Reincarnator

—rumble—

Kyaaak!

The snakes that popped out from the darkness dashed forward to surround him.

Hansoo looked at the translucent snakes as he retrieved his spear, striking them with it.

—papapapapa!—

Though his attacks could easily erase a normal person without leaving behind a single trace, the snakes merely turned to smoke, which then converged back into a snake again.

And Hansoo frowned at this.

'...They ate a lot, huh?'

Evil Suction Beasts grew stronger the more energy they consumed.

And they were from a solitary-type race, which meant their individual strengths were far higher than races which acted in groups.

—crunch!—

—crack!—

Hansoo laughed coldly as he looked at the snakes who dodged his spears and were now chomping on his Thousand Soldiers Armor.

'How presumptuous.'

Though they were hard to deal with, they were merely at grade 4.

And with just this many, he could easily crush them with his strength.

Then—

—swooosh—

One of the snakes biting into Hansoo started to shrivel up.

The energy that it had sucked out, but had yet to digest, had instead been sucked back by Hansoo.

Well, the spirit inside Hansoo was the one that had done it.

And soon Hansoo's skin began to darken as he absorbed the energy from the shadowy snakes.

But then—

Kyaaak!

The snakes continued to charge towards him.

Though their energy was being sucked out, it wasn't to the point where they could die from it.

They just needed to crush him and suck the energy back.

—rumble!—

The snakes that had been surrounding the godly artifact, Arham's shield, all rose into the air and started to soar towards him.

—kuduk—

—kududuk—

Soon, dozens and dozens of shadowy strands started to surround him.

Then—

The energy Hansoo had sucked out from the snakes merged alongside the energy from the mana jade located in his heart.

Compressed and transformed, it soon turned into a much more destructive form.

—rumble!—

The silk-like Demonic Dragon's Reinforcement, the skill that he'd used in the fight against the Dark King, covered his body.

And as the silk stacked on top of each other to their limits.

—booom!—

An extremely bright light exploded out from the darkness surrounding Hansoo.

Kyaaak!

Roaar!

The snakes all started to disappear from the explosion caused by the Demonic Dragon's Reinforcement.

Like shadows that were lit up by light.

Like ink that was being washed away by water.

And soon—

—whoosh—

The light faded away as Hansoo started to slowly float down.

Hansoo checked his slightly dented armor, scanning his light injuries, and shrugged.

He wasn't satisfied with the amount of damage he had taken, despite having dealt with the situation quickly.

The Evil Suction Beasts were a grade 4.

They weren't strong enough to damage him like this.

If he'd been prepared, that is.

'I guess I'll need to take a break and set up some countermeasures…'

Moving about without taking the proper precautions made it annoying to deal with the solitary-type races because of their unique characteristics.

This was why the existence of other normal adventurers were important.

'Strength isn't everything.'

Hansoo talked to himself.

Though the transcendents and the normal adventurers thought that they didn't need each other, that was only when the two groups were by themselves.

Once the abyssal beasts came into the equation, the whole situation changed.

The transcendents were strong.

But the abyssal race were also ridiculously strong, and if they didn't know the methods of dealing with the peculiar solitary-type race, it could be dangerous.

And the other normal adventures were important necessities, as they helped to discover and produce the special items needed to deal with such things.

No matter how strong the transcendents were, they could not produce thousands of items by themselves.

'Well, the situation here was a bit different.'

Things might've ended up differently if there were beings that threatened the lives of transcendents nearby, but there were only guppies around here.

'It might be different in the west.'

If the humans had settled in the west, they would have made preparations for the solitary-type race as well.

But that was a story for another day.

—tatata—

Hansoo landed on the ground, collected the abyssal crystals littered around the ground and then looked towards the dried-up corpse.

Not only had his energy been sucked out by the snakes, his body was crushed in many places from the sheer weight of the beasts.

The Evil Suction Beasts had treated his body carefully by slowly sucking out as much as they could, but he'd still ended up like this.

'...Maybe it's Jang Oh. Maybe not.'

Hansoo picked up the shield from the corpse.

—kiiiing—

—kiing—

As he poured mana into the Arham's Shield, the light emitted from it was weak, unlike other godly artifacts.

'At least you protected the people above.'

—clank—

Hansoo mumbled as he equipped the shield on his wrist, which had started to crazily suck in mana as if it had been starving for days.

If the Evil Suction Beasts hadn't been busy sucking out the energy from the shield, they would've long left the cave and attacked the humans above.

Hansoo gently caressed the shield and looked around for any other possible clues, but soon shook his head.

Any other traces had long been destroyed by the snakes.

If not for the Arham's Shield on the corpse's wrist, he wouldn't have even thought of Jang Oh's name.

'If this really is Jang Oh… who's the one causing trouble in the west?'

Hansoo thought for a bit, but then shook his head.

No matter what, nothing had changed.

Since his job hadn't changed overall.

'Well, let's go back and see if he bit the bait.'

After gently touching the shield, Hansoo then jumped out from the cave.

And soon only the corpse was left inside.

.........…..

In a hill a distance away from the fortress Hansoo had just left—

—a man was standing at its peak.

The man wore a frown on his face.

"...What is this? What happened here?"

The man was gnawing on something as he looked towards the War Fortress in the distance.

The now broken-down War Fortress.

With small dots of campfire here and there.

That place should be the territory of that Dark Knight.

Not only was he imitating Hansoo, he had even settled near the elevator.

Though he had charged over here after seeing the Kang-Kions' strange behavior, but for things to have turned out like this…

'...Hmm. Did he fight with someone? Was there another transcendent we didn't know about?'

Those were clearly traces of a battle between transcendents.

The man frowned.

He knew about most transcendents.

And he had recruited most of them to their side.

Since the ones that didn't join them were pretending to be heroes as they tried to stand up to them.

He was going to deal with them all sooner or later, but he had never heard of somebody who could deal with the Dark King.

'...I guess I'll need to look into it.'

The man frowned.

It wouldn't be hard to figure out.

Since he could just squeeze it out of the ones sitting by their campfires in the distance.

'Well, it wouldn't matter much if they didn't, either.'

Though there was only a fifty-fifty chance, it wouldn't matter.

It would just be a form of stress relief.

But as he was about to charge towards the War Fortress.

KUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!

A horrendous scream could be heard.

'...the f***?'

The man turned his head towards the direction of the scream, but then was at a loss for words.

A familiar face.

'...Why is that retarded f***er doing that?'

The man frowned as he looked at the Dark King roaring loudly as he rolled around the ground.

Then the man stopped.

'...Wait. This guy seems to be quite strong now.'

They had ignored him before, because the Dark King hadn't even trained his skill despite having such strength, but looking at the man now, the Dark King seemed to be quite strong.

Apparently, he had been successful with his nursery.

But he'd still turned out like this.

Which meant that the one who had beaten him was much stronger.

'This makes it a bit inconvenient…'

And he could hear laughter from around the War Fortress in the distance.

Yo! Hahaha! Look at that bastard! How satisfying!

Haa...Life is great without that f***er, huh?

Though the echo was very quiet, the man could still hear them.

'...F***ing insects. They dare to look down on transcendents?'

The man felt like he himself had been insulted, and veins started popping out on his forehead.

But anger could be poisonous.

The man looked between the War Fortress and the Dark King, and then backed away.

Since the one who had destroyed the Dark King could still be within the War Fortress.

With his strength, only joy was left for him in this world.

He did not want to risk his life.

'I must report it first, and we'll decide afterwards… you should all consider yourself lucky.'

If it weren't for some other transcendents getting in their way, he would've long brought his comrades and destroyed this place.

The existence of transcendents was not something some bugs could look down on.

Even if it was the Dark King, the bugs only wanted one thing.

Someone they could respect.

A leader.

'...How dare he.'

The man clenched his fist.

Dealing with the man inside the War Fortress would be a bit troublesome.

But seeing the Dark King become a laughingstock really pissed him off.

'...F***ing bastard...You should be thankful.'

He gathered energy within his hands; the man decided to kill off the Dark King instead of letting him bring shame to the name of transcendents.

—chzchchchzzzch—

A streak of lightning rose up from the tip of the man's hand.

<thunder king's strike>

It gathered the most violent energy in the world, that of lightning, to strike down upon the enemy.

Even stronger when used by a transcendent.

A force thousands of times stronger than a normal bolt of lightning gathered around his hand.

And this skill was even more powerful than the <claws of loongken> that the Dark King had used in the past.

But in that moment, the Dark King sensed the killing aura.

"Kuuu..Kuaaaahh!"

The Dark King looked towards the man with venomous eyes.

But the man merely chuckled.

"How dare a mere r*tard—no, you're just a beast now."

The Dark King hadn't even trained himself, had let himself be injured and had even been suppressed.

He would be able to kill him with a single strike.

The problem was that being that was possibly inside the War Fortress.

But the man, whose entire focus was on the War Fortress as he prepared the skill, soon realized something was wrong.

Because the Dark King's gaze was not directed towards him, but slightly behind him.

Then—

—boooom!—

'....Huh?!'

The man frowned at the mysterious object that had started to fly towards him from behind, and not from the War Fortress where he had put all his attention on.

............

"They're biting well."

'When will I have time to search the entire vast western region?'

—boom!boom!boom!boom!—

Hansoo laughed coldy as he dashed towards the powerful shockwaves in the distance.