Survival Story of a Sword King - Chapter 144

Know thy enemy and know thy self. (3)

The unidentified Aliens suddenly appeared and confronted the Holy Punishers.

That was how the Kingdom of Allendia explained their emergence.

They’re connected to the recent ‘High-Level Aliens Outbreak’ on the continent!

Hollien, the Fairy Queen and Transcendental, directly overpowered them and enslaved them so that they could stabilize the continent and punish sinners accordingly!

It sounded quite reasonable.

It was similar to the Aliens’ appearance under the Fairy Kingdom Army and the decrease in the frequency of the Aliens’ appearance in various parts of the continent.

Of course, some of them suspected, ‘If it were a Goddess’s oracle, wouldn’t those Aliens be the subordinates of the Transcendental right from the beginning?’

However, they didn’t dare say those words out loud.

Regardless, it was clear that the appearance of high-level Aliens had subsided considerably.

On the other hand, the night’s big changes continued throughout the continent.

* * *

In the early days of the big changes, the Latnains were desolated.

But at that moment, it was different.

The Sinkers, the Mage Guild headquarters, had studied the night’s big change with all their might and made quite a few achievements.

The hypothesis of the Sinkers was as followed:

The night’s big change was caused by cracks in the night, which was controlled by Kybriel of the darkness, one of the six Goddesses who defended the world.

Through the crack, the Alien world’s dimension, which Omphalos controlled, overlapped, and monsters intervened.

The dimension of the Alien world wasn’t fixed to Latna as surely as the dungeons.

Therefore, there was no such thing as the dungeon magic core or Artifacts at the deepest parts.

When the morning sun rose and Althea’s protection fell on the world, no more monsters would appear, and those who had already appeared would naturally disappear.

In other words, a temporary dungeon with a time limit had been created and disappeared.

Since they were able to understand that much, some measures were executed.

It was impossible to predict where the existing dungeons would appear.

The dungeons were the Omphalos’ outposts, and they appeared by forcibly destroying the Goddesses’ protection over Latna.

It was unpredictable because they didn’t know the criteria needed to be met to create a dungeon.

On the other hand, the night’s big change could be seen in advance.

They could check the areas where the darkness’s protection had become especially weak.

They didn’t know when the monsters would appear, but they could figure out where at the very least.

Everyone gathered their troops in advance and prepared for the night’s change.

Turricon Plains, south of Allendia, the Fairy Kingdom.

The meadow near the trading city Luge was the least protected by the Fairy Kingdom’s darkness, with vast numbers of monsters frequently appearing.

Luge, which was famous among merchants, had been driven to the verge of collapse.

The citizens, who were devastated and frightened, heard surprising news.

Hollien, the Fairy Queen, was coming forward to clear the Turricon Plains’ monsters!

The citizens went wild.

“The Fairy Queen is coming here!”

“Oh, my God! The Transcendental herself?”

“As expected, it was all false rumors! Damn Holy Punishers!”

“Long live the Queen!”

* * *

At the southern street of the trading city of Luge, a group of merchants was on their way.

Han-bin’s party disguised themselves and visited the city.

Two merchants with brown hair and a shaggy beard took the lead.

They were Leon Hart and Artis, who completely changed their impressions by wearing wigs and fake beards.

Kibie and Effir followed suit.

Both looked like humble countrywomen.

Kibie’s black hair was purposely made crumbly and tied tightly, while Effir wore a wig to completely cover her unique silver hair.

They wore a wide travel robe on top to hide their armor, and all their weapons were disguised as goods and carried on their backs. They looked no different from ordinary merchants.

Ryu Han-bin, on the other hand, was still armed.

Of course, he wasn’t dressed as a Valtara warrior.

He looked like a swordsman wearing cheap armor and a cape with a plain long sword on his waist.

Unlike other parties, he was too big.

In the Continental Three Powers, even Han-bin, who was more than 190 centimeters tall, wasn’t big enough to stand out, but he was still too robust to be a merchant.

Thus, he hid Gigant in the package of another group member and disguised himself as an escort for the group of ordinary merchants.

For merchants who traveled the rugged Latna trade route, the existence of powerful escorts was essential. Hence, he didn’t look out of place.

Ryu Han-bin murmured, glancing at the reactions around him.

“We must be in a pretty good disguise. Nobody’s suspicious of us.”

Artis replied in a low voice.

“We’ve gone through all that trouble to disguise ourselves. Oh, it’s simple to use magic.”

Some magic spells could change appearances.

Even Artis could use it because it didn’t require a high level.

Nevertheless, he intentionally disguised himself manually.

Any Mage of a higher level than the caster of the disguise spell might notice it, after all.

At that time, complete morphology, which ignored levels, wasn’t known yet except for the Dragons’ ‘human form.’

“But we can’t solve the human form now. I’ve leveled up to here to fit this body.”

The number of high-level Mages would be extremely small in Latna, but they had to be careful anyway because their opponent was the Transcendental.

They didn’t know how powerful the Mages she had were.

Ryu Han-bin seemed to like that method more.

‘It’s obvious. It’s been a while since I’ve dressed like a decent human being.’

He combed his hair neatly, and his skin was back to its original color.

He had to burn his skin frequently to maintain his status as a Valtara warrior in the past.

It would be a disaster if he just applied powder, and it got erased accidentally.

However, that changed when the Darkness Church supplied him with a special dye.

It was a comfortable item that could be used in combat because it couldn’t be erased by sweat or rainwater.

“Thanks to it, I no longer have to get a tan. Oh, honestly, I was scared of getting skin cancer.”

Artis tilted his head at Han-bin’s raggedness.

“I heard that Earth’s healing techniques are quite advanced, and you haven’t even gotten over cancer yet?”

In Latna, cancer wasn’t a very feared disease.

If they just checked cancer with fluoroscopy, cut out the part of cancer, and applied a healing skill on it, it would get better without difficulties.

It wasn’t hard to check and extract it.

Since there was a fraudulent capacity of spirituality, the surgical technique they used was something Earth couldn’t dare follow.

Of course, it was only doable by a high-level Spiritist, so those with low status and no money died without mercy.

Regardless, it wasn’t the first time that Artis had ignored Earth’s culture in that way.

Han-bin pouted.

“Oh, yeah, Latna’s great.”

Surprisingly, Leon Hart, the Spiritist, praised Earth’s medicine.

“Not necessarily. I heard that Earth had developed a lot of healing techniques for various diseases. Earthlings can also cure troublesome diseases like dysentery and pneumonia, right?”

Han-bin replied, recalling medicines such as penicillin.

“Well, there are antibiotics.”

Leon Hart asked, his eyes shining.

“Yeah, that one. How do you make a drug like that?”

Everything in the world had its pros and cons.

With the development of spiritual skills, Latna’s pharmacology lagged relatively far behind.

It was difficult to cure such bacterial or viral diseases with Spiritual skills.

Therefore, they used the method of directly overcoming his resistance by pouring healing techniques on patients.

“If you know, please teach me. I wasn’t close enough to the Aliens I’ve met so far to ask.”

Latna, where Earth’s people’s culture was generally ostracized, still secretly accepted useful knowledge.

Ryu Han-bin had a blank look as he gazed at Leon Hart.

‘How would I know how to make Penicillin?’

All Han-bin knew was how to make blue mold into penicillin.

“I’m not a medical professional, so I don’t have that knowledge!”

“Really? Too bad.”

“But Leon Hart, was there anyone else from Earth who made antibiotics besides me?”

“Didn’t I ask you because there’s nobody? If there were, the news would’ve spread across Latna.”

Han-bin felt awkward.

‘A lot of earthlings had been transported here already, yet not a single one’s a medical expert? That’s strange.’

What were the criteria the Devil Omphalos used to choose the right person?

‘Or maybe there were, but they all god killed?’

Meanwhile, the streets were becoming more and more crowded.

The number of people was unusually quite large.

Everyone gathered for the same purpose as Han-bin’s party.

To that street, the Fairy Queen of Allendia, Hollien, was on her way!

“I’ve never seen her in my life!”

“Of course! How can people like us ever see such a noblewoman in person?”

“Huh, this is a once-in-a-lifetime moment for me.”

“Hmm… I wonder if it’s really an honor. According to the recent news…”

“Shh! Watch your mouth. Do you want to die?”

Was it because the Goddess’s oracle had reduced the reputation of Hollien?

There were people that looked profane.

Still, most of them were in awe of Hollien and looked excited.

Han-bin and his party also waited calmly among the crowd.

Soon enough, a group of troops began to walk from the far side of the street.

* * *

Running down the street first, two servants shouted.

“Everyone, bow and scrape!”

“Queen Holien’s march approaches!”

After that, heavily armed soldiers marched in an orderly fashion.

A Spiritist and a Mage riding a wagon also passed by.

Han-bin and his group quickly got out of the crowd and hid in the back alley.

And they carefully observed the army across the street.

“Hasn’t the Fairy Queen arrived yet?”

“She’ll be in the back of the line because it’s the traditional protocol.”

After responding to Ryu Han-bin’s whispering, Leon Hart checked the skills of royal knights.

“Not bad. They’re all well-trained. According to their movements, they’re over level 60 on average.”

The soldiers were all regular soldiers, so they looked well into their mid to late level 40s.

The Spiritist and the Mage also seemed to be at the edge of level 60.

It was a fact that he guessed with only his senses.

Leon Hart wondered.

‘It’s not as high as I thought.’

Although they could be considered as regular troops, considering Hollien’s prestige, it wasn’t enough.

‘Did she deliberately exclude the elites to show off her power?’

That was a good sign.

He could get a glimpse of the real power of the Transcendental.

At the same time, Kibie was looking at Leon Hart from a different perspective.

“There’s no Dragon.”

Kibie, the creator of the Dragon race, could immediately recognize Dragons even if they were in human form.

Hence, she looked at the troops just in case, but there weren’t any Dragons in their ranks.

‘Well, doesn’t she have to bring them in?’

Hollien came out herself, but there was no reason to bring Ancient Dragons down, which would only further discredit herself.

Even if there were some, it wasn’t a big problem.

Kibie had a fraudulent item called the Polymorph Necklace.

Effir looked at Han-bin and asked a question.

“Are there any Aliens of Akhtarun?”

No one was seen wearing their unique armor.

However, it was impossible to confirm that they were just in disguise with normal eyes or skills.

Ryu Han-bin needed to use his Guideline to investigate them.

“Wait a little longer.”

Han-bin kept his attention focused on the troops.

The army of the Fairy Kingdom continued marching down the street.

A moment later, a four-horse coach carriage revealed itself.

The body had gold foil patterns, colorful wheels with elaborate decorations, yet its excessive decorations didn’t make it look vulgar.

Inside the carriage window, a beautiful nymph with blue hair waved to the people on the street.

Ryu Han-bin gulped down.

‘She’s showing up.’

It was Hollien, the most powerful Spiritist across all of Latna.