Arena

Only a week.

That was all it took to set the foot of the Aman Imperial Army on fire.

All of the armies, stationed at the border of the Empire to fight against other countries, did not get their supplies.

The supplies were attacked 13 times in less than one week.

As there was an enormous number for forces at the border in this conquest, the number of supplies was likewise, immense, but they lost all of it.

This was WITHIN the Aman Empire as well.

“How is this happening!”

A martial meeting at the Imperial Palace.

Sultan Saloc, who was in charge of strategy, shouted as he smashed his arm against his armrest.

His vassals couldn’t meet eyes with him and only looked down. It wasn’t like they knew how this happened, nor did they know what to do in order to counter this.

“How did our enemies learn of our transportation routes in so much detail!”

They changed the route every time as there were worries of being attacked by enemies.

Despite that, they were attacked every single time.

What was even more mind-blowing was the testimony of the soldiers.

Absolutely none of them had seen the enemy, and apparently a rain of fire had descended from the skies.

The attack pattern was the same.

Meaning, that there was a single person behind it.

“Don’t tell me it’s that traitor?”

One individual had attacked them unknownst to anyone and anything.

Sultan Saloc couldn’t help but remember Dana Litalin, who not only interrupted the revival ceremony but also killed High Priest Aprit and even duped every single person here until the last moment.

With his incredible prowess, being able to leisurely flee amongst the attacks of all the other High Priests and Lee Chang-wee, such a thing like this may just be possible.

However, there was one individual that disagreed.

“It is not him.”

“Whoa!”

Sultan Saloc was scared out of his wits.

Even the vassals were shocked by the appearance of an old man that appeared from nothing.

However, that shock soon died down.

Everyone here knew who he was.

A tall and burly stature, unbefitting of an old man, magic circles could be seen on his arms and neck, while the rest were covered by his clothes.

This was the 3rd Sultan, Kajad Pun Aman.

Although it wasn’t announced to the public, the core members of the Empire all knew of his revival.

“L, Lord Ancestor, what do you mean by that?”

Asked Sultan Saloc very carefully.

Once the supreme leader of the Empire was like a little child in front of him.

This couldn’t be helped as Kajad could control the magic governing system to make him abdicate.

This freak had already planned this out several centuries ago.

“If it was magic, then he would not have been able to escape my detection.”

The governing system was rooted throughout the entire Empire.

Kajad, as the one controlling it, was able to freely use it as though it was his five senses.

“If there is something I have a hard time sensing, it would be elementalism. Elementalism can avoid my detection since they harmonize with nature and are not so artificial.”

“Elementalism, do you mean to say that it’s that Kim Hyunho examinee?”

“That should be the case or an old elven warrior from the Brown Mountain Range”

He continued.

“In any case, we will not be able to handle him with the army, so we should counteract with someone that can counter him.”

“Understood, then I shall make some of the Second Advent Life and Death Association go undercover.”

“All of them.”

“…….What?”

Sultan Saloc asked back in surprise.

“Send all of them. Send all of our dark magicians and the examinees on our side. As the examinees on their side decided to proactively interfere, we have no need to let precious fighting power rest, right?”

“B, but Lord Ancestor, they may infiltrate the palace aiming for you.”

“HAHAHA!”

Kajad laughed as though he heard the funniest joke ever.

“I couldn’t thank them more if they came here to catch me. I will be much better to kill all of them here and devour their souls!”

“I, I guess that’s the case…….”

Sultan Saloc remembered back to the chilling event when Kajad instantly annihilated the High Priests.

Just who could go against that overwhelming monster?

Even the nobles gathered in the palace hall had pale faces.

The conversation between the current monarch and a revived monarch from centuries ago, sounded very crazy to be spoken within a palace.

No one knew just where this country was heading.

***

-I think you should come back now.

Dana’s voice could be heard through the Marble of the Abyss.

I tilted my head.

“Already?”

-There are dark magicians and Lee Chang-wee’s company in the transportation troops this time. Although they’re disguised as ordinary soldiers, we have them in our facial recognition database, so I was able to discover them easily.

What a fine surveillance satellite.

“So they threw the bait in order to catch me.”

Well, it was good, since we were about to fall for it.

-And since they were at it, they decided to transport a lot of supplies. It seems that Lee Chang-wee and the dark magicians will come to the front lines.

“So it’s all going according to plan.”

-Yes, though, that plan would only be complete if Kajad decides to move towards the Brown Mountain Range.

“Anyway, we managed to drag them out, so I’ll be returning to base.”

-Please do.

“Buuut, I’ll give them a greeting before I get back.

-I should warn you that you shouldn’t get so close.

“Don’t worry about that. There’s no need for us to get close. Just tell us the position of the transportation troops.”

-You can head north-west from where you are.

After conversing with Dana, I controlled Firstborn to head north-west.

“What do you plan to do? Is there a need to go to the trap that our enemies have dug?”

Cha Jihye, who was riding with me, asked.

Naturally, I had no hobbies of enjoying the thrill of getting caught in traps.

“I’ll snipe them a few times from a long range. Then, they should be watching out for sniping as they are coming to catch me.”

“A psychological battle, huh. Not bad.”

“And if we’re lucky, we’ll bring down the big shots like Lee Chang-wee.”

We kept flying north-west until Dana finally called.

-You’re close to them now. Please watch out.

“What’s our distance?”

-Around 10 kilometers.

“Okay then. Arm!”

Flash!

The anti-material sniper rifle, the Neilson R3 summoned.

The combined power of the 20mm barrel rifle, Ammo Adjustment skill, and Elementalism was enough to kill a man from 5 to 6 kilometers away.

I looked through the scope and did indeed see a procession of transportation troops.

They were carrying a huge quantity of supplies just as Dana had said.

“Sylph, aim at Lee Chang-wee for me.”

-Nyaan.

Sylph wrapped the barrel of the rifle with its tail and adjusted the direction.

I could see Lee Chang-wee through the scope.

Although the distance was far, and the image was vague, I could tell that it was him.

He was disguised as an ordinary soldier, walking amongst the procession.

‘Should I aim for when he’s a little more off guard?’

I only watched them from afar and did not pull the trigger.

An unknown amount of time passed before the procession came to a halt.

A few of the soldiers were on guard duty while the others rested.

Lee Chang-wee, who I was aiming for also rested his back against a tree and closed his eyes.

‘Yes!’ 𝙛𝙧𝙚𝒆𝘸𝚎𝙗𝒏oν𝙚𝘭.𝐜𝒐m

I put my index finger against the trigger.

“Sylph, Kasa, get ready.”

-Nyaan

-Woof

Kasa was summoned as on my shoulders and we started to prepare to shoot.

I pulled the trigger. As Sylph blocked the sound, it was completely silent.

Swooosh!

The 20mm AP-I (Armor Piercing – Incendiary) bullet, that had nearly as much power as a mortar, straight flew towards Lee Chang-wee’s head.

However, I could see that it hit an invisible membrane through the scope.

‘Shield magic?’

Lee Chang-wee was startled thanks to that and guarded his surroundings.

Along with him, all the other corrupt examinees got up and readied themselves for battle.

‘What was that?’

I couldn’t hide my surprise at the fact that I couldn’t kill him.

Theoretically, it was indeed possible to stop my sniping with an aura shield.

However, how were people supposed to know when or where I was shooting? It wasn’t like they could put up the shield for 24/7.

From Lee Chang-wee’s surprised face, he didn’t seem to be aware of my shot either.

“How did it go?”

Jihye asked.

“I failed. There was some sort of shield magic in place.”

“They shouldn’t have put that up knowing about your attacks.”

“That’s true. That’s why it’s more strange. Just what trick did they use?”

-It should be an item.

The answer came from Dana. 𝐟𝚛e𝐞𝙬𝗲𝒃𝓷𝒐𝘃e𝒍.c𝑜m

His voice could be heard from my pocket, where I stored the Marble of the Abyss.

-There is plenty of magic armor with shield magic imbued in them.

“Magic armor?”

-Yes, but the absolute majority of these magic armor is that the magic is activated through a voice command. There is no such thing as armor that’s self-activated upon detection.

“Then what the hell is that?”

The entire procession of the troops was on guard now.

-That is not a magic armor humans are able to make. I can imagine what kind of rewards he exchanged his karma for in the last exam.

Only then did I realize what was happening.

A while ago, Lee Chang-wee eradicated Heising’s faction when he was taking over the Chinese Arena association.

As he had killed numerous corrupt examinees, he had gained enough karma points to cancel out his negative karma and then some more.

It seemed that he exchanged those points for that very armor.

‘It looks like he prepared himself to fight me.’

Choosing an item to defend and not on skills…. It seemed that my sniping was scary indeed.

“He’s got a pesky item this time.”

-It is a great success that we got to find out about it. Please, don’t go any further and come back.

“That’s what I’m planning to do.

I controlled Firstborn to flee this place immediately.

Since I ran away immediately after firing from 5 kilometers away from them, they could not find me.