Record of a Thousand Lives - Chapter 54

Chapter 54
Jiang Ren-Wei was not a fool; he was a rather cautious type. Although he was filled with intense longing for his missing right arm, he did not plan to risk clan members’ safety only to see them get annihilated under a foolish man. That made him observe Kang Yoon-Soo all the more closely.

He even planned to forcefully take back Kang Yoon-Soo’s commanding rights if he felt even for a second that Kang Yoon-Soo was not qualified, even though he was currently doing a legendary quest. However, all of his worries were for naught.

Kang Yoon-Soo stood atop a hill and commanded the group, “Southeast, approximately 320 meters. Left of the thick bush. Seventeen Ahinkuls. 1st group, go subjugate them.”

The 1st group was composed of Mercenaries and Swordsmen. They charged toward the southeast, and just as Kang Yoon-Soo had said, there was a group of Ahinkuls hiding behind the bush. The Ahinkuls swiped their claws as they tried to resist, but they could not stand against the humans’ sudden ambush.

Kang Yoon-Soo continued to give out commands. “Northwest, approximately 340 meters. Across the waterfall. There are thirty-two sleeping Ahinkuls. They have their leader with them, so the 3rd group and the 6th group will coordinate a joint attack.”

Kang Yoon-Soo’s tactics were quite unique. The basic strategy for monster hunting was to create one huge group and go around searching for monsters, but he went against that and divided the Martial Blood Clan into groups instead; interestingly, the groups were a mishmash of Mercenaries and Swordsmen, with both high levels and low levels.

He continued to command the army from atop the hill. An army of merely 200 being divided up to such an extent would usually become exhausted looking for monsters before ending up as prey and being annihilated. However, his tactics were very effective and efficient, as if to make Jiang Ren-Wei’s worries look ridiculous. Whenever Kang Yoon-Soo gave out a command and pointed to one location, the Martial Blood Clan would find monsters there.

The hill was quite tall; it was quite a bit too far for anyone to actually see anything happening on the ground. Even if one had excellent vision, it was impossible for anyone to see all of the monsters from that high up—unless they had memorized the monsters’ locations.

Additionally, Kang Yoon-Soo’s commands did not end at just giving out orders to kill the monsters. He instructed them, “Stab the nostrils of the sleeping Ahinkul Leader behind the waterfall. It’s much easier than attacking its thick hide. Thrust your spear deep into its nostrils and penetrate its brain.”

Jiang Ren-Wei was astounded and amazed. He thought, ‘He really is amazing.’ He had initially accepted the man’s offer because of the temptation of receiving a right arm. However, he now started to fully trust Kang Yoon-Soo, thinking the man’s commanding ability was beyond amazing.

Jiang Ren-Wei gulped and thought, ‘He must be extremely high-leveled. A low-level person like me can never measure up to him.’ He was Level 227, and he was considered to be in the upper-mid tier among Travelers when it came to their levels. However, he was certain that he was nothing compared to that man.

Kang Yoon-Soo’s appearance was so shabby and simple that anyone would doubt he was a high-leveled Traveler, but Jiang Ren-Wei was certain his outer appearance did not do justice to his level. In fact, there were some high-leveled people who chose to dress simply rather than going around in heavy plate armor. That was how confident those high levels were when it came to their combat ability, as they preferred to move lightly and avoid every attack rather than being weighed down by the heavy armor.

Kang Yoon-Soo, on the other hand, thought, ‘This is irritating.’

He had initially planned to immediately start the Winterkill raid with the help of the White Lion Clan that was headquartered in Deferon. The White Lion Clan was the top-ranked clan among Travelers.

A place like the Winterkill Ruin would have been an insignificant raid if he received the assistance of a clan like the White Lion Clan, which was filled with high-leveled people. In fact, he was confident that they would be able to reach the heart of the ruin without any difficulty if he just brought Han Se-Hyun, who was the leader of the White Lion Clan, along.

However, it would be difficult to grow exponentially if he depended on high-leveled people. That was why he decided to bear the risk and cooperate with the Martial Blood Clan, and why he had chosen to stay behind and command instead of fighting himself.

Kang Yoon-Soo had to hide his level from Jiang Ren-Wei, at least until they entered the ruin, because there was no way anyone would listen to someone lower-leveled than them no matter how superb their commanding skills were. Jiang Ren-Wei would instantly notice the fact that he was lower-leveled than the Martial Blood Clan if he were to join the battles immediately. However, his smokescreen plan was highly effective. Jiang Ren-Wei, who was the highly cautious type, could never have imagined that he was a measly Level 131, and that he was lower leveled than any of the Martial Blood Clan’s members.

The corpses of the Ahinkuls piled up like a mountain under the hill. It would have normally taken them around four days to hunt so many, but it only took them half a day this time.

Durman, who had been busily swinging his sword, licked his lips and said, “The fact that he said he was currently doing a legendary quest was already amazing, but this is beyond amazing. Not only did the monsters pop up whenever he gave us the location, he even told us the monsters’ weaknesses! I’ve never hunted so easily in my life before.”

“You’re right! This is the first time I’ve ever felt regret about not being able to hunt more.”

“My experience points rose faster than usual!”

The clan members of the Martial Blood Clan did not spare any praise for Kang Yoon-Soo.

Jiang Ren-Wei went down from the hill and scratched his cheek, saying jokingly, “Phew, it seems as if I’ll be replaced as the clan leader.”

“Hahaha! Boss! There’s no way we’d leave you and jump ship, y’know! You’re still our boss, after all!” Durman exclaimed, cackling and wrapping his arm around Jiang Ren-Wei’s neck.

Kang Yoon-Soo went down from the hill as well. A ball of fire fluttered and landed beside him, then Sally appeared beside him with her cheeks puffed up. The beautiful young girl seemed to be upset about something.

“Papa, Sally is angry,” Sally said.

“Why?” Kang Yoon-Soo replied tonelessly.

Sally had taken on the role of messenger in the hunt just then. She had gone back and forth between Kang Yoon-Soo and the groups of clan members relaying his instructions, because spirits had the ability to freely fly around as long as they did not go too far.

Sally did not hold back and exclaimed, “Hmph! Don’t act dumb! You told me you would give me a sibling way back, waaaay back, but I don’t see any sibling! Papa is a liar!” She seemed upset by the fact that Kang Yoon-Soo had not kept his promise to make a sibling for her.

“I’ll make you one after we conquer the ruin,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

However, Sally was all teary-eyed, pulling on the hems of Kang Yoon-Soo’s pants and throwing a tantrum. “Liar! Liar! Papa is always like this! You don’t play with Sally! You think I’m just a bother! I hate you, papa! Waaaah!”

“Oh my, what troubles you have to go through, all because you have such a dense, emotionless father,” Henrick said as he retracted his mana threads, laughing awkwardly as he walked toward them.

Shaneth also approached them with her Death Scythe covered in blood. The last to join them was Iris; it seemed she had feasted on monster hearts, as her mouth was covered in blood. They had also joined in the hunt for Ahinkuls, just like the clan members of the Martial Blood Clan.

Iris smiled with her bloody lips, saying with eyes wide, “Your crying must mean you are upset. Do you think you would feel better if you ate some hearts?”

“Waaaah! Mama!” Sally cried loudly as she ran toward Shaneth.

Shaneth smiled as she hugged Sally to calm her down, saying, “There, there. It’s alright.”

“Waaaah!” Sally wailed.

Kang Yoon-Soo shifted his gaze away after looking at Sally and Shaneth. The clan members had gathered all of the Ahinkul corpses in one place; a huge amount of Ahinkuls had been hunted by the 200-strong party.

‘The first step is to do a large-scale hunt,” Kang Yoon-Soo thought as he stretched out his right hand toward the pile of corpses and said, “Mass Raise Dead.”

[You are trying to raise too many corpses at once.]

[The types of undead summoned will be uneven.]

A group of bestial-looking Ahinkuls slowly rose up, havingturned into undead. Some of them turned into skeletons, and some of them turned into zombies with dark blue eyes. The vicious and aggressive Ahinkul Leaders rose up and turned a dark black, having gained the attribute to spread diseases around them. Although they were undead that could not make quick decisions, they were still a much stronger force than the mercenaries they would have hired otherwise.

[612 Undead Ahinkuls have been sent to the summon dimension.]

[Summons currently stored in the dimension: 612 Undead Ahinkuls, 52 Zombie Black Bears, White.]

[Remaining space for additional summons: 34]

Jiang Ren-Wei approached Kang Yoon-Soo after he sent the undead to the summon dimension. He asked, “Now that we’ve supplemented our lacking manpower with the undead, I guess it’s time to procure the items we’ll need. I’m guessing we have to procure a significant amount of potions. Are you sure you can prepare that many potions alone?”

“Yeah,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied curtly.

Jiang Ren-Wei acknowledged Kang Yoon-Soo’s capabilities, and he was thus willing to overlook that much. He continued, “Alright, we’ll head to Deferon first and complete the quest we were doing just now. When should we set our meeting date?”

“Tomorrow noon, here,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied curtly once again.

“Alright. I’ll see you here, then,” Jiang Ren-Wei replied. Afterward, the Martial Blood Clan went on their way toward the capital.

Kang Yoon-Soo looked around and found Shaneth hugging Sally. He stared at the two, seemingly deep in thought, before going to Sally and taking her hand.

The spirit who had just bawled her eyes out sniffled and asked, “Sniff! What do you want?”

“I’ll play with you,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“Wow! Really?” Sally asked, excited once again.

Henrick looked up at the sky and said while staring upward, “That’s strange… The sun didn’t rise from the west today.”

***

There was no special reason why Kang Yoon-Soo had told Sally he would play with her. It was a given that he should, since this life was going to be the last time he could.

The streets of Deferon were bustling with activity. The streets were littered with numerous vendors selling all sorts of odd and mysterious things; it was as if there were as many vendors as stars in the night sky. Kang Yoon-Soo bought a lollipop made out of sweetened barley from a street vendor and gave it to Sally.

“Wow! It’s so sweet!” Sally exclaimed excitedly as she sucked on the candy. Her bright flames would have made it obvious that she was a spirit, but they were covered up by a robe.

Henrick could not hide his surprise as he looked at Kang Yoon-Soo and asked, “Hey… did you eat something wrong? Why are you acting strange all of a sudden? Did you perhaps open your eyes to fatherly love or something?”

“Why do you care?” Kang Yoon-Soo replied coldly.

Shaneth could not hide her surprise as well, saying, “I think you’ve changed quite a lot in these past few days.”

Those words were quite strange to Kang Yoon-Soo. He tried to think of a reply, but he failed, and chose to stay silent instead.

However, Shaneth smiled and said, “It makes me happy.”

Kang Yoon-Soo had the sudden urge to look elsewhere the moment he saw Shaneth’s warm, sparkling eyes. The one he decided to look at was Iris. He had wanted to conquer the Winterkill Ruin not only because of the legendary quest, but also because he wanted to meet the alchemist who had made Iris. He felt the need to find out more about the White Shadow that resided in Iris.

Perhaps Iris caught him looking at her, as she looked back at him intently and licked her lips before saying, “I want to eat that too.”

“…”

Kang Yoon-Soo ended up buying four sweetened barley lollipops and shared them with everyone in his party.

They soon reached a large wooden building not long after. The building’s signboard read ‘Sunset Glass’ and had a drawing of a glass bottle with purple liquid inside it. It was a merchant company that manufactured and dealt with all sorts of potions, as well as flammable liquids and highly explosive liquids. They were one of the merchant companies with a long history in the capital, although there were some bad rumors about them being involved with the back-alley thugs.

Kang Yoon-Soo stopped, turned around, and said, “Listen to me, all of you.” He then explained his plans to the others.

Henrick bit his lips and asked, “Damn it, how do you plan to survive after doing something like that?” He looked troubled for a moment before taking out a bottle of colored dye from his pocket and giving it to Kang Yoon-Soo, asking, “You are confident, right?” Kang Yoon-Soo nodded and took the dye.

Shaneth looked quite worried and said, “That’s too dangerous; it won’t end with just you getting jailed if things don’t go well.”

“We’ll never be caught if you just follow my instructions,” Kang Yoon-Soo said confidently.

Sally asked with innocent, sparkling eyes, “Can I play as much as I want?”

“As much as you want,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“Yaaay!” Sally exclaimed.

Shaneth, Henrick, Sally, and Iris went in through the back door. Meanwhile, Kang Yoon-Soo approached one remote corner of the alley and took out the Body Crafting Kit. ‘Black Tiger Clan… I was planning on destroying you early on, but my plans have changed.’

He used Henrick’s colored dye to draw a tattoo on the back of his hand. His light strokes quickly formed into a tattoo of a black tiger. ‘I’ll suck your bones dry down to the marrow in this life.’

Kang Yoon-Soo looked toward a merchant company’s building as the sun began setting. He would need at least a month to create enough potions to be used by more than 1,000 people, including the undead, even with his potion-making skills.

He did not plan to waste his time like that; neither did he have the funds to procure such a massive amount of potions. However, if this was the last time, he needed to take the dangerous road even if it meant risking it all to climb to the top.

He went into the merchant company’s building. The interior was crowded with alchemists, merchants, and adventurers, all trading potions. He went up to the receptionist and told himself, ‘Be brazen, just like how you tricked Jiang Ren-Wei about your level. Just as you hid your physical weakness with mental fortitude, it’s time to deceive another to reap the rewards.’

“How may I help you?” the skinny female receptionist asked.

Kang Yoon-Soo motioned for the woman to come closer. Right as her face drew close enough, however, he suddenly pulled her hair down.

“Kyaaah!” The woman screamed in surprise.

Kang Yoon-Soo whispered in her ear with an icy voice, “A bomb has been set up in this building.”

It was now time to pull off the scam.