38 – 8 – Overflow – 5

“If I am going to die anyway, I will not run away and will die fighting honorably!”

Gi-jun smacked the back of the head of the bald Orc, who stopped his steps and was trying to draw his weapon while making a brave declaration, hard.

To think they were trying to make a foolish choice after finally realizing the teachings of Teacher Jeong Yak-yong!

“Auck!”

“You won’t die! We are going to a place where we can fight more advantageously, so hurry!”

“Urgh, this is a pain that makes me realize I am alive……!”

“Dying here right now is just a dog’s death. Run if you have the breath to speak!”

Gi-jun encouraged the Orcs and quickened his own steps, glancing back.

Without a single exaggeration, looking at the monsters swarming like a pack of ants that had discovered a candy dropped on the dirt floor made Gi-jun feel a little dizzy.

It was fortunate that they had some distance from them, but the problem was that the overflow caused by the mana earthquake would not stop at just once.

Since an overflow had occurred, mana earthquakes would also occur in a chain reaction, and the overflow phenomenon would continue to spread in that manner.

Until when? Until not a single dungeon remained in the surroundings!

Every time a nearby dungeon burst open, the monsters inside it would additionally join that horde.

The Orcs said that hadn’t even been half of them bursting open yet.

The situation became even more serious because it was Turis, which happened to have many dungeons nearby.

Furthermore, the most serious part was that the monsters of the unconquered Unique-grade dungeons were not yet visible among that monster horde.

—Kieee?

‘Not yet, let’s fire when I recover just a bit more.’

Whenever his spiritual power and mana recovered, Gi-jun joined forces with Ur to fire a huge fireball.

Was it because a desperate heart was added? His coordination with Ur grew better and better, to the point that his Fire Spirit Arts grew by one level every time he fired it, but…

No matter how much he recovered his mana and spiritual power with Salutaris, a fatigue that could not be recovered was gradually accumulating in Gi-jun.

“……It’s ready.”

But wasn’t the skill he had raised to hold out at such times none other than Adamant?

Adamant, which had evolved by combining three skills including the Unique-grade skill Sleepless and Unresting, was a skill that allowed him to stand and hold out until the very moment he thought he could collapse.

Confirming that he had gathered enough mana and spiritual power to launch an attack, Gi-jun immediately drew mana into his hand and invested all of his spiritual power into Ur.

“Ur――!”

—Kieeeet!

Resonating with Gi-jun’s spiritual power, Ur, who felt a supreme sense of elevation, howled fiercely and erupted spirit power.

Because it was only the scale of the power it could emit that had shrunk while the size of its vessel remained deep and vast, it could follow along without any burden even during Gi-jun’s unreasonable operation of spirit arts.

—Boom!

A fireball far larger than the one he had shot at the humans earlier left Gi-jun’s hand and lightly flew several kilometers, striking the place where the monsters were most dense, as if to prove his improved control.

It seemed at least dozens of them died in a single shot, but it was annoying that the numbers didn’t even seem to decrease.

Still, it was an attack meaningful enough in that the general marching speed of the monsters was slowed down thanks to the flames exploding at the front of the horde.

—You have become level 5; Light Mana (L) has increased by 2, and Spiritual Power (L) by 1.

—Perfect harmony, the moment the thoughts of the two merge into one. The power of spirit arts is amplified even further. [Fire Spirit Arts (R)] skill has reached level 40.

—You have become level 5; Light Mana (L) has increased by 2, and Spiritual Power (L) by 1.

—Perfect harmony, the moment the thoughts of the two merge into one. The power of spirit arts is amplified even further. [Fire Spirit Arts (R)] skill has reached level 40.

And there was also this meaning.

After repeating blind attacks a few times, Gi-jun’s level finally rose, and his consumed stats were restored!

The slight frown on his brow smoothed out instantly, and ease returned to Gi-jun’s face.

Having a low level was quite useful in this kind of situation.

“Phew, I feel much better.”

“Jun, are you okay! Don’t overdo it, we…….”

Chabanbesh, who spoke with a worried expression on his face despite having been told to run instead of opening his mouth.

His hands must have been itching as well, as his hand was reaching for the greatsword slung across his back.

“We will never forget that you tried to protect us.”

“Stop talking bullshit and run, Chabanbesh.”

“If you were alone, wouldn’t you be able to escape safely! We are holding you back!”

Indeed, despite Gi-jun continuously firing fireballs whenever he recovered, the distance between them and the horde was gradually shrinking.

That was because the running speed of the Orcs was decreasing.

Gi-jun’s Strength and Endurance were Unique-grade; they were not at a level where losing a little sleep would hinder his running.

He could run for more than twelve hours while maintaining his maximum speed without any problem.

However, these Orcs were not at that level yet, and although their Strength was high, it was only advantageous for producing strong explosive power, not very advantageous for running for a long time.

“Leave us behind and go. No, it is not abandoning us. Leave this place to us and run to the city first to deliver this news!”

“Ha.”

Gi-jun snorted.

“They probably already know about it in the city by now anyway, so what is there to deliver? What’s important right now is for all of us to survive and join the city.”

“But……!”

“You want to stay behind and die when we need even one more person to fight? Stop talking nonsense and run. I’m not doing this because I want to save you guys. I’m doing this because I can’t stand to watch warriors who should block the overflow die in vain.”

Saying so, he reached out toward the sky again.

The Light Mana, fully recovered from the level up just now, and the spiritual power fully imbued with fire spirit power tangled together to shape a blazing whip of fire.

He fiercely swung the whip, which was flashing and writhing ominously, without even looking back.

The whip of flames, which grew longer and thinner as it sped through the air, eventually became a line of fire drawing a long horizon, and exploded as it struck the front line of the monster horde the moment Gi-jun let it go.

Lucy’s power was exquisitely added to it, which produced the effect of increasing the speed of the whip and reducing the consumption of spirit power while increasing its destructive power.

As expected, light and flames indeed grew stronger when they were together.

—Obtained proficiency through a splendid fusion technique. [Fire Spirit Arts (R)] skill has reached level 41. [Lucy (L)] skill has reached level 2.

—Spiritual Power (L) has increased by 1 to become 16.

—Obtained proficiency through a splendid fusion technique. [Fire Spirit Arts (R)] skill has reached level 41. [Lucy (L)] skill has reached level 2.

—Spiritual Power (L) has increased by 1 to become 16.

The improvised fusion technique raised not only Fire Spirit Arts but also Light Spirit Arts and Spiritual Power by 1 each.

Considering that they had spent the entire night running, he had achieved quite a decent result on his third day in Leta.

“Are you…… are you really okay?”

Seeing Gi-jun pour out wide-range fire attacks continuously without even tiring, Chabanbesh was worried beyond admiration, but Gi-jun focused on Salutaris and nodded his head.

“I’m fine, so run.”

Under the influence of the wide-range attack created by combining fire and light, surprisingly, the speed of the monsters chasing them from behind slowed down noticeably.

The front line was hit all at once and was unable to regain its senses, causing a disturbance as they collided with those running from behind and rolled on the ground.

However, the problem was just beginning, as monsters finally began to appear in the direction they were running.

“……Oh no.”

“It is proof that the range of the overflow is expanding. If it is like this, the city might already be surrounded……!”

At first, they were running toward the small city where many people were, but upon recognizing Gi-jun and the Orc horde, they let out a shriek and turned their direction all at once.

It meant they would clean them up first before moving on.

“Rare-grade……!”

A muscular build even larger than an Orc, and a thick tail dragging on the ground.

Grey scales covering the entire body like armor, vertically slit pupils like those of a reptile, and a triangular head.

The hands of those creatures, which looked like bipedal muscular lizards, were covered in pure white carapace and bizarrely transformed into a cone shape like a charging lance, which proved that they not only had a high racial grade but also possessed a class.

“Hahahahaha! This is a good place to die!”

“An Orc never dies in a place that is not a battlefield! I will gladly fight and die facing a strong enemy!”

“Jun, I will consider it an honor to have been with a hero like you on my final battlefield!”

And these damn Orcs were speaking of dying honorably again, bravely drawing their weapons.

Gi-jun quickly swung his hand to smack the backs of the Orcs’ heads and thrust his shield forward.

“We are going to break through. Everyone, get behind me.”

“But Jun!”

“I will break through. Trust me and follow.”

“……!”

What was it that they felt from Gi-jun as he strongly asserted?

The Orcs could not say anything more and lined up behind his back as they were told.

Gi-jun slightly bent his knees, moderately tensed his entire body, and wrapped his shield in flames and light.

And he added one more power to this, which was none other than the option imbued in the King of the Well.

[King of the Well (Unique)]

[Option 2 — Imbued with the power of wind, allowing it to be sprayed in all directions or shot in a sharp trajectory by swinging the weapon. Consumes mana to cast, and its power is proportional to the product of Mana and Strength. Requires a certain period of charging after casting.]

[King of the Well (Unique)]

[Option 2 — Imbued with the power of wind, allowing it to be sprayed in all directions or shot in a sharp trajectory by swinging the weapon. Consumes mana to cast, and its power is proportional to the product of Mana and Strength. Requires a certain period of charging after casting.]

True to its status as the weapon of the tutorial’s final boss, the King of the Well itself held elemental power.

Moreover, it was the power of wind, which had a perfect compatibility with fire spirit power.

If he charged like this and exploded the power of wind contained in the shield, although he couldn’t know for sure, he should be able to blow those lizard bastards blocking their path to death in an instant!

“Going.”

He kicked off the ground with a whisper.

As the Orcs followed behind him with one mind, strangely, it felt like an illusion that power was being added to the shield Gi-jun held.

Was it because of the desire to protect those who hid behind his shield?

Or did the exhilaration of becoming the leader of the pack add strength to his arms?

“Lucy, Ur――!”

Calling the names of his two contracted spirits, he forcefully thrust his shield against the lizards charging toward him with lances.

Blood-red fangs flashed from all directions, fiercely biting the front.

The wind harbored by the King of the Well was released all at once, enveloping the area in flames!

“Kyaaaaaak!”

“Kihek! Kyaak!”

He ignored the impact hitting the shield.

He ignored it.

He ran.

Blocking, pushing, and sometimes biting everything visible in front of him, he continued to run.

At the end of it, a huge lance suddenly came into view.

He saw the raised lance aiming at Gi-jun, with an unusual vortex of mana enveloping the shaft of the lance up to its tip.

—A stronger enemy, at least an Elite―― or a Boss.

‘Yeah, I feel it too. Because Limit Transcender is activating.’

Limit Transcender, a title whose grade had continuously grown during the process of Gi-jun’s ten years of training, now reaching the Legendary grade.

Although the effect that made it easier to transcend all kinds of limits was also very excellent, Limit Transcender had the effect of obtaining a dramatically positive modifier when facing enemies of a higher grade than himself.

Thanks to this title, Gi-jun was able to distinguish whether the enemy he faced was of a higher or lower grade than himself.

—Still, it is weaker than a demon, Contractor.

—Kieeeet!

Gi-jun also knew he could win.

However, he worried that the Orcs following behind him would die while he fought the creature.

But right now, there was no time to have such thoughts.

It would be enough to finish it off as quickly as possible and help the Orcs so they wouldn’t die!

“Haaaaaap!”

“Kyahaaaak!”

The very moment the human and the lizardman were about to shout and collide with each other.

—Boom!

From behind them, a greatsword that fell like a meteor glowing red slammed into the lizardman’s head.

It was an extremely exquisite, and powerful surprise attack.

“Kieeeek!”

He probably was not an enemy to be taken down so easily under normal circumstances.

However, because the attack targeted exactly his vital point the moment his attention was focused on Gi-jun, and moreover, because the greatsword carrying all the power in a single blow hit him dead center.

The lizardman lost his strength and collapsed onto the ground, and as the greatsword struck down on him several more times, he eventually lost his life in vain.

“I have come to save you, brave warriors!”

Revealing himself behind the creature’s corpse was a man equipped like a typical heavy knight, covered in blood over the plate armor that enveloped his entire body.

Pulling out the greatsword from the enemy’s mangled head and slinging it on his back, he shouted as his wild eyes gleamed through the visor of his helmet, which was the only open gap.

“Now, let us go to the fortress together! I have prepared a place for warriors like you to play an active role!”

* * *

—Slice

The neck of the goblin knight was sent flying by the longsword Ye-min skillfully swung.

One could not look down on them just because they were goblins; although goblins started from the same Common-grade as humans, these guys had relatively fast racial grade growth and a wide range of growth, so it was impossible to know when and what kind of creature with what characteristics one would face.

“This guy’s racial grade was Rare.”

“A goblin is Rare? There really is nothing we can predict here.”

Eun-shin, who revealed himself after clearing out all the goblin archers that had been cowardly firing poison arrows from behind, shook his head in amazement at Ye-min’s words.

The party’s warrior, Mok-su, who had stepped forward and blocked all of those poison arrows, let out a sigh as he pulled them out with Ji-hye’s help.

“I thought we would catch something like an ogre right away once we crossed over to Leta. But to think it’s a goblin, and even that goblin is Rare-grade? A Rare-grade race, which only two of us in our party have?”

In the second round of the tutorial, all members of Ye-min’s party had originally succeeded in growing their racial grade up to Uncommon.

Since there were no monsters that gave a lot of experience points even if they caught more, they were giving up, but just in time, they discovered the Back Dungeon.

While they were beating them to death in high spirits―― no, actually, far from being in high spirits against monsters that were not weakened, they had to escape death several times, but at any rate, they soon realized one fact.

It was the fact that even if they caught all the creatures in these ruins, not all four of them could raise their racial grade.

In the end, they decided to choose two representatives and funnel all the experience to them, and one of them was, of course, the party leader Ye-min.

As for the remaining person, they pondered between Ji-hye and Eun-shin, and the decision was made to show consideration for Eun-shin, who always took on the dangerous tasks.

As a result, the current party had Ye-min and Eun-shin at the Rare racial grade, while Ji-hye and Mok-su remained at the Uncommon grade.

Eun-shin, who was of that very Rare-grade race, chuckled at the mention of an ogre and spoke.

“No, Uncle, it’s not like an ogre is easy. If we just had one Ogre Power Gauntlet, how much would our strength rise?”

“Shin-i, you, where did you see that?”

“Yes? On a smartphone game.”

“Ha―― back in my day, speaking of Ogre Power Gauntlets――.”

“This sword, as expected, is worse than my sword.”

Ignoring the old stories that occasionally popped out of Mok-su, Ye-min muttered so, looked down at the sword in her hand, and asked Mok-su, who was holding onto Eun-shin and talking about lasagna out of nowhere.

“Uncle, do you want to use it?”

“Yeah, that mister is running an orchard instead of writing the new work he was told to write―― no, the hammer I’m using now also fits my hand perfectly?”

“Hmm.”

Ye-min gazed at the longsword in her hand, ‘King of the Well (U),’ with a dissatisfied expression.

“The options are good and the basic performance is decent, but since everyone already has a Unique weapon.”

“Plus, the item name and description are annoying too.”

“Although we can’t know for sure, we are probably the only Earthling party that crossed over to Leta and has a Unique weapon as spare equipment.”

Ji-hye said as she pulled the last poison arrow out of Mok-su’s back, and slapped his back while wrapping it with a bandage treated with antidote.

“Uncle, I’m grateful that you’re trying to fill in Gi-jun oppa’s gaps, but don’t overdo it. You’re a warrior, not a tanker.”

“Haha, but what can I do when I am the sturdiest among us? I will just suffer a little more until that fellow Jun joins us.”

“Gi-jun oppa…… it would have been nice if we could give it to Gi-jun oppa.”

Ye-min, who now fell into deep thought whenever anyone merely brought up the name Gi-jun, let out a sigh and gripped the King of the Well.

“Of all things, it had to have an equipment restriction. How annoying. We are holding Uniques, but what if Gi-jun oppa is struggling without a single Unique? I’d rather give my sword to oppa and take this one――”

“But if we keep it, a place to use it will come eventually. Since it is Unique-grade.”

Eun-shin wrapped up the talk with a light laugh.

“Since there aren’t many dungeons left, let’s clear them and talk when we return. I think we can get certified as official mercenaries with this; we are probably the fastest among the Earthlings, right?”

“Hmph, I don’t know if those humans have even come out of the safe zone by now.”

Snorting, Ye-min put the King of the Well into her inventory, and muttered the words she had already said several times with a sigh.

“I miss Gi-jun oppa…….”