Leveling with the Gods

Rattle, clunk—

Creeeeeak—

The chains and restraints on the Chimera were released. The steel bars that held the giant beast started fading and quickly disintegrated.

“How could you do this…?!” Hargaan shouted in anger, intensely glaring at YuWon, who had just broken the sealing crystal.

YuWon had become the master of the Chimera. 

Hargaan felt like he was just betrayed by a trusted comrade. However, YuWon’s next action was not what he had expected. 

“Chimera,” YuWon said. 

“Grrrrr—”

“Break that wall,” YuWon ordered.

Having been released from its shackles, the Chimera ran towards the wall. When it collided with it, it shook the entire cave. 

Smash—!

Rumble—!

The wall crumbled, and another cave was unveiled. 

Surprised by YuWon’s unexpected command, Hargaan asked, “What are you doing?”

“Why don’t you first let go of me, and then we can talk.”

Grab—

YuWon tried to push off Hargaan’s hand.

Squeeze—

However, Hargaan wouldn’t let go of his shoulder. He still didn’t trust YuWon. 

“Explain properly first.”

“That guy’s not going to attack you guys because I’m the one controlling it.” YuWon motioned at the Chimera with his chin.

The boss of the 5th Tutorial. YuWon had managed to get full control of it by destroying the sealing crystal. Now, it would only move on YuWon’s orders. So as long as YuWon didn’t intend on attacking the participants with it, there would be no problems. 

“I have a different opponent to face.”

“There’s a different opponent?

“The Chimera is a monster created from the various monsters on this island.”

“What does that have to do with—?”

“So who created this Chimera?”

Hargaan’s eyes widened after hearing YuWon’s question, and he eased his grip on his shoulder. He stared at the wall the Chimera broke down. If the Chimera was the true boss, and there was no additional stage, the other cave shouldn’t have existed.  

‘No way…’ thought Hargaan.

But there certainly was a way, and YuWon started walking to the newly opened space with the Chimera.

It was an unexpected situation.

“Captain.”

“What should we do?”

The message clearly said to kill the Chimera. He was the Tutorial’s boss, and they were participants that had to defeat the boss. However, the situation before them turned out to be not so black and white.

“… Let’s check it out first.”

Hargaan and his team followed behind YuWon. 

Inside the broken wall, there was a long tunnel, and inside was…

“What the—?”

“An arm?”

“… A head?”

… What looked to be human body parts hanging all over the place. 

Thud, thud—

YuWon continued to make his way through the tunnel with his Chimera. 

The end of the tunnel appeared not long after.

Fwoosh—

It led to a large cave lined with torches. 

This was the 5th Tutorial’s boss room No.4, which the message had kept a secret.

[You’ve entered Boss Room No.4.]

[The boss has been updated.]

[DEFEAT THE BOSS – THE ‘CHIMERA CREATOR.’] 

* * *

“A new boss?”

“What’s a ‘Chimera Creator’?”

“Damn it. What’s going on?”

Hargaan and his teammates were confused by the new messages that suddenly popped up.

Even before getting selected by the Tower, Hargaan had been told over and over about the Tutorial, but even he had never heard of room No.4 or the existence of another boss. 

“This place is…” Hargaan said while looking around the room.

This was a cave that was far bigger than the other boss rooms. And inside the cave, the floor was littered with corpses. 

“Are you participants of the Tutorial?”

“Grrrr—”

YuWon’s Chimera let out a cry mixed with anger. 

“Were you taking a nap?” YuWon asked while looking at the center of the cave. 

Step—

There was a long desk and a very skinny man working on something with blood-stained hands. 

“Chimera Creator,” YuWon called out.

“Well, this is a first.”

Creak—

The man stood up from his chair. His face was as bony as his body. He must have not seen the sun in a long time. His skin was beyond pale, which starkly contrasted with his black robe.

“Despite having control over the Chimera, you didn’t betray the other participants and instead came to my room.” The man’s raspy voice exuded an ominous feeling.  

Amused, he smiled while looking back and forth between YuWon and Hargaan.

“Oho. So you’re a descendant of Zeus. You might only be a halfbreed, but you should still be quite useful.” 

“Who are you calling a halfbreed?” 

Hargaan’s forehead vein popped out. 

‘Halfbreed.’ It was Hargaan’s most hated word. 

Hargaan angrily asked, “Who is this guy?” 

“The dark magician Childe. He’s a Ranker that disappeared from the Tower long ago.”

“Childe?”

Hargaan was taken aback. A Ranker… in the Tutorial? Setting aside the fact that a being that was once at the top of the Tower was somehow in the Tutorial, how were they supposed to beat a Ranker? 

“Is this guy actually the Childe?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ve heard of him before. He’s a Ranker that was the test examiner on the 50th floor. I heard how he captured hundreds of players for experiments and made a Chimera by mixing various monsters.”

Hargaan’s teammates froze up after hearing Hargaan’s explanation. That was a pretty infamous incident in the Tower. A Ranker who wasn’t able to control their desires and impulses ended up messing with countless test participants despite being a test examiner.

“Don’t be such a wuss. He ended up losing to a player in a humiliating fashion, and due to breaking the rules of the Tower, he lost most of his powers.”

“He lost his powers?”

“Yeah. And due to that event, he’s been forced to make the Tutorial’s bosses for a thousand years. Though, even after a thousand years pass, he won’t be able to regain his powers.”

The smile on Childe’s face slowly wore off as YuWon continued to talk. He didn’t find it all that pleasing to hear someone else talk about his circumstances. 

“You. How do you know about me?” Childe asked while staring closely at YuWon.

Seeing as how he must have hit a nerve, YuWon smirked while pointing at his own eyes. 

“Do you by chance remember these?”

“Are you asking me to pull out your eyes? Why are you pointing at your…”

Childe stopped talking after seeing his eyes. They had turned red. It was the [Cinder Eyes.] 

When he noticed them, Childe erupted into fury. 

“You scoundrel—!”

Fwoooosh—!

Childe’s voice echoed as jet-black mana started circling around him. 

YuWon reached out his hand in front of him to protect himself from the mana with [Colossal Fire.] 

“Ugh…”

“What kind of mana is this…?”

“Didn’t you say he lost his powers?”

Vzzzzt—

Hargaan shot out an electric field, nullifying the black mana. 

“This is him without his powers,” YuWon said.

Hargan grumbled, fighting against the black mana that Childe was exuding.

“If he was a real Ranker, we’d all be dead already,” YuWon continued.

Fwooosh, fwoosh—

YuWon protected himself by shrouding himself with fire. 

Able to feel Childe’s anger through the mana, YuWon looked back at Childe to mock him. 

“So you still haven’t forgotten.”

“Those eyes. Those eyes! Where did you get them?!”

“I got them inside the Tutorial.”

“Scoundrel, are you a kin of that Monkey?” 

Monkey. There weren’t many who could refer to “The Great Sage, Heaven’s Equal” in that manner. 

Knowing the relationship between Childe and Son OhGong, YuWon continued to push his buttons. 

“What are you so upset about? You’re the one that captured and experimented on participants despite being a test examiner.”

“Answer my question!”

“No. I didn’t come here just to satisfy your curiosity…”

YuWon’s eyes darted between the human-type Chimeras that filled the cave. 

“I came here because I can’t stand letting scumbags like you continue to live.” 

Those words fully flipped Childe’s switch.

“You bastard—!”

Rumble, rumble—

The cave shook.

The black mana flooded the floor, and the corpses that littered the cave started twitching. The corpses were covered in stitches with mismatched heads, eyes, arms, and legs glued together. 

“Fine, I don’t need your answer. I at least know that you and that Monkey are related. I’m going to make you talk, and after tearing you apart, I’m going to turn you into a Chimera and present it to that fucking Monkey.”

The Chimeras in the room reacted to the bloodthirst in Childe’s voice. They were human-type Chimeras made from the body parts of Tutorial participants. And some of them emanated pretty dense mana. 

‘So it’s these guys, huh,’ YuWon thought.

Approximately a hundred years later, a player that could control Chimeras would appear in the lower floors. The player’s Chimeras, unlike normal Chimeras, grew stronger as they climbed the Tower, as if they had received the system’s blessing. 

Chimeras that could level up. Those were the Chimeras that Childe was researching here. 

‘It seems that he was nearing completion, but…’

Luckily, it seemed that he simply had a large number of them, and they weren’t perfected yet. 

“Chimera.”

“Grrrrr—”

The unsealed Chimera reacted to YuWon’s words. It bared its fangs like it was ready to charge at any moment. It was probably furious at Childe for turning it into such an abomination.

“Clear out all these mutts.”

“Kyaaagh—!”

Thud, stomp, stomp—

It was a fight between Chimeras. 

The giant unsealed Chimera stomped and tore apart the human-type Chimeras. 

“Fuck. I don’t know what’s going on, but…!”

“We just have to get rid of these things, right?”

Hargaan’s teammates started fighting against the monsters too. 

The human-type Chimeras were a bit too strong for the average Tutorial participant to handle. However, these guys were all high-ranking participants.

Hargaan started shooting out electric attacks, slaughtering the Chimeras, which greatly helped the situation.

YuWon’s original plan was to have the unsealed Chimera keep the human-type Chimeras preoccupied while he fought against Childe, but thanks to Hargaan and his team, YuWon had one less concern.

‘This should make things a bit easier.’

No longer needing to pay any attention to the enemy Chimeras, YuWon felt at ease while looking at Childe. 

Childe was pointing a staff made out of black wood at YuWon.

Whirr—

The black mana around YuWon pulsated, and from the staff, a shining mana shot out.

Whoosh—!

[Dark Casket]

Thunk—

A black casket appeared out of nowhere and swallowed YuWon whole.

“That is an unbreakable casket. Even the sealed Chimera wouldn’t be able to break out of it.”

Having caught YuWon much more easily than he had predicted, Childe laughed, forgetting about his anger. 

“I might have fallen and lost my power, but how dare a lowly Tutorial participant look down on me? I’m going to turn you into a Chimera, and for eternity you’ll be neither alive nor—”

Crack—

The [Dark Casket] started to fracture. 

“—Dead…?”

Childe questioned his own eyes. There was no way that a greenhorn that hadn’t even earned the qualification of being a player was doing this.

Thump—!

Kk-crack—!

“H-How the—?!”

But it was happening. 

A shock reverberated inside, and this shock was breaking down the [Dark Casket.]

Childe quickly imbued more mana through his staff, but he had reacted a little too late. 

Smash—!

Shatter—

The [Dark Casket,] an immobilization skill that Childe prided in, was destroyed by a mere Tutorial participant, of all people. 

Crack, snap—

Having smashed through the [Dark Casket] with his bare hands, YuWon walked out of the fragments clenching and unclenching his fist. 

“That arm…” Childe said in shock.

YuWon’s right arm had grown over 50% bigger. The veins looked like they were ready to pop, and YuWon’s body had an irregular flow of mana. 

As a Ranker, Childe had once seen a skill like this from a distance. Although, YuWon’s skill was almost pathetic in comparison… 

Childe gave up on thinking in the midst of all the confusion. 

“Scoundrel, what is your relationship with Olympus?”

In Childe’s eyes, YuWon appeared quite similar to a certain Olympus Ranker. 

The key player in the Gigantomachy mythology. A son of Zeus, the main character of “The 12 Labors,” and the holder of the title the “Giant Slayer”… 

The great hero Hercules. 

[Gigantification]

Right now, that hero’s power was imbued in YuWon’s arm.