The Duke's Son :Re-Chapter 241

Chapter 241
“......”
A chill traced Yusuke’s spine as he examined the cross-section of the ogre’s neck.
Ogres were famous for their thick skin and bones; moreover, their kind had necks like tree stumps. To cleanly behead such a monster was no easy task—in fact, given how tall ogres stood, it was close to physically impossible for most players.
This ogre in particular stood over eight meters tall and was nearly half as wide.
When Yusuke had seen it preparing to step on the onlookers, he’d made the snap decision to sever its ankle first. Not only would doing so save the onlookers, but it would also destabilize the ogre—bringing it to its knees and putting its neck within reach.
This strategy was common sense when attacking large monsters.
Jiang Lei clearly thinks the same.
Yusuke turned his gaze to the ogre’s other leg. Jiang Lei had attacked the ogre in almost the same way and at the same time as he had.
Well, technically, there’s a difference in difficulty. My striking the ogre’s raised leg is much more impressive, although even that is still nothing compared to striking off the ogre’s head...
No matter how many times Yusuke thought about it, beheading an eight-meter ogre in one blow was a feat bordering on miraculous.
At least in terms of swordsmanship, he’s several levels above me.
Thinking as much, Yusuke’s lips twitched as he fought the urge to laugh.
Isn’t he only sixteen years old now? Hehe～
Yusuke’s eyes fuzzed, and he hugged himself blissfully.
Wonderful. Simply wonderful...
Jang Baek-San had been anxiously watching Jae-Hyeok enter the gate with the Chinese players, but upon hearing a strange rustling sound, he oriented on Yusuke, and his eyes went round.
What is he doing? Is... Is it some type of evil ritual?
Yusuke was the heir to the Greed Church. Just based on the church’s ominous name, Jang Baek-San couldn’t help but think the worst of Yusuke’s bizarre behavior and stepped back cautiously.
Sigh. What has this country come to?
An S-grade gate was on the verge of causing a monster outbreak. Meanwhile, Korea’s officials were silent, and the military- and the Association’s high-level players were nowhere to be seen.
Come to think of it... Didn’t Kang Jae-Hyeok cause this? All of Korea’s infrastructure is in turmoil thanks to his killing the higher-ups in the Association as well as the military. Is that boy really the hope of Korea, or is he just a disaster marketed as salvation?
This doubt popped into Jang Beak-San’s mind almost as fast as it was thrown out.
He recalled the regional branch managers’ meeting a few days ago. His peers had only ever cared about themselves. Had any one of them become the Association’s next president, then even if they didn’t have today’s chaos, the country would be cursed to slowly rot from the inside.
Today’s chaos is a necessary hardship, the result of excising the rotten flesh—only this way can the country begin to heal.
The gate began releasing more powerful mana, and Jang Baek-San made a silent prayer.
Kang Jae-Hyeok, you'd better come back and finish what you’ve started. Don’t let these growing pains go to waste...
In fact, Jang Beak-San was hopeful that Jae-Hyeok wouldn’t suffer unduly. After all, when the ogre had emerged from the gate, Jiang Lei had moved to protect the ordinary civilians. Jang Beak-San felt that Jiang Lei might be a vicious person.
At least, he hoped so.
Otherwise, if a Chinese National Treasure wanted to make Jae-Hyeok disappear, then disappear he would.
***
Emerging from the other side, Jae-Hyeok was met with an expanse of craggy rock formations and a dimly lit, grey sky.
[You have entered the Twilight Kingdom.]
“Kingdom! It is a kingdom!”
Jae-Hyeok could faintly hear the excited cheers of the Chinese players, who had appeared a fair distance away from him.
Jae-Hyeok couldn’t blame them. Gates with the “kingdom” qualifier indicated that the world fragment was very, very large—so large that it contained the entirety of an alien world’s capital city and core territory.
Naturally, such gates were riddled with secrets and opportunities.
Even gates with the lesser “outskirts” modifier were still highly valued—and those contained a mere piece of a kingdom or its territory. The Ocean Guild’s gate, the Siren Kingdom Outskirts, was a prime example of this. Although the world fragment contained within did not encompass the entirety of the Siren Kingdom, its size and value were more than enough to serve as a font of wealth and power for Yeon Ho-Ryeong and his guild.
“Amazing! Really amazing!—
Uh?
Where is Jiang Lei?”
“He must’ve been carried in through a different warp tunnel. That’s nothing surprising. A gate of this size means there will be many entrances and exits. For now, let’s focus on searching. It’s best we regroup as soon as possible.”
“Yes...”
The Chinese players spoke openly, unaware that Jae-Hyeok was only a hundred meters away, separated by several rocky outcroppings.
While the Chinese players were talking, Jae-Hyeok was busy scanning his surroundings with narrowed eyes.
A bird alighted on Jae-Hyeok’s shoulder just then. It groomed under its wings while betraying not the slightest sense of caution.
In fact, Jae-Hyeok might well have been a tree or a rock to the bird; Jae-Hyeok’s normal mana fluctuations were currently so faint as to be indetectible.
This bizarre effect stemmed from the partial application of the Kang family’s mana control technique, whereafter drawing mana inward, toward the eyes, the power was slowly burned rather than violently ignited to enhance the delicate structures therein. The ultimate result was a drastic leap in visual acuity. However, because a majority of circulating mana was focused behind the eyes and held stagnant, the technique had the added effect of reducing the user’s mana fluctuations to the point that they were nearly indistinguishable from an inanimate object.
Is this some kind of rudimentary civilization?
Jae-Hyeok saw many villages not far off, but the roads leading between the villages weren’t developed at all.
The buildings themselves were carved into the surrounding stone outcroppings, which, on the face of it, seemed rather rudimentary as well. However, as Jae-Hyeok studied the plain grey buildings, confusion flickered in his eyes.
How did they hollow out these boulders? The edges are way too smooth and precise. It doesn’t look like the work of some primitive culture, but at the same time... I don’t see a single paved road, and there’s no sign of plumbing, electricity, or utility magic at work.
Jae-Hyeok was caught in a cycle where he admired the stone-carved houses, only to look at other areas with disappointment.
I guess I’ll have to wait and see for myself.
Unable to make sense of the situation, Jae-Hyeok dispersed the mana behind his eyes, and the bird perched on his shoulder shrieked before taking off in a rush.
“Sorry ”
Jae-Hyeok muttered in apology as he turned and began making his way toward the rear of the Chinese players’ group.
It would be different if you were Koreans or allies, but in this unfamiliar place, I have no intention of leading the way.
***
As they walked, one of the younger members of the Chinese players’ group, a young woman who’d only recently reached S-class, decided to ask the question that had been on her mind.
“By the way, what is Jiang Lei going to do? Is he really going to give the rewards to that Korean kid?”
“Ah?” One of her senior players stared at her, bewildered, before barking out a laugh. “The only outcome for that kid is a nice, swift death. Jiang Lei isn’t the sort to share with some random kid, not for something this important, anyway.”
“Indeed—and why would he?” another of the group said. “Since we’re in a gate, it’ll be all too easy to kill that kid and make up a story. No matter what we say happened, there’ll be no one else to say otherwise.”
The woman looked between her teammates before chuckling. “Very funny, you guys... I know Jiang Lei wouldn’t actually do something like that. I mean, just look at what happened earlier. He immediately jumped in to help when those people were about to be trampled by that ogre. He might be rough around the edges, but he’s got the heart of a true National Treasure.”
“‘The heart of a National Treasure’...
Heheh.
You’re still wet behind the ears. Don’t you know what it means to become a National Treasure at a young age in China, where talent is overflowing? Let me give you a hint: Jiang Lei certainly didn’t climb to his current position by asking nicely.
“Jiang Lei is a person who weighs profit and loss before moving accordingly. If there hadn’t been any witnesses at the gate’s entrance, I promise you he wouldn’t have lifted a finger for those stupid Koreans.”
“That’s right. By saving them, it also made it harder to deny him entry into the gate. Having demonstrated his ‘selflessness,’ that Korean official would’ve looked terribly petty and calculating if he’d barred Jiang Lei from entering outright.”
“No way...”
“Don’t be too disappointed. Just think about it; you can rest at ease working for Jiang Lei, we’ll never be the ones to get the short end of the stick.”
Hahaha!
The Chinese players patted their colleague on the back while laughing. Then, the group arrived at the front of the nearest village, and they slowed to a stop.
“Wow... How weird. Rather than make bricks, they just carved their houses into the rock outcroppings.”
“It’s barbaric. Even humans in the Middle Ages knew how to build more advanced houses. Just how rudimentary is this kingdom? No. This place can’t even be called a kingdom.”
“Indeed. Even a thousand years ago, our Chinese civilization was still better than this.”
The Chinese players’ shoulders relaxed upon seeing the plain, stone buildings.
“Whatever beings live here, it’s obvious their levels aren’t high. Let’s just beat up a few of them to teach them whose boss.
Heheh
. We’ll have this whole place serving us like kings.”
“To those who are wearing animal skins and swinging axes, we might even be treated like gods, not kings!
Hahaha!
”
The woman who’d asked after Jae-Hyeok’s fate earlier spoke up. “Um... This is an S-class gate after all. We shouldn’t let our guard down just yet. And judging from the precise linework, whoever carved these houses isn’t lacking in skill, even if the craftsmanship is plain. Besides, don’t you find the entrances strange? They’re over three meters tall...”
“Well, we’ll know if we wait. I just wonder where all of the villagers went?”
“Eh. They must’ve gone hunting or something. By the way, when we leave, let’s spare a few of them to use as guides. As Lou Xin said, this is an S-class gate. You never know when we might walk into a high-level monster’s territory.”
“Agreed. As for now, let’s get a fire going. If Jiang Lei is nearby, he’ll come when he sees the smoke.”
In short order, the players stripped a nearby dead tree and lit a fire in the middle of the village. Under the glow of the blaze, the players cast long shadows as they began searching the nearby houses.
One by one, their expressions changed.
“What is this?”
Axes and spears hanging on the walls weren’t made of stone, but the blades were blunt and crudely shaped. Their size, however...
The axe blades were large enough to cover an adult male’s torso, while the spear shafts exceeded three meters.
An elderly player attempted to lift one of the axes, and his expression immediately changed. “W-we need to extinguish the fire right now.”
Thump! Thump! Thump!
It was too late.
Started by the sounds, the players quickly summoned their weapons and charged out of the house, only to be greeted with a terrible sight.
A grey-skinned giant strode into the village, moving straight for the players’ fire.
The monster was half as tall as the eight-meter ogre that had emerged on the streets of Seoul, but even then, it was still twice as large as any human.
When the giant saw the Chinese players, it drew an axe from its waist loop and threw it.
All the players shouted and dove out of the way—all but one: The elderly player had been the last to charge from the house and stepped directly into the path of the giant’s axe.
The elderly player’s eyes went wide. He raised his sword in a bid to block, but in the following instant, his polished sword shattered, and there was a sound like that of a watermelon exploding.
Before anyone could react, the giant’s axe continued on, whizzing several meters into the distance before embedding into the ground like an unexploded artillery shell. Meanwhile, the elderly player fell to his knees, his head reduced to a red spray that lingered in the air.
“U-uwaaaah!”
The other players climbed to their feet with pale expressions, but this was no time to mourn their colleague.
[Twilight Orc: Daruchan.]
The words floating above the grey-skinned giant's head confirmed its status as a Named monster. Orcs could be found at many gates, making Named orcs among the most common Named monsters to come across in a gate. Their power was notorious. Moreover, Twilight Orcs were one of the most powerful subspecies of orc.
And this time, there was more than just one.
“Humans came to our village on their own?
Do you want to be raised as livestock?”
Dozens of Twilight Orcs blotted out the road leading out of the village.