Chapter 321. Darkness (3)

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As the man drove Rangkom’s Stake onto the ground, the mana node started to shake.

-Brrrrr-

The man smirked as he felt the vibrations.

He sensed that the giant seal blocking the five senses of ‘it’, which flowed through the mana node, had been released.

‘Good, I hope he likes my gift.’

A gift only had value if there was a person to receive and if the person receiving it had been surprised by it.

So he had hidden it.

Until the time was ripe.

And now, the person to receive the gift had arrived.

Right now was the perfect time to gift it, when the receiver had no idea about it.

-Rumble-

The man continued to smile as he felt the vibrations ringing from the depths of the earth.

‘It begins.’

Nurture.

The ones nurturing others never realize that they’re being nurtured at the same time.

Evil devoured other evil things to become a bigger evil.

And to raise a larger evil, you needed a lot of small ones.

‘You all grew well, right? You should’ve… Since I’ve only picked the good ones.’

People who didn’t care about anything else in order to raise their own strength.

People who wouldn’t bat an eye at someone else’s pain for their own advantage.

He had specifically chosen those types since they would have the quickest growth.

The man smiled as he thought of the ‘seeds’ he had planted.

***

Amidst a field about 1,300 kilometers away from the War Fortress.

In the middle of the Empire’s border city of the past, two people stood atop a guard tower.

Then the man looked towards the woman with sharp facial features.

“Woah, Demeter. You built a nice city.”

The woman called Demeter frowned as she spat back her reply:

“I said not to call me that, it makes me uncomfortable. Call me by my name. Ugh, why did Miguel suggest we do this…?”

The man continued to smirk as he replied.

“Why? I like this idea of Zeus’s very much.”

“… Grow up. Please.”

The man shrugged as he spoke:

“Just ignore Zeus entirely then. He was the one who suggested we build the city as well. Look, look at how well you built the city.”

The man looked towards the vast city below them as he chuckled.

The man was called Hermes.

His hearing and sight were considered top class even among the transcendents.

And in his eyes, he saw everything in their surroundings within a hundred-kilometers radius.

-Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!-

The first thing that caught his attention was the thing right below them.

There was something continuously making noise below the guard tower.

Somewhere behind the walls, hundreds of malnourished people were slamming at something with hammers.

Countless materials were being mixed together, and melted down with flames.

Metals were turned into weapons, while other rare materials were turned into useful objects for the transcendents.

‘Mmm… This is one thing I did better than Demeter.’

Hermes continued to look around with a content expression.

Towards the vast icy plane past the castle walls.

— Ahhhh!

Screams of rage and pain continued to echo out.

— F***! Kill it fast! If we don’t fill up our quota of dakramas by today, then we’ll get sent to the nursery!

— You bastard! If you’re going to die anyway, then at least attack them once before you fall! We’re all about to die because of you!

— F***! At least act as a meat shield!

Thousands of adventurers had spread out around the icy planes to hunt.

For materials to be used in alchemy.

Of course, if he, a transcendent, fought with them, it would be easier for them to hunt, as well as much safer.

But no that wouldn’t do.

How could they, who’d reached the level of gods, do such a trivial task?

Plus, they had something else to do anyway.

— F*** it! I can’t do this anymore! I’m leaving!

— You bastard! Where are you going?!

‘Oh? Running away?’

Hermes whistled as he looked to Demeter.

Though he didn’t need to tell her, he wanted to get on her good side whenever he could.

“Filthy bugs.”

Demeter’s expression turned dark.

Then-

She slammed her foot on the ground.

-Crunch!-

-Crackle!-

Revealing a power that was similar to what Hansoo had displayed by using his Spirit.

Then-

-Kakakakakak!-

A giant metal pillar shot out from beneath the man who was trying to run away and pierced right through him.

— Kuaaaaaahh!

And shockingly, the man didn’t die.

— Ahh…

Hermes shrugged at this scene.

He knew why she hadn’t killed the man.

‘So thrifty.’

The man who had run would soon realize that he should have just died back then.

Since he would soon be dragged to the nursery.

‘But, anyway… Where did she put it?’

Previously, it seemed to have been in the upper regions of the city, but now it had apparently disappeared.

But after a moment of searching, the man realized where it was.

It was right below them.

Deep below them.

— Uaaaaahh!

— Ahhhh!

Screams continued to echo out from deep underground.

Screams of humans being ripped apart by abyssal beasts.

‘She complained about it being ugly… I guess that’s why she moved it underground… Demeter… how venomous, this is even bigger than mine.’

He thought he had a pretty large nursery, but Demeter’s nursery was at least twice the size of his own.

He himself filtered out pretty females to make a harem, so he had a certain order around the city, but Demeter seemed to despise all humans.

To Demeter, all other normal beings on this floor were slaves that could create weapons for her, and deliver her the Abyssal Crystals.

‘… She’ll get stronger much faster than me at this rate. I guess I’ll need to go back and expand my nursery.’

Strength was law.

Though they had formed an alliance out of fear for the being who’d made them, if the balance of strength between them were to break, who knew what would happen?

‘What’s going on inside that guy’s head anyway? Why were we given freedom…?’

Well, it was a good thing anyway.

Since they were given time to grow stronger.

‘Yes, we must get stronger.’

At this point, Hermes was speaking with a slightly annoyed voice.

“Why aren’t Hades and Zeus coming?”

The reason he’d come was for a meeting.

The topic of today’s meeting was to discuss the issue of Ekidu and Karhal.

And how they would erase them.

Though they’d merely been pressuring them up until now because they were too lazy to fully deal with them, those two bastards continued to be an annoyance.

Since it had come to this, they were going to uproot them entirely.

‘And… they seem to be getting stronger even faster than we are, despite not utilizing their territory…’

Hermes had traded blows with Karhal recently, and his right hand was still throbbing from pain.

Then-

-Rumble!-

‘Hmm?’

Hermes frowned at the minute vibrations that rang out from deep under the ground.

Hermes stole a glance at Demeter.

‘Did she not feel it?’

Apparently, Demeter hadn’t felt it.

Well, it made sense.

Even he, the one with the most heightened senses, had barely felt it due to his focus on the nursery.

Very minute vibrations that had originated from very far away.

‘What…’

Hermes was about to mention it to Demeter, but then, he didn’t need to.

Since the vibrations were getting stronger by the second.

And soon even Demeter could feel it.

“… What the hell… Is this?”

The vibrations were getting increasingly stronger.

They thought that something had blown up beneath the earth, but soon they realized what was really going on.

The vibrations weren’t getting stronger, but rather the thing causing it was getting closer.

At a tremendous speed.

-Rummmble!-

‘It’s coming through the mana node!’

“F***! What the hell?”

Demeter shouted out in shock.

The aura of the mysterious thing heading towards them was extremely vicious and evil.

To the point where she couldn’t determine what it could be.

Demeter pondered for a bit and then spoke to Hermes.

“Let’s run away.”

“Run away?”

Hermes clenched his teeth.

‘Can we even get away?’

The mysterious thing was moving way too fast.

To the point where he’d barely be able to escape even at his fastest speed.

Demeter nodded.

“Yeah. With your skill, you could move fast enough even if you carried me.”

“…”

Demeter clenched her teeth as she looked at the silent Hermes.

‘This bastard. He’s always nagging at me to sleep with him, but…’

It seems the moment their lives were on the line, even Hermes was having second thoughts.

But there was nothing else she could do.

Though she was stronger in terms of strength, she was much inferior when it came to speed.

Demeter shouted at Hermes:

“If we get out of this, I’ll grant you one wish, so… let’s just try running away first.”

Hermes pondered for a moment but then shook his head as he lifted Demeter up.

‘Let’s just think of it as doing some charity work. I’ll be getting a wish anyway.’

He had slept with countless beautiful women.

What he wanted now was a strong woman.

A woman even stronger than himself.

‘… Though that Ekidu girl is who I really want, this is still good enough.’

“Let’s go.”

-Rumble!-

The wind spirits started to gather beneath Hermes.

And the space beneath his feet folded onto itself.

But right at the moment when Hermes and Demeter looked close to flying off…

“Wait.”

“Huh? Why?”

Demeter urged Hermes on after he had stopped.

That mysterious thing was charging towards this place at a tremendous speed anyway.

While releasing that terrifying aura that pricked her skin.

She wanted to leave as fast as possible, but why had he stopped?

Hermes smiled at Demeter.

“Dumbo. We need to clean things up before we leave, right?”

Then-

-Rumble!-

Demeter extended her feet and slammed down onto the ground.

-Rummmble!-

Thousands and thousands of spikes shot up everywhere within a radius of a few kilometers around them.

Right from beneath the feet of the adventurers.

-Kaduk, Kwadddduk-

— Kaaaaaah!

— Ahhh! Why?!

— Why are you doing this…? Ah! We finished our quota!

While Hermes was shocked by the noise, Demeter just lifted her feet and said:

“Let’s go. It’ll take a bit of time for that thing to eat all of this.”

Hermes smirked.

“What a smart girl.”

‘Sexy.’

Then-

-Boooom!-

The guard tower that they’d been standing on blew apart, and their bodies instantly turned into a dot in the distance.

Ahhhh!

Uaaahhh!

The only thing left behind were the adventurers who were still screaming.

***

“Look at this, Sir Kang Hansoo.”

Hansoo frowned at what Akran had hurriedly brought over.

A dark piece of rock.

“You found this in the maze?”

“Yes, more specifically, near the mana node that passes through the maze.”

Hansoo mumbled as he looked at the dark piece of rock that some lifeform had created.

‘I wondered why there were no higher grade races…’

With this around, no other races could really settle down.

“Someone seems to have the same thoughts that I did.”

‘… The same thoughts?’

Zeus looked confused by Hansoo’s words.