Chapter 398 (1/2)
<hr />
Crunch—! Fafnir’s fangs stabbing deep into his body—that sensation remained with Su-hyeun. It stayed so vividly within his muscle memory.
This was also the exact moment that the Heavenly Ways of Reincarnation activated.
The ability that activated at the moment of his death—it activated right inside Fafnir’s mouth. Perhaps that was the reason for the errors of the reincarnation ability.
“If not, maybe it was because I hadn’t completely awakened my unique ability back then.”
Whatever the case might have been, one of the Six Paths, the Heavenly Ways of Reincarnation which formed a part of his unique ability, activated without fully being awoken.
Without a doubt, it was Su-hyeun’s unique ability, but it got unlocked only a millisecond ago. Kim Sung-in still had no idea what the Six Paths could do even as he died from Fafnir’s attack.
And just like that, Fafnir was also influenced by the Heavenly Ways of Reincarnation and returned to the past along with Su-hyeun.
“Well, that sure has become troublesome, alright.”
“Meaning, it’s back to square one?”
The main point of Su-hyeun’s explanation until now was this: before he regressed or reincarnated, the world was destroyed, and he lost to the monster named Fafnir.
And the reason that the “future” had changed so much until now was all down to Su-hyeun coming back to the past. But if he was indeed not the only one who came back, then, in the end, it was practically the same as nothing much had changed.
“No, wait.” However, Su-hyeun still shook his head. “We’re not back to square one, at least.”
“How so?”
“Sorry?”
Both Lee Ju-ho and Hak-joon formed puzzled expressions at how certain Su-hyeun sounded just then.
Su-hyeun didn’t give them a detailed explanation, but that was because even he didn’t know everything.
“There are still five other abilities left,” he thought.
The Heavenly Ways of Reincarnation was only one part of the Six Paths. Meaning, there were five more left yet to be explored, and those would prove to be the strongest cards Su-hyeun currently possessed. As long as those cards were still in his deck, he couldn’t say they were back to square one.
“No, it’s nothing major. Besides all that, I gotta ask you for a favor, brother Ju-ho,” said Su-hyeun. His explanation up until now was meant to explain that he came from the future and knew what was supposed to happen. “Fafnir. That bastard might appear very soon.”
“Really?!”
“Man, it keeps getting worse, doesn’t it?” Lee Ju-ho grumbled while holding his head.
He was already getting a serious bout of headache after learning that a monster even Su-hyeun found hard to deal with existed somewhere out there, but now, he was also told that such a creature might show up soon?
Hak-joon, who had been checking his watch while listening to the explanation, urgently got up from his seat. “I have to be on my way now. Can you tell me the rest of the explanation over the phone later?”
“Yeah, alright. See you later.”
Lee Ju-ho waved his hand at Hak-joon. The latter, who had been cutting it real close to stay and listen as much as he could, quickly jumped outside the open window and exited from the office, just like how Su-hyeun did earlier to enter.
“Really now? Jumping in and out of windows even though the door’s right over there?” Lee Ju-ho muttered softly before asking Su-hyeun, “Okay, so what is it? That favor you wanted to ask me.”
“Bro, you’re still the association chairman, right?”
“Yeah. The Korean association.”
“And you’re also the Guild Master of the Paragon Guild.”
“That’s true, too. But what about it?”
“That means you have some clout with other nations, right? I’m willing to let you borrow my name too if that helps.”
Now that was a suspicious-sounding question. Lee Jo-ho quietly nodded and waited for the next part of Su-hyeun’s request.
“Starting now, we must stop all the awakeners coming back from the tower from going back in.”
“Why?”
“The dungeon progression rate, it has gotten faster, hasn’t it?”
Su-hyeun’s question caused Lee Ju-ho’s eyes to sharpen.
Su-hyeun ended up mentioning that one thing Lee Ju-ho had found quite concerning lately, after all.
Lee Ju-ho asked, “Did something like this happen in the…past, too?”
“Before Fafnir made its entrance, dungeons suddenly stopped materializing. For around the period of five years or so, dungeons showed up infrequently, so much so that it became hard to find even one.”
Five years, he said.
There was a noticeable difference in the time frame, but things had already become distorted and out of whack by a lot at this point. It wouldn’t be all that surprising to see that the period of five years greatly shortening to only one year or even to a matter of a few months instead.
“It’ll only accelerate even more from now on, even shooting past the level of impossible to handle.”
“When you say impossible to handle, just how impossible are we talking about here?”
“Several times. Dozens. At worst, over one hundred times.”
There was no real need to delve too deeply into his memories. After unlocking his unique ability, Su-hyeun got to see the events of the past through the effects of the already-used skill, the Heavenly Ways of Reincarnation.
He saw just how many monsters Kim Sung-in, who was himself, had to fight against in the previous timeline.
Considering the countless number of monsters seemingly blanketing every corner of the globe, it wouldn’t have mattered how many hands you had to help you with counting them.
“That’s why…no one must return to the tower. Absolutely no one.”
<hr />
Crunch, crack, shatter…
Chew, grind, crunch…
Sharp fangs tore through the hide and began munching on the bones.
The huge “dragon” was emitting an ominous, evil aura from its black eyes. After it successfully transformed a planet into a wasteland, it was currently ripping and munching into another dragon.
The victorious dragon’s appearance could only be described as bizarre. Even though it possessed a head of a dragon, the rest of its body belonged to a giant humanoid.
Krrrrr…
The dragon, Fafnir, growled softly.
Its victim was vomit-inducing vile in how it tasted, but Fafnir couldn’t stop eating it.
It was suffering from this endless gluttony and also its unquenchable thirst to obtain even more power.
“And you’ve finally devoured that fool, haven’t you?”
Fafnir turned its head at an unfamiliar voice.
It couldn’t see anything, but it could definitely sense this incredible presence crushing down on this vast planet.
A little after that, Fafnir finally discovered the existence that addressed him earlier.
It was also at that moment that the color of the sky had changed. It turned blackish, a little closer to grey, perhaps.
Fafnir asked, “And who you are supposed to be?”
“I’m the king of your kind.”
Ruuuumble…
The entirety of the heavens above was being rocked ominously. Rather, more precisely, the massive life form blanketing the heavens was shifting around.
Fafnir could only shiver from the sheer sense of presence this unknown life form emanated. It was true that the giant with the dragon’s head was deeply exhausted from fighting that dragon earlier, but even if that wasn’t the case, nothing would’ve changed in the outcome.
And that was because that humongous existence blanketing the sky had far surpassed Fafnir’s current strength by an incalculable margin.
Fafnir muttered, “You do look delectable.”
“Oh, so you wish to devour me as well?”
“Not right now. It’s not the right time yet.”
“I see. It is indeed a talent to say that you’re too weak and scared in such a nice-sounding manner.”