As always.
Dong Bong-soo was standing atop a mountain of corpses.
Strictly speaking, it would be more accurate to say he was surrounded by the dust of corpses.
For everything killed by [Faith Arrow] had been completely reduced to powder particles drifting through the air.
[『Faith Arrow』 Lv.2
[Basic Magic] [Projectile] [Linear] - When belief takes form, it will become light that pursues enemies.Condenses pure magic and fires it in the form of a shining arrow. When much faith from those who believe in the caster is imbued, it even gains the ability to track targets. Though the hero's most basic magic, it holds infinite possibilities according to faith level.
Mana Consumption: 10 MP
Cast Time: Instant Cast
Cooldown: 0.5 seconds
Range: 60mBase
Damage: 200 (+Faith Modifier)]
The Faith Modifier.
He had anticipated it... but it far exceeded even those expectations.
Every time [Faith Arrow] was activated, faint beams of light descended from the sky and added their strength to the arrow.
The critical point was that the number of beams had at some point surpassed several hundred. In other words, those who held 'faith' in him already numbered in the hundreds.
This is why being a hero is worthwhile.
This is why heroes punish evil.
To think one could grow stronger even through menial work like sweeping up insignificant insects that matter little either way.
[[Guild] First Commission: The goddess of fate has led you to command a group. That too is the destiny of a hero.Now, the first mission has been entrusted to you and those who follow you.
>Disband the Red-Red Alliance.
>Progress: 76.8%
>Reward: History +1, Bae Dal-pae's Trust Level slight increase]
[Faith Arrow] had grown too powerful-it was possible that the 'treatment' would conclude before he even had the chance to test all the skills and sharpened techniques he had acquired over the past three months.
Of course, this world still has plenty of insects, and cancers and incurable diseases abound as well.
I am a predator.
Now I am an omnivore at that.
I have become capable of consuming anything that comes my way, insects and cancers alike.
The very moment Dong Bong-soo's emotionless pupils were about to turn once more toward those insects going by the name of bandits—
A sound so similar to a system message that it could be mistaken for one at first enveloped the surroundings.
But it was not.
Neither [New Murim Online], nor [What is Hero].
It was merely the noise produced as the warmth of the Rainbow Lake vicinity, which had grown hot from the Blood Rain, died away in the cold.
Simultaneously.
A sense of wrongness emanating from the entire mountain.
Along with it, the mountain interior that had been blanketed in terror turned cold in an instant, as if it had become an ice cavern.
Roughly negative four or five degrees Celsius at a glance?
It was not over.
The cold did not stop-like an unbridled horse, it began charging sharply toward absolute zero.
To such a degree that icicles formed grain by grain even on Dong Bong-soo's eyebrows, chin, and fingertips.
"Hehehe."
Jaw trembling from the cold?
Of course not.
Simply from amusement.
What an entertaining world this is, after all.
He chuckled as he gazed from a distance at several bandits who had already become ice statues while standing upright.
[ >Disband the Red-Red Alliance.
>Progress: 87.8%
>Reward: History +1, Bae Dal-pae's Trust Level slight increase]
The deep, deep unpleasant cold that had swallowed the entire area was rapidly swallowing the bandits' lives as well.
None of his concern.
If anything, the cold that was hunting for free on his behalf could only be a welcome presence.
Automatic hunting, where someone else swats the flies for you, is always welcome.
However, if the owner of the flyswatter is also a creature that must be swatted, then one must pay a bit of attention.
*Whirrrrrrrrr-*
The naturally unfolding Super True Energy Field detected the energy felt from beyond the cold. A far too familiar feeling. A relentless succession of insufferably low-grade killing intent.
Within it, spreading outward as if to flaunt its presence.
A familiar energy he had felt once before.
'In this place, this is what they call Formation Energy, isn't it.'
Several formation techniques must be layered atop one another.
The aggregate of Formation Energies surrounding the entire mountain was pressing in on him.
It would be the air currents generated as the owner of the flyswatter also commenced the hunt.
As always, being hunted carries just as ambivalent emotions as doing the hunting.
Unsettling, unpleasant too...
But also, one might say, pleasurable.
The collaboration of killing intent like thousands of needles of different sizes pricking all over, and a thin layer of ice, was massaging his entire body.
Yes, this kind of pain is always welcome.
A massage is only satisfying when it's strong, but the earlier ones were far too bland.
[[Guild] First Commission
[Chain]: During a mission, unexpected additional enemies may appear at any time, so please always exercise caution.I hope you will not forget that cowardly ones are always targeting your back.
>Disband the Red-Red Alliance.
>Progress: 90.2%
>Reward: History +1, Bae Dal-pae's Trust Level slight increase
•Defeat all members of the Alliance Under Heaven Formation Dispatch Unit hired by the Red-Red Alliance.
>Progress: 0%
>Reward: History +1, Relationship with the Alliance Under Heaven Formation established]
"The Alliance Under Heaven Formation."
In the old days, when you bought hardtack, there used to be star candy inside.
He personally felt no particular excitement about it, but among children there were those who bought the hardtack just to eat the star candy.
Let's have a look then.
What flavor the star candy drawn in by the hardtack might be.
And.
Every time he experiences it, Goddess Lumina truly does not understand what a hero genuinely needs.
A hero always needs cowardly ones.
The more cowardly, the better.
Appearing anywhere and anytime is even better.
Because that is the reason for Chivalry.
*Swoosh-—*
His figure had already blasted toward the ice wall of the Cold Yin Ice Wind Formation that had become a massive barrier closing in and strangling the surroundings.
***
The Alliance Under Heaven Formation.
Commonly called Formation Tower.
The largest aggregate of formation Taoists in the Central Plains, established over three hundred years ago.
What distinguishes them from other Martial World sects is that they do not regard themselves as members of the Martial World. This was because the organization was not operated under an absolute hierarchy, but rather all members were bound in a kind of contractual relationship.
There does exist a position called the Tower Lord, referred to by the title Grand Zenith Position, but according to Formation Tower's charter, all formation Taoists are in principle 'equal.'
For that reason, the Grand Zenith Position is also elected once every five years through the Alliance Under Heaven Formation Grand Tournament. That is to say, anyone of excellent skill could ascend to the Grand Zenith Position or fall from it at any time.
A group bound in contractual relationships based entirely on ability. That was precisely Formation Tower, the Alliance Under Heaven Formation.
In that sense.
The official relationships they formed with the outside world were also all forged through contracts, and the very 'color' they publicly proclaimed was between Righteousness and Evil. That is to say, thorough neutrality.
In their own words, they were a permanently neutral force.
The sages of the Martial World comment on Formation Tower thus:
If ranked by Martial World standards, they are fully capable of rivaling the Ten Great Sects or the Seven Evil Grand Cults.
And yet, because they are thoroughly in the gray zone and do not themselves proclaim to be a Martial World sect, they had become one of the Three Forces Beyond Heaven.
The reason they came to be this way was that what they pursued was diametrically different from Martial World denizens.
— If you lose your honor, you have lost little; if you lose your courage, you have lost much. But if you have lost money, it is as if you have lost everything.
A contract is money.
In other words, to them, having money is righteousness, and having no money is evil, and also Demonic.
— In Formation Tower, there is no Orthodox, Evil, or Demonic. Money is Self, and no Money is Other.
There were those who lumped this very directive together and criticized it as the thinking of Evil Demons and Heretics, but they paid it no mind whatsoever.
Because Formation Techniques and Formation Path would inevitably be an all-powerful mercenary force needed in the Martial World yesterday, today, and tomorrow alike.
For that reason.
This time as well, they had taken on the commission of the Red-Red Alliance, which amounted to nothing more than a group of bandits.
And.
The one leading this day's commission was Dong Mu-toe.
Perhaps twenty-five or twenty-six years of age. A bloodlessly pallid face, slender frame, an impression that looked as though it might snap in the wind.
And yet, beyond the sickly fragility, there was hidden sharpness, cruelty.
Like a flower containing poison, he was the kind of person who gave off the strong impression of being beautiful but inevitably fatal if approached.
His eyes in particular.
Black pupils of unfathomable depth.
To look at, they appeared dreamily hazy, yet inside them the pupils trembled ceaselessly, rather like calculating needles that were perpetually computing something.
Profit and loss, cost and revenue, worth killing and worth keeping alive.
Weighing everything, judging it, and deciding-like that.
Below those eyes, the handsome face and neckline extending straight down were enough for anyone to call him a beautiful man.
Continuing below that, a large black robe-disproportionate to his lean build-was draped over him.
Upon it was embroidered Formation Tower's insignia-the shape of a tower encircled by the Eight Trigrams.
The color of the embroidery was silver, or was it not...
Dong Mu-toe and all unit members deployed this time were waiting at Rainbow Peak-the peak rising next to Red Peak where the bandits were deployed-precisely near the summit point.
Although the battle was unfolding several miles from here, the battle situation itself was being grasped as clearly as reading the lines of a palm. Because the individual estimated to be the enemy was only a single person.
"Hoo-. To think there was something like that in such a remote frontier?"
The apex of the summit peak.
Dong Mu-toe stood perfectly upright atop it, watching from a distance as Dong Bong-soo moved freely even within the Cold Yin Ice Wind Formation.
Cold Yin Ice Wind Formation.
A Alarge-scale freezing formation technique that maximizes Yin Energy to absorb all heat within a set range.
Merely by being deployed, it creates a ferocious cold so harsh that living creatures absolutely cannot survive within it. The particularly fearsome aspect of this formation is that it does not simply make the area where the formation is spread cold-it also freezes the Blood Passages of those trapped within the formation.
Before the blood pumped from the heart can even stop, the Acupoints freeze first.
That is why those caught in the Cold Yin Ice Wind Formation mostly become ice statues, their expressions frozen in agony while in Qi Deviation.
Even most first-rate masters, if perfectly caught in this formation, would be more than sufficiently reduced to a single lump of ice-it is a high-grade formation technique.
"Ha, Bronze Formation Contract? For dealing with something like that? Formation Tower is no longer something to be trusted."
Bronze Formation Contract.
One of Formation Tower's contract systems.
Commonly, it referred to the level of commission that the lower-grade formation Taoists called Formation Apprentices entered into with Formation Tower.
In other words, Formation Tower's assessed level of this Red-Red Alliance commission was Bronze Formation Contract.
Dong Mu-toe clicked his tongue lightly, but had no intention of moving whatsoever.
"The clients are all getting killed, Squad Leader."
One of the formation Taoists deployed in this commission approached and spoke.
Underlying discontent toward Dong Mu-toe was coming through in his tone.
Because judging by the silver embroidery thread on the robe, he was a mere Formation Master grade at most, and appeared to be in his mid-twenties at best. The thought that such a greenhorn was ruining the commission made the tone inevitably sullen.
Even so.
Without even a glance, Dong Mu-toe simply continued watching the massacre unfolding at the neighboring peak and replied.
"I know. That's why I activated it."
Only then did Dong Mu-toe tilt his head downward-that is, in the direction of the discontented formation Taoist's face.
"Did you not know?"
His pupils turned precisely toward the junior formation Taoist currently speaking with him.
"Originally, a commission, you see. It becomes the finest commission when the client dies."
In that instant.
A change cracked across Dong Mu-toe's outstanding yet expressionless face.
The pupils that had appeared hazy also became stained blood-red.
As if blood were spreading through a clear lake.
An earthquake seemed to strike across the whites of his eyes as the pupils became bloodshot. Exactly like those of a wicked spirit.
"As many as possible."