Chapter 80: Chapter 77: Drifting

“Wait …!”

Reynold turned his gaze toward the voice that stopped him.

There, the two S-class hunters of the Phoenix Guild and the attack team members were lined up.

“Mr. Lee Yong-wan, Ms. Ha Yuri. You are safe.”

Reynold stopped his hand reaching for the statue.

“Do you know what you are touching?”

Reynold licked his tongue as he saw the Phoenix Guild, who had come from the other side.

‘I didn’t expect them to come so soon. They’re quick to judge.’

[As long as it’s not him. But where is that bastard?]

Wisdom Jewel’s vigilance against Leon was almost obsessive-compulsive.

On the other hand, Reynold calmly spoke about the statue.

“You must have received a quest too, right? This statue, didn’t it tell you to break it?”

[Explore the island and destroy the ‘Rakshar the Great Statue’. 0/3]

-Destroyed Rakshar Statue: 0

The quest they received after entering this gate. Of course they checked it right away.

“…”

But Lee Yong-wan had recently doubted the ‘quest’ given by the gate and system.

In the previous Jeju Island gate the quest was to ‘stop the massacre and defeat the majestic Georgic’.

But when he looked back, Georgic was not a target to be defeated.

‘I haven’t shared this information yet …’

There is something behind the quest given by the gate. At least it’s not something to be taken for granted.

“Let’s put it aside for now. It’s not clear if this is the statue that came out in the quest.”

“…What do you mean?”

Reynold’s eyes narrowed. Lee Yong-wan, who faced his gaze, was uncomfortable, but he was not comparable to Leon or Georgic.

“If this is not the statue in the quest, there may be some trap if you destroy it. Don’t you have to make sure what ‘Rakshar’ is first?”

“…”

Reynold remained silent.

‘That’s not an unreasonable thing to say.’

[Back off for a moment. You alone will have a hard time dealing with all of these guys.]

Reynold agreed with Wisdom Jewel’s voice and showed a business smile.

“Then let’s go together to the beach for now. There are Maverick guild members there.”

Reynold decided to wait for an opportunity.

“Huah …! I finally finished everything!”

“Sister, you worked hard.”

Ha-ri and the TTG Guild students who repelled the crab monsters gathered on the beach.

“Soo-ho, is anyone hurt?”

“I’m fine, sister.”

Ha-ri comforted her academy juniors who were checking their bodies and approached Kim Do-han and the soldiers. There was also Koo Dae-sung who was taking care of them.

“Hunter Park Dae-sik! Hunter Koo Dae-sung! Are there any injuries?”

“I’m fine, Miss Han.”

Park Dae-sik, a first-generation man-at-arms, smiled kindly and waved his hand. On the other hand, Koo Dae-Sung had a serious expression on his face.

“Hunter Koo?”

“…It’s cut off.”

“Huh? What?”

“His Majesty’s aura has been cut off.”

“Ah …”

Leon had various passive buffs such as Lionheart’s Aura and War Knight’s Blessing to his subordinates.

Those buffs increased their power by at least one level and up to two levels and made D-class hunters barely compete with orcs.

“That’s a big deal. I’ve seen a lot of His Majesty’s buffs …”

The guild members naturally looked at the islands that were faintly visible in the distance.

“Do you think His Majesty is on one of those islands?”

“It doesn’t look that far away …

At that remark, Koo Dae-Sung shook his head vigorously.

“I have suggested it to His Majesty and tried it before to see how far does His Majesty’s aura reach.”

The buffs were applied to the corps members at a reasonable distance. But there was definitely a limit to that distance.

“The widest range of buffs was up to 30 km but none of us are currently receiving that buff.”

“So what does that mean?”

“His Majesty … There is a possibility that he is not on any of those islands.”

Not even on those islands? There are no more islands around here. Then where is he?

“What if His Majesty …?”

He cautiously uttered a word. But everyone waved their hands and shook their heads.

“His Majesty would never…”

Naturally denying the atmosphere, only Ha-ri had a serious expression on her face.

[Ha-ri, the connection with the Lionheart King has been cut off.]

“…”

Ha-ri kept her mouth shut and did not show any reaction. She was worried that her anxiety would spread to others.

“First of all … let’s gather and talk. We also need to check who is gathered.”

So they gathered in one place for the time being, students and trainees. They called each other’s names and counted the number of people.

“I don’t see Kim Do-han.”

“I can’t see Jae-hyuk.”

There were dropouts from both students and soldiers. And…

-Hi everyone, I’m Michael.

“Oh~ the girl who was hanging on the boat. Why did you do such a crazy thing?”

About 10 hunters of the US Maverick Guild, who were dispatched as a joint attack team, were also present.

“Oh, right. You are from the US.”

Ha-ri distinguished them by their appearance rather than the language they used.

After the Great Change, awakeners and system windows appeared. And that overturned the language barrier between the awakeners.

Similarly, survivors also spoke the same language as Earthlings so communication with the Maverick guild members was not difficult.

“Hello, I’m Maverick Guild callsign Mistral. What’s your name, pretty girl?”

“Uh, um … I’m Ha-ri Han. Mist … Mistral?!”

Ha-ri’s eyes widened as she heard the man in front of her introduced himself as Mistral. He was a famous S-class hunter ranked 6th in the Maverick Guild.

“Really Mistral? That Allen Taylor?!”

“Why bother with a callsign if you call me by my real name?”

“Oops! I’m sorry.”

She bowed her head and the students who sent their longing eyes to the world-famous S-class hunter.

“I didn’t know you were on the attack team.”

“Wasn’t there any information sharing? Well, we left in a hurry without having time to properly brief. But is your guild master not there?”

“His Majesty is absent …”

“Well, there won’t be any big deal. There will be some people swept away by the waves.”

“That’s not it.”

At Ha-ri’s assertion, Allen looked puzzled.

“The sea god gave us his blessing. There will be no one killed by the waves.”

As if he was confident, the turtle on Ha-ri’s shoulder stuck out his head.

“And … if His Majesty wanted to find us, he would have found us long ago.”

“That’s right, sister. His Majesty has Pegasus.”

“So are we left alone to do whatever we want? He is a person who trains us hard anyway …”

“???”

Allen made a strange expression as he heard Ha-ri and TTG Guild members’ conversation about their guild leader.

Sea god? The legendary divine beast with wings? It’s too frivolous to joke about.

“Anyway, what we have to do on this island is simple.”

Allen’s gaze turned to the air, towards the system window that anyone who is a hunter has.

This system window, which tells the purpose of the gate as soon as they enter the gate, tells them what quest they had to perform.

[Explore the island and destroy the ‘Rakshar the Great Statue’. 0/3]

-Destroyed Rakshar Statue: 0

In other words, does it mean that the dungeon will be closed if three statues are destroyed?

But Ha-ri and TTG Guild students who had already experienced Jeju Gate had different thoughts.

“Let’s explore the island first and postpone destroying the statue for a while.”

“Yeah, I don’t think it’s a good idea to destroy it blindly. Let’s figure out the gate first.”

“I agree.”

“Hmm?”

Allen frowned at the reaction of the TTG Guild members.

Hunters only need to follow the closing conditions of the dungeon gate. It’s enough to quickly close it after getting all the resources you can get in it.

But the reaction of the TTG Guild was different from that of an ordinary guild.

“Well … I guess it’s okay to do it while looking for the statue.”

But right then──

[The first wave begins.]

“Huh?”

“Wave?”

The system window warned them.

“Kraken? It’s a sea monster!”

A huge monster arrived on the sandy beach riding the waves and behind it, countless monsters showed up together.

“It starts with an A-class field boss. It’s tough.”

TTG Guild and Maverick Guild raised their weapons toward the flock of krakens that were advancing by swinging their huge tentacles.

In the abyss of the endless sea, the deep sea where even sunlight cannot reach, there is a luminescent body on the bottom of the sea that emits a brilliant light.

It creates space and air by pushing away even the huge pressure of the deep sea.

It was a safe zone for terrestrial creatures in the middle of the sea and the being who created this impossible miracle opened his eyes.

“It’s troublesome.”

Leon, who opened his eyes, stared at the deep-sea fish that were flocking from all sides.

Attracted by the intense light, things like lantern fish show interest, and giant snakes like deep-sea fish that are hundreds of meters long show their hundreds of teeth.

In nature, predators and prey would not look so peacefully in one place, but all these deep-sea fish were looking only at him.

Not only that. This deep sea was not just the bottom of the sea.

Ruins of buildings that maintain their shape even under the huge pressure of the deep sea and traces of civilization showed that this place was evidence of a ruined world.

“Hmm …”

When the boat capsized, Poma’s power was temporarily cut off.

To be precise, his power decreased in the sea, which was not his territory.

Who can temporarily block God’s power and pull him in the deep sea?

The only ones capable of such a thing are beings who have the same divinity or demons of a completely different nature.

“Show yourself, evil thing.”

Kugugugung!!

The sea moves at Leon’s rebuke. No, it looked like that.

The bottom of the abyss splits and reveals a huge presence. The movement alone makes the whole sea roar and.

The fierce teeth with jaws, the deep-sea fish boasting a length of hundreds of meters, and even whales that seem to be bigger than anything else in the world are instinctively afraid and cannot move.

The land where Leon stands itself is its palm, so how can such a huge being be called a creature?

[Lionheart…The hound of gods. Descendant of Dragon Slayer. The one who killed the most demons.]

A deep voice spreads through the water. What appeared was only one of hundreds of tentacles but even that one tentacle was bigger than the biggest creature in this sea.

[The knight among knights. The king among kings. The guardian of a kingdom that once had brilliant glory appeared in front of me after losing his army and having his power weakened.]

“Do you know me?”

[Who among demons doesn’t know the Lionheart King? You are famous among us.]

The lowly approaching tentacles were too big and big is itself a huge violence. The being in front of him is the most unreasonable violence in this world.

[Many heroes have visited this place, but there was no hero who could defeat me. Are you different?]

The tentacles looked straight at Leon as if they had eyes on each one.

“You filthy bastard dare to insult me. Don’t you really know that there is a heaven above heaven among you?”

The huge tentacle grabbed a whale and squeezed it as it was.

Paddeuk! A whale spitting out its intestines died miserably and fell to the ground. The impact was so heavy that it reached Leon.

[But I thank you, Lionheart.]

“What?”

[Thanks to you defeating Malus, I also have a chance.]

“Malus …”

‘Malus, Demon Lord of Chaos. Is he related to that bastard?’

[I spent an idle time here for five hundred years. But that’s over now. It’s time to end this long sleep.]

Dozens of tentacles reveal their grandeur and stretch out in all directions as giant deep-sea fish that can’t even think of escaping are caught by those tentacles and torn and swallowed.

From where the huge tentacle brought the prey, a voice that caused waves faced Leon.

[I was bored of eating fish for five hundred years. I wonder what the knight of the gods tastes like.]

‘Archdemon…no, more than that.’

Leon faced the evil that looked down on him.