Chapter 129. Team Revival (3)
I"ve been thinking about something for a while, and I realized it was possible during my fights against the Wendigo. It was that I could stay in the air using Ruyue"s power.
Of course, it would be best if Ruyue could fly, but she was a wolf. She did not have wings, so she could not fly. Even so, I wanted to freely move in the sky. Talaria"s duration was too short. I needed a more consistent and long-lasting method.
What I thought of was to infuse Ruyue into my boots. With my proficiency in Spirit Aura and affinity with Ruyue, I could freeze anything my boots touched. It might only seem useful when I attacked with my feet, but there was another purpose. With it, I would be able to walk on air. Using Spirit Aura, I would freeze a portion of the air below my feet, creating a temporary step out of ice. Once I stepped off, I would take away the elemental power and the temporary step would disappear. That way, I wouldn"t use much mana, and once I got used to it, I would be able to stay in midair for a long time. I considered making a hoverboard out of ice and controlling it with Ruyue"s power, but I gave up since that would consume too much mana.
At first, I wasn"t sure if it would work well, but there was no problem when I tested it. With Spirit Aura, I could accurately create circular steps where my feet touched. By leaping from off of them and retrieving the mana from the steps I already created, the ice would lose the power to maintain itself and disappear. I realized it was quite simple and convenient. Plus, it felt really good. I could fly in the sky without any restraints! Though, in order to not waste mana, I couldn"t walk, only jump to cover more distance.
In any case, thanks to this realization, I could freely go wild at the Wyvern"s Nest.
"Th… Thunder Knight is…"
"Look under his feet. He"s stepping on something. It"s hard to see because it"s night, but it shines when you expose it to light."
Spotting a wyvern flying through the sky, I once again kicked off the ice step. It also saw me and flew toward me while breathing fire. I quickly created an ice step and jumped.
[Guaaaa!]
The wyvern cut off its fire and looked up. Then, it started breathing fire again. I charged into it. Although I roused Ruyue"s power and created a barrier using her freezing energy, I couldn"t completely block the wyvern"s flames. I could feel my armor getting hot. If I was in the dungeon, I could probably see my HP falling.
Without paying it much attention, I sent my fist inside its mouth.
[Kuhak!]
The wyvern made a strange cry and tried to spit out my fist, but I wrapped my other arm around its neck and concentrated my mana in my fist.
"Peika!"
[Thunder Bomb!]
[Kuaaaaa!]
The shock of the lightning explosion caused the wyvern"s flames to cease. Thanks to Ruyue, my armor, which had gotten hot enough to cook eggs, cooled down. Meanwhile, I pushed my fist deeper into its mouth.
"Die! Tempest!"
[Thunder Bomb!]
Tempest and Thunder Bomb were mixed together. The mana whirlpool, which had reached a certain level of attainment, took in Thunder Bomb and transformed into a violent lightning storm. Immediately afterwards, the wyvern"s head exploded into pieces. Hah, what was this incredibly refreshing feeling…?
[You created the skill, "Thunder Tempest"! By adding strong lightning"s explosive force to the whirlpool created by Peruta Circuit, you can deliver a deadly blow to your target! Unlike Elemental Tempest, which strengthened the whirlpool with nearby elementals, Thunder Tempest is powered by lightning elemental power and focuses its destructive force in a small area. By using at least 5% of your mana, it deals a powerful lightning attribute explosion damage to your target. By adding more mana, you can increase its destructive force. As the skill"s creator, the skill level is adjusted to mid-rank level 2.]
[You created a skill! Thunder Tempest is a variation of Elemental Tempest. While it"s more suited for one-on-one battles, it maintains an overwhelming destructive force. This skill, which shows its creator"s high level of attainment in Peruta Circuit and elemental magic, contains a destructive force that no one can ignore. You obtained 1 skill point as reward. Current skill points: 3]
I knew it! I had really created a new skill. I didn"t know mixing Tempest and Thunder Bomb would create such a powerful skill. Wait, I could probably use this with a spear too! My excitement grew from the unexpected skill and the skill point I obtained.
"Alright, let"s continue."
I grinned inside my helmet. If I could relieve my frustration, I didn"t care what came my way. As I was now, I felt like I could destroy everything.
"Get over here, you d.a.m.ned lizards!!"
[You used Provoke! Nearby enemies" hostility becomes fixed onto you!]
My shout, which rang out through the entire canyon, even caused other people to react.
"Eh? Was Thunder Knight French?"
"Don"t lie, that was j.a.panese."
Well, as long as I had the choker on, I would get found out anyways. You guys can think however you want!
I grinned on the ice step I was standing on. Creating whirlpools mixed with lightning on both hands, I slammed them together. The wyverns were getting closer. Tomorrow, I would have an enjoyable wyvern meat party.
Until 6 A.M., I was completely absorbed with hunting wyverns. In the end, I managed to hunt almost 70 wyverns by myself. When I landed after killing the last wyvern, people began to murmur.
"He wasn"t that strong when he was in Britain."
"But now…"
"He"s an SS ranker."
On the other hand, there were some who came to talk to me directly. It was a Caucasian man, who seemed to be part of America"s Guardian. He was wearing an armor engraved with Guardian"s emblem.
"I"m America"s S ranker, John Smith."
"John Smith?"
"It"s my real name."
That was the fake name I wanted! How unfortunate. I wanted to be called John Smith instead of something strange like T.K. John Smith, who had become the target of my envy, pointed at the wyvern I just fell and asked.
"If you"d like, we can collect the wyverns you hunted for you. Of course, we won"t do anything else."
"Why? That seems too good of an offer."
I had planned on letting Hwaya collect them later with her usual extradimensional storage excuse, but I tilted my head at the unexpected offer.
"It the least we can do. You came to America from a foreign country and reduced the number of wvyerns greatly in a single night. Taking care of the monster corpses should be the least we can do to thank you for your work."
"Ah… I see."
Now that I thought about it, it made sense. In any case, I was happy that there was less work for me to do. Collecting all 70 wyverns would have been tedious, but since they should be able to monitor the entire canyon, they should be able to do it quicker.
"Hm, then you guys can have 10 of them."
"No, we didn"t make the offer to get any benefits."
"It"s fine. It"ll be to thank you for your work. Will 10 be enough?"
"It"s more than enough. Wyverns are rare monsters, so we hunt however many we can. If you"d like to sell the other 60, we"ll pay a generous amount for them."
For the record, he said each wyverns were over 2.3 million dollars. In Korean won, that was 2.5 billion won. Geez, they were a billion won more expensive than the melting tunas! Wait, doesn"t that mean I just made over 180 billion won? No matter how much money I made, I never used it, so I didn"t realize just how much it was. For a moment, I thought, "Was giving 10 away too much?" I should have asked for the price first! However, as a ranker, it was unsightly to ask for them back.
I asked while trying to calm myself.
"Then I"ll sell 20 of them for now."
"Understood. We can talk about the details in the afternoon after getting some rest. Of course, we"ll collect all the wyvern corpses until then."
"Sure."
I returned to the lodging. Even though I cleansed myself of the wyverns" blood and flesh with Ruyue"s power, it was impossible to dodge them completely. The Guardian employee at the lobby became startled when he saw me, and led me to the shower room. As expected of a place for rankers, there were private shower rooms for each. I could finally take my mask off.
"Huu…"
Even though I relieved my stress using the wyverns, I was reminded of what happened last night under the hot shower water. The shocked Ciara, and Hwaya who looked at me with worry. Ludia wasn"t in a state to talk about Heroes and Ye-Eun was worried about me, but Hwaya was different.
She considered Ciara"s offer realistically and asked if I was okay with refusing her. She knew how dangerous being a Hero was, and thought it was better for the world and for my safety to accept her offer.
"Organization, huh…"
It would be a lie if I said I never considered it. It would be a lie if I said I never considered myself in the shoes of other continents" Heroes, who fought against their worlds" enemies as their worlds" cores.
It was irritating and uncomfortable in that it was an unavoidable future, but it was also something exciting, cool, and mystical that every boy dreamed of. A man fighting with the world"s fate on the line. It was quite cliché. Plus, it wasn"t that I didn"t like being safer. I wasn"t that stupid.
I didn"t want to die. I was worried about my family, friends, Ludia who was relying on me, and… Loretta, who would be hurt.
There were many things I had to protect. Many people I loved and many that loved me back.
That was why I was even more afraid.
That I"d use countless number of people just because the world"s fate was on the line. That many people would die to protect me. I was afraid of the blood that would flow under the name of Hero.
I was afraid. It was disgusting and fearful.
As such…
"I have to get strong."
I had to get stronger. Strong enough to crush everything with my own strength.
I remembered Luka continent.
In face of the world"s ruin, I remembered the people who joined hands with the demons to save themselves.
In face of the world"s ruin, I remembered the emperor, who sacrificed his life for those who had not enjoyed their life to their fullest.
If the Hero didn"t die, such things wouldn"t have happened. Traitors wouldn"t have had to join hands with the demons to save themselves, and the emperor could have put his life on the line for the future, not the present. However, the Hero died, and the world fell. My friend despaired and her parents died a dog"s death.
As such, Earth"s Hero will not die. He was not allowed to. To not die, he had to get stronger. Overwhelming so, as to not create meaningless deaths.
I turned off the shower head. I wiped my body with a towel and pondered. I thought about a way to solve this problem.
I couldn"t think of anything. As always.
Author"s note:
Shin is not perfect as a main character, both physically and mentally. You could say he"s still inexperienced, but it won"t stay that way forever.
He thought the dungeon only as a place where he could get stronger. In face of reality, that will slowly change. What awaits him, what decisions he will make, please wait and see. You will not be disappointed.
Chapter 130. Team Revival (4)
After taking a shower, I got dressed and went to the lobby, where I saw Hwaya sitting by herself on a table and drinking. It was whiskey. Because I felt like my hair wasn"t dry yet, I thought about taking off my mask to dry my hair, but I was then surprised when I saw her.
"What are you doing here so early in the morning!?"
"Someone stood me up last night, so I"m here drinking in the morning to make up for it."
"What, I already told you that I was going to be out hunting."
"I didn"t think you"d stay there the whole night. Do you know how hard it was to make that girl sleep? I was with Ye-Eun too. I really didn"t think you"d hunt wyverns the entire night…"
Hwaya pouted. With a shrug, I apologized and sat across the table. Hwaya, who was staring at me fixedly, then asked.
"I want to see your face. I want to know what expression you"re making."
"No."
"With how strong you are, you can probably show yourself… Are you still afraid?"
At Hwaya"s provocative smile, I snorted and took a sip from the bottle of whiskey. My strengthened body barely reacted to the alcohol. Putting the bottle down, I responded.
"I won"t fall for provocations."
"How rude. You stole my drink. Plus, you"re a coward."
"So, what"s the reason you"re drinking whiskey alone where everyone can see you?"
At my question, Hwaya grinned and messaged me.
[I didn"t think I could say it when I was with the others. I wanted to say it last night, but you stood me up.]
[Yeah, yeah. I already apologized. So, what is it? Ciara Kenex?]
[No, Palludia.]
"Uk."
Hwaya"s eyes were shining strangely.
[That girl is weird. You didn"t explain yesterday. What"s her problem? Why is she so obsessed with you? I haven"t seen a girl like her in a while.]
[So there are people like her?]
[That"s another story. Did something happen in the world you went to as a Dimensional Mercenary? Did she become like that because her world fell? What happened?]
[Mm, sorry. It"s a secret.]
[Hey.]
[Sorry, but I don"t think I should tell you, or anyone else for that matter.]
"… Hu."
Hwaya let out a sigh. She raised her cup to take a drink, but she realized that it was empty. She reached towards the bottle of whiskey, but I took it away before she could get it.
"Your const.i.tution isn"t that strong. Stop before you get drunk. Do you even want to drink something I drank with my mouth?"
"You"re pretty good…"
Hwaya sighed again and took her hand off her gla.s.s.
"Fine, let"s stop drinking. Sorry. I shouldn"t have asked you so suddenly. I was just feeling impatient, unlike my usual self. It was just completely unexpected, so I was surprised."
"There"s a reason for it, so try to understand."
"Yeah, I"ll try, though I probably won"t succeed."
"How honest."
I smiled. Hwaya also smiled and continued.
"That"s enough, right?"
"Yeah."
[Ciara Kenex too?]
[… Yeah.]
Hwaya stared at me for a while, but soon got up while smiling.
[Alright, I"ll trust you. I was hesitating too, since it would get complicated if the Kenex family intervened. Plus, if there"s an enemy you can"t handle, I doubt anyone from the Kenex family could help.]
[This is what you really wanted to talk about, right?]
"It"s both. They"re both important to me. Anyways, let"s go wake them up and go out for breakfast. I"m hungry."
Hwaya answered nonchalantly and left. Looking at her back as she walked away, I thought that it was a miracle that I got to know her.
The moment Ludia opened her eyes, she jumped on my arm, but since she had to get changed, I got her off with Hwaya and Ye-Eun"s help. As this continued, I hoped her symptoms would slowly disappear. Once she changed, she clung to my arm again, making me somewhat doubtful. After we had breakfast, we went straight to the Field Dungeon. I wasn"t particularly tired and neither were my companions.
"Shin, I can"t fly in the air like you, so what should I do?"
"You"ll see once we get there. Also, make sure not to call me by my name. If you need to, use the dungeon"s message system."
I could hunt the wyverns alone, but most melee-range fighters could not do so. Most of the Awakened scattered around the Field Dungeon were members of the American Guardian. They watched over and reported the slightest changes in the dungeon. When wyverns descended, they called nearby parties and hunted them together.
Those that hunted wyverns more actively always had long-ranged attackers with close-ranged attackers. They first drew the wyverns toward them with long-ranged attacks and had the close-ranged attackers fight them. However, since the wyverns here seemed capable of communicating with each other, they would have to fight two wyverns at once if they were unlucky. As such, most parties didn"t hunt by themselves and cooperated with the other countries" ability users.
Some ability users, however, gave up the ground to fight the wyverns in the sky. They rode in helicopters to fight them.
"Isn"t that more dangerous?"
"It"s called an attack helicopter, but yeah, that sounds more dangerous."
Once hit by the wyverns" flames, a helicopter would just become a chunk of sc.r.a.p metal. Even attack helicopters, made from monster materials for the purpose of hunting monsters, could not withstand the wyverns" flames for long. If wyverns headb.u.t.ted, clawed, or bit the helicopter, it would go down sooner.
As such, when fighting a wyvern on a helicopter, the party had to consist of ideal members. One long-ranged attacker, one defense magic user to protect the helicopter from the wyvern"s attacks, and one close-ranged attack who had the maneuverability to jump on the wyvern to take its life and jump back to safety. As that would take time, it was better to have two close-range attackers.
"Are there teams like that?"
"One or two from what I could tell. Most of the others fight on the ground with the method I told you about."
Seeing is believing, or so the saying went. In the Field Dungeon"s sky, we could clearly see two helicopters flying around and fighting the wyverns. I couldn"t say they were fast, but they were at least faster than the parties on the ground, who could only wait for wyverns to come near them. Of course, they were incomparably slower than I was last night. Plus, the moment they made a mistake, the helicopter would fall. I heard helicopters made with monster materials cost over 150 billion won, so one of those things had to kill at least 60 wyverns to make up for its cost… Though, that wasn"t exactly true since they could get lucky and find Mana Stones in the wyverns. After all, a Mana Stone from wyverns were about 10 billion won.
Since even S rankers had such difficulty fighting them, it was no wonder that the Wyvern"s Nest was taking so long to get cleared. At first, they employed many methods to hunt the wyverns more easily, but mechanical devices were destroyed and magical devices were broken from the wyverns" high mana resistance. In the end, only ability users were left to toil. Although I had not experienced it myself, when I thought about all the proud rankers having difficulty hunting wyverns, I couldn"t help but feel bad for them.
"There should be other people who can use ice steps. Or wind steps, maybe."
"Most ice or wind ability users that are S ranked or above are long-ranged types. There"s no way they would fly in the sky and put themselves in danger."
"Can"t they fly together with close-range attackers?"
"They"ll end up falling to death after running out of mana!"
Hwaya shouted and stopped my rude imagination. Then, after looking at how people were hunting the wyverns for a bit, she asked.
"Can we rent a helicopter?"
"It"s not a bicycle, you know."
"It"s possible."
"Uhuk!?"
When I turned around, John Smith was there. With an amiable smile, he answered.
"I came to talk about the average cost of wyverns and the ones you"ve chosen to sell. Since you were asking something I could answer, I did so."
"T-Thanks. Let"s start with the wyverns."
"Yes. In truth, wyverns are different in sizes and quality of the skin. Most of their skin were in perfect shape, though I can"t say the same for their heads. You are truly amazing. Since the size of the wyverns change their cost, Thunder Knight-nim will have to choose which wyverns to sell."
We then went to the area where the wyverns I hunted last night were gathered. Large wyverns over 20 meters long were piled up on top of each other. It was quite the sight. Because of the mountain of wyvern corpses, sunlight couldn"t even reach us.
"You hunted all this by yourself…!?"
"I expected as much, but…"
Ye-Eun exclaimed in surprise and Hwaya spoke with a dumbfounded expression.
"We chose the cheapest wyverns for the ten you have chosen to give us. If you"re curious, we could bring them back and show you. Is that okay?"
"No, it"s fine. You don"t need to move them again."
"Plus, most of their heads were blown up. If you obtained any Mana Stones, we would love to buy them too."
"Sorry, but I have my own uses for them."
I would get more than enough money from selling the wyverns" corpses anyways. If they were willing to pay so much for the wyverns" corpses and Mana Stones, it meant they had appropriate uses for them. In that case, they would be highly valued in the dungeon as well. I wanted to first secure the Mana Stones and the wyverns" corpses. I might have to visit Lin soon.
I sold 20 wyverns on the spot for over 60 billion won. Since I didn"t have an account for ability users other than the one for Yeon Hwawoo, they created an account for me with the 60 billion won. That said, I didn"t know where to spend all this money. Maybe I should fill the swimming pool in Marianne"s Garden with shrimp crackers…
Plus, we could rent an attack helicopter for free. After hearing it was 130 million dollars, I felt a bit hesitant.
"Well, if there"s any problem, I could just buy it."
"Don"t underestimate by barrier."
With Hwaya and Ludia"s double attack, I got on the helicopter. Ye-Eun, who considered 100 million won to be an enormous sum, trembled and got on with a frown. Now that she was a high-ranking ability user, I knew her sense of money would change eventually. In a way, it was sad.
"We should make a team name too!"
Once the helicopter took off, Ye-Eun made a excited suggestion. Ludia seemed to agree as well. It seemed she was obsessed with making connections with people.
Surprisingly, Hwaya supported it as well.
"Right, it"s good for fostering a sense of camaraderie and for letting other knows who we are."
"Are there other famous parties?"
"Of course. Guardian"s team names often come up on ma.s.s media, and it"s the same from Freedom Wing. Rogue teams get paid according to how famous they are, not the ranking of their team members."
[Shin, you should really show more interest in other people.]
"You"re right, but that"s because I only care about people who are important to me."
I acknowledged what Ye-Eun messaged. Then, Hwaya swung the staff she was holding at my forehead. I, of course, blocked it with my hands.
"You shouldn"t be proud, idiot. If you keep living like a child, you"ll be dead before you even realize."
"I know it"s a problem… but I don"t have much free time."
Climbing the dungeon every day, going to university, and training… I was especially busy lately. I had my excuses, but I should really expand my horizon like Hwaya said…
When I showed signs of self-reflection, Hwaya took back her staff.
"Revival."
Ludia announced.
"It has to be Revival."
"Revival? That"s unexpected. Why?"
[That"s the guild he made.]
[Guild!? Shin, you made a guild? Don"t you need a mansion!?]
[Ah, yeah. I do have one, so I took the opportunity to make a guild.]
[I want in! Let me in Shin"s guild!]
[I thought you"d say that. Go ahead. You"ll probably cry if I refuse.]
"Yay!"
Ye-Eun bounced in joy inside the helicopter. Since the pilot couldn"t hear our messages, he was probably weirded out by the strange flow of our conversation. On the other hand, Hwaya didn"t look happy.
[If it"s First Dungeon"s guild, I can"t enter it…! No, wait, I should have been the one to create a guild… But I don"t have a mansion!]
[Mm… Right, sorry, Hwaya.]
[No, I"ll become a First Dungeon explorer for sure. Kuk, since I don"t have a mansion, I"ll have to enter your guild… Kuuk!]
"Then let"s go with Revival for the team name."
Hwaya looked unhappy that she couldn"t be the leader, but she still agreed on the team name. "You learned to swallow your pride. You matured, Hwaya…!"
[We can make you the team"s leader, Hwaya.]
[No, it"s fine. It would look weird if I"m the leader. Besides, you gathered the members, so you should be the leader. But if you ever give me the position of the guild leader, I"ll become the team leader too!]
"I don"t think that"s going to happen…" I thought about it, then realized it was Hwaya"s way of acknowledging me as the leader. In a way, she got embarra.s.sed easily.
Just like that, we became Team Revival. When we yelled hurrah with a sense of camaraderie, the helicopter pilot suddenly shouted.
"There"s a wyvern coming straight toward us!"
Tell us earlier!
"O Mitarus! O Earth!"
Ludia quickly created a barrier around the helicopter. The wyvern that appeared in front of the helicopter began to breath out fire. However, it could not penetrate Ludia"s barrier. In anger, it tried to use physical attacks, as it folded its wings and flew toward the helicopter. Although Ludia said it would be fine, I was slightly worried whether her barrier could withstand the wyvern"s attack. I immediately prepared myself to jump out of the helicopter.
However, before the wyvern could reach the helicopter, the sound of a machine gun rang out like the one I heard in movies. Along with it, the wyvern became a beehive. Without even screaming, the wyvern fell to the ground. I was astonished.
"… A gun? Against a monster?"
"I heard about it before. It should be…"
When Hwaya looked up, murmuring in a surprised voice, we saw a helicopter approaching us. It was a helicopter just like ours, but it was letting out a black l.u.s.ter. Plus, the machine gun attached under the helicopter was smoking as if it just fired. I was certain that it was that machine gun that killed the wyvern.
… But how? Guns shouldn"t be able to kill wyverns, or most monsters with mana for that matter! While I was trying to figure out how it was possible, the black helicopter"s window opened and a young man peeked his head out. He had black skin color and black hair with white teeth that shone under the sunlight. His smile was especially charming.
"Hey, guys1! Don"t forget to buy me a drink when you land!"
It was my first meeting with America"s SS ranker, Leon Pepper.
Author"s note:
PS - "Hey, guys!" Was in English. Why? To add character! That"s it…
Translator"s note:
Hey guys, I identify as an attack helicopter. Please no flame…
This was in English ↩