D.I.O

Slip.

Without going through the arduous process of realization and understanding, Lancelot, an aura user himself, was able to clearly see Cruze’s aura. Of course, since Cruze’s aura ability was much greater than his, she could have hidden her aura and its properties if she wanted, but Cruze didn’t feel the need, so Lancelot was able to see her aura flickering above her right shoulder. Moreover, it was not formless as auras typically are. It was shaped like a hand. The hand-shaped aura rose up to a nearby apple tree and plucked off an apple. Normally, when an object made contact with a materialized aura, the object would be greatly affected in some way; the object may explode, burn, be worn out, or crumble. However, the apple was unaffected.

“I don’t know. Since it was put up on the Announcement Board, the Undead army surely set out… since the Undead army set off from a southern island, perhaps their ship sank?”

Lancelot couldn’t help but be surprised after seeing Cruze take a bite out of her apple. Just moving his aura from his right hand to left hand took a tremendous amount of focus and concentration to do, never mind forming an aura shield around himself, which often left him drenched in sweat. However, Cruze was able to carry a casual conversation while materializing her aura to pluck an apple, and bringing it to herself totally unaffected and whole. She didn’t even seem to have done any of it consciously; she seemed to be more focused on her complaints and conversation than controlling her aura.

“That doesn’t make any sense. There’s no way a ship carrying ten thousand undead and a Lich could sink so easily.”

“That’s true, but… well, I don’t have any information, so I don’t know either. Maybe they awakened an inner peace that resided deep within their hearts.”

“What the hell kind of awakening is that…”

Even if he was being generous, Lancelot could only see the idol-like cute girl in front of him as a middle school student, or a high school student at best. Additionally, Cruze was a beauty; even with the relatively young-looking and beautiful NPC next to her, Cruze stood out. Cruze’s looks would better suit being on television than in an online game, in a few years’ time.

Relative to Cruze’s aura ability, Lancelot felt incredibly inferior. Of course, he didn’t feel a sense of rivalry, or anything of that sort. How could he, when the divide between them was so huge? Lancelot had simply realized the reality of his situation. Once he realized this, he understood why his special skill set and attribute affinity was not showing up.

“I’ll take my leave now.”

“Eh? But…”

“No. If I stay any longer and take up more of your time, I’ll just be a nuisance.”

Without even hearing Thousand Scent’s reply, Lancelot ran off. DIO’s eight cities; Starting, and the 7 Holy Lands, all boasted large sizes. Even though Lancelot prided himself in walking relatively fast, it still took him over fifteen minutes to reach the outskirts of Thousand Scent’s Land. During the entire walk, Lancelot didn’t pay attention to his surroundings or even speak a single word to himself.

“Ah, Mr. Lancelot. You’re leaving already?”

Seeing Lancelot, Guard Kara 7 spoke up, but Lancelot didn’t offer any reply. He stayed silent as he walked down the straight road leading back to Starting.

“Mr. Lancelot?”

“Gear 2.”

Mumbling under his breath, Lancelot added a pair of iron gloves, boots, and heavy vest onto his body. He then broke into a sprint. Obviously, as he had emptied out his aura not too long ago and hadn’t recovered much of his aura power, he wouldn’t be able to run back to Starting in one go. Regardless of this fact, Lancelot put all his remaining energy into running at full speed.

“Eh? What’s gotten into him?”

Guard Kara 7 was puzzled by how drastically different Lancelot seemed, compared to when he first entered just moments ago. Question marks seemed to form in her eyes. In a few moments, Lancelot had already run a considerable distance. Although his aura seemed on the precipice of complete depletion, Lancelot continued to run as if there were no tomorrow. Seeing this, Delila 7 quietly muttered,

“He was…”

“Huh? He was what?”

“He was crying… when he ran off, he was crying.”

Since she was at a higher level and rank than Lancelot, Delila 7 was able to see and interpret Lancelot’s aura. Delila 7 had seen pain, anguish, and sadness in Lancelot’s aura. Although she saw these emotions in his aura, she wasn’t able to read why those feelings were present.

“He was crying? Why? Did he get dumped?”

“I don’t think it was something as trivial as that, but who knows…”

Lancelot had now become just a dot on the horizon. Seeing this, Delila 7 passingly stated,

“It’s not our concern.”

***

The top speed that Merlin could achieve in the water was four hundred and fifty kilometers per hour, but the top speed he could achieve without a running start was three hundred and thirty kilometers per hour. However, even at that speed, which was like the speed of an arrow, he could easily avoid any oncoming attack. Moreover, Merlin possessed an advanced control ability within water to move in any direction, so he could suddenly change directions, stop, or even accelerate or decelerate at will. Furthermore, Merlin could control the surrounding water, and even the water particles within him, to create a defensive barrier, if needed. In essence, Merlin was like a supernatural presence in the water. The reason why even the almighty Kraken couldn’t catch him wasn’t just because the Kraken was slow.

As Merlin made his way southward, many monsters had tried to attack him, but none of them could even get close. This just went to show how slippery and quick Merlin was in the water. If he came across a blade fish, one of the earlier monsters that he had trouble with when he first started the game, he’d be able to match the blade fish’s speed and probably even turn his head around to face the blade fish while speeding forward.

“Oh, that must be the Dead Earth up ahead.”

Though Merlin was quick in the water, he could not maintain his top speed forever. Though Merlin could utilize his booster through internal energy, magic power, or even his physical power, his overall spiritual power points weren’t very high, so his usage of his booster was capped. Hence, Merlin made his journey southward at an average speed of fifty kilometers per hour. Since this speed matched his physical power recovery rate, Merlin was able to maintain this speed, as long as he didn’t do anything out of the ordinary.

“Should I get on land? Or should I circle around the island and go further southward?”

Dead Earth was an island south of Starting with a diameter of roughly one hundred kilometers. Though the Kraken prevented users from traversing the seas to get to this island, many users were able to enter Dead Earth using a teleportation gate, which allowed users to arrive in the inner areas of the island. Like the surrounding Bitter Earth, Desolate Desert, and Forest of Despair, many users enjoyed hunting in the Dead Earth area.

Roar!

“Huh? What was that?”

Merlin scanned the island, and saw a large monster roar aloud and kill off the surrounding undead, either by biting them or swiping them away. The monster gave off a ferocious aura.

“But why are the undead fighting amongst themselves… ah.”

Merlin was initially puzzled by the sight of this monster, a skeleton of a tyrannosaurus rex, killing off other undead monsters, but he soon understood the situation when he saw a necromancer user controlling the bone tyrannosaurus from the back. Beside them was another user, a man carrying two swords in each hand. He was sending out blindingly fast sword force attacks in the form of light. It seemed that the two were in a party together.

“I’m out of internal energy! Let’s rest up a bit!”

“Okay. I was getting a bit tired as well… hey, what the?”

Merlin realized that the necromancer user had spotted him, so he swam his way up to the shore. While gathering his breath and recovering his energy, the swordsman looked dumbfoundedly at Merlin, who seemed to have magically appeared in front of them.

“Wait, you came all the way to this faraway place… and you’re having a swim?”

“Hahaha, well you know, for some rest and relaxation.”

Though Merlin had swam all the way to Dead Earth, rather than using the teleportation gate like all the other users, Merlin did not feel the need to explain little details like this to others. Moreover, Merlin thought that going into detail about his travels would be tiresome, so he just decided to smile and state that he was just taking some time off and relaxing. Seeing that the two were able to rest while in a party to defeat monsters, Merlin assumed that there were probably less monsters near the shore than there were further inland.

“Toto, get some rest.”

Crackle.

The twenty-something year old male necromancer, wearing a black robe, ordered its summoned creature to rest. The bone tyrannosaurus started whipping its tail around its body as it got settled on the ground. Since it was so enormous, Merlin couldn’t help but confusedly frown at the weird scene.

‘Toto? That thing?’

It was the kind of name that people gave to their house pets in Korea. When Merlin saw the large bone tyrannosaurus put its head against the ground and wrap its tail around itself, he couldn’t help but admit it was a bit cute. It had even lightly sighed before dropping to the ground, even though undead monsters didn’t need to breathe.

“Oh? That monster of yours has half of its head bashed in. Is it okay?”

“Ah… that’s because it got its head smashed in by a Soulless Zombie just a moment ago. Actually, if it wasn’t for Ohje’s god-like control ability, we probably wouldn’t have been able to escape. Obviously, I knew the Dead Earth area was dangerous, but I didn’t expect level ten monsters to be roaming around the edge of the island. If there are level ten monsters roaming around here, then I can’t imagine what level the monsters are at the center of the island. If things continue like this… ugh.”

“Yeah, but that Soulless Zombie from before wasn’t actually that strong. The Soulless Zombie is part of the Zombie species, so it doesn’t have any particularly strong qualities outside of its ability to live continually. It was only tough for us because it had specialized in that area and just refused to die. I’m pretty sure the background story for that type of zombie’s existence is that they took over some expert’s body or something… ah, anyway. I’m going to circulate and recover some of my internal energy, so stand guard for a moment.”

“Alright.”