Junhyuk was worried that Jeffrey might be within range if he used the Spatial Slash. If so, considering his defense, he could die from a single strike.

The Spatial Slash would take at least 50 percent off of Jeffrey’s health. If Jeffrey was lucky, he’d survive, but Junhyuk didn’t want to trust luck.

So, he stepped back. Considering Jeffrey’s character, the expert wouldn’t take the lead when attacking. On the battlefield, one could die at any moment, so even if Jeffrey had a lot of defensive equipment, he shouldn’t take the lead.

Heroes could tear apart defensive equipment such as his like pieces of paper, so Jeffrey was keeping a certain distance from him, just like he had expected.

Junhyuk gathered his breath. The preparations for the single-point explosion were finished.

“This should work!”

If he could add the single-point explosion to the Spatial Slash, its destructive power would be entirely different, but things did not happen as he had expected them to.

When he extended his sword, the twin-headed ogre ran toward him. They both locked eyes with each other, and Junhyuk saw that the twin-headed ogre’s eyes were bloodshot. He used the Spatial Slash on the ogre’s chest, timing it with the single-point explosion.

Boom!

Normally, the Spatial Slash sliced the opponent, but this time, it was different. Right when the Spatial Slash hit the ogre’s chest, it triggered an explosion. It was like a bomb had gone off.

The twin-headed ogre was completely destroyed, and the elidra and the giant snake following behind it were also taken out. The single-point explosion created an orb-shaped attack that destroyed all three monsters.

When Junhyuk saw that only the porcupine monster remained, he knew that he was safe, but he was disappointed that he had not killed it as well.

The remaining monster started shooting thorns at him. Twenty of them were flying his way, but he did not teleport. Instead, he compressed the living spirit and ran forward.

There were twenty thorns flying his way, but there were plenty of gaps between them. If they had been closer together, Junhyuk would have had a harder time escaping them with acceleration. He moved between the thorns to reach the monster.

Shocked, the monster did not have a chance to straighten the thorns on his body, so the Blood Rune Sword penetrated the monster’s forehead and stabbed down into the ground.

The monster couldn’t even scream, and Junhyuk walked slowly toward Jeffrey. Jeffrey was wearing a helmet, so he couldn’t see his face, but Jeffrey couldn’t keep his mouth closed.

As he approached Jeffrey, Jeffrey took a step back. Junhyuk thought he had shown the expert enough of his powers, so he did not push Jeffrey any further. He silently pointed his sword toward Jeffrey’s neck and said, “Shall we continue?”

Jeffrey laughed awkwardly, “No, ha-ha-ha,” and smacked his lips.

“You can summon four monsters, so it looks like your power has evolved. You also activated another power, which will help you,” Junhyuk said calmly.

“Ha-ha-ha, right?”

Jeffrey had imagined he could kill a buff monster on his own since he had four B-ranked monsters and a buff power, but Junhyuk had coldly reminded him of his own limitations.

Junhyuk stared at Jeffrey and lowered his sword. Jeffrey sent his equipment away, and Junhyuk did the same, and Jeffrey laughed.

“You are extraordinary. I didn’t know you’d be this strong even though you are a champion.”

Junhyuk did not reply, and Jeffrey spoke fast.

“Honestly, I thought I had made strides on the battlefield and had grown more, but I did not know a champion could defeat me this easily.”

Junhyuk’s eyebrows twitched, and he said, “A hero can easily kill a B-ranked monster. Even if you have four of them, a hero could easily get rid of them.”

“My battlefield is different. I couldn’t do it with one, but I could hold off a hero with two. I was thinking I could even kill a hero now that I had four.”

Junhyuk laughed.

“Don’t let your guard down. You have an extra life now that you’ve become an expert, but overconfidence will lead you to h.e.l.l. Heroes can earn money off of you.”

“I heard that too. I they are lucky, they can get so strong.”

“Right, heroes can have great equipment by the way. You’ve been ignoring them, but they can kill you. So, be careful.”

“I didn’t think… but I understand now.”

Junhyuk thought Jeffrey would heed his advice and smiled. Jeffrey had been to a lot of battlefields, and he listened, so Junhyuk thought he could be useful.

“Where did you get these?”

Jeffrey shrugged.

“I talked to Doyeol, and he got them from j.a.pan.”

“j.a.pan?”

“Yes, Tokyo has a monster area.”

“Doyeol can pull those kind of strings in j.a.pan?”

Doyeol hadn’t attacked the monster area, but the j.a.panese had given him the monsters, which meant that Doyeol had ties to j.a.pan.

“Sure, he is the major shareholder of Guardians.”

Guardians supplied weapons with monster decomposition liquid to the world, so of course, Guardians’ major shareholder would have power all over the world.

Junhyuk looked at Jeffrey.

“When it’s time to destroy the monster areas, you’ll be part of it.”

Jeffrey could summon four B-ranked monsters, so he could help. The B-ranked monsters could be used in tanking.

Junhyuk could deal with the B-ranked monsters alone, but he also had his limits. He had been able to stop the last tear in Seoul because the monsters had come out in waves, but now the monsters were already out of the tears and roaming the areas. He couldn’t deal with all of them alone.

The team attacking the monster areas had to include Jeffrey, and Junhyuk was also considering taking Sarang with the team, but in his mind, Jeffrey was already in.

Junhyuk stared at him and asked, “What is Doyeol thinking now?”

Jeffrey smiled.

“Doyeol wants to see you.”

He frowned.

“If Doyeol wanted to see me, why did you spar with me?”

“Sparing is only sparing.”

Junhyuk laughed bitterly.

“Are you satisfied?”

“I learned something for sure. I shouldn’t challenge anybody.”

He shrugged.

“OK. Let’s go see Doyeol.”

“Right.”

The video conference was the next day, so he wanted to know what Doyeol was thinking. Junhyuk walked out with Jeffrey and got into Jeffrey’s car. They drove for quite a while, but there were no houses around.

“Where is the house?”

“It’s no good if just anyone can find it.”

Jeffrey got out of the car, and Junhyuk followed.

“All this area is private land,” Jeffrey said.

He saw a cabin and went toward it. A few R-agents were on security detail, and they made way for Jeffrey. When they entered, they saw Doyeol lighting a fire. He threw a log in the fireplace, got up and stared at Junhyuk.

“It’s getting cold.”

Junhyuk nodded, and Doyeol continued calmly, “Let’s sit. We have a lot to talk about.”

Junhyuk took a seat, and Doyeol got a bottle of liquor out of the cabinet.

“Do you want a drink?”

He nodded, and Doyeol poured one for him. He picked up the gla.s.s, and Doyeol sat in front of him.

“I know about your powers, but you haven’t sold me any more mana stones since that they.”

Junhyuk stared at him. He had sold them to Elise first, but lately, he had so many of them that he could sell them to both parties.

Considering the mana stones he had gotten from the training facility, he should sell some to Doyeol just to keep up the relationship, so he pulled some out. They were mana stones from B-ranked monsters, and each cost tens of millions of dollars. Junhyuk pulled out ten of them, and Doyeol laughed out loud.

“You’ve been collecting them?”

Junhyuk nodded slightly, and Doyeol took out a small machine and placed the mana stones on it. The machine had been made by Elise. It was portable and it could appraise mana stones.

After appraising them, Doyeol pulled out his cell phone.

“They are worth $240 million total. Should I use the account you gave me last time?”

Junhyuk shook his head and gave Doyeol a new bank account number. Doyeol nodded.

“Compared to a Korean bank account, this will be safer.”

Doyeol wired the money and looked at him.

“I wanted to talk to you.”

Junhyuk smiled and turned to look at Jeffrey.

“Did you want to run an experiment on me?”

Doyeol looked at Jeffrey, and Jeffrey shook his head. Once again, Doyeol learned just how strong Junhyuk was. He had stopped a dimensional tear by himself, so was there anything else that needed to be said about him? He had created a mountain out of monster bodies last time, so it was hilarious that they had tried to go at him with just four monsters.

“That was Jeffrey’s idea.”

Junhyuk remained silent for a while, simply staring at Doyeol, and then he asked, “I want to know why you wanted to see me today.”

Doyeol looked at him, took a sip off his drink and said, “The video conference with the Dark Knight is tomorrow.”

“Right.”

“I want to ask you for a favor.”

Junhyuk realized that Doyeol knew he was the Dark Knight, and there was no way he couldn’t tell Doyeol he wasn’t at that point. It would just be ridiculous if he tried, so he guessed at what the favor could be.

“Do you want me to let you decide which monster area we attack first?”

Junhyuk sounded extremely cold, and Doyeol waved his hand at the suggestion.

“No, I don’t want that. But could you tell me which country you will attack first?”

Junhyuk realized that Doyeol wanted to have power over the countries that they attacked, and Doyeol continued, “Tell me the first three countries you will attack. I’ll pay you handsomely for the information.”

Doyeol was always very polite when he wanted to deal with him, and the conditions weren’t unfavorable to Junhyuk.

“Sure, I will tell you.