Chapter 144: Star, Abroad (1)

Chapter 144: Star, Abroad (1)

「...You really don’t hesitate to pull off ridiculous stunts, huh?」

Jin Prezia looked at Chang-Sun, who had returned to the Changgwi Cave, with a dumbstruck expression. Although everything Chang-Sun had done until now was extraordinary, Jin had never seen a situation as absurd as the one he had just witnessed. Jin didn’t know what exactly happened in ‘Owl Nest,’ but he could partially watch it with the Elfin’s help. Hence, he had a rough idea of what went down there and could summarize it in one sentence.

—He screwed the ‘Gemini’ over!

That alone was an achievement that deserved a thumbs-up. The messages were popping up above Chang-Sun’s head non-stop even right now!

[The Celestial ‘Geminus-α’ roars with anger!]

[The Celestial ‘Geminus-β’ is so angry for being humiliated by a mortal that he randomly destroys everything nearby just to take out his anger!]

[The Celestial ‘Geminus-α’ says he won’t hold back his rage against the mortal that committed this treachery!]

[The Celestial ‘Geminus-β’ is angry because a mortal has taken the sword he was going to make his relic, but he swallows his anger!]

...

[The Celestial ‘Twilight-Piercing Owl’ is going to punish the ones who tainted her divine ground!]

[A war has broken out between the Celestials ‘Gemini’ and ‘Twilight-Piercing Owl’!]

[Heaven is now in tumult.]

[The Celestial Society ‘<Horoscope>’ has issued a precaution.]

[The Celestial Society ‘<Olympus>’ is paying attention to the current incident.]

[The Celestial Societies ‘<Horoscope>’ and ‘<Olympus>’ have entered a state of tension!]

...

“It’s too noisy,” Chang-Sun said, having read the messages.

... His extremely simple reaction made Jin shake his head in disbelief. All hell had broken loose just to get Chang-Sun, but he—the cause of this hell—didn’t seem to care at all.

「Do you not feel threatened? You’ve basically turned the Zodiacs into your enemies.」Jin asked, sounding a bit worried.

However, Chang-Sun just snorted. “I highly doubt they’ll consider me as their enemy. Rather, I bet they’ll be interested.”

「What?」

Jin’s eyes widened, wondering what Chang-Sun was talking about, but his jaw soon dropped when he read the next messages that popped up.

[Many <Horoscope> Celestials have begun investigating the recent incident.]

[The Celestial ‘Cetus’ has acknowledged your existence.]

[The Celestial ‘Bootes’ has acknowledged your existence.]

[The Celestial ‘Vulpecula’...]

...

[The Celestial ‘Pisces’ has shown interest in you!]

[The Celestial ‘Taurus’ laughs very hard upon hearing what you have done!]The initial instance of this chapter being available happened at N0v3l.Bin.

...

[A total of 26 <Horoscope> Celestials have taken an interest in you.]

[News about you has spread rapidly throughout Heaven and to <Purple Star Astrology>!]

[Your Fame has entered the ‘Famous’ state.]

[Accumulated 5,500,000 Karma as a reward.]

[As an additional reward...]

...

[The <Management Bureau> members are getting headaches just thinking of ways to deal with all the requests about you!]

...

[A total of 241 Celestials have expressed their desires to become your Guardian.]

[A total of 19 Celestials have offered you the chance to become their apostle.]

As if it read Chang-Sun’s thought, the [Zhan Lu Sword] faintly trembled.

* * *

[3 hours 11 minutes and 29 seconds remaining.]

[Current Location: the First Sector of the Fifth Floor.]

While Chang-Sun was in ‘Owl Nest’ having dinner with Minerva, Jin and the Elfin had successfully conquered the entire fourth floor. When Chang-Sun’s group entered the fifth floor, they found themselves standing on top of a high canyon. They also saw a totally different view down the cliff: a large gourd-bottle-shaped valley, a wide plain without any steep hills serving as its body.

「The conquest won’t be easy from here on out.」

Chang-Sun’s eyes widened upon hearing Jin’s unexpected remark. Jin was prideful and always acted pompously, and he wasn’t the type to be on high alert like this. Hence, Chang-Sun couldn’t help but ask, “Why?”

「The land of ‘Gulgaks’ starts here on the fifth floor.」Jin explained/

Chang-Sun nodded. While passing through the third and fourth floors, he had run into some Gulgaks. “Gulgaks, huh?”

[Gulgak]

A high-ranking Changgwi that had evolved from a Hongsal after eating humans. It can act freely and use hemomancy. Its goal is to become powerful enough to lead its own ‘Bloodline.’

Remembering the information Chang-Sun had about Gulgaks, he nodded in agreement. The Changgwis that Chang-Sun had met until now were hand-to-hand combatants. Unlike them, Gulgaks could use ‘hemomancy,’ so he should not take them lightly.

Hemomancy was a type of supernatural ability. Hemomancers used the information that was engraved inside their blood factors to attack efficiently and with little mana. That was why talent mattered to hemomancers.

‘If this place is crawling with Gulgaks, then they would have developed their hemomancy skills to be more efficient, so I can understand why Jin thinks the conquest will be hard,’ Chang-Sun thought.

The Gulgaks that occasionally appeared on the third and fourth floors were far stronger than Hongsals and Sas, so they acted like kings. However, it was impossible to behave the same way on the fifth floor, the land of Gulgaks. The difficulty level of this floor would probably be significantly higher than the Changgwi Cave floors Chang-Sun had experienced so far.

「There’s another reason why the fifth-floor Changgwis are dangerous,」Jin said with a serious expression.

Chang-Sun asked, “What is it?”

「Bloodlines that have been formed based on the different kinds of hemomancy comprise the fifth-floor ecosystem.」

Chang-Sun tilted his head. “Bloodlines?”

「Gulgaks live with their own Bloodline. Each Bloodline has special characteristics, lives in different areas, and has different goals and habits, so I can’t say for sure that one fighting technique will be effective on all Gulgaks.」

Perhaps it was because he could sense hostility in Jin’s voice, but Chang-Sun unwittingly chuckled.

「... Why are you smiling?」

“It seems you also tried to become a Gulgak, considering you know so much about them,” Chang-Sun answered.

Jin crossed his arms and snorted.「I had to fight them someday. I raised an army for a reason.」

Unable to understand Jin, Chang-Sun just nodded. However, he knew a secret that Jin hadn’t told him—Jin failed to become a Gulgak in the end. Although he could have won against one Gulgak and had an army of thousands as the Hongsal King, it seemed he was still skeptical about entering the fifth floor back then. Taking that into consideration, this floor had to practically be a fierce arena.

However, Jin became understandably excited when Chang-Sun’s group was about to enter the fifth floor. Back when he was still the Hongsal King, he had trouble conquering even the third and fourth floors, but he thought he could actually conquer the fifth floor now. Even though his current army was much smaller than before, its combat power had to be three or four times higher.

“Do you know anything about the fifth floor’s layout or power struggles?” Chang-Sun asked.

Jin calmly shook his head.

「I used to know a bit about it, but it can’t help us now. Everything would have already changed a lot since then. Intense battles take place here every day.」

“Is that so? Maybe I should grab and interrogate one of them, then.” Chang-Sun looked down the cliff to find a good Gulgak to interrogate. His eyes soon sparkled. “It looks like they’re the ones.”

He could see a cloud of dust rising up and quickly becoming bigger from the neck of the gourd-bottle valley. Soon, he could hear loud hoofbeats. At the head of the dust cloud were over 300 cavalrymen in metal armor. Fully armed, they rode their horses across the plain.

As they did, their helmets’ long decoration feathers waved in the air like wings and unleashed rough, loud ripping sounds through the air, making the cavalrymen more intimidating. They looked like they were going to trample over everything in their way.

Woosh!

[The ‘Winged Hussar’ has appeared!]

「They’re the Sheim Bloodline’s soldiers.」

“Are they famous?”

「Yes. They’re cavalrymen renowned for their formidable ability.」

“Is that so?” Chang-Sun replied.

If Jin knew them, then they likely held high ranks on the fifth floor. Regardless, Chang-Sun smiled, knowing full well he could get useful information from over 300 Gulgaks.

The time had come to test the [Zhan Lu Sword]’s efficiency and observe Jin and the Elfin Root’s abilities.