Episode 29
The fact that the endlessly stretching desert was a dangerous place was known to all living creatures.
Even the demonic beasts living in the desert were always careful and vigilant.
Demonic beasts as numerous as the grains of sand in the desert inhabited every corner, and among them, many were S-rank.
Most S-rank demonic beasts had their own firmly established territories.
They would not leave their territories unless something significant happened, but for some reason, once they did come out, they turned the desert upside down.
Because of that, the desert’s demonic beasts, whether strong or weak, never neglected to remain vigilant.
The Crown Bison was one such demonic beast.
On the head of the giant bison, whose shoulder height alone exceeded three meters, horns shaped like a crown protruded. That was why it was named the Crown Bison.
Though oxen were originally herbivores, the Crown Bison was carnivorous.
In a world consisting only of desert, unable to obtain grass, it had evolved toward being a meat-eater.
The Crown Bison’s prey consisted of small demonic beasts or insects.
To find prey hiding deep within the sand, it always went about with its nose buried in the ground.
Though the sun hung at its zenith, the Crown Bison paid no heed and continued searching for prey.
Maintaining its massive frame required a great deal of food. Thus, it had to busily wander from morning until evening searching for prey.
The Crown Bison, frantically searching for prey, suddenly looked at its front hoof. It was due to a strange sensation.
Fwoosh!
Sand was flowing down.
At first, it thought nothing of it. But the speed at which the sand flowed gradually increased, and the Crown Bison’s body flowed down the sand dune along with it.
Moooo!
Sensing ominous signs, the Crown Bison hurriedly tried to escape from the sand. But the more it thrashed, the faster the sand flowed down.
In the end, the Crown Bison tumbled down the hill together with the sand.
Thud!
With a dull impact, the Crown Bison’s massive body crashed straight into the ground.
The Crown Bison shook its head and tried to rise. But the sand had hardened rock-solid, constricting it.
The more the Crown Bison struggled to free itself from the sand, the stronger the pressure became.
It was then.
Blam!
A Sand Missile the size of a child’s forearm shattered the Crown Bison’s head.
“Nice! I won’t have to worry about food for a while.”
Someone rose from the nearby sand.
It was none other than Jeon.
This was all Jeon’s handiwork.
He had lured the Crown Bison from atop the dune and finished it with a Sand Missile.
He had hunted the giant Crown Bison in an extremely efficient manner.
Jeon pulled a dagger from his bosom and skinned the Crown Bison.
Though its frame was massive, there weren’t many parts that humans could actually eat. Only the chest area, and even then only an extremely small portion, was free of demonic energy, making it edible.
Jeon cut out the edible parts with the dagger.
Though it was only a portion of the chest area, it was as large as Jeon’s torso.
Jeon took the meat and activated his Sand Step.
Gliding across the desert as if sliding on sand, he arrived in front of a giant cactus.
Beneath the house-sized cactus, Deiodeun was sitting.
Before Deiodeun lay a massive demonic essence stone.
It was the demonic essence stone of the A-rank demonic beast Titanoboa they had hunted yesterday.
The Titanoboa was a gigantic demonic beast whose length alone exceeded twenty meters.
As befitting an A-rank demonic beast, it possessed a powerful skill, yet Deiodeun had hunted it far too easily.
The Titanoboa had held a massive demonic essence stone within it.
It was a demonic essence stone containing powerful energy befitting an A-rank demonic beast.
Deiodeun plunged Crayon into the demonic essence stone.
Crayon was glowing red-hot.
The phenomenon appeared as it absorbed the energy contained within the demonic essence stone.
Because the energy within the demonic essence stone was so immense, the absorption took quite a bit of time.
Deiodeun focused his entire mind on aiding Crayon in absorbing the stone’s energy.
Jeon carefully sat down and began preparing the meat he had brought.
He cut the meat into small pieces and hung them in the shade.
The moisture quickly evaporated, and the meat became dry and tough.
It became jerky.
Jeon stowed all but one piece of jerky in his subspace.
He put the remaining piece of jerky in his mouth and watched Deiodeun.
Perhaps because the absorption of the demonic essence stone was reaching its final stage, Crayon was emitting intense heat.
It had already been over a month since they left the Black Forest.
During that time, Deiodeun had conquered two dungeons.
Both dungeons had been buried deep in the sand, and they had been able to enter thanks to Jeon’s help.
The Titanoboa had been the boss of the dungeon they entered yesterday.
Though it boasted a powerful dignity befitting the dungeon’s master, to Deiodeun it was no more than a mere earthworm.
‘It’s absurd. How can such a monster exist?’
In Jeon’s eyes, Deiodeun looked not like a human but a monster.
Over the month, Jeon had also grown dazzlingly.
Having awakened to the methods of utilizing sand, he could now hunt most demonic beasts with ease. But even such growth could not compare to Deiodeun.
Zzzt!
Finally, all the energy of the demonic essence stone was collected into Crayon.
The demonic essence stone, having lost all its energy, became an ordinary rock.
Clack! Clack!
At that moment, Crayon disassembled on its own in midair.
Crayon, disassembled into its component parts, orbited around Deiodeun before combining into one again.
It had evolved anew by borrowing the energy of the demonic essence stone.
The evolved Crayon emitted an even more terrifying baleful aura. But Deiodeun’s expression as he looked at Crayon was not very bright.
“It’s still not enough.”
Jeon was dumbfounded hearing his mutter.
Crayon, having repeatedly evolved, could already be called the world’s strongest weapon. So for him to say it was still lacking was stifling.
‘Just what is he trying to fight?’
To an outsider, it would seem like nothing more than the steps of a madman, but Jeon, who had watched him up close, knew there was consistency in his actions.
All of Deiodeun’s actions were connected to becoming stronger.
Whether he himself grew stronger or he strengthened Crayon, it was one of the two.
Like someone suffering from an obsession, Deiodeun was fixated on growing stronger.
The conclusion Jeon reached was one.
Deiodeun was preparing for war.
He didn’t know who the opponent was, but it was clearly something too much for the current Deiodeun. That was why he was desperately trying to become stronger.
‘Damn it! Did I make a mistake saying I’d follow him to the end?’
He slightly regretted it, but he had no intention of reversing his decision now.
Jeon threw one of the jerky pieces he had made earlier to Deiodeun. Deiodeun chewed the jerky without a single word of thanks.
“Let’s go!”
Deiodeun, having finished his jerky, stood up.
Jeon nodded and swallowed the rest of his jerky.
Deiodeun was already walking far ahead. Jeon hurriedly activated his Sand Step to follow Deiodeun.
The direction was east again.
He wondered just what lay at the end of this path.
‘They say there used to be a sea here in the past.’
The sea.
One heard of it only in passed-down stories; almost no one had actually seen it.
Only someone who had lived as long as Deiodeun would have seen the sea. Unfortunately, those born after him were not given the opportunity to see the sea.
Whoosh!
A strong wind blew.
Jeon fastened his robe tightly.
The robe made by the elves was light and allowed good mobility, but its defense was inferior to the robe made of Sand Maw leather. That was why he had to fasten it tightly to barely block the wind.
‘Won’t another Sand Maw appear?’
This time, he was confident he could catch one without being tricked at all.
It was as Jeon was walking along grumbling like that.
Deiodeun, who had been walking ahead, suddenly collapsed.
Bang!
Immediately after, a gunshot echoed from the middle of the desert.
“What?”
Jeon hastily flattened himself against the ground.
He created sand walls around his body to prepare for gunfire. But fortunately, a second gunshot did not ring out.
“Where did that come from?”
At the very least, no living creature was detected within the range of Jeon’s senses.
It was clear the shot had come from a distance beyond the reach of Jeon’s domain.
It was then.
Black shadows appeared on the distant plain.
They were humans.
And not just one or two.
Roughly counting, there appeared to be over a hundred.
They were riding dune buggies mainly used in the desert and racing this way.
“Scavengers?”
Jeon focused mana in his eyes.
Then the figures of the humans approaching from afar became clearly visible.
“Them?”
Looking at the buggy racing in the lead, Jeon discovered familiar faces.
It was Jang Yongbeom’s party, who had saved him from the Sandworm.
Jang Yongbeom, Aiden, Mountain, and Giselle were riding in the same vehicle.
About twenty buggies were following behind the car they rode.
What Jeon focused on was the buggy following right behind Jang Yongbeom’s.
A man holding a massive gun could be seen atop the buggy.
White smoke was still rising from the gun barrel, making it clear that he was the one who had sniped Deiodeun.
“A Magic Bullet Marksman?”
Though extremely rare, there were Awakeners among those who used firearms.
Those who succeeded in their shots with one hundred percent probability no matter how far the distance.
They could not exert much power against gigantic demonic beasts or demonic beasts with barriers, but they were absolute killing weapons that held overwhelming superiority against humans.
Neo Seoul had manufactured guns combining magic and science for them.
The sniper rifle made to snipe from outside an Awakener’s detection range had a range of over ten kilometers.
When the gun-wielding Awakener’s traits, the eye of the hawk and refined senses, combined, they demonstrated absolute power.
Just like now.
The one who had sniped Deiodeun from over ten kilometers away was Rio Palona.
Rio was a sniper belonging to Numbers, the execution squad directly under the mayor of Neo Seoul.
The mayor of Neo Seoul possessed absolute power and operated an execution squad to eliminate political enemies.
Clack!
“I was a bit nervous since they called him the Butcher, but he’s nothing special.”
Rio pulled out the cartridge case and smiled.
It was a snipe from over ten kilometers away.
No matter how great an Awakener, detecting a flying bullet was impossible.
Then Jang Yongbeom, riding in the front car, spoke in a loud voice.
“Don’t let your guard down. The opponent is Deiodeun. He’s a crazy old man.”
“Heh heh! Why be scared of an old man who’s already dead?”
Rio sneered at Jang Yongbeom.
He was certain of Deiodeun’s death.
He was nearly embarrassed to have brought so many other Awakeners along like a bunch of grapes to prepare for danger.
“By the way, there was another one.”
Rio muttered as he loaded a bullet into the sniper rifle.
This sniper rifle was great in every way, but its weakness was that it could only fire one shot at a time.
Because of that, there was a delay between shots. However, Rio was not greatly worried.
The distance to Jeon was still considerable, and at that range, he could sufficiently deal with him using his sniper rifle.
He sought out Jeon and placed his eye to the scope.
Beyond the magic scope, he saw something stirring and rising.
The moment he confirmed the image in the scope, Rio muttered without realizing it.
“Impossible! I definitely aimed for the head!”
The being stirring and rising was the old man he had successfully sniped just moments ago.
Fssss!
White smoke was rising from Deiodeun’s forehead where the bullet had impacted.
“Heh heh!”
Inside the scope, Deiodeun was smiling.
Deiodeun pulled his arm back with all his might, then swung it with full power.
Schwing!
In an instant, a terrifying sonic boom echoed across the desert.
Jang Yongbeom urgently shouted.
“Everyone, be careful!”
Boom!
Before his words could finish, the car Rio was riding exploded.
A giant greatsword was lodged in the exploded car.
It was Crayon.
Jang Yongbeom urgently searched for Rio’s whereabouts.
Jang Yongbeom’s face twisted upon confirming Rio.
Rio was pierced by Crayon and lay spread-eagled like a frog.
There was no need to even confirm whether he was alive or dead.
It was instant death, without a doubt.
Jang Yongbeom’s lips twisted.
“You monstrous old man!”