Chapter 291: Black Goats (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 291: Black Goats (1)
"Salamander."
At Jinhyuk's call,
Whirrrr!
A subspace opened.
Soon after, a fire lizard far larger than the spirit beast summoned by Johansson appeared.
A glossy sheen ran along its scales.
It had sharp teeth and a magnificent, blazing flame.
"Kaooo! Master! I'm here! What's up?"
Whoosh!
A vivid pillar of fire shot high into the air.
"Right, right. It's nothing major. Just wanted to call you out for a bit. Hey, make the flames a bit stronger. Yeah, make them burn nice and bright."
"A-an intermediate... spirit beast? No, at that size, it's practically an advanced one!"
Johansson's pupils dilated as if they were about to burst.
What kind of melee dealer could summon an advanced spirit beast?
It was utterly unbelievable.
After all, the reality was that even active spirit summoners struggled to maintain low-grade spirit beasts.
But his panic was short-lived.
"Tch! Don't make me laugh. I can handle more than just one spirit beast."
Composing himself, Johansson focused his mana once more.
Hummmm!
Along with a bright light, a water spirit appeared this time.
"Did you call for me?"
The spirit, taking the form of a female, politely clasped her hands together.
A spirit summoner who could control two spirit beasts at once.
With this, he could easily prove his greatness.
However...
"Undine. You come out for a second, too," Jinhyuk said.
At Jinhyuk's words, the situation began to take another bizarre turn.
Johansson's water spirit gasped in surprise and gently lifted her skirt made of water.
"I-I greet the great Water Spirit."
"Do you know me?"
"I saw you once in the spirit realm. Of course, I only watched from afar, so you probably don't remember me. It is truly an honor to meet you."
"I see."
Undine nodded.
"What brings you here?"
"Why else? Because I'm enslaved by a horrible demon. If I don't show up when he calls, hell awaits."
Undine popped a candy made of water into her mouth.
A long trail of water vapor puffed from her lips.
"Sigh... Don't live like your big sister here. Find a good master and walk a path of flowers. Every single day is a struggle."
"You must be... having a really hard time."
"Yeah. I guess this is what they call 'life.' The water candy tastes exceptionally bitter today."
It was a long, deep sigh that carried the weight of years of hardship.
"No, what on earth are you guys..."
Johansson's lips trembled violently.
A spirit showing respect to another spirit only happened when there was a massive gap in their grades.
In other words...
the other person's spirit summoning was on an incomparably higher level.
"What the hell is even happening right now?!"
A scream bordering on a desperate shriek echoed through the passage.
* * *
About an hour later.
"..."
Johansson, who had been so arrogant, was now completely deflated.
It was because he had painfully realized just how weak his spirit beasts were during the subsequent battles against the insects crawling up the passage.
-Ah, so two spirits are your limit? And low-grade ones at that. Ah, I see.
-Haha. Surely you're just doing spirit summoning as a hobby, right? It's not your main class?
-Oh dear, it is your main class? Wow. I know times are tough lately, but I didn't know the Titan Guild recruited unemployed bums. No matter how rare spirit summoners are, this is a bit much.
-You didn't happen to catch the Titan Guild Master's weakness, did you? Like hiding a scandalous video, or taking photos of a secret ledger?
-Just kidding. Don't glare at me like that. It makes me want to gouge your eyes out. Anyway, I'm so, so glad you became a real spirit summoner. If you had any other class, you'd probably be stuck running 1st-floor goblin raids.
Jinhyuk had summoned all five of his spirit beasts as if to show off.
The way they wiped out the insects using their signature "Spirit Special Forces" poses and coordinated combo skills was nothing short of awe-inspiring.
It was impossible to even guess how brutally they must have been trained to pull off such maneuvers.
"You must have some kind of flashy ultimate move too, right? Hmm, maybe not, since you only have two?"
"I... I have an ultimate move too..."
"Ah. I suppose your spirit summoning itself is the ultimate move. It lures the enemy into letting their guard down, thinking, 'There's no way this is all he's got,' while simultaneously making your allies clutch the back of their necks and collapse from high blood pressure."
Jinhyuk smiled brightly.
"Master. That mister is crying."
Gnome, who looked like a tiny golem, pointed a finger at Johansson.
"If you guys just play, eat, and roll around all day, you'll grow up to contract with someone like him."
"No way. I hate weak masters like him."
"Yeah. His mana is so weak, we'd probably struggle just to manifest in this world."
"I'd rather bite my tongue and die."
"I'll train hard from now on, Master!"
"Everyone, quiet down. You're giving me a headache."
For once, the spirits were in perfect agreement as they praised Jinhyuk.
Even if his personality was twisted, a contractor with abundant mana was far more reliable.
On the other hand, Johansson, who had to listen to all of this right to his face, felt like every single second was hell.
Shame and humiliation.
Beyond that, his human dignity had been degraded to the point where it felt like a cockroach's hind leg.
"You're quite mischievous."
Aidan wore a bitter smile.
He had stood by and watched to teach the arrogant rookie that the world wasn't so easy, but...
the "true education" was far too shocking.
It was enough to break his very will to live.
"Haha... Damn veterans, damn talented bastards. Die, all of you. Please, just die. Die. Die."
Seeing him mutter to himself as he trudged along at the very back of the raid team...
the mental damage seemed severe indeed.
Was I a bit too harsh?
...Like hell I was. I needed to drill PTSD straight into his bones so he'd never even think of stepping out of line again.
'Looking at how the spirit beasts contracted to him seem to like my Undine and Salamander, maybe I should just force him to break his contracts and recruit some new slaves.'
It was a golden rule to crush anyone who dared bare their fangs so thoroughly that they would never dream of doing it again.
But right then.
Tring!
An alert sound, slightly different from the usual, rang out.
It wasn't a personal status window.
A status window had appeared in front of everyone—not just Jinhyuk, but all the Titan Guild players in the passage.
[A 'partial' crack has formed in the system.]
[Communication with the outside has been established.]
[The conditions have been met.]
[Something indescribable is manifesting!]
The blood-red status window was incomparable to anything they had seen before.
It was chilling.
The air froze.
"...Could this be?"
Jinhyuk was the only one here who knew exactly what this meant.
At the same time...
[A message has arrived from Player Cheon Yu-seong.]
[A message has arrived from Player Teresa.]
[A message has arrived from Resident 'Andrea'.]
A flood of messages blocked his vision.
...It had begun.
Far faster than anticipated.
"P-Player Kang Jinhyuk. What on earth... is happening?"
Aidan asked urgently.
He, too, was being bombarded with red status windows and messages from the guild's main force.
"T-The Japanese prophet clearly said we had a week left..."
Right. Takeshi had said that.
However, Takeshi's prophecy only meant that the true body of the 'Black Goat' would descend in a week.
He must have failed to foresee that its vanguard of minions would arrive before then.
'...This is a bit dangerous. This time.'
Jinhyuk's heart began to beat rapidly.
* * *
A day spinning like a hamster wheel.
In a way, it had been a tedious and dry daily routine.
If anything, it was human nature to be desperate for some form of excitement.
However...
all of that crumbled starting from this very moment.
Whirrrr!
Whirrrr!
Simultaneous cracks formed, spanning both the inside and outside of the Tower.
Black smoke billowed out from beyond the shimmering surfaces.
The 5th floor of the Tower of Trials, the 'Arena'.
The border region between the Murim and the Empire.
From the United States, France, China, Australia, and all the way to South Korea.
A total of seven Gate entrances shook violently, as if something was about to burst out at any second.
"Tell all guild members currently in the Tower to gather in Daejeon immediately! Yes, Daejeon! I said Daejeon!"
Kim Gi-tae of the Ssaulabi Guild screamed like a madman.
Han Sang-jin, the president of the Korean Awakeners Association, along with rankers from other major guilds, also moved swiftly.
"Gather the necessary personnel. Notify the police and the military to initiate evacuation procedures for the citizens. Also, what about support from overseas?"
"They seem to be in chaos as well! We can't even get in touch because of the Gates appearing in their own countries!"
There would be no support.
At that realization, a heavy silence fell over the Awakeners Association staff.
Although it was only a wide-area scan and not a direct measurement...
the mana radiating from the Gate that had appeared in South Korea was already far beyond measurable limits.
But right then...
"Japan...! The Samurai Guild has promised to send support!"
One of the staff members in charge of communications shouted urgently.
"Japan?"
"Yes. A ranker named Takeshi, who prophesied this event, said he owes a great debt to our Player Kang Jinhyuk. He said they will send support immediately, so we just need to hold out a little longer."
Kang Jinhyuk.
Once again, someone who owed him a debt had stepped forward.
A deep sense of gratitude mixed with self-deprecation washed over Han Sang-jin's face.
It was a mixture of shame that he, the leader of the Korean Awakeners Association, had less influence than a single player, and...
pride that such a reliable player, whose mere existence brought reassurance in this time of crisis, was on their side.
"Where is Player Kang Jinhyuk right now?"
"We have confirmed that he entered the 16th floor."
"Keep searching for him. That is our top priority."
If there was anyone who could resolve this situation...
...it was only that one man.
Han Sang-jin clasped his hands together. His hands trembled violently.
And so...
the situation unfolded, with every second being critical.
Japan's Samurai Guild moved to help South Korea.
India's Gandhara Guild moved to help China.
Though they usually acted solely for their own interests, the appearance of an irresistible enemy forced everyone to unite.
Under the banner of humanity.
And...
with the cold calculation that if the front lines collapsed, they would be next.
*The current location of the Gate in South Korea was Gapcheon, the heart of Daejeon.
An incredibly massive Gate floated above the water flowing along the riverside.
"Is this... a dream?"
"Why is something like that here? What on earth..."
Ordinary citizens stared blankly at the water.
The sight was so surreal that it felt as if time had stopped.
"Don't just stand there watching, evacuate! You over there! We don't have time. Hurry!"
"Please move quickly. The guild members need to get through, so clear your vehicles to the sides and board the military buses."
Police and soldiers controlled the roads.
Guild players also gathered by the minute.
"Brother Jang. Have you ever seen anything like that?"
A martial arts-type dealer swallowed hard as he stared at the Gate.
"Damn it. It's my first time seeing one of this scale too. I thought I'd been through enough in the Tower of Trials over the past year, but this is on a completely different level. It's not just the size of the Gate... even from this far away, the mana is absolutely suffocating."
"How are we supposed to block that on our own? Haha... ha..."
"We have to buy time. Until rankers stronger than us arrive."
That was the best they could do.
After all, with only about a hundred people gathered here, they wouldn't stand a chance against whatever came out of there.
Right then...
Uwoooo...
Along with a bizarre, eerie cry...
something absurd began to emerge from beyond the crack.
"I-It's coming!"
"Damn it. The civilians haven't even fully evacuated yet...!"
"Form up! Damn it, we have to hold out somehow!"
Ruuuumble!
Ripples slowly spread across the water as the Gate opened completely.
A massive creature in the shape of a black goat came into view.
And the moment they laid eyes on it...
"Aaargh!"
"Aaaack!"
Horrific screams erupted from the players' mouths.