Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 215

“Kiieee!”

A winged monster sprouted from the sphere and attacked Ji-Cheok. At the same time, small flowers bloomed all over [Slow Forest Shade]’s body.

Flash!

“Ugh!”

The rays of light collided with the telekinetic shield. Some of them were blocked by the [Guardian of Hope], but there were a few rays that managed to break through all the defenses and directly hit Ji-Cheok.

Tsss.

His skin burned, and pain raced through his head.

‘Even the small flowers can shoot rays!’

The wound healed quickly, thanks to his regenerative power, but the pain was still stinging. He glanced over at Reable, who was now controlling the Undead as he landed on the ground. On the ground, plant stalks had sprung up and were battling the Undead.

‘I guess we can’t underestimate a God…’

[[Slow Forest Shade] keeps an eye on the [GodTube Influencer].]

[[Slow Forest Shade] has used the power of [Slow].]

Everything around him suddenly sped up. The monsters started to move three times faster, as if they had taken some kind of speed-boost potion! However, from the System notification, Ji-Cheok was aware that it was in fact the opposite.

‘I’m the one that’s been slowed down! Damn it. This is why time manipulation skills are such a pain in the ass!’

Using his shield, telekinesis, and shadows, Ji-Cheok fended off the onslaught of enemies from all directions.

There were monsters that looked like plant-human hybrids armed with axes, beasts, Ents, and many more that rushed toward Ji-Cheok, and it was impossible to block them all. The wounds increased as Ji-Cheok had to allow some of the attacks to hit him. Thankfully, due to the external cultivation technique of the [Heaven and Earth Chaotic Divine Art], there were no major wounds, and the small ones were instantly regenerated.

Still, this was too much!

?Master! The God is moving!?

The giant sphere began to open like a flower bud. If he had seen it from a distance, he would have thought that it was a giant flower, but from up close, the body of the God just looked like a gross mixture of random lifeforms, a sickening sight.

‘But I haven’t canceled my Formless Sword yet! Come on! Formless Sword!’

Swoosh!

Boom!

The Formless Sword returned to Ji-Cheok like a boomerang with incredible speed and pierced through the God’s body. Plant and animal fragments scattered across the sky. It seemed that the God had not realized that his Formless Sword was returning at such a high speed. About a quarter of their body was blown away.

At the same time, the Formless Sword scattered and disappeared. Ji-Cheok only had roughly half of his Qi left!

?Initiating potion injection!?

He could have drunk the potions, but he could also inject them directly into his body through the veins. The suit he was wearing had that capability. Cheok-Liang switched out the cartridges with Soul Telekinesis, and the potions were forcefully injected into Ji-Cheok. However, this was not enough. The amount of Mana and Cultivation flowing through his body was enormous, and he required not a few, but a few dozens of potions to fill it up.

However, this was enough to start fighting the God again.

Ji-Cheok gripped his swords tightly and swung them at the oncoming enemies, while a ray of flexible Sword Qi unfolded in his hands. Ji-Cheok deflected the rays fired by the nearby monster flowers with his Sword Qi, and slashed at the muscular monsters that approached him with the swords. Thanks to his abilities that allowed him to turn a single attack into two, anything approaching him was shredded and scattered in a single blow.

As if in a trance, Ji-Cheok danced with his swords.

He felt something growing from within him. His cultivation was evolving! And within a few moments, everything that attacked him fell to pieces and scattered around.

‘Now then… I’ll chop you into little bits myself!’

Boom!

Ji-Cheok jumped in the air as he accelerated. Then something unexpected happened.

Flash!

Several eyes suddenly appeared from the smashed and writhing bodies of the monsters and opened wide, staring at him. It was a disgusting sight.

[[Slow Forest Shade] has stacked the power of [Slow].]

The world around him was getting faster, at least three or four times faster! In front of him, the giant God repaired their wounds at a high speed, and they became round again.

Time was relative. If Ji-Cheok thought about it from a different perspective, it wasn’t that the God had gotten faster, but that Ji-Cheok had gotten slower once more.

By the time he was able to take a stance with his swords, they had already formed a flower from their body and were aiming at Ji-Cheok.

‘Damn it! I can’t dodge—’

Flash!

A ray of heat from the flower scorched his body. The [Guardian of Hope] stood in front of him, and his telekinesis shielded him. But even so, not all of the heat rays were blocked.

“ARGH!!”

He was about to faint from the incredible pain, but an instant later, he was brought back from the brink of unconsciousness. Though the pain was still torturing him, his mind was clear. It had to be because his cultivation was nullifying the negative mental effects.

Ji-Cheok crouched down, clinging tightly to the back of his shield, and channeled telekinesis around him.

The pain was gone. The indestructible shield had done a good job of deflecting the God’s attack. Now that the heat rays had ceased, he immediately tried to ascend into the sky.

However, just as he had expected, the enemy was faster. The God was already aiming at him and preparing to fire that terrible heat ray again.

‘Shit! What am I going—’

Just then…

Ping!

Roar!

His body soared into the sky before his mind could catch up, and the heat ray passed by under his feet. Somehow, Ji-Cheok could feel that time was back to normal.

[The power of [Slow] has been interfered with.]

[The power of [Slow] has been canceled.]

‘This is…’

‘We are just in time.’

Ji-Cheok heard a voice in his head.

‘This… huh? [Chain Link]? That means…’

Ji-Cheok turned his head to check where his teammates were. They were far away, barely within the range of the [Chain Link] skill.

‘Hyung! Are you crazy? If something like that appears, just fucking run away!’

‘Mu-Cheok, calm down a little. Start by giving buffs to Ji-Cheok.’

‘Here comes my long-range attack!’

‘I’ll put up walls.’

Ji-Cheok heard the voices of his teammates. In the distance, he could see the ground rising and creating a huge barrier. A small mountain was formed, and meteors rained down from the sky. They accurately hit the giant God.

Following the explosion, the God’s gaze turned from him to his team members. But that was not the end. Ji-Cheok felt a powerful mana wave rise from the side of the rocky mountain. At the same time, new vegetation began to grow on the bare ground. In an instant, the vegetation morphed into shapes—things that looked like cannons made of plants appeared in droves. At once, they fired mana bullets at the God.

Boom! Boom!

‘It looks like the Tama people are trying to help us too. So… Is everyone here?’

?Master, with their help…?

‘I know, Cheok-Liang.’

The appearance of his team members surprised him, but it wasn’t unexpected. However, he hadn’t thought that the people of the Tama Clan would also intervene.

‘This is our chance! Today, we hunt a God!’

* * *

Ji-Han’s eyes focused on Ji-Byeok, who was creating a mountain with her mana. She seemed to be doing the best she could, and he could feel her mana overflowing. Also, a strange pattern on her back glowed with magical light. He already knew what that was. It was a Fragment of a God.

Hunters with special talents were called Super Rookies. However, they were considered to have special talents, but the truth was different. This was because the abilities of these Super Rookies were created from the Fragments that the Gods had created and scattered.

These Fragments were not pieces of dead Gods like the ones from the God of Choice and the God of Forest Shade, but instead separated from themselves and given shape by the Gods themselves.

As such, the Fragments’ power paled in comparison to the power of the Gods, but when combined with the power of the System, they gave humans great potential for growth.

That was the truth about Super Rookies.

Ji-Byeok, Ha-Na, and Seong Kwang… Without the Fragment of a God, they would not have been able to grow so quickly and harness such extraordinary power. And as they leveled up and accumulated causality, they would be able to use that power more and more freely.

Still, this was too fast. The speed at which Ji-Byeok was growing was something Ji-Han had never seen before.

‘She has already progressed to the Harmonization Awakening step. That’s very fast…’

Harmonization Awakening was when the Fragment of a God merged with a Hunter. Even if Hunters leveled up, they couldn’t wield their true power without this Awakening process. What exactly triggered the Harmonization Awakening was a mystery, even to Ji-Han. All he knew was that, by the end of the Tutorial, when the world was doomed to perish, the vast majority of humans would have undergone the Harmonization Awakening.

Ji-Han looked at the God that had descended upon them. It was the first time he had ever seen [Slow Forest Shade] descend. That was why this moment was so special.

‘Can I protect him this time?’

He didn’t want to be disappointed again.

‘I don’t want to see him die again.’

Ji-Han decided to give it his all, just as Ji-Byeok was doing right now.

* * *

“Their time manipulation power seems to be sealed, but they are still strong! Ah!!”

They were indeed a God! The [Slow Forest Shade] was strong despite being hit by Ha-Na’s meteors and Mu-Cheok’s sniper bullets. From their massive body, small flowers blossomed, shooting out rays of heat. The smaller size of the flowers reduced the intensity of the heat rays, but the tripling of their number was enough to make Ji-Cheok nervous.

And to make matters worse, the rays could actually follow a curved trajectory! In other words, Ji-Cheok’s telekinetic shields could not stop them all, so it was overall a disaster.

‘What the hell are those? Are those some kind of homing lasers or something?’

“ARGH!!”

His clothes had already become rags. He was half-dressed in rags, and his skin kept burning and regenerating over and over. If it wasn’t for his high regenerative power, he would have been dead a long time ago. However, one good thing was happening.

Ping! Ping!

He was dodging them. He was dodging their ray attacks! This was all thanks to the effects of [True Human] and [Heaven Martial Body]! He was getting used to their attacks and becoming able to dodge them!

That was not all. Undead attacking from the ground, the plant-type beings summoned by the Tama Clan, and the attacks from Ha-Na and Mu-Cheok, all helped get some pressure off of Ji-Cheok.

‘I think we can do this! I’m going in!’

Boom!

Ji-Cheok used the Soul Telekinesis to rush toward the God. He crashed his shield into their massive body.

Boom!

Part of the God’s body was destroyed once again. As flesh and plant debris scattered everywhere, Ji-Cheok raised his swords and slashed again and again, in all directions. Countless mouths, hands, and horns grew out of the wounds and attacked Ji-Cheok. Fangs tried to bite him, and hands of beasts and men tried to hear him apart. Quickly, he escaped and soared into the sky once more. And what awaited him there was another barrage of heat rays!

Swoosh!

Tsss….

“Ugh…”

Ji-Cheok gritted his teeth as the enemy’s attack, which couldn’t be entirely blocked by the [Guardian of Hope] and his telekinetic shield, struck again.

?Master, we cannot go on like this.?

‘Then what?’

?We need an attack that can pulverize the enemy in one blow. Look, the God is regenerating. The attacks of others are just delaying that regeneration.?

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