Chapter 112
“Ugh! What the hell?!”
Levin got up, rubbing the back of his head.
It felt like he had rolled down at least dozens of meters.
He was only fine because he was an Awakened—if he were an ordinary person, he would’ve died or been seriously injured.
Then again, Zeon wouldn’t have kicked him like that if he didn’t know Levin was an Awakened.
“Why did hyung push me into a place like this?”
Levin looked around.
But all he could see was pitch-black darkness.
Even with the eyes of an Awakened, the darkness was so dense that he couldn’t distinguish anything.
Still, there was one thing he could be certain of.
The underground space was quite large.
The reason Levin thought so was the wind.
A fairly strong wind was blowing from somewhere deep underground.
A musty smell carried on the wind, along with faint noises.
Whoooosh!
It sounded like the breathing of a beast—or a faint whistling sound.
The moment Levin heard the unidentified noise, chills ran all over his body.
“What is that?”
Right then—
As if reacting to his voice, something in the darkness opened its eyes.
Pairs of yellow glows lit up the darkness.
But it wasn’t just one pair.
Hundreds… no, thousands of glowing eyes filled the darkness.
“Fuck! What the hell are those?!”
Whoooosh!
At that moment, that same strange noise echoed again.
Only then did Levin realize—the sound was coming from the owners of those glowing eyes.
Flap!
With the sound of wings, a pair of glowing eyes flew straight toward him.
Levin hurriedly turned intangible and avoided the attack.
The creature passed straight through his body.
In that instant, Levin caught a glimpse of its form.
“A… bat?”
It was definitely a bat.
A giant bat with a wingspan of over one meter.
Its snout was lined with long, sharp fangs—each as large as those of a Flame Wolf.
Anyone could tell at a glance.
They were teeth perfectly evolved for bloodsucking.
The bats filling the underground space were all vampire bats.
If they bit you, they would drain every drop of your blood, leaving you shriveled like a mummy.
“Shit!”
Cold sweat ran down Levin’s back.
At least he had his intangibility ability.
While intangible, their attacks were useless.
Just then—
Whoooosh!
The eerie sound emitted by the bats rang out again.
In that instant, Levin felt excruciating pain.
“Ghk!”
With a groan, his body reverted back to its physical form.
It wasn’t intentional.
He had lost control for a moment and materialized.
“Then… is the ultrasonic sound they’re emitting interfering with my intangibility?”
Everyone knew bats used ultrasound to locate prey in the dark.
But that ultrasound could interfere with intangibility—he had never heard of such a thing.
No one knew that.
But Zeon clearly did.
Otherwise, there’d be no reason to push him into this place.
Whoooosh! Whooooosh!
Hundreds—no, thousands—of vampire bats emitted ultrasonic waves all at once.
“Damn it!”
Levin’s face turned pale.
It was like being exposed naked in front of thousands.
At that moment, the bats all rushed at him.
Levin desperately turned intangible.
He barely managed to do so through the interference of the ultrasound, but his concentration didn’t last long.
After a wave of bats passed through him, his focus broke—and his body materialized again.
Crunch!
Seizing that moment, one of the vampire bats bit into his forearm.
“Aaagh!”
Levin screamed and unleashed Chain Lightning.
Crack—BOOM!
The bat clinging to his arm—and several nearby—were blown apart by the powerful current.
As they died, the smell of blood and burning flesh spread instantly.
That only drove the vampire bats into a frenzy.
Flutter! Flutter!
Countless wings and ultrasonic waves mixed together, creating a deafening resonance.
All of it interfered with Levin’s intangibility.
Levin desperately tried to avoid their attacks while attempting to turn intangible again.
Only then did he realize why Zeon had thrown him in here.
The best way for an Awakened to increase their rank was through countless real experiences.
And the vampire bats here were his natural predators.
If he could survive against them, he might achieve a breakthrough.
Thinking that ignited his fighting spirit.
“Fuck it! Fine—let’s do this. Either you die or I do. Come at me, you damn bats!”
Rumble—!
As if responding to his provocation, the vampire bats rushed at him all at once.
“It’s begun.”
Hearing a voice from between the sandstone cracks, Zeon muttered quietly.
Levin’s ordeal was only just beginning.
He probably couldn’t even imagine it—
That the underground space was far larger than he thought,
and that there were many times more vampire bats than he had seen.
If Levin wanted to survive in there, he had no choice but to unleash his full potential.
Otherwise, he would eventually be drained dry and die like a mummy under their endless assault.
Even after throwing Levin into such a hellish place, Zeon’s expression didn’t change.
To grow stronger, one had to risk their life.
Deioden had raised Zeon that way.
And now Zeon intended to raise Levin the same way.
Rumble—!
When Zeon placed his hand on the sandstone, it crumbled into sand and collapsed.
The sand completely sealed the small opening.
Now, there was no escape for Levin.
The only way out was to kill all the vampire bats and escape with his own strength.
Until then, Zeon decided to rest comfortably.
He took out a few items from his subspace.
One of them was dung from an Ironclad Dung Beetle.
The Ironclad Dung Beetle was a magical beast that lived in a distant desert. Its dung was hard and produced almost no smell. Once ignited, it could maintain a strong flame for a very long time.
Because of that, it was extremely useful for starting fires in the desert.
Fwoosh!
The dung of the Ironclad Dung Beetle caught fire easily.
Zeon placed a pot over the campfire and put in food he had prepared beforehand.
Time did not flow inside his subspace.
Because of that, Zeon had stored quite a lot of edible food in his subspace after entering Neo Seoul.
This way, he could always eat it fresh.
“I’m sleepy.”
While waiting for the food to boil, Zeon warmed himself by the fire.
In truth, he didn’t need a campfire.
The robe he was wearing perfectly maintained his body temperature.
Even so, he lit the fire because of the strange sense of comfort it gave.
It somehow felt like magical beasts wouldn’t cross into this space.
Zeon looked up at the sky.
Before he knew it, the sun had set, and the sky had grown dark.
Night was the time of magical beasts.
From now on, they would roam freely.
Kuooh!
A roar from an unknown magical beast echoed from afar.
Just from the sound alone, Zeon immediately recognized what it was.
“An Armored Great Horn Bear? It’s expanded its territory all the way out here?”
Zeon tilted his head.
The Armored Great Horn Bear was a B-rank magical beast.
It stood over seven meters tall, with its entire body covered in thick, armor-like hide.
Ordinary attacks couldn’t pierce that hide or leave a wound.
It wasn’t just its defense—it also had tremendous bite force, deadly claws, and massive horns, making it extremely dangerous.
For a martial-type Awakened below C-rank, injuring it by breaking through its hide was nearly impossible.
Except during mating season, it wandered the desert alone.
That was how confident it was in its own size and strength.
In reality, there weren’t many magical beasts that could challenge it.
Even packs of Flame Wolves—and even Sandworms—avoided provoking it.
They knew that a wrong move could put them in danger instead.
As far as Zeon knew, this wasn’t the Armored Great Horn Bear’s territory.
Though it roamed the desert alone, it usually stayed within its own domain.
“Did it expand its territory? And this close to Neo Seoul?”
Just as Zeon’s eyes darkened in thought—
Vroooom!
A loud roar tore through the darkness.
Zeon immediately recognized it as the sound of a car engine.
Soon after, headlights appeared, and a vehicle approached where Zeon was.
People got out of the battered car.
“I told you. It really was a campfire.”
“Who’s crazy enough to light a fire in the middle of the desert?”
“We barely made it before the engine completely died.”
Four men and women in heavy armor stepped out of the car.
They were around Zeon’s age, and all of them were strikingly good-looking.
Among them, the strongest-looking young man spoke to Zeon.
“Hello. I’m Kim Kyungsoo, the party leader. May I ask your identity?”
“I’m Zeon.”
“Are you from Neo Seoul?”
“Not Neo Seoul. I came from the slums.”
“Hmm.”
At Zeon’s unexpected answer, Kim Kyungsoo frowned slightly and glanced at his companions.
The others also blinked in surprise.
The only woman among them recovered first.
“You’ve come a long way. I’m Yoo Seunghee. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“I’m Lee Junsu.”
“I’m Choi Changsik.”
The others introduced themselves one by one.
All of them had Korean names.
It was the first time Zeon had seen a party made up entirely of Koreans.
Zeon asked,
“You all seem to be friends?”
“That’s right. We were born and raised in the same neighborhood. We’ve been together for over twenty years.”
“Then what brings you out here at night?”
“Well… the engine gave out, so we fell behind the group.”
“The group?”
“The raid party. We had just finished clearing a dungeon that appeared recently and were on our way back.”
When a large dungeon is discovered, Neo Seoul recruits a raid party.
Awakened individuals or parties from various districts apply.
Neo Seoul selects from them and forms a raid group to clear the dungeon.
That was the standard method.
But not everyone followed it.
Dungeons appeared randomly, and it was impossible for Neo Seoul to manage them all.
There were quite a few Awakened or parties who entered dungeons without reporting them.
Successfully clearing one could earn a huge fortune.
But the risk was just as high.
In any case, the decision was up to the discoverers.
Kim Kyungsoo’s party wasn’t strong enough to tackle a dungeon independently.
He himself was C-rank, and his friends were a mix of C-rank and D-rank.
They usually joined official raid parties organized by Neo Seoul to earn rewards.
This time was no different.
The dungeon raid had been successful.
The problem was their vehicle.
It couldn’t withstand the harsh environment, and the engine had failed.
That’s why they fell behind and got stranded.
If Yoo Seunghee hadn’t spotted Zeon’s campfire, they would’ve been in serious trouble.
Yoo Seunghee spoke,
“You must be pretty confident in your skills, lighting a campfire like this. It saved us, though.”
“I just lit it because it was cold.”
“Really? You could’ve stayed in your car. Oh—there it is.”
Her eyes lit up when she saw the small buggy.
Kim Kyungsoo and the others’ eyes gleamed dangerously as well.
Seeing that, Zeon let out a sigh and said,
“It’s funny… how people are willing to risk their lives over something so trivial.”