Chapter 244: Don't Worry
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 244: Don't Worry
“Muto.”
“Oh, if it isn't the Chairwoman.”
“It’s been a while. How have things been around here lately?”
This was the northwestern outskirts, where the monster dismantling workshops under the Lymain family were located. While most people who had acquired Monsterkin skills lived like paupers in the southeast, a fortunate few had been rescued by the Lymain family and were now working here in the northwest.
“By 'around here,' you mean…”
“Let’s go somewhere quiet to talk.”
The elderly Muto—formerly human, now an Orc due to a racial skill—was a veteran of the monster dismantling workshop, the very first business the Lymain family had established upon entering Calax.
Unlike Alfi or the other beastkin managers, he wasn't deeply involved in the family's internal affairs. However, he had served as a senior hand in the Lymain workshops for a long time.
They went to the rooftop of a building constructed on the eastern side of the workshop for administrative work. Muto followed quietly at Renart’s call. Renart reached into her coat and handed him a glass filled with well-chilled beer.
“Haha, Chairwoman. I’ll get disciplined if I take this. Drinking during work hours?”
“Take it. As you said, it’s a gift from the Chairwoman.”
“Well then…”
Muto, whose face bore the deep lines of old age, took the beer from Renart, popped the cap, and sat down beside her.
For a long time, he had been the champion of the illegal underground arena run by the Antonio Brotherhood. Now, he had been saved from that life, living as a gentle Orc grandfather.
“What was life like in the arena?”
“You’re poking at an old man’s sore spots.”
“There’s something I need to hear.”
The illegal arenas were used to replenish the mana of the Succubus Queen, the leader of the Antonio Brotherhood who was disguised as a human.
Criminals might suffer from moral decay, but they aren't stupid. Just because they illegally capture and trade live monsters doesn't mean they don't consider how the buyer will use them.
If the purpose of buying powerful monsters was to run an arena where they fought humans or other monsters, that wasn't a major concern for them.
To ordinary people, it might seem different, but that was how it worked in the minds of criminals.
“There was a massive bounty on my head. Every match was worth at least 1,000 gold coins.”
Most crimes involving illegal arenas were about the gambling stakes; the fighting itself wasn't the primary issue. For instance, in Roanmarie, arenas with capped betting amounts were still presented to the public as a major form of entertainment.
“Do you remember what happened to the dead monsters or people?”
“There was a place for disposing of the corpses. Sometimes, to entertain the crowd, they’d throw in someone who wasn't even dead yet.”
Thus, the punishment for being caught running an illegal arena usually pertained to excessive gambling.
“Dozens of people died every week. Unlike other arenas, they staged evenly matched fights where people truly could die.”
“I see.”
The fighters in the illegal arenas had a wide range of combat power. Mages expelled from academies for researching forbidden magic, penniless wandering mercenaries, explorers who couldn't find work due to criminal records, and so on.
“How did the corpse disposal site work?”
“Mostly, the monsters waiting for their turn to fight in the arena would eat them. It cut down on maintenance costs and such.”
“Was it a monster you recognized?”
Muto reminisced for a moment. Once, for the crowd's amusement, he had been forced to sever the limbs of an opponent who was still alive and toss them directly to a monster. Recalling that moment still filled him with shame.
“I’m… not sure.”
Muto had been a promising explorer in his youth. He had suffered a major injury just as his funds ran out, and to make matters worse, he had acquired an Orc racial skill, which severed his ties with those around him.
Lending money to explorers driven into such corners and then using them as pawns was the Antonio Brotherhood’s way.
“It’s strange. My memories of that time are hazy.”
“Is that so?”
Intellectually, he knew that the corpses of monsters and humans who died in the arena were fed to the monsters waiting in the basement. Yet, for some reason, whenever he tried to recall those specific memories, only a blur remained in his mind.
Muto sipped his beer and spent several minutes tracing back through his memories.
“I really can’t tell… I must be getting old; my memory seems to be failing me.”
“Haha, you’re still plenty healthy. I understand for now. I’m sorry for making you dig up unpleasant memories.”
“Hoho, not at all.”
The reason they turned most of the southeast into a den of beggars on the verge of starvation despite having more than enough money. The reason they ignored the constant brawls between thugs within their territory.
The fact that they used their earned capital to run illegal arenas as successfully as possible, and that they lent money to high-grade explorers who had plenty of mana but were in desperate need of help.
“They are gathering mana through death.”
This was what Renart had heard from Iris Albresto, Yoo Eon’s vampire ally. There was one point she didn't quite understand, which was why she had sought out Muto.
“Ah, Muto. How is that favor I asked for coming along?”
“You mean that? For now, I’m storing them as they come in.”
“Let’s go take a look.”
Muto nodded and led Renart to a cold storage warehouse located on one side of the workshop. It was a place designed to delay the decomposition of carcasses even in the sweltering summer. Usually, its utilization rate was below 30 percent, but now it was running at nearly full capacity.
“Look, I’ve gathered them all here. But I’m not sure what you intend to use these for…”
“I’m not entirely sure myself.”
“Hmm, I see.”
Since the Chairwoman said so, Muto simply accepted it. He nodded as he looked at the mountains of various monster 'stomachs' piled up inside the warehouse.
* * *
—Clang!
The Orichalcum Greatsword fell with a loud crash onto the black flooring, which was made of an indistinguishable material.
“I… split her head….”
Exactly the 700th death. He had broken his record from when he fought the Knight Lord. It had been two weeks since Iris announced she would use 40 percent of her power.
The situation was entirely different from before. Iris, who now ignored the fundamental biological premise that a creature dies when its body is severely damaged, would simply scatter like blood even if Yoo Eon cleaved her dozens of times with his Orichalcum Greatsword infused with peak Aura.
She would repeatedly revive from the pool of blood soaking the floor and kill Yoo Eon.
However, Yoo Eon had eventually adapted to this as well.
She’s fast.
Iris was inwardly impressed by Yoo Eon’s growth rate, though she maintained her usual expressionless face. As he began to handle mana properly, Yoo Eon’s power was even beginning to encroach upon the Vampire Lord’s 'Final Authority Over Blood.'
He would strip Iris’s mana from the blood, or if that seemed impossible, he would incinerate it instantly with overwhelming firepower. Unlike before, when he was pushed back in physical combat against Iris and her scythe, Iris could no longer defeat Yoo Eon in a pure clash of physical weaponry.
“Ha, seriously. Iris. You’re telling me this is 40 percent? You’re lying, right?”
As always, death within the subspace was an illusion. Iris hadn't truly died three times, and Yoo Eon, who had died 700 times, had never actually died once.
Yoo Eon spoke with a frown, suspicious, but Iris shook her head.
“I’ll count that last one as your win.”
Iris kept her words brief. More and more, as Yoo Eon continued to fight, he was beginning to resemble him. It felt as though he was gradually approaching that overwhelming combat style etched in her memories.
The previous fight had actually been Iris’s defeat. Since this was a subspace created by her magic, her phantom could avoid death even after taking fatal damage.
He’s starting to… look like him.
Without realizing it, Iris thought of someone else while looking at Yoo Eon. Filled with a rising sense of satisfaction, she had refused to admit defeat and kept reviving even after she had 'died.'
In truth, Yoo Eon had killed the current Iris at least three or four more times. She simply wanted to keep watching him fight.
“You’re counting it as a win?”
“Next is 50 percent.”
That was a lie. In reality, the power she had displayed in the last battle was 80 percent of her total strength. Yoo Eon had gained a clear advantage against a Vampire Lord exerting 80 percent of her power.
The reason she halved the number she called out in every fight was to stimulate Yoo Eon’s drive for improvement.
“I wonder if you’ll actually be able to kill me.”
Iris murmured quietly to Yoo Eon, who was sprawled out on the floor.
“Haha, hahaha….”
Hearing this, Yoo Eon stood up, extended the muscle fibers in his fingertips to retrieve his sword, and took a stance.
“I really can’t imagine how strong your full power is…!”
—Creeeak…!
With a grotesque sound, a new physical form enveloped his entire body. Through his battles with Iris, Yoo Eon had realized many things.
In truly desperate combat, wings were too great a weakness. The advantage of aerial maneuverability became meaningless above a certain level.
He shouldn't consciously try to use the abilities of the monsters he had consumed. He had to find the optimal method of attack subconsciously, not using them one by one, but fusing everything together.
His body didn't necessarily have to maintain a biological shape. In the heat of battle, looking like a monster was perfectly fine.
He wasn't just using a sword as a weapon. He was using his entire body as a weapon, with the sword as his primary focus.
“Don’t worry, Iris.”
A blue Aura enveloped Yoo Eon’s entire body. Just as he had previously used the Aura on his tail as well as his sword, he was now shrouded in an Aura Blade across his entire form.
Blue flames erupted from his back. Using the lung capacity of the Eldyokul—which rivaled that of marine mammals—and Horus’s wind magic, he sucked hundreds of kilograms of air into his lungs.
As the air touched his Frost Core, he lowered its temperature to near absolute zero, shrinking its volume to almost nothing.
When he brought his Flame Core to the lungs where the compressed air was stored, the air absorbed immense heat and expanded instantaneously.
As the expanding air burst through the vents on his back, he sprayed the Eldyokul’s flammable liquid, igniting it to add a second stage of acceleration.
It was a method of gaining propulsion by venting compressed air backward and igniting oil—a 100% biological organ performing almost the exact same function as a modern 'jet engine.'
“Because I will definitely kill you.”
—BOOM!!!!
With a thunderous roar, Yoo Eon shot forward. Even in that moment, he used Horus’s magic to minimize air friction to the absolute limit.
It was the first moment Yoo Eon broke through biological limits and reached supersonic speed.