Chapter 103

[Premium Completed!]

Destruction Blade

Early in the morning, when office workers make their ways to work, a foreigner entered the Destruction Blade building located in the middle of Gangnam.

Wearing watches, a suit, and shoes that anyone would know were expensive at a glance, the man walked across the lobby on the first floor with a subtle smile worn on his lips.

All eyes were on him.

“Huh? That foreigner… Doesn’t he seem familiar?”

It didn’t take long for them to recognize the celebrity in the same field of work.

One person’s name started to be mentioned around by the people’s mouths.

“Pshh, no way. It can’t be. Westerners all look alike to each other.”

“No, I’m sure! I saw it on the news. He looks exactly like him!”

Leaving the murmur behind him, the foreigner who headed straight to the information desk began to speak.

He had a gentle British accent.

“I have an appointment with Guild Master Seo Moon-Ga-In.”

“Yes, pardon me, but what is your name?”

The foreigner replied warmly.

“Arthur Clifford.”

*

Seo Moon-Ga-In sat behind her desk with a shadow cast on her face.

She stayed up all night waiting for news.

Doubts were in her mind.

‘What the hell is going on?’

Arthur Clifford said he and the Matap guild members brought in from abroad would take down Seo Jin-Wook last night.

He was supposed to contact her if he succeeded, but no news reached her.

“Huh? Guild Master, you clocked in early.”

The surprised secretary immediately offered her tea upon arriving.

She shook her head.

“It’s okay, so stay out.”

“Yes, Guild Master. About today’s schedule…”

“As I said yesterday, keep it cleared up.”

She couldn’t get her hands on anything else.

After the secretary left, she was seriously lost in thought again.

‘I wouldn’t need to worry about it. There is no way it would fail.’

The hunters, who had been mobilized because of Seo Jin-Wook, were more than enough human resources to deal with only one SS-Rank.

But nevertheless…

‘Why am I so anxious?’

One side of her chest felt heavy and uncomfortable, as if she had an upset stomach.

It felt like she made a big mistake.

Because of the ominous feeling that filled her head, she became slightly dizzy.

She recalled her decision to join hands with Matap and provide them with as much information as she could.

‘No, I had no choice but to do this.’

She persuaded herself and justified her choice.

‘I’m certain Seo Jin-Wook killed Kim Kyung-Rok!’

The data submitted by the Matap only proved the identity of Dideric van Dyke, but there was no evidence that Seo Jin-Wook requested it.

Nevertheless, Seo Moon-Ga-In firmly believed in her conjecture.

‘Since he took care of Kim Kyung-Rok, his next target must be me. I’m sure he’ll one day swing his sword at me. This is just preemptive defense. I have no other choice!’

She strongly denied that it was due to the desire to suppress the growth of the Celestial Dragon.

She also turned a blind eye to the anxiety that filled up just below her throat.

‘Why is it taking so long to get rid of Seo Jin-Wook when he’s just a single person?’

At that moment, her terminal rang.

It was the secretary outside the door.

‘I told him to cancel today’s schedule…!’

She dissatisfiedly took the call.

“What is it?”

“Guild Master, there is a request for a meeting. He said he had an appointment in advance, but it’s not on your schedule….”

“I told you to empty today’s schedule. Turn the person away.”

The secretary spoke in a hesitant voice.

“He says his name is Arthur Clifford.”

As soon as she heard the name, Seo Moon-Ga-In got up from her seat.

A smile filled with joy spread across her face.

She shouted.

“Let him in immediately!”

“Yes, understood.”

Seo Moon-Ga-In felt a deep sense of relief, causing her to sigh.

Her heart thumped.

Instead of the anxiety that disappeared in an instant, a slight excitement arose within.

‘Yeah, there’s no way he could fail.’

In return for handing over Seo Jin-Wook’s information, Matap proposed continuous support to and cooperative relationship with the Destruction Blade guild.

It was a sweet offer for Seo Moon-Ga-In, who planned to weaken the Celestial Dragon Guild and eat up their existing rights after Seo Jin-Wook disappeared. She even accepted it without much thought.

It was a win-win deal for both parties involved, considering it was intended for the Matap to show its presence in the Korean market with the Destruction Blade at the forefront.

‘Is he here to discuss the details before returning to England?’

While she was thinking, it dawned on her.

‘… Wait a minute.’

The liaison between the Matap and the Destruction Blade was, for sure, discussed in secret.

‘Why did he come here at this hour in an official way?’

Even during their first encounter, the two chose a time when they had no eyes on them.

That was to prevent information from leaking out to the media or the industry.

‘And if it’s an official visit, why is he here alone?’

He didn’t bring any secretaries with him.

Drip.

She started to perspire.

The tension quickly made her tighten her body. Adrenaline pumped in, and her thoughts ran quicker. Her lungs began to hurt as if they were frozen as a chill passed through her spine.

The head that had been clouded by the joy of having finished with Seo Jin-Wook became clear again.

‘Why did he make a witness by making sure he was seen?’

There was only one possible reason.

‘To make evidence that the meeting between Arthur Clifford and I took place at this time, at this place!’

All those speculations led to a single conclusion.

‘That man is an impostor!’

It could have been an overthought worry or an erroneous conclusion.

However, Seo Moon-Ga-In believed in her judgment.

So who’s going to approach her disguised as Arthur Clifford?

Seo Jin-Wook was the only one who could do that.

‘What if Seo Jin-Wook indeed… Shook them all off and ran away? What if he went beyond that and even figured out the link between the Matap and me?’

If he tried to assassinate her in a one-on-one encounter, there was no chance of her winning.

Seo Moon-Ga-In, who quickly finished her calculations, checked the CCTV on the wall.

The man with Arthur Clifford’s face was already on an elevator and was swiftly approaching the Guild Master’s room on the top floor.

‘First of all, we can’t run into each other here!’

Seo Moon-Ga-In decided to retreat and immediately pulled up Mana from her body.

The blue mist gradually turned red, invoking her unique skill.

[Space Leap (Rank: SS)]

Seo Moon-Ga-In, who leaped through space, disappeared from the office without a trace.

The unique skill of an Awakened had a tremendous effect compared to skills of a similar type.

Her skill was triggered faster than the short-range teleportation magic, Blink, allowing her to quickly move deep into the building’s basement. The Mana consumed in the process was much less than Teleport, a long-distance teleportation magic spell.

Paht!

The place where she reappeared was in her secret haven located in the basement of the building.

There was no physical entrance to the room since it was blocked by thick magic metal all around.

It was also impossible to break in with movement-type magic as it was surrounded by a special barrier with a de-spell property.

The only person who could access that place was Seo Moon-Ga-In, with the teleportation skills of a non-magic-type.

Gulp!

She chugged the potion stocked inside her bunker to refill the power she consumed, then equipped various artifacts as fast as she could.

Even at that moment, her eyes were focused on the security camera.

If that man were really Arthur Clifford, he would confirm her absence and call her on the secret line.

But if he were fake, he would show different behavior.

*

“This way, please.”

The man got off the elevator with the worker who guided him.

The secretary knocked, but there was no response from within.

“Uh… Guild Master?”

The secretary was baffled.

The Guild Master suddenly disappeared after ordering him to let him in immediately.

He’s hesitating because he couldn’t simply open the door as he wished to.

“Hah.”

Suddenly, the man covered in Westerner’s disguise burst out laughing.

He took a glimpse into the scene beyond the closed door.

“She’s quick to sense things.”

The secretary, unable to grasp the situation, looked at him.

At that moment…

Paht!

The man disappeared from the top floor in an instant.

Right after that, he reappeared somewhere else.

Paht!

“Arrrrgh!”

It was the bunker where Seo Moon-Ga-In hid.

Arthur Clifford– no, Seo Jin-wook appeared in the room amid a flash and suddenly swung the devil’s sword at her.

“Gasp!”

Seo Moon-Ga-In managed to avoid being severely injured by the purple sword energy, but it still sliced into her shoulder deeply in the process.

If she hadn’t equipped the artifact, instead of her shoulder, her head might have been cut off instead.

Her head spun.

“H-how?!”

Seo Jin-Wook, who suddenly appeared at that place, looked like a ghost in the eyes of the Seo Moon-Ga-In.

She had no idea that even the barriers prepared against leap magic could be bypassed by those who could see the Mana pattern.

‘I have to run!’

The question didn’t last long.

Paht!

A light flashed from Seo Jin-Wook’s empty left hand.

Without any time to figure out who he was, Seo Moon-Ga-In once again performed her unique skill.

[Space Leap]

Paht!

The air that enveloped her threw up Seo Moon-Ga-In again a few hundred meters away. A woman in combat stance appeared on the roof of one of the buildings lined As soon as she stepped on the ground, she quickly took in a potion to stop bleeding her shoulder and once again invoked her skill.

[Space Leap]

Paht!

Seo Moon-Ga-In repeatedly activated her skill, causing her to repeatedly flashed in and out of space.

After she sustained her leaps with the help of potions, she had to be evacuated to a faraway place.

It was an empty warehouse that had been identified in advance in case of emergency.

‘He wouldn’t be able to chase me all the way here.’

Gulp!

While filling up her Mana using a potion, she felt a strange sensation like bugs were crawling all over her body.

She hurriedly took her mouth off the glass bottle she was drinking. That sensation was a harbinger of a potion shock.

‘It’s dangerous if I take any more.’

She sat on the floor and continued to think.

‘Now that I’m inside, I can’t be seen by satellites or drones. I’m also too far to be chased with [Penetration] and [Trailseeker] magic. He can’t come after me.’

Seo Moon-Ga-In was relieved.

However, she was just over only one crisis at that moment.

‘How do I deal with it? Should I get in touch with Arthur Clifford first? How did he let him go, that stupid bastard?!’

She couldn’t even imagine that they all died at the hands of Seo Jin-Wook.

As she urgently tried to contact him with her terminal.

Paht!

An unbelievable scene unfolded in front of her eyes.

“Uh…”

Her voice trembled.

“How?!”

Seo Moon-gain didn’t know that the light flashed from Seo Jin-Wook’s hand just before fleeing from the bunker was magic named [Locate Creature]. It was a rare spell that only the members of the Matap would know.

She didn’t even know that a mark had been engraved with Mana on her body when it was invoked and that she was sending a magical signal to him that could be traced no matter how far she got away.

Step by step, he approached slowly.

“W-w-wait!”

She attempted to cast Space Leap again, but she lacked Mana.

“Listen to me! This is a misunderstanding!”

Looking at her like that, Seo Jin-Wook thought.

Whatever the motivation that drove her to work with Arthur Clifford to get rid of him was, he didn’t want to know; he didn’t need to know.

He opened his lips and quietly recited a spell.

[Enhanced Gravity Field]

Rumbleee!

Hundreds of times of the natural gravitational force instantly pressed down on the body of Seo Moon-Ga-In.

She fell to the ground and resisted, but she couldn’t lift her body.

“Euuup!”

She was enduring it with the Mana that was concentrated all over her body, but she wouldn’t last long that way.

She’s braced herself for potion shock and puts the bottle she had in her hand to her mouth.

At that moment, running away and surviving was her top priority.

But then.

Shatter!

Although the glass bottle containing the potion was also a much stronger artifact than Earth’s materials, it couldn’t overcome the magic, causing it to shatter.

“N…o….”

The shadow of Seo Jin-Wook loomed over her body.

Crush!

The pain that penetrated her heart was the last feeling that Seo Moon-Ga-In felt in her life.

*

After burning the body of Seo Moon-Ga-In, I contacted Secretary Kim through a secret line.

– Yes, Guild Master.

I gave him a simple and brief instruction.

“I just sent you a list. It’s a selection of hunters from the Destruction Blade guild. Try scouting them on a condition similar to what we’ve offered to other hunters so far.”

By the condition similar to what was offered, it meant a generous reward even by global standards.

Nowadays, I didn’t give the Celestial Dragon stake when recruiting a hunter of A-Rank or higher but instead offered a huge amount of money and items that they couldn’t refuse.

I had enough money to rot away.

“Scouting will begin in three days. There will be a lot of information to secure and prepare, so I’m just letting you know in advance.”

– Yes, sir. By the way, Guild Master. There are some founders of Destruction Blade on this list, right? They won’t be moved easily.

“Three days from now, they will have a reason to move.”

Three days was enough for the Guild Master to be confirmed missing and rumors to spread among the hunters.

– … Yes, sir.

As if he had sensed something, Secretary Kim hung up.

‘Now, then.’

The new Guild Master of the Matap Guild, who would succeed Arthur Clifford, would enter the Shepherd 2 Dungeon to suck out the gold until the end, but what he would find would only be a huge pit where the sacred beast was.

Since there was no reason to keep the Gate anymore, the highly unstable dungeon would close.

I had put an end to the British breaks, secured the sacred beast, and got rid of Seo Moon-Ga-In in the process.

‘Should I return to my original duties now?’

That meant I would proceed with the process to prepare for future crises by progressing on achievement quests.

I was going to borrow Adam’s hand again.

But then.

“Requesting location information of an Awakened.”

I thought of him and asked the system, but the answer returned was the same that time again.

– Target not found within the dimension.

The system only identified the locations of the listed aliens in the same dimension.

If it’s a case where he had left our world through any methods, including entering a dungeon, it didn’t inform the location information.

‘He still must not have come out of the dungeon.’

Adam’s last known location was the undiscovered Gate located abroad.

‘I don’t know what’s going on, but it must be getting longer.’

I decided to wait a few more days for him.

*

Contrary to Seo Jin-wook’s expectations, the alien who borrowed Adam Abrams’s identity didn’t remain in the dungeon.

He went back to his home dimension for a while by stopping through a few dungeons.

Because of the imposed toll fee upon entering a tutorial world, the possibility of him escaping to another dimension was completely ruled out from Seo Jin-Wook’s head.

It was a misunderstanding that was possible since he was not aware of how many experience points Adam owned.

“Have you summoned me?”

Adam, who returned to his home dimension, tossed away his human form disguise and returned to his original form.

The scholar who opened the door and entered politely lowered himself and paid Adam respect.

He was lying on the floor, and Adam, who was calmly greeted in a chair, was looking like a giant bipedal mammal covered with white fur. His height, which was about three meters, was similar to when he was in human form. The outline of his body was round and full of flesh, while her face looked like a combination between a bear and a raccoon.

“Take a seat and make yourself comfortable.

The scholar wagged his thick tail slightly to show that he was grateful. He then sat on a chair and faced Adam.

“Did you finish your extrinsic research well as you wished?”

“No, it’s still in progress. I will return to that dimension soon.”

Although it meant that he would take longer than expected, the scholar did not add any opinion to his student’s choice.

If he made that choice, so be it.

The authority to evaluate what Adam had decided did not exist to the ‘class’ that the scholar belonged to.

“Yes, I understand.”

What the scholar could evaluate was only the achievement of Adam’s learning.

There was one more thing that Seo Jin-Wook didn’t know about Adam.

As already revealed, he expressed himself with the word ‘student’ because the exact concept didn’t exist on Earth.

Thanks to highly advanced genetic engineering technology, every being of the Yuncan species was born from an artificial womb. They already had academic memories according to the purpose of their lives from the moment they’re born. To learn something after they’re born meant two things.

One was that they were noble enough to devote part of their lives to learning.

The other meant that the contents they needed to learn were so complex, advanced, and vast that they couldn’t be contained in similar memories.

“There’s one reason I called you.”

Adam spoke to the scholar, who was his teacher.

“I heard that your knowledge of rare creatures is incomparable, is that so?”

He accessed species information about some aliens through the system.

However, the word in the system’s description was a species that he had never seen before, even with considerable alien species knowledge.

After returning to his parent dimension, he looked into their species database, which was stored in protein form instead of electrical signals, but he couldn’t find anything at all.

It was unusual.

“So, I wanted to ask thee.”

Adam brought up the question.

“What is the species called ‘Mercadius’ like?”

The scholar’s face stiffened coldly.