The truth was that Yeon-Hee had grown up just as I had hoped. I had hoped that she would play a leading role in the Stage of Advent, and I had emphasized to her to remove any signs of trouble from the beginning. She had changed a lot as she now realized the reasons why she needed to.
I briefly meditated on why I had suspected Yeon-Hee to be the Second Evil. Was it because I was scared of the Second Evil? Above all, if Yeon-Hee was actually that woman, the bigger problem would be that I hadn’t noticed for the twenty years we had been together.
“I like people like Kwon Seong-Il because he will follow our commands faithfully in order to return to his family.”
Yeon-Hee cherished her family because their relationship had been once troubled, and she focused on that aspect when evaluating others. I never thought that she would be someone who slaughtered people regardless of their gender and age, no matter whether they were Awakened or not.
The problem was that there was a dearth of information regarding the Second Evil. This made it almost impossible to figure out who she was. My fear of her was still affecting me, even though I had been going against time.
I can’t believe I associated Yeon-Hee with that bitch. Why did I think that way? Shit!
It was fortunate that Yeon-Hee had blocked herself off from me. If she had read my inner thoughts, she would have definitely been hurt more than she had been hurt from the stage so far. If I thought more closely about it, this wasn’t the worst situation I had been concerned about. The worst-case scenario was her being manipulated by the vipers in suits. She was better the way she was now than that other option.
However, if… What if it becomes obvious that Yeon-Hee is the Second Evil? Or what if she degenerates to that extent?
There was no point in worrying before it actually happened. After all, I needed to prioritize the world in which my family would live in over any personal affection. Yeon-Hee was no exception. No… She couldn’t be the exception…
***
Even then, points were steadily coming in as Yeon-Hee’s battle was still ongoing.
“These are not monsters.”
In the meantime, Seong-Il and Shin Kyung-Ah had caught and brought some Moongs over. These creatures had been in the mountain to keep an eye on us, but my teammates had ambushed them instead because attempts at hiding were quite clumsy. The Moong race was a blue-skinned tribe, commonly thought of as aliens, and was one of the well-known slaves of the Seven Demon Kings. Moongs were used in various ways by the Demon Kings’ corps.
In particular, the rat-like Barba used this tribe the most, and they enjoyed using Moongs as biological weapons. Whereas here, in their mainland, the Baclan Corps mostly offered the Moongs as a sacrifice by dedicating their souls to Doom Arukuda. This was to show their lord that they sincerely wished that they could receive more power.
“They look similar to us other than the fact that they are pale and blue-colored,” Seong-Il said as he threw a Moong in front of me. I could hear an undertone of guilt in his voice, and Lee Soo-Ah clearly viewed these prisoners the same way. The monsters the two had seen so far all had hideous faces covered with fur, but the Moongs had many similarities with us as Seong-Il had mentioned. In fact, their body structures and the color of their blood were the same as ours. Even now, the Moongs were coughing up red blood.
[Moong Male (Species)
A homeless wanderer.
Class: E]
More information was added when I activated my Night Eyes.
[Name: Turba Mala Angrak
Health: E(13), Strength: E(41), Agility: E(3), Sense: E(2)
Trait(1), Skill(3), Item(1)]
[Trait - Chaser: E(31)
Skill - Flash of Shock: E(2), Speeding: E(0), Night Eyes: E(0)
Item - Barba Corps’ Old Belt (F)]
The one that Shin Kyung-Ah captured was not much different.
Bam!
Shin Kyung-Ah stepped on the back of a Moong guy who was trying to crawl and run away. She asked, “Odin, do you know what these are?”
Of course, I did. They were a living example of what would happen to humanity if we lost the war against the Seven Demon Kings. In the past, the Eight Evils and Eight Virtues weren’t aware of the Moongs. To them, the present was more important than the future as they had their hands full with fighting against each other.
I took two items out of my inventory, but neither of them would help me directly communicate with Moongs. However, it was a different story if I used the Barba’s language[1]. An A-class Enforcement Sign of the Barba Corps provided me with the ability to communicate with them. When I put the bracelet on the prisoner, his eyes widened.
[Physical Defense Power: 5000/5000]
[Magic Defense Power: 3500/3500]
As soon as I was able to see his two stats, a shield appeared and disappeared around his entire body. The barrier hadn’t completely vanished yet. Instead, it was invisible. However, it reappeared every time it received damage and soon lost its initial bright color.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
When his defensive barrier became completely depleted, the Moong flinched constantly before he finally spoke for the first time, “S…stop… Please, stop it.”
I stated, “Turba, the son of Mala and Angrak.”
He was startled for a second and clenched his teeth.
I continued, “This must be the first time you’ve seen me, but I have seen you many times before. My name is Odin. I’m from another dimension that the Seven Demon Kings are attacking. I want you to realize that you guys were hostile toward us first. I didn’t want this situation either.”
“Who… who are you?!” the Moong prisoners exclaimed all at once in a startled manner.
I was about to answer: ‘You must have escaped from the Barba Corps. I’d like to meet your leader. We might have the same goal.’
However, a notification window popped up.
[You have encountered a Moong Awakened.]
[Your trait Explorer has been activated.]
[About the Moong Special Privilege (Explorer Reward)
The Moong civilization was destroyed, but the power of their System still remains with their Awakened. Only the first ten Awakened who encounter a Moong Awakened can proceed with the Moong Special Privilege.
Content: As you proceed, you will retrieve a portion of their power every time you kill one. However, you will become their enemy.]
[Would you like to start the Moong Special Privilege?]
Since I had gone back in time, this wasn’t my first time seeing the Moong Tribe. They had accounted for a significant part of the rat-like Barba Corps’ power when I attacked the dungeon with Yeon-Hee. The Privilege message didn’t pop up then, so it became clear that only those who can communicate with the Moong received an opportunity to proceed with the Privilege.
It was my first time getting this chance like the Second Round of Privileges and the trait Challenger. From this, I finally had an inkling as to how the Fifth Virtue, who didn’t catch my attention much in the past, and his group could grow so fast.
Was this why?
In the past, the Fifth Virtue and his group had been obsessed with the Barba Corps’ lab. That was the reason why he could clinch the title as one of the Eight Evils and Eight Virtues. No matter how much I thought about it, his rapid growth was mysterious. The growth structure of the powerful and weak had been established from the Stage of Advent, and no one could break the hierarchy until the Stage of Rest. However, the Fifth Virtue was the only one who had smashed through that ceiling. Even though he was my enemy, I had once thought he was incredible because of that. I didn’t expect there was such a trick behind it.
The decision was easy for me to make. Even before this quest popped up, I had no plans of uniting the Moongs and working with them to kill the Baclan King. In addition, the Moongs were harmful to mankind. Their souls were used to empower the Baclan Corps, and they had been forced to dedicate their lives as the enemy’s biological weapons. The question was how much power I could absorb from doing this.
[The Moong Special Privilege will begin.]
Craaaack!
I instantly destroyed the one Moong who was under my foot. Everyone including Seong-Il and other Moongs looked at me in bewilderment as if they didn’t expect this.
[Would you like to absorb the skill Flash of Shock?]
A low-quality skill, but the possibility of taking the skill itself was great.
Pass.
[Would you like to absorb the trait Chaser?]
The System would even let me take away their traits. However, most of the traits I currently possessed were outstanding, so I couldn’t replace them with new traits. The only thing I would take was ‘Passion,’ which was something that the Fifth Virtue had.
Pass.
[You can receive either 8 silver boxes or 2 gold boxes.]
***
The amount of power I could retrieve from this quest became clear after I tested it again on the second captive. While I could obtain all their skills and traits, I could only recover one box per class. For instance, the first eight categories of the first Moong I killed were all in E-class, so the rewards I got were either eight silver boxes or two gold boxes. The Explorer trait was activated once more shortly after the second prisoner breathed his last.
[About the trait Passion (Explorer Reward)
The Moongs can be seen as pitiful, but their remaining power can help you incredibly.
Content: You will obtain the trait Passion if you destroy 10 Moong Awakened.]
This is it!
In my opinion, this trait should have been titled ‘Moong Hunter’ instead. The Fifth Virtue had developed this ability by hunting the Moong Tribe, and he was enthroned as a Virtue due to this reward trait. Because of this, he became stronger at a faster rate compared to the number of battles he had joined. Although he didn’t participate in many wars, he was the one who showed the most remarkable achievement during Revolucion’s Great European Uprising. In the end, he was the one who fought against the First Evil one-on-one when the First Virtue even avoided doing so.
Fifth Virtue. Fifth Virtue. Fifth Virtue!
I always wondered where he had gotten the trait, and I never thought he got it by completing the Moong Special Privilege.
Apparently, Shin Kyung-Ah had caught something with her Sense.
“Their boss is quite angry.”
She was trying to grasp the ability of the Moong Awakened who was on the top of the mountain, and she was comparing his ability to mine. It was inevitable because the boss was rushing toward us like a gale. However, Shin Kyung-Ah looked quite excited as Yeon-Hee had manipulated her mind.
I told the three, “Get ready for battle.”
It was ironic, but I had to capture the Moong’s boss first in order to seize the Baclan King. Their boss had outstanding abilities and seemed to be a competent leader who had perfectly hidden his group in the Baclans’ mainland. This meant he was at least an A-class Awakened. In other words, he was a master box to me, which was unfortunate for him. If I caught him successfully, I would be stronger than Yeon-Hee when she returned. Just upgrading my Sense with master boxes would give me more strength, and the rest of my lagging stats could be offset by my superior traits and skills.
Anyway, this was a golden opportunity. I finally had a spark of hope that I could complete this challenger's quest to kill the Baclan King, which had seemed like an impossible task to finish earlier.
The Moong civilization had already collapsed, and they would never be able to revive it. They would be slaves forever and do more harm than good to humanity. There was no room for sympathy, even though I felt sorry for them. I couldn’t afford it.
Soon, I felt the boss getting closer, so I raised my Sixth Sense as much as I could to prepare to greet him. Hera’s Lunacy was the best skill to use in a one-on-one battle, and I could leave the rest of the Moongs to the other three.
[You have activated Hera’s Lunacy.]
As I clenched both fists, streaks of lightning began to stretch out from the gap between my fingers.
Zing. Zing-
This might have been obvious already, but yes, the Fourth Virtue Michael’s main skill also had lightning attributes. In addition, Hera’s Lunacy had good compatibility with Odin’s Wrath and Indra’s Sword, which was a converted form of Devi’s Sword. With my lightning abilities now empowered three times, no one would be able to escape it, especially not an Awakened from an extinct tribe.
Tat!
I threw myself in the direction where the boss was coming from.
Devote your power to me, you unfortunate Awakened!