45. Illumination

“Step back! Step back! Changsik, Taesik, stick to the back!”

“Yes!”

The two Beast Goblins moved in perfect unison at Ko Byeong-gap’s order.

“Kiriyan, Dorma. You know it already, right? Attack the subordinate monsters.”

“Yes, sir.”

“No problem!”

“Turka and Orca, don’t let go of the tension. The boss monster’s mobility is out of the ordinary. Uh, I might give you some distance the moment you do it…”

“I’ll keep that in mind!”

The attack squad quickly regrouped. A ranged striker in the best position; a strong tank that covered both dealers. Changsik and Taesik circled around and caught the attention of the subordinate monsters.

‘This time, it’s a tough opponent.’

Ko Byeong-gap clenched his sword and cleared his breath. He didn’t take his eyes off the front for a moment.

‘Centauro. I’ve only seen it in the Monster Encyclopedia, but this is the first time I’ve actually seen it. It’s a rare monster.’

Centauro. It was a monster that reminded him of the half-human, half-horse centaurs in mythology. Its head was covered with an ironclad helmet and could freely transform using amniotic fluid. Currently, its left hand took the shape of a sword, while its right hand took the shape of a mace with a gong.

Woooooooo…

The Centauro exuded dreary energy. Soon after, about forty subordinate monsters who had been assisting it spread out all at once. The horde class was distributed evenly between C and D. The lower monsters were no longer Ko Byeong-gap’s opponents.

His new form faded in an instant. Ko Byeong-gap approached the Centauro at a tremendous speed.

“Kieeek!”

“Karreuk!”

The subordinate monsters blocked Ko Byeong-gap’s advance. However, his legs didn’t stop. It was all because he trusted the support of his attack squad.

As if to repay his trust, arrows of lightning and dark spheres flew in and hit his obstacles. Ko Byeong-gap stepped on the beaten monsters and raised his sword.

The sword, which had a lot of aura, fell sharply on the Centauro. The sword struck fiercely enough to cut through rocks in one swing.

“Grrooooooo…”

“Huh!”

The Centauro swung its right arm like lightning. The sword and its mace collided, emitting shock waves everywhere. The huge shock was delivered to his arm from the sword.

Ko Byeong-gap quickly blew up his aura to offset it. Thanks to that, his body wasn’t pushed back.

‘Centauro is the strongest in the middle-ranks of B-class. As expected, it is different from the other monsters.’

Even though Ko Byeong-gap had already crossed his limits several times, he still felt as if he were at the foot of a mountain.

However, everything in the world eventually changed depending on one’s attitude. He drove all the negative emotions out of his mind. He had to focus solely on combat at that time.

‘I’m sending out full power!’

The aura of the sword quickly grew, visibly swelling. He concentrated his mind as much as he could and sharpened his aura.

The blade cut through the karma barrier that covered the body of the Centauro and dug into its flesh.

“Creek!”

The Centauro didn’t sit still either. He quickly lifted his arm and stabbed the other sword before he could be amputated. It was a fast move that was hard to follow with the eyes.

Ko Byeong-gap relied on his sixth sense and footwork to evade. He had a shallow cut on his right shoulder, even though he was almost in perfect shape.

In the background of the noisy world, time seemed to have stopped for Ko Byeong-gap and the Centauro. They exchanged lives about five steps apart.

“Chwiik!”

At that moment, a beast-type monster came and attacked Ko Byeong-gap’s back. It was a surprise attack that he had already sensed. Ko Byeong-gap calmly rotated his body and drew his sword.

The monster’s body was scattered like broken glass.

‘Damn. Not good.’

He successfully fended off the surprise attack, but the situation was bad. The Centauro rushed in for a short time when he showed his back.

In a moment, a thousand thoughts crossed his mind.

‘It’s too late to react. In that case…’

He momentarily amplified the cycle of his power, and then his skin and muscle tissue changed to form a hard shield. It was his own technique, created by mimicking the Karma Barrier of the top awakeners.

“Agh!”

Unfortunately, the performance couldn’t compare with a Karma Barrier. A Karma Barrier was literally a protective shield, so it absorbed any shock below its threshold.

On the other hand, his defense technique was nothing more than the hardening of his body tissues, so he could only reduce the impact to some extent. However, it was enough to double his opportunities from one to two.

‘Give me flesh and hit the bone!’

The Centauro’s left hand dug a little into Ko Byeong-gap’s side. Ko Byeong-gap swallowed the pain and swung his sword. The blade, full of aura, stretched straight toward the Centauro’s neck.

The Centauro quickly pulled himself out and tried to escape, but Ko Byeong-gap wasn’t soft enough to let him stand still.

‘Where are you going to run?’

He clung to it like a dog. That caused a cut in his side to open, but that wasn’t a reason to stop.

“Haaaaaah!”

“Cuck!”

A moment later, the blade hit the Centauro’s neck. A blow to one’s resolution. His neck was cut halfway through.

“Cough!”

A monster was a monster. The Centauro staggered and took hold of its center, even though half of its neck had been blown away. Suddenly, its human-like arms grabbed its neck to stop the bleeding.

‘I won’t let you recover!’

Ko Byeong-gap’s arms moved incessantly. Stab, cut, stab, cut again, and an unrelenting offensive was unleashed on the Centauro.

“Kooak!”

The Centauro, distracted by the fatal neck injury, failed to maintain its Karma Barrier normally. Its body was destroyed one piece after another. After the storm of strikes, its figure turned into something that couldn’t be classified as normal.

“Hoooh…”

At last, the Centauro was broken down. Blood cascaded from the crushed area, and the energy of life was nowhere to be found. The rest of the attack squad did a good job while Ko Byeong-gap finished the boss monster. The floor was cluttered with dead monsters.

There were only three creatures left breathing, albeit their lives were waning like a candle in front of the wind.

“Cough!”

Just in time, Changsik put a hole in the monster’s skull. As soon as he did, a desperate scream rang out from the other side. It was a monster that had been roasted black by a bunch of lightning arrows.

Kiek!

The last one was up to Turka. He crushed the monster with his giant shield like a mosquito, and then blood came out through the crushed flesh.

“Woooo!”

Turka’s roar signaled the end of the battle.

‘Oh, I’m tired.’

Ko Byeong-gap opened the door to Ashvilam, bleating. The Goblins, which had been waiting in advance, quickly stepped out and started working immediately.

“Lord, are you alright?”

The attack squad flocked to Ko Byeong-gap. They looked worried and examined the safety of their Lord.

“Are you seriously hurt?”

“That’s enough. It’s nothing.”

Ko Byeong-gap used his Ki-breathing. The wound on his side quickly healed.

‘Fortunately, my intestines weren’t damaged. I don’t have to use a potion.’

[Current achievement rate of ‘Ancient Ki-breathing Textbook – Low-grade’: 94.77%]

The level of completion of the Ancient Ki-breathing Textbook had also improved considerably. Currently, almost any trauma could heal itself. He rarely used potions those days.

“Are you guys hurt?”

“There’s nothing to worry about.”

“We’re okay, too.”

“That’s a relief. As I say over and over again, it is most important not to get hurt.”

“Yep!”

Ko Byeong-gap examined the condition of the attack squad. They had minor wounds, but no one particularly needed action. He looked at the little ones that worked on the side and said, “I’m going to be a little late today. I’m going to visit my mom at the hospital.”

“Oh, is that so? How is the Queen doing these days? I hope she gets better soon.”

Dorma asked in a consoling way. Ko Byeong-gap smiled bitterly, took a cigarette out of his arms, and then bit it in his mouth.

“She’s the same… But she has been getting better treatment for some time, so she’ll get better gradually.”

“I pray that the Queen will recover completely.”

“Oh, thank you.”

‘Now I even feel comfort from them.’

Ko Byeong-gap laughed a little inside. When he first met the Goblins, there was only distrust and hostility, but that time, they had grown close enough to confide in his personal history.

“Sigh. Whoo.”

He blew his smoke deeply and stared blankly at the collapsing world.

‘If this keeps going, even a B-rank crack can be said to be stable.’

It had been two weeks since he dipped his feet into the top cracks after only beating the bottom cracks. At first, he struggled with the rapid increase in the number of monsters and the strength of the boss monster, but before he knew it, his body adapted.

Three months ago, he dealt with only the lowest cracks in the E and F-ranks. His pace of growth was unprecedentedly rapid. Of course, the A-rank and the S-rank cracks were still a long way off.

The difficulty would arise exponentially from the A-rank crack since even subordinate monsters in it were mostly high-level.

“Lord, it’s over!”

“Well, you did a great job. Now, everybody, go back to Ashvilam. Attack squad, you guys should rest and refrain from work.”

“Yes, sir!”

After he sent the Goblins back to Ashvilam, Ko Byeong-gap escaped the collapsing back world.

As he stepped outside, the cool wind greeted him.

‘It’s already fall.’

The midsummer heat disappeared without him knowing it. Wasn’t it already September? The autumn leaves would bloom soon.

Ko Byeong-gap loaded his luggage into the car, went to Ashvilam, washed his body, and then returned to Seoul.

***

“I’ll pay you 9.96 million won in total.”

It was already evening when he stopped by his mother’s hospital and went to the association. As summer disappeared, the day became shorter, and it was dark outside.

“The auctioned items will be credited with a 10% commission limit as soon as they’re sold.”

“Yes, sir. I’m rooting for you.”

“Goodbye.”

Counselor Kim Seul-gi greeted him according to the manual. He was lost in thought as he looked at the back of Ko Byeong-gap leaving.

“What is he?”

Working as a counselor for a long time, he was bound to learn the faces of hunters who visited the branch.

Ko Byeong-gap was a main customer of the Yeongdeungpo branch where Kim Seul-gi worked.

‘I’m sure that person is a D-class hunter, but the magic stones and loot he had been bringing recently are all above medium quality?’

As he remembered, Ko Byeong-gap was a man who always carried low-quality magic stones, receiving 600,000 won to 800,000 won for them. However, his recent earnings had jumped exponentially.

Did he get into a good team? He had such a reasonable doubt.

“Eh, what’s that got to do with me? I’m going to settle my accounts quickly and get off work.”

His curiosity didn’t last long. After all, wasn’t he in a department that collected weird things in the world?

Around that time, Ko Byeong-gap was about to leave the association building and was going down the stairs. Before he stopped by his house, he thought he should eat something simple, until his phone rang suddenly.

Hm!

‘Is that the notification for the deposit?’

Ko Byeong-gap checked his cell phone as he made a rough guess. However, his prediction was spectacularly wrong.

-Hello, Hunter Mr. Ko Byeong-gap. I’m Choi Jiwon, the head of the promotion team of the guild ‘Illumination.’

A long letter began with that line. Ko Byeong-gap paused on the stairs and quickly read it down. It wasn’t difficult to get the gist of the text.

‘Is this a guild recruitment letter? To me?’

The association shared hunter information with the guilds. So it wasn’t surprising to get a call from a random number. However, there wasn’t a single guild that tried to recruit him during his three years as a hunter.

It was natural. He worked alone for the most part, and so his name would disappear naturally. In the first place, it was suspicious that a guild sent a scouting text to a low-ranking hunter. Shouldn’t the case be the other way around?

‘I’ve seen low-level hunters say, ‘Please accept me,’ but it’s the first time I’ve seen one receive a message saying, ‘Come to our guild.’

Ko Byeong-gap read the text again with a feeling of uneasiness.

‘What kind of guild is this? I’ve never heard of this guild before.’

Ko Byeong-gap knew most of the guilds in the metropolitan area since there weren’t many of them. However, he had never seen a guild called Illumination.

‘Is this a guild from another region? If it’s a guild from another area, there’s no reason to send it to me. There must be something wrong?’

Curious, he searched for the guild called Illumination on the internet.

Ko Byeong-gap slowly walked down the stairs with his eyes on his cell phone. He stopped again with only a few steps left and frowned at his cell phone.

“What, why isn’t anything coming out? Is it a new guild?”