Sand Mixer
Peng! Peng!
Explosions erupted one after another right in front of Zeon.
The bomb bees slammed into his sand wall and detonated.
Dozens of them had already self-destructed by now. But neither Zeon nor Goduwon had a single scratch.
It was thanks to the sand barrier rising around them.
The bomb bees couldn't pierce the sand wall and simply blew themselves up against it.
So the two men emerged unscathed.
"This…… impossible!"
Goduwon couldn't close his gaping mouth.
He knew better than anyone how terrifying and troublesome bomb bees were.
A couple of them were no big deal—just shoot them down with arrows.
The problem was that their numbers in the Black Forest were beyond counting.
Goduwon could carry only a few dozen arrows at most, but the bomb bees numbered hundreds, thousands of times more.
And they didn't fear death—they charged in to self-destruct without hesitation.
Against that kind of onslaught, Goduwon's skills were useless. He and the bomb bees were a match made in hell. That's why he only ever prowled the Black Forest's outskirts, never daring to venture deeper.
Unless you were someone like Dayton, you didn't even think about stepping inside.
He'd come in with Zeon out of desperation—like a drowning man grasping at straws—not with any real hope. But Zeon's display now far exceeded his wildest imagination.
Peng-peng! Boom!
The bomb bees hammered the sand barrier like rain pelting a roof, gloriously perishing one by one.
Zeon almost pitied the ones exploding beyond the wall.
If bomb bees were his worst matchup, then Zeon was theirs.
'No wonder that monstrous Dayton keeps him around.'
Forgetting even that his daughter was somewhere in the Black Forest, Goduwon stared at Zeon in awe.
As his shock subsided, he noticed something familiar about Zeon's robe.
"Isn't that an elf robe?"
"How'd you know?"
"My wife had one just like it."
"I see."
"Where'd you get it? Elves never give their stuff to humans."
"Well……."
"Dayton must've massacred another elf village."
Goduwon pieced it together instantly.
Zeon looked awkward, unsure how to respond.
Luckily, Goduwon didn't blame him.
Zeon asked cautiously,
"Do you know why Dayton hates non-humans so much?"
"Hoo!"
"Is it true they're the reason Earth ended up like this?"
"……That's the truth of it."
Goduwon answered reluctantly. Making excuses would just waste time, and that could delay rescuing his daughter.
"So that's why Dayton hates them so much."
"Not all non-humans were on board. My wife opposed their decision—that's why she got left behind and ended up meeting me. We even got married."
"What did the non-humans do to turn Earth into this?"
Zeon couldn't wrap his head around it.
From what he'd heard, Earth was a massive planet.
Neo Seoul was just a tiny speck by comparison.
How could a world that huge turn into a desert in an instant?
"Even I don't know the details. My wife never talked about it—called it their original sin……."
"Hm."
"Sorry."
"Got it. Let's focus on saving Har for now."
"Thank you!"
Even as they spoke, bomb bees kept smashing into the sand barrier and exploding.
Kwa-kwa-boom!
The deeper they pushed toward the Black Forest's heart, the fiercer the blasts grew. That meant even more bomb bees swarming in for suicide attacks.
The sturdy sand barrier began to shake violently.
Weeeeng!
The sky had turned pitch black.
Bomb bees blanketed it entirely.
"My god!"
Goduwon's face drained of color.
There were dozens of times more than he'd vaguely estimated.
He couldn't believe this many bomb bees infested the Black Forest.
Goduwon asked Zeon,
"You okay?"
"Fine. Time to thin their numbers for real."
"For real?"
"Yeah. Got a skill I wanna test out."
Zeon flashed a sly grin.
Bomb bees were weapons in their own right.
And there were countless of them.
But Zeon wasn't intimidated.
"I've got weapons on this side too."
Kuuuung!
As Zeon ramped up his control, all the sand within dozens of meters of the barrier lifted into the air.
No matter how many bomb bees there were, they couldn't outnumber the sand covering the world.
Overwhelm quantity with quantity.
The only limits were mana and control.
For now, he had plenty.
Zeon began unleashing the image he'd pondered and refined in his subspace into the Black Forest.
The floating sand gathered around him.
It formed something like a massive cylinder.
A colossal cylinder of sand.
The vision in his head manifested perfectly in reality.
All that was left was to pull the trigger.
"Here goes."
Zeon poured mana into the cylinder.
Gaaaaang!
In an instant, the massive sand cylinder spun at terrifying speed.
It sucked in everything around it—and shredded it.
Bomb bees drawn into the cylinder were ground to pieces at horrifying velocity.
Kwa-gwa-gwang!
Chain explosions ripped through the giant sand cylinder.
It was a spectacle hard to believe even seeing it with his own eyes.
Zeon muttered,
"Kinda like a Sand Mixer, huh?"
That was the skill's name: Sand Mixer.
Its strength lay in spinning sand at high speed to pulverize hordes of monsters at once.
The downside? It guzzled mana, so it couldn't run long.
Its grade was still low, limiting the range, but as it leveled up and his mana grew, the power would skyrocket.
At S-rank, summoning a sandstorm might not be a pipe dream.
Goduwon gawked at the Sand Mixer, dumbfounded.
"Insane!"
The blackened sky was gradually clearing.
He couldn't fathom how the bomb bees that tormented the Goya clan so badly were being wiped out this easily.
His wife had never mentioned a skill like this.
Which meant it was a brand-new ability never seen in this world.
Over half the bomb bee swarm was already gone.
But Zeon's expression wasn't cheerful.
"Tch! Mana's running low after all."
"You're out?"
"Guess we stop thinning them here. Let's find Har and get out."
"Wait! Take this—it'll cover your mana shortage."
What Goduwon pulled from his pocket was a necklace glowing with blue light.
Just looking at it felt refreshing; clearly no ordinary artifact.
"What's this?"
"Elura's Tear, a relic from my wife. From her homeland. Once a day, it restores all the mana you've spent."
Greed flickered across Zeon's face.
"Lending it? Or giving?"
"Giving. On one condition: thin out as many bomb bees as your mana allows today."
"Deal."
"Please."
Goduwon handed Elura's Tear to Zeon.
It was a rare artifact even in his wife's homeland. But Goduwon had little use for it.
His skills didn't consume much mana. For Zeon, though, it was a priceless treasure.
He was managing mana now, but as his skills evolved, consumption would explode.
Having a treasure like this made overextending worthwhile.
And it was a win for Goduwon too.
Fewer bomb bees meant higher odds of finding the Black Forest landmark.
Saving Har was crucial, but locating the forest was equally vital.
Unwilling to abandon either, he'd given Zeon the Goya clan's treasure, Elura's Tear.
Zeon slipped Elura's Tear around his neck.
A cool sensation spread from his chest through his whole body.
"Nice!"
It was like gaining an extra mana tank. A thick smile spread across Zeon's face.
Now he could run the Sand Mixer without mana worries.
Gaaaaang!
The Sand Mixer spun even faster, hammering the bomb bees.
Kwa-gwa-gwang!
A massive explosion rocked the Black Forest.
The once-overwhelming bomb bee numbers visibly dwindled.
A bit more, and they'd wipe them all out.
That was when it happened.
Kuuuung!
Suddenly, the Black Forest's core shuddered.
Both men's faces changed.
"Boss time."
"The queen?"
The bomb bees' boss couldn't ignore the near-annihilation of its swarm any longer.
The forest's center heaved, and a bomb bee emerged.
But its size defied imagination.
From head to the stinger on its tail, it measured a full seven meters.
The queen bee, ruler of the bomb bee horde.
Countless eggs clung to her abdomen. But one held a small girl dangling from it.
Goduwon's daughter, Har.
"Har! Why are you there?!"
Goduwon glared wide-eyed.
The egg Har clung to differed in shape and glow from the others.
It wasn't a true queen's egg—more like something mixed with an egg-like mass.
Har had passed out, hanging from it.
"Give me back my daughter, you monster!"
Goduwon nocked an arrow and drew.
It was useless against swarms, but one-on-one changed everything.
He was a martial Awakener specialized in archery.
The arrow targeted the queen bee's head.
"Explosion Arrow."
Peeing!
The arrow rocketed toward the queen bee's head and struck true.
Kwaang!
It exploded, snapping her head back slightly. But she quickly righted it.
No damage at all.
"Damn it!"
Goduwon fired arrow after arrow.
Each hit the queen bee's head dead-on.
Weeeeng!
Her wingbeats grew more furious.
Goduwon's relentless attacks had stoked her rage.
Suddenly, the queen bee vanished from Goduwon's sight.
She was flying at speeds too fast to track.
"Shit! Incoming."
Zeon sensed her movement first.
He hurriedly raised a sand barrier in front of Goduwon.
Kwaaaang!
The sand wall shattered in a deafening blast. Goduwon was flung far back.
The queen bee's supersonic charge had hammered him.
If Zeon hadn't dispersed the impact with the barrier, he'd be dead.
Zeon faced the queen bee.
"You're with me."
Weeeeng!
As if in answer, her wingbeats intensified.