Leveling with the Gods

Chapter 98

Akail started to count the number of Sea Serpents that appeared in front of him.

Ten, eleven, twelve…

After twenty, he stopped counting, seeing no point because there were at least a couple hundred in front of him.

‘No, there might be even more,’ Akail thought.

And there weren’t just Sea Serpents. There were also Sea Grizzlies, Ichthyosaurs, and other monsters headed towards the island.

How many was that? Hundreds? Thousands? Tens of thousands?

‘Kim YuWon is no longer the problem,’ Akail thought.

This test was doomed.

Even YuWon wouldn’t be able to handle all these monsters. It shouldn’t even be possible for a Ranker. It may have been possible for a High Ranker, but for now, running was the best option.

“E-Everyone, run away from the island!” Akail ordered.

If you left the testing site before the time limit, you were automatically disqualified from the test, but that was the least of their problems right now. Surviving was the utmost priority, and other players on the island agreed.

“Get off the island!”

“Where’s the examiner?”

“Shouldn’t he appear at moments like this?!”

“There’s something wrong with this test!”

The test was broken, and the participants no longer saw a meaning in taking it.

Players on the island started running for their lives while looking for the examiner. They thought that the Rankers in charge of overseeing the test might have been able to protect them somehow. However…

“No,” YuWon said in a bold tone, “There’s nothing wrong here.”

Akail, after making sure his teammates had gotten out first, was also about to take his leave when he heard YuWon.

“… What?” Akail said in confusion.

“Things are just finally going the way it was meant to be,” YuWon continued.

Rumble, rumble—

The whole island shook again.

YuWon looked down at the island, continuing his monologue, “Going back to its original form.”

Akail didn’t know what YuWon was saying, but he could instinctively feel that YuWon was at the center of this commotion.

And after hearing YuWon, Akail noticed the system’s message.

[The test is being reorganized.]

Reorganized?

Akail had never heard of such a thing before.

‘It’s not that the test is broken…’ Akail realized.

Instead, the test itself was changing, which was why the test examiner wasn’t interfering.

Unless there was a special error or there was interference by someone who was not a player in the test, a test examiner would not butt in.

‘What about this…?’ Akail wondered while pulling out the blue gem in his pocket.

The gem that glowed blue was the token necessary to pass this test, but there was a chance that if the test changed, the gem would be no better than just a pretty rock.

‘No, that’s not what’s important right now,’ Akail changed his line of thought.

Thinking could come later. What mattered right now was surviving.

Akail turned around and quickly got out of there.

YuWon mumbled while looking at Akail run down to the bottom of the island, “There’s no need to do that though.”

The test had been completely flipped, meaning he’d completed step one.

“Now then…” YuWon said.

Vzzzzt—

A black light started flowing out of 「Kyneē.」

“Now the problem is how long I can last against these guys.”

* * *

Translator – Yu x Yu

Proofreader – BringTheRayn

* * *

“Ow, ow, ow, ow…” Kwant winced while having medicine applied to his shoulder.

Annoyed by Kwant’s reaction, Buar stopped rubbing the ointment and smacked Kwant’s arm instead.

“Then why did you come here? Your arm’s not even fully healed!” Buar berated Kwant.

“That’s rich coming from a guy that would have died if not for us,” Kwant retorded.

Buar defended himself, “We would have won even without you guys.”

“Big brother,” Nwiar said while shaking her head, having overheard their conversation. “That’s a lie.”

“…” Buar, who was trying to be prideful, looked the other way in silence.

They were surrounded by corpses of players from the Crimson Wolf Guild.

Horang, who was leading them, had run away, and Vulkan and Kwant ended up wounded.

“I don’t know what his name is, but that red-haired guy was pretty strong.”

“If Nwiar hadn’t been the one going up against him, it would have been bad.”

“It was hard for me as well. I’m just glad that you guys took care of the other enemies quickly and came to support me. I wouldn’t have lasted much longer by myself.”

Within the Crimson Wolf Guild, Horang’s skills were outstanding. If the Crimson Wolf Guild had brought just a few more players and if Horang was just slightly more skilled, the Giants might have been the ones who lost.

Rumble, rumble—

The island started shaking.

All the Giants were players that had previously passed the 20th Floor’s test, and none of them recalled something like this happening.

“This test is strange…” Nwiar said.

The other Giants nodded in agreement. Something was definitely off.

To begin with, it was abnormal for a guild to send people to hunt a single player.

Urpha must have anticipated this, having sent them to help Yuwon.

And now, while YuWon was taking the test, the island had started to change.

“Could it be…?” Nwiar said while watching the thousands of Sea Serpents rear their heads out of the water. “He might have actually found it.”

The sea monsters all roared in unison. But the roars didn’t sound like they were filled with rage or hunger. Instead, it sounded as if they were longing for something and cheering something on.

“That’s right.” a voice came from behind the group.

Step—

Nwiar turned her head after hearing the familiar voice.

Horang, who had run away after losing in the fight, had returned.

“He must have actually found it,” he said.

His face was filled with lustful greed, and he looked much more confident.

“He who holds the Stone of the Sea will gain the power of a god.” Horang continued.

Behind Horang, dozens of players gathered around him.

“Olympus is searching for the Stone of the Sea. We have nothing to be afraid of here,” Horang said.

“So you’re doing all this just to be Olympus’s dog?”

“So what if I am?”

“There is a test currently going on. Nothing good will come to you by creating too big of a commotion.”

“I can worry about that later.”

Seeing an opportunity, Horang was now hyper-fixated on his chance. This also applied to the other players of the Crimson Wolf Guild he brought with him.

Nwiar stood in the front and asked, “Did you come back so you can finally die?”

Horang had already had a bout with her, and he realized that five Giants were hard to handle even with the larger number of players he had on his side.

But things were different this time.

“Sorry, but I’m not your opponent this time,” Horang said while taking a step back.

He then bowed to the man standing next to him, “Please, sir.”

A man hiding half of his face with a mask stepped in front. He was emitting such an ominous presence, Nwiar could instinctively feel that this man was dangerous.

“They even brought a Ranker?” Nwiar wondered.

His presence was not that of an ordinary player. Not to mention, Horang, a pretty highly skilled player, was showing this man respect.

“That motherfucker was right,” Kwant laughed while holding onto his injured arm. “This fight is going to be a big one.”

Thud—

One side of the island shook. It was different from the earlier shaking.

There was a sound of something heavy falling.

Thud, thud, thud—

There was a succession of the same noise.

Horang and the other players from his guild froze while looking around.

“G-Giants?”

“How are they so big…?”

“Is that a… Ranker?”

Giants towering over four meters tall stood with a glare.

Giant Rankers had arrived at the island.

“We came as ordered by the Elder.”

Thud—

A Ranker of the Giants and the 21st son of Surtr, Suhtahr led the Giants, “We will now commence with the support of player Kim YuWon.”

* * *

‘So it’s begun,’ YuWon thought while watching the fight break out at the bottom of the island using his [Cinder Eyes.]

He was quite far away, but because the Giants were so big, it wasn’t hard to see what was going on.

‘Seeing how Suhtahr is here, they must be betting on this big time.’

Urpha was the only one who knew where the 「Stone of the Sea」 was hidden.

He was also the one who had experienced Poseidon’s strength firsthand more than anyone else during the Gigantomachy, which is why he had no intention of handing over the 「Stone of the Sea」 to Olympus.

‘Olympus should have noticed by now.’

Olympus had been in search of the 「Stone of the Sea」 for a really long time.

Zeus had ordered them to avoid confrontation with the Giants, but Poseidon had continued to exert his influence on the 20th Floor in search of the Stone.

That was how they ended up figuring out that the Stone was hidden on the tiny island of Triton, but the reason why they hadn’t managed to get their hands on it yet was because the island was the stage for the Administrator’s test.

‘There’s no way Olympus would miss that the test changed.’

YuWon guessed that Theseus was currently revving up.

From a trap set to catch a single player, they were about to capture the treasure they were after for so long. And with the Giants here, they should have been fairly certain of what was going on.

“They’re really good at catching wind of things.”

Hissss—!

YuWon asked the Sea Serpents that were right in front of him, “Don’t you agree?”

Gnaw—

A Sea Serpent opened its mouth. The fishy scent of the sea reeked from its mouth.

YuWon swung his sword in response.

Slice—

The Sea Serpent’s head was cut off.

Splurt—!

From its neck, blood gushed out.

YuWon mumbled while wiping the blood off his sword, “I don’t know why I asked when you can’t answer.”

Sea Serpents and countless other sea monsters climbed onto the island. A few of them rushed towards YuWon, while most didn’t.

Grrrr—

Hiss—

Most of the monsters wandered the island, sniffing and looking around.

They were looking for something.

Whoosh—

Slash—

YuWon cut down the monsters flooding in. He cut them down one after another, but the influx of monsters persisted.

‘When will they make their move?’

YuWon couldn’t leave the island. The moment he left, there would no longer be any more players on the test site, and the test would automatically be considered ‘invalid.’ The moment that happened, this would no longer be his stage.

So he continued to endure it, and a few minutes passed like that.

Twitch—

YuWon felt a bit of movement from the ground.

It had been moving for a bit now, but it seemed that it was taking a while for it to really wake up from its ‘slumber.’

“This sleepyhead…” YuWon said with a smile on his face.

It was finally the moment he was waiting for.

The monsters that were going on a rampage stopped, all looked in the same direction, and howled as if they were in a trance.

Rumble, rumble—

The tip of the island started to move.

YuWon saw the ‘head’ that revealed itself.

Rumble, rumble—

Crack, crack—

The ground shook and split, revealing a hard, black shell underneath.

The head opened its mouth which had been shut for a long time.

“Awoooo—!”

[The Sea Turtle has appeared.]

[The body of the Sea Turtle has been designated as the test site.]

[Defeat the Sea Turtle and obtain the Stone of the Sea.]