Chapter 137: <. The Essence of Explosive Destruction. >
Seeing the sudden appearance of people, the elders looked on in horror, hiding the children behind them.
"We're not from the government. We have no intention of harming you." Despite Jin-ryong's words, the elders still looked uneasy and blocked the children's path. It was impossible to completely trust these people, who had appeared immediately after the deafening roars and anguished cries echoed from not far away.
Seeing the elders' reactions, Jin-ryong spoke again. "I am Jin-ryong, a disciple of Yugokmun. We won't harm you, please trust us."
When he chanted Yugokmun, the tense expressions on the elders' faces finally relaxed. They sighed in relief, and the children behind them craned their necks to see Jin-ryong step forward.
"Are you really Yugokmun's disciple?"
"Really? Are you Yugokmun's disciple?"
"Can you cast a windblast?"
Just from the reactions of the old man and the children, it was easy to see how Yugokmun was perceived by the public. It wasn't easy to show friendship instead of rejection or fear towards a warrior.
"Yugokmun seems friendly to the people," Li Lingwei responded to Seo-woon's quiet comment.
"Exactly. Despite being a small sect with few disciples, Yugokmun's fame didn't grow this much today simply because of the presence of an absolute master. It was made possible by the absolute support of the common people."
However, when he mentioned Jindokgok's name, a name no one in his own family would even stop a thousand steps from hearing, a bitter smile spread across his face at the completely different reactions.
Seo-woon glanced at the villagers gathered around Jin-ryong, who was kneeling on one knee and answering the children's questions one by one, and his expression darkened. There were about 20 elderly people and 50 children. Evacuating them all was absolutely impossible. He wondered how they had gotten so far into the mountains, but there was no way he could get them back now.
Seo-woon narrowed his eyes as he watched the sun slowly set. "Let's split into teams. Each team should have two people, while Sa-gwang and Jin go alone."
Everyone nodded at Seo-woon's words.
"I'll protect Juriell." Hearing Dump's words, Min moved to Rayl's side. "Then I'll protect Rayl."
When the two of them stepped forward, Ki-chan, who had stayed behind, naturally began. "Then I'll protect Ring-woo..."
Ki-chan was about to follow their example, but when he met Ri-ling-wi's gaze, he changed his mind, and Li-ling-wi laughed lightly.
"Ri-min and Ra-il, no matter what, you must stay here and guard the rear. No matter what happens at the front, you must not leave this village."
The two men smiled and nodded at the order. "We will protect you no matter what, don't worry."
"We will definitely protect you." Rayl said, his eyes shone with determination as he looked at the younger children.
"Lingwei and Juriell, you will be in the middle. You will support the front or back depending on the situation. You will handle any players the hunting party misses and be flexible."
Juriell quickly realized why Seo-woon had placed them in the middle team. "Don't worry. We won't carelessly give away our position."
Seo-woon smiled at her, realizing that he understood why they were positioned that way, despite the tendency of sorcerers to give away their positions.
He had deliberately placed her in the middle team because, since he would be in the front, he wanted her to monitor the situation in the middle and give orders alongside him.
"Finally, Nam-sa-gwang and Sa-gwang..."
"I know. We are hunting dogs who will kill them all before tonight is over." Nam-sa-gwang smiled with a murderous expression on his face.
Seeing Nam Sa-gwang like this, Seo-woon wondered if he was truly a member of a fair group, but he didn't voice it. He thought it would be more beneficial to unleash monsters against the incoming monsters to kill them.
"Everyone. Don't come out until I tell you we're safe." At Jin-ryong's words, the people began to stir.
"The Madou are approaching. I will stop them no matter what... Please trust me and follow me."
At Jin-ryong's words, people began to go home in small groups.
"Uncle! Hang on!" The boy, who had taken a particular interest in Jin-ryong, smiled brightly and clenched his fist, a smile naturally appearing on his face. He turned, determined to maintain that bright smile, his eyes shining with a rare intensity.
Seeing everyone's fierce expressions, Seo-woon gave the order. "Let's begin."
As soon as he finished, his teammates drew black cloaks from the space between them and put them on.
-Prak!
With a sound, nine figures descended from the setting sun and vanished into the darkness, disappearing into the air.
***
-Crack.
With a chilling sound, eight pairs of eyes rolled back. Click. As the wizard's head fell, the eight players stood shocked still, staring at the black shadow standing behind him, as if they had forgotten how to react.
Instead, the black shadow was the first to move. Out of habit, the black shadow began running towards the wizard standing behind, and the knights in front of him rushed forward with a delay.
- Boom!
They instinctively waved their staffs, releasing their stored magic, and the shadows that rushed forward were engulfed in flames and vanished. The knights blocked the flames just in case, protecting the wizards.
Knock! As the heads of the three wizards who cast another spell fell, the knights' hairs stood on end, and they slowly turned their heads.
"Just out of curiosity, is this tattoo... the symbol of your guild?" Seo-woon raised his severed wizard arm and pointed to the tattoo on his wrist.
"Run! Survival comes first!"
As soon as a knight rushed forward, the remaining players scattered in all directions, shooting red flames into the air.
[Zi] took out the invisibility cloak he had hidden in his pocket, put it on, and disappeared into the darkness. Before nightfall, red flames danced in all directions near the mountain.
***
"Do you know me?"
The three masked men frowned at Jin-ryong's cold voice. Seeing them, Jin-ryong spoke again. "I promise. Your sect will have to bear the heavy responsibility for this. I will hold your sect accountable on behalf of Yugokmun."
"Bah! No matter what, we must kill him. Our identity must not be revealed!"
Having already killed several members of the Jungpa sect, which valued harmony above all else, Jin-ryong felt a hatred for humans for the first time in his life.
Hearing such words from a disciple of Yugokmun, the warriors who had set out to hunt ordinary people became even more despondent. They had thought that destroying a few villages scattered across this vast land where people eked out a living by farming wouldn't make much difference. Still, they'd made sure to cover their faces well, just in case.
They operated in secret, communicating with their guild members, never approaching cities or large castles, so they considered encountering Jin-ryong here simply bad luck.
"Even if he's a disciple, he's just one person!"
- Slap!
The warrior shouted this and charged forward, his life-bearing sword shattered by Jinryung's, and he died, his chest split open, his eyes wide. Seeing this, the two warriors cast their spells and fled, leaving a mage still casting a spell behind. With the warriors blocking his path gone, the mage was left alone and met his end at Jin-ryong's hands before he even had a chance to fight back.
Before the dead warrior's body could vanish, Jin-ryong quickly checked his face, rummaged through the box that appeared, and snatched up a card. "As I suspected, he was a disciple of the Sword Gate!" His hand tightened around the wooden card, and his strength increased.
***
- Bang!
"Stop him! Do whatever it takes, and stop him!"
About twenty players were shaking in fear against a single player. He drew his sword with one hand and charged forward, slashing everything in his path. To them, he was pure terror.
They broke their positions, abandoning the warrior and six knights standing in front of them and escaping with a group teleport.
"Damn! These damn scrolls are so common these days."
Kim, irritated by the constant teleportations, raised his sword when he saw the female knight who was barely able to stand up. The rare female knight's hair stood on end when he saw her smiling and clenching her fists instead of her sword.
***
- There are five people in direction A! Two mages and three knights! Ki-chan replied to Juriell, who was looking in all directions.
- My sister Lingwi and I will go! We're close! Report anything unusual!
How's the situation over there, Lyle?
- The situation here is over. Let's just grab the medallions and items and get going. Juriell looked at the map and gave orders according to Lyle's briefing. -Don't leave the village and continue to protect the headquarters.
-Yes!
***
At the foot of the mountain where Seo-woon's team was fighting fiercely, almost 200 players had gathered.
"So you're saying everyone was defeated and gathered here?"
"We had no choice. These aren't ordinary enemies! It's clear that a crown-ranked enemy is blocking the way."
"So you're saying it was the right decision to stay here and wait for reinforcements without properly assessing the enemy's numbers or main strength?"
A man wearing armor emblazoned with a red eagle drew his sword, and white flames spewed from its blade.
"I'm sorry." A masked warrior bowed his head and hurriedly interrupted him. "This isn't an opportunity that will come easily. As you all know, Cloyd's ranking system is ultimately determined by the number of medallions you obtain. The higher you climb, the rarer the epic monsters become, and the higher the drop rates of good items. We will take this opportunity to climb higher. Desert Eagle. Our guild is investing everything in this game."
After he finished speaking, the players began to climb the mountain. New figures were secretly watching them from afar. "There are definitely some warriors mixed in."
At the man's words, the red-armored men standing beside him bowed their heads.
"Shall we attack now?" The warrior's question, which was asking if they should attack 200 enemies with fewer than 30 men, held no hint of bravado.
"No. There are people hunting them in the mountains. It's better to cooperate with them than interfere." The man, who had recently struggled with the game's increasing difficulty and bad luck, followed the knight with the white sword aura and began to move.
Despite his reputation as the strongest endgame player of all time, the man led his men and silently stalked the enemies like predators stalking their prey.
***
- Priest! There are so many enemies! There must be over a hundred! They're entering the mountain!
Seo-woon's face twisted at Jin-ryong's words, who was searching the front lines for enemies. He decapitated a suffering mage whose body had been pierced with his magic and spoke into the team voice chat.
"With so many people, Carmen must be watching. Everyone, gather near the village."
As soon as he finished, the team members who had finished their hunt began to gather in one place. "Rimin and Lyle, hold that place until the end."
Seo-woon, who had been given orders just in case, ran towards the village, but Ki-chan spoke with concern.
"Brother, isn't that too many? A group fight against over a hundred enemies..."
They were practicing guerrilla warfare using invisibility cloaks, which they had already practiced many times before, using the darkness, so it wasn't too difficult. Even in Cloyd, they were already quite skilled, so this wasn't a difficult task for them. However, no matter how weak the enemy was, with such a large number difference, the situation was completely different.
Seo-woon didn't respond to Ki-chan's words and checked the remaining senma. Thanks to his efforts, about half of them were left. He counted the remaining spell scrolls in his sub-dimension.
The team members gathered together, each with battle scars on their bodies. No one was seriously injured, but Seo-woon, Jin-ryong, and Nam-sa-gwang were covered in blood, a faint scent of blood emanating from them.
"Hyung, fighting right now is too dangerous." When Ki-chan repeated himself, Seo-woon nodded slightly. "I know. It's impossible to face that many enemies. But there are times when we have to fight."
Ki-chan couldn't argue with the words "times when we have to fight." The elderly and children they were protecting weren't players who could come back to life even if they died, so the weight of their lives was palpable.
"Huh. Plan... do you have one?" Seeing him ask that, Seo-woon smiled.
"Before that, can you give me the enhancement prism you got last time?"
The enhancement prism was an item Ki-chan had obtained in the previous game. He'd invested 60 medallions to get his staff strengthened from a trusted alchemist.
Remembering what Ki-chan had said in passing, Seo-woon asked him, and he pulled out a fist-sized prism from his sub-dimensionality. "What are you going to use this for?"
Looking at Ki-chan, Seo-woon pulled out three spell scrolls from his sub-dimensionality. "You're not going to detonate it, are you?"
"Do you have anything else that can do a wide-area attack like this?"
"But it won't do much damage unless we detonate it right in the middle. There will be multiple barriers, and we'll have to get in..."
Before he could finish, Seo-woon pulled out a strand of his hair and threw it away. Another clone of Seo-woon used its magic, and the clone transformed into the knight Seo-woon had killed. A knight with tattered armor and blood flowing freely.
"Ah..." Seo-woon handed the knight three spell scrolls, a prism, and the sub-dimensional ring he'd set aside, then spoke. "The mission is very important."
"I know." The knight replied shortly and placed the four items in the sub-dimension.
"Can your clone use sub-dimension too?" "Yes, it can."
Seo-woon looked at Ki-chan and Juriell, paused for a moment, then spoke. "Prepare for a wide area spell. We need to wipe them out before they recover from the explosion."
"Don't worry."
"Understood." After the two answered, Seo-woon looked at everyone around him and spoke. "We could break the record for consecutive top rankings here. But still... I have no regrets."
Everyone nodded at Seo-woon's words. The six team members smiled and stood up along with Seo-woon. Once again, they wrapped themselves in their invisibility cloaks and disappeared into the darkness.
***
"Guh!" Sensing a presence in the distance, the knight collapsed, clutching his chest and coughing blood. The presence paused for a moment, then quickly approached and examined the knight. The scout approaching him lifted him up, revealing the tattoo etched on his wrist.
"Damn it! When were you hit?"
"Less than ten minutes... There are more enemies than we thought... Almost 100."
The scout signaled behind him and carried the knight back to the main group. "No healers?! Anyone with a healing scroll, bring it here!"
Seeing the scout's frantic shout, the main group hurried over. The guild leader approached and pulled a healing scroll from his pocket. He handed it to the knight, who gripped it tightly and opened his mouth.
"I have important information..."
"Heal him first! Is there any mage who knows healing magic?" No matter how he looked at it, the wound couldn't be healed with a single scroll. The amount of blood gushing from his chest was significant.
As the mages struggled to force a way through the crowd, the knight gripped the guild leader's hand tightly. "Come closer... I need to tell you..."
As the knight's voice trailed off, the guild leader put his ear close to the knight's mouth. The knight's hand, hidden by the leader's body, moved quickly.
"What happened? Speak!"
"So... Everyone... Die!"
The guild leader looked at the knight's last words in surprise and pulled back to look at his face. The knight's maniacal smile deepened, and then the item in his hand finally appeared.
A bright light, amplified by the prism, instantly enveloped and engulfed the area.
- A loud explosion! Boom! Boom!
Simultaneously with the massive explosion, Sword Storm and Chain Lightning struck the enemies. In addition, area-of-effect spells rained down, while players who couldn't escape the blast were swept away and took cumulative damage.
"Everyone! Stay alert and deal with the enemy attacks!"
Right in front of him, the guild leader Luwein, who had just escaped the explosion, drew his sword, surrounded himself with a sword aura, and shouted.
His expression was grim as he used Absolute Defense, an ability that could only be used once every three days. The scream he let out as he slashed down the oncoming Sword Storm caused the players around him to begin to regroup.
That's when it happened. About 30 red-armored warriors rushed towards them.
"There are the enemies!"
-Brother! What's that...?
-Consider them allies for now. But don't give them too much space—stay alert! All the team members who wiped out the enemies nodded in response to Seo-woon's order.