RE: Player again

281

[Chapter 092] [Evil for Evil (10)]

A night when predators become prey.

Screams filled the air.

Howls spread enough to drown them out.

Revolver Shot

The one causing this situation dealt death to Slayers while sprinting through the darkness.

Those fleeing hastily from monsters with their backs turned died pitifully with their abdomens pierced.

Of course, some among those who fell forward survived.

But before long they were eaten by the pursuing monsters.

"...Looks like others have arrived too."

Eun-ha who briefly paused his pursuit looked back.

He felt presences gradually increasing from far beyond the darkness.

Probably instructors and Players who noticed the anomaly and came running.

Now that they've arrived, the students should be able to safely escape the village.

I should do what needs to be done before that.

The Players would evacuate the students and start pursuing the Slayers.

Perhaps Rangers or Navigators were deploying surveillance nets around the village area.

If that happened, he wouldn't be able to take down those guys with his own hands.

In other words, his income would decrease.

Madness

Eun-ha who leapt down from a tree among monsters tearing at corpses swung his sword.

When he shook off the mana remaining on the blade, thorns transformed into thin shapes and rained down on the creatures all at once.

Some monsters vanished, while others endured it and revealed hostility.

Wild Dance

But the creatures who lost reason, dyed by the wildness of night and intoxicated by human blood, didn't notice the true predator.

The creatures who fell back to being prey again were torn to shreds by the wind tracing trajectories.

He roughly gathered the mana stones fallen on the ground into his backpack.

But the reason he lured monsters to their village wasn't just to pick up mana stones.

It was partly because he couldn't face the Slayers alone, but above all, Eun-ha was interested in their possessions.

"...There's nothing useful."

Eun-ha who had been searching corpses for a while soon clicked his tongue and stopped.

Like earlier, he didn't obtain anything noteworthy from them.

The devices were in poor condition, as if they hadn't been maintained for a long time.

Devices obtained from some people boasted decent performance, but that was all.

He wasn't hoping for devices like Shin Seo-young's Resonance Twin Fans, but it was disappointing that they performed worse than Black Thorn.

That's how amazing the device Hae-su hyung made was.

Then Eun-ha felt satisfied while handling a pitch-black sword without any decorations.

A device this good wasn't easily obtained normally.

Moreover, it was made to fit his hand perfectly.

Suddenly he wondered if a better performing device would have been produced if it was made with mana alloy better than the mana alloy provided by the academy.

But he shouldn't be greedy.

Even if it couldn't compare to No One Cries, a device with this much performance was amazing too.

Grrrr

Just then, a low growling sound was heard.

Eun-ha who turned his head looked at the wolf returning from tearing apart Slayers' limbs in the nearby forest.

The wolf with blood caked around its mouth bared its fangs also dyed red.

Graaaah

5th tier overrank Blade Wolf.

It was a monster difficult for Eun-ha to face alone.

Because Blade Wolf's fur boasted defense that could easily block sword strikes.

While also possessing mobility to easily avoid magic.

Nevertheless, Eun-ha wasn't afraid of the Blade Wolf.

First, it wasn't an adult.

The Blade Wolf's body was only about as big as one adult.

"Hey, won't you put your tail down?"

Kiiiing

And it was Jin Parang.

The wolf Jin Parang transformed into by Gift .

Though Jin Parang's consciousness was asleep due to , the Blade Wolf absolutely wouldn't touch Eun-ha.

Rather, it even whimpered.

Even if his consciousness was asleep, the memory of being beaten by him was ingrained in his body.

Moreover, he had been thoroughly beaten by him once when he became a Blade Wolf too.

"This stupid hyung really... Just going crazy intoxicated by power... I'll really train you hard when we get back. Got it?"

Kuuuu

"Where's this dissatisfaction coming from?"

Kiiiing

Eun-ha suddenly showed his fist to the wolf wagging its tail.

Then the Blade Wolf cowered. It stood on its heels stiffly.

"And didn't I tell you to kill moderately? Who told you to do this, huh?"

Kiing kiing

"Where's this aegyo coming from. You're making me feel gross."

Ki...

"What. If you have something to say, say it."

The Blade Wolf with its mouth tightly shut.

Eun-ha who looked at Jin Parang like looking at a puppy that couldn't even control its pee and poop properly grumbled to himself while moving his steps.

Just as he had been killing Slayers, Jin Parang had also been killing Slayers nearby.

But Jin Parang intoxicated by wildness tore off Slayers' limbs, and sometimes even ate their flesh.

As a result, their corpses were currently damaged so severely they were unrecognizable.

"...If you're going to eat, eat cleanly. It's disgusting to see you tearing and eating here and there just to look at the liver."

But Jin Parang damaging the corpses could deceive the Players who would come later that it was monsters' doing.

Eun-ha pointed at the corpse he had been searching until just now and ordered him.

"Stupid hyung, play with that too." Woof!

The Blade Wolf, Jin Parang who got excited receiving the order and ran over.

Parang messed with the corpse as if playing with a toy.

Meanwhile, Eun-ha checked if there was anything useful from the damaged corpses.

For now he decided to either completely discard devices since they were heavy and bulky, or just obtain the core parts.

Eun-ha who broke devices with Black Thorn imbued with mana gathered the core mana stones and gems.

These guys unexpectedly have decent stuff?

The Slayers Jin Parang killed had quite good items.

He became quite curious about their faces.

But he couldn't confirm their identities because Parang had even ripped off their heads.

It was regrettable but he didn't mind.

Anyway, he didn't know the details about the guys from this time period.

"...A sword with a crest engraved?"

Just then, Eun-ha's eyes sparkled as he picked up a dagger fallen on the ground.

It was a dagger that could be used for juggling.

But it wasn't a simple dagger. When he coated the blade surface with mana, a crest was revealed.

He quickly imbued mana into other daggers too.

The set of five swords was something even Eun-ha knew well.

It's definitely Han Chang-jin's device.

To think I'd see this here.

The device used by Han Chang-jin who was called while being one of the Twelve Seats 3rd generation in the previous life.

Five Claws.

Each of the five daggers had crests engraved that caused different status effects.

Though Eun-ha didn't know exactly what providence each of the five daggers contained, he knew it was a highly versatile device.

I only directly witnessed deadly poison, paralysis, and confusion.

Even that much was amazing.

But how on earth was Parang hyung able to win against someone using a device like this?

Eun-ha sighed looking at the Blade Wolf excitedly throwing corpses.

He must have just been lucky.

The Five Claws' blades must not have pierced the Blade Wolf.

"I'll obviously keep this... how should I handle it."

Eun-ha planned to sell the Slayers' spoils through Bruno, but he had no intention of selling Five Claws.

He also had no intention of handing it over to Han Chang-jin.

He still didn't fully trust Han Chang-jin, and even if Han Chang-jin had changed in this life, he didn't want to carelessly hand it over.

Unless Chang-jin joined his party.

I should hold onto Five Claws for now and give it to someone trustworthy and in need among party members.

Eun-ha who organized his thoughts like that soon looked up at the night sky.

The wind blew.

Noisily.

But that wasn't a naturally occurring wind.

There was no way Eun-ha wouldn't have noticed monsters emitting killing intent.

"Come to think of it, there was Drain too."

Eun-ha lifted the corners of his mouth.

Bats flying through the night sky making sounds like scratching a blackboard.

Monsters possessing Drain's providence were rushing in without knowing this was their graveyard.

Grrrr

Jin Parang bared his fangs.

Eun-ha also gripped Black Thorn.

"─Parang hyung, bite."

Graaaah─!!

Jin Parang leapt into the sky.

☆

It didn't take long to exterminate the 6th tier monster herd.

Of course, it wasn't easy dealing with creatures flying through the air.

Still, this stupid hyung is useful.

Eun-ha glanced at Parang sleeping under a tree trunk.

Parang who suddenly leapt into the air and made the creatures crash to the ground was currently unconscious after completely depleting his internal mana.

He seemed quite cold with no clothes on his body, curling up in a ball and pulling on Avenir's Cloak.

"...Hehe... Noh Eun-ha, you're my lackey from today, punk..."

"...What kind of dream are you having?"

Eun-ha looked at Parang suddenly sleep talking with an incredulous face.

Regardless, Parang was giggling and lost in dreamland.

He decided to just ignore the i***t.

There were more important things.

"...I would have been grateful for just one, but three? I seem unusually lucky today."

Eun-ha gathered the mana stones and skill stones fallen in the grass.

The 6th tier monsters' mana stones were quite high quality, and the skill stones were quite large too.

Moreover, he even obtained three skill stones that don't come out easily.

One of them was being tightly grasped in both hands by Jin Parang whose was wearing off, as if not wanting to let it go.

Still, he obtained two skill stones.

Without using the Library he couldn't accurately confirm what providence they contained, but...

They both feel like Mana Drain.

Eun-ha imbued mana into the skill stones held in both hands.

Both skill stones emitted yellow light, acknowledging him as their owner.

Based on his sense from obtaining Mana Drain in his previous life, he thought they were probably Mana Drain.

"...How should I handle these? Should I absorb one and distribute the other to the kids? Or should I absorb both myself?"

Even if skill stones contained the same providence, the more providence accumulated, the more understanding of that magic increased.

Increased understanding also meant increased utilization and magical effects.

Come to think of it, Min-ji doesn't have that much internal mana either.

I should just give it to Min-ji. The skill stone should respond to Min-ji too.

But Eun-ha gave up on absorbing all the skill stones held in his hand into his body.

Mana Drain was just magic that could absorb some internal mana from the attacked opponent.

Even if Mana Drain's effect increased from absorbing two skill stones, there wouldn't be much difference.

Its uses were limited otherwise too.

If it was a highly versatile skill stone like Virulent Venom or Stygian Eye he would have taken them all for himself, but Mana Drain wasn't that important of a magic.

There's a limit to how strong I can become alone, I should use it to strengthen kids I'll put in the party.

Mana Drain's skill stone wasn't as precious as Five Claws, so he decided to hand it over to Min-ji.

Conversely, he planned to carefully select an owner for Five Claws after careful consideration.

Then shall I go finish the rest of the work.

Eun-ha who put the skill stones in his backpack soon deployed detection nets and confirmed there were no monsters around.

Leaving Parang like this shouldn't be a big problem.

Even if it became a problem, Parang would quickly come to his senses based on survival instinct.

It seemed Players were coming from far away just then too.

Thousand Steps

Eun-ha abandoned Jin Parang and ran.

He wasted more time than expected dealing with monsters.

Not a single Slayer was caught in his detection nets.

Still, he didn't panic.

Based on the direction the Slayers were fleeing earlier that he confirmed, they seemed to be heading towards a nearby village.

"...Those guys must be pretty frustrated?"

But the village the Slayers were heading towards probably wouldn't be much different from here.

Because Eun-ha personally did some burglary and arson while searching for their villages.

Thanks to that, his backpack was quite heavy.

Most were goods difficult to carelessly handle, but he could process them through the black market.

Surely those guys would be going crazy discovering burned villages and empty warehouses.

─Huh?

But Eun-ha who set foot in a new village held his breath as he didn't detect excited presences unlike his expectation.

Rather, he noticed sharp auras from all directions aimed at him.

Before he knew it, he was surrounded.

"This is unexpected..."

He couldn't turn back.

If he did, he would be caught from behind.

He never had the slightest intention of turning his back on those guys and fleeing anyway.

He who fell into their trap calmly walked to the center of the village.

Eventually─

"─We were wondering who kept chasing us, but it was just this brat."

"The guys who couldn't keep up from the middle, they all lost to a kid like this?"

"Tch. He's just a kid whose blood hasn't even dried." "So we've been running away until now because we were scared of a kid like this?"

People revealing themselves one by one.

They were all glaring at him incredulously.

But he wasn't the type to be intimidated by their killing intent.

He just calmly counted the number of Slayers gathered around.

Quite a lot?

He had been feeling it for a while, but the number of Slayers was quite large.

It was hard to believe this many were hiding and living on Seoraksan at this time.

But that didn't change anything.

Eun-ha gripped Black Thorn.

"Hey, look at that kid's stance?"

"...Is he crazy?" "Hey, kid. Just quickly apologize and say you were wrong. Then we might consider being lenient." "Does he need leniency? He has to die anyway since he came this far."

The Slayers snickered.

Thinking there was no way they couldn't handle one academy student.

How could they who had been through thick and thin lose to a brat?

That's what they thought.

It was something that didn't need thinking about.

But still─

"─How convenient, I was just getting tired of killing you one by one, but you all gathered nicely?"

He wasn't afraid.

Rather, he even smirked.

Virulent Venom

From that moment, the chain of death began.