CHAPTER 88: I FALL FOR IT EVERYTIME

Yoon Seoyul stretched out his hand towards Cheon Areum, his boots already half-submerged in the thick scarlet sludge. Cheon Areum reached out, grasping Yoon Seoyul’s hand just as the latter slid his other arm firmly around his waist. Yoon Seoyul lifted him into the air, carrying him over the congealed pool of blood below.

"I was thinking of tearing away the blood-coated snow...."

"Don’t waste your energy."

Below the mountain, the terrain flattened into a vast plain, blanketed in snow, and the entire ground writhed with cloaked monsters—hundreds of them. They stood unnaturally still, as if frozen or waiting for someone to come out. If he had to guess, they were trying to protect the boss. At the far end of the plain, rising stark and alone from the frozen earth, stood a stone well. Ancient and cracked, it exuded negative energy—dense and enormous. Cheon Areum didn’t need to draw any closer to know who the malignant energy belonged to.

"This place is also full of those monsters."

"But we can touch them, right? Should I take care of them?"

"No, wait. Let me try something."

[Energy Explosive has been deactivated successfully.]

There should be a way to uncloak them all at once—he couldn’t afford to waste energy plucking them out one by one forever. Cheon Areum exhaled deeply, the breath misting in the cold air. He lowered himself slowly onto the fresh snow, crossing his legs. His long lashes rested over his cheeks as he closed his eyes, centering his focus.

[Mind Corruption has been activated.]

[You are currently using the skill: Mind Corruption. Your ability to corrupt negative energy will be enhanced during its activation.]

Tilting his head slowly from side to side, Cheon Areum combed the terrain with his energy, black energy crawling like tendrils through the snow-laden ground. As it spread beneath the surface, he methodically located each hidden monster, isolating their exact positions one by one. The moment he sensed their distorted presence, his energy wrapped around them like invisible chains—seizing control of their bodies with unwavering precision.

"Reveal yourselves."

Cheon Areum opened his eyes and spoke. The monsters had no choice but to obey as they began to uncloak themselves almost simultaneously. Seeing the monsters, he turned to Yoon Seoyul, smiling widely.

"You can take care of them now."

Stepping forward with quiet intent, Yoon Seoyul lowered himself onto one knee before Cheon Areum and cupped his face in his hands, his voice low and steady as he began to speak.

"Bite me. I want to use Blood Rage."

"Isn’t that just an excuse—"

Not letting Cheon Areum finish his words, Yoon Seoyul silenced him with a kiss—soft lips pressing steadily against his own, pulling him into a breath-stealing hush. Yoon Seoyul didn’t dare to go for more, merely sucking on his lips with restraint. But Cheon Areum, ever eager, accepted the offer happily with a sparking glint in his eyes, teasingly licking along Yoon Seoyul’s lips before sinking his teeth into the lower one without mercy.

"Is that enough blood for you?"

Cheon Areum spoke coolly as Yoon Seoyul rose to his feet, swiping a finger across his lips to check the blood. Satisfied, though it wasn’t much, he activated Blood Rage. A low red gleam in his scleras overtook the white. He walked calmly at first before his body surged forward like a blade loosed from its sheath. He grabbed the first monster by its head and slammed it into the frozen earth. The skull caved in like an overripe fruit, a wet crunch ringing out under his boots.

One step. One grab. One death.

Another.

Another.

Every monster he passed met the same fate—head in his hands, body hurled to the ground and stomped with enough force to crack through frozen soil. The sound of bone breaking and flesh splitting echoed like drums across the field, drowned only by the squelch of blood underfoot. Cheon Areum, still seated with his legs crossed in the snow, his energy holding the rest of the monsters like offerings.

Those boots definitely can’t be worn again—that was his first thought as Cheon Areum got up from the earth. His eyes locked on the stone well in the distance—an ancient thing, cracked and half-buried in the snow. The home of the boss.

Gripping the slick, mucus-slicked rim of the stone well, Cheon Areum leaned forward, strands of sticky web clinging to his sleeves and fingers. The inside was coated in a thick, gelatinous substance, the smell pungent and sour like rotting bark. His eyes strained to pierce the dark abyss below, he couldn’t see anything. But there was something down there.

"Come out..."

Cheon Areum said softly, his voice curling with amusement.

"Let’s play."

His words echoed down the narrow shaft, bouncing off unseen walls with a rhythm—play... play... play...

Then silence.

A beat passed. Two.

Then—

A skittering.

Soft at first.

Then louder.

Faster.

It was the unmistakable sound of claws scraping stone in rapid succession—sharp, many-legged, urgent. Not just crawling. Climbing. It was like the sound of a spider crawling around. He immediately let go of the well.

Cheon Areum took a few slow steps back, his boots crunching against the snow now slick with blood and frost. The air around the well grew heavier, thick with the weight of something unnatural. Then, without a sound, it began to emerge.

A gaunt, human-like body—skeletal and grotesquely long—crawled its way out of the well, each limb bending at wrong, insect-like angles. Its skin was almost white, stretched too thin over its frame, veins pulsing with a black hue beneath the skin. Long, dripping strands of black hair clung to its face and shoulders like wet seaweed, obscuring any clear view of its expression.

It didn’t breathe.

It didn’t blink.

It simply stuck to the stone, limbs splayed like a twisted spider as its head tilted unnaturally far to the side, the mass of hair parting just enough to reveal a sliver of its face.

Two glossy eyes—beady, glass-like—locked onto Cheon Areum.

And it smiled.

".....Yoon Seoyul!"