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Chapter 68: What is Fear?

At night, somewhere else around Seoul. In an abandoned subway station. The place was no longer in use because there was a Portal Gate above it.

The lights of the subway station were dim, and there were footsteps that broke the silence of the night.

The sound of footsteps stopped after a while. A man who had just arrived stood in front of the man with sunglasses. They could recognize each other with the help of the moonlight coming in from the entrance stairs.

“Do you want to stir up a large-scale battle here!? Do you want to die that badly!!?”

The man who had just arrived spoke in a rather loud voice. He then used his Mana Presence. Almost the entire section of the subway station shook, and debris floated around with powerful winds. The walls were cracked and broken. The place might collapse at any moment.

The sunglasses man raised his hand with his palm in the front. It made the other man’s Mana Presence disappear before destroying the subway.

“Calm down. Do you want to tear down this place!?”

“Why did you ask to meet? If the Hunters Association finds out you are here in South Korea. This nation will become a battleground!”

The man didn’t expect his Mana Presence would get dismissed in a casual manner. He gritted his teeth while holding back his anger.

The sunglasses man sighed. “Okay, I know. I know. Why is it so complicated? Isn’t that an easy thing for you? Those people watching at the airport are your people. How could HA possibly know I was here? Take it easy, my friend.”

The man’s veins protruded on his forehead. “No need for small talk. What was your purpose for meeting!?”

“Well, I just wanted to give this to you.” The sunglasses man smiled and tossed a stack of papyrus paper to the man across from him.

The man frowned. “Only this!? We don’t need to meet over something trivial like this!”

“It’s been five years since I left South Korea. I need a place to stay here. It should be closer to where you are. Or your guild is. That’s better.”

The sunglasses man planned to settle down near that man’s place. He thought the Hunters Association’s people would not know and would be unable to trace his whereabouts.

The man nodded in agreement with the request. He wanted to end the meeting as quickly as possible, even though he didn’t like got ordered around about it. Yes, it was risky. But, no one would suspect anything at all. That could be the reason for him to monitor the movement of the sunglasses man too.

The sunglasses man turned around and spoke while emphasizing his words.

“That’s the last Portal Gate Codex from me. There will be no more from now on. We are at the beginning of the Final Gate. Get ready and do your preparations well. I’ll rip your neck if anything goes wrong!”

The man engraved those words into his head. He knew the warning was genuine. The man in front of him was more powerful than the last time he saw him. Deep down, he knew he was afraid of the man despite being irritated by his orders to meet face to face and about the accommodation.

Now, they were entering the last phase of the Final Gate that would eradicate humanity. Any hunter who was in that objective would definitely need to plan their next move carefully.

The next morning. Ji-woo stayed up all night in a small basement. He had already told his family about it. So, it was all right to stay up late and not come home. He also just called and informed his mother that he would be late went back home today.

Ji-woo sat on a wooden chair, monitoring the forging. The room was almost full of dust. Whenever there was a magical energy leak, the room would vibrate, and he would suppress the Silver Mana from exploding. Of course, he always managed to control the situation, not causing any accidents. But, he still needed another 10 hours to complete the merger.

He doesn’t forget to tell Dong-hyun about today’s meeting, which would get postponed to the late afternoon. He also told Dong-hyun to meet at the same place as before.

It would be convenient for Ji-woo in the future if he had a factory or something similar to a smithy. There were many things he desired. For example, a battle armor or battle suit itself. He couldn’t always fight and ended up getting naked after it. He also had to hire a blacksmith or master forger for that.

On the other hand, artifact items and weapons were a great business that could become his founding for his intelligence agency. It would cost him a lot of money to gather information in the world, more than the money he required to set up a factory or pay off debts.

There was no reason for Ji-woo not to take the opportunity. He could craft good quality items and weapons with his knowledge of Spheres. Of course, his artifacts would be different from others. Because Ji-woo didn’t know about the item-to-user binding spell or more to be exact, he didn’t understand about the magic inscription.

The atmosphere of silence and peace finally came after Ji-woo doing the same thing for the next 10 hours in the small basement.

Ji-woo looked at the incinerator. There was no trace of Silver Mana anymore. Instead, only the weight of the ankles and wrists remained in the furnace, along with the flames still burning. He smiled and turned off the fire engine. He took out his things and left the basement.

He immediately put the weights on his ankles and wrists without further ado. When he came out, the person in charge of the landfill site approached him. The person asked why the basement was shaking and calmed down after a while.

Ji-woo ignored that person and continued to walk out. He had no obligation to answer.

It was already dusk when Ji-woo arrived at the foot of the mountain. He could see Dong-hyun was waiting for him.

Dong-hyun had a cheerful mood when he greeted Ji-woo. It showed that he had some results with his training tests.

Ji-woo put the duffel bag on the ground and crossed his arms across his chest. He then told Dong-hyun to show him the results of his control over Mana Presence.

In fact, Ji-woo was impressed by the fact that Dong-hyun’s control over his Mana was much better than it was a few days ago. Dong-hyun’s Mana Presence was also able to last longer than before.

“How about it? I’m a genius, right, hyung?”

“Yes, whatever. Then, now. I forbid you to use this Mana Presence thing for an indefinite period of time. Or rather, I’m telling you to abandon this audacious method. It will make your magical energy go to waste unless you can grow stronger or reach S-rank in no time.

“Also, Don’t learn magic spells through that Skill Page thing anymore too. It limits your magic knowledge.”

Dong-hyun was taken aback by Ji-woo’s speech. He had already pushed his limits to train his Mana Presence. But, only to be thrown away, now? How could he digest that teaching?

Ji-woo smiled subtly, looking at Dong-hyun, who was confused and lost.

“Why, you don’t want to do it? You can withdraw from this training. I never forced you to obey my teachings either.”

Dong-hyun had a headache at how mischievously Ji-woo teased him. He swallowed hard and nodded his head reluctantly. He wanted to ask the reason. However, he suppressed curiosity and tried to trust Ji-woo blindly.

“But, hyung. Can you show me your full strength first? I’ve seen you fight before, but now I want to see it up close. I need to gauge the strength that I can achieve later by throwing away almost everything I learned so far.”

Ji-woo tilted his head. “Even though I said I could make you stronger. Achieving my power is a different matter.” He put down his arms and let out his Aura of Fear. This time without holding back anything to let Dong-hyun knew the difference.

The moment Dong-hyun felt the Aura of Fear. He started to feel nauseous. Before long, without him noticing, he was already kneeling to the ground. He also got troubled to lift his head to look at Ji-woo because his instincts told him that it would be a dangerous endeavor. It was as if his eyes met Ji-woo’s. It would be the last time he would saw the world.

The Aura of Fear was different from Mana Presence. The Aura didn’t damage an area like Mana Presence did with wind pressure, floating debris, and cracked ground. The Aura also didn’t have an ability that increased physical strength as Mana Presence did. The only thing they had in common was putting pressure on the people in front of the user.

In just a matter of seconds, Dong-hyun was already hunched over on the ground. That was when he knew he screwed up if he dared to became Ji-woo’s enemy. It also made him believe, no matter how strong he was in the future. In front of Ji-woo, he was just an ant trying to crawl back into the anthill.

Even without such fear, Dong-hyun was never able to fight Ji-woo. The stronger Dong-hyun got, the more he knew how scary it was when magic doesn’t work.