Chapter 155: The Man Who Directs the Wave, Korin Lork (2)

༺ The Man Who Directs the Wave, Korin Lork (2) ༻

Dagda, the King of Gods, had a lot of treasures but three of them were considered the most powerful out of the bunch.

The first of these items was the Magic Cauldron, Undry. It was the great treasure proving his status as the King of Gods and proof of his divinity of the earth.

Second was the Magic Club that crushed the skull of the great giant warrior, Cirb. It was the weapon that had the highest attack power out of all the equipable weapons of ❰Heroic Legends of Arhan❱.

Lastly, the third one was the Magic Harp, Uaithne, made with an oak tree and the liver of the King of Cats.

As one would probably tell from the fact that it was a harp, the power of Uaithne only shined when performing the harp, and the result depended on the genre of the music.

Of course, there was the condition that the quality of the performance had to be above a certain threshold, but after borrowing the harp from Estelle-Noona in the previous iteration, I was able to perfect two types of performances.

Metal and rock.

That was the residue of the sweaty youth I spent performing in a band during university.

“AYYYEEEEEE...!”

I changed the song. This time, to a more exciting one! Let’s go London Calling!

“London calling~! To the faraway towns—”

War has been declared, and the fight has begun!

The sky, the ocean, and the River Thames are all with me!

Uaithne.

Genre – Rock Music.

It brought about a natural disaster. The exhilarating repetition of powerful chords made the entire world dance to my music!

Thunderstorms fell from the sky, while the oceans let out a sonorous chant with their storms and waves!

“Uaaahk! T, that was a shark! I saw a shark inside the tornado just then!”

“Shark-nadooooo!! Fucking asylumm!”

“What is that fucker saying!?”

“I don’t care if the river floods! And I live by the river!”

“Uaahkkk! Stop! Please stoppp!”

“This inhumane music is killing me!!”

“Shuddap! Cherry boy! The engine has stopped already! But we will live without fear!”

Do you see this? The cheers and chants of the audience?

Do you see the crowd cheering and screaming to my music?

“...Noisy.”

Tch.

Why does no one appreciate the greatness of this genre? And London Calling isn’t even that noisy of a song, alright?

To be fair, this world was a little bit behind in terms of dance culture so that was understandable. I remember how people at the royal banquet didn’t understand the beauty of my breakdance. But they did cheer at the moonwalk.

Ahh, I miss you, the one who treads the moon. The one who urged his conviction to the heavens.

Wait a second?

Heavenly Mic Hael Jackson.

I was his only successor in this world. The only one that could inherit his will and re-enact the Heavenly Sovereign Strides that could allow you to do reverse steps on the Moon.

In other words,

I.

I am the Heavenly Mic.

Even if metal, rock n roll, and breakdancing were not accepted in this world, my music still has the power to force the heavens and tremble the oceans.

So how could this me not be the Heavenly King himself?

Heavenly—

“I am the Heavenly Mic Kim Korin!”

— Sovereign Strides.

『One who treads the Moon, MOONWALK』

“H, huh?”

“L, look!”

“He’s walking backwards?”

“Korin is playing his harp and walking backwardssss?!”

-Kwaaaaa!

-Kwarurung! Kwaruru!

The skies were turning while the earth beneath trembled in shock. The oceans were in fear while the wind stayed turbulent.

-H, help meeee!!

-O, our ship!! Nooo!

Fufu, fear not, mercenaries.

My heavenly moonwalk isn’t here to harm the humans.

Those who hear the sound of the Heavenly Uaithne; none of them shall be hurt.

***

“Damn those bastards from the Tower! They were hiding such a card up their sleeve!”

At the command center of the military, Command Bernette slammed down on the map upon hearing about the failed attempt of the vanguards.

Fifty ships had been used for the plan. Although they weren’t going all out for their first attack, they still weren’t expecting to be forced back powerlessly without even being able to approach the shores.

“...”

“...”

Similarly, the guardians, mercenaries, and captains who were all summoned to the command center were looking distressed.

Most of the people here were masters of Guardians Guilds and mercenary leaders, and I was also a part of the group as the master of Korin Guardians.

“What are the casualties looking like?!”

“Yes sir. 13 fleets have been capsized, and 21 have been heavily damaged. Their main bodies have been damaged to the point that we cannot repair them anytime soon.”

“Damn it... There must have been a lot of casualties from the mercenaries.”

“Actually...”

“What is it?”

“There are a few that caught a cold or those with small wounds due to being scraped by the broken shards of the boats but... none of them died.”

“What kind of bullshit is that?!”

Half of the ships were gone and yet none of them were dead. But that was natural.

Music and art did not exist to kill people and were instead there to save them. Killing people with music? This Heavenly Mic Kim Korin would not allow such a thing to happen.

“Apparently, shocking music, the likes of which they had never heard of before, surrounded them and saved their lives...”

“???”

It was a frightening curse that made the men of the land invaded by the curse feel the pain of childbirth for 9 days. For this to work, we had to plant crops on the land and wait for them to bud.

For a potato seed to bud, it would take around 15 to 20 days.

“We will plant the seeds across the archipelago, go through the secret passageways of the Tower of Mages by ourselves, save the Saintess, and teleport back with your teleportation marker.”

“It’s not impossible considering our abilities and skills but...”

Lady Josephine’s teleportation could only be interfered with when teleporting to the Archipelago. Her teleporting out of the islands through a ‘marker’ couldn’t be interrupted due to her having clear coordinates.

“Haah~. But do you understand? If someone can’t come back properly in this final moment of escape, then...”

“The leftover ones need to do their very best to survive by themselves. I know, but it’s a plan worth taking the risk.”

The biggest question of this plan was this. When teleporting out using Josephine’s markers after saving Estelle, would everyone be able to gather there in time?

“I don’t think there will be particularly any problems with Hua Ran and Student Marie. And of course, the same goes for Erin. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

The biggest drawback and questionable member of this plan was certainly me and only me. However, there was only one thing I could tell her in response.

“I have no plans of sitting back and doing nothing after pushing my colleagues into the pit of hell.”

“Haa... I knew it. That’s just the type of person you are.”

We finished the preparation shortly after that and the next day, we gathered together for the teleportation.

.........

......

...

Marie Dunareff.

Hua Ran.

Erin Danua.

Josephine Clara.

Korin Lork.

Five people.

Destroying the magic circle was our goal on the outside, but our real goal was to save the Saintess and spread the cursed seeds.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes, Korin.”

“Are you... really bringing that?”

She said while looking at the luggage behind my back. Right now, I was wearing not only the supplies and munitions but also the Silver Spear of Shadow Paradise and the Red Spear, Gae Derg, as well as the enormous harp, Uaithne.

“It’s a bit heavy but don’t worry. This thing will come to me no matter where I call it from, so I will just toss it somewhere nearby.”

“...”

There was a strange look on her face, as if that was beside the point but...

“Wait, did you want to listen to my music or something? The music of I, the Heavenly Mic Korin Kim?”

“I would never want to listen to that noise.”

“So mean.”

“...”

Josephine started engraving a magic circle on the ground for the teleportation. In a bit, we would be sent off to different parts of the Steel Archipelago.

“30 seconds left.”

With less than 30 seconds left of the teleportation, Hua Ran said after holding onto my sleeves.

“Don’t get hurt.”

“Huh?”

“If you’re hurt... my, my...”

“My?”

“10 seconds left to the teleportation! Everyone, get ready!”

A crack started to appear all around us starting from the ground. That was proof that we were about to leap through an enormous distance.

“M, my...”

But still, Hua Ran showed no signs of opening her mouth.

“Korin! I will see you at the Tower!”

“Sure, Senior Marie. You and Doggo be careful as well.”

“Okay!”

8, 7...

“Korin.”

“Hnn?”

After seemingly making up her mind, Hua Ran opened her mouth.

“If you’re hurt—”

3, 2...

“I think I’ll be sad. So please—”

“We will see each other again in one piece so don’t worry! Thanks for worrying about me!”

“...!”

Her face started to turn red. She was about to say something, but before she could, the dimension around us cracked its mouth wide open as we fell into the deep dimension of nothingness.

..........

......

...

A forest.

The trees were thick, and a whole ecosystem was breathing together. Like a large greenhouse, there was still warmth in this land.

Being next to the Northern Kingdom, the land cursed to be cold and snowy for an eternity, the Steel Archipelago was similarly a land of extreme chilliness that did not allow normal crops to grow.

The fact that there was such a thick forest near me despite that...

“Bingo.”

I was anticipating that things would somehow work out wherever I ended up, but I really wasn’t expecting to be sent here out of all the places.

❰Prohibited Forest❱

An artificially created enormous ‘greenhouse’ where the mages of the Tower grew magic organisms and crops for experimental purposes. This was the Prohibited Forest that was being maintained by the Green Cult.

Although there were all sorts of hidden pieces and magical crops of incredible effects hidden in this place, this was one of the places that required the most time for players to clear.

It was because there were thousands if not tens of thousands, of evil spirits and artificially engineered spirits created from the experiments of the Green Cult.

Because of the hideous difficulty of this region, it was considered one of the most difficult side quests of ❰Heroic Legends of Arhan❱, on par with the end-game main quest line.

A horrible part of the map that even maxed-out player parties could not conquer with ease.

But that did not matter to me in the slightest.

2nd Precept: Restriction 〚I do not perceive spirits.〛