Chapter 55

[Skill: Smite Lv.1]

Active Skill

Mana Cost: 300.

Cloaks your body in Ruler's Authority to amplify attack power.

→

[Skill: Iron Body Arts Lv.1]

Active Skill

Mana Cost: 600.

Strengthens your body with Ruler's Authority.

Amplifies the attack power and defense of the strengthened area.

"Oh."

The skill had evolved.

Suho's eyes gleamed as he turned his arm this way and that, examining the black energy covering it.

Originally, Smite had only amplified his attack power. Now, though its mana cost had doubled, its properties had changed to provide an overall enhancement rather than just a boost to his attacks.

'And it's only level one. If I repeat this training every day, will it keep leveling up?'

Perhaps the area covered by this black armor would gradually expand as its level rose.

Until eventually...

At that thought, Suho suddenly looked at Ammut. He recalled the overwhelming presence that had filled this entire space when Ammut assumed his Spirit form earlier.

"Heh heh. Yes, that's right."

Reading the meaning in Suho's gaze, Ammut grinned.

"Once you master Iron Body, you'll become as strong as me. You can become the strongest through sheer physical strength, without any other skills. Now! Try hitting me with that power!"

As Ammut spread his arms wide, Suho gave him a puzzled look.

"Hit you? You really want me to?"

"Yes! Exchanging blows at full strength is how we Crocors greet one another! Show me everything you've got!"

What a brutish greeting.

Still, judging by the tough crocodile hide covering Ammut's body, Suho figured he could safely go all out.

"Then I won't hold back. Hup."

He resolutely raised his arm and drove a powerful blow into the center of Ammut's body.

KABOOOOM!

A tremendous shock wave swept outward from the overwhelming impact.

Yet Ammut had only taken a single step back.

"Hah! Now that's a tasty punch."

He grinned as black blood gushed from his mouth.

"With that kind of potential, teaching you will be worthwhile. You pass!"

"Pass?"

"Yes. I mean I'm formally accepting you as my disciple. I won't need to take any more challengers now."

He stamped one foot.

THOOM!

The floor trembled, and an enormous magic circle began spreading in every direction from beneath his foot.

WHOOSH!

[Young Monarch!]

As the magic circle spread across the entire pyramid, Beru and Esil rushed over to protect Suho.

[It's a shamanic array!]

"The dimensional barrier around here is warping!"

Having already crossed the dimensional barrier once, Esil knew exactly what this sensation was.

"Don't make such a fuss. I have no intention of harming you."

Ammut chuckled, savoring their reactions. Then, with a look of reminiscence in his eyes, he murmured,

"Long ago, Kandiaru came to me and said he would help me research the Iron Body Arts to my heart's content. And that he would provide an endless supply of challengers for me to train."

But...

Ammut's mouth stretched wide, revealing gleaming, pointed teeth.

"Heh heh. That devious shaman. All that talk of challengers was just wordplay from the start."

He had finally realized it.

In the end, this entire system, all his research into the Iron Body Arts, had been arranged solely for the little human standing before him.

At the center of the magic circle, at the heart of the pyramid shaking as though it would collapse, Ammut looked straight into Suho's eyes and grinned.

"Truth be told, I knew the moment I saw you. You're a descendant who carries the Shadow Monarch's blood. Hah! That devious shaman! Making me teach the son of the man who killed Tarnak, my first disciple."

But what did it matter?

Ammut was not looking at Suho's outward appearance now.

He was looking at the radiance of the great soul he sensed within.

'... He must have known I could never refuse once I saw something like this for myself.'

Fine. You win.

'I'll gladly fall for your trick.'

Even now that he understood that devious scheme, he could only go along willingly.

He simply wanted to know.

His Iron Body Arts had raised Tarnak, a lowly goblin, into a vessel for the new King of Monstrous Humanoids.

What if he taught this ultimate power to a human with such a great soul?

How far beyond his station could that human rise?

'Heh heh. Isn't the mere thought thrilling!'

Chuckling, Ammut quietly recited the incantation Kandiaru had taught him.

"May light shine upon the challenger's future!"

At that moment, space trembled, and a system message appeared before Suho.

DING!

[Ammut, the Crocodile That Devours Death, wishes to be recruited as an NPC.]

[Would you like to accept?] (Y/N)

A curious gleam entered Suho's eyes at the message.

'An NPC?'

Anyone who knew anything about games would recognize the term.

The system always referred to him as the Player.

An NPC, on the other hand, was a Non-Player Character. In other words, a helper who stayed in one area and facilitated the game's progress.

[Y-Young Monarch?]

Suho glanced at Beru, who was blinking beside him. He, too, seemed unable to make sense of the situation.

After all, Beru was merely a fighter, not the system's Architect.

'This is the system my father passed down to me.'

Recalling what his father was like, Suho looked at the message again.

[Would you like to accept?] (Y/N)

His father was asking what he wanted.

It was an offer, not a demand.

He could feel his father's concern behind it. If he recruited this crocodile, he would continue to endure pain like today's.

If it was too hard, he didn't have to do it.

'Mom always said I took after Dad.'

If his father were in his place... what choice would he make?

The answer was obvious.

"Ammut."

Suho gladly accepted the offer.

"I'm counting on you from here on out."

At that moment, Ammut's fierce eyes narrowed into thin crescents.

"Of course, my disciple."

RUMBLE!

And then a massive earthquake struck the desert.

* * *

RUMBLE...!

"Wh-what's happening?!"

The Asura Guild members still in the labyrinth turned to Rio Singh in alarm.

"Rio! I've got a bad feeling about this!"

"The pyramid's going to collapse!"

"Did those Scavenger bastards tear up so many walls that they've destabilized the foundations?!"

Rio Singh gritted his teeth.

It was time to make a decision.

"We're getting out right now! We can't let this pyramid become our tomb!"

"What about the prophecy?"

"The prophecy... This is only my guess, but maybe the 'life born from death' simply refers to the mummies here?"

"Oh, that certainly could be...!"

The guild members hurriedly nodded at his words.

They did feel there were a few holes in his reasoning, but getting out of this deadly pyramid as quickly as possible came first, so they decided to accept it.

There was another concern, however.

"Rio, are you sure this will be all right? Who knows how we'll be disciplined if we come back empty-handed..."

"At least it'll be better than dying. Besides, we're not leaving with nothing."

Hurrying to help the wounded, Rio Singh gave a knowing smile.

"Today, we made one enemy and one connection."

The former was, of course, the Scavenger Guild.

"As soon as I return to the guild, I'll lodge a formal protest with Scavenger over what happened today. After that, it'll become a political dispute between the guilds. It won't be our problem anymore."

The guild didn't pay good money for legal representation for nothing.

Every hunter in town had witnessed the Scavenger Guild's atrocities, so they would all take Asura's side.

Even Scavenger would struggle to ignore that much public opinion.

"It would be another story if we died here, but once we get out alive, we'll have countless grounds to go after Scavenger under international hunter law. That should be enough to keep the guildmaster from reprimanding us any further."

But that wasn't all Rio Singh was after.

There was the other connection he had made today.

Sung Suho.

"And do you think I gave that Korean hunter such a valuable item for no reason?"

Sung Suho, the Korean hunter.

Judging by his extraordinary abilities, he was surely a member of a highly renowned guild in Korea.

What's more, Egypt was a distant country, a full twenty-hour flight from Korea. For such an impressive hunter to travel so far on business, returning empty-handed would surely put him in as difficult a position as theirs.

"That's exactly what I was taking into consideration."

"... Oh!"

A moment later, the Asura Guild members realized what Rio Singh meant, and their eyes widened.

He gave a soft chuckle and nodded.

"Exactly. Every favor comes at a price. He now owes our Asura Guild a debt of gratitude. Besides, we're comrades with a common enemy: Scavenger."

There was a word that neatly defined this relationship.

"We've become 'friends.' Heh heh."

Rio Singh's eyes flashed with a knowing smile.

Just then, a certain fact suddenly occurred to the guild members.

"Oh! Come to think of it, the guildmaster has been showing an interest in Korea for a while!"

"Yes. I factored that in, too. Now, when our guild goes to Korea, we can get his assistance. Since we're friends."

No one knew why the Asura Guild's guildmaster was interested in Korea, a small country in the East.

But interest alone wasn't enough. Under international hunter law, it was difficult for a foreign guild to cross another country's borders without justification.

That was because a hunter guild was itself a formidable armed force.

Korea and India, in particular, had no ties to one another. Establishing a connection of some kind would prove useful.

The Asura hunters stared wide-eyed at Rio Singh.

"My God. Rio, just how far ahead were you planning?"

"Oh, this is nothing. Heh heh."

He shrugged as though it were no great feat and helped support one of the wounded.

"Now let's put our regrets aside and get out of here."

RUMBLE...!

When they finally managed to escape the pyramid...

"... My God."

Their faces drained of color as they looked back.

A horrifying sight was unfolding before their eyes.

RUMBLE...!

"H-holy shit."

"The pyramid...!"

"It's sinking!"

A vast expanse of quicksand.

The desert's red sand swirled like a whirlpool, sucking in everything nearby.

And Kandiaru's pyramid, standing at its center, was sinking whole into the depths below.

"Run!"

"If we get caught in that, we'll be buried alive!"

Ashen with terror, they began running at full speed.

When they finally reached the nearby town of Kamura...

"Hah."

Nothing remained behind them.

The enormous pyramid had sunk beneath the red sand without a trace.

Every hunter in Kamura was gripped by terror at this natural disaster, against which they were powerless.

'Is he all right?'

Rio Singh suddenly found himself worried about Sung Suho.

'He must have made it out safely, right?'

He dearly hoped so.

No, of course he had.

Fortunately, the pyramid hadn't sunk all that quickly. Even their group, burdened with the wounded, had escaped unharmed. There was no way a hunter with such physical abilities could have failed to get out.

Yet Suho was nowhere to be seen in the vast desert.

'... It looks like I have a reason to visit Korea now.'

Even if Suho wasn't visible now, he would surely return to his own country if he had escaped safely.

Rio Singh could check on him when he visited Korea later.

With that thought, Rio Singh nodded solemnly, then turned to his subordinates.

"We're returning home."