Chapter 130: Counter |
Master Smith Under Ministry of National Defense
130 – Counter
With Myung-jun’s ‘threat’ marking the end, the tripartite meeting between the governments of the Republic of Korea, China, and the Liberal Clan concluded with both governments returning empty-handed and filled with nothing but anger.
However, unlike the empty-handed governments, the Liberal Clan was able to deliver a powerful message to the world through this meeting.
The word ‘Untouchable’ was plastered across headlines of global media day after day.
「Touch and you’ll get burned. The Liberal Clan. A bold provocation against governments worldwide. 」
「The power of the Liberal Clan. Truly untouchable? 」
「The growing strength of Awakener forces. How can they be stopped? 」
「The Liberal Clan’s technology that neutralized China’s air defense. A major threat to global security? 」
“Of course, there might be a chance of winning if they’re prepared for total war. But the damage expected in the process would be too great. Even Liberty City, the stronghold of the Liberal Clan, is using land borrowed from Japan. Even if they win, the territory would have to be returned to Japan, and the Liberal Clan’s only asset, its overwhelming technology, would be devastated during the war.”
“The Liberal Clan’s threat to eliminate the leadership first if war breaks out is very effective. After all, recent wars have been fought with leaders hiding behind and giving orders, while soldiers who replace them sacrifice their lives on the front lines. Leaders could easily choose war because their own lives were not at risk. But if there’s a risk of losing their own lives the moment war breaks out, it’s hard to choose war so recklessly.”
“After the meeting between the Liberal Clan and representatives from Korea and China, the price tag on high-ranking Awakener has literally skyrocketed. High-ranking Awakener who used to be mainly deployed for gate conquests are now being recruited as bodyguards for high-ranking government officials. This is also a significant change.”
While governments and media around the world were in turmoil, Myung-jun, the very person at the center of the situation, was calmly embarking on gate conquests with Japanese rankers.
He was making up for the delay caused by the fight with Hee-cheol.
And Deki, who had recently joined the Liberal Clan, was literally ‘riding the bus’ by following Myung-jun around.
“Haahaaaaaaat!!!”
With her cute shout, a stream of fire that was anything but cute shot out, causing several Monsters approaching her to flinch and back away.
However, most of the Monsters continued to charge at her despite being hit by her flames.
The gate that she and Myung-jun were conquering was Grade 8.
Moreover, since they had triggered an overrun, each of the emerging Monsters was too much for her abilities to handle.
Eventually, Deki had to place her hand on the ground and summon a wall of stone to stop the Monsters that were immune to her flames.
– Kwaaaaaaang!! –
However, the Monsters smashed through the stone wall she had summoned and continued to charge at her, forcing her to use the power of wind to increase her speed and flee in a wide arc.
“Senior! I’m going to die!! Help! Help!!!”
Suddenly, the line of Monsters chasing her was pierced by a single beam, and they were all penetrated. Gasping for breath, Deki sat down next to Myung-jun, who was beside the Hell Blaster, and gave him a resentful look.
“Wow, isn’t your ability too overpowered, senior?”
“Is it? It has many strengths, but it also has many weaknesses.”
“It seems like the strengths easily outweigh the weaknesses.”
“You’ll become stronger too. If you train properly.”
Myung-jun handed Deki half of the automatically retrieved crystals stone.
“Eat.”
“But you’re the one who caught them.”
“That’s why I’m only giving you half. You played your role as bait properly.”
“Ugh… I want to catch them myself…”
“If you want to catch them yourself, you need to properly understand the methods of conquering Gate.”
Myung-jun summoned a turret with a base that looked like a square box and took out a drink for Deki.
Then she looked at the turret with eyes wide like a startled deer and said,
“Does that thing have a fridge function too?”
“It was made by senior. It’s a prototype developed for testing. It’s a Frostbite turret designed to rapidly cool a single target, and we added a beverage cooler at the bottom. It can freeze enemies and chill drinks.”
Myung-jun explained that just like he had added a beverage cooler to a turret originally developed as a weapon, Deki also needed to apply her abilities, not just use them simply.
“If you only think of the turret as a ‘weapon’, it’s hard to come up with such an idea. For example, with the Frostbite turret, if you use it together with a Water Jet turret that fires a high-pressure stream of water, you can effectively bind the enemy’s feet. In your case, since you can handle four elements, combining them would allow for even stronger abilities.”
“Combination… I can’t think of anything off the top of my head.”
“Dirt softens when it meets water, and stone hardens when it meets fire. Water turns to steam when it meets fire, and if you lift dust into the wind, you can cause a dust explosion. In short, it’s all about how you think about it.”
“Wait, you mean that kind of application is possible?”
“An Awakener’s ability grows as you imagine and lead it. Just like how the senior and I constantly hypothesize combat situations to create new equipment sets.”
“Hmm…”
After pondering for a moment, Deki stood up.
Then, looking down at her palm, she said,
“I’ll give it a try.”
====
***
====
In the next gate that Deki entered with Myung-jun, she tested a new technique.
It was to mix earth with water to create a swampy area.
However, there was a huge difference in difficulty between simply using two attributes at the same time and mixing two attributes to create a single effect, so she had to experience failure repeatedly.
When she simply filled the earth with water, it just became wet mud, nearly getting her killed under a pile of Monsters, and at times, her failure to control the space within the earth resulted in all the water being absorbed underground.
But every time she failed, Myung-jun ensured her safety, allowing her to implement her ideas into reality without major injuries.
And finally.
“Hellswamp!”
As she shouted with her palms pressed against the ground, the solid ground instantly turned into a vast swamp.
The horde of Monsters charging at her full speed was dragged into the squishy bottom.
Seeing hundreds of Monsters floundering in the swamp she created, she was overjoyed, but her joy did not last long.
The horde of Monsters that had fallen into the giant swamp were ‘crawling’ out despite the tremendous pressure of the swamp.
The Monsters, covered in black mud, seemed enraged at Deki for bothering them, frothing at the mouth and climbing up the edge of the swamp with even more ferocious movements.
Seeing her confused and not knowing what to do, Myung-jun stepped in once again.
“Multi Napalm Turret.”
Instantly, dozens of cylindrical projectiles were fired from the five turrets Myung-jun summoned towards the edge of the swamp, and the Monsters trying to emerge from the swamp instantly turned into well-cooked chunks of meat.
Seeing this, Deki ran to where Myung-jun was and asked,
“Why does my fire not work, but the fire you use does?”
“That’s because my napalm rounds contain a special component that reduces the Monsters’ resistance to flames. Plus, your fire is like a gas flame, it just passes by and it’s over. Napalm sticks to the skin and continues to burn.”
“So, it’s a kind of sustained damage.”
“Exactly.”
The clever Deki immediately caught on to the ‘application’ technique that Myung-jun mentioned.
And she immediately put it into practice.
“Hellswamp!”
Once again, hundreds of Monsters sank into the vast swamp she summoned.
Then, with her hand pressed against the ground, she shouted once more.
“Pottery Firing!”
As the red aura extended from her hand and spread throughout the swamp, the vast swamp boiled up with tremendous steam, like a giant stew.
She had not simply infused the energy of flames.
She pushed the energy of flames into the earth while simultaneously reclaiming the moisture she had put in and solidifying the finely broken ground back into a rocky state.
With her control over three attributes at once, the ground that had been a giant swamp instantly turned into solid bedrock, and the Monsters trapped in the swamp were now stuck in the rock, unable to move.
Seeing this, Deki cheered in triumph, feeling the joy of victory.
Then, she looked at Myung-jun with an expression that seemed to be asking for praise.
“You did well, but the finish was weak.”
“What?! That’s almost as hard as granite right now! No matter how strong the creature is, it won’t be able to escape from that, right?”
“If it were just a beast, that would be true.”
As soon as Myung-jun finished speaking, the sound of the earth splitting with a ‘crack’ could be heard.
– Crack, crack, crack-crack! Crunch! Crackle! –
With sounds like hard rock being ground up, the ground was being shattered.
And shortly after, Monsters with spikes like razor blades emerged from the bedrock, different from when they had fallen in.
“Unfortunately, those are beast-type Monsters. Without their adaptability, they’re like corpses, and if you give them a little time, they adapt to the environment. And now…”
“Kwooooooar!!!”
“It seems they’ve evolved into beings with the strength to break rocks and with spikes.”
The moment Myung-jun finished speaking, the only thought in Deki’s head was, ‘I want to go home.’
====
***
====
“Huff… huff huff… Senior… you caught them all.”
“I did 90% of the work, why are you the one panting more?”
“You hunt comfortably. I have to move my body. Plus, most of my abilities don’t even work on those things.”
“It’s because of the mismatch in attributes. Most physical attacks don’t work on those guys.”
“But I’ve even beaten Zhai Tianlin, who’s said to be the strongest in China?”
“That’s because you have an overwhelmingly advantageous extreme counter to Zhai Tianlin. Conversely, Zhai Tianlin could probably defeat those Monsters easier than I could, right?”
“Is the compatibility of abilities that important?”
“Yes. That’s why you can’t easily judge the strength of an ability. You might think I look invincible, but if I meet an opponent with the opposite attribute, I could be defeated pathetically. That’s the nature of fights between those with abilities.”
“That’s why the clan headquarters is filled with all kinds of equipment. To easily deal with any kind of enemy that comes up.”
“Exactly.”
“So, does your ability also have a counter? Poison, fire, water pressure, size. You have equipment to deal with almost any situation, right? Even the person named Moon Hee-cheol you defeated last time is said to be one of the strongest in the world.”
“True. In fact, even if I can’t deal with it now, I can just make the necessary equipment, so there’s almost no enemy I can’t handle. If I had to say…”
“If you had to say?”
“Maybe magic?”
“Magic?”
“Yeah. Magic. Not just simple abilities like using fire or lightning, but beings that cause all sorts of supernatural phenomena with incomprehensible algorithms. Beings that can’t be interpreted with logic.”
“Then why not just make equipment that can counter that magic?”
“I guess so. But it’s difficult right now.”
“Why? Why is that?”
“I’ve never seen magic even once so far. Magic Awakeners are extremely rare, and it’s also a power that’s difficult to grow to the point where it could trouble me. But…”
“But?”
“If there is a ‘magician’ who has grown their magical abilities to the same grade as mine, then I might be defeated.”
Myung-jun recalled a weapon he had been commissioned to repair when he was a blacksmith before his regression.
A shield that could withstand hundreds of thousands of degrees of heat, absolute zero cold, and was so durable that it couldn’t be destroyed by any physical force.
When the relic-grade shield of grade 11, which he had poured his soul into making, returned in pieces, Myung-jun literally exhausted all his strength trying to repair it.
And in the end, he had to give up on repairing the shield.
Despite mobilizing all the techniques he possessed, he simply couldn’t join the shattered pieces of the shield back together.
It had a peculiar state of damage as if the ‘destruction’ attribute had been given to every facet.
Every time he struck with his hammer, he felt a strong repulsion.
It was not the elasticity of the material itself, but a peculiar sensation that made it feel as if the material itself was rejecting the hammer.
The identity of the mysterious attack that made Myung-jun, the only grade 12 master smith in the world, give up on repairs.
It was the one and only counter ability to Myung-jun’s powers and one of the rarest Awakener abilities in the world.
It was an attack by ‘magic’.
