Strike – sacrifice, ritual (1)
On the day of the expedition, as previously announced, about 50 armed personnel gathered in the basement of the Yoosung Academy. These are the aspiring heroes and heroes who applied for this expedition, including myself.
‘Wow.’
I felt awkward in the suit that was clinging to my body, so I pulled my neck. This is the equipment Black Hawk provided for this expedition. It had the function of maintaining the basic abilities of the body higher than usual…, it was written in the information window.
It is high-grade equipment that is difficult to mass-produce, so it must be returned after this expedition is over, but it was with the help of Ryu Seo-yeon that even this level of support was possible.
‘He said he wanted to participate too, but he said that he even heard a double bath from his sister…’
In conclusion, Ryu Seo-yeon was absent. It’s dangerous, so that’s better for me as well.
I wore other clothes over the suit, but it still feels awkward. Even if I look around to see if it’s just me, everyone’s expressions are fine. If I get used to it, I’ll be fine.
The heroes who will lead this expedition stood at the head of the aspiring hero who was ordered in an orderly manner.
At that moment, Beatrice, who was standing in front, turned around and looked around. I wanted to do something, but when he found me, he gently waved his hand.
this is true I couldn’t make it out, so I nodded her head slightly to say hello.
A few days ago, my bet with Beatrice was my win.
Even though I mentioned magic, Beatrice seemed to think that it was just basic magic.
Even with such carelessness, he felt the ‘ignition’ and showed tremendous reflexes to avoid in place, but he was able to push Beatrice back one step in the connection with the sword that followed.
It seems like I won a bit rudely, but if I don’t do this, it’s a bet I can’t win.
As a reward for the bet, I asked Beatrice to give me some ‘qualification’, and she gladly agreed to it.
‘Well, this expedition is limited.’
Still, it might be useful.
I glanced at the aspiring heroes standing around. Noah Park, Aiden and the first-year class A. And the main characters from the 2nd and 3rd grades were also shown. I never expected to see you in a place like this.
‘Because they are the first people to see at the sports festival.’
According to the original flow, a lively sports festival was supposed to be held at the Yoosung Academy in the current time.
When I first came here, I thought by now that I would farm weapons at the sports festival and enjoy the youth academy life… fuck off. it’s gonna be like this The midterm exams, let alone the sports festival, were not conducted properly.
‘I wish there were no more exceptional beings.’
That way, the story will flow on a normal trajectory.
“Whew….”
Of course, I know that this is my hope. Because there is a possibility that there may be forces that I do not know exist in the Tower, maybe even the Academy. It seems like a lot of complicated things will happen in the future, so I can’t help but sigh. Then someone tapped my back.
“What, are you nervous?”
Not surprisingly, it’s oh-yun.
It must be the first time going outside now, but rather than nervous, he looks excited. They’re pretending to be bright to cheer up the sagging atmosphere, though.
“No. Rather than nervous, the clothes are a little uncomfortable.”
“Yeah? I like being tight like now.”
“It’s up to the person… Uh, shh. I think I’m going to talk about it now.”
I stopped chatting with Oh Yun-ha and looked straight ahead.
On the podium was Arthur Gran, with a holy sword wrapped around his waist. He bowed lightly and opened his mouth.
“Hello. Heroes and aspiring heroes of the Meteor Academy. My name is Arthur Gran, the paladin who will lead you on this expedition.”
Arthur looked around the crowd and said.
“As you all know, the purpose of this support is to recover close friends who disappeared two weeks ago. To that end, we will be joining the expedition remaining on the site after a while. We have decided to help in the name of Grand God in our temple, so we already have some comrades. They are on their way there.”
Arthur turned his gaze from the hero’s side to aspiring heroes.
“I will follow the guidance of my holy sword, but aspiring heroes will not accompany them to the operation and will keep their bases. The risk of actually being exposed to battle is not great, so you can rest assured. Of course, the place It’s a place I’m going to, so I have to be nervous.”
Whoa.
I heard a small sigh next to me. I glanced up to see Yurin putting her hand on her chest with a sad expression on her face.
“Please, let’s all return safely.”
After the brief speech, formal applause was heard. Arthur Gran nodded her head and descended under the podium.
Then the wizard who was waiting behind me came out and said,
“The place you are stepping on right now is the magic circle of space movement. Now we are going to move to the base after we activate it by infusing it with mana.”
With those words as a starting point, the wizards who were waiting around the magic circle touched the ground and let the mana flow.
The blue light began to fill according to the magic circle already drawn. Soon everything was filled, and light rose from the rim and wrapped around it.
“Now the space shift will be enforced! There is shaking, so please be careful!”
Whoa! The wizard’s voice is buried in the sharp sound coming from the magic circle. Suddenly, a blue light wrapped around him flashed once and obscured his vision.
―Wow!
As soon as I opened my eyes with vertigo, I felt an eul-like atmosphere.
I came to my senses and looked around to see where this place was.
Leaning and smashed buildings are conspicuous ruins. It seems to have been the center of the city where people once lived, but because it had been neglected for a long time, plants were growing on the walls of the building and here and there.
“Where are you…?”
Someone is confused and mumbles.
it’s bound to be This isn’t just an outside area like near the border.
I raised my head and looked up at the sky. As if to prove this, the sky could not be seen properly unlike the areas I had been to so far.
A red moon was revealing an ominous presence among the aura of erosion painted black above his head. Wherever I looked in the moonlight, it was red in color.
This place is uncomfortably distasteful just to be there.
[Special. 89 – The effect of ‘Nether Survivor’ is activated.]
[‘Nether’ area penalty reduced, less affected by erosion.]
An unexplored area where people cannot live, the ‘Nether Heaven’. It is the stage where the scenario of the second half of the outside is carried out.
There were also achievements because it was an area that could not reach the academy graduation if we did not focus on the outside.
‘This was the base of the expedition’s return.’
It’s only natural that if someone is eroded, we’ll have to prevent them from returning to their safe zone.
“👌👌👌👌.”
Arwell covered his nose from behind and muttered.
“It smells so bad here, Noah.”
“… well. It’s a polluted area, so it’s going to be difficult for Rihanna.”
By the way, just being in the Nether has an adverse effect on the body. In the case of an Awakened one, it can endure to a certain extent, but if it is an ordinary person, it will die immediately or turn into a monster.
Besides, just because it lasts forever, doesn’t mean that the Awakened won’t be affected. In the game, the more you work here, the more various debuffs are created and you can’t survive for a long time.
‘Since the priests came, there will be no problems for a while.’
If it’s a 3rd grader, the reason the aspiring heroes below them are able to endure as they are now is probably because the priests who came in advance cleaned up the neighborhood.
“It was hard to come.”
At that time, the hero who was already guarding the base approached us. Arthur Gran went up to him and gave him his hand.
“Nice to meet you. My name is Paladin, Arthur Gran.”
“Yes. My name is Jinsu Kim, who is currently in charge of the base. Thank you for your help this time.”
Jinsu Kim greeted the heroes and then made a proud expression toward us.
“you. It must be difficult, but thank you for your support.”
As he stared at the faces of the aspiring heroes one after another, he turned and said.
“Everyone follows me. It’s quite a quaint place, so it’s a good place to stay.”
As I followed Kim Jin-soo, I started to see a huge campsite with tents hanging down. Yurin, who was following the crowd, pointed and shouted.
“Huh? Guys. Are you the instructor over there?!”
Where Yurin was pointing, Layette was standing with her arms crossed.
“Hey, is it true?”
“I almost didn’t recognize it for a moment.”
The layer I saw for the first time after ‘Attack of the Necromancer’ was noticeably thinner than before. Above all else, he had a bandage wrapped around his missing left arm.
“For now, everyone is unpacking here. We will guide you soon. Arthur Gran, would you like to follow me?”
Arthur Grand followed Kim Jin-soo to the huge tent that looked like a meeting place.
“Instructor!”
Layate looked at the lively side and approached with a smile.
“It’s been a long time, everyone. It seems that little by little in the meantime is big?”
“The instructor has lost a lot of muscle.”
I fell out of the group while the aspiring hero who was already acquainted chatted with Layette. It was because he could see the familiar back of the head from afar.
I sneaked up behind him and slapped his foot on his hip. Then he staggered and managed to balance.
“ね! Who…!”
His fierce eyes widened as he turned around as a familiar voice spit out cursing.
“What is it. Seo Ji-han…?”
“Kuk. It’s been a while, Hong Jae-yu. Are you alive?”
I tapped Hong Jae-yu’s shoulder with my fist. Almost two months? We’re not really close friends, but it’s nice to see you in a place like this after a long time.
Hong Jae-yu said with a smile that he was similar to me.
“That’s what I’m going to say. I heard that you got Ye-chan Choi back then, so you must have been lucky?”
“What kind of luck? It’s crap? But you…”
More notably, there was a noticeable change in Hong Jae-yu. He looked at the guy’s arm, and saw that he had bandages wrapped around his arms, starting with his fingertips.
‘…this bastard. He re-awakened with a demonic sword.’
I looked at the fashion and said, disgusted.
“Do you have middle ear disease? Why are you bandaging it?”
“…that snout is still there. It’s an injury.”
Hong Jae-yu tightened the slightly loosened bandage again.
“I woke up like you that day. It’s like I haven’t been able to handle my power properly yet, but you won’t be my opponent anymore.”
···Reawakening like me?
I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, but I don’t think there’s any need to correct it.
“After it’s over, I can make a bet and stick with it. I haven’t played and ate in the meantime.”
“Hey…”
“Hey, Hong Jae-yu?”
Oh Yun-ha and Oh Yun-seong, who were nearby, also came to see Hong Jae-yu, calling her name.
“You guys were still alive.”
When Hong Jae-yu greeted him with a snort, the twins did not respond and all focused on his arm.
“Hong Jae-Yu. Why are you wearing bandages that make you cringe? Do you have a Heuk Yeom Dragon?”
“I saw that both arms were wrapped, so it looks like two of them are sealed.”
Hong Jae-yu’s face, which had been passing by for a moment, quickly rotted away.
“·········These bastards are still flamboyant.”
“—so that all aspiring heroes who have come this time can gather!”
From the center of the stronghold, a voice calling out to aspiring heroes was heard. Kim Jin-soo, who had already been waiting for everyone to gather there, said:
“Everyone has just come and it’s difficult, but this is a dangerous area. Each of us should form a group and be vigilant around the base――.”
Hong Jae-yoo wiggled his finger at me while he was talking about being careful.
“It’s fine. Follow me. It’s time for me to scout.”
“…can I go to explain?”
“It’s not even a child. I’ll just tell you the area to be on the lookout for and tell them to share it themselves.”
Oh, I will. There was no need to listen to the explanation of the Nether, so I crept out of the crowd and followed Hong Jae-yu.
There were black and dry trees and grass around the base. They seem to have barely adapted to living in the eroded area. I followed Hong Jae-yu and asked.
“What have you been doing all this time? You haven’t even taken the exam.”
“I couldn’t control my strength, so I was trained under Instructor Layit.”
“Hmm. But is it true that the people who were here suddenly disappeared?”
“…if you’re talking about disappearance, you’re right. Except for reconnaissance and people who weren’t there at the time, they all disappeared without a trace. They were usually third-year aspiring heroes who were in the base. I didn’t get caught up in reconnaissance at that time.”
After hearing the explanation of the situation at that time, I don’t understand it any more.
“There’s no trace. Does that make sense?”
“The wizards are investigating, but they don’t seem to have produced any results. First, the priests who came here put a barrier to prevent the same thing from happening, but it’s already too late.”
– Bump.
When I heard a buzzword nearby, I and Hong Jae-yu stopped moving at the same time. The sound of the dry grass breaking gradually grew louder, and a strange-looking beast appeared.
I looked at it and muttered.
“Is that a scavenger…?”
“I think the basic look is right.”
A beast called a corpse scavenger, a scavenger. Perhaps due to erosion contamination, it was unusually larger and had several legs and large eyes attached to its body.
When Hong Jae-yu kicked his tongue and tried to untie the bandage on his arm, he went ahead and said,
“The patient is gone. I’ll relax myself.”
“Hey, you look confident. …By the way, where’s your weapon? I can’t even see a gun.”
“Haha. Who is carrying a weapon these days?”
I raised my hand like purple.
“A space.”
Then the void swallowed my hand, and the spear caught my hand.
Watching the activation of the privilege, I took out two spears. Seeing this, Jae-Yoo Hong asked in amazement.
“What is it, space? Where did you get that precious thing?!”
“Shake.”
space.
This is the qualification I asked Beatrice in exchange for a bet. Until the end of this expedition, when she asked her to share her weapons warehouse, she gratefully agreed. At least she could use the weapons that the imperial family would use at will.
[Weapon]
In addition, thanks to the newly acquired properties, the two spears move more naturally than before. It is the interaction of perks and traits.
“Krriii…!”
The scavenger started running with the sound of boiling sputum. The eyes on the body are moving all the time. I feel like it’s all a function of vision. then···.
‘I’ll have to burn it.’
A warm energy flows from the arm to the back of the hand. In a fleeting moment, the newly drawn magic appeared at the same time as my will.
[Special. 31 – The effect of ‘The One Who Sees the End of Deterioration’ is activated.]
[Increases the rate of expression of ‘fire attribute’ magic, reduces mana consumption, and deals with heat.]
“[ignition].”
The flames that rose from his sight engulfed the Scavenger’s body.
