Ranker’s Return

The inside of the Forest of Death was darker than the outside. Thanks to the dark fog, Hyeonu and Tang-E’s field of view was narrowed. Moreover, they were surrounded by black trees with dark green leaves, so it felt even darker. Tang-E gave more strength to the paw holding Hyeonu’s hand as their surroundings became even gloomier.

Feeling a heavy pressure in his hand, Hyeonu glanced at Tang-E with a faint smile.

‘In the end, he is just pretending to be strong...’

Hyeonu looked down at Tang-E and spoke in a kind voice, “I don’t think it will take too long, so don’t worry too much.”

“Bah, when did I worry? Hum hum.” Tang-E sniffed with a sullen expression, but the pressure from his paw still remained the same.

“Tang-E, it is a bit dark. Can you light a fire for me?” 

It was wasteful for Tang-E to use his fire magic just to light up the surroundings, but it was fine if Hyeonu kept injecting magic power into the fire. The cooldown time would start from the moment the magic power injection into the skill ended.

“Understood, Master dude.” Tang-E welcomed Hyeonu’s words. In fact, he had been waiting for this.

Black flames appeared in the air and revealed the surroundings. Although the color of the flames was black, that didn’t mean they didn’t glow. In addition, the black flames had other effects. The intense heat eliminated the fog. Fog was water droplets floating in the air, so once the water droplets disappeared, the fog naturally lost its presence.

‘This is an unexpected result?’

The smile on Hyeonu’s face deepened at the unexpected harvest. His field of view widened by at least five meters, making his current visibility 30 meters wide.

“Well done, Tang-E.” Hyeonu gently stroked Tang-E’s head and moved quickly toward the location the demon guard had mentioned.

***

Taking the first step was always a strange and terrible thing. The source of fear was ignorance—not knowing which way to go, what would happen, or what type of place this was. The horror of not knowing lasted until a number of experiences accumulated. However, some unusual people turned this fear into an interest in new things.

“Master dude, I think I’ve adapted to this place.”

“It feels just like a forest with a slightly darker atmosphere.”

Meanwhile, there were those like these two people who adapted too quickly. Tang-E and Hyeonu quickly adapted to the Forest of Death due to Tang-E’s flames. The atmosphere largely depended on the visual aspect. So now that the fog had cleared and their dim vision had brightened up, the forest felt less gloomy.

“By the way Master dude, are there no monsters here? I can’t see any despite walking for over an hour.” Tang-E now had an expression of boredom. It was a reasonable reaction since it wasn’t normally difficult to meet monsters when hunting in a field. Rather, it was usually difficult to kill the swarming monsters. In particular, Hyeonu always went to fields with few players, so it was easy to meet monsters.

“Who knows? The atmosphere is like this, but perhaps it’s a place with no monsters?” Hyeonu said while shaking his head. This was also Hyeonu’s first time coming to the Forest of Death, so he didn’t know the answer to Tang-E’s question.

“Then it’s probably better to get out of here quickly. There is nothing to see and enjoy in this forest,” Tang-E said. Then he kicked off from the ground and rushed forward. He was determined not to remain in this forest for another day. However, unexpected actions always had unexpected consequences. Something huge suddenly appeared out of nowhere and hit Tang-E.

“Uwaaah!” Tang-E screamed and quickly avoided the surprise attack. The party involved, Tang-E, didn’t know what was going on, but Hyeonu could see the entire process from a distance. Tang-E had kicked off happily from the ground, and a huge tortoise suddenly appeared from beside him. The tortoise’s front foot attack moved like a thunderbolt toward Tang-E.

‘I knew this would happen...’ Hyeonu shook his head and drew the Mysterious Sky Sword. The pressure coming from the tortoise seemed very unusual. He couldn’t leave this to Tang-E and just watch from the sidelines.

‘Won’t it be hard for Tang-E alone?’

The tortoise was large enough to be reminiscent of a small mountain. It wasn’t for no particular reason that Hyeonu felt the tortoise was huge. Just the tortoise’s front legs were already dozens of meters in circumference. It wasn’t comparable to a soccer field but a hill in a neighborhood. He couldn’t figure out how he hadn’t seen such a huge body moving. His field of view might not be as wide as normal, but it was impossible not to have seen something of this size.

‘Perhaps...’ Hyeonu’s eyes narrowed. There must be a hidden corner. What looked like a small mountain earlier had most likely been the tortoise in front of him.

‘Is this the highest-grade demonic creature that the demon mentioned?’

Hyeonu had heard of such a monster. He remembered the story of the demonic creature of the highest grade being mentioned in the description of the Forest of Death.

‘I was told to avoid it.’

This level was worth avoiding. No, it was right to avoid it unconditionally. Nobles weren’t invincible, and the combat patterns of monsters outside such categories couldn’t be predicted before fighting.

‘Is it more powerful than a snow mountain cyclops?’

Hyeonu walked cautiously toward the giant tortoise as he was thinking. He compared the monster in front of him to the boss monsters he fought against previously—the snow mountain cyclops, Viscount Ergal, Jeblin, and so on. There were quite a few monsters to compare to.

‘Viscount Ergal and Jeblin can’t be compared to it... But if I compare it to the snow mountain cyclops... The pressure I feel now doesn’t lag behind.’

The pressure that the tortoise was releasing was extremely heavy and powerful. It wasn’t lacking in comparison to the previous boss monsters.

‘It isn’t to the point where I can’t kill it.’

Hyeonu made the judgment that he could kill it. He and Tang-E hadn’t had any proper battles since Tang-E’s third awakening. There had been several hunts, but they hadn’t used their full strength. In fact, it was safe to say that this was Tang-E’s first battle since then.

Hyeonu arrived in front of the tortoise and turned his head to find Tang-E. He couldn’t see where Tang-E was hiding, but it didn’t matter. Tang-E must be around here considering that the skill he gained after the third awakening, Dancing with a Bear, hadn’t disappeared.

Hyeonu rushed to the tortoise while shouting loudly in order to be heard by Tang-E, who was hiding somewhere: “Tang-E! Please use your strongest magic from a distance! Give me buffs first!”

Kicking off strongly from the ground, Hyeonu flew forward. His goal was the tortoise’s neck. He thought about inflicting a critical hit to it, but there was just one problem. Things didn’t go so smoothly. The one who reacted to Hyeonu’s shout was the tortoise, not Tang-E. The tortoise stretched out its front foot in a flash and slammed it toward the ground.

‘Crazy!’ Hyeonu was frightened by the tortoise’s attack that was twice as fast as before. Even for Hyeonu, there was a limit to the speed at which one could move through the air. He quickly used Mysterious Sky Steps, but it was impossible to perfectly avoid the foot.

‘Right from the beginning, Tyrant’s Heart is already being used...’

The good thing was that he wouldn’t be logged out instantly. If his health fell below 30%, Tyrant’s Heart could be used once to restore half his total health. This meant he could withstand one attack. The moment Hyeonu half gave up, his body suddenly became faster, and he avoided the tortoise’s attack. The tortoise’s front leg ended up smashing some trees.

“Thanks, Tang-E!”

It was due to Tang-E’s buffs that Hyeonu’s movements suddenly accelerated.

[You have received Breath of the Wind.]

[Your agility has risen.]

[Movement speed has increased.]

Thanks to this message appearing at the very moment Hyeonu gave up, he was able to dodge. Then two additional buffs were given to Hyeonu. Hyeonu felt them take effect and swung the Mysterious Sky Sword with a smile. He gave up riding on the tortoise’s body and changed his strategy to decrease its health.

His dark-red pure energy struck the tortoise’s face. Hyeonu succeeded in the attack, but he wasn’t smiling. A dark shield had formed in front of the tortoise’s face to block Hyeonu’s pure energy. Yet this was when a black light hit the tortoise. The sound of thunder rang out belatedly, and white smoke emerged from the tortoise’s body.

The tortoise failed to block Tang-E’s magic. Tang-E’s magic came at such exquisite timing that it was unavoidable.

“Kuooooh!” A low and deep cry emerged from the tortoise’s throat. The identity of the roar was Fear.

[The Fear of the gloomy demonic creature, Teramas, has been heard.]

[The influence of fighting energy and killing intent has allowed you to ignore the Fear of the gloomy demonic creature, Teramas.]

Hyeonu ignored the Fear as always. After learning he had ignored Teramas’ fear, Hyeonu laughed.

“Huhu...”

It was now proven that Hyeonu was capable of hunting Teramas. A fireball that was over 10 meters wide flew toward Teramas’ face. However, it didn’t hit this time. A black shield appeared to block Tang-E’s fireball. Right then, Teramas' front foot split like a large piece of wood, and red blood burst out like a fountain. Just like how Tang-E used Hyeonu’s attack as bait for his magic to hit earlier, Hyeonu successfully used Tang-E’s magic to attack this time.

“Kuooooh!” Teramas howled.

Its gloomy voice rang through the Forest of Death. Suddenly, black fog formed around the open wound and started to repair it. The wound was healed in a flash. It was as if nothing had happened.

“Kuooooh!” Teramas’ cry contained different emotions, but it was mostly filled with anger. The creature was furious that it was wounded despite being one of the highest-grade demonic creatures ruling the Forest of Death. Then Teramas’ mouth opened, and the surrounding air was sucked into it.

To be precise, it wasn’t air but magic power. The gathered magic power formed a black sphere, and this black sphere released a bloodthirsty momentum. It couldn’t be hidden.

Before long, the complete sphere was fired at Hyeonu. It moved downward in a diagonal direction and at a very slow speed. The black sphere was a long distance from the ground, but there was an explosion wherever the sphere passed. 

Hyeonu stood still and gazed at the sphere that was approaching him. Eventually, once the sphere was less than 10 meters away, the Mysterious Sky Sword moved.