Reincarnator

While he was beating up the Dark King, Hansoo thought of something.

What if the mysterious being only created the transcendents, but didn't control them?

What were those transcendents doing now?

And what would they do once they realized that there was a being stronger than them out there?

The answer was obvious.

Humans would naturally group together if there was somebody stronger than them.

......…

—rumble—

Hansoo continued dashing forward, keeping his eye on the man collecting the lightning in the distance.

After two years of being asleep, the world was not exactly in great condition.

His friends were fighting battles, while the transcendents were causing a ruckus.

And the biggest issue was the lack of information.

To fix this all, he'd need to take down the people causing the ruckus in this changed world.

'You first.'

Then—

The Demonic Dragon's Reinforcement started to surround Hansoo's spear.

The man collecting the lightning was not a simple enemy.

Though his strength alone was a bit weaker than the Dark King's, he would be harder to deal with.

Since he seemed to have completed his <sharpening>.[a]

The man who had been preparing the <thunder king's strike> was at a loss.

'Wait… did I just fall into a trap?'

The man smirked.

'How dare he?'

He'd been slightly wary of the man, since he'd managed to beat down the Dark King.

But the moment he saw the person's identity, he came to a realization.

'I guess it was a very close win.'

Though there was still a difference in strength between him and the Dark King, it didn't seem to be that much.

That was more than enough to kill the Dark King.

But he himself wasn't that weak.

'Good, I'll just deal with this kid, kill the Dark King and then leave after destroying the War Fortress.'

Then—

—pajijijijijik!—

The spear-shaped lightning gathering around his hand dispersed and reformed around his body, like a suit of armor made of lightning.

This form was much more efficient in a longer battle, unlike the spear which was a one-time skill.

It would be a waste of energy to probe with such a powerful attack.

Then—

—booom!—

Hansoo and the man collided.

—kaddddududuk!—

Hansoo's Demonic Dragon's Reinforcement, which had previously smashed apart the Dark King's Claws of Loongken, started to drive into the man's lightning armor.

'Hmm.'

The man smirked.

He could easily defend from this amount of strength with his own armor.

And as soon as this kid showed a weak spot, he could just kill him off with a single blow.

But of course, there was no real need for him to block the opponent's attack with his armor.

For example, he could just block it with his weapon, or just simply dodge it.

But the man decided to retaliate instead.

'I'll destroy you!'

The most violent energy of the world, the power of lightning.

Of course, it had the highest potential when it came to offensive power.

The man laughed as his hand moved to the weapon on his waist.

"Hahaha! With just this?!"

—boom!—

The man slashed out with a dagger he'd kept by his side, which then collided with Hansoo's spear.

Sparks and mana flew out in all directions from the collision.

'Let's see…'

—kadududuk!—

The man smiled as he pushed back the spear.

His opponent was not stupid.

No, he was very smart indeed.

He probably knew that his personal strength was lower, but he'd still come to fight.

Which meant that he had something up his sleeves.

And as the man expected—

—the man's dagger pushed back Hansoo's spear, the energy surrounding the spear exploded, forcing away the man's dagger, and even erasing the wave of lightning.

It was similar to when Hansoo's spear had destroyed the Dark King's <claws of loongken>.

"Uuuu…."

The Dark King made a pained expression, and he groaned at the memory of his past loss, but the man simply laughed.

"Hahahaha! Amazing! How much have you refined!?! Such concentration!"

Refining.

A.k.a. Sharpening.[b]

A step for the transcendents to prepare for before going up to the next level.

Though the total amount of strength was important, refining was even more so.

'Yeah, much more important.'

The man smiled as he thought back to the past, releasing out another sea of lightning from his body.

The past.

The mysterious being that had given him this strength and skill had left after leaving behind a single message.

Focus on a single skill.

He didn't understand back then.

Since according to common logic, it was better the more skills one had.

Though one's mastery of each individual skill would be a bit lacking, no one knew what could pop out in this damned world.

This was why it was a good thing to learn a bit of everything for every situation.

But he knew that such a powerful being had no reason to trick him, so he had listened to their words.

And soon he realized the core reason for the strength behind the transcendents.

"Look, you dumbass! Hahaha! This is how you do it properly!"

The man laughed out maniacally as he let out even more copious amounts of lightning.

Then—

—rummmble!—

—rumble!—

Thunder roared out as it smashed into Hansoo's body.

It was more than enough energy to go through Hansoo's Thousand Soldiers Armor, past his Reinforcement, and burn his body.

—chiiiiiiik—

The Dark King, who had been watching the fight while pondering as to which side to take, was shocked at this sight.

"Ughh…."

'...How can he be so strong?'

He had thought that strength was the most important thing, so he had continued to collect the crystals.

And the amount he had collected was much higher compared to this man fighting Hansoo, the man called <zeus>.

But for some reason, Hansoo and Zeus's strength seemed to be much, much stronger than his own.

'...Which side do I take? Damn.'

And as the Dark King continued to ponder—

—boooooom!—

—Hansoo charged through the sea of lightning and smashed his spear towards the man's head.

'How dare you…'

Though the Dark King was weak because he hadn't been refining properly, he himself was different.

As Zeus scoffed and was about to attack again with his dagger, <silveril>—

—shudder—

Chills ran down his back as his entire bodily senses started to scream out in danger.

Zeus then realized the black marble that was heading towards him.

'That's…dangerous!'

If he were attacked by that black orb, together with Hangsoo's reinforcement, then even he himself wouldn't remain unscathed.

Then—

Right as both attacks closed in, a strange powdered metal appeared around the man's body.

'Let's go.'

Thunder King's Strike.

A power that allowed one to become the king of thunder.

It allowed the user to freely control metal and lightning, and even turn their body into lightning itself when fully mastered.

He still had a long way to go on this path, but he could still easily control a few mere pieces of metal.

—cracklecrackle—

Around his semi-formed lightning armor, seven circular metal orbs floated.

Then—

—tatatatatat!

The orbs embedded themselves in a straight line between the spear and his armor.

And soon—

—booooooom!—

Hs metal orbs and the spear collided.

The black orb on the tip of the spear exploded and started to devour everything in the vicinity.

'Dammit! I knew this would happen!'

The spear and the metal orbs continued to clash against each other while emitting a tremendous amount of light into the surrounding area.

Zeus grit his teeth as he continued to inject more and more energy into the metal orbs.

—kajajajak!—

—crack!—

The first three orbs were destroyed almost instantly.

But starting from the fourth orb, the speed of the spear had started to slow down.

And by the time the spear broke through the fifth and sixth orbs, it had already lost all its momentum.

The spear smashed into the seventh and final orb, but could not go through it.

And Zeus didn't miss this chance as he swung his <silveril> towards Hansoo.

—boom!—

Again, the spear and the dagger collided together again with a tremendous sound.

—pssss—

Zeus made a content expression as he watched Hansoo being pushed back. The broken metal orbs turned back into powder and swirled around his body again.

'...Damn, that's strong. Did he just refine his attacking skill or something? These metal orbs aren't easy to make.'

Zeus frowned as he calculated the amount of metal left around his body.

A single strike was all that was needed to go through almost half of his metal powder.

Though it didn't seem like a lot, the amount of metal lost was what he'd gained after three months of slaving away the adventurers who had lived near him.

It was hard to get because the material for this metal belonged to the horns of the 8th-grade race, the <roronoa>.

He wanted to beat up this new kid for a bit, but in the end he was the one who'd lost out.

'Should I take him? We're lacking a bit of manpower these days.'

Though he didn't like any of his so-called 'allies', it was better to be friends with somebody powerful than being enemies with them.

But Zeus decided not to after a while.

'Let's just kill him. Or take him back half-dead.'

The fact that his group hadn't known about this person's existence up till now was a little disconcerting.

And for some reason, he had an ominous feeling about this man.

—rumble—

Zeus walked forward as he focused on the dagger in his hand.

Then—

—sssshhhss—

The Roranoa powders started to align themselves onto the dagger.

Soon the dagger, which was barely the length of two fingers or so, became a longsword over a meter long.

—kiiiiing!—

Then—

—whoooosh!—

Zeus swung his sword against the man who was charging towards him again.

'I'll…smash you apart!'

—zzzzzchchzzch!—

From the previous collision, he figured out that he would be able to win.

As long as he focused and used the Roranoa powders, he could easily defeat this man.

—booom!—

His sword and the spear collided again as he created another loud noise.

And as Zeus expected—

—c-c-crack—

The silk-like reinforcement around the man started to make crackling noises as it began to crack apart.

'Good!'

—crunch!—

Zeus smirked as he continued to push the man.

And he looked up to see the man's face.

He wanted to see his expression of fear.

'How dare you lay a trap…'

But then—

Zeus realized that something was terribly wrong.

What he'd seen was not a face stricken with fear.

But rather a pair of cold, cold eyes staring back at him.

Then—

—booooooooom!—

Hansoo's spear withdrew as he pulled back his arm.

—boooom!—

Hansoo's left arm flashed out as it blocked Silveril's path.

A small shield on his left hand had blocked it.

And in that instant—

—boooom!—

'The hell is this!?'

A yellow light exploded out from the man's shield and swept around their surroundings.

And the power of lightning surrounding his body became noticeably weaker.

pssss…

The Roranoa powders he'd held in place with the lightning immediately dispersed as his Silveril turned back from a longsword to a dagger.

'Damn!'

—clank!—

Zeus barely managed to guard against the charging shield with Silveril, all while shouting at his back.

Towards the Dark King behind him.

"You bastard! Are you just going to watch!? Come help me! Then this kid is dead!"

"Uuhgg….UAAA!"

And these words of Zeus allowed the Dark King, who had been deep in thought while still suffering from pain, to make a decision and run into the fight.