Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 148

Chapter 148: Chapter 48. Guardian (1)

Demons invaded the dungeon, but I managed to kill half of the monsters that they had brought. However, there were still some monsters left, which were spread out in Korea. Their mission was to provide supplies to demons and accompanying monsters while they attacked the dungeon.

In fact, the number of monsters out there was quite large, considering that their mission was supply.

‘Perhaps some of them are monsters of other Archdukes, such as Pandemonium,’ I surmised.

I stroke my chin.

By now, the Archdukes would have figured out that their monsters had been killed.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they were already preparing further plans for their next moves.

I needed to be prepared, too. Therefore, I decided to revive my secret weapon, which would be very powerful, while wiping out the remaining monsters.

I wanted to confuse Pandemonium using a powerful secret weapon.

“It’s time for a special event,” I told myself.

Special events were unusual happenings such as the appearance of angels or the advent of the Malicious Commander Maxium. Such events took place several times during the previous life.

And I knew one of the methods to initiate a special event.

I wouldn’t have been able to use such a method only because I was overwhelmingly powerful, and the Achievement Store added a special item to its inventory due to the treasure house of the Hell Lord. I slightly smiled.

A pair of large and dark wings started flapping. My wings were different from those of a fallen angel. The pair of wings was an ‘item’, which transformed its shape after it absorbed my mana of arrogance.

I briefly thought about the explanation of the item, which was called ‘The Thousand Wings’.

Name: The Thousand Wings (Epic)

Explanation: It was said that these wings could contain a thousand different kinds of mana.

*The wings could absorb and contain the mana of an organism that the user killed.

*Depending on the type of mana, the wings changed its shape and color.

**When the absorbed mana reached the limit, the wielder of the wings could use a skill called ‘The Thousand Summoning Spell (Ex Epic)’ one time.

**The amount of mana that was stored in the wings: 445,344/1,000,000

The pair of wings was an epic item, but it didn’t have any titles, skills, or any additional abilities. If I could not get hidden information through the Mind’s Eye, I would have considered this item as trash.

At a glance, this item was not worth 5,000 achievement points.

Despite the mediocre appearance, the hidden options of the item looked quite interesting. Although the hidden options of the wings had limits, the item allowed its wielder to use an exceptionally epic skill. Furthermore, I was familiar with the skill that the item offered.

Name: The Thousand Summoning Spell (Ex Epic)

Explanation: The user of this skill can summon a special monster. However, in order to use this skill, the user must be at a particular location at a particular time and also had to have a particular item. The summoned monster would not obey the user’s order, and it would behave according to its intrinsic traits.

The explanation sounded rather vague.

However, I had seen a case in the past where a similar skill like this one was activated.

And I also remembered what this skill had brought about.

The similar skill that I saw was called ‘Conventional Summoning Spell (Epic)’, and it was half-grade lower than ‘The Thousand Summoning Spell’. One of the humans knew how to cast this spell, and he used it to turn the tables before Korea was doomed.

The spell summoned the powerful ‘Guardian’ at the cost of a tremendous amount of fortune and sacrifices.

The Guardian did not look anything like a god. It was merely a monster to me, which was a bit more special than the others. However, the Guardian was indeed very powerful and did manage to stop the demons from invading.

‘The Thousand Summoning Spell’ was an enhanced version of the ‘Conventional Summoning Spell’. If the user had enough mana, they could use the skill without any restrictions.

Of course, having enough mana would not guarantee successful beckoning of the desired monsters. I needed help from men on this part.

‘I needed to awaken the Guardian Monster of Korea,’ I thought.

I wanted to revise the term. What the spell summoned wasn’t a god but a monster, and I decided to call them Guardian Monsters instead of Guardians. Anyway, I planned to awaken the Guardian Monster and used it to strike back at Pandemonium. Such a plan required a ‘prayer’ from men and a large amount of mana from monsters.

‘Was the Guardian Monster called a three-legged crow?’

I tried to remember the name of the Guardian Monster.

The monster, which was summoned back in the days, was a large crow with three legs. At a glance, it resembled a crow. However, its size was very large, and it was even larger than a Griffin. As a result, the monster could almost block the Sun. If I were to quantify the strength of the monster, it would be equivalent to one of the highest monsters, which were between level three and level four. However, I wasn’t sure about this estimate, because I didn’t fight the monster myself.

The main issue with the monster was that it did not obey the one who summoned it.

The three-legged crow heavily guarded Korea against invasions, but it was very capricious.

After it consumed the invading monsters and demons, the monster demanded more treasures. It liked anything that glittered and accumulated all kinds of gems and treasures on top of the Baekdu mountain.

In the end, Archduke Ufa killed the monster. Through a series of events, I learned that the three-legged crow was indeed very powerful and had the strong will to defend Korea as a guardian.

‘If the summoned monster sees me, it will try to attack me,’ I reflected.

I was a demon, and the monster might recognize my identity.

If I had not been in the Underworld, I would not be able to defeat the monster. However, I had gotten much stronger, and I could easily beat it.

“Master, there are a lot of humans behind us.”

Rose glanced back and told me.

It had been three days since I started walking. During that time, I had passed half of entire Korea, and I barely rested.

Thousands of people, who witnessed my extermination of monsters, joined me. They were following me.

Some of them were civilians, while some were awakened heroes.

I did not rest even for a second, but the humans managed to stick with me. I was moving quite quickly, but the humans were desperate to keep up with the speed and stay with me. Some of them were about to faint, but they kept going.

‘I need their prayers to summon the Guardian Monster,’ I reminded myself.

Several hundred wouldn’t be enough. The minimum would be thousands or tens of thousands. Otherwise, the spell might summon a different monster, which could mean another catastrophe.

“Let’s take a break.”

I was sitting on top of a small rock.

I crossed my arms and closed my eyes.

The crowd behind me also stopped and took some rest.

Rose and Roy had never been outside of the dungeon before.

They were very curious, and Rose was also very active.

While Roy was drawing pictures, sitting next to his Dungeon Master, Rose started moving.

She decided to approach humans and take a look at them.

“Oh… Our savior’s child…”

When Rose approached the crowd, some elders knelt and raised their hands.

They looked very humble and adoring.

Rose didn’t know what to do, and she remained standing while blinking her eyes. Then, an old woman came to her.

“Are you hungry? This isn’t much, but I have some steamed sweet potatoes. Try some.”

“Steamed sweet potatoes?”

“Yes, they are very sweet.”

The old woman offered some sweet potatoes to Rose and smiled.

Rose took one and tilted her head.

Then the Dark Elf chewed it without peeling the skin.

“Hmm…sweet.”

It was sweet, and Rose ate one up in no time.

The old woman freaked out for a moment. She wasn’t expecting Rose to eat even the skin. However, she soon started smiling again.

“Ah… Dear savior’s child.”

“My name is Rose. And when you mean ‘savior’, are you talking about my master? What is a ‘savior’?”

Rose pretended as though she were a grown-up, but she was a child after all. Although the bright Dark Elf learned twice as fast as others did, it would take time for her to mature into an adult.

“Ms. Rose, a savior is someone who has accomplished something that no one could have ever done,” the old woman explained.

Ah!

Rose clapped her hands.

“Then my master is a savior according to your definition. The queen has always said that the master can do everything. The master has been gone for a while because he was tempted by the evil. However, he will save us from evil when he returns. And that was what he did in the past. I couldn’t agree more. My master is indeed great.”

Rose nodded her head.

The Dark Elf found a new aspect of her master every day, and she absolutely agreed with the queen’s and Krithli’s compliments about the master.

The more Rose grew, the more she thought that the master was someone whom she must fervently follow.

“From all kinds of evil!”

“He has saved us!”

“At last! At last!”

However, it seemed that humans had interpreted some part of her commendation differently.

Rose’s master was a god to them. Some of the expressions, which humans used to praise the master, were very familiar to some words of exaltations from other religions.

Now, there were thousands of humans around Rose.

They had formed a circle around Rose and the old woman, and they were listening to their conversation.

Rose had never received such kind of attention in the past, and this made her a bit pompous.

“You don’t have to worry at all. I don’t know the reason, but my master wants to help you. The queen had told me that Master wanted to give ‘hopes’ to people here. Humans are indeed fragile, but Master saw their potentials. He had told the queen that if humans do not stand against him, they will be able to live up to their fullest potential. However, the queen was also concerned… Humans are easy to fall for evil. She told me that humans, when they become strong enough, might try to attack the master. Is that true?”

There was something that Rose couldn’t understand about humans.

Of course, many times, she was told that humans were dumb. However, she couldn’t believe that humans were dumb enough to go against their savior, who would not only save them but also empower them.

Were they that dumb? Rose couldn’t believe it.

Such a thought turned into a wish; Rose had wanted to ask a question to humans if she had a chance to meet one. The Dark Elf wanted to see if humans really pay back their debts with revenge.

Besides, no matter how strong humans became, they would still be weaker than the master. Therefore, fighting the master would lead to their doom in any case. Rose was surprised to learn that humans had the tendency to take such a path.

As long as they obeyed the master, there would be no imminent threat to the entire mankind. Dark Elves were wise enough to know this, and they would never betray their master.

“Oh, of course not. It’s a misunderstanding. There are all kinds of people, so some of them might be like that. However, most humans are nicer than that.”

“So, what you are saying is that every human is different? Hmm… I haven’t spent much time with my master as much as others have, and I may not know him quite well. However, I do know that he is pretty strict. And he is also very powerful! You, humans, should better watch out. The master has killed four demons by himself…”

Rose freaked out and covered her mouth.

Then the people around her started to whisper among them.

“Four demons?”

“Really…”

“Oh my god!”

Humans were very familiar with demons. The demons invaded Korea in one day, and they completely destroyed it. The number of demons was exactly four.

The names of the demons were Depella, Anastasia, Amorn, and Generald.

The demons were so daunting that people even memorized their names. Everyone in the crowd was familiar with the names.

They were shocked when Rose spilled the information that the master had killed all four demons, who had seemed invincible to people.

Then the crowd became curious about the master, and they looked at Rose.

Rose ignored them and turned around.

“Ah… I don’t know. I’m going to go now. Master told me that we will be walking for another three hours without any break. So be prepared.”

The Dark Elf then looked at her master and smiled as though nothing happened.

The master did not tell her explicitly, but Rose was clever enough to figure out what the master wanted: He wanted her to give hope to humans and urge them to follow him.

Otherwise, the master did not have to wait for humans nor did he have to allow them to follow him. Rose was a bright child. She could read her master’s intention, and she revealed this information to humans.

After she conveyed such a message, humans became more loyal to the master.

Mentioning demons was going further, but so long as the humans didn’t know that their master was a demon, everything would be fine. The few anecdotes about the master even made some humans ‘admire’ him.

Some of the zealous humans would even believe if their master told them that the fire was made out of water.

‘How did I do, Master?’ Rose thought.

The Dark Elf might be very young, but she was perceptive.

She instinctively knew how to read and control others’ minds.

‘Ah! I almost forgot!’ she remembered.

Rose turned around quickly and told the old woman, “Do you have two more steamed sweet potatoes? I want to give them to the master.”

She asked for two: one for the master, and another for her.

The Dark Elf had not thought of her brother, Roy, at all.

She tried it for the first time today, but it was so delicious. Rose couldn’t forget it, and she wanted more.

Five days passed by.

Out of one million mana, I collected about 80,000.

The number of monsters had been greatly reduced, and it was hard to find one now.

Additionally, more humans joined me. The total number of humans exceeded 20,000. If I considered the number of those who gave up in the middle, the total would be even larger than 20,000.

The humans wanted to learn more about me. However, I kept some distance between myself and them. As a result, no one dared to approach me to ask questions or to make small talk.

‘I don’t need to reveal anything about myself,’ I thought.

I did not need to tell them that I was a demon and the unit leader of the Devil Hunter attack unit.

I needed to stay mysterious.

Staying somewhat enigmatic while dominating the enemy would be a good strategy.

Rose was helpful for such an approach.

The Dark Elf revealed only a few pieces of information to the humans, which aroused their curiosity. At the same time, Rose only told them good stories about me. As a result, some of them started to see me as a deity.

A divine demon was an oxymoron.

However, humans’ belief about me wasn’t too bad when I thought about my plans.

I needed their prayers to use the summoning spell and bring the Guardian Monster. Also, the Guardian Monster would follow the humans’ will to some extent. If humans followed me, I would be able to control it.

I spent the next few hours trying to brainstorm more ideas about the beckoning plan.

Soon, night came.

It was a full moon that night, and I found a group of humans fighting monsters.

“Water boom!”

“Electric sword!”

Clash!

Boom!

There were about 50 humans.

All of them were awakened heroes, and they were fighting monsters to the best of their abilities.

I stared at some of their faces.

“Eunhye! Watch your back!”

“I got your back. Kill the Orc lord!”