Translator: HH Editor: HH

*Cough*

Blood poured out of Shanons mouth.

No matter how skilled you were, you were still going to die if your neck was ripped apart.

And everyone was scared of death.

However.

Heslaughing?

His lips were quivering because he had lost all his strength, but he was definitely smiling at Yeon-woo.

Im glad.my subordinatescan live!

Relief flooded his eyes.

Yeon-woo felt a heaviness when looking at Shanon and couldnt help but ask.

Are you not afraid of dying?

Of coursenot. I did everything I.could to stayalive.

Then why?

SuddenlyI became embarrassedwhile I was watching theMartial KingImstill.a leader after all.

Yeon-woos eyes widened, he realized why he was feeling so heavy.

Shanon didnt know how much longer he would live, but he still wanted to take care of his subordinates. From the beginning, he didnt care about his life.

No, rather, he used to care, but he still changed his mind to save his subordinates.

Now, he mightve been embarrassed of his past self for doing anything to survive.

It was so different from his brothers situation, who was killed by his friends who would stop at nothing for their own lives. If only there was someone like Shanon back in Jeong-woos life.

Shanon made a satisfied expression and he fell to his knees. Blood created1 a lake around him.

Yeon-woo looked at himself in the blood and stepped back.

Suddenly, he felt tired. But worse than that, a pain spread all over his body. His overloaded Cores and empty Magic Circuit caused him the pain.

The pain was this intense because it was passed down from the Draconic species Magic Circuit.

Oraboni.

Edora ran over and supported him. She let out the breath shed been holding while watching him fight all those battles.

Phante followed thinking, A monster has become an even bigger monster.

Beating a semi ranker was that meaningful.

Also, Phante knew. That Yeon-woo hid his most important card.

The black sword from Section G he had seen back in the tutorial, and all the other artifacts that he had earned werent used.

But he still managed to beat a semi ranker.

Youve worked hard. It was fun to watch. Seems like you can fight better than you look.

Yeon-woo caught the bottle the Martial King threw at him and drank from it.

The pain gradually disappeared and his magic power slowly regenerated. It was a potion.

Yeon-woo had a lot of questions to ask once he was feeling better.

What are focal points?

Yeon-woo had definitely stabbed the flaws, but they had disappeared, and appeared somewhere else.

Because of that, he had suffered because he had no way to know what was real or not.

A fake.

No, it was a lot different than faking a motion.

No. Its of the same notion. The only difference is whether its a possibility or reality,

..?

The Martial King thought of how he should explain.

Its nice to explain this way. When this guys sword almost touched you, the sword had many possibilities. Whether it be used for offense or defense. And of those, it could lead to a greater amount of possibilities. Right?

Yoen-woo nodded his head.

So when picking from those many possibilities, how do you pick? Do you have a standard?

Whatever suits the situation.

Thats right, suting the situation. But focal points add one or more possibilities to the mix.

Yeon-woo could somewhat understand .

.A trap.

You can see it like that. If you get trapped, you can cancel it and choose another possibility. Focal points are the power to choose possibilities.

.Possibilities.

Yeon-woo quietly mumbled.

It was similar to Foresight. But Foresight predicted the moves of the enemy using many different calculations, while focal points were a method to pick out of many possibilities the one that fit that situation.

Thats.possible?

He did it, right?

..

That was a joke. Actually, its not that easy. Everytime you swing your sword, you have to see the different possibilities. If you do it wrong, your brain might even get knotted up.

The Martial King grinned.

But if you can successfully do it, theres no better fighting method than this. But its only for players who have trained their mana to the extreme. And focal points actually arent that perfect either. And once youre at a certain level and your sixth sense improves, it gets easier to tell.

Thats why Shanon had asked. Yeon-woos fighting skills were on the level of someone who should be able to discern between focal points, but he couldnt.

However, with this Yeon-woo find two things he could improve on.

Focal point and sixth sense.

But both had to be attained through extreme training.

I guess the only thing I can do is training and more training.

He clenched his fists. He wanted to have the sensitive senses Shanon had shown.

If his physique couldnt keep up, there was no point in having good artifacts.

He had to push his body to the extreme several times for that. And after that.

I have to finish the succession process.

There were so many things to do.

He couldve felt burdened, but he felt happy that there were so many ways to get stronger.

If Im not talented, I just have to work for it.

Yeon-woo pushed his heavy body up and added Shanon to his Soul Collection. There was something he wanted to confirm.

Uh, and Sir.

Yeon-woo turned to face the Martial King with Edora supporting him.

The Martial King waved him away like he knew what Yeon-woo was gonna say.

Im not that evil to hit weak people, ok? Dont worry.

That meant he would leave Shanons subordinates alone.

Yeon-woo nodded his head. After using his full strength for the first time in a while, he just wanted to rest.

And the first battle between Cheonghwado and Red Dragon ended like that.

***

The news of Kuram spread all over the Tower making people tremble in fear.

The unexpected participation of the One-horned tribe.

And with the spread of the news Cheonghwado pulled their sword out as well.

They poured in their forces to the 11th floor before Red Dragon could regain their forces.

In that process, they got rid of the Red Dragon clan supporters remaining in the area too.

And the Red Dragon started to move too. The 11th floor was a card they could just throw away, but it wasnt like them to step back so easily like that.

And other news started to spread.

That the semi ranker Shanon and 4 other players had gone up against the Hoarder and died.

It wasnt that big of a news on the higher floors, but it carried a heavy weight on the lower floors.

Also, it meant that he was staying as a guest of the One-horned tribe.

***

Those Cheonghwado bastards. I bet theyre feeling so happy they could die.

Bahal sourly smiled as he read the report Flame Beasts vice leader gave him.

With the help of the One-horned tribe, they had taken 80% of the land of the 11th floor.

It was basically their land now. And Red Dragon couldnt sit still. Dragons were malevolent. They were greedy, and loss wasnt in their vocabulary.

The Red Dragons pride was greatly hurt, and the Summer Queen was the most angry.

Bahal, who was cold and rational, couldnt understand why.

But oh well. If the Queen says to jump, I have to ask how high.

Bahal made a cold smile. After defeating Leonte, he became the overseer of the 11th floor.

He only had one command. To reclaim the 11th floor.

It was a crazy command, knowing that the Martial King was there.

But still.

Bahal didnt complain and moved

Flame Beast followed like a shadow. And fighting squads like Blaze, Corona Anaconda, Raven Party, and Wolf Squad went with them.

And their numbers were enough to make up an army.

They looked down from where they were standing to the capital of the 11th floor.

Their mission was to get rid of all life forms in that city.

*whoosh*

And Red Dragon arrived on top of the city.

***

The Saber God walked along the path. The war had probably started by now. And with the participation of the One-horned tribe, the Red Dragon Clan was probably suffering right now.

The Saber God was planning on carrying out his orders amidst all the confusion.

Legendary Beasts were creatures that symbolized the Tower. And if they all died?

It would be pandemonium.

But it was a sure way to guarantee Cheonghwados win in the war.

Move.

And with the Saber Gods command, countless shadows began to move. They killed all the beasts in the area.

It was a way to get rid of all the variables. And also to gather as much Neidan as he could.

The Saber Gods lips quivered. He could feel the Phoenix somewhere.

***

[.Somethings here.]

The Phoenix squinted her eyes at the confusion happening in her territory. It seemed like whatever the humans were planning had come to her territory as well.

Also.

For the first time in her life, she felt that it might not be easy.

Her children were busily playing, running around, not having a care in the world.

Chirp?

Then, Chirpy, who had felt his mothers gaze, tilted his head.