Chapter 198
Chapter 198
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 198
Chapter Title: Chapter 37: One Day on the Battlefield (2)
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“Kyaaak!”
The general-grade sensed the ambush and bellowed a roar to command its subordinates into battle.
At the same time, sharp rock formations erupted from the ground.
Fortunately, most of the minions it had brought along had already leaped into the air to evade the surprise attack.
Even as the general-grade took a moment to check on its subordinates’ losses, the unfamiliar mana continued to surge wildly around them.
A massive barrier had sprung up around them in no time.
They were trapped, their movements restricted for that brief instant.
The evolved species on the outskirts grasped the situation and charged straight at the barrier.
Boom! Kwang!
Each time they swung their tails and fists, the enormous stone chunks shattered futilely.
But beyond the broken barrier lay another one.
Layer after layer.
The general-grade realized the barriers were stacked upon one another and opened its massive maw wide, letting out a roar.
“Kyaaaak!”
In response, the evolved species gave up on breaking through and began climbing over one another to leap upward.
They had chosen to go over instead of smashing through.
But just as they reached the top of the barrier, unfortunately—
Whoosh.
Flames bloomed sporadically in the air and began flowing down from the top of the barrier.
“Kiek!”
“Keeeek!”
The smell of burning flesh filled the air as acrid smoke rose from all directions.
The ones with low mana resistance started burning alive.
“Flame Storm, Explosion, Kururuk……”
The general-grade knew the name of that spell.
It had encountered it before in battles against the Ayn race.
The problematic flames grew more violent, beginning to fill the inside of the barrier.
If this continued, the subordinates with low mana resistance would suffer heavy casualties.
It would be impossible to carry out the order to preserve forces.
“Kuruk, kuruk. Danger……”
Mana began leaking from the general-grade, which was supporting its body by wrapping its tail around a jagged rock.
The sheer volume of mana made the air around it shimmer, like heat haze rising from the ground.
Soon, the ground nearby turned muddy and receded.
Moments later, puddles began forming on the soil filled with dirt and gravel.
The evolved species trying to scale the barrier changed direction and leaped downward into the water.
They were diving into the water to escape the flames.
Having created a battlefield favorable to itself, the general-grade planned to lure the attacker in, just like its subordinates.
But the instant it leaped down from the rock it had been standing on—
A dazzling light flashed above its head.
“Kyaaak!”
Sensing the chill of danger, the general-grade twisted its body desperately in midair.
And instinctively swung its arm.
Excellent judgment. A split second later, and the spear wrapped in blue sparks would have pierced its torso.
But it had only escaped immediate danger.
Crushed by the unexpected force, the general-grade plummeted.
The moment it hit the ground, blue light spread around it.
It sprang up and launched itself away, but the reaction was a beat too late.
Crackle, zap—!
The blue sparks had already encircled it.
Intense heat poured out from the densely woven web of lightning, like a spider’s silk.
It tried wrapping itself in mana and charging to break free.
“Kiaak!”
But it was mercilessly repelled.
It even scorched the incredibly tough scales covering its body.
The panicked general-grade poured mana into the lightning net.
It was attempting to interfere and dismantle the spell’s formation.
But there was little progress.
For some reason, its mana wasn’t responding as intended.
The general-grade realized it was trapped in a lightning net so dense it evoked the image of a web.
Almost simultaneously, a fist-sized empty glass bottle plopped into the puddle beside it.
“You’re not getting out, huh.”
Right after, an unfamiliar voice rang out from above.
It looked up and locked eyes with a human crouched atop the lightning net.
Confirming the enemy with its own eyes, the general-grade opened its maw wide and roared.
But the human barely acknowledged it, jumping down from the lightning net as if it were nothing.
Then, it began conversing with another human who had appeared out of nowhere.
“Dismantling magic isn’t that easy.”
“The general-grade I faced last time broke through a barrier and even set up a double one.”
“That one must have had that level of training. Plus, regular barriers aren’t affected by disruption. To dismantle one while disruption is active, you need real skill. This guy doesn’t have that level. Its mana grade is lower than Kai’s too…… It won’t break out on its own.”
“So the really skilled ones could escape.”
“There’s plenty of possibility. Hard to believe, but they have enough intelligence to learn. It’s the same as how some outsiders are good at manifesting magic and some aren’t.”
“Then, excluding general-grades, how long could you hold a traitor?”
“That depends on their skill too.”
“And if it were you?”
“There’s disruption, but…… I could dismantle it in one or two minutes. I can see the effort put into tweaking the array, but it’s still a predictable structure……”
“Kyaaaak!”
Rage boiled over as it watched the humans converse so casually, as if it didn’t exist.
“Human, I’ll kill you! Kyak!”
The general-grade roared threateningly, as if it would tear through the lightning net and lunge at any moment.
“Huh, it actually talks.”
But the human standing outside the lightning net didn’t care at all, speaking in a utterly indifferent tone.
“Don’t get so worked up. Once we clean up your minions, I’ll play with you next.”
No sooner had the human finished speaking than its hair whipped in the wind.
And then—
Splash, splash!
The subordinates hiding in the water thrashed and writhed.
Splash, shwash—!
An invisible but unmistakably present blade began stirring up the water.
Soon, the subordinates hiding underwater crawled out onto the land as if fleeing.
Sparks crackled ominously from the spear held by the human facing the general-grade.
* * *
Kim Yul’s Wind Step was useful in many ways.
Especially when he secured the airspace while carrying Yang Tae-ho, its utility doubled.
With the battlefield in full view, Yang Tae-ho could deploy his barrier spell over a wider area, creating a prison of sorts.
‘My barriers lose substance if you get too far away, limiting their practicality.’
Now that Kim Yul had acquired flight-based magic, they could experiment with more varied tactics.
As a result, they had immobilized hundreds of evolved species.
But the battle that followed wasn’t entirely smooth sailing.
A large number of evolved species were still alive.
‘Flame Storm and Hellfire are rank 3, and Kim Yul’s Blade Dance is rank 4 magic.’
The successive area-of-effect spells had wiped out most with low resistance.
Among them were a few 6-star evolved species.
He had clearly seen ones with six stars above their heads burn to death.
‘Differences in resistance vary by individual.’
Thanks to that, the particularly low-resistance evolved species were taken out easily.
But even after two area blasts, more had survived than died.
‘That’s why dealing with raiding parties is high difficulty.’
From now on, magic would be supplementary.
They had to take down the surviving evolved species one by one manually.
“Shaaak!”
Right on cue, a 5-star evolved species resembling a water serpent charged at him with its maw wide open.
He thrust his mana-clad spear straight into its mouth.
The spear tip protruded from the top of the evolved species’ head.
“Gururk……!”
It should have been a fatal wound, yet the body—easily over ten meters long—tried to coil around him.
At that moment, a massive hammer from the opposite side slammed precisely into the middle of the elongated body.
Boom—!
The hide and bones crumpled, splitting the evolved species in two.
In the meantime, he retrieved his spear and thrust it quickly toward Yang Tae-ho’s head, who was lifting the hammer.
“Kueok!”
Thanks to that, they made it in time. It pierced the neck of the 6-star evolved species lunging at his back.
They had taken out each other’s attackers.
Yang Tae-ho met his eyes and grinned, slinging the hammer over his shoulder.
Seeing that smile reminded him of the first day back in Bihar, when Yang Tae-ho had hugged him tightly and teared up out of nowhere.
Afterward, he’d been acting strangely eager to repay the favor, which was a bit burdensome.
He shook his head and said one thing.
“In a melee, prioritize your own safety, hyung.”
“Ay, we got plenty of leeway, so I was watchin’ out for our party leader too.”
Yang Tae-ho replied brightly and thrust his shield toward the evolved species charging at his side.
Boom—the evolved species headbutted the shield and shook its head groggily.
In that gap, Yang Tae-ho’s hammer crushed it.
He took the opportunity to stomp the head of a 5-star lunging at his feet, caving it in.
And he cleanly sliced open the belly of another 5-star leaping from above.
“Hey! Save the bromance for later and kill one more!”
Kim Yul, who had been left alone for a moment, yelled shrilly.
He answered by jamming his short spear into the head of the evolved species hot on Kim Yul’s heels.
He hadn’t left Kim Yul unattended without thought.
Whether it was a trait of wind-attribute users, he didn’t know.
But Kim Yul was the type who dodged evolved species attacks with infuriating precision while hunting.
In raw combat power, he fell short, but in evasion, he was the best.
That kept his injury rate the lowest among them.
‘Me and Tae-ho hyung hold the center as a pair, while Kim Yul flanks with guerrilla hunts.’
That was their party’s basic positioning in a melee.
They steadily continued the fight that way, and soon the last of the living evolved species were wiped out.
Instead, the corpses of the dead filled the damp ground.
The moment he severed the neck of the final evolved species—
Kim Yul pulled out a pocket watch from his inventory and reported.
“4 hours…… 13 minutes!”
He nodded in satisfaction.
They had cleared hundreds of evolved species, including 5-stars and 6-stars, with just three combatants.
Time taken: roughly 4 hours. Potions used: 12 high-grade.
‘All injuries minor.’
Most potion use was to accelerate attribute mana recovery.
None of them had sustained major wounds impairing combat.
“We’re seriously badass, right?!”
Kim Yul seemed genuinely surprised by their haul against the evolved species.
It truly was a successful hunt.
Of course, various special factors applied.
‘Even accounting for those, our combat power surpasses Bihar’s senior knights.’
They had far more general mana than average knights, plus attribute mana that was typically exclusive to mages.
They each possessed two conditions that one person would normally struggle to attain.
“Putting out the power of one knight and one mage solo—makes sense.”
“This is that ‘one man army’ thing, right?”
It was originally an expression for morale or bravery rather than numbers.
“But the concept’s similar.”
He chimed in agreement instead of nitpicking.
There had been a few days’ break before the new main scenario.
In that time, Kim Yul had started learning basics and history with Yang Tae-ho.
Lately, Kim Yul kept showing off new knowledge, so he played along moderately.
The more he used it, the more he’d want to learn.
“We’re gonna crush this scenario, no doubt.”
“Ain’t nothin’ we can’t handle. Our party leader’s got it in the bag.”
Kim Yul hummed cheerfully, in high spirits, and Yang Tae-ho egged him on.
Meanwhile, he averted his gaze from the two and scanned the now-empty surroundings.
The might a gold badge player could unleash was greater than expected.
But watching it unfold left him uneasy the whole time.
Because this tremendous power was likely the limit most players would reach.
‘Turning physical body to gold badge means you’ve hit the typical peak strength Biharans can achieve.’
Few players would advance beyond this.
His own mana, just over 500 million, was proof.
Without exploits, no one at this stage could have more mana than him.
Unlike monster mana split among party members, player kills granted it solely to the killer.
‘Even absorbing plenty from dismantling the human trafficking ring, only 500 million.’
He was an irregular off the normal growth path, yet still just 500 million.
A number that couldn’t be called “mere” under any circumstances, yet it felt insignificant.
Seeing this made it clear the 10 billion mana for platinum badge wasn’t attainable by just anyone.
Damn system