Chapter 83

— Pull on the chains!

If El Quero made it back to the lake, all their efforts thus far would be in vain.

Hwa Yeon and Hyun Mo quickly ran up and took hold of the chains.

— Ugh! How can he possess this much strength…

— Are you sure we can really kill him? Why is he still so strong?!

El Quero, dragging the four people behind him, moved quickly towards the lake.

It suddenly seemed that the monster was even stronger than it was at the start.

He possessed abnormal strength on land despite being a water-based monster.

‘Is this how we’re going to lose him?’ Waves of anxiety washed over Kang Yu.

The pain along the wounds on his hands and arms stung more than ever.

If he could use the Power of a Thousand, perhaps he wouldn’t be struggling so much.

But he couldn’t.

— Hold on tight!

Young-ju began to enforce the chains with Maryok, and the chains, wrapped tightly around El Quero, lit up with a red glow.

— Aah!

— Come on…

The monster jerked with even greater force and, overflowing with hatred, he let out a piercing roar. Black energy was pouring from the less wounded half of his body, ready to explode.

Magi.

Kang Yu frowned seeing this.

The energy the monster emitted was unmistakably Magi.

‘What is happening?’

He couldn’t understand what was going on. There was no time for him to carefully analyze the situation.

‘Will we lose him?’ Kang Yu thought, noticing how El Quero had almost reached the water.

He bit his lip.

He had no ideas left to resolve this crisis.

‘Leave it to me, Kang Yu.’Echidna’s voice echoed in his ears.

Emitting blue light, her body began to return to its original gigantic form.

Now standing at a height almost equal to El Quero, Echidna swung her tail, knocking the monster back.

— Calm down a bit!

Kang Yu expected nothing less from a real dragon.

Returning to her original size, Echidna had more than enough strength to block El Quero’s path.

The monster, thrown to the ground, floundered from side to side, desperately trying to escape.

Blood flowed again from the large wounds all over his body. Echidna swung her tail at him once more. Suffering another blow, he was visibly shaken.

The growls he made gradually quieted to a stop, and his previously frightening glare grew dim.

Kang Yu received a series of notifications.

[You have successfully destroyed El Quero, boss of the Level S Gate.]

[You get bonus experience points for defeating an enemy.]

[You’ve gained a lot of experience points.]

[Once you have overcome your limit, you will receive all accumulated points at once.]

These notifications were definitive proof that the monster was dead.

‘Even with this, I couldn’t take care of the Level 59 problem.’

Kang Yu stepped back with slight disappointment, and turned to the other Players.

Right now, there was something more important than overcoming ‘Effort’s End.’

— What was that just now?

— I have no idea… — Young-ju slowly shook her head, her eyes wide.

El Quero’s fury near the end of the battle was unaccounted for.

For as long as Kang Yu has hunted, this was the first time a monster was able to continue the battle even after being cut in half.

— Maybe it’s a special unknown feature of El Quero? — Young-ju suggested, tilting her head to the side.

Among the Gate monsters, there were many whose features were inexplicable or simply unknown.

This could very well be the case with El Quero, since no one had ever managed to catch him.

— I don’t think so. — Kang Yu shook his head, narrowing his eyes.

— Why not?

— I got a kill bonus. If my spear wasn’t what killed him, I shouldn’t have been able to get that bonus.

— But all of us saw that El Quero only died after Echidna hit him with her tail…

— That means…

— We need to check.

Approaching the monster’s corpse, he examined where the Magi was coming from.

It was located in the region of his brain.

— Something’s shining…

He dug into the monster’s brain, grabbing what he saw and pulling it out.

It was a gem the size of two fingers. Magi was trapped inside the stone.

‘What is this?’

It was the first time Kang Yu had seen such a stone.

It resembled a mana stone, instead containing Magi.

But there was an obvious difference in color – it was black, giving the impression that it was created artificially.

‘It’s too perfect.’

Compared to the unsightly mana stones with rough edges, this black, perfectly smooth stone looked out of place.

Which is why Kang Yu suspected it was not created naturally.

‘Is this why El Quero was even wilder than expected?’

Kang Yu believed so.

— What is that, Kang Yu?

— I have no idea.

Frowning, he studied the black stone in his hands.

He even tried using the Power of the Observer, but could not learn any information except that it was actually Magi inside the stone.

He carefully examined the dead body once more. After reviewing the area of the brain he’d discovered the stone, he realized something.

‘Originally, there shouldn’t have been a stone here at all.’

There were clear traces that someone had implanted the stone.

Kang Yu’s eyes flashed.

He went through all the possible options in his head.

And soon enough, he figured out who could have put the black stone in El Quero’s brain.

— I think I’m starting to understand, — he murmured.

Young-ju cast him a questioning glance.

— Understand what?

— I’m not exactly sure, but there’s a good chance that the Devil’s Teachers did this.

— The Devil’s Teachers?

Young-ju’s gaze immediately changed, glowing with overwhelming malice.

— What do you mean?

— This black stone was clearly implanted in the monster’s head. And what’s more, it contains Magi. As far as we know, only the Devil’s Teachers know how to deal with Magi.

Magi, unlike Maryok, was not so easy to get.

There was no one else on Earth aside from the Devil’s Teachers and Kang Yu who were well informed about Magi.

— Hmm…

Kang Yu stared down at the black stone with interest.

The Magi in it was drawn to his fingertips.

Within moments, Kang Yu pulled the Magi out of the stone, applying the Power of the Devourer.

[You have absorbed pure power.]

[Magi increased by 3 units.]

Coupled with the notifications, Kang Yu felt a new wave of Magi spread through his body.

His eyes widened.

‘Three units at once…?’

Now, even without the Black Pearl Coat’s effects, he had 83 units of Magi.

Over the past three days, he’d managed to kill about a hundred giant orcs and absorbed all their power, and still he did not receive even a single unit of Magi.

His struggle these past few days perfectly demonstrated to him exactly how difficult it was to increase his stats at his current level.

And yet, in an instant, he’d been able to acquire as many as 3 units of Magi.

‘Wow…’

Kang Yu’s lips stretched into a broad smile.

He felt thirsty for power. The use of the Death Spear had drained him.

And the Magi he just received was like a sip of cool water in an arid desert.

Still, he could not imagine why the Devil’s Teachers planted such a ‘surprise’ in El Quero.

It was also not clear why or how they had gained pure Magi and put it into this form.

‘How nice of them.’

It was thanks to this ‘pure power’ that Kang Yu could now enjoy a burst of energy after overexerting himself.

Given that he was still unable to overcome Level 59, the Magi he received would likely play an important role later.

‘Hmm. Surely they couldn’t have left only one gift, right?’

Kang Yu licked his lips expectantly.

With his appetite suddenly awakened, to him, the Devil’s Teachers were now less like people and more like the name of a restaurant that smelled of fragrant dishes.

***