Chapter 457 - 457 (2/2)
”Su—Su, S—S—Su—”
”Su-hyeun Kim?!”
”As I thought, this shadow...”
Shuruk, shu-rururu...
Su-hyeun asked while staring at the shadow on the ground, ”It's yours, isn't it?”
”Huh?”
A new shadow extended from Su-hyeun and got connected with the shadows of the 10 awakeners, and the moment they realized this...
Fwhoosh—!
Crunch, cruuuuuch—!
”Kkeuaaaaaaah—!”
”Aaahk, aaaaahk!”
His shadow bound their shadows tightly and then proceeded to break the arms and legs of all 10 awakeners in unnatural directions.
They screamed tragically while flailing about with their now mollusk-like limbs and then began collapsing to the ground after being unable to stand straight. The name dominating their minds was instantly wiped out, and they continued to thrash about in the kind of pain that they had never experienced before in their whole lives.
Only one among them managed to hold onto his wits.
”Now I remember. You're the Shadow Artist, Edward Rockwell.”
Even if the number of S-Rank awakeners increased over time, most of them would still go on to become globally renowned superstars.
Su-hyeun had heard most of their names back in his previous life, and he even encountered about half of them, too. Although they had never met each other face to face before, Edward Rockwell was still famous for reaching the S-Rank very quickly despite being a late starter.
”I heard that you're quite a human trash, but even then, I didn't expect our first encounter to be in a place like this one.”
”U—urgh, kkeuh...”
”Are you trying to connect your limbs back together with your shadow?” Su-hyeun asked while glancing at the wriggling shadows creeping along on the ground. ”In that case, I wonder. Can you reconnect your head, too?”
Shudder...!
Deathly goose bumps broke out all over Rockwell after he mistakenly thought that his throat got crushed just now.
He couldn't move his arms, so he used only his eyeballs to look lower, but quite obviously, his head was still attached to his torso. Still, with this, he instinctively understood something.
Su-hyeun could easily rip his head off whenever he wanted if he felt like it.
”Just... how...?”
Rockwell was trying to ask how Su-hyeun copied his skill like this, but the latter's reply was fairly simple.
”It wasn't even all that special, anyway.”
To someone like the Grand Wizard Arwen, magic spells to control shadows were no more difficult to cast than moving around his own limbs. Compared to the shadow magic Arwen used to perform, Edward Rockwell's skill was only on the level of a crude child's play.
But Su-hyeun didn't feel the need to explain this fact in detail today. Honestly, he even thought that chatting briefly for a few seconds like this was already a waste of his valuable time.
”That's enough of your questions, so...”
Grab—
Su-hyeun placed his hand on top of Rockwell's head. ”Give me the name of the one at the top of your little group. What's your reason for being here? And what's the purpose for that thing over there?”
Giii-iiing—
Rockwell's eyes were clouded by a blackish hue. He hesitated slightly before slowly opening his mouth.
”The one...at the top...is...Johnny...Brad...”
”Who?” Su-hyeun asked back in surprise at the mention of that unexpected name.
It wasn't because he hadn't heard of that name before. No, it was because everyone on this planet should know that name.
”...Johnny...Brad...”
”Crazy son of a...”
”Guard the...dungeon...Purpose...spreading dungeons...revive...fortunes of...awakeners...”
It seemed that he didn't know anything else besides the name. Either that was everything he was told, or the information itself had been hidden deeply from Rockwell. It was hard to tell which was which.
But Su-hyeun did learn something new.
”Johnny Brad is connected to this matter.”
That man was the world's top awakener of illusion-type skills. He didn't possess any skills related to combat and therefore never personally raided a dungeon before. However, even then, he still earned his S-Rank qualification through his illusion skill alone.
In other words, he was a powerful superhuman.
Not to mention...
”He's in a cooperative relationship with the Gordon Company, too.”
Su-hyeun hurriedly called Gordon Rohan on the phone. He felt that, at the very least, he needed to warn the American to be wary of Johnny Brad.
But then...
”The person you're calling is unable to come to the phone. Please leave your messages after the—”
”Dammit.”
Rather than waiting and trying again later, he decided to send a text message instead.
Su-hyeun didn't know whether Gordon Rohan was in the Tower or was taking care of his company business right now. However, seeing that he didn't answer the phone, it would be difficult to get in touch with him for the foreseeable future.
After sending the text, Su-hyeun turned his attention elsewhere.
”And now, the issue is figuring out what this thing is supposed to do...”
He walked up to the stele.
Unlike how this large slab with a detailed image of Fafnir carved on its surface looked on the outside, it was permeated with a special aura.
It was an aura that was neither magical energy, Death Aura, nor even prana.
But that didn't mean he had never encountered this type of aura before. He was sure of it after walking up to it and placing his hand on its surface.
”It's made from the World Tree.”
The gigantic tree formed the worlds; indeed, this stele was created by shaving down a piece of World Tree. The weird aura flowing within it was because of its origin.
He figured out what it was made from, but the issue wasn't with that.
Figuring out its purpose was the important part.
Just touching it like this wasn't enough to find out what this stele's true purpose was. It wasn't as if there was a magic circle inscribed on it. It wasn't even acting as a medium that maintained the colorless dungeon either.
After Su-hyeun got close and studied the stele, he did uncover something new, but it wasn't about the purpose of this large object.
”There's more than one, huh?” He muttered after tracing the World Tree's aura flowing out from the stele.
The aura had split into countless many strands, and when he followed them, he picked up the presence of several hundred, no, thousands, of identical steles.