Hunting the First Calamity

Surprisingly, this giant lake was something that the Kukulja had dug out .

A lake which the Kukulja, which live in the toxic waters, had dug out from the bottom in order to mate in a place which was originally land .

Evren thought of the conversation he saw hansoo have with Keldian .

<Kukulja is a creature which is somewhere in the top of the food chain within the toxic sea but even this may become a snack to the Calamity Fish if it's unlucky . Though these guys had evolved to have a toxin within their heart to retaliate against the Calamity Fish but… it's a joke if you take into account of the size of the Calamity Fish . >

A toxin which didn't work against Humans but petrified a part of the Calamity Fish .

And because of this the Kukulja's heart, which has a large amount of this toxin, was needed in the Hardening Liquid .

<…It works even though the effect is so miniscule?>

<That's why you have to gather a lot of them, turn them into a concentrated extract, amplify it using the other 27 ingredients and pour it onto the most fatal location within the Calamity Fish's body . Anyways, these guys fear the Calamity Fish so they dig the Root Part of the World Tree, make a lake and then create a spawning pool there . If you want to gather enough extracts for the amount you need, it wouldn't even be close to enough by searching around the sea . Go to that lake . And that lake is a warning line for how much the Calamity Fish would eat to a degree . The instinct of the Kukuljas are very amazing, they create the spawning pool right above the point where the Calamity Fish eats up to . >

<Why don't they go up higher to create them?>

It would be safer to make them higher up the Root if they were so scared of the Calamity Fish so why would they make it around the End Root area where it would be dangerous .

<You know how it is . There are another 5 Great Calamities under the Middle and Starting Roots . Even a Kukulja can't come over that . >

Evren finished his thoughts and then watched the swaying lake .

A giant weird looking fish which had the head of a bull and a human's arms and legs .

It was so big that each of them exceeded 2m in length .

But the surprising fact was that the thing he was looking at was an infant .

These guys grew up to 5m long in adulthood .

'I'll get them one at a time . '

Evren, who had seen thousands of them squirming around, channeled the Ancient Demonic Dragon Reinforcement onto his arms and then slowly walked into the toxic lake.

The difficulty without weapons was hard but manageable, for him.

He could get a weapon but his reinforcement was not an ordinary zero numbering, it was one of the peak ones along with His third eye.

They originated from 'Ancient' beings. A ordinary artifact couldn't handle a few seconds under its pressure.

Splash

As soon as Evren came in, all of the Kukulja's within the lake raised their bull ears .

<!!!!!!!!!>

And then started to madly rush towards the origin of the noise and vibration .

Though the food was still in a shallow place there was no problem .

Since they could advance while eating through the root .

Kakakakakak .

Thousands of teeth-baring fish gnawed onto the bottom of the lake as they charged at Evren .

Evren's reinforced arms slammed down onto the center of the bull head .

Kududuk .

The Kukulja's skull had made a cracking sound and had split in two but Evren made an unsatisfied expression .

'Too slow, faster'

He couldn't play with them for long. Why should he?

Evren pulled and threw its body onto the land as whole .

If he left it in the lake like this then everything including the heart will be chewed up by the other fish .

Creating the extract from the heart was a job after the hunt .

Kwadududk!

Paduduk!

And soon the thousands of fish baring their teeth got stimulated by the blood as they madly charged at Evren .

Kudududk .

Evren made his hands into claws and went on a rampage swinging them here and there and pulled numerous fish out .

Chuchuchuk .

The thousands of fish charged up with incredible speed across the water and then used that momentum to crash into Evren and bite him with their teeth .

The two lights that engulfed his body both defended and retaliated.

Chuchuchuk .

The corpses of Kukuljas were stacking outside the lake but Evren's body was equally gaining shallow injuries .

'Hm'

His sixth sense was tingling, he immediately activated his third eye.

59 meters to the north was a group wearing blue insignias and robes.

He was informed by Camille, so he knew, they were one of the Six pillars <Magic Seekers>.

As the name suggested these fools thought they were magicians and focused on 'magic' like skills that dealt with the elements. With all skills being like magic it was honestly stupid.

It was formed after Eres Valentine, Keldian Magus and their group. But just shortly after. Around a few months.

They saw the corpses on land and followed the sloppy throw pattern to him.

He looked at them with his piercing light golden eyes.

'Whose this ?'

......

Elsewhere Zarory stopped being reserved since he wasn't around Evren and let loose.

'Come on you oversized bugs, let me step on you!!'

His vision sped up as he moved in high speed.

Slash. Slash. He repeatedly cut through the monstrous beetle like creatures. Green blood splurged out of them onto him.

'Ahh!! Come on, that all you got?! Aren't bugs supposed to be annoying , it's actually fun to crush you!!!'

Their thick carcasses were at least 40cm of tough material. It took three quick strikes at the same point for Zarory to penetrate.

<Black Fel Beetles>

Natives of the southeastern end root that dropped runes often. It was a great spot for beginners if this area.

'You suck at being bugs its no challenge at all to crush you, change occupations!! I want some real bugs!!!!!'

He shouted whilst crushing and slashing a mob of beetles to pieces.

'Who is that guy, is he really a newcomer like us?'

A group of three whispered to each other. They consisted of two men and one female. Park Hansoo melee attacker, leader. Taekook , the vanguard and Yerin the healer, emotional support.

'I'm not sure'

Hansoo answered. They had just come from the tutorial and they were strong enough to have stayed together from the start.

The three if them barely survived the journey and had joined the <Arstil> clan, it could barely considered to be a top tier clan but it was a peak mid tier level power.

That was proof of their power. They had finished a clan mission and were hunting to gain runes by themselves. The clan helped members with symbols but they refused to get any.

That was because of a secret, Yerin was actually a lord and part of the reason they survived so long together was due to her psychic powers. But she wasn't that good at it yet.

And they couldn't trust anyone other than themselves, who've been together since childhood, that readily.

They had now realized numbers were a huge advantage of clans so they decided to get some trustworthy strong members.

'What about him?'

Taekook suggested.

"Him?"

"He's strong but personality is key, but I guess the symbols change people to be loyal and their lord's personality rubs off on them"

"That's why you must be strong Yerin, for us. If you are too soft that could rub off on us and we won't be able to protect you like in our old world, Okay?"

Hansoo lectured.

She stayed silent.

"Yerin!!!'

Hansoo shouted.

" Yes, yes. I understand. "

She snapped out of it.

"But can't we...'

" Yerin!!! Haven't you seen it getting here. This is a merciless world you can't show mercy or you'll die!"

Hansoo wasn't standing for it.

He patted her back and comforted her.

"Now let's go convince him to join"

He looked in Zarory's direction.

.........

'A newb ?'

The members of <Magic Seekers> inspected Evren. They confirmed it with a special skill of one of their members and they could see it somewhat with their Red stage perception.

'But what kind of skill is that? To increase a newbie's power enough to cause this...'

A black eyed man inspected the corpses.

There were around a hundred of them.

Evren looked coldly at them whilst retaliating while standing still. The creatures didn't stop seeing the new arrivals and continued to rush at him.

'Oi newbie, where did you get a skill like that'

The black eyed man questioned with a commanding tone.

Evren ignored him and took the intiative and started attacking the fishes.

'Ignoring me huh'

The man's fist clenched and he stepped on a Kukulja corpse further destroying it.

His anger was obvious.

'Seriously, these ignorant worms. They might be bigger than the norm but they still act so cocky. That corpse was a precious material.'

Evren lamented. He grabbed a pebble from the water and flung it towards his head.

The pebble turned into a mini meteor and aimed for him.

His hand glowed blue as he grabbed the pebble and it disintegrated.

Evren made an 'as expected' expression.

'Why you cocky little punk. I'll just have to test my luck and see if it drops after I kill you'

The leader Gaeyuk, rage skyrocketed.

He jumped in the water to attack Evren.

'Wait . Leader, if HQ were to find out we killed a newbie to get his runes, things could get a bit....'

'Fuck HQ!! I'll take responsibility.'

Blinded by rage, he ignored his companion's warnings.

Since when could a newbie treat HIM like THAT!!!!!

His followers sighed before drooping their shoulders. But amidst them, a few's eyes glittered seeing Evren use his skill to decimate the fish with little to no damage but scratches that didn't even draw blood.

'Should we really let the captain have such a good thing?'

That was the thought that ran through each of their minds.

Boom.

A blue light covered Gaeyuk's sword as he sliced a Kukulja that was thrown towards him.

It's corpse fell in the water.

Evren eyed the light covering Gaeyuk. < Blue Rekal's Reinforcement> . It was one if the top 15 skills you could get in this zone.

How did that guy that looked only worthy enough to climb the trunk get it.

<Anyways this might be troublesome>

Evren's own reinforcement far outclassed his but the same couldn't be said for his base runes. But handling him wasn't hard. It was thirty behind that looked to be at least stronger than Camille.

He had some hidden tricks to use from his knowledge of the area in case things went awry so with that in mind ,

Throw.

Another Kukulja was going for Gaeyuk's head.

'The same old trick? That didn't work before so if course it won't work this time!!'

Slash.

As he slashed it and smirked. A chill crept up his spine.

'Watch out!!'

Someone warned.

To his left side were two piercing demonic purple eyes. Evren fully activated the Ancient Demonic Dragon Reinforcement for the first time. The blood in his veins boiled changing his eye colour .

And strengthening him.

'Time for a Slaughter'.

........

'Hey friend!!!'

Hansoo called out to Zarory who was like a lawnmower dealing with the grass like number of beetles.

At first Zarory was too distracted but hansoo actually fought through the mob of giant bugs to stand in front if him.

'Hm?'

What greeted Zarory was a sorry figure covered in wounds from head to toe and seemed on the verge of collapsing.

Not everyone could handle a angry mob of Black beetles. In fact though the drop rate was quite nice a team of three like theirs had to be created to defeat one.

If Zarory wasn't cutting weeds and being the centre of attention their sharp hooks would have torn him to shreds.

'I came to ask.... hoohoo...if..you would...like to...join...our...clan?'

Hansoo asked out of breath wondering if his lungs were injured a while ago.

"Huh??"