Chapter 27

Chapter 27

BOOM! BOOM!

Explosions went off one after another right in front of Zeon.

The Bomb Bees were striking the sand wall and bursting apart.

Dozens of Bomb Bees had already self-destructed. But Zeon and Go Du-won had not suffered a single wound.

It was thanks to the sand barrier rising around them.

The Bomb Bees could not break through the sand barrier and exploded against it.

Because of that, the two of them did not suffer any wounds.

“How...... is this possible?”

Go Du-won could not close his open mouth.

He knew better than anyone how frightening and troublesome Bomb Bees were.

One or two of them were nothing to fear.

He could simply shoot them down with arrows.

The problem was that there was no way to count how many Bomb Bees lived in the Black Forest.

The number of arrows Go Du-won could carry in at once was only several dozen at most, but the number of Bomb Bees was at least hundreds, no, thousands of times greater.

Bomb Bees self-destructed without even fearing death.

Before such Bomb Bees, Go Du-won’s ability was of no use at all. The Bomb Bees and Go Du-won had the worst possible compatibility.

That was why he had only circled the outskirts of the Black Forest and had never even dared to enter.

Unless one was an Awakened on Deioden’s level, one should not even think of entering the Black Forest.

Go Du-won had entered with Zeon because he felt like a drowning man clutching at straw. He had not expected much. But the majesty Zeon was now displaying far exceeded his imagination.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

As if a downpour were pounding on a roof, the Bomb Bees struck the sand barrier again and again, going up in glorious self-destruction.

They almost seemed pitiful as they exploded beyond the sand barrier.

If Bomb Bees were the worst possible match for Go Du-won, then Zeon was the worst possible match for Bomb Bees.

‘So there’s a reason that arrogant Deioden keeps him around.’

For a moment, he forgot even the fact that his daughter was inside the Black Forest and stared at Zeon.

Once his shock calmed somewhat, he realized that Zeon’s robe looked familiar.

“Is that an elven robe?”

“How did you know?”

“My wife had a robe similar to it.”

“I see.”

“Where did you get it? Elves never give their belongings to humans.”

“That’s......”

“It seems Deioden slaughtered another elven village somewhere.”

Go Du-won grasped the truth at once.

Zeon looked troubled.

He did not know how to make an excuse.

Fortunately, Go Du-won did not blame Zeon.

Zeon asked carefully,

“Do you know why Deioden hates nonhuman races so much?”

“Phew!”

“Is it true that Earth ended up like this because of the nonhuman races?”

“That is...... true.”

Go Du-won had no choice but to answer. If he wasted time making pointless excuses, it might delay rescuing his daughter.

“So that’s why Deioden hates them so much.”

“It was not true of every nonhuman race. My wife opposed their decision. That was why she fell behind, and then she met me and even married me.”

“What did the nonhuman races do to make Earth end up like this?”

Zeon simply could not understand.

From what he had heard, Earth was an extremely large planet.

He had also heard that Neo Seoul was no more than a tiny dot compared to the size of Earth.

He could not understand what had to be done for such an enormous planet to become a desert in an instant.

“I do not know that much either. My wife was reluctant to tell me. She said it was their original sin......”

“Mm!”

“I am sorry.”

“I understand. For now, let’s focus on saving Har.”

“Thank you.”

Even at that moment, the Bomb Bees kept striking the sand barrier and self-destructing.

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

The deeper they entered toward the center of the Black Forest, the more violent the explosions became. That meant just as many Bomb Bees were attacking and self-destructing.

The solid sand barrier was shaking violently.

Bzzzzzzz!

The entire sky was black.

Bomb Bees had filled the sky completely.

“My God!”

Go Du-won’s face turned deathly pale.

There were several dozen times more Bomb Bees than he had vaguely guessed.

He simply could not believe that this many Bomb Bees had been living inside the Black Forest.

Go Du-won asked Zeon,

“Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. Now let’s start reducing their numbers in earnest.”

“In earnest?”

“Yes. There is a Skill I want to test.”

Zeon smiled slightly.

A Bomb Bee was a weapon in and of itself.

And there were too many of those weapons to count.

But Zeon was not frightened by them.

“I have that much weaponry on my side too.”

RUMBLE!

When Zeon raised his control, all the sand within dozens of meters rose into the air at once.

No matter how numerous the Bomb Bees were, they could not outnumber the sand covering the whole world.

Answer a wave tactic with a wave tactic.

The only problems were mana and control.

For now, he had enough.

Zeon began releasing the image he had been thinking about and drawing all this time into the Black Forest.

The sand floating in the air gathered around Zeon.

It resembled a gigantic cylinder.

A gigantic cylinder made of sand.

The image in his mind was perfectly realized in reality.

All that remained was to pull the trigger.

“Here it goes.”

Zeon injected mana into the cylinder.

GRRRRIND!

At that instant, the gigantic sand cylinder rotated at terrifying speed.

The sand cylinder pulled in everything around it.

And crushed it.

The Bomb Bees sucked into the sand cylinder were ground apart at frightening speed.

CRASHCRASHCRASH!

Bomb Bees caused a chain of explosions inside the gigantic sand cylinder.

It was a spectacle hard to believe even while seeing it with one’s own eyes.

Zeon muttered,

“You could call it a kind of Sand Blender.”

That was why the Skill’s name was Sand Blender.

Its advantage was that by rotating sand at high speed, it could grind apart countless monsters at once.

Its drawback was that it consumed a great deal of mana and could not be used for very long.

Since his grade was still low, its range was not very wide, but when his grade rose later and his mana increased, its power would be maximized.

If he became Grade S, controlling a sandstorm would not be just a dream.

Go Du-won stared blankly at Sand Blender.

“Insane!”

The sky that had been pitch-black was slowly returning to its original form.

He could not believe that the Bomb Bees that had given the Goya Clan so much trouble could be dealt with so easily.

Even his wife had never told him there was a Skill like that in the world.

That meant this was a Skill and authority appearing in this world for the first time.

Already, more than half of the Bomb Bee swarm had been reduced.

But Zeon’s expression was not very bright.

“Tch! My mana is running short after all.”

“You mean you lack mana?”

“I think reducing the Bomb Bees’ numbers should stop around here. Let’s hurry and find Har, then take her out.”

“W-wait! I will give you this. This should cover your lack of mana to some degree.”

What Go Du-won took from his clothes was a necklace glowing blue.

Just looking at it felt refreshing, and it did not seem like an ordinary artifact.

“What is it?”

“It is my wife’s keepsake, Elura’s Tear. It is an item she brought from her homeland. Once a day, it restores consumed mana to its original state.”

At that instant, greed appeared on Zeon’s face.

“Are you lending it to me? Or giving it to me?”

“I will give it to you. But on the condition that you reduce the number of Bomb Bees as much as your mana allows today.”

“Good.”

“I am counting on you.”

Go Du-won handed Elura’s necklace to Zeon.

Elura’s Tear was a precious artifact that had been difficult to obtain even in his wife’s homeland. But it was not an item Go Du-won particularly needed.

That was because his Skills did not consume mana that severely. For Zeon, on the other hand, it was an incredible treasure.

For now, he was somehow managing his mana, but the more he developed his Skills, the more tremendous his mana consumption would surely become.

If he could obtain such a treasure, overdoing it a little was no problem at all.

It was a profitable trade for Go Du-won as well.

The more Zeon reduced the number of Bomb Bees, the higher the chance that the Black Forest could be reclaimed.

Saving Har was important, but reclaiming the Black Forest was important to him too.

Because he could give up neither one, he handed over Elura’s Tear, the treasure of the Goya Clan, to Zeon.

Zeon put Elura’s Tear around his neck.

At that instant, a refreshing sensation spread through his whole body from the part of his chest where the necklace touched.

“Nice!”

A broad smile appeared on Zeon’s lips, because this was no different from obtaining a spare mana reservoir.

Now he could operate Sand Blender without worrying about mana.

GRRRRIND!

Sand Blender rotated at an even more terrifying speed and struck the Bomb Bees in the area.

CRASHCRASHCRASH!

A tremendous explosion shook the Black Forest.

The vast number of Bomb Bees visibly decreased.

It seemed that with just a little more, all the Bomb Bees could be eliminated.

That was when it happened.

RUMBLE!

Suddenly, the center of the Black Forest shook.

At that instant, both their expressions changed.

“It’s the boss.”

“The queen?”

Unable to endure the near-annihilation of her colony, the boss of the Bomb Bees had appeared.

The middle of the Black Forest heaved, and a single Bomb Bee appeared. But its size surpassed imagination.

From its head to the venomous stinger on its tail, its length reached a full seven meters.

It was the queen bee, the boss of the Bomb Bee swarm.

Countless eggs were attached to the queen bee’s abdomen. But one small girl was hanging from one of them.

It was Go Du-won’s daughter, Go Har.

“Har! Why are you there?”

Go Du-won’s eyes flew wide open.

The egg Har was hanging from had a different shape and light from the other eggs.

It was not the queen bee’s egg, but something similar to an egg seemed to be mixed among them.

Har hung from that object, unconscious.

“Give me my daughter back, monster!”

Go Du-won nocked an arrow to his bowstring and drew it.

He could not exert much power against a swarm of Bomb Bees, but a one-on-one battle was a different story.

He was a martial-type Awakened, with Skills specialized toward archery.

The arrow’s target was the queen bee’s head.

“Explosion Arrow.”

WHIZ!

The arrow flew at terrifying speed and struck the queen bee’s head.

CRASH—!

The arrow exploded, and the queen bee’s head tilted back slightly. But soon the queen bee’s head returned to its original position.

It had suffered no damage at all.

“Damn it!”

Go Du-won fired arrows one after another.

His arrows struck the queen bee’s head precisely.

Bzzzzzzz!

The queen bee’s wingbeats grew even more violent.

Go Du-won’s repeated attacks had only made the queen bee’s anger grow greater.

At that instant, the queen bee vanished from Go Du-won’s sight.

It was flying at such high speed that his eyes could not follow.

“Shit! This is dangerous.”

Zeon sensed the queen bee’s movement first.

He hurriedly raised a sand barrier in front of Go Du-won.

CRAAASH—!

With an explosive roar, the sand barrier shattered to pieces. And Go Du-won was flung far away.

He had taken a heavy blow from the queen bee’s high-speed flight.

If Zeon had not dispersed the impact with the sand barrier, he would have lost his life.

Zeon looked at the queen bee and said,

“I’m your opponent.”

Bzzzzzzz!

As if answering, the queen bee’s wingbeats grew even more violent.