Chapter 386

Chapter 386

“A scout......”

Zeon chewed over the word he had heard from Mandy earlier.

For some reason, he did not like how it sounded.

Even Zeon did not know exactly where the place name Sichuan referred to.

It was in the exact opposite direction from the places Zeon had wandered, and far too distant.

If what Zhang Wuhang said was true, the straight-line distance between Sichuan and Neo Seoul alone was more than three thousand kilometers.

Even Zeon did not know the situation in a place that far away.

It would not be strange if a colony existed somewhere Zeon did not know.

There was almost nothing he knew about China.

China, too, had collapsed completely during the Great Cataclysm.

In particular, the areas adjacent to Korea had vanished without a trace, so now, after more than a hundred years had passed, there were not even many people who remembered the name China.

Zeon knew about China thanks to Deioden, but many people probably did not even know such a country had once existed.

Deioden had never told him the reason, but he had not held very good feelings toward China.

“They built a city underground? Just how many people did they grind up to make it?”

He had heard that in the past, their population had been as numerous as the sands of the shore. But through the Great Cataclysm, most of them must have died or been devoured by monsters as well.

Even so, judging by the fact that they had stubbornly survived and built a massive underground city, they clearly possessed tremendous potential.

“What are the odds that someone who set out blindly from a place three thousand kilometers away would enter Neo Seoul? It can’t be explained by luck alone. I have to assume he has an ability that exceptional......”

Zeon looked at City Hall.

By now, Jin Geum-ho had probably already met Zhang Wuhang.

“Well, he must have judged it properly on his own.”

To be honest, he was curious about what purpose Zhang Wuhang had come with. But no matter what scheme he had, Zeon was not particularly worried.

Not if his opponent was Jin Geum-ho.

Jin Geum-ho was the man who had practically rebuilt Neo Seoul alone.

Because he had led people with powerful leadership, this enormous city could exist in a ruined world.

It was absolutely not easy to deceive such a man and plot something.

“Wow!”

At that moment, Remura’s exclamation burst from inside the room.

Then Briel’s voice followed.

“See? This is a spirit.”

“She’s so pretty!”

“She is, right? Say hello! This child’s name is Liri.”

“Hello! Liri!”

Following Remura’s shy greeting, Liri’s bright kyaruru laughter flowed out.

Inside the room, Briel had summoned Liri and was introducing her to Remura.

The laughter of the two girls kept slipping out through the door.

Zeon left them to play as much as they wanted and stepped out of the house.

Since it was late at night, there were not many people on the streets.

Zeon walked through the quiet streets for quite some time and left the slums.

The place he headed to was the desert.

Walking alone through the desert on such a pitch-dark night was no different from suicide, but that did not apply to Zeon.

After reaching the distant desert, Zeon steadied his breathing for a moment.

The reason he had deliberately come out to the desert in the middle of the night was because there was one thing he needed to check.

“At that time, the Rock Crocodile’s core was definitely absorbed into me.”

He had fought countless monsters, but this was the first time a monster’s core had been absorbed on its own like this.

Because of that, some kind of change had occurred inside his body. But until now, he had been too busy to check what sort of change it was.

He had to check the change while he had time.

Only by accurately understanding the state of his own body could he respond properly to any unexpected variable.

Zeon stood on the sand and focused inward.

He saw an enormous desert where sunset-colored sand surged like waves.

That was the essence of a Sandmancer.

It was also Zeon’s essence.

It was a familiar sight to him.

Because it was the sight he saw whenever he occasionally observed his own interior. But today, it was slightly different from usual.

He could feel a faint foreign sensation.

Zeon tilted his head.

Because this was the first time he had felt something like this after Awakening as a Sandmancer.

Zeon focused on the foreign sensation.

After concentrating for a long while, he was able to identify its nature.

‘So it was you.’

A single small pebble clumped alone within the fine sand.

Zeon realized that it was the Rock Crocodile’s core.

The Rock Crocodile was a lifeform born from the fusion of a Golem and a crocodile.

The Rock Crocodile was a unique existence that had never existed before and would never exist again.

The core of such a Rock Crocodile had been absorbed into his body and remained there in crystalline form.

Zeon focused his consciousness on the core.

It was a process to obtain information from the core and commune with it.

Zeon focused only on the core, forgetting the passage of time.

He did not know how much time passed like that.

When Zeon opened his eyes again, the sun had already risen high in the sky.

“Haa!”

Zeon let out a faint sigh.

After standing in place and focusing with extreme concentration for so long, his head felt as if it might split apart. But such a small pain was nothing compared to what he had gained overnight.

“Sand Soldier!”

Zeon suddenly summoned soldiers made of sand.

In an instant, dozens of Sand Soldiers appeared before him.

Sand Soldier was the Skill Zeon most enjoyed using.

When dealing with low-grade Awakened or monsters that relied on wave tactics, Sand Soldiers were quite useful. But their limits were just as clear.

Because they were made of sand, they were easily destroyed.

Of course, he could make new ones immediately after they were destroyed, but it was also true that this lowered their efficiency.

However, Zeon had found a new possibility in the Golem’s core he had newly absorbed.

“Strengthen!”

No sooner had he spoken than the Sand Soldiers’ appearances began to change.

Hissss!

The rough-textured sand was changing into smooth stone.

It was the authority possessed by the Rock Crocodile’s core.

Changing sand into stone and strengthening it.

This was the method by which the Rock Crocodile had increased its size.

In an instant, the Sand Soldiers transformed into solid stone soldiers.

At this point, it was almost embarrassing to call them Sand Soldiers. It seemed better to call them Stone Soldiers.

But Zeon had no intention of deliberately changing the name.

No matter what their outer forms looked like, the Sand Soldiers had been shaped by the authority of a Sandmancer.

“What will happen if I dismiss the summon?”

Zeon immediately dismissed the Sand Soldiers.

RUMBLE—!

No sooner had he dismissed them than the Sand Soldiers’ bodies collapsed.

The rocks that broke into pieces became sand once more.

Born from sand, they had returned to sand.

Zeon looked around.

Now that he understood the authority possessed by the Rock Crocodile’s core, it was time to determine how powerful this authority was.

Zeon looked into the air and said,

“Gaia!”

―Beeep!

In that instant, a large whale flew down from the high sky with a cute cry.

Gaia shot down terrifyingly like a meteor, but when it reached near the ground, it ignored the laws of gravity and landed as lightly as a feather.

Zeon looked at Gaia and was slightly surprised.

“You’ve gotten even bigger.”

After absorbing the Reaper’s Scythe, Gaia had grown to around seven or eight meters, but now it was approaching nearly ten meters.

At this rate, it seemed it would not be long before she became as large as her mother.

Her body had grown, but her cute face was still the same.

―Beeep!

Gaia gently circled around Zeon.

Because she was so enormous, Gaia had bumped him gently by her own standards, but Zeon could not help staggering greatly.

Zeon smiled and said,

“Now most monsters won’t be a match for you.”

―Beeeeep!

“Can you carry me?”

―Beep!

“Thanks!”

Zeon climbed onto Gaia’s back.

Unlike before, she had grown enormously, so there was a sense of stability.

When Zeon climbed on, Gaia let out her distinctive cry and flew into the sky.

Gaia pierced through thick clouds in an instant and reached a place high in the sky.

Once they rose above the clouds, a sea of dazzling stars came into view.

Starlight poured directly over his entire body.

It was a magnificent sight that could not be seen from the ground.

Under the dazzling starlight, Gaia’s massive body shone brilliantly.

Gaia looked truly happy as she swam through the sky with starlight falling across her whole body.

Zeon felt he understood why Gaia spent most of her time in the sky like that.

Just as the sea suited an ordinary whale, the wide sky suited Gaia.

On top of that, the fact that there were no flying monsters living nearby that could harm Gaia also played a part.

At most, wyverns were the most threatening monsters, and even they did not dare think of attacking Gaia now that she had grown so large.

At least in this area, there were no monsters that could harm Gaia.

It was the same now.

He saw a group of monsters flying in the distance spot Gaia, startle, and change direction.

They hurriedly avoided her as if they had encountered their natural enemy.

Thanks to that, Zeon could comfortably focus on his original purpose, searching for monsters, while riding on Gaia’s back.

A distance that would take at least three or four days while driving a car at full speed passed in an instant on Gaia.

A monster horde moving in a group entered Zeon’s sight.

Skree-skree-skree!

Monsters resembling giant locusts were moving in a group while making chilling sounds.

Zeon furrowed his brow.

“Are those Red Locusts? Why are they here?”

Red Locusts were small-class monsters about one meter in size.

Killing one was not difficult, but the problem was that they moved in groups.

At minimum, several hundred, and at most, several thousand.

They were small, but their appetite was tremendous, and there was nothing they could not eat.

Once caught by them, any monster would vanish from the world in an instant without leaving even a single bone behind.

A monster that could not deploy a force field would be swept away instantly if caught by Red Locusts.

The problem was that this was not the Red Locusts’ habitat.

Red Locusts were monsters that lived far to the south from here.

“Has the desert’s monster terrain map changed again?”

This was not a welcome thing for humanity or Neo Seoul.

Because they would have to redraw the monster terrain map they had worked so hard to understand until now.

More than anything, the Red Locusts themselves were a problem.

Their titanium-like shells simply deflected most attacks.

Frightening defensive power, teeth that gnawed through anything, and a ferocious temperament befitting monsters.

They were natural predators and hunters.

If caught by them, most survivor groups would vanish without leaving a trace.

“Good! At least I found them now.”

Right now, there were only several hundred, but once they ate their fill and began mating, they would quickly increase to thousands, then tens of thousands.

Because of that, survivor groups in places where Red Locusts mainly lived periodically hunted them and reduced their numbers. If they missed the timing by mistake, a catastrophe would strike.

Even Zeon did not know how they had come all the way here.

What mattered was that if he did not annihilate them around here, a catastrophe would come.

Zeon said to Gaia,

“Wait here.”

―Beep!

“It won’t take long.”

After reassuring Gaia, Zeon dropped vertically toward the ground.

Zeon’s body shot downward at terrifying speed, and the sand on the ground gently caught him.

Skree-skree!

The Red Locust swarm was bewildered by Zeon’s sudden appearance. But only for a moment. Soon, they drooled and rushed at him.

At that moment, Zeon muttered,

“Summon! Enhanced Sand Soldiers.”

Rustle!

No sooner had he spoken than countless Sand Soldiers rose from the sand.

They were Sand Soldiers made of stone.

Zeon commanded the Sand Soldiers.

“Don’t leave a single one. Erase them all.”

Rumble!

No sooner had his words fallen than the Enhanced Sand Soldiers charged toward the Red Locust swarm.

Skree-skree!

The Red Locusts bit at the Sand Soldiers with their sharp teeth. But the teeth of the Red Locusts, which could crush the flesh of ordinary monsters in an instant, broke instead.

CRASH—!

The fists of the Enhanced Sand Soldiers slammed into their heads and bodies.

Kieeeeh!

The bodies of the Red Locusts burst apart with chilling screams.

The slaughter had begun.