Deicide And Destruction, Appear (6)

‘You must raise our tribe.’

‘Arun, you must sacrifice yourself for our family to survive.’

‘Arun, please.’

‘Arun.’

‘Arun!’

‘Arun…’

.
.
.
.
.

Grasping his throbbing head, he brushed down his arm, feeling a chill run down.

The temperature drop at dawn chilled him to the bone, and as days passed, loneliness piled up layer by layer.

After a day filled with inexplicable sorrow and tears, he would fall asleep with difficulty, only to wake from a dream where even the tribe leader and family pressured him to become a representative before entering the Battlefield of the Gods.

Arun was almost cast out from the tribe.

Suddenly awakening his mana, it began accumulating at a speed incomparable to when he used to gather spirits to control elementals.

Though once an outcast in the tribe, after awakening mana, he tried very hard to change.

However, once-rooted prejudice was not easily erased; both tribe members and family thought poorly of him.

The more so, he tried to live righteously and justly, leading by example and helping others, but the gaze toward Arun remained harsh as ever.

It was around that time—the Battlefield of the Gods had opened, and Ister began recruiting representatives.

Arun’s tribe worshipped Ister, the river god, and under Ister’s command, all tribe members urged Arun to become a representative.

Faced with unprecedented attention and expectations from the tribe, Arun gladly pledged and contracted with Ister.

But soon, Arun realized something.

From the tribe members’ attitude after the contract ended, they had not accepted him but intended to use him.

After having a dream he never had since being with Kim Han, Arun woke up in a bad mood, leaned against a wall, and rotated his mana once to warm his cold body.

Feeling inexplicably upset, Arun shook his body roughly and waited again for the fisherman who did not come today.

It had been six days waiting for the fisherman; now his appearance was almost like a homeless person.

He couldn’t properly wash or even use a proper restroom nearby.

Fortunately, as Kim Han said, he had prepared ten days’ worth of food, but now, tired of waiting and often forgetting to eat, little remained, making him anxious.

“When on earth are you coming?!”

He grumbled alone leaning against the shabby house wall, but those just leaving for work avoided Arun and no one spoke to him.

Only because Arun was a representative was he spared; otherwise, his strange appearance might have gotten him dragged off by the guards.

On the evening of the sixth day.

“Another bust today…”

His voice full of complaints settled heavily on the ground with a sigh.

Thinking that waiting for someone who might never come was the most exhausting and difficult thing, he crouched by the wall, endlessly staring at his long shadow.

A long shadow covered Arun’s shadow, indicating someone was looking down at him.

Arun did not stand up. As if accustomed, a voice full of annoyance came from his mouth.

“Guys, just go. I’m in a very bad mood today…”

“This guy’s crazy, huh?”

A somewhat older-sounding voice.

Arun had already met many kinds of people who asked why he was here or what he was doing, even picking fights, and had dealt with them physically.

“Don’t do that. I beat those who annoy me, beat those who don’t listen, and once I looked up at some punk who picked a fight just because he looked unpleasant, so I beat him. The ones beaten by me sit in four rows and take numbers to walk around the neighborhood. I’m tired today. It’s a good chance. So just quietly go on your way.”

Truly annoyed, Arun didn’t even raise his head, just waved his hand dismissively, spoke at length, then looked back down.

“…This crazy guy! What nonsense on someone else’s wall?!”

“No, but this guy! Did he say he’s tired today or not…! The owner? The owner of this house?”

“Yes! You bastard! What are you?!”

“So you’re the only fisherman living in this northern residential area?”

“So? What even are you?!”

Though the person he waited for arrived, Arun’s face twisted in irritation. He didn’t know why, but he was simply annoyed.

He was angry about waiting so long, angry about being called crazy right away, and even angry that this man was so old.

“Me? I’m a representative, you bastard! Eat this!”

Arun threw a yellow registration card at the middle-aged man carrying a fishing rod on his shoulder.

Strangely, the registration card stuck to the man’s chest and wouldn’t fall off.

“Ha! You were a slave to those bastards who claim to be gods? So what do you want to learn?”

“First, show me to your home. This isn’t something to learn on the street. Why? Do you mind if I speak loudly here?”

“Yeah! I don’t care, you bastard! What are you, some young punk!”

“Profit! Good! ‘Peace of the Lake’!”

Suddenly.

The fisherman who had been angry suddenly stopped. He turned his neck unnaturally and awkwardly, as if a creaking sound might come from it, looking around.

His voice that came out was as strange as his unnatural neck movement.

“You… how did you know?”

“Hmph! What good is knowing that? Let’s hurry up. We’re both busy people here.”

He seemed to have reverted from the image Arun had shown to the Arun who had wandered in his previous tribe.

The transcendent fisherman glared at Arun with a flushed face, but for Arun, who had endured Kim Han’s scolding and Lee Hyo-ju’s glares for over a month, it was nothing.

“Damn! How did you find me hiding like this?! Ugh!”

“Hey, old man! Let’s hurry! There’s no time!”

“Alright! You bastard. Come in first!”

Grumbling, Arun followed the fisherman who disappeared after saying that, and upon entering the house, he realized from the smell that the man truly lived as a fisherman.

The smell he had often encountered before entering the Battlefield of the Gods—the scent from cleaning or drying fish.

Though a foul fishy and musty smell, it evoked nostalgia in Arun.

“How did you learn that skill? It’s important to me.”

“I don’t know the details either. Except for the person who told me this skill was necessary for me, no one else knows. So among representatives, only I and that person know. So don’t worry.”

Perhaps feeling homesick, Arun answered in a more obedient tone than before.

“…I see. I don’t know if I can keep it, but please keep that secret. Here, take this.”

The fisherman handed over a round blue orb.

As Arun nodded to promise secrecy and carefully grasped the orb, it melted like snow and a message appeared in the air.

“Yes.”

Divine power did not surge nor did his energy spike. There was no change in his body.

It was simply comfortable, like immersing oneself in the Tiberis River near Arun’s tribe during a hot summer.

The refreshing and cool sensation felt like washing his brain with clear, clean water.

After that endless freshness, Arun opened his eyes.

Simultaneously, a message appeared in the air.

Since that day, or rather since deciding to enter the Battlefield of the Gods? No, even before that, Arun had never remembered his mind being so clear.

All the scattered thoughts settled, like facing neatly organized library shelves.

For the first time in a long while, Arun’s eyes curved into crescents as he genuinely smiled.

“Thank you.”

“Enough. Go now.”

Though the start was rough, the end was not too bad.

Arun left the house and hurriedly sent someone to call a carriage.

Meanwhile, after entering an inn for the first time in a while, washing and changing clothes, Arun returned looking like a handsome young man even the innkeeper couldn’t recognize.

The carriage quickly arrived at the destination—the Mercenary Guild.

After receiving the location of the ‘If the Sea Were Land’ mercenary group from the guild, upon arrival, there was a huge training ground in the center, surrounded by many houses clustered tightly.

Declaring himself a representative, Arun was guided to the mercenary captain’s office without much resistance.

The mercenary captain looked exactly as Kim Han had described.

Young in age, with a scar across his face, carrying an enormous greatsword on his back.

Especially due to his bulky muscles, anyone could tell he was a typical mercenary and warrior.

“So, Messenger of the Gods, what brings you here?”

“I want to learn ‘Cry of the Sea’.”

“…Damn.”

He was peculiar. As fiery as his appearance, he neither asked why nor how Arun knew.

He just cursed a lot, handed over a book, told Arun to learn well, and left his office.

Watching the mercenary captain leave with a dazed face, Arun soon regained focus and opened the book.

Brilliant light radiated from the book, and when he opened his eyes, a message appeared asking if he wished to receive the skill, just like before. This time, the transfer completed with a very low loss rate.

Having received two skills, Arun felt something perfectly unified.

A heavy and stable mana core, smooth and fast-flowing mana channels, and incantations that would strengthen the manifested magic.

The fullness and satisfaction of eating a gourmet feast from start to finish filled his chest with an indescribable feeling.

“Uh, uhahaha. Uhahaha. Yay!”

After cheering loudly in someone else’s office for a while, Arun proudly called a carriage and headed to the mansion.

A week had passed since leaving the mansion. Arun expected everyone to welcome him warmly as soon as he entered.

But what was this? Except for the guard mage at the front gate, no one welcomed him. In fact, he couldn’t meet anyone.

As he approached the mansion, a booming sound from the clash of divine power echoed in Arun’s ears.

He quickened his pace, then ran, arriving at the training ground where an old man was aggressively confronting Kim Han.

Without hesitation, Arun awakened the heavy mana core in his heart.

As mana fiercely swirled and magic manifested, he used Transmute magic to add physical force to the spell.

“Water Breath—! Transmute—! Gravity infusion. Waterfall!!”

Proudly watching the falling magic, thinking of Kim Han’s praise, Arun saw Kim Han lying motionless on the training ground, and then felt a tremendous shockwave hit him before he fainted.