Chapter 145 – The Swamp of Kh’rot

‘Tat-tat-tat’

Sungjin traversed through the water so fast that he appeared to be running upon it.

“Intruder!”

“It’s a warm-blooded creature!”

Dozens of lizardmen chased after Sungjin. Muddy water splashed onto his body. Amidst all this, the operator’s voice could be heard.

[Warning! Boss monster]
[King of Lizardmen ‘Kh’rot’ has appeared!]

As he heard that, Sungjin thought,

‘They’ve taken the bait.’

Sungjin took a look behind him; there were dozens, no, hundreds of lizardmen. Their numbers did not fall short to that of a battalion. After he checked their numbers out, Sungjin took out the egg of Rajenta from his pocket and threw it high into the air.

“Kya~n!”

Rajenta took to the air upon being summoned. Sungjin shouted at him,

“Pick me up Rajenta.”

Rajenta quickly glanced down and then lifted Sungjin up into the sky by his shoulders. Sungjin spoke to him while ascending,

“Higher. Fly higher.”

“Kyan~”

Rajenta flew up higher into the sky while tightly holding onto Sungjin. Each of the lizardmen that had been chasing Sungjin dropped their shields and nocked arrows onto their bows. But before they could fire at him, Sungjin, who was in the sky, chanted a spell together with Besgoro.

“All-freezing winds! Razor sharp ice!”
“All-freezing winds! Razor sharp ice!”

“Blizzard Storm!”
“Blizzard Storm!”

The lizardmen launched their arrows at him,

‘Ping! Ping! Ping!’

But before they could reach Sungjin, an enormous blizzard storm appeared in the sky. Even without using the ‘Ring of the Great Sage’, Sungjin’s spells were now quite strong. Thanks to that, the arrows aimed at Sungjin were blown away by the storm and did not reach him.

The lizardmen brought their arrows towards their bowstrings once more, but their bodies were already slowly becoming sluggish. This was because their bodies had become wet while chasing Sungjin across the swamp.

By the time the ice hurricane had disappeared, they were already frozen to the point of immobility. Upon seeing this Sungjin said while looking up,

“Rajenta, let me down.”

Rajenta descended and let Sungjin down, and then shook his body once. He must have felt the cold as well.

“Haha. Sorry, sorry.”

In front of Sungjin, there were dozens of lizardmen. More accurately, lizardmen who couldn’t move because they were frozen.

“I just wanted to deal with all of you at the same time. You come out too, Cain.”

Sungjin took out Cain’s wooden statue and threw it into the air. Soon the gigantic wolf popped out.

“Cain, bring out your comrades and rip their throats out. They probably won’t be able to move properly because they’re frozen.”

“Woof woof”

Cain answered in the affirmative by barking twice. And then,

“Awhooooo~”

Called out his comrades. Sungjin hunted the frozen lizardmen together with Cain and his pack.

Although they saw Sungjin’s blade and Cain’s fangs cutting their bodies, they could only move their eyes as they were unable to react.

There were ones that slowly raised their shields, but at that level it was impossible to react to the speed of Sungjin and the wolf packs. He continued to slash their necks without mercy and thought,

‘It was true…’

The one that had taught him this strategy was one of his old comrades, Araujo. A Brazilian professor. Upon hearing someone saying that this chapter was difficult, he explained.

‘Ah, that chapter? The lizardmen’s swamp. That one is easy if you use ice magic. Those guys are unable to warm themselves when their body temperature drops, so if you use freezing magic, it takes a long time for them to be able to move again. Despite their humanoid shape, their body is largely reptilian in nature.’

And as he had said, these lizardmen couldn’t move properly when their body temperature decreased. Additionally, these lizardmen had a very strong sense of camaraderie.

If one were to be killed, ten would come, and if ten were to be killed, a hundred would come chasing. Sungjin took into account the physical and mental traits of theirs, and as soon as the raid started, he beheaded a lizardman and charged into the enemy territory while holding the head until he arrived at the center of the hamlet where the boss monster ‘Kh’rot’ resided.

As he had predicted, over a hundred lizardmen began to follow Sungjin, until even the boss monster ‘Kh’rot’ started to chase him.

After he had checked that, Sungjin gathered them in one place and used freeze magic to freeze them all at once. Normally, they had swift movements, tough skin, powerful tails and the ability to work together.

If you fought against them fairly, the lizardmen were difficult to deal with, but after you froze them once, they couldn’t even raise their shields properly. The frozen lizardmen,

“Rawr!”

Were helpless against Cain and his pack’s attack. They were slashed and ripped apart by claws and fangs. The Lizardmen collapsed where they stood, bleeding profusely. However, amongst that,

“Kii!”

The screams of one or two wolves could be heard. Sungjin turned his head towards that direction. In that spot stood the lizardmen king ‘Kh’rot’, who was one and half times larger than an ordinary lizardman. Despite being slowed down a great deal, he was repelling the approaching wolves with his scimitar and his golden shield.

‘You’re saying a boss won’t go down that easily, eh?’

Sungjin ran towards him. Kh’rot who saw a hunter appear among the wolves shouted in rage,

“It’s you! The one who made this mess!”

Although he shouted, but that was all he could do. He was someone that could barely land a hit on Sungjin even at full strength. With a slowed body that was frozen, he was no match for the hunter. The arm holding the scimitar went flying, the gleaming golden shield was cracked in half, and the tail that swung in a last-ditch effort was cut off.

“Sorry. I don’t have much time.”

Sungjin threw a half-hearted apology at him, and cut his throat.

[Boss monster ‘Kh’rot’ Cleared]

The lizardmen upon losing their king also lost their will to fight and turned to flee. However, the swamp which was their homeland was already frozen solid.

Sungjin and the wolves dealt with the lizardmen while sliding on the ice. After he had disposed of all the lizardmen and the master of the swamp,

“Rajenta.”

Sungjin once again called Rajenta and mounted him. From high up in the sky, the swamp of Kh’rot was fully visible. Looking down upon the ground from the air, Sungjin thought,

‘Hmm. The ones that are left are…’

But suddenly,

“Kragh kragh”

From far away, winged beasts that made noises as if spitting phlegm appeared. They looked like small dragons, but they were wyrms, which had longer necks and slimmer tails. Wyverns.

Sungjin remembered having a hard time with these before as he had no way to fly. There was a total of five wyverns. When they got close, Sungjin patted the back of Rajenta’s neck and said,

“Rajenta, when they get close, can you fly just a little higher than those guys?”

“Kyan~”

Rajenta replied with something that could not be distinguished from an affirmation or a refusal. Sungjin balanced himself and stood up on top of Rajenta. And then

“Operator, get me the carpet.”

He pulled out the flying carpet and laid it in midair. The carpet flew behind Sungjin and Rajenta. Sungjin quickly glanced at it and took out his Moon Specter and Blood Vengeance.

Right before Rajenta was about to clash with a wyvern, he jumped up high and got onto the back of another wyvern. The wyvern seemed to be taken aback when its enemy got on his back. Sungjin did not miss that chance and stabbed Moon Specter into its back.

‘Twitch’

The wyvern convulsed violently and tried to skewer Sungjin with its tail. It was a tail that had lethal poison in it. But Sungjin was not someone who would let it hit him. He swung his sword to cut off the tail.

“Kwaaaa!”

The wyvern that had its tail cut desperately shook its body once more. Sungjin twisted the Moon Specter that he had thrust into its body and stirred the inside. The wyvern once again struggled due to the intense pain, then started to fall slowly.

‘It’s over.’

Sungjin jumped into the air after pulling out his sword. The magic carpet then quickly flew over to carry Sungjin. Up in the sky, Rajenta was fighting with the wyverns. Slashing with his talons and pecking with his beak. From on top of the magic carpet Sungjin,

“Pa”

Shot out Moon Specter.

‘Stab’

The wyvern that was penetrated by Moon Specter lost strength in its wings and dropped to the ground.

“Haa”

Sungjin, who retrieved his sword, held it in his hand and hunted the other wyverns. He cut off the tails swung at him and fed the head that came to bite with a blade instead of his flesh.

After a minute, the battle ended with Rajenta biting the neck of the last wyvern at the same time as Sungjin stabbing it in the back.

In its last moments, the wyvern spun around to try to shake off Sungjin who was on its back, but Sungjin again jumped up into the air.

The magic carpet that had been hovering above him and Rajenta who was flying below it, both flew over quickly to support him. Because of this, it looked as if Sungjin was riding on top of Rajenta while covered by the magic carpet. Sungjin hugged both Rajenta and the magic carpet and said,

“As expected, you guys are better than hunters.”

The magic carpet was silent, but Rajenta,

“Kya~”

Chirped. As Sungjin was flying like that,

[Please return to the hunting grounds.]
[This area is off limits to hunters.]

The Operator’s warning reverberated.

[If you remain in the restricted area after 10 seconds,]
[You will die. 10, 9,..]

Sungjin hurriedly patted the back of the bird’s neck.

“Whoa, whoa, let’s head back Rajenta.”

As if he also had felt an ominous premonition, Rajenta was already heading back even before Sungjin had spoken. Sungjin, who had now returned to the safe zone, observed the swamp area as he flew.

‘So this is the boundary. Then the hidden boss…’

A swamp bigger than the rest entered his sight. Sungjin spoke into Rajenta’s ear

“Rajenta over there.”

The bird soon carried Sungjin to the edge of that swamp.

“Good work.”

Sungjin caressed Rajenta’s head once and asked the Operator.

“Operator. How much time has passed until now?”

[7 minutes and 22 seconds.]

Besgoro spoke up.

‘It really didn’t take long.’

“Yeah, but I was thinking of finishing it quickly and then visiting the other hunters.”

‘The Chosen Ones? Wouldn’t they be doing fine now?’

“Well, more than that, I wanted to look for more people to choose. After I finish early, I was going to visit the other chosen ones’ party and interview the ones that seem okay. Well, though it’s a forced interview.”

‘Ah. So that’s why.’

Although entering the raid alone was great and he didn’t have to worry about anyone, the opportunity to observe other hunters disappeared. At this point in time where the number of hunters was slowly decreasing, there were still four empty spots left.

After a few chapters, he might really have to pick the ‘Chosen Ones’ from limited numbers. Furthermore, as the number of choices decreased, the risks of choosing the wrong person also increased. Sungjin wanted to meet as many people as possible in order to avoid that.

“Frostbite.”

Sungjin shot out a freezing air from his outstretched hand. Soon, the swamp his hand pointed at became frozen and turned into a path of ice. Sungjin headed towards the center of the swamp on the trail he had made.

 

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