Chapter 109: Opening Act (7)

Translator: HH Editor: HH

*Cough*

Blood poured out of Shanon’s mouth.

No matter how skilled you were, you were still going to die if your neck was ripped apart.

And everyone was scared of death.

However.

‘He’s…laughing?’

His lips were quivering because he had lost all his strength, but he was definitely smiling at Yeon-woo.

“I’m glad….my subordinates…can live…!”

Relief flooded his eyes.

Yeon-woo felt a heaviness when looking at Shanon and couldn’t help but ask.

“Are you not afraid of dying?”

“Of course…not. I did everything I….could to stay…alive.”

“Then why?”

“Suddenly…I became embarrassed…while I was watching the…Martial King…I’m…still….a leader after all.”

Yeon-woo’s eyes widened, he realized why he was feeling so heavy.

Shanon didn’t know how much longer he would live, but he still wanted to take care of his subordinates. From the beginning, he didn’t care about his life.

No, rather, he used to care, but he still changed his mind to save his subordinates.

Now, he might’ve been embarrassed of his past self for doing anything to survive.

It was so different from his brother’s situation, who was killed by his friends who would stop at nothing for their own lives. If only there was someone like Shanon back in Jeong-woo’s life.

Shanon made a satisfied expression and he fell to his knees. Blood created1 a lake around him.

Yeon-woo looked at himself in the blood and stepped back.

Suddenly, he felt tired. But worse than that, a pain spread all over his body. His overloaded Cores and empty Magic Circuit caused him the pain.

The pain was this intense because it was passed down from the Draconic species Magic Circuit.

“Oraboni.”

Edora ran over and supported him. She let out the breath she’d been holding while watching him fight all those battles.

Phante followed thinking, ‘A monster has become an even bigger monster.’

Beating a semi ranker was that meaningful.

Also, Phante knew. That Yeon-woo hid his most important card.

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

The black sword from Section G he had seen back in the tutorial, and all the other artifacts that he had earned weren’t used.

But he still managed to beat a semi ranker.

“You’ve worked hard. It was fun to watch. Seems like you can fight better than you look.”

Yeon-woo caught the bottle the Martial King threw at him and drank from it.

The pain gradually disappeared and his magic power slowly regenerated. It was a potion.

Yeon-woo had a lot of questions to ask once he was feeling better.

“What are focal points?”

Yeon-woo had definitely stabbed the flaws, but they had disappeared, and appeared somewhere else.

Because of that, he had suffered because he had no way to know what was real or not.

“A fake.”

“No, it was a lot different than faking a motion.”

“No. It’s of the same notion. The only difference is whether it’s a possibility or reality,”

“…..?”

The Martial King thought of how he should explain.

“It’s nice to explain this way. When this guy’s sword almost touched you, the sword had many ‘possibilities.’ Whether it be used for offense or defense. And of those, it could lead to a greater amount of possibilities. Right?”

Yoen-woo nodded his head.

“So when picking from those many possibilities, how do you pick? Do you have a standard?”

“Whatever suits the situation….”

“That’s right, suting the situation. But focal points add one or more possibilities to the mix.”

Yeon-woo could somewhat understand .

“….A trap.”

“You can see it like that. If you get trapped, you can cancel it and choose another possibility. Focal points are the power to choose possibilities.

“….Possibilities.”

Yeon-woo quietly mumbled.

It was similar to Foresight. But Foresight predicted the moves of the enemy using many different calculations, while focal points were a method to pick out of many possibilities the one that fit that situation.

“That’s….possible?”

“He did it, right?”

“…..”

“That was a joke. Actually, it’s not that easy. Everytime you swing your sword, you have to see the different possibilities. If you do it wrong, your brain might even get knotted up.”

The Martial King grinned.

“But if you can successfully do it, there’s no better fighting method than this. But it’s only for players who have trained their mana to the extreme. And focal points actually aren’t that perfect either. And once you’re at a certain level and your sixth sense improves, it gets easier to tell.”

That’s why Shanon had asked. Yeon-woo’s fighting skills were on the level of someone who should be able to discern between focal points, but he couldn’t.

However, with this Yeon-woo find two things he could improve on.

Focal point and sixth sense.

But both had to be attained through extreme training.

‘I guess the only thing I can do is training and more training.’

He clenched his fists. He wanted to have the sensitive senses Shanon had shown.

If his physique couldn’t keep up, there was no point in having good artifacts.

He had to push his body to the extreme several times for that. And after that.

‘I have to finish the succession process.’

There were so many things to do.

He could’ve felt burdened, but he felt happy that there were so many ways to get stronger.

‘If I’m not talented, I just have to work for it.’

Yeon-woo pushed his heavy body up and added Shanon to his Soul Collection. There was something he wanted to confirm.

“Uh, and Sir.”

Yeon-woo turned to face the Martial King with Edora supporting him.

The Martial King waved him away like he knew what Yeon-woo was gonna say.

“I’m not that evil to hit weak people, ok? Don’t worry.”

That meant he would leave Shanon’s subordinates alone.

Yeon-woo nodded his head. After using his full strength for the first time in a while, he just wanted to rest.

And the first battle between Cheonghwado and Red Dragon ended like that.

***

The news of Kuram spread all over the Tower making people tremble in fear.

The unexpected participation of the One-horned tribe.

And with the spread of the news Cheonghwado pulled their sword out as well.

They poured in their forces to the 11th floor before Red Dragon could regain their forces.

In that process, they got rid of the Red Dragon clan supporters remaining in the area too.

And the Red Dragon started to move too. The 11th floor was a card they could just throw away, but it wasn’t like them to step back so easily like that.

And other news started to spread.

That the semi ranker Shanon and 4 other players had gone up against the Hoarder and died.

It wasn’t that big of a news on the higher floors, but it carried a heavy weight on the lower floors.

Also, it meant that he was staying as a guest of the One-horned tribe.

***

“Those Cheonghwado bastards. I bet they’re feeling so happy they could die.”

Bahal sourly smiled as he read the report Flame Beast’s vice leader gave him.

With the help of the One-horned tribe, they had taken 80% of the land of the 11th floor.

It was basically their land now. And Red Dragon couldn’t sit still. Dragons were malevolent. They were greedy, and loss wasn’t in their vocabulary.

The Red Dragon’s pride was greatly hurt, and the Summer Queen was the most angry.

Bahal, who was cold and rational, couldn’t understand why.

‘But oh well. If the Queen says to jump, I have to ask how high.’

Bahal made a cold smile. After defeating Leonte, he became the overseer of the 11th floor.

He only had one command. To reclaim the 11th floor.

It was a crazy command, knowing that the Martial King was there.

But still.

Bahal didn’t complain and moved

Flame Beast followed like a shadow. And fighting squads like Blaze, Corona Anaconda, Raven Party, and Wolf Squad went with them.

And their numbers were enough to make up an army.

They looked down from where they were standing to the capital of the 11th floor.

Their mission was to get rid of all life forms in that city.

*whoosh*

And Red Dragon arrived on top of the city.

***

The Saber God walked along the path. The war had probably started by now. And with the participation of the One-horned tribe, the Red Dragon Clan was probably suffering right now.

The Saber God was planning on carrying out his orders amidst all the confusion.

Legendary Beasts were creatures that symbolized the Tower. And if they all died?

It would be pandemonium.

But it was a sure way to guarantee Cheonghwado’s win in the war.

“Move.”

And with the Saber God’s command, countless shadows began to move. They killed all the beasts in the area.

It was a way to get rid of all the variables. And also to gather as much Neidan as he could.

The Saber God’s lips quivered. He could feel the Phoenix somewhere.

***

[….Something’s here.]

The Phoenix squinted her eyes at the confusion happening in her territory. It seemed like whatever the humans were planning had come to her territory as well.

Also.

For the first time in her life, she felt that it might not be easy.

Her children were busily playing, running around, not having a care in the world.

Chirp?

Then, Chirpy, who had felt his mother’s gaze, tilted his head.