Chapter 157 – Recruitment of Roused (2)
“I would like to take a break.”
“Whew. Let’s regroup.”
At Haesol’s signal, Baek-jungdoh let out a long sigh as he wiped away the sweat on his forehead.
After he had developed an ability to become a Roused, he had thought he had walked the hard road as he went around attempting the fairly difficult Dungeons. However, it felt as if he had deluded himself up until now.
He had hunted on Planet Jaku for the past couple days, and he was pushed to his limit daily. Maybe this was why he saw his abilities actually progress compared to before.
The constant suspense gave him a lot of stress, but the change it caused was not bad.
“How are you doing?”
“Oh. Brother Kahng. When did you get here?”
When Kahng-woojin suddenly appeared, Baek-jungdo greeted him warmly.
“I arrived a little while ago. Anyways, how are you doing?”
“This has been a good stimulus for me.”
“If you want, we can walk the same road.”
At Woojin’s words, Baek-jungdo shook his head from side to side. He was an outsider, and he shouldn’t continue to impose himself upon Woojin’s hospitality.
“No. I’ve already gained a lot from this expedition. Moreover, I have a lot of work to do after I return to the guild.”
“Do as you like then.”
Woojin didn’t go out of his way to keep him.
If he was short on Roused, he could just hire more.
This is what he did with Sunggoo, Haesol and Blanka.
Bake-jungdo couldn’t hide the disappointment in his eyes. However, he couldn’t abandon the KH guild to work under Woojin, so he didn’t say anything more on the subject.
“Where’s Jaemin?”
Haesol had been organizing the battlefield. She approached and answered Woojin’s question.
“He went to a fortress up ahead.”
He looked towards where Haesol was pointing. He saw a castle perched on top of a small mountain.
“By himself?”
“Yes.”
“Hmmm.”
Woojin stroked his chin.
Jaemin had gone through the Ritual of Blood using the Vampire lord’s heart. However, he had never expected him to be able to already attack a Dimensional lord’s colony city by himself.
“He went there to scout, so you don’t have to worry about him.”
“It doesn’t look like he was scouting.”
“What?”
“He’s coming back after a fight.”
When Woojin started to rub his chin, Haesol turned her gaze away. She could see a cloud of bats in the distance. However, there was a group of monsters chasing after the bats.
“It seems he’s on the run.”
“Nope.”
“What?”
“Never mind. You can return to what you were doing.”
“Yes.”
Woojin headed towards the bats. The cloud of bats coalesced in front of him to form Do-jaemin. He looked calmer than the past, and there was a little bit more presence to him. Woojin met Jaemin’s eyes.
A queer smile formed on Woojin’s face.
“What is that?”
“I thought there would be a limit on what I could do by myself.”
“Hmmm.”
Goo-uh-uh-uh.
The underlings were like zombies with red eyes. They looked to be a bit dangerous, and at a conservative estimate, there were 300 of them.
“Kyahhhk.”
The bats next to Jaemin coalesced, and Cabal revealed his teeth towards Woojin. It was as if he was trying to show his own loyalty towards his master in his own way.
Shwahhhhhhk!
Black smoke coalesced, and a large hammer dropped on top of its head.
Kwah-jeeek!
[A puny mosquito dares to be rude to the king!]
Even though Ramson’s hammer had bludgeoned his head, Cabal was still alive.
“Can you handle them?”
Jaemin didn’t know the reason behind the question, so he stared blankly at Woojin.
“It looks as if you are trying to copy me. I don’t think you are doing a good job.”
Woojin didn’t deal with any Undeads that exceeded his Control. Once the Undead broke free from his Control, the Undead were basically reduced to being monsters.
The underlings created by Jaemin was similar in nature.
Undeads had a hatred for the living, and it looked as if the Jaemin’s underlings were much worse than the Undead.
It seemed they had an endless thirst for blood.
As their lord, how much control did he have over them?
“I…I can do it.”
“Really?”
“······.”
“Then tell me with more confidence.”
“I…I have no idea.”
Woojin fired the souls he had in storage. It was like tracking missiles, which followed the enemies until the target was hit. The Spirit Spears flew in towards the head of the underlings.
Shoo-shoo-shoo-shoohk!
Puh-puhk!
The sound of watermelons exploding was heard as the underlings fell over with their heads missing.
Do-jaemin felt dispirited when he saw his vampire army be dispatched so easily.
Woojin put his arm around Jaemin’s shoulders.
“Jaemin.”
“Yes, hyung.”
“Quantity isn’t important. First, try to get good at controlling one.”
“······.”
If one didn’t have complete control over one’s Familiars, it was better to not have them. Cabal had used a large amount of energy to quickly regenerate his head. Cabal looked at Woojin with fear in his eyes.
“This kind of bastard won’t do you any good.”
He was barely hit once yet he was showing so much fear.
A Familiar should be willing to die to protect one’s master. It was better to not have one like him, who had put his tail between his leg from fear.
Hwah-roo-roohk!
“Ggooh-uh-uhk!”
The Spirit Spear shot out by Woojin pierced through Cabal. Cabal immediately exploded as he burned up.
“······.”
The subordinates he had made were killed in less that 1 minute. Woojin’s voice pushed into Jaemin’s ears.
“No matter how many you have as support it is all useless if you are weak.”
He was right. The power of a lord could be stolen by a member of a vampire clan that he had shared his blood with. His position could be stolen.
“Even if you build up your troops, you should be slow and careful in who you choose. Look at what I did.”
“Hyung has a lot of troops.”
Woojin smirked.
“The Skeletons and Zombies are disposable troops. Look at my Familiars.”
He had accumulated them over a 20 years period . If one thought about the amount of time Woojin had lived, 54 Death Knights was a small number.
“I think I get what you are trying to say.”
“All right.”
Woojin mussed up Jaemin’s hair.
“Also, you should relax your eyes a little bit.”
“···yes.”
Woojin smirked as he patted Jaemin’s back, then he turned to look at the party.
“In 6 days earth time or 24 days here, there will be a general guild assembly. I want you guys to do your best to destroy all the Dungeons and colonies on this planet by then.”
It was finally D-Day.
Melody’s eyes twinkled as she asked her question.
“Where’s your next destination?”
“You already know, so why ask?”
There were traces of tears in Melody’s eyes. The smile on Woojin’s lips deepened.
“I’m going to Alphen.”
She was finally going back.
She had voluntarily thrown herself into earth with her homeland in mind. She’ll be returning to her bleak planet with a helper. She was deeply moved.
The most unbelievable part of all of this was the fact that the helper was the Immortal.
**
While Jaemin and the other party members started to clear Dungeons and colonies one by one, Sunggoo was destroying the Dimensional lords, since he wanted to live. When Jaemin’s party cleared one, Sunggoo cleared three.
During all of this, Woojin was like a person gathering grains. He put pressure on the Dimensional lords.
The Dungeons were were in the form of pillars. There were much less Dungeons on this planet compared to earth. However, the Dimensional lords had made a lot of colonies with artificial gates.
There were clear pros and cons to making a colony. The fact that one could construct a Dimensional domain on a planet was a pro and a con.
In a Dungeon, there was a cap of how many challengers there can be. At most, only ten people could enter. However, one couldn’t limit the number of challengers attacking a colony. One had to have a lot of troops and facilities.
However, a colony solved one of the most important problem.
Only the Roused could enter a Dungeon. However, those with almost no abilities could enter the colony.
This was the reason why Woojin was trying to make a colony on earth.
He had snatched around 20 Dimensional Fragments, so it wouldn’t be much of a loss if he used one of them to form a colony.
Woojin had faithfully kept up with his Dimensional battles, and Jaemin had won every single one of them. After twelve days or 3 days in earth time, Woojin exited the Seoul Station’s 1st Exit.
“Aht! My king.”
An employee had been put on standby. At Woojin’s appearance, the flustered employee called Woo-soonghoon.
“Yes, sir. He’s just arrived. Yes, sir.”
Woo-soonghoon was back being the chief secretary once again. However, in the past, he had been the chief secretary of a president. Now he was the chief secretary of a king. There was a big difference between these posts, and his current job might be more important than being a minister of a department.
“You didn’t have to call him. I’ll be heading there immediately.”
“Yes. I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry about?”
“······.”
Woojin made fun of the overly cautious employee several times before he moved on. Twelve security guards in suits moved with Woojin.
“Why are there so many people here?”
“It is the interview day.”
“Ah.”
The people packing the street was all here to apply to Alandal?
Woojin concentrated as he looked at the crowd. Most of them were between level 11 and 30. They were Rank F and E Roused.
“Isn’t that Kahng-woojin”
“I think it is. He looks exactly like the pictures.”
Their murmurs reached Wooijn’s ears.
It was obvious that Woojin was someone of importance. He was surrounded by twelve security guards.
When Woojin reached the front gate of Alandal, Prime Minister Jung-minchan, Woo-soonghoon and the employees were gathered there to greet Woojin.
“Today is the interview day?”
“Yes, president. We haven’t let them in yet.”
People were gathered in front of Alandal’s front gate. It was as if they were examinees waiting to enter the testing ground.
Also, it wasn’t as if there were only Koreans present here.
There were plenty people from around the world, who wanted to join Alandal.
“I’m busy. Let’s pick them right now.”
“What? We haven’t even separated them into Ranks.”
It was still early in the morning. If he knew Woojin would arrive so early, he would have sent out an early notice….
“It’s all right. Ranks aren’t important.”
Woojin climbed the front wall.
“Quiet!”
His voice hadn’t been loud, but everyone’s attention was drawn towards Woojin. He had put magical energy into his voice, and even the people in the back could hear him clearly.
“The people I choose will become citizens and Roused of Alandal. I’ll start the selection.”
This wasn’t an interview process. It was a selection process. He was going to pick those with high potential for growth.
Woojin used a combination of basic skills like Observation, Measurement and Analysis to sort out the people.
“You, you and you. Pass.”
“Me?”
“Uh uh?”
The process had started very abruptly. The people that were chosen were confused, but they passed through the front gate with delight. The support given to the Roused of Alandal was the best in the world.
They would be trained by Kahng-woojin, the best Roused of earth. Moreover, each chosen Roused would be given a support staff much larger than what other guilds gave.
After making the selections, Woojin drew a line.
“All right. Everyone else beyond this point can go home. The people behind the line should step forward now.”
The 500 people addressed by Woojin started to talk amongst themselves. One of the braver soul spoke up.
“H…how can you do this to us?”
“That right. How can you judge a person from a single glance?”
Woojin smirked.
“If you have a problem, you should become a king.”
“······.”
What an unreasonable…
“Don’t you have to give us a fair opportunity?”
“That’s right. I have confidence I’ll do well if chosen. Please let us take a test.”
Being noticed by Kahng-woojin was the test. Even if he chose people with high potential, there might be people he might not get along with, and some might not be able to adjust to Woojin.
Everyone good at swordplay didn’t correlate to everyone becoming a great killer. Everyone had different potential and propensity.
The 1st step was to sort them out through potential….
“All right. I’ll give you all a chance.”
These people wouldn’t understand him even if he explained it. It would be better to show them.
Shoo-shoo-shoohk!
He summoned the Death Knight Al Assad in front of the gate. Al Assad had just barely reached the AA Rank or the 7th Circle when he was alive. When he was reborn as a Death Knight, he was able to gain the abilities of an S Rank or an 8th Circle.
“I don’t have time to waste. If you last 30 seconds, you pass. However, the price of failure is your life. Anyone want to take up the challenge?”
“······.”
The cat got everyone’s tongue.
A challenge with one’s life on the line······ It was basically a choice of dying or lasting for 30 seconds to get into Alandal.
Several people shook their head from side to side, and they left without any regret in their heart. However, most of the people just stood there watching how the situation would develop. They were waiting for Kahng-woojin to give them some other options.
“I’ll attempt it.”
At that moment, a Roused standing in the backline stepped forward pompously.
Woojin’s eyebrows twitched when he observed him.
“Ho-oh. It’s a 7th Circle.”
He never expected an AA Rank Roused to show up.
This was the first time Woojin had seen him, but this wasn’t the case with everyone else.
“It’s Kim-kahngchul!”
“That’s right. It’s Kim-kahngchul.”
He was the number 1 ranked Roused in Korea before Kahng-woojin had appeared.
It was the Free Roused, who wasn’t affiliated with any guild. Kim-kahngchul had appeared.
