[Name: Jeong Hyeon-su]
[Stats: Vitality (20), Strength (21), Dexterity (23), Mental Strength (34), Endurance (27)]
[Skills: Five Kings’ Martial Arts - Heavenly Tyrant Ghost King Art (7-Star), Illusory Heaven True Energy (10-Star), Tyrant Heaven Energy (9-Star), Black Heaven Return-to-Origin Art (5-Star), Existence Engraving, Naming Art]
[Traits: Overlord’s Talent, Mountain-Uprooting Strength, World-Overturning Spirit, Simultaneous Output]
Jeong Hyeon-su had made the Simultaneous Output Core he had obtained from the shadow snake his own.
Thanks to that, he could now simultaneously unleash the nullifying power of the Black Heaven Return-to-Origin Art and the overwhelming might of Tyrant Heaven Energy.
He returned the Ogre’s powerful battle aura to its origin, and the brief defenseless state created by that opening was pierced without fail by Tyrant Heaven Energy, blowing it apart.
GROOOOOOOOH!
In an instant, five Ogres fell to Jeong Hyeon-su alone.
Enraged by the reality that they had been defeated by a human who was not even half their size, an Ogre violently hurled the hammer in its hand at Jeong Hyeon-su.
WHOOOOSH!
The force of that single ranged attack was stronger than most cannonballs.
Worse yet, his back was currently turned.
“Dangerous!”
At the renewed crisis, Ji Min-jeong amplified her Mana Voice and warned him. Jeong Hyeon-su did not even look back.
The area nearby was already within the range of his energy sense.
The concentration of the Dark King, which missed not even the faintest sound, was detecting not only the incongruity of the hammer as it newly appeared and cut through the wind, but also its position from moment to moment.
Jeong Hyeon-su leaped into the air and caught the hammer as it was.
“…!”
Jeong Hyeon-su’s forearm swelled as he caught the hammer with perfect accuracy. His tendons bulged. The moment his ligaments, expanded to their limit, held firm…
BOOOOM!
The hammer, imbued with Tyrant Heaven Energy maximized by the trait Mountain-Uprooting Strength, World-Overturning Spirit, crashed down into the ground.
The power of the Overlord did not discriminate between weapons. His monstrous strength brutally crushed the Ogre that had been lurking directly below, waiting for an opportunity.
CRUSH!
It was truly divine strength. Jeong Hyeon-su left the hammer embedded where it was without retrieving it and swung his zanbato with his left hand.
“…He is a madman.”
Im Hyeon-min burst into a hollow laugh, forgetting that he was in the middle of chanting magic.
In truth, even gasping in astonishment would not have been enough.
This was not merely an evaluation based on martial power that stood out for his age or the timing of his debut.
After all, people saw only as much as they knew.
He was a mage.
Moreover, as the captain of a raid party that was fairly well regarded within Hanul, the mana-control ability Im Hyeon-min saw in Jeong Hyeon-su could be called close to divine.
It was not merely proficient; it was refined.
He released mana only at the truly precise moment, minimizing consumption. The output he released stopped exactly at the level needed to damage an Ogre.
His attacks seemed ferocious as well, but he aimed only at vital points. Naturally, the precision of those attacks targeting vital points also included the completion of his physical body.
His essence, energy, and spirit seemed to move as one. The result of that was his fierce struggle on the battlefield.
‘It is almost as though he knows.’
He knew that he had to strike with this much force to break the skull and cut through the tender heart supported by the sturdy collarbone.
That meticulous calculation even included the inherent power of the zanbato he wielded. Could this truly be called something as simple as genius?
‘No.’
Im Hyeon-min honestly concluded it.
This was a realm made possible only by countless experiences.
It was only possible after accumulating an exhausting amount of experience beyond simple familiarity, the kind possessed only by someone who had gone through battlefields of slaughter while killing and being killed by Ogres.
But that bastard was undoubtedly a rookie.
The floor one had reached in the Tower could not lie. Since it could not be hidden, he was certainly a rookie.
Even if he had hunted Ogres until now, how many could he have hunted?
Was Garam’s teaching special?
That could not be. No matter how exceptional it was, it was still within the same category as one of the Ten Great Guilds.
The martial arts handled by the Jeong Family of Garam were powerful, yes, but was the other daughter born from the same family not merely outstanding among her peers, yet still nothing more than an ordinary rookie?
He had no idea how he was supposed to accept a mutant who had suddenly popped out of nowhere.
At that instant, Jeong Hyeon-su’s gaze reached Im Hyeon-min.
“Ah.”
Im Hyeon-min immediately realized his own mistake.
That aberration was demanding an answer. Why was he not using magic?
BOOM! BANG!
Im Hyeon-min, who had instead been rebuked, completed his magic and chanted the spell.
“Fire Storm.”
The condensed flames of magic swallowed the wounded Ogre.
Not a single Ogre made it past Jeong Hyeon-su’s back.
Because of that, the Goblins conducting the siege on the fortress wall were rapidly being erased, and the soldiers fought with a sense of stability.
The knights defending the fortress wall were rapidly grinding down and crushing Goblins rather than Ogres.
In the end, it was one man who had created this battle situation.
The knight order was fighting fiercely, and the firepower of Hanul’s mages had also erased many Goblins, but the most important tactical factor was ultimately that aberration.
He was the one who, alone in the broad field, held the Ogres in place with an overwhelming presence and ruled the flow of the battlefield.
CRACK!
It was the moment Jeong Hyeon-su split an Ogre along the grain.
“Ah….”
A soldier standing on the fortress wall despaired as he looked toward the distance.
Another green horde was joining the battle.
“O-Orcs!”
They were naturally weaker than Ogres, but they were still a powerful and belligerent branch of the Greenskin Clan, capable of crushing a single human with ease.
When the soldiers faced the army of Orcs, said to be as numerous as Goblins, they were aghast.
“…Has God truly abandoned us?”
At a knight’s lament, Im Hyeon-min suddenly felt a strong sense that something was strange.
‘This is a B-Rank Gate. This is far too absurd, is it not?’
Just in case, he checked whether it was a Double Gate, but he felt no such change.
Because of the sudden variable, Im Hyeon-min’s head throbbed.
If that Orc army joined the battle, the tide would turn in an instant.
Those creatures, tougher, faster, and stronger than Goblins, would climb the fortress wall in no time. The mages’ firepower was sufficient, but the soldiers serving as the anvil would not be able to hold out until they melted them all down.
And if the Ogres barged in as well, they would be wiped out in an instant.
Im Hyeon-min had to make a decision.
“Team leader, is something not wrong with this?”
The raid members who sensed the unease began to waver.
At this rate, they might all die. Hunters lived with their lives on the line, but who would want to be swept up in a variable like this and die?
Meanwhile, Jeong Hyeon-su had also discovered the Orcs that had suddenly joined the battle. A green horde was approaching from behind the Ogres.
They drew closer and closer to the Ogres.
The Ogres looked at those Orcs and shouted something.
It was the moment the distance narrowed even further.
THWACK!
The Orc at the front, who was as huge as most Ogres, was punched by a scowling Ogre.
However.
The Orc did not go flying. Instead, he stood his ground.
One of his teeth broke off, but at the sight of the Orc not budging at all, the Ogre seemed flustered.
The Ogre tried to pull its hand away.
CRACKLE!
The Orc twisted the Ogre’s arm.
And then…
WHOOOOSH!
He swung a massive battle-axe and sent the Ogre’s head flying.
— Waaaaaaaaaah!
The Orc roared. A powerful battle aura, almost tangible, seeped through that shout.
Jeong Hyeon-su looked at that Orc and smiled.
“It is you, is it?”
— Clue: Existence of the Orc Warlord confirmed.
Within that roar, he could feel an extremely familiar power. A spirit capable of uprooting mountains and shaking the world dwelled within that Orc.
His motive or story did not matter.
— Overlord’s Talent confirmed to exist.
— The trial begins. Establish a decisive achievement against your competitor.
The Orc struck the Ogres from behind.
Ogres and Orcs became entangled, killing one another.
And then…
BOOM!
Atop that hill, a massive Ogre whose body was close to golden sat in a palanquin, looking down below.
It was a powerful Ogre chewing alive a freshly caught beast.
— Stage Boss, Ogre Lord, has appeared!
Jeong Hyeon-su ran toward the Ogre Lord.
“Jeong Hyeon-su! Where are you going?”
With the appearance of the Orc Warlord, who intended to sweep away the Ogres and establish a world for Orcs, the defense game of this Gate was as good as complete.
Jeong Hyeon-su’s goal now was solely to compete against that Orc Warlord and win.
He had to be the one to inherit the true power of the Overlord.
— GROOOOAR!
The Ogre Lord on the hill threw the enormous bone it had finished gnawing on.
CRACK!
— I am the king of the Orcs! Rimgorg Ironhide!
While not hiding his rage toward the Ogre Lord, who had used the overwhelming gap between their races to dominate the Orcs, Rimgorg Ironhide kept glancing at the human on the other side.
Sniff, sniff.
He smelled him. A thick scent of blood. Amid the deaths of enemies and other Orcs, Rimgorg Ironhide sensed a similar fragrance and felt his fighting spirit stir.
Struggle was the very proof that an Orc was alive.
— Kill them all! The Orcs who help me kill them all can have the teeth! Ogre teeth! I will give them all to you. The teeth of the Ogres you kill are all yours!
The powerful Orc Royal Guard, who had been born alongside Rimgorg from blood-soaked bedrock, charged madly.
On the other side of Rimgorg, Jeong Hyeon-su, who was running forward, had no such Royal Guard.
However.
In the air above, a powerful phoenix spread its wings and soon swept away the Ogres standing before Jeong Hyeon-su.
“Huff, hah!”
It was Im Hyeon-min.
He did not know the details, but every element needed to see the ending of this defense game had now been prepared.
Either the fortress had to remain standing until the Margrave of the Kingdom of Durait arrived, or they had to hunt down and kill that Ogre Lord.
And Jeong Hyeon-su was going to hunt the Ogre Lord. It was reckless. Im Hyeon-min had not done what he had done out of a desire to go along with it.
“The clear must belong to Hanul.”
It was a powerful declaration of his will to land the final blow himself.
Because it was not a matter that could be settled simply by landing the final blow, he had melted the Ogres with an area-of-effect spell called Flame Phoenix.
Contribution Score.
In the end, when the Gate was cleared, the Contribution Score would be calculated through a strict judgment.
From the standpoint of someone who had to play a decisive role, Hanul’s pride would never allow the greatest merit to go to Jeong Hyeon-su.
“Everyone, squeeze out your mana. If anyone avoids mana exhaustion, I will crush you myself before I report you to the guild master.”
At Im Hyeon-min’s threatening declaration, the mages also filled their eyes with venom.
No matter how extraordinary the rookie was, the pride of Hanul’s raid party was at stake.
Even if their Tower-climbing records had been taken, they could not lose Gate Contribution Score to a brat.
What kind of disgrace would that be?
“You are still a year too early!”
The mages, who had been controlling their pace until now, had their limits released, and fierce firepower began to erupt.
Ji Min-jeong also fired off magic like mad, refusing to lose.
Because the Ogres, the most important source of Contribution Score, were gathered around Jeong Hyeon-su, they ultimately had no choice but to help him by opening his path.
The king of the Orcs, Rimgorg Ironhide, and Jeong Hyeon-su charged at tremendous speed.
When the battle-axe cut through an Ogre’s waist, the zanbato cleanly severed its neck.
BOOOOM!
Before the two of them, a giant beast flew in like a cannonball.
It was an attack of such tremendous power that even Jeong Hyeon-su had no choice but to evade it.
The commander of the Ogres that had invaded the Kingdom of Durait, the Ogre Lord, had personally stepped forward.
As befitted the boss of a B-Rank Dungeon, he exuded tremendous power that could only be fought head-on by a Hunter of at least Platinum Grade.
However, neither Jeong Hyeon-su nor Rimgorg retreated, and both unleashed their Overlord’s Talent.
Jeong Hyeon-su’s Mountain-Uprooting Strength, World-Overturning Spirit.
He felt a power different from that.
‘His trait is different, is it?’
For a moment, he coveted it, but Jeong Hyeon-su knew very well that he could only obtain it by winning in the end.
“Listen carefully, you stupid Orc bastard.”
Rimgorg tilted his head.
“That one is mine. If you interfere, I will kill you, so go deal with the scraps beside him.”
After leaving those words behind, Jeong Hyeon-su raised the Black Heaven Return-to-Origin Art and the Heavenly Tyrant Ghost King Art to their limits and shot forward. Rimgorg Ironhide, realizing what had happened a moment too late, also chased after him.
Each time the king of the Orcs moved, the ground shook, and it was as though a star itself was moving.