Ascension Through Skills-Chapter 310: Fifth Return to Earth (6)
Time passed without significant incidents. Korean and Japanese players made attempts to communicate with the Chinese players, but aside from a few easy-mode slaves, they failed to establish any meaningful relationships.
After a week, the quest finally began.
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[Special Quest Initiated.]
[For the next week, monsters will swarm continuously.]
[They will not stop. They will not rest.]
[Defend yourselves and protect your territories from the attacking monsters.]
[The restriction preventing players from harming one another is now lifted.]
---
The Korean and Japanese players held their ground with grim determination, while the Chinese players likewise prepared for the monster onslaught.
“There are... so many of them.”
Kim Huiyeon gasped as she took in the sheer number of people assembled. With a force of one hundred million, they had arranged themselves across a vast battlefield, stretching from Mount Baekdu and beyond.
With this kind of manpower, victory seemed almost guaranteed.
But as she considered this, the first wave of monsters appeared.
Rumble...
“What... what is that?”
Their faces grew tense.
Monsters surged over the horizon, their numbers as countless as the players.
They braced themselves against a sea of monsters, far more than they had ever seen before.
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“Everyone, get ready!”
Kim Huiyeon’s voice rang out as the Korean players formed their ranks, gripping their weapons.
Meanwhile, Taesan finished his alchemical preparations.
A blue aura surrounded the area where the Korean and Japanese players were stationed, enhancing their physical abilities and regeneration.
“Stay within this area to fight as much as possible,” he advised.
Though Taesan couldn’t expand this protective field to cover the entire battlefield for one hundred million people, he could at least create one for the Korean and Japanese zones.
“Oh, yes!”
“Thank you, Taesan!”
With gratitude, they prepared to face the monsters.
While the Korean and Japanese players readied themselves, the Chinese players turned to Jinryong, bowing.
“O Emperor! Please, protect us!”
At the forefront of the battlefield, Jinryong stood with a smug expression.
“Filthy monsters are approaching.”
His voice, soft yet resonant, carried across the battlefield.
“Witness my power.”
A dark, overwhelming aura began to radiate from Jinryong.
Players held their breath, watching.
Jinryong smirked.
“This is the power of an absolute ruler.”
Boom!
Power erupted from him, crashing toward the monsters.
Kaboom!
A massive explosion followed, as if a meteor had struck. Hundreds of monsters disintegrated in an instant.
It was a display of power that no ordinary player could achieve.
The Chinese players gasped in awe, even as monsters charged toward them. But instead of fighting, they bowed and chanted Jinryong’s name.
Jinryong accepted their reverence as his due.
‘Bow to me, lowly creatures.’
He made sure to display his power near the Korean and Japanese zones, hoping to awe them into submission.
Taesan was undoubtedly powerful, and perhaps his strength even exceeded Jinryong’s own.
But in terms of raw destructive power, Jinryong felt confident.
Ordinary players could excel in one-on-one combat but struggled when faced with many opponents. This was a natural result of the narrow confines and skill mechanics of the labyrinth.
And Jinryong believed that Taesan was no exception. Though strong, he would be limited in a broad battlefield.
So, he made a show of overwhelming power, annihilating hundreds of monsters at once.
Jinryong unleashed his power once more.
Rumble!
Hundreds more monsters were obliterated before they could even reach him.
The Chinese players gasped even louder, their awe growing.
Jinryong glanced behind him with a smirk to gauge the reactions of the Korean and Japanese players, only for his expression to falter.
“Wow...”
“There’s someone else as strong as Taesan?”
They were indeed impressed by Jinryong’s power. The destruction he caused was beyond their reach.
But that was all. There was no hint of reverence or worship in their expressions.
“Hm.”
Taesan, too, watched Jinryong’s display with a detached gaze.
“It’s still unstable.”
Jinryong’s power was vast, a mix of chaotic forces. Though it was large in scale, the strength itself was crude and unstable. Against a disciplined opponent, Jinryong’s attacks would require no real effort to counter.
This was Jinryong’s limitation.
Unaware of his path’s folly, he had already reached his ceiling. That twisted power would someday slip from his control and destroy him.
“A slave, indeed.”
The servant of an immortal, who only saw mortal life as expendable sustenance.
Taesan stepped forward.
The monsters rushed at him, jaws snapping, ready to devour.
Taesan raised his fist.
Boom!
An explosion erupted as his punch struck, instantly obliterating every monster within its range.
The blast radius of his strike was far wider than that of Jinryong’s display.
Jinryong and the Chinese players stared in shock.
Taesan stamped his foot.
---
[You have activated Earthquake.]
---
Rumble!
The ground quaked and split as if the earth itself were collapsing. Sinkholes formed beneath the monsters, swallowing them whole as they struggled and sank.
Silence fell.
In the midst of the stunned battlefield, Taesan moved forward quietly.
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---
Crunch.
He crushed the head of a monster and swung his arm. Monsters within his reach were pulverized, and those further away burst from the impact.
The monsters so far were only C- and B-rank, barely challenging for someone of Taesan’s level. He could dispatch them with minimal effort.
“Waaah!”
The Korean and Japanese players, inspired by Taesan’s overwhelming strength, shouted and surged forward.
To them, Taesan was nothing short of a god.
And such a being was fighting for their survival.
Emboldened, they attacked the monsters with all their might. Seeing this, the Chinese players belatedly joined in.
“For the Emperor!”
Yet their voices lacked conviction.
Jinryong continued fighting monsters with a grim expression.
His power was still impressive.
But beside him stood Taesan.
“I will retreat now. Handle the rest on your own,” Jinryong muttered.
“Y-yes!”
After ten hours, as night fell, Jinryong withdrew from the battlefield, heading back toward Mount Baekdu with a hardened expression.
The monsters kept coming through the night. Exhausted players took turns fighting to conserve energy.
But Taesan remained on the battlefield without rest, continuously crushing monsters.
The next day, Jinryong returned, noticeably stronger. The chaotic forces within him had grown, but so had his instability.
‘He must have tapped into that power again.’
With renewed strength, he fought beside Taesan.
But even now, he couldn’t match him.
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[You have activated Starlight Arrow.]
[You have activated Spell Separation.]
[You have activated Spell Acceleration.]
---
Dozens of radiant beams shot toward the monsters. Taesan clenched his fist.
---
[You have activated Spell Explosion.]
---
Light erupted.
The entire battlefield was bathed in white light, temporarily blinding everyone. When their vision returned, every monster had vanished.
“Ohh...”
All eyes turned to Taesan, not only from Korean and Japanese players but from the Chinese players as well.
Jinryong’s presence, as he fought diligently beside Taesan, was beginning to fade from their awareness.
Jinryong’s expression grew darker, though Chinese players quickly chanted his name in praise. Yet his expression remained stiff.
“Taesan, are you okay?”
Kim Huiyeon looked at him in amazement. Taesan had been fighting continuously for two days without a single break. Even Taeyeon and Kang Junhyeok had taken brief rests to recover.
But Taesan’s expression hadn’t changed.
“These aren’t strong monsters.”
They were only C- and B-ranks. He could keep fighting them for years if needed.
“Wow.”
Kim Huiyeon was left speechless.
Taesan continued to fight, moving across the battlefield, reinforcing weak points and saving lives.
Meanwhile, Jinryong retreated for breaks.
His power, a chaotic blend, required time to stabilize after each use.
And now, a figure even more powerful than the one they believed to be a god had appeared.
Doubt began to seep into their faith.
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“Aagh!”
A Chinese easy-mode player, a slave, let out a cry of despair.
A monster rampaged before him. Other slaves tried to hold it back, but as easy-mode players, they stood no chance against a C-rank. They could only serve as cannon fodder.
“Hah! Hah!”
He moved frantically, not alone in his desperation. At the front lines, the ones fighting were all slaves.
In China, the division of classes was clear. Naturally, the danger was also the slaves’ burden.
The slaves held the front, trying to hold back the monsters while the nobles fought later to secure the kill.
Countless slaves perished, yet none dared resist. After all, Jinryong, their absolute ruler and god, was watching.
Crunch.
The friend he had been speaking to just the day before was killed right beside him.
Young and old, men and women—all fell without discrimination. The slaves, seeing no escape, began to pray.
“O Emperor... Please, save me...”
But his plea went unheard.
Jinryong had never once saved them.
All he had ever done was rule through force.
Bang!
The front line collapsed. A monster lashed out with whip-like arms, and the slave knew death was imminent.
Crunch.
But suddenly, the monster’s head was crushed.
A black-haired man landed before him. The slave stared in shock.
His hair swayed
, his gaze cold as he raised his hand.
---
[You have activated Frozen World.]
[You have activated Spell Focus.]
---
A wave of freezing cold swept forward.
The ground froze, the air thick with icy mist.
“Ah...”
The slave gasped.
Every monster charging toward him froze.
Hundreds of monsters he hadn’t been able to hold back by himself were frozen in an instant.
The man who had saved him then pushed off, moving to another part of the battlefield. The slaves who had narrowly survived rose shakily.
“...Taesan?”
They knew his name. Jinryong had forbidden conversations with foreigners, but he couldn’t control access to the community.
They had seen many posts speaking of Taesan’s strength.
A powerful figure, but they had thought him no match for Jinryong, who had seemed absolute.
But...
The slave reached out to touch the frozen ground, only to pull his hand back in shock.
He hadn’t even touched the ice, yet the tip of his finger froze.
Getting any closer would likely freeze his entire body.
Even with his meager strength, he could sense that Taesan’s power surpassed Jinryong’s.
“...”
Jinryong did not save them. He ruled only through force.
But Taesan had saved them.
And his power was greater than Jinryong’s.
Their faith began to waver.
