Journey Of A Legend

Chapter 136: No Pain No Gain...

Outside the zone's entrance, hundreds of people with a black hoodie covering their faces started to appear one after another.

"Sir! It seems everyone is in their position. Now we are only waiting for your signal!"

"Perfect. The moment those three come out don't hesitate to act. We only need the kid, so out of him kill the other two."

"Yes Sir!"

Feeling as his subordinate went away, the man who had only one arm left because of Kuragari looked at the orange colored zone's entrance and said quietly, "I won't f*ck this up this time, that is for sure!"

Minutes after minutes passed by, and after around 45 minutes, suddenly the zone started to vibrate.

"Here they come! Everyone! To your positions!", shouted the man in an instant, and looked at the entrance.

*Tremble!*

*Crack!*

With a loud cracking sound, the whole dimensional zone started to move, and under a few seconds, it shrunk and vanished into thin air.

"?"

However what was confusing for the man that even after the zone has disappeared, that not only their targets, but even his boss didn't appear.

"What is happening here?", asked the man and looked around in confusion.

It was a common fact, that when someone takes the dimensional zone's core or there is a Zone Breaking, then every living lifeform in there should be transferred out from there without a single exception.

However, if there were no one coming out of the zone after it disappeared then it could only mean one thing.

"Are you kidding me? Did they really die in there?"

The man was shocked because maybe those two men with the kid could have died because of an unexpected incident in there, but if that was truly what has happened, then his boss should have come out for sure.

But as things were going right at the moment, it was very likely that he really has died.

"That is impossible!", thought the man with disbelief and turned around.

"Everyone! Go and search the vicinity! I don't believe that they have all died in there!", shouted the man angrily, making all the hundreds of people to disappear in an instant.

Turning his gaze back at the spot where the zone's entrance was, the man squinted his eyes and said slowly, "Where are you?"

***

Back at the lake, Russ was holding Greg's unconscious body in his arm, while talking to Wayne on his side.

"I'm pretty sure what happened in there was not a coincidence.", said Russ in a serious tone as he crossed the wooden bridge.

"Do you mean the buff that Greg got from the statue or the fact that he could obtain the first key?", asked Wayne with a slight frown.

"Both.", answered Russ instantly and looked down at Greg in his arms.

"Just think about it. We, who broke through the God rank and succeeded in finishing the Evolution Step, couldn't take a key that was covered with fire from a God ranked zone. But a boy, who is only at the Creator rank could do what we couldn't."

"..."

Seeing as Wayne wasn't talking Russ raised his head and continued, "And what is even more interesting, that the moment he used his fire powers, the statue wasn't buffing his ability, because he used fire, but instead it was resonating with him. It was like the statue re-"

Just as Russ was about to finish his sentence, suddenly several figures appeared one after another at the other behind the two, making Russ to stop talking.

Turning around, the two looked at the hoodied people on the other side of the bridge and they didn't know how to react.

As the two were quietly watching the strangers, suddenly a man with a missing arm appear before the bridge and smiled.

"Well, well, well. It seems I was right. I don't know what kind of power did you use, but you are dead now for sure. But before that..."

Looking at Greg in Russ's arm, the man pointed at him and said coldly, "Give that boy here now. If not, don't even think about mercy."

"..."

Not understanding why the two men didn't react, the man frowned and asked, "What? Did you two got shocked by my presence? Haha! You are scared, aren't you?"

Listening to this, Russ raised Greg before him and said in a somewhat shaky voice, "Please don't hurt us. We don't wanna make a fuss, so here. Take the boy."

Putting down Greg onto the middle of the bridge, Russ and Wayne stepped back a few meters and waited for the man to react.

"?"

All the warriors and even the man itself looked at this sight with surprise, feeling that something here was not right.

Before doing anything, the man looked at one of his subordinate and asked, "Is there any trap?"

"No Sir! I don't feel any special power usage in the vicinity at the moment."

Frowning the man looked at another subordinate and asked, "Are they lying?"

Shaking his head, the stranger said calmly, "No Sir. He was telling the 100% truth. He truly meant what he said."

Turning his gaze back at Russ and Wayne, the man's expression relaxed slightly and with a smile, he thought, "Maybe I'm just really too powerful and they are scared because of me. Haha!"

With that in mind, the man started to walk toward the bridge in a relaxed manner and said calmly as he looked at the two, "You are lucky that I'm in a good mood. You did just the r-, huh?"

Just as he was about to finish his arrogant sentence, the moment he stepped onto the bridge, suddenly the scenery around him started to vibrate and an instant everything changed.

Russ and Wayne's figure vanished from his sight and what appeared before him was a huge ocean with a neverending bridge which end was still visible on the horizon.

"What the... Where am I?"

Looking around the man was quite confused, but just as he wanted to do something suddenly the water's surface next to him burst into the sky and an insanely huge head that represented a squid emerged from below the water.

Feeling the creature's presence, the man's eyes contradicted, and was about to run away, but just before he could take even a single step, the monster moved.

*Swish!"

With a speed invisible to the human eye, the man could only see a quick flash and the next thing he could stare at was a body without a head in front of him.

"Huh?"

Not understanding what has just happened with him, the man's expression was full of disbelief and confusion, but unfortunately, the last thing he could remember before his sight turned pitch black was hatred and insane regret.

*Paff*

The moment the headless body and the man's head fell to the bridge, a blue Soul Stone flew high up into the air, and with a fast motion, it vanished into the bridge, forming a new symbol on its surface.

While all of this happened, back in the reality, Russ was watching as a strange symbol was slowly forming on the bridge's surface and smiled.

"What a crazy fool."

Walking next to Greg's body and picking him up, he looked at the strangers and asked, "So? Will you come and end up just like your boss or will you get lost finally? It's your choice."

The hoodied men looked at each other with confusion, not knowing what they should do, but after a few seconds later all of them started to retreat slowly and in the end, all of them vanished from sight.

"Just what I thought. It seems they are not so stupid.", said Russ with a slight chuckle, and turning around he walked back to the house slowly.

***

Hours went by one after another, and after 12 hours of soundless sleeping, Greg finally opened his eyes.

Seeing that he was back in the house, Greg sighed with relief and wanted to sit up, but just as he moved, insane pain swept throughout his body, making him to clench his teeth in an instant.

"Argh... What the..."

Feeling the unbearable pain inside his muscles and especially in his lungs, Greg lied back into the couch and thought, "It seems I went through my body's limit. Even though I have tempered it to an extreme level and there is no one else who has a stronger body than me, I still end up like this. I can't imagine just what kind of monster Kuragari is if he uses this skill." 

As he was thinking about these things, suddenly Russ and Wayne walked in and the moment they saw that he was awake they looked incredibly happy.

"You are awake, perfect! Drink this."

Looking at the strange looking liquid in the bottle that Russ was holding out for him, Greg frowned and asked, "What is this? It looks disgusting."

"Haha! I knew you would say this, but don't worry. This is a healing potion that I made. Drinking this will make you feel much better."

Watching Russ's honest expression, Greg sighed and said, "Sure."

Taking over the bottle, Greg opened the lid and after a small hesitation, he took a deep breath and put the bottle's hole before his mouth, and started to drink.

*Gulp!*