Chapter 64

Dokkaebis were monsters ranked somewhere in between low and mid rank .

Although they weren’t generally strong, there were certain tribes that definitely stood out among them .

This was especially true for dokkaebis with horns who were known as ‘kings’ .

And depending on their characteristic, their appearance differed .

You could differentiate them simply by looking at their hair color, for example, ice dokkaebis had white hair like Muyoung .

Muyoung found the area where the ice dokkaebis were gathered .

‘The numbers are small . ’

At most, maybe 5,000 dokkaebis?

They only had half the numbers of others .

“A-oom! A-hoom! A-oom! A-hoom!”

As if they had already practiced the chant, all the dokkaebis were shouting in unison .

When Muyoung approached them, unlike before, no one stopped him .

Except, there were some groups that looked at him in wonder .

“Why did he come alone?”

“Is he a wandering king?”

Usually, dokkaebi kings had few tens to few hundreds of dokkaebis in their group .

Muyoung couldn’t help but stand out as he was alone .

However, there were no enemies . If anything, it was the opposite .

Since the number of ice dokkaebis was small in number, they would be glad to increase their number even by one .

Muyoung pondered for a moment .

‘Advent of Oom . Advent meant that he would return . There was a high possibility that Oom was a dokkaebi with an important status . ’

First, he needed to understand this ceremony .

That way it would be possible to search for Hedley’s Kow at this place without raising any suspicions .

“Have you seen Oom before?”

The horned dokkaebi right next to him gave him a questioning look and spoke .

“Oom’s position was vacant for 1,000 years . ”

Ahh .

Muyoung inwardly nodded his head .

Oom didn’t mean a figure but a position .

But for 1,000 years .

It seemed like they were planning to decide their true leader at this place .

He dug a bit deeper .

“Then… who do you think will take this Oom’s position from this ceremony?”

“Well, of course, it’s going to be ‘Seohan’ . He’s the true ruler who rules over 3,000 ice dokkaebis . Did you come here after living near the border?”

Seohan .

Muyoung slightly turned his gaze .

There was a dokkaebi who stood out more than the rest .

A dokkaebi whose skin was completely blue was receiving many gazes of confidence from others .

‘He looks more like a yaksa than a dokkaebi . ’

Yaksa . They were species known as duaxini which were, in reality, evolved dokkaebis .

Muyoung only heard of them before, this was his first time seeing one .

And there were at least 5 more duaxini present .

Muyoung retracted his gaze and answered coolly .

“You’re right . That’s why I don’t know much about this ceremony . ”

The dokkaebi clicked his tongue .

Fortunately, he wasn’t suspicious any longer and continued to speak .

“A black star ‘Hoom’ will fall from the sky and a trial will start and every dokkaebi will be able to challenge the position of ‘Oom’ . However, this time, things are going to be difficult as there is Seohan . ”

A completely boastful expression .

That meant that he had that much confidence in Seohan .

‘A black star was going to fall from the sky?’

He couldn’t imagine it very well .

However, it seemed like they were being non-aggressive until the black star fell .

He was now able to understand why the fire dokkaebi was completely furious .

“Thank you for your explanation . My name is Muyoung . ”

“I’m Gaon . Gaon, the one that leads the ‘Freezing Land’ tribe . It seems like you’re just a wandering king, don’t do anything pointless and it would best for you to help Seohan . ”

The two held hands .

However, Muyoung didn’t really pay attention to Gaon’s words .

‘If it’s a duaxini, he would have already led many tribes for a long time . So, Hedley’s Kow wouldn’t have turned into a duaxini . It must be one of the dokkaebis who had just joined . ’

First, he removed Seohan and other duaxini from his radar .

However, he couldn’t easily ask this part .

If he was unlucky, Hedley’s Kow might become aware that someone was searching for it . The worst conclusion .

‘A dokkaebi who joined recently . A duaxini would know . ’

Muyoung’s eyes clouded .

Although duaxinis were now removed from his list of suspicions, on the other hand, duaxinis would know .

Which dokkaebis recently joined and followed them .

The most certain way was to ask them .

However, he couldn’t do that now .

He stood out too much and if he made the wrong move, he could seem suspicious .

After the trial starts .

It seemed better to approach them at a better timing .

The ceremony continued for few days .

The energy within the Soul Mountains became thicker each day and during this time, everyone focused on singing the ‘A-oom! A-oom!’ song .

Exactly after seven days since Muyoung joined them .

Thump-!

From the sky, the ‘Hoom’ fell .

Hoom . The black star which brought the trial . A device to find out who the true Oom was!

However, there wasn’t just one Hoom .

There were two black stars that fell from the sky .

“It’s strange . It said in the prophecy that only one would fall . ”

Gaon tilted his head .

“A prophecy can’t always be completely correct . ”

Muyoung was certain .

There were many times when these things called prophecies were very vague .

No, there were more times when they were wrong .

This was because prophecies were received through ‘Descent of God’ .

It literally meant that God came down upon a living being and it was impossible for that living being to listen properly .

There was a high chance that through this process, information became distorted or bloated up .

“Either way… It has now started . ”

Gaon led his 50 tribe members and joined them .

Of course, Seohan the duaxini stood in the very front .

It was the same for other types of dokkaebis .

Two stars that fell in the middle of the mountains .

However, it was more precise to call it a meteor than a star .

Although it was interesting that there was no real impact from the meteors, the two meteors were gathered at the top of a mountain .

And there was a large gap between the two meteors .

“Muyoung, what are you going to do? To be honest, wandering kings are free . We can’t force you . ”

Since he had no group to lead, he also had no responsibilities .

However, Muyoung looked a bit confident .

“Let’s follow . ”

“Good, Muyoung . Then, follow me . You are a guest of our Freezing Land tribe . ”

Even though he said to follow him, it was the same as following Seohan .

At the very front, leaders including Seohan discussed .

And depending on their choice, they entered through the gap of the ‘Hooms’ .

It was the same for Muyoung and messages appeared right as he entered .

‘Endless Battlefield?’

Muyoung’s eyebrows twitched .

There weren’t many entrances to the Endless Battlefield . It hadn’t been long but it was the second time he had entered .

First, it was through the huge marble the fire tars had .

And now it was through the black stars the dokkaebis called ‘Hooms’ .

‘Ha . ’

He looked at his left shoulder .

The number 18 was written on it .

It meant that he had cleared the 18th wave before and the number would change when he produced a new record .

‘So the trial of Hoom meant the Endless Battlefield . ’

He couldn’t be certain .

Two Hooms had fallen onto the ground .

The other one could be an entirely different trial .

‘But was it possible for this many people to enter the Endless Battlefield?’

Muyoung looked around .

A number a bit over 30,000 .

It was the final number of dokkaebis who decided to enter here .

It was small compared to the total number but a number that couldn’t be considered small were gathered here .

However, from Muyoung’s understanding, normal Endless Battlefields could only be entered by one person at a time .

‘Even though it’s different, the content is the same . ’

He never heard of an Endless Battlefield where a great number could enter at once .

It seemed to be a special version of the Endless Battlefield .

However, the very context of the Endless Battlefield didn’t change .

“Though I have heard that this was a place where you fight until you die . Just what is this place?”

As Gaon mumbled to himself in confusion, Muyoung replied in a passing tone .

“Soon, they will come out . ”

“…? Muyoung, do you know something?”

“They’re out . ”

A vast plain .

From a distance, 2,500 goblins were approaching .

And Seohan was the first to run towards the 2,500 goblins .

Clash!

He jumped up high and charged towards the middle of the group of goblins .

Afterwards, the ground started to shake as he struck the ground .

Duaxini . It was the strength only an evolved dokkaebi would have .

“For the Trial of Hoom to be merely killing goblins . ”

Gaon spoke as if he was greatly disappointed .

It seemed like he had some kind of fantasy about the black star, Hoom .

But, as he wasn’t a human with a Status Viewer, he wasn’t able to read the messages .

All the dokkaebis were unable to see the information about the trial that Muyoung had seen .

Therefore, Muyoung gave them advice .

“This is not the end . ”

Since he had already entered, he needed to see it to the end .

If it was 30,000 dokkaebis, he should be able to pass the 18th wave .

To do this, he couldn’t let his guard down .

“Hmph, even if you say so, they are mere goblins . Even if more appeared, they are no match for us . Either way, let’s move Muyoung . We can’t let Seohan clear them all . ”

In number and strength, dokkaebis completely overpowered them .

2,500 goblins died in less than 20 minutes .

At the same time, the next wave started .

“This isn’t the end?”

Gaon who was intoxicated with a feeling of victory blinked his eyes .

Not just Gaon .

Even if it was lousy, a battlefield was still a battlefield .

Most of the dokkaebis were intoxicated with the feeling of victory .

Then, they were dumbfounded as they noticed other monsters approaching .

“It didn’t end . ”

“What?”

“This battlefield doesn’t end . ”

How many waves they clear, that wasn’t important .

Muyoung remembered the words that appeared when he first entered this place .

‘Only 350 can leave here alive . ’

It was about 1% of the total number of dokkaebis who entered .

That meant, they had to continue to battle until there were only 350 left .

Muyoung looked towards the front .

They entered with the fire dokkaebis and they numbered around 10,000 .

Like Seohan, the one leading them was also a duaxini .

Unless they were simply clearing the battlefield…

‘They will have to bump into each other . ’

When they realized the nature of this battlefield, they would inevitably bump into each other .

The ice dokkaebis and the fire dokkaebis were on bad terms .

Even more, since they were greater in numbers, it was obvious who was going to attack first .

‘I need to prepare . ’

Muyoung had strong suspicions that Hedley’s Kow would be with the fire dokkaebis .

Even the one who took the position as Oom a 1,000 years ago was also a fire dokkaebi .

The first time was hard, but the second time would be easier .

They would have more information than others .

In reality, unlike the other dokkaebis, the fire dokkaebis weren’t greatly swayed .

It meant that they were expecting this to a certain degree .

If it was aiming for something, it would obviously side with the fire dokkaebis .

That was why… Muyoung decided to silently prepare .

Either way, this battlefield wouldn’t end in just a few days .

There was enough time to slowly set traps .

Muyoung quietly walked towards a dead dokkaebi .

‘All goblins start off as spirits . ’

Dokkaebis were normally monsters who started off as spirits .

This could be seen by how they normally followed the Five Elements and used powers of the land .

And the relationship with spirits and specters were quiet close . Since there were times you called corrupted spirits, specters .

Then he could definitely turn them into specters and use them .

‘Get up . ’

Six Paths .

Among them, he opened Asura path and extracted the spirit .

Spirits started to float above the corpses of the dead dokkaebis and were sucked in Asura Path, one after the other .

And when Muyoung saw this, the tips of his lips started to wiggle .