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212. If You Grow, So Do I
About 60 members were guarding each of their positions in the underground training center.
All of them had taken a pledge willingly to become slaves.
They were people who carried an ambition to seize wealth, fame, and political power through the Festival of Blood.
Amongst them was Raol, who had approached Min-Cheol with friendly intentions before.
Perhaps already annoyed with trying to move his large body around, he had already leaned up against a pile of hay that served as a bed while trying to strike up a conversation with the nearby Protectors nonstop.
After saying that he would serve Millions, he had succeeded in partaking in the Festival of Blood.
The number of rounds a day for the Festival of Blood was already set.
The number of rounds did increase by a fair amount due to the number of nobles nurturing their own warriors to fight increasing, but it wasn’t even close to the amount of volunteers.
That was why those currently gathered in the underground training center had never been able to enter a single round in the Festival of Blood yet.
After all, if they obtained total victory in the festival after jumping into the rounds, while they would not get the exact same treatment that Demon would get because they were slaves, it would still be pretty similar.
You could say that this center was a place where each of them awaited the day they would partake in the rounds while training with those of similar strength.
The training had ended and it had been quite some time since the manager that oversaw them had disappeared.
“Whew… I wonder when I’ll be able to show off my strength in the festival.”
“You’re going on that spiel again? It won’t be long. The people want a new champion already. There needs to be a difference between us and those who have gone into battle so far. That’s why we’re going through so much hardship right now.”
“I’ve already finished preparing. I want to hurry and show off my strength to the nobles.”
“Yes, of course. You and I will both be able to do so.”
“This probably won’t happen, but what will you do if two people that serve the same master have to go against each other?“
“Pfft! Are you up to your useless daydreaming again? Of course we have to fight! Are there any warriors who will break the rules of the festival? Until one falls!”
“You’re a heartless person.”
“Eh. Hey… Hey Raol. Did you wash yourself today?”
“I don’t sweat much due to my constitution…”
“Shut up and go wash yourself quickly! I thought that someone had taken a shit in our room or something.”
“Heh, you’re a real jokester.”
“Huh? I’m not joking! Do you not see everyone else’s faces? Hurry up!”
“It’s quite empty right now because there’s no one there at this hour, so will you come with me?”
“Jeez. Sometimes you act like a child. Since I’ve already washed myself, go by yourself.”
Raol grumbled before leaving the place to wash himself.
The moment that he had left the hallway and all traces of him had disappeared from the training center, it happened.
The ears of the Protectors who were sleeping or having a casual conversation picked up the sound of the door opening and footsteps that accompanied it.
If there were footsteps after training hours, then it was obvious that someone had come down to choose who would partake in the rounds of the Festival of Blood that would occur tomorrow.
All of them were filled with high expectations.
The man who had been talking with Raol was about to go after Raol because he was worried that his buddy would miss out.
Dashing swiftly out into the hallway and turning his body around, the person that came into view wasn’t the manager, but Demon.
“Huh… D… Demon…”
“What? Demon?”
“What kind of nonsense is th… What!”
“Isn’t that the real deal? Wow!”
Each of the Protectors that were waiting with proper postures with hopes of being selected peaked their heads out into the hallway to confirm for themselves.
Their eyes did not lie.
The grey haired elder Demon, with his deep wrinkles, was coming closer with a sinister smile.
Almost if the start signal for a race was given, all 60 of the slaves poured out into the hallway.
It seemed that no one was even remotely concerned why Demon had come down all the way to the underground training center.
All of them instead looked up at the current king of the festival with eyes filled with respect, almost as if Demon was a god.
It was then. One of the slaves spoke up to Demon.
“Great Demon. What brings you all the way to this squalid place?”
“It’s to give you all a chance.”
“By chance… As expected, are you here to select those who will participate in the festival?”
“With that method, won’t it be too many years before you obtain the title of king? Don’t you think so?”
“Then what chance are you talking about that you will be giving us…”
“I will be giving all of you a chance to become king in a single go.”
“Huh?”
In a single moment, Demon’s expression became cold and hardened, and the slaves that saw the change had an ominous feeling as expected.
With an expression of being lost, the slaves continued asking questions.
“What do you mean by that? To become a king in one go…”
“I am holding a festival here. A festival between everyone here and I. Hahaha!”
“…”
“What are you all doing? Do you plan to fight against me with just your bare bodies?”
“Great Demon, your jokes are going too far. How dare we…”
-crack
“Urk!”
“Seems that you’re looking down on me because I spoke with you lower creatures a couple times.”
“…”
The person who was asking the question had their head smashed and their body fell to the floor in an instant.
Only a split moment had passed.
The other slaves who witnessed their colleague perish backed away.
It was to be expected since it was a speed that was not only impossible to defend against, but difficult to avoid, and Demon had smashed the Protector’s head as if it was dough.
Blood sprayed all over the place, and the smell of sulfur filled the air.
To the shocked group that could not even respond, Demon spoke.
“Will the rest of you also die like this?”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“Then I guess it can’t be helped. Since it is the choice of you pathetic creatures.”
“This bastard isn’t kidding! Demon is seriously trying to kill us all!”
“Damn it!”
“Hurry up and prepare for battle!”
“Ha! You all finally understand now. Hurry up and try. Hurry to struggle and flail about. At least then I would feel a little excited!”
“Crazy bastard!”
Demon put their bloodied hand behind them and kept talking with their hands behind their back.
It was as if Demon was trying to give them time to get prepared for battle.
As with how Demon wanted it to be, each of the slaves put on their armors and took out their weapons, then ran out into the hallway.
They knew how strong Demon was.
However, they also knew that they had a chance if they all attacked together.
This was true. After all, each of those who were currently gathered in the underground training center possessed quite a fair amount of power.
Individually speaking, each of them held about a third of Barub’s combat capabilities, but this wasn’t a 1v1 fight.
This meant that in the chaotic battle that was to come, one could rise to the position of king the moment that they struck Demon’s neck.
No one spoke it out loud but since everyone knew it well, everyone was in a frenzy to charge in.
Demon was standing in the center of quite the broad hallway, so the slaves had surrounded Demon in a ring with them in the center.
It was a perfect formation that would disperse Demon’s attack while allowing the slaves the chance to succeed with their attacks from various angles.
“Who will become king? Who will grasp onto riches and fame?”
“Shut up! You arrogant fool. You’ve walked into your own grave.”
“No matter how strong you are, you won’t be able to return alive!”
“Ha! Good. I’ll reduce you all to dust. Allow me to fill the air with red and thick blood as much as I desire!”
“I will be the king of the festival!”
“Die!”
All 60 of them attacked the same target at the same time.
Spears, swords, axes, maces, and even the most effective single target spells.
The offense was filled with attacks to the point where there wasn’t anywhere to dodge.
The attacks of each of the slaves accurately struck Demon’s form.
However, it wasn’t that Demon could not avoid those attacks, but that Demon chose to not avoid them.
Just like how Demon had done so in the battle against Jurassic, they strengthened their body with a silver light that dyed their entire body.
The rain of attacks were rendered useless with a shockwave that seemed to tear the air apart.
The offense was in vain and was stopped with ease.
“Do not stop the attacks! Demon is not invincible. Eventually we’ll break through!”
“Argh!”
Demon, who was taking on all the attacks with ease, spread their arms out to each side.
Comparatively thinner and thus easier to take damage from, the arms were laid bare just like that.
The slaves who were more experienced in battle noticed that and focused their attacks to cut those arms off.
However.
There were vortexes in each tip of the hands.
The weapons that were swung around mercilessly were sucked into the tips of Demon’s hands.
The warrior class slaves could not fight against immense pull and lost their grips on their weapons, and the weapons that were taken from them were completely shattered apart while letting out a stupid amount of noise.
Like the ingredients inside a mixer, the weapons were helplessly being ground to dust.
“Huh? Ugh!”
“C… Cut the arms! You cannot get pulled in at any cost!”
“Everyone, focus your attacks on the arms!”
“Feel free to struggle all you want. If you even can that is. Hahaha!”
“Aaaaa!”
****
After my first attack on the guards of Swesi, I continued hunting in the unexplored territories.
I wanted to start my hunt of the hunters right away, but I learned from Dan that they meet once a month at a specified place for a very short amount of time.
Because there was a chance that I could not avoid facing off against Swesi’s top 5 if I moved too quickly, I was biding my time.
You could say that this could not compare to having Protectors as my prey, but this current hunt was definitely not a waste of time.
It was because I was able to move about with ease through the unexplored territories as if it was my bedroom due to growing strong enough to the point where my current power could not be compared to my previous self.
To put it in the terms that the Protectors of Larkenta used in order to separate the hunting grounds in tiers, I was defeating monsters that would be considered in between the 18th and 20th tier hunting grounds.
After getting this far in, not only was I not able to sense any presence of people, but I could barely find any tracks of people that had traveled this far.
There were those who traveled in groups to hunt here, but I had only encountered one since I began hunting about a week ago.
Not only that, but jewels did not drop here.
No matter what monsters I defeated, instead of jewels, the much higher ranking material called cores dropped instead.
This was proof of how strong the monsters were.
I did not rest and continuously devoted 20 hours to hunt, and then gave the materials I’ve obtained to Dump.
He was still failing on his attempts at crafting an artifact, but I was the one who believed that he would eventually succeed the most.
Dump was no longer worried.
Without leaving a single part out, I had told him my entire plan.
Ten days. In 10 days, I would finish rescuing Berlette and completely wiping out all of Swesi, and while Swesi’s downfall would cause a greater stir of troubles, at least Dump, his daughter, and I will be returning to a normal life.
Definitely a normal life by anyone’s standards, totally.
It happened as I had finished my hunting and was dropping off the materials after arriving at Dump’s home.
“Hm?”
“Sir Guardian, what’s wrong?”
“Can you hide for a bit? I sensed a presence outside.”
“Yes! I understand.”
I heard the sound of a branch snapping.
It was a sound that came from quite the distance from the house, but I could not afford to lower my guard.
Immediately using Mass Stealth Jutsu to hide my body, I headed for the source of the sound.
It didn’t take long before I heard the sound of labored breathing.
“Huff… Huff…”
“Who is that person?”
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