When Junhyuk went into the training facility with Sarang, they were faced with two A-ranked monsters. He was already used to dealing with the Wolf Warlord, but now there were two of them, and the danger level went way up.
Junhyuk had to use all of his powers to kill the monsters within the given time since the danger level was so high, but he managed to kill them both in the end. He had learned how to kill Wolf Warlords, but they still weren’t easy opponents.
He hunted for two hours and, breathing roughly, he looked at Sarang.
“Are you OK?”
“I’m fine. By the way, they only added an extra one, but it’s so much tougher.”
Junhyuk nodded in agreement, looking ahead. The two of them had high-ranking powers with great utility. With an absolute defense force field and long range critical attacks, they were able to stop their opponents. The Thunderstorm/Spatial Slash combo had finished the A-ranked monsters off.
Junhyuk wondered if the A-ranked monsters were the same as those in the Dimensional Battlefield. If so, how come heroes had so much trouble dealing with them? So, he came to the conclusion that they were different.
“Did they decrease the monsters’ power level?” he murmured, and Sarang shook her head.
“But they are certainly stronger than B-ranked monster.”
“Right. That’s right…”
Junhyuk had thought that even heroes couldn’t deal with two A-ranked monsters. Heroes did have powers beyond imagination, but so did A-ranked monsters. He decided not to think too hard about it and shook his head, turning to her.
“Shall we go out?”
“Not yet. I want to train with mana.”
“Then, let’s train some more.”
Sarang started focusing and absorbing mana into her mana circle, while Junhyuk trained with the living spirit. The spirit was consuming mana on its own, and growing by the day.
Unlike in the Dimensional Battlefield, the living spirit wasn’t consuming all the available mana, but it was still feeding. Junhyuk had to make the living spirit his own. He had to learn how to use acceleration and enhancement at the same time. That was the aim of his training.
He still couldn’t do it, but he had learned something new. The acceleration had become even faster, and he could trigger the single-point explosion quicker as well. However, he still couldn’t completely control both, so he still couldn’t call them his.
Junhyuk thought he was making strides in his advancement. When he saw Sarang open her eyes, he stopped.
“Let’s go back.”
He took her hand and exited. In the bathroom, he let her shower first and went outside. Moments later, she came out, and he showered.
When he came out, he saw Sarang watching TV. When he looked at what she was watching, he frowned.
The TV was showing footage of a dimensional tear, and it wasn’t just one or two. There were dimensional tears all over the world.
Junhyuk wanted to find out more, so he grabbed his phone. While he’d been training, he had gotten over twenty calls, so he called Elise first.
“Where were you? Why did you not pick up?” her voice came through exasperated.
“Is there a dimensional tear in South Korea?”
“No, none in South Korea yet.”
Relieved, he asked, “By the way, didn’t they stop the poring-power research?”
“These dimensional tears happened naturally.”
“Naturally?!”
Last time, the dimensional tear had appeared because of someone’s power. It would be nearly impossible for someone with similar powers to appear again. So, why were there tears?
Thinking, he said, “I’ll call you back.”
Junhyuk hung up and shouted, “Agenchra!”
He wanted to know more about what was happening, so he tried summoning Agenchra. Perhaps, the members of the management teams were thinking different things, and he wanted to make sure.
There was no response, so Junhyuk called him again, “Agenchra!”
Suddenly, everything around him stopped. He knew they stopped time before appearing, so he waited. From the empty air, the manager appeared. Agenchra cocked his fedora toward him and bowed.
“Were you looking for me?”
“I have a mountain of questions, but I want to ask you about the dimensional tears first.”
Agenchra smiled awkwardly. His face was covered by bandages, so Junhyuk was surprised that he could look awkward.
“I’m not sure. That’s not my expertise.”
“The previous dimensional tear was created by a person infected by a poring, but I don’t see how there could be so many of them now.”
Agenchra looked at him calmly and said, “Honestly, porings were created by the monster administration team. I also have information on infected people. The mechanism behind how to make dimensional tears are now common knowledge, so they went ahead and just made the monster areas.”
“Then, they can make tears anywhere at anytime?”
Agenchra shook his head.
“There should be a hundred monster areas around the world right now. However, to make dimensional tears, they have to make cores, and making cores takes time. For the time being, there won’t be any additional tears.”
Junhyuk scowled.
“Even if they make monster areas, they won’t get more novices.”
“Correct. But these areas will become training grounds for novices to become experts, champions and heroes.”
“You call it a training ground, but I’ve been inside a tear. No one can come out of that safely.”
“Only the strong will survive.”
Junhyuk stared at Agenchra. He had forgotten. Management was willing to waste an entire dimension to make an experiment. They only cared about producing heroes. They didn’t care at all about human dignity or the value of human lives.
Junhyuk was furious.
“You people do whatever you want…” Agenchra did not answer, and Junhyuk stared him down. “The monster areas will become larger, is that right?”
“Correct.”
“Then, someone has to destroy them.”
“Are you going to do it yourself?”
He couldn’t answer that question. If a dimensional tear appeared in South Korea, he would destroy it, but tears were appearing in other countries.
He could step in right now, but he had to get stronger first. He didn’t care about whether he could become a hero, but he wanted to wait until the next Champions’ Battlefield, when he would be able to get new equipment, at least.
With new equipment, he could destroy the tears. As far as escaping their collapse, he would worry about that later.
He had heard enough about monster areas. Now, he had to come up with ways to deal with them.
“OK. About the A-ranked monsters in my training facility, are they weaker than normal?”
Agenchra’s eyes widened.
“How did you find out?”
“I didn’t notice when there was just one, but since you started sending two, I figured it out.”
Even heroes would have problems dealing with two A-ranked monsters. If champions were able to deal with them, then they had to be weaker than normal.
Agenchra said calmly, “These are restrained A-ranked monsters. When you are ready, you’ll encounter them at full power.”
At that moment, Junhyuk realized that he was still weak. His items had gotten better, but his basic stats were still weaker than a hero’s.
After thinking of something, Junhyuk asked, “Since monster areas have appeared, will monsters stop showing up outside of them?”
Agenchra shook his head and said, “No. Even more monsters will appear at different places.”
“Why?”
“More novices will activate powers, and we will weed them out.”
Closing his eyes, Junhyuk said, “I understand. You may go.”
Agenchra took off his fedora and bowed.
“I’ll see you next time.”
Junhyuk did not want to see Agenchra again. After Agenchra went away, time started moving again, and he felt Sarang staring at him.
“Big brother, did you call on Agenchra?”
“How did you know?”
“You called out his name twice.”
Junhyuk realized then that she hadn’t seen him.
“I must go see Elise.”
“About the dimensional tears?”
“Right.”
Sarang watched monsters pouring out the dimensional tears, wreaking havoc in the cities. Most monster areas were being built within metropolises.
“Should we stop that?”
Junhyuk tapped her head and said, “We need better equipment, or we’ll die. So, let’s think about that after the next battlefield.”
“Sure,” she said, nodding.
He caressed her head and asked, “What do you want to do now?”
“I want to rest here for a while. You go.”
“OK. Don’t forget to lock the door when you leave.”
Junhyuk left her there. As he drove to Elise, he called her. She wouldn’t be able to leave work with all the tears showing up, so he went to Guardians.
Elise had already told security that Junhyuk was coming, so he was able to go inside. He went to her lab and saw Zaira showing footage of the tears in many different screens. There were a lot of other women in the lab as well.
The monsters were pouring out of the tears and eating people. He looked at the feed and said, “Are there a hundred?”
Elise nodded.
“That’s right. A hundred. How did you know?”
Without answering, Junhyuk looked at Eunseo next to Elise.
“What are you going to do now?”
“We’ll divide the monster areas into districts. The army will be stationed outside of those districts.”
Junhyuk answered, “Only powered people can deal with the tears.”
Eunseo and Elise stared at him, but he shook his head nonchalantly.
“I can’t do it.”
“What if we make a way into them?”
“You can’t.”
The tears were expelling B-ranked monsters, so there would be A-ranked monsters waiting inside. It would be extremely difficult for anyone to make their way in.
“Then, what can we do?” Eunseo asked.
Junhyuk frowned.
“We should scope out the areas and make teams to attack them. Teams of powered people.”
“But even they can’t do much once they use their powers.”
Junhyuk said, “They need equipment.”
“Can they deal with these monsters?”
He knew the task wouldn’t be easy. So, he pulled out the stuff he had wanted to give Elise from his Spatial Bag: Wolf Warlords’ claws and hides.
Junhyuk had been waiting for Tirot to come up with use for those, but he couldn’t wait any longer.
Elise took them with beaming eyes.
“New monster parts!”
“Use these to make equipment for powered people.”
Junhyuk had thought about revolutionizing the world with them, but he couldn’t wait any more. The revolution had come to him first.
Elise nodded.
“I’ll use these to make weapons and armor, but I still need the bodies.”
“I have plenty of those, but they won’t be free.”
Eunseo interjected, “Of course. We’ll pay you handsomely.”
He looked at Eunseo and said, “They’ll weed out novices. Some novices may survive and become experts, but unless we make teams out of them, they won’t be of much use. Guardians must step in.”
Eunseo fixed her glasses and said, “I will do my best.”
Junhyuk looked at the monitors. A hundred monster areas. They were mountains that humanity had to climb.
