Chapter 166. Test (1)

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Boom!

Boooooom!

Dakidus smashed Hansoo in front of his eyes.

A human who was surprisingly clashing against him even without any mana.

Though Hansoo was being pushed back, just being able to fight with him this much was a feat.

‘If there were…Two guys like this Hansoo guy then I would’ve been long dead already.’

A suspicious guy who knew a lot and had a lot of secrets.

A memory of the past were thought up as he saw Hansoo in front of him.

The three people who had swept the entire Yellow Zone by themselves.

‘Yeah. Just like them… he is an element that could possibly be dangerous.’

The past.

They, the Archons, Akalachias and Rebeloongs had pushed out the losers and were fighting each other for superiority.

Well, back then it was four races and not three.

Since another race called the Makrons existed.

Anyways, these four races clashed with each other every day.

There was no time for rest.

Everybody was desperate and their enemies were not somebody who they could drop their guards against.

Lines were created and territories were made but these territories constantly changed day to day from their clashes.

A war where Satellite Fortresses clashed with Satellite Fortresses and civilizations clashed with civilizations.

Everyone had been exhausted from the battle but they could not give up the war no matter what.

Since the material to support their civilization, the <Mana Crystal> was always in need.

Then one day.

‘Has it been 14 years?’

A new race had popped out in the outermost areas of their territory.

They hadn’t known at first.

Since the place those guys appeared at, the Kangri Worm’s Habitat, was filled with a smell they hated and not a single trace of Mana Crystal came out from that location.

It was a useless land for them.

And it was extremely vast.

Them finding out about it was actually pure coincidence.

But there wasn’t a reason to pry further into it after having found them.

The four race’s curiosity led them over to that area in order to check the new things but they only smirked at them and stopped caring about them.

Since the new things were extremely weak.

Well, they were quite unique and strong but that strength was too small to handle their civilization.

This was why they had stomped on them and played around with them.

They had been stressed by the war already.

Those humans were valuable toys.

And in conclusion, those humans had all ran away into the vast jungle.

Though it was all their territory, there were parts that were more important and parts that weren’t.

They defended the important parts with Satellite Fortresses just in case of invasions from opposing races but of course they would leave the non-important ones by themselves.

Since there was a limit to how many Satellite Fortresses they had.

After this discovery the four races stopped caring about the humans and refocused on the war.

If seen then they would play with them but they would just ignore them if they weren’t seen.

There weren’t any problems up to this point.

Until one of the four major races, the Makrons, fell by the human’s hands.

Well, the other 3 races were the ones who had dealt the fatal strike when the Makrons had taken a blow by the humans.

Which meant that these bug-like things had more than enough strength to shake the battlefield.

The humans had quickly run away above after only doing this much, but Dakidus was truly shocked back then.

He was able to ignore the names of the other bugs but he clearly remembered the three who had caused that storm.

Eres, Keldian, Kangtae.

Only then had the three races all started to sweep through the giant jungles.

Though the humans had taken all their remaining people up above as quick as possible, there might’ve been some left behind.

But there was a limit to how much they could search within the jungle.

How much time would they need to find and eradicate each and every one of those humans?

It might’ve been possible with the Satellite Fortresses but numerous tens of them would just be used as scouts.

If they used the Satellite Fortresses that way then the opposing races would instantly cross over to their territories.

Since the humans weren’t dangerous to the point of causing the three races to unite.

While the three races had been lost in thought.

She had come up.

Clementine.

That extremely insolent bastard.

— If you help me then I’ll make it so the humans won’t be able to interfere with you any more. Let’s make a treaty. I’ll… train the humans completely. And in return…

***

‘It’s already been 12 years since we made the alliance huh… It’s been quite a while. Anyways, things have become quite annoying.’

Karim clicked his tongue as he looked at Ekidu raging at him while holding onto the book.

“These are all tricks set up by that guy! How could they even figure things out such as this! This isn’t something that you can simply gather!”

He had even lost the book because his right arm had been cut off.

He had been hiding it well for a long time but for him to get caught so suddenly.

‘I was too impatient.’

He needed a reason in order to move the people.

He took out the book because of that but for it to bite him in the ass instead.

But his judgement was correct.

Since he couldn’t sit by and watch Dakidus die as an ally.

He thought about backing away from the whole situation but it didn’t seem like such a lame reason would work.

Karim admitted the facts.

“Well. You’re correct. This village was actually created from a convention with the Higher races.”

“Huh?”

Everybody were flustered at Karim who admitted things so easily.

For him to admit that he was a traitor with his own mouth.

But Karim just stopped the bleeding on his arm as he looked around his surroundings.

And a few guards had gathered around Karim.

Guards who had been in the village for the longest time.

‘…Those guys were traitors as well huh.’

Ekidu grinded her teeth while looking at that Karim and then shouted at the surrounding people.

“This is the fact! What are you going to do! Are you going to leave those sinners be!?”

Everyone, who had been previously making confused expressions, suddenly made enraged expressions as they pointed their gaze at Karim.

For him to be like this.

And out of those who had been dragged away as offerings, their family and comrades existed.

Even without that the Higher Races were things that they couldn’t really look at in a positive way.

For him to betray the humans and hold hands with the Higher Races.

And for that traitor to be the captain of the guards of the village, Karim.

As high as their hopes had been raised up, their disappointment was large and the feeling of betrayal had skyrocketed.

“This bastard!”

“Kill him!”

The people slowly surrounded Karim with enraged expressions.

The lives of Karim’s group looked like a candle in front of a strong gale in front of the enraged villagers.

It was a situation where they couldn’t use mana or skills.

Karim and his group had to deal with everybody with just their pure body strength.

Thousands of enraged villagers.

Against just around ten people.

But Karim’s expression wasn’t dark.

No, it was too calm for a person who was about to get beaten to death.

Karim looked around his surroundings.

“I didn’t answer before right? Do you know how long I have been here for?”

Everyone stopped in their tracks.

Karim, who thought he had stimulated the people’s curiosity, continued to speak.

“12. It’s 12 years.”

“Wha…”

The same number as the age of the village.

The village needed to continually run in order to fulfill Clementine’s plans and somebody needed to manage it.

This was why Clementine had left behind a few people, such as Karim, in order to manage the villages.

The others thought that the captain of the guards had changed a few times but this was but a rumor.

Since there wasn’t anybody else who had been in the village for 12 years.

Karim had continued to act as the captain of the guards during all that time.

Since it was much more comfortable to work in the shadows as the captain of the guards rather than being the leader of the village who was always in the limelight.

As people stared at him.

Karim continued to speak.

“Aren’t you curious? Why there are less than 10 people? I should have a lot more forces if I gathered them for 12 years.”

Everyone nodded at those words.

Dealing with the village wasn’t that hard even with just such a small number but it was better to have more allies in case of emergencies.

‘Good.’

Karim laughed inwardly.

Curiosity was really a dangerous thing.

Since it even made the people, who were enraged, listen to him.

‘Ekidu. Shall we see how many of those villagers you protected will follow you?’.

Karim wasn’t standing tall without any reason.

The moment Karim was about to speak of another proposition.

Boooooom!

Something flew in from the distance.

A single red beam of light.

Ekidu, who was wearing the Scarlet Yang armor, dashed in quickly and aiming for Karim’s heart.

“Fuck! Block it!”

As Karim shouted out in shock.

The nine guards behind Karim pulled out their weapons and stood in front.

Even Ekidu had her mana sealed.

The only thing they could rely on was their runes.

Suppressing Ekidu was easy with nine of them.

But there was something they had forgotten about.

That Ekidu wasn’t alone either.

The moment the guards were about to create a formation.

“Humph! How dare you! Our mighty village leader is going up!”

“You fight with us!”

Kaaaaaang!

Kaaang!

Tens of people struck out from behind Ekidu like lightning and rushed up to the guards in front of Karim.

Karim and the guards felt uneasy after checking the identity of those people.

Since they weren’t any pushovers.

“Karhal… Sebastienne! You insane bastards!”

‘Why are these guys with Ekidu!’

1st Area team’s leader and teammates.

After coming out from behind Ekidu, they started to clash with the guards in front of Ekidu.

Booooom! Booom!

“Damnit!”

Karim was shocked at seeing the clash between the guards and the hunters and was about to grasp his precious weapon, <Kaslam’s Guillotine> and jump in.

There was no mana right now.

The gap between the guards and hunters had been shortened quite a bit.

Even if his followers were strong, 30 of the 1st Area’s teammates could easily deter and buy time against 9 guards.

But at that moment.

Something flew through the hunters and the guards at an extreme speed.

‘Huuk!’

Karim, who was just about to jump in, unconsciously backed up and hurriedly swung his weapon in his left arm.

“This fucking bitch!”

Boooom!

The Guillotine in his left hand flew through the air in order to cut apart the red beam flying towards him.

Even if his right arm had been cut off, he was still the captain of the guards.

And one of the followers of Clementine.

An attack that could’ve split apart any normal hunter into two had flown towards his opponent.

But his opponent wasn’t just some normal hunter.

‘Damn!’

His opponent was Ekidu.

A powerhouse at the top of the pyramid in the midst of the village which was filled with powerhouses already.

And surprisingly, Ekidu hadn’t dodged the Guillotine.

Kaaadduuududuk!

The body of Ekidu wearing the Scarlet Yang Armor twisted and turned as she received the blow of the Guillotine.

The Scarlet Yang Armor was quite strong too but the Guillotine was also an amazing weapon.

The Scarlet Yang Armor protecting the back of Ekidu got smashed apart and a wound had been left behind on her back.

But Karim couldn’t laugh.

Since Ekidu had gotten all the way to his face from the previous clash.

And soon.

Kwaaaaak!

“Kuuhukk!”

Karim was injured on his shoulder as quickly backed up.

It was too close.

If he had been a second too late then his entire arm would’ve been cut off.

Back and shoulder.

Though Ekidu’s wound was deeper, it was clear who held the upper hand from the clash.

A right arm which had been cut off.

An almost cut off left arm.

As Ekidu stormed him with attacks, Karim had been pushed back to the brim as he could not attack properly.

‘Kkkhuuk! I need time to convince the others!’

“Ekidu! You damned bastard! Do you even know what you’re causing right now! Are you still the leader of the village! You need to choose the best choice! You should at least hear me out!”

As Karim shouted out in desperation while watching Ekidu who wasn’t even giving him a single second to talk to the surrounding people.

Ekidu smiled coldly.

She had so enraged that her normal attitude had long disappeared.

“What you are trying to say isn’t the important part you trash.”

“What?”

As Karim was confused.

Ekidu slashed Karim back as she spat out her words.

“The important thing is what side you’re on. Who does your damned tongue work for? Us humans? Or… Dakidus?”

“…Damn.”

Karim only then realized that he had been mistaken greatly.

That Ekidu wasn’t acting for her own greed or survival.

‘Sigh. I thought that you would become the same as others in times of danger.’

Karim gave up and then laughed out viciously.

“Hahahahaha! You guys will all die now! You’ll regret not listening to…”

At that moment.

Slash

Karim’s entire head had been hit.

By Ekidu’s fist.

“We didn’t worry about it in the first place that much anyway. We’ll solve our problems ourselves you traitorous bastard.”

“Ugh…”

Even before they could jump in, it had all happened in an instant.

All the people who had been watching sighed out.

Since the end of one of the most authoritative people in the village had happened so suddenly.

Ekidu watched these people as she muttered.

‘But… is this really the right choice? Hansoo, do you know? What this guy tried to say?’

A voice that was too confident for it to just be a random curse.

Ekidu looked towards the location where the sounds of Dakidus and Hansoo’s clash was coming from with a worried expression.