Crackle! 

Seo Jun-Ho created a glacier on the ocean to land on. Not long after, he sensed a flow of magic as his teammates arrived using Teleport.

“What in the world did you learn in the last year?” Skaya asked.

“I’ll be honest. I was really impressed by the way you walked on water,” Gilberto remarked. They looked both curious and envious. As they talked for a bit, a giant shadow covered them.

[...] The guardian deity of the southern sea, the Leviathan, approached them. It started to speak as the three Players looked at it.

[First, let me extend my gratitude.]

The beast hadn’t gotten away unscathed. Blood was still flowing out of the many injuries it had sustained from the fiends.

“Hey snake, do you want me to heal you? I’m not as good as a priest, but I should be able to help a bit,” Skaya offered.

[I refuse. I will slumber somewhere deep in the ocean and heal myself.]

The Leviathan immediately refused. Perhaps it didn’t want to be even more indebted to mere humans.

[I expected them to do this eventually.]

“You already knew about the fiends?”

[Of course. I am aware of human affairs. There are countless monsters in the sky and sea, and they informed me.]

The Leviathan closed its eyes tightly, seemingly frustrated.

[The thing that angers me most… Is that they came for me first, instead of going to the north, west, or eastern seas.]

“Did they think you’d be the easiest to deal with?” Gilberto asked. The Leviathan opened one eye and glared at him. It was good enough as an answer.

The Leviathan quietly changed the subject.

[In my seven hundred and twenty-eight years of life, there were not many instances in which I was this deeply infuriated.]

“Seven hundred and twenty-eight years?!” Skaya exclaimed.

“You’re older than I thought,” Gilberto said.

Unlike the other two, Seo Jun-Ho simply nodded in understanding.

[White Knight, you do not seem surprised.]

“I killed a 500-year-old lich not long ago.”

[Ah, the one who resides in the north. So she is dead.]

It seemed that even the monsters had something similar to the Community forums. They seemed to be able to acquire information easier than expected.

[...Though this is not enough to repay you for your assistance…]

“A reward!” Skaya’s eyes sparkled, and she held out her hands. Her straightforwardness rendered the Leviathan speechless, and it smiled and nodded.

[Yes. There is not much I can give you, but use them as you see fit.]

Something sparkled in front of them. Skaya tilted her head as she stared.

“Are these… scales?”

[They are scales from my body. They are good for crafting armor, but they also have a high artistic value because of their unique color.]

In other words, the Leviathan’s gift was raw materials.

[Human, there is something I wish to ask you.]

The Leviathan looked at Seo Jun-Ho.

[What did you plan to do if those fiends gained control over me?]

“Huh? Oh.” He reached into his Inventory and pulled out a sword with serrated edges. The Leviathan flinched away when it saw the large weapon. “I brought this just in case. They can control monsters with demon jade, so I would have had to tear through your flesh.”

[...]

The Leviathan seemed appalled. It bowed in greeting.

[Farewell, humans.]

It quickly disappeared into the water. As the waves overlapped, a distant voice could be heard.

[Thank you.]

***

“Mm!” Skaya stretched. It had been a while since she had been able to play around like this. Her face was glowing as if she had taken a health potion. “Killing fiends is the best way to relieve stress. Don’t you think so, Gilbe?”

“...Well, I suppose it’s nicer than using normal targets.”

Seo Jun-Ho walked with the two weirdos at his side, looking around.

“Here it is.” He stopped at a building with a blue roof. This was where he had hidden Pride’s frozen body. He quickly stepped inside and melted the corpse.

“Confession of the Dead.”

The memory playback appeared before him, and Skaya and Gilbert looked on with interest.

“That’s cool.”

“So this is the memory playback?”

“Yeah. I’m gonna look through his memories real quick.”

Seo Jun-Ho reached for the body, his hand shaking more than it had during the battle. He hoped he would be able to find some good info this time.

The memory playback began.

***

“...Say that again,” a dark voice said. The people kneeling at his feet quickly jumped in to give him an answer, or rather, an excuse.

“The magic communication line was cut off by all the members on the field.”

“I think they failed to capture the Leviathan.”

“...”

He had already heard the same report several times. The man squeezed his eyes shut and laid his head against the headrest.

‘I’m screwed.’ 

The man’s name was Gu Shi-On, the leader of one of the two Squadrons that had participated in this mission. There was a simple reason why he hadn’t gone with the other fiends.

‘Pride. I had too much faith in that idiot.’ 

Pride had been weaker than him, but he had been a squadron leader nevertheless. Pride had insisted on leading the mission, so Gu Shi-On had stayed behind.

‘There was no need for two leaders on one battlefield.’ 

That had been his biggest mistake…

Gu Shi-On started to chew on his fingernails. He wanted to shift the blame somehow, but there was no one to pin it on because they had all died in Port Lane.

‘We lost too much.’ 

Besides the eighty or so other fiends, the Squadron members had been the biggest loss. It wasn’t like they had been weak or incompetent either. Each member of the Pride Squadron and the Despair Squadron possessed good skills in their arsenal.

‘Eight from Pride, nine from Despair, was it?’ 

The only good thing was that they hadn’t lost too many Squadron members. Gu Shi-On might be able to use that as an excuse.

‘...And there’s one other thing I can do. This will be the biggest one.’ 

As Gu Shi-On raised his hand, the fiends at his feet stood up carefully, clearly afraid that he might trap them in the goshiwon.

“This is your new order.”

“Your wish is our command.”

“We’ll carry it out to the best of our abilities.”

“I don’t need that. I just need to see results.” Gu Shi-On’s eyes flashed. “Start spreading rumors about Seo Jun-Ho.”

“Rumors… About Seo Jun-Ho?” His subordinates tilted their heads. Seo Jun-Ho’s ice skill had been very impressive, and he had even killed Pride. They had expected Gu Shi-On to order them to gather more information on the Player. Why would they spread rumors about him?

‘That’s the only way...’ 

Gu Shi-On's plan was simple.

‘If he becomes even more famous and they acknowledge him as a threat, my punishment will be lighter.’ 

Ironically, he would have to play up that bastard’s abilities if he wanted to survive.

“This mission will be top-secret. Do not report this to anyone else in the Association.”

“What kind of rumors should we spread?”

Gu Shi-On scowled at his subordinate’s stupid question. “...Play him up as much as possible. Make it so that they’ll consider him a Hero comparable to Specter.” 

Gu Shi-On forced himself to calm down.

‘This is good…’ 

If he ran into Seo Jun-Ho again, he would destroy the Player. The more there were rumors about him, the more praise Gu Shi-On would get once he killed him.

‘I commend you for surviving in the goshiwon for a year… But you’re too meddlesome, Seo Jun-Ho.’ 

Gu Shi-On closed his eyes. If he kept them open, he might just attack one of his own subordinates.

***

It had been a while since Watchguard of Darkness had feasted. Pride’s corpse disappeared without a trace, and Seo Jun-Ho turned around.

“What do you think?”

“...Hm. It’s hard to tell.”

“Yeah, it’s too early to tell.”

“I agree.” Seo Jun-Ho agreed with both of them.

As Pride had been a squadron leader, he knew a good amount of information.

‘But we definitely got lucky this time...’ 

Or rather, they had succeeded thanks to Pride’s vanity. He had led an important mission for the Association, but he hadn’t brought the core members of the Squadrons with him.

‘He was planning to improve his reputation by participating in the battle himself.’

Thanks to the Fiend Association’s information section, the Darkmoon Pavilion, Pride knew that the 5 Heroes had been planning to come to Port Lane.

‘It’s no surprise that a fiend would overestimate his skills and let his guard down…’

However, they might have been too successful this time. They had massacred close to a hundred fiends with only the three of them, and none of them even had a single scratch.

‘They'll probably be more wary of us…’ 

They might even start to consider Seo Jun-Ho a threat. After all, every fiend who had come across Seo Jun-Ho had been killed.

“Alright, I’ve made up my mind,” Skaya said abruptly. “I want to go to the Magic Tower.”

“...You?”

“With that attitude?”

Seo Jun-Ho and Gilberto’s faces fell. It would probably be hard for her to adjust to the strict environment of the Magic Tower with her fiery personality.

“Why do you say that? I can get the job done when I need to,” she said, uncharacteristically serious. She leaned against the wall. “You said that everyone decent at magic is associated with the Magic Tower.”

“...Well, people will respect you a lot more if you say you’re a mage from the Magic Tower. But there really are a lot of talented mages there,” Seo Jun-Ho explained. Skaya had improved greatly the last time she went to the Magic Tower. This was another chance for her to recover the abilities she had in the past. “And if you can show off your skills at the Magic Tower…”

“People would start to see the 5 Heroes in a new light, instead of thinking of us as relics of the past,” she concluded.

“Training, you say.” Gilberto nodded. “Then I’ll go join Arthur. I’ll train the Watchguards and do some of my own training in the rugged mountains as well.”

“...Seems like we’ll all be doing some training,” Seo Jun-Ho said. This wasn’t bad.

‘They know all too well that they’ll be overtaken eventually if they only rely on their former glory.’ 

They were smart.

“I’ll be waiting to hear from you.”

“Shall we?” Skaya held out her hand. “Where do you guys want to go? Obviously, I’ll be going to the capital. It’s near the Magic Tower, after all.”

“I’ll be going to the Watchguards’ hideout, as I mentioned before,” Gilberto said.

“Okay. See you later, Gilbe.” She sent him off with Teleport. She held out her hand to Seo Jun-Ho next. “How about you?

“Oh, I still have something to do, so I’m gonna stay here for a little longer.”

“Something to do?”

“...Yeah.” Seo Jun-Ho sighed as he looked over at Dragon Rock in the distance. “I have to start digging again…”

He had missed the timing, so he hadn’t been able to set the bombs off. Now, he had to disarm them.