Chapter 32 – Inspection Office (2)

Despite Caroline’s persuasion, Sun-woo decided not to join the association. However, since they would have to work together anyway when missions were given by the Summoners, he decided to work in a freelance format.

The more missions he carried out, the more new facts were being revealed like peeling onion layers. On top of that, there was even an enemy who knew Sun-woo…

Sun-woo decided to wait a bit longer. Surely someday the reality behind everything that made him curious would be revealed. Even the Summoners.

Having made that decision, Sun-woo turned on his computer and began massacring enemies on the monitor again.

***

A few days later. Dimension Gamma.

The surroundings were desolate rocky terrain.

Various rugged hills and deep split canyons, but grass and trees were hardly visible, and everything consisted of rocks, stones, and crumbly soil.

And he could feel small monsters and beasts spying on this place from various locations.

Daniel’s dimension. They had been summoned to a fantasy world.

Though they should be on guard first since they had suddenly been dropped in unfamiliar land, Sun-woo’s summoned party had to worry about other things first.

“A cooperation mission? It doesn’t seem like it’ll be an easy mission.”

The man who spoke while looking at the summoned Sun-woo’s party was a middle-aged martial artist holding a spear. He was looking around while his long hair fluttered, and the aura he exuded was extraordinary.

Next to that man were a woman holding a jeweled staff, a soldier with a sniper rifle, and a sharp-featured man in his 30s wearing leather armor.

It was another summoned team.

That’s when the Summoner’s command was heard.

[Multiple contamination sources of Level 3 have occurred 5 kilometers north. The summoned teams should cooperate to eliminate them quickly.]

“Multiple contamination sources? You mean there’s more than one contamination source?”

At Michael’s question, the sniper chuckled.

“Must be your first cooperation mission. I wonder if this is going to be babysitting.”

“Since we’re doing the same work, let’s maintain courtesy.”

But he immediately received a warning from the middle-aged martial artist. When the martial artist spoke, the soldier clicked his tongue quietly and shut his mouth.

The martial artist seemed to be the leader of their summoned team.

The others were also following his words, and the woman who looked like a magician was clinging to him as if she were his lover, unable to take her eyes off his face.

“Since we’ll be working together, it would be good to introduce ourselves to each other. I’m Kwak Un-il.”

When he stated his name, Nan-seol’s eyes widened slightly.

“Could you be the Spear Master?”

“There’s someone who recognizes me. Are you a Mount Hua Sect disciple?”

He tilted his head looking at Nan-seol.

“Don’t tell me Mount Hua Sect currently has a female disciple who reached the peak level?”

“I’m Nan-seol, a third-generation disciple of Mount Hua Sect.”

Nan-seol put her hands together and greeted him.

“Mount Hua Sect’s fortune. Will the next Sword Sovereign come from Mount Hua Sect?”

Spear Master.

He was a famous expert from the orthodox faction who was expected by everyone to soon reach the transcendent level called Martial God, having learned the Yang Family Spear technique and then elevated it to his own martial art through rigorous training. He was a peak-level martial artist at the very end of the peak.

When the two exchanged greetings like this, people inevitably had to introduce themselves.

As expected, the woman holding the staff was a magician. She was an attack magician who used the four elements, and seemed to be completely infatuated with the Spear Master.

And the sharp-featured man in leather armor was a mercenary from this world like Daniel, and according to Daniel, he seemed to be some kind of relic exploration specialist.

“He’s a thief, what else.”

When Michael added with a snort, the man with the sniper rifle narrowed his eyes and glared at him.

“A mercenary company trash is talking about others.”

“Ah, so you’re regular army.”

This time Michael and the sniper began growling at each other.

Meanwhile, Spear Master Kwak Un looked around the party and showed a slightly surprised expression when he saw Sun-woo.

“A person from another dimension having martial arts. And it seems to be quite pure internal energy. Plus there’s another strange energy flowing too.”

It seemed he was being completely exposed to a proper expert.

The Spear Master looked at Sun-woo with curious expression, then sighed at the continued growling voices of Michael and sniper Huey.

“It seems difficult to travel together. Our side seems to have a bit more experience and skill. We’ll take the lead. You take the rear guard.”

It wasn’t a bad opinion for Sun-woo’s party either.

“So it really is babysitting.”

Sniper Hughie grumbled quietly, but he also seemed to agree with traveling separately.

As soon as he finished speaking, they immediately departed.

***

“It seems they quite trust that martial artist called Spear Master.”

Daniel spoke while looking at the other summoned team going ahead. Despite it being a cooperation mission that looked difficult, that team was following the Spear Master’s opinion without question.

The direction of their target seemed to be in a deep canyon visible in the distance. Even without the voice telling them, they could have immediately noticed from the murky color visible from afar.

The path to the target looked extremely treacherous at first glance. They had to pass through rugged rocky terrain and then traverse a deep canyon.

Even for a party tempered by battles, it was enough to make them sigh automatically.

“They definitely seem experienced.”

Daniel, who was sweating profusely due to his armor, spoke while looking at the Spear Master’s party going ahead.

Though it had been overshadowed by the Spear Master’s appearance, looking now, the other party members also seemed formidable.

The mercenary called a thief was guiding the party in front as a pathfinder, and the others were easily following him.

The Spear Master went without saying, but even the magician woman and the sniper were leaping around on rocks like flying squirrels.

Fortunately, the monsters or beasts that had been circling around didn’t attack the party. Whether they felt the aura the party was emitting or there was another reason was unknown, but thanks to this, they could focus only on walking and climb the mountain quickly.

After walking like this for quite a while and approaching the canyon, they could finally meet their targets.

“My goodness. Enormous numbers. Are they a flock of birds?”

Many flying creatures soared up from within the canyon. The creatures with feather-rich wings flapped and rose high, making sharp cries like screams in the high sky, then began diving down toward the parties.

“They look like people, like women. Are there winged people in this place?”

Nan-seol, who had enhanced her vision with internal energy, questioned while looking at the approaching flying creatures.

Michael brightened at the mention of women, but Daniel’s expression became serious.

“If they look like women, they’re probably a flock of harpies. If this is a harpy habitat, the quest will be quite difficult. Not only because of their numbers, but their intelligence is almost at human level, making them tricky to deal with.”

“Eh, they’re just beasts after all? Tsk. That’s probably why it became a cooperation mission or whatever. Since there’s a show-off senior team there, we can just watch what they do.”

Michael seemed to be in a twisted mood. Even while releasing his gun’s safety, he didn’t stop his sarcastic remarks.

Anyway, Sun-woo’s party tensely drew their weapons to face the approaching harpies, but they didn’t get to use those weapons.

Boom!

In front of the party, where the other summoned team ahead was located, an enormous explosion occurred along with light shooting into the sky.

The light penetrated through the center of the incoming harpy flock, and dozens of harpies were instantly annihilated. Even the harpies around the light had their bodies torn by the shockwave and fell down.

After the light penetrated the harpy flock, it faded, and in the place where the light disappeared, only a single spear was soaring into the sky. The spear flew up into the sky, then changed direction and began returning to the Spear Master’s hand who had shot it.

“My word. A qi-controlled spear. Could he be transcendent level?”

Nan-seol unconsciously burst out in admiration. This was because the spear just shot was a type of qi-controlled sword technique that freely manipulated a blade with qi.

It was a skill said to be possible only for those who had reached the transcendent level, and was evidence that the Spear Master, known to be at the very end of peak level, had entered the transcendent realm.

Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to be fully transcendent yet. After retrieving his spear, the Spear Master leaned on his spear while breathing heavily as if tired.

But the harpy flock whose formation was destroyed couldn’t attack anymore. No, rather, even the remaining harpies began to be slaughtered.

Bang, bang.

The remaining harpies who were in confusion fell one by one to the large-caliber sniper rifle fired by the sniper. The harpies, almost completely annihilated, now tried to flee, but when the magician raised her hand, they were bound to a certain area and couldn’t escape outside.

“We really could just follow along and watch, couldn’t we?”

“You bastard! Is it fun to tease right away!”

Michael got angry at Hayden’s words, but even he couldn’t refute Hayden’s statement.

“When you reach transcendent level, you’re almost a one-man army. They really have reason to be confident.”

“Transcendent level is close to Martial God. There are only a few in the entire martial world. For the Spear Master to be at early transcendent level, the entire martial world would be stirred up. Well, at Sun-woo’s growth rate, you could reach it soon.”

At Nan-seol’s words, Sun-woo shook his head.

After obtaining the War Wheel Divine Demon Art, Sun-woo had briefly had such thoughts, but worldly matters weren’t that easy.

Even now, he seemed to have power and skills at almost peak level, but the level itself had stopped exactly at top first-class.

Perhaps promotions that required enlightenment like peak or transcendent level needed Sun-woo’s personal enlightenment rather than acquisition through points.

He had asked Nan-seol after she reached peak level, but enlightenment seemed difficult to convey to others.

After the large-scale attack by the contaminated creatures, the surroundings became quiet. The small monsters that had been watching nearby disappeared without a trace, and only one or two harpies gliding in the distance could be seen.

The Spear Master, who had been slowly moving forward, suddenly stopped. Though he had shown off brilliant techniques, his expression wasn’t good due to an unexpected situation.

“Are you feeling unwell again?”

The magician beside him asked worriedly, but he only shook his head.

“It’s because I haven’t properly ascended yet. I just need more time.”

The magician, who had fallen in love with the Spear Master, could only look at him with pitying heart.

“And I stopped now for a different reason.”

He looked at the other summoned party following behind.

“Why them?”

When the party looked with curious faces, the Spear Master raised his finger and pointed to the rocky hills around Sun-woo’s party. The hills showed jagged rocks and cave-like holes eaten into them everywhere.

“This contaminated creature seems to have considerable intelligence. It’s hiding now to ambush. It probably plans to attack the rear party while avoiding me.”

No matter how well they hid, they couldn’t escape his surveillance as he began entering the transcendent level. At first, he thought they were just hiding to avoid the Spear Master, but now killing intent was slowly beginning to leak from among the hidden contaminated creatures.

“What will you do?”

The sniper asked him while loading his gun. No matter how much he disliked certain people, he seemed ready to help if necessary.

After pondering for a moment, he spoke.

“Let’s observe first. We need to assess their skill level too. If there’s no answer, we’ll help then, and they won’t be able to follow.”

His party agreed with his words, and everyone checked their weapons while looking at Sun-woo’s party following behind.

***

“Why did those people stop? I’m getting a bad feeling about this.”

Michael grumbled while looking at the stopped party ahead. His sixth sense was slowly sending signals.

“There seems to be an ambush. There are hidden enemies.”

Sun-woo answered his words. It was quite novel for flying monsters to hide among rocks for an ambush, but the problem was that Sun-woo was here.

Sun-woo was not inferior even to transcendent masters when it came to detecting things on and underground.

At Sun-woo’s words, the party hurriedly formed formation and looked around.

“Damn, from the looks of it, they’re just going to watch.”

“It’s probably a test?”

At Daniel’s thought, Michael grumbled even more.

“Who are they to give tests? Anyway, except for that spear-using guy, the rest are nothing special.”

Michael’s grumbling continued, but the party’s ears could no longer hear it.

“They’re coming!”

Because Nan-seol had detected killing intent and shouted.

Screech!

Harpies burst out from rock crevices and bushes and attacked the party.