Walking the Path of the Wind
The five agents dispatched by the Argentine Player Association led the way.
As we walked along the damp dirt path, an alien pulse of magical energy flickered at the edge of my vision.
"Then I'll be going in."
The moment I tried to step into the gate, one of the association agents thrust out his arm.
"We'll accompany you."
"I don't recall that being part of the arrangement."
"You're here to solve our country's problem. We can't just send you in alone, can we?"
Hmm.
To me, it looked more like wounded pride.
Sparks of defiance burned in the eyes of the agents assigned to guide me. Their skills were mediocre at best.
When I glanced at Han Suchang, he simply shrugged with a troubled expression.
"Then I have one condition."
"Please, speak."
"You only step in if you think I'm in real danger."
"Of course. We have zero intention of interfering with your gate clear, Mr. Yu. Not even one gram of it."
You'd better not change your mind.
Or I'll toss you to the strange birds as food.
Only after receiving their firm promises did I enter the gate.
Sheer cliffs stretched out on both sides.
The starting point was at the bottom of the gorge, between the two cliffs.
Flap flap!
Birds flew back and forth between the cliffs, beating large wings. These were the strange birds—native residents of the gate.
"Hmmm."
"Those damn birds."
The association agents glared at the strange birds with tense faces.
The creatures treated the steep cliffs like their personal playground. For players who lived with their feet on the ground, they were the worst possible opponents.
Current location: Foggy Gorge.
Power and range of projectile or ranged skills reduced by 50%.
Wind attribute attacks are exempt from the penalty.
As expected.
This was why the Argentine government had given up on clearing it.
The terrain slapped heavy penalties on long-range attacks like magic or arrows. Wind skills were the exception, but since the strange birds themselves manipulated wind, their power was reduced too. Effectively, every attack carried a penalty.
And that wasn't all.
To hunt the strange birds, you had to climb the cliffs, which carried far too much risk.
"What will you do?"
The agents glanced at me with nervous eyes.
These guys. They were acting tough until we actually got inside, and now they're scared?
Instead of answering, I rearranged my mana.
Solar Explosion
Greed's Protection
I detonated the heat I had compressed to its limit above my head. A thunderous roar erupted as the fog was blasted away.
"Kiiiruk!"
"Kiruk!"
The strange birds caught in the Solar Explosion's range plummeted to the ground.
The area and destructive power had been halved.
Even so, a direct hit still delivered devastating force.
I finished off the fallen birds with Dark Dominion.
The association agents' mouths hung open.
Whether they were shocked or not didn't matter to me.
I calmly used Devour on the strange birds' corpses.
◈ One type of essence has been perfectly absorbed.
◈ New Skill — Wind Searching acquired.
Wind Searching
Grade: ★★
Type: Active
Reads the paths along which the wind moves and artificially controls a portion of its flow.
Consumes a small amount of mana.
An auxiliary wind spell that interferes with the flow of air. Rather than attacking directly, its main uses are deflecting an opponent's wind magic or strengthening my own attacks.
But that wasn't the end of my plan.
Black Feather Essence resonates with Strange Bird Essence.
New Skill — Wind Path created.
Wind Path
Grade: ★★★
Type: Active
Reads the paths along which the wind moves and walks them.
Consumes mana.
I got lucky.
I never expected to encounter strange birds in the gate I cleared as an excuse to recruit Enrique Deltoro.
Both Black Tempest and Wind Searching were essences specialized in reading the wind. If you could read the wind's currents perfectly, walking on them became possible.
It required considerable sensory ability and mana control since you weren't stepping on solid ground, but—
Wind Path
You walk upon the flow of the wind. Maintaining balance is difficult where the current is weak.
Normally, this would be a technique that required dozens of failures before you could take even one proper step.
Using my experience from before the regression, I rode the wind and ascended in a single bound.
When I was some distance above the ground—
"Kiiirururuk!"
One strange bird that had avoided the Solar Explosion swooped in with its beak wide open.
I kicked off the air current flowing beneath my feet and leaped.
Then I drove the Responding Dragon Emperor Fist straight into the creature's gaping maw.
BOOM!
The force behind the fist tore the strange bird's body to shreds.
Chunks of meat and blood rained down.
The association agents who had followed me ended up drenched in the strange bird's blood.
"Wait right there. Don't follow me for no reason."
Wind Path wasn't omnipotent.
It only let me rise and fall along invisible paths in the air.
I couldn't freely leap around in empty space. For that, I'd need flight magic or Cloud Steps.
"W-we can help..."
"If you follow and die, they won't even count it as a work-related accident, you know?"
I looked down at the agents with cold eyes.
If they still didn't understand after I'd said this much, there was nothing I could do.
Overwhelmed by my aura, the agents opened and closed their mouths a few times before finally staying put.
WHOOOOSH!
Strong winds raced through the gorge.
It was the perfect environment for using Wind Path.
I rode the currents without hesitation, advancing toward the top of the gorge.
"Kiruk!"
The strange birds that had claimed the gorge as their territory all took flight at once, flapping their wings.
Dozens of them charged in formation.
The sight of bus-sized monster birds rushing in was spectacular.
The only problem was that their target was me.
I kicked off the wind and leaped, landing on a cliff that barely offered enough space for both feet.
While standing on the wind, I couldn't face dozens of strange birds head-on.
The moment the lead birds charged with their talons raised—
I unleashed the Responding Dragon Emperor Fist overlaid with Demon Dragon's Fury. The strike crossed the empty air and slammed into a strange bird several meters away.
CRACK!
The bird's legs shattered, followed by its torso being crushed by crimson energy.
A technique created by infusing the aura of the mythical 'dragon.'
Combined with Demon Dragon's Fury, which amplified dragon-type skills, it could be released in a form similar to fist wind.
Originally, this was a realm I couldn't reach due to insufficient mastery of techniques and internal energy.
Since I was using a shortcut, it consumed about twice the internal energy of normal fist wind release.
I took a short breath and activated the true power of the Yeouiju.
The mana pouring from my heart seeped into the Yeouiju.
The true Yeouiju converted mana into internal energy.
Thirty percent of the mana was lost in the conversion process, but with my overwhelmingly high magic stat, the loss barely registered.
I unleashed the Responding Dragon Emperor Fist in rapid succession. Several strange birds charging from the front were torn apart by the fist winds.
Health and mana restored.
I didn't forget to Devour the corpses mid-battle to recover the mana I'd spent.
Once their numbers had visibly decreased, the strange birds began avoiding direct confrontation.
They frantically flapped their wings, trying to make sharp turns.
"Where do you think you're going?"
I applied full-speed sprinting techniques to Wind Path.
I plunged into the middle of the flock that had been circling in place, then activated Dark Body.
Dark Dominion activated.
Dark Shadow Soul-Chasing Sword activated.
I released all 120 points of Polar Night at once.
The blades, split into ten strands by my internal energy, sliced through the remaining strange birds.
My control had risen dramatically after becoming one with Polar Night.
It wasn't on Nyx's level, but it was plenty powerful.
"This is filthy tiring."
I clung to the cliff and caught my breath.
My heart pounded like a drum.
Even with my high magic stat and the Primordial Dragon Heart, expending massive amounts of mana in a short time was exhausting.
I swept across the gorge, taking down every strange bird I found.
There was no boss monster, but each individual strange bird was so strong—especially with the terrain buff—that they might as well have been named monsters.
No wonder Argentina had given up.
They weren't opponents for me, though.
It was the first message I'd seen in two weeks.
I invested all bonus stats into Polar Night.
All monsters in the Nest of the Strange Birds gate have been defeated.
The gate is closing.
Clear reward: Strange Bird Egg granted.
I had exterminated every last strange bird in less than half a day.
The gate was successfully closed.
"We're sorry, Mr. Yu!"
The Argentine association agents bowed at ninety-degree angles as they apologized.
These guys.
If they'd shown any more pride, I really would have fed them to the strange birds. But at their core, they weren't bad.
"Ah, I have some personal business in Puerto Iguazu."
"We'll report it to our superiors. Please enjoy your sightseeing at your leisure."
The agents had become remarkably obedient compared to when we'd first entered the gate.
Even Han Suchang, who had been waiting outside, looked at them with a dumbfounded expression.
"Sir, did something happen inside?"
"Nothing at all."
I let out a small chuckle.
That said, a strange bird egg, huh.
If I gave it to a player specialized in taming, it would be a jackpot.
I needed to recall who the prominent tamer had been around 2026.
After clearing the gate, we headed to Enrique's house.
Rattle, rattle.
While driving along the unpaved road, a strange smell wafted into my nose.
"Team Leader, stop the car for a moment."
"Yes?"
"It looks like a fight broke out over there."
It was a scent no Korean reservist could possibly miss—the same stench I'd grown sick of smelling during that 'conversation' with Enrique earlier.
The smell of burning gunpowder.
"Go on ahead."
The moment I jumped out of the jeep, I activated Cloud Flow Steps at full power and shot forward across the ground.
The scenery blurred past at incredible speed.
The first person who came to mind in that instant wasn't Enrique—it was Nyx.
Damn it.
I'd left the goddess behind just in case, but the gangsters clearly couldn't wait.
Nyx, manifested in a homunculus body.
Even if the body was destroyed, it wouldn't affect her true self, but I didn't want to see that happen.
"Shit."
All the guns placed along the roadside had been smashed to pieces.
The shoddily built walls had also collapsed from massive impacts.
"Nyx!"
I shouted in urgency as I entered the village.
"You have arrived, contractor of Yeoui."
Nyx greeted me with a relaxed smile, the intruders already bound by Polar Night.
......Huh?
Wasn't this supposed to be an extremely dangerous situation?