Chapter 150. What We Can Do (8)
Although bonus stats were indeed something to look forward to, the rewards were undoubtedly more alluring. Other than a few that looked like traps, they all looked great.
After a bit of consideration, I chose the Deathblood Ring. It was a black metallic ring adorned by red gems. Just like its name suggested, it was quite chilling.
[Deathblood Ring (Unique)
Durability – 120/120
Equipment Requirement – Level 50+, Magic 100+
Option – All stats +5, Magic +10
Skill – Deathblood: 1. On attack, 2% chance to absorb 10% of enemy’s mana to recover your mana. 2. On attack, 1% chance to inject your blood into the enemy. In exchange for 5% of your HP, the enemy falls under irresistible ‘blood contamination’ status effect.]
Well damn! I might have to kowtow to the dead Cyclops Lord for this!
I took off my gauntlet for a moment and equipped the Deathblood Ring. Although it looked a bit scary, it was also fashionable in a way. While I was looking at my hand satisfactorily, the female S ranker approached and asked with widened eyes.
“W-Where did that ring come from?”
“Curiosity will only bring your harm.”
Meanwhile, the others were also choosing their rewards. I was most curious about who would choose the Cyclops Lord’s Golden Eye and the Lump of Refined Blue Iron. In the end, it seemed they were taken by Hwaya and Shuna, respectively.
“Oh wow, this is an Orb!”
“... A what?”
When I turned around, a golden eye was shining on her palm.
“I thought it was a magic material, but look!”
On top of Hwaya’s palm, the golden eye ball that made me hesitant to touch it began to emit brilliant light and spin. It seemed Hwaya could move it as she pleased.
“There was something called sub-weapon. I didn’t know about it before. How lucky.”
“It’s good that you got what you needed.”
“D-Damn it... A freaking rag... Wait, this thing’s defense is amazing!”
It seemed Walker was satisfied with the reward he chose too.
“Sumire, you’re still waiting to choose your reward, right?”
“Yes. We have to recover our strengths before we get out in case an Event Raid breaks out.”
I didn’t know about ability users, but for dungeon explorers, they could not leave the Event Dungeon until they picked their rewards. The Event Raid would only break out after this phase. As they spent the past month clearing Event Dungeons, it seemed they were quite familiar with the process.
“W-Where did everyone just...”
“What is it? An extradimensional storage?”
“Yeah, extradimensional storage. It’s my ability.”
With a smile, Hwaya lied without blinking an eye. She was currently elated from receiving a sub-weapon, and the rankers also looked happy to see her smile, as they didn’t say much else about it. Seeing others starting to rest, I approached the Cyclops Lord’s corpse. Ludia tilted her head and asked through the guild message.
[Are you going to put that corpse into your inventory?]
f
[Ah, that’s that, but more importantly, my weapon was responding to this guy.]
[Weapon?]
The four weapons the Cyclops Lord was holding. As Gluttony Spear didn’t eat the same weapon it already ate, it only ate one of the cyclops’ club and stopped responding. Although the Cyclops Lord’s weapons looked the same, it was possible that they were slightly different. Since no one used clubs in our party, I obtained their consent and brought Gluttony Spear up to one of the Cyclops Lord’s weapon. Gluttony Spear devoured the club instantly. I brought it up to the other club just in case, and it really did eat it!
“Ooooooh!”
“Kyaaak!”
Seeing my weapon eat another weapon, the female ranker, though it was annoying to keep referring to her this way, screamed. Of course, I didn’t pay her any attention and let Gluttony Spear absorb the other two. Immediately afterward, the Gluttony Spear radiated a brilliant light. Finally, finally...!
[Gluttony Spear reached 99.9% growth. To reach 100% growth, you must imbue all of your mana into it.]
“I can’t do that now...! Why are you shining then!?”
As full of expectation as I was, I became angry enough to almost snap the spear in half. If I consumed all of my mana now, I would have to make everyone wait for over 20 minutes while I waited for two Mana Potions worth of cooldown time. It was probably better to wait until the fighting was over. With a bit of disappointment, I put the Cyclops Lord’s corpse in my inventory and turned around to face the others.
“Everyone’s done resting, right?”
“Yeah.”
“T-That! Was that also an extradimensional storage!?”
“Yeah.”
After Sumire chose the final item, a message appeared in front of us.
[You completely cleared a S+ rank Event Dungeon! All party members receive 3 bonus stats!]
[You will now return.]
The raid boss did not appear. Some clicked their tongues while some sighed in relief. Not long afterward, we were outside the gate.
The moment we came out, we found ourselves surrounded by countless Guardians. What was shocking was that most of them were at least S ranked Awakened. In other words, it wasn’t just Korea’s Guardians that were here. Behind them were soldiers armed with guns and tanks.
A man who seemed to be the representative of Korea’s Guardian stood in the front. After meeting my eyes, he spoke.
“The Guardian and the government have decided that they cannot allow you to rampage any longer. We recommend that you surrender peacefully.”
Come one, if you were going to do this, you should have done it earlier! No, were they waiting for us to tire ourselves out from clearing a S+ rank dungeon? I first turned around. Woo Youngha and one other S ranker were collapsed on the ground. Seeing as how father was taking his hand back, it seemed they were trying to do something and got beaten up. That would mean... I looked at the female ranker, who was blinking her eyes in confusion.
“You didn’t know?”
“What?”
“Yeah, Shin. That looks to be the case.”
“Haa, whatever then. Just stay put, got it?”
“Y-Yes!”
Good, she’s listening. I turned back around to the man. Then, I asked.
“Alright, first... Mmm, did you watch the video?”
“I did.”
“And you’re still using force.”
“Yes. You are bringing danger by being too confident in your strength. You entered a S+ rank dungeon without the country’s permission. As the citizens were not evacuated, if a large S+ rank monster appeared and you could not defeat it, countless civilians would have been exposed to danger.”
“Huh? You mean destroying low-rank gates won’t be a problem?”
“According to the New Moon Law, gates ranked A or below are under the jurisdiction of Guardian and Freedom Wing. What you are planning on doing is simply illegal.”
“And it can’t be helped if they let gates turn into dungeons because of their ‘lack of ability’?”
“...”
I asked.
“You... Will you be okay with S or S+ ranked gates turning into dungeons? If the three remaining gates in Korea turned into dungeons, you should know well enough that Korea will be powerless against them.”
“Of course. We want to get rid of gates just as much as you do. We need to have a conversation. Not with such ill-planned and ill-considered method, but with a method that would secure the safety of Korea and the interest of—"
“So you want to negotiate.”
They wanted to destroy S or S+ ranked gates, but they wanted to keep the Event Dungeons A ranked or below for themselves. That was what that oldie was trying to say.
“You just have to promise that you will not enter foreign countries’ gates without their permission. If you do, we will spare no efforts to help you get rid of the gates. Of course, we will also take your words into consideration regarding the removal of gates.”
We realize that you’re strong, so we’ll put a collar on you and erase only the gates we want to erase. If you listen well, we’ll even give you a couple low-ranked gates.
How surprising. His words were being translated automatically. Though, it’s funny to think that Korean needed to be translated.
“There are already no gates left in Korea, so I don’t understand why... No, nevermind, I understand. It’s probably for shares, support from other countries’ Awakened, or something along those lines. Fine, I’ll keep this short.”
I raised my spear and slammed it down. Other than the female S ranker, Korea’s other two S rankers had their legs broken.
“Come at me, you fuckers.”
[Prince is angry!]
[He says not to kill them.]
[What does killing mean?]
[Killing is... Elemental Blade!]
First, I shot an Elemental Tempest to the front. All ability users surrounding us were sent flying. Since they were all at least S rankers, I believed that they wouldn’t die.
“S-Shoot! Fire!”
The soldiers panicked and began to shoot, but unfortunately, none of us were weak enough to be hurt by guns or cannons. Weapons without mana could not penetrate our bodies, which were brimming with mana. In fact, most S rankers were immune to guns. Since they should have known this already, they probably expected us to give up after seeing their numbers...
“If you don’t stop shooting those annoying things, I’ll blow them up. When they do, we won’t be the ones dying.”
At Hwaya’s words, the firing immediately stopped. They had lowered their tail after being threatened with death. Modern weapons did not mix well with Hwaya. Just by snapping her fingers, they would become ineffective and might even blow.
While Hwaya neutralized the soldiers with all sorts of magic, I counted the number of ability users who withstood my initial attack. Although Walker and Ye-Eun were disarming the ability users taken out by Elemental Tempest, there were still over fifty ability users that were totally fine. To think they could gather so many rankers while we were clearing the Event Dungeon... It seemed Korea’s Guardian wasn’t so bad. Perhaps they considered us to be serious threats.
I fixed my grip on my spear.
“I counted heads, so don’t you think about running away. As long as you don’t die, our kind healer will heal you, so relax and come... Otherwise, I’ll make my move!”
Only after my shout did the rankers start moving. S rankers should be more than strong enough to fell a few buildings by themselves. Lightning, flame, arrows, restraining power, clumps of metal. All sorts of abilities were being used. Meanwhile, I extended my spear with Elemental Blade and swung it in an arc.
[I, I knew it! Ueeeeeeeeek!]
[I think that guy actually really enjoys Elemental Blade!]
[Wheeee!]
[Ah, wind! That’s mine!]
“You poor bastards, go to sleep!”
“O Earth!”
Father’s shockwave swept the area. A few ability users attempting to approach Ludia were struck by the wall of earth that suddenly popped up from the ground and were sent flying away. The area was becoming a total chaos. Only 10 minutes had passed since we came from the Event Dungeon, but the earth was fissuring, nearby buildings were falling, and trees were being rooted. At the same time, all rankers collapsed. The army already fell back with tears.
“Satisfied now?”
I asked the man who made the offer. He had run away the moment I neutralized Korea’s two S rankers, but now that I looked, he was back.
“... I’m satisfied.”
He answered. On his face was a faint smile.
“Geez, you didn’t have to make it so difficult.”
“I apologize, but currently, no matter what you say, you cannot become justice. Even so... there are people who wish to be on your side. We just did what we could do.”
“... It seems Guardian isn’t completely rotten.”
“It is an organization formed to protect Earth. Please remember that.”
I smiled and spoke.
“If you want anything, tell me. I’ll sell it for a cheap price.”
“You know how to trade! In that case, we would like some materials you obtained inside the gate. I don’t know about other countries, but Korea’s ability users often cannot hunt properly from lack of equipment. It is so bad that even I was tempted by the idea of letting gates become dungeons.”
“I’ll contact you separately. Do you need help cleaning up?”
“We already have people ready, but thank you for the offer. Rather than that, you should go do what you want to do.”
“I’m liking you more and more. Good, that’s what we’ll do.”
I grinned and turned around. Ye-Eun tilted her head and asked.
“Shin, why are you being so friendly with that guy? What happened?”
“You see...”
I looked back at my companions. It seemed Walker really was tired, as he leaned on a wall and fell asleep, while father was looking at the collapsed S rankers like he had not gotten enough exercise. Hwaya forgot about the rankers and were playing with her golden Orb, while Ludia was treating the injured and Shuna was bringing the fainted people together. Sumire was assisting Ludia beside her with her own unique healing spell.
In other words, Ye-Eun was the only one who went wild without fully understanding what was happening. Mm, how do I explain this...
“Basically, we got an unofficial approval to do whatever we want.”
“E-Eh!? What? When did we discuss that!?”
“Alright, if everyone’s done resting, let’s go! We have to finish Korea before the day breaks!”
“It’s already past midnight, Kang Shin!”
“That’s why we have to hurry!”
I snickered and retorted. Walker muttered, then grabbed his head in pain again. I couldn’t tell whether that guy was smart or dumb.
That day, before dawn, we took care of the three remaining gates in Korea. No one dared to bother us.
It was just that the word ‘Revival’ became the most trending word on the internet.
Now, it was time to leave Korea and party on the world stage.
Author’s note:
If you noticed from the beginning, you’re a genius! I would have noticed when I saw the army there. The only ones that aren’t aware that the army is ineffective against high ranking ability users are ordinary citizens. In other words, the army was there to appeal to ordinary citizens, not the Guardian or the Freedom Wing. ^^
Translator’s note:
If it sounds weird with all the “S or above / below,” it’s because in Korean, the word “above/below” is inclusive, while it’s exclusive in English. For example, “above S rank” in Korean would include S rank, but it wouldn’t in English.
Also Equipment Limit has been changed to Equipment Requirement
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