.

A man walked towards Jukma who was staring at the lake.

“What shall we do?”

Amil Stadan who acted as the spear of the Hecarim Clan, calmly asked as he heard the madly rus.h.i.+ng news from the outside.

It had been 3 years since they had been here.

But there was not a single time where something like this had happened.

‘… Billions of parasites huh.’

It wasn’t a number that made him think of a loss.

The number was definitely threatening but the path they could take to come down was limited to the body of Ouroboros and the strength of the Six Pillars, Twelve Roots and other clans was formidable as well.

Which meant that if the Six Pillars, Twelve Roots and higher clans were gathered then it would be possible to withstand it despite receiving large amounts of damage.

‘If we group up that is.’

Jukma opened his mouth after finis.h.i.+ng his thoughts.

“We’ve enjoyed as much as we needed right?”

Amil Stadan pondered for a moment and then nodded.

1 year where he had crazily struggled to survive after coming to this world.

1 year where he had madly ran to get stronger so he can go up.

6 months of finally finding some leisure and enjoying this and that while watching others struggle.

Though he had only rested for 6 months out of 3 years, he had no problem with this.

Resting for 6 months was a long time.

Jukma laughed as he spoke.

“They all prepared quite a few artifacts right? In Orange.”

“Correct.”

Their runes were currently Red.

The runes that came out from the World Tree Mountain Ranges were only Red.

But sometimes an Orange Artifact that they couldn’t even use dropped around the Branches.

‘The Fairies are quite kind.’

Though they can’t use it here, it will become much easier for them if they got a good artifact here for the next zone.

Since a good weapon was the core of a strong battle power.

Jukma listened to Amil Stadan’s report of being ready and then laughed coldly as he spoke.

“Then let’s go over. Slowly.”

He had fun as much as he should have.

He was pondering whether to go up but for a big event like this to happen.

Such an event was basically giving him the final push.

Then Jukma looked over to the Lake,

.

They couldn’t eat or drink it.

There was only one use for the lake.

A pa.s.sage to get to the next Zone.

“Get ready. The remaining ones… Well they’ll do well on their own.”

“Yes.”

In order to get out before this place got run over by the parasites they needed to hurry a little bit.

Jukma remembered something while making the plan and then spoke.

“Oh yeah. I heard there was quite a special guy out of the newcomers this time around?”

At those words Jukma nodded to himself.

“That is right.”

“There’s quite a lot of fun guys out of the Koreans this time. Let’s take him. We can just give him runes and raise him.”

“Understood.”

Amil Stadan heard Jukma’s words and then started to send carrier pigeons and messages in all directions.

Michael opened his mouth as he looked towards the six trunks.

“In two days the pa.s.sage is going to open. Once the mirror opens then there’s no need for others of the Pillars to fight. They will probably leave first. Sorry but that’s the case for us as well.”

Going through the Mirror was very simple.

Once a month, the surface of the lake turned like a mirror.

They just needed to go through it then.

If they have the qualifications then they will disappear into it.

If they don’t then they will walk out from the spot whence they walked in from.

Of course most of their clansmen, who were high level adventurers, had the qualifications.

They had been pus.h.i.+ng it back until it now but then there’s no reason to not leave anymore.

‘There’s no reason to get ma.s.sacred in a fight where there’s nothing to gain.’

Sofía grinded her teeth at Michael’s words.

“These b.i.t.c.hes… Seriously. You guys are really heartless. Those who don’t have the qualifications cannot leave.”

Of course all the other high-ranking adventurers including themselves will leave.

But then what will happen to the countless other adventurers left behind.

If strong people flooded out then the ones remaining below will just get ma.s.sacred.

Michael snorted at Sofía’s words.

“What, then you want us to get killed here as well? I don’t know about the parasites but what are you going to do when the Ouroboros comes down? You d.a.m.ned b.i.t.c.h. I don’t know what you’re thinking but to us our clan is more important than everyone else in the world combined.”

Fighting with their life on the line for people they don’t know about.

Words were easy to speak.

But could they actually do it?

It was human nature to feel sad for their own family getting hurt more than a distant war.

‘I can’t give up.’

As Michael and Sofía’s argument grew, the one who was feeling troubled was actually Camille.

Camille looked towards Hansoo after staring at the two for a while.

He had killed two of the four Calamities so far.

Wouldn’t he have a method of dealing with the Ouroboros as well?

“Do you perhaps have a method of killing the Ouroboros?”

Michael snorted at Camille’s words.

Hansoo had killed the Calamities by wrecking them from inside the body.

But for some reason the Ouroboros sent out all the parasites which acted as the inner defensive system.

What did this mean?

‘This means that it won’t let anyone come inside anymore.’

According to his clansmen inspections, every hole in its body was being blocked by the scales on the body.

This meant that they have to kill it in a full frontal battle but a single swipe from that snake tail could smash apart the giant Root they were standing on.

Though it did not have any special abilities like the Devouring and Vomiting Root but the size, hardness and ma.s.s of its body made it overwhelming.

Killing that thing in a head on battle did not make any sense.

No, if n.o.body distracted the parasites to buy time then fighting it was impossible in the first place.

Hansoo nodded at those words.

“It’s a bit hard alone.”

“…?”

Everyone made a surprised expression.

That meant that he could kill it if they helped.

Hansoo started to quickly calculate things within his head.

‘Two weeks are a bit tight.’

A beast that was getting controlled by somebody who had evil intentions and a beast that was faithful to its primitive instinct.

There was no need to say which was more dangerous.

It wasn’t that they were going to wait 2 weeks and killing it after it comes down.

They had to beat it before 2 weeks, before that thing was completely under control.

‘It’s too hard to do it alone’

If he and the Seven Departed Souls combine their power and borrow the power of the artifact, it’d be doable to fight with the b.a.s.t.a.r.d drinking zealously the poison water.

‘Not only Sofía, we call the six others as well. And while the six pillars and the other guys block the parasites, we climb to beat the Ouroboros.’

Other people wouldn’t know but there was a way of contact between the Seven Departed Souls.

Done thinking, Hansoo opened his mouth and explained his plan.

And Michael, Sofía and everybody else froze after hearing the plan.

‘… You want us to trust that kind of plan and not leave?’

If they miss the chance of two days later, they’re trapped here for a whole month.

If Hansoo fails to kill the Ouroboros, after two weeks of calm they’ll have no choice but to spend the remaining two weeks until the pa.s.sage opens again with the Ouroboros raging around. (*PR: Edited this sentence heavily to make it clear)

There was not much to say about the result as well.

No. Even then, why would the other clans agree and help them.

‘d.a.m.nit. What is he thinking. Is he mad?’

Michael clenched his teeth inwardly.

But Sofía’s expression froze because of another reason.

“Do you guys even know what we are doing?”

The people thought that those who were called the Seven Departed Souls were running around the branches for stronger or better artifacts.

And they thought that this was the reason why they weren’t seen from the eyes of those around the Trunk or Roots.

But this was not correct.

The reason why they were staying around in this place for such a long time was not because of such petty reasons.

And because of this the seven of them could not leave at the same time.

Hansoo quietly grasped onto Sofía’s hands from those words.

“What…!”

While Sofía was surprised, Hansoo wrote something down on Sofía’s hand.

“…What are you?”

The thing that they were sealing.

Sofía’s expression froze from the word that no one should know other than the seven of them, the word which Hansoo had written down on her hand.

Proofreader’s note

Sponsored chapter.

Jukma’s name means “Crimson Horse”. I wonder which writing system Hansoo used to write “Ak.u.ma”?

Translator : Ekdud

Proofreader : coyotte508

TL Check : KobatoChanDaiSuki

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