Chapter 164 (2/2)

Slash, slash—

Swish, swish—

Su-hyeun jumped into the group of Cerbers and swept at them with his sword. The Cerbers were terrified. They reacted in one of two ways.

Arf, arf, arf—

Some of them charged at Su-hyeun.

Moan, moan—

And some of them ran away. The group was divided into two. But Su-hyeun did not miss either of them.

<<It’ll be annoying if they bring more monsters back with them later. I can’t miss them now.>>

Su-hyeun shouted toward the Cerbers trying to escape.

“Miru!”

Purr—!

“Catch the monsters that are trying to escape now!”

Flip—

Swish—

Miru spread his wings and chased the Cerbers that were trying to run away. Miru spouted Breath from his mouth. The Cerbers who fled burned like charcoal and fell to the ground. And, during the fight, they could meet really giant monsters sometimes.

Caw, caw—!

Krrr, Krrr—!

Something huge covered the sky. Su-hyeun lifted his head and saw…

<<I knew it would be here.>>

It was a flying-typed monster. Those monsters were the reason Su-hyeun couldn’t ride on Miru’s back. Su-hyeun’s strength came from fighting on the ground. Air combat was his weak spot. Su-hyeun didn’t have the sort of skill that could let him fly freely. But…

<<If it shows up first…>>

Whoosh—

[Leap]

Su-hyeun jumped dozens of meters in an instant. As he leaped twice, he could meet the giant flying monster. It only had bones, and the eyes were empty.

[One Sword Cutting Through Everything.]

Su-hyeun grabbed the sword with both hands.

<<I can cut it.>>

Slash—

Su-hyeun cut down.

Crack—!

Boom—!

As he swung the sword, the bony flying monster’s head split, and the large body began to fall.

Caw, caw—!

Soon, another group of flying monsters flew up. At that moment, Miru flew above Su-hyeun’s head.

Swoosh—

[Breath.]

Whoosh—!

Breath from Miru’s mouth swept over the flying monsters. The heat hit deep in their bones. The flying monsters screamed and fell to the ground. Su-hyeun stroked Miru’s back as he sat down on it.

“Good job, Miru.”

Purr—!

Miru replied with a proud face. Su-hyeun looked over and around as he came back down to the ground with Miru.

<<There sure are a lot of monsters here.>>

It had already been half a day since they had entered the Cintamani forest. He had been fighting nonstop, but the monsters were pouring in unceasingly. Each of them had a level akin to the monsters who appeared in the blue-colored dungeon. Sometimes, there were monsters about at boss-level.

<<Their numbers are bad, but the real problem is that the monsters are getting stronger as I go deeper into the forest.>>

Su-hyeun could understand why Blanc was so worried. First of all, there were too many Cerbers. Moreover, they didn’t attack one by one. They always attacked in groups.

He couldn’t go to the air to avoid them since there were flying-type monsters. Those were actually more dangerous than the Cerbers because there was no place to hide or run away in the air. Of course, Su-hyeun had no intention of running away at all.

<<At least, I can get a lot of rewards.>>

Since the monsters’ level was high, and there were a lot of them, he could get more achievement points. The stats, which hadn’t been raised well so far, rose by a point. As a hunting ground, this place was the best among all Su-hyeun had seen in his trials.

<<I honestly want to stay here more.>>

A smile played about his lips. In fact, the meaning of the hunting ground faded a lot from a certain point. At Su-hyeun’s present level, it was a tough thing to collect achievement points or raise stats just by catching monsters in the trials. But there were a lot of monsters there. For Su-hyeun, this 40th-floor trial was sort of the best possible hunting ground to catch monsters and raise his stats.

“Let’s take a break for a moment.”

Su-hyeun and Miru had been moving for more than half a day. Although Su-hyeun had deep reserves of physical strength and magic, he still needed to rest. In places with a high concentration of monsters like here, they had to rest when they could.

While Su-hyeun was resting, Miru wandered around to see if other monsters were approaching. Another few hours later, Su-hyeun stood guard for Miru. It was possible because there were two of them, not Su-hyeun alone. Miru was undoubtedly playing his part now.

“You did a good job, Miru.”

Purr—!

After taking a break, Su-hyeun started moving again.

Thump, thump—

Splash—

They walked around about 30 minutes.

<<I can’t see any monsters.>>

Monsters had been appearing non-stop for more than half a day, but they stopped. Something was strange. Su-hyeun looked around and reached his hand to the bushes that had turned dark. He could feel moisture from the bushes.

<<No way.>>

Su-hyeun sat down on the ground and touched it with his palm. And at that moment…

Pitapat, pitapat—

He could feel little heartbeats through the ground.