Chapter 254: An Unexpected Intervention

Chapter 254: Chapter 254: An Unexpected Intervention

Then the force began to pull.

The giant scorpions were abruptly lifted from the ground, their enormous bodies rising into the air as though an invisible hand had seized them. Their legs thrashed desperately, and their pincers snapped at empty space while the gravitational force dragged them toward the black sphere.

Some attempted to dig their claws into the ground, but the effort proved futile. The sand beneath them scattered into the air, and even the largest specimens were lifted with astonishing ease, their armored bodies drifting toward the vortex alongside the smaller creatures.

Within moments, the entire swarm had been caught in its influence.

The sight was so extraordinary that the Awakeners on all three flanks began turning toward the phenomenon, their attention drawn away from their own battles by the sudden appearance of an enormous black sphere suspended above the desert.

"What... what is that?"

One of the Awakeners on the left stared upward, his weapon still raised in his hands.

"The scorpions are floating! All of them are being pulled toward that thing!"

Another man looked toward the center of the battlefield, his expression frozen in disbelief.

"How did he do that? He didn’t even chant a spell or prepare a magic circle. He simply snapped his fingers, and the entire swarm was lifted off the ground!"

Even the experienced Awakeners fighting alongside the guild masters could not conceal their astonishment.

The scale of the phenomenon was simply too great to dismiss as an ordinary S-Rank ability. The gravitational vortex had appeared almost instantaneously, and its influence extended across an enormous area, capturing dozens of giant scorpions without showing any obvious signs of instability.

At the center of the battlefield, Ares stood with one hand raised, his expression remaining as composed as ever.

The black sphere continued drawing the monsters toward its center, swallowing them one after another until the remaining scorpions had been pulled away from the desert floor.

Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the vortex began to contract.

Its surface rippled once before the entire sphere vanished, leaving behind an expanse of disturbed sand and an eerie silence that spread across the battlefield.

Not a single giant scorpion remained.

For several seconds, none of the Awakeners spoke.

The three guild masters had also stopped fighting, their attention fixed on the young man standing near the center of the desert.

Kang Ji-hoon was the first to break the silence, his expression revealing a degree of astonishment that he rarely displayed in public.

"That was... incredible."

He approached Ares while studying him with an intensity that had little to do with ordinary curiosity.

"Mr. Tae-ho, are you also a gravity manipulator? I recognized the general principles behind that ability, but the scale and speed of its activation were far beyond what I would expect from a conventional gravitational spell. Even with my own specialization, I would need time to prepare a technique capable of affecting so many targets simultaneously."

His gaze briefly shifted toward the place where the black sphere had appeared.

"To think you could produce such an effect with a single gesture... Is this the unusual ability Director Han mentioned when he spoke about you?"

Ares scratched his cheek, offering an awkward laugh.

"Ah, no. I’m not a gravity manipulator."

Kang Ji-hoon blinked.

"You’re not?"

"Not exactly."

The answer was so vague that Kang Ji-hoon found himself momentarily at a loss for words.

Before he could ask another question, Yoon Ha-eun approached from the left flank, having left her summons to finish dealing with the remaining scorpions. Her expression was composed, but the curiosity in her eyes was unmistakable.

"Wait a moment. I saw what happened earlier, when you rescued that Awakener. You attacked the scorpion with a spear of fire, and the impact was powerful enough to send the creature flying before it exploded. Yet the ability you just used appeared to manipulate gravity on a massive scale."

She studied Ares carefully.

"If you aren’t a gravity manipulator, then what exactly is your class? Are you a mage with access to multiple elemental abilities, or does your specialization allow you to reproduce different types of magic?"

Ares gave her a slightly helpless smile.

"Something along those lines, I suppose."

Ha-eun stared at him for a moment, seemingly unsure whether he was deliberately avoiding the question or simply had no intention of providing a detailed explanation.

Park Tae-hyun, however, reacted quite differently.

The massive Guild Master of the Titan Guild broke into a broad grin, his eyes shining with undisguised enthusiasm as he approached Ares and slapped him on the back with enough force to make an ordinary person stumble.

"Now that’s what I call an impressive display! You were standing there so quietly that I almost thought you had no intention of fighting, but it turns out you’ve been hiding something extraordinary all along."

He laughed heartily, clearly delighted by what he had witnessed.

"I was wondering when you would finally show us what you could do, Tae-ho. I knew there had to be a reason the Association registered you as an S-Rank Awakener, but I certainly wasn’t expecting anything on this scale!"

Ares laughed awkwardly, not particularly interested in explaining the true nature of his abilities to someone he had only met that day.

"Well, I didn’t intend to interrupt everyone’s fight. I only stepped in because that Awakener was about to be killed, and then I noticed the next group approaching."

"Still, you saved him and eliminated an entire swarm in the process," Ha-eun remarked, her gaze drifting toward the empty stretch of desert where the scorpions had disappeared. "That kind of ability would be extraordinarily useful during a large-scale subjugation."

She paused before looking back at Ares.

"However, there’s one thing I would like to ask. What happened to the monsters you absorbed? Those scorpions would be valuable materials for crafting weapons, armor, and equipment, particularly because their exoskeletons and venom glands are useful to specialized artisans. If your ability destroyed them completely, we might have lost a considerable amount of resources."

Ares looked at her for a moment before smiling.

"Don’t worry. I haven’t destroyed them."

He raised his hand again and snapped his fingers.

The air behind him rippled.

One after another, the giant scorpions began appearing above the sand before dropping gently onto the ground, their enormous bodies settling into neat rows across the battlefield. The first landed several meters away, followed by another, then another, until the entire collection had been returned to the desert.

The Awakeners stared at the scene in renewed disbelief.

The scorpions were intact.

Not only had their bodies suffered no apparent damage, but even their armored shells, pincers, and segmented tails had been preserved without a single visible crack. Their venom glands remained undisturbed, and the sharp stingers that had posed such a threat during the battle were still attached to their tails.

It was as though the creatures had been carefully collected after their deaths rather than swallowed by an enormous gravitational vortex.

"What...?"

One of the Awakeners approached the nearest corpse cautiously, examining its exoskeleton with an expression of disbelief.

"These things are completely intact. I thought that black sphere had crushed them or torn them apart, but there isn’t a single crack in the armor."

Another man crouched beside one of the scorpions and carefully inspected its body.

"You’re right. The joints are still in perfect condition, and the venom glands haven’t been damaged either. Even if we had killed these creatures ourselves, preserving their bodies this well would have required considerable care."

"How is that possible? He absorbed the entire swarm into that strange sphere, yet he can return them without damaging the materials at all?"

The astonishment spread quickly through the surrounding Awakeners, many of whom had spent years participating in dungeon raids and understood how difficult it could be to preserve valuable monster materials during combat.

For a moment, the expedition seemed to have forgotten that they were still inside an S-Rank Gate.

Kang Ji-hoon, however, was focused on something else.

He examined the restored scorpions before turning his attention toward Ares, his expression becoming increasingly thoughtful.

"Wait. You stored all those monsters somewhere and then brought them back here without damaging them?"

Ares nodded.

"That’s right."

"Then you possess a form of subspace magic?"

Kang Ji-hoon spoke with a hint of surprise, as though he had just discovered another piece of a puzzle that was becoming increasingly difficult to solve.

"In that case, your abilities are even more unusual than I initially thought. Subspace magic is exceptionally rare among Awakeners, and as far as I know, I’m the only person in South Korea who possesses a storage-type spatial ability."

He paused before glancing at the rows of giant scorpions.

"However, my ability is considerably more limited than what you’ve demonstrated. I can store equipment and other objects within a separate space, but the capacity is nowhere near large enough to accommodate an entire swarm of monsters of this size. The fact that you can store them all and retrieve them in such perfect condition is remarkable."

Ares tilted his head slightly.

"Is that unusual?"

Kang Ji-hoon stared at him for a moment.

"...Yes. Very unusual."

Park Tae-hyun let out another laugh, apparently enjoying the increasingly bewildered expression of the Apex Guild Master.

"At this rate, we’re going to discover that Tae-ho can do practically anything. First, he destroys an entire swarm with some strange black sphere, then he reveals that he’s capable of using fire magic, and now it turns out he has a storage ability that makes yours look insignificant."

He grinned at Ares.

"Tell me, Tae-ho, is there anything you can’t do?"

Ares merely offered him an awkward smile.

"Of course there is."

For once, the answer was not entirely a lie.

Nevertheless, before the conversation could continue, Ares turned his gaze toward the distant horizon, where the pale dunes stretched into the distance without revealing anything unusual to the naked eye.

His expression became slightly more serious.

"More importantly, there are monsters hiding underground ahead of us."

The three guild masters immediately turned toward him.

"Monsters?" Ha-eun asked, her brows drawing together. "You mean there are more scorpions buried beneath the sand?"

"No. These are different creatures."

Ares continued looking toward the distant dunes, his True Sight allowing him to perceive movements that remained entirely invisible to the others.

"They’re positioned farther ahead, beneath the surface of the desert. There appear to be several groups of them, and they’ve been waiting for us to advance far enough that they can launch an ambush."

Kang Ji-hoon frowned, instinctively extending his perception toward the area Ares had indicated.

"I don’t sense anything unusual in that direction. Are you certain there are monsters hiding beneath the sand?"

"Yes," Ares replied calmly. "They’re difficult to detect because they suppress their mana and remain almost completely motionless while buried underground. If we had continued forward without noticing them, they would probably have attacked from beneath our feet."

Ha-eun glanced toward the distant dunes, her expression turning thoughtful.

"How did you discover their presence? Even with my summoning abilities, I would have difficulty detecting creatures that can conceal their mana so effectively, particularly across such a large area."

Ares turned toward her.

"I noticed one of them while you were fighting the scorpions. It briefly emerged from beneath the sand before retreating again, and I was able to observe its structure and the way it moved underground."

He paused before continuing.

"The species is known as a Sandgrave Stalker. They’re ambush predators that inhabit arid environments, and their bodies are adapted to move through sand almost as easily as ordinary creatures move through water. Their outer layers are covered in fine, sand-colored scales that allow them to blend into the surrounding terrain, while specialized organs beneath their heads enable them to detect vibrations from considerable distances."

The three guild masters listened carefully as Ares explained the creatures’ characteristics.

"Unlike the giant scorpions we’ve just encountered, Sandgrave Stalkers rarely attack their prey from above the surface. They remain buried beneath the sand, tracking the movements of anything that passes overhead until they identify an opportunity to strike. Once they begin their attack, they can emerge with surprising speed, using their armored bodies and powerful jaws to drag their targets underground before the victims have time to react."

Ares’s gaze remained fixed on the distant dunes.

"Their individual strength is not particularly impressive compared with that of the scorpions, but their hunting method makes them dangerous in groups. If several of them attack simultaneously, they can disrupt an entire formation before the Awakeners have time to respond. Their ability to conceal their presence is particularly troublesome because even experienced fighters might not realize they’ve been targeted until the ground beneath them begins to collapse."

Ha-eun’s expression grew more serious.

"If that’s the case, then we were fortunate that you noticed them before we advanced any farther."

She looked toward the other two guild masters, who had also begun considering the implications of Ares’s discovery.

"Had those creatures attacked while we were moving through the dunes, the frontline fighters might have been dragged beneath the surface before the rest of the formation could react. Even if the others managed to kill the monsters afterward, we could have suffered unnecessary casualties."

Kang Ji-hoon nodded slowly.

"Indeed. We have been focusing our attention on the threats we can see, but an enemy capable of suppressing its mana and moving beneath the sand changes the situation considerably. If Tae-ho hadn’t discovered their presence, we might have walked straight into their ambush."

He turned toward Ares and gave a small, respectful nod.

"Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Your intervention has not only saved one of our Awakeners but may also have prevented a much more dangerous situation for the entire expedition."

Park Tae-hyun crossed his arms, his earlier amusement giving way to a more serious expression.

"I agree. Those creatures could have caused considerable trouble if they had attacked while our forces were spread out. We would have had to abandon our formations to rescue anyone dragged underground, which would have created openings for the other monsters to exploit."

He glanced at the rows of intact scorpions before returning his attention to Ares.

"It seems we owe you more than one favor today, Tae-ho."

Ares waved a hand dismissively.

"There’s no need to make a big deal out of it. We’re all here to clear the Gate, and it would be rather pointless to ignore an obvious danger when I have the means to detect it."

Ha-eun smiled faintly.

"Even so, we appreciate the warning. I’ll make sure the Awakeners on my side are informed immediately, and I’ll adjust our formation to account for the possibility of underground attacks."

The three guild masters exchanged a brief look before turning toward the assembled participants.

Kang Ji-hoon stepped forward first, his voice carrying across the battlefield.

"Everyone, listen carefully! We have identified another type of monster ahead, and unlike the scorpions we have been fighting, these creatures are capable of concealing themselves beneath the sand. Their ability to suppress their mana makes them difficult to detect, so do not assume that the ground beneath your feet is safe simply because you cannot sense anything unusual."

Yoon Ha-eun immediately followed his announcement.

"The creatures are known as Sandgrave Stalkers, and they hunt by tracking vibrations from beneath the surface before launching sudden attacks. If the sand beneath you begins to shift unnaturally, or if you notice a section of the ground collapsing without an obvious cause, warn the people around you and move away from the affected area immediately. Do not attempt to investigate on your own, and do not separate from your group under any circumstances."

Park Tae-hyun added his own warning, his deep voice carrying an unmistakable note of authority.

"Keep your formations tight and watch one another’s surroundings. These creatures rely on catching their prey off guard, which means that the moment you notice something unusual, you need to alert the others rather than waiting to confirm what you’ve seen. If one of your companions is attacked, the nearest fighters should provide support, but nobody is to rush blindly into the sand without knowing where the monsters are hiding."

The Awakeners immediately began exchanging uneasy glances.

"Sandgrave Stalkers? I’ve never heard of that species before."

"Neither have I, but if they can conceal their mana well enough to evade an S-Rank Awakener’s perception, then we’re going to have a serious problem detecting them."

"That’s not quite what the guild masters said. They said the creatures were difficult to detect, not impossible. Still, being able to move beneath the sand and attack from underground is troublesome enough without adding mana concealment to the equation."

Another Awakener adjusted his weapon before looking toward the distant dunes with renewed caution.

"I thought the scorpions were the main threat in this area, but apparently, the desert has more surprises waiting for us. If Tae-ho hadn’t noticed those creatures, we might have walked straight into an ambush without realizing it."

"More importantly, he identified them while everyone else was occupied fighting. Just how far can his perception reach?"

"At this point, I don’t think anyone can answer that question. We still don’t know the extent of his abilities, and after what he did to that entire swarm, I’m beginning to wonder whether the Association has even managed to classify him properly."

Their voices gradually spread throughout the formation, mingling with the sounds of Awakeners checking their equipment and discussing how they would adjust their tactics to account for the newly discovered threat.

Although the initial battle had demonstrated that the expedition possessed sufficient strength to handle the giant scorpions, the revelation of another monster species lurking beneath the desert had reminded everyone that the S-Rank Gate was far from a simple hunting ground.

For the first time since entering the Gate, the Awakeners began looking at the seemingly empty desert with genuine apprehension, wondering what other dangers might be concealed beneath the endless expanse of sand.