Chapter 63
I climbed the mountain, cutting down swarms of bees as I went.
According to Saessak, the Crowd bastard was somewhere around the middle of the mountain.
He kept sending bee swarms at me, as if he was trying to stop me from getting any closer.
I swung Arca at the swarm.
Was it because I’d picked up the Hidden Quest skill Humming the Sword?
I had finally come to understand the secret hidden inside Arca.
The blue blade, tall as a three-story apartment building, could sweep horizontally without leaving even the slightest mark on the mountain.
Exactly.
With that blue blade, I could cut only what I wanted to cut.
The mountain’s trees and rocks stayed untouched, and only the swarm of bees was sliced apart.
The World Tree sapling warns that another swarm of bees is approaching.
It reports that they are a stronger breed than before.
The moment I read Saessak’s warning, a black swarm appeared.
They really did look vicious, just like it said they would.
If the ones from a moment ago had been ordinary worker bees or scouts, these looked like bees specialized for combat.
They were at least one and a half times larger, and their pincer-like mouthparts had grown just as much.
The biggest change was, of course, the stinger at the end of their tails.
Though I wasn’t even sure a stinger as thick as my forearm still counted as a stinger.
“Huff!”
I let out a rough breath and drew Arca back.
Then I swung it horizontally in a flash.
The densely grown trees were left uncut; only the swarms were carved apart.
This ability to cut only what I wanted was because Arca’s blade was made of the World Tree’s mana.
It was the same principle as Warm Touch.
When I used that on a monster, it became an attack that smashed their head in, but when I used it on Saessak, didn’t it become the act of passing mana along?
In other words, it all depended on how it was used, on the intent behind it.
“Even if they’re stronger, though...”
Arca had even cut down a Cyclops, even if that had been an artificial existence.
There was no way a pack of oversized hornets was going to survive this.
The swarm split in half and rained down in a shower of bodies.
Of course, there were so many of them that some still survived and came at me.
The ones that reached me had their heads crushed by Warm Touch in my left hand and died.
The sapling reports that it can sense a repulsive aura right in front of you.
It can feel mana beginning to writhe violently.
This is the same flow it has experienced twice before.
The sapling says the enemy is definitely undergoing a transformation, and warns you to be careful.
“Thanks!”
I thanked Saessak for the warning and swung Arca again.
The endlessly appearing swarm was dying with ease.
He probably didn’t think I’d actually be stopped by these bees.
He must have sent them out to buy time for his transformation.
Well, that didn’t matter.
I was already growing more accustomed to Arca thanks to Humming the Sword. The longer he dragged this out, the stronger I got too.
Soon enough, the sound of wings filled the air vanished.
I’d killed every bee that had come at me.
“Brandish the World Tree.”
Mana flowed from my hand into Arca.
The mana that surged through it wrapped itself around Arca’s blue blade.
Then,
The sapling senses that the surging mana has gone still.
Saessak sent me a message.
The turbulent mana had gone still.
There was only one thing that could mean.
“Is the transformation over?”
The sapling confirms the manager’s words.
It adds that a foul aura is rushing toward you at full speed.
“Thought so.”
Kim Jeong-cheol, who had transformed into a bat.
Yong Du-sik, who had insisted he was a centipede while being a mosquito.
Those were the only two Crowd executives I’d faced so far, but they had one thing in common.
They’d both gone on about some overwhelming power or other and radiated ridiculous confidence.
This bastard was probably the same.
Just like the others, he’d been drunk on his own strength and lost all normal sense of judgment.
He’d probably come at me blindly, brave as a drunkard who can’t tell what’s in front of him.
I’d used Brandish the World Tree because I’d guessed as much.
Thanks to the ten servings of Warm Touch, mana now covered Arca’s blue blade.
“Baek Do-woon!”
I heard a woman’s voice calling my name from the top of the mountain.
I also heard the heavy crashes of trees toppling over.
Frowning at the noise, I looked up.
Something was coming down the mountain, felling trees in its path.
It was definitely the transformed apostle of the demon race.
“So it was a bee after all.”
Just as I’d expected, it had the form of a bee-human.
Half bee, half human, it flew toward me at speed.
I used Brandish the World Tree on it at once.
Like swatting a whining mosquito with a flyswatter.
“...!”
I’d expected the usual crescent of mana to fly out.
I was wrong.
The mana that shot forward was a half-moon.
The half-moon-shaped mass of mana cut through everything in front of it.
Trees, rocks, and one of the bee-man’s legs.
What I’d been aiming for was the bee-man alone. I had never meant to cut the trees or the rocks.
It looked like I’d lost control of my strength.
I hadn’t been able to control all the mana inside Arca.
“Kyaaaah!”
The bee-man, with his left leg sliced away, screamed in pain but did not stop.
With the long stinger on his right arm thrusting toward me, he charged.
The black stinger looked like a knight on horseback leveling a lance.
Could it pierce tree bark too?
That thought flashed through my mind, and then a scene appeared in it.
I saw myself pulling Arca upright to block the sting.
That was definitely Humming the Sword kicking in.
It was telling me the optimal way to use the sword in this situation.
“...!”
“Die, Baek Do-woon!”
There was no time to be admiring it.
The bee-man, now right in front of me, thrust the stinger out.
Just like in the image that had flashed through my head, I pulled Arca back upright from the horizontal swing.
Crash!
The sound of impact rang out.
Dust billowed into the air.
The bee-man stared blankly at Arca, which had blocked the stinger from his right arm without a scratch.
He looked like he couldn’t believe it.
“I-it can’t be...!”
“You always do that. How long are you going to keep reacting like this?”
“Ghk!”
I reached out with my right hand toward him.
He flapped his wings late, trying to dodge my grasp, but my hand was faster.
With my right hand, I clamped down on his neck so he couldn’t escape.
I felt a strange texture beneath my fingers, soft and hard at once, like I was grabbing some insect with my bare hand.
“I won’t let go!”
He swung his right arm to shake my hand off.
The stinger on that arm scraped across my cheek.
Even though my tree bark was active just fine.
I understood why he’d looked so utterly stunned that it was impossible.
Even I couldn’t believe he’d managed to scrape my cheek as if I didn’t have tree bark at all.
I wasn’t even cloaked in sword qi. How had he done that?
“...I need to do something about that arm first.”
“Hah! A punk like you-”
I didn’t bother listening to whatever he was babbling.
I brutally swung my right hand and slammed his body into the ground.
Then I stomped down hard on his chest with my left foot.
I felt something under me that I couldn’t tell was human flesh or insect shell.
“Aagh!”
Even while pinned under my foot, he glared up at me.
Those eyes were vicious.
I reached out with my right hand and picked up Arca.
As I swung it to cut off his stinger-arm,
Bang!
His right arm exploded.
Arca slipped from my hand and drove itself into the ground.
If it had landed a little farther left, it would have taken the bee-man’s head clean off.
As it was, it only sliced off a wing.
“...What?”
I stared at my right arm in surprise at the sudden turn of events.
It was in a pretty miserable state.
The exploded part was around the elbow, but it hadn’t come completely off.
It hung on by a thread of flesh, dangling limply.
I looked down, thinking maybe the bee-man had done it.
“....”
No.
He was staring at his own right arm too, just as stunned as I was.
Then what on earth had caused this?
And why wasn’t it healing like usual?
The sapling says it’s because of mana overload.
My body was currently flooded with more mana than it could handle.
Using skills repeatedly in that state had pushed my body past its limit.
So the sapling recommends finishing the job and then pruning.
Ah, so that was it.
Once I knew the reason, I felt a lot better.
Saessak really didn’t miss a thing.
I nodded, and then I saw it.
A smile blooming on the bee-man’s face.
It was the smile of someone who believed he still had a chance to live.
“Yeah...!”
All of a sudden, the bee-man showed some spirit.
The spirit of hope that he might survive.
What a crazy bitch.
“There’s no way you can keep using skills that powerful one after another without paying any penalty! Hurry up and self-destruct, you stupid bastard!”
And then he even burst into hearty laughter.
Anyone watching might have thought I was the one pinned under his foot.
I stamped harder on his chest.
The laughter turned into pain.
“Hahahaagh!”
Looks like I’d need to break his spirit first.
“Damn it, what a pain.”
I deliberately grabbed the limp, dangling right arm and ripped it clean off.
Pain shot through me, but it was my own doing, so it was bearable.
I used the torn-off arm to smash him across the head.
“Aagh!”
I looked down at him, writhing in pain.
He was really wailing over getting hit in the head just once.
My face reflected in the bee-man’s black eyes.
The face in those eyes was smiling.
Unlike the corners of his mouth, which were shaking like mad.
“You, you monster...!”
“Monster? Hey, anyone looking right now would say you’re the monster.”
I tossed aside the right arm as I spoke.
Then I reached out with my left hand and picked up Arca.
Just as I’d originally intended, I sliced off the bee-man’s right arm.
He screamed and kept thrashing.
“Don’t act like it hurts.”
At that, the bee-man gritted his teeth and glared at me.
For all the screaming he’d been doing, he still had enough pride left to hold onto.
His glare was vicious beyond words.
Those spiteful eyes seemed to be telling me that this wasn’t him pretending to be hurt, but that he really was in pain.
“Wouldn’t the kids you killed have been in even more pain?”
“Ha! You think I’m the same as those little brats?”
“What?”
“I—”
I struck his cheek with Arca.
Because his mouth was open, a few of his teeth flew out.
“I wasn’t asking for an answer.”
“...!”
He glared at me.
But he didn’t open his mouth again.
He’d realized that if he did, I’d hit him again like before.
“You made one mistake.”
I laid Arca across the bee-man’s body.
The moment the sword made of the World Tree touched him, he went limp.
From the look on his face, it seemed like he couldn’t even muster his strength properly.
He probably couldn’t.
These were the kind of filth-ridden creatures Saessak described as repulsive.
There was no way Arca, made from the World Tree’s branch, would touch his body and leave him fine.
“...!”
I sat down on his body with my ass planted on Arca.
“You touched someone you never should have touched.”
“...You’re funny. You think you’re that kind of being?”
“No. I’m not talking about me.”
I reached out with my left hand and stroked the bee-man’s cheek.
He shuddered as if my touch disgusted him.
“Choi Claudia.”
“The orphanage director? Why the hell would that old woman be someone you can’t touch?”
“My person.”
“What?”
“I just can’t stand people messing with my own.”
“...Don’t make me laugh!”
The bee-man screamed.
He looked at me like I was saying complete nonsense.
It was a very familiar look.
I’d seen it often enough in my life.
“You should’ve just picked on me. Then you could’ve died without all this pain.”
I smiled faintly and raised my index finger.
The bee-man’s eyes flew wide open.
He’d seen me split bee heads with this, so he probably thought his own skull was about to be crushed the same way.
Of course, I had no intention of doing that.
That would have killed him too easily.
With my index finger, wrapped in Warm Touch, I tapped my own leg.
“...??”
I began pruning.