Chapter 55 Free City 3

Yong Ho had already experienced mana absorption several times before: the wandering group of demons, the Orc Warrior Terak and the spirit of the Crazy Ant Queen from the Dungeon.

It was similar to the situation with the mana of the ice demon Foras, the spirit of the Land Worm was again different from all of them. However, the Queen of Ant's spirit had a similar feeling, but it was just a close resemblance.

It felt different in essence.

The purity, power, and quality of the spirit wasn't very good. However, there was a far larger quantity of mana within it.

The pleasure of the absorption of the mana penetrated his spine. It felt like a flowing waterfall.

Meanwhile, Yong-ho also had a different feeling. To be specific, it was the consuming power of greed.

The silver mana seeped from the bracelet and infused with the orange mana from the spirit of the land worm. Stimulating it and causing it to pulsate with a greater magnitude.

Yong-ho exhaled harshly. The 'bowl of mana' itself, which had grown from the absorption of mana, only had a small amount of empty space remaining. The absorption of more mana was meaningless.

However, he still felt pleasure. Greed continued to ravenously consume the mana, even if it were to cause him to vomit.

Yong-Ho firmly controlled his appetite. Reigning in his wild avarice. He speculated that the magical power of the bracelet was responding to the mana of the toxic land worm.

The bracelet came from Kaiwan's office. Perhaps it was an artifact that Kaiwan had found in the arena, apart from some stored mana there was nothing particularly unusual about it.

Eligor said that it was like a battery that stored mana.

The mana that was stored in it wasn't from Kaiwan. It was different from the power remaining on Kaiwan's ring, and it was also different from Yong-Ho's own mana.

"It resembles the worm's."

It was more similar to the mana of the land worm. Perhaps the magical power of the bracelet was not from a 'demon' but a 'beast'.

The Land Worm seemed strangely obsessed with him. Until he had climbed over the head of the Land Worm and was out of sight, the Land Worm wouldn't even look at Rikum or Skull.

Maybe this was because of the bracelet's mana.

The magical power that responded to the mana of the Land Worm was clearly from some unknown beast of the arena.

Yong-Ho shook his hand. He stopped inhaling the useless mana and took a deep breath.

Then reality struck. The inside of the Land Worm's body was dark and it was difficult to breathe. His body was covered in unknown fluids and felt heavy.

Yong-Ho swallowed down dry saliva and placed his hand back into the heart of the Land Worm. There he found a hard rock about the size of a fist after following the traces of orange mana.

Was it a worm heart or a worm stone?

He could of called it anything. It was a mana stone that had been living in the heart of a giant land worm for decades.

After igniting the flames of greed, Yong-Ho put the worm stone in a leather pouch hanging on his waist. The flames burned the bile stuck to his body, and at the same time illuminated his surroundings so he could find Catalina.

Catalina was on the verge of death, after being in the middle of the violent struggles of the Land Worm. He felt like she couldn't breathe properly because of the bile covering her face.

No matter what anyone said, Catalina was the greatest contributor to this battle.

Yong-Ho briefly stabbed Aamon into the floor before lifting Catalina with his hands. He felt sorry for Catalina, but no matter how light she was, she was too difficult to carry with just one hand. Yong-Ho positioned Catalina on his left shoulder as if she were a heavy load, and then firmly held onto her waist and back. He then pulled Aamon out and stood up.

The Land Worm was now dead, but how should he get out? Part of the Land Worm's body was still underground, so there wasn't any exit except from its mouth.

Fortunately, a relieving voice was heard.

"Skull!" "Skull!"

It sounded quite muffled, but it was enough to give a vague sense of direction. Yong-Ho lowered his posture and then began to move forward. Not long after, specks of light could be seen from far away.

"Skull!"

Skull used the power of his Rock Golem body to prise open the Land Worm's giant mouth. Yong-Ho then cheered up after seeing that he was nearly out. Still, he carefully handed Catalina over to Skull to avoid the threat of the Land Worm's teeth, and then he himself came out of the Land Worm.

"Kuh"

The air itself had completely changed. Yong-Ho sat on the ground, and took a number of deep breaths. There was still remaining lingering mana to absorb, however he felt like taking a break and going to sleep.*

However, Yong-Ho raised himself up again. He saw Catalina lying on the floor next to Skull.

She was in bad shape. She was covered in bruises and the rope had peeled away the skin around her waist and caused her to bleed profusely. Her head was also cut, bleeding over one of her eyes.

Yong-Ho tried to stay calm. After putting down Aamon, he pulled a dagger from his waist and cut the rope. He could hear a loud noise coming from far away, but decided to only focus on Catalina for now.

Catalina had gained lots of experience after fighting against the land worm, recapturing the gold mine and through the dungeon battle against Foras. Yong-Ho desperately hoped for success as he invoked the power of evolution.

[Development Rate 100/100]

He only checked one stat, without looking at anything else and felt relief.

Yong-Ho placed his palms upon Catalina's stomach. He grasped her gently and then injected his mana.

As he had already talked with Catalina before, he promoted her to 'Shadow Runner' which had a mix of the characteristics of both Dark Elves and Succubuses.

The green mana penetrated Catalina's body. A series of black silhouettes appeared over her body, and a bright light shone over her abdomen. Yong-Ho absorbed all the mana of the land worm, and then drained nearly half of his own power.

The light suddenly disappeared. Yong-Ho swallowed fresh dried saliva, and then looked at Catalina. Her face and stomach were still covered in blood, but her wounds had disappeared completely.

Large changes in her appearance weren't immediately visible - after the evolution - but he could definitely feel a significant increase in her mana. At first glance, he could see that a haze of black mana was swirling around Catalina's body.

When the dungeon master became stronger, the servants also became stronger, and the reverse was also true. Yong-Ho was thus confident of the growth of Catalina.

"Fua"

Yong-Ho exhaled as he almost fell atop of Catalina. He felt like he had to take a breather.

Skull laughed and rejoiced gleefully in front of Yong-Ho. He swung his hammer as if to express his joy.

'Which reminds me'

Yong-Ho, raised himself up, and pulled out the worm stone out of his leather pouch. He tried to activate the power of evolution again.

He laughed unknowingly. Thin lines appeared in the green light. White lines of light stretched from the worm stone and connected to Skull and Catalina.

'Union Evolution'

No, this was not the union of two spirits, it was more like 'reinforcement' rather than 'union'.

He felt that it was intuitive to merge either of them with the worm stone, even though the characters of light did not emerge in his mind, as in the case of the 'Union Evolution', since their development rates were not at 100.

'Good'

Although their lives were in danger due to the unexpected fight with the land worm, they had gained plenty from it at the same time.

Yong-Ho consciously turned the bracelet around his left arm. When the mana of the land worm was completely absorbed, there was almost no mana left in the bracelet.

'Bracelet from the Arena'

According to Yong-Ho's prediction, it was highly likely that records existed related to Kaiwan's diary. If the bracelet's mana really did attract a nearby Land Worm, there must be someway to utilise it.

Yong-Ho, after using the power of evolution, stood up and squeezed the worm stone back into his pouch. Meanwhile, the distance noise was getting closer and closer.

"Captain! Captain!"

A group of people came rushing in, causing a whirlwind of dust. And it was clear that Rikum was leading them.

Yong-Ho was initially puzzled why he called him 'Captain' instead of 'King' but could soon understand why. It was to hide that fact that Yong-Ho was a king from the people of the nearby free city.

Yong-Ho put Aamon back into his belt and embraced Catalina with both hands. While Skull watched the incoming crowd, while firmly clutching his battle hammer.

Rikum, the first to arrive, jumped off his horse as soon as he had come to a halt.

His face appeared to be a mixture of joy, urgency and absurdity.

He couldn't believe that the huge land worm before him, had really been taken down. Even Foras could not of done such a thing.

However, instead of pouring out words of joy and amazement, Rikum quickly narrowed the distance between Yong-Ho and himself.

"Dismantlers from the Free City are coming. They're coming to trade for the body of the Land Worm."

"Dismantlers?"

"They're involved in the business of trading bodies of beasts There are lots of parts of the Land Worm that they can use. Right now, they can sell the skin, keratin, teeth and meat of the Land Worm."

After all, it was human to skin a bear or a tiger and then pull out its teeth and claws to make something. People didn't really differ that much.

Yong-Ho squinted his eyes and could see the dismantlers running towards him. There was goblins and ogres, as well as dwarves. The group was made up of a variety of figures both big and small, for a total of twenty.

It was the law of the jungle in this world.

Yong-Ho did not relax. He then spoke out, while staring at the dismantlers.

"How likely is it that they'll try to rob us?"

Skull grabbed his battle hammer, and was ready to fight. Rikum laughed and replied.

"They might in the usual case, but don't worry. No one would dare to rob someone who's taken down a giant land worm like this, right before their eyes."

His face was full of pride. Yong-Ho must of looked very impressive when they saw him take down the Land Worm with Catalina and Skill.

Orcs were a warrior race. It was natural to pay homage to a powerful warrior who has achieved great accomplishments.

Too much had happened in such a short time. Yong-Ho greeted the dismantlers, after picking up the unconscious Catalina. Since there was no way to bring the body of the Land Worm back to the Dungeon, it was very beneficial to Yong-Ho to hand over the body to the dismantlers and just collect the payment.

Rikum started negotiating with the dismantlers, instead of Yong-Ho. The dismantlers seemed somewhat disappointed when they realised that the worm stone had already been taken out, but as the body was in such a good condition, they actively proceeded with the negotiations nonetheless.

Yong-Ho, who took a step back from the negotiations, by entrusting it to Rikum, looked towards the free city. The unexpected encounter with the Land Worm had drawn far more attention than was necessary.

Will the attention from his encounter with the Land Worm be short lived, or will it turn into a long-lasting scar.

Another demon then approached from the free city. It was a Harpy, similar to the one he had seen in the Dungeon catalog.

With black hair and brown wings, the Harpy showed his politeness as soon as he had approached Yong-Ho. He whispered with a beautiful expression.

"The pub owner wishes to see you."

He must have caught their eye.

Yong-Ho looked towards the free city again, instead of answering right away.

He replied with a nod.

***

The free city could be called a 'Dungeon-less land'.

Like a Dungeon, their were demons and beasts who all lived in one place and maintained their own order.

It was the three 'Dungeon-less Kings' who ruled the free city.

The three Kings had power equal to one another and divided the free city into three parts, reigning as kings in each of their districts.

Of course, they did not have dungeons. So in reality they were not true kings, and the power under their command was not as strong as that of Dungeon masters.

But even so, they were the ones that ruled the free city.

A three-man team.

Among them, it was the owner of the pub who had asked Yong-Ho to meet with them.

The red demon Ophelia.