Cloud Thunder
Sunghyun sprinted straight toward the spot where the giant had been.
No magical beast dared approach him as he poured out that murderous mana. The beasts already knew. This one is not our fight.
When Sunghyun stopped, a single fruit tree came into view—the same one that had appeared in his dreams more than once.
“I’m here.”
The moment he released mana thick with killing intent, the ground began to shake.
Gugugugugugu—
The massive giant rose to its feet.
Earth Giant [3,400C]
Even facing the current Sunghyun, the giant felt no fear. If anything, it seemed to sneer. You dare come for me?
Sunghyun licked his lips and smiled.
“I told you last time. If we meet again, I kill you.”
Gray mana swirled in his razor-sharp eyes. Taking this giant down would remake him. Of course, one more still remained. He still couldn’t forget that lizard’s gaze. Once the giant was finished—that one was next.
Sunghyun raised his sword.
Tup—
The instant he settled his grip, the giant finally took a proper stance against him.
“Haha. So I’ve finally become an opponent worth fighting?”
Sunghyun bared his teeth in a grin. He’d told his mother it was hard, but what could he do? Something inside him was already twisted.
Lightning engulfed his body.
Pajijijijik—
The moment he stepped forward, a massive crater opened in the ground. In that single instant the giant lost track of him.
So the giant chose another method.
Kugwaaaaaaa—
The surrounding earth all surged upward, as if an entirely new landscape were being formed. Sunghyun clicked his tongue.
“Haha. What the hell? You play dirty for something that looks like that. What are you, a mage?”
If he’d taken that attack before growing stronger, he would have died for certain. Hell, one punch would have sent him straight into the river of the afterlife. But the giant had never used this kind of attack on the weak version of him. It hadn’t even seen him as an enemy. Humans don’t draw a blade on a fly—they just wave a hand because it’s annoying.
That fact had once filled Sunghyun with rage. You’re looking down on me?
I will come back. And when I do—
“I’ll drive a blade through your throat.”
He was back now. And he was facing the giant head-on.
As always, Sunghyun moved first. Using overwhelming speed, he vaulted over the newly forming mountains of stone. His path looked like a red thread thrashing wildly through the air. The giant kept reshaping the terrain with area attacks, trying to catch that speed. Sunghyun’s feet moved even faster to dodge the rocks erupting everywhere. It was pure power versus pure speed.
At last he reached the giant. The giant knew it, and so—
Kwang! Kwang! Kwang!
It slammed the ground. Tremors like the first signs of an earthquake rolled out. And it didn’t stop at one. Even if it couldn’t land a clean hit, completely destroying the surroundings would be enough—that was the giant’s thinking.
But then—
Pajijijijik—
A ticklish sound reached the ears of the giant still crouching and pounding the earth.
“You bastard—right here.”
Before it knew it, Sunghyun was behind it, thrusting his sword. The giant’s mind reeled. How? How was this human, who should have been crushed under the earthquake it was raising, standing behind it?
The answer lay in the realization Sunghyun had just gained.
When the giant struck the ground, the quake hit so hard Sunghyun could barely keep his footing.
“I’ve never felt an earthquake like this even in Japan!”
In the constantly collapsing ground he ran like a madman just to stay alive, using Lightning Transformation to leap from one crumbling patch to the next. As solid ground vanished, he was forced to think. This method wouldn’t work anymore. Then what?
A flash.
I’m lightning. Why the hell do I need to walk on the ground?
The thought struck him like a bolt. The trait he possessed was, when you got down to it, Zeus’s power. Did that power have limits? If it did, those limits were only the limits of his own imagination.
Sunghyun stopped running. His legs, which had been racing upside-down along a cliff face, halted and he plummeted—but his mind never stopped. If he didn’t step on the ground, what did he step on?
Tup!
He quietly closed his eyes.
“I am lightning. I am lightning.”
If he was lightning, he could ride the atmosphere itself.
He immediately kicked out into empty air.
Tung!
Sunghyun shot upward, cutting through the void. At the same moment a notification chimed in his ear.
Experience of Red Lightning has increased dramatically.
Red Lightning has reached a branching point. Evolving.
Trait evolution.
Trait Red Lightning [B] has evolved into Thunder King [A].
His form began to move even faster. The red lightning gradually turned blue, as if fusing with nature itself. Becoming pure lightning and cutting across the atmosphere, Sunghyun found the back of the giant’s head right in front of him—the giant still slamming the ground and raising quakes.
Sunghyun swept his hand down.
“Die.”
Kwagagagagagang!
Lightning began crashing down around him like mad. Bolts of every size hammered the giant, and it collapsed without even managing to rise.
But the name “Earth Giant” was no empty title. Focus returned to those pure-white eyes.
“Ha! You tanked that? Area really does matter. Then shall we shrink it?”
A bone-chilling voice reached the giant’s ears as its focus returned. When it turned its head, its pupils reflected Sunghyun raising his sword. Sunghyun swung, intending to carve the giant’s body down.
Hwoong—!
Suddenly the giant transformed its arms and legs into tree-like forms. Those limbs burrowed into the earth and began absorbing the surrounding energy.
Gulp— gulp—
Ignoring everything else, the giant greedily drank power. The result:
Chaeng—!
It had risen to a level where it could endure Sunghyun’s sword with nothing more than a shallow scratch. The surrounding nature withered and twisted, but the giant’s body grew larger and harder by the second.
Sunghyun could no longer just watch. The growth was visible to the naked eye, but something else was the real problem. The numbers were updating in real time, clear as day.
Earth Giant [4,100]
Earth Giant [4,200]
. . .
Earth Giant [5,600]
The giant was getting stronger in real time, and the numbers proved it. He could not leave it alone any longer. That thought seized him completely.
Sunghyun immediately dumped every last coin into mana.
Mana has reached Level 70. Account Balance: 9,136C
Mana has reached Level 80. Account Balance: 2,736C
“Kraaaah!”
His body began to dye itself gray. Even that wasn’t enough—every blood vessel stood out, turning him a mottled red. He pushed Lightning Transformation to the absolute limit and poured the constantly surging mana into flame. Enormous fires floated around him as he became lightning itself.
He immediately poured lightning and flame into the giant’s roots. The giant answered by creating rocks and launching them. Sunghyun pulled lightning into a barrier around his body; the rocks melted the instant they drew near. The giant’s arms and legs, rooted deep in the earth, were gradually swallowed by Sunghyun’s firestorm and began to vanish.
No longer content to simply take the beating, the giant retracted its rooted limbs and started covering its body in earth. With mana growing harder and harder to control, Sunghyun poured lightning as if he meant to smash the entire stretch of ground. The world turned blue under the cascade of bolts, as though the sky itself were enraged.
Yet even that assault the earth endured. And from within it, something roughly Sunghyun’s size walked out.
“Human. How about we stop here? I am the Earth Giant. Against one who wields lightning, the matchup is poor.”
When it spoke, Sunghyun’s eyes went wide. A monster that talks?
The giant he had been fighting had suddenly withdrawn its roots, covered itself in earth, and when the earth peeled away, a magical beast the size of a human stood there.
Earth Adversary [12,000]
By pouring every scrap of absorbed power into its own evolution, the giant had become something new. Adversary—that was its new form. To it, Sunghyun was the strongest being it had ever faced. Perhaps that was why its appearance now resembled his.
And that magical beast spoke to him, suggesting they stop.
Sunghyun’s answer was immediate: he flipped it the middle finger.
“Eat shit.”
It didn’t understand the gesture, but the insulting intent was clear enough. The Adversary’s face twisted. Yet arrogantly, it still refused to strike first. And that—exactly that—was why it was a magical beast, and why it could never beat Sunghyun.
Sunghyun called up everything he knew about lightning. The reason earth absorbs lightning so well is its sheer surface area. But this thing had made its body small. In its mind, shrinking would make him easier to handle. That was far too one-dimensional and primitive a thought.
“Giant. The moment you stopped being a giant, the winner was already decided.”
Ha! Just because you’re earth you can tank lightning well? You don’t know a damn thing. Earth absorbs lightning because of its overwhelming area. The instant the giant was no longer a giant, that advantage vanished.
Sunghyun stretched out his hand. Above the former giant’s head, a massive cumulonimbus cloud formed. The giant crossed its arms as if to say go ahead and try, staring him down.
Sunghyun opened his mouth.
“Cloud Thunder.”
The lightning of death.
Kwarung!
A single black bolt fell onto the magical beast’s head. It was nothing like the lightning before—neither blue nor red. Black. This was the one bolt Sunghyun had wrung out of every last drop of newly generated mana.
The instant the bolt struck the beast’s skull, its body melted. The end of one who had thrown away an advantage it never even understood.
Tulseok—
The magical beast’s body left not even ash behind, crumbling into nothing.
Damn… my consciousness…
Having spent every scrap of mana, Sunghyun’s vision blurred. His fingers still moved frantically.
Disposable Rest Space has been used.
Transferring. Welcome, Kim Sunghyun.
A clean room welcomed the unconscious Sunghyun.