Arena

Chapter 121 Objective (Part 2)

When Odin started running ahead, I of course followed suit.

“Divine Protection of the Wind!”

As the Divine Protection of the Wind kicked in, every time my feet touched the ground, wind shot out from them and my body was lightly lifted into the air.

Hopping along, I was right behind Odin.

“Kuahhh!”

“Uh accck!”

The zombie horde discovered us and began to gather around.

“I will pierce through the horde from the front.”

“Yes!”

“Do that.”

Odin headed straight into the center of the group.

He took a big swing of his long sword and one zombie’s head flew off.

Then he used his shoulder to ram into the zombie horde.

“Uh ahhh!”

“Ku ahhh!”

Several tens of zombies got pushed aside by Odin and fell backwards.

He crushed them merely by using the increased power from the 20x boost on the synthetic muscle suit.

Odin continued and rammed through the zombies with his armor.

The zombies that were hit got flung backwards from the heavy and powerful impact of the armor. Other zombies behind got caught in the impact and were knocked over like dominos.

Like that, Odin used his strength to begin clearing a path and I shot the zombies coming at us from the sides.

Taang – tang –

One bullet would hit five or six zombies through the head in a line. The ammo revision skill at the master level made my guns shoot out with a stronger power.

‘Nice.’

The drastically stronger bullets got me excited and I fired off in all directions.

The zombie horde was bustling all around us so that no matter where I shot, it would be a hit.

Cha Ji-hye was in the back calmly taking care of any zombies that got too close. Of course, the skill with which she cleanly sliced off a neck in one blow of her scimitar was impressive.

At Odin’s suggestion on how we should attack the horde, we nodded our heads and agreed.

John Omento was meant for Marie. It was her exam so she had to personally kill him.

The rest of us remained down below to take care of the zombie horde and spent our time that way.

Has John Omento been on alert?

New zombies began to gather, pouring in from all directions.

But no matter how many zombies there were, I wasn’t scared.

We kept at it and continued our killing spree through the zombies.

But the zombies, having gathered from all directions, numbered in the hundreds and I could not see an end in sight.

‘This is annoying, should I take care of it in one blow?’

There was one way to mass murder them all with strength.

“Kasa!”

-Bark bark!

Kasa appeared and fiercely wagged his tail.

“Light a fire.”

-Bark!

Kasa set a tree on fire.

“Create fires here and there to surround the zombie horde!”

-Bark!

Kasa flew off.

From here and there, black smoke began to rise.

The fire on one tree moved to the tree next to it and one after another, the fire grew.

“It will turn into a big forest fire, we should get away.”

“Let’s.”

We broke through the zombie horde and ran.

How far must we have ran?

The flames blazing up blocked our way.

-Kasa! Open a path!

-Bark!

Kasa used his power and the wall of fire separated creating a path. We passed through it.

Having escaped from the scene of the raging fire, we looked on at the mountain in flames.

Creating a large circle, the raging flames set aflame all the zombies within it.

‘That was simple.’

We kept wandering around mountain and killed any zombies we found.

How much time passed this way?

Suddenly, my radio went off.

When I checked it, it was a relay from Marie’s radio.

“Miss Marie?”

-Hehe, hi Hyun-ho.

“Hi, what happened with John Omento?”

-I killed him.

“You did?”

-Yea, the exam door is here. I have to go on through it now.

“Yes, then we’ll finish up here and be right behind you.”

-Okay! See you when we get back, Hyun-ho.

The call ended.

It seems Marie’s exam door appeared as soon she cleared her mission.

Since her exam was to take care of a superior level necromancer at the 5th circle or higher, as soon as she killed John Omento, her mission was complete.

On the other hand, Odin and I had the option to choose.

My mission was to eliminate at least 1 corrupt examinee. Thus, even if I killed more than that, the mission wouldn’t automatically be over.

Same with Odin.

He had the mission to investigate the dark magician group that attacked the Brown Mountain. Even now, he had done plenty to investigate but he could continue to investigate even further.

“Now all that is left is Cha Ji-hye’s mission. Let’s just take care of that here and now.”

Odin took out his ID card from his jacket and handed it to Cha Ji-hye.

Odin bit his finger to let out blood and let it drip onto the ID.

“Do the same.”

Cha Ji-hye drew blood too and put it on the ID.

“I, Odin, the count of Wolfenbrooke, impart the title of baronet to Christina Cha.”

‘Christina Cha’ was the name of the new identity the Denmark authorities gave to her when she was deemed dead in Korea.

Then her name was written on the ID and the symbol of baronet in the Arena was also written.

Pat!

Then the exam door appeared.

“I, too, have cleared the exam.”

At this moment Cha Ji-hye’s mission was cleared, to become acknowledged by a lord and receive a noble title.

“Do you think it matters if we too go through the same door?”

I suddenly asked, curious.

Because that exam door was meant as a gateway for Cha Ji-hye.

I was curious what would happen if a different examinee entered it.

“It doesn’t matter. If the examinee has completed the mission, he or she can pass through the door. We can all go together.”

“Okay.”

First, the two of them gave me the synthetic muscle suits and radios. If it wasn’t in my space bag, the electronic components of the item would be ruined.

I think Marie probably hid hers somewhere nearby before she went back.

Cha Ji-hye opened the exam door and went through first and following her, Odin and I went through.

The bright light engulfed us and I wasn’t able to see anything but white.

***

The sky and ground, a world of complete whiteness. An endless expanse of a white horizon is all I could see.

And then I saw Cha Ji-hye next to me and was taken aback.

“Miss Ji-hye”

“Mr. Kim Hyun-ho.”

Cha Ji-hye replied in kind, not surprised or showing any emotions at all.

“How are you here? Is it because we came through the same door?”

“Mr. Odin isn’t here.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“I think they have gathered we are one team now.”

Then.

“You’re right!”

A small disgusting baby angel came down from the sky.

“Yay, the two of you have achieved your goals! You worked together in the Arena and wanted to be acknowledged as one team.”

“I didn’t know that it would happen so fast.”

“I too decided it would be best for you two to be one team. I gave you guys special treatment so be thankful.”

“Thanks.”

“If you know it then that’s fine.”

Annoying prick.

I want to fix how he talks this way, so annoyingly. If he was my son I would spank his butt.

“Then again you are at the age where you should have a son my age, right?”

The baby angel read my thoughts and giggled.

‘Kuk.’

Hit in a weak spot, I just kept my mouth shut.

“Summon board.”

Cha Ji-hye had no intention in becoming involved in our bickering and summoned her board.

Only then did I summon my own board and checked my exam scores.

-Name: Kim Hyun-ho

-Class: 33

-Karma: +31,000

-Mission: rest until the next exam

-Time Limit: 100 days

For a second, I doubted my own eyes.

My class went from 21 to 33, I had jumped up 11 levels.

And my 17,900 karma jumped all the way to 31,000 karma.

“Uh, what is this?”

“What do you mean, did you sprain your eyes?”

“……”

Isn’t this too much a jump?

Was eliminating six corrupt examinees that great of a feat?

Alright let’s say the karma is correct but it’s unbelievable to go from class 21 to class 33.

“The class is a reflection of the examinee’s competence. After you finished the 6th exam last time, and you were resting, you got a lot stronger didn’t you?”

“Oh, that is included in this?”

“Yes.”

I got karma for killing those two corrupt Chinese examinees. And I also bought karma with money.

If you included all those things, then I could understand it.

“Now now, if there’s nothing else, be on your way.”

The baby angel summoned the exam door and as if to shoo away a fly, gestured for us to leave.

Cha Ji-hye marched towards the door and left. And I, excited at my great scores, with a happy heart, followed after her.

That was how the 7th exam ended.

***

Reality.

I’m back at the Nordic exam group headquarters and everyone was reunited.

“Did you get a lot of karma?”

At my question, Odin looked at me with a very satisfied face and nodded his head.

“Thanks to you. Learning about the 6 leaders must have been very important, I got a very high score.”

“Me too!”

Marie was hopping around and attached herself to my back.

“Same here.”

Cha Ji-hye added simply.

We, for the first time in a long while, had a proper meal and discussed things about the next exam.

“For me, probably in my next exam I will have to return to being the Count of Wolfenbrooke. I cannot leave the family and area for very long.”

That was a reasonable guess.

Otherwise, because the Count of Wolfenbrooke was recently engaged in war, it was risky for him to be away for long periods of time.

At a time like this, for a ruler like Odin to leave his place for a long time would lead to a mess.

“Since we investigated the dark magic organization in this exam, the next exam will probably be to share this knowledge far and wide. That is the natural flow of things.”

Odin was impressed by Cha Ji-hye’s opinion.

“Indeed. It will be a mission suited to my title and power. If I spread the word, it will become known through the whole continent.”

Odin was a powerful lord and his standing in the world was high.

And if someone like him mentioned the existence and objective of the dark magic organization, such news would spread through the whole land.

All the nations would be on guard and hunt for the dark magicians.

That alone would greatly restrict the organization’s movements. Since they wouldn’t be able to act out in the open.

“Since I killed corrupt examinees in this exam, the next exam will probably involve corrupt examinees and the pirates they’ve gotten in bed with. I’ll probably have to fight them?”

“You probably will. They were dressed the same as the pirates at the Deport harbor too.

“We heard the pirates rose to power very quickly, I think it was because they were working together with corrupt examinees from China.”

At Cha Ji-hye’s words, I nodded my head.

“I too think that in my next exam, I will be fighting pirates.”

“Be careful. If you aren’t careful you might end up having to fight Lee Chang-wee. Six of them died so the Chinese side will be pretty pissed too.”

Well, what’s one to do?

From the moment they tried to kidnap me, I crossed a point of no return with the Chinese.

But even if I were to go up against Lee Chang-wee, I was confident.

I had a way to fight him.

One was the ammo revision power. That plus the anti-material sniper rifle AW50F should be plenty to deal with him.

The other was 31,000 karma.

With this much karma, I could raise my main skill spirit summons to superior and still have some left!

Superior level spirit summons!

That was what Derrick showed me!