Chapter 63 Trial Of Essence (2)

"Impressive, I have been expecting you human. Not that you understand me bu–

"You killed the Orcs huh?"

Raith replied with the same language the ogre spoke to him leaving the Ogre in shock.

He looked around and couldn't find any evidence of the Orcs' presence.

'How? A human can speak abysmal?'

His shocked expression soon wears off and changed to a smile.

"Well that makes things easier"

He grins as he steps off the throne, walking closer to Raith.

"What did you do to the Orcs...?"

Raith insisted on his question.

"I needed their vigor to add to my strength. So I sucked their life force, all that remains of the is sand..."

Just as the Ogre mentioned, Raith noticed the sand he was standing on.

"I can't believe you, they came here to be saved by you."

The Ogre tilted his head.

'Is this human hurt in the head?'

"You were the one that wanted to kill them. You were the one they were running for, why do you care what I do with them?"

"Because they were my precious fight buddies. They even killed me once."

Raith commented, feigning a sob and cleaning his eyes.

"Do you take me for a joke?"

The Ogre frowned immediately, finding Raith's composure and demeanor irritating.

"Does it matter?..."

Raith suddenly switched expressions, from sad to angry.

"It doesn't matter whether I take you for a joke. I will kill you here. I am Raven Of Death. What is your name?"

"I'd be a fool to give away my name so easily, let me see what you are worth then I can decide if you are worth hearing my name."

The Ogre said, spreading his white shark teeth.

'Tch...'

***

"Hunter Min-ho, are you okay? Can you hear us now?"

Min-ho finally woke up after a few minutes.

"Hunter Min-ho, what about Raven."

"Ha, hyungnim... aaaaatccxhuuu!"

He slowly opened his eyes and looked at Angent Jong-Su.

"The gate, the gate was a double gate!"

He shouted as he came to his complete senses.

"We already know that much."

Lee Se-Chul muttered with folded arms, all of them stood around Min-ho.

"Yes, what monsters were in the dungeon? Where is Merchant Raven."

"Hey... later make sure you do your research on Merchant Raven, investigate this guy, tail the associations if you have to."

Lee Se-Chul muttered to Lee Seung-gi who was behind him.

"Yes, guild master"

He replied sternly with a serious face.

"Hyungnim, he threw me out of the gate. He is going to clear the dark castle."

"The dark castle?"

Agent Jong-Su asked, with one of his eyebrows raised.

"Yes! Hyungnim, when he was fighting the Orcs, they ran away, after he defeated the Orc chief, we traced them to where they ran to, which was a dark castle. Hyungnim suspected that there was another kind of monster there that was more powerful than the Orc chief which is probably why the Orcs ran there."

Min-ho explained as he fully came alive.

But Lee Se-Chul scoffed.

"Why is this guy lying? Why will monsters run away from someone? Even the special ranks that can singlehandedly clear A ranks dungeon don't say the monsters run away from them."

"But it's true, they ran away."

"Stop lying bro, monsters can only see stronger humans as a threat and run away from them. No matter how strong humans are they don't run away, they always fight, even when they are overpowered!"

"That's enough Hunter Lee Se-Chul"

Agent Jong-Su stood to his face with slitted eyes and a cold glare and lowered brows.

"Or what? You are going to fight me? You, an A rank?"

Despite Lee Se-Chul returning the hostile glare, Agent Jong-Su didn't flinch and his gaze stayed glued to Lee Se-Chul.

"Ah, Oppa! that's enough stop being a menace. And you too association guy, know your place, oppa is an S rank and he will beat you should you two get to it."

'Damn guilds.'

Agent Jong-Su relaxed his shoulders and turned to what mattered.

"I should help you to a hospital."

He said to Min-ho but Min-ho refused.

"We must wait for hyungnim. He said nothing must happen to his crystals."

"That is fine, we can take care–

"No! Hyungnim saved me by throwing me into the gate as it was closing so quickly. I can't betray his trust in me."

"Wait what are you saying? I thought you voluntarily replied while Hunter– Merchant Raven stayed to clear the gate."

Agent Jong-Su threw the guild leader of Gojo guild a glance to note if he didn't catch him almost revealing the identity of their Merchant but Lee Se-Chul was already walking away.

"No, the gate disappeared. But it reappeared when we got to the dark castle, it was a different place and the gate was going but Hyungnim quickly threw me inside."

How the hell did Momo come up with that narrative?!

"Eh? He doesn't look like someone that will save someone else at the expense of himself though."

"Don't say that about my hyung."

Min-ho replied with a frown.

"Ah, I'm sorry."

Agent Jong-Su turned back to where the gate was just a few minutes ago.

'If it's a dark castle, it could be a very powerful monster. I hope you make it out alive Hunter Raith'

He closed his eyes as he prayed for Raith's safety.

***

Raith dashed at the Ogre with his sword ahead of him, however as he got closer, the Orge suddenly smiled causing Raith to stumble back out of pure suspicion since he didn't catch on anything from [Transcendent Sense]

GRRIIIZZZTT

From all of Raith's sides, a bolt of lightning emerging from nothing, rained on him causing a massive explosion.

"Heee hee hee hee..."

The Ogre laughed that too faded immediately as he saw that Raith was still standing.

'Thank God, I had the body armor on.'

[You have exhausted your cosmic energy]

[Skill Black Armor has been deactivated]

[You cannot use any skill until your cosmic energy replenishes]

[Your cosmic energy replenishes 1cosmic energy/ one minute]

'Wait what? Like how many minutes is that... like...'

Raith paused for a moment to calculate.

"17 hours?!!!"

He cried out in agony.

The Ogre frowned and swung his wrist.

GRRIZZTTT

The bolts of lightning poured on Raith again from several directions electrocution him longer than before, till he was blackened all over and couldn't move a finger.

'I have to keep dying for seventeen hours?'

Even while he was being struck so badly what concerned him was the horror to come. He didn't fear it, but seventeen hours? Was it even that long with Thard-Harl?

Well, there was no way to no since he couldn't tell the time and he lost count of his death.

'...is this going to continue to be a problem going forward, Every time I exhaust my cosmic energy I won't be able to use my skills until it is fully replenished?'

He had no doubt gotten ahead of himself with his surplus amount of cosmic energy and fought endlessly with the Orc tribes and the Orc chief without expecting this backlash.

Now he was about to pay the price for it. The skill [Way Of The Sword] is by no doubt a very good sword skill but it was expensive to use, consuming ten cosmic points every minute.

"What is this? I expected more from you, you can't even resist mere lightning? How did you even beat that darn Orc."

'At least wait for some minutes into the fight before you begin to blabber.'

Raith stood up staggering and spun the sword, looking straight at the Ogre.

'I can't keep dying just because I can. I can't wait for the cosmic energy to be filled before I start fighting. It's too much suffering, after all, I didn't have the cosmic energy when I fought Thard-Harl and I defeated him.'

He motivated himself– as if Thard-Harl's death wasn't pure luck. His brows lowered as he focused his gaze on the Ogre in front of him, just like a human except for its white skin and thin horn.

"I'm doing this."

'Instant Move'

This time it was different– from before due to [Way Of The Sword] Raith could tell exactly where he was going for and what exactly it was that he needed to do but now that he couldn't even use the skill, he ran forward into a blur without having a specific plan in mind.

WHAM

The Ogre delved a punch into Raith's belly and Raith didn't even see him coming

'So fast?'

His eyes widened as he was catapulted away by the impact of the punch, slamming into the wall of the throne room just beside the door– it might have been a straight death ticket if he was slammed into the door.

His body dropped to the floor leaving a webbed crack on the wall.

The Ogre twisted his wrist as he moved closer to Raith.

"You have a formidable body. I almost my wrist dislocated while trying to make the punch dive deep. Did it hurt?"

The Ogre asked Raith who in response coughed endlessly, spitting and pouring blood from his mouth.

'Ah, shit... it's harder than I thought.'