Chapter 112

Chapter 112

“Ugh! What was that?”

Levin stood up while rubbing the back of his head.

It felt as if he had tumbled down several dozen meters.

He had come out unharmed only because he was an Awakened. If he had been an ordinary person, he would have died or suffered serious injuries.

Then again, Zeon must have kicked him like that precisely because he knew Levin was an Awakened.

“Why did hyung push me into a place like this?”

Levin looked around.

But all he could see was pitch-black darkness.

The darkness was so thick that even Levin’s Awakened eyes could not distinguish anything.

Even so, he could tell one thing for certain.

The underground space was quite large.

The reason Levin thought that was because of the wind.

A fairly strong wind was blowing from somewhere underground.

A musty smell and faint noise rode on the wind.

WHOOOOSH!

It sounded like the breathing of a beast, yet also like the faint sound of a flute.

The moment Levin heard the unidentified noise, he felt goosebumps rise all over his body.

“What is that?”

It happened then.

As if reacting to Levin’s voice, something opened its eyes in the darkness.

Yellow eyes lit up the darkness.

But there was not just one pair.

Hundreds, even thousands, of pairs of eyes were illuminating the darkness.

“Fuck! What the hell is that?”

WHOOOOSH!

At that moment, that same noise was heard again.

Only then did Levin realize that the owners of those gleaming eyes were the ones making the sound.

FLAP!

Then, with the sound of flapping wings, one pair of eyes flew toward Levin.

Levin hurriedly used Ghost Transformation and avoided its attack.

The creature passed through Levin’s body in vain.

At that moment, Levin saw what it looked like.

“A bat......?”

It was definitely a bat.

A giant bat with a wingspan of more than one meter.

Its mouth had long, sharp fangs as large as a Flame Wolf’s canines.

He could tell at a glance.

Those teeth had developed into the ideal shape for sucking blood.

The bats filling the underground space were all Vampire Bats.

If he was bitten by them, they would suck out all his blood, and he would wither to death like a mummy.

“Fuck!”

Levin felt cold sweat run down his back.

At least it was fortunate that he had the ability of Ghost Transformation.

While in Ghost Transformation, their attacks were useless.

It happened then.

WHOOOOSH!

The strange noise released by the bats rang out again.

At that moment, Levin felt extreme pain.

“Ghk!”

With a groan, his body became corporeal again.

It was not something Levin had intended.

He had momentarily lost control and become corporeal.

“Then the ultrasonic waves released by the bats are interfering with my Ghost Transformation?”

Everyone knew bats released ultrasonic waves to find prey in the dark. But this was the first time he had ever heard that ultrasonic waves could interfere with Ghost Transformation.

It was something no one had known.

But Zeon must have known.

Otherwise, there would have been no reason for him to push Levin into this place.

WHOOOOSH! WHOOOOSH!

Hundreds, thousands of Vampire Bats released ultrasonic waves all at once.

“Damn it!”

Levin’s face turned pale.

It was no different from being exposed naked before thousands of enemies.

At that instant, the Vampire Bats flew toward him all at once.

Levin desperately turned his body into a ghost.

He barely managed to enter Ghost Transformation through the interference of the ultrasonic waves, but his concentration did not last long.

After one wave of bats passed through him, his concentration broke, and his body became corporeal again.

CRUNCH!

One Vampire Bat did not miss that opening and bit into his forearm.

“Aaaah!”

Levin screamed and unleashed Chain Lightning.

CRACKLE!

The bat biting his forearm and several nearby bats burst apart under the powerful current.

As they died, the smell of blood and burning flesh spread sharply through the air. Then the Vampire Bats went even more berserk.

FLAP-FLAP-FLAP!

Countless wingbeats and ultrasonic waves mixed together, creating a tremendous reverberation.

All of it interfered with Levin’s Ghost Transformation.

Levin desperately avoided the Vampire Bats’ attacks while attempting Ghost Transformation.

Only then did Levin realize why Zeon had thrown him into this place.

The best way for an Awakened to raise their grade was to gain countless experiences.

The Vampire Bats in this place were his natural enemies.

If he survived against the Vampire Bats, he might be able to raise his grade.

Thinking that, his fighting spirit rose.

“Fuck! Fine, let’s do this. Let’s see whether you die or I die. Come at me, you bat bastards.”

FLAP-FLAP-FLAP!

As if answering his provocation, the Vampire Bats rushed at him all at once.

＊＊＊

“It has begun.”

At the sounds coming from the sandstone crevice, Zeon murmured quietly.

Levin’s ordeal was only beginning.

Levin probably had no idea.

He had no idea that the underground space was far larger than he imagined, and that the Vampire Bat swarm was several times larger as well.

If Levin wanted to survive in there, he had no choice but to explode his potential.

If he failed, the endless attacks of the Vampire Bats would eventually drain his blood dry, leaving him dead like a mummy.

Although he had pushed Levin into a hellish place, Zeon’s expression did not change.

To become strong, one had to stake one’s life.

Daeioden had raised Zeon that way.

And Zeon intended to raise Levin the same way.

RUMBLE!

When Zeon placed his hand on the sandstone, it turned to sand and collapsed.

The sand completely blocked the narrow crevice.

Now Levin had no way out.

The only method was to kill every Vampire Bat and escape by his own strength.

Zeon decided to rest comfortably until then.

He took several items out of his subspace.

Among them was the dung of an Armored Dung Beetle.

The Armored Dung Beetle was a monster that lived in the distant desert, and its dung was hard and had almost no smell. Once lit, it maintained its heat for a very long time.

Because of that, it was extremely useful when making a fire in the desert.

WHOOSH!

The Armored Dung Beetle’s dung caught fire easily.

Zeon hung a pot over the campfire and put in food he had prepared in advance.

Time did not pass inside his subspace.

Because of that, after entering Neo Seoul, Zeon had placed a considerable amount of edible food inside his subspace.

If he did this, he could always eat it fresh.

“Not bad.”

Zeon warmed himself by the campfire while waiting for the food to boil.

In truth, Zeon did not need a campfire like this.

The robe he was wearing protected his body temperature perfectly.

Even so, the reason he lit a campfire was because of the strange sense of relief fire gave.

Somehow, it felt as if monsters would not be able to cross into this space.

Zeon looked up at the sky.

Before he knew it, the sun had set, and the sky had grown dark.

Night was the time of monsters.

From now on, monsters would roam freely.

ROOOAR!

The roar of an unknown monster came from far away.

Just by hearing its cry, Zeon immediately recognized what it was.

“An Armored Great Horn Bear? To think it has expanded its territory this far.”

Zeon tilted his head.

The Armored Great Horn Bear was none other than a Grade B monster.

It stood seven meters tall at the shoulder, and its entire body was covered in thick, armor-like hide.

Ordinary attacks could not pierce its armor-like hide and wound it.

Its defensive ability was not the only thing high. It was dangerous because it possessed tremendous bite force, deadly claws, and great horns.

It was nearly impossible for martial-type Awakened below Grade C to pierce its hide and wound it.

Except during mating season, it wandered the desert alone.

That was how confident it was in its size and strength.

In truth, there were not many monsters capable of touching it.

Not only Flame Wolf packs, even Sandworms did not touch it.

That was because they knew they themselves would be in danger if they recklessly provoked it.

As far as Zeon knew, this was not the Armored Great Horn Bear’s territory.

Though it wandered the desert alone, even that was only within its own domain.

“Did it expand its territory? All the way near Neo Seoul?”

Just as Zeon’s eyes sank deeply, it happened.

ROOOOAR!

A loud engine noise tore through the darkness.

Zeon immediately recognized it as the sound of a car engine.

A short while later, a car appeared where Zeon was, along with the glare of headlights.

People got out of the battered car.

“I told you I was right. It really was a campfire.”

“Who the hell has the nerve to light a fire in the middle of the desert?”

“We barely made it before the engine completely died.”

The ones who got out of the car were four men and women wearing heavy armor.

They looked to be around Zeon’s age, and every one of them was handsome or beautiful.

Among them, the young man who looked the strongest spoke to Zeon.

“Hello. I’m Kim Kyung-su, the party leader. May I ask who you are?”

“My name is Zeon.”

“Did you come out from Neo Seoul?”

“Not Neo Seoul. I came from the slums.”

“Mm!”

At Zeon’s unexpected answer, Kim Kyung-su frowned slightly and looked at his companions.

The companions who had come with him also seemed surprised, blinking their eyes.

The only woman among them was the first to recover.

“You came a long way. I’m Yu Seung-hee. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“I’m Lee Jun-su.”

“I’m Choi Chang-sik.”

The others also revealed their identities one after another.

All of them had Korean names.

This was the first time Zeon had seen a party made up entirely of Koreans.

Zeon asked,

“You all seem to be friends.”

“That’s right. We were all born and raised in the same neighborhood. We’ve been together for over twenty years.”

“What brings you out at this hour of the night?”

“Well, the engine died, so we fell behind the group.”

“The group?”

“The raid team. We were on our way back after clearing a Dungeon that appeared not long ago.”

When a large Dungeon was discovered, Neo Seoul recruited a raid team.

Then Awakened and parties active in each district applied.

Neo Seoul selected them, formed a raid team, and had them subjugate the Dungeon.

This was the usual method of Dungeon clearing.

But not everyone did it that way.

Dungeons were discovered at random, and it was impossible for Neo Seoul to manage every Dungeon.

There were quite a few Awakened and parties who entered without informing Neo Seoul that they had discovered a Dungeon.

If they successfully subjugated the Dungeon, they could earn a great deal of money.

Instead, the danger increased by that much.

In any case, the decision was up to the discoverers.

The party led by Kim Kyung-su was not strong enough to enter a Dungeon independently.

Their leader, Kim Kyung-su, was Grade C, and the rest of his friends were evenly distributed between Grades C and D.

They mainly applied to raid teams organized by Neo Seoul and made profit that way.

This time was no different.

The Dungeon raid had been successful.

The only problem was the vehicle they had ridden in.

The harsh environment had damaged the engine.

Because of that, they had fallen behind and been stranded.

If Yu Seung-hee had not discovered the campfire Zeon had lit, they would have been in deep trouble.

Yu Seung-hee said,

“You must be quite confident in your abilities. Lighting a campfire like this. Thanks to you, we survived, though.”

“I was just cold, so I had no choice but to light it.”

“Really? You could have just stayed in the car. Ah, your car is over there.”

Yu Seung-hee’s eyes gleamed when she saw the small buggy.

Kim Kyung-su and the other friends’ eyes also gleamed dangerously.

Seeing that, Zeon sighed and said,

“The funny thing is that people always risk their lives over things that are not even worth much.”