Ranker’s Return

This time, Hyeonu didn’t encounter Teramas.

Instead, he encountered all types of monsters in the Forest of Death.

“Tang-E, burn it!” Hyeonu exclaimed while pointing at a giant beast.

The name of the beast with thick gray leather was a botti. Botti was the demonic creature haunting the Forest of Death.

“Understood, Master dude.” Tang-E injected magic power into his wish bead, giving it a strange mixture of gold and black.

Then he used fire magic. The dark red fire turned into a whirlwind and flew toward the gray beast, swallowing it. The flames that burned were large enough to cover the huge gray body.

The botti shook and screamed in pain, “Uwooooooo!”

Its muscular neck moved and absorbed the fire around it. The presence of the dark red flames started to fade little by little, and once they had disappeared to some extent, the botti moved in earnest. It ran roughly toward where Hyeonu and Tang-E were standing.

‘There’s no dust?’

There was something strange about this. Despite the botti’s energetic movements, there were no traces of them. For example, if a person walked or a horse ran on a dirt ground, dust would fly up. Yet there was no such thing at present.

‘It’s flying around.’

The botti was moving through the air, not on the ground.

Hyeonu frowned when he saw that. The possibility of moving through air meant there were no restrictions on movement, so a free style of attack was possible.

‘It can soar high and then fall.’

Hyeonu’s expectations were right. As it ran, the botti jumped diagonally into the sky and flew up until it was a dot in Hyeonu’s vision.

“Awooooooo!” the botti let out a loud cry and descended toward Hyeonu. Hyeonu greeted the falling botti with a dark crescent moon that was around 20 meters tall.

“Awooooooo!” the botti cried out again in a bewildered manner.

Gray smoke gathered around the botti’s horns before shooting out like a Breath. The gray smoke and black crescent moon collided, and an intense tremor broke out from the crash site. There was no winner. They were both destroyed.

‘I think it is an intermediate demonic creature.’

Hyeonu grasped the botti’s level with one collision. The botti wasn’t very strong. It was only average among all the monsters Hyeonu had met in the Forest of Death. He didn’t need to be vigilant of it. It would be enough to kill it and move on.

‘Kill it quickly.’

Once he killed the botti in front of him, the ring would be unsealed, and the item effect for stage 2 would be revealed.

‘The increase in experience is good, but... it has no influence on the combat power itself.’

The option of stage 1 to increase experience was an insanely fraudulent effect in the long run, but it was completely useless when limited to immediate combat.

“Tang-E! Use anything, be it lightning or ice!” Hyeonu shouted while looking at the botti that had just landed on the ground. 

Lightning and ice—they were all magic with movement-related debuffs.

“Understood, Master dude.”

In accordance with Hyeonu’s order, Tang-E poured magic power into his heart, and the hearts on Tang-E’s front paws were dyed black. Then dark blue ice spikes rose from the ground where the botti was standing and pierced through its entire body. The wounds caused by the long sharp awls started to freeze blue.

[The ghost of the forest, the botti, has fallen into the ‘frostbite’ abnormal condition.]

The botti seemed to become one with the ball of ice emerging from the ground as its gray body turned dark blue. Hyeonu swung the Mysterious Sky Sword at the immobile botti. This time, it was Mysterious Sky Demonic Strength, not Crescent Moon Cut. It was a blow that was several times more powerful than the last. The dark red laser penetrated the botti’s brow. The botti’s blood couldn’t flow and instead evaporated instantly due to the dark red pure energy.

[The ghost of the forest, the botti, has been defeated.]

[Experience has been acquired.]

The botti collapsed and left experience and gold. It also left a change with Hyeonu. A black light burst from his finger—from one of the rings he was wearing.

[Lives killed 2,500/2,500]

[The stage 2 open conditions are satisfied.]

[The item’s effects have changed.]

[All stats +100 -> all stats +200.

Stage 2 Misaligned Providence: Movement speed is increased by 20%.

Stage 3 opening condition: Kill boss monsters above level 400 0/33.]

Finally, Rainbow of Desires went through a change. The conditions to unlock it were met, and it evolved spectacularly.

‘Is it an epic item?’

Hyeonu was amazed when he checked the changed item information. It was a very satisfactory effect. Movement speed was increased by 20%. This was like placing wings on a tiger. As the level increased, movement speed was one of the more important figures. After all, it was a crucial thing in battle to be able to hit without getting hit. The basics of that was movement speed. It allowed the player to avoid the opponent’s attack and attack when the opponent failed to respond.

“It is a chance to power up again.”

Hyeonu hadn’t intended it at all, but he had become stronger once again. He would have more to show at Arena Week.

“Master dude, praise me. I did it all for you.” Tang-E approached Hyeonu who was still touching the ring.

Hyeonu lifted Tang-E and held the little guy in his arms before giving Tang-E the compliment he wanted: “Yes, well done. Haven’t you become a lot stronger?” 

Tang-E was poked in the side, but he laughed like this was enough to make him happy.

‘What?’

Just then, something struck Hyeonu’s senses. He heard a sound and felt the energy of a powerful boss monster. However, it was also a bit familiar. Hyeonu carried Tang-E and kicked off from the ground into the air, settling naturally on top of a tree.

‘I heard it from over there...’

Hyeonu turned his head to look, but visibility was poor due to the dense fog. The thick fog covered his eyes and blocked what should be a clear view since there were no trees in the way.

‘It would be great if it were Teramas.’

Hyeonu started running around the tops of the trees with this hope. Thanks to his increased movement speed and agility stat, Hyeonu could step stably and swiftly on the tree tops, so it wasn’t long before he arrived at the source of the sound.

“Teramas!”

There was a giant tortoise. It was Baler’s pet demonic creature. Hyeonu could meet Baler if he stayed by this guy’s side.

‘It is a waste of time to wait.’

Nevertheless, Hyeonu had no intention of killing time by Teramas’ side as it would simply be a waste of time. So he thought of a radical method with a clear result.

‘He showed up when Teramas was in a crisis.’

It was to attack Teramas. Hyeonu’s strategy emerged from his past experience of when he first met and fought Teramas. The moment Teramas had reached the brink of death, Baler appeared and stopped Hyeonu. This meant that Teramas’ state would be conveyed to Baler.

‘Hit the dog and the owner will appear.’

Hyeonu had no intention of fighting this battle to kill Teramas. If that happened, he didn’t know what would happen with Baler.

‘Just hit it once or twice, and he will fly over. Then... I will say it was urgent.’

The aftermath was directly Hyeonu’s responsibility. He had to adjust his strength to hit Teramas. Otherwise, Hyeonu’s life would be in danger.

“Tang-E, deal a good shot,” Hyeonu ordered Tang-E to attack. In his head, he rationalized it was to increase Tang-E’s skill proficiency, but his heart already knew that it was because he didn’t want to risk even the smallest variables.

“Understood, Master dude. I will do it in a passionate manner.”

Tang-E didn’t know this and excitedly summoned a heart. He had been quite interested in magic these days and found it enjoyable to use magic in various ways. The heart filled with Tang-E’s magic power and started to tremble. A bit of magic power came out of the heart and flowed into the air. Before long, it had created some dark blue clouds.

These dark clouds moved quickly, and their destination was above the teramas’ shell. Once the clouds were in the right position, more magic power poured out from Tang-E’s heart. There was a dark gold flash, and lightning poured down from the dark clouds. The lightning wasn’t that big; rather, it was very thin.

However, it descended in an enormous number of strikes. They were like countless raindrops falling at the same time. The Teramas was huge, which meant that there were so many places that could be hit. Consequently, it was inevitably hit by the raindrops of lightning Tang-E released.

“Kuwooooh!” Teramas let out a sad scream.

‘Did he appear?’

It happened at this moment. A huge shield emerged over Teramas’ body. Hyeonu thought that Baler had appeared with a pattern that wasn’t seen last time.

“Who is bothering my little cutie again?”

Hyeonu’s guess was right. Baler had arrived with a frown. Stepping in front of Baler, Hyeonu greeted, “It has been a while, Baler.”

Baler looked surprised when he saw Hyeonu suddenly appear before him.

‘He has grown rapidly in a short time.’

There was the reason he was surprised. He knew that someone was here the moment Hyeonu and Tang-E made a move. The Forest of Death where Teramas lived wasn’t a place where lightning would fall from the dry sky, so Baler naturally knew that someone had attacked Teramas. He couldn’t help sensing the powerful magic power present, but he hadn’t expected it to have come from Hyeonu.

‘I hadn’t expected it to be that human...’

Baler didn’t know what had happened during the time Hyeonu was away, but the latter had grown noticeably. It was very fitting to say that he was different every day.

“You know that I’m raising this guy... Why did you attack him?” Baler asked in a slightly cold voice.

‘I did something wrong...’ Hyeonu thought he should consider the safety of his life a bit after seeing Baler’s cold attitude.

“I have something to say to you, so I was forced to attack Teramas. I’m sorry. I won’t let this happen next time,” Hyeonu apologized with a bow.

This caused Baler’s expression to relax slightly. “You can’t do this next time. What sin is he guilty of? He is still a kid, and he shouldn’t be hurt.”

Baler reached out to Teramas. The magic power from his body was absorbed by Teramas, healing the wounds Tang-E’s lightning magic had caused.

“So what do you want? Finding me like this... It doesn’t seem normal,” Baler said. The words were simple, but to Hyeonu, it sounded like a threat that he would kill Hyeonu unless the reason was something big.

“Baler, I want to start a war.” Hyeonu smiled like it wasn’t a big deal.