Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 63

Chapter 63: Episode 17. The 15-Day War (3)

Edward’s lower half was completely crushed. Even cutting-edge medical technologies couldn’t heal the wound. A regular potion, of course, wouldn’t do, either.

When I brought Edward to the attack unit, the members looked puzzled.

“He’s a new member.”

I stated it briefly, but my brevity puzzled the members even more. Ignoring the members, I returned to the plane and laid Edward down. The ambassador of the United Kingdom wanted to meet me and express his gratitude, but I ignored the offer and proceeded with my plans.

The Monster Wave in the United Kingdom was obviously not the last one. I planned to move on. I wanted to prevent demons from earning points as much as I could.

Edward remained unconscious for a while.

The situation must have been too harsh for such a young child.

Edward had been able to remain safe from the Shades’ mind controlling because of his high intelligence of 34.

Yoo Eunhye and Lee Jihye pitied Edward and started to take care of him. When Edward began screaming while having a nightmare, they wiped his body with wet towels. When Edward peed his pants from time to time, the two changed his underwear for him.

Thanks to their generosity, Edward regained consciousness after three days.

“Wh-where am I? Where is my brother Rooney?”

As soon as Edward opened his eyes, he started looking for his brother.

All of the members possessed tools with translation spells. It was one of the most popular items from the dungeon.

Yoo Eunhye was able to understand Edward’s words through her left earring. At the same time, whatever Yoo Eunhye said was translated before it reached Edward.

“Hello, Edward? Your name is Edward, right? Nice to meet you. I’m Yoo Eunhye.”

“Where are my parents? Who are you?” Edward looked around.

The place looked unfamiliar.

His ears were numb, and he felt a little bit dizzy.

There were other people besides Edward and Yoo Eunhye in this place.

The other members of the unit turned around, because they weren’t familiar with such situations.

Yoo Eunhye tried her best to smile kindly.

“We are the Devil Hunter attack unit. Our attack unit leader saved you. Don’t you remember?”

Edward’s eyes trembled. At the same time, he grabbed his head as if he had a headache.

“Ah…! So, it wasn’t all a dream?”

“Yeah, you might want to believe that it was all a dream. It’s going to be hard. However, you can still get through it.”

“That can’t be true. It can’t be real…”

Edward tossed and turned.

Soon, he realized that he couldn’t move his lower body. As soon as he realized that, he was puzzled.

“I tried to cure the most severe wounds with potions. I wanted to send you to a larger hospital, but the unit leader told me that medical technology couldn’t heal you… Ah, don’t trust me. Everything depends on you. If you wish to get better, you will! We have a doctor onboard, and we have everything that you might need. Let me know if you need any help. Phew!”

Yoo Eunhye sighed sadly.

She’d had a similar experience, so she could empathize with Edward to some extent.

Edward had woken up in three days. In the meantime, the Devil Hunter attack unit took care of the Monster Wave in Sweden.

After, they purchased the necessary goods and hired a personal doctor. The doctor shook his head after looking at Edward. Despite the lack of medical facilities and tools, he could at least do some first aid treatments.

Click!

The door opened, and a person appeared.

Edward’s eyes widened when he saw him.

It was the same man who had asked him whether he wanted to live or die while holding his hand before Edward’s world went black. He had promised that he would empower Edward. These words sounded like the devil’s temptation to Edward.

Now, everything was real.

The man’s presence made Edward wake up from his daze.

This place was real, a terrible reality!

Yoo Eunhye stood up and argued, “Unit leader! We cannot let a critical patient stay onboard, especially when the patient is a ten-year-old boy! Although he recovered from a critical condition with the help of potions, he still needs medical examinations. On top of that, he also needs psychotherapy…”

“You’ve woken up,” said the man.

Edward looked at him.

He felt overwhelmed at first glance. The man had an unrealistic aura. His presence felt awkward and made Edward question why he was there.

Edward panicked. Although he couldn’t feel physical pain, he was quite sensitive mentally. Even at first glance, Edward could tell who the person was.

However, he had never felt this way because of a person before.

He was panicking when they met the first time, so he hadn’t had a chance to sense such an anomaly.

Twisting his facial muscles, Edward asked, “Who are you?”

“The one who would give you power.” The man spoke without hesitation, as though his words were an obvious truth.

Edward remembered what happened during their last encounter. “The power to kill monsters?”

“Tell me if you don’t want it, and I’ll kill you right away.”

“Unit leader!” Yoo Eunhye screamed in surprise.

Edward panicked. He was merely a ten-year-old boy. Although he was more thoughtful than his peers, he was just a kid after all. He couldn’t completely look after himself and make important decisions by himself.

Then the man said indifferently, “I’ll show you what power you will have.”

They were in Athens, Greece.

The count’s dungeon was located here. The total population was about ten million, and it seemed that there was no reason to pay much attention to it. However, the problem was that the count was a demon under Ufa’s command.

I wanted to cut off every one of Ufa’s hands and feet. The count was a nobody, but there was also no reason not to keep an eye on him.

Just in time, Greece asked for help, and I decided to move without hesitation.

Monster Waves were breaking out in Athens, and various low-level monsters, such as Gargoyles, Harpies, and Slumber Moths appeared.

Greece wasn’t the largest, and neither was their military power. As a result, when such a large number of low-level monsters appeared, the Greek military struggled to fight them.

“Killing Gargoyles is easy. Chop off their heads at once. Otherwise, they’ll transform into stones and recover. The tendons on their shoulders are their weakness. Keep this in mind during fights. Slumber Moths aren’t aggressive. If you don’t provoke them, they won’t attack you.”

I had already briefed everyone in the plane.

However, I took my time to explain to everyone again.

Edward was staring me quietly from his wheelchair. Lee Jihye was pushing the wheelchair for him.

Yoo Eunhye needed to gain more experience and improve her statistics.

After glancing at the members quietly, I said, “Let’s start the operation.”

“Yes, sir!” cried the members of the unit in unison.

As per the operation plan, the members started to move out in groups of two.

However, I moved by myself. Even if someone followed me, I wouldn’t be able to take care of that member. I was too used to doing everything by myself.

Krathra could do such a job much better than me. In fact, Krathra was paired up with Yoo Eunhye. He would be able to help Yoo Eunhye learn and improve her skills.

I quietly drew on my anger, then I slowly walked towards the monsters, who were charging at me wildly.

Edward, who was now confused, stared at me from behind.

It was hard to spot the man’s movements.

As soon as the man started fighting, many monster corpses were scattered around.

Once in a while, Edward could spot blurred glances of the man that couldn’t have been more fascinating.

It didn’t take more than ten minutes for the man to wipe out hundreds of monsters.

Edward couldn’t take his eyes off of him.

‘Is that the power that I’ll have?’

Edward couldn’t believe that a person could move in such ways. However, everything was taking place in front of him, so he had no reason to doubt the man.

The awakened heroes.

The awakened heroes became an issue due to the various problems they were causing.

Edward had heard from the news that their numbers were small, but they were slowly increasing. Edward’s parents had made him watch the news every day.

The awakened heroes couldn’t control the powers that they had suddenly attained. Many of them ended up getting involved in violent crimes and became criminals.

Some of the crimes that they had committed were neutralizing dozens of police officers and robbing banks… Though not all awakened heroes were the same. Some did good deeds, but the general public opinion on awakened heroes was that they weren’t helpful, at least in the United Kingdom.

Even those who behaved well ended up arrested or shot to death.

Humans were social creatures, and awakened heroes were no exception. Despite their power, they had to live among other people. In other words, there was a fundamental limit to how different they were from normal humans.

In fact, Edward had met few awakened heroes in person. They were incredibly strong. Some could bend steel or run three hundred feet in just a few seconds.

However, he had never met an awakened hero who was as overwhelmingly powerful as the man in front of him. This man stood out from all the heroes gathered in this place. He existed alone. It seemed that there was no limit to this man.

‘No, my legs are broken. I can’t move like that.’ Edward felt like his heart was throbbing.

Edward had nodded at the man’s question, but he wasn’t sure yet.

Certainly, the man was moving fantastically. However, Edward was pessimistic that he could ever move like him. Edward was quite composed when it came to issues like this.

This was the reality. Even though there were mystical beings, such as awakened heroes and monsters, Edward couldn’t break through his own limits.

“Ah…”

The man quietly passed by Edward, not saying a word to him.

Since then, Edward had traveled to five more countries. In his wheelchair, he always watched the man fight. He’d had the same thoughts many times.

He thought about the enemy that killed his younger brother and the reason that his parents changed.

Hatred towards monsters burned inside his heart. He felt pathetic about the fact that he couldn’t do anything but watch.

The man didn’t bother talking to Edward.

He simply showed him.

The more Edward thought about monsters, the lower the wall in his mind was.

The man had promised to empower Edward, who was unable to move. Allowing him to move at will seemed impossible. However, there were many unrealistic events taking place around him, so he wondered if he could somehow gain such power magically.

The attack united visited Europe and arrived at Saudi Arabia in the Middle East. Then Edward said to the man, “Unit leader, please give me the power. The power to destroy monsters.”

The man didn’t force anything. It was Edward himself who made the choice. Mustering all his effort, Edward stood firm on the ground using his broken legs.

Finally, the wall was completely down.

The 15-day war had ended.

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When one had potential, it was easy to become powerful.

He or she simply had to put in the effort to grow stronger.

However, in order to put in the effort, he or she needed strong motivation.

The motivation that drove Edward was anger. The problem was whether he had the courage to break down his walls by himself. He needed to have the strong will to break through his limits.

Simply nodding in extreme conditions while half-conscious was not enough. Edward needed to aspire to become powerful when his mind was clear.

Therefore, I left Edward alone. I wanted him to naturally seek power and ask me for help. Even if Edward was merely a boy, he was going to be one of the ten strong warriors. I was sure that he wouldn’t disappoint me.

Just as I expected, Edward Winsor asked me for help. He wanted to become more powerful.

At the same time, I felt strange.

Unfortunately, Yoo Eunhye couldn’t make it into the ten strong warriors. People considered her as powerful as the ten warriors, but that was about it. On the other hand, Edward Winsor was different. People looked upon Edward as one of the greatest warriors ever.

Such a great warrior had come to me, a demon.

I was overjoyed.

Gaining Edward was similar to having a very expensive toy that no one could get their hands on. I planned to modify this unassembled toy to suit my taste.

His broken legs didn’t matter. Elixirs could fix them.

I thought about the prospect of the ten strong warriors…

How would Edward look after I changed him?

I was really looking forward to it.

[You will be sent to the Auction of Devildom in thirty minutes. You can take one of your monsters with you.]

The Auction of Devildom was going as I expected.

I was extremely excited about it.

Looking at the message that popped into the air, I twisted my lips on the top floor of dungeon.