novelraw Chapter 136
Chapter 136
Chapter 136
Parhel, who had been struck by something and had his head tilted back for a moment, pulled out the object embedded in his forehead. It was a rusty nail.
— You, why do you have this. How do you have this?
It was clear that Parhel never imagined I would possess this nail.
After all, I hadn't shown even the slightest sign of using it until now.
From Parhel's perspective, he probably thought the rest of the party would join me here after destroying the steles that strengthened the organ while I was buying time.
And he likely expected that Ramin would be the one to use this nail at that moment.
“This is what happens when you’re only halfway clever.”
Black energy oozed out from the wound on his forehead. Then, the black energy that flowed out was annihilated by white light.
— It doesn't… matter. My eternity ends here, but you are finished as well. Before I vanish, the meteor will fall.
Those words meant that I would be struck by the meteor before I could leave this Erosion Core.
— At the very least, I’m taking you with me.
“Not a chance, you bastard.”
I spoke and chuckled, tapping the ground with the toe of the shoes I had borrowed from Han Sang-ah.
When using these shoes, one entered a state where no damage could be given or received for a few seconds. Do you know what that meant?
“That meteor falling from the sky won't have any effect on me.”
Because I planned to activate the ability of the shoes borrowed from Han Sang-ah the moment it collided with the earth.
This was how one was supposed to hide their power. To accurately land the most necessary blow at the most critical moment.
— You… snake-like bastard.
“Thanks for the compliment.”
Insults from an enemy were essentially the highest praise. Parhel was dying. He would perish as time passed.
A blackly burning meteor slammed into the earth. The impact, which the Paradoxical Flame failed to fully consume, swept across the land, creating a massive crater.
In a translucent state, I escaped the influence of the shockwaves spreading in all directions.
“Goodbye. Don't worry too much though. Your comrades will be croaking soon enough anyway.”
White light enveloped Parhel's body. Dried flesh was scorched by that light and slowly crumbled away.
— That ability you use will devour you one day. You might not know it, but I have lived a long time and experienced many things. You….
I grabbed Parhel's head as he tried to continue speaking, met his eyes, and applied strength to my hand. With a crunching sound, Parhel’s head shattered.
“That's not going to happen, corpse.”
Every mage who possessed a certain level of skill had said something like that to me. That I possessed power beyond my station, and that I would eventually succumb to that power and bring about the destruction of the world.
But contrary to their words, I had returned to Earth after saving a world that was destined for ruin.
Nothing was going to change this time either. A box dropped in front of my eyes. It was the reward for removing this Erosion Core.
“It's gloves.”
It was a pair of gloves with a black luster. Upon closer inspection, they were gloves made of obsidian fiber.
I didn't know how on earth fibers were drawn from obsidian, but I could tell it was no ordinary item.
“It's a converter.”
It had the function of converting and storing vitality into mana. Of course, it could convert my own vitality into mana.
But the important thing was that it could also utilize the vitality of other targets that came into contact with the gloves. Added to that….
“Curse infusion.”
The mana stored in the gloves could be used as it was, or I could use the gloves' function to imbue attacks with curses.
“At this point, it's really specialized for overtime.”
Try wrapping poison in a curse after mixing it with Paradoxical Flame.
It would be truly delicious.
“Really, it's almost unfair that my current main enemies are undead.”
Curses didn't work on the undead, and neither did poison. Because they were corpses. But eventually, while active as a hunter, I wouldn't just be facing the undead.
When that time came, the spear I modified and these gloves would demonstrate their advantages.
Once the reward was received, the Erosion Core collapsed, and we returned to Pyeongseong. Jung Oh-hoon slapped my back and spoke.
“With this, securing the safety of the Korean Peninsula is practically a matter of time!”
The Grade 1 Erosion Cores, Jaun Valley and Triple Blood Cave, were annihilated. The remaining ones could be sufficiently handled by Korean hunters even if we didn't step in.
“Now, let's hurry! Gold to be stripped and treasures to be taken at the Mount Geumsu Sun Palace are waiting for us.”
Was he a hunter or a grave robber? I thought that to myself while agreeing with Jung Oh-hoon's words. Regardless, all sorts of things in that location would eventually end up in someone's hands.
If they were going to belong to someone anyway, it was only right that we, who went through the most hell this time, took them, wasn't it?
“At least this will keep people quiet for a bit.”
There had been many words regarding the choice to clear Erosion Cores instead of defending Korea, but controversy was always covered up by results.
“Those damn corpses are still wandering around.”
I saw the undead surrounding us.
Only the undead belonging to the Triple Blood Cave had disappeared. We had simply ignored the corpses occupying this area and dived into the Erosion Core.
Naturally, at this point of returning from the Erosion Core to Earth, we were surrounded by the undead. I looked at Han Sang-ah and Jung Oh-hoon and spoke.
“I’d like you two to handle this much on your own.”
Because I was a bit tired. Jung Oh-hoon wore a disappointed expression at my words.
“Hey, it's not like we were just playing around.”
“It's still a fact that Yoo Chan-seok suffered the most. What we did wasn't much.”
Han Sang-ah gave a cold evaluation of the roles she and Jung Oh-hoon played in this Erosion Core removal.
“That's still a bleak evaluation.”
“We are weaker than Yoo Chan-seok. For now, we are only playing a supporting role.”
Han Sang-ah replied to Jung Oh-hoon and then drew her sword, sweeping away the surging corpses.
The sight was as refreshing as washing a dirty car with a high-pressure washer. Jung Oh-hoon, watching her, picked up his rifle and poured a red shower toward the corpses lunging at Han Sang-ah.
“All the monsters of the Triple Blood Cave are dead anyway, right?”
Undead that had not received reinforcement could not handle Jung Oh-hoon and Han Sang-ah no matter how many there were.
Thanks to Jung Oh-hoon and Han Sang-ah clearing the path, we successfully returned safely. The hunters of Taebaek who were occupying the base had faces that showed they didn't know whether to be happy or sad.
Their feelings must have been quite strange.
“Ah, here's your shoes back.”
Han Sang-ah received her shoes back and then returned the crown to me.
“Both of you are quite wounded.”
“There are no fatal injuries. I’m just a bit fatigued.”
Although I was the one who faced Parhel, the two of them had also fought hard in their own way. I had no intention of disparaging that effort.
“For now, this job is finished, so let’s rest a bit when we get back.”
We needed rest.
“That's exactly what I’m saying. We’ve been running so frantically all this time, haven't we? People like us can get VIP treatment and rest comfortably wherever we go!”
Jung Oh-hoon seemed quite happy, but Han Sang-ah looked at me with a slightly tense expression and said a word.
“Gonsalok?”
“Gonsalok.”
I repeated the word Han Sang-ah said, only changing the tone slightly. Jung Oh-hoon’s expression hardened as he watched us.
“What are you two talking about right now?”
“Of all people, Yoo Chan-seok said he needs rest. That means there's a need for it.”
At Han Sang-ah's words, Jung Oh-hoon looked at me.
“Rest can never be a reward.”
It was merely a comma for the sake of the next task. And, since the next task was going to be incredibly difficult, rest was naturally necessary.
Gonsalok.
“Wouldn't it be better if we had a bit more time to prepare?”
I chuckled at Jung Oh-hoon's words.
“Preparation is finished.”
The Triple Blood Cave and Jaun Valley, which had been well maintained, had vanished. And while I wasn't sure about the lower grade Erosion Cores, it was certain that Erosion Cores above a certain level communicated with each other.
“The Parhel I faced introduced himself as a vassal of Gonsalok.”
The term vassal made it sound fancy, but to put it bluntly, it meant a retainer or subordinate serving a king.
“The core of the Triple Blood Cave was a vassal of Gonsalok, and we killed that vassal.”
Jung Oh-hoon's face hardened.
“Then that means Gonsalok will retaliate.”
“Correct.”
A vassal relationship necessarily accompanied mutual trust. A vassal entered under a king believing that if something happened to them, the king they served would protect them or retaliate for them.
There was no way Gonsalok only had one vassal.
“If Gonsalok does not seek revenge for the Triple Blood Cave, he will lose his dignity in front of his other vassals.”
Even for the sake of the other vassals, Gonsalok had no choice but to move.
“Gonsalok will try to attack Korea.”
“What does that have to do with us raiding Gonsalok?”
At Jung Oh-hoon's question, Han Sang-ah looked at him for a moment and spoke.
“It means a situation has been created where Korea has no choice but to take some sort of action because of us.”
Han Sang-ah was right. I continued speaking while smiling playfully at Jung Oh-hoon.
“Gonsalok is a Great Eight. The units of supplies and hunters mobilized must be entirely different from the Jaun Valley or the Triple Blood Cave.”
Jung Oh-hun, who was listening to the story, looked at me with an expression that said I was terrible.
“You’ve dragged the whole of Korea into the Gonsalok raid.”
“Because if Korea does nothing, Gonsalok will attack Korea first.”
If they did nothing, the Undying Legion of a million in Beijing would move toward Korea.
“It's an unavoidable war, isn't it? From Korea's perspective, they'll at least want to prevent their own territory from turning into a battlefield.”
Currently, Korea was in a situation where they were tying down hunters to protect their own country, using the incident that occurred in the foreign residential area as a pretext.
That threat was an anxiety deliberately created by the Korean government anyway, and it was at a level the Korean government could control.
But what would happen if Gonsalok appeared?
Gonsalok of Beijing was neither an anxiety deliberately created by the government nor a threat that could be controlled.
“If they just try to protect their own territory, even if they succeed in blocking it, they won't be able to prevent damage from occurring.”
I knew the skill of Gonsalok's Undying Legion from experience. And those kinds of monsters would swarm in.
It was on a different dimension from blocking the monsters popping out of the erosion zones near the armistice line.
“If Korea doesn't want to touch the Great Eight, we just have to create a situation where they have no choice but to touch it.”
It was about pushing an army that possessed skill but had no intention of fighting into a position of no retreat.
At my words, Jung Oh-hoon said a word with an exasperated expression.
“You crazy bastard. In the end, us smashing the Triple Blood Cave is the starting point of this whole situation. The Korean government might hold us responsible for Gonsalok moving.”
“Responsibility?”
We were experts who had smashed three Grade 1 Erosion Cores in an instant. Even if we were the catalyst that made Gonsalok move, we were indispensable talents to block Gonsalok.
“They're going to criticize us in this situation where Gonsalok might move? So what are they going to do, throw us in jail?”
That was an act of greatly diminishing their own combat power. They couldn't make such a choice.
“And later?”
“If we take a leading role in the process of removing Gonsalok, they won't even be able to hold us responsible.”
Round and round it goes, in the end, Gonsalok gets removed thanks to us, doesn't he?
In all things in the world, if the result is good, it becomes difficult to hold someone responsible for the process.
“All we have to do in the removal of Gonsalok is to step forward actively and earn merit.”
Supplies? Securing hunters? There's no need to worry about such things this time. The Korean government will have no choice but to step in. I chuckled while taking out my smartphone.
“First, I should deliver this joyful news to our President.”
I can already see how much she’ll love it after hearing what we’ve done.