Chapter 299: What’s up with this punk? (2)
Translator: miraclerifle
The team members moved deeper into the tomb.
It wasn’t that dark for them.
Their human power plant Julian was creating thunderbolts to provide light.
Ju-Heon was standing in front of the group. He had a pretty thorough grasp on everything inside as he cleared this tomb in the past.
For example, if there was a trap on the ceiling, he destroyed it before they even got there.
He didn't even hesitate when facing any forks in the road. But Julian was groaning inside as they walked.
‘I just know it. Seo Ju-Heon... This bastard is planning on taking his own team members’ powers.’
He was almost sure of it.
Why?
‘This bastard can steal the powers of abilities now.’
Ju-Heon had leveled up during his fight against Hitler.
Ju-Heon had been using the Crow's artifact for a while, but it only had an ability to suck in artifacts as if it was a black hole.
That could be considered Level 1.
But now that Ju-Heon had leveled up fighting against Hitler, he could use Level 2.
‘Using the abilities of the artifacts he ate.’
Basically, he can replicate the powers of any artifact he consumed.
That was amazing.
‘Although he does seem to get a stomach ache afterwards.’
Anyway, there was no way this bastard would not aim for the powers of the strong Heirlooms now that he had such an ability.
Even gobbling up a small portion of the Heirlooms should be at the level of A-Grade or S-Grade artifacts.
And if it is gobbling up only a portion and not the full Heirloom, it shouldn’t harm the original masters.
However...
‘It’s still scary to get eaten, you bastard.’
They would probably feel the sensation of their artifact being gobbled up.
That was why the whole team was shaking in fear and had done their best to never show their Heirloom's ability in front of Ju-Heon. The rest of them had shared information with each other.
It was almost to the level of making Ju-Heon an outcast.
But all of their efforts were for naught.
“Oh my, Julian is the challenger for the second trial.”
“What?!”
Ju-Heon seemed to have made up his mind.
“Just use your Heirloom and blast your way through it.”
Julian pointed to the text on the wall and shouted.
“Who are you trying to scam?! I don't know much about Toombglyph but I do know that this is not my name!”
“Tsk, guess you found out.”
Ju-Heon pouted, thinking that he shouldn't have taught this bastard how to read Toombglyph.
“Anyway, Jaeha is the real challenger. Hurry up and go.”
Julian gave him a suspicious gaze.
“......You’re not scamming us because we can’t read Toombglyph, are you?”
“How rude. It’s the truth.”
It really did have Jaeha’s name this time.
However...
‘Although it looks like that Crow bastard quickly changed the name again.’
But Ju-Heon, who would not miss that opportunity, smiled brightly.
“Hurry up and go.”
‘......This punk is telling the truth, right?’
Jaeha gulped and headed toward the altar in the end.
‘Damn it, I hate tombs, I really hate tombs.’
The test at the second trial was......
[Pick one of the three items.]
It was a simple item choosing trial.
Items started to appear on the altar one by one.
Booboboboooooooooom!
First were gold bars!
It was actually a magic box that would continue to fill with gold bars.
The second item to come up was an old plate.
The team members were relieved after seeing that.
‘We can tell the right answer even without seeing the last item.’
This was the Tomb of Avarice. They just had to avoid materialistic things.
It was something that even Jaeha could easily clear.
However......
“What the hell is up with the third thing?!”
The team members gasped after seeing the third ‘item’ that appeared.
[Please be gentle with me.]
“?!”
A beautiful babe had appeared. She looked like Jaeha’s ideal woman and she was naked! Yoo Jaeha immediately froze.
Any man would have flinched at this sight.
Although his head was clearly telling him that this was not the right answer......
Although that really was the case......
[Master, you can do whatever you want with me.]
“Really?”
The team members’ eyes opened wide after hearing Jaeha.
“Hey! Snap out of it! You know exactly what to pick!”
“Jaeha! I'll set you up on a date! That’s just wrooooong! Please!”
Jaeha flinched before scoffing at them.
“Hey, I know. Do you think that I'm an idiot?”
The others felt relieved to hear that.
“Don’t look down on humans! The old plate is obviously the answer!”
Jaeha reached his hand out confidently.
However...
[Got you. You stupid human.]
“?!”
Yoo Jaeha gasped.
Although he talked about grabbing the plate his hand was grabbing the babe!
Natural instincts truly were scary.
The babe smiled.
[Human, you failed.]
“?!”
Jaeha, who had grabbed two things at once, fell into the trap.
“Squeeeeeeeeeeeeal!”
“Jaeha!”
Jaeha had turned into a pig. The area started to violently shake as well.
It was trying to push the pig Jaeha into a pen.
“You retard! That’s why you should have picked the old plate!”
Ilya urgently reached for the old plate. But Ju-Heon viciously kicked him.
“Ugh!”
“You'll turn into a pig no matter what you choose here.”
Ju-Heon used the Crow's aura to grab Jaeha before he fell into the pen.
Jaeha started crying in relief.
"Captain-nim, thank you v...”
“Good, looks like we have pork belly for dinner.”
“#$$&#!”
‘Are you really thinking about eating me?!’
“Captain, what do we do about that?”
A bit later, on the path to the next trial. The team was looking at a huffing Jaeha.
Maybe it was the side effect of turning into a pig, but Jaeha had returned to human form as a fat pig who was over 200kg.
They didn't care that Jaeha was so fat, it was just that he was quite...slow.
"Can't we just leave that behind?”
“No, he’s my emergency food supply.”
“Captain-nim, your predation ability might be able to remove just the fat.”
They were telling him to just eat Jaeha’s fat.
Jaeha pleaded to Ju-Heon as well.
“I'll work all night if you want me to! Please get rid of the fat!”
Ju-Heon instantly rejected him.
“No thanks. I'll get fat if I eat your fat.”
“?!”
Well, that was true too.
“Captain-nim, you’re so handsome, being this fat is fine!”
A shocked Seol-A desperately grabbed Ju-Heon.
“W, who said that is okay?!”
‘Well, I do want to see a chubby Captain-nim at least once, but still......!’
As Seol-A was having trouble deciding what she wanted...
“Won’t you return to your normal self if you use the Phoenix artifact?”
“E, excuse me?”
Ju-Heon smiled mischievously and looked at Jaeha.
“What’s wrong? Doesn’t the Phoenix artifact do that too?”
“......E, excuse me?”
Yoo Jaeha was now sweating bullets.
Ju-Heon's smile seemed dangerous and abnormal.
“I always found it so interesting that a couch potato like you was skinny.”
“.......”
Jaeha slowly looked away.
It was because he understood what Ju-Heon was planning.
“The phoenix uses the energy stored in your fat as a medium for its fire, right?”
‘Did this guy make me turn into a pig to confirm that?!’
“Hurry up and return to normal.”
“Damn it!”
Yoo Jaeha cried as he activated the Phoenix artifact. An intense heat surrounded him.
A vicious fire shot out of his body and something amazing happened.
“My goodness!”
Jaeha’s appearance had changed in an instant.
Ju-Heon’s eyes sparked with greed.
Ju-Heon had been having trouble digesting and worried a lot about the artifact calories(?) he was taking in ever since he got the predation ability.
But that was for later, as they started walking again.
Once they got close to the central region of the tomb...
[It is recommended that you do not go any farther.]
[You should not go in.]
The ground split open once he saw the message.
“Watch out!”
They all became anxious at the sudden earthquake.
Ju-Heon frowned.
He sensed a familiar aura.
He could feel the aura of his partner artifact that he had used so much in his previous life.
And as he had expected...
[Oh, so you are Seo Ju-Heon.]
The tomb’s owner appeared as if it was concerned about how Ju-Heon was plowing his way through the trials.
“!”
Ju-Heon scrunched his eyes after hearing that voice. He had definitely heard this voice before.
‘Now I'm certain. It is that bastard.’
It was his partner artifact.
Of course, he had not heard the voice so clearly back then. It was more of a mumbling and a whisper so that it was hard to understand.
He didn’t know whether it was male or female because of that.
But it was different this time.
And the reason Ju-Heon was shocked was not because of its voice. The others were shocked for the same reason.
[I wanted to see you at least once because you are so famous. Seo Ju-Heon.]
A little girl had appeared.
She had white skin and light white hair with hints of purple. She had a pretty nose and cute lips.
The girl was smiling.
She looked so pretty and lovely that it was enough to capture everyone’s attention. This reaction from Jaeha was probably to be expected.
“If it’s this type of artifact, my Affinity should be enough...”
Jaeha tried to approach it as if he hit the jackpot.
However...
“Eek!”
A vicious aura brushed past right in front of him. It was so violent and chaotic that it would be able to cut off his flesh.
Julian shouted at that moment.
“It looks like that but it is still a dangerous artifact! Don’t get close to it!”
Jaeha, who almost had his nose sliced off, started crying.
The artifact in front of them truly was dangerous. Although she looked cute and had a lovely smile on her face, she was giving off an extremely chaotic aura.
Quite the dangerous murderous intent could be felt from her eyes. They had their Heirlooms but they still had to be wary of her.
‘But for the boss to suddenly appear like this...’
Julian scoffed.
‘Our captain is quite popular.’
The reason the boss suddenly appeared was obvious.
They weren’t even at the boss room yet. But for the boss to show herself before they got there......
‘It doesn't even like us going around the tomb and wants to kill us all.’
Ju-Heon was quite infamous in the artifact world. It would not be weird for it to want to kill him.
The artifact did not hide its murderous intent as it approached Ju-Heon.
Julian became anxious and shouted.
“Why are you just standing there?! Hurry up and use your artifact! It’s aiming for you!”
Jaeha got ready to attack and clicked his tongue.
“My goodness, this guy’s bad habit is coming out again. Even if you are an artifactphile, that’s not allow......ugh!”
Ju-Heon kicked Jaeha away.
“It’s not like that. This bastard is the Archaeologist's artifact I used in the past.”
The entire team was shocked.
‘What? That’s it? That’s the thing that turned the Captain-nim into the greatest excavator?’
The ones to get the most angry were Jaeha and Ilya.
“Wow, I'm really angry at this point. Having a harem of human women wasn’t enough that he even has a harem of artifacts? Such a pretty little girl was the Captain-nim’s artifact?”
“Fuck, why are the artifacts discriminating so much?! I just have shitty devils by my side!”
“Everything I have is male! Damn it, why only the Captain-nim......!”
“Yes, this is very weird.”
Jaeha smiled after seeing even Julian joining in.
"Good. Kongming, you’ve finally shown your true self. You never acted that way but I guess you are a man as well.”
"That’s not what I'm talking about!”
Julian shouted to defend himself.