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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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Yeouido Park.
A giant park located in the middle of Yeouido. A huge gate had formed there.
“Well, this is… It’s not the Awakeners’ Regular General Assembly, but to think I’d meet you guys whom I don’t normally see here like this….”
“I agree. I wanted to avoid seeing your face if possible….”
“…Are you done talking?”
Around that gate, those famous as strong among Korea’s Awakeners had gathered and formed a line.
“What were the monsters that came out at the entrance again?”
“Trolls and ogres.”
“Ha… Trolls and ogres…. One is a damn nuisance to kill, and the other is damn strong….”
A troublesome combination.
Every Awakener present thought so.
Most of the Awakeners present were veterans, and even the ones with fewer years of experience were those who had been famous since their high school or academy days.
Even to them, trolls and ogres were tricky opponents.
“The teams are roughly set, right?”
“Yes, it’s roughly one up-and-comer to three or four veterans. With that, it shouldn’t be difficult to defeat the trolls and ogres one by one.”
“And the mages and spiritmancers who’ll separate the trolls and ogres?”
“They’re gathered over there, preparing.”
But it was only tricky, in the end.
The Awakeners, who were already seasoned in dealing with various monsters, were not very tense at the moment.
“Hey! Rookies! Don’t be too tense! Your big brothers and oppas next to you will cover for any small mistakes.”
“…You still want to be called big brother or oppa at your age?”
“Why are you suddenly picking a fight with me?….”
They made such jokes while waiting patiently.
In any case, the time to cross the gate and enter the dungeon was set, and staying tense until that time came was mentally taxing.
The veterans who knew this well sat down on the ground and told the tense rookies to sit and rest as well.
“Well, it’s a pretty big gate, but there’s no need to be too tense. There have been bigger gates than this, and there haven’t been any problems so far, right?”
“Well, I guess so…?”
It was when the newbies, at the veterans’ words, were about to sit down one by one…
“Yeah, it’s a gate that’s only been around for about 3 hours. Usually, a gate only starts spitting out monsters after at least 72 hours have passed since its creation.”
So there was no need to think that something would come out now.
…It should have been that way.
Kuuung….
“?!”
“?!”
“?!”
The veteran awakeners, and the still inexperienced rookies.
Everyone felt a strange vibration.
“…Hey, this can’t be….”
“…Yeah, usually….”
It’s the vibration that occurs when a gate starts spitting out monsters or the Black Fog….
“Hasn’t it only been… 3 hours since it was created…?”
“…It’s just a little past 3 hours and 14 minutes now….”
An anomaly.
An anomaly that no one had expected had occurred.
Fortunately, all the Awakeners who felt the vibration and grasped the situation got up from their spots, but….
‘Damn… Everyone was resting and scattered all over the place.’
Thanks to that, the formation wasn’t properly made yet.
The veterans tried to gather the nearby Awakeners in a hurry to form up, but some teams had only one frontline, while some had only one rearguard, so the combinations were all different.
Uooooooooh….
Ogres and trolls were already coming out through the gate.
It was already a little too late to run to where their respective teams were and form up.
A veteran who thought so shouted in a loud voice.
“Don’t panic! Ogres and trolls are big, so they’re slow! Knights can carry the mages and spiritmancers and dod—!”
“Watch out!”
“!”
But that veteran couldn’t finish his words.
Because a random axe came flying, aiming for him.
Still, as if to prove that he wasn’t a veteran for nothing, he narrowly dodged the axe and was bewildered as he looked in the direction the axe had flown from.
“An orc…?”
“Kruk…!”
“It’s not just orcs!”
The gate.
What was coming out of it wasn’t just the giant monsters called ogres and trolls.
“Goblins, orcs, ogres, trolls….”
“Hah… Every green-skinned bastard just came pouring out.”
Goblins, who were weak individually, but were numerous and cunning.
Orcs, who had strong physical abilities and knew how to use weapons.
Ogres, who had low intelligence, but whose single blow had enough physical strength to destroy a building and then some.
And trolls, who were fundamentally gentle, but had outstanding regenerative abilities and couldn’t be killed easily.
“This is insane….”
If it had just been ogres or trolls, it wouldn’t have been a big problem.
Since both ogres and trolls were on the slow side, they could be defeated without much difficulty by taking advantage of that fact.
But goblins and orcs were different.
They had quite a high intelligence.
They wouldn’t let the Awakeners easily dodge the attacks of the ogres and trolls.
“…Uooooooooh…!”
While the Awakeners present were breaking out in a cold sweat while looking at the combination of monsters, the ogre that had crossed the gate first let out a roar.
Then….
“Kehehehe…!”
“Buhweee-ik…!”
“Wooooo….”
The monsters that had crossed the gate all charged towards the Awakeners at once.
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The Yeouido Disaster.
This incident, also known as the Greenskin Wave, was said to be a surprise attack and an experiment by the Black Fog.
The Black Fog, which had previously put at most one or two types of monsters in a single dungeon, had suddenly placed various types of monsters in this one and then forcibly broke through the Awakener System that was obstructing it, making the monsters inside pour out only 3 hours after the dungeon’s creation.
‘And that didn’t just happen in Korea.’
Similar incidents were occurring in major cities all over the world.
This meant that it wasn’t just Korea’s problem.
…Even so, that didn’t mean that I could help the foreign countries too.
In any case, the Black Fog’s surprise attack was successful.
Because when various types of enemies that complemented each other’s weaknesses suddenly attacked, even powerful Awakeners couldn’t adapt properly, and many of them ended up dying.
‘Of course, it was said that the Black Fog also overexerted itself for this.’
In fact, right after this incident, the amount of Black Fog that spread throughout the entire sea was said to have decreased by about a third.
For the next 10 years, there were no similar incidents, and the number of dungeons that appeared also dropped sharply.
I thought that while looking at the numerous green-skinned monsters coming out of the gate.
And I turned my head to look at my arm… to be precise, the doll’s arm.
“…Good.”
My voice was coming out of the doll’s mouth.
It wasn’t my elementary school student’s voice. It was instead my pre-regression voice.
Although my pre-regression age had passed 50, my aging had slowed down at that time due to my internal energy, and I had repeated the Complete Body Reconstruction process multiple times, so I looked like someone in his late 20s.
Perhaps because of that, the doll also appeared to be in its late 20s.
No, that wasn’t important right now.
I poured internal energy into the artifact on the doll’s arm.
Then, light shot out from the artifact, and that light turned into a sword of a size similar to the doll’s height.
“……”
It was the sword that the Orc Chieftain had used.
I grabbed the sword and swung it lightly.
As expected, it was just a sturdy sword with no balance, but it was enough.
“Leap.”
I used word-command magic and jumped from the rooftop of the building I was on.
And….
“Target, Fall.”
Similarly, after setting a target with word-command magic, I fell towards that target.
Finally, when I got close enough to that target….
“Strike.”
I brought the sword down precisely on that target’s weak point.
KWAAAAA…!
The target, a troll, was split in half by me, who had suddenly come down from the sky, and died.
No matter how strong a troll’s life force was and how outstanding its regenerative ability, if it was split so completely, it had no choice but to die.
Thud.
“……”
“……”
“……”
As the troll fell, split in half with a sudden loud noise, everyone’s gaze couldn’t help but turn to me.
It wasn’t just the Awakeners who were fighting the monsters, but even the monsters who had put the ogres and trolls at the forefront to support them or were trying to go around and hit the Awakeners from behind.
“…Uooooooooh…!”
And as if it understood the situation, an enraged ogre swung its arm towards me.
Did it have some kind of camaraderie with this troll even though they were of different species?
The ogre roared as if to say it would kill me and tried to crush me.
“Danger—!”
Some Awakeners who saw that were flustered and tried to help me, but….
KWAANG…!
Its arm that was crashing down on me was faster.
“N-no…!”
“Keuk…! Everyone, focus! I don’t know who that was just now… but this is a battlefield where even a strong awakener like that can be gone in an instant!”
“Ugh… Yes…!”
…This was a little unpleasant.
I thought that as I cut off the hand of the ogre that had crashed down on me.
Chwaak….
“…Uooooooooh?!”
Then, in an instant, the ogre’s hand was chopped to pieces, and because of that, the ogre writhed in pain and went berserk.
“No…!”
“He’s alive! That person from just now, he’s still alive!”
Yep.
Of course, I was alive.
No, in the first place….
‘There’s no damage at all.’
I thought that as I looked at my unpleasantly sturdy body… no, the doll’s body.
The bones that were made of ten-thousand-year-old cold iron, and the muscles and flesh that were made of the World Tree’s branch couldn’t even be scratched by the mere strength of an ogre.
If you only considered physical ability, this doll was better than the pre-regression me.
‘I really received a good gift from the Awakener System.’
I thought that while looking at the ogre whose one hand was chopped to pieces.
The ogre that was in pain was glaring at me, the person who had caused that pain.
But it didn’t recklessly charge at me.
“A familiar reaction.”
Yes…
A monster that stood before me should be like that.
It should feel the difference in our levels as living beings and tremble in fear.
And….
“It should be so crushed by fear that it can’t even make eye contact with me.”
I said that while lightly swinging my sword towards the ogre’s leg.
The distance between me and the ogre was some ways apart, so the sword didn’t directly touch the ogre’s leg, but….
Seogeok.
“Uooooooooooh?!”
Even so, its leg was cleanly cut off, and it fell forward as a result.
The neck of the ogre that had fallen like that was now located to my right.
I swung my sword towards that neck.
Decapitation.
The sword I swung cut off the neck of the ogre, and it left this world with that same pained expression.
“Well then, next is….”
I turned my body and looked at the gate.
It shimmered and….
“Wooooooo…!”
“Uooooooh…!”
Ogres and trolls that seemed to be enraged by the death of their kin came pouring out.
Yes, there wasn’t just one of each in the dungeon beyond this gate.
According to what was recorded in the history books, there were 12 and 7, respectively.
‘11 ogres and 6 trolls.’
All the monsters that were in the dungeon had come out.
Thinking that, I gripped the sword with both hands.
And I lowered my body and held the sword horizontally.
‘It reminds me of the time before my regression.’
Right before I regressed, after I held the funeral for Serenity Lee Ha-eun, the technique I used on the monsters that swarmed in after feeling that the barrier had disappeared.
A light horizontal slash.
However….
KWAAAAA…!
The result wasn’t a light horizontal slash.
My horizontal slash took off the upper bodies of all the ogres and trolls that were crossing the gate.
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T/N – Well, that was pretty good. The MC was shown to be pretty OP here. It’s just that I feel like the ogre fight scene went on for a bit too long.
Also, damn. That’s a really good puppet doll. With a doll that sturdy, he’ll probably use it again later on. Still kinda iffy of the fact that he used his future look on the doll, but let’s see what’ll happen in the future.
If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.
