Arena-Chapter 85 Exploration (Part 1)

‘That is definitely strange.’

You can’t get that many bodies every day. At the very least, it would be extremely difficult to do so in secret.

Odin then said.

“It probably isn’t a method of acquiring large amounts of corpses daily. In that case, news would have spread, and since black magic is banned, and every nation would take action against that.”

“Then?”

“Up to now, have you have fighting by dropping the climbing zombies?”

“Correct. No need to waste energy.”

“In that case, I can only make one logical conclusion.”

Said Odin.

“Reusing the dropped zombies over and over.”

“Reusing?” f𝒓𝑒e𝙬𝒆𝚋𝘯૦𝘷𝐞𝑙.c𝑜𝐦

Derrick and the elves, their expressions changed.

“The bottom of this cliff is so far down we cannot see it, when zombies are dropped from this height, wouldn’t they break into pieces at the bottom? Would broken pieces like that still be reusable?”

I asked.

Odin shrugged his shoulders.

“I am not sure. There is no way to know without checking it out. Regardless, getting that many corpses isn’t easy. Even if a whole country were to be moved, no one could do it secretly.”

“Then should we check…”

Mumbled Derrick as he looked below the cliff.

“If you are going to explore it, I would like to join you for that.”

Suggested Odin but Derrick shook his head.

“From now it is our business. There is no need to further trouble yourself.”

“Is that so. However, we are now allied so if you ever need aid, do not hesitate to ask.”

“I will do so.”

After returning to the village, Odin said his goodbyes.

“I must return now.”

“Going back already? Please stay a day before leaving.”

“I regret that I can’t but I cannot be away from my seat anymore. Even so, we are in the middle of war and I have to get back as fast as possible.”

Odin smiled and shook my hand.

“Anyway, thanks to you I had an exciting time. If it weren’t for you, Mr. Hyun-ho Kim, allying with the elves and seeing a superior level spirit summons, all of it would have been impossible.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Like that, Odin left with the two he came with.

I too was thankful towards Odin because he was able to broaden my knowledge through a special experience.

The Aura Master’s Aura Sword.

The true power and use of superior spirit summons.

They are incredible levels that one day I must catch up to.

“Weapon, Neilson H2.”

Pat!

Two guns appeared in either hand.

I stared sincerely at my guns.

How can I use this with spirit summons?

The only useful method I can think of right now is to use Sylph and increase accuracy.

If Sylph who is a wind spirit can aid the aiming, no matter the distance I will have a 100% accuracy rate.

But even then, there is no change to the power. The gun is just a gun.

‘The magnum bullet is a pretty strong bullet, but looking at it now it seems so meek

Seeing Odin and Derrick’s efforts today, guns had become obsolete.

I think maybe it was a bad idea to pick guns as my weapons.

‘There is definitely a way.’

I hypothesized ways that Sylph and Kasa can be used for shooting.

‘Should I use Sylph to make the bullet fly faster?’

But that would use too much effort so it seems ineffective.

Changing the path of the going bullet already uses a lot of summons time as I found out through trial.

‘I have to use the least amount to increase the power the most.’

I think of the fundamentals of a gun.

Pulling the trigger and making the gunpowder ignite and explode, the gunpowder catches on fire and makes gas.

This gas quickly fills the space and with that pressure, the bullet is shot.

That gas pressure can also be used to pull back a breechblock and bolt carrier. The fundamentals of my semi-automatic Neilson H2 is like that.

Hold on?

The explosion and the gas pressure, couldn’t Kasa control that?

“Kasa.”

-Hek hek hek!

Kasa hadn’t been summoned in a while and wagged their tail back and forth. *

(TN: Author didn’t specify a gender so Kasa is an “it” for now.)

“Listen carefully.”

I explained in general terms the principles of my gun and then gave the order.

“Do you think you can use your power to strengthen the gunpowder’s explosion?”

-Mung! (Bark!)

Kasa nodded his head.

“And you can control the gas pressure that comes from the gunpowder explosion?”

This time too, Kasa kept nodding his head.

“Then combust the gunpowder in the chamber faster and the gas pressure, aside from the power needed for the breechblock and bolt carrier, focus the rest all on shooting the bullet. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Basically, not losing even a bit of gas pressure and focusing it on ejecting the bullet.

Often as a culprit behind a broken gun is because the gun can’t take the gas pressure that occurs maybe is what I’m thinking.*

That is because the gas pressure isn’t entirely concentrated on the bullet but lost elsewhere.

Thus, by using Kasa, I can make the bullet more powerful and concurrently decrease durability loss in the guns.

‘Let’s try this.’

“Sylph.”

-Meow?

Sylph was summoned. Kasa and Sylph, once again, started fighting on to of my head fight for a spot.

“Get rid of all sound.”

-Meow!

Sylph nodded her head.

I aimed my gun towards the sky.

“Kasa, got it?”

-Mung, mung!

Kasa fiercely nodded his head.

I pulled the trigger.

Poo shook!

Thanks to Sylph’s noise barrier, the gunshot doesn’t ring out and instead all that could be heard was the clean sound of the air being strongly split.

‘It’s a success.’

The recoil from the gun was much stronger than usual.

With this amount of recoil, I think the power is about twice as strong.

‘I can’t be satisfied with this much.’

This time, I considered how I will use Sylph too.

After thinking for a while, I got a hint from having Sylph also make our fires.

“Sylph, the instant the gunpowder explodes, can you add more oxygen and increase the explosive power?”

-Meow.

Sylph nodded her head.

‘Good!’

A shooting method using both spirits.

Even so, it only uses a small amount of effort.

“Both of you, let’s do that, ready?”

-Mung!

-Meow.

The two spirits answered competitively.

I shot once more into the air.

A recoil much stronger than the one just before.

The sound of a bullet sharply cutting the air emanated out!

It’s a success this time too.

‘I want to use this somewhere!’

I can’t wait for tomorrow to come.

***

The next day, out of the blue, Derrick said.

“I am exploring the bottom of the cliff.”

Deciding the very next day, even elf men are different from their female counterparts.

“No matter what, the goal is exploration, I will pick just 5 for the group.”

“Amongst those, one is definitely you, I will go too.”

“I as well.”

“I will go too.”

The older elves all had a say.

‘Actually, I want to go too.’

Everyone’s skills were distinguished, so it doesn’t seem like there’s room for me to squish in anywhere.

Up until now, I was confident in thinking that amongst them, my skills were decent, but I now realize it was a complete delusion.

Everyone has lived for a long time and probably has achieved the best intermediate spirits or higher, and my spirits are just entry level 6.

I decided to quietly step away.

But then, Derrick asked me.

“Kim, will you go?”

“Huh? Would it be okay for me to?”

“It is not fighting, but exploring. It will be dangerous I’m sure but I am with you so there is not need to worry.”

“There are others here, is there a reason I should especially be included?”

“I think we also need the point of view of a human, not just the perspective of an elf. Not only that, Kim, but you are wise and that will no doubt be of use in the exploration.” f𝒓𝑒e𝙬𝒆𝚋𝘯૦𝘷𝐞𝑙.c𝑜𝐦

Whoa, he called me wise. I want mom and noona to hear this.

“In that case, I would like to join. I will try my best not to be a hindrance.”

“You do not have to worry about that. Your skills have improved drastically.”

Ah, I got a compliment from Derrick-nim!

I felt like my heart was aflutter. After yesterday, I looked up to Derrick even more.

Including Derrick and I, a 5 person group was decided.

“Cob, could you summon Sylph please.”

“Okay.”

A veteran elf warrior named Cob, about the same age as Derrick, summoned Sylph.

His Sylph is round life form with large wings.

It is a round ball about the size of my face but its wings were big enough to envelop me and then much more.

A peculiar Sylph.

Looking at its size and presence, I think perhaps it is an intermediate spirit.

It definitely looks more incredible than my Sylph, but not as much as Derrick’s fire giant. Then intermediate it is.

“Let’s go!”

Derrick jumped down first.

All of us jump down one by one in a line. If someone saw, it would probably look like a group suicide.

To get less resistance from the wind, I gathered my arms and folded my body small as best I can.

We built momentum and the kept falling faster and faster.

‘This is thrilling!’

The pressure from the air around my entire body is vividly waking my senses. No roller coaster could give this kind of ecstasy.

But then, in the middle of this group fall, Derrick must have discovered something because he flicked his fingers.

Instantly, Cob’s Sylph flapped its wings wide.

The wall of wind spread out instantly and caught our bodies.

We halted in midair.

“That.”

Derrick pointed to something.

What that was was a giant spider web. Not only was it extreme in size but the thickness was thick like wool.

“A spider web?”

I mumbled.

Derrick spoke.

“It is Arachne’s web.”

“Oh, that…!”

I looked at the glove I have on my hand. This Arachne glove I was gifted from Odin is made of that material.

“There must be Arachne here as well.”

“Was it originally an Arachne’s habitat that got swept up by the undead?”

“Probably so. Beneath the clifftop was originally the Arachnes’ territory is what I have heard. Although we can’t be sure because it’s not in our territory and we haven’t been before.”

“I have heard that from my father too. It was such a long time ago that I had forgotten.”

The four elves exchanged dialogue.

Then I said.

“Can I go close and inspect it?”

“Sure.”

Cob had Sylph move me closer to the web.

I extended my hand to the cliff wall and strongly grabbed a rock edge that was jutting out.

Uh du duk!

It was a rock with a crack already in it and with my strength, part of it crumbled.

I took the broken rock piece and threw it at the web.

Chul lung!

Surprisingly, the rock bounced right off of the web.

“What?”

“What is that?”

The elves were surprised.

A normal web should have caused the rock to stick to it.

The rock piece should have been stuck in the web or the web wouldn’t be able to take the weight and would have ripped.

But this web didn’t do that.

Someone had changed its properties and had gotten rid of the viscosity of the web.

“Looks like work of the black magician.”

“That is?”

“Yes, is someone hadn’t taken an action to the web, there is no way that the viscosity would have disappeared.”

“That is true.”

Derrick agreed with what I said.

“And this verifies it, but you said below is the Arachne territory?”

“Yes.”

“But we’ve never seen it ourselves.”

Replied the elves.

From that, I was able to make my conclusion.

“I think that the Arachne that used to live here have gone over to the black magician’s side.”