“Ugh…”
Liu Xiao-Wo wasn’t exactly clueless.
“W-what did you do…?”
I thought about how to phrase it and just said it as it was.
“I left a mark.”
“A mark?!”
“Yes.”
“A mark, as in… that’s mine…?”
I didn’t know what she was thinking, but this wasn’t the time to be casual about it. Maybe she knew that too because she quickly snapped back to reality and nodded at me.
It was the moment we both sensed our parting without saying a word. There was no time for a grand farewell.
I greeted her with a heavy heart, forcing a bright smile.
“Goodbye.”
As soon as I said goodbye, Liu Xiao-Wo hurriedly took something out from her space.
“This, this is all I have… I’m so sorry.”
“A badge?”
It was the second artifact shaped like a badge since ‘Soho’s Fools’.
A small black artifact with a smooth surface, but somehow it emanated a sense of luxury.
“I…”
Liu Xiao-Wo gently placed the badge against my chest. Then the badge flared slightly and disappeared as if it had melded into my armor.
“Blessed Magic Badge (Black)”
– Magic Power +450
– Provides location information to the holder of the white badge.
“Huh…?”
I paused for a moment while reading the artifact’s description, and Liu Xiao-Wo lowered her head, nervously fidgeting with her fingers.
‘So obvious…’
Since I left a mark on her, did it mean we were even? If it only provided location information, I wouldn’t need it, but if it raised my magic power by a whopping 450, that was a different story.
I lightly nodded, and her face lit up as though she was overjoyed to have formed a small bond with me.
“Take care…”
“See you next time.”
Boom──!!
With a violent push against the ground, I left Liu Xiao-Wo behind.
Her waving hand worried me a little, but those thoughts quickly faded away.
‘Why does the atmosphere feel so twisted?’
Something was definitely off in this world. The fact that I kept signaling Yeon-hee with no response made me even more anxious.
‘Hurry – as fast as possible!’
With a sense of urgency, I burned my magic power to push my speed to the max.
Did I fly for about 30 minutes?
I sensed something strange in the waves of perception.
‘What the heck is that bizarre creature?!’
A three-headed orc, about my size, was gracefully soaring in the sky, and I found myself stopping mid-air.
Flap-flap—
The orc was flying with what looked like wings made of stones.
Despite being smaller in stature than most orcs, its long white wings gave it a majestic presence.
“Whoa?!”
The creature suddenly turned its head, noticed me, and tilted its head in confusion.
Its green body was covered with white spots like it had vitiligo— this was a variant of orc I had never seen before.
“………”
“………”
For a brief moment, we sized each other up and then lunged toward each other as if we had made a silent pact.
Pshhh──
With a noise like a gunshot, we exchanged a few blows, and soon, the orc’s heavy fist was rapidly chasing after my face as I dodged.
‘What?!’
I was a bit taken aback by its speed, much quicker than I had anticipated. I activated [Bran] to evade its attack and then launched [Gray Storm] at its abdomen.
Boom──!!
“Ugh—?!”
As the storm viciously ripped through its belly, the ‘Triple Head Orc’ was sent flying backwards.
“Cough! Gack—!”
The creature spewed out a mouthful of blood from its three mouths, glaring at me in irritation.
Then, it smeared its own blood on itself and flashed me a triumphant grin.
‘A crazy guy.’
Its blood rapidly spread like a tattoo across its bulging muscles.
‘Blood Frenzy?!’
Did it just whip out that card after taking one hit? What a hasty character!
“Khwaaaack!!”
Now faster than before, the Triple Head Orc charged at me again.
I almost lost track of its position for a moment, so the effect of Blood Frenzy was certainly impressive.
Bang bang bang!!
We exchanged dozens of blows at close range, but neither of us could gain the upper hand.
‘This guy learned martial arts for an orc, huh?’
Of course, I couldn’t even bask in those thoughts for long.
[Chain of Flame]
“Raaah!!”
The orc could no longer resist as I unleashed Chain of Flame five times in quick succession.
With a fierce war cry, I swiftly decapitated the orc’s head.
Whoosh──!
Perhaps due to having three heads, the amount of blood gushing was immense.
In the air, a rainbow shimmered as a message appeared.
– You have defeated a variant of ‘Triple Head Orc’ for the first time!
– Trait [Thievery] activates.
– You acquired the Trait [Hyperflier]!
– Achievement [Pioneer] activates.
– All Attributes increase by 1!
[Hyperflier]
– Increases attack speed by 20% during aerial combat.
‘Ah, this is why it was such a hassle.’
No wonder its punches hit hard. Nevertheless, I absorbed the creature’s unique ability.
‘Hurry – hurry!’
I didn’t even have time to savor my growth before collecting the orc’s corpse and heading straight back to Korea.
I encountered an unknown orc.
And a flying one at that?
‘What the hell is going on?’
It didn’t take long to find out.
The devastation I saw upon arriving in Korea looked eerily familiar.
Snapping out of it, I pulled out my phone from my space.
‘Damn… has that much time passed?’
I realized why Tanya urged me to hurry and why she came to me despite the danger.
* * *
Just as Il-wol barely escaped China, Yeon-hee and the ‘White Alliance’, including her, were in the midst of a defensive stand centered around Yeon-hee’s house.
The reason they had set up a makeshift base in a regular household was—
“Whoa-ooor!”
“Haha!”
“They’re coming again!! This time there are plenty of high-rank fighters!!”
Surprisingly, it was due to the large-scale assault of orcs that had crossed dimensions.
The attacks were ongoing, and their numbers were steadily increasing.
Not to mention—
“It’s a chimera!! Everyone retreat to the castle!!”
The horrifying hybrid named ‘Improved Rough Tooth’ had also invaded alongside the orcs.
They weren’t in large numbers, but a couple of them were glued to the massive orc forces.
Each of their hundreds of tentacles wielded blade-like precision and moved so nimbly that they sliced through anyone in their path like cheese.
What’s more, their vitality was so tenacious that they kept moving even after having their heads severed.
“Those things only appeared in our country?”
“If it weren’t for that chimera, we could handle this… That one would require an S-rank to just barely stop it!”
As Joo-ah had mentioned, the defense of the Improved Rough Tooth was beyond imagination, so even an S-rank Hunter or at least an upper A-rank offensive Hunter was needed to deal with it.
“What the heck is that monster that suddenly popped up?!”
“Is there something extraordinarily sweet in Korea… Ugh…”
This mess had started three weeks ago in this world’s timeline.
Just a few days after Yeon-hee summoned new summoned creatures with the Transcendent Summoning Scroll.
Thud—thud—thud—thud—
If Earth had a heartbeat, this might be the sound of the catastrophic beginning.
Responding to the signal, gates began popping up all over the world, with the number that had formed in Korea alone reaching over two hundred.
More than any other country.
No one knew why this was happening, why our country had opened more gates, but—
– GRAAAAHHH───!!
The deafening roars of the Orc Legion from another world made their intentions crystal clear.
They would conquer. They would take. They would kill everything in sight. They would claim this world as their own.
It left no room for thinking about other motives behind their blatant malice.
Three weeks had passed since then.
Awakened beings, amounting to 10% of the global population, tirelessly sought to prove the reason behind their newly manifested abilities.
The fortunate thing was that the ‘Orc Battle Commander’ class orcs, said to have transcendent combat powers, hadn’t shown up yet.
Naturally, no monstrous orc legion commanders had appeared either.
“Phew- Phew- Yeon-hee, can’t we call that one again?”
“The cooldown isn’t up yet…”
On the first day of the orc invasion, Yeon-hee had summoned a tremendous entity in a situation where they were suddenly surrounded by orcs.
That summoned creature had displayed astonishing combat ability, swiftly annihilating the ‘Orc Warrior’ leading the massive orc army.
The ‘Orc Warrior’ was known to reach the S-rank mid-tier, just below the top ranks.
Only the orc Battle Commanders and Orc Legion Commanders were stronger, proving how formidable that one was.
Moreover, it was a creature that could wipe out such a powerful opponent without a trace.
Thanks to that, the White Alliance could easily escape to Yeon-hee’s home, fortified with stones Il-wol had brought from the ‘Dark Space’.
But that summoned creature, as powerful as it was, couldn’t be summoned for long, and had an incredibly lengthy cooldown.
Yeon-hee didn’t summon it unless in extreme danger, but as the orc assaults intensified, she was forced to summon it more frequently.
This way, they had reached a point where they couldn’t summon it even if they wanted to.
(Master, shall I heal you…??)
The fact that they had managed to hold out for three weeks was primarily due to the shared abilities and the second summoned creature brought through the Transcendent Summon Scroll.
The first healer-positioned summoned creature, ‘Eden’.
She left a strong impression in her dark green robe. As she opened the third eye on her forehead, green energy began to rise from the bodies of the White Alliance and the summoned creatures around.
[Infinite Healing]
[Bond of Life]
[Infinite Healing] instantly heals up to 25% of health and provides ongoing healing up to 75%.
And [Bond of Life] allows sharing vitality among party members.
‘Eden’ was a perfect healer with incredible prowess.
However, despite her backing, they were overwhelmed by the orc’s aggression, indicating that the situation was dire.
The overwhelming numbers of the orc legion, the limited magic power, and the deteriorating mental strength. Even the dwindling food and water supplies.
Even the usually confident Noh Ha-yoon couldn’t shake off the chill of her impending death.
“Uwaah- Ugh…”
“Are you okay, unni?”
“I-I’m fine… Azraelon, can you give me a bit of room?”
(Hmph, there are quite a lot of bugs here!)
Azraelon had taken the form of a gigantic divine beast and was now perched atop the walls of Yeon-hee’s home, which had become a shelter.
If legendary creatures were to materialize, would they look something like this?
Shredding off its cute feline figure, Azraelon opened its mouth wide and released a shockwave forward.
With a horrific rumbling sound, the charging orcs flew away in a fan-like arrangement, almost like dominoes.
Some orcs, who were of the fighter class, got their heads ripped off, exploding into a spray of gore.
“Whoa— no matter how many times I see it, it never gets old. Haha.”
Ah-rin smiled at the sight of the scattered orc heads after a long time.
For her, who had to directly clash with the orcs, this spectacle was likely more exhilarating than it was for the other companions.
In an instant, the battlefield was cleared.
But everyone knew this wasn’t the end, leading to an even deeper weariness.
For a moment, Yeon-hee relaxed and took a break.
A bolt of lightning-like signal struck through her mind.
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