Volume 56 Chapter 2.1: The King of Devils (1)

- These pesky, worthless dwarves must have lost their senses stealing my things!

The dwarves of Cygorn and Ulta Mountain Pass continued to suffer under Kaybern's wrath.

The peaceful villages were set entirely on flames, and the terrain was transformed by a series of avalanches.

"That insane dragon!"

The dwarven citizens forgot about their instinctive fears and retaliated, only to be wiped out by waves of magic.

- Attack, slaughter them all!

The dragon soldiers led the monsters to invade the resisting dwarven villages.

In 3 days, 45 villages were razed and over 30,000 dwarves lost their lives.

The war that took place in the deepest parts of Ulta and Cygorn Mountain Pass were released to the public via broadcast.

- Thor has ultimately become the target of the dragon.

- Seems that the dwarves and the dragon cannot coexist within the woods any longer.

- Would there be a possibility that Kaybern's weekly target may shift to dwarven villages?

- It doesn't seem to be to that extent. For the time being, the cities that the dragon will likely target are... Hmm-hmm. The calculation is very complex to understand, but anyways the targets will be major cities.

- The dwarves do not settle in large communities, to begin with.

The situation in Thor became dire and more dwarves descended from the mountains away from the dragon. It was so critical that even Weed, who carried out the dwarven race quest, was deeply concerned.

'This is a race quest? What, is this some kind of dwarf annihilation quest?'

Even so, the dwarves of Debrado Village, who were connected to the quest, actively roamed around the Mountain Pass.

"Just for how much longer are we supposed to suffer? We retrieved our nation's treasure, the Brazier of Sacrifice. It is time to swing the axes of revenge."

"Finally, has that time arrived?"

The nature of dwarves were different from humans. They were naturally afraid of the dragon, but if their kind lost their lives they burned in vengeance.

All the dwarves were uniting as one.

"Is it really true that the Brazier of Sacrifice was found?"

"Yes. A great, heroic dwarf has appeared before our kind."

"What is his name?"

"He's... Weedhand."

It was a fake name that Weed told them when he was under Sculptural Transformation!

That name was spreading among the dwarves of Thor.

The dwarf users that remained in Thor laughed.

"This is amazing. Isn't it the first time that such a large-scale dwarf race quest arised?"

"It's spectacular of Weed-nim to discover it. A chain quest after the robbery of Kaybern's lair..."

"Awesome. Just purely epic."

"I want to join too."

"We are dwarves too, so we can."

"Oh, yeah. Dwarves never had a war quest like this one. It's going to be fun."

The dwarves that were negligent even when the Hermes Guild dominated the Central Continent wished for Weed to succeed in his adventure.

Kaybern was the most wretched presence of all for the dwarves and so they hoped dearly that the dragon would be slain.

***

Weed preceding the progression of the dwarf quest, hunted whenever he could. It was also an important task to lead the assault squad that pledged to fight against Kaybern and take care of the multiplying monsters.

"To battle."

100,000 monsters vs. 1,000 assault squad!

On the vast plains, huge clashes with aerial supports from the avian broke out in the morning, midday and afternoon. Even after midnight, before breakfast, during breakfast, after breakfast... They just kept on fighting.

"19 hours of hunting in a day... Though I think I've grown a little used to it."

"Humans are mighty beings. If I kept on levelling since the start of Royal Road, I would have won against Bard Ray."

The users that enlisted in the assault squad began calling themselves combat slaves in the process. The nickname that was given to Pale had spread to everyone.

"This is impossible. But, he can fight like that even while leading us."

"I thought it was plain insanity when he first explained it, but once we got into it, it's doable."

"The hunting level has become more difficult than when we first started, but somehow we are pulling through."

"The willpower of humans is strong."

"Yeah. That's why people die from exhaustion."

They were all above level 500, but the more they hunted the more they developed respect for Weed. Weed wasn't a typical person to whom they can apply feelings like jealousy.

Weed sprang into a field full of monsters, fighting with the strength of ten men.

- Everyone fight! Advance!

He swung a sword, used a sword cloning technique, wielded the Radiant Sword Technique...

He even healed his allies with the Sword of Regeneration on occasion whilst leading the battle. Then he would use Corpse Explosion and summon the undead, doing the job of 30 or even 50 men. Even users above level 500 could do nothing other than watch in awe.

"That is just really amazing."

"He is the perfect all-around character, the complete, ultimate mode. Something like that."

"But he doesn't use Sculptural skills that often. He's not even using Disaster sculpting."

"If he used that, this place would become a living hell. We would die too."

The high level users would spend weeks in dungeons during their peak. They levelled up and naturally exceeded their limits whenever they found good hunting grounds.

They reminisced about past memories, and gradually their complaints diminished.

Whenever Weed led the hunt, their eyes dropped below their cheekbones, but when he was absent on a quest, they waited anxiously.

Depending on whether or not he was present, the hunting speed could be from 2 to 3 times faster.

Furthermore, their hearts boiled whenever they saw Weed in action with their own eyes.

'Weed is doing that much... What stops me from doing the same?'

'Just hold my ground. If I stick here for a month, I will become a hero in the future.'

'Rankers? Hermes Guild? This is the chance to become stronger than any of them.'

A craze for training was brewing up among the users of the assault squad. Passion burned inside them whenever they saw thousands of monsters advancing across the plains.

- Let us fight!

The Central Continent users thrived under the pressure of the Hermes Guild and the prestigious factions. Their tendencies were slowly changing.

'My operation is starting to show results.'

Weed too felt their attitudes changing into proper combat slaves. On the other hand, news of the Brazier of Sacrifice was spreading like wildfire.

"Using the brazier reduces your level by 20 to 30?"

"You can decline further than that. It's to a maximum of 10% depending on how much you use as fuel."

"That's absurd."

High level users made a blunt assessment.

The tradeoff was too heavy for fighting Kaybern just once.

"For one hunt... I need to throw away all that I've worked for?"

"All that grind we did in hunting hell would become meaningless. Just how hard did we try to reach where we are?"

"Other people would be training while I become weaker."

Most users that heard of the brazier could not accept it. They wanted to participate in the fight against the dragon, but they did not wish to use the brazier.

The higher level they were, the more they were attached to their own level of power.

"What about the live stream? If we give up now, won't we look like dirtbags?"

"We said we are going to fight Kaybern, so we just need to fight. Forget about the Brazier of Sacrifice."

"That's true."

"If we end up fighting in our current state, it is good enough to keep our promise. But if I am forced to use the brazier, I'm out regardless of how people are going to curse me."

Out of the 400,000 members in the assault squad, only a few hundred elected to use the brazier. They didn't want to bear the loss and frankfully they had their legitimate reasons.

Fleeing during a battle would indeed be a behavior subject to criticism, but throwing away a handful of levels was a different story.

Weed also knew of this consensus and did not bother mentioning it.

'These guys signed up to fight against Kaybern, so I can drag them all around these hunting grounds. But I cannot impose sacrifice.'

Honestly, the success of the Kaybern hunt could not be guaranteed.

There were no rewards he could offer at the moment and even he had some conscience. On top of that, it did not concur with Weed's usual philosophy.

Normally, speeches of encouragement in war are the desires of a single individual manipulating mob psychology.

The core desire of these high level users was to become more powerful.

'Even I would have been reluctant if someone asked me to fight using the brazier.'

No matter what reward they were promised, it was very difficult to get someone to do something that most people would turn down.

'The only one to trust is myself. I would appreciate people who will help me, but I should not rely on them.'

***

The Earthy Shadows party that left for the South quickly progressed their quest to uncover the secrets of the Frozen Forest.

< The Reason For the Cold Winds >

< The Tree That Vanished >

< Ancient Vestige >

< The Elves' Course >

The difficulty was above A rank but they were clever in their use of adventure skills and requested necessary information from the Great Library of Morata.

"There is nothing yet about the Wind Mage, Ruckledare. Could we have followed a false lead?"

"I don't know. We might have opened the door for another quest, but it's too late to quit."

"Weed is progressing through the dwarf race quest, so maybe the lead to stopping Kaybern might arise from that side."

"We need to be hopeful."

The self esteem of the continent's best adventure party was depreciated after repeated failure in quests.

They changed the weather with magic and created a miracle of reviving the frozen forest.

The bleak forest of solid ice regained its green vigour.

*Blink!*

< Mayad's Forest is reviving. The wood elves will return.

As reward, affinity with nature is increased by 3. >

Elix wrapped bandages around his wounds and spoke.

"This is the reason why I cannot give up on adventures."

"It's a spectacular sight. Even if other people wouldn't appreciate it as much."

It was something that occurred in the outskirts where no one visited.

Just who will acknowledge their accomplishments of putting their own lives in danger to bring back the elves.

Even so, they felt pride in turning a small part of Versailles into a beautiful scenery.

"Let's look around the forest before the elves return."

"That's a sound idea."

Following Silver Ring's suggestion, they walked into the forest.

It was a silent forest yet without creatures like birds and hares.

On the ground were snow and ice fragments that were still melting; a little eccentric.

- Welcome, Adventurers.

A tree began speaking to them.

It was a plain tree about 3 meters tall, rooted in the wide open space in the forest.

Ben was extremely surprised.

"A talking tree... You don't seem like a spirit or a fairy. Are you the World Tree?"

- I have succeeded that great being, somewhat. Though I could not protect even this forest.

A tree in Mayad's Forest.

It wasn't the World Tree that existed and protected the world since the beginning of time, but its descendant that budded from its branches.

- The World Tree was destroyed by Kaybern. It rotted in poison, burned in its flames and was torn down in pieces. The high elves took the roots and branches not yet burnt away and scattered across the continent. To revive the tree that protects the realm of forests.

"Kaybern... So it was connected to Kaybern after all."

Elix moaned.

- Kaybern and the high elves engaged in countless battles. Despite the dragon's might, the high elves did not submit until the end... Thus they disappeared.

Silver Ring was inspecting the fallen leaves on the ground and asked.

"So, the reason for this forest being here..."

- Yes. They fled from Kaybern and raised a forest here. The noble high elves fell one by one to the monster legion that tracked them down. If it weren't for the help of a human, the new roots would not have settled.

Elix's eyes glimmered.

"By chance, is that human the Wind Mage Ruckledare?"

- Yes. It was he who assisted us.

It turned out that they were on the right track for Ruckledare's tracks connected to Kaybern and Landony.

- I have a favour to ask of you all. I must return to the forest again. All elves will offer their assistance.