Chapter 240: New Champion 1
When he woke up that morning, the first thing he looked for was a cup of water. He teleported to the kitchen to grab a glass of water from the cooler and shook his head.
“It was a wild night.”
Eunseo had spoken about drinking it to the last drop. In the end, only Eunseo, Tsubasa, Sora, Elise and Junhyuk stayed awake drinking. Elise was the most surprised.
They drank all night, and he walked home. The cabin in Paju wasn’t too far from his house, and after a thirty-minute walk, he lay on his bed. He felt like he had only slept for a moment before he work up thirsty and went to get a glass of water.
After that, he teleported to the basement, summoned his sword and sat down. The communication crystal chimed, and he saw Gongon’s face in the air.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m just training before I meet you again.”
“You look like crap?”
He laughed.
“What about you? I thought you were training.”
“Expect big things from me.”
He gathered himself and said, “Gongon.”
“What?”
“You shouldn’t become a hero?”
“Why?”
“I don’t feel like going to the Champions’ Battlefield without you.”
He had fought alongside a troll before he got paired up with Gongon. He didn’t want to give him up. Gongon stared blankly at him and laughed.
“Kuh-kuh-kuh….ha-ha-ha-ha! You recognize my greatness.”
“I did it from the start.”
He had compared Gongon to the troll before.
“See you soon.”
“Right, see you soon.”
After talking, he got up. With Gongon in his team, he felt confident going against any champion.
“I’ll win this time as well.”
He got rid of his hangover and focused on swinging his sword.
The room was covered by the blinding white light, so he summoned his equipment and checked to see how much gold he had: 196,760G.
Junhyuk was glad to have that many gold coins. He knew that he could afford to get something knew and looked at his armor, thinking about upgrading it.
“Is there a Pure Golden Knight Elder’s Armor in the set?”
If he could get the Elder’s armor, he wouldn’t need to upgrade his current one.
“I’ll ask.”
While he decided to collect the entire Elder’s set, he heard a soft voice.
[I will elucidate you on the Swamp of Despair.]
“That’s not necessary.”
He already knew where he was and had memorized the layout of the swamp.
[I’ll skip the explanations from now on. Do you accept?]
“Yes. I’ve been here before. No explanations necessary.”
He could picture the high-ranking sorcerer and his face. The dragons knew his name as well, so he had to be well-renowned. However, he was trapped here, which indicated just how powerful the Dimensional Battlefield managers were.
[You may exit through the main doors.]
He walked to the exit.
[This is the Champions’ Battlefield. You have unlimited revives, but each time you die, you lose 3,000G, so be aware of that.]
With Gongon in his team, he wouldn’t lose.
[The reward for victory in the Swamp of Despair will be a bag filled with enhancement stones. The number of stones is unknown. Do your best to win.]
He laughed. Each enhancement stone cost 50,000G. Even if he only got one, that would still be good enough. Therefore, he was determined to win that battle.
Once he pushed the door, he heard the soft voice announce him.
[Champion Junhyuk Lee deployed.]
When he walked outside, he saw the lizardmen squatting. Aktur had been leaning on the castle’s door and pushed off.
“You are late.”
“What is it?”
He heard Gongon’s voice from behind him, “What is it? These worthless beings now recognize my greatness.”
He turned around and saw Gongon is smiling. With his short body and giant head, he surely was cute, yet he also emanated an aura of authority.
“What did you do?”
“I learned to display my pride.”
“Interesting.”
The lizardmen were minions. By displaying his pride, Gongon had made them scared of him, and he expected to be complimented for having the lizardmen squat. So, Junhyuk walked over to Gongon and patted his head.
“You are something else!”
“Just trust me on this battle.”
He nodded and looked at Aktur.
“They have a new champion, right?”
“We’ll have to find out who it is.”
Junhyuk took a moment to think and asked, “What are we gonna do?”
“I’ll head to the upper path.”
“OK. Fight well.”
Junhyuk turned to Gongon and suggested, “Let’s go together.”
Gongon smiled, wagged his tail and stood next to him.
“Good. Let’s go,” the hatchling said, swinging his short arms. “Follow me!”
The lizardmen followed them, and Junhyuk took the lead.
“You must been training hard!”
“Of course! In my entire life as a dragon, I’ve never trained so hard.”
Junhyuk laughed.
“We don’t know about new champion, so let’s be cautious.”
Gongon’s eyes sparkled, but he wasn’t smiling anymore. “My father told me about this place. I won’t be sloppy.”
“Thanks.”
The hatchling had his guard up, so Junhyuk thought there was no way they would lose. They weren’t thinking that the new champion could be stronger than the previous one. To them, the allies were more powerful than their enemies.
They talked until they reached a tower. When Junhyuk saw the enemies, he frowned.
“I see Lugos. That must be new champion next to him?”
Gongon shook his head and asked, “Isn’t that an octopus?”
“I’d never seen an octopus wearing armor!”
The new champion was at least three meters tall with ten-meter long tentacles. There was a helmet on its head, and it looked study.
It had eight tentacles.
It was an octopus.
Junhyuk stepped forward and asked, “Is that the new champion?”
Lugos was about to step forward with an answer, when the octopus stepped in front of him and said, “My name is Kraken.”
Gongon laughed at his name and said, “Of course, that’s your name!”
Kraken’s eyes widened, and Gongon bared his teeth.
“What the hell are you staring at?!” the hatchling said.
Junhyuk looked at Gongon, who was staring at Kraken, sighed and stepped forward.
“Should we fight them now?”
He wanted to know more about Kraken’s powers. Gyulsean had long-range attacks, but she was gone now. So, both he and Gongon advanced while Lugos and Kraken did the same.
He watched the two of them. That was Kraken’s first time in that battlefield. It and Lugos hadn’t worked together, so Junhyuk was looking for an opening in their teamwork.
He inspected Kraken’s equipment. The helmet looked strong, and the champion wasn’t human, so he would have a hard time figuring out its weaknesses.
Junhyuk looked at Gongon, and Gongon stepped forward.
“I should break the ice, right?”
Junhyuk didn’t explain. There was no need. He said simply, “Please, do.”
Gongon advanced, and Kraken headed toward him. Taking the length of its tentacles into consideration, it was the longest enemy the allies had faced by far. It seemed like a good size for a tank, so they assumed that the octopus was one.
However, Junhyuk wanted to know more about Kraken’s damage potential.
Gongon ran to the front, and Lugos pulled out his weapons. Kraken was about to show its power, and Junhyuk wanted to exploit that. Still, the most important thing was to win.
Kraken ran toward Gongon, swing its tentacles. Four of them were directed at Gongon, but the hatchling dodged them all. At that moment, Junhyuk realized how hard the dragon had trained. He hadn’t even transformed yet and he was moving much more swiftly.
For a dragon, it was important to be quick, so he could see that Gongon had been training just like him.
Gongon dodged all of the Kraken’s attacks and rushed.
Boom!
Gongon slammed hard against Kraken, but Kraken only lost 17 percent of its health. The same attack would’ve dealt 22 percent of damage to Lugos, so Kraken at least had more health than Lugos.
Kraken was pushed back, but swung its tentacles to grapple Gongon. However, the hatchling quickly inhaled and spewed his firebreath. The strong flames covered Kraken, but it only lost 12 percent of its health.
Once the firebreath died down, Kraken swung its tentacle like a whip at Gongon, who got launched away. Junhyuk caught him and looked at Kraken.
Kraken hadn’t used any powers yet.
Meanwhile, Gongon held his stomach with his tiny arms and said, “I’m getting angry. What is the damage?”
“Both attacks together dealt about 30 percent total.”
Kraken moved toward them, and Gongon said, “It’s really dense.”
“Yes.”
Watching the fight, Junhyuk realized that only Kraken’s eyes received critical hits. He set Gongon down and said, “Let’s get at him again. Get his attention.”
“Sure.”
Gongon ran at Kraken again, and Kraken, again, swung its tentacles like whips. Even Junhyuk wasn’t sure he could dodge all of those attacks, but Gongon was doing it. So, Junhyuk gripped his sword tightly, and while Gongon had Krakens attention, he used the Spatial Slash.
“Aaargh!”
With loud scream, Kraken lost an eye. Junhyuk saw that the Spatial Slash had worked, but Kraken only lost 30 percent of its health. The shockwave served no purpose as Lugos was too far away.
Junhyuk ran toward Gongon. Kraken only had 41 percent of his health remaining, and he wanted to finish it off.
At that moment, Kraken coiled within itself like a spring.
And flew forward.
Boom!
Gongon had no time to escape and got launched away by the hit, but Junhyuk caught him again. Kraken had headbutted the hatchling, which they hadn’t expected. The headbutt had a range of twenty meters. After that, it used its tentacles as whips, so that gave it an attack range of thirty meters.
Gogon grabbed his head with his tiny arms while getting up.
“Ouch!”
Junhyuk helped him up and said, “Let’s kill Kraken before Lugos joins the fight.”
Gongon smirked and answered, “Yes.”
