Chapter 73. Incursion (3)
Chugagagak.
Michael shouted urgently while looking at the beasts charging at them.
“Single Column! Shock Troopers divide into 2 teams! Use <akal’s castle wall> at the same time! Search Teams focus on attacking the legs!”
The things that were running towards them were the <black cow>.
A gigantic Cow of 15 meters that could be found in the deep parts of the dungeon around the Base Root.
These things, which came out as a mini boss in the Base Root’s Dungeon, were just roaming around in this location like unfenced cows.
‘Damnit. It’s a problem when it’s too wide. For such things to roam around with no restrictions!’
The Root they were constantly climbing on had reached 200 meters in diameter already so such large cows did not have any problems roaming around.
Kuuuuuu!
There were only 9 of them charging at them.
But it seemed like a giant Tsunami had blocked the passageway and was charging at them.
At that moment a single strand of shining line swept past their ankles.
Chujujujuk.
Kouuuuu!
The ankles were still over 1m in thickness but the formless blade which had cut through their ankles cut over half of it off.
Of course they couldn’t maintain their heavy weight when over half of their ankles had been cut off.
Kuwuwuwu!
Three of the giant cows that were charging lost their balance and toppled over.
Kudududuk!.
And because of this the other cows that were charging penetrated the sides of these toppled Cows with their horns.
“Attack!”
The clansmen of Lighthouse didn’t miss out on the opportunity as they charged and started to cut up the ankles first.
Since their weakness was the ankles that were a bit too thin to support their giant body.
The relics they had obtained inside the stomach of the Calamity Fish was of great help.
Michael, who had been looking at his Clansmen finishing off the cows, looked at Hansoo and asked.
“Is that the final reward you gained from inside the Calamity Fish?’
He could only ask.
Since it looked like even the Seven Departed Souls wouldn’t have such a weapon like that.
There weren’t many other functions.
It wasn’t like the sword of Baek Jongsang obtained at the branch, the <tower of departed souls>, which had the ability to float around one’s body and protect them or like the sword of his captain of shock trooper Liu Hong, <silver curtain>, which had skills mounted on it.
But instead it solely focused on its role as a sword.
One could change the length and shape any way they wanted to they could cut anywhere and once you shortened the length and compressed it down, it would get so sharp that nothing wouldn’t be able to be cut.
Even before this, the <red scale ogre> that their clansmen could barely crush after a huge amount of assaults had been smashed apart by a single slash of his sword.
Though it was an injury of a finger’s length it was still enough.
The sword which had been inserted through that hole increased in length as it destroyed the insides of its body.
It looked similar to the relics they had obtained but there were very large differences between their might and effectiveness.
Hansoo, who was absorbing runes corresponding to his contribution, nodded at Michael’s words.
“Well. It’s something like that.”
There weren’t any rewards for killing the calamities like the Calamity Fish.
But as Hansoo thought, the relics he could obtain on the way were quite close to the final reward.
‘Even more so once I collect more of them. Anyways, my stats are…’
Hansoo checked for the first time in a while.
[Kang Hansoo]
Strength (Red): 33.2%
Stamina (Red): 31.5%
Agility (Red): 35.3%
Perception (Red): 33.9%
Mana (Red): 35.1%
Magic (Red): 36.5%
Physical Resistance (Red): 31.1%
Magic Resistance (Red): 36.4%
<skill>
-Demonic Dragon’s Reinforcement (Mastery: 3.5%)
‘Good. I wish it increased above 5% quickly.’
Strong monsters were constantly popping out.
An amazing hunting ground.
And the level of the people he was with was quite high so their hunting speed was very fast.
Unlike the Colorless Zone, all eight different runes dropped in similar proportions so he didn’t really need to take care of his runes as all of them rose steadily.
His mastery was increasing quite fast as well.
High level skills took an enormous amount of time to increase their mastery.
If you take into account that a skill like Demonic Dragon’s Reinforcement usually takes about 5 years for a normal person to master then Hansoo’s pace was extremely fast.
‘If I go with these guys then… Would I be able to skip on using the Racial Metamorphosis once?’
Hansoo stared at Michael.
Racial metamorphosis was a skill which put extreme amounts of strain on the user’s body.
It was quite hard for him to use it because it hadn’t been long since he started to use it.
And because of this, Hansoo’s plan was to hunt around under the ground, wait for the Racial Metamorphosis to cool down and then move out.
Since the difference of battle strength between turning the special skill on and not using it was too big.
On the other hand, if these guys performed well then he didn’t need to waste time and could just go through the <central heart> right now.
Michael looked at Hansoo staring at him and opened his mouth.
“Do you really not have any thoughts of coming into our clan? We can really give you the greatest treatment. It seems like your gear is quite lacking other than your sword. We can fit you with the top quality ones.”
Hansoo chuckled.
Since all his defensive items had been destroyed from getting attacked by the tentacles while he was killing the Calamity Fish.
How could a mere defensive item remain unbroken when it was getting attacked by things that a Dragon’s Body couldn’t even handle.
‘Well. I can solve that in here.’
Hansoo looked at Michael and replied.
“Let’s first focus on staying friendly in here.”
Michael made an expression full of regret at Hansoo’s words.
‘I really don’t know what this guy is. Seriously.’
He had thought that he had seen quite a vast amount of types of people.
Though all their action patterns were similar.
They would struggle to stay alive, struggle to get stronger then try to use whatever they gain in the middle however they can.
But someone like this was the first.
‘Tsk. Observe him for now.’
Those who hide their intentions would definitely attack their backs.
Even those who show their intentions do it so, the ones who hide them were worse.
Because of this, he had sent messages all around as soon as he met this guy and told them to find out more about this guy.
Since the information he had was not satisfying enough.
If this guy was someone he couldn’t trust then he could not get on the same boat as him.
No, it wasn’t that he couldn’t get on the same boat as him but rather that he had to kick that guy out.
But thankfully, a lot of people knew his name as he had stood out greatly since the Tutorial.
According to the combined intel of those who had met this guy, this guy wasn’t a bad person to keep as a teammate.
No, it wasn’t that it was bad but rather very good.
‘It’s really regrettable…’
It was really regrettable.
To the point of making him anxious if he didn’t come to him.
But Michael’s thoughts did not last long.
Since the surrounding environment started to change quickly.
Kududududuk.
Udududuk.
A vicious sound of the Root getting squeezed down could be heard.
As the giant root which had the size of a 100 meters in diameter made noises like muscles getting squeezed, the people’s expressions naturally turned grim.
And in their view, a large area could be seen.
Though the tunnel made of the root had been quite wide until now, if those things had the shape of a tunnel then the space in the distance was basically a humongous sports field.
A single heart was located in the center of the giant space where tens of different tunnels were leading to.
The repulsive looking heart which had eyes and a mouth attached onto it, constantly pumped up and down as it supplied the nearby tree roots with the nutrition they needed to move.
Of course such things didn’t come into their eyes.
“…Do we have to get through that thing?”
Tens of thousands of soldiers who were located around the heart.
They had seen it before.
The strange race who they had seen while they were searching around the Calamity Fish.
If there was a difference then these guys did not look like zombies and were rather quite full of vigor.
Though their eyes dazed out.
These things which were gazing into the distance, creaked their body and turned towards them as they got closer to them.
Hansoo looked at that thing and then spoke towards Michael.
“You definitely cannot die.”
If they die here then the heart will swallow the dead person.
Then that Heart will use the genes of the one it had swallowed and revive it in the plant.
Like the army in front of their eyes.
They had to penetrate this while the function of the Plant was still down.
Michael shook his head at those words.
“Damnit. Even if you tell us not to die how can we against that…”
Their numbers were vastly different from the start.
And their equipment was similar to theirs.
Which meant that there wasn’t much room for profit.
It seemed like the strength of every individual was higher on their side but it didn’t matter in front of numbers.
Hansoo breathed in and out.
Since those words were correct.
Their current situation was quite lacking in order to beat two of the Five Great Tiger Generals who were standing mightily in the center.
‘I’ll use it here.’
It was a bit burdensome to fight with the human’s body while the Racial Metamorphosis was still on cooldown due to him not having all the Relics yet but if the others fight well then it was still doable.
“Everyone focus on your mana control.”
Michael replied at the sudden words of Hansoo.
“What are you going to do?”
Hansoo breathed in and out at those words.
“I should use what I’ve gained.”
He only said this but what he had obtained after killing the Calamity Fish was a lot.
Hansoo then pulled out a very small Divine Stone fragment of the size of a rice grain.
Then he very carefully lifted it near the Galadriang’s Relic in his hands.
Surprisingly, the Divine Stone Fragment which had been placed on the edge of the sword didn’t fall off and instead floated near the handle of the sword.
As if it was saying that it was its original position.
‘Since I’m not the only one using it I should float a few more.’
Hansoo breathed in and out, broke a few more fragments and then quickly closed the pouch where the giant Divine Stone Fragment was in.
Keeeeeeeiiing
The fragments which were floating around the Relic started to pour out an extremely bright light.
Like back when it was providing a huge amount of energy inside the Calamity Fish’s heart.
The Divine Stone Fragment didn’t stop there as it started to slowly pour out a huge amount of energy.
Kudududududuk.
“Uh…Uhhuh?”
“Uuk?”
All the clansmen of Lighthouse, who were gathered in a group with Michael as the center, were shocked at the sudden powerful mana storm that poured out.
Then the blades of their sword started to react to the mana storm.
And then a bright blade started to cover the Relics they were holding onto.
A bright blade which had the destruction capability that was dimensions apart from the blade on their formless sword earlier.
If the formless sword’s blade was like a calm surface of water then the bright blade on their sword was like a blazing flame.
“Focus on control!”
The clansmen instinctively knew that the Relic in their hands could control this energy.
Once they focused all of their mental power, the blazing blade that seemed like it was about to sweep over its surroundings started to change into a single strand of condensed blade.
Oooooong.
“What is going to happen…”
Michael was marveling at the weapons in his and his clansmen’s hands but Hansoo’s situation wasn’t that great.
‘Kuu… It’s killing me.’
The situation of those who had to control a strand of mana that had branched out and him who had to control the main part of the mana was completely different.
The energy of the Divine Stone Fragment was jumping around as if it was about to explode in all directions.
Though the size of the fragment was small, he only had a single relic in the current situation where he couldn’t get help from the World Tree.
Controlling this huge amount of energy with a feeble human’s body felt like all of his blood vessels were about to blow apart.
It was like trying to make a crazy horse run forward without a saddle and a whip.
‘But… I still have to do it!’
Hansoo used the Galadriang’s Relic in his hand as he constantly controlled the surrounding manawave as he also condensed energy into his sword.
Kwajajajajak.
Soon, like lightning striking down onto his sword, a bright golden blade appeared on the edge of <galadriang’s relic> in Hansoo’s hands.
Geeeeeeeeing.
‘Hoo… Hooo. Much better now.’
Hansoo mumbled as he looked at the blazing blades on the relics of him and the clansmen.
The final defensive system that the Elvenheims tried to complete using the Divine Stone Fragment, World Tree and the Relics.
<mana resonance wave>
This was the original use for the Relic.
‘Though the Elvenheims didn’t even get to use it.’
They were the first ones to be able to see its might.
There wasn’t much room for leisure.
All the mana vessels in his body were squeaking.
He had to finish this before his mana vessels turned into a mess.
Hansoo charged forward.