Illyna flailed around and screamed from the unimaginable pain, but it was meaningless since she was already in Davey’s hands. He could feel bouncy but tender skin through his hands, completely different from when he was massaging Baris’ muscles. It was the bitter truth that it felt better to massage a woman, who was soft, than a man, who was hard.

“Ack! W—Wait… Kyah?!” Illyna flailed around in desperation, but her resistance gradually went away. It was as if the massage was relaxing her. She even started to let out hot moans rather than cries of pain. “Sigh… Moan…”

Illyna’s eyes were as void as a virgin who had lost her everything. She breathed heavily while collapsed on the floor with no regard for her status. On the other hand, Davey was elated at how amazing the touch was to his hands.

“Rinne. Thinks that this is a very inappropriate situation.”

At the same time, the empty space near the wall began distorting before Rinne appeared. It was a non-visualization magic spell, different from [Invisibility] which was a 5th circle magic spell. By this, the Deus Ex Machina, the living mechanical heart, was showing its incredible ability: self-improvement. Rinne was continuously becoming stronger from the moment she had awakened, and she was showing Davey new things by awakening the hidden secrets in her body.

“Sir Davey, analyzing that trick to be dirty.”

“Your muscles were so stiff that I couldn’t help myself. Good job enduring it,” Davey praised Illyna.

“Rinne determines that it is right to do favors depending on the situation. Considering this, Sir Davey lacks consideration. Rinne does not think highly of this.”

“Is there a way for you to be considerate to me with your candor?” Davey asked Rinne.

“Sir Davey. Does not need consideration as he does whatever he wants. Is very brazen. Rinne thinks highly of this.” Although she was ruthless with her criticism, Rinne, who was chewing on the jerky she got from Davey, did not seem phased at all.

Illyna, who was breathing heavily while her face was planted on the floor, looked up and glared at Davey with teary eyes. She was seemingly toeing the line between pain and pleasure. However, she closed her eyes and fell asleep with her back against the wall, because a wave of sleep washed over her entire body.

Flap! Davey unfolded the blanket that he had gotten from the box of supplies. He put his hand on it and released mana.

Whoosh!! Unlike when Davey was enchanting the insulation coat, hundreds of magic circles appeared, stacking on top of each other. The blanket, which was shining faintly, turned soft and warm as the light subsided, as if it contained human warmth. Davey laid Illyna down and covered her with the blanket. Then, he threw some twigs into the crackling fire.

-Are you nervous?

Davey was a little anxious, since he was about to secretly provoke a transcendental being once the test came to a certain point. The headquarters of the knight order would freak out if they knew what he was doing, but this was something he had to do.

‘Anyway, the name is quite similar.’

Perserque, who was staring at a drowsy Rinne lying beside Illyna, quietly asked. She heard Davey murmuring to himself.

-Similar?

‘There were a few of the Special Ones at the Hall as well. Among them, there was a man called Shane Scrift from a different world called Lux.’

One of the Special Ones, Shane Scrift was a commoner-born hero who had set long-lasting achievements with his unique power as a summoner of beasts against numerous enemies that had invaded the continent.

“There were three mythical beasts that guy had been bonded to and worked with. Normally, summoners of beasts usually only bond with one beast in their lifetime, but he was weird and bonded with three.”

-What exactly are the mythical beasts?

After contemplating a way to describe these unique beings, Davey came to a conclusion. They could change depending on their background and habits and evolved by killing opponents and absorbing their power; they would evolve to have more eyes if they needed to, and they would kill an enemy with tough claws and evolve to have the same feature by absorbing its power if they needed to. Mythical beasts were one of the most baseless organisms, but also one of the most dangerous. The fact that they made up for their weaknesses… Their ability to survive was even better than cockroaches that passed on immunity to the next generation.

-There are mythical beasts in this world? Or is it in the place called the Lux Continent…

“No one knows where the mythical beasts are from. Even they themselves don’t know, so how could I know? Anyways, Shane’s power wasn’t something that could be taught, so all he gave me was battle experience.

-Hm…

Perserque slowly nodded in intrigue.

-Then, were those three mythical beasts powerful?

“They were. They were crazy powerful, and they each had their own powers.”

Megalodria, the Predator of the Skies.

Shandra Minea, the Overlord of the Ground.

Behemoth, the Tyrant of the Undersea.

-Their titles are no joke.

“Apparently, they were just worms the size of one’s hand in the beginning. But they transformed into that after killing enemies and evolving. The funny thing is how strong these mythical beasts were…” Davey trailed off, then said, “Could you believe it if I told you that each of them were as strong as Grandmasters?”

When Perserque widened her eyes in shock, Davey added, “I guess it’s nothing special, as Grandmasters and levels higher than that are common in the Hall, but Grandmasters are monsters.”

-That’s true…

“But that man believed that there was nothing better for battle experience than real-life training, so he threw me in a forest with all three of those worms.”

At that time, Davey had wondered what he had done wrong when he had seen the sea splitting into two with one breath of the crazy mythical beasts.

-Then… The transcendental being called Shandra that is in this forest…

“I think it’s different? If Shandra Minea was here, not only the Pandora Region, but most of the northern continent would’ve become a Zone of Evil.”

Shandra Minea, the nasty and obstinate earth dragon, would never be satisfied with this small region.

“And Shandra Minea is a fire dragon. If it was really the same one, do you think this would be a volcanic region or a snowy region?”

There was nothing more to think about.

-Can I ask…one more thing?

“What is it?”

-Who was the strongest human in the Hall?

Perserque’s question brought up a memory from the Hall.

[So, who’s the strongest?]

Davey had naively asked this question when he had just arrived at the Hall.

Then, the Armageddon had begun, and so had the hellish apocalypse. Davey did not want to see the glistening eyes of the Heroes who were looking for enemies as he almost died a few times from being caught up in that mess.

In the end, there had been two winners of that insane fight: Hercules, the survival expert, and Lo Aias, the Death Lord.

Davey calmly told the story to Perserque, as if he was recalling a legend of the past that did not exist in real life.

* * *

“Shandra, the transcendental being, is heading straight toward where the children are. But there are no ways to contact the children, and no one can reach the members who were sent to protect them.”

Thud!!! The wooden table was crushed instantly by the heavy and powerful punch.

“Do you think that makes sense, Captain?” It was none other than Boris Telman, the teacher who had taught the trainees of Alpha Reinforcements for a long time, who was shouting angrily.

“Boris, calm down.”

“Calm down? Does it look like I’m going to calm down?! The children…! The children are still in there!! Fxxk! Does the attack of a transcendental being seem like a joke to you?!”

“The other members are desperately trying to undo the barrier. I know you are furious, but all we can do right now is just to trust them and wait.”

“How could you say something so irresponsible?!”

The old man wearing an antique set of armor calmly glanced at Boris. He said, “Alright, let’s say we rescue the children right now like you say.”

“…”

“Do you know how to?”

“That is…”

“The barrier around the forest is not one from the evil beasts; it was made by a human.”

“Then, that means…”

“It seems like the ones who want to control the transcendental being have joined forces with an outside power.”

“Damn it!”

There were rumors of a spy in the knight order, but no one expected something to happen at an important time like this.

“I will tell you again. We don’t know what will happen inside if we mess with the unknown barrier. All we can do right now is stop the transcendental being as best as we can and wait until the members inside find a way to rescue the trainees.”

It was a realistic plan, and Boris was unable to respond to this right now, but…

“I will move separately. If there is someone who has set up the barrier, they are probably watching from not too far away. I will find them and kill them.”

“Boris.”

Boris grit his teeth when the captain called upon him quietly. He yelled, “No one will touch my students! I will not fail again. I won’t let anyone get hurt.”

“Boris!”

“The First Rule of the knights of Alpha Reinforcements!! The enemy of the knight order is not humanity, but evil beasts that threaten the wellbeing of humanity!!”

Watching Boris shout and leave, the captain of the knight order sighed and massaged his temples. He murmured, “Being too greedy causes trouble… Why are you trying to control the transcendental being…”

Shandra, the transcendental being, was the last one to show itself among the kings of the Pandora Region. The roars of the earth dragon, which was fairly quiet compared to the others, were unexpectedly loud.

53. Ambush

The second test was capturing a number of blue trolls, an intermediate evil beast that lived near the entrance of the Pandora Region.

Squeak!! Trolls were usually a dark navy color and were about 2.5-3 meters tall. As one of their distinct features was their nasty regeneration, it was common sense in this continent that trolls would have to be slashed and burned multiple times in order to be killed. The blue trolls—a variant found in the Pandora Region—were smaller and less physically adept than normal trolls, but had a unique regenerative ability. It seemed like the knight order used their blood to create recovery potions for members, but Davey was interested in them in a slightly different way: why was the regenerative ability of trolls their only distinct feature?

‘That ugly face seems like it would be valuable to study, too.’

-Stop talking nonsense.

“Davey!! All three are heading your way!”

Hearing the voice from the crystal, Davey just casually raised his hand. At the same time, the trolls were all swinging their wooden bats at him while screaming. Watching their reckless charge at him, he murmured, “Juggernaut, let’s do it beehive-style this time.”

[Command accepted.]

Whirr!!! Drr!!!! There was no explosive sound of gunpowder shooting out bullets or a terrible recoil, but its speed and firepower was enough. As Megatron’s huge body stopped the trolls’ attacks, Juggernaut, which was standing nearby and rotating its six-engine metal cylinder at a high speed, began showering them with purple bullets.

-Squeak!!!

Each gun was able to shoot out five hundred bullets per minute, and the renovated Juggernaut had a magic bullet minigun in each hand, meaning that it was able to shoot out about sixteen bullets per second. Davey had thought of this, and it was becoming a perfect weapon of war.

The two miniguns shone as they showered the trolls with magic bullets, making the pierced trolls look like beehives.

-Squeak!

-Kyahh!!

The blue trolls, which had fallen to the ground at the sudden concentrated attack of magic bullets, were unable to move. They screamed and flailed around, but the purple bullets ripped them apart ruthlessly.