Dark Mage - Volume 2 - Chapter 30

“What’s our next target?”

“The carrier pigeon hasn’t come yet. How about we give our subordinates a break, while our next traget is being decided?”

“Ku ku ku. That should be fine. Take steps to do so.”

“Your will.”

Dok-gosong looked at the man in black following his orders with respect. He looked towards the sky without saying anything. He could see the men in black being deployed quickly. They were the SWG under his command. These men were grown to be strictly a detached force, and they were the Bae-sect’s best elite warriors, who specialized in ambush attack.
It took Sah-junhwan twenty years of long term planning to groom them. He had personally selected the talented kids and initiated the Constitution Reform Method. He also invested many pills into them. They went through 20 years of severe training and they were able to become the best elite warriors.
Over 1500 kids went through the training, but only 500 of them finished the process safely. The SWG finished the harsh training, and they possessed enough skills to contend against even the direct disciples of the Righteous sect. Moreover, Dok-gosong was currently presiding over them.
“Hu hu hu. It really seems like a dream.”

Dok-gosong, who was taking a break, spoke softly. Just 10 years ago, he was a criminal who didn’t even know the basics of mugong. However, he was different now. He had obtained a peerless mugong which allowed him to slaughter the super peak experts from the Righteous sect with no problem. If he didn’t possess the best talent and comprehension, then it might have been hard for him to achieve this.  (TLN: it was mentioned before that he had a high aptitude for martial arts, but the monks refused to teach him)

The formation of the Emperor’s Blood Demon Art. He had to endure continuous amount of pain everyday. He absorbed the life blood of a baby lamb (Dok-gosong absolutely believed this)everyday, and he cultivated the Emperor’s Blood Demon Art, which when against the commonly accepted mu-gong formation method.
This happened every single day for a 1000 days. After this period was over, he had to train in the Emperor’s Blood Demon Art, so it’ll completely imprint on his body. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that Dok-gosong had put his life on the line to form the Emperor’s Blood Demon Art. He only had one wish. He wanted to take revenge against those in the Righteous sect, who had assassinated the Shaolin holy monk, and the people who had scorned him.
This was the reason why he had put his life on the line to form this mugong. He had decided he’ll never be held in contempt again. He needed strength to do this, so he put his whole being into the mugong formation. This resulted in him being able to cultivate the Emperor’s Blood Demon Art to its peak within 10 years.

“Congratulation on your achievement.”

Dok-gosong finished his training and he came out of the training grounds. Sa-joonhwan greeted him in a very friendly manner. Then he started describing the state of affairs in the current Murim.

“The current Murim is swept up in an explosive mood. There are continuous fighting in various parts of the country. They are regional wars, but I am pretty sure there will be a full-scale war. To be able to fight against Murim-mang, our Bae-sect have formed a Majin alliance with the Demon sects including the Sado clans. Therefore, Minor Sect Leader(TLN:Dok-gosong) has a lot of work ahead of you.”

“Ku-huhu. What do I have to do?”

Dokg-gosong was already somewhat taken by the Emperor’s Blood Demon Art’s demonic energy, so he was starving for blood. Sa-joonhwan glanced at Dok-gosong before continuing to speak.

“Please take charge of the SWG. They are the warriors I have grown in advance for this situation. I’ll be in charge of commanding the overall battle. Therefore, Minor Sect Leader should lead the SWG to the Righteous sect’s headquarters and ambush them. Burn them to the ground. In fact, you will basically be a detached force.”

“That’s what I wanted. Please leave it to me.”

Dok-gosong confirmed his orders. He was given command over his sect’s elite squad SWG, and his mission was to eliminate an important foothold of the White Peach sect. Dok-gosong was the most suited person to do this. He had the strong mugong, Emperor’s Blood Demon Art, as a foundation. Moreover, his senses were akin to a wild animal, and he would faithfully carry out the mission. At first, he had difficulty, because he didn’t have much fighting experience. However, akin to him slowly completing his mugong over time, he also started to amass fighting experience.
Now he was able to finally succeed in taking his revenge today against one of the people he had a grudge against. It was the heir to the Moyong family, Moyong-jin, who had given him numerous insults in his childhood. Time had passed, but Dok-gosong couldn’t erase the resentment etched in his mind.

“Ku ku ku. The others won’t be able to escape from my hands.”

Dok-gosong’s bloodshot eyes moved restlessly, while he spat out those last words. Right then someone hurriedly ran towards his side.

“The messenger pigeon has arrived. The next target has been decided.”

“That’s what I want. Go assemble my men.”

“Your will.”

The SWG including Dok0gosong started leaving the location using fast movements.
——

Dok-gosong was silently lost in his thoughts inside the prison cell that was submerged in darkness. He thought about his life, which was filled with ill luck. However, when he thought about the prime of his life his heart fluttered. This was when he was mindlessly drunk on demonic energy, and massacring others. He had wished to put the whole country under his banner, so he had streaked across the battlefield with the 500 of his SWG.
As he was thinking more and more, the faces of his dead subordinates rose up in his mind. Before they were subordinates, they were his dear comrade in arms.  They were each other’s savior as they had protected each other’s life.

Originally, the members of the SWG were picked by Sa-joonhwan, and they were grown to be warriors. Since they were picked in childhood, they had went through 20 years of hellish training. Then they were dispatched to be subordinates of Dok-gosong. However, in their final moments, they kept their loyalties to him. They rejected the wealth and honor that was spread in front of their eyes, and they had unhesitatingly decided to save their commander in battle.

They had given up their lives to delay the enemy’s footsteps, while he was escaping the headquarters. Moreover, all the warriors under the rank of commander died heroically while protecting him. The cause of their death was none other than Sa-joonhwan. Suddenly, Dok-gosong’s eyes erupted with light.

“Even if I die, I’ll definitely have my revenge against you all.”

He repeatedly promised himself, but he fully knew that this would be very difficult to accomplish. First, he didn’t have any power. Even if he was to ignore the fact that he was at a place that was unfathomably far from Zhongyuan, his body was only strong enough to contend with one strong normal warrior. His dantian was gone, and it was impossible for him to form his nae-gong again. Moreover, he wasn’t familiar with basic cultivation methods or wae-gong, so it was impossible form him to learn a new mugong.(TLN: he took a shortcut so he isn’t very knowledgeable about any other aspects of martial arts) The only thing he had left was the abundant experiences and intuition he had learned on the battle field.

“Somehow I have to find a way.”

Dok-gosong suddenly had a vague idea. He thought about the magic used by the people of this place. He already had a rough understanding about magic through Shrekheimer.

“The only thing I can think about first is magic. According to Shrekheimer’s words, one should be able to sufficiently command magic, even when one has lost his dantian. ”

However at that moment, his immediate problem was the last opponent he had to fight against. He had to survive this test to be able to think about the later events.

“Did he say an ogre? I wonder what kind of monster it is.”

Dok-gosong started to worry about the last opponent he would fight against. Only after he overpowers his opponent using all of his leftover abilities, would he be able to make that promise. (TLN: promise of revenge) This was a unknown existence he had never seen before. He fell into an meditative state to fight against the ogre.

Ku-ru-ru-ru.

Accompanying the heavy chain sound, the enormous steel door started to slowly move up. It was a very large door and it would be impossible for a human to pierce through it. However, the large gate that was going up had 2 additional doors.(TLN: 3 steel layers) Accompanying a boom, the first steel door fixed into place then the next steel door started to slowly open. Dok-gosong stared at the first and second door ascend, and he swallowed dryly. He had raised his entire body’s senses to the extreme. He did this to face off against an opponent that’ll decided if he lives. No, it could be said that it’ll determine his future destiny.

Boom.

All the steel doors except the last one was fixed on top of the ceiling. The roar inside the door became much louder.

Kyaa-oh-oh-oh.

It was an animal cry that could only be produced by an extremely pissed off wild creature. Dok-gosong immediately knew it was the ogre, which he had never seen before. Currently, he had taken two test to get to this final battle inside the underground prison.

“You have to be calm, Dok-gosong.”

He spoke softly before he touched the spiked gauntlet he wore on his right hand. Since it was the final battle, he was given the choice of picking the weapons he wanted.
Except for the armors and mace, all the equipments were foreign to him. However, Dok-gosong declined every one of them. He decided to choose the spiked gauntlet, which was similar to his hojo, and he had used it to fight against the troll.
The soldiers who brought the weapons insisted he use armor and shield, but Dok-gosong didn’t even glance at it. He instinctively knew from his battle with the troll that shields and armors were useless.

“The opponent I’ll fight this time is much stronger than a troll. Therefore, I should avoid the attacks instead of blocking it.”

He had lost all of his mugong, but he had participated in numerous battles. He still had his reflex, and intuition left. Although he didn’t have the nae-ryuk to use a movement skill, his body movement was much faster than a normal person.
This was the sole reason why he entered the arena without equipping an adequate armor.
The soldiers made weird faces as if it was strange. According to their logic, one had to wear a plate mail at the very least and only then would one barely be able to face off against an ogre. It was clear to them that he wouldn’t last long against the ogre, and he’ll become its meal. However, Dok-gosong thought differently.

“If I wear that then it’ll just slow down my movements.”

He gazed at the spiked gauntlet on his hand. Interestingly, the shape of the gauntlet was very different from the one he used to fight the troll. Originally, 4 thin blades wasattached to it, but now all of them were severed. Instead, there was one very sturdy looking steel nail fixed on the knuckle of his middle finger. It was also the same for his left gauntlet.
This was a custom weapon made at the request of Benitez. His forethought about Dok-gosong allowed him to make it. He thought this would be a solution to facing off against the ogre.

“I don’t understand it. Instead of a pick, four blades should be better….” (TLN: this is Benitez speaking)

Benitez thought it was strange, but he decided to acquiesce to his request. If one is on death row, then even a big request would be granted.
After the weapon was made, Dok-gosong was inserted immediately into the arena, and they were waiting for his match with the ogre to start.

While he was being nervous, the last steel door finally started to slowly open. As if it was waiting, one could vaguely see a large shape across the door and it was violently hitting the door.

Boom.

Accompanying a lot of dust, the steel door trembled. The thick steel door was swinging as if it was about to fall off from the impact. One could guess how strong the monster’s strength was from this display.

“If I get hit once, then I’ll immediately face the King of Hell.”

After muttering in a low voice, Dok-gosong silently waited for the ogre to enter his cell. The unknown existence called ogre finally stepped in front of Dok-gosong, and its massive body was displayed.

Kwah-ooh-ooh-ooh.

After witnessing the ogre’s appearance, Dok-gosong’s eyes became large as a lamps. (TLN: the round asian paper lamps)

“What in the world…”

The ogre’s appearance was so strange that it made him question if a creature like that really exists on the face of the world. At a glance, the ogre looked very frightening.
First, Dok-gosong couldn’t understand how it had two heads. If it was a normal animal then there would usally be one head that contained its brain. The ogre shattered that universal idea, and it had two heads. By looking at the movement of each pair of eyes, one could tell that each head thought and made decisions independent of each other.

The ogre that ran in started looking around the surrounding with bulging eyes. The blood shot eyes looked over him, and without realizing it he felt a chill. After realizing the fact that there wasn’t anything except Dok-gosong inside the cell, the ogre’s eyes were rapidly filled with blood colored luster. This was caused by none other than its appetite.
The ogre was starved for a week to prepare for this battle. This inevitably caused it to be very ferocious. Once it found a prey, it mindlessly ran forth. It ran extremely fast for its size.
The ogre held an enormous club, and one could say it was comparable to a building’s pillar. It roared and the outrageous weapon was aimed at Dok-gosong’s body.