Chapter 164: 164

Act 5

Stomp, stomp—

The sound of footsteps going up the stairs echoed through the castle . They were the only sounds in the empty building . There was no other sound, not even a gentle wind . Karne, who walked up the stairs very slowly, arrived at his room .

“Hello, sir . ”

In front of Karne’s room, another orange-colored dragon was waiting for him . Karne, who was expecting the other dragon, asked without a greeting .

“Have you waited long? If it was something urgent, you could have come down . ”

“No, sir . I just came by to say hello since it’s been a while since I’ve seen you . ”

“Is that so? Then, please come in . ”

At Karne’s word, the other dragon opened the door and left the way open for Karne . In the room, there was only a sofa, a small table, and a bedside cabinet .

“This place always was simple . Nothing’s changed . ”

“I have no use for great jewelry or colorful pictures, Ralph . Why are you so obsessed with such useless things?”

“I don’t think I can ignore them like you do . It’s our instinct to like glittering things, isn’t it?”

“I was like you when I was young . But, as I got older, those things felt vain and empty . Do you want some tea?” Karne asked .

“Yes, please . Thank you, sir . ”

Karne brewed tea quickly and came back . Ralph, seated on the sofa, patiently waiting for Karne’s return, asked .

“So, are you still walking?”

“You mean the stairs?”

“Yes . ”

“Well . We have a lot of time, as dragons . I have strong two legs and enough time to wait . There’s no need to hurry, is there?”

“You’re very unique . ”

“Do you think so? Well, other dragons have said things like that to me many times before . ”

Karne lifted his cup, laughing quietly . Then, Ralph, hesitating slightly, opened his mouth with difficulty .

“Are you really going to sit back and watch?”

“You’re talking about the human and the red dragon?”

“Yes . ”

“Well . If they went to the Cintamani forest, it would be hard to come back alive . Even if they do come back, they can’t enter this city again, unsuccessful . ” Karne looked at himself, reflecting at the cup . “It’s been over a thousand years that we’ve had our position . ”

“Yes . ”

“We can’t give it back to the red dragon . ”

Rumble, rumble—

The cup in Karne’s hand trembled, and the surface of the tea in it waivered . Ralph, seated close by Karne, realized he wasn’t as calm as he seemed . Ralph was relieved .

“But still,” Ralph said, “don’t you think sending those two to the forest might not be enough? That human looked pretty reckless, but…”

“Hey, Ralph,” Karne said .

“Yes?”

“Have you ever seen the Titan Turtle?”

Ralph shook his head at Karne’s question . He born after the war, so he had never seen a huge demonic beast like Titan Turtle .

“That turtle lives there, and that is enough . ”

“Is it…that strong?”

“We lost dozens of dragons to it during the war . I also almost died fighting it, myself . ”

Karne put down his cup and covered his face with his one hand as if just the thought of it gave him pain . Ralph bit his lips, seeing Karne like that .

“What did the red dragons do then?” Ralph asked .

“They did nothing . That’s why I’m still upset with them . ”

Ralph had heard about the red dragons a lot . And, every time he heard about them, he got upset . While Karne sacrificed himself, dedicated to the clan, the red dragons, the most powerful of all of them, had done nothing . No . They had even run away .

“Still…I can’t forgive them,” said Ralph, shaking his head, “They were cowards to abandon the clan, with as much power as they had . They betrayed us . I can’t admit such dragons’ descendants as a descendant of the Dragon King . I can’t . ”

“Yes . They were cowards . ”

Karne got up from his seat, putting down his cup . Soon, he walked toward the window . He muttered while looking out the window .

“That’s why…the red dragon doesn’t deserve to come back . ”

“So, are you sure we’ll be okay?”

“Yes . Don’t worry,” Karne said, trying to soothe anxious Ralph . “They’ll be swallowed up by forest before they even meet the turtle . ”

The Cintamani forest wasn’t dangerous only because of the Titan Turtle .

“There’s no way that man can survive against those hordes of monsters . ”

***

One of the wild beasts in the forest, named Cerber, had two heads and four eyes . It was big, like a tiger, and had sharp claws that could tear through steel . It was very agile, had excellent reflexes and a very sensitive nose that could detect enemies kilometers away .

It was named Cerber because it had one less head than a Cerberus . Among the beast-typed monsters that lived in the forest, they were the most numerous . They were called the savage beasts of the forest, or the rulers because there were so many of them .

Krrr, Krrr—

But the food chain of the Cintamani forest was reversed that day .

Drip, drip—

Splatter—

Dozens of Cerbers stepped back unconsciously . They had always been running forward and forward, and they had lived without knowing that they could be scared of someone . They charged at enemies even if they were about to die . If they kept trying, someone of their clan would bite the neck of the prey soon . But this day was different .

“Yea, it feels good . ”

Thump, thump—

The body of a headless Cerber fell to the ground .

Hiss—

The Cerbers felt like a giant snake was looking down at them . They weren’t sure if that snake was an illusion or not . The group of Cerbers, only half of their original number remaining, couldn’t decide what to do . It looked as if they were debating if the human was prey, or a predator who would change the structure of the forest’s food chain . Su-hyeun smiled when he saw those confused monsters .

Su-hyeun thought .

The skills of the third eye were Predator, Body reinforcement, and Cancellation . Of those skills, the Predator skill was absolutely overwhelming when dealing with many weak monsters . He could suppress the weak monsters with his gaze alone . Thanks to that skill, Su-hyeun was able to stand in a superior position in the fight against many monsters .

But it had only one weakness; the skill consumed too much magic power . So, Su-hyeun studied the technique and figured out a way . It was simple . When he used the Predator skill, he just reduced the power to reduce magic consumption . The power was lowered, but it was enough . He just needed to make the Cerbers confused .

Slash, slash—

Swish, swish—

Su-hyeun jumped into the group of Cerbers and swept at them with his sword . The Cerbers were terrified . They reacted in one of two ways .

Arf, arf, arf—

Some of them charged at Su-hyeun .

Moan, moan—

And some of them ran away . The group was divided into two . But Su-hyeun did not miss either of them .

Su-hyeun shouted toward the Cerbers trying to escape .

“Miru!”

Purr—!

“Catch the monsters that are trying to escape now!”

Flip—

Swish—

Miru spread his wings and chased the Cerbers that were trying to run away . Miru spouted Breath from his mouth . The Cerbers who fled burned like charcoal and fell to the ground . And, during the fight, they could meet really giant monsters sometimes .

Caw, caw—!

Krrr, Krrr—!

Something huge covered the sky . Su-hyeun lifted his head and saw…

It was a flying-typed monster . Those monsters were the reason Su-hyeun couldn’t ride on Miru’s back . Su-hyeun’s strength came from fighting on the ground . Air combat was his weak spot . Su-hyeun didn’t have the sort of skill that could let him fly freely . But…

Whoosh—

[Leap]

Su-hyeun jumped dozens of meters in an instant . As he leaped twice, he could meet the giant flying monster . It only had bones, and the eyes were empty .

[One Sword Cutting Through Everything . ]

Su-hyeun grabbed the sword with both hands .

Slash—

Su-hyeun cut down .

Crack—!

Boom—!

As he swung the sword, the bony flying monster’s head split, and the large body began to fall .

Caw, caw—!

Soon, another group of flying monsters flew up . At that moment, Miru flew above Su-hyeun’s head .

Swoosh—

[Breath . ]

Whoosh—!

Breath from Miru’s mouth swept over the flying monsters . The heat hit deep in their bones . The flying monsters screamed and fell to the ground . Su-hyeun stroked Miru’s back as he sat down on it .

“Good job, Miru . ”

Purr—!

Miru replied with a proud face . Su-hyeun looked over and around as he came back down to the ground with Miru .

It had already been half a day since they had entered the Cintamani forest . He had been fighting nonstop, but the monsters were pouring in unceasingly . Each of them had a level akin to the monsters who appeared in the blue-colored dungeon . Sometimes, there were monsters about at boss-level .

Su-hyeun could understand why Blanc was so worried . First of all, there were too many Cerbers . Moreover, they didn’t attack one by one . They always attacked in groups .

He couldn’t go to the air to avoid them since there were flying-type monsters . Those were actually more dangerous than the Cerbers because there was no place to hide or run away in the air . Of course, Su-hyeun had no intention of running away at all .

Since the monsters’ level was high, and there were a lot of them, he could get more achievement points . The stats, which hadn’t been raised well so far, rose by a point . As a hunting ground, this place was the best among all Su-hyeun had seen in his trials .

A smile played about his lips . In fact, the meaning of the hunting ground faded a lot from a certain point . At Su-hyeun’s present level, it was a tough thing to collect achievement points or raise stats just by catching monsters in the trials . But there were a lot of monsters there . For Su-hyeun, this 40th-floor trial was sort of the best possible hunting ground to catch monsters and raise his stats .

“Let’s take a break for a moment . ”

Su-hyeun and Miru had been moving for more than half a day . Although Su-hyeun had deep reserves of physical strength and magic, he still needed to rest . In places with a high concentration of monsters like here, they had to rest when they could .

While Su-hyeun was resting, Miru wandered around to see if other monsters were approaching . Another few hours later, Su-hyeun stood guard for Miru . It was possible because there were two of them, not Su-hyeun alone . Miru was undoubtedly playing his part now .

“You did a good job, Miru . ”

Purr—!

After taking a break, Su-hyeun started moving again .

Thump, thump—

Splash—

They walked around about 30 minutes .

Monsters had been appearing non-stop for more than half a day, but they stopped . Something was strange . Su-hyeun looked around and reached his hand to the bushes that had turned dark . He could feel moisture from the bushes .

Su-hyeun sat down on the ground and touched it with his palm . And at that moment…

Pitapat, pitapat—

He could feel little heartbeats through the ground .