As a Man, As a Martial Artist.
The moment I opened my eyes after a short nap, a foul stench hit me.
I had poured all my remaining mana into the barrier before closing my eyes because I was so tired, so using a spell to block the smell was out of the question.
“Ugh… the smell.”
I had to get out of here quickly.
It felt like I had been sleeping for a long time in a cave with bad air.
I usually sleep in safe places, but the opponent was so strong that I couldn't resist the overwhelming drowsiness.
Thinking so, I approached the dead mage.
Wiggle, wiggle.
The muscles continued to twitch even though he was dead.
They were still twitching even though the crystal had absorbed all of his mana.
“I have to burn it.”
There was no need to leave something like this behind.
So I deployed a technique.
[Inferno]
Whoosh-!
Perhaps because there was a lot of fat, the flesh began to burn quickly.
His heart was gone.
It probably melted down in the Tsar Bomba.
Or maybe the crystal absorbed it.
At this point, I was curious about the identity of the crystal.
What exactly was it?
It was definitely not an ordinary crystal.
“...”
I took out the crystal and stared at it, but it gave no answer.
It was definitely a living being.
Why wasn't it answering?
With a suspicious thought, I put the crystal in my pocket and escaped the cave.
There were hardly any sacrifices left, so there was nothing to take.
I didn't intend to deal with it simply, but it took longer than I thought.
Still, feeling good that I had eliminated the threat in Baruk, I walked out of the cave.
“...What the.”
As soon as I came out of the cave, I was met with a demonic landscape.
All kinds of monsters were roaming around.
From goblins to trolls.
There were even Wyverns.
I couldn't understand the situation.
Why was this happening when I had killed the cause?
The first thing I had to do was get to Baruk.
So I used teleportation to move as quickly as possible.
Whoosh-
Countless monsters came into view as I teleported.
There were also many monsters that shouldn't have been in Baruk.
It was as if they had suddenly popped out of somewhere.
Feeling dizzy, I checked the forum.
The forum was in an uproar about Baruk.
[What the hell is going on in Baruk???][2]
[No, but this is seriously messed up lolololololol][1]
[I set up shop in Baruk, why am I being attacked????]
[When is the goddamn Lukphelton army coming?]
[Someone please help][2]
[Ugh, adventurers are so useless, seriously][12]
All these posts proved the danger Baruk was in.
It seemed like I had to clean things up quickly.
Closing the forum, I quickly headed to Baruk.
I could figure out why this happened later.
Whoosh-
After who knows how many teleports…
I finally arrived in Baruk.
The Baruk I arrived at was-
Whoosh-!
Boom-!
In ruins.
Since Baruk didn't have many guards, it seemed like this had happened.
The only fortunate thing was that only the walls were broken, and no monsters had entered.
Slice-
In the midst of all this, there was one person who stood out on the battlefield.
‘What the.’
Why was Basil there?
Basil was out on the battlefield, slicing up monsters.
Her skills had improved considerably compared to before.
She must have been working hard.
‘That’s not important right now.’
This wasn't the time to be concerned about that.
Getting rid of the monsters was the priority.
Since my mana had recovered a lot while I was asleep, I boldly used magic.
‘The ones far away first.’
I had to ask the adventurers to deal with the monsters near the walls.
It wouldn’t do to accidentally hit an adventurer while I was intercepting.
With that in mind, I deployed a technique towards the monsters running from afar.
[Holy Mist]
I used Holy Mist to slow down the approaching monsters and make them gradually absorb the holy mist.
And then-
Thud.
The monsters with weak mana suffered and collapsed, never to rise again.
What was this, as soon as I got out of the cave?
Seriously.
“I wouldn't have slept if I knew this was going to happen.”
Who could have predicted such a big incident?
I certainly didn't.That’s why I took a nap in the cave.
Thinking such thoughts, I relentlessly unleashed [Slash].
[Slash]
[Slash]
For the monsters that didn’t die from the Holy Mist, taking care of them with Slash was the most effective method.
There were hardly any wide-area spells that also dealt significant damage.
Of course, such magic existed, but it consumed a lot of mana.
It was more effective to use other spells multiple times than to use such magic.
Slice-!
Even though I saw the monster’s hide being cut and its insides spilling out, I didn’t feel any particular emotion.
It was the monsters that had invaded Baruk, who had done nothing wrong.
With that in mind, I continued to clean up.
‘I need to rest a bit.’
I had used up too much mana.
I thought it would be good to leave the rest to the adventurers and catch my breath.
So I leaned against a sturdy wall and watched the battle unfold for a while.
In the first place, Baruk didn't have many Gold Plate Rank adventurers, so the battle wasn’t exactly in their favor.
It was only because I had taken care of a large number that they seemed to be holding their own.
I figured I should gather some information during this break, so I opened the forum.
The Baruk incident was still a hot topic.
There were even posts praising me in between.
[That mage is seriously badass..]
[As expected, massacre is best left to the mage bro lol][2]
[Can’t martial artists do that kind of thing?][13]
There were also some inflammatory comments.
It was business as usual on the forum.
“Always the same…”
It was always the same.
That’s why I frequented the forum.
Thinking how consistent it was, I wrote a post.
[Author: ReallyDirtPoor]
[Title: What’s going on in Baruk right now?????]
[Content: Just got on the forum, someone explain pls]
It wasn’t a lie to say that I had just logged on.
As soon as I posted it…
Perhaps because the Baruk attack was a pretty big deal, many comments started pouring in.
L: I heard someone released that magic tool that was holding a bunch of monsters?
ㄴ: Yeah, that’s probably it. There are way too many monsters that shouldn’t be in Baruk.
ㄴ: Why would they release it now?
ㄴ: How should I know?
ㄴ: True lol
L: Baruk is under attack lol
L: There have been attacks here and there lately, is the world ending or something?
ㄴ: If it’s going to end, I hope it ends quickly.
ㄴ: True lol
I used to think that way too.
That it would be nice if the world ended.
I didn’t have any motivation in life, and I couldn’t find a reason to struggle to survive.
But now it was different.
I had something to protect, and I had relationships.
It meant that I couldn’t give up my life as easily as I used to.
‘By the way…’
The mention of a magic tool that sealed monsters reminded me of something.
‘There was definitely that crystal ball filled with life forms in the cave…’
Nah, couldn’t be.
With that thought, I watched the adventurers and soldiers fight off the monsters.
As I was resting, someone approached me.
“You came.”
“Yes.”
It was Basil, coming to greet me.
“Your skills have improved a lot.”
“Thank you.”
With that, she bowed her head.
Basil seemed to have changed a lot compared to before.
She used to be quite hostile.
Now, it seemed like that hostility had disappeared.
As I thought about this, I got up from my spot.
“Oof…”
Getting up, I passed through the gate and entered the city.
“Let’s get some food.”
I was hungry.
It felt like a good time to eat.
So we headed to Harang Restaurant.
Harang Restaurant had the best food.
*
“Haa…”
Lately, there hadn’t been anything interesting going on.
Staying in Koruntum was boring.
In the past, there was a thrill in beating up those who picked fights with me.
But lately, that thrill was gone.
It was a shame.
“It was good back then.”
Back then, I was weak too, so we fought each other tooth and nail.
But now, no one dared to challenge me.
It was probably because of that incident where I devoured a corpse.
I even got a strange nickname because of it.
‘What the hell is ‘Human Sea Bream’…’
How could someone’s nickname be Human Sea Bream?
If this were a wuxia world, I would’ve gotten a cool title.
“This sucks..”
Picking my ear, I wandered through the forest, lost in such thoughts. Then,
Shiver.
A sensation I hadn’t felt in a long time.
It had been a while since I felt this tingling sensation.
Figuring it could be interesting, I slowly walked towards it.
And what I found there was-
An enormous cave.
A cave overflowing with the aura of death.
“I can’t resist this.”
If you’re a man.
If you’re a martial artist.
You can’t resist entering a place like this.
With that thought, Cthulhu strode into the cave.
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