Chapter 318. The Clash Approaches (5)
“…”
“…”
Everyone had a dumbfounded look. While I was expecting it, I agreed that the explosion was a bit too much. If I didn’t throw the sweet potato in full force, we might have been caught up in the explosion too!
“Kuhuk!”
“Cough!”
“What… What just happened!?”
“He, He attacked! … With a sweet potato!”
While flames and winds raged from below, I looked at the screaming demons and drank a mana potion.
“I can’t see, how far the destruction reached… Kang Shin, what did you do?”
“To be honest, I didn’t expect this either. I was thinking the explosion would be the size of Seoul at most.”
“You mean, you can destroy Korea with a single sweet potato…”
I ignored Ye-Eun’s comment. Drawing up Peruta Circuit and Absolute Soul to the peak, I began to absorb the atmospheric mana along with the immense death energy hovering above Greenland. Simultaneously absorbing two different energies was a bit tricky, but it wasn’t much compared to when I was training Peruta Circuit.
As I continued this process, my eyebrows twitched. I realized that there were more demons on Greenland than I thought and that the number of demons that died from my sweet potato far surpassed my initial prediction.
I asked Dortu.
“Dortu, is this orichalcos’ power?”
[I am Dortu. It’s not just orichalcos. The metal from the First Dungeon’s 86th floor had a special property, which I added to the orichalcos. Dortu’s metal is always evolving.]
Dortu seemed extremely content with the metal he made.
[I am Dortu. They are stimulated by mana and can convert all mana to pure destructive power without any loss of energy. Orichalcos greatly amplifies mana, so Master’s mana was amplified greatly before exploding. Explaining in more detail requires two days’ worth of time.]
“Don’t. I got it.”
[I am Dortu…]
It was enough to know that Dortu’s metal had the ability to cause a powerful explosion. Of course, the tempest I created around the sweet potato would have increased its power too. This was the result. There was destruction as far as my eyes could see.
“With that attack, their leader must have noticed what happened.”
“Maybe he’s dead?”
“I don’t think so. The mana I used in that attack had the dungeon’s power too.”
If I excluded the dungeon’s power, the amount of mana I had was only around 600,000. That was also a terrifying amount, but that was beside the point. The previous attack had the dungeon’s power. Whoever their leader was, he couldn’t be dead.
“The Hero came for us.”
“Kuk, but we don’t have the power to fight him. Too many of us… died!”
“This is different from what we heard from them! He’s growing too fast…! He’s not human!”
“… I’ve never seen demons scared by a human before.”
Seeing the surviving demons stagger up, Daisy said with a pitying look. She moved swiftly. She couldn’t take out Laki because she had Aikan out. What she took out was something silver.
“Hm?”
It looked familiar. It was a silver skeleton adorning a fancy robe. It was… the Death King!
[So many corpses.]
“Meli, raise as many as, you can. One-time use.”
[Understood.]
The king of the dead, Meli, slowly descended to the ground. Daisy explained as she watched him.
“Meli’s magic power, lower than Laki’s. Easier to control. Great for raising undead.”
“Wow.”
She was right. Every time Meli’s staff pointed to a direction, numerous corpses of demons rose up. The demons recovering from the shock of the explosion became flustered seeing their comrades rising from the dead.
“This… It’s a necromancer!”
“Not an ordinary necromancer!”
“I can see a lich! We need to kill him!”
“A Hero using a lich…!?”
I snorted and continued absorbing mana and death energy. I had used all my mana in the previous attack. I knew I would have to face their leader sooner or later. My number one priority at the moment was getting myself to my peak condition.
“Kids, go!”
Yua also sent her tamed beasts out to finish off the injured demons. From the sky, giant mantises dropped down one by one. … Just when did they get so big? They were twice the size of a human two days ago, but now they’re bigger than an average building!
“Hehe, they got big, huh? They grew a lot after eating lots of nutritious food!”
Realizing my surprise, Yua explained as she laughed proudly. The mantises that entered their adulthood began to attack the demons. In an instant, the ground became a total pandemonium.
“Kyaaaaak!”
“W-We need to attack their main body!”
“Damn it, when is the duke coming!?”
“Sweet potatoooooo!”
I heard the demons scream and curse sweet potatoes. The mantises realized they couldn’t defeat powerful demons alone and joined others to attack them together. Upon finally defeating them, they peacefully shared their spoils. As demons were a good source of magic power, the mantises were growing bigger with each kill.
[Explode! Explode! Death! Death!]
On the other hand, the undead Meli controlled usually detonated the mana inside themselves to attack other demons. It was quite ironic considering the cause of their death was an exploding sweet potato.
We quickly swept through the land and easily massacred any and all demons that we met. Although I didn’t pick Yua and Daisy in particular, their abilities were truly suitable for a task like this. Yua’s mantises grew stronger with each demon they ate and had gotten quite terrifying. Meli’s exploding undead was even more terrifying as they showed fearsome contagiousness and destructive power. If there was Hell, the current Greenland wouldn’t be too different in comparison.
“This really isn’t what a Hero’s party would do. Just look at it. Are we the Hero party or the Demon Lord party?”
“It looks like we’re on our way to conquer the world.”
“Kang Shin, no more exploding sweet potato.”
“I haven’t recovered my mana yet anyways.”
“Keep going, kids! Don’t get injured or I’ll get mad!”
After a countless number of demons died, looking down on Greenland from above only showed blood-soaked land, scattered flesh, and undead demons and giant mantises running around commandingly.
The demons joined together to resist, but Meli’s undead took the blow from their powerful magic attacks, then immediately detonated themselves to deal critical damage. Yua’s mantises then dove in and crushed them to death before eating them.
I didn’t know how much time went by, but my mana was now full. I could make the undead and mantises fall back so I can use the metallic mirror and Evil Eyes combination, but I just watched without taking action since they were doing well without me. While I waited on top of Aikan, I guided any excess mana to my spear.
Greenland, once a land of ice and stone, had become a land of dirt when it swapped with Luka continent’s land. By swallowing the demons’ blood and flesh, the land started to become more fertile.
“The Hero is there!”
“Do not give peaceful death to the Hero who killed our kin!”
“His Majesty has spoken! Anyone who can bring back his head will be rewarded greatly!”
Just when I was thinking things would end sooner than I thought, a shout full of killing intent rang out. I raised my head and turned to the direction of the shout.
Immediately, I could see bizarre flying monsters that looked like deformed wyverns. Their bodies were completely black, scrawny, and had bloody bones protruding out. Moreover, their deep yellow eyes gave off an intimidating aura.
“Powerful mana. Kang Shin, careful.”
“Daisy, you focus on the ground. Ye-Eun.”
“Un.”
Even before I called her, Ye-Eun had her daggers out and her body bent forward slightly, ready to launch off at any moment. She was a bit pitiful most of the time, but she was extremely reliable in battle.
“Taste our resentment!”
“You will pay the price for going against us!”
A huge amount of mana came together, forming a magic that hurled towards us. I took one of my hands off my spear and reached forward.
“Ruyue!”
[I need Sharana’s help!]
I immediately sent Sharana out as well. A shield of ice then began to form in front of me, becoming big enough to cover all of the space in front of Aikan. The moment the demons’ magic struck, the shield absorbed the impact and disappeared with it. I could clearly see that the demons were taken aback.
“Aren’t they explorers!?”
“I thought we could nullify the dungeon’s power!”
“Ye-Eun, did you hear? It looks like they can nullify the dungeon’s power.”
“Don’t worry. The techniques I learned from Master aren’t part of the dungeon’s power.”
Even after hearing what I said, Ye-Eun’s confidence didn’t waver. Seeing a dark aura rising up above her, I judged that she would be fine.
“Daisy, Yua, take care of the ground!”
“Already on it. Kang Shin, protect me well.”
“Leave it to us, Oppa!”
As time went on, more of those bizarre flying monsters were appearing. I could easily see there were at least two hundred of them. Each of them was more powerful than any of the demons we’ve met so far in Greenland. To think they could even ignore the dungeon’s power… They had to be elites even among demons.
“But Shin, how did you block their magic when they can nullify the dungeon’s power?”
“I have powerful elementals.”
I realized that we were being surrounded. As I felt the dungeon’s, Sherafina’s power slowly leaving my body, I calmly breathed in.
“Thankfully, they’re not on the level of Lespina. But if they get any closer, Daisy and Yua will get affected greatly. You understand what I mean, right, Ye-Eun?”
“Un. But I can’t fly yet.”
“I’ll lend you Ruyue.”
[Hiing, I want to be with Shin. Okay…]
With Ruyue, creating ice footholds was extremely simple. Ye-Eun seemed to have understood what I meant her expression brightened.
“Then I can go all out!”
“Be careful. I’ll go first.”
I activated Talaria and flew up. It wasn’t time to summon Petasos yet. Talaria was enough for now.
“The Hero is there!”
“He massacred over a million of our kin! Kill that wicked Hero!”
“For Our Majesty!”
Feeling the demons’ sights turn toward me, I created numerous metallic fragments using Dortu’s power. My Evil Eyes didn’t work on demons of their caliber. These metallic fragments were purely for offense.
“Huu…. Haaaa….!”
This land was surging with death energy. I took a deep breath, and an overflowing death energy began to rise up from my body.
I divided this energy equally among Dortu’s metallic fragments.
“Dortu, use them well.”
[I am Dortu.]
Dortu replied confidently.
[Believe in Master’s elemental.]
The metallic fragments full of death energy shot towards the demons and the monster birds they were flying on. It was as if a flower was blooming. Although I couldn’t see them, I could feel some of them fall after receiving irrecuperable injuries. With a smile, I shouted.
“Come at me! Even without the dungeon’s power, I can take on all of you!”