Chapter 265

Chapter 265

Zeon left the house early in the morning.

That was because today was the day he had agreed to depart for Steel Fortress.

There were no longer any eyes watching him.

That was because the Shadow Unit had completely withdrawn.

If he had followed his heart, he would have killed every member of Team 2. But if he had done that, he would have crossed the line.

If he crossed the line Jin Geum-ho had drawn, war would inevitably break out.

Neither Zeon nor Jin Geum-ho wanted that worst-case scenario.

Because Zeon knew that, he had also stopped at the very edge of the line.

Fortunately, Jin Geum-ho did not impose any sanctions on Zeon for it.

In any case, the two of them were now essentially temporary allies.

That was because both of them shared the common goal of finding Moby Dick.

Zeon went to the lodging where Aslan and Duduyan were staying.

As it happened, the two of them had also finished preparing to leave.

When Zeon entered, Aslan opened his mouth.

“Mr. Zeon! I found out.”

“You mean that woman?”

“Yes! The woman named Claire is a Tamer.”

“A Tamer?”

“From what I found out, she’s a Grade B Tamer. But strangely, she spent a lot of time at the casino.”

“The casino?”

In that instant, a certain woman came to Zeon’s mind.

A woman he had once met at the casino. The scent of Queen Ghost Dragonfly pheromones had clung to her body. Because of that, he had thought she might be a Tamer.

He had forgotten her for a while, but when Aslan said the woman was a Tamer, she immediately came to mind.

Aslan lowered his head deeply.

“I’m sorry. That’s all I managed to find out.”

“No. Finding out that much is enough. You worked hard.”

At Zeon’s consolation, Aslan’s face eased slightly.

Duduyan kicked Aslan’s backside and said,

“You idiot! Go around drinking again, why don’t you?”

“If I drink again, I’m your son.”

“I don’t need a son like you.”

“I don’t care! Anyway, I’ll never drink again. There’s no more alcohol in my life.”

“If you say that and drink again, I’ll cut off your wrist with my own hands.”

“Do whatever you want.”

At Aslan’s bold declaration, Duduyan glared at him fiercely.

Zeon stepped in and shifted their attention.

“That’s enough from both of you. Let’s go to the meeting place. They’ll be waiting.”

“Yes, Mr. Zeon.”

“Understood.”

They headed toward the vacant lot on the outskirts of the slums.

It was the place where dungeon raid parties or Pathfinder teams gathered one last time before leaving Neo Seoul to inspect their equipment.

Two people were waiting there for Zeon’s group.

One man and one woman.

The man wearing a loose robe was Lee Jung-ho. The hilt of a sword was visible through the robe he wore.

Beside Lee Jung-ho stood a woman with the hood of her robe pulled low. Because of the hood, her face could not be seen, but Zeon recognized her at once.

‘So it really was her.’

Even now, the scent of Queen Ghost Dragonfly pheromones faintly remained on her body.

Even though quite some time had passed, it had not been completely erased.

But Claire did not seem to know that fact.

“Huh? You are......”

Claire raised her voice when she saw Zeon.

Just as Zeon had recognized Claire, she had also recognized him.

“It’s been a while.”

“The casino? Right?”

“Yes!”

“Then you’re the Sandmancer?”

“That’s right.”

“Wow! The world is small. To think you were the Sandmancer I was supposed to accompany.”

Claire pushed back the hood she had pulled low. Then her thick black hair poured down like a waterfall.

A beauty with sun-browned skin and striking black eyes.

That was how Claire revealed her true appearance.

“I’m Claire.”

“I know.”

“Then I’ll be in your care, Mr. Sandmancer!”

Claire said with a playful smile.

Lee Jung-ho looked at Claire and said,

“You already knew each other?”

“Ah! I met him once at the casino when I was resting after finishing a mission.”

“Is that so?”

“I never imagined that the man I briefly brushed past back then would be the famous Sandmancer, though.”

“That is fortunate. It will be quite a long journey, so it will be more comfortable than traveling with a complete stranger.”

Claire nodded silently.

Lee Jung-ho’s gaze turned to Duduyan and Aslan standing behind Zeon.

“You must be the people who came from Steel Fortress. Then I ask you to guide us well.”

Lee Jung-ho did not hide the fact that he knew of Steel Fortress.

He already knew what had happened to the Shadow Unit yesterday.

The incident in which Zeon had subdued every Shadow Unit Awakened who had been watching him had given Lee Jung-ho a great shock.

Almost no one knew the true nature of the Shadow Unit.

That was because they were beings like shadows in the truest sense.

Many people were watched by the Shadow Unit, yet lived without even knowing that fact.

Unless one’s Mind’s Eye was open like Lee Jung-ho’s, sensing their existence was not easy.

Yet Zeon had discovered their presence far too easily and attacked them. Then he had subdued them perfectly.

If he had killed those he subdued, the matter would have grown serious, but he had left them breathing. In a sense, it had been a warning.

It was a counterattack no one had anticipated.

The one most shocked by it was Jin Geum-ho’s secretary, Seo Tae-ran.

It was the first time in recent years that she had been so flustered.

That was how far Zeon’s counterattack had exceeded her expectations.

It had been quite entertaining to see Seo Tae-ran unable to hide her flustered expression.

Of course, she had probably thought she was hiding her expression, but she could not deceive Lee Jung-ho’s eyes, which had opened the Mind’s Eye.

‘A man one must never let one’s guard down against.’

Even so, he was not afraid.

They said the entire desert was Zeon’s weapon, but Lee Jung-ho was an Awakened specialized in interpersonal combat.

There was no Awakened he could not kill if he set his mind to it. That was why Jin Geum-ho trusted and frequently used him.

His mission was to safely bring the land whale’s heart back to Neo Seoul.

For that purpose, Jin Geum-ho had specially given him a subspace necklace.

It was a subspace large enough to fit an entire car.

Before they departed, Claire asked Zeon,

“But are we really not taking a vehicle?”

“It’ll break down in a few days. Since we won’t be able to repair and ride it anyway, walking is more convenient.”

“Haa! The road to hardship has opened.”

Claire let out a sigh.

She had lived her entire life in Neo Seoul. There had been a few times when she briefly left Neo Seoul because of missions, but even then, one or two days had been the extent of it.

This was her first time spending this long in the desert. Because of that, she was afraid. But unlike her, there was no hesitation in Zeon’s steps.

“Let’s go!”

Duduyan and Aslan followed behind him.

As people who had spent their lives in the desert, they moved without hesitation.

Rather, they looked pleased to leave the stifling Neo Seoul behind.

‘Steel Fortress really is better than Neo Seoul. Neo Seoul is too barren. I don’t want to stay in a place like that any longer.’

The fact that they had to return to Steel Fortress with two unexpected burdens was weighing on them, but since it had already happened, there was nothing they could do.

They had faith that Urtian would somehow resolve the matter once they reached Steel Fortress.

WHOOOSH!

The moment they set foot in the desert, a powerful sandstorm greeted them.

Sandstorms blew often in the slums as well, but desert sandstorms existed on a different level.

They could not even be compared in terms of force or intensity.

The entire world looked yellow.

As though they had expected it, Duduyan and Aslan lowered their heads and tightly bound their robes.

Lee Jung-ho and Claire, who had been briefly flustered by the unexpected sandstorm, soon followed the two and walked with their heads deeply lowered.

Only Zeon walked with his head held upright.

“This is nice!”

The peaceful life in the slums was pleasant, but he felt alive when he stood on the desert like this.

To others, sand brought only pain, but to him, it gave a warmth like a mother’s womb.

---

The journey to Steel Fortress ran into difficulty from the very beginning.

“What is this?”

Lee Jung-ho’s eyebrow twitched.

An immense horde of monsters blocked the group’s path.

Grrrr!

They resembled wolves, but their bodies were several times larger.

Their exhaled breath carried terrible heat.

Claire immediately identified them.

“A Flame...... Wolf pack.”

“I know they are Flame Wolves. What I am curious about is why Flame Wolves are here.”

“That is......”

“This place is only fifty kilometers from Neo Seoul.”

“Ah!”

Only then did Claire realize what Lee Jung-ho meant.

Fifty kilometers was within Neo Seoul’s anti-monster force range.

Most monsters would not even dare approach.

Flame Wolf packs were fairly strong, but not enough to overcome Neo Seoul’s anti-monster force.

At the very least, they would have to be on the level of Mammoths to withstand the anti-monster force and approach to some extent.

An individual Flame Wolf’s Grade was D.

But due to their habit of forming packs, they were classified as Grade C.

No matter how much they were Grade C, it made no sense for them to have approached this close to Neo Seoul.

“Could it be that Neo Seoul’s anti-monster force isn’t working?”

“That should not be the case. It has merely weakened somewhat.”

Lee Jung-ho’s expression hardened.

He was one of the very few people who knew where Neo Seoul’s anti-monster force came from.

The enormous White Dragon that existed beneath Neo Seoul.

The corpse of Tamulas was the source of the anti-monster force.

Even at this moment, Tamulas’s corpse was being dismantled little by little.

The parts painstakingly torn from it became fertilizer for Neo Seoul’s development. However, the more Tamulas’s corpse was dismantled, the weaker Neo Seoul’s anti-monster force became.

That was because parts detached from Tamulas’s main body lost their anti-monster force.

Lee Jung-ho bit his lip hard.

‘The anti-monster force is weakening far faster than expected. If Flame Wolves can approach this far, large monsters will be able to get even closer.’

The larger a monster was, and the higher its Grade, the stronger its power became.

An ordinary anti-monster force could not stop their approach.

Fortunately, this area was subjugated regularly, so no large monsters existed around Neo Seoul. But there was no guarantee that this would continue in the future.

‘It is a race against time. We must complete Heavenly Punishment as quickly as possible. To do that, we absolutely need the land whale’s heart.’

A powerful light settled in his translucent pupils.

“Gasp!”

At his suffocating presence, Claire recoiled in shock.

It was killing intent too difficult for her, a Tamer, to endure.

The same was true for Duduyan and Aslan.

They recoiled as though their entire bodies were being hacked apart by blades.

Only Zeon showed no change in expression even within Lee Jung-ho’s domain.

Zeon said,

“We do not need to fight them. If we avoid them, there should be no problem.”

“If we leave them alone, they will grow their numbers and eventually threaten Neo Seoul. Removing a future threat while it is small is the most efficient course.”

Shing!

The sword at his waist was drawn.

The instant the sword was held in Lee Jung-ho’s hand, his aura changed.

A suffocating sharpness flowed out.

It felt as if one were looking not at a human, but at a sword.

A sword honed to infinite sharpness.

The blade-like pressure, sharp enough to cut even breath itself, turned toward the Flame Wolf pack.

Reacting to the blind swordsman’s killing intent, the Flame Wolf pack burst into howls.

Grrraaar!

Roooaaar!

The Flame Wolves spewed flames and charged madly.

Lee Jung-ho walked alone toward the great army of Flame Wolves.

SLASH—!

The moment his sword drew a line through the air, more than ten Flame Wolves were split in two and rolled across the ground.

When Lee Jung-ho swept his sword again, the Flame Wolves within a radius of several meters were bisected and collapsed in heaps.

It was a one-sided massacre.

The blind swordsman’s merciless swordplay was annihilating the Flame Wolf pack.

At Lee Jung-ho’s majesty, Duduyan and Aslan shuddered.

“Crazy!”

“He’s terrifyingly strong.”

Zeon also watched Lee Jung-ho’s slaughter with deeply sunken eyes.