It was a silent cry, but it delivered a powerful signal of will.
However, Kang Yeon-su was simply aware of the urgent situation and couldn’t figure out how to respond properly.
‘We have to run away!’
In a situation where she didn’t know what was happening, moving away was the answer.
The unknown aura surrounding her became clearer only when someone got closer, but it wasn’t something she could dispel immediately.
‘What the hell is this? It’s super sticky and slimy. And it feels like there’s a strong binding force. What kind of spell is this?’
It was so powerful that even Yeon-su was rendered helpless.
As she desperately tried to hold her and escape, an unidentified aura spread in all directions, resembling the bleak colors of dawn.
Pachichichiching──!!
‘Wha-what?!’
Hundreds of magical blades that she had just managed to fend off surrounded us, bared their teeth.
What was even more chilling was the faint outline of a human figure visible beyond each blade.
‘All the same person?!’
Surprisingly, it seemed that all the blades targeting us belonged to the same individual.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t share the same flow of magic.
[······?!]
That being also showed a great surprise upon seeing me, but that was it; it quickly unleashed the prepared blades.
‘I can die—I’m okay with that. But not Yeon-su!!’
It wasn’t only to protect Yeon-hee’s mind.
There were people who might die because of me.
I couldn’t bear the thought of losing someone again, someone who connected me and Yeon.
Pachichichiching──!
When hundreds of blades were shot out to tear apart me and Yeon-su in the space.
[Blast of Madness]
Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing────
As the self-destruct device activated, the world once again came to a halt, and a dazzling core erupted from my head, shooting high into the sky.
However, the pillar of light was much smaller than when I used it against the Tarantula, leaving me bewildered.
‘Was there not enough time to build the weight of existence? Or was it because it activated twice in one day?’
In the confusion of my tangled thoughts, a disconcerting message popped up.
– “One life” cannot resolve the current situation.
– Would you like to add more lives?
‘Add lives?!’
– Currently, the available lives to add are ten. How many lives would you like to—
‘… All ten!! If I don’t do something about this guy, Yeon-hee is in danger!’
There was urgency since I could already see the blade piercing Kang Yeon-su’s neck, but ultimately, it was for Yeon-hee.
The look of the enemy’s gaze gleamed as he stared at me.
He was a monster who at least reached the level of Hyeon Joong-gil.
Though I couldn’t be certain that adding my insignificant ten lives would stop him.
– [Flame Magic Knight Il-wol] releases the stored 【Weight of Existence】.
The only thing I could do now was to throw my body out, so I unhesitatingly released the weight of existence.
But something shocking happened.
In the stillness of time, the monster beyond the blades showed signs of somewhat overcoming the flow of time.
‘What kind of bastard is he?!’
Our eyes met in the paused clock, and we glared at each other, revealing our thoughts.
[…… What the hell are you?]
‘Who the hell are you, bastard! Eat this!’
– ‘Ten lives’ are taken—
[······!!]
The being observed me, just before I exploded, quickly drawing a complicated circuit of magic with his finger and activated an unknown power.
And then something amazing happened.
– [Blast of Madness] is being reversed.
‘…?! No way!’
My maximum self-destructing skill is this easily—
But I felt his magic twisting greatly, and upon seeing the message that followed, I was able to breathe a little easier.
– ‘The enemy’ makes a desperate attempt to reverse the sacrifice contained with 【Weight of Existence】.
– ‘The enemy’ achieved a remarkable feat by reversing the 【Weight of Existence】 but suffered irrecoverable fatal injuries!
‘Did he strain himself trying to cancel my skill?’
I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I heard that he had suffered a fatal injury.
– Achieved a remarkable feat of inflicting great counter-attack damage against an overwhelmingly stronger opponent! Hidden rewards are given.
– All attributes increase by 10.
– Acquired item [Whereabouts of the Elixir].
With the lengthy messages, the activated self-destruct was undone and canceled, and the blades that had been digging into our bodies, along with the mysterious being that triggered them, disappeared in an instant.
───
A quiet space.
Not a single breath was heard.
“·········”
‘What the hell? He attacked himself, got wounded, and even left me a mysterious reward? Haha— what a funny guy.’
It was clearly a life-and-death crisis, but the sudden turnaround made me chuckle inadvertently.
As he vanished, the aura that was constraining Kang Yeon-su also faded away, yet she remained still, staring at me intensely.
Feeling burdened by her gaze, I hurriedly looked around.
The remaining hunters, including the director of the evolutionary stone organization who had dwarf characteristics, had already vanished.
‘When did they leave? No way, could he have taken them?’
Even when suffering a fatal injury, he seemed to have taken care of his minions; he was indeed an enigma.
‘Damn… If I had stolen just one artifact that dwarf had!’
That feeling of regret surfaced, but that wasn’t what was important right now.
Throughout my life, I had experienced many abilities, but I had never encountered one as strange as this.
‘Huh— cancelling a skill activated by another person… Is that even possible?’
Even the lowest-tier spell, Fireball, varies greatly in the structure of the magic circuits each person uses.
To rewind perfectly just by watching my skill for a moment, just how superior magical ability must one possess?
At least since he was seriously injured, I found solace in the fact that he wouldn’t be able to pull this kind of stunt for a while.
‘Still, I managed to save my life and survive.’
In a situation where I could lose as many as ten lives, I ended up drastically increasing my attributes and even acquired a special item called [Whereabouts of the Elixir].
‘Elixir… I thought it was just a pure fake circulating in the hunter market, a mere legend. But I guess there is a real one?’
=====
[Whereabouts of the Elixir]
– In an era older than ancient times, during the primordial period. The whim of the ‘Mischievous God’ birthed the mystery known as [Elixir].
– [Dragon Lord’s Scale], [Elf Queen’s Tears], [Progenitor’s Fang], [Root’s Leaf].
– Created accidentally while playing with the top-tier materials snatched from the king of the underground world in the ‘Dimension’s Pocket’.
– Surprisingly, it possessed the immense power to revive beings that had been dead for a long time, and its astonishing strength that defies the principles of the universe brought the wrath of other gods.
– The ‘Mischievous God’, unable to withstand the outrage of other gods, hid [Elixir] in a space known only to himself and fell into a deep sleep as punishment for disturbing the cosmic flow.
– This item is a map left behind by the ‘Mischievous God’. You must think carefully whether to trust and follow his arrangements.
=====
‘… What? A map? If I find this place, will I really get the Elixir? No way…’
Reading the explanation without much thought, it laid out a secret story so casually.
‘Dragon Lord… I’ve never even heard about an Elf having a queen. The Progenitor, don’t tell me that’s referring to a vampire? What about the Root’s Leaf and Dimension’s Pocket?’
The story of the ‘Mischievous God’, who made [Elixir] while playing with materials that sounded unbelievable, was straight out of a fairy tale.
‘The map… can’t I see it?’
The map I received as a reward floated in the air, but Kang Yeon-su was completely unaware of it.
Avoiding her intense gaze, I grabbed the map and quickly put it into my inventory.
“??”
Yeon-su tilted her head as I waved at the air and then smiled brightly, placing her hand on my head.
“First of all, should I thank you… to a skeleton soldier? You really have to live long, don’t you think?”
“Clap, Clap, Clap.”
“Hehe—”
Kang Yeon-su gently ruffled my hair when suddenly, as if something occurred to her, she slapped her forehead and said.
“Ah-ha— so that’s what it was.”
Kang Yeon-su looked at her fist intently, as if she had realized something.
Perhaps she figured out something about the mysterious aura that had bound her.
‘It must be a way that triggers when they hit me, or they might have cast a spell on the plant itself beforehand. It has to be one of those two, right?’
Yeon-su’s insight was similar to my predictions, but she grasped it much deeper.
“Those bastards drew the spell underneath the rooftop floor. Hah— A spell related to plants? Why are there so many unfamiliar abilities these days? I felt something strange when I struck.”
‘Wow… Is it really possible to cast such spells?’
“It’s not just one. It’s the spell pre-drawn on the building’s rooftop and the bodies of the remaining four hunters. It’s designed so that if a predetermined condition is met precisely, the power is applied in order, activating one by one. It’s calculated in advance which target I would strike first and with how much force, and even how many times I would attack… theoretically, it’s a condition that cannot be activated.”
‘But it activated…’
Even after listening to the explanation, I still had no idea how that could be possible. Only Yeon-su, who experienced it directly, could understand it accurately.
“To know the conditions that shouldn’t be activated in advance and to design them… Hah— even so, that doesn’t make sense.”
Yeon-su shook her head in disbelief.
Since it was all a strange method, she probably didn’t even feel the strangeness enough to choose not to fight.
Let alone, nature magic blends into the surrounding environment, the property of the force is the least intense. It must have been a creation that incorporated all capabilities accumulated by the A-rank hunter with the peculiar aura.
‘That blade bastard… He really was trying to capture Yeon-su.’
If the initial blade I blocked had indeed headed straight for Yeon-su’s neck, she would have likely sustained a fatal wound. After that, he would have taken Yeon-su and vanished using that mysterious power.
‘It’s clear that the second attack was delayed. That must have been an unplanned strike.’
Though he had a B-plan prepared to kill Yeon-su, he probably hadn’t imagined he would need to execute it.
Then it means his foresight was twisted.
‘Huh─ I initially thought of him as just a villain playing with evolutionary stones, but his presence is no less than Jo Gi-man’s, right?’
If there was any gain, it would be that I experienced his ability once and inadvertently inflicted a significant injury and confirmed that the evolutionary stone organization had no connection to Jo Gi-man.
One thing I didn’t understand was how those who claimed to be humanity’s guardians tried to eliminate or kidnap one of humanity’s strongest forces, Kang Yeon-su.
‘What the hell do those unpredictable bastards really want?’
Flap──
While I was still confused, Yeon-hee was flying towards us, dangling from the newly summoned Nefie 2’s foot.
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