"Spirit Armor!"
WHHHHH!
Now my hands and feet fit together well.
The forest of the high elves, which had been camouflaged with beauty and peace, was burning fiercely.
When the Guardian and the Guardian's Shadow Soldiers began to fight the High Elves above, it was Sirka's job to control the
spirits that poured out through the High Elves' wounds.
Damn it!
The spirits that Sirka grabbed were immediately frozen and became armor and weapons for Sirka.
The sight of Sirka's back charging forward with even more confidence, using that strength as a stepping stone, was truly im
pressive.
But despite that, the spirits did not run away far, but rather wandered around Sirka, waiting for an opportunity.
It was natural.
How can I abandon my foolishness!
This fresh young elf came to me on his own two feet!
To the hungry spirits, Sirka was nothing compared to the old, emaciated high elves they had eaten.
A sudden external invasion?
That was no problem either.
As always, they trusted Elvenwood.
Kookookookookook!
'Has it started?'
Finally, Elvenwood, sensing the crisis, raised himself up.
An unusual earthquake occurred, shaking the ground beneath our feet.
The roots and vines of Elvenwood, buried deep in the ground, became intertwined.
Elvenwood gradually mutated into the form of an elf.
It's a sight that should no longer be called Elvenwood, but Wood Elf.
The giant tree monster swung its thick branches like a whip, wiping away the annoying shadow soldiers in one blow.
Cookies, cookies, cookies, cookies, cookies!
Overwhelming power!
In that one room, the entire earth was turned upside down, and the shadow soldiers were torn apart helplessly.
[Don't back down!]
But the Immortal Legion did not stop advancing.
A huge amount of mana flows in from the guardian.
A hot flame gushing from the dragon's heart.
Hurrruk!
The soldiers' torn bodies were stitched together with crimson steam.
The hot flames were like a natural enemy to Elvenwood.
Whether you attack or are attacked.
In any case, there is only one fate given to Elvenwood.
Grrrrrrrr!
All I could do was howl as I was engulfed in hot flames.
And only after seeing that sight do the spirits and high elves realize the danger.
But regret always comes too late.
From the beginning, it was their mistake to open the barrier because they were blinded by greed.
['Protection: Protection of Gluttony' increases experience points.]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
['Skill: Storm of Black Flame' level has increased.]
"Rescue the survivors!"
[yes!]
A sequence that has become familiar now.
Once the fighting was over, the Shadow Soldiers quickly began rescuing those buried underground in Elvenwood.
According to the information that Silad had obtained by squeezing Fores' soul, these people were the fertilizer that fattened
Elvenwood.
It was buried alive in the ground, its life force being sucked out by the tree roots.
Among them, there were both unawakened and awakened ones.
They were all living sacrifices offered to Elvenwood by high elves and spirits who hunted outside.
[Master! Everyone is still breathing!]
thank god.
Even though he was unconscious and had his life sucked out, he could have been saved somehow if he had still been alive.
Of course, it wasn't possible with a healing potion.
Healing potions only work on wounds sustained in battle, not internal injuries. It won't even cure a cold, let alone a life-suck
ing condition like yours.
In times like this, you have to go with the proper method.
Highly advanced modern medicine.
[Use 'Item: Shadow Key'.]
Suho put the key right into his own shadow.
And one more thing.
[Use 'Skill: Shadow Exchange'.]
Swish!
This is a method of utilizing the shadow power that Berga recently taught me.
If you use the Shadow Key and Shadow Exchange together like now, a gate will open in the Guardian's Shadow.
Then, a gate will be opened on the other side that will directly connect to the shadow soldier designated by Suho.
This is to omit the process of going through the shadow dungeon in the middle.
[The Shadow Key is something the King made himself for his lord, so this is nothing.]
With Ber's explanation, a gate opened before Suho's eyes.
Then, there was a large building visible across the street.
'Ajin Hospital'
It was the hospital run by Suho's aunt, Seong Jin-ah.
And in front of him, Cha Hae-in, who had already fallen, was waiting with Seong Jin-ah.
The delayed reunion has already been done.
When the first survivors were rescued from Elvenwood, Cha Hae-in immediately thought of Ajin Hospital after assessing th
e survivors' condition.
Ajin Hospital, which was created with the support of Eugene Ho's Ajin Soft, was in fact a hospital with the best facilities in
Korea.
The reason why such a great hospital was built in Yangpyeong rather than Seoul was simple.
It was because Suho's grandparents lived there.
In short, Ajin Hospital was like a specialized nursing home with the best facilities in Korea.
"Hurry up!"
"I've already emptied an entire ward, so come straight to this building!"
After checking the survivors' complexions, Cha Hae-in and Sung Jin-ah shouted in urgency, and the shadow soldiers hurrie
dly carried the survivors over the gate.
Seong Jin-ah, who heard the general situation from Cha Hae-in, guided them to an empty ward.
The first survivors were taken to the emergency room, but tests showed that what they urgently needed was not treatmen
t, but Ringer's solution.
Cha Hae-in returned to Su-ho's side and told him the test results.
"Suho, the test results for these people came back. Their condition is very similar to that of people with sleep apnea."
"Is this sleep apnea?"
"Yeah. So according to your aunt, I think you'll need to use a life support device that uses magical powers like Iksomniac to
recover your body first."
At those words, Suho's expression became serious.
If it's sleeplessness, doesn't that mean the souls of the survivors are already wandering the sea of the afterlife?
The immediate priority was to restore the bodies that had lost their vitality, but it was too vague to expect their souls to retu
rn to those bodies.
"This is a big deal."
"But that's fortunate. Among the people we first rescued, there were already dead, but this time, thankfully, everyone is ali
ve."
Cha Hae-in let out a sigh of relief and looked at the survivors with a pitiful expression.
And then he looked at Suho's face again and asked.
"There must be more places like this…?"
"yes."
"Please hurry before there are more casualties. Those who have had their vitality drained too much cannot be saved even w
ith life support."
Cha Hae-in bit his lip in regret and muttered.
But finding Elvenwood was much more difficult than expected.
According to Harmakan's analysis, if it had not initially flown in on the Kaisel, it would have passed by without anyone notici
ng.
Cognitive impairment and spatial distortion.
This was the identity of the barrier and magic surrounding Elvenwood that Harmakan analyzed.
But even if we figured that out, it didn't mean we could find the other Elvenwoods that were hidden away.
Another way was needed.
And luckily, Suho had Sirka.
"Spirit Knight!"
Damn it!
Thanks to Suho, Sirka has awakened the 'Spirit Armor' and has displayed a new ability using that ability.
If the spirit armor was the ability to freeze spirits to create armor, the spirit cavalry was the ability to make the armor move
on its own without the need for Sirka.
That is, 'Ice Golem'
In the lost timeline, when Shilad invaded Earth, Sirka was finally able to create the ice legions he led around with him.
Of course, the current Sirka did not have the ability to create the large army that Shilad led.
But a few were possible, and that was enough for now.
Sirka asked as she looked at the ice golem that appeared before her.
"Fores, what is the direction to the nearest Elvenwood from here?"
Oh my!
An ice golem created from the spirits in Fores' body.
He looked in a certain direction and roared as if answering Sirka's question.
Things like cognitive impairment and spatial distortion did not apply to the spirits that made their home in Elvenwood.
"Then let's move on to the next place. Would you like to come with me, Mom?"
Suho looked at Cha Haein and asked.
It was natural that if Cha Hae-in took action, the speed of conquering Elvenwood would increase.
Moreover, the mobility of the Kaisel is the same.
But the shadow dragon Kaisel did not listen to the guardian's orders.
Perhaps because of Sung Jin-woo's order to protect Cha Hae-in, he unconditionally sticks to Cha Hae-in's side.
Cha Hae-in shook his head.
"I'd like to join, but I think I'll have to stay here for a few more days."
Suho had already guessed the reason.
Where can there be secrets in this day and age?
Cha Hae-in, who had so splendidly left for North Korea riding the Black Dragon, suddenly showed up in Yangpyeong, leadin
g numerous survivors.
Since the patients at Ajin Hospital witnessed this scene in its entirety, it was only a matter of time before the news was spr
ead to reporters, the Hunter Association, and the government.
It was Sung Jin Ah's discretion to admit the dying survivors to the hospital, but for now, they were North Koreans.
In order to bring so many North Koreans to South Korea and provide them with expensive medical equipment, various cumb
ersome legal procedures were necessary.
Even giving up one ward for them right now would be a huge loss to the citizens of Yangpyeong.
Due to various reasons from adults, Cha Hae-in was stranded in Korea.
A press conference was scheduled for an hour later.
"I don't know how much my name value will be, but if I hold a press conference today, I will be able to ask for cooperation f
rom nearby hospitals. The problem is tomorrow."
Although they urged Suho, as the number of survivors rescued from Elvenwood increased, Ajin Hospital was running out of
beds.
"If this trend continues, we will run out of hospital beds starting tomorrow. That's when things will get serious."
However, it was not possible to discharge the existing patients, so there were mountains of problems to solve, including var
ious political and legal issues.
But just in time.
Squeak-!
"It's your sister-in-law!"
Yoo Jin-ho jumped out of the sedan that had arrived in front of Ajin Hospital and ran towards me without any regard for my
dignity.
Although they met at Facade Island last time, Yoo Jin-ho was still worried about leaving Cha Hae-in alone in that cold land.
As soon as he received a call from Cha Hae-in, he put aside all his schedules and rushed to Yangpyeong.
And while moving, all the problems that Cha Hae-in was worried about were taken care of in the car.
"You said there weren't enough wards? That's why I made more!"
"Huh? You made it? What?"
At Yoo Jin-ho's words, Cha Hae-in tilted his head with a puzzled expression.
Yoo Jin-ho winked at his wife, Seong Jin-ah, who was rushing into the ward with the patients in the distance, and confiden
tly answered Cha Hae-in's question.
"If these patients only need life support anyway, wouldn't we just need more buildings?"
"That's true… … Wait, really?"
Cha Hae-in's eyes grew wide as a thought suddenly occurred to him.
"Now, look."
Eugene Yoo then quickly pointed to all the buildings surrounding Ajin Hospital.
Following his gaze, Cha Hae-in and Su-ho's gaze naturally also looked around.
The spacious grounds of Ajin Hospital.
Despite its state-of-the-art facilities, Ajin Hospital was not a very large hospital.
The site is spacious, but the parking lot is actually quite spacious.
And outside the hospital grounds, there were ordinary commercial buildings, several officetels, and apartment complexes s
urrounding it.
For your information, before Ajin Hospital was built here, this area was just a wasteland with nothing in it.
So, before building the hospital, Eugene Ho first bought the land.
All the land visible to the eye.
Since land prices were cheaper than in Seoul anyway, it wasn't really a huge investment.
In any case, only the land was purchased, and constructing the building itself required a huge amount of capital.
However, Yoo Jin-ho did not bother to explain to Cha Hae-in in detail how much his company had grown and how much his
wealth had increased during the five years he had been missing.
Just stating the conclusion.
"Yes. All the buildings you see now are our buildings."
"… … !"
Cha Hae-in and Sung Su-ho's eyes widened at those words.
"No, to be exact, they were my father's buildings."
Yes, that's right.
To be exact, it wasn't the 'Ajin Soft' building.
Ajin Soft is the result of Yoo Jin-ho, a second-generation chaebol, leaving his family on his own two feet and building it fro
m scratch.
To put it the other way around, it means that there is a family that Yoo Jin-ho, who was the second generation of a conglo
merate, came from.
It is the largest construction company in Korea, led by the famous CEO, who is Yoo Jin-ho's father.
'Eugene Construction'
Yes, that's right.
This city, which was built around Ajin Hospital, was part of a new city development plan in which Eugene Construction direc
tly invested.
In response to Yoo Jin-ho's words that he would build a hospital in Yangpyeong for his brother-in-law Seong Jin-woo's par
ents, his father, Yoo Myung-eun, signed the investment plan with his characteristically blunt expression and said,
-Well, I guess I can live there when I retire. Together.
-… … ?
For some reason, he felt a strange sense of jealousy in those last words, but Yoo Jin-ho quickly forgot about it, thinking tha
t his father would never be that kind of person.
But anyway, the result of the urban development project that started like that was this place, Yangpyeong.
"Since urban development is still in progress, there are many houses without owners. There are also many unsold propertie
s. So, after a long time, I contacted my father to ask how he was doing, and our company bought them all."
"No, it's not even Blue Marble, what is it… … ."
Cha Hae-in opened his mouth in despair at the absurd scale.
Is it because I've been away from home for too long?
Although Eugene Ho's wealth was already considerable five years ago, the company that developed the world's first virtual r
eality game seemed to have achieved absurd growth over the past five years.