NOVEL NEXT Chapter 27
Episode 2: Exodus / Chapter 27: Wyvern of Destruction (3)
TL: Myoni
Edited: Obelisk
To hunt the Wyvern of Destruction, they needed to fulfill three conditions.
Two had to be satisfied by Choi Hyuk. The other one was added by Baek Seoin.
Choi Hyuk compressed his karma and coiled it around the Predator’s Blade.
The first condition was a blade of karma.
Five mid-bosses at the 2-star level reflected in Choi Hyuk’s eyes. A shadow monster- a dusk teeth, looked to be the commander as it stood in the center flanked by two mountain orcs and two bladed ghosts.
There was an increase in mid-bosses along with the increase in monsters.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The two mountain orcs charged forward riding crook leaders. Choi Hyuk swiftly rushed in front of them. At the same time, he exploded the coiled karma wrapped around the blade’s edge. The exploding karma spun around as it propelled itself away from the blade.
Swish-
A faint blade made of karma. In fact, it was more like a faint haze than a blade. However, its effect was surprising.
The moment the oncoming crook leader was about to stomp on Choi Hyuk’s shoulder, the Predator’s Blade slashed out in a crescent.
Slash!
An exquisite arc made by a single blade. Just as the two mountain orcs riding their crook leaders at full speed and Choi Hyuk were about to collide, his blade slashed out a single time.
First, the neck of the crook on the left was sliced along with its rider’s waist, then the blade continued to draw a diagonal line from the chest to side of the orc on the right until the last crook’s head fell.
A slanted crescent was drawn.
Leaving the crescent drawn by his blade, Choi Hyuk’s body passed between the monsters.
Thud-thud. Pshhh.
Black blood splattered out into the air and onto the ground. He took four down with one blade. If it wasn’t for the karma reinforced cutting force, it wouldn’t have been possible.
The karma gathered at the tip of the blade slowly contracted and returned to his body. The exhausted karma dulled as if filled with lactic acid.
“Hooo…”
Cho Hyuk let out a short breath. The single slash consumed a lot of stamina. To the point it would have been better to just attack twenty times.
Still, Choi Hyuk once again coiled the karma around his blade. To fight the Wyvern of Destruction, he had to polish this technique.
It was already much more natural than before. His previous method of recklessly compressing karma and pushing it up his blade consumed so much stamina that he had lost strength in his legs. However, the situation became better when he started to coil the karma around his blade.
‘It’s still far off.’
To fight against the Wyvern of Destruction, he had to extend his blade by 5m. And he had to be able to maintain it. He couldn’t even begin trying to maintain it but attempting to lengthen the blade was doable.
‘More… more.’
Choi Hyuk wrapped more karma around his blade. Even during this time, his feet didn’t stop moving as they dashed towards the monsters.
“Kuaahhh!!!”
“Kreeah!”
The two bladed ghosts screeched in an attempt to put pressure on Choi Hyuk. The 2m wolf-like shadow slightly moved back. It looked like it was trying to avoid him.
But Choi Hyuk was one step faster.
Palalak!
The karma wrapped around his blade unravelled. He consumed all his karma; ‘The fight will end soon anyways.’ Choi Hyuk poured in all his remaining strength.
Swish!
The blade emitted a clear sound. The almost transparent haze of karma extended 1m past the blade.
Slice!
The extended blade sliced the two bladed ghosts and even the dusk teeth that had moved back. The dusk teeth looked like it was a shadow but as soon as it was split in two, its blood and guts splattered out as it collapsed. He split 3 monsters in two in a single exchange.
“Huuuu…”
Choi Hyuk let out a larger breath than before. His body felt heavy as if it was submerged in water.
“Kuek!”
“Die!”
Portal destruction complete!
Sounds of fighting sounded out from everywhere. The battle progressed smoothly.
Choi Hyuk slowly dragged his heavy body and stabbed the monster corpses. The Predator’s Blade drained the monsters’ blood.
——————–
{Predator’s Blade}
Rank: D (Unique, Growth-type)
Sharp and sturdy. The more blood it spills of strong foes, the stronger it will get.
Durability: 726/1,000
Evolution: 29/100
——————–
The second condition for hunting the Wyvern of Destruction was evolving the Predator’s Blade.
Though he didn’t know what kind of monster the Wyvern of Destruction would be, it was clearly stronger than the mid-bosses. Looking at the current situation, it looked like F rank was equivalent to no-star, E rank was 1-star and D rank was 2-star. If that was the case, to fight the Wyvern of Destruction which was at least a C rank, he needed a C rank weapon.
Choi Hyuk indifferently gazed at the Predator’s Blade as it drained the blood of its enemies and turned them into mummies. He still needed 71 more.
“Since I took out 7 today… at this pace, it’ll be possible.”
Normally it would be hard enough trying to take down 2 a day but now that there was an army it would be much easier. An expedition made up of 40,000 people that faced off against the monsters while the 100 members of the suicide squad made a path towards the portals. Due to this, Choi Hyuk had the time to fight while testing his Karma Blade in real combat.
“Huh?”
After calming his breath, Choi Hyuk saw items that had appeared between the dead corpses. They were items he was seeing for the first time. A transparent quartz rod and a wooden ball. When he closely examined it, information appeared.
——————–
{1-Person Escape Code}
The owner of this code is able to escape on the final day.
——————–
——————–
{Dragon Hunting Weapon – Vine Cannonball}
A cannonball packed with magic. Use it with ‘Dragon Hunting Weapon – Extraordinary Dragon Cannon’.
Tough, thick vines will grow in the place of impact. They react to dragon blood and will bind the dragon. If a few overlap, they can make a dragon momentarily falter.
——————–
Choi Hyuk, who examined the items, smiled bitterly.
“This is good news and very bad news…”
There were three conditions that needed to be met to hunt the Wyvern of Destruction.
First was completing the blade of karma and the second was evolving the blade. Then there was the last condition. The additional condition that Baek Seoin said they absolutely needed…
An ‘army’ that would fight until the end.
The addition of Dragon Hunting Weapons was welcomed as they would be a way to fight against the Wyvern. However… for there to be a 1-person escape code… it was the worst.
Just then, he heard commander Kang Dongsoo’s orders.
“Push! Push! Last one! Push with all your strength!”
Following Kang Dongsoo’s orders, people used their last remaining strength and pushed against the monsters. They pushed with shields, stabbed with spears and slashed with swords.
The ranks of the monsters collapsed and were hopelessly pushed back as their commanders had almost all been wiped out. There were even some that looked at their comrades before running away. These monsters that were slowly being pushed back had at some point all started to run away.
Uahhhh!
The roars of the humans shook the ground. They used the last of their strength to bang their weapons together and slam the ground. Some were so agitated that they even started the chase the fleeing monsters.
“Stop!! Stop the chase!”
Kang Dongsoo shouted. As they had surrounded the monsters with the HakIkJin formation, they definitely had the room to chase them. However, Kang Dongsoo decided to stop here.
It was because everyone’s stamina had reached their limits. If they were to fight in this condition, casualties would quickly pile up.
People who were extremely exhausted paused and gathered their breath. There were some who held their knees and panted.
They saw the scattered monsters fleeing in front of them. The people once again roared, forgetting their exhaustion momentarily.
Uoahhhhhh!!
4 hours of fighting. Three portals were destroyed. 20,000 monsters were wiped out. On the other hand, 3,000 humans died and 2,000 were critically wounded to the point that their recovery stat would be of no use.
It was a great victory.
**
The guardian Bae Jinman greeted the expedition in front of the Hyunhae Department Store. The first thing he did when they arrived was examining the wounded.
He started to treat those who had critical injuries like cut limbs or split heads. There were plenty of people who had lost fingers but they were pushed to the back.
Paah!
Light emitted out of Bae Jinman’s hand as the wounded’s arms and legs regrew.
“No matter how many times I see it, it’s amazing.”
Lee Jinhee who was observing from afar remarked.
“It looks like it’s harder to regrow limbs than cut them off… I’m telling you, he treats hundreds of people a day!”
An exposition was tacked onto her admiration.
“They say that when he regrows limbs, he uses the Retribution of the wounded. To regrow one limb, they say you have to spend 100 Retribution. And a portion of the consumed Retribution is used to help him grow.”
“Really? It’s still amazing…”
“Well… he’s the only healer. Even though I’m not completely certain, I bet he has more karma points than our leader?”
As he said that, Baek Seoin glanced at Choi Hyuk. Choi Hyuk was deep in his thoughts.
Baek Seoin abruptly asked.
“Is it because of the 1-Person Escape Code?”
Choi Hyuk nodded.
The 1-Person Escape Code was quite a serious problem.
Originally the rule stated that {Only the troops who have obtained the escape code can escape} which meant that escape codes were only given to troops, meaning only those who had received the king title would be able to obtain them. A rule that made it so that the members of the troops cooperated with each other. That rule had become the foothold in uniting everyone’s strength.
However, in this situation, these {1-Person Escape Codes} could become the poison that could destroy these troops. If one took extreme measures and ignored their assembly area and troops, couldn’t they just hide on the outskirts of the war zone (Kangdong District) and use it when the time came?
It felt a bit better knowing that the drop rate was low but he couldn’t help but trouble himself over it.
‘There is no way I can kill the Wyvern of Destruction without an army backing me up.”
This fact was something Choi Hyuk was becoming glaringly aware of. Without an army, he might collapse trying to pierce through the monsters. However, a temptation that could break apart that army had appeared.
‘And I still wasn’t able to solve a bigger problem.’
Choi Hyuk closed his eyes in deep thought.
Baek Seoin said.
“First, it’s not like we can do anything about the 1-Person Escape Code right now. Isn’t there a problem we have to settle beforehand?”
Choi Hyuk replied, nodding his head.
“We have to persuade the kings.”
The other kings still didn’t know Choi Hyuk’s other objective. They were only told that the suicide squad’s role would be to destroy portals and grab the Wyvern of Destruction’s attention. They were under the belief that the suicide squad would keep the wyvern busy until they obtained the escape code and once they did, they would retreat. If that happened, Choi Hyuk, who planned on killing the wyvern, would be isolated.
Because of this, he had to persuade the kings. Either persuade them to kill the wyvern together or at least, make them stay and fight longer. However, there wasn’t a suitable method. Was there any reason to put others in more danger and fight the wyvern?
‘I wish I could just kill them all myself…’
Choi Hyuk felt frustrated. He thought that he wouldn’t have to painfully rack his brains over this if his opponent was instead an incredibly strong human-like monster. Too many enemies. And to fight against such a large opponent… problems he couldn’t handle himself cropped up one after another. However, politics wasn’t Choi Hyuk’s strong point.
Choi Hyuk looked to be in pain as he knitted his brows. Looking at him, Baek Seoin smiled.
“Why are you worrying about it yourself when you have such great followers?”
Baek Seoin tapped his own head.
“I already had a plan when I said we needed an army.”
Choi Hyuk looked blankly at Baek Seoin. Now that he thought about it, the first one to suggest an army was Baek Seoin. He would obviously have some thoughts on this matter. However, Choi Hyuk, who never really had a friend, never had the idea of asking someone for help. He only tried to solve everything himself.
So, to Choi Hyuk, Baek Seoin saying that he could do it was like a breath of fresh air.
As if he was captivated, he asked.
“How?”
Baek Seoin replied right away.
“The Crazy Knight King.”
“Jung Minji?”
“Yes. We are going to persuade her.”
Baek Seoin revealed a hidden smile.