Chapter 305

Chapter 305

Old Man Kleksi frowned deeply.

“What is that sound?”

“It sounds like someone is asking for help.”

“That’s exactly what I’m asking. Why is that coming from underground? Don’t tell me the sewage pipe under my shop is connected all the way to the Crocodile Den?”

“It seems that way.”

“Damn it!”

At Zeon’s indifferent answer, Old Man Kleksi’s face twisted sharply.

He knew Crocodiles lived beneath the slums. He also knew the Crocodile Den was tangled as intricately as an ant nest. But he had never once imagined there would be a Crocodile Den directly beneath his own shop.

“Those rotten bastards! How dare they dig a tunnel under my shop without my permission?”

“That’s not what matters right now.”

“I know! I just said it.”

“Where is the nearest sewer entrance?”

“If you go one more block, there’s an intersection. Turn right there, and it’s hidden behind the wall.”

“Understood.”

Zeon and Briel immediately ran to the place Old Man Kleksi had told them about.

They arrived at the sewer entrance in an instant.

Iron bars of tremendous thickness blocked the way, but at Zeon’s gesture, they broke apart helplessly.

“Let’s go in.”

“Okay!”

Briel answered without the slightest hesitation.

They entered the sewer together.

“Ugh!”

Briel, who had entered the sewer with confidence, covered her nose.

The stench was already choking her.

In the past, she had made drugs in an even worse environment without issue, but perhaps because she had grown used to a comfortable life, her head was already spinning. However, Briel possessed the magic called alchemy.

When she drank a potion she had prepared for times like this, her sense of smell went numb, and she was no longer tormented.

“It’s a potion that numbs your sense of smell. Do you want one too, Zeon?”

“I’m fine! When did you even make something like that?”

“I just prepared it in case we ever had to enter the Crocodile Den again.”

“Well done!”

“Hoo! I hoped we’d never have to go in again, but it ended up like this anyway. I guess there really is such a thing as unavoidable fate.”

“That may be true.”

Zeon nodded.

Originally, he had not believed in fate either.

But after going through so many harsh things, he had come to feel that there was some unknowable current in the world.

Whether he wanted it or not, what was meant to happen would happen.

Like that, the world placed him where he was meant to be.

Perhaps that was what fate was.

The sewer sloped steeply and led deep underground.

After walking about ten meters, a forked path appeared.

Zeon examined the forked path for a moment, then said,

“Let’s go right. I heard the voice from that direction earlier.”

“Okay!”

The two chose the right path.

Splash! Splash!

The filthy sewage rose up to their ankles, but neither of them paid it any attention.

Right now, they had to focus on the voice they had heard from the sewage pipe earlier.

‘Where are you?’

Zeon sharpened his senses.

CRASH—!

In that instant, he felt a powerful vibration.

It contained enough force to make the sewage up to their ankles surge.

“It’s the left.”

“Okay!”

At another forked path, they chose the left.

After running several dozen meters like that, someone’s desperate voice faintly reached them again.

“Please save me.”

It was the same voice they had heard earlier from the sewage pipe.

Zeon and Briel sprinted at full speed in the direction the voice came from.

Then the voice rang out again.

“Caught you, little rat!”

“Let me go! Fuck!”

“This won’t do. I should just slit your throat right here.”

It seemed the situation was quite urgent.

Zeon increased his speed and ran toward the place where the voices were coming from.

The moment he turned the corner, he saw men pressing a shamshir against a young boy’s neck.

“What?”

“Who the hell are you?”

They shouted in surprise at Zeon’s sudden appearance.

There were three men in total.

All of them wore turbans on their heads and white robes called deshada.

The moment he saw them, Zeon knew. These were members of the Helbrin Mercenary Corps he had been chasing.

They shouted at Zeon.

“I asked who you were.”

“If you don’t answer, we’ll cut this brat’s throat.”

They used the boy as a hostage and threatened Zeon.

But their threats did not work on Zeon.

Dozens of Fire Missiles floated around Zeon’s body.

Seeing that, the Awakened of the Helbrin Mercenary Corps gritted their teeth.

“Fuck!”

“Kill him!”

“Hyaaah!”

They charged at Zeon without delay.

The opponent had shown hostility, so they could not sit still and take it.

Their reaction was astonishingly swift.

Swift enough that most Awakened would not even be able to react.

However, their opponent was Zeon.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

The instant they moved, Zeon fired the Fire Missiles.

The Helbrin Mercenary Corps Awakened swung their swords like mad and struck down the Fire Missiles.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!

With explosive roars, the bodies of the Helbrin Mercenary Corps Awakened shook again and again.

“Ghk!”

“Damn it!”

Their faces twisted viciously.

All three were martial-type Awakened.

They were Grade C, all skilled enough to channel mana into their weapons.

At this level, they could receive good treatment even in Neo Seoul.

Because of that, they took great pride in themselves.

However, under the barrage of Fire Missiles Zeon unfolded, their pride shattered like glass bowls.

Fire Missile was the most basic Skill that any magic-type Awakened who could use Flame Magic could use.

Naturally, its power was nothing remarkable.

But the power of the Fire Missiles Zeon unleashed far exceeded their imagination.

Each Fire Missile was already powerful on its own, and they kept firing with no time to breathe.

If they blocked one, two came flying. If they blocked two, four shot toward them.

They had never experienced Fire Missiles pouring down infinitely like this before.

CLANG—!

CRACK—!

The shamshir blocking the Fire Missiles first failed to withstand the accumulated impact and shattered.

The Fire Missiles that broke the weapons struck their bodies.

Boom, boom, boom, boom—!

“Kraaaah!”

“H-Hot!”

“Spare me!”

The Awakened, whose entire bodies caught fire, thrashed wildly.

Two of them quickly rolled across the ground and extinguished the flames clinging to their bodies. But the remaining one was not so lucky.

Unfortunately for him, the turban wrapped around his head had caught fire.

The fire on his head burned his eyeballs and airway in an instant.

Because of that, unlike his comrades, he could not put out the fire. He struggled, then lost his life.

It was an unbelievably miserable death for a Grade C martial-type Awakened.

One of the Awakened who had barely survived shouted,

“What the hell are you? Fuck! What are you, and why are you attacking us?”

“We didn’t do anything to you!”

Their veins bulged in their necks as they shouted, making them look like evil spirits.

On top of that, their bodies were covered in hideous burns, making them horrifying enough to dread seeing in a dream.

Their appearance was so full of venom that an ordinary person would have been overwhelmed, but unfortunately, Zeon and Briel were no ordinary people.

Whoooosh!

Zeon’s body shot forward like an arrow and reached the man on the right.

“You fucki—”

CRUNCH—!

Zeon’s fist slammed into his abdomen.

“You son of a bitch! How dare you attack when a man is talking?”

The man beside him swung his fist in rage, but his attack never touched Zeon’s body.

Zeon lightly knocked aside his fist with his left hand, then drove his right fist into the man’s jaw.

CRASH—!

With an explosive sound, the man’s head snapped backward.

The jaw struck by the fist was unharmed, but the upper part of his skull burst instead.

Brain matter and blood sprayed everywhere, but Zeon did not blink as he looked at the man he had taken down first.

“H-How can this be? Nayar died so pointlessly......”

The man whose upper skull had burst from Zeon’s attack was named Nayar. Nayar had been the strongest of the three.

Seeing Nayar lose his life so emptily, the remaining Awakened’s legs trembled, and he collapsed where he stood.

“Ugh! What are you? What the hell are you?”

“Who I am is not important. What matters is who you are and what you did.”

“Don’t talk bullshit!”

The man screamed.

He was someone who had survived the cruel desert.

Like a desert cobra, he held his head high and spat hostility.

That was the pride of those who lived in the desert.

Only this time, he had chosen the wrong opponent.

In Zeon’s eyes, the venom he carried looked like a child’s game.

Real venom was not like that.

Screaming like this, glaring with bulging eyes, pretending to be strong.

Those were all things only the weak did.

Those with true venom hid themselves.

They hid themselves thoroughly, watched for an opportunity, and cut off the opponent’s breath in a single stroke.

This behavior was no different from exposing one’s own weakness.

It was something Zeon would never have done.

The price was severe.

THUD—!

Zeon’s leg struck his abdomen.

An impact like having his abdomen pierced by a huge skewer struck him.

“Guh!”

The man vomited blood and collapsed face-down.

Zeon stepped on the fallen man’s neck.

CRACK, CRACK, CRACK—!

The sound of bones rupturing flowed from the man’s neck.

His breath stopped, and his mind went white.

His eyes rolled back, and saliva streamed from his mouth.

The pain was so intense that he could not even scream.

When the pain reached its peak like that, the man could not endure it and begged.

“K-Krgh! S-Spare......”

“What did you say?”

“S-Spare...... I-I’ll tell you anything......”

Even at his plea, Zeon did not remove his foot from the man’s neck.

CRACK—!

The man’s neck bent more and more grotesquely.

Now the man could not even speak and could only choke.

Just before his breath truly stopped, Zeon loosened his foot.

When the tremendous pressure vanished, the man whose airway had opened gasped for breath.

“Khaaagh!”

The man opened his mouth wide to inhale fresh air.

At that moment—

“Ghk!”

Zeon stepped on his neck again.

CRACK—!

A rupturing sound flowed from the man’s neck.

“Just kill me......”

“I will.”

“You son of a......”

“You should not be begging me to spare you. You should be begging me to kill you without pain.”

“Krrgh!”

Only then did the man realize.

No matter what he did, he could not survive here.

Zeon was teaching the man.

This was what true venom was.

The man was being consumed by true venom.