Chapter 359

Chapter 359

Zeon furrowed his brow.

At first, he thought he had seen something wrong.

An ugly face covered in wrinkles. Large tusks jutting out between its lips.

A necklace strung with unknown bones hanging from it, and a huge bone spear in its hand.

It was an orc.

An old orc, impossible to tell how long it had lived, was secretly watching Kim Jin-su and the Awakened hunt the Ironclad Ants.

Humans grew weaker with age, but orcs were different.

The older an orc was, the stronger it was.

The world of orcs was ruled thoroughly by the law of the jungle.

They rarely gave preferential treatment to an orc just because it was old. Only the strong survived and grew old.

Weak orcs could not even survive long enough to age. Unless they were extremely rare beings, like shamans.

That was why, in the world of orcs, an elder was not weak, but strong.

At the very least, they were strong enough not to be pushed back when fighting young orcs. Add experience and years of accumulated skill to that, and they were likely to be stronger than young orcs.

The old orc watching from behind the rock was highly likely to be that kind of powerful orc.

‘Was there an orc habitat around here?’

Zeon searched his memory, but he was certain he had never seen orcs near this place.

‘Did a new orc pack settle here?’

If an orc pack had settled here, things would become troublesome.

Orcs could not stand watching others hunt in their territory. They believed that everywhere their eyes could reach was their territory, and defined every living creature active within it as an enemy.

There were countless orc tribes scattered throughout the desert.

Even though Zeon had dealt with the Orc Lord and his subordinates, many orcs remained and reproduced vigorously.

Completely exterminating those orcs was impossible.

“Block the right side. Ironclad Ants are getting in that way.”

At that moment, Kim Jin-su’s urgent shout rang out.

The defensive line on the right had been breached.

If Ironclad Ants pushed in through the breached line, the hunt would become difficult, which was why he was screaming at the top of his lungs.

Fortunately, one Awakened who had some room to spare went to the vulnerable right side and helped his comrade. Thanks to that, the front line regained stability.

Zeon, whose attention had been briefly stolen, looked back at the rock where the old orc had been hiding. But the old orc was already gone.

“Tsk!”

Zeon clicked his tongue.

For some reason, he felt uneasy. But it was already too late to track the old orc now.

By the time he crossed to the other side of the fissure, the old orc would have vanished without a trace.

Old orcs never left their traces in the desert. Tracking such an orc was no easy task.

In the end, Zeon cleanly gave up on pursuing the old orc.

Right now, hunting the Ironclad Ants was more important.

The Ironclad Ants drawn by the Flame Armadillos climbed up over the fissure without pause.

They had already caught more than two hundred.

There was no point in catching any more Ironclad Ants beyond this.

They did not have enough vehicles to transport them.

Zeon shouted to Kim Jin-su.

“Throw the Flame Armadillo carcasses into the fissure. Then the Ironclad Ants should stop coming up.”

“Understood.”

Kim Jin-su answered and dropped the Flame Armadillo carcasses into the fissure. Then the number of Ironclad Ants climbing to the surface visibly decreased, until at some point they stopped appearing altogether.

Only then could Kim Jin-su and the Awakened sit down on the ground and rest.

“Haa! Haa! I’m dying.”

“I used my Skills to my heart’s content.”

“Heh heh! How many is that in all?”

“Fuck! That felt amazing.”

The Awakened burst into laughter.

They had fought countless battles, but this was the first time they had beaten monsters down so one-sidedly.

There had been moments of crisis, but each time, they had worked together and overcome them well.

Above all, Levin joining in had been a great help.

It was extremely easy to kill the Ironclad Ants that had been electrocuted by Purple Lightning and either lost consciousness or become paralyzed.

Thanks to that, they had conserved a great deal of strength.

Even after killing so many Ironclad Ants, they still had energy left.

Zeon approached Kim Jin-su’s group and said,

“If you’ve rested, let’s take the carcasses and withdraw. Right now they may be distracted by the Flame Armadillo carcasses, but once they eat them all, they might come rushing out for revenge.”

“Understood. You heard him, right? Load the carcasses onto the vehicles and get out of here.”

“Understood.”

“Yes, Captain.”

The Awakened and porters worked together to load the Ironclad Ant corpses onto the transport vehicles.

It took less than an hour to load all the corpses onto the transport vehicles.

“They’re all loaded.”

“Okay! Let’s hurry and leave before those ant bastards come out for revenge.”

“Yes, sir!”

With thunderous replies, the vehicles began leaving the fissure.

Once they had gotten a fair distance away from the fissure, the Awakened shouted.

“We succeeded in the hunt without a single casualty.”

“This feels incredible.”

“Woo ha ha!”

More than the fact that they had completed the mission, what made them happier was that not a single person had died.

No matter how close to death Awakened lived, the grief of losing a comrade was hard to endure.

Until now, they had lost countless comrades and mourned them. But this time, there was no need.

They could not remember the last time they had felt so lighthearted.

They moved to a place far away from the fissure.

Zeon found a suitable spot and had the Armored Bus stop.

“This should be far enough. You must be tired, so let’s rest here today and depart for Neo Seoul tomorrow.”

“Understood.”

Kim Jin-su readily agreed.

Once the campsite was chosen, the porters moved.

They enclosed the area in a circle with the Armored Bus and transport vehicles, making a temporary shelter and preparing the meal.

Kim Jin-su shouted,

“The hunt wrapped up successfully, so take out all the food we brought.”

At his decision, the Awakened and porters cheered.

They had grown sick of eating tasteless preserved food because of their tight schedule.

“Nice!”

“Bring out all the food we brought.”

“Today, let’s loosen our belts and feast.”

The workers brought out all the specially prepared food.

Zeon, Briel, and Levin also took their seats.

Several Awakened approached Levin.

“Thanks! We were able to hunt easily because of you.”

“I’m grateful too. You saved me when things got dangerous.”

They were all people Levin had saved.

Levin’s face reddened slightly as he said,

“It was nothing. It was only natural.”

“If you ever need anything later, tell me. I’ll help as much as I can.”

“Yeah! We live in the same slums, so come find us anytime.”

“You’re our brother now.”

The Awakened in Neo Seoul and the Awakened in the slums had different tendencies.

If the Awakened of Neo Seoul were somewhat calculating, the Awakened of the slums were strongly influenced by emotion.

It was likely because they shared a sense of kinship from struggling together at the bottom.

Once they had mingled and suffered together like this, they accepted even people they had met for the first time as friends.

To Kim Jin-su and the Awakened, Levin was already a comrade-in-arms, no different from a friend.

Levin felt the same.

Because he, too, came from the bottom.

The Awakened and Levin quickly hit it off, chattering and laughing.

Kim Jin-su approached Zeon.

“Thank you for the valuable lesson. Thanks to you, I learned an efficient method for hunting Ironclad Ants. I won’t forget this favor.”

“It’s not something you need to call a favor. It’s a method anyone could discover if they thought about it a little.”

“I’ve dealt with plenty of monsters myself, but I never once thought of hunting monsters the way you do, Lord Zeon. If it hadn’t been for you, we would never have known such a method existed. Then there would have been many more casualties. It may be nothing special to you, Lord Zeon, but to bottom-rung Awakened like us, it is a precious lesson that dramatically raises our chances of survival. Thank you.”

At Kim Jin-su’s effusive praise, Zeon scratched his cheek.

For some reason, it made him embarrassed.

Zeon deliberately looked at the transport vehicles encircling the campsite like castle walls.

The huge transport vehicles were filled with Ironclad Ant corpses.

With this much, they would be able to make enough sand hardener to build homes where tens of thousands of people could live.

The corpses of Grade F monsters, the lowest grade and treated as trash in Neo Seoul, could become a miracle for the slums.

Now they only had to bring the Ironclad Ant corpses safely back to the slums. Then homes for tens of thousands of people would be created.

That alone made this expedition worth all the hardship.

---

After the feast ended, Zeon and Briel returned to the Armored Bus.

―Beeep!

Gaia, who had been alone in the Armored Bus, greeted them happily.

Gaia swam around Zeon and Briel, wagging its tail.

Briel hugged Gaia tightly and apologized.

“Sorry! You were bored by yourself, weren’t you?”

―Beeep!

“Thanks for understanding!”

Zeon also stroked Gaia’s head and said,

“You didn’t cause trouble even though you were alone. Good girl, Gaia!”

―Beeeeep!

“Yeah! Now play with Briel as much as you want. No one will disturb you.”

Outside, Levin and the Awakened were still laughing and chatting.

Even though they had not drunk alcohol because they were on an expedition, the atmosphere was as cheerful as if they were drunk.

Levin and the Awakened were boasting to each other about their exploits.

Since it seemed like they would have to wait quite a while for their conversation to end, Zeon and Briel had come inside the bus first.

Zeon reclined his seat and said to Briel,

“I’m going to sleep first.”

“Okay! I’ll talk things over with Gaia for a bit, then sleep.”

“Alchemy?”

“Yeah! Something suddenly occurred to me......”

“Do that.”

Recently, Briel’s inspiration had been exploding.

Good ideas came to her constantly. Even on the way here, it had happened several times.

Each time, Briel either conducted a simple experiment with Gaia or wrote her ideas down in a notebook.

Briel went with Gaia to a secluded corner at the rear of the Armored Bus and whispered. In her own way, she was speaking quietly so she would not disturb Zeon’s sleep.

“The Ironclad Ants smelled the Flame Armadillo and came up from the fissure, right? How did the Ironclad Ants below the fissure know there was a Flame Armadillo carcass above? They must have known by smelling it. Then wouldn’t recreating the same smell be enough, without going through the trouble of hunting a Flame Armadillo? If I make a perfume identical to the scent of a Flame Armadillo and scatter it, I should be able to lure Ironclad Ants more efficiently, right?”

―Beeep!

“Yeah! The problem is the formula. On the way back, I’ll have to catch one Flame Armadillo and analyze it.”

―Beeep! Beep!

“Got it.”

Zeon fell asleep while listening to Briel and Gaia’s conversation.

He did not know how long he had slept.

Zeon opened his eyes at a strange premonition.

The inside of the vehicle was dark, and Briel and Gaia were sleeping with soft, even breaths.

Zeon left the bus without waking them.

At the campsite, the Awakened, porters, and Levin were lying around asleep in whatever positions they had fallen into.

After looking around the campsite for a moment, Zeon soon climbed onto the roof of a transport vehicle.

“Why are you already awake? It’s still dawn......”

Kim Jin-su, who was standing watch on top of the transport vehicle, looked puzzled by Zeon’s appearance.

“Wait a moment......”

Zeon stopped Kim Jin-su and stared into the darkness outside the transport vehicles.

At his behavior, Kim Jin-su tensed without realizing it.

It was the first time Zeon had shown this kind of behavior on the way here.

After staring into the darkness for a while, deep furrows formed between Zeon’s brows.

“I think we need to wake everyone up.”

“Pardon?”

“Monsters.”

“Are you serious?”

“If you listen closely, you’ll hear teeth clicking together. They’re Ironclad Ants.”

“What?”

Kim Jin-su focused his mind and listened closely as Zeon had said. Then he heard a faint noise.

Clack, clack! Clack-clack!

Just as Zeon had said, it was the sound of teeth clicking together.

Without thinking any further, Kim Jin-su shouted toward the campsite.

“Everyone, get up. Monsters!”