Chapter 81: Nip it in the Bud, Part II
Translator: HunterW
Editor: RED
“You’re…” I had no idea what his na was. Well, maybe I did, but I didn’t care who he was when I first saw him. I also had no idea why he was calling “master”.
“Do Sunghoon! My na is Do Sunghoon!”
“Uh huh…right.”
“Do you rember ?”
“Uh… from Hyungjae Loans, right?”
“Yes, that’s right! I was the one who got captured by Oh Hyungjae and was killed by him multiple tis. If it weren’t for you, master, on that fateful day, who knows what would have happened to … umm, by the way, I never got your na.”
“It’s Lee Jiwon.”
“It’s very great eting you again, Master Lee.”
“Likewise.”
I did not expect to et him here in Cairo, of all places. I thought I would never see him again after that day.
“What brings you all the way to Cairo, Master Lee?”
“Master…why are you calling master?” Why was he calling master, when this was our first ti talking?
“That’s because I decided to take you as a teacher of life and strength since that day!”
“Say what now?”
“I’ll never forget what you did for that day. I swore to myself that if I ever see you again, I’d make you my master and live as your apprentice!”
I was taken aback by his enthusiasm. He began telling about how hard he looked for , how he tried to copy my appearance, and about how he hunted relentlessly to get stronger. It was like a child bragging to their parents. He kept looking at like he wanted to tousle his hair and tell him good job, but… he looked older than . There was no way I would do that to a middle-aged man with a beer belly.
“I…I see. So that’s what happened…”
“That’s right! That’s why Master Lee is forever my master. Forever! To the end of days!”
“No… you don’t have to go that far.”
“Please, there’s no need to be so formal. Why would a master be respectful towards his student?”
“But our age…”
“Age doesn’t matter between devas. All that matters is who is stronger!”
“Still…”
“Master, please! If you continue this way then I, Do Sunghoon, will not et you ever again!”
That’s want I wanted him to do. It was really weird to have soone be so forward with . But it was nice to have soone to talk to after hunting on my own for a month, as weird as it was to have soone look at like a dog to its owner. “O…okay…”
“Thank you, master!
“By the way, what brings you all the way to Cairo? Most Koreans don’t co all the way out here.” Egypt was way too far from Korea just for simple training. There were better and closer hunting grounds in Japan and China.
“Hmm…it is a secret, but I’ll tell you because you asked, master. I’m currently a mber of a group known as Fate.”
“Fate?” I had never heard of a group like that before.
“I doubt you’ve heard of it. Put simply, it’s a group ford to fight against deities. Of course, we don’t fight every single deity out there. We mainly target deities that bring harm to devas.”
“Then you’re here for the Blood Prince.”
“Yes. The Blood Prince is Fate’s greatest enemy. The number of devas and mortals he has killed just went over 20,000. He is also getting stronger at an alarming rate, much faster than anyone else. We believe that if we just let him be, there will co a ti that we devas will have to live in fear under his shadow, and decided it was best to join forces with the Myth Guild. That was why I was dispatched here.”
“Do you think killing him once will make that much of a difference?”
“As you already know, the existence of deities is a complete con. Yes, there are only a few deities out there that have special skills and abilities like the Blood Prince. The rest of them have to buy skills like devas. Those special deities, including the Blood Prince, are known as the Seven Monarchs.”
“Right.” If all deities were as strong as the Blood Prince, all devas would beco slaves to deities. That much was obvious.
“Of course, most deities are stronger since they get twice as many stat points when they level up. That alone makes them that much stronger than devas.”
I already knew all of this. In the past, many devas hated the existence of deities, including . What made them better than the rest of us?
“However, they lose just as much upon death.”
“How so?”
“First off, we devas have to wait three hours before we can respawn. Deities, on the other hand, have to wait 3,000 hours or 125 days. Second, devas lose 2 points to each Stat, a total of 10 points; basically we lose 1 level when we die. Deities lose 30 levels each ti they die; they lose 120 Stat points to each Stat.” Unrivaled devas had a similar death penalty; they lost the sa amount of Stat points they gained from one level.
“Deities also can’t use Penalty Recovery items like we can. They can’t get back the 600 Stat points they lose from dying once. Also, we devas can use the Sea of Reset to start over, but if a deity used it…”
“What happens?”
“They beco devas.”
“What…” It was my first ti hearing all of this.
“You must not tell anyone this, but the leader of Fate is a deity.”
“!!!” I stared at Sunghoon in shock.
“According to the boss, deities and devas aren’t supposed to be enemies, but there are a few deities that are misunderstanding the whole thing. The boss believes that we need to be working together to prepare for the future, but the Blood Prince is causing a lot of problems. That’s why the boss decided to step in, to prevent a war between deities and devas.”
I didn’t ask him about it, but Sunghoon kept telling everything he knew. He was becoming more and more useful.
“Oh, look at the ti. It’s almost recruiting ti so I’d best be going.”
“Oh, yeah. OK.”
“Oh, and take this too.” Sunghoon took sothing out of his inventory and handed it to .
“Is… this a Comm Link?” People still used radios and phones. Large guilds even had their own transmission towers. But those things couldn’t be used inside dungeons. The only way to communicate during long dungeon hunts was to use Comm Links. Comm Links allowed others to communicate with each other as long as their Comm Links were connected. They were also very expensive.
“Yes. This Comm Link can connect to five other Comm Links. This one already has mine connected to it. It’s under #1.”
“It must have been expensive.”
Sunghoon gave a hearty laugh. “I finally got to et you again, master; I can’t just let you go, now can I?”
I almost didn’t want to take it, but Sunghoon did go through a lot to find .
“One more thing, master.” Sunghoon’s face turned dark as he got up to leave. “Cairo is going to turn into a bloody battlefield tomorrow. The Myth Guild is going to fight to the last man against the Blood Prince. Neither side is going to yield. You must leave Cairo before then.”
“What about you?”
“I must fight as a mber of Fate. We must do everything we can to stop the Blood Prince from getting stronger.”
“Even if no one will recognize your efforts?”
Sunghoon laughed again. “There are a few out there. We have a few large guilds that have been secretly supporting Fate. I’m sure it’s because they’re jealous of deities.”
“I’m sure.”
“Yes. I know there are so devas out there that work tirelessly to watch out for the future of devas, but…well, I do have the support of many.”
I nodded slightly at what Sunghoon just said.
“Well then, master. I’ll contact you soon. Do get out of Cairo ASAP.” Sunghoon left those final words before leaving the restaurant.
There was still quite a bit of food left on my table, but I lost the will to eat more.
-What should I do?- I had more to think about now. I left the restaurant and went back to the motel.
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“It’s not like it’s got anything to do with , honestly.” I did have my own encounter with the Blood Prince, and it was only a month ago. The bastard picked a fight with for no reason while I was out looking for Khufu’s hidden dungeon. He had the sa atrocious personality I had heard about in the past. He attacked anyone he wanted to, and saw all devas and mortals as insects to be exterminated.
“The Blood Prince did completely eliminate the Myth Guild and took over all of Egypt. He ascended even higher in strength after that…”
Even though the Blood Prince saw all devas as bugs, he did have devas that worked for him and stuck by him. They probably learned how to deal with him and his whims just so they could reap so of the rewards.
“What is this? I just have to not run into him again and I can go on my way…” I had nothing to do with them or him. It was the sa in the past, and that’s how it was now. I didn’t belong to any guild, nor did I have anyone I cared about in particular. I knew that I would be fine if I just avoided him for the rest of my life.
“But there is sothing I learned in this new life. What was it I told Kim Jiwan? It’s smart to leave no potential enemies.” That was the problem right now.
In the past, the Blood Prince was an entity that was so far away from . I was so insignificant compared to him that there was no chance of ever running into him. But what about now, or in the future? Would it be the sa? Was I really never going to run into him again? Those questions kept surfacing.
I had a strong feeling that I would encounter him again sooner or later, and that he would be much stronger then.
“What to do…?”
If I were weak, I would have died in an instant back at the Giza Pyramid dungeon’s entrance, just like all the other devas. Revenge? There was no way I could ever dream about revenge. It was because I was strong that I fought back and that I could hurt him.
“He’s going to end up getting in my way.” Even if I keep getting stronger, the Blood Prince would do the sa.
Of course, I probably wouldn’t lose then but right now, I had a chance to nip him in the bud. That was the smartest choice to make.
I laughed to myself. “Did I grow that much to think like this?” I wasn’t worried about the fate of other devas and mortals. I was just thinking about my future. It was selfish of , but that was how I thought. But I was still happy that I could think this way now, as it was sothing I couldn’t afford to do in the past.
I had to go with the flow of everything around . I never had anyone that could get in my way.
I picked up the report the Myth Guild gave on the Blood Prince and thumbed through it. I didn’t believe everything in the report, but there were quite a few things in there that matched what I knew from the past.
“Fine! I’ll do it.” I made my decision. I would join the fight against the Blood Prince. It was for and only!
Based on his temper, he was never going to see devas as his equals. He did the sa in the past. If he wiped out the Myth Guild, he was only going to get stronger.
“I need to defeat him while I can! I need to put so distance between while I still have the chance!” It wasn’t like I needed to do much to prepare for the fight. All I had to do was my own thing. The Myth Guild was even going to pay !
I decided to go to the Myth Guild’s headquarters the next morning and took the rest of the day off. I had to get ready for the fight of my life.
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Early next morning, I arrived in front of the Myth Guild’s building.
“It’s so close.” I could see it from the motel. The main building was less than thirty stories tall, but the campus was very large. There were also two other ten-story buildings that were being used by the guild.
“Who goes there?” There was a guard in front of the main gate.
“I have business with the Myth Guild. Oh, I can just show you this.” I took out the VIP card Ebonene gave .
“Ah! A VIP card. What is your na, sir?”
“Lee Jiwon.”
“Understood. Please wait here one mont.” The guard entered the guardhouse and spoke to soone on his radio. Soon, I could see soone inside the building running towards .
“Welco. Thank you for coming all this way. My na is Edwifu, and I’m the head of Recon here. I’ll take you in.”
“Yes, thank you.” I followed Edwifu through the campus.
“Since you’re here, is it safe to assu you’ve decided to join us in the fight against the Blood Prince?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much!” Edwifu’s face lightened up, and he thanked vigorously.
On the way to the main building, I saw a large group of devas gathered in the building to the right. They weren’t in uniform and didn’t seem to be part of the Myth Guild. It seed the entire guild was busy as well.
“They are rcenaries that work out of Egypt. We used golden rings and all of our connections to bring them here. There are so who might be able to make a difference, and others that are probably hopeless. But we had no choice as the Blood Prince has a massive army of his own.”
“Ah, I see.”
“It’s… pretty busy here, isn’t it? We have about six hours left.” Edwifu could tell what I was curious about just by looking at .
“We’re here. The guild master, vice-master and other officials are inside, formulating battle plans.”
I entered the large conference room Edwifu led to.
“Welco. It’s good to see you this morning.” Ebonene and Shin stood up and were the first to greet .
“Yes, thank you.”
“Thank you for coming.”
“Thank you for deciding to help us.”
We briefly said our hellos before moving to another room on the other side.
“We have less than six hours left until the Blood Prince’s attack. Most of Cairo has already been evacuated.” That was the situation I saw when I left Khufu’s hidden dungeon.
“Of course, there are a few hidden spies from other guilds watching us.”
I rembered the battle between the Myth Guild and the Blood Prince was a huge issue back then.
We began the eting.
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