chapter 114

The wooden bridge that connected to the forest region was replaced with a assembly type steel bridge. It’s said that the Engineering Corps completed it in four days.

As expected, there was nothing that didn’t work out if the army was involved.

First, the 250 military trucks passed and our van followed behind to cross the bridge.

There was a small guard post next to the bridge where soldiers with guns and a few hunters were standing by.

It seems they were on lookout so that the Chungho Group cannot cross from that side.

They wouldn’t be able to catch the ones that cross the river though.

“We will be inspecting for a bit.”

Once all the military trucks passed the soldiers holding guns approached.

It seems they will be thoroughly checking since the situation is how it is.

They starting the inspection from the vehicles in the front and it seemed they were doing an inspection of the vehicle’s inside and confirming the passenger’s ID and face.

“This looks like it will take some time.”

Park Han-bum said while yawning. Soo-ah slightly frowned.

“Wait…… aren’t they doing a ID check? Edward doesn’t have one.”

“Ah, now that you mention it.”

It hadn’t even been that long since Edward came to this side. Of course he didn’t have something like an ID.

“An ID you say. What’s that?”

“Ah, damn it. This is going to be annoying.”

There was a battle right ahead of them so there was no way bribes would work. Everyone’s sight landed on Edward.

“Why are you all looking at me like that? And what’s an ID?”

He said with a displeased look.

It was possible to somehow get past the fact that the inside was wider than the outside.

It was pretty amazing but since space expansion existed for things like bags as well it was possible to gloss over it. However, that wasn’t the same for Edward.

I asked him.

“How long can you stay as a shadow?”

“About 5 minutes.”

Would it be enough with that?”

“I don’t think it will be enough.”

Han Joon-suk shook his head. It was not like turning into a shadow made him completely transparent and turning into a bat would be plenty suspicious.

It was a problem to turn back now too. That would be pretty suspicious as well after all.

“Could you get out of the car please?”

A soldier shouted at the half open window. It was not a situation where we could stall for time.

“Just get off.”

Edward let out a laugh.

“Where are you getting such confidence?”

“Don’t worry, go and get this ID check or whatever. I will do what I can in here.”

“…… okay.”

Looks like he had an idea.

For now, everybody got out of the car while leaving Edward behind.

The ID check went without a problem but the problem was checking the inside of the van.

Two soldiers went in the van and came out before 1 minute passed.

“There are no problems. You are free to go.”

“Yes? Yes. Thank you.”

Once we entered, we could see Edward leaning on a chair with a proud look on his face.

We started going for now. Once we crossed the bridge I asked him a question.

“What in the world happened?”

“You didn’t forget who I am did you?”

“Vampire…… Ah, did you make those soldiers your servants?”

“I didn’t bite them so don’t worry. If we’re separated by a certain distance it should get cancelled so that won’t be a problem either.”

It was a good thing that it was a normal soldier instead of a hunter.

A large monkey got sent flying after crashing into the van.

Yeon-gyeong’s shoulders shook.

“Party leader, just, just now…… that was a monster right?”

“Yep.”

“Is it fine to keep driving?”

“It’s fine. But more importantly…….”

Wasn’t she hugging that too tightly.

“That guy will die suffocating.”

“Ah, sorry. I hugged you too strongly right?”

Yeon-gyeong took Kelby off of her chest. This envious bastard.

The forest became more dense. The road gradually became narrow enough that the van couldn’t pass so the speed started falling.

“Ahhh!”

A large tree was hit by the van and broke. Cho Young-gu shouted with a loud voice.

“How far you going to go?”

“There’s a lake if we go a few more kilometers.”

I spread the map open. If we wanted to hunt while staying at one place then water was a necessity. Drinking water was lacking as well but we needed to be able to wash.

The other reason is that there are monsters where water is.

“There doesn’t seem to be a road though? Is it really fine to just keep driving?”

“It’s fine. There is some impact but it won’t get broken.”

I have mentioned this before but items were strong against this kind of physical impact.

No matter how strong and big a tree is it was possible to crush it under the van with enough speed.

If we travelled so loudly then monsters would be attracted too.

Once we drove while crushing dozens of trees we could see a small lake.

We could also hear something running at us from behind.

The sound of Giant Monkeys could be heard as well. They were all monsters following the van we were riding.

Through the sound I could tell that there were at least dozens. I turned my head in this and that direction and started talking.

“Should we start with some basic warm ups?”

2 meter high Giant Monkeys showed themselves on top of the trees.

Their numbers were approximately twenty. Although the same monkey type they were smaller than the Mukamuka, and they had low strength but had good organization while also using spears made from sharpening wood.

It could not be looked down on just because it was made of wood as they had the strength to pierce steel plates.

What came stomping below was the monster boar.

I think it’s official name was Buskato. (Kyle: pronounced boos-kah-tow.)

The shiny outer skin was tougher than steel and its molar pointed up more than 1 meter.

What made this special was that it could change its direction mid charge.

If you look down on it because it’s just a boar then you might get impaled by its meter long molar. There were about 20 of these things as well.

However, they were still just level 3 monsters. In the past I would have trembled in fear but it was different now.

“Manager Kim please use Sleep and go straight into the van!”

“Can’t I just use the spell in the van?”

“That seems fine too.”

For now, all the combat members including me got off the van. The ones left inside were only Manager Kim and Edward.

He had an awkward expression being left with a vampire but I gave him the new sword that I bought to relieve him.

It was the level 8 sword.

It shined with light and seemed sharp enough to cut a stack of paper but it was actually closer to a machete on top of only having a single edge so it was difficult to call it a sword.

It had nicks everywhere and rust could be seen in places too. It had a blade length of 1 meter and was quite thick so the weight was pretty heavy as well.

“Is that really a level 8 item?”

Soo-ah placed Thor’s Hammer on her shoulder.

Looking at her holding it with relative ease even though it’s a heavy weapon it looks like I did well to sell it to her.

“It is. Also, the appearance isn’t everything about weapons.”

“But since you were buying one why not buy one that looks cool.”

“Is that why you’re not changing the Arachne armor?”

“N, no?”

Maybe due to being flustered even her ears became red. It seemed to be true looking at this reaction.

“Whatever. If you get even a small wound then your armor will immediately be replaced so just know that.”

“I don’t even have money.”

“You’ll have money to buy it by the end of this expedition. They’re coming!”

The monkeys were screaming with their unique harmony. Wooden spears poured down on our team.

“Get behind me!”

Cho Young-gu took a step forward and activated the barrier. The barrier spread by a level 5 shield couldn’t be compared to the one from before in terms of both area and protection ability.

The wooden spears were deflected without even being able to leave a scratch on the barrier. The level was different in the first place.

Park Han-bum’s Hand Cannon spewed out fire.

The projectile was steel coated in chrome. The projectile with a diameter of 5 centimeters struck the Armdri tree the monkeys were on. (Kyle: Pronounced ah-rhm-dree in original.)

With the sound like that of a balloon popping the tree trunk was destroyed.

The monkeys made loud noises as they jumped to a another tree from the falling tree.

While they were in chaos Yeon-gyeong and Han Joon-suk shot arrows.

And Manager Kim who finally finished casting the spell used Sleep.

“Fall asleep!”

The level 5 wide area Sleep spell fell on the monkeys and boars.

The monsters that were covered in shining golden powder shook their heads trying to regain conscience.

However, it was a spell that had at least 2 levels of difference. It was not at the level where they could easily recover.

Sway.

Thud!

The total number of monkeys that fell off the trees were 5. The number of boars that fell asleep in place were 6.

He talked too much and annoyed me with his grumbling but in any case his crowd control always did it’s job right.

The remaining boars all charged at Cho Young-gu.

“Uraaa!”

He held the shield tightly and expanded a barrier once more.

As the boars continuously crashed into the shield Cho Young-gu’s body slowly started getting pushed back.

However, it was not nearly enough to break the barrier. The archers that got strength from their trusty defense expert Cho Young-gu shot arrows as much as they could. Manager Kim who was still in the van shot the needle gun behind them.

“Ah, damn. They don’t get hit at all.”

I wonder if it was really a good idea to give that to Manager Kim.

In the time I was thinking about that, Soo-ah came while swinging her hammer.

“I’m going!”

Her short shout got weirdly bent at the end. Was this called the Doppler Effect. She sure was fast.

She rushed through the boars swinging her hammer mercilessly.

The level 5 Thor’s Hammer lit up and electrocuted the boars that seemed to be wearing metal armor.

It seemed fine to leave those to Soo-ah. The ones left were the monkeys.

“Leave the monkeys to me!”

“Yes sir!”

Soo-ah who had been running like lightning suddenly stopped and saluted me. She sure is carefree.

I was shout at her not to do unnecessary things and jump forward when the monkeys suddenly hid their hands behind them. I was wondering what they were going to do when.

They started pooping as a group.

“Uaa! What are those things doing??”

Cho Young-gu who was looking at all that fell back while being disgusted.

Yeon-gyeong’s expression became pale.

“Ahh…… it’s disgusting.”

“Retreat for now. If it even grazes you you’ll be poisoned.”

It didn’t just look disgusting and was actually a extremely bacterial poison water.

It was a scary weapon that once hit it would first melt clothes and skin before poisoning and if you didn’t get treatment within 10 minutes you would die.

“I will go.”

Jong Sa-won who tapped the ground a few times soon started running.

He was slower than Soo-ah but he was flexible and swift which allowed him to avoid the feces the monkeys were throwing.

Instead of climbing the tree, he cut down the tree in one swing with his newly bought level 5 longsword.

The number of trees he cut down continuously numbered 5.

The monkeys tried to desperately jump to another tree but in that time Han Joon-suk’s Dragon Breath hit them directly.