“It was a good fight,” Dohyuk commented as he reached out.
“I’m sure you’ll do better with more experience. I had a hard time there too.”
“…”
Jaehoon smiled.
“Next time…”
He grabbed Dohyuk’s hand.
“…I’ll try to give you a harder time,” Jaehoon declared. Dohyuk then opened his mouth. He wasn’t there just to see Jaehoon’s face.
“I have a job for you.”
“That’s… great. Tell me anything and I will do it.”
Jaehoon spoke gladly. He had been anticipating it as he wanted to be of help to the city from the beginning.
“It’s a kind of scouting mission…”
“I wasn’t going to interrupt…” Blass said quietly after Jaehoon left to prepare for his mission.
“Isn’t it too dangerous?”
“Are you being overprotective of your student?”
Dohyuk answered with a laugh, but he knew Blass was right. The mission was really difficult. Jaehoon was going to the east where North Korea used to be. It was where Jaehoon had come from too.
“I have to check.”
From Dalian City where they were at, Dohyuk’s rumor spread quickly. The east was an exception. Dohyuk felt followers from all over the area to the north and west, but not to the east.
If there were people, there was no way to block the rumors. Then it meant there was something that was blocking the rumor there.
“I don’t think Jaehoon can be safe out there. We never know what’s waiting.”
“And you want to send him out there?”
“What if we don’t?” Dohyuk asked. “Send Giwon or Yuri? You know how big of a loss it will be to the city if we don’t have them in the city for more than a day.”
“…”
“I can’t send Heeyun either. Her ability doesn’t allow her to act solo. It was you who said she’s a better fit for support.”
And there was no need to mention Dohyuk. He was the best weapon in the city.
“This is an important mission.”
Dohyuk also didn’t want to send Jaehoon out there. But he realized he had to.
“You remember.”
After they landed and people suffered from the trauma, Dohyuk and Blass saw people overcoming the struggle and growing from it.
“I regretted it when they were having hard time, but they withstood and overcame it. It allowed us to grow.”
“Hmm.”
Those weren’t just sweet words. The fighters who witnessed atrocity and overcame it really did become much stronger.
“It goes for Jaehoon too. I’m worried about him, but if he succeeds, he will grow. It will be good for him.”
Dohyuk wanted what was best for everyone, and for Jaehoon also.
“I guess that wraps it up.”
Dohyuk reached out with his metal arm so Blass could move in.
“You and I are going out.”
Dohyuk was also going to do some scouting doing before he invaded another region controlled by a god. The enemy wasn’t strong however.
Grava.
Grava was the first god Dohyuk met when he first landed in Busan. Grava’s Godly Item was still supplying infinite energy to the ground. He wasn’t a strong god, but Dohyuk had to attack him.
‘If I can succeed this time, I can expand the land.’
Expanding the city was actually very easy. He just needed to take the empty land where a god had disappeared and add it to his city by using his faith. However, the problem was if the land was worth it and Grava’s Godly Item provided a solution to that.
Dohyuk arrived at the hill where he could look down on Grava’s region with various plans in mind and…
“…What?”
He was shocked. It wasn’t his first time here. He had visited a few days ago already. There had been tall and thick forests all over the place, but all of it was now gone. There was only ruins and Casita’s tower at the center.
Dohyuk jumped out, and as he got closer, he became certain. He had seen this kind of barren land multiple times already. He saw this kind of sight when he defeated a god and its world was sucked into Casita’s tower.
‘There are others…’
Who hunts gods?
“…!!”
Dohyuk then instinctively swung his arm toward the sky. The metal arm that contained Blass, as he swung, produced a metal ball appeared in the sky. Before it dropped, Dohyuk kicked it out.
“UGH!”
A man was by the metal ball and fell.
‘He’s famished.’
The man was definitely starving. If he was, he should be limited to less than half of his physical stats, but he was still okay after he got hit by Dohyuk’s metal ball.
“If you cooperate, I’ll give you food.”
Dohyuk said as he figured that a plain threat will not work. He was right.
“You… Y-you…”
It seems he knew who Dohyuk was already.
“What happened here?”
“It… It was during the night…”
The man was not the leader of the region. He was maybe 4th or 5th in terms of rank, so he was still very strong. To him, everything happened suddenly. In the middle of the night when everyone was sleeping, the ground shook and everything was sucked into the tower. In that instant, the man prayed to Grava and asked what was going on. Grava did not answer. Or maybe… he couldn’t.
When the morning came, the region was filled with screaming and crying. Beasts were living within the tall trees. They could’ve fled from all the turmoil if there was time, but they were asleep when it happened so more than half of them had been buried alive, and everyone had small to big wounds.
And the biggest problem was that they had no food left at all, and they were missing the top three leaders.
“Take it slow. You might choke on it.”
“…”
The man swallowed the food that Dohyuk threw at him. Dohyuk gave him a mixed grain that was full of calories along with mixed cactus extract that was sweeter than honey as rations. When he finished eating…
“I… I thought it was you…” the man said to Dohyuk. “We heard… a rumor… that you come in and leave with barren lands…”
Even now, the man seemed to think that Dohyuk had done everything and he was just asking if the man knew anything. He just thought Dohyuk came in during the middle of the night, killed the three leaders, and took the Godly Item.
But it wasn’t Dohyuk who did it, and it wasn’t definitely anyone he knew.
“…I see.”
Dohyuk smiled bitterly. He could guess what had happened. Every clue was in the man’s story.