Chapter 148
Chapter 148: Power Leveling (1)
A storm swept through the arena once again.
Despite the enormous distance, more than ten people were swept away by the wind and lost their lives. Paeng Ho-ryu once again raised a blade wave to block the energy waves generated by the battle between the two. Then he turned his head and spoke to Hwa Seon-hyang.
"I'll break through a path, so follow closely."
"But Brother Dong is..."
"Little Sister Hwa, can't you see that? That battle is already not one between humans. It's frustrating but... we'll only get in the way."
"..."
Hwa Seon-hyang agreed with Paeng Ho-ryu's words. Though frustrating, they were insignificant beings who could have no influence on that fight.
Thud-thud-thud!
Paeng Ho-ryu began advancing step by step toward the Inner Court, destroying Jiangshi once again.
"Why are you going that way?"
Hwa Seon-hyang started to follow him but stopped and asked.
Paeng Ho-ryu answered while reducing another Jiangshi to powder.
"The Muhwa Gate side is already impossible to break through. Right now, this is the only path. If we go the other way... we'll surely die."
"Then... does that mean we're crossing Cheongsin Mountain?"
Hwa Ye-ji, who had been listening quietly until then, asked out of curiosity.
Paeng Ho-ryu wiped the Jiangshi blood that had splattered on his forehead and answered again.
"That's right."
"What if there are Jiangshi on that side too...?"
"Hahaha-. Why worry about such things?"
"What...?"
"What more can we do besides die? As long as we're born as Martial World people, aren't we prepared to die anywhere, anytime? Whether woman or man. I don't like gender discrimination."
"..."
"Just joking, joking. Euhahahat! Follow me! We'll either all die together, or! We'll all live together—let's go for it."
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
Five tigers began to rage wildly.
Thus, the legend of the Paeng Family's Five Tiger Gate-Breaking Saber opened its curtain.
Even while running behind Paeng Ho-ryu, Hwa Seon-hyang turned her head to look toward Dong Bong-soo whenever there was a gap.
He stood his ground like a deity, protecting the Murim Alliance.
That's how it looked to her eyes. Regardless of reality... at least to her eyes it looked that way, and she was convinced it was so.
'Brother Dong... Please...'
Let's meet again, you must survive...
At that moment, an unbelievably bright light burst forth from Dong Bong-soo's body once more.
***
[Lightness Arts], [Three Talents Sword Technique], [Circulating Energy], [Sword Energy], [Footwork], [Concealment Arts], [Slash], [Thrust], [Throw], [Block], [Consecutive Slash], [Consecutive Strike], [Iron Cloth Shirt], [Survival Instinct], and several additional skills.
Dong Bong-soo's ultimate skill that made all these skills look like child's play.
The skill he obtained along with [Footwork] when he killed Timur Khan in the North.
[Mutual Destruction]
Dong Bong-soo used it once again, just before leveling up.
[Mutual Destruction Lv.1 Proficiency: 20.0%]
A general term for actions, attack methods/techniques attempting to die together with the opponent by disregarding one's own life when the power difference with the enemy is too great to handle, or when driven to an extreme situation.
A method inevitably used by the side driven to an extreme position.
Bonus per Attack: [(Remaining Health + Remaining JP + Player's Martial Arts Attack Power) × Mutual Destruction Skill Lv] / 3
Health / JP Consumption per Attack: 1000 / 500
※ The bonus per attack value is arithmetically added to the damage points dealt to enemies, not a percentage increase in attack power.
Even [Mutual Destruction] alone possessed tremendous power, but the buff skills currently applied to Dong Bong-soo weren't limited to just that.
[Survival Instinct]
+When health drops below 20%, all abilities increase by 10%. (Lv.2 activated)
[Consecutive Strike]
[5-Strike failed. Player goes Frenzied.]
[Consecutive Slash]
[Player succeeded in 10 consecutive slashes, all abilities increased by 10%.]
[Sword Energy]
Attack Power Bonus: 250%
Range Bonus: 5%
Energy Consumption per Second: 50 JP
[Circulating Energy]
Current Skill Bonus: Attack Power/Defense Power Increase 150%
In addition, he had leveled up once more.
The moment Dong Bong-soo completed all preparations to unleash the maximum attack power he could muster, he detonated [Mutual Destruction]. It was qualitatively different from the [Mutual Destruction] he had used against Eul Ji-chu earlier.
Nevertheless, Dong Bong-soo knew well that he could absolutely never kill Yeon Yeong-ha. She was not an existence that could be dealt with to this degree.
He was merely reducing, one by one, the mistakes he had made or would have made in the 'previous today.'
He judged that the biggest of those mistakes was probably failing to obtain the experience points he could have gotten. He needed to make as much of the 'experience points' gathered around here his own as possible. Probably in the previous today, he had failed at that.
He must have let Yeon Yeong-ha or the Jiangshi take the initiative. Perhaps he had waited for Yeon Yeong-ha to tire herself out fighting against the Murim Alliance Leader and others.
Without fully realizing how strong Yeon Yeong-ha was. A mosquito might sting a lion painfully, but it can never kill it.
But now it's different. He would make it different.
To do that, he needed to act first and gather the experience points before Yeon Yeong-ha or the Jiangshi destroyed them.
A drive hunt.
The stage was already set; all that was left was to sweep it all up.
Though he had no area attack skills, the Ultra True Energy Sword Wheel buffed with [Mutual Destruction] clashed with Yeon Yeong-ha's Extreme Yin Star of Heavenly Calamity, creating a tremendous wave.
That created the first variable.
A mass slaughter occurred. Mass slaughter inevitably connected to 'power leveling.'
Despite the extreme consumption of True Energy, JP, and even health, Dong Bong-soo fought while clashing with Yeon Yeong-ha in a way that made the aftermath sweep through the surroundings as much as possible.
However, there was one fatal problem with this.
Undead.
The system recognized Jiangshi as undead-type enemies. Using the Wanderer's Sword with its [Lifesteal] ability for mass slaughter would naturally cause his health to be stolen by the Jiangshi instead. But conversely, if he also attacked the other people gathered around, he could compensate for the health stolen by the Jiangshi.
By fighting this way, he solved the problem of health being drained when attacking Jiangshi.
Dong Bong-soo paid attention to such points and established a new action pattern. And he faithfully executed it according to that manual.
He achieved several additional level-ups that could become variables. However, it didn't seem like any new [Skills] had emerged that could properly overturn the situation, nor had there been significant progress in matching up against Yeon Yeong-ha.
So he changed his action pattern again.
To create a new variable.
KRAK-BOOM!
Using [Mutual Destruction] loaded into the Ultra Rotation Sword Wheel, he pushed Yeon Yeong-ha, who had been relentlessly pouring out attacks, far away into the sky, if only for a moment.
A brief gap appeared.
Dong Bong-soo's inhuman brain and eyes began insane calculations.
The Jiangshi were already crowding in from all sides, leaving no room to step. Nevertheless, the surrounding situation and circumstances of Jiangshi continuously pouring into the Murim Alliance—all those frames were captured in his eyes like freeze frames.
'More, more, more...'
The scene of surviving people being pushed together here and there by the Martial Jiangshi was also converged in his eyes like a slow-motion video.
There were broadly several places where survivors were gathering.
Southern Inner Court direction.
Several experts including Paeng Ho-ryu, Hwa Seon-hyang, and Hwa Ye-ji appeared to be attempting escape toward Cheongsin Mountain to survive. It was a reasonably wise choice. The other sides were surrounded by Jiangshi and already had no hope as there was no escape routes.
Moreover, the fact that he and Yeon Yeong-ha were fighting in the center made it difficult for the Martial Jiangshi to easily flow toward the Inner Court, which was also very advantageous for survival. However, it wasn't just Jiangshi who couldn't easily escape that way—people were the same, so it was difficult for many to survive. In other words, there weren't many experience point clumps gathered there, so it wouldn't help much with leveling up.
Dong Bong-soo excluded that side from his priorities for now.
Eastern Demon Subduing Hall direction.
Finalists from the Heavenly Youth Martial Arts Tournament like Jong Ji-hang and Seong Hui had gathered and were actively slaughtering Jiangshi. It was actually the place most dedicated to rescuing survivors. Paradoxically, experience point preservation was being maintained best there. After all, Jiangshi had no experience points. Even a single person was an existence that helped with experience points. The direction most beneficial to him was the eastern Demon Subduing Hall direction.
However, like the southern direction, there were relatively few experience point clumps.
Also outside priorities.
Northern Muhwa Gate direction.
There was nothing to see on this side. Jiangshi were pouring in like a flood, continuously driving survivors in all directions. In gaming terms, it was a 'hunting paradise' responsible for 'mob regen (Monster Regeneration).' The only problem was that the mobs being produced there had experience points of 1 or 0.
Dong Bong-soo removed that side from his priorities too.
Western Deungseon Pavilion direction.
Hyeoncheon Jinin and his advisors or subordinate experts, experts from each major sect had gathered to block the Jiangshi. Since it was where the Murim Alliance Leader was, most people were concentrated there. However, they were thoroughly only defending the hill where Deungseon Pavilion stood, not actively protecting survivors climbing up the hill.
In a way, it was a posture of using survivors as shields while conserving strength. They were probably waiting for Eul Ji-tae to return with the forces outside. Not knowing it was a futile wait. Also, it might be a strategy to eliminate the exhausted remaining side if he and Yeon Yeong-ha mutually destroyed each other or one side died.
However, they didn't know that either way was futile.
Whether he won or Yeon Yeong-ha won, whoever won, today the Murim Alliance would...
Disappear.
Before long, Dong Bong-soo made his decision.
At that moment.
Without a moment's hesitation, he flew west.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
The slaughter began.