Chapter 88: Heading Towards the End
He had finally reached this point.
He wasn't alone anymore. He had comrades to share the battlefield with.
However, it was too early to let go of his nervousness.
The time for peace and freedom was still far off.
72 Commanders. Moreover, if he defeated Trahnet, who no one had seen before, then would a period of peace arrive?
"Now I'll be able to hunt easily."
Each individual Death Knight would have the authority to command.
They had enough Charisma to control the Skeletons, so even if Woojin was far away, the Skeleton Soldiers would come under the jurisdiction of the Death Knights.
When he thought about his future hunts, which would be much easier from now on, he felt as if level 80 wasn't that far away.
If the Lich Janis was unsealed, he wouldn't even have to worry about leveling up. The Lich was quite proficient at hunting everything at once.
"The Control being used is continuously decreasing."
The Control needed to keep Al Assad in line was decreasing rapidly. It seemed Kiba and the other Death Knights were properly educating the new recruit.
When he thought about them bickering within the Summoning Room, it made Woojin smirk.
Sunggoo's hunt was almost at an end. Woojin started to take out the cooking utensils from the Inventory began preparing the ingredients he was going to cook. He was in a good mood. He started a fire and hung a pot over it.
He dismembered a dead water buffalo. As he was separating and tenderizing the meat, Bibi suddenly showed up next to him.
Her cheeks were puffed out as she complained next to Woojin.
"Uh-whew. The Summoning Room is too noisy-ahong."
It was understandable. They were in the midst of deciding the pecking order.
"Just go in after it quiets down a little bit."
"Uh whew. Soon, it'll be filled with Skeletons, so I doubt there will be quiet day in the future-ahong."
"I guess so...."
All of Woojin's familiars had to wait within the Summoning room.
He had to summon new Skeletons every time he wanted to use them. However, if the Skeleton Soldiers were put under the command of the Death Knights, they would also have to wait in the Summoning room until each commander called them out through a summon.
Woojin's job was to reinforce the troops with new soldiers. The command and logistics were all taken care of by the Death Knights. From now on, he will be able to show off his presence as the Immortal King.
As the Death Knights' level rises, the Skeletons assigned under them would increase. The Summoning Room would soon be full of....
"What are you going to do? It's probably going to get more raucous in the future."
"Ooh-whew. It's all right. I'll just hunt from now on-ahong."
Woojin was delighted by Bibi's reaction, which was a bit brighter today.
"Are you feeling a little bit better now?"
"Hoong. Who care if I'm better or not-ahong? I have to quickly get stronger, so I can use my Nightmare on that bastard-ahong."
When she thought about Rahsmode, who had made her experience death, her fighting spirit burned brightly. Woojin laughed when he saw Bibi act this way. He could force his familiars to follow his orders, but Woojin didn't treat his familiars that way.
"Let's start in earnest from the next Dungeon on."
"All right-ahong."
It seemed that Sunggoo had defeated all the monsters and was returning with the Return Stone. It has been said that learning was stealing. Sunggoo had witnessed Woojin constantly solo clear Dungeons, and now he would son be able to clear a 6 star Dungeon by himself.
'Well, it'll still be dangerous for him. If Haesol grew a little bit more to support him, then it would be possible..'
The two of them learned all kinds of things under the duress of Woojin. Moreover, Woojin didn't spare any investing Reinforcement Stones on them, so their basic Stats were superior to a Roused of the same Rank.
He had almost half of his Undead army now, but he wanted a different troop.
He needed a troop made out of Alandal's Roused.
Sunggoo would be the vanguard, and Haesol would be the commander.
He still had a lot of things to teach them.
[President. I've excavated all the bloodstones.]
Haesol's telepathic message rang in his head. Woojin sent back his own telepathic message.
[Already?]
[Yes. It is all finished.]
[Then come over here for now.]
With the help of Sunggoo, the speed of the group hunting was very fast now. However, Haesol had to be in charge of gathering all the loot by herself. He expected her to excavate the bloodstones to the best of her ability, as they would have to throw the rest away. However, she said she had excavated all the bloodstones, so he couldn't help but be puzzled.
"Heh heh. I got them all, hyung-nim."
Meanwhile, Sunggoo approached Woojin, drooling as he looked at the food that was being cooked. Somehow, this guy was getting more simple as time passed.
"Let's eat when haesol get here."
"Yes. Heh heh."
After a moment, Haesol closed the distance. Behind Haesol, Jackson followed with bags of bloodstones mounted on him, and a murder of 14 crows followed behind her.
"Uh? There are monsters still left?"
Sunggoo was about to defeat the murder of crows, but Woojin stopped him.
"It seems she Tamed them?"
"Uh? You are right."
The crows weren't chasing after Haesol. They were just following her.
As the name implied, they were black birds who attacked their enemies with sharp, knife-like beaks.
"What are those?"
At Woojin's query, Haesol told her story in a boastful manner.
"Haha. I Tamed them."
"How?"
Haesol was slowly becoming stronger, but the Knife-beak Crows were all level 32.
He couldn't believe Haesol was able to Tame the 3 star monsters. The saber-toothed tiger Jackson was protecting her, so she wouldn't have been harmed...
"When I was excavating bloodstones from the field of corpses, these guys appeared. They couldn't approach us, since they were intimidated by Jackson. However, I decided to give them several monster corpses for them to eat."
It seemed she didn't capture them through submission. She had succeeded in getting close to them.
"I acted a little bit."
"......."
Unexpectedly, the monsters might be weak to acting...
"So how did you excavate the bloodstones so quickly?"
"These guys helped me."
"Huh?"
Woojin didn't act like himself as he was loss for words. Then his eyes became round.
"That's possible?"
"Yes. I'm able to communicate with them to a certain extent."
It seemed she naturally awakened to the Skills like 'Commune' and 'Psychomancy'. These Skills were essential for Tamers.
Woojin stroked his chin.
He thought about the characteristics of the Knife-beak Crows.
The Knife-beak Crow's favorite food is the intestines of other animals. They used their sharp beaks to pierce through skin, and those beaks were perfect for finding and pulling out the intestines. Moreover, the crows had the habit of gathering shiny items.
Now they became friends with a Tamer, so it wasn't unreasonable for them to move under the instruction of the Tamer's will.
"Not bad."
Woojin nodded his head. He really thought this was great.
Necromancer could only summon the Undead, who had a deep-seated hate for the living.
The Undead army charged without any fear, so they were well suited for battle. However, they fell quite short when gathering items or excavating bloodstones.
Woojin could order them, but he would have to control them himself. The Undead couldn't do the task by themselves. It was like playing with puppets. If he had to control them, he would rather do it himself. It was easier and faster.
"Show me."
"Yes, sir."
As if Haesol was concentrating, she closed her eyes for a brief moment.
The crows perched in the surrounding flapped their wings to take flight. They headed towards the corpses of the monster hunted by Sunggoo.
Soon, their sharp beaks were ripping into the corpses. They took out the bloodstones, and they gathered it all in one place. Woojin asked as if he was fascinated.
"They know which ones have the bloodstones?"
"Mmm. I can sense it a little bit."
"Huh?"
"To send my Telepathic messages, I tried hard to sense the energies around me. Before I knew it, I could sense it a little bit..."
Monsters, humans and items all emitted a unique energy.
One could call it magic, or even life energy.
The dead monsters emits an evil energy, but the corpses with the bloodstones let out a mixture of magical energy and evil energy. Haesol must have understood this at an instinctual level.
No, it wasn't instinct. She must have awakened to a Sensing Type ability.
This was another additional effect of learning Telepathy.
"Ho-oh."
Woojin stroked his chin.
He knew Haesol had the potential to advance very quickly, but he never expected such rapid progress. Moreover, she had exceptional talent.
Woojin looked at Sunggoo.
'Auto-Kiting'
Woojin looked towards Haesol.
'Auto Farming'
The corner of Woojin's mouth lifted.
He had brought a newly picked Roused to order around, yet her new abilities opened his eyes to a new possibility.
He had stumbled upon it, but it was complete now.
He achieved the perfect automatic hunting method.
*
Dungeon Entrance.
"Well done, president."
Woo-soonghoon, who had been on standby, lifted a warm cup of green tea towards him. Woojin took a sip, and he asked a question.
"Do we still have some time left before the appointment ends?"
"Yes, sir. You cleared it so fast that there's 1 hour 12 minutes left."
"That's plenty of time. You should call the Management Bureau and ask them to send a monster management employee."
"Yes, sir. I will do so."
The cause must be the large crows that came out behind Che-Haesol. Haesol wasn't the first one to become a Tamer Type Roused. Numerous Tamer Type Roused had existed before her.
The monsters they trained must be registered with the Management Bureau. Moreover, they couldn't travel outside the authorized region.
After drinking another gulp of the warm green tea, Woojin looked towards Sunggoo and Haesol.
"Let's go one more time."
"Yes, hung-nim."
"Understood, president."
One hour.
Even if one spent four times longer within the high rank Dungeons, four hours to clear a 5 star Dungeon was still very short. However, Woojin was confident he could do it if he was with his auto-bots.
*
*Inside the van returning to the office.*
A professional road manager was driving instead of Soonghoon, and Chief secretary Soonghoon sat in the front seat. Kahng-woojin and Hong-sunggoo sat in the passenger seats.
Haesol was following within a container truck with her Tamed monsters.
"Ah, it's too bad. It would have been better if we could have caught several more of them."
"Heh heh. Still, we got twenty of them. With them in tow, we really don't have to worry about excavating bloodstones."
There was a limit to Haesol's Intimacy Stat. She reached her limit after Taming the saber-toothed tiger Jackson, and the 20 Knife-blade Crows. It was impossible for her to tame or control any more monsters.
"Haesol will now have to worked hard."
"Heh heh. Now Haesol will start becoming much stronger."
Haesol was already level 31.
For over 2 years, Woojin had been stuck as a Rank F in the past. When he observed his subordinate rising to Rank D after clearing a Dungeon three times, he couldn't help but let out a sigh at the speed. Still, it left much to be desired for Woojin.
In the end, her magical energy, Stat, Taming, and abilities were corrected using Reinforcement Stones.
It wasn't as if her battle experience and Dungeon clearing experience was getting better. Truthfully, Haesol was still a noob.
"Oh yeah. Do you think Minchan is busy?"
"He's probably busy."
"Do you know the Titan Guild's phone number?"
"Mmmm. Let me find out."
Soonghoon called the office, then handed his handphone towards Woojin.
"President. It's vice president Jung."
"Jeez. I guess he's really worried."
Woojin took the hand phone.
"Just text me their phone number."
[What business do you have with them?]
"Ah. I just have something I want to ask them."
[I can ask them myself. I get back to you with their reply.]
"No. I know you are busy. Just send me their phone number. This isn't anything important."
[Are you really sure this isn't anything important?]
"Jeez."
Woojin put some strength into his voice, and it immediately caused Minchan to tuck his tails between his legs.
[Understood. I'll text the number to president's phone.]
"All right. Continue to work hard. I'll be arriving at the office soon, so let's have dinner together. You probably don't have the time to leave the office? I'll have a jajangmyeon."
"I also want a jajangmyeon."
"I'll have a jjamppong."
Woojin grinned when Sungoo and Soonghoon butted in to make their orders.
"You heard them, right? I want you to order two jajang, and one jjamppong. Call Haesol to find out what she wants."
[Yes. Understood.]
Minchan prayed Woojin wouldn't cause any more trouble. Minchan ended the call without knowing if Woojin received his heartfelt feelings or not.
After ending the call, he handed the phone back to Soonghoon.
Ddi-ring.
Woojin heard the sound alerting him to a text message. He took out his hand phone.
[Direct line to the Titan Guild's secretary office. XXX-XXX-XXXX]
"How do I make an international call?"
"I'll do it for you."
Ddoo-roo-roo-roo.
With the help of Soonghoon, the phone started to ring. During all of this, Sunggoo had been tilting his head in confusion.
"Uh? We don't have a translator. Does Mr. Soonghoon know how to speak English?"
"Ah. No. I can't."
Soonghoon was so taken aback that he quickly looked towards the road manager, and the driver shook his head with an embarrassed expression on his face. Woojin smirked when he saw them being flustered.
[Hello.]
[This is Alandal's Kahng-woojin.]
Eloquent English started to flow out of Woojin's mouth. Sunggoo and Soonghoon's eyes became round.
[I'll immediately connect you to the guild master.]
The secretary must have received some training on how to respond when the Alandal guild contacted them. The call was immediately directed towards the guild master.
[Alandal master Kahng. What can I do for you?]
[Do you remember the head I showed you before when I was in the US?]
[Do you mean Al Assad?]
[Oh. You know his name, so you finished gathering information on him?]
[Not really. He's a really famous assassin, so.... He isn't really affiliated with an organization. He operated like a mercenary for hire. He worked a lot for the rebel forces in Afghanistan. There were some evidence suggesting he had worked in Iraq and Syria on several occasions. We are trying hard to find who was behind the...]
[I know who was behind it.]
[What? Is that true?]
Woojin smirked. Of course, he knew it.
He had asked Al Assad himself. Woojin found out who had given him the order and he was able to backtrack to find out who was behind it.
Woojin just wanted a little bit help from the Titan Guild.
[Do you want to go catch the mastermind behind the terrorist attack?]
How dare he send an assassin against him...
It was time for revenge.