Chapter 68: What is Fear?


    At night, somewhere else around Seoul. In an abandoned subway station. The ce was no longer in use because there was a Portal Gate above it.


    The lights of the subway station were dim, and there were footsteps that broke the silence of the night.


    The sound of footsteps stopped after a while. A man who had just arrived stood in front of the man with sunsses. They could recognize each other with the help of the moonlighting in from the entrance stairs.


    “Do you want to stir up arge-scale battle here!? Do you want to die that badly!!?”


    The man who had just arrived spoke in a rather loud voice. He then used his Mana Presence. Almost the entire section of the subway station shook, and debris floated around with powerful winds. The walls were cracked and broken. The ce might copse at any moment.


    The sunsses man raised his hand with his palm in the front. It made the other man’s Mana Presence disappear before destroying the subway.


    “Calm down. Do you want to tear down this ce!?”


    “Why did you ask to meet? If the Hunters Association finds out you are here in South Korea. This nation will be a battleground!”


    The man didn’t expect his Mana Presence would get dismissed in a casual manner. He gritted his teeth while holding back his anger.


    The sunsses man sighed. “Okay, I know. I know. Why is it soplicated? Isn’t that an easy thing for you? Those people watching at the airport are your people. How could HA possibly know I was here? Take it easy, my friend.”


    The man’s veins protruded on his forehead. “No need for small talk. What was your purpose for meeting!?”


    “Well, I just wanted to give this to you.” The sunsses man smiled and tossed a stack of papyrus paper to the man across from him.


    The man frowned. “Only this!? We don’t need to meet over something trivial like this!”


    “It’s been five years since I left South Korea. I need a ce to stay here. It should be closer to where you are. Or your guild is. That’s better.”


    The sunsses man nned to settle down near that man’s ce. He thought the Hunters Association’s people would not know and would be unable to trace his whereabouts.


    The man nodded in agreement with the request. He wanted to end the meeting as quickly as possible, even though he didn’t like got ordered around about it. Yes, it was risky. But, no one would suspect anything at all. That could be the reason for him to monitor the movement of the sunsses man too.


    The sunsses man turned around and spoke while emphasizing his words.


    “That’s thest Portal Gate Codex from me. There will be no more from now on. We are at the beginning of the Final Gate. Get ready and do your preparations well. I’ll rip your neck if anything goes wrong!”


    The man engraved those words into his head. He knew the warning was genuine. The man in front of him was more powerful than thest time he saw him. Deep down, he knew he was afraid of the man despite being irritated by his orders to meet face to face and about the amodation.


    Now, they were entering thest phase of the Final Gate that would eradicate humanity. Any hunter who was in that objective would definitely need to n their next move carefully.


    The next morning. Ji-woo stayed up all night in a small basement. He had already told his family about it. So, it was all right to stay upte and note home. He also just called and informed his mother that he would bete went back home today.


    Ji-woo sat on a wooden chair, monitoring the forging. The room was almost full of dust. Whenever there was a magical energy leak, the room would vibrate, and he would suppress the Silver Mana from exploding. Of course, he always managed to control the situation, not causing any idents. But, he still needed another 10 hours toplete the merger.


    He doesn’t forget to tell Dong-hyun about today’s meeting, which would get postponed to thete afternoon. He also told Dong-hyun to meet at the same ce as before.


    It would be convenient for Ji-woo in the future if he had a factory or something simr to a smithy. There were many things he desired. For example, a battle armor or battle suit itself. He couldn’t always fight and ended up getting naked after it. He also had to hire a cksmith or master forger for that.


    On the other hand, artifact items and weapons were a great business that could be his founding for his intelligence agency. It would cost him a lot of money to gather information in the world, more than the money he required to set up a factory or pay off debts.


    There was no reason for Ji-woo not to take the opportunity. He could craft good quality items and weapons with his knowledge of Spheres. Of course, his artifacts would be different from others. Because Ji-woo didn’t know about the item-to-user binding spell or more to be exact, he didn’t understand about the magic inscription.


    The atmosphere of silence and peace finally came after Ji-woo doing the same thing for the next 10 hours in the small basement.


    Ji-woo looked at the incinerator. There was no trace of Silver Mana anymore. Instead, only the weight of the ankles and wrists remained in the furnace, along with the mes still burning. He smiled and turned off the fire engine. He took out his things and left the basement.


    He immediately put the weights on his ankles and wrists without further ado. When he came out, the person in charge of thendfill site approached him. The person asked why the basement was shaking and calmed down after a while.


    Ji-woo ignored that person and continued to walk out. He had no obligation to answer.


    It was already dusk when Ji-woo arrived at the foot of the mountain. He could see Dong-hyun was waiting for him.


    Dong-hyun had a cheerful mood when he greeted Ji-woo. It showed that he had some results with his training tests.


    Ji-woo put the duffel bag on the ground and crossed his arms across his chest. He then told Dong-hyun to show him the results of his control over Mana Presence.


    In fact, Ji-woo was impressed by the fact that Dong-hyun’s control over his Mana was much better than it was a few days ago. Dong-hyun’s Mana Presence was also able tost longer than before.


    “How about it? I’m a genius, right, hyung?”


    “Yes, whatever. Then, now. I forbid you to use this Mana Presence thing for an indefinite period of time. Or rather, I’m telling you to abandon this audacious method. It will make your magical energy go to waste unless you can grow stronger or reach S-rank in no time.


    “Also, Don’t learn magic spells through that Skill Page thing anymore too. It limits your magic knowledge.”


    Dong-hyun was taken aback by Ji-woo’s speech. He had already pushed his limits to train his Mana Presence. But, only to be thrown away, now? How could he digest that teaching?


    Ji-woo smiled subtly, looking at Dong-hyun, who was confused and lost.


    “Why, you don’t want to do it? You can withdraw from this training. I never forced you to obey my teachings either.”


    Dong-hyun had a headache at how mischievously Ji-woo teased him. He swallowed hard and nodded his head reluctantly. He wanted to ask the reason. However, he suppressed curiosity and tried to trust Ji-woo blindly.


    “But, hyung. Can you show me your full strength first? I’ve seen you fight before, but now I want to see it up close. I need to gauge the strength that I can achieveter by throwing away almost everything I learned so far.”


    Ji-woo tilted his head. “Even though I said I could make you stronger. Achieving my power is a different matter.” He put down his arms and let out his Aura of Fear. This time without holding back anything to let Dong-hyun knew the difference.


    The moment Dong-hyun felt the Aura of Fear. He started to feel nauseous. Before long, without him noticing, he was already kneeling to the ground. He also got troubled to lift his head to look at Ji-woo because his instincts told him that it would be a dangerous endeavor. It was as if his eyes met Ji-woo’s. It would be thest time he would saw the world.


    The Aura of Fear was different from Mana Presence. The Aura didn’t damage an area like Mana Presence did with wind pressure, floating debris, and cracked ground. The Aura also didn’t have an ability that increased physical strength as Mana Presence did. The only thing they had inmon was putting pressure on the people in front of the user.


    In just a matter of seconds, Dong-hyun was already hunched over on the ground. That was when he knew he screwed up if he dared to became Ji-woo’s enemy. It also made him believe, no matter how strong he was in the future. In front of Ji-woo, he was just an ant trying to crawl back into the anthill.


    Even without such fear, Dong-hyun was never able to fight Ji-woo. The stronger Dong-hyun got, the more he knew how scary it was when magic doesn’t work.