Chapter 54. Red Zone (4)

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Chiiiiiik.

Hansoo’s body was covered in two different colors.

And the toxic waters from all around tried to get in and melt down Hansoo’s body but the Red Runes endlessly sent mana into the Demonic Dragon’s Reinforcement which covered Hansoo’s body.

‘Good. It should at least be this much.’

Otherwise the suffering he went through at the Three Gateways wouldn’t have been worth it.

The reward for the Second Gateway was runes.

Killing the endless beasts and surviving until one gets to Red runes.

But that was basically the preparation for the Third Gateway.

If the First Gateway was a place prepared to reward the person finding it, the Third Gateway was a gateway for those who were truly worthy.

And the Third Gateway that had appeared in front of Hansoo who had reached Red Runes.

— Fighting the strongest things that he had experienced until now.

Even if it was something that hundreds of people fought together he still had to fight it alone.

Even if it was something that the had just glanced at, as long as the testee had experienced it then it will appear in front of them after getting adjusted to the Red rune level.

And the thing that had appeared in front of Hansoo.

<demonic dragon>

A Dragon, the most well balanced existences.

They had a different origin from humans and were of a different grade as well.

And among those born as such that have chosen the path of the demon, the most twisted being.

Their power was something that couldn’t even be explained with words.

Hansoo had seen it before when he had been traveling about in the deep parts of the Abyss.

And the humans who had seen it guarding the path on the way to the Crystal decided to invest 3 more years in order to go around by penetrating through the territory of two ruler races.

Since they had no confidence in winning at all.

Fighting two ruler races seemed better than fighting that thing.

And he was very shocked when such a thing had appeared at the Third Gateway in a weaker state.

Since he didn’t know that the things he had seen in the past will come out in a weaker state or not.

‘I almost fainted.’

Even if they were all at the Red Runes stage, if the races were different then the different between each other was tremendous.

Though that thing had only been at 0.01% of the Red rune, Hansoo still had to put his life on the line and fight it.

And the skill that had come out after a desperate struggle.

<demonic dragon reinforcement>

Actually this name was merely something that he had given it temporarily.

Since the Zero Numbering artifacts were things that only existed within the fantasies of people.

The Numbering Series were the most outstandings things that the humans had found out and numbered.

Of course there were people who had made such thoughts as this.

— Wouldn’t there be things that were far more outstanding than the numbering series that we haven’t discovered yet?

And these things were called Zero Numbering artifacts.

And in Hansoo’s opinion the skill he had gained this time definitely had the qualifications for it.

‘It’s amazing.’

The number of runes within his body were jumping about crazily.

Hansoo who was estimating on him the effect of the toxic water that was trying to burn his body, grabbed the neck of the Cursed Survivor that was charging at him as he nodded and then pulled out its spine.

Kududuk.

As the spine of the survivor who had the form of a merfolk was pulled out, the survivor was shredded into bits.

‘Seven. Good.’

Hansoo sent in the power of the Demonic Dragon Reinforcement within it and then threw it around in all directions.

Charururk.

The bone pieces which had a tremendous amount of force pierced through the waters and pierced into the necks of the merfolk shaped survivors who were fervently piercing holes on the bottom of the ship.

— !!!!!!!!!

He didn’t know what they were shouting because they were under water but their rage could be clearly felt.

They flapped their tails and started to charge at Hansoo in a crazed manner.

Hansoo just dodged their tridents and then swung his hands around and crushed their wrists.

Kudududk.

— !!!

They screamed as they dropped their tridents.

Hansoo grabbed that trident with his right hand and penetrated the necks of those who had been charging at him in a straight line.

He then twisted his body to pull out the trident that was embedded in it’s neck as he spread the spine that had come along with it all around like a projectile again.

— ….

The merfolk who had seen this all hesitated.

12 out of the 30 of them had been eradicated just like that.

And the attacks from above had been getting stronger and the work of putting holes on the shipwas getting harder to due the swords that had been coming out from the inside.

If this continued then they would all get massacred before they could sink the ship.

— …

They looked at each other and then retrieved the Trident as they started to retreat quickly.

‘Hmm. Trident. This is pretty useful.’

The durability of those guys were so good that it wouldn’t melt in the toxic waters.

Though the durability slowly decreased when in contact with air but it was good enough to use for 3 days.

Hansoo gathered all eight tridents that were sinking slowly as he swam to the bottom of the ship which they had put holes into.

And he quickly entered into the hole where the water was quickly pouring into.

Chwaaaak.

“Hit its neck! It came in.”

Tuk.

“Uhuh. You should swing after checking first.”

“….uh?”

Those with Reinforcements, who had been attacking the tridents which were piercing the bottom of the ship, swung their swords out of reflex when something popped out but then made shocked expressions when they saw that it was a human.

Hansoo shook off all the toxic waters and then approached a corner of the basement of the ship.

Hansoo’s hands flew about towards the Arun Trees.

Kudududk.

And soon a few planks that were a bit rough but still looked decent had been created.

Hansoo put that on the ground as he blocked the hole where the water was coming in from.

Though it had been blocked off by the wooden plank, the waters still came in because the holes were rather large.

Hansoo plugged it with the plank and then broke off the remaining Arun Tree bits into the shape of nails and then pushed it in with his fingers.

The material of the ship was really hard but it wasn’t so hard that the sharp Arun Tree shard couldn’t pierce it.

When it had been blocked off to a certain degree, Hansoo squeezed the Kelk’s Mucus sacs over it as he plugged in the gaps.

“…Hurry! Let’s do it too!”

“Dammit. How did he push it in that easily. It won’t go in!”

The people saw how Hansoo had done it and quickly retrieved the materials as they started to plug up the holes like Hansoo and nailed it.

They couldn’t push it in with their fingers like hansoo but they were able to fix it in place somewhat by using their weapons as hammers and smashing it down.

And then they squeezed the Kelk’s mucus sacs over it to close the gaps.

“Dammit… it really stings.”

“Use some healing skills please. Anyways, what do we do with the water there…”

The people looked at the toxic waters that had come up to the point where it splashed about with a slightly uncomfortable expression.

Hansoo spoke as he climbed up.

“If you leave it alone it will evaporate. You will breathe in the evaporated gas if you’re in here so let’s all go up.”

It was ok above since the air dispersed it away but your health will decrease if you breathe it for prolonged amounts of time in an enclosed space.

“Uhuk.”

Everyone started to quickly head towards the deck at those words.

Since nobody wanted to breathe in the evaporated gas of the toxic waters.

Hansoo came up and breathed in deeply.

‘Though my health decreased slightly… this is rather amazing.’

There were people who were cautiously looking at the sea on the top of the ship.

The new 50 people and the original 100 people stared at the sea and then glared at each other after judging that the merfolk had all backed off.

Hansoo smirked as he spoke at that moment.

“Don’t fight over there and look out over there. You can see some good stuff.”

“…?”

Hansoo finished those words as he looked at the giant tree which he could see in the far distance.

A giant tree which was located beyond their goal, the red zone, which could be seen across the distance.

Hansoo looked at the dried up trunk of the giant tree that pierced the clouds as he mumbled inwardly.

‘Dead World Tree.’

The background and the foundation of the <world tree mountain range> that they were going to work on from now.

And at that moment a loud shout was heard from the person who had been scouting at the tallest place on the ship.

“I can see the land! I can see the Red Zone!”

“What?”

People rushed towards the deck at those words.

And made expressions of joy.

“We arrived already?”

Yohan also made sounds of joy.

A land that rose above the sea could be seen in the distance.

‘Dammit. I don’t know what will come out but it’s better than this damnable sea.’

It was better to fight, thinking of fighting against the guys who only pierced with their tridents under the water stressed them to death.

Since they will get massacred before being able to see anything if the ship were to sink.

‘People have to live with their feet on land.’

But while they were sighing in relief the ship betrayed their expectations.

“…uh?”

“We aren’t getting off there?”

The ship followed the path that the fairy had set as it spun around the land in front of them and continued to sail across the sea.

And everyone was disappointed as they saw this.

“…It was an island and not land.”

It looked like land but it seems like it wasn’t the destination.

‘…As I thought. They told us it took 3 days.’

The people spat out disappointed sighs as they looked at the vast sea to the back of the island.

But Yohan was looking at something else at that moment.

‘…is that possibly a root and not an island?’

Though it was covered with dirt, parts of the island which looked like wooden stumps could be seen.

As if a part of a giant root had come out of the ocean and a thin layer of dirt was covering it.

It just looked like an island since it was so huge.

Yohan made a sick expression after seeing that.

‘…Is it possibly the root of the giant tree over there? It spread out this far?’

The tree root which had the form of a half submerged island looked very similar to the giant tree trunk that was holding up the skies in the distance.

‘Well… if it’s a tree of that size…’

It seemed like the parts of the root that was above the water is merely a very thin root of the tree.

But he thought to himself that if it’s a tree of that size the root should at least be this much.

“Is this the good stuff you were talking about?”

Yohan, who had been looking at the island the ship had passed, asked Hansoo with a bitter expression.

It was clearly something which one could not see elsewhere easily.

Since trees of such a size which devoured the mountain ranges with it’s roots and even had it spread above the seas couldn’t been seen in the world where they come from even if they died and came back to life.

But Hansoo shook his head as he pointed towards something in the distance.

“That’s the highlight of the show.”

“What?”

Everyone looked at the direction Hansoo had pointed to.

A slightly different direction from the Red Zone they were heading to.

When the people focused their gazes and searched around, they could slowly see something.

‘…is that possibly alive?’

Something much larger than the tree trunk that they had mistaken for an island.

The tree root which looked like the island was giant but the thing they could see in the distance was at a different level.

Though they were extremely far away it still came into their eyes.

The part that was submerged below couldn’t even be guessed but the back that was rising up from the waters was much larger than a decent island and the fin that was rising above it felt like they were looking at a extremely tall cliff.

The giant fin-like structure slowly moved across the sea and was heading towards the island they had come from.

Though it had movec slowly it was so big that the distance had been crossed in an instant.

And the thing with the giant fin screamed out as it opened its mouth.

Kuuuuuuuuaaaaaaa

“Uaak! Uwaaak!”

“Fuck!”

It had only moved slightly but the whole sea shook.

And the creature that had moved bit apart the tree root as it started to devour it.

Pududududk. Udududk.

“Uwaaak!”

“Hold onto the ship tightly!”

As the root that had run below the ship started to get ripped up by its mouth, the ship started to rock and roll like a wave.

If it was a small ship then that simple rock and roll would’ve crushed it apart.

If they had been slightly slower at going past that place then they would’ve all died without being able to do anything.

While people were holding onto the ship with all their strength, Hansoo was also making an anxious expression.

Since though he had said it was a good view, that thing was definitely not something cute.

The ships that started off from the ten thousand tutorial areas will arrive on one of the thousands of roots that spread out from the dead World Tree according to the path that the fairy had set.

Since the only place to live within the toxic sea is above the dead root.

A structure where the people who started off from the tutorial would climb up from that location.

Though it was a root it was basically the size of a mountain range.

That was why it was called the <world tree mountain range>.

And that thing constantly swam around the toxic sea and ate whenever a World Tree Root gew out.

<calamity fish>

A fish of calamity.

The result of Genetic Biology of Demonic creatures of the natives of the <elvenheim> that they created in order to defend their race from the harsh environment and one of the five calamities that dried the <world tree> to death.

The place where the World tree had dried to death from the five calamites had simply turned into hell and <elvenheim> had fallen down into ruin.

Since a tree which had its roots ripped apart could not live properly.

It had the ability to devour everything but then it wouldn’t have anything to eat anymore so it as if it was farming, slowly going around and biting off the roots of the World Tree bit by bit.

A giant mutant that seemed like it was born to kill the World Tree.

The past he had seen it clearly.

That thing had devoured the root next to the Red Zone he had arrived in a mere three days.

And of course, there was nothing much to say about the fate of the newbies and the veterans who were standing on that root.

Hansoo, who had seen the giant beast fish which participating in killing a world, stabilized his mind as he turned the controls towards the Calamity Fish which had devoured the tree root whole.

‘It’s now time for me to pay for my own meal’.

Kurururk.

The controls turned the ship aggressively under Hansoo’s hands.

Since that thing had just filled up its stomach it will slowly move towards next tree root that it will eat.

Towards a giant starting area root unlike the snack which it just had.

‘About 2 weeks…? I don’t know for sure but I don’t have much a lot of leisure.’

The thing he knew for sure was getting there and preparing to kill that thing.

Since that was one of the duties he had received.

— Remember. You must revive the world tree.

“Hey…hey! Fuck, what are you doing right now!”

“Hey! Heyeyeyey!”

The people looked at the direction of the ship and the direction of the giant beast and shouted at Hansoo in panic.

‘Is he insane right now?’

To follow such a thing when they have found it out of luck and could have dodged from it.

Even in such a situation, Yohan spoke to Hansoo:

“I don’t know what you are thinking but shouldn’t you head to such a dangerous place after agreeing with everyone else? I thank you for letting us aboard but you should at least listen to our opinions when we are on the same boat.”

Hansoo nodded at those words.

“I see, there are people who probably won’t agree with this.”

“Yeah. So let’s…”

“I shall let you get off now then.”

“?”

“I really need to go there so what do you want me to do. People who want to get off raise your hands.”

Hansoo stared at the surroundings sea as he spoke.