Chapter 267. Underground (1)

The leader of the Hydros Clan, Karon, shook his head.

“What a mess…”

Karon was at loss for words as he saw the giant War Fortress that was surrounded in some white aura.

Quite a lot of things had changed from the collision that happened the day before.

The normal players who lived day to day with their daily earnings didn’t know but the giant clans who used the Kingdom’s and Empire’s territories as their base of operations were busy assessing the situation.

And it was the same for the 15 great clans which were so large to the point of influencing the local powers.

But one thing was clear.

That things had twisted in a very complex manner.

‘The ones who appeared… Have no thoughts of coming out from the War Fortress.’

And they couldn’t go in even if they wanted to.

Since the Golden Dragon Formation was protecting them.

The half-powdered walls of the War Fortress got reconstructed as the cracked ground mended itself.

The bright light surrounded the entire War Fortress and prevented anybody from entering.

And the players whose revival points were in that perimeter got forcibly moved to the village next door could only stand outside and stare at the high standing War Fortress from the distance.

The people from the Kingdoms who had tried to go through the barrier had received heavy damages from the attacks of the Ains and had retreated.

The only thing they could do was watch for now.

‘For this entire thing to have been caused by one mad guy. Unbelievable.’

There was a rumor.

That one bug player had caused all this.

He destroyed the Great Maze, pulled out the Ains, suppressed the ‘Red Dragon Wielder’ Arthus Krancheska, the captain of the Magic Brigade, and ate up the War Fortress.

This was something that the entire Hydros Clan could not accomplish.

But for him to have done this all by himself.

‘It doesn’t seem like a fake rumor… We need to see how much of this is the truth.’

Though intel was being gathered at a rapid pace, it hadn’t been long since the event had occurred.

And because there were lots of other random information from all around, there was a huge lack of time to gather the important intel.

There was also a bigger issue as well.

‘What do I do with this…’

Karon touched the high quality mail in his hand and pressed down on his temples because of the headache.

Then.

Squeak.

The door of the building used as the clan’s office opened up as a man walked in.

“Uh. Clan Leader. There’s an interesting piece of information.”

“… What is it?”

Unlike the other clans, the Hydros Clan was created through close relationships and top players joining afterwards.

Most of the high ranked individuals came in with connections so they were all close to each other.

Karon asked back in confusion as he heard the story from the leader of the hunting teams.

“… So you’re telling me that the one who caused the ruckus here is in the center of the Spirit Land which takes days to go to ? And he erased an entire hunting team of our clan?”

“Yeah. Apparently they found this out after getting pissed off when they got killed.”

“This is insane. Can he teleport or something as well then?”

The Spirit Land didn’t have warp gates.

So the only method to travel was on foot.

As Karon was befuddled at the fact that somebody who should be here was all the way over at the most northern lands of the Spirit Land.

The guy shrugged his shoulders as he spoke.

“The rumor has already been spread all around. Those guys were so pissed that they went around spreading it.”

“Sigh… Fucking hell. The northernmost area? Ugh…”

As Karon tightly clenched his head like it was about to explode, the man asked in confusion.

“Don’t we just need to buy time? What’s to gain from killing him?”

According to the rumors, he was an extremely powerful individual.

And killing one person didn’t give much profit.

It was better to focus on the treasure chest in front of their eyes.

‘If we could just get through that…’

The War Fortress which had buckled up like a turtle.

But everybody knew how sweet the meat inside this thick shell would be.

As the leader gulped his saliva at the War Fortress in the distance.

Karon shook his head as he handed over the message in his hand.

“Just read it and see what’s on it.”

“This…”

As he read the message from Karon.

His expression turned grim as well.

***

“So… They were ordered to hunt me down no matter what?”

Crunch.

As Hansoo asked the man while grabbing him by the throat, the player spat as he replied.

“Ugh… Then do you think we’d be chasing you like this otherwise? You’re dead now. Using hacks unfairly like this.”

If the man who he was choking was a normal civilian of this world he might’ve been trembling in fear of death but sadly he was a player.

The player looked at Hansoo in annoyance while grinding his teeth.

‘Fucking hell. What a waste of time.’

It didn’t annoy him because this guy was strong.

It wasn’t like they died and there was a limit to how much one could take.

He just didn’t like the situation itself.

The Empire did promise them rewards.

But it wasn’t asking for a favor but rather giving them a command.

— If you don’t do things properly then don’t even think about setting foot in the territories of the kingdoms and the empires.

How would they move around in a world like this without Warp Gates and without the support of those powers?

And seeing their reaction, it seemed like they were going to forcefully send them into the Spirit Land if they didn’t comply.

‘Fucking hell. How dare a fucking NPC do this. They tried so hard to please us up until now.’

During the ages when the Kingdoms and the Empires fought, the NPCs tried very hard to drag the players and the 15 Great Clans.

But they had all united now.

The 15 clans could clearly feel that they were outsiders now.

A tremendous difference in strength.

They could still the visualize Cykrus smashing apart the earth with his giant greatsword.

Of course they could fight against these NPCs since they didn’t die.

But what would be left for them?

There won’t be any fun in playing in a world filled with ruins if they won and losing would cause an even bigger problem.

‘Fucking bastards. They should just do it themselves.’

But everyone already knew that the people from the Kingdoms and the Empires couldn’t set foot in the Spirit Land.

Though it was shitty, the only method they had was to kill this guy.

“Hmm.”

Hansoo thought about the situation for a bit and then started to chuckle.

Crunch.

Whoosh!

Hansoo broke the neck and then looked around as the player started to turn into golden light.

Holes and broken ice.

And artifacts everywhere.

Things the players dropped as they got killed while chasing him around.

‘It’s already been 3 days since they started chasing me, huh.’

3 days.

This was the time he had been looking for the traces of the blessing in the Spirit Land while smashing these things apart.

Following the way the symbol in his chest was telling him to go, all the way up to right below the mountain range.

He could see the raging blizzard above the mountain which rose up almost vertically.

This was not something that he could withstand with just blessings.

Since Mudusella wouldn’t ask something impossible, he needed to find a way to go in but it was nowhere to be seen.

Which meant that there was only one possibility left.

‘Underground.’

Hansoo mumbled as he looked at the hard, frozen ground below his feet.

Though snow and ice were covering it, nobody really knew how deep it would go.

‘…I’ll have to use the Nine Dragons Spear.’

As Hansoo gripped his spear.

Dragons started to slowly appear and surround his body.

All the way up to seven.

Hansoo tapped on the ground but there was no telling what was below this.

Which meant that seven dragons might or might not work.

But he only got out seven and pointed straight down.

Since he might have to fight against the players even after smashing his way down in the worst case scenario.

In a situation like this where people were chasing him down from all areas, using a skill like the Nine Dragons Spear which had a huge aftereffect was something risky.

In some ways, it might be better to regroup back at the War Fortress and slowly go through with the Ains instead of smashing his way down.

But Hansoo laughed coldly and prepared to attack below.

‘You feel impatient, huh?’

The Kingdoms and the Empires were trying way too hard just to recover some pride or for revenge.

Which meant one thing.

That the issue wasn’t him, but rather the one who had sent him here and his current location he was at.

And Hansoo was very happy to see this.

‘Let’s see what you have hidden here.’

“Hey! Kill that guy!”

“Fucking bastard!”

Hansoo glanced between the tall vertical mountain covered in layers of snow and the players charging at him from the distance, smiled in a cold manner and then smashed downwards with his spear.

With the black orb created from seven dragons.

Boooooooom!

Though the Tundra was extremely hard, it couldn’t withstand the Nine Dragons Spear.

A tremendous noise occurred as the floor below Hansoo started to break apart.

Smashing apart the ice and melting the snow.

And into the darkness below.

Whooosh!

Hansoo, who had started to fall into the extremely deep hole slowly, used his leftover mana to attack upwards and accelerate his descent.

To go down even faster.

And the players accelerated further as they saw this.

“This bastard! Digging his own grave! You just wait right there!”

“You’re fucked!”

The bloodied body of 3 days of chase.

The depleted mana from the big skill.

Hansoo shrugged at the players charging at him.

“You guys will be able to use it as well if you’re lucky.”

“Huh?”

As one of the players stopped at his words right before they jumped down into the darkness.

Rummmmbleeee!

All the snow that was layered on top of the mountain next to him started to fall down with a tremendous noise.

Creating a gigantic avalanche in the process.

“Holy shit!”

“Uaaaa! Run away!”

The players screamed at the sudden avalanche that had occurred.

***

Oooooong.

‘… What a rat.’

Sounds of cracking came out from the hands of Tiamet, who was sitting eyes closed and holding the stake above the White Dragon Arena.

Though the Godly Weapon couldn’t break, it was more than enough to show how distressed Tiamet was.

“He’s really annoying, huh. Just like you said.”

“…”

“Jang Oh. Spit it out if you have something to say. Don’t stay silent.”

The dark shadowy man gazed back at Tiamet expressionlessly.