Chapter 154

The Red Gate (5)

After the red lightning strike passed, the Gorangsha and Tongel species became busy grasping the situation.

attacks were indeed beyond the monster properties they were aware of.

“What about the casualties?”

Quite a few were found scorched to death.

Most of them hadn’t mastered SSS-Class personal defense skills.

Several Awakened had cast wide-area defenses, but they could not protect everyone equally.

In the end, the one factor that separated the survivors from the dead was the presence of reliable skills.

In other words, the monster’s recent attack was so powerful that it couldn’t be stopped without using the best defensive artifacts and the best defensive skills at the same time.

“Damn it, how is this quest worth only two million points?!”

Screams burst out across the place.

The system’s reward was two million experience points in return for stopping the Red Gate in that place.

After confirming it, the Union called in reinforcements in accordance with the expected difficulty.

However, if such an atypical species were expected, the quest’s difficulty would’ve increased. Naturally, the rewards would increase as well, and the Union would have sent more reinforcements.

The reason why everything went south was simple.

Even the system failed to predict the situation correctly.

It was circumstantial evidence based on the fact that the Red Gate was out of the system’s control.

“Damn! Attack again!”

The surviving Tongels resumed firing from the cliff.

Their commander shouted to the Gorangsha species.

“Ask Union Headquarters for reinforcements! We can’t deal with that using the troops here. We need to request for the Elite warriors to be dispatched!”

He meant to summon the Elite Awakened beings hired by the Union Headquarters instead of being tied to an individual dimension.

The beings who exercised superior combat capabilities and abilities only took on critical and essential missions as determined by the Union.

The terms of the contract were kept strictly confidential, especially what extraordinary price the Union offered to hire those who didn’t lack.

“It’s impossible to keep up in this way! Come on!”

He made judged that they needed an Elite-warrior-level Awakened to fight the rare

The Gorangshas, who were trying to move the metal sand giant again somehow, eventually gave up and sent an emergency request to the Union headquarters.

Then each of them took out a gun-type artifact from their arms.

It was a weapon that worked in no different principle from what the Tongels fought with.

At that moment…

“Ugh, what are they-?!”

Their eyes turned toward Earth’s Awakened.

While they were distracted by the sudden situation, they had already launched a full-fledged counterattack.

[Duplication!]

[Meteor Strike!]

Rumblee!

A portal appeared in the sky above the plain.

A colossal meteorite fell from the dark space.

“That’s-!”

A violent shock struck them before they could finish their words.

Boo-boom!

“Ugh!”

The ground fluctuated as if it was convulsing, and the place where the monster stood turned into lava, sending heat and dust into the sky.

Subsequently, a giant mushroom cloud rose, and the surrounding landscape was distorted.

A terrible heat could be felt even above the cliff.

“Isn’t that magic only possible by learning the SSS-Class Summon Mastery?”

The longer the Main Quest was conducted in a world, the higher the value of the skill card.

Currently, the percentage of Awakened beings compared to non-Awakened on Earth was 0.5%, and the price for a magic card of S-Class or higher was already tremendous. Then, what would happen if that percentage reached 50%… or more?

Additionally, the increase in dungeons where cards could be obtained was not always proportional to the rate of Awakened beings increasing.

In the early days of entering the Main Quest, many dungeons opened. Hence, there was enough supply, but the story would change over time. It had reached the point where doubts were raised if whether it wasn’t guiding them to carry out the Main Quest instead of continuing to cling on to the dungeon exploration once the number of warriors was secure to a certain extent.

As a result, supply became limited as it led to the second half, while demand increased explosively.

“I mean, did the Awakened beings that just started the Main Quest learn such an expensive skill? That’s worth 1.5 million points!”

Magic card prices, with a close-to-no chance of securing, were bound to jump even more exponentially.

1.5 million was also for a story only when there was stock; the price tags often meant meaningless according to the market trends.

Furthermore, due to the nature of cards being randomly given, the difficulty increased beyond measure without the same ability as I did.

The moment when everyone was frightened by unexpected scenes…

The situation that made their mouths impossible to shut continued.

The magic didn’t end after being used once.

[Meteor Strike!]

“I-it’s coming again!”

The second meteorite fell with almost no time difference.

Another blow was delivered to the red lava-filled land!

Boo-boom! Rumble!

Thanks to my and Hibiki’s overlapping use of the [Duplication] skill, it was possible to repeat it four times without additional consumption of Mana.

The result was four consecutive hits of meteorites summoned against the monster.

The ground beneath the cliff turned into hell.

Dust, black smoke, and flames thickly covered the scene, but I quickly grasped the situation inside.

“So, at least that much damage should be dealt for the shield to be shaken…”

However, it was already aware of the attack pattern and changing the composition of the shield.

“No more meteorites!”

As soon as my words fell, Nate, who was waiting, initiated his multi-calibered cannon.

The bullets’ weakness, wherein the power dropped sharply outside 10 meters, was offset by Hibiki’s spell.

Beyond the distorted space, blue rain fell on the monster’s body.

The power of each shot easily leaped beyond the weapons used by the Tongel.

Another wave of surprise was released by the aliens who looked at the massive metal structure that rose above Nate’s head.

“That’s an Imperial relic, too!”

Another relic appeared following my usage of the flute.

“Imperial Heritages Collector? Why would such wealthy beings not buy the summon exemption ticket and be here…”

“Say something that makes sense! Would they have the points to collect those when they had just partnered with the Union??!”

Ignoring the murmur, I observed the shield with a sharp gaze.

The blue membrane seemed to be pushed back for a while and quickly regained its form.

‘No matter how powerful it is, if the same kind of attack repeats for a certain amount of duration, more than a certain number of times, no further damage is applied.’

I raised my hand to stop Nate’s attack.

Since the zombie corps wasn’t in a situation to intervene, the remaining means he had left were the Dragon Breath and Photon shells, but those types were too limited.

Instead, I gave the Genograche species and Hibiki an instruction.

“Attack in as many different ways as possible! Don’t repeat the same sword movement or skill for too long!”

“Yes!”

“Got it!”

Then, the devil in the golden armor poured like fish in the water.

He unfolded the secret movements of his past masters in quick succession.

The movement of the sword changed every time he swung. The rampant sword energy became soft while heavy and tough while light—the extremes were of numerous races.

Not even I could count how many sword movements were unleashed.

“Okay, it’s working!”

The monster was also unable to adapt to the fast and hectic changes.

While the shield was shaking, Hibiki’s spell was also activated.

It exploded in unison, and it exploded in a row.

An ice storm passed, an electric current zapped through, and a tidal wave of flames rushed in. The aliens who saw it screamed again.

“Those are all SSS-Class magic!”

They even thought she could buy a planet with the points she used to purchase the cards of the skills she displayed in battle.

“Alright, I see it now.”

I, who responded by mixing my own sword movements in moderation between my teammates’ attacks, finished analyzing the shield’s properties.

The Mana movements were visible only to my eyes.

As my colleagues shook it, it began to crack gradually.

The condition was utterly different from the one-patterned attack, like when the metal giant brawled and punched, and bolting shots poured from afar.

As the result of calmly observing it over and over again…

It finally became visible to my eyes.

Whoooong!

I stopped the sporadic attacks and re-composed myself.

I held up my sword and aimed.

A high level of concentration soon followed.

As it was wondered if the blade was changing its trajectory in the air…

“Huh?”

A sound was heard.

It sounded like a bolt of lightning bursting or the air even splitting.

In the fierce battle, everyone turned their heads towards the source without realizing it.

The scene was observed by Tongel, Gorangsha, and the other Earthlings as well.

After Genograche gained a body, I learned how much sword movements existed in the world by watching how the devil fought.

Beyond simple movements, how the Mana could be played and tampered with to be unleashed… All the secrets remained engraved in my head.

However, remembering and using them were different levels of work, so I had to make constant efforts to evolve my “knowledge” into “learning.”

The first step in the growth gained by the training took place at that moment.

“…!”

It was a single stroke made out of sword energy.

If Genograche held a trick one at a time and continued in a row without a break, I placed all the secrets movements in one swing.

Some regarded it as a sharp line stroke, but others saw the attack as thousands of strands of meteor shower pouring down from the sky.

‘That’s…!’

Everyone who saw the attack had a strong hunch.

‘That can’t be blocked!’

The light flashed.

Kwaaaaaah!

Everyone heard a creepy shriek.

The first terrible roar they had heard since the battle began.

“Ah!”

The ash-colored skin of the monster, which had been attacked so far but had never been scarred…

… was horribly cut out and cracked.

In human terms, the part where it would correspond to the jaw was wholly cut and fell off, and two and a half of the six eyes were gone.

A more disastrous scene unfolded beneath what was considered half of an eye’s dangling optic nerve.

Body fluids and intestines flowed out of the long diagonal line that cut the body!

Whooong!

I didn’t stop there.

I shook the sword without hesitation and thrust it in.

The monster screamed and struggled.

That one time, with one swing, my Mana was consumed in a lump. Euclid’s recharge would not be enough.

I telepathically shouted to the Gorangsha species.

– Is it impossible to charge for long distances?!

It was because I saw the scene where they drove the Mana to Gorangsha sitting in the center.

The commander replied.

“I-it’s possible!”

My words took the format of a question, but they were close to instructions.

The Gorangshas stopped wasting Mana on gun-type artifacts and sat back on metal plates.

In an instant, Mana was transmitted to me.

Compared to when the opponent entity was in the center of the artifact, it was less efficient, but it was enough for me to use it as a force.

Hooraaaah!

Crrrrrr!

As the attack continued, the monster’s movement to avoid it gradually slowed down.

And finally…

Crush!

The last blow was dealt.

The top of the head that the monster was desperately protecting-

At the very moment when my sword was stabbed into it…

Thump!

The monster knelt.

Swoosh!

The body slowly decomposed and disappeared, turning into dark gray ashes.

Its fingertips were crushed, the forearms, the chest, then the decomposition changed its direction to below the belly, and at the same time, it diverged to create a boundary over the neck, causing it to collapse.

After a while, only the red-melted Earth remained in the place.

The monster had been destroyed.

“…!”

In an instant, the surrounding was devoured by silence.

Gorangsha and Tongel couldn’t believe the scene they just witnessed.

That was the case even though it remained as clear as if it was branded in the brain.

It was so intense that it rather felt unrealistic.

I slowly turned my head toward them.

At that moment-

– QUEST COMPLETE!

The system’s message echoed through everyone’s ears.

Through telepathy, the aliens realized that what they had just seen was real and that the time for the system to reward them because the monster died and disappeared had come.

– … Error! Error! Found a critical discrepancy between system prediction and monster entity appeared in reality! Recalculating rewards…

The original experience point of the quest was 2 million.

The system took a moment to admit that its prediction was wrong.

Soon, its telepathy rang again.

– Recalculated rewards based on difficulty have been completed! Distributing 20 million Experience Points based on contribution to all users who participated in this quest!

And the following message was only heard by my ears.

My eyes got a little bigger.

‘Hmm?!’

There was a story that every being that had already entered the Main Quest often said:

The easiest way to get experience points was the screening quest in the tutorial phase.

That there was no quest in the Main Quest that gave 1 million experience points in return for clearing a ‘simple’ quest such as targeting SS-Class dungeons.

Upon starting the Main Quest, they said that the level of difficulty became much higher, and there were fewer points in return. Hence, dimensions had to try as hard as possible during the tutorial to collect as many points after being selected.

But…

The common knowledge that no point-mine surpassed the screening quest also did not seem to apply to the current situation.

– The user is rewarded with 16 million experience points!

In terms of points received after completing a quest, it was a new record.

When I smiled satisfactorily…

Paht!

Three new aliens appeared when a flash broke out on the cliff where they were standing.

“Huh?”

And a strange voice leaked out.

“What? Where’s the monster? Did we miss it?!”