Just as the troops that would attack Atlas upfront were divided into two, the troops that would attack Atlas’ rear were also divided into two. One unit was led by Callian, while the other unit was led by an NPC named Ruik.
Ares aimed to create a huge fanfare by attacking the front of Atlas and forcing them to concentrate most of their forces there, while the troops in the rear would take advantage of the commotion and occupy Let’s Eat Sect’s territory. This was the goal of both the alliance and the Barras Kingdom.
Brony stood among the players gathered in the troops led by Commander-in-chief Ruik. Brony was the guild master of Horden Guild and Minhyuk’s classmate in middle school. He tried to slaughter the miners in the chocolate mine, while also trying to deal a huge blow to Minhyuk.
Alas, his plan backfired and he eventually got defeated by Minhyuk and his Ellie noona. But, was that the end of it? No. Their identities were shared on the internet which forced their guild to dissolve. And right now, he’s one of the people that had been waiting for ‘this day’.
‘I did not expect that bastard to become so famous.’
Minhyuk really became a great man and stood at the center of the country’s attention. But Brony only felt a deep-seated hatred for him. He had been looking forward to the day when he could bring frustration to Minhyuk, the person that caused the dissolution of his Horden Guild, and started hunting monsters alone.
Because he kept on hunting for a long time, he had also grown quite a bit. Of course, it was not to the point where he could reach the rankers’ level but, at the very least, he had reached the point where he could leave his own mark.
‘I’ll definitely slash that bastard’s throat.’
Brony, who was walking on the far left side of the troops, fanned the flames of his burning determination. That was when he saw some weird pigs and chickens roaming freely around the territory.
‘Are they letting the livestock roam freely so they will taste more delicious later?’
He was sure that those pigs and chickens were being raised so Minhyuk could eat them later. The thought of Minhyuk having ownership of those pigs and chickens was enough for Brony to want to tear them apart. So, he broke away from the troops for a moment to deal with them.
“I’ll make you suffer an agonizing death,” Brony declared as a strong force wrapped around his sword.
Just when he raised his sword to hit one of the pigs, the chicken’s eyes in front of him suddenly turned ferocious. Of course, he believed that it was definitely an illusion. Then, when his sword was about to hit the pig…
Peck—
“Keuaaaaaack!” A weird sound was ripped out of his mouth.
[You have received an attack on your vital point.]
[Your HP will continue to drop if you don’t stop the bleeding.]
Brony turned around, only to see blood dripping from the beak of the chicken on the ground beside him. However, it did not stop his arm from swinging his sword down and cutting the pig in front of him. No, he tried to cut the pig down.
Clang!
‘What the hell…?!’
The sound of steel striking steel rang loudly in the field. In other words, he was far from cutting down the pig in front of him. However, Brony’s confusion, which left him in a daze, led to…
Baaaaaaang—
…the pig’s body slamming straight at him. Brony’s HP kept on decreasing as he flew back from the pig’s attack. He tried to scream but the stab that he received on his neck was gurgling with blood and prevented him from doing so. On top of that, the cow, which was among the herd of livestock, gave the final blow. It dug its hind legs on the ground to increase its momentum as it rushed forward and slammed Brony with its huge body.
Just like that, Brony’s HP reached zero and he was forced to log out. That was right. Brony, who dreamed of getting his revenge on Minhyuk, died under the claws and hooves of the pigs, chickens and cows of Atlas territory. The shame of dying from these livestock was too hard to bear that he ended up shelving Athenae for good.
***
Rucado was one of the Sun Guilds’ masters and he was not pleased with the fact that an NPC was leading the Let’s Eat Sect Punishment Alliance troops. In fact, the members of ‘Jihwaja[1]’ guild exclaimed, their words fanning the flames of dissatisfaction.
“Why did they give the NPC the right to command us?”
“Why did they put him as the commander-in-chief of all the troops that will attack Atlas Territory?”
“It’s better to drag him down if we can.”
Rucado only nodded to the words of his guild’s attack commander. Even if he also did not like this fact, he had to control his members. He coughed, “Ahem, ahem. Well, you all know that Barras Kingdom is giving us support. Besides, for them, this is where they live. That’s why it was better for him to take command of this battle, instead of a player like me.”
His words were both true and false to some extent. If a player took the lead, then the player would gain huge benefits. However, the reason why Rucado could not protest against their decision to make Ruik their commander-in-chief was…
‘I almost died when I tried to say something about it. You punks.’
Ruik had trampled on all three of them, Rucado, Ares and Callian, in under thirty seconds. That was when they realized that Ruik was on an entirely different level, and right then and there, they accepted Ruik as the commander-in-chief.
‘The Land of the Gods and the story about God’s Swords are true.’
According to rumors, there were Swords that protected the Gods living in the empire inside the Land of the Gods. These Swords had strength and power that were far beyond anyone’s imagination, and were even rumored to have enough power to easily trample on the strongest of players. The empire was also said to be protected by God Athenae himself.
At first, Rucado believed that these rumors were just a myth. But today, he realized that it was not the case at all. This was because Ruik was one of the Swords that guarded and protected the God’s Empire. His strength was believed to be enough to crush Minhyuk or Alexander with just one hand alone.
And right now, Ruik, an envoy of the God’s Empire, was leading their troops.
‘The gods do not want another kingdom to be created in this world yet.’
A few decades ago, a child was praised for his talent in swordsmanship and was said to be someone that could become a Continental Swordsmans. Receiving a decree from the God’s Empire, this child, now a man, became a knight there. Whenever this man descended to the ground, he would be referred to as the Sword of the Gods. This man was none other than Ruik.
It was believed that he was so talented in the sword that he could easily push down and trample on the Knight Tower’s tower master.
Ruik was given the task to watch over and monitor the king of Barras Kingdom, as well as manage and take charge of everything concerning the kingdom. This was how the Sword of Gods were dispatched and placed in kingdoms all over the continents in the world. There were even times when the Sword of Gods had more power than the kingdom or empire’s ruler.
This was because the God’s Empire that was located in the Land of the Gods sat on the apex of everything in this world. In front of this empire, the entire world had to kneel down equally. In front of this empire, everyone was uncivilized. The truth was, the God’s Empire was a system that the management and operators had created to balance the kingdoms and empires in the world.
‘How dare a foreigner dream of creating a kingdom?!’
Ruik was enraged at the audacity of the Let’s Eat Sect and was very determined to slaughter them and lay them to waste. Just when they were about to advance, the ground suddenly started to tremble. Ruik frowned.
‘An army? No, it’s not an army. It feels more like the sound of animals running.’
Just like what he thought, there were 10,000 animals, from pigs, cows, chickens and horses, running freely from afar.
‘Why are the animals moving in groups like that?’
Ruik looked at the cows, pigs, and chickens that were flocking together in doubt. But what was more surprising was…
‘The pigs and cows are smiling?’
…the animals were smiling happily as if they were going on a picnic. Some of the pigs were even twitching their hips happily as they ran. That was when Ruik found a man from a distance. The man, who was wearing a hat that covered half of his face while chewing on hay, was riding on top of a mamboth, an elephant-type monster. His legs were even crossed leisurely on top of the monster.
“Meeeeeeeeeh~”
“Mooooooooo~”
“Hwiiiik! Oink, oink, oink!”
The man looked like the epitome of someone raising livestock.
‘Is he someone that can communicate with animals? That’s amazing,’ Ruik thought in admiration. The man was definitely someone with unusual ability.
“Hmm. What should we do?”
Ruik shook his head at Rucado’s question and said, “Wait until he passes by before we advance again.”
“Eh? We’re not killing them? Those monsters, cows, pigs, and chickens will be worth a fortune if we can catch them and sell them.”
“Are you telling me that you can catch all of the livestock that will escape the moment we touch them? That’s just like announcing to all of Atlas that we came to attack them.”
“I see.”
Ruik was very wise. He was sure that the thousands of soldiers that were with him would be thrown into chaos if they tried to catch the animals that would possibly escape all over the place. The best course of action for them was letting them pass quietly.
Ruik and his troops continued to hide in the bushes as they waited for the flock of animals to pass.
‘I guess he’s a special livestock farmer.’
Someone as strong as Ruik could feel the aura that this opponent released and estimate how much power they had. There were only two cases where he could not detect their aura and power.
‘Someone that’s more powerful than me.’
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However, finding someone that was more powerful than Ruik was like finding a needle in a haystack. Ruik might be at the bottom of the ring among the Sword of Gods, but he could still feel the aura and power of the second and third-ranked Swords. The only person among the Swords that he could not feel the aura of was the first, the most powerful Sword, and the emperor of God’s Empire.
As for the second case, it was those that have weak abilities and mana. He could not feel their energy, but he could sense some signs.
Slowly but surely, the herd of animals passed by them. The animals looked as if they were still going on a picnic. But then, just as the man passed by Ruik, the man pushed his hat with his index finger and murmured, “This should be the best timing, right?”
“…?!”
After leaving those words, the man jumped down from the mamboth with a ‘Ha!’ before stretching his body.
‘It can’t be, right…?’ Ruik frowned. The man’s words just now sounded very much like ‘It’s going to be difficult if I don’t do it now, right?’
‘I can’t even read anything from him!’
He completely denied the fact that he could not detect the man’s aura. However, Ruik thought that it was best to verify if his conjectures were right. So, he called for Roden, the pride of Barras Kingdom, “Roden.”
“Yes, commander.”
“Use your beast to scare them off.”
“I understand.”
Roden was Barras Kingdom’s royal summoner. All of his summons were beastly predators, ranging from tigers, leopards, lions to hyenas, at around Level 480! On top of that, he could train and evolve these beasts.
Generally, beasts would not be able to exert enough power to rival that of soldiers and knights. However, Roden’s beasts were different. In the first place, would someone even believe that a beast could reach Level 480? Furthermore, Roden could summon hundreds of them at one time, a feat that made him the representative of all the summoners in Barras Kingdom.
‘We can just pretend that these beasts have suddenly appeared to attack the livestock and see how he will react.’
There was no helping it. He had to test this man and see if he really could not read his signs, or it was just a coincidence. They had to do it even if Atlas noticed their existence. After all, the man looked just like someone that was relaxing with the animals, right?
Then, Roden summoned a hundred of his beasts. The beasts prowled around the bushes, like hunters watching their prey. Although these beasts looked normal from the outside, they were completely different from the ordinary beasts. But five minutes later…
“…!”
Ruik and Roden’s eyes widened in disbelief as they watched the incredulous scene unfold in front of their very eyes. Then, Roden heard the following notifications:
[You have lost ownership of the Brave Tiger.]
[You have lost ownership of the Brave Leopard.]
[You have lost ownership of the Brave Hyena.]
[You have lost ownership of the Brave Lion.]
Something incredibly ridiculous was definitely happening in front of both Ruik and Roden!
1. 지화자 - A shout of excitement, a song sung in peace, or the sound/tune made to make people excited ☜
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