Chapter 88: Taking and Being Taken
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 88: Taking and Being Taken
With the farming complete, Gi-chan moved to destroy the remaining Propelling Clouds, but Seo-un stopped him.
“Let the three members of the vanguard destroy any Propelling Clouds that appear from now on,” Seo-un said. “They took on the most difficult roles, so they should get something out of it—though I’m not sure if they’ll manage to fill all one hundred slots.”
“I’ll yield my share to those two,” Dump added. “I’m already hogging enough items as it is.”
Lyle chimed in as well. “I’ll yield to Lingwei-nuna too. She gave me all those Mana Stones earlier.”
“I won’t refuse, then,” Li Lingwei replied with a graceful smile.
As she destroyed the four Propelling Clouds, Juriel watched her with a momentary flash of envy.
“Now that we’re done, let’s move quickly to the next island. We don’t have much time left.”
The moon hung high in the sky, appearing unnaturally large. The sight of the eight players silhouetted against the massive full moon as they soared through the air on clouds was utterly surreal.
Thud.
Seo-un was the first to leap off his Propelling Cloud and land on the ground. As he stood there with a troubled expression, Dump spoke up.
“Shouldn’t someone stay behind to guard these?”
Leaving the Propelling Clouds unattended made them easy targets for enemies to steal or destroy.
“Hmm… Let me see if I can put them in my subspace.”
As he spoke, Seo-un placed his hand on a Propelling Cloud. Instantly, Gi-chan’s cloud vanished.
“Whoa!”
“They can go into the subspace? Then there was no need to destroy them!”
Surprised by his own success, Gi-chan reached out toward another Propelling Cloud.
[Ding! Only one Propelling Cloud can be stored in the subspace per person.]
“Ah! It says we can only store one each.”
“Well, at least we don’t have to worry as much about them being stolen or destroyed now,” Dump said, tucking his own cloud away.
Once everyone had stored their clouds, they activated their maps. Seeing a blue dot in the center of the display, the team began to speculate.
“Do you think it’s been activated?”
“If we assume the group we saw on the Propelling Clouds earlier came from this island, then probably.”
“We don’t know how many enemies landed here, so let’s not jump to conclusions. For now, we move fast.”
Even as the night deepened, the team followed Seo-un without a single word of complaint. Watching him hurry, they instinctively realized that this window of time was crucial.
Even while sprinting ahead as the scout, Seo-un remained hyper-aware of his surroundings. Since Hamit could only detect gazes filled with direct hostility, there was a chance they might miss an enemy if the opponent hadn't noticed them first.
—Wait.
After running for a long while, Li Lingwei signaled the team to halt. As everyone’s attention turned to her, she pointed toward a patch of white mist rising under the moonlight.
She moved toward it, releasing her Blood Poison and adding a medicinal agent to mask their scent. Once she finished and smiled, the team resumed their advance.
On the way to their destination, she stopped to release Blood Poison into no fewer than three ponds. Although this delayed them slightly, no one complained. If anything, their anticipation grew, wondering how much this small setup would snowball later.
Fortunately, they encountered no enemies during their long trek across the island. Eventually, Seo-un stopped and looked into the distance. In his field of vision, he saw blue Dokkaebis swarming around a Propelling Stone.
—Starting the hunt immediately might be dangerous.
Li Lingwei’s assessment was reasonable.
—I know. I’m not fond of having my back exposed either. More importantly, I have no idea how strong those runts are.
—If the squad we ran into activated the Propelling Stone here, there’s a chance no other enemies are around… but the probability is slim.
As expected, Juriel was quick to judge the situation. If the stone had been activated, others should have been targeting it by now.
Just as they were weighing their options, a notification rang in everyone’s ears.
[Ding! You have survived your first day in the Upper Realm. All basic stats have increased by +1. Players surviving in this desolate place, keep up the good work.]
“Ah…” Gi-chan stood with his mouth agape, lost for words.
—This changes things.
At Seo-un’s words, every player nodded.
—The total duration of this game is 500 days. Does that mean, theoretically, all stats could increase by 500?
Gi-chan responded to Jin Long’s question.
—Theoretically, yes… but lasting that long will be the hard part.
—If you get greedy for stats, you’ll have to play passively and just endure. But if you want to dominate and aim for the top ranks, you have to challenge the clear conditions. To get an advantage there, you have to stay on the move, all while packs of wolves target your Propelling Clouds to steal the main prizes. They’ve made this incredibly complicated.
Everyone nodded at Li Lingwei’s summary. As the players were lost in thought, another notification rang out.
[Ding! An activated Propelling Stone is under attack.]
—What, already?
Before Li Min could even finish his exclamation, Seo-un stood up.
“Let’s move. we can’t farm anyway without clearing out those Dokkaebis.”
Seo-un had already pulled out his bow. The players stood up without a word of protest. The discussion wasn't over, but since Seo-un was the primary shot-caller, they followed his lead.
“Gi-chan and I will draw aggro and handle them for now. Sahyung, please activate the Propelling Stone as quickly as possible.”
“Understood.”
“The remaining five, stay alert and prepare for enemy ambushes until I give the order.”
The moment everyone nodded, Gi-chan and Seo-un dashed forward.
As Gi-chan’s Chain Lightning and Seo-un’s Pyeonjeon flew out simultaneously, dozens of Dokkaebis lunged toward them.
“Let’s herd them!”
Instead of backing away, Seo-un and Gi-chan dove closer to the swarm. Gi-chan on his Air Board and Seo-un using his Lightness Skill ran side-by-side, kiting the Dokkaebi mob. As they circled the group to draw aggro, it wasn’t long before nearly a hundred Dokkaebis were swarming after them.
In the meantime, Jin Long approached the Propelling Stone and placed his hand on it.
—Damn! It won’t activate unless we kill the monsters.
[Ding! You cannot re-activate the Propelling Stone without defeating all the guardians.]
At Jin Long’s shout, Seo-un struck the head of a Dokkaebi that had lunged close and yelled, “Gi-chan! Can you do it?”
“I have plenty of mana!”
—Juriel! Stick to Gi-chan!
Having given the order, Seo-un dove into the heart of the Dokkaebi swarm, taking the full brunt of the aggro. As he leaped into the middle of the hundred-strong mob and swung his Chainsword, the Dokkaebis were pushed back, creating a circular pocket of space around him.
Seo-un perfectly gauged their combat power as he fended off the mindless creatures.
‘They’re just meat shields with high HP.’
The ones swinging axes and hammers didn’t have particularly high attack power, nor were they very mobile.
Screeeech!
Swinging his extended Chainsword in a full rotation to clear the area, Seo-un leaped up and threw a punch at a creature aiming for his back.
Thwack!
Before it could land its axe, the creature’s face crumpled, and it was sent flying over ten meters. However, it didn’t die; it scrambled back up, shook its head, and lunged at Seo-un again.
After drawing aggro alone for five minutes, Seo-un heard the team voice chat and slammed his Chainsword into the ground. Even though the terrain was made of clouds, the blade sank in deep.
—We’re ready!
—Fire it now!
Following the order, Juriel cast Chain Lightning. The lightning erupting from her staff shot toward the Dokkaebis, arcing from one to the next without stopping.
Crackle!
Unlike normal lightning, the bolts surged continuously from her staff, electrocuting all one hundred Dokkaebis at once. At that moment, Gi-chan’s golden staff began to glow. Resonating with his staff, a massive bolt of lightning descended from the sky, striking the Chain Lightning Juriel had fired.
Instantly, the Dokkaebis, who had been twitching and trying to move, froze completely. The sudden surge in power was so effective that the blue skin of several Dokkaebis began to char.
“Graaaah!”
Naturally, the lightning also flowed toward Seo-un, who was in the center of the swarm. Seo-un, who had been grounding the electricity through the Chainsword he’d planted, let out a shout and wrenched his weapon free, swinging it with all his might.
As he swung the sword, channeling the residual lightning energy through the blade, he looked like a god of thunder.
Thud, thud, thud!
The heads of the nearby Dokkaebis fell in heaps. The training he had done in reality—practicing how to catch Gi-chan’s Call Lightning and redirect it into an enemy—was paying off brilliantly.
—Sahyung!
Seeing Juriel panting as she lowered her staff and Gi-chan firing off Ice Snakes and Flame Bursts, Seo-un called for Jin Long.
Jin Long joined the fray, firing off Sword Qi. The number of Dokkaebis, already weakened, began to dwindle rapidly.
Vroooooom.
As the combination of Chain Lightning and Call Lightning ended, the Propelling Stone vibrated. The Dokkaebis around it began to recover quickly, but by the time their health started to regenerate, only thirty remained. For Gi-chan, Seo-un, and Jin Long, handling the survivors was a simple task.
—Everyone, come and farm.
Seo-un crushed the skull of the last Dokkaebi and placed his hand on the Propelling Stone.
[Activating the Propelling Stone. Do not remove your hand from the stone.]
While the team members busily picked up the hundred items dropped on the ground, the activation finished, and new Dokkaebis appeared. Seo-un tilted his head as he saw red Dokkaebis—twenty centimeters taller than the blue ones, with fierce, protruding tusks.
[Ding! You have summoned the Level 2 Guardians of the Propelling Stone.]
“Ah!”
He realized that activating a second Propelling Stone increased the level of the guardians. But just as the notification appeared, the red Dokkaebis shrank and turned back into blue ones.
[Authority over the Propelling Stone has been transferred to another squad.]
It seemed the Propelling Stone that had been under attack earlier had finally been captured by someone else.
“Let go of this! You brat.”
Dump pushed aside a Dokkaebi that was standing on a sword on the ground. When he glared at it, the creature merely scratched its head with a vacant look.
“Not like I can talk sense into you anyway.”
Once the farming was finished and the team gathered, Seo-un explained the guardian system he’d discovered.
“Then that means there are Level 3 and Level 4 guardians too?”
“Yes. In other words, we can deduce another squad’s progress and interfere with them just by looking at the guardian Dokkaebis.”
“Then, depending on the situation, capturing a Propelling Stone might be more important than fighting the enemy directly,” Juriel noted.
Seo-un nodded. “From the opposite perspective, it also means we’re that much easier to target.”
“Anyway, we’re done here. Let’s move,” Jin Long said.
While moving to leave the island, the team members exchanged items. Recognizing that every second counted, they distributed the loot while traveling. Just as they were about to leave the island and pull out their Propelling Clouds, Seo-un shouted.
—Enemies!
Seeing figures flying toward them on Propelling Clouds in the distance, Seo-un backed away.
“Fall back to where the Propelling Clouds can’t enter!”
As soon as he spotted the enemy, Seo-un retreated, pulling a black cloak from his subspace and throwing it over himself. Despite the bright moonlight, Seo-un’s body began to blend into the shadows, his presence fading.
The enemies leaped off their Propelling Clouds and charged, showing no intention of slowing down.
“They’re all knights! There’s even a Sword Emperor among them!” Gi-chan shouted, eyeing the squad of eight.
Juriel, whose mana hadn’t fully recovered, cast low-cost spells, while Gi-chan and Lyle fired off the magic they had stored in their staves.
Crash!
The enemy squad, centered around the Sword Emperor, attempted a breakthrough. They tanked the spells with their bodies, charging forward even as their barriers shattered.
—We can't let them push us back!
If their formation broke, the mages would be in grave danger.
Just as the momentum of a knight in compact silver-white armor reached its peak, a single Pyeonjeon flew toward him like a ray of light. Even while charging, the knight reacted instantly, swinging a blue-flaming sword to deflect it.
Boom!
An explosion of red flames erupted upon contact. Through the fire, the knight continued his charge, undeterred.
Watching the sight, Seo-un furrowed his brow and put his bow away. It was time for a different approach.