Chapter 252
Hyukjin could tell.
‘If I wasn’t the destroyer of the Gray Ring… I wouldn’t have been able to come here, and even if I did…’
The destructive sensation that had just swept through his body would have completely demolished him.
It was truly a good thing that he had chosen the ‘Gray Ring’ in the Gran Seoul Dungeon’s hidden field. Looking at the Players’ current rate of growth, breaching the 40s appeared doable, unlike in the past.
‘The countless people who weren’t able to overcome the level 40 wall…’
Now, those Players whose growth had technically been artificially restricted would be able to grow by leaps and bounds, at least until level 60.
‘Anyway, let’s focus on this place.’
[A new field, Sea of Clouds, has been opened.]
Sea of Clouds. Just as the name suggested, it was a sea made of clouds.
He saw a pure white sea.
[Entering the Sea of Clouds.]
Hyukjin’s body instantly tilted. He immediately recovered his balance.
‘The footing has changed.’
The ground had turned into clouds.
‘I need to keep moving.’
If he didn’t, he would sink. The clouds felt plushie under his feet. For the time being, he walked to avoid sinking down.
‘It’s huge.’
The Sea of Clouds was truly enormous. He couldn’t even fathom how many meters lay between him and the faraway horizon. The same went for the depth. He couldn’t see down to the depths of this white ocean.
“I’m at a loss,” Hyukjin said.
There didn’t appear to be many clues on what to do. All he could see was a sea of clouds. But there had to be a clue somewhere, a trail towards the clear. He intentionally said he was at a loss to get the Guardians to empathize with him.
“There aren’t any clues I can see with my eyes.”
Waves of clouds came in like in a real ocean. They were even accompanied by the sound of rushing water.
He continued to walk. If his exploration of the surrounding area turned up empty, he would have to explore the Sea of Clouds’ depths.
‘The keywords given to me are…’
Freedom.
Sky.
Endless Sky.
These three. And if he were to add one more—
‘The Demon King’s arrangements.’
He had to proceed with these four factors in mind. After walking for some time, he saw something far above him. It was odd calling it a sky seeing as this was an ocean made of clouds, but in any case, there was something flying around in the sky.
‘Extremely high up.’
Something kept flying up there. He couldn’t see it clearly.
“The fact that there’s a sea and it’s flying around… means there’s a high chance it has someplace it can rest.”
In other words, there was probably a “shore” somewhere. Of course, there were also fields out there that didn’t prescribe to such expectations, but this was a special field involving countless arrangements and settings. There was a good chance it had something of the sort lined up.
‘If there are birds in the sky… there must be fish in the sea.’
Just then, Eye of Perception captured something. Something huge, and fast. He felt it some distance underneath, far beneath the surface.
‘It’s getting closer.’
He didn’t detect murderous intent or hostility from it, but its presence was simply too huge. So huge, in fact, that it made Hyukjin back away.
‘Here it comes.’
That thing, whatever it was, surged up some distance ahead of him.
Sploshhh–!
It breached the surface, appearing in a spray of clouds.
‘A whale?’
The enormous whale-like creature sprang out of the clouds, its unique coloring strikingly obvious.
‘A white whale.’
It was a pure white whale of tremendous proportions. A great spout of clouds emerged from its blowhole instead of water.
But just then, the thing flying around in the sky began to approach at a rapid speed.
‘What’s going on?’
Just how high up had it been? What had originally appeared as small as a sparrow became incredibly large as it approached.
‘That’s…’
It was a monster he knew.
‘A wyvern.’
The flying creature was a wyvern, a monster classified as a subspecies of the ultimate species that existed only in the settings, dragons. It also went by the name of ‘flying lizard’.
There were many different variants of wyverns, and of them, this one was a Steel Wyvern, the most violent of them all. Not the strongest, but the most violent. That was how ferocious they were.
‘Though well, whether it’s ferocious or not isn’t the issue with a wyvern.’
A wyvern wasn’t something that should appear in the beginner period. It didn’t matter whether the monsters that showed up after the beginner period were aggressive or docile. Most of them were hostile monsters, and they either nursed intense enmity towards humans or considered humans prey.
‘But the fact that it earned its violent reputation in spite of that…’
Was due to its extreme gluttony. The Steel Wyvern was a major glutton that scrambled to gobble down everything it could see. In the Great Explorer Jackson’s notes, there was a passage like this:
–If there is a field that should certainly have a lot of monsters but doesn’t, and if there is a gorge in the area, then we must consider the possibility of a Steel Wyvern’s existence.
Kiiiiiiiiiii—!
The Steel Wyvern plummeted down, this flying lizard with scales of a color somewhere between blue and black tearing into the white whale’s body.
The white whale thrashed in pain, producing massive sprays of clouds dyed bright red. There was no blood, but the red clouds gave off the impression of blood.
That moment, Hyukjin received a quest.
[The quest ‘Save the White Whale from Danger!’ has been generated.]
Kiiiiiiiii–!
Like sharks drawn to the smell of blood, countless Steel Wyverns began descending from the sky in their direction.
‘Save the white whale?’
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There was no way he could defeat that many Steel Wyverns at his current level. He would be the one ripped to shreds.
‘Hunting them is impossible.’
So ultimately, he just had to focus on ‘saving’ the white whale.
‘Before they get any closer.’
Every second counted. They were descending too quickly.
[Using the special skill Flash Step.]
He approached in a flash. The Steel Wyvern was currently clutching the massive whale with its sharp claws, which were lodged in the whale’s skin like hooks. The wyvern beat its wings skyward, but it seemed incapable of overcoming the whale’s strength and weight.
The whale was trying to escape into the sea of clouds—
And the wyvern was trying to fish it up out of the sea.
Hyukjin immediately decided what he needed to do.
[Using the innate ability Sword of Insight.]
He swung Isabel. Through his battle against the Black Pearl Centipede, he won the Divine Sword Physique. Hunting down a wyvern on the spot might be a challenge, but he could certainly remove the whale from the wyvern’s grasp.
Kieeeeek!
The wyvern shrieked in pain.
[You have earned the Steel Wyvern’s wrath.]
That instant, Hyukjin instinctively felt danger, as potent and all-encompassing as the feeling he’d gotten while fleeing from the Magic Troll in the Tutorial Dungeon. A chill ran down his spine.
‘The wyvern is coming for me.’
There was no place to escape in sight, just like how there had been nowhere to escape from the Magic Troll’s fist. The special ability with the power of sixth sense, Eye of Perception, blared a warning.
There was no decent place to flee. The wyvern was too fast.
In the end, there was only one place to run.
The wyvern’s beak drew near, the same sharp and sturdy beak that had punctured this huge whale’s body.
‘The only place is down.’
He could see no place to flee aboveground. Nowhere, not a single place, would offer him a path of survival. No matter where he fled, he could not escape the wyvern’s attack. In the end, the only place he could go to dodge the wyvern’s beak was into the sea, down in the Sea of Clouds.
Hyukjin immediately dove.
* * *
Translator – Lei
Proofreader – Ash
* * *
‘Ngh.’
Sharp claws raked his back.
‘I’m suffocating.’
The Sea of Clouds was truly like a real ocean. He had never swum in the deep sea, but if he had, it would probably feel something like this. Though it looked like a white ocean from the outside, it was terribly dark from the inside. It was as if he was plunged into outer space, where not a single ray of light could be perceived.
He heard a notice.
[The quest ‘Save the White Whale from Danger!’ has been cleared.]
He cleared it, but was given no rewards. It became increasingly difficult to breathe. The pressure in his lungs was even worse than holding his breath in the water.
‘There must be wyverns outside.’
If he surfaced, he would surely become wyvern fodder. Just then, he heard a voice.
“Thank you.”
A woman appeared before him, a woman with platinum hair that only existed in fantasy novels. Her body was draped with what looked like clothing made of scales, but that clothing was actually her body itself. A splotch of red stained her side like a bloody wound.
“I am a descendant of the whalekin, Natalie. It’s hard for you to breathe, isn’t it?”
The woman who introduced herself as Natalie extended a pill to him. The pill was called ‘Freedom’. It bore the same name as the elixir ‘Freedom’, but had a different effect.
Gulp.
He swallowed Freedom, and it became easier to breathe.
“That is a pill we whalekin made to welcome our visitors or saviors. Inside is a whale’s breath. You should be able to breathe comfortably here in the Sea of Clouds.”
“Are you that whale from just now?” Hyukjin asked.
“Yes, that’s right. You saved me from nearly getting eaten by the skybirds.”
By skybird, she was probably referring to Steel Wyverns.
“Why did you leave the Sea of Clouds and breach the surface?”
“Because we need to breathe as well.”
Hyukjin felt Eye of Perception tingle. He couldn’t read her at all with Eye of Perception. Not even the wyvern had given him this feeling.
‘She’s far stronger than a wyvern.’
It didn’t seem to be that way just because they were in the Sea of Clouds. This woman possessed strength so great that the current Kim Hyukjin could not even begin to fathom how strong.
‘She’s way, way stronger than me.’
So why was she losing to the wyvern? Even outside the Sea of Clouds, even if she was vulnerable on the surface, this woman should have been able to make quick work of the wyvern.
‘I get it.’
He was starting to get his bearings. Because there was one “keyword” at the core of everything here.
Hyukjin asked, “Could it be… that the whalekin are a race not given the freedom to attack?”
“…You figured it out immediately. Or did you already know about us whalekin?”
“No. It’s the first time I’ve ever heard about your existence.”
And that they weren’t in the sea, but in this Sea of Clouds.
“Though we are endowed with great strength, we cannot use it. That is the sanction we bore when abandoning our homeland.”
The scenario was unfolding with every new morsel of background information. Hyukjin felt his mood soar. Right now, the backdrop to this secret scenario the Guardians would go nuts for was taking shape.
“Why did you end up leaving your homeland?”
“Because we loved peace.”
They loved peace, but they left their homeland?
“In the time of our elders, waterdrakes began to settle in our homeland. We didn’t want to fight the waterdrakes. Whalekin are a peace-loving race.”
Whalekin. Waterdrakes. And Steel Wyverns.
The scenario that would take place in this Sea of Clouds probably had to do with these three races, all under the huge umbrella that was ‘Freedom’.
He needed a little more info.
“Where was your homeland?”
The answer he received was completely unexpected.
“Our homeland is up there.” Natalie pointed up with her finger, towards the faraway sky ted with wheeling Steel Wyverns. “The Endless Sky is our homeland.”
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