Chapter 58. Calamity Fish Hunting (3)

Camille kept on looking at Gyesoo with a cold expression.

“Search him by yourself. You probably came with your underlings anyway. And what are you going to do with your trait if not for this.”

Gyesoo shrugged his shoulders at those words.

‘Well. It’s normal for her to not tell me.’

She was probably suspicious of what he was going to do.

And how delightful was Hansoo for Camille.

She had finally met someone who was going to be with her after so long.

She was pretending to be astute on the outside but she was probably rather excited on the inside.

Since Camille’s actions which he had seen for the past 3 years were pitiful and lonely.

‘Tsk. That’s a shame. If she told me then we can save some time finding him.’

Gyesoo shook his head.

He had come here with two objectives.

One was the tourism business.

The other was scouting.

He had been preparing the tourism business because the reaction was better than he expected.

He could find him quickly if he searched but everyone whom he had brought were preparing the tourism business so an empty gap would be created if he took someone out.

Scouting was something he was preparing here and there while doing his tourism business, why would he waste manpower in that?

‘There’s no other way. I guess I’ll run around a bit.’

His speciality, <search>, allowed one to find the traces linking one person to another.

He had been able to find Camille because of this and will be able to find Hansoo as well.

It will take some time but it won’t be hard.

“Well then. I shall take a stroll around a bit then. I’ll see you later. I hope you succeed this time.”

Gyesoo, who had wished her luck when he basically knew that she would fail, disappeared.

Camille then looked towards the direction Hansoo had disappeared to and pondered.

‘Should I tell this to Hansoo?’

Gyesoo was a 3rd year just like her but stronger than her.

Since he had focused on getting strong unlike her and even had artifacts.

And the number of underlings wouldn’t be small either.

But Camille just shook her head.

‘Damned bastard. You should at least tell me your destination.’

She didn’t have any methods of finding him and if he couldn’t even handle such a thing he didn’t have the qualifications to go in the Calamity Fish.

And it would be very tight for her to gather every material that he had asked her to within the time limit.

Which meant that she didn’t even have time to deal with such things.

The moment she bickers with Quadratus she would not be able to gather the materials.

And he had told her.

— Don’t worry about me and just focus on what i asked of you please.

‘I believe in you.’

Camille then quickly moved in order to gather the closest material to her, Apon’s body fluid.

***

Hansoo calculated the things he needed to gather and then nodded his head.

‘The first thing I need to get is… the <kukulja’s heart> which is the core ingredient of the Hardening Liquid.>

The Hardening Liquid required 28 materiels to be mixed with the exact ratio.

9 of the 28 had been already gathered by Camille and he had asked Camille to gather another 17 of them.

But he had to gather the remaining two.

<nutritional fluid> and <kukulja’s heart>.

The other 26 ingredients acted like catalysts so a large amount wasn’t needed but these two were ingredients that will act as the base.

A very large amount was needed even if they were going to pour it down a fatal location within the Calamity fish since it was that big.

Hansoo quickly rushed off into the distance.

Kukulja’s Heart.

A material which could be gathered in <kukulja’s spawning pool> around the middle area of the End Root.

The Alchemists took into account of the fact that they won’t have much time and had created Hardening Liquid with things one could acquire near the edge of the End Root, where the Calamity Fish would appear, but for him to get something like these…

The difficulty of this place was very high for it being within the End Root.

After a long run a giant lake came into view.

A humongous lake that could separate two End Roots.

Surprisingly, this giant lake was something that the Kukulja had dug out.

A lake which the Kukulja, which live in the toxic waters, had dug out from the bottom in order to mate in a place which was originally land.

Hansoo thought of the conversation he had with Keldian.

— Kukulja is a creature which is somewhere in the top of the food chain within the toxic sea but even this may become a snack to the calamity fish if it’s unlucky. though these guys had evolved to have a toxin within their heart to retaliate against the calamity fish but… it’s a joke if you take into account of the size of the calamity fish.

A toxin which didn’t work against Humans but petrified a part of the Calamity Fish.

And because of this the Kukulja’s heart, which has a large amount of this toxin, was needed in the Hardening Liquid.

— …It works even though the effect is so miniscule?

— That’s why you have to gather a lot of them, turn them into a concentrated extract, amplify it using the other 27 ingredients and pour it onto the most fatal location within the calamity fish’s body. anyways, these guys fear the calamity fish so they dig the root part of the world tree, make a lake and then create a spawning pool there. if you want to gather enough extracts for the amount you need, it wouldn’t even be close to enough by searching around the sea. go to that lake. and that lake is a warning line for how much the calamity fish would eat to a degree. the instinct of the kukuljas are very amazing, they create the spawning pool right above the point where the calamity fish eats up to.

— Why don’t they go up higher to create them?

It would be safer to make them higher up the Root if they were so scared of the Calamity Fish so why would they make it around the End Root area where it would be dangerous.

— You know how it is. there are another 5 great calamities under the middle and starting roots. even a kukulja can’t come over that.

Hansoo finished his thoughts and then watched the swaying lake.

A giant weird looking fish which had the head of a bull and a human’s arms and legs.

It was so big that each of them exceeded 2m in length.

But the surprising fact was that the thing he was looking at was an infant.

These guys grew up to 5m long in adulthood.

‘I’ll get them one at a time.’

Hansoo, who had seen thousands of them squirming around, poured the Demonic Dragon Reinforcement onto a decent scythe he had found on the way to here and then slowly walked into the toxic lake.

Splash

As soon as Hansoo came in, all of the Kukulja’s within the lake raised their bull ears.

<!!!!!!!!!>

And then started to madly rush towards the origin of the noise and vibration.

Though the food was still in a shallow place there was no problem.

Since they could advance while eating through the root.

Kakakakakak.

Thousands of teeth-baring fish gnawed onto the bottom of the lake as they charged at Hansoo.

Hansoo reinforced the scythe he was holding with Demonic Dragon Reinforcement and then slammed it down onto the center of the bull head.

Kududuk.

The Kukulja’s skull had made a cracking sound and had split in two but Hansoo made an unsatisfied expression.

‘Tsk. As I expected, it can’t handle the Reinforcement well.’

If the artifact was bad then it wouldn’t be able to withstand the power of the Reinforcement and would lose its durability fast.

Though it was a decent weapon which he had gained by hunting down some beasts on the way here it still wasn’t good enough.

Since the End Root was a neighbourhood designed for beginners and did not have anything hidden.

‘At least I should use it while I can.’

Hansoo pulled onto the scythe and threw its body onto the land as whole.

If he left it in the lake like this then everything including the heart will be chewed up by the other fish.

Creating the extract from the heart was a job after the hunt.

Kwadududk!

Paduduk!

And soon the thousands of fish baring their teeth got stimulated by the blood as they madly charged at Hansoo.

Kudududk.

Hansoo applied his Demonic Dragon Reinforcement onto the scythe and then crazily swung it here and there and pulled numerous fish out.

Chuchuchuk.

The thousands of fish charged up with incredible speed across the water and then used that momentum to crash into Hansoo and bite him with their teeth.

The corpses of Kukuljas were stacking outside the lake but Hansoo’s body was equally gaining injuries.

And at the same time the scythe cracked as it couldn’t handle the power of the Reinforcement anymore.

Chuchuchuk.

Hooooong.

A very large noise coming towards Hansoo was heard as he was preventing the scythe from getting destroyed by adjusting the strength of the Demonic Dragon Reinforcement.

Shguguguguk.

An attack which cut apart all the trees near the lake as it flew.

‘…Skill?’

Hansoo made a cold expression as he raised his scythe to block the incoming attack.

Chwuuk.

The scythe which was filled up with the Demonic Dragon Reinforcement blocked the flying attack but was crushed apart as the result.

Hansoo blocked off the single attack, jumped out of the lake and then looked towards the direction where the attack had come from.

And a guy was looking at him while smiling in that place.

“Woah. You blocked that.”

The man, who had sheathed his pulsating sword back into his waist, smiled at Hansoo as he spoke.

“Hello. I’m called Kang Gyesoo. Calm down, I’m not here to fight.”

“You aren’t here to fight huh…”

Gyesoo smiled and continued to speak after seeing Hansoo looked at the destroyed scythe and mumbled.

“That was just a test. If you couldn’t even block that well… you’d be useless. Well you pass first of all. Here’s a business card.”

Gyesoo then threw a whitish object at Hansoo.

“Having something like this makes me feel like I’m in the real world. It’s actually made by drying the Padro Larva. Though it’s a single use, it increases the regeneration speed on the area which you stick it onto so think of me when you use it.”

Hansoo shook his head while looking at the talkative man who had sent the attack with an intention to kill and then asked.

“Why have you come?’

He had consumed a large amount of his stamina from the fight with the Kukulja.

There was a need to go along with him for a while and regenerate his health.

Gyesoo spoke out.

“Simple. You’ve seen a lot of scouting before on T.V right? Like headhunters?”

“Hmm.”

“Well long story short I work at Quadratus… a group which is similar to a religion yeah?”

“That’s a really untrustworthy line.”

“Let’s skip over the small details. Anyways, it’s not easy following a god. You need a lot of money in Korea too right? It’s the same here. And we have a lot of different businesses in order to fill that up… and one of them is recruiting talented people and connecting them to clans above who don’t have spare manpower for places like these. And we receive a reward for that. Ah, and starting from here, we do have currency you know?.”

Gyesoo then rubbed his thumb and index finger.

When Hansoo didn’t reply, Gyesoo shrugged his shoulders as he continued to talk.

“It’s better to not decline. The person who set you in their eyes this time is a bit… dangerous. Following him is a win-win for you and me.”

Gyesoo then started to get cold sweat.

The problem wasn’t the guy in front of him.

It was because this job was something that he had received from a person from one of the six pillars who had come to participate in their sightseeing which they were preparing.

‘Goddamn gangsters.’

Six Pillars.

Six super sized clans who were fighting in the Trunk of the World Tree unlike them who were just playing around the Roots.

And one of them. <lighthouse>.

Kalz Morenn, the captain of the shock troop left by the previous adventurer Keldian Magus, had told him.

— Make sure you bring that newcomer guy. i’ll pay you well. if you fail then… well please don’t make me act out. i came here for a vacation.

‘…If we aren’t careful then we might die.’

But unlike what Gyesoo wanted, Hansoo just shook his head.

“I’ll decline.”

And at the same time Hansoo made a cold expression.

‘Tsk. So it turns out like this in the end.’

His objective was the Calamity Fish.

A collision with the Quadratus was inevitable for him since the path of attaining the Hardening Liquid intersected with them who were preparing the sightseeing business even though he wanted to dodge as many useless collisions possible.

‘Since it turned out like this already. End it quickly.’

He had already calculated such things as this.

As Hansoo prepared to fight, Gyesoo’s expression froze.

“You fucking bastard… being arrogant because you beat Camille?”

Camille was a monster-like existence to the newcomers but was quite a weakling to those who roam around the Trunk and the Roots.

‘Tks. This is my fault huh.’

That guy was overestimating his worth since he had offered a scouting towards a new Chick.

He wanted to talk about it but seeing that it didn’t work he gathered all the energy within his body and then poured it into his relic, <forgotten sword>.

***

“Huh. Look at that retard. Over there. To charge at a newcomer who bickers with him.”

Kalz Morenn mumbled while looking at Kang Gyesoo above the cruise ship which the Quadratus guys had prepared for sightseeing with the <thousand li eye of the man caught within jealousy>.