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Chapter 29

All living beings knew that the vast expanse of sand in the endless desert was a dangerous place.

Even the monsters living in the desert were always cautious and alert.

There were as many monsters living in the desert as there were grains of sand, and among them many were S-rank, monsters of extreme danger.

S-rank monsters usually had their own territories, rarely venturing beyond them unless provoked, but once they did, they could turn the entire desert upside down.

Therefore, the desert monsters, whether strong or weak, never let their guard down.

The Crowned Bison was one of those monsters.

With a towering height exceeding three meters, its head bore horn-like crowns, earning it the name Crowned Bison.

While herbivores by nature, the Crowned Bison had evolved to become carnivorous in order to survive in a world dominated by deserts where there was no grass.

Its prey consisted of small monsters and insects living in the desert, and it constantly roamed, nose to the ground, searching for them.

Despite the sun being at its zenith, the Crowned Bison paid no heed as it searched for food.

They needed a lot of food to maintain their huge size. Therefore, they had to wander diligently from morning to evening in order to find prey.

Sand began to trickle down, catching the attention of the Crowned Bison, who looked down at its front hooves. Something felt strange.

Swish!

The sand was flowing down, and initially, it was dismissed as unimportant. However, the speed of the flowing sand increased, and the Crowned Bison’s massive body started sliding down along with it.

Umph!

Sensing an ominous sign, the Crowned Bison hurriedly tried to escape from the sand. But the more it struggled, the faster the sand poured down, trapping the monster even more.

Eventually, the Crowned Bison tumbled down into the depths of the sand.

Thud!

With a dull sound, its colossal body crashed onto the ground.

The Crowned Bison shook its head, attempting to rise. However, the sand had solidified, holding the monster in place.

The more the Crowned Bison struggled to break free, the stronger the pressure became.

That’s when it happened.

Pwoosh!

A Sand Missile, the size of a child’s forearm, shattered the Crowned Bison’s head.

“All right! We won’t have to worry about food for a while.”

Someone rose from the nearby sand.

It was none other than Zeon.

All of this was Zeon’s doing.

He lured the Crowned Bison down from the hill and finished it off with a Sand Missile, hunting the huge monster in an extremely efficient manner.

Zeon pulled out a dagger from his pouch and began skinning the Crowned Bison.

Despite its enormous size, there weren’t many edible parts for humans. Only a small portion of the chest devoid of corrupted energy was suitable for consumption.

Zeon carefully cut out the edible portion with the dagger.

Though it was just a small part of the chest, it was as large as Zeon’s torso.

Zeon took the meat and set off across the desert.

He arrived at a massive cactus, beneath which Dyoden was seated.

A huge Magic Stone was placed in front of Dyoden.

It was the Magic Stone of the A-rank monster Titanoboa, which they had hunted the day before.

The Titanoboa was a colossal monster, over twenty meters in length, and as an A-rank monster, it possessed formidable skills. Yet, Dyoden easily hunted it down.

The Titanoboa carried a Magic Stone with a powerful aura.

Dyoden stuck Kreion into the Magic Stone.

Kreion glowed red.

It absorbed the energy contained within the Magic Stone, a phenomenon that occurred when absorbing the energy from a Magic Stone.

As the energy contained in the Magic Stone was incredibly potent, it took quite some time to absorb.

Dyoden focused his entire mind on assisting Kreion in absorbing the energy.

Zeon carefully sat down and began preparing the meat he had brought with him.

He sliced the meat into small pieces and spread them out in the shade.

Soon, the moisture evaporated, and the meat became chewy.

It turned into jerky.

Zeon left one piece of jerky and stored the rest in his subspace.

He took the remaining jerky and took a bite, looking at Dyoden.

It seemed that the absorption of the Magic Stone was nearing its end, as Kreion emitted an intense heat.

It had already been over a month since they left the Black Forest.

During this time, Dyoden had successfully cleared two dungeons.

Both dungeons were buried deep beneath the sand, but they were able to enter thanks to Zeon’s help.

The Titanoboa was the boss of the dungeon they entered yesterday.

Despite its intimidating presence as the dungeon master, it proved to be no more than an earthworm in front of Dyoden.

‘It’s absurd. How can such monsters exist?’

In Zeon’s eyes, Dyoden looked more like a monster than a human.

During the past month, Zeon has also grown remarkably.

After learning to utilize the sand effectively, he could hunt most monsters with ease. However, even with this newfound ability, he couldn’t compare to Dyoden.

Tsuuu!

Finally, Kreion had absorbed all the energy from the Magic Stone.

The Magic Stone that lost all its energy became an ordinary stone.

Crack! Crack!

At that time, Kreion spontaneously started dismantling in midair.

Kreion, disassembled into individual parts, hovered around Dyoden and then merged back into one.

Having evolved once again with the energy absorbed from the Magic Stone, the evolved Kreion exuded a more formidable aura. However, Dyoden’s expression didn’t reflect satisfaction.

“It’s still not enough.”

Upon hearing his mutterings, Zeon couldn’t help but be puzzled.

Kreion had undergone multiple evolutions and could now be considered the world’s strongest weapon. Yet, Dyoden deemed it insufficient.

‘What on earth is he trying to defeat with that thing?’

To an outsider, Dyoden might seem like a madman on a rampage, but Zeon, who had observed him closely, knew that there was a consistency in his actions.

Everything Dyoden did was linked to becoming stronger.

Whether he improved himself or enhanced Kreion, the objective was the same – relentless pursuit of strength.

Zeon came up with only one conclusion.

Dyoden was preparing for war.

He didn’t know who the opponent was, but for Dyoden in his current state, it was undoubtedly a formidable adversary. That’s why he was striving desperately to become stronger.

‘Damn it! Did I make a mistake by deciding to follow him to the end?’

Zeon felt a slight regret, but now there was no turning back from his decision.

Zeon threw one of the jerky he had made earlier to Dyoden, who started chewing it without a word of gratitude.

“Let’s go!”

Dyoden, having finished the jerky, stood up. Zeon nodded and swallowed the piece of jerky he was chewing on.

Dyoden was already ahead, striding into the distance. Zeon quickly used Sand Strides following Dyoden.

Once again, they were heading eastward.

Zeon couldn’t help but wonder what awaited them at the end.

‘I heard there used to be a sea in this direction.’

A sea.

It was something Zeon had only heard of in tales, very few people had actually seen it.

Only someone who lived as long as Dyoden could have seen the sea. Unfortunately, those born after that were not given the opportunity to see the sea.

Whooosh!

A strong wind blew, prompting Zeon to adjust his robe.

While the robe made by the elves was light and allowed for easy movement, it lacked the protective capabilities of the robe made from the Sand Angler’s hide. Clasping it tightly was necessary to ward off the wind.

‘I wonder if another Sand Angler will show up.’

This time, he was truly confident that he would not be lured by it and capture it.

At that moment, when Zeon was grumbling while walking.

Dyoden, who was walking ahead, suddenly collapsed.

Bang!

Following that, the sound of a gunshot echoed through the desert.

“What?”

Zeon quickly dropped to the ground, creating sand barriers around him in anticipation of gunfire. Fortunately, the second gunshot didn’t come.

“Where did that come from?”

At least within Zeon’s sensory range, there were no life forms detected.

It was evident that someone had sniped from a far distance beyond Zeon’s reach.

Then, from the vast plain in the distance, black shadows emerged. They were human, and not just a few. Even a rough count exceeded a hundred.

Riding dune buggies, commonly used in the desert, they were speeding towards Zeon.

“Scavengers?”

Zeon focused mana into his eyes.

As the approaching humans came into clear view, he recognized familiar faces among them.

“These guys?”

It was the party led by Jang Yong-beom, who had rescued him from the Sandworm.

Jang Yong-beom, Aiden, Mountain, and Giselle—four of them were riding the same vehicle.

About twenty more dune buggies were following behind their vehicle.

Zeon’s attention was drawn to the dune buggy following directly behind Jang Yong-beom.

A man on top of that buggy was holding a massive gun.

Judging from the lingering smoke at the gun barrel, it was clear that he was the one who sniped Dyoden.

“Is that a Magic Gunner?”

Although extremely rare, among Awakened, some used firearms.

Those who succeed in sniping with a 100% accuracy no matter the distance.

While ineffective against colossal monsters or monsters with shields, it was a lethal weapon that had an absolute advantage against humans.

For the likes of them, Neo Seoul had developed guns combining magic and technology.

The sniper rifle, which was made to be able to snipe from outside the detection range of an Awakened, had a range of over ten kilometers.

When combined with the keen senses and precision and the Eagle Eye, which are the characteristics of a Magic Gunner, it resulted in overwhelming power.

Just like now.

The sniper who successfully hit Dyoden from over ten kilometers away was revealed to be Leo Pallona.

Leo belonged to the Numbers, the execution unit directly under the mayor of Neo Seoul.

The mayor held absolute power, operating an execution unit to eliminate political opponents.

Click!

“I got a bit tense when I was told he was the Slaughterer, but it seems like he’s not that big of a deal.”

Leo smiled as he pulled out the cartridge.

It was a sniper shot from over ten kilometers away.

No matter how powerful an Awakened was, detecting a bullet flying towards them was impossible.

At that moment, Jang Yong-beom, who was riding in the car in front, shouted.

“Don’t let your guard down. The opponent is Dyoden, a crazy old man.”

“Hehe! Why be nervous about an old man who’s already dead?”

Leo mocked Jang Yong-beom.

He was certain of Dyoden’s death.

Bringing a group of other Awakened as a precaution was embarrassing in Leo’s eyes.

“By the way, there was one more guy.”

Leo muttered as he reloaded the sniper rifle.

Although the sniper rifle was excellent, its drawback was that it could only fire one shot at a time.

Hence, there was a delay between each shot. However, Leo wasn’t overly concerned.

The distance between him and Zeon was still considerable. With that distance, Leo believed he could handle Zeon with his sniper rifle alone.

Leo aimed at Zeon through the scope.

Beyond the magical scope, something squirmed and rose.

The moment Leo checked the scope’s display, he involuntarily muttered.

“This can’t be! I aimed for the head, didn’t I?”

The entity wriggling and standing up was the old man Leo had just successfully sniped moments ago.

Tsuu!

White smoke was rising from Dyoden’s forehead where the bullet had exploded.

“Hehe!”

Through the scope, Dyoden was laughing.

Dyoden swung his arm backward and then swung it with all his might.

Splaack!

A moment later, a shockwave resounded as it reverberated through the desert.

Jang Yong-beom urgently shouted.

“Everyone, be careful!”

Boom!

As soon as he finished speaking, the car Leo was riding exploded.

Embedded in the exploding car was a massive greatsword.

It was Kreion.

Jang Yong-beom hurriedly searched for Leo.

The expression on Jang Yong-beom’s face contorted as he quickly found Leo.

Leo was impaled by Kreion, laying sprawled like a frog.

There was no need to confirm whether he was dead or alive.

It was a definite demise.

Jang Yong-beom’s mouth twisted.

“This monstrous old man!”