187. Portugal (3)
“Hmm.”
The farther they went along the path HunGyo was leading them on, the more an unpleasant feeling crept over him.
—Do you feel it, my lord?
“Yeah.”
What should he even call this...
An animal instinct, maybe?
It felt as though he had become one of two fierce beasts fighting over territory.
His hair stood on end, and alarm bells rang in his mind.
Telling him to be careful.
‘This kind of thing. Is something you only feel when facing a Tower of Trials boss. That means?’
‘Looks like that’s it.’
It seemed this really was an S-grade dungeon break after all.
Well, this is awkward.
He doubted it for no reason.
—Jinwoooo! I’ll start stacking again..... Hahahaha, I’ve been taking it way too easy until now. Right?
Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!
Lamba, who had been playing around, started swinging her staff again.
Shing!
HunGyo and Aso drew their swords, and Gale Slayer raised his scythe.
—Grrr....
In Gale Slayer’s case, for some reason. He seemed even sharper than before.
Had they walked a little farther like that, just as the air became unmistakably heavier—
—My lord.
HunGyo, who had been walking at the front, raised a hand to stop everyone.
The place everyone’s gaze turned toward.
From within the hazy darkness, a black silhouette slowly revealed itself.
‘A grim reaper holding a golden scythe.’
Yep, that bastard.
[Warning! Warning! Warning!]
[A boss monster is appearing!]
Even a warning message like something from a normal dungeon!
It was certain.
Slash!
The creature instantly cut off the head of a nearby monster.
The monster collapsed to the ground without even managing a scream.
—Kyaaaaaak!
A chilling shriek rang out from the reaper’s mouth.
At the same time, dark blue-black smoke rose from the fallen monster’s body.
—Soul Reaper......
HunGyo frowned.
When it absorbed that smoke with the tip of its scythe, its body grew a little larger.
No wonder it seemed stronger than it should have. It appears it was growing stronger by consuming monsters’ souls. And judging by its size, it has eaten quite a lot.
—Grrrrr…..!
For a while now.
Gale Slayer had been furious.
“What’s wrong?”
—Grrk…..!
He pointed at the enemy with his scythe.
And then.
[Sudden Quest Triggered!]
[A sudden quest has arrived for ‘Gale Slayer (EX-grade)’!]
[Would you like to open the quest?]
[Y/N]
“Oh!”
A sudden quest!
I’m getting one here like this again?
‘Yes.’
There wasn’t even any need to think.
When it came to quests, the rule was simple: accept first, ask questions later.
[Sudden Quest!]
[Gale Slayer has encountered a grim reaper whose beliefs differ from his own! He believes that souls circulating is the natural flow of the world. However, the Soul Reaper, on the contrary, is obsessed with absorbing souls to amplify its own power. It uses that suffering as fuel and imprisons souls in darkness. Gale Slayer cannot stand by and watch that happen.]
[Defeat three Soul Reapers (S-grade)! (0/3)]
[Time Limit: 100 days]
[Current Time Elapsed - 0 days, 00:00:00]
No, wait, what.
‘I have to take down three of those things?’
And there’s a time limit too?
—Grrr...!
Gale Slayer looked furious enough to leap out at any moment.
Come to think of it.
‘I never knew what this guy lacked.’
Turns out he had a pretty profound philosophy?
‘And he’s kind too.’
So basically.
He hates seeing souls suffer and wants to free them! Isn’t that it?
If that’s the kind of heart he has, then of course I have to help him.
“Explosive Dragon.”
—Yes, Jinwoo.
“Blast it.”
—Yup!
Thud.
Explosive Dragon Sorcerer’s staff dropped.
And the strongest skill she had been accumulating all this time began to unfold.
Explosive Dragon Sorcery, Secret Art - Ruination.
It was the final boss move right from the start.
* * *
Major Antonio was horrified.
A Soul Reaper?
That thing was definitely different.
It was literally the shape of a nightmare.
The moment one was cut by that golden scythe, their soul would be sucked into that grotesque thing.
Tremble tremble tremble.
His body shook.
It was an unavoidable human instinct. Like prey standing before a predator.
His whole body stiffened so badly he couldn’t even move his feet.
“Huff, huff!”
Even breathing became labored.
A being he had only heard about in rumors.
In all his life, Antonio had never seen a monster radiating such overwhelming evil.
‘C-can we really beat something like that?’
The moment he thought that—
Fwoosh!
Something crimson began to materialize from Explosive Dragon Sorcerer’s staff.
—Hyaaaaaaah!
With a cute battle cry—
Kugagagagagagagagaga!
A red dragon bigger than most villas covered the sky.
At the same time.
Craaack!
It opened its mouth.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
The power of Explosive Dragon Wave, condensed tens of thousands of times, came crashing down as a beam.
It took only one shot.
[Boss monster defeated!]
That horrifying thing.
Simply vanished without leaving even a trace.
It happened so fast and so absurdly that—
—Grrk...?
Even Gale Slayer, who had been enraged, looked dumbfounded.
“Gale Slayer.”
—Grrk?
“Still, Explosive Dragon has seniority. She’s the one who can take down Asmodeus in one shot, so why would she drag out a fight with something like that? Right, Explosive Dragon?”
—Hehe. Yes, Jinwoo.
Apparently pleased by the praise, she stuck out her tongue a little and smiled.
Even the way our Explosive Dragon likes things is so gentle.
‘C-crazy.’
Antonio was already tired of being shocked.
Explosive Dragon Sorcerer.
He had been watching her the whole time, and she was simply an absurd existence.
What kind of summon in the world is like that?!
After burning through countless monsters, she still had that much power left?
‘Especially that dragon just now.....’
It was on a completely different level from the destructive power Explosive Dragon had shown so far.
It felt like whatever stood in front of it would be erased in a single blow.
Honestly, it seemed one level above Rachel’s S-grade summon, the Yellow Dragon’s Ascension Breath.
“Um.......”
In the end, Antonio gathered his courage.
Something he had been unable to say until now because he thought it might sound too over-the-top.
“Lady Explosive Dragon Sorcerer, would it be possible for me to get your autograph?”
“...... ”
What.
An autograph from a summon.
Baek Jinwoo made a dumbfounded face, but—
—Yes, do you have paper?
Explosive Dragon answered right away.
..I knew it?
You?
An autograph?
Where in the world did you even learn that?
“I-I don’t have paper, but I have a pen here!”
Antonio pulled a command baton out of his pocket.
Maybe because it was a high-end command baton, when he twirled it around, a pen popped out from the bottom.
“You can sign my clothes!”
—Okay.
Swipe, scribble scribble!
On his back, she wrote [Explosive Dragon Sorcerer] in large Korean letters.
Wow.
And it even looked pretty stylish.
If there were anyone who could have taught her something like this......
—Hey, Antoniooo! Why are you only getting Explosive Dragon Sorcerer’s autograph? Don’t you want mine toooo?
Sigh.
So it was you, Lamba.
“Lady Lamba’s autograph would be great too! It would be amazing!”
Antonio unintentionally struck gold that day.
He might not know it now.
But later, wouldn’t those signatures become incredibly valuable?
Or maybe not.
* * *
Once they took down the Soul Reaper, clearing out the monsters became even easier.
—Kyaaaaaaaaa!
When the Glacial Snake let out a cry, an icy shockwave spread outward in all directions along with its roar.
And then?
It drew the aggro of every monster within a certain range.
Like moths drawn into a flame, they approached as if entranced, unable to help themselves.
And then, they became real moths to a flame.
Fwoosh!
They melted away one after another in the stream of fire created by Explosive Dragon Sorcerer.
And just like that, in exactly 3 days.
They finished the entire schedule.
“There are no dungeons left in Tomar now. It should be safe for a while.”
“R-really..... To think a day like this would come. A day like this..... Thank you! Thank you so much!”
Antonio bowed deeply.
—Kirururururu!
They rode the Wyvern back again.
When they returned to the hotel, the other teams still hadn’t finished their schedules yet.
When he opened the guild group chat to check, it looked like they were about 80 to 90 percent done.
Baek Jinwoo didn’t bother helping them.
Apparently the two teams had gotten into some kind of strange competition, and the losing team had to wait on the winners for a week or something?
Since they were having fun, there was no reason for him to awkwardly interfere.
“You all worked hard. Get some rest. Lamba, you can go ahead and eat all the cream buns that’s left.”
—Hwaaaaaat! Niiiceeeee!
Each of them settled down wherever they wanted.
Lamba lay down on the sofa and started eating cream buns, while HunGyo took Aso up to the rooftop.
Apparently they had more training to do?
Jaggeo and Dampir were always a pair.
The two of them also sat on the rooftop, saying they were going to enjoy the night view.
And then.
—Jinwoo.
Our MVP Explosive Dragon Sorcerer came over and asked cautiously.
—Hwang Jiwoo asked if I wanted to go out for a walk around the city with her. Is it okay if I go?
“With Hwang Jiwoo?”
—Yes, she said she’ll get ready and come out in an hour.
Hwang Jiwoo was staying in another suite.
Well, she must have had a hard time too, so it made sense that she wanted to wash up and recover from the trip a bit.
She probably got bored going alone and called Explosive Dragon, who was basically her best friend now.
And Explosive Dragon also seemed comfortable around Hwang Jiwoo, who had the Fiery Body.
“Sure, go ahead.”
If they were spotted, the people of Portugal would probably come running in droves......
But well.
Hwang Jiwoo would probably handle that just fine.
—Aren’t you going out too, Jinwoo?
“No, there’s something I need to look into.”
—Understood.
And.
Since he was this far away from home, he also had to call his girlfriend.
So she wouldn’t feel neglected.
And while he was at it, there was something he wanted to ask her about too.
* * *
He talked with Yoo Jia on the phone for about 30 minutes.
He asked how she was doing and heard about what had been going on, and—
Good grief.
Apparently support requests had been pouring in from all kinds of random countries.
They were struggling too, so they wanted help.
‘Sorry, but.’
He couldn’t save every single one of them.
No matter how strong Baek Jinwoo was, the Earth was huge. There was no way he could go around handling all of that alone.
It had taken nearly two weeks just to clean up one city in Portugal.
So.
He told the guild’s internal information team to investigate.
Whether there were any countries showing traces of an S-grade dungeon.
And among those S-grade cases, whether there were any places with a monster wielding a golden scythe.
[Defeat three Soul Reapers (S-grade)! (1/3)]
For now, he had killed one.
If he killed just two more, Gale Slayer would probably get a huge power-up too.
‘Probably.’
He’d likely become even stronger than he had during the Battle of Summoners.
Just like how Devour had become True Devour.
It seemed that unlocking potential abilities through sudden quests gave skills far better than what they had in the game.
Let’s wait a little.
Knock knock.
Hwang Jiwoo had come.
—We’ll be back, Jinwoo!
“Alright.”
Explosive Dragon left excitedly.
When he saw her like that.... what should he say.
It felt like raising a daughter.
Explosive Dragon Sorcerer, Aso, and Lamba too.
Lately, he had no idea why they’d all gotten so cute.
* * *
And at that same time.
“Hmm.”
Yoo Jia, who had immediately started investigating, found the countries surprisingly easily.
‘Egypt, and Libya.’
That was unexpected.
Libya, sure, it had long been divided east and west, and with the constant civil wars, the government had practically stopped functioning properly.
But Egypt had a population of over 100 million.
There should be plenty of player zones there, so a dungeon break happened anyway?
And apparently it was near the border between the two countries.
A very troubling situation for Egypt, which was supporting the east.
Slide.
Yoo Jia organized the documents she had gathered previously.
But then.
‘Egypt is in here?’
It was an official document sent from the office of the Republic’s Minister of the Interior.
‘Jinwoo said he needed that monster.’
But no matter how she thought about it.
Portugal was one thing, but helping Egypt for free too felt like a bit much.
Still, they should get something in return.
Smirk.
The blood of a merchant began to boil inside Yoo Jia.
The hereditary power passed down from her grandfather!
‘Should I make this a much bigger deal?’
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