chapter 144

Our party settled down on top of a hill where the base could be seen.

The reason we were standing by here was simple. We were planning on interfering once the government team and Chungho Group begin battling.

I called my party members together and gave a run down of our plan.

The content was simple.

“Once the battle begins and some time passes, the government team will begin to lose. Once the situation seems to become a bit bad, we will attack with the monster army.

“You think the government team will be pushed back?”

Soo-ah asked. I nodded my head.

“Their individual abilities are outstanding. However, the Chungho Group has made plenty of preparations while the government team didn’t. On top of that, looking at how Joo Sae-yoon is trying to do a meritorious deed no matter what, there is a high possibility they will be done in while being rash.”

“The Chungho Group might do a small scale battle instead of an all out frontal battle. If it becomes like that then it will difficult for us to interfere.”

“What do you think the Chungho Group’s number one priority is?”

“Not sure. That is. To take the forest region right?”

“To do so annihilating the government team is counterproductive. They are trying to get as many captives as possible to negotiate. And the greatest negotiation target is none other than An Gyu-bum.”

I was able to tell by talking with An Gyu-bum. An Gyu-bum was the highest priority protection target of the alternative service team.

If he got caught then the government had no choice but to ask for a negotiation by biting the bullet.

That’s why they had rashly run away in the last battle.

It wasn’t hard to infer the reason he was still participating in the battle. The seat known as the GE Group’s heir wasn’t that easy to look down upon after all.

That large company had dozens of potential heirs and the one with the most noticeable achievements would take the seat.

An Gyu-bum was in a tight spot where he had to slowly step up towards the course as a heir and this battle could become the touchstone to that.

I continued.

“That’s why the Chungho Group will do a head on collision to catch the government team as captives. To do that there is a high chance they will pick this place, the government team’s base as the battlefield.”

After completing my words I looked up at the far sky. There were dozens of eagles flying in the sky.

If the Chungho Group’s movements are found then they will immediately inform me.

The next day.

As expected, the Chungho Group started moving.

The enemy’s location could clearly be seen to us who were hiding on top of the hill.

Yeon-gyeong had eyes full of surprise as she opened her mouth.

“How many in the world are there?”

“Not sure…… there seems to be more than I estimated.”

My estimated Chungho Group members was about 6,000 to 7,000.

But the number of enemies that we could see from here seemed to be much more than that. Jong Sa-won who usually didn’t speak much looked around a bit and slowly opened his mouth.

“It seems to be about 10,000.”

10,000.

It was a number that was more than 3 times higher than the original estimate of 3,000. On top of that, if the ones that died were added, then they were originally around 12,000.

I started thinking that we looked down on the Chungho Group too much.

Han Joon-suk’s expression was not good.

“This won’t be as doable as we thought.”

“Certainly. I was thinking that we might be able to win with relative ease if you appropriately hit them from behind.”

I was thinking about fighting in the same method as before. We were able to divert the enemies to win back then after all. However, with this many it was not an easy thing to do.

I started thinking that it would be impossible to win while saving items.

Han Joon-suk opened his mouth.

“How many monsters do you currently have?”

“About 400.”

I had already lost a fair number of them in the last battle. There was no doubt that they would melt down in front of a huge army like that.

“There’s too little I see.”

“If I used all the items I have right now then up to 2,400 should be possible.”

“You have an entire 2,000 items?”

Soo-ah looked at me in surprise.

“However, it’s not enough with just that.”

2,400 monsters was a massive force. Even so, it was difficult to compare to the Chungho Group.

It was because most of the monsters were below level 3. It would be possible to shake the tide of the battle for a while with the element of surprise but victory could not be assured.

“How about we just run away?”

Manager Kim said. Han Joon-suk shook his head.

“If we left the government team like this then they will be annihilated.”

“They’re not even related to us. If they lose here then the government won’t stay still right. They will bring level 10 hunters or something to take care of them. If they are trying to capture them as team leader said then they won’t kill them all either. Even if the forest region goes over to them it’s not that important to us.”

“Didn’t you get enraged when I said so last time? Saying that the back is uneasy.”

Soo-ah said.

“At that time. There was a chance that we could win. This time, retreating is the only answer.”

“What will you do?”

Han Joon-suk asked me. This was deeply troubling. Thinking about it logically, retreating from here was the answer as Manager Kim said.

It might be a better idea to retreat and explore ruins.

There was no need for me to risk my life to expand the Korean borders a bit more.

“We will move as planned.”

However, I decided to charge in as it is.

There were several reasons. Largely, the fact that the swamp region is put into risk of being taken over as well if the forest region is given; the minor reason being that Son Aram and Park Chan-hyeong’s younger brother was in the government team.

Of course, this was just an excuse.

The greatest reason was still the fact that the Chungho Group looked like a treasure chest in my eyes. If I could pulverize them then the number of items I can get will be several times more than now.

“Urg…… I really think this isn’t right.”

“Manager Kim. So are you not going to?”

“I don’t know. I’m only going to use Sleep from the van.”

The original party members already knew how to move as I wanted.

I headed to team 2. Including Park Chan-hyeong who left government team 1 to follow me, team 2 had a total of 12 people.

Jang Moon-bok opened his mouth with a trembling voice.

“Are we fighting with those guys?”

“Yeah. Can you do it?”

Gulp.

It was to the point that I could see the cold sweat flowing down. The number 10,000 was intimidating to that degree, surpassing all imagination. It’s to the point that I’m thinking whether I can win against them or not after all.

“I will do it.”

However, Jang Moon-bok nobly nodded his head. To be honest, I was a bit surprised. It was a situation where it wasn’t weird for him to run away.

“Good. Then right now, take off all your items.”

“Yes?”

“You have to fight while risking your life so you can’t fight in that.”

Team 2’s items were all upgraded to level 4. It was only went up by one level but it can be said that it was much stronger than before.

I had invested quite a bit. I couldn’t let the ones that follow me die in vain after all.

“Thank you.”

Park Chan-hyeong’s eyes glistened with tears. This guy had a younger brother in the government team so he would have fought to the death either way.

Also, the rest of the items were used to summon monsters.

Now the number of monsters on me numbered 2,400.

It could now truly be called an army of monster. However, I still thought that it wasn’t enough with just this number.

However, I did not have any more items.

If I excluded items I was using that is.

– Will you sacrifice the level 8 Hunter Greatsword to summon a monster.

A green message appeared in front of my eyes.

I pressed accept and chose Black Tiger as the monster type.

A 4 meter long giant Black Tiger appeared in front of me.

Everybody got surprised as they hurriedly got back.

“A, a Black Tiger? How?”

The one that was most surprised was Soo-ah. She had personally fought it with her sword she knew best how terrifying it was.

“I summoned it. It’s a level 8.”

“Wow…… You had a level 8 equipment?”

“Yeah. My weapon.”

“The Hunter Greatsword? You used that? My god. That 25b worth…….”

“I didn’t even use it much anyway.”

My main weapons were the Dancing Sword and the Bloody Sword.

I had determined that since the weapons performed as well as a level 10 with Aura Blade there was no need for the Hunter Greatsword in particular.

Also, thinking about efficiency, a level 8 monster was better than a level 8 equipment. A powerful monster would definitely have greater presence in a large scale battle like this than a single weapon.

Uohhh!

The Chungho Group that surrounded the base shouted loudly. We felt coercion that made even us who were on the hill tremble.

“The base has been completely surrounded. It seems like they’re not letting a single one escape.”

“Can’t they just stall for time like this? They probably don’t have much supplies left anyway.”

Soo-ah said.

“If it became like that then there is a high chance support troops would come. Even if our country doesn’t have many hunters, they can’t afford to lose the entire government team after all. They might go all out and deploy a large raid team. A Mercenary level raid team would be able to wipe out that number in an instant you see.”

“Are Mercenary that strong?”

“They have 10 level 10 hunters after all.”

From what is known to the outside, it is true. Team Mercenary’s had a total of about 5,000 people. 10 among them were level 10. If even half of them came, the battle could be completely turned over even with a difference in numbers.

However, the problem was that level 10 hunters did not move easily.

Hunters at that level didn’t take orders from the nation. It was impossible to move them with money too. The equipment of a level 10 hunter alone amounted to several 100b at the very least.

They were humans that didn’t even listen to suggestions that didn’t give an amount at the 100b level.

Because of that, the nation level powers had no choice but to do their best not to displease them. If they did something wrong by any chance and went to another country then it would be a huge loss to the nation after all.

That’s why, they had to bow down to them even with them just staying in this country.

From their eyes, this kind of fight would only be seen as a fight at the level of kindergarteners. They wouldn’t even want to fight in such a battle personally.

The only reason they would be able to come as support is because of An Gyu-bum. He was still one of the potential heirs to the GE Group and the GE Group had a raid team called Galaxy Extreme after all.

Soo-ah nodded her head.

“That’s envious. To have so many level 10s. We only have one.”

“One?”

I was wondering what she was talking about and noticed she was looking at me.

“I’m not a level 10.”

“You have Aura Blade.”

“With just a single skill…… I can bet my life’s savings that I would lose in ten seconds against a real level 10.”

“Hm…… I don’t think so though.”

“That’s because you never saw a real level 10 fight before.”

“Seonbae oppa has seen it before?”

“Just once.”

I have seen Lee Hui-seung’s battle once. There was a time an irregular appeared once while I was going to a shopping center holding my mother’s hand.

Very luckily, that person wa there. He killed the dozen or so monster with his bare hands like he was killing insects.

Of course, the current me would be able to recreate that scene. However, I would not be able to do so cleanly without having no one in the shopping center hurt and without a bit of damage to the shopping center’s structures.

That was almost at the realm of gods.

“Either way, the one that’s at a disadvantage as time goes on is the Chungho Group. Most likely tomorrow or even today, they will start attacking.”

I carefully inspected the Chungho Group’s movements.

Han Joon-suk was inspecting the enemy base since some time ago. His Optical Ruby Ring was upgraded to a level 5 unlike mine.

Unless blocked by trees or other obstacles, he should be able to see like he was right to the place.

“It seems they are resting for now but looking at how they are maintaining their weapons it seems they are going to go straight into battle.”

“Then we should prepare as well.”

In that situation, even Joo Sae-yoon wouldn’t be able to rashly go out of the wooden barricade. This place’s wooden barricade was of course made more properly than the place he was trapped in. However, it still had a limit of how long it could last against a large scale army of hunters.

That level of wooden barricade could be knocked down by a level 3 with a sword or spear after all. Even if the defensive wall was sturdy with two three layers it would quickly be destroyed.

I called Son Aram.

– Sang-min?

“The situation doesn’t seem very good right now but how is the atmosphere inside?”

– It’s not that bad.

It was unexpected. I thought they would be scared shitless looking at the sheer numbers.

“That’s good then.”

– I think it’s thanks to General Eum Young-hyeon. Also, our forces have been preserved better than we thought too.

I nodded my head at her words.

I have been thinking that that man was doing well but it seems he had quite some ability in maintaining morale.

If the overall general was not Joo Sae-yoon but Eum Young-hyeon then there would have been time to spare even after destroying the Chungho Group.

Also, thinking about it another way, the government team casualties only numbered 500.

On the other hand, the Chungho Group had about 200 casualties. Of course, that was an achievement that wouldn’t have been possible without me but it was a clear fact that the basic comparison of casualty ratio was 4:1.

It seems Eum Young-hyeon had encouraged the hunters using that.

It might be that they were thinking that they could win the enemies over two times their numbers if they relied on the wooden barricade. Of course, it didn’t look like that at all from the outside.