Even if I Make It Roughly, Ex-rank Items Continue to Accumulate - Chapter 172
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Even Hastily Made Ones Keep Stacking Up as EX-Rank (172)
Attention
“Is it still far from completion?”
The lavish outpost in the center of the settlement. A massive man sitting in a high position asked.
“…Just a little. Just give me a little more time.”
Then the man kneeling on one knee below him answered. The man’s build was also quite large, but even that size seemed small compared to the man sitting in the chair.
“Ha! How much more time do I need to give you?”
The man grimaced menacingly.
“I’ve already given you all the time I could. Don’t try to buy time with such excuses. The ruins. Don’t think I don’t know you’re wagging that cunning tongue to avoid losing them.”
“That’s right, Leader! He’s nothing but a wicked bastard!”
“Uooooooo!”
The other men lined up around them joined in agreement. When they raised their arms, it felt like the entire outpost was packed full.
And in the middle of it all.
The Snow Flame Empress, who had been listening to their cheers, whispered softly.
“Father.”
“…I’m sorry, daughter.”
The man called father, the voice of the Apocalypse Order’s Master was deeply tinged with worry.
“I have no face to show you. To think I’d drag you into this too.”
“It’s alright. This is a matter for the entire Apocalypse Order.”
“Still, if I had known things would turn out this way, I would have just handed over the ruins. I was too foolish.”
Uooooooooo!
The cheers grew even louder. The atmosphere was becoming increasingly heated.
“…It’s too late for regrets. Father. You need to think about the immediate situation.”
He thought he had raised his daughter well. The Master, suppressing his growing affection, asked with a glimmer of hope.
“Do you have some kind of plan?”
“Yes. I do.”
“…!”
The Snow Flame Empress glanced around and lowered her voice.
“Father. Do you happen to have a way to contact headquarters?”
“I do. There’s one mana communication device left that they haven’t discovered.”
“Where is it?”
“Well, it’s in a rather… embarrassing location to mention.”
“…”
The Master averted his gaze awkwardly.
“Ahem. Anyway, contact is possible. The problem is that there’s no opportunity to do so.”
“I’ll try to buy some time.”
“What?”
Bewilderment appeared on his face. Buy time? How?
‘Don’t tell me.’
A negative future flashed through his mind for a moment.
Just as he was about to stop his daughter.
“Hey there! You oversized barbarian!”
“…!”
The Snow Flame Empress shouted spiritedly and sprang to her feet.
At the same time, fire and ice mana erupted roughly from both her hands. With a face ready to risk death, she reached out toward the man in the chair.
“If you’re just going to run your mouth, then face me in battle! Let’s settle the ownership of the ruins with a duel to the death!”
However…
The other men who had been watching in confusion soon burst into laughter. Some were even holding their stomachs and laughing as if they had seen something amusing.
“Hahahaha! What is she saying!”
“That girl is funny!”
“This is the first time I’ve seen someone challenge the Leader to a duel to the death!”
The Snow Flame Empress’s teeth ground together.
The first humiliation she had received since being born a Princess.
She had endured countless hardships, but this was the first time she faced such blatant ridicule.
Confirming that the Master was quietly attempting to escape while attention was focused elsewhere, she shouted in a voice filled with indignation.
“Don’t tell me you’re afraid of me! If that’s the case, then you’re nothing but an uneducated barbarian…”
“Shut up.”
Silence fell in an instant. When the man called Leader by the other men thundered, an indescribable pressure weighed down on everyone’s shoulders.
“I don’t have time to get involved in such games. And you there. Where do you think you’re sneaking off to?”
“…?!”
Only then did the other men notice the Master who had been quietly trying to slip away.
“This sneaky bastard!”
“Catch him!”
“Damn it…”
The Master immediately tried to flee, but the attempt was soon thwarted.
The Master of the Apocalypse Order, known as an S-rank Hunter.
However, the men’s power far exceeded even that.
Each individual possessed an incomprehensible level of martial prowess. Even if they came from Gates, wasn’t this unreasonable?
“…”
The Master was eventually dragged back below the chair.
Then the Leader, who had been just watching, finally stood up.
“This won’t do. I need to make an example.”
He strode down toward the Snow Flame Empress.
At that terrifying atmosphere, the Snow Flame Empress unconsciously took a step back. Her fist clenched tight. Don’t tell me.
“If I teach this girl a lesson, you’ll come to your senses too. Then you won’t make any more excuses.”
“N-no, don’t.”
The Master, whose arms were held by the men, struggled, and the Leader of the men raised his fist toward the Snow Flame Empress, who was soaked in fear.
That’s when it happened.
“Hmm?”
The fist that had rushed right up to the Snow Flame Empress’s nose stopped abruptly.
As her legs gave out and she collapsed as if sliding down, the Leader turned his head from her and looked toward the door of the outpost.
The door was closed.
However, beyond it.
An undeniably powerful aura could be felt.
“…What is that?”
His eyes narrowed. A dominating aura he had never felt even once since crossing over to the dimension called Earth. The Leader was feeling again at this very moment an emotion he had felt long ago and forgotten.
Fear of death.
The emotion of prey facing a predator.
“Wh-what is it.”
The Leader wasn’t the only one who felt it. The other men surrounding the area. Even they trembled at the shoulders, and the Master who had been prostrate on the floor was also colored with fear.
The only one in this place who regained a glimmer of hope was the Snow Flame Empress alone.
Kugugung.
Heaven and earth trembled.
Dominating mana pressed down on the entire space.
The footsteps beyond the door were getting closer and closer.
“P-prepare for battle.”
The Leader barely shook off his fear and spoke. However, the closer the presence beyond the door came, the more his body trembled.
Because somehow that mana felt very familiar.
Born from the Great Creator, something he had often felt while living in the City of the Hunters…
The ‘discipline’ of a distant senior.
At that moment.
Crash!
The door shattered into pieces as a massive figure revealed itself.
He, no, she raised the corners of her mouth in a smirk with an appearance similar to the men.
“You bastards. Attention.”
“…!”
Lumibra walked in with heavy steps.
Then she looked at the Leader and smiled with satisfaction.
“Hehe. Good. Your body remembers.”
“…?!”
The Leader looked down at his own body with a horrified expression.
His arms were straight and pressed against his sides, and his previously spread legs were now politely together. It was a pose that could only be described as perfect attention stance.
‘I, I reacted without even realizing it!’
Lumibra chuckled as she confirmed that all the other men behind him were also frozen in attention stance.
“At ease.”
Snap snap snap snap snap!
As soon as permission was given, everyone’s posture relaxed at once.
It was truly a display of incredible discipline.
Watching this scene, a young man slowly entered from behind Lumibra with an admiring expression. When the Master and Snow Flame Empress confirmed the young man’s face, a light of hope appeared in their expressions.
However, the young man asked as if curious.
“May I try it too?”
“Of course. Go ahead and try as much as you want.”
He imitated Lumibra’s voice.
“Attention.”
Snap snap snap!
“Parade rest.”
Snap snap snap snap snap!
“Wow. This actually works.”
“….”
* * *
After that, I could watch the Hunters being disciplined by Lumibra for quite a long time. It was quite a lengthy period, but it wasn’t boring at all.
The sight of them trembling every time Lumibra said a word was truly spectacular, and she even made them do running drills and duck walks.
‘Just how strictly must she have treated them every time they met.’
It seemed that the past Lumibra was a more fearsome dragon than I had thought.
After waiting like this, she soon returned with the information I needed.
“Child. My juniors say they have what you were looking for.”
“Oh. Really?”
It was worth coming here after all.
“Ask them directly. First junior? Come here for a moment.”
“Yes, yes! Senior!”
The Leader came running frantically. His gait was awkward because he had maintained Lumibra’s duck walk for quite a while. The Snow Flame Empress and Master looked at him with strange expressions.
“Explain to this child what you told me earlier.”
“Yes! But how should I address th-this person….”
“Just speak however you’re comfortable.”
“Ahem. Cough. Right. I’ll do that.”
Only then did the Leader straighten his shoulders slightly as if he had regained his dignity. Lee Si-hyeok didn’t mind since he was comfortable with formal speech, but the sight was quite amusing.
“There are two artifacts that came out with us when we arrived in this dimension. We lost one, but the other one still exists with us.”
That must be the flame element Lee Si-hyeok was looking for.
“But as I told Senior, we can’t hand it over to you right now.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s in a broken state. It was unstable the whole time we came over here, and eventually it shattered completely.”
“Ah.”
“So we were trying to fix it.”
Hearing up to that point, a question arose. Lee Si-hyeok asked.
“Was there someone who could handle Magical Engineering? I understood this was a settlement composed only of Hunters.”
“That’s why we brought that guy, isn’t it.”
His finger pointed to where the Master of the Apocalypse Order was.
The Master was a dual awakener. The world’s only person who was both an S-rank Hunter and S-rank Creator.
“Don’t tell me the reason you kept the Master all this time was….”
“To fix the artifact. But there wasn’t as much progress as we thought.”
Lumibra interjected.
“Junior. If things had continued to not work out, what were you planning to do?”
“Gasp…! I had no other thoughts, Senior! I was just planning to send them back to their headquarters and then withdraw, leaving the ruins alone!”
“Really?”
“That’s right! But since they said they had no intention of giving up the ruins, we kept holding them!”
“I see.”
Lumibra raised the corners of her eyes as if asking if he heard that well. Only then did the Master and Snow Flame Empress, who learned the truth, look dazed.
“I understand for now. So where is that artifact?”
“Are you perhaps trying to fix it!”
“If you give me the finished product, I’ll think about it.”
“What? No, that’s a bit….”
Instantly, Lumibra’s gaze shot toward the Leader.
“…That’s a really great idea. I was planning to give it to you originally anyway.”
Calling out Lumibra was truly a stroke of heavenly fortune.
As Lee Si-hyeok smiled with satisfaction, the Leader looked at the Master and said weakly.
“You follow him. Pass on the knowledge you’ve discovered to that guy….”
I was guided to what appeared to be a workshop space along with the Master, who had a bewildered expression.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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