Chapter 162: The Monkey King’s Palace (6)

‘I’m too late.’

Yeon-woo instinctively knew that he was a step late. He was already quite far from where Kindred’s body was.

He used his Shunpo, but the stone statue was much faster.

Boom!

With a large explosion, a dust cloud floated up. Yeon-woo flipped the wind around with his Carshina’s dagger.

Through his blurred consciousness, he could see something bloody being blown away. It wasn’t Victoria. It was Rebecca.

Rebecca, who had been relatively closer, pushed Victoria out of the way and was hit with the spear instead.

But it seemed like she hadn’t properly blocked the attack, because the spear had pierced her body and one of her swords was broken.

Because it had been so sudden, she probably didn’t have enough time to activate her swords, and she had used too much energy in the first test, so she wasn’t able to easily stop the attack.

And more than anything else, because they were on the 20th floor where their senses were blocked, she couldn’t use all her skills.

[Rebecca!]

Victoria shouted at Rebecca, who was sacrificed instead of her. Meanwhile, Kahn grit his teeth and quickly rescued her from the statue’s range of attack.

Yeon-woo belatedly arrived and spun his Magic Circuit around. He stored Carshina’s dagger away and pulled out the Magic Bayonet instead. An Aura blade swished out and clanged into the statue’s spear.

Kwang!

[Hup!]

Yeon-woo took in a big breath subconsciously.

It was an incredible attack. His mind instantly wavers and his arms felt like they were going to be pulled out. He was pushed back.

‘It’s strong!’

He knew that the large statues wouldn’t be comparable to the monkey statues, but he felt more in danger now that he was actually face to face with one.

He felt the statue bringing its sword down again.

It was fast. And heavy. If he faced it head on, he would die. He thought just now, he was only able to block the attack because of luck.

[Time Difference]

His thinking abilities sped up. In the slower world, Yeon-woo quickly read his surroundings.

Victoria had safely been rescued by Kahn. Rebecca was breathing, but it was still very faint. She was in danger.

And aside from the statue he was dealing with, the other 11th statues were probably going to start moving to.

If the 12 statues all moved at the same time, no one here would survive.

Then what was he supposed to do?

‘I have to think. Anything.’

The only way to pass the 2nd test was to learn the 72 Arts. But the Arts weren’t a cheap skill that could be learned in 5 minutes.

So there was probably a reason why the amount of time given was so short.

Or there was another way to stall for time.

And something came to his mind. There was something more important than proving that you were qualified to be the Monkey King’s successor, and that was respect. Or fear of the king.

Then his faster thinking stopped, right before the spear hit Yeon-woo’s head.

[Everyone down!]

Yeon-woo shouted with his Open Speaking. And he bowed on the floor.

This was a gamble. If he succeeded, he could somehow earn some more time, or he would die. But he would definitely die if he didn’t throw the die, so he had to try.

And Yeon-woo felt Kahn and Victoria putting their heads on the floor like he said.

In a very short moment. Yeon-woo experienced a rough nervousness flowing over his back.

And when nothing happened, he was sure. That his gamble had been successful.

The large statue that had been attacking Yeon-woo, and the other statues all stopped. Like time had frozen.

[Is it…..done?]

Kahn slightly lifted his head to see what was happening. When the statues began to move again, he had to bow down again.

With this, he was sure.

[Is it something like paying respects to where the king is? Fucking.]

Kahn ground his teeth together. And he felt relief at the fact that he could momentarily catch his breath.

[Rebecca…..!!]

And Victoria called out Rebecca’s name several times. Rebecca’s voice became more faint.

She wanted to use her healing magic somehow, but she didn’t have any magic power left. Then Rebecca completely stopped breathing. Victoria sobbed.

Yeon-woo and Kahn felt desolate. Kahn bit his lower lip. Even Yeon-woo, who didn’t really know Rebecca that well felt grim.

The party once again clenched their teeth at the pressure forcing their bodies down. A heavy silence descended on them.

***

[Cain. Did you figure something out?]

It was Kahn who broke the silence.

[A bit.]

[Can you share?]

Yeon-woo didn’t reply for a moment. Actually, he wanted to ask Kahn some things. He seemed to know something about the 72 Arts. And it was probably related to Doyle somehow.

So he wanted to ask, but Kahn didn’t seem like he would answer. He even seemed like he would die if they told him to die.

And so he didn’t ask anything. Since if he had something to pick at, it could be done later. Right now, survival was first.

No.

He changed his mind.

‘Since it’s already like this, I’m going to take the Monkey King’s inheritance.’

He had no way of knowing if this was the last test. There could be a 3rd and a 4th, and he didn’t like that they would have to struggle to survive every time.

And he knew what Kindred and the Devil Army wanted. He felt like his anger would only be settled if he stole the Monkey King’s inheritance from right under their eyes.

And all things aside.

‘Since it’s not only the 72 Arts.’

It was known that the Monkey King had several treasures while he traveled to and from heaven. He thought he might be able to get those treasures as well.

And the Magic Stick was something that Yeon-woo especially wanted. He didn’t just want to use it. If there was a holy artifact made of Godly Precious Iron, he might be able to understand the Black Bracelet a bit more.

So Yeon-woo wondered whether he would be able to hoard the quest to himself during the silence.

He came to one result. That there couldn’t be anyone to bother him.

Then he didn’t want to leave any witnesses.

To tell the harsh truth, he didn’t think that the powerless Kahn and the runeless Victoria would be of any help to him.

First, he had to let them escape. Thankfully, with his Extrasensory Perception and Draconic Eyes, he was able to find a small door next to the iron door.

The door they had passed through was a door that only a king was supposed to pass through. The door next to it was for servants.

Yeon-woo gathered his thoughts and slowly opened his Open Speaking.

[I think the purpose of this dungeon is to determine the successor to the Monkey King.]

[Successor?]

At Kahn’s question, Yeon-woo answered with the things that he had figured out. The successor of the king. The shedding. And how to qualify.

[That definitely…makes sense.]

Kahn heavily nodded his head. He thought Yeon-woo’s guess might be right.

And the slightly settled down Victoria nodded her head in agreement.

Actually, it was something that the two would’ve been able to guess themselves, but they hadn’t been able to be cool-headed with the continued attacks.

But Yeon-woo had calmly understood the quest. His mind felt amazing.

[And in my opinion, it’s hard to prove our qualification.]

At what he continued to say, Kahn and Victoria nodded their heads again. Because they thought that learning the 72 Arts was almost impossible.

Even though they were bent towards the ground, they were able to read the information on the plaque with their consciousness. Kahn and Victoria completely memorized the plaque soon enough.

But that was it.

The area of ‘Arts’ was too foriegn to them. They needed a lot of time and research to learn it.

[This place was probably for another group of people in the first place.]

[Other people?]

[I think that this isn’t the only place related to the Monkey King. There’s probably other places.]

[Ah.]

Victoria understood what Yeon-woo said. Kahn kept his silence.

Important quests were usually a series.

So that meant this quest related to the Monkey King had begun elsewhere, and this was the last place of the series.

In other words, they were supposed to have the basics of the Arts down already, but they were thrown into the last step of the series without any of it.

And if that was true, there was one other thing that was true. Victoria bit her lower lip.

[Then…..Kindred?]

[I think it was a trap from the beginning. Since he couldn’t figure out how to solve it, he probably wanted to use us as an experiment. To see if there was another way.]

[Fuck. That damned geezer!]

Victoria shouted in anger. She felt it when she first saw Kindred’s fake body, but she was even more angry now that she realized she was used by him. Since Rebecca had basically been killed by him.

And she also thought of something else.

Her magic wouldn’t have failed her, but how had he cut her magic off?

But she decided to think of that later.

Was there anything she could do right now?

[First, let’s escape from here. Whether we kill Kindred or keep him alive, we have to live first.]

[What?]

[There’s a way?]

Kahn and Victoria had shocked voices.

[Next to the front door, there’s a small door. I think it’s possible to leave through there.]

They shot their consciousness to where Yeon-woo pointed out, and they were able to find the small door.

But Kahn was still frowning.

[There’s 12 statues. It’s too hard to avoid all of them.]

[That’s ok. We have bait.]

[What…..!]

[I’ll stall for time somehow. You and Victoria run towards the door when I send the signal.]

Kahn shut his mouth. He couldn’t tell what Yeon-oo was thinking. But in the Tutorial, Yeon-woo had always found a way to solve the problem in an unexpected way.

And it was the same this time as well. He wondered if he should’ve told Yeon-woo about the thing with Doyle earlier. But it wasn’t too late now.

Before he could speak, Yeon-woo was sending the signal.

[Run on the count of three. One, two…..]

Kahn pushed those thoughts away. He needed to escape this palace first. He had already memorized the information on the plaque. It wasn’t too late to ask Yeon-woo for help after they got out of the dungeon.

[Three!]

Kahn and Victoria started to run towards the door. The two gathered what magic power they didn’t have and moved as fast as possible. Victoria used her Blink.

The eyes of the 12 statues all turned towards them.

Then, Yeon-woo moved.

‘Shanon.’

[Hehehe. I was waiting.]

Yeon-woo reached out for something in his shadow. Something caught his hand. He didn’t even check what it was and threw it up in the air.

[Arghh! Let me go! You! Let me go!]

Sol Luna flew up in the air. She was a blurry form of a human after being caught by Shanon.

The gazes of the large statues turned towards Sol Luna. She realized that she had made a mistake, but countless spears were headings towards her already.

This time, she couldn’t be as lucky as the last. The spears of the large statues were more precise and sharp. As holes appeared in her body, her body faded away.

[I want to live…..!]

And before she breathed her last breath, Shanon appeared from the shadows to take her soul, and he hid back into the shadows again.

Then, Yeon-woo began to move.

‘Magic Equip.’

The runes firmly engraved in his bones all activated. His strengthened magic power circulated in the 360 Cores of the Magic Circuit. With the additional 2 types of magic on top of the 4 he already had, 6 types of magic strengthened his body.

And at the same time, he thrust his Magic Bayonet forward. The spears that had changed their targets from Sol Luna to him and flew at him.

The Magic Bayonet and the spears powerfully clashed.

This time, his body wasn’t blown back. He was only pushed back a few meters. His Magic Bayonet that was pushing against the spears was trembling.

‘It’s working.’

Yeon-woo’s eyes sparkled at the fact that the his Magic Equip he had only used in theory was working.

His arm would’ve broken under normal circumstances, but he had been able to block the attack. He couldn’t help that his body was trembling.

But it was okay as long as it worked.

Yeon-woo began to push the spears back with his Magic Bayonet.

Magic Bayonet against spears. Neither of them surrendered.

Then Yeon-woo suddenly disappeared with Blink. Boom! The spear landed where Yeon-woo had been and Yeon-woo appeared right behind it.

Blink allowed him to instantly move short distances. It used that much more magic power, but since Yeon-woo had the Neidan of the Four Legendary Beasts, he wasn’t concerned.

In the middle of the air, Yeon-woo’s wings of fire spread apart. His Magic Bayonet that was condensed with Holy Fire landed on the statue’s neck.

The statue’s neck exploded with a boom. It stumbled, but it regained its balance and attacked again.

Meanwhile. He could feel that Kahn and Victoria had left through the door.

‘Finally.’

Thinking he didn’t have to hide his power anymore, he used Blink to rapidly escape from the statues’s range.

He reappeared in front of the door. Kahn and Victoria motioned for him to come over.

[Go ahead first.]

Yeon-woo said those words and closed the door. Click. He heard the sound of the door locking. Thankfully.

He could hear Kahn and Victoria asking why he did that, but Yeon-woo ignored them and turned back to where the large statues were.

The 12 statues were running at him. The ground shook.

Looking at them, Yeon-woo opened his mouth.

‘Territory Announcement.’

Dragon’s Blood circulated in his body.

The Blessed One of the Dragon woke up.