TL: Hanguk

Squeaak!!!

Kreoneek!!!

“Huh? That sounds like the kids?”

Upon hearing the desperate cries of the Black Rabbit and Cuengi, Sejun hurriedly ran towards the source of the noise.

“Hey guys, what’s wrong?!”

Sejun asked upon finding the Black Rabbit and Cuengi frantically looking around while crying.

Squeak?

Kreong?

Upon hearing Sejun’s voice, the Black Rabbit and Cuengi turned their heads.

Squeak!!!

Kreong!!!

Upon spotting Sejun, the Black Rabbit and Cuengi charged towards him with their arms wide open.

“Whoa?! Hey, guys?”

Seeing the unbraked charge of the Black Rabbit and Cuengi, as if they were overwhelmingly happy to find him, Sejun got goosebumps. He realized he was in trouble, especially seeing Cuengi, who seemed half out of his mind from the joy of finding Sejun. He thought he was going to die!

He tried to dodge their charge quickly, but compared to Sejun, the Black Rabbit and Cuengi, who possessed much higher agility stats, were impossible to avoid.

Bam!!!

“Cough!”

Sejun felt like his life flashed before his eyes as he was winded by their body tackles.

‘Am I dying? I wanted to meet Aileen before I died…’

Just then,

[Your body has suffered a critical injury.]

[<Power: Indestructible Body> is activated.]

[Your body is protected from destruction by consuming magic.]

As his ability activated, Sejun’s body was protected from breaking.

‘Right, I have an indestructible body…’

That was Sejun’s last thought before he passed out, along with the sensation of unbearable pain, as if his entire body was breaking. While the power did protect his body from breaking, it didn’t prevent the pain.

Whoosh.

Sejun with Black Rabbit and Cuengi in his arms and flew through the air due to their momentum.

Meanwhile, Theo instinctively knew that Sejun was safe.

“Yikes! Get off, meow!”

Still clinging onto Sejun’s knee while Sejun was knocked unconscious and flying, Theo frantically shook his tail to get Iona off him.

***

“Tariq, why have you been so scarce these days?!”

Tamuro welcomed Tariq, who had visited the 67th floor of the tower again.

“Hahaha, thank you for your warm welcome, Tamuro. But I heard that you’ve been having a tough time with the Purple Locusts lately…”

Tariq spoke, observing the sparse defensive fortress.

“Ah! We were lucky. The Purple Locusts suddenly retreated just when the waypoint was about to be broken through.”

“Ah… I see. Tamuro, this is a small token of my appreciation. Please accept it.”

Once again, Tariq offered a 10,000 tower coin worth black card, backed by the guarantee of Chow Group.

However,

“Hah. Tariq, spend a little more this time. I have many dependents. I’ve already received it five times, but it’s still not enough.”

Tariq’s face hardened momentarily at Tamuro’s words.

And then,

“… Hahaha, I guess I was being shortsighted! Of course, I should give more.”

Tariq pulled another black card from his pocket and handed Tamuro two black cards.

“Hah. Thank you.”

Tamuro accepted the black cards with a smile. Around Tamuro’s neck hung the necklace that Iona had given him.

“Then, go as far as you wish and return. I have some work to do.”

Tamuro quickly made way for Tariq to act swiftly.

***

“Hmm…”

Sejun regained his consciousness at the damp sensation on his forehead.

Kreong!

Cuengi seemed excited to see Sejun awake.

However,

Kreong…

Cuengi hesitated to hug Sejun like before, worried that Sejun might lose consciousness again if he did.

“It’s okay. Dad’s strong now.”

Sejun spread his arms and told Cuengi. His body felt a little heavy, but thanks to his <power: Indestructible body>, there were no discomfort or pain.

Kreong.

At Sejun’s words, Cuengi hugged him.

And then,

Sejun could understand why his forehead was damp. Cuengi had been nursing him by moistening his front paw in his saliva and placing it on Sejun’s forehead.

Then

Squeak!

Pi Ppi

Black Rabbit and ChuChu brought Sejun breakfast.

“Thank you.”

As Sejun praised them while patting the heads of the Black Rabbit and ChuChu,

Kreong.

Cuengi pushed his head in as if asking for praise.

“Alright. I got it.”

As he was patting the animals’ heads,

“President Park, are you awake now, meow?”

Theo, who had been sleeping on Sejun’s lap, woke up.

“But where did Iona go?”

“She went to handle Tariq, meow.”

“Tariq came?”

“Yes, meow.”

Knowing that the necklace with the video recording spell that was given to Tamuro had been activated, Iona went directly to the waypoint to take action.

***

“Tariq, stop!”

As Tamuro stepped forward, thinking he had secured enough video evidence by following Tariq,

Creak. Creak.

Grrr.

Lizardman soldiers and Silver Wolf Tribe wolves that had been hiding in advance surrounded Tariq and his subordinates.

“Heh! I thought you were just a money-grubbing lizard, but you’re foolish too.”

Tariq said, looking at Tamuro. Although he was caught in the act of discarding monster corpses, Tariq was not shaken at all.

“…Since it’s come to this, there’s no choice. Kill them all.”

“Yes!”

At Tariq’s words, the wandering merchants who followed Tariq took out their equipment from their bags. And Tariq also took out a giant blood-red battle axe from his bag.

So began the battle. Surprisingly, the situation was turning in Tariq’s favor. It was because of the weapon Tariq drew.

When Tariq swung his battle axe, a red energy emerged from it and flew around.

“Dodge!”

The Lizardmen and Silver Wolves were busy dodging the red energy.

“How could he have the guillotine…”

Elka looked at the huge battle axe that Tariq was wielding and was taken aback. Guillotine was the 5th of the top 10 strongest weapons of the Black Tower, a relic-grade weapon. As it had been a sacred object of the Silver Wolf Tribe, he knew it better than anyone else.

“Elka, why did you betray Lord Grid? Because of your choice, your tribe will all starve to death!”

“Shut up! I have nothing to talk about with someone who doesn’t know about pride!”

“You’re still spouting about pride even after your grandfather and parents died like that. You’re out of your mind.”

Then,

“Kyoo-Tariq, stop talking nonsense and admit to your crimes.”

Iona appeared from the sky.

“You’re Iona?! Why are you here? Don’t tell me you planned this?!”

“You don’t need to know. I’ll handle Tariq, you all handle the rest! Seal!”

Iona cast a sealing spell on the weapon Tariq was holding and shouted.

“What?! Why is this happening all of a sudden?!”

Tariq was taken aback by his suddenly non-functional weapon. As Tariq’s weapon was sealed, the battle ended quickly under the overwhelming attack of the Lizardmen and Silver Wolves.

“Kyaa! How dare you oppress me, I’m leader of Chow Group and a board member of the Wandering Merchant Association! I won’t let you off. I’ll officially protest to the Wizard’s Association and the Freelance Mercenary Association!”

Tariq, tied with a rope, was shouting like a slaughtered pig.

“Well? do you really think you can get away safely this time?”

Iona looked at Tariq and laughed. Tariq had repeatedly escaped accusations in the past by eradicating evidence and witnesses and using his power.

“What?! Ha ha ha. I’m an elder of the Boar Tribe, under the protection of Lord Grid, the landlord of the 55th floor of the tower! No matter what I do, you can’t punish me!”

“Sure. But will you still be relaxed after seeing this? Tamuro.”

“I’m here.”

At Iona’s words, Tamuro took off his necklace and handed it to her.

And when Iona manipulated the necklace,

-What?! Ha ha ha. I’m an elder of the Boar Tribe, under the protection of Lord Grid, the landlord of the 55th floor of the tower! No matter what I do, you can’t punish me!

The scene of Tariq speaking just now was played back in mid-air like a hologram.

“What…what is that?!”

“Kyoot Kyoot Kyoot. It’s a necklace with a video recording spell I developed. All your deeds have been recorded! Plus, you involved landlord Grid. Thank you.”

“…!”

“Finish them off.”

“Yes!”

“Yes!”

Leaving the speechless Tariq behind, Iona ordered Tamuro and Elka. There was no need to keep him alive now that they had evidence.

“Pl…please save me!”

“Hellfire.”

Tariq’s whole body was engulfed in hellfire that wouldn’t go out until he died due to Iona’s magic.

“Kyaa!”

Tariq screamed in agony as he died.

The Lizardmen and wolves collected the discarded monster corpses and the bodies of the wandering merchants.

***

“Five days have passed since I passed out?!”

Sejun was surprised while eating breakfast. He had been wondering why he was still hungry no matter how much he ate.

“That’s right, meow!”

“What about the locusts?”

“The locusts started eating the green onions, so we chased them away, meow!”

As the number of locusts decreased, the poison flowing in the locusts’ bodies disappeared, and they were not affected at all even if they ate the detoxifying green onions that acted as an poison for them.

“So, what about the quest?”

Sejun hurriedly checked the quest.

[Mid-level Administrator Quest: Exterminate the Yellow Locusts on the 67th floor of the tower.]

Yellow Locusts: 839,191,112 / 2,938,171,012

Reward: 75,000 experience points, 7,500 tower coins

Failure: You cannot return to the original place until the quest is completed.

“Huh?!”

As the number of locusts decreased, the locusts devolved two levels from Red to Yellow. And as the locusts devolved, the quest difficulty and rewards also decreased.

‘If this goes on, the rewards will keep decreasing. Isn’t there any way?’

While Sejun was contemplating how to maximize the quest rewards,

“Kyoot kyoot kyoot. Sejun, you’re awake!”

Iona entered the cave.

“Yeah. What about Tariq?”

“We caught him. Here’s the video evidence.”

Iona showed the recorded video to Sejun.

“Ah?! What happened to all these monster corpses?”

Sejun asked while looking at the monster bodies scattered on the ground in the video. As soon as he saw the monster corpses, a good idea came to his mind.

“We’ve only collected them for now. Why do you ask?”

“Bring me those monster corpses. I have a use for them.”

“Okay. I’ll be right back.”

Iona went out again.

Then,

“Okay, everyone gather around.”

Sejun began to give orders to the animals.

When Iona returned with the bags containing the monster corpses, the cave was empty.

“Guys, pour them all in here.”

Following Sejun’s command, the animals began to pour the monster corpses from the bags into the cave. The strategy was to increase the number of locusts inside the cave to raise the difficulty level of the quest and catch them all at once.

The jewel frogs, the original owners of the cave, moved out obediently when Gaeron, their god, ordered them move to a new home.

“Iona, lure the locusts with your wind magic.”

“Yes! Wind!”

Iona used wind magic to spread the smell of the monster corpses to where the scattered locust swarm was.

After a while,

Flap flap.

Following the smell of the monster corpses, the yellow locusts began to enter the cave.

“Good.”

Sejun was watching the locusts from his hiding spot and spoke.

“Phew. Now there are no locusts outside.”

“You’ve worked hard.”

Sejun, who had lured all the locusts for several hours, said.

As time passed,

[Yellow locusts have evolved into Blue locusts.]

[The quest is updated.]

…

..

.

As the number of locusts increased, their evolution started again.

And,

[Red locusts have evolved into Purple locusts.]

[The quest is updated.]

…

..

.

As the Red locusts evolved into Purple locusts,

“Now!”

“Yes! Mini Blackhole!”

Iona used her most powerful gravity magic.

And the entire Navia Swamp disappeared.

*****

Author’s note

Here are the stages of locust evolution.

Green -> Yellow -> Blue -> Red -> Purple.

*****

*****