Chapter 24
Kang Ha-min's excellent danger sense had reached one conclusion.
Even Baek Cheon-myeong could now feel Deus's presence.
"Ho. I heard he was missing."
A smile had already appeared on Baek Cheon-myeong's face.
He grabbed his wooden sword and immediately turned around.
He clearly intended to find Deus and cut him down.
Wait!
Kang Ha-min stopped him immediately.
Seriously,
this man.
Leave him alone for one moment,
and his first thought was already to cut Deus down.
Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong, you absolutely cannot kill Deus!
The entire world already knew Deus was missing.
What if he suddenly appeared in South Korea
and was killed by Baek Cheon-myeong?
South Korea would instantly become an enemy of the United States!
They might even blame Baek Cheon-myeong for Deus's earlier disappearance.
Absolutely not.
Absolutely not.
Absolutely not.
Absolutely not.
Deus could not die.
Kang Ha-min desperately stopped him,
his eyes almost turning red from stress.
"Hmm. Is that so?"
Baek Cheon-myeong was Kang Ha-min's undead servant.
If Kang Ha-min opposed something this strongly,
there was nothing he could do.
Thankfully,
Baek Cheon-myeong was someone who actually listened when Ha-min gave an order.
Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong, has he noticed you too?
"Probably not."
"I'm suppressing my qi."
Just as he said,
Baek Cheon-myeong normally hid his presence.
That meant Deus probably hadn't detected them yet.
"He may have sensed something vague enough to guide him here, but he probably hasn't identified me clearly."
He had still managed to come this close despite Baek Cheon-myeong suppressing himself?
Ha-min suddenly understood why Deus was considered to have the greatest potential in the world.
Still,
if Deus hadn't fully discovered them yet,
there was room to resolve the situation peacefully.
I, I'll try talking to him!
Deus wasn't a lunatic who randomly murdered people.
He was still a Hunter representing the United States.
He hadn't completely lost his humanity.
Actually,
he regularly donated to people suffering from incurable diseases.
Though only to people who were fans of his.
He was a troublemaker,
but at least a troublemaker with some sense of morality.
...Probably.
Right?
At the very least,
conversation should be possible.
More importantly,
Deus's target was Baek Cheon-myeong.
If Kang Ha-min approached instead,
Deus probably wouldn't care much about him.
What's important now...
was somehow persuading Deus and getting through this without a fight.
"Why bother?"
Baek Cheon-myeong clearly didn't like the idea.
Kang Ha-min shook his head fiercely.
He was the only person who could step forward here.
It's necessary!
Seeing Kang Ha-min's desperate expression,
Baek Cheon-myeong clicked his tongue in disappointment.
"Very well. It is Master's order."
Once again,
Baek Cheon-myeong placed Kang Ha-min's words first.
Finally relieved,
Kang Ha-min switched places with him.
Baek Cheon-myeong could emerge from the shadow at any moment.
And Ha-min still had the Shih Tzu with him.
He had enough safety measures.
Kang Ha-min took a deep breath
and slowly walked through the mist.
The closer he moved toward the presence,
the stronger the mana became.
Naturally,
his body became more tense too.
Learning mana detection suddenly felt like a disadvantage.
...Maybe I shouldn't have volunteered.
The thought crossed his mind.
Still,
he couldn't put Baek Cheon-myeong in front of Deus.
So Ha-min continued walking while completely tense.
Eventually,
he stopped.
Beyond the mist,
a shadow appeared.
The moment he noticed it,
Kang Ha-min quickly raised one hand.
He desperately wanted to show that he had absolutely no intention of fighting.
"Excuse me! Are you a Hunter?"
Should he speak English?
But starting with English immediately would look suspicious.
So he shouted in Korean first.
They had met by coincidence!
Completely by coincidence!
Crackle!
Suddenly,
the sound of electricity exploded through the mist.
Thud.
Something collapsed.
A monster that had been quietly moving through the mist had been struck by electricity.
Tap.
Even Baek Cheon-myeong, who had begun lifting his wooden sword inside the shadow, stopped.
Crackle.
Residual blue lightning flowed through the mist.
Deus's Class.
[Thunder Emperor (雷帝)]
He had clearly used a skill.
Thud.
Then another body fell.
Huh?
What?
Two things had fallen.
The lightning became quiet.
No other sound followed.
Something about this was wrong.
Kang Ha-min carefully moved closer.
Then he saw someone lying on the ground.
Hair divided between pure black and white.
A tall body.
Broad shoulders.
A heavily trained physique.
Clothing so flashy that almost no ordinary person could possibly wear it.
There was only one man who looked like that.
Deus!
Then Kang Ha-min saw blood spreading from Deus's clothing.
He was lying on the ground without moving.
What happened? Was he attacked?
Come to think of it,
Deus's private jet had crashed while he was traveling toward South Korea.
People were currently blaming Baek Cheon-myeong.
But in reality,
Baek Cheon-myeong had been watching ridiculous melodramas at the time.
That meant something else had attacked Deus.
What should he do?
Ha-min couldn't tell if the wounds were fatal,
but Deus had definitely been injured badly enough to lose consciousness.
There was no way they could simply leave him here.
[Master, what will you do?]
Ah, ughhh.
If he carried Deus to a hospital,
that would cause another enormous incident.
Flash.
Suddenly,
light appeared in front of Deus.
Kang Ha-min flinched.
Blue electricity gathered together.
A moment later,
a tiny fairy about the size of a palm appeared.
The outline of the fairy's glass-like body never remained completely stable.
Every time electricity flashed,
its shoulders, waist, arms, and legs distorted slightly before returning to their original forms.
Deep caution filled the fairy's eyes.
[It is a summon with its own will.]
Baek Cheon-myeong recognized what it was.
Was this Deus's summon?
What now?
The fairy didn't look willing to simply hand Deus over.
[Should I cut it?]
Why did every solution with this man end in cutting something?
"Woof!"
At that moment,
the Shih Tzu jumped from Kang Ha-min's arms.
"Shih Tzu!"
Despite Ha-min calling for it,
the Shih Tzu confidently walked toward the fairy.
"Woof! Woof!"
It barked twice.
The fairy and Shih Tzu stared at each other.
What was this fairy-tale scene?
A moment later,
the fairy fluttered its wings and sat on top of Deus.
Uh.
So...
"Are you giving me permission?"
Kang Ha-min asked carefully.
The fairy nodded.
The Shih Tzu returned to Ha-min's feet and wagged its tail proudly.
The little guy had finally earned his keep.
Now that he had permission,
Kang Ha-min immediately raised his hand.
"Black Coffin Summon."
A Black Coffin appeared over Deus's body.
Even then,
Deus didn't react.
His condition must have been worse than expected.
The coffin swallowed Deus inside.
According to the skill description,
someone trapped within the coffin had their senses cut off.
That probably included the pain from his injuries.
The fairy watched Deus enter the coffin,
then transformed into electricity and disappeared.
It was a good summon.
It genuinely cared for its master.
"Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong, I think we need to finish this quickly and leave."
It would be a serious problem if Deus died here.
Baek Cheon-myeong stepped out of Ha-min's shadow.
"Master, since we're already here, we should still do what we came for."
They had traveled all the way here.
Baek Cheon-myeong grinned and turned the wooden sword in his hand.
"I'll bring it back quickly."
"Prepare the Black Coffin."
Ha-min immediately understood what he meant.
Every Dimensional Break had a boss monster.
Baek Cheon-myeong intended to capture the boss for him.
They had already traveled all the way to Gyeonggi Province.
There were also many civilians trapped inside the Break.
Right.
They should still finish what they came to do.
"All right. Finish it quickly, then let's move to a nearby mountain."
Kang Ha-min agreed.
A few seconds later,
the B Rank Dimensional Break,
Mist Zone,
was completely cleared.
The Black Coffins were having a very successful day.
Inside one was the corpse of the B Rank Dimensional Break boss.
And inside the other was...
S Rank Hunter Deus.
Even the mother of all Black Coffins would probably look at that and declare herself full.
Kang Ha-min certainly wasn't happy about it,
so he decided to take Deus out immediately.
They had entered the Heavenly Spirit Medicinal Forest as soon as the Dimensional Break was cleared.
Thud.
Two Black Coffins stood behind Kang Ha-min.
In front of him was the Aether Spring.
The Aether Spring could turn correctly combined herbs into excellent elixirs.
Today,
Ha-min had already prepared a healing elixir for wounds.
Baek Cheon-myeong had personally taught him the recipe,
so there shouldn't be any problems.
"Are you planning to heal him so you can fight him?"
No.
We're not fighting him.
"If Deus dies, it'll become a huge problem."
"I'm only treating him. Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong, please stay inside the shadow."
Baek Cheon-myeong looked disappointed,
but no meant no.
After he entered the shadow,
Kang Ha-min opened the Black Coffin.
Deus was lying inside as quietly as a corpse.
The lightning fairy appeared again.
It stayed beside Kang Ha-min,
watching quietly while electricity crackled around its body.
Every time the lightning flashed,
Kang Ha-min flinched.
He really wished it would stand a little farther away.
Either way,
Ha-min fed Deus the healing elixir.
Then he struggled to remove some of Deus's clothes.
What he saw underneath was far worse than expected.
There was a massive hole in his abdomen.
There were traces suggesting his organs had partially spilled out.
His entire body was also covered in countless wounds.
What exactly had happened to this man?
Could someone really injure Deus this badly?
There shouldn't be anyone on the surface capable of doing this except a Hunter who achieved Tower Ascension.
Ha-min didn't know the answer.
But saving the man came first.
He applied the medicine to Deus's wounds.
Sssssss.
A moment later,
Deus's body began healing at incredible speed.
As expected of herbs from the Heavenly Spirit Medicinal Forest.
Their healing power was absurd.
Still,
Deus frowned in pain.
[The medicine greatly increases healing speed, but the patient must endure significantly greater pain.]
You could have told me that earlier.
But Ha-min was saving his life.
There wasn't much choice.
Deus would simply have to endure it.
"Whew. Your master should be safe now."
Kang Ha-min spoke to the fairy.
The fairy sat near Deus and watched him with worried eyes.
So there really were gentle summons like this.
"Woof!"
Right.
He had one too.
Ha-min patted the Shih Tzu's head.
Then he opened the other Black Coffin.
Inside was the boss monster from the Mist Zone.
The Mist Hermit's corpse.
Its entire body was wrapped in old, yellowed bandages.
Two long sickles hung from its hands.
Both were covered in dried blood.
"Army of the Dead."
Black mana surged around Kang Ha-min.
It poured into the bandages covering the Mist Hermit.
For a brief moment,
the black mana and the corpse clashed.
Sparks.
It looked as though the dead Mist Hermit were resisting becoming his servant.
But that lasted only a moment.
Eventually,
the black mana swallowed it completely.
Thud.
The Mist Hermit stood.
Then it walked out of the Black Coffin and immediately lowered itself before Kang Ha-min.
[You have converted Mist Hermit into a subordinate.]
[Mist Hermit has joined the Army of the Dead.]
A B Rank Dimensional Break boss had been turned into his servant that easily.
And aside from the initial conversion,
it didn't continuously consume mana.
Maintaining it seemed similar to how Grave Mountain worked.
It feels more like a rechargeable battery.
Once the mana Ha-min gave it ran out,
it probably wouldn't be able to move.
But Kang Ha-min's mana had increased dramatically after Body Reforging.
And he intended to continue taking elixirs.
He could simply load it with a huge amount of mana whenever he recharged it.
"Go somewhere nearby and rest without being noticed."
The Heavenly Spirit Medicinal Forest was enormous.
It seemed perfect for storing members of the Army of the Dead.
The Mist Hermit bowed,
then disappeared into the forest.
"...Hey, you."
At that moment,
a voice speaking English reached Kang Ha-min's ears.
