Chapter 156. 1st Area (6)
Kurrrrruuuung.
Uuuuuuruung.
Keron smiled as he heard the noise coming from the depths of the darkness.
“Oh my. There’s an uproar happening.”
In the direction where Karhal and the other Hunters had chased Hansoo who had run away.
Every bit of sound that was ringing out from that location wasn’t simple.
A noise that wasn’t from a chase but rather a noise that occurred during a clash.
Which meant that Hansoo had been caught.
‘Which means the result is clear already. Though it’s a pity that I wouldn’t be able to kill him with my own hands…’
Well, it didn’t matter much since he was looking at something else that was amusing.
Chwaaaak.
Keron looked at the 9 Farmers who had been turned into a mess and were lying around him.
They could still move but they all had something in common.
That they couldn’t run away no matter what because either their legs or their ankles were broken.
‘Well. Catching 9 is more than enough for myself.’
Keron looked at Mackill who was still trying to resist and brought up the skill in his hand, <Repalram’s Snake>.
A skill that wasn’t as powerful as the Quintuple Beam of the team leader but had a short cast time and couldn’t be dodged so was useful in slowing down their opponents.
Though the power was a bit weak, it was more than enough against Farmers.
Kiiiiiiing.
Soon a snake shaped smoke rose up from his hand.
The moment the smoke rose up.
Chaajajajak.
“Kuuuk…”
The purple snake rose up from the ground-like smoke and rose up into the air as it tied around Mackill.
It seemed like it was swept by, the difference in between the user and the target was always the most important aspect.
Mackill, whose runes were much lower than Keron, had her skills smashed apart.
At the same time the artifacts on her body got destroyed and her clothes got ripped.
Keron laughed happily as he looked at this scene.
“Livestock doesn’t need clothes. What a nice scene.”
Keron laughed coldly.
Since the time has come for his purpose of giving up on Hansoo and coming here was about to get started.
He needed to punish the leader pig who tried to run away along with the other livestock.
In front of everyone else.
“Kuu….”
Mackill saw Keron approaching herself and grasped tightly onto the sword in her hands.
Of course she knew herself.
That this was nowhere close to enough.
Mackill mutted as she thought of Hansoo who had run towards the research lab in the depths of the darkness.
‘Damn. When’s it going to be. He didn’t fail right…?’
This was something she had done while trusting Hansoo.
Only when Hansoo attained that Sealing Jade would they have some hope.
But the constant sounds of explosions from the distance weighed down Mackill’s mind.
Since such a large collision shouldn’t occur if everything went according to plan.
Kuuuugugugugung.
Boooom!
Keron, who was approaching Mackill who was staring at him with eyes full of venom, suddenly shrugged his shoulders.
“Why are you guys resisting anyway? It’s not that bad right? Your lives are safe. And you would’ve become toys of multiple people in the village anyway. Isn’t me being nice to you enough? You don’t want to become like your friend right?”
Paduk.
Mackill”s expression froze as she had her body rolled up rightly.
‘This bastard. You dare say those words?’
Since the reason for her friend’s death was this guy.
When they had been caught by this guy the moment they got here and was being humiliated.
Her friend made up her mind to escape.
— Dying is better than living like this. You wait here. If I get to the village and say something to Ekidu then… something will happen at least.
She needed to follow her friend.
Or stop her with her own life on the line.
Then she wouldn’t have seen her friend’s corpse which had been split into three sections by Keron.
Mackill’s expression turned extremely cold extremely quickly.
‘…At least, you cannot.’
Since things had blown up to this point.
If Hansoo had failed then there was a high chance that these guys wouldn’t let them go.
As Mackill made up her mind.
A skill which she had been saving for a long time started up.
A skill which burnt up her life force to activate, <Limit Breaker>.
Kuuururururu.
A tremendous amount of strength that wasn’t available to her usually started to flow through her body.
Booooom!
At the same time Mackill, who had been lying on the floor as a mess, jumped back up.
The moment Mackill focused all her strength onto the sword in her hands and was about to change into Keron.
Rumble.
A powerful earthquake rang throughout from somewhere.
From beneath where they were standing.
At that same time.
Hooooooooook.
Formless shockwaves resonated out from the ground and swept Keron and Mackill.
‘Huh?’
An abnormal looking scene.
Keron flinched momentarily at the shockwave that rang throughout the entire darkness and then refocused onto Mackill after shaking the thoughts off.
Since that wasn’t the important part right now.
He didn’t know what she had done but her aura was not simple.
It wasn’t threatening but not weak enough where he could let down his guard, a powerful attack.
‘Damn. Did she use a sacrificial type skill or something. What a waste.’
Keron clicked his tongue.
The sacrificial type skills allowed one to show off a powerful might but took their lives as the price.
But soon Keron’s expression brightened up.
‘As I expected. She’s scared.’
The explosive aura that surrounded her body disappeared and only the decisive expression of Mackill could be seen.
Keron laughed wickedly as he saw this.
‘Yeah, a life is precious.’
It seemed she had canceled her last skill.
Keron looked at Mackill leisurely and was about to use his reinforcement.
It might’ve been different if she had used a skill but this much could easily be blocked with just a reinforcement.
No, it wouldn’t even be able to get past the defensive skill around his body.
But at that moment.
“Uh? Uuuuh! What!?”
Keron freaked out.
But Mackill didn’t seem like she wanted to go easy on that Keron as she sharpened her aura even more and flew in.
And soon.
Stab.
Keron freaked out too much as he couldn’t prepare for Mackill charging into him and had let her stab his stomach.
A very sad result if one thought of the difference in their power levels.
“What the hell is this. Kuu…”
A situation that he had never even thought of being possible.
Keron grinded his teeth while looking at the longsword stabbed deep into his stomach and then woke up as he smashed Mackill with his hands.
Since this bitch was applying force onto the sword and was trying to twist it.
His innards would all snap at this rate.
Smack!
“Kuuhuk!”
Mackill, who poured all her strength onto that attack, screamed out from that single fist of Keron and flew back.
Since the difference in their runes were tremendous from the beginning.
But it was clear who gained from that short encounter.
Keron held down onto the sword embedded in his stomach, grinded his teeth and spoke.
“You fucking bitch! What have you done! Mana..Why isn’t my mana moving!”
***
Karhal and the other Hunters all freaked out.
The moment a shout was heard from the dark hole.
A tremendous shockwave rang throughout and swept past them.
“What the hell!”
“The mana..Why isn’t it working suddenly!”
They tried to use skills again but then shouted out in confusion.
The mana that they had plenty of inside their bodies weren’t moving a bit at all.
Mana.
A force that was the origin of the adventurer’s power, something which allowed them to use skills.
The origin of the strength which split the strong and the weak was not moving at all.
And because of this all their skills and even the reinforcement surrounding their body had been disintegrated.
Along with the supportive skills on their Artifacts.
Karhal’s expression froze.
‘…It seems the girl who went below has done something.’
Their mana wasn’t activating.
Their entire bodies were heavy.
And the skills that had enhanced their senses by numerous times had disappeared.
The defensive skills that surrounded them had disappeared and made them felt naked and the reinforcement that enhanced their body was nowhere to be seen.
They all felt like naked children.
The extremely strange and fearsome sensation caused Karhal to clench his fists tightly.
‘Damn…’
He wasn’t sure if this effect was temporary or permanent.
But one thing was clear.
One, Hansoo standing over there had done something.
Two, He knew how to solve this since he was the one who had caused this.
Karhal spoke with a heavy expression.
“Catch him. You cannot kill him no matter what.”
If this situation was permanent and only he knew the solution?
It would become extremely troublesome.
Humans who couldn’t use skills would fall to the bottom of the food chain.
Though they had the runes, most of a human’s power came from the skills.
A human who only had runes wasn’t even strong as a beast with a powerful body.
At Karhal’s words, Etianon warmed up his body as he walked out.
“Presumptuous bastard. It seems you’re quite confident in hand to hand combat.”
Karhal and the other Hunters followed Etianon and stepped out.
There was a reason why they were approaching Hansoo in confidence.
‘Dumbass. If you’re going to use such a tactic, at least make it so you don’t get hit by it as well.’
The golden reinforcement that was threatening and oppressive and that had surrounded his body had completely disappeared.
Which meant that he was also affected by the shockwave from before.
What did they have to fear then?
Their runes were at a much higher level.
And they had many more people.
“Success…Waaa!”
Akilen, who had climbed out from the hole produly with the small black marble in the hands, freaked out as she saw the people slowly approaching her.
Since even if the Sealing Jade in her hands was activated, it didn’t make them unable to move.
‘This is bad!’
When Akilen was about to hurriedly climb out from the hole.
Hansoo chuckled as he saw her.
“Just stay in there. Continue to activate that.”
Push.
“Waaaaa!”
Hansoo pushed Akilen back by hitting her hands which was holding onto the wall and then checked the status of his body.
Kurururk. Kuruk.
Etianon came all the way up to Hansoo and spoke as he laughed.
“Oh? You don’t need any help?”
Karhal looked at that Etianon with a trusting expression.
Since Etianon was the best in hand to hand combat despite having weaker skills.
Of course he would be confident in a situation like this.
Hansoo laughed at those words and swung his spear.
Hooooooong!
The golden spear cut through the air and made loud noises.
‘…Huh?’
Etianon, who was about to leisreuly recieve the attack, suddenly froze.’
‘What the fuck!’
The moment Etianon raised the dagger in his hands to block it.
Booooooom!
The spear smashed onto the blade and made a huge noise.
Kuududududk
“Uaaaak!”
The blade, which had withstood too large of a force, got pushed back onto Etianon.
A tremendous strength that couldn’t be explained with just runes.
And because of this, Etianon’s arm which held the dagger got smashed apart as he got sent flying backwards while screaming.
Karhal and the other Hunter’s expressions froze as they watched this scene.
“What the hell have you done…”
Karhal mumbled with an expression of disbelief.
That tremendous amount of strength.
That was not something that could come out without any skills or reinforcements.
Hansoo laughed as he looked at them.
Kudududududk
The silver liquid constantly flowed inside his body and enhanced his body.
It didn’t matter even if there was no mana.
Since the Dragon Essence Blade and the Body Enhancement Surgery were not a result of mana.
It was the result of Genetic Engineering that the Akarons, who couldn’t use mana, had created.
Even if they took the runes into account, the difference between the physical body of him who had been enhanced by the Dragon Essence Blade and the Body Enhancement Surgery and them was more than the difference between a bear and a human.
‘Sealing Jade. Wonderful. Sages, I’ll avenge you guys.’
He would now ride the rapid currents again.
Hansoo thought that it was a relief since there wasn’t much time until the Higher Races would come and then stomped on the ground as he jumped up.
Since he needed to finish this place up first.
“Let’s end this.”
“God fucking damnit…”
Maybe this is how it felt when people found out their guns had been broken when they came to hunt a bear.
No, meeting a bear bare handed would feel better than this.
Kuduk
Kudududuk
The Hunter’s expressions all turned dark as they saw Hansoo who was approaching them while smashing the floor with every step.
***
Kuuurururururung.
‘Hmm?’
An area that was hundreds of kilometers away from the ceasefire village.
A wolfman who had been enjoying snacks in the Satellite Fortress of the Archons,<Attilan>, had his ears perked up.
‘…I felt a strange aura.’
Their race’s specialty had developed their sixth sense into supernatural levels.
And something was touching that exact sixth sense.
But this much wasn’t enough.
The 4m tall wolfman and Archon’s gatherer, Dakidus, shook off his head and then continued to chew the snack he was eating.
Since it was the most delicious while it was alive.
“Kkuuu….Aaaaak!”
And soon the momentarily quiet rest area in the Attilan got filled up with screams again.
To be precise, from the screams of the humans who had been prepared as snacks.
“Aaaaaak!”
They were all quite powerful adventurers, but they couldn’t even dream of resisting.
Dakidus ignored the screams and continued to enjoy the snacks, licked the piece of flesh by his mouth and then mumbled.
‘I should find out about this when I go to pick up the harvests this time around.’
Uuudududk. Kuudududk.
The giant mouth split open and then swallowed up the remaining bit of the human.
Dakidus, who had finished the remaining snack, looked towards the ceasefire village which was the location where he would gather the harvest this time around.