Chapter 245. What Happened Once Will... (5)

Although we finished forming our teams, completely discerning the number of Event Dungeons and appropriately distributing the teams had only just begun. We couldn’t ignore each country’s Freedom Wing and Guardian either. It would be fine if we squashed their spirit like before, but now, they were willing to cooperate. We couldn’t just force our way in while there was still room for negotiation.

From clearing Event Dungeons, we could obtain rewards, stat points, and skill points. There was a limit to the rewards we could get from Event Dungeons under A+ rank, and there was currently more than enough of such dungeons to go around for the new Revival members.

If possible, no, certainly, Freedom Wing and Guardian had to also take on Event Dungeons. All these things couldn’t be done in a single day, so we had to wait knowing that we were being chased for time.

Of course, we didn’t just play around as we waited for the logistics to be taken care of. We immediately called the seven explorers to Korea, and they arrived extremely quickly. They had heard the message when the Event Dungeons spawned and had been waiting for our call. When all seven explorers arrived, I started explaining the current situation.

“Everyone should know what Event Dungeons are, right?”

“Yes.”

“In that case, I hope everyone realizes how much danger Earth is in. Of course, just like we did in the past, Revival plans on destroying all Event Dungeons.”

“I heard we discovered over 800 of them so far.”

At one of the explorers’ comment, I shook my head.

“Not even close. There’s easily over a thousand of them. The Event Dungeons really outdid themselves this time. The scale is beyond anyone’s imagination. We have to hurry.”

“We can clear Event Dungeons, right? There wasn’t anything in the contract about them.”

One of the more sensible female explorer asked. I replied with a grin.

“Of course you can. As long as we can get rid of the Event Dungeons, it doesn’t matter who does it. We had no plans to limit them in the first place. Now, you must be wondering why we called you here if we didn’t plan on restricting you. Well, you should already know the reason. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have come.”

“... We can receive Revival’s help?”

This time, it was a male explorer with a fairly deep voice. I nodded.

“Everyone will have to clear Event Dungeons based on their difficulties. You’ll be able to receive help from your governments and institutions. But the time it takes for Event Dungeons to transform into Field Dungeons is... two months. How many dungeons do you think you’ll clear if you work diligently?”

“Not more than thirty, I would think.”

“Fifteen for me... Spain doesn’t have many high rankers.”

“My country is fully supporting me. I’ll be able to do fifty.”

“You should know how many dungeons Revival cleared last time, right?”

Everyone became quiet. Good, I didn’t need to convince them anymore. In the first place, the reason I called them was to give them the maximum benefits. Taking care of them this much... Shouldn’t someone give me an award!?

“Sorry, but we formed teams without your consent. Of course, if you dislike it, we can exclude you and let you work freely. But if you want to be with us...”

I paused for a moment, but seeing the seven explorers looking at me with sparkling eyes, I continued with a wry smile.

“We’ll help you maximize the stats you can gain from Event Dungeons. That will help you in your future dungeon clears too.”

In truth, it won’t just help them, it will help them greatly to the point they can climb to the 50th floor easily. Once we were done, they should be twice as strong as they were now!

As expected, none of them were idiots who would decline such an offer.

Currently, the succubi were busily flapping their bat wings, flying around the whole world to identify the Event Dungeons’ locations, scales, and ranks. At the same time, Hwaya, Sumire, and Sophie who were good at talking to government agencies were busily discussing with each country’s Guardian and Freedom Wing.

Meanwhile, I decided to clean up the region that wouldn’t cause any troubled... South Korea.

“I’ll take this chance and get rid of all the regions occupied by monsters.”

“Jeolla Province, Oppa?”

“Yep.”

From South Jeolla Province to Imsil County in North Jeolla Province was occupied by monsters, an area covering about three fourths of Jeolla Province. Although Korean ability users had tried twice to reclaim this land, they were forced to quit after incurring many causalities. Currently, there was a fence around the border of the region with over 40% of Korean Guardians being deployed to protect it.

I didn’t really need anyone to help me, but I threw the seven explorers and other Revival members who needed the stat points into my team. The exception being Sophie, who was in the middle of negotiating with Freedom Wing.

There were 48 Event Dungeons in South Korea. There were too many considering its small size, and most of them were near the occupied Jeolla Province.

In the past, we just cleared the Event Dungeons due to lack of time, but this time, I planned on wiping out every single monster in Jeolla Province. Since I was doing this, I decided to go through Jeolla Province properly. Unexpectedly, the entire South Korea buzzed with our guild house being overwhelmed with reporters.

“Mr. Kang Shin, is there a big reason you decided to reclaim Jeolla Province?”

“Many Korean citizens were asking why you left Jeolla Province alone while you cleared the Philippines. Is there a particular reason?”

“Do you have any comments on your talk with the government?”

“Joined efforts of Korea’s Guardian and Freedom Wing only faced difficulties in Jeolla Province. Do you have any strategy in mind to chase the monsters out?”

“There are rumors of you and Amy, a Korean and Japan’s hottest idol, being madly in love with each other. Can you comment on that?”

I looked back at Yua who was standing behind me modestly. Other than the red egg in her arms, she was holding herself in the perfect posture. I asked her a short question.

“Who’s Amy, Yua?”

“Huhu, Oppa doesn’t have to know. It’s nothing important. She’s just some ugly woman.”

Ren, who was watching us from the side, murmured with a strange expression.

“So this was the reason I knew more about Earth’s idols than Crown Prince... Amy... She’s pretty...”

“Ren-nim, can you repeat that? You were looking at Earth’s idols while you should be taking care of the children?”

“L-Lebuik? Your eyes are scary. Uuk, sorry, I’m sorry! I won’t do it again!”

Seeing what happened between Ren and Lebuik with a simple question, I realized asking more questions would only get more annoying. I chased the reporters away and got on the plane with everyone else. To finish clearing Korea’s dungeons, I needed a plane.

In truth, there wasn’t a particular reason that I left Jeolla Province alone. When we were clearing the second wave of Event Dungeons, we didn’t have time to care about reclaiming lands. Afterwards, there were much more important things to do than reclaiming Jeolla Province. After reclaiming the Philippines, I thought about reclaiming Korea’s lost lands, but too many things had happened one after the other.

Plus, talk with the government? If I said I wanted to clean up Jeolla Province, they should kowtow and thank me. They weren’t in any position to demand anything from me. After all, there was nothing they could do for me.

This was also the first time I heard about this Amy woman. In the first place, I haven’t watched TV in a long time, so I didn’t know the names of any idols. Unlike other girls her age, Yua also didn’t have any interest in idols. Us brother and sister were rather apathetic in this regard. Naturally, I was stunned by this rumor of me going out with an idol. It made me realize how famous I had gotten.

Finally, in regards to the strategy for reclaiming Jeolla Province, I indeed had one.

“Wow, how pretty. I’m surprised she isn’t human.”

“Only someone of Revival’s master caliber can possess such a beautiful monster.”

“I wish I had a girlfriend, even if she’s a monster.”

While some of the explorers were whispering among themselves, Plene hopped out of the plane and stood next to me. She was tightly holding on to a short black rod, which she held up next to her mouth. It was a magical tool devised by me and crafted by the First Dungeon’s famous artifact crafter, Hobgoblin Eladel.

It was a microphone of sort that had the power to amplify the range and effect of magical power in sounds. Although the effect wasn’t amplified by much, the range was more than doubled. The material to craft the microphone came from Beyond. As Beyond didn’t drop crafting materials often, I only had enough to craft this one item, but it was the perfect magical tool for Plene!

... In truth, I was looking to make a magical tool that could amplify the effect of my Evil Eyes, but due to a lack of material and technique, I had to settle with this. I tried not to think about it too much as it hurt me.

In any case, the strategy I had was using Plene’s singing and my Evil Eyes. It was the most effective and destructive combination for instantly cleaning up a wide area.

The explorers, who didn’t know my Evil Eyes’ power, seemed worried when they heard Plene would be attracting monsters with her singing. However, Ilayda, Leon, and Michel who knew about my power looked at Plene and me with excitement.

Plene cleared her throat and gave me a bright smile.

“Ehem, I’ll show you my improved singing skills. Shin will fall in love with it too!”

“Yep, I’m leaving it to you. Thanks as always.”

“I got complimented! Shin complimented me!”

When Plene jumped happily, Lotte, who was prepared to fly up whenever I gave the signal, flapped her wings in discomfort and scolded her.

[Can you just start singing, stupid?]

“Shin said I wasn’t stupid! The person who calls others stupid is stupid!”

[I’m not human. I’m a wyvern, stupid.]

“Hic... Uwaaaah!”

“Lotte, don’t make her cry!”

From then, it took 3 minutes for Plene to calm down and start singing.

“Lalala~”

[... Hmph, you’re stupid, but I’ll admit you can sing.]

“It’ll get busy soon, so let’s listen to her sing for now.”

Plene’s beautiful ringing voice seemed to dig deep into our hearts as everyone stood enchanted by her singing. At the same time, her voice spread to the entire Imsil County. Plene could already send her singing voice far and wide, but with the magical tool’s amplification, her voice reached even farther.

Through the crumbled buildings, dense trees, and tall mountains and hills, her singing voice left the whole world listening and breathless.

“Lalala~ Lalalala~”

“My god.”

“Is this a voice a human can have? Ah, she’s a monster.”

“I think Amy sings better...”

“Shh! Didn’t you hear? The guild master is going out with Amy. Be quiet.”

“I’m not. I don’t even know her face!”

This damned Amy! If I ever see her, she’s going to get an earful from me! As I growled at the other explorers, we could see the mob of monsters rushing towards us. Seeing the monsters filling up the sky and earth while stampeding through the already crumbled buildings, the explorers who were enjoying Plene’s singing turned pale.

“Isn’t this a bit dangerous!?”

“Just how many are there?”

“I was looking down on Korea’s monsters, but Korea was actually this dangerous... Damn.”

The explorers made understandable reactions and tensed up. I grinned and slowly flew up on Lotte’s back. I closed my eyes and whispered to Lotte.

“Sorry, Lotte. Things are going to get busy from now.”

[I already became one with Hero, so Hero doesn’t need to apologize.]

“... Right, thanks.”

[I could say the same.]

After this short conversation, I opened my eyes. The thousands of monsters flying in the sky instantly turned to stone and fell.

“Monsters of earth, take this! Evil Eyes of Petrification, Stone Rain!”

Of course, Stone Rain wasn’t a real skill, but the effect was good enough to be considered a real skill, as giant rocks pummeling down from the sky could deal ample damage to even powerful monsters.

Monsters stampeding towards us were promptly squashed by the raining stones. Those that survived looked up instinctively and were turned into stone by my Evil Eyes. As all monsters within my vision met this same fate, it only took three minutes for the tens of thousands of monsters to turn into stone.

In the past, we would have moved to different locations to sing, but Plene’s current range of singing was nothing like the past. She didn’t need to stop singing and we didn’t need to move elsewhere. We could end everything here!

“Come! Come!”

“The hell is this...”

“I’ve heard the stories, but seeing it in person is...”

“Shin. Maybe he really is a god.[1. Remember, Shin means god in Korean.]”

That day, we successfully wiped the sea of monsters in Jeolla Province and cleared all Event Dungeons. The explorers who followed me there came out with dozens of bonus stats and luxurious equipment, and Chaotic Spear finally reached 80% in growth.

The next day, the real Event Dungeon conquest began.