10 Quads. The Enemies Are Landing.
This island, slightly off-center from the current magnetic field, was a fairly sizable one, accompanied by several smaller islets.
A month had passed without any encounters with enemies on this island, which had a high mountain in the center and dense jungle at its base.
Clang!
"You idiot. You can channel aura into a sword, but not into a shield? How does that make any sense?"
Dump, who had rolled across the rough gravel floor from Namsagwang's blow, gasped for breath and stood up.
"Haah… Haah… That's completely different from the aura you guys use. It's more like a force of will. You can't control it like your own body."
"Nonsense. Whether you channel the energy inside your body or externalize it through training and willpower, it's all the same in the end."
Over the past month, Dump had been the only team member undergoing physical training.
This training, which started out as Namsagwang's curiosity about the aura that knights wielded, had turned into a daily ordeal for Dump, who was constantly tormented by Namsagwang.
During this time, Dump had managed to infuse a faint aura into the tip of his sword, but Namsagwang seemed thoroughly unimpressed by his progress.
"That body of yours glows gold and produces explosive power — it's the same principle. So why can you do that but not this? Just how stupid are you?"
"Th-That's because…"
"Trying to blame it on some incompatible skill again? Idiot."
Whatever argument he made, it always ended the same way: "Idiot."
Heeheehee! Dump is stupid~
Dump is just big, that's all~
Dump ground his teeth as he heard the sirens on the coast mocking him.
Fwoosh! Sssshhh!
He dashed forward without activating a skill, kicking up gravel as he moved at high speed.
As blazing flames engulfed his sword's tip, he swung it at Namsagwang.
Clang!
But once again, he was sent flying and tumbled roughly across the ground after barely managing to block Namsagwang's strike with his shield.
"Idiot."
Channel aura into your shield the same way you do with your sword — simple in theory but as tough as solving an unsolvable equation. Dump, unable to do so, once again served as Namsagwang's training dummy to cool his head.
Standing atop the island's mountain, Seowoon closed his eyes as he looked down at the two.
The essence of Ganggi Art lies in the application and manifestation of aura. Some dress it up with fancy words, but in the end, it's about how well one resists the natural law where the larger force of nature absorbs the smaller force of human will. It's about how perfectly you can maintain externalized energy. That's it.
That was Namsagwang's straightforward explanation of the Ganggi Art.
Of course, he had provided numerous methods and theories, but Seowoon had chosen only one path: meditation.
Unlike Jinryung and Lilingyu, who directly practiced martial arts using ganggi, or Limin and Jeongsuhwa, who trained in energy control techniques, Seowoon focused solely on meditation.
He filled his lower dantian to its limits, then observed his meridians and energy flow in an effort to view himself objectively.
He firmly believed that understanding the concept, himself, and the laws of nature would eventually open the way forward.
His choice was heavily influenced by the countless wuxia novels he had read over the years.
Day 36 since the game started. Only around 600 survivors remained.
Despite Seowoon spending an entire month meditating atop the mountain, Namsagwang never scolded him.
Except for the time he spent coaching Dump and the others, Namsagwang stayed by Seowoon's side, reading cultivation texts and meditating with him.
"Your middle dantian is…"
"I know."
Seowoon cut off Namsagwang and opened his eyes.
"It might become a problem. Because I couldn't resist one temptation, I stepped onto the wrong path and ended up with this kind of body."
He looked down at his rejuvenated, reversed-aging body with a self-deprecating smile.
"I read the cultivation manuals and still chose to learn immortal Art. But I don't think I chose the wrong path."
Namsagwang didn't argue further.
After the lower dantian is filled to its limit, one opens the middle dantian. After filling the vast middle dantian, the crown (baekhoe) opens.
When the crown opens, you connect with nature, and eventually, by becoming one with it, you enter the Natural Realm. At that point, the middle dantian materializes, nurturing the Prime Spirit. Eventually, one discards the physical body and ascends as a celestial being with a body full of divine energy.
It was the path of a martial artist becoming an immortal.
But Seowoon had strayed from that path.
First, he did not open his middle dantian with his own power.
Second, instead of internal energy, he allowed celestial energy to take root in it.
Third, because of these two deviations, he had no way of filling the middle dantian.
The process of reaching the crown had been tangled from the very start — at the middle dantian.
But even so, Seowoon wasn't particularly worried.
I'm not planning on becoming a true celestial anyway. And when the crown opens, the Prime Spirit is formed in the middle dantian and gets filled with celestial energy. I'm just stocking up in advance. There's no downside to that.
Seowoon's belief remained unshaken.
How long would it have taken to open the middle dantian through traditional enlightenment?
To him, opening it through the immortal Art had been pure fortune.
Besides, no way would that old monkey — Jecheon Daeseong — hand out an item that leads to regression.
The guy was known for beating up immortals he didn't like. There was no way taking a different path from the traditional one would end in loss.
About ten more days passed.
Then, suddenly, during meditation, Seowoon and Namsagwang sprang to their feet at the sound of Juriel's team voice.
"Enemies inbound!"
The two of them leapt from the mountaintop and raced toward the coast like hawks diving at prey.
In an instant, team members swarmed from all directions to gather near Juriel on the beach.
Boom!
Crack!
Juriel's newly learned barrier shattered instantly under a barrage of magically fired bullets.
Five ships approached in formation, firing as if part of a coordinated fleet — a grand display of power.
They sank the caravels moored on the beach and continued boldly forward. From the prow of the leading ship, someone raised their voice.
"I am Dock, Guildmaster of the Peril Guild! Surrender and come under our command, and your lives will be spared!"
"He says our lives will be spared."
In response to limin's words, kichan replied in an annoyed tone.
"There are nine Mapo cannons on that ship alone."
Their conversation lacked even a hint of tension, prompting Juriel to speak up with a grim expression.
"Ferrel is a renowned knight of the Brussels Empire."
Dump, apparently familiar with the name as a fellow knight, added,
"He's a full-fledged knight of the Brik Order, famous for its honor on the battlefield."
Seowoon scowled at the approaching enemies with disinterest.
"A knight's a knight, damn it. Why the hell are they smashing someone else's ship?"
Seeing the enemies bringing even their small boats and heading to the island in full force, Seowoon gave the order.
"Lunatics. Let's kill them all."
At his command, kichan, Lyle, and Juriel—who had been waiting—unleashed their magic on the enemies rowing small wooden boats toward the island.
-KWAHHHH!
-FWOOSH! KYAHAHA!
-KURURURURURK!
Flame Birds soared through the sky, and Wind Blade spells magnified their size. Together, they collided with the ocean surface, creating massive waves through Water Wave magic that engulfed the enemies.
-SPLAT!
-CLANG!
But they only barely managed to shatter the enemies' barriers and caused little damage to their flimsy warships.
The enemies had far more mages than this side, and overcoming the firepower difference in a magic battle seemed unlikely.
Meanwhile, Jung suhwa had already let down her hair and drawn out a blood-red crystal orb, and Seowoon had readied his bow.
As enemy spells flew toward them in retaliation, Namsagwang blocked them while Dump absorbed the impact with his body. In that moment, Seowoon loosed an arrow.
-WHOOSH—THUD!
The bolt hit one of the knights square in the shoulder. Without checking the result, Seowoon fired again and again.
"Focus more on the barriers! The real magic fight begins after they land!"
A knight dressed in sleek silver armor engraved with golden insignias—clearly a Sword Emperor—gave a bold order.
Perhaps confident in their numbers and power, the enemies withstood the barrage and finally began landing on the island.
"Idiots."
Seowoon spoke with pure disdain as he observed the enemies.
On such a large island, with that many soldiers, there were countless strategies they could've used instead of charging head-on.
The fact that neither Juriel nor Seowoon—stationed on the mountain peak—had noticed them approaching until now suggested the enemy had a capable illusion mage.
And yet they chose brute force in the end?
He was beyond dumbfounded.
The moment the enemies stepped onto the gravel-strewn ground, Liringwi's eyes lit up.
-BOOM!
Gravel flew everywhere as red smoke spread.
Juriel and Lyle's magic rained down upon it.
-KRAAAAGH!
-P-Poison! It's poison!
As unbelievable as it seemed that the enemy would charge so directly, the magic traps placed along the shore and Liringwi's poison mist activated flawlessly.
As screams echoed, Ferrel—the enemy commander—charged through the poison.
Six knights followed close behind and closed in on Seowoon's group. Just as they were about to strike, Jungsuhwa's crystal orb glowed ominously.
"Dis All! Boundary Dis!"
As her chilling voice swept across the battlefield, the enemy knights froze for a moment.
-CRACK!
-SLICE!
-CLANG!
Seizing the moment, Jinryung, Seowoon, and Namsagwang launched their attacks.
Namsagwang's attack decapitated a startled knight with ease.
Jinryung's strike merely pushed back another enemy.
Seowoon's attack tore the shoulder plate off Ferrel's armor.
Ferrel quickly retreated, looking at his sword.
The flames around it blazed intensely. That brutish enemy had just blocked it with his bare hands.
It was shocking enough that the enemy could wield energy strong enough to manifest visually, but the crimson aura at Seowoon's fingertips caused Ferrel's expression to twist in realization.
Seowoon thought that realization had come far too late.
Cursed and debuffed, Ferrel stepped back and shouted while pushing his comrades forward.
"Hold the line! Even if you die, hold it!"
As the warriors began to lunge toward the retreating enemies, Seowoon's eyebrow twitched.
"Fall back!"
Jinryung, who had just taken a step forward, and Namsagwang, who was already grinning viciously in front of an enemy, instantly leapt back, leaving only afterimages.
Hold? Not retreat, but hold the line?
Ferrel's command echoed in Seowoon's head.
In that fleeting moment, the pieces in his mind began to fall into place:
Five enemy ships.
Illusion magic.
A frontal assault.
"Hold the line."
As those four facts collided in his mind, a chilling song echoed from afar, piercing their spirits.
-Aaaaah~ Aaaaah~
-Aaaah~ Aaah~
-Aaaaah~ Aaaaah~
"Damn it! Everyone, retreat!"
It was the signal they'd set up with the sirens to alert them if enemy ships approached from another direction.
And the signal came from not one, but all three directions.
In that instant, Seowoon's hypothesis clicked perfectly into place.
Despite the sudden order, the team obeyed without hesitation.
Just as they started to retreat, the previously empty air shattered, revealing enemies charging from both sides.
"Sword Emperor to the left!"
"Sword Emperor on the right too!"
With the rapid reports coming in, Seowoon quickly issued another order.
"Head 150 degrees into the jungle!"
As the team fled, Seowoon and Namsagwang held off the pursuing enemies.
Even for the unmatched Namsagwang, shaking off three Sword Emperors and a barrage of spells was no easy task.
Even amid the chaos, another group of enemies was charging toward the rear of Seowoon's team.
If they had reacted even slightly slower to the plan meant to encircle them from four directions, they would have been completely overwhelmed without a chance to respond.
"There are four Sword Emperors!"
"Don't look back—just run!"
Seowoon and Namsagwang gave their all to hold off the pursuing enemies.
If not for Seowoon's liberal use of clone and transformation techniques, the team would've already been surrounded.
As dozens of Namsagwangs appeared and began to sow confusion, not even the Sword Emperors dared charge in recklessly.
Among the dozens of identical copies, one would suddenly draw a blade and strike. This left even the elite Sword Emperors on edge and temporarily stalled.
Thanks to that, Seowoon's party was able to widen the distance and escape.
-BOOM!
-FWOOOSH!
Eventually, the Namsagwang illusions were wiped out by the barrage of magic and sheer enemy numbers. Ferrel ground his teeth in frustration.
"Damn it! They were all fakes!"
"Doesn't matter—they're trapped now. No matter how elite they are, we've got the numbers. We'll just corner and pick them off slowly."
"Right. Let's move fast and chase them down!"
Ferrel shook his head at his fellow knight's suggestion.
"They've definitely set traps all over the island. And I'm sure one of them specializes in poison. We need to send out scouts."
At Ferrel's order—having already lost four members to poison—two elves in leather hoods stepped forward to take the lead and clear the path.
Realizing that what he had assumed to be Ferrel's stupidity was actually a calculated strategy, Seowoon's face twisted in frustration.
Noticing Seowoon's tense expression, kichan anxiously asked,
"Hyung, what do we do? The power gap is too big. They've got over sixty people."
"Maybe we should split into survival teams…"
Juriel suggested, but Seowoon shook his head.
"No. This is our chance to prove we didn't waste our time on this island. Four Sword Emperors? That's just the right number to take on."
Surprisingly, Seowoon's calm conviction quieted his anxious teammates as if by magic.
"He's right. We've lived on this island for over a month. The terrain favors us."
"Exactly. We've poured all our poison supplies into this island. Numbers alone shouldn't scare us."
Even Liringwi joined in agreement with Jinryung's words, and the morale that had been faltering now surged back.
"Let's show them what real survival looks like."
Seowoon added, his eyes gleaming.
At the mention of real survival, the eyes of the team members—who had watched Seowoon's methods all this time—blazed with renewed determination.
After moving for some time, the team stopped in the heart of a dense jungle.
kichan, his green eyes glowing, scanned the surroundings and fixed his gaze in one direction.
"190 degrees. Two scouts. Judging by the direct pursuit, they've probably got Carmen's Eye too."
"Doesn't matter. We only need to hold out for three more hours—then the sun sets."
Looking up at the rays of sunlight piercing the jungle canopy, Seowoon's words lit a steely determination on his teammates' faces.
"We'll have to eliminate Carmen's Eye before then."
At Lilingwi's remark, Seowoon nodded.
"Don't worry."
[T/L: Read extra chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : https://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]