tongue.

Bang! Clang—!

After repelling the barrage of traps, he stood still, waiting for his sight to recover.

Moments later.

As his vision returned, Yuri saw the remains of the traps scattered around and yelled in anger.

“Damn it, I knew it! That crazy old man!”

Segyung knew Yuri had created these traps.

And that cunning old man must have anticipated that Yuri would let his guard down, realizing that Segyung had tampered with the mechanisms—Yuri’s intuition flashed.

His instincts were spot on.

‘That perverted old man!’

Yuri cursed inwardly and grew more cautious.

‘The earlier first and second floors weren’t that old man’s work. But….’

If this entire third floor was crafted by Segyung?

‘I’d better not take this lightly.’

Segyung’s skills at building traps had significantly improved after setting up mechanisms in the Demon King’s castle.

Especially his skill at enhancing the traps’ lethality had skyrocketed.

‘All that time spent eating and researching with me was to capture that old man Johan!’

However, what was more alarming than Segyung’s improved skills was that, unlike before, Segyung now knew what Yuri was.

In other words, Segyung had designed the traps knowing Yuri’s tendencies and behavior.

Yuri gritted his teeth.

‘He’s been so busy lately, I haven’t even seen his nose!’

So, this is what he’s been up to?

Suppressing his anger, Yuri adjusted his stance and his eyes gleamed.

‘So that’s how you want to play it?’

If Segyung had analyzed him during that time, Yuri had done the same with Segyung.

And it wasn’t just Segyung who had improved his skills by setting up traps in the Demon King’s castle.

Yuri had improved too, hadn’t he?

“Alright, let’s see who wins this.”

This was a battle of pride between him and Segyung.

Yuri glared into the darkness as if Segyung were standing there and charged forward swiftly.

Unlike the first and second floors, the sound of traps triggering echoed continuously on the third floor.

Bang! Crunch—! Crash!

Time seemed to pass.

The relentless trap triggers abruptly stopped at some point.

“Thwaaang?!”

Suddenly, a cry of shock echoed from somewhere in the corridor.

It was a sign of impending disaster.

And soon after…

Boom—!

A massive explosion erupted, sending waves of heat through the passage and making the entire tower shudder.

* * *

First floor of normal difficulty.

Sixty-nine 50th batch cadets who had boldly chosen normal difficulty were battling fiercely against a rain of arrows.

Of course, if it were just a simple rain of arrows, it wouldn’t have been much of a problem.

The issue was that they were precariously perched on shaking wooden pillars several meters high.

Clang-!

“Ugh!”

One of the 50th batch managed to barely deflect an arrow while maintaining balance.

But at that moment—

Rumble, rumble—.

The whole tower shook violently, causing the wooden pillars to sway.

The impact obviously affected those standing on the pillars.

“Ugh, argh!”

“Wh-what the?!”

“Ahhh! Save meeeeee!”

Unforeseen calamity sent screams and cries reverberating through the first floor of normal difficulty.