Chapter 116

Chapter 116

Briel’s face brightened.

When she turned around, Zeon and Levin were there, though she had no idea when they had arrived.

“Zeon! Levin!”

“Come here!”

At Zeon’s gesture, Briel quickly hid behind him.

Levin asked,

“Are you okay?”

“Yes! Levin, you’ve changed somehow.”

“Have I?”

“Definitely!”

At Briel’s confident answer, Levin only smiled silently.

He wanted to keep chatting like this, but Lee Ji-ryeong’s atmosphere was far too ominous for that.

‘Fuck!’

Levin gritted his teeth.

In the past, he would not have recognized how strong the man before him was.

But after reaching Grade C, his eyes had changed, and he could now see many things he had never been able to see before.

One of them was the ability to judge an Awakened.

In Levin’s eyes, Lee Ji-ryeong was a monster.

Because they both used lightning-type attack Skills, he could tell even more clearly.

Lee Ji-ryeong held mana far rougher and more ferocious than his own. Naturally, the power of his Skills could only be stronger as well.

Even if they were the same grade, Levin probably would not have been a match for Lee Ji-ryeong.

That fact made him feel miserable.

Levin forced himself to keep a calm expression and said to Briel,

“Let’s step back for now.”

“Yes!”

Lee Ji-ryeong did not even spare a glance for the two of them.

His gaze was fixed on Zeon.

“You’re Zeon?”

“Yes!”

“You know me, don’t you?”

“Yes!”

“I knew it. We finally meet.”

Lee Ji-ryeong grinned.

The sight of him smiling with his white teeth exposed was chillingly full of madness.

By contrast, Zeon’s expression as he looked at him was calm.

Lee Ji-ryeong.

A magic-type Awakened, and among them, a lightning-type Awakened said to compete for first and second place in destructive power.

And he was the older brother of the man Zeon had killed eight years ago.

His younger brother had broken in because he coveted Zeon’s Mana Stone, only to lose his life instead. The fault had been his, yet it had been Zeon who had had to flee.

That was because the man before him, Lee Ji-ryeong, had wanted revenge for his younger brother.

Because of that, Zeon had left the slums and fled to the Mana Stone mine, then spent eight years in the desert.

Zeon asked Lee Ji-ryeong,

“Did you come to avenge your younger brother?”

“Someone did prod me a little, at least. They told me you had entered Neo Seoul.”

“Is that so?”

“So I came to see with my own eyes. If you were nothing special, I was going to rip your head off. But......”

“But?”

“You’re very different from what I expected. You’re strong.”

White light flickered across Lee Ji-ryeong’s retinas.

Lightning was flashing inside his eyes.

Zeon looked at Lee Ji-ryeong’s eyes with curiosity.

As far as he knew, Lee Ji-ryeong had been Grade B.

But the Lee Ji-ryeong he saw in person seemed to be of an even higher grade.

‘Did his grade rise in the meantime? Well, eight years isn’t a short time.’

Zeon himself had risen from Grade F, the lowest grade, to his current level.

Of course, he had advanced abnormally fast thanks to a helper named Daeioden and the fraudulent Job of Sand Mage.

CRACKLE!

Lightning flickered across Lee Ji-ryeong’s entire body.

Unlike Levin’s, it was pure white lightning.

Yet Zeon spoke calmly, showing no sign of fear.

“If we fight here, the area will collapse. Let’s go outside.”

“Were you that type?”

“What?”

“The type who anxiously worries that people around you might get hurt?”

“I’m not that kind.”

“Then is it hypocrisy?”

“Rather than that, I just don’t want the area in front of my house destroyed.”

“What affection could you possibly have for a filthy slum like this?”

“It is still where I live for now.”

“You’re a strange one.”

“I hear that often.”

At Zeon’s calm answer, Lee Ji-ryeong’s gaze turned even colder.

Zeon was the first person to stand before him and speak with such a tensionless expression and tone.

Lee Ji-ryeong began walking and said,

“Follow me. If you run, I’ll destroy your house and everything around it.”

“That won’t happen.”

Zeon spoke quietly and followed him.

At that moment, Briel called out to Zeon.

“Zeon!”

“Go home with Levin.”

“But......”

“I’ll be back soon.”

“Yes!”

After smiling at Briel as she nodded, Zeon looked at Lee Ji-ryeong’s back.

Lee Ji-ryeong had already left the slums behind and entered the desert.

He strode across the sand without hesitation.

Only after Neo Seoul was no longer visible did he stop.

Lee Ji-ryeong turned around and looked at Zeon.

“This should be enough, shouldn’t it?”

“We came farther than I thought.”

“If we fight near Neo Seoul, the old men will notice.”

“The old men?”

“You know. Old men like Jin Geum-ho and Xiao Lun.”

“You mean the powerful figures of Neo Seoul.”

“That’s right! If we fight near Neo Seoul, we’ll inevitably draw their attention. You wouldn’t want that either.”

“You must be afraid of them.”

“It’s not that I’m afraid. They’re annoying. Those old men interfere in everything for no reason.”

There was contempt for those in power in Lee Ji-ryeong’s words.

The powerful figures of Neo Seoul wanted to control everything.

Because of that, they were always keeping a close eye on the movements of young Awakened.

Lee Ji-ryeong did not like that reality.

He was young and strong.

For now, the rulers of Neo Seoul were stronger, but he was confident that as time passed, he would grow far stronger than them.

The problem was his faction.

Compared to the rulers who had already completely seized Neo Seoul’s infrastructure, his faction was unimpressive.

Of course, that only meant unimpressive compared to giants like Jin Geum-ho or Xiao Lun.

In reality, he had formed a force that could not be ignored.

The Pegasus Raid Team.

It was a group of Awakened numbering around three hundred in total.

They called themselves a raid team, but in truth, their nature was closer to that of a guild.

If a raid team was a pure armed force made up of Awakened, then a guild was interwoven with many others who provided various forms of support.

Because of that, guilds were larger and more expansive in power.

FLASH!

At that moment, pure white lightning flickered from Lee Ji-ryeong’s entire body.

He had released lightning.

The intense lightning scorched the sand around him black.

With lightning wrapped around his entire body, Lee Ji-ryeong said,

“Prove that you’re useful by surviving.”

At that instant, an intense bolt of lightning shot toward Zeon.

The bundle of lightning was thicker than a person’s torso.

It was one of Lee Ji-ryeong’s Skills, Lightning Spear.

If struck by it, the entire body would burst apart like fireworks, leading to a gruesome death.

At that moment, Zeon lightly swung his fist and unleashed Fire Missile.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Dozens of Fire Missiles collided with the Lightning Spear and exploded.

A brilliant feast of flame and lightning embroidered the air.

Within it, the two men moved.

Lee Ji-ryeong continuously unleashed lightning-type Skills.

“Try taking this too.”

Lightning poured down toward Zeon in the shape of blades.

It was one of Lee Ji-ryeong’s main Skills, Lightning Blade.

To counter it, Zeon cast his most frequently used Skill, Fire Rain.

The rain of fire and the blades of electricity collided and exploded.

BOOM!

Sparks scattered in every direction, and bundles of lightning bounced away.

The sand burned and burst apart.

It was a clash between lightning-type and flame-type Skills, said to be the most powerful among all magic-type Skills.

The desert overturned, and exploding pillars of sand shot high into the sky. Then a rain of sand fell.

The two men cast Skills as the sand rained down on them.

Then, suddenly, Lee Ji-ryeong said,

“You’re not a flame-type.”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“The flame Skills you cast aren’t alive. They’re nothing more than outputs produced according to a pre-entered command.”

“......”

“I’m right, aren’t I? These aren’t your innate Skills. You’re receiving help from some item, aren’t you?”

Lee Ji-ryeong’s senses were frighteningly sharp.

Looking at him, Zeon thought,

‘He wasn’t an empty husk.’

Until now, no opponent had ever realized that Zeon’s flame Skills came from an item.

The fact that Lee Ji-ryeong had noticed that alone proved how remarkable an Awakened he was.

Long before Zeon had awakened, Lee Ji-ryeong had entered countless Dungeons, fought for his life, and hunted monsters.

Because he had accumulated so much experience, his senses were sharper than anyone else’s.

He detected even the slightest sense of incongruity that others would simply overlook.

Not every Awakened was strong simply because their grade was high.

Truly strong Awakened were those who polished their Skills through life-and-death battles.

Even if such people had low grades at the moment, they would eventually rise to higher grades.

Lee Ji-ryeong was that kind of Awakened.

A genuine Awakened, of which there were not many in this era.

Lee Ji-ryeong said,

“What are you so afraid of that you’re hiding your real Skill so tightly?”

“It’s not fear. It’s because it’s troublesome.”

“So you have that much confidence? Then show me.”

“If that’s what you want, gladly......”

Zeon’s gaze and atmosphere changed.

‘Now it truly begins.’

Lee Ji-ryeong felt his shoulders tremble with excitement.

This was the first time he had felt such powerful tension while fighting another Awakened.

CRACKLE!

The lightning wrapped around his body began expanding its range.

Ten meters, twenty meters, then thirty meters.

A rain of lightning fell within a thirty-meter radius around him.

It was a space Lee Ji-ryeong had completely seized.

A space for him alone.

Lightning Field.

Releasing lightning indiscriminately like this consumed an enormous amount of mana, but Lee Ji-ryeong had enough capacity to handle it.

Before he knew it, Zeon was standing inside the Lightning Field as well.

Even with terrifying bundles of lightning flashing around him, Zeon’s expression did not change.

Then it happened.

An exceptionally large and thick bolt of lightning struck down directly at Zeon.

Zeon failed to avoid it in time and was struck by the lightning.

If he had been an ordinary Awakened, he would have died instantly from this attack. But Lee Ji-ryeong knew Zeon was no ordinary Awakened, so he did not think this alone would wound him.

And indeed, it did not.

Zeon stood perfectly fine, without even a single scorch mark.

Around Zeon stood a wall of sand burned black.

He had raised a sand wall just before the lightning struck and blocked it.

Lee Ji-ryeong’s eyes widened.

“You made a wall out of sand? Don’t tell me you’re a Sand...... Mage?”

“Yes!”

“That makes no sense! There’s no way such an ability could exist......”

“It does exist. That kind of ability.”

Sand swirled up around Zeon as if surging like a fountain.

As the sandstorm revolved around Zeon like a living creature, Lee Ji-ryeong’s face stiffened.

“It was real. A real Sand Mage exists.”

Goosebumps rose all over his body.

He had thought that, given how many Awakened existed in the world, perhaps a Sand Mage might exist somewhere.

But that had only been a hypothesis. This was his first time seeing an actual Sand Mage.

Lee Ji-ryeong held out his hand.

“You, come under me. Let’s join hands and rule Neo Seoul together. If you and I combine our strength, no one will be able to defeat us.”

He did not hide his ambition.

From the moment he awakened, he had dreamed of becoming the ruler of Neo Seoul.

With his ability, he thought he would reach that goal quickly.

But reality was not so easy.

The Awakened who currently controlled Neo Seoul were stronger than him and had built vast factions.

With the force Lee Ji-ryeong had built at present, even cracking their solid walls was impossible.

But with Zeon, perhaps it might be possible.

If a Sand Mage who could freely control sand joined him.

“Take my hand, Zeon!”

“I refuse. I don’t have a hobby of holding men’s hands.”

The Sand Mage rejected the ambitious man’s proposal.