The item that emitted light in Hugo’s breast pocket was the holy item Lee Gun had made and given to Hugo.

“What the hell is this?” Hugo didn’t have time to be surprised as screams erupted from all directions.

Wehhhhhh!

Wehhhh!

The branches revealed their treacherous teeth as they converged upon him. Hugo violently shook free from them. His disciples kept shooting their arrows, but they couldn’t kill the enemies.

“Wehhhhhh!”

It seemed the monsters had concluded that they needed Hugo’s power if they wanted to eat Lee Gun.

“Wehhhh!!!!!!”

The grotesque monsters kept tenaciously running toward Hugo. They knew that in the past, they had greatly benefited from the Archer Saint’s power. The branches seemed like a school of piranhas. Their teeth were powerful enough to break stones.

Hugo reflexively tried to raise his bow again, but he heard an earful of swear words.

“Idiot! I told you to let them bite you!” Lee Gun shouted.

“?!”

Lee Gun subdued the monster in front of him as he yelled, “Throw away your bow!”

‘Fucking hell! How can he say that after seeing their teeth? Those teeth will reach my bones!’

Lee Gun continued, “You don’t want to listen to me? Who cares! You have no wealth to leave behind! There’s nothing to be worried about!”

“What? You...!” Hugo wanted to say that Lee Gun was the biggest jerk in this world, but in the end, he just threw away his bow.

Boom!

This surprised Goat. “Saint-nim!”

The heavy bow made a divot on the ground. Overjoyed, the branches charged toward the defenseless Archer Saint. However, Hugo heroically laughed. “I’ll trust you! If my children cry because of this, it’s all your fault.”

“Saint-nim!”

The group of tree branches acted as if they had found the jackpot. They rushed forward, while the Archer Saint took a pose like a soccer goalkeeper. He shouted, “Alright! Try eating me! I’m just like dry meat! I won’t taste good!”

Wehhhhhhhhh!

Some branches attacked his neck, which they found the tastiest. Others attacked the thighs since they were easy to hang onto.

“Saint-nim! You shouldn’t do that! What are you doing?”

“Look after my kids!” Hugo was full of spirit, but also scared. He clenched his eyes shut. As he thought he was going to follow his wife and subordinate...

Paht!

An incredible amount of light rushed out of him. The intensity couldn’t be compared to before. Then, something surprising happened.

“Wehh—”

“Wehh—”

Letting out death cries, the branches shriveled and fell to the ground.

“Wehhhh—”

Then, they turned into pieces of fragments that resembled coal. Their small hands, feet, and shark-like teeth, all disappeared.

“...!”

While everyone was still in a state of shock, Hugo let out a shout.

“Koohk!”

He took out the item in his breast pocket, a sculpture of a red horse. Lee Gun laughed as if things had gone to plan, while Hugo’s eyes turned round.

The Archer Saint’s reaction was understandable. The item had taken care of the monsters, but... ‘I’m pretty sure this is an item that gathers goods.’

Lee Gun’s lips twitched as he felt the magical energy fill his body.

[You have acquired abundant energy.]

[Your stolen magical energy has recovered.]

[You can now use Super Regeneration.]

Yes, this was why Lee Gun wanted to do nothing. That item was like a backup battery for magical energy. The red horse extracted magical energy from anything that touched it. Originally, it was supposed to siphon off Hugo’s magical energy.

‘Since they stuck to Taeksoo, I could steal their magical energy.’ What had happened was like a chain reaction. That wasn’t all.

[Your item has gained Growth data.]

[Since it has accumulated a certain amount of EXP, it has evolved.]

[The item has evolved from the A rank to the S rank.]

Rank S

– The magical energy of the person who touches the item will flow into another. The name of the subject (Lee Gun) has to be written on the item.

– Amplifies the extracted magical energy

– The loss of magical energy in the transfer has decreased.

Amongst the data he had earned, Lee Gun had put the attribute into this item. He had done this as a test.

Until now, all the weapons Lee Gun made eventually broke. If he could make weapons that could evolve, it would be perfect.

Realizing what had just taken place, Hugo became happy. “I don’t know what happened. However, it happened because of this!”

“That’s right! I can’t believe you didn’t trust the gift I made for you,” Lee Gun replied.

Hugo was deeply moved. It seemed like he was looking at an immature son who had finally grown up. “Wow! I thought you scammed me again. I can’t believe you really made an item for my benefit. Is it a protection-type holy item?”

Lee Gun, who had been feeling exultant by Hugo’s words, flinched. “Uh... Yeah! You’re right. It’s a protection-type holy item.”

Goat had been observing Lee Gun, and he tilted his head in suspicion. ‘That’s odd! I felt the magical energy of both the monsters and Saint-nim get drained away. Was I just imagining it?’

Lee Gun played dumb. All Zodiac Saints wasted a lot of magical energy, so no one would notice him siphoning off a little of their energy for himself.

Hugo wasn’t clever enough to notice that. He didn’t have the time either, as the group had another more important task to pay attention to.

“Boo-ohhhhhhh!”

An ugly light appeared in Lee Gun’s eyes. His gaze headed toward the toad, which was enraged after Lee Gun had thwarted its plan.

[Caution! This monster is the subject of the Trial of Strength!]

[You cannot use your magical energy!]

[You cannot call forth your familiars!]

The toad targeted Lee Gun. It had realized Hugo was nothing compared to Lee Gun in power.

As for the man himself, Lee Gun ran toward the toad while cracking his hands. Hugo quickly shouted at him, “Gun! You can’t fight it head-on! They are the ones—”

Lee Gun grinned. “Fuck off! Do you think I don’t know that?”

Hugo felt uneasy when he saw the smile.

Kwahng!

When Lee Gun struck the ground with his fist, many monsters emerged from underneath. Other toads similar to the previous one appeared before them. They had been hiding in the nearby trees. The interesting part was that a rope-like vine connected all of them.

“Alright! I created a bowl. Now I’ll turn you all into pulp.” Lee Gun extended his hand.

As if the slime had been waiting for this moment, it ran up Lee Gun’s arm, then transformed into a pair of enormous scissors. They were gardening scissors.

Lee Gun separated the scissor blades and held one in each hand.

Clank!

Wielding them like dual blades, he jumped into the hole he had created.

The surprised Archer disciples quickly clutched at Hugo.

“Saint-nim! L-Lee Gun-nim is...!!!”

“He is going to be buried alive...!”

The Archer disciples looked like they were on the verge of crying, so Hugo tried to soothe them. “It’s fine. I’m not sure, but I think that’s the monster Gun was looking for.”

“But!”

“If you have time to worry about him, you should just close your eyes,” he replied to their worries!

“What?”

The disciples wanted to ask their Saint what he was talking about.

Chul-puhk!

However, something hit them in their cheeks and heads. They froze. The item that felt like soft dough was the flesh of the monsters!

Then, a bone-chilling sound rang out.

“Ha ha ha ha ha!”

Poo-ahk! Poo-hahk!

As events unfolded in the crate, looking at the situation was like looking into a blender.

“Windmill-Shaved Ice Maker!” It was a technique where one spun blades like a windmill. The blades rotated at the speed of light as wind surged into the air.

Koo-goo-goohng!

Chopped-up flesh pieces and long clumps of something unknown flew into the air.

Lee Gum had ground the monsters until they became slush. Moreover, identifiable body parts, such as eyes and tongues, flew into the air.

This made all the Archer disciples cover their mouths.

“Oohk! I had Beef tripe and intestine soup today for lunch.”

“Ooh-ehhk—”

“M-my stomach—”

They were battle-type disciples who fought on the frontline. They were desensitized to the sight of violence, yet they couldn’t watch this scene with their eyes open.

On the other hand, it seemed Hugo had known this would happen. Normally, Lee Gun calmly(?) took care of monsters when he needed to recover ingredients. However, this wasn’t the case right now. ‘When there are no useful ingredients, he becomes like that.’

Lee Gun’s excuse was that monsters had great regenerative abilities. He didn’t want to do the same thing over and over again.

‘I think that’s his hobby.’

One could tell by looking at Lee Gun’s eyes that he didn’t covet any of the ingredients. Of course, the disciples did not know this. They kept throwing up.

“Ooh-ehhhhhhk!”

“Huh-uhk— The meat I ate yesterday—”

The sight was grotesque, but they were more terrified of the one who had created it. At this point, Lee Gun was a calamity-type monster.

Lee Gun headed toward the corner. Lumps of flesh lay there. Before grinding the monsters into a pulp, Lee Gun had taken these lumps of flesh out of their bodies and thrown them to the side.

Lee Gun swung his scissor blades toward the lumps of flesh.

Poo-ahhk!

Poo-gahk!

Then, something surprising happened.

“Huh-uhk!”

“Huhk!”

The lumps of flesh were as big as a house. When Lee Gun breached the membrane covering them, people came spilling out. These people were the ones on the defense force that had been protecting the dome a while ago.

“Cough! cough!”

“What... what the hell!”

Before putting the toads into the blender, Lee Gun had cut away their stomachs. His intuition had told him that these stomachs held survivors. These people were still alive since the stomachs hadn’t secreted the digestive fluids.

The disoriented survivors looked at their surroundings.

“What happened?”

“Huhk! Lee Gun?!”

The shocked people looked at each other.

“Why is Lee Gen...”

Lee Gun grinned as he faced them. “As a reward for saving you guys, each person will give me $100k.”

“?!”

The surprised people wailed.

“Thank you! We’ll never forget what you’ve done for us!”

“?”

[A small achievement has been recorded in the Bible.]

Lee Gun shrugged it off. Placing the scissors on his shoulder, he headed somewhere.

“Boo... Boo-ohhh...!”

His destination was the first toad he had encountered. It was probably the leader of all the toads. This toad still kept most of its shape compared to the others, and it was letting out a murderous intent.

“Boo-ohhh!”

The toad acted as if it wanted to eat Lee Gun right this instant. Of course, Lee Gun had left it intact for a reason.

[Something is inside it.]

This thing had been bothering him from the start. Lee Gun activated his skill for the first time.

[13th Sense]

His vision changed into a world divided in black and white.

[You have discovered something odd]

The abnormality was located in the abdomen, but not inside the stomach. A blue object was emitting light.

The snake-eyed Lee Gun laughed. “Alright! This concludes step one.”

Finally, he plunged his hand into the monster.

Poo-oohk!

“Boo-ohhhhh!”

Kwahng!

An incredible light erupted as the monster’s body exploded. Then, a powerful energy surged into the sky.

[You have released the Life energies.]

[You have completed the Trial of Strength.]

* * *

It was an extraordinary scene.

“Uh? What the hell is that? Is that a Comet?”

“What? It’s daytime!”

The world was discussing the issue. The first place to be affected was Belgium. It had started in the temporary medical care center at the third dome. The medical center was full of patients ambushed by the Blood Fog.

Some people had fallen over dead for no reason. Their relatives were mourning their deaths.

“Huhk!”

“Elise?!”

“Huhk!!”

“Joe!”

The people who weren’t even breathing suddenly got up.

“My god! This is a miracle!”

Their surprise was premature.

“Ah! Look at the monsters that were coming toward the dome!”

The wood-type monsters that had been charging toward the dome shriveled up and fell.

The disciples realized the implication.

“Their leader must have died!”

“Was it the Virgo Saint?”

“What are you talking about? He didn’t even show up today.”

“Then who...!”

* * *

A hospital on an isolated island near the ocean! Hospitalized in this hospital were the people who had lost consciousness because of the Blood Fog ten years ago. The number of people who had remained in a vegetative state for the past ten years was 4,200. No one could diagnose what was wrong with them.

Of course, few knew the existence of this hospital. After all, the Blood Fog incident had been erased from the media.

The doctors knew these patients had no hope, and many of them had insisted the patients should be put off life support. However, some doctors had invoked the protection of the Archer Saint, and these patients got treatment in secret.

Nevertheless, after ten years, most had given up. But today...

“Doctor! Something big happened!”

“What?”

The hospital which no one visited turned into a madhouse.

“The patients are waking up!”

“What?”

The doctors and nurses rushed around when the people who couldn’t open their eyes for ten years did exactly that.