Chapter 148. Village of the Tired (1)

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Booooom!

The blue light surrounding Hantae’s body ruthlessly clashed with Hansoo’s dark golden reinforcement.

Kududududuk

‘Tsk. Though it’s only a game the higher race bastards made…’

Hansoo shook his head as he felt the mana reinforcement of his Demonic Dragon’s Reinforcement being shaken quite a bit.

Though this Hantae guy was quite strong, he was nowhere strong enough to even crack the Demonic Dragon’s Reinforcement surrounding his body.

But if he has the dog collar of the Archon race, Blue Jade, the story changes a bit.

<Blue Jade>.

It bestowed upon a tremendous amount of mana and power onto the user.

But at the same time that person will have made a slave contract.

Since they would need to live for the higher race the moment they decide to live their life as a hunting dog.

There were 3 ways to escape the fate of a hunting dog.

Dying, not being able to fill up their quota and getting dragged to the birdcage or making another hunting dog.

‘Well. It seems he’s quite content with his status as a hunting dog.’

Hansoo looked at Hantae who was clashing around with him while making an extremely joyous expression.

“Uahahahaha! You’re next Altair! I’ll play with you for a bit before I send you! You’ll need to fill up the void of Elis as well!”

As he had heard, the time limit for filling up all 10 people was 2 weeks.

There was no need to fill them all up right away.

Altair grinded her teeth while listening to this from the distance where she was throwing skills at him.

They had heard his talk about the higher race so much to the point they’d gotten fed up with it.

“It seems like you’re quite content with being somebody’s bitch since you were already a bitch to begin with.”

“Uahahaha! What about it! People need to adapt and act accordingly to the situation! Of course there’s a chance that humans are slaves when the whole Otherworld is screwed up!”

There was a stronger race than the humans.

What about it?

Even in a society where only humans existed, there were ups and downs in authorities.

Like the predators above him in the Orange Zone, Gwanje or Enbi Arin.

‘Nothing changed.’

Which made everything simpler.

Go up as much as one could go up.

‘What if I’m a dog?’

People who lived well under rules still lived well.

The exit always exists.

And being a pig or a dog with a full stomach was better than a hungry human anyway.

But Hansoo shook his head at Hantae’s words.

“Yes you can be a slave. But there’s no need to follow it that resolutely.”

A world where humans acted as slaves.

He was going to flip this world around.

He would then take the origins of the strength of the higher race and give it to the humans.

Like how Prometheus gifted humans with fire.

‘Let’s end this.’

He read out the code.

There was no need to drag things out any further.

And in the next instant the black clouds expanded out and surrounded Hansoo’s body.

“Uuuk?”

Hantae, who had flinched for a moment, soon realized that nothing had happened to himself and was about to smirk.

‘Did he even do anything? Kuhehehe.’

But Hantae couldn’t actually laugh.

Since the blue light that was surrounding his body had disappeared.

“Uh??? Huh?”

Hantae was extremely confused as he looked at his own body.

The Blue Jade’s powders that surrounded Hantae’s body which were the origins for the blue light.

All these powders had turned black.

“You bastard! What have you done!”

Hansoo stared at the Blue Jade powders that had turned black from the Dark Cloud at those words.

The Blue Jade was in the end a tool and a machine.

So it could be infected by the Dark Cloud.

It took a bit of work since the code was a bit complex but figuring it out during the fight wasn’t that hard.

‘It’s not time for me to go against the Hunter races yet.’

So there was a need to deceive them.

Boooom!

“Kuaaaak!”

Hantae’s body had been smashed by Hansoo’s kick and had been flung off.

To where Altair and the others were at.

“Ugh…”

And there were countless kicks which had greeted him.

Smack! Smack!

“You bastard. Say it again! For me to call you our fucking vice-captain!”

One of the shock trooper members was kicking Hantae without holding back.

He was somebody who had followed Hantae’s words more than those of Altair’s.

But he was currently extremely enraged at the enmity that Hantae had showed them.

“Ugh…You bastards…”

Hantae moved his body in order to resist but he didn’t have the power to do so after losing the power of the Blue Jade and being hit by Hansoo.

And even more so since he had been surrounded by 9 people.

While the ten people solved their issues with each other, Hansoo had focused all his senses onto the Dark Cloud.

Well, actually at the Blue Jade powders that the Dark Cloud had devoured.

‘I need to hurry and send the signal.’

Hoooooong

The black powder that had been floating around Hantae’s body got sucked onto the top of Hansoo’s hand and turned into a marble form.

The extremely bright light was nowhere to be seen and instead there was an extremely black marble, which looked like it could devour anything.

Hansoo looked over this marble for a bit and then used the Dark Cloud to send a signal.

A fake signal saying that the Hunting Dog was doing well.

Though it was very simple, it was more than enough to fool them.

‘They shouldn’t really be caring about one to two Hunting Dogs.’

The Blue Jade was nothing but them playing around.

Against the newbies who had just come up.

Though the number of people who got dragged to the Birdcage was tremendous from this.

‘Well since they don’t kill them right away…They can wait for a bit.’

Rescuing the people caught in the Birdcage was work for another time.

Hansoo pocketed the infected Blue Jade, the Black Jade now, into his possession.

Since he would need to use this in the future.

Hansoo thought of his next destination as he pocketed the Black Jade.

Ceasefire Village.

One of the villages that lived between the races and balanced each sides.

He would start the fire that would devour everything from there.

‘According to the Kali-Crown’s memories, traces of humans are within two days worth of travel.’

But it was hard to find the location of the village even with the Kali-Crown.

Since the villages were located in places where it was hard to find them as well as having lots of mechanisms to hide them as well.

He would need to follow the signs in order to find the village.

Traces that could not be found with senses but only with search skills.

Signs that could be followed with the senses had a chance to drag in beasts as well.

Signs that were designed to drive away the beasts and drag in the humans.

‘A search skill…’

Hansoo looked towards Altair in the distance who was beating the hell out of Hantae.

***

Altair touched the extremely small gem embedded within the tree and activated a skill.

Kiiiiiing

The gem, which was linked to a search skill, showed Altair the location of the next gem.

‘Amazing. So the village will come out if we follow it like this right?’

If there weren’t any gems like this then they wouldn’t even have known about the existence of the village.

The gem had showed the direction of the village as well as an overview of the village.

As if it wanted to be found as soon as possible.

‘Phew… I really want to find it fast.’

Altair made a tired expression while walking.

Usually she would’ve been suspicious of the gem which was luring in the humans in an extremely direct way over and over.

But she didn’t even have the chance to do that anymore.

Since this damned jungle didn’t give anybody a time to rest.

‘Damn. It’s coming again!’

Altair grinded her teeth after sensing something in her detection area and then shouted out.

“Three O’Clock! Just one this time!”

Hansoo clenched his fists tightly at Altair’s warning.

‘As I thought, I do need at least one detection-type skill.’

He had gained a physique that was strong beyond the imaginations of normal people with the Demonic Dragon’s Reinforcement, Body Enhancement Surgery and the Dragon Essence Blade.

But of course there was a difference between Hansoo, who couldn’t use any detection-type skills, and Altair, somebody who had polished the detection skill of a scout team to the extremes, in terms of their detection range.

Hansoo lifted up his Forked Lightning and threw it into the midst of the jungle.

Boooom!

Roarr!

The very loud sound of an explosion was heard from the depths of the jungle.

At the same time something enraged rushed out from that jungle.

Altair grinded her teeth as she looked at the giant lion-shaped beast which was charging at them.

The attacks of the beasts were becoming more and more frequent the deeper they went in.

As if they were proving that the area she and her group roamed in for 3 weeks was nothing.

It might’ve been different if they had a lot of people but this was not something that ten of them could go through.

‘If this guy wasn’t here then we would’ve been long dead already.’

In return for them showing him the way, he would accompany them until the village.

This was the agreement.

But no matter how much Altair thought about it logically, there should not be somewhere where people lived in a place like this.

“Until when are they going to keep popping out! Can people really live in a place like this?”

Altair shouted out in anger.

***

“…It exists.”

Altair stared at the city that was standing in the direction the final gem was pointing towards in a daze and muttered to herself.

They had walked through valleys and waterfalls and continued to walk.

Around the time the attacks of the beasts had started to lessen, the hidden village had appeared in front of them.

<Oasis>

Extremely tall fences and a gate made of wood that were at least 30m tall.

Altair’s expression brightened up as she saw the giant village that was between the size of a large town and a small city.

They had finally escaped this damned jungle where they couldn’t find even a single trace of humans and had arrived at somewhere that they could live at.

But Altair’s expression turned slightly dark.

Along with the members of the group behind her.

They had searched for humans from the anxiousness they had felt due to not being able to see a trace of humans but once they had found it numerous thoughts that had been buried away started to make their way into their heads again.

That the people of the Otherworld were not as friendly to other humans as those in the real world.

In some cases they were even more dangerous than humans.

At that moment.

Hansoo walked out from the group and made his way towards the Village.

Altair pondered for a moment at Hansoo’s sudden actions but then also moved towards the village.

‘Yeah, there shouldn’t be that much of a problem. My danger sensors aren’t really telling me anything either so…’

And the fact that Hansoo was next to them made them feel a lot more at ease.

Muffled sounds.

As they got closer, the outpost tower located on the top of the fence got noisy.

‘Mmm?’

Altair used her skills and tried to listen on to what they were saying but she couldn’t for some reason.

But one thing was clear.

That they didn’t have any enmity against them.

‘No, it’s more like welcoming us.’

Soon a rope ladder had been thrown down from the top of the fences.

And then a loud shout was heard.

“Come up with that!”

Altair’s pride was a bit hurt at this.

Why the hell would they use a rope ladder to climb a fence that was merely 30m tall.

‘Are they looking down on us because we’re newbies?’

Altair focused her powers into her feet.

And then activated <Feathered Shoes>, a necessary skill for the scout team that made one’s body lighter.

Booom!

The lightened body of Altair easily jumped up the 30m tall fence and landed on the space above the fences.

Same with the rest of the group.

Somebody clapped as they saw this.

Clap clap clap.

“It seems I’ve underestimated the newbies a bit too much, Hahahahaha! Anyways, welcome! Finally newcomers after a whole month!”

Altair looked towards the person who had thrown the rope ladder to them from above the outpost tower.

Though he was a bit small in stature, the tightly packed muscles all over his body told them that his life wasn’t an easy one.

His eyes were actually shining like the eyes of a tiger as well.

The man looked towards Altair and shouted out loudly.

“Welcome to the Oasis you baby chicks. I am Karim, the captain of the guards here.”

Karim looked over at the guards who were on a watch from above the fences, turned back to Altair and her group and smiled.

“You’ve worked hard to get here. Now now. Since you’ve reached here, let me tour you around the village. Amazing right?”

Karim then pointed towards to the village that was inside the fence.

And a sense of pride could be felt in that Karim’s face.

‘How much could it possibly…’

Altair took a glance at the village inside the fence because she had gotten curious from Karim’s expression.

Numerous buildings that were made of wood.

Altair’s expression brightened up as she saw a decent looking market along with a plaza.

The buildings weren’t important actually.

The important thing was the attitude of the people.

There were smiles on the expressions of people and they were full of vigor.

Which means that the people here were feeling quite at home and stable.

‘Wow…This is indeed worthy of being proud. This much is amazing.’

Altair nodded.

Their pride was worthy enough just from being able to create such a village in the middle of the jungle where countless beasts roamed around.

As Altair sighed in relief as she took a step into a place where it was full of people’s scents, Hansoo also nodded while looking around the surroundings.

Numerous items entered Hansoo’s vision from the market.

He would be able to save more time with this.

‘Finish my preparation in here.’

Karim clapped as he saw Hansoo and Altair and then pointed to the inner parts.

“Well. Let’s move on from the chit chat now. Let’s talk about the details after we get in. Since the outpost isn’t really the greatest place to have a conversation.”

Altair looked towards Hansoo and spoke back to Karim’s words.

“What are you going to do? Are you going to stick with us?”

Karim smiled as he looked at Altair.

“That won’t work the way you want it to work.”

“…?”

As Altair made a nervous expression, Karim chuckled as he spoke again.

“Don’t be scared. I’m saying that the living quarters of the newbies are set separately. Come this way. Just calm down and rest.”

“Phew…”

Altair sighed in relief.

A new space.

She could only feel nervous at this point but the atmosphere here didn’t seem really bad.

Too good for a place like the Otherworld.

But Altair shook her head as well as these thoughts.

‘Yeah, since the humans aren’t the owners of this world they might be combining their forces…’

Combining their strength was obvious if they had a common enemy.

‘Not fighting with each other… Is already much better.’

Altair’s expression turned much brighter.

***

An extremely beautiful woman was listening to a man’s report from the deepest part of the village.

“You say newcomers have come?”

A woman whose striking features was her blonde hair and red eyes.

Karim, who had welcomed Altair and her group before, nodded at the question of the leader of the village located in the safe zone, Ekidu.

“It’s a relief. There wasn’t much time left until the offering but for them to come in at the right time.”

Ekidu frowned at these words.

‘Until when are we going to…’

Ekidu made a tired expression as she sunk into her chair.

And Karim urged as he looked at that Ekidu.

“This isn’t the time to ponder. The tremendous amount of newcomers has stopped coming in since 3 weeks ago. Are you thinking of sending us, who have stayed here for over a year and fought with the beasts? Us who have fought with you? Instead of the newcomers who have just come in?”

“…”

“Do not forget. As to how the peace in this town is being sustained.”

Ekidu nodded with a heavy expression at those words.

Since all of that was correct.

‘I need to buy time.’

“…How long do we have? Until we have to send the offerings?”

“One week. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it all.”

Karim finished with those words and moved outside.