Han Sooyoung’s despair (1)

The hunter walked into another shelter.

They had been made by some survivors to protect humanity at the end of the world from the monsters outside.

He looked at the crowd inside and studied their faces. There was quite a big number of people and their average strength seemed strong.

An ominous energy was emanated by the hunter.

This settlement would be a good offering of karma.

Recognizing the hunter, the teenager leaning against the wall and sitting among the others with a hood covering his face smiled.

'As expected.'

Everything was going according to plan.

All of a sudden, the people around him fell down, motionless, like puppets whose strings were cut off.

It was a skill he had earned when he went to the Theater Dungeon this time. That way, there would be no one swept up in their fight.

Then, under the hunter's surprised gaze, Cale stood up and removed his hood, revealing his crimson hair.

"Ha!"

The hunter recognized him.

"You were still alive?"

He seemed amused.

"Cale Henituse."

Cale faced the hunter's gaze with a strangely calm face, his eyes devoid of any fear or hatred as he saw the hunter take out his weapon. Seeing this, the hunter grinned.

"I guess I'll only need to kill you again then."

It was the hunter that had killed him that day when his entire family was massacred. The strongest out of all the enemies then, and also the head of a hunter family.

The sky became filled with bolts of lightning as the Indestructible Shield appeared to block the opponent's attack.

Now that Cale had gotten stronger, he would try to kill him again; and if that didn't work, he would retry in another regression.

For once, the fact that he could regress was useful. He was going to try as many times as needed until he successfully eliminated that hunter.

After all, the hunters weren't part of this world to begin with, that was why their actions were always different. They could freely come and leave as they pleased.

Cale noticed the hunter's subordinates at the door and the corners of his lips gradually curved up.

This was perfect.

Instead of being worried, he became calmer.

Since the other hunters showed no sign of stepping up to help their boss, Cale focused of the one in front of him.

He sent down bolts of lightning as well as a spear of water from behind and spears made of ice from below, aiming at him from all angles. However, the boss of a hunter family showed no sign of struggle as he easily blocked these attacks with a red energy.

Cale wasn't panicked and continued to repeatedly attack the hunter from different angles.

He formed sharp blades with the wind and trapped the hunter in a prison made of earth to immobilize his movements.

In response, the wind blades were bounced off without leaving any scratches while the hunter got rid of the earth's prison easily.

Then, the hunter counter-attacked and sent a big amount of karma toward Cale, which the crimson-haired teenager calmly blocked with his shield.

The hunter laughed.

"You seem oddly relaxed considering that the longer this fight drags out, the more you are at a disadvantage. Are you trying to make me waste my karma?"

However, this wouldn't work, because he had more karma than any hunter Cale would have ever seen.

Cale wasn't fazed by the hunter's remark and sent down another storm of rose-gold thunderbolt.

Ruuuuumble!

When everything was covered in red, he got behind the hunter in the blink of an eye and tried to stab the hunter with a dagger.

One advantage of the system here was that he could reinforce his body with stats. Thus, using Instant would take a lesser toll on him.

However, his dagger didn't penetrate through the hunter's skin, even though he had used all his coins to boost his stats.

[The constellation 'Believer in Mysteries' is gathering donations from other constellations for you.]

Thankfully, he was constantly receiving coins because of his constellation's efforts.

That was only the beginning.

Cale kept a stoic face as he increased the amount of Ancient Powers used to 50% of their full strength.

He was confident that his Ancient Powers had been strengthened enough to beat the hunter.

Clang!

One attack, but no result.

51%.

Clang!

Another attack, still no result.

52%.

Clang! Clang!

He was slowly using more and more strength.

If the hunter had no damage even when he had used most of his powers, he would retreat and fight the hunter later after getting even stronger, that's all, but he wasn't going to give him more 'karma' with his death.

The hunter sneered at Cale's futile attempt, his face as hateful as when Cale last saw him.

But there was one thing Cale knew.

"Why are you even trying when you know you're going to die? If you surrender now, I'll give you a painless death."

Overconfident guys always ended up dying.

Cale had already won against opponents much stronger than him in the past, so there was no reason for him to lose now.

He was going to win.

Claaang!

75%.

And finally….

76%.

Ruuuuumble!

His attacks began to injure the hunter.

Not by much and his enemy could regenerate instantly, but that still showed that he had a chance.

"Cough!"

Cale also began to cough blood after this attack. However, his heart grew even calmer.

He should have felt excited at the prospect of being able to kill the hunter, but he didn't feel any of it. Right now, he only focused on winning.

80%.

Clang! Ruuumble!

The hunter's regeneration was beginning to slow down, even if it was only a second of difference. Enraged, the hunter started to get serious and fought harder.

But no matter what, the shield didn't break.

"Cough! Cough!"

Cale wiped the blood with his sleeve.

Ruuuumble!

89%.

The hunter frowned.

Clang! Clang!

Deeper wounds were also made on his skin.

90%.

And Cale's coughing fit increased.

However, even though Cale continued to cough out large quantities of blood as if he was dying, his attacks didn't stop and their strength gradually increased.

The hunter began to feel a sense of danger and decided to leave for now.

Suddenly, a winged-silver shield blocked his path and prevented him from leaving.

At that moment, Cale took out a potion from his pocket and swallowed its content.

His previously depleted stamina returned and it was as if he hadn't been using his Ancient Powers since earlier.

Now back to his best state, Cale's previously stoic expression was replaced with a smile.

"Now, it's my turn."

Ruuuuumble!

95%.

It was a longer and stronger blow than before.

Cale sent down constant lightning at 95% of its total power.

Ruuumble!

Then 96%.

Ruuuuumble!

And 97%.

However, this time, he wasn't the one losing.

Ruuuuuumble!

And as his Fire Ancient Power reached 98%…

"Aaaaaah!"

The hunter was completely disintegrated.

Cale looked at the hunter's empty spot.

He had done it. He had taken another step toward his revenge.

Cale had killed the boss of a hunter family.

He then turned his face toward the hunters at the door.

Seeing that they were trying to escape, he caught up to them with the sound of the wind.

Faced with Cale's gentle smile, the hunters got chills.

"Where are you trying to escape?"

Cale banged the head of a hunter to the ground and stepped on it, creating an invisible barrier with the wind so that the others couldn't run away.

With a soft voice, Cale continued.

"Now that your boss is dead, you will have to answer a few questions."

Once he got the information he needed about the other hunter families, he would torture them and kill them before eliminating the rest of this hunter family as well.

At the thought, Cale's smile turned even brighter, forming an odd contrast with the blood on his clothes and face.

[The constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' is slightly scared.]

[The constellation 'Believer in Mysteries' yells to destroy them all!]

Cale: How vicious.

Xin Jian: Are you serious?

***

Meanwhile, Zhou Mingrui arrived at the Nameless City.

He remembered that the 'Nameless City' was a term from Cthulhu mythology and wondered what it would look like.

Would it be ruins? Something similar to the City of Calamity? Would it be full of monsters? Or would it resemble an ordinary city?

However, contrary to his expectations, what greeted him was a familiar sight.

In front of his eyes, there was a vast expanse of grayish-white fog, strangely similar to Sefirah Castle.

'What is this situation…'

No, it was Sefirah Castle.