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Chapter 306: Chapter 306

Act 6

‘Since Su-hyeun’s back, I can start breathing a bit easier now . ’

Lee Ju-ho realized the difference one’s absence could make . Su-hyeun’s absence caused a huge gap, and Lee Ju-ho was relieved that he was back .

Su-hyeun’s absence was certainly felt . It had caused a lot of difficulties for everyone . The idiom “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone” proved to be true .

If Su-hyeun was around, he would have formed a raid team and they would be on their way to reclaim Gangwon Province by now .

“No, it’s not yet too late . The people living there have been evacuated pretty early . If we form that raid party now…,” Lee Ju-ho muttered to himself .

Lee Ju-ho calculated the awakener manpower that should become available soon and nodded his head .

“We will be able to reclaim Gangwon Province in less than a week,” he concluded .

Lee Ju-ho felt at ease with the recent developments .

Su-hyeun should have reached where Hak-joon and Thomas were by now . After all, he had the greatest means of transportation, aptly named Miru, at his disposal .

A call from them should come in less than a few hours after they finished wiping out the horde of monsters in that location .

Rrr—

As Lee Ju-ho was contemplating, his smartphone suddenly began ringing loudly .

‘No way! Already?’

He was astonished that Su-hyeun was already with Hak-joon and Thomas, and that they were done destroying monsters . He hurriedly checked on his phone and was disappointed to find it wasn’t the call he was waiting for . He answered it nevertheless .

“Hello, I’m here . ”

—What on earth is going on out there?

The call was actually from Bak Yun-gyu .

Lee Ju-ho was confused by Bak Yun-gyu’s remarks, so he clarified, “What do you mean?”

—A typhoon has been generated in Gangwon Province!

A typhoon?

Summer had already passed . October had just begun, which meant it was currently in the middle of autumn . Indeed, it was a strange turn of events as it wasn’t a typhoon season anymore .

From Lee Ju-ho’s perspective, a typhoon should not be generated over the land .

“A typhoon? Summer’s already over . I don’t understand . ”

—That typhoon is consuming the monsters, too .

“Excuse me?”

What was said next proved to be even more surprising .

That strange typhoon had ‘consumed’ the monsters?

No matter how powerful of a natural disaster a typhoon was, it wiping out monsters simply didn’t make any sense . He immediately called Su-hyeun who had just returned 20 minutes ago .

‘No way…’ Lee Ju-ho couldn’t believe it .

The Palm Leaf Sword was Kim Dae-ho’s greatest masterpiece . It was created after combining the mythical fan called the Palm Leaf Fan and Balmung . Moreover, Su-hyeun was currently using it as his weapon .

Even the world’s greatest awakener, Su-hyeun, couldn’t control the Palm Leaf Sword properly and got injured in the process . And as far as Lee Ju-ho could remember, the Palm Leaf Fan was a weapon capable of controlling typhoons .

“That guy, just how…”

Lee Ju-ho tilted his head and chuckled . He thought about Su-hyeun and his recent actions: returning from the trial and cleaning up Gangwon Province, a great source of their distress .

“How far is he planning to climb up, anyway?” Lee Ju-ho wondered .

* * *

Rumble! Rumble!

Slam! Crack!

Lightning bolts crashed down throughout Gangwon Province .

Black clouds covered the sky and produced these bolts . The monsters that survived the typhoon were eliminated one by one .

As expected, the energy needed when commanding both the Palm Leaf and the Somersault cloud was far too great . The breathing technique somehow helped to decrease the magical energy consumption, but it was still rather taxing even for Su-hyeun .

‘It would be so much better if I can wield them properly soon…’

Sun Wukong freely controlled the Somersault cloud . He summoned lightning bolts and rode on the clouds, flying everywhere . Even then, he had no issues using it . Thanks to his near-infinite energy reserve .

‘If my magical energy grade increases further, the toll on me should decrease by a bit . But…’

The important part was that the difference in proficiency between them was too big . Still, Su-hyeun did feel that compared to the first time, using the Somersault cloud was now easier .

[The trait ‘Necromancer’ is activating . ]

[By spending ‘Death Aura’, you can see or command the dead . ]

As for the last remaining superior-level monster from an indigo dungeon, the ‘Chief Gatekeeper’, Su-hyeun used his summons to defeat it .

The giant monster with a bulging stomach was covered in flames and wielded a chain connected to a massive iron ball . It was almost 20 meters tall and appeared as the senior creature in indigo dungeons .

Although it was a humanoid-type monster, the Chief Gatekeeper’s intelligence was actually worse than regular monsters . Despite that inadequacy, its defense skills, strength, and techniques at using the chain ensured that even a team consisting of average S-rank awakeners would have a hard time dealing with one .

Kaboom!

Ki-aah!

For sure, even the Ouroboros was writhing in pain after getting struck by the superior monster’s chain . The undead snake creature might be larger, but that meant nothing in the face of the destructive power contained in that iron ball .

Splat!

In the end, however, the Chief Gatekeeper could not withstand the combined assault from the Ouroboros, Prince Nezha, and the other summoned creatures .

In all honesty, though, the God of War, Nezha, would have been enough to fight the Chief Gatekeeper .

‘The God of War has grown noticeably stronger with the improved application rate . ’

The God of War, Prince Nezha, was easily the strongest summon Su-hyeun currently possessed . And as such, the number of summons Su-hyeun could possess had to be decreased in order to command the former heavenly world’s god . Even then, he didn’t feel disadvantaged at all .

The proficiency of the trait ‘Necromancer’ increased in time, and the levels of both ‘Soul Accumulation’ and ‘Dead Summoning’ were continuously increasing as well .

[Soul Accumulation has been utilized . ]

[The soul of ‘Chief Gatekeeper’ has been stored . ]

[You are setting the target for Dead Summoning . ]

[You can now summon the ‘Chief Gatekeeper’ . ]

Out of all the monsters defeated today, Su-hyeun designated only the Chief Gatekeeper as his summon . That’s because the number of souls he could store had decreased while commanding the God of War, Prince Nezha .

‘Is this my first time acquiring a senior monster from an indigo-colored dungeon?’ Su-hyeun thought .

Unfortunately, the Lich King could not be designated as one of his summons . The ‘Dead Summoning’ could only be activated if Su-hyeun possessed the target’s soul . However, the ‘Soul Accumulation’ skill didn’t work on the Lich King to begin with . That’s probably because the Lich King’s soul was already under someone else’s control .

‘What I need to improve at the moment are the proficiencies for the Somersault cloud and the Palm Leaf Sword, the Necromancer trait, the Soul Accumulation, and the Dead Summoning . Oh, and finally…’

Su-hyeun listed all the skills he needed to improve as soon as possible .

‘…improving the proficiency for the Sage Arts . ’

Increasing the magical energy’s grade and reserve would be too difficult for now . Aside from the issue of time, acquiring rewards and purchasing the relevant elixirs through accumulated achievement points required hard work .

However, the matter of proficiency was a different story .

The issue of a skill’s proficiency could only be solved through improving one’s understanding on that skill, continuous practice, and enough time utilizing it .

It was the same thing with the Sage Arts as well .

The Bull Demon King previously said that the Sage Arts was a discipline akin to studying, but the system recognized it as a skill instead . This meant that as long as Su-hyeun had enough time on his hands, it would be possible to train in the Sage Arts and improve one’s proficiency .

And then a thought occurred to him, ‘I have bought myself three years of time…’

Su-hyeun was toying with the small hourglass inside his pocket .

He had a feeling that these three years would get quite busy for him . In that case, he wouldn’t notice it going by .

* * *

The wide-scale dungeon generation incident that took place throughout the world needed at least one full month for things to settle down .

The awakeners focused on raiding the dungeons, effectively shutting them one by one, and the unattended monsters that emerged from those dungeons were eventually taken care of as well .

In South Korea, the dungeons located in the countryside were raided first . This afforded the country a recovery period after Su-hyeun’s unbelievable feat managed to reclaim Gangwon Province .

“Well, a weight has been lifted off my shoulders,” Lee Ju-ho remarked as he slumped over the chair with a pale complexion . He was sleep deprived for the past several days .

Su-hyeun came to visit Lee Ju-ho . It had been a while since he last visited . After finding Lee Ju-ho in such a sorry state, Su-hyeun gave him a piece of candy . “Thank you for all your hard work . You must have been really busy, Bro . ”

Lee Ju-ho took the candy, unwrapped it, and then put it in his mouth . The sweetness of the candy roused him .

“Matters like this are invariably issues of manpower distribution, you see . Sending manpower in one location causes a gap to open up somewhere else . ”

“When was the last time you had some sleep?”

“Right… I haven’t slept for the past seven days, I think . But when you came back, I managed to nap . My body is okay, perfectly fine, but my mind is struggling to keep up,” Lee Ju-ho admitted as he put another candy in his mouth . “By the way, did you pass the 100th floor without any problems?”

“I did, although I couldn’t return in the middle because there was no save point . ”

“Well, as long as you came back before it’s too late, it’s all good . ”

Lee Ju-ho’s eyes were half-closed by now . It was already a miracle that he could chat with Su-hyeun in his current state . That’s how exhausted he was .

“Get some rest first, Bro . ”

“Yeah, I will . Thanks . ”

When Su-hyeun got up to leave, Lee Ju-ho’s eyes slowly shut . He mumbled some words and eventually fell asleep .

Su-hyeun didn’t bother to say goodbye to Lee Ju-ho . He left the office and headed to the Jongro Tower’s lobby .

The TV screens in the lobby were dominated by the news reports of the current crisis .

—Hundreds of people have lost their lives during the 15-day dungeon outbreak . Thankfully, the Awakener Association responded quickly, preventing further loss of lives and damages on infrastructures . But even then, the scale of the destruction this time around is…

Su-hyeun stood still and watched the news broadcast for a while .

‘It’s already the First Outbreak . ’

The First Outbreak was an incident where humans started to fear the dungeons . It was previously seen as nothing more than some treasure troves of natural resources .

‘Should I consider this incident fortunate to end only on this scale?’ Su-hyeun wondered .

Some people might find all the news being reported as a horrible and unfortunate .

From those who lost their homes after the dungeons showed up, to the number of parents and siblings who lost their loved ones, indeed, all these scenes painted a heartbreaking situation . However, the First Outbreak Su-hyeun remembered from his previous life was actually far more horrifying than this one . For one, that incident was responsible to decreasing the world’s population by 10% .

Despite knowing that, Su-hyeun could not see the level of damage this time around as fortunate at all .

Step .

“Not everything has changed,” he uttered .

Su-hyeun was working towards changing the future he knew . The influence he had on the world had certainly succeeded in shaping the future .

‘It needs to change further . ’

Clench .

Su-hyeun clenched his fist . As he walked away, the light in his eyes gleamed brightly .

“I’ll get started right away,” he promised .

* * *

Su-hyeun was heading to Gangwon Province .

The province was still designated as a restricted area . The monsters not only caused destruction in this place, but they also filled it with their filth . The typhoon that Su-hyeun had created effectively destroyed the monsters, and their remains were scattered everywhere .

To make matters worse, quite a few of the monsters were highly venomous . If an ordinary person carelessly stumbled in here, they might get poisoned by the toxins coming from the dead monsters .

Gya-ong .

Su-hyeun soon arrived at the Daegwallyeong Ranch located in Gangwon Province and immediately pulled out the Broken Sandglass .

“So it’s good for three years, isn’t it?”

Su-hyeun regulated his breathing for a moment .

He had already prepared enough food . Inside the subspace pouch he had purchased in an auction house a while ago were food and drinks that should last him for three years . Some potions had also been prepared and carefully stored in there in case he got injured .

“Hopefully, this will be enough . ”

Three years was a long period, and it would most likely be a lonely one, too, since he would be on his own . He should be able to return by flipping the hourglass around, but Su-hyeun had no plans on doing that .

Because if he couldn’t even endure this much, then he would be unable to prevent himself from being miserable at worse events in the future .

Shwa-ah-ah—

He flipped the hourglass upside down on his palm, and the sand began to settle .

The sound of falling sand seemed especially loud for an hourglass not bigger than his finger .

[The Broken Sandglass has been activated . ]

[Remaining usable period: 2 years and 364 days…]

Then, all the sand in the hourglass settled to the bottom .