Chapter 252
Hyukjin could tell.
If I wasnt the destroyer of the Gray Ring I wouldnt have been able to co here, and even if I did
The destructive sensation that had just swept through his body would have completely demolished him.
It was truly a good thing that he had chosen the Gray Ring in the Gran Seoul Dungeons hidden field. Looking at the Players current rate of growth, breaching the 40s appeared doable, unlike in the past.
The countless people who werent able to overco the level 40 wall
Now, those Players whose growth had technically been artificially restricted would be able to grow by leaps and bounds, at least until level 60.
Anyway, lets focus on this place.
[A new field, Sea of Clouds, has been opened.]
Sea of Clouds. Just as the na suggested, it was a sea made of clouds.
He saw a pure white sea.
[Entering the Sea of Clouds.]
Hyukjins body instantly tilted. He imdiately recovered his balance.
The footing has changed.
The ground had turned into clouds.
I need to keep moving.
If he didnt, he would sink. The clouds felt plushie under his feet. For the ti being, he walked to avoid sinking down.
Its huge.
The Sea of Clouds was truly enormous. He couldnt even fathom how many ters lay between him and the faraway horizon. The sa went for the depth. He couldnt see down to the depths of this white ocean.
Im at a loss, Hyukjin said.
There didnt appear to be many clues on what to do. All he could see was a sea of clouds. But there had to be a clue sowhere, a trail towards the clear. He intentionally said he was at a loss to get the Guardians to empathize with him.
There arent any clues I can see with my eyes.
Waves of clouds ca in like in a real ocean. They were even accompanied by the sound of rushing water.
He continued to walk. If his exploration of the surrounding area turned up empty, he would have to explore the Sea of Clouds depths.
The keywords given to
are
Freedom.
Sky.
Endless Sky.
These three. And if he were to add one more
The Demon Kings arrangents.
He had to proceed with these four factors in mind. After walking for so ti, he saw sothing far above him. It was odd calling it a sky seeing as this was an ocean made of clouds, but in any case, there was sothing flying around in the sky.
Extrely high up.
Sothing kept flying up there. He couldnt see it clearly.
The fact that theres a sea and its flying around ans theres a high chance it has soplace it can rest.
In other words, there was probably a shore sowhere. Of course, there were also fields out there that didnt prescribe to such expectations, but this was a special field involving countless arrangents and settings. There was a good chance it had sothing of the sort lined up.
If there are birds in the sky there must be fish in the sea.
Just then, Eye of Perception captured sothing. Sothing huge, and fast. He felt it so distance underneath, far beneath the surface.
Its getting closer.
He didnt detect murderous intent or hostility from it, but its presence was simply too huge. So huge, in fact, that it made Hyukjin back away.
Here it cos.
That thing, whatever it was, surged up so distance ahead of him.
Sploshhh!
It breached the surface, appearing in a spray of clouds.
A whale?
The enormous whale-like creature sprang out of the clouds, its unique coloring strikingly obvious.
A white whale.
It was a pure white whale of trendous proportions. A great spout of clouds erged from its blowhole instead of water.
But just then, the thing flying around in the sky began to approach at a rapid speed.
Whats going on?
Just how high up had it been? What had originally appeared as small as a sparrow beca incredibly large as it approached.
Thats
It was a monster he knew.
A wyvern.
The flying creature was a wyvern, a monster classified as a subspecies of the ultimate species that existed only in the settings, dragons. It also went by the na of flying lizard.
There were many different variants of wyverns, and of them, this one was a Steel Wyvern, the most violent of them all. Not the strongest, but the most violent. That was how ferocious they were.
Though well, whether it's ferocious or not isnt the issue with a wyvern.
A wyvern wasnt sothing that should appear in the beginner period. It didnt matter whether the monsters that showed up after the beginner period were aggressive or docile. Most of them were hostile monsters, and they either nursed intense enmity towards humans or considered humans prey.
But the fact that it earned its violent reputation in spite of that
Was due to its extre gluttony. The Steel Wyvern was a major glutton that scrambled to gobble down everything it could see. In the Great Explorer Jacksons notes, there was a passage like this:
If there is a field that should certainly have a lot of monsters but doesnt, and if there is a gorge in the area, then we must consider the possibility of a Steel Wyverns existence.
Kiiiiiiiiiii!
The Steel Wyvern plumted down, this flying lizard with scales of a color sowhere between blue and black tearing into the white whales body.
The white whale thrashed in pain, producing massive sprays of clouds dyed bright red. There was no blood, but the red clouds gave off the impression of blood.
That mont, Hyukjin received a quest.
[The quest Save the White Whale from Danger! has been generated.]
Kiiiiiiiii!
Like sharks drawn to the sll of blood, countless Steel Wyverns began descending from the sky in their direction.
Save the white whale?
There was no way he could defeat that many Steel Wyverns at his current level. He would be the one ripped to shreds.
Hunting them is impossible.
So ultimately, he just had to focus on saving the white whale.
Before they get any closer.
Every second counted. They were descending too quickly.
[Using the special skill Flash Step.]
He approached in a flash. The Steel Wyvern was currently clutching the massive whale with its sharp claws, which were lodged in the whales skin like hooks. The wyvern beat its wings skyward, but it seed incapable of overcoming the whales strength and weight.
The whale was trying to escape into the sea of clouds
And the wyvern was trying to fish it up out of the sea.
Hyukjin imdiately decided what he needed to do.
[Using the innate ability Sword of Insight.]
He swung Isabel. Through his battle against the Black Pearl Centipede, he won the Divine Sword Physique. Hunting down a wyvern on the spot might be a challenge, but he could certainly remove the whale from the wyverns grasp.
Kieeeeek!
The wyvern shrieked in pain.
[You have earned the Steel Wyverns wrath.]
That instant, Hyukjin instinctively felt danger, as potent and all-encompassing as the feeling hed gotten while fleeing from the Magic Troll in the Tutorial Dungeon. A chill ran down his spine.
The wyvern is coming for .
There was no place to escape in sight, just like how there had been nowhere to escape from the Magic Trolls fist. The special ability with the power of sixth sense, Eye of Perception, blared a warning.
There was no decent place to flee. The wyvern was too fast.
In the end, there was only one place to run.
The wyverns beak drew near, the sa sharp and sturdy beak that had punctured this huge whales body.
The only place is down.
He could see no place to flee aboveground. Nowhere, not a single place, would offer him a path of survival. No matter where he fled, he could not escape the wyverns attack. In the end, the only place he could go to dodge the wyverns beak was into the sea, down in the Sea of Clouds.
Hyukjin imdiately dove.
* * *
* * *
Ngh.
Sharp claws raked his back.
Im suffocating.
The Sea of Clouds was truly like a real ocean. He had never swum in the deep sea, but if he had, it would probably feel sothing like this. Though it looked like a white ocean from the outside, it was terribly dark from the inside. It was as if he was plunged into outer space, where not a single ray of light could be perceived.
He heard a notice.
[The quest Save the White Whale from Danger! has been cleared.]
He cleared it, but was given no rewards. It beca increasingly difficult to breathe. The pressure in his lungs was even worse than holding his breath in the water.
There must be wyverns outside.
If he surfaced, he would surely beco wyvern fodder. Just then, he heard a voice.
Thank you.
A woman appeared before him, a woman with platinum hair that only existed in fantasy novels. Her body was draped with what looked like clothing made of scales, but that clothing was actually her body itself. A splotch of red stained her side like a bloody wound.
I am a descendant of the whalekin, Natalie. Its hard for you to breathe, isnt it?
The woman who introduced herself as Natalie extended a pill to him. The pill was called Freedom. It bore the sa na as the elixir Freedom, but had a different effect.
Gulp.
He swallowed Freedom, and it beca easier to breathe.
That is a pill we whalekin made to welco our visitors or saviors. Inside is a whales breath. You should be able to breathe comfortably here in the Sea of Clouds.
Are you that whale from just now? Hyukjin asked.
Yes, thats right. You saved
from nearly getting eaten by the skybirds.
By skybird, she was probably referring to Steel Wyverns.
Why did you leave the Sea of Clouds and breach the surface?
Because we need to breathe as well.
Hyukjin felt Eye of Perception tingle. He couldnt read her at all with Eye of Perception. Not even the wyvern had given him this feeling.
Shes far stronger than a wyvern.
It didnt seem to be that way just because they were in the Sea of Clouds. This woman possessed strength so great that the current Kim Hyukjin could not even begin to fathom how strong.
Shes way, way stronger than .
So why was she losing to the wyvern? Even outside the Sea of Clouds, even if she was vulnerable on the surface, this woman should have been able to make quick work of the wyvern.
I get it.
He was starting to get his bearings. Because there was one keyword at the core of everything here.
Hyukjin asked, Could it be that the whalekin are a race not given the freedom to attack?
...You figured it out imdiately. Or did you already know about us whalekin?
No. Its the first ti Ive ever heard about your existence.
And that they werent in the sea, but in this Sea of Clouds.
Though we are endowed with great strength, we cannot use it. That is the sanction we bore when abandoning our holand.
The scenario was unfolding with every new morsel of background information. Hyukjin felt his mood soar. Right now, the backdrop to this secret scenario the Guardians would go nuts for was taking shape.
Why did you end up leaving your holand?
Because we loved peace.
They loved peace, but they left their holand?
In the ti of our elders, waterdrakes began to settle in our holand. We didnt want to fight the waterdrakes. Whalekin are a peace-loving race.
Whalekin. Waterdrakes. And Steel Wyverns.
The scenario that would take place in this Sea of Clouds probably had to do with these three races, all under the huge umbrella that was Freedom.
He needed a little more info.
Where was your holand?
The answer he received was completely unexpected.
Our holand is up there. Natalie pointed up with her finger, towards the faraway sky dotted with wheeling Steel Wyverns. The Endless Sky is our holand.
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