Just as I had expected, another group of the bloodthirsty insects arrived. Something was odd about them, though. They seemed to be in a state of panic. One of them had tried to attack me with their sharp claws, and I managed to effortlessly block their attack before it could reach me.
Suddenly, a huge yet nimble lance came out of nowhere and penetrated through the insect's head. A flickering figure appeared in front of the lance and grabbed it to start helping me slay these insects in the crater.
I acted quickly and swung my greatsword at the insect behind me as the figure stabbed the lance through one insect to another and pinning them into the ground.
While they pulled out the lance from the disintegrating bodies of the insect, I caught a brief look of their face. The mysterious flickering figure was none other than Chaewon-ssi. The same man that me and Jiyoon-ssi met at a train a few days ago. But, how'd he get strong in just a few days?
I suddenly felt a strong force coming behind me, and I dematerialized the greatsword to use my sword in order to act faster. I ducked, barely dodging the attack, and swung my sword at the insect behind me before materializing my greatsword again.
There were still a lot of these screeching insects to deal with inside this deep crater we were standing on, and I had to deal with this as fast as I can. No, actually, I can just fight here, and head back to the building once the sun rises in a few more hours.
"Hey, get out of here. I'll take care of these monsters myself." Chaewon-ssi suddenly landed beside me with his lance on the side.
"Huh? Tryna hoard all the coins away? I'm not running away." I snarled back at him. I would have ran away, but I thought one of the ways to unlock the root skill was to unlock every skill.
Speaking of the root skill, I remembered about wondering who caused this massive explosion. Perhaps, it was Chaewon-ssi himself that caused the massive explosion. Ah, the greatsword must be his, but, he never said anything about it yet.
"I thought you'd be at Ulsan? What happened to the other people with you on the train? Did they make it to Ulsan?" I asked him while an insect comes at me with the very intent to kill. The insect was about to strike me down with its claw, and I slammed it to the ground with the greatsword.
"They all died. And I couldn't do anything for them. Even the child entrusted to me, died in front of me." Chaewon-ssi answered and pierced through the chest of the monster with his lance.
"Oh. That's bad." I replied not even shocked about their death. I had already expected two of them to die. One was an elder woman and a child.
Another group of insects arrived again while the two of us had a coversation. I used [ Stormeye ] again to gather at least 8 of the insects in a certain location, and followed it with a quick circular slash with the greatsword, slicing through their bodies in half.
It took both of us a while before we could deal with all the bloodthirsty insects that were there, and once we finished, we continued our conversation.
"What happened to the woman you were with?" Chaewon-ssi asked and killed the last insect.
"Jiyoon-ssi's still alive. She's just with a group right now and I separated with them. I just went to go see what could have caused this explosion." I answered back and Chaewon-ssi looked like he saw what happened. I might be right about him being the cause of the explosion.
"You probably won't find anything here. All that's here is monsters." He said, nonchalantly. It seemed like he wanted me to leave the crater. As if he was hiding something.
"Judging from the way you said it, you must've seen something happened here. Am I right?" I asked again.
"No. Something fiery... just fell from the sky. I never caught a glimpse of it. I only saw it hit the ground before it was followed by that explosion." Chaewon-ssi explained to me what he saw, and it sounds believable to me. Perhaps, the fallen object was the greatsword.
It would sound true to me if the greatsword was the fallen object. As for Chaewon-ssi, it wouldn't seem plausible. This just looks like a normal greatsword with a great design after the fiery red light faded away into a dull color of red, and it's hardly glowing.
But, if this greatsword was the fallen object and I found this in the middle of the crater, how come Chaewon-ssi didn't see this thing? It's literally big enough and stabbed to the ground.
"Did you find something here earlier while I was away? This was a sea of flames when I left to go get a group of people away from the crater." He asked, right on the spot. Maybe this greatsword really was the fallen object that caused such a huge explosion. Before I got here, this greatsword was probably emitting huge amounts of flames until it got weaker when I arrived.
"Yeah, I found this greatsword which looks pretty rare if you ask me." I showed him the greatsword I picked up, but I didn't intend to tell him that this might be the object he was looking for. Even if I did, I don't think it would make much of a difference since he looks like the type of guy to not take what other people owns.
"It is rare if it managed to survive the explosion and probably hour of burning in hot flames. You're lucky you found it." He replied. Half of my brain was actually thinking he would suspect this was the fallen object.
"You've got a group to fight with?" I asked Chaewon-ssi. I might sound concerned, but it's just for a selfish reason.
"That's not necessary. If I were to die, I'd like to die alone." Chaewon-ssi answered. Seems like his companions before dying took a toll on his mind. He either didn't want to feel responsible for someone's death or just didn't want people to feel responsible for his death.
"Have it your way, then. It's more better to be in groups, though. I've got to go now, that I've seen what happened here. If we ever get in a trial where we need groups, feel free to ask me." I told Chaewon-ssi and he might consider doing so.
"I'll think about it." He replied with a small nod.
As I walked away and dematerialize the greatsword, Chaewon-ssi stood there almost as if he was frozen. He must be thinking about something. I didn't even notice it, but a curved, wicked smile appeared on my face. It was a great thing that I wasn't facing Chaewon-ssi. He might have not considered teaming up with me.
I figured Chaewon-ssi be useful in a team. He like pretty strong person now. I can make use of his trauma and guilt as an advantage to turn him into a tool that would protect me and anyone else I need. However, I'll let him be for now. I don't know how many trials do we have to do, but it'll probably get harder every trial. A trial would some day come where this guy would need a team.
Anyways, I'm still trying to find out how to awaken these damn stones on this greatsword. Although, I have a feeling this would kill me if I were to unleash my true power, so I should get stronger for now at least.