Chapter 426. The Center of the Great Forest

Translator: Boko

Kang Oh prioritized one task over the others.

He would raise his proficiency in Demonic Swordsmanship until it wouldn't go up anymore. In other words, he would reach the 'wall' that Burkan referred to as soon as possible.

'It'd be nice if my ring gave me a spontaneous quest for Demonic Swordsmanship.'

Kunta's Golden Talent Ring!

This ring occasionally triggered spontaneous quests that yielded a huge increase in proficiency. If it gave him a Demonic Swordsmanship quest, then it'd make his life a lot easier.

However, he wasn't overly reliant on it, as he didn't know when it'd activate, and which skill it'd activate for.

Ultimately, Kang Oh had to invest a ton of time and effort to increase Demonic Swordsmanship to its max.

Thus, Kang Oh slept only four hours a day. Aside from his time spent eating, he spent his time going through all of the hardest difficulty dungeons he knew of.

This included the??? Dungeon, the Saul Graveyard, and the Garden of Death. Basilisks, Chaos Knights and high-rank undead, and carnivorous plants over level 500 spawned in these three dungeons.

Kang Oh frequented these three dungeons, as well as some other dungeons in the Goddess's Land. Plus, he occasionally went through the Volcanic Region's three hardest dungeons: the Heart, the Crater, and the Death Eagle's Nest.

The??? Dungeon was by far the hardest dungeon of the lot.

Even to this day, hunting Basilisks was difficult for Kang Oh. He couldn't hunt two Basilisks at once.

The Petrifying Poison was the issue. If he fought two Basilisks and got hit by the Petrifying Poison, then even he'd die.

Thus, he yearned for Eder whenever he fought them. 'If only I had the Legendary Healer with me...!', he couldn't help but think.

However, Kang Oh didn't just hunt in the??? Dungeon. Instead, he alternated between various dungeons.

It was to keep himself from familiarizing himself with a single dungeon.

If he only went through a single dungeon, then his skills would dull.

However, there were only six dungeons he knew of that could increase his proficiency at an acceptable rate, and at some point, he'd gone through them so many times that he got sick of them.

'Are there any new, harder dungeons out there?'

He couldn't afford to go out and search for a new dungeon. After all, finding a dungeon that'd satisfy him wouldn't be easy to find.

However, he received a message from an unexpected source, one who'd offer a solution to his problem.

- Mr. Kang Oh.

It was Sephiro.

Kang Oh had told him that he needed to train by himself, so Sephiro had spent all of his free time trying to upgrade his weapon, the Lasselpino Bow, while nurturing Waryong.

- What's the matter?

- Please help me.

- I'm busy.

- It'll be helpful to you too.

-???

- I discovered a ridiculously hard hunting ground in the Great Forest's central region. However, I'm not strong enough to hunt there alone.

- How tough is it?

- It's a historic site where the ancient Tuslam live.

'The Tuslam?' Kang Oh thought back to everything he knew. 'Ah, them!'

When the Altein Empire was just a small, weak nation, they had been invaded by another kingdom and were almost brought to ruin.

Back then, it wasn't people, but the unique Tuslam that saved the Altein Empire.

They were a mythical race!

It was said that one Tuslam Warrior was equivalent to 100 men. He would get a chance to fight them?

- I'll be right there.

- Yes. I'll see you in the Nuwak Village.

- Understood.

Kang Oh immediately headed for the Great Forest.

* * *

Due to the fallen trees, the giant rocks, and the winding roads, Yumas were required to navigate through the Great Forest.

Miu!

Kang Oh and Sephiro cut across the brush and trees from atop their Yumas, which were like furry dinosaurs.

Waryong flew through the trees and brush, and followed after them. It was chewing on something, so it must've caught the insects or small animals that lived on the trees.

"How far do we have to go?" Kang Oh asked.

"Distance wise, it should only take 30 minutes. But as you know, passing through the central region won't be an easy trip," Sephiro said.

The Great Forest was located in the southern part of Arth, and was divided into the northern, southern, eastern, western, and central regions.

The central region was considered one of Arth's most dangerous locations. Like Despia, most players wouldn't be able to explore this region.

But with the prevalence of soul dungeons, several players had come here, and equally many players had met their end here.

"Why are you exploring the central region, Mr. Sephiro?"

"Because of this." Sephiro pointed at his bow, which glimmered with silver light. "As you know, the Lasselpino Bow can be upgraded with the right materials. One of the materials I need is the Tuslam's Token. Thus, I gathered information on the Tuslam, and came here after figuring out that their main base is somewhere here."

"Hmm, how many times did you die?" Kang Oh asked.

The Great Forest's central region was an extremely dangerous area.

"I only died once."

"You went through a lot by yourself."

"At least I managed to find out where they live!"

"But you can't hunt them by yourself."

"Ahem, the Tuslam are powerful. My one death came from them."

Kang Oh was excited. If they were strong enough to kill Sephiro, then they'd be worth fighting.

"Please tell me what you know."

"I don't know much about them either. What I do know is that they're all named. I'm not sure whether there's a boss or not."

"Hoh."

"They're at least level 500. Not only are they extremely smart, but their combat ability is top notch too. Honestly, each and every one of them is like a ranker," Sephiro said, furrowing his brow. His face automatically creased when he thought back to them.

"That's exciting." Kang Oh grinned.

How much time had passed?

Kang Oh and Sephiro's faces were overcast by a deep shadow.

Because of the World Tree, the Great Forest's trees were larger and thicker than any other place's trees. Thus, its giant branches and leaves served as shade for Kang Oh and Sephiro. In other words, they were in the central region now.

"We have to be careful," Sephiro warned. His words bore fruit.

Swish!

All of a sudden, a black being popped out of the trees.

It was a leech that was thicker and longer than a human forearm.

Miu!

Their Yumas shrieked.

Kang Oh quickly grabbed a Fire Bomb and threw it.

Swish!

Upon impact, the flames spread like a net. The leech was scorched by the flames and fell to the floor.

"This is a leech arrow. It's shot by a Calabro. This is only the beginning. A lot more will come flying at us," Sephiro said.

He was absolutely right.

Whizz! Whizz! Whizz!

The black leeches pierced through the brush and flew at them.

Kang Oh leapt off his Yuma.

In an instant, his hands were filled with Blood and Ubist.

Swish, slash, swish!

His dual demon swords cleaved through every single leech coming his way.

Shards of light and dark red liquid flowed from their wounds.

[You have been exposed to King Leech Poison.]

[Due to your high poison resistance, you are unaffected.]

The Demonic Swordsman class offered him high resistance to status ailments, curses, and poisons. He was essentially immune to poison, except when it came to the top 10 most lethal poisons, a Basilisk's Petrifying Poison, and Scapi's poison.

Moreover, he'd been fighting the Basilisks lately, which only further increased his poison resistance.

Kang Oh pushed through the brush and rushed forward.

There was a monster riding a giant spider. It appeared like a long-armed, black monkey, but it only had one eye, and wielded a bow made of spider legs.

This was a Calabro.

It was the most common monster in the Great Forest's central region!

Kii.

It didn't just look like a monkey, it sounded like one too.

There were six of them in total.

Their mounts, the spiders, began to fan out. The Calabros pulled out King Leeches from an opening on the spiders' backs and notched them.

Whizz! Whizz!

The arrows flew through the air, but in an irregular, zigzag pattern.

However, Kang Oh's Hyper Intuition told him where their final destination would be, so he could dodge them with his eyes closed.

Thus, he was easily able to cut through all of them.

Dark red poison spilled from the leech arrows, but Kang Oh was completely unaffected this time too.

Kii-kii-kii!

Their spiders quickly climbed up the tree.

Kang Oh leapt over to the closest Calabro and its spider.

Shaa!

The spider pounced on Kang Oh with its two front legs.

However, Kang Oh was much faster than it. He aimed Blood at the spider, and Ubist at the Calabro.

Swish, slash!

A huge shard of light fell from Calabro's body, while red shards of light fell from the spider.

He had struck at the spider's weakness, the area adjoining its body and head together.

Swish, thud.

Bam!

The two fell from the tree and slammed onto the ground. On the other hand, Kang Oh landed without issue.

Whizz!

Three harpoon-like arrows flew in between the trees, and struck the spiders that were climbing the tree.

Whizz, whizz, whizz!

They were so powerful that every single spider hit fell from the tree.

Meanwhile, Kang Oh stabbed Ubist and Blood into the ground, and threw two Fire Bombs simultaneously.

His Throw Projectile skill was intermediate-rank!

The Fire Bombs quickly flew towards his targets.

Bam!

Roar!

The two remaining spiders and Calabro were engulfed in flames.

Shaa.

The spiders shrieked and fell from the tree, along with their riders.

Kang Oh gripped both of his demon swords once more, and began killing the nearby Calabro.

Those far away from him were dealt with by Sephiro.

With this, their 'warm welcome' into the Great Forest's central region and their first battle here had come to an end.

"Let's go."

"Yes."

Sephiro and Kang Oh's Yumas moved deeper into the forest.

* * *

An empty alley in the continent.

The worst known criminal organization, Red Moon, lived within the Shadow World's only city, the Crow's Nest.

"You're all here."

Red Moon's Four Heavenly Kings (Brutal Blade, Scapi, Taboo, and Shion) gathered in one spot.

"What is it, Scapi?" Taboo asked, as Scapi was the one who'd gathered them all.

"Our target's in the Great Forest." Scapi stroked her eye-shaped ring.

As long as the user possessed a piece of equipment that the target had previously used, they could track the target wherever they may be.

"The Great Forest, huh... We've finally gotten a chance to kill him," Shion said. His voice was filled with a desire for vengeance.

Originally, his thirst for vengeance wasn't this high. But whenever he compared his past, as the leader of the Hercules Guild, to now, a mere pawn in a criminal organization, his desire for vengeance only deepened.

"It won't be easy. You all saw his fight with Dukeram, right?" Brutal Blade asked.

Kang Oh's fight with Dukeram was revealed to the entire world. It was also rebroadcast several times after that.

How many players could honestly say they weren't shocked by Dukeram and Kang Oh's power?

"It seems like he got even stronger than last time," Taboo said.

"He had a sword I've never seen before too. It's clearly an SS-rank sword," Brutal Blade said.

"So are we giving up?" Shion said angrily.

"I'm saying we have to be careful," Brutal Blade said calmly.

"You cowards. If you're not doing anything, then I'll go by myself!" Shion yelled sharply.

Taboo snorted. "You and your little gophers have no chance."

Shion had inherited Clown's Madman Squad.

"Do you want to die?" Shion eyes were downright murderous.

"Haha. You're new here, so shut up and sit tight. If you don't want to die, that is," Taboo said bleakly.

"Enough!" Scapi yelled. "We have to attack him now. You heard the boss. He's getting tired of waiting. If we don't kill Kang Oh soon, then it's over for all of us," she said desperately.

The Worst Criminal, Red!

What if he, the sole ruler of the Shadow World, exiled them?

They would be killed by the guilds or the bounty hunters, and would eventually be put in jail for life. As a result, they would be forced to delete their characters and start anew.

That was their life, so long as they didn't kill Kang Oh as soon as possible.

"Mm." The other three gulped.

"Our trump cards are even more lethal than last time. So let's give it a shot." Scapi's eyes gleamed.

"Ok."

"Let's do that."

Brutal Blade and Taboo replied, and Shion clenched his fist.

'Finally! It's time to kill you!' Shion thought of Kang Oh's face and gritted his teeth.