Chapter 309. Nursery (2)

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The War Fortress.

The sounds of explosions were occurring.

All from the hands of one man.

-Rumble-

“Hmm. I hope they like this.”

The Dark King hummed as he continued to move his hands around.

How could he not be happy?

For the man he had respected so much to have remained in this world.

‘It’s a good thing I settled around the elevator.’

He continued to hum.

The existence who had created them had left them alone in this world.

Without asking for anything in return.

But a human mind was complex; it could change at a moment’s notice.

Because of this, every one of the transcended chose to settle down far from the elevator, in fear of that being.

Since they’d only get caught if they were found loitering around the elevator.

But he was different.

If he stayed near here.

He would be able to meet Kang Hansoo again.

“Good! I hope he likes this.”

After working on it for so long, the thing the Dark King had created was none other than Hansoo’s statue, which towered over hundreds of meters.

He had created it by shaving apart the mountain located next to the War Fortress.

‘Well, I don’t know what he actually looks like, but I’ll know so long as he has the spear, the ring, and his armor.’

But sooner or later, Hansoo would come looking for him.

But after making all this, he started to worry.

Though he himself respected Hansoo, what if…

‘… What if he doesn’t like me?’

Though he respected Hansoo, he did not want to die just yet.

He merely wanted to be with him, fighting alongside him.

Like those who had climbed up with Hansoo.

And after some time, the Dark King came to a decision.

‘This won’t do, I must get stronger.’

The being that had created them had even taught them how to become stronger.

It wasn’t hard.

Since it was the same as how he’d been born.

‘Yeah, this isn’t the time to dilly-dally.’

No.

If that Hansoo guy didn’t like him and decided to kill him, and he didn’t have the power to resist, how sad would that be?

He needed to win the fight, first.

If he could beat Hansoo, then Hansoo might reassess his strength again.

‘Yeah, I must win first.’

The Dark King rose up.

He then called for his underlings in the distance.

“Hey, guys. Throw out the bait. It’s time.”

“… Understood. Shall we use a smaller piece of bait this time around?”

The underlings working for the Dark king replied while trembling in fear. The Dark King merely shook his head.

“No, there’s no need to delay it anymore. Just use it all.”

And from these words.

The underlings trembled in fear because they knew who the ‘bait’ would be.

***

Hansoo carefully folded the letter, putting it safely underneath his armor, and fell into deep thought.

And now he had another thing he needed to do.

But in the end, his goals hadn’t changed.

Actually, the total amount of work had lessened.

He needed to find his old comrades and deal with the transcendents created by the unknown.

He also needed to find those who were fighting in his place.

‘I’ve dawdled for too long.’

Though his overall job hadn’t changed, his mindset had.

‘Wait for me.’

First, he needed to chase after those who’d gone to the west to fight in place of him.

He didn’t know who had gone since it hadn’t been written in the letter.

But there would surely be a trail.

Fights between transcendents weren’t a simple matter.

‘I just need to kill the man who created them.’

It would make things easier if the transcendents were to let the world know of their location, but it would still take an extremely long amount of time to find them all and kill them off one-by-one.

It was more important to kill the one making them rather than deal with the creations.

Hansoo decided to head towards the west.

Misun then asked Hansoo.

“Are you leaving?”

Hansoo nodded.

“I need to go west.”

Taesang pondered for a bit and then finally decided to speak out.

“Can you not help us instead? The Dark King must be killed.”

They had never even thought of going against the Dark King until now.

After all, they lacked the power to deal with the Dark King himself, even if they could deal with his underlings.

But the man in front of him was also a transcendent.

If this man could handle the Dark King, they could handle the rest.

But the reason why he’d waited until now to ask the question was because even transcendents had their differences.

Even if they had similar strengths, it was clear that danger still existed since it would be unknown who would come out as the victor in the end.

But Hanso had always given the impression that he was far, far stronger than what the Dark King had shown them so far.

‘I had to at least ask.’

Taesang clenched his teeth.

This was the best chance they had to rescue the people being captured, as well as saving the ones who would come up through the elevator.

Maybe the last chance they would get.

If they foolishly allowed this man to leave, then they would regret it forever.

And before Hansoo could even reply.

-Rumble-

-Boom!-

“… Hmm?”

The ground trembled slightly as everyone looked around.

And at that exact moment.

Hansoo sensed the cause of the earthquake.

Thousands of beings were moving quickly on the ground.

Through the ground below.

As well as through the snow.

Towards the War Fortress.

And as he felt this.

Hansoo realized what was going on.

“… I see. So he ran a nursery.”

It seems that no matter how much time passes by, some things remained unchanged.

A new variable had now occurred.

Hansoo looked towards the War Fortress in the distance.

***

“Hahahahaha! Good! Good!”

The maze beneath the War Fortress.

Through the giant hole that Arthus Krancheska had made in the past.

The underlings of the Dark King were kicking people into the hole.

“Ahhh!”

“Ugh!”

The people had thoughts of resisting but soon gave up.

They had clearly seen what happened to the people who resisted.

It was better to fall into the hole.

But one of the newcomers didn’t seem to have realized this as he strongly fought back.

“You bastards! What are you doing?!”

-Boom!-

Apparently, he had been quite famous below; the skills shooting out from his hands were not normal.

But the newcomer should’ve realized.

As to why the underlings of the Dark King weren’t holding them down.

Then-

-Boom!-

A bright orb flew at the newcomer’s head.

“Wha-”

As if he were trying to prove his proficient skills, the newcomer tried to quickly protect his body, but everyone was already turning their heads away.

Since they knew what was going to happen.

-Boom!-

The bright orb went past his hands, through his head, and into the distance.

-Whoosh-

“Ugh…”

The others gritted their teeth as they watched the body fall into the hole.

The Dark King, who had shot out the orb, grinned as he continued to rile up his underlings.

“Though it’s good that the bait is lively, it shouldn’t try to bite the hand, right? Continue throwing them in.”

“… Yes.”

The underlings, white with fear, continued to kick the people into the hole.

Though they were called underlings, they clearly knew what they really were in the Dark King’s mind.

No, they were probably in a worse situation than the people being kicked into the hole.

-Whoosh!-

-Thump!-

“Argh!”

“Ugh!”

The people continued to fall into the hole, but a mere drop of a few hundred meters wasn’t enough to kill them.

-Tat-

-Tatatat-

The people who got kicked in used various skills to land on the maze below.

“Ugh.”

Then-

‘Wait…? Can’t we just run away?’

The eyes of one of the newcomers shone.

The Dark King was far above them, and the maze spread out in all directions.

Even if the Dark King was strong, how could he catch them all if thousands of them ran in different directions?

The newcomer quickly mumbled after making the observation.

“Hey! Let’s all run away! If we all run… won’t at least half of us live?”

A few mumbled in agreement, but a man who looked like a veteran clenched his teeth and spoke.

“If we separate, then we’ll all die. Stop speaking nonsense and group up. As long as we stay in a group and fight, some of us will survive.”

“What?”

Then-

-Roaaaaaarr-

A strange noise reverberated throughout the maze.

And from this noise.

The veteran screamed to everyone.

“Get away from the ground as much as possible! Kang-”

But before the man could even finish his words.

-Boom!-

The Kang-Kion leaped out from the wall and ripped apart the veteran’s neck.

***

Ahhh.

Uaaaaaahk.

After hearing the scream from below.

The underlings of the Dark King made terrified expressions.

Kang-Kion.

Beings that ate humans and used them as nutrition to repopulate.

And because their way of repopulating was quite grotesque, not many liked to witness it.

But the man in front of them, the Dark King, treated them as pets and even raised them.

— There’s no real reason for a fence. Since I just need to keep them in place.

All the nearby Kang-Kions knew.

That food constantly fell down around this time, at this exact spot.

The tens of thousands of Kang-Kions swarming below were proof.

And the worst part was.

They ate the humans and were constantly increasing their own numbers.

There were way more than the actual number of Kang-Kions nearby.

‘Damn… Why do they keep increasing their numbers?’

And despite the complaints of the underlings.

The Dark King merely smiled as he looked at the swarming Kang-Kions.

‘Yeah. I was merely thinking too much. He’s still just a transcendent.’

The Dark King hummed.

The method they had taught him.

One of the methods of becoming a transcendent was very simple.

— Collect the crystals of the Abyss. Collect a lot of them.

The Abyssal beings came from outside the Otherworld.

Beings that already had the power to go past the limits.

The crystals that the Abyssal beings left behind after being killed was a code.

If you continued to mix the code of the humans who could not go through the limits with the ones of the Abyssal beings, the human body will forcibly reach the level of a transcendent.

Without any enlightenment or physical strain.

‘A very easy method.’

He was basically performing modern alchemy.

Changing the humans, who were useless to him, into crystals that the Abyssal beings dropped when killed.

‘Please come quickly, Mr. Hansoo. I have a gift for us to enjoy together.’

-Roar-

Kwaaan!

Uwaaak!

How could Hansoo not like him?

It was the fastest route to becoming strong.

This would be a great gift for him, the one he respected so much.

The Dark King continued to smile as he heard the screams below.