Ranker’s Return

[Cooking Skills of the King of Survival]

[The survival cooking skills of the survival king, Van and Greens. As long as you have these skills, you can survive even in the polar regions.

Type: Continuous

Rating: Unique

Skill Proficiency: F

The taste of any dishes you make will improve. The dishes you make will look delicious.]

“What is this?!!!” Hyeonu screamed upon confirming the skill’s information. It was a skill that was useless to anyone as it had little connection with combat. There were no special options such as a stats boost like in other virtual reality games. It was just all about food that tasted better and looked good.

“How is this a reward?!!!”

While Hyeonu was screaming, Tang-E approached him and asked, “Master dude, what is it? What is going on?"

Hyeonu hugged Tang-E and explained what happened. The newly acquired skill had no effect except for making food taste better.

“Isn’t it good, Master dude? Now I can eat more delicious meat.”

For Tang-E, there was no better news.

It felt like he had picked up a whole roasted pig while walking down the road. Originally, the meat Hyeonu cooked already had the same taste as that of the food they bought from stalls or restaurants. How much better would it taste with this skill?

“In the future, it would be better for you to cook instead of buying food, Master dude.” Tang-E banged on Hyeonu’s back. Hyeonu ignored Tang-E and walked alone through the door that had appeared in front of him.

“Let’s go together, Master dude!”

***

Senu’s Stage 2 was a vast meadow, and the meadow was colored red. A red that was dark and dense—it was blood. There were hundreds of tents erected on the meadow like a refugee camp, with soldiers in armor lined up inside and outside of them. However, as Hyeonu’s task wasn’t activated, time had stopped flowing, and the soldiers’ movements had paused.

‘Is it war?’ Hyeonu wondered.

While Hyeonu searched the surroundings, the polite voice from earlier rang in Hyeonu’s ears, -In Stage 2, your survival ability in war will be tested. You are currently seeing a battle in the past. If you participate as a soldier and survive until the end, the Stage 2 test will end. It doesn’t matter if it is a defeat or victory. However, there are differences in rewards depending on the progress and rewards. The given time is 3 hours.

[Time remaining - 2:59:59]

The voice’s description of the second task was over. Hyeonu felt fortunate that it wasn’t much different from his expectations.

‘I have to win unconditionally.’

He didn’t know what type of battle would occur, but the fact that he had to show his best performance didn’t change. This way, he could get more rewards. Hyeonu’s thoughts lasted up to here. A nearby soldier approached and spoke to Hyeonu, “Eh, what? Are you ready? It’s starting soon. Once it’s done, we can go home. It’s the final battle.”

The soldier was smiling with great joy. He didn’t look like a person who would be participating in a bloody battlefield in a short while.

“What are you so happy about? Aren’t you afraid to go into battle?” Hyeonu uttered out loud the words that were in his mind.

The soldier didn’t answer. He just laughed. Soon after, he patted Hyeonu’s shoulder and said, “This is the last one. The last one! I’ve always been crying so far, so I should laugh now. Why shouldn’t I laugh when I’m about to go home? Go over there once you’re ready.”

The soldier disappeared in the direction of the other soldiers.

“Tang-E, we’ll have to work hard this time,” Hyeonu spoke with a firm expression. He was going to work really hard...

Really.

***

Hyeonu entered the midst of the many soldiers. He wore a different outfit, but no one cared about him. So Hyeonu just focused on the spear in his hand and the words of the knight in front of him.

“This is the last time!!! We will win as always!!! The empire won’t lose!!!” 

The knight was motivating the soldiers and didn’t explain anything about the battle. He just raised the morale of the soldiers.

‘Is there no strategy?’

Hyeonu was feeling doubtful when the knight added another sentence.

“We’ve already fought dozens of battles on the plains. However, today is really the last one. It is because the Guardian Knights, the number one knights of Luos, will come to support us.”

The moment the knight finished talking, thunderous shouts poured out from the soldiers. They were intense shouts like those of fans seeing their favorite idols.

‘Why do they like the Guardian Knights so much? Are they like the Knights of Keon?’

On the other hand, Hyeonu didn’t know that the Guardian Knights were and just shook his head. Unable to restrain his curiosity, Hyeonu asked the soldier next to him, “What are the Guardian Knights?”

“You don’t even know about the Guardian Knights? It is a knights division made up of only graduates of the intermediate academy,” the soldier said. 

He continued to speak, telling Hyeonu about how they were geniuses whose talents had ignited and who then became the pillar of the empire. However, the soldier's words no longer entered Hyeonu’s ears.

‘Senu’s graduates...’

Then it made sense that they were called the Guardian Knights. Just like what the soldier said, Senu’s graduates were indeed proven talents.

‘They are great talents when it comes to dealing with magic power.’

This was obvious considering how Mason, who was talented in magic power control, had yet to clear Laek.

‘They graduated from Senu, so they will excel in other areas.’

The quest seemed to be easier than he thought.

[Time remaining - 2:39:52]

20 minutes had already passed. The Guardian Knights would surely appear once the time limit was up. Once they came, the battlefield would be cleaned up. It was the same as it had been with the Knights of Keon in the past.

“Go forward!”

Armored knights on horseback took the lead, and the soldiers followed. How long did they walk for? They left the barracks and walked on the endless plains.

[Master of Combat is activated.]

[Your stats have increased.]

[Mysterious Sky is activated.]

[Your five senses have sharpened.]

These message windows appeared in front of Hyeonu. They were skills that were only activated in combat.

‘Why now?’

There was only one reason for the appearance: enemies had appeared.

“Tang-E, get ready. Hide well and use magic. Don’t be too conspicuous. Understood? Do not come forward.” Hyeonu asked Tang-E to be rear support. It was the same as usual, but he was more resolute this time. This was the prototype of the strategy he would use in the professional league.

“I understand, Master dude. I would do it myself even if you didn’t say so. Master dude, take care.” Tang-E showed a squirming tail and instantly disappeared among the soldiers.

“Enemies have appeared! Entire army, prepare to charge!!!” The knight in the front of the army shouted.

The enemies could be seen reflected in his eyes. Monsters with black skin were running at a crazy speed from the other side. They were dark elves.

“Let’s all live!! Fight for survival, not genocide!!! Two hours later, the Guardian Knights will come!!!”

The knight finished talking and immediately kicked the sides of his horse with both his legs. No, he would have kicked if it wasn’t for what he saw.

“Huh? What?”

The identity of the object was a shadow—the shadow of a person. The shadow raised a long sword and radiated dark-red energy all over his body. It was Hyeonu.

‘Reward, take out the reward!!!’

Hyeonu kicked against the ground the moment he heard the words ‘dark elf’. This was the rush of a monster who was blinded by rewards.

“Who is that crazy guy?!” The knight screamed, forgetting to charge toward the dark elves as he was too flustered. He didn’t understand it because it wasn’t something he had seen in previous battles. Who would charge toward the enemy alone? It was something that no one would do.

‘It might be different if it were the Guardian Knights.’

Still, if it were the defenders of the Luos Empire, this might not be an impossibility... 

The leading knight had been on the battlefield for many years, but this was the first time he had seen something like this.

“Is everyone just going to watch?! Charge!!!”

Nevertheless, the knight was a veteran. He had a lot of experience on the battlefield, so he quickly regained his composure and commanded the soldiers.

“Charge!!! Kill the dark elves!!! Kill them all!!!”

The rest of the knights and soldiers started to follow Hyeonu’s back.

***

The dark elves were also surprised to see Hyeonu coming out alone.

“What is that human?”

“A crazy human?”

“Did he see us and lose his mind?”

The dark elves chuckled. Everyone was excited at the idea of killing the running human. It didn’t take long for them to realize that they were thinking too lightly of him. The moment Hyeonu arrived in front of them, feelings of panic and shock appeared on their faces. The dark red energy pouring from Hyeonu was the problem. It severely limited their movements.

“What is this?!!”

“Magician! Magician!!! How can this be?”

Urgent cries rang out from all over the place. It was just that they had no solutions for dealing with magicians.

“It is just his trick. It is clear that killing him will resolve it. Kill him!”

They had no choice but to follow this principle. There was just one thing they had overlooked. A magician wasn’t capable of doing this type of wide-area debuff. They had forgotten it was melee classes that gave debuffs.

‘Okay. Area Proclamation and Fighting Energy Emission have all worked.’ Hyeonu smiled with satisfaction.

None of his skills failed, making this his perfect stage.

“Reward! Give me the rewards!” Hyeonu screamed as he kicked hard against the ground and soared into the sky. He floated in the air and swung the Mysterious Sky Sword. At first glance, his swing didn’t seem much different from that of a layman who didn’t know swordsmanship. Yet that was just how it appeared on the surface. In fact, dark energy was pouring out toward the dark elves. It was actually a bombardment of sword energy.

“Ack!”

“Help me!”

Cries burst out from the dark elves. This was inevitable as dozens of dark elves were killed, and even more were cut or had their flesh rupture.

“Try anyway!” They shouted this, but there was no obvious way to respond.

There was no means of stopping the bombardment that came from the air. Defense magic had already been used, but it was torn apart like a bell. Just then, the dark elves saw Hyeonu land on the ground. This was an opportunity. They didn’t know what would happen if they missed it.

“Kill him!”

The dark elves flocked to Hyeonu. Just then, the Mysterious Sky Sword let out a black light, and the world was divided into two!

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