Chapter 154
Making a Sword King By Rote (1)
A mountainous region in the north of Allendia.
Hundreds of monsters were racing under the distorted night sky.
Ahhhhh!
“Kill and eat them!”
“Blood! Blood!”
Between the roars of the monsters, a murky but obvious ‘language’ was heard.
There were some intellectual monsters among the beasts.
Hundreds of knights and soldiers fought against them.
“End them!”
“The Queen is protecting us!”
In praise of Hollien, the Allendian Army slaughtered the monsters with their high morale.
There was no need to make numerous changes to their tactics.
Receiving Hollien’s assistance was all they needed.
In comparison, Turricon Plains, where the night’s big changes occurred the most in the Fairy Kingdom, was relatively less protected by the darkness.
The level and number of monsters weren’t on par with those that appeared there.
At that rate, the victory of the Allendian Army was clear.
Hence, Hollien could relax and ‘experiment.’
She stared at a wolf-shaped monster, which was a bit far away from her.
Information about the monster was immediately shown.
[Race: Abyssal Wolf. Lv. 78]
Hollien tilted her head.
“This is a little weird, I think.”
The Hunter Guild of Latna was the one that gave the monster its name, ‘Abyssal Wolf.’
It wasn’t that the Devil Omphalos named it before sending it to Latna.
‘In the first place, even nature’s animals weren’t born with race names. People named each of them individually.’
Therefore, Latna’s measuring stone only identified the user’s occupation, level, and major combat-related characteristics, but it couldn’t identify the race.
It was artificial and fluid information.
Then, how did the Guideline identify that the race of that monster was ‘Abyssal Wolf’?
“After the Devil Omphalos obtained the Hunter Guild’s Monster Guide, did he enter the information into the Guideline one by one?”
She shook her head.
“In that case, it wouldn’t make sense that I have that information.”
Her Guideline only implemented available functions to the fullest extent, but it wasn’t the same as the Guideline the Aliens had.
In other words, the ability to identify the species wasn’t derived from additional information but rather a part of its function.
“Is it, by any chance, related to the language communication skill?”
Aliens’ Guidelines connected to Latna’s collective unconsciousness, downloaded language information and made the users a native of other languages.
“If it’s downloading ‘the names of monsters that the majority of Latnains recognize,’ then it would make sense. It’s a little different from the way of naming mana tools.”
Mumbling, Hollien pointed her finger at the Abyssal Wolf.
– Ectoplasmic Blade!
As soon as the monster exploded, a message popped up.
[Lv. 78 Abyssal Wolf has been slain. You have earned 39,160,000 EXP.]
She didn’t stop there. She obliterated a lizard-like humanoid using lightning-based magic.
[Lv. 78 Arc Lizardman has been slain. You have earned 17,162,500 EXP.]
Hollien smirked when she compared the amounts of experience she gained.
“It’s as Leslie said.”
The figures were different even though the monsters she killed had the same level.
Among the Aliens, it seemed to be common knowledge.
But why was there a difference in experience?
Even Aliens didn’t know the particular reason. They weren’t curious in the first place.
“If this ability is copied from the power of Dragons, then it’s not something I wouldn’t understand.”
The word ‘experience’ could be changed to ‘energy.’
Abyssal Wolves had much more energy than Arc Lizardmen.
But the Arc Lizardmen was an intelligent monster.
Unlike the Abyssal Wolves, which fought based on instinct, the Arc Lizardmen could make strategic decisions and mastered the primitive-level martial arts.
Hence, even though their energy and physical abilities were subpar, they were extremely powerful when fighting as a group. Thus, their level was equivalent to Abyssal Wolves’.
However, the Guideline could only absorb energy.
It couldn’t absorb martial arts skills or strategic judgment and convert them into EXP.
“As expected, the Guideline is a complete sham.”
It was an item that was tailored to make it easier to understand what couldn’t be quantified in the first place.
The reality was that it wasn’t even a computer program. Hence, of course, all kinds of contradictions occurred.
“I should leave the experiment here…”
Hollien flew to a higher altitude as she pulled Prana out.
Soon four columns emerged all over the mountain.
“I’m going to obliterate them all.”
A beautiful hell unfolded.
– Unique Spiritual Art: Echoes of Trembling Starlight!
A tidal wave of light ran through the mountain ridge.
The green mountains swiftly became stained with blood.
Argh!
Amid the screams and shouts of monsters, shouts of victory burst out.
“We won!”
“Another victory!”
“Long live the Queen!”
Lowering slowly from the air on purpose, Hollien looked around.
It wasn’t necessary to use unique spiritual skills for monsters of such levels.
Even if she only used Ectoplasmic Blades, the results would have been the same anyway.
Nevertheless, she deliberately used Echoes of Trembling Starlight, which consumed a lot of Prana.
She sent a message to the Holy Punisher, who might’ve been watching her.
-Look at me! I’m exhausted. I look easy, right? Do you think you can defeat me now?
But their atmosphere remained quiet.
“When are you coming to attack, you guys?”
Hollien frowned.
“Of course, I thought you were watching me…”
She started thinking that maybe they weren’t watching her after all.
But why?
“Did they start all of this just to make fun of me?”
It had been fifteen days since she left the royal palace.
The Holy Punishers should’ve reacted by that time.
But they didn’t move at all.
Even their traditional ‘fussing’ of Allendia had been stopped.
She couldn’t understand what their plan was at all.
“What the hell are they doing?”
* * *
The lowest-class dungeon in the Grand Maze Kaltan, the Howling Steel City.
A giant man was running in a huge mess of all kinds of steel frames and semi-destroyed buildings.
“Huh! Huh! Huh!”
He breathed hard as he launched himself into the air.
After jumping between buildings and rolling on the floor, he used his energy to hit the ground again.
Behind his back, a silver Blade Aura of several tens of meters flew in.
The man, Ryu Han-bin, slipped down to the floor in fright.
“Huh!”
The silver flash that missed him by a hair bombed a wide radius of the area.
All buildings and roads within its range were destroyed.
Boom!
Han-bin groaned, glaring at the person directly involved in the destruction over the thick dust.
‘Uh…’
A huge shadow of more than five meters appeared between the explosions.
It was a monster shaped like a bull with silver hair all over its body.
It was said to be a bull, but technically it was a little different.
Its lower body was standing on the earth with four feet like a bull, but it also had a muscular upper body.
Nevertheless, it didn’t have the same half-man-half-horse form as Centaurs had.
It also had the face of a bull with thick horns.
It looked like a mixture of Centaur and Minotaur.
With three-meter-long great swords in both hands, it approached slowly.
Han-bin hurriedly took a posture and launched an offensive.
“Taaaaaa!”
Pulling up as much Aura as he could, he focused on a single point on its body and delivered the most powerful blow he could!
– Crosscut!
A red flash caused a roar that tore through the atmosphere as it hit the opponent directly.
However, it didn’t take long for the opponent to appear, looking perfectly fine.
Han-bin shuddered.
‘That’s a real monster…’
He hit it accurately that time.
He didn’t make any mistakes in the skill utilization as he had done before.
The monster didn’t avoid his attack at all, nor did it take on a defensive stance.
And yet there was no scratch on its whole body!
“Krrrrrrrrrr!”
It raised its weapons once more, causing them to flash silver again.
Two-pronged flashes crossed and charged at Ryu Han-bin.
“Wow!”
Frightened, Ryu Han-bin jumped up.
He couldn’t even dare respond against it.
It was far too strong.
‘If I stop it, I’ll die. I’ll die!’
He fled again.
Ryu Han-bin did his best to escape certain death.
However, the bull monster ceaselessly tracked him.
It wasn’t in a hurry.
It didn’t get excited either.
While chasing Ryu Han-bin as if it were just interested, it would deliver a silver Blade Aura to block his retreat if he got too far away.
Boom!
“Argh!”
Han-bin quickly took a stance while being caught up in the explosion.
And as soon as he landed, he pulled out his Gigant.
-Stab!
That time, the monster was hit properly, just like before.
Boom!
However, the monster still didn’t sustain even the smallest injury.
The monster burst into a cry and jumped after him.
“Moooooooooo!”
In an instant, it blocked Han-bin’s vision as it swung its greatswords.
Attacks came from both of his sides.
There was no time or space to avoid it at that point.
Ryu Han-bin hurriedly confronted the bull with his Gigant.
However, he was immediately cornered.
The bull monster was lightly flicking, pushing, and sending Han-bin’s attacks all into the air.
His monstrous power, which had overwhelmed all enemies, was being treated like a child by the beast.
Nevertheless, he was still holding out thanks to his vast twenty-two years of experience of fighting against giant monsters.
But it was obvious that he wouldn’t last long.
“Argh! Argh!”
Groaning, Ryu Han-bin continued to retreat.
He took advantage of every opportunity to run away again.
Again that time, the bull didn’t actively chase him.
“Crr…”
It was just having fun, just looking at that ‘rat’ trying to run away and being chased back.
“Argh!”
Running through the ruined city, Han-bin did his best to escape.
He didn’t dare think of a head-on confrontation.
He knew very well that there was no chance to win at all.
He had already looked at the monster with the Guideline.
[Race: Divine Beast Lv. 168]
The monster had a level of over 150.
One of The Three Gods of Kaltan, the white-silver bull, was Uto Ksarik!
Considering the legendary Sword King Baotolt could barely defeat the divine beast Kruse Murg, Ryu Han-bin was no match against another one of them at all.
‘But should I be thankful that its actual level isn’t over 170?’
Even so, it didn’t mean that he would have an easier time fighting against it.
‘Though I did believe it and followed it…’
Recalling his conversation with Leon Hart a week ago, Ryu Han-bin gritted his teeth.
‘I might die before I become stronger!’