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In the Bronze Age, Kukunis was a mighty warrior. Though the Bronze Age was filled with powerful warriors, including giant warriors, Kukunis, despite being from the Lycian tribe, a bloodline of the Sea-Alves, managed to carve his name among the ranks of formidable superhumans, including giant warriors.

His martial prowess, characterized by the agility and swift movements unique to the Alves, the most prominent seafaring people, undoubtedly placed him among the masters. However, what truly made the people of his time fear and revere him as a hero was not just his personal strength.

The son of the war god. That was the title his followers in the age of seafaring peoples unanimously praised him with. To earn such a name, he was a man skilled in training and commanding large armies.

Sometimes leading fleets at sea, other times commanding legions on land, he would plunder cities without walls and destroy their civilizations. Even ragtag groups would become fearless, formidable soldiers under his command, and his subordinates would offer him boundless reverence and loyalty.

Such was the record of the man who once dominated a sea in the Bronze Age. A trace of a bygone era passed down through the baked clay and stone artifacts of Kemet and Anatolia.

And so, when he and his subordinates manifested through the dungeon, they were granted a corresponding blessing.

{Be warned. I’ve just figured out the nature of the blessing they’re under. ‘As the number of troops in Kukunis’s army increases, the abilities of the ancient pirates composing the army are enhanced, and every time a member of the army dies, Kukunis’s own strength and command abilities grow stronger.’}

“That’s cheating!”

At Esras-Hermes’s warning, Conra, with a face that looked like he was about to scream, lunged towards the formation of ancient pirates, which resembled a scrum.

{Whoa!}

The ancient pirates, under Kukunis’s command, pressed forward in perfect unison. The shield wall made of massive scuta, with pilum spears bristling like porcupine quills, was sufficiently intimidating. And within that dense formation, the ancient pirates armed with gladius and spatha, lurking like assassins, were like snakes hiding their fangs.

But Conra did not hesitate. Currently, he was under the blessings of the Celestial Messenger God, the Hunting God, the War God, the Martial God, the God of Judgment, and the God of Victory, thanks to the prayers and hymns advocated by Hildegard.

Conra, who had already established his unique combat doctrine by controlling not only his warrior senses but also his druidic senses of communion with nature and his alchemist senses of discerning matter, was experiencing abilities and capacities beyond his usual level due to the blessings. Frankly, there was nothing to fear.

Moreover, the ancient pirates’ formation was already hindered by the elixirs Conra had scattered, freezing parts of the ground and causing thick, gnarled tree roots to grow, obstructing their movements.

In a moment, Conra’s pupils dilated and contracted, and his shoulders and calves swelled once more.

As he deployed the Synesthesia technique, entering a state of hyper-focus, Conra could literally see the finest details, down to the gaps where a needle could pass. His ability to perceive the gaps between humans grew even stronger, and through this sense, he meticulously analyzed the variables he had just created.

“Hah! Glory to the divine names of Ogmios and Bolg!”

The boy, instantly spotting the cracks in the formation caused by the tree roots and ice, began to weave through them like an eel, moving freely in all directions.

And in doing so, Conra was growing madly within this wondrous world.

‘I can feel it! How to move, how the enemy will react, and how I should respond—I can feel it all!’

His spear movements, as agile as a snake, became increasingly swift and fluid, gaining endless elasticity and acceleration with each thrust and retraction.

His footwork was the same. With each step, the excess movements disappeared. And the martial arts secrets passed down from his father allowed him to move even more freely. The whirlwind of variables created by such movements swirled around him, and at that moment, no enemy could stand in Conra’s way.

Hildegard was also handling the ancient pirates with relative ease. Though she hadn’t faced such a systematic military formation often, her primary weapon, the halberd, was a versatile heavy weapon capable of thrusting, slashing, and chopping.

The halberd was a weapon that the pirates’ gladius and spatha would find difficult to counter. On a ship, where space was limited, shorter weapons might have had the advantage. If Hildegard had been wielding a regular spear, the scuta could have blocked it, allowing the pirates to close in and strike with their gladius or spatha.

But the halberd had the ability to forcibly remove an opponent’s shield. Hildegard literally hooked and peeled away the ancient pirates’ scuta like shelling a crab or clam, then thrust the spearhead or swung the axe blade into the gaps. It was a comfortable and stable martial prowess that could rightly be called the natural enemy of the ancient pirates.

Hildegard was steadily clearing the ancient pirates who had set foot on land.

And amidst all this, the one struggling the most was none other than Esiocles.

“Ugh, this is tricky!”

Dodging the thrust of a gladius that grazed his side, Esiocles broke the opponent’s arm and pulled them out, all while letting out an involuntary groan of pain.

As a practitioner of Doushu Kung Fu, Esiocles couldn’t help but feel awkward facing the ironclad defense of the scuta combined with one-handed sword thrusts. Thanks to his mastery of Centile (also known as Feeling, Fühlen, or Qingjing), most of the blows ended up as minor scratches, but the fact that he was getting hurt at all was undeniable.

‘It’s frustrating. And embarrassing!’

In the midst of battle, Esiocles reflected on and observed his own heart. Recognizing that his body wasn’t as strong or refined as he had initially thought, he neither drowned in his emotions nor denied them.

‘I hate my own laziness for thinking this much was enough. I’m ashamed of my arrogance for believing that this level of physique would suffice to follow the traces of the Grandmaster. Above all, I’m unbearably frustrated by my own weakness and foolishness for not easily accepting that I still have shortcomings!’

While his senses and strong body responded meticulously to the enemy’s formation, Esiocles’s inner self was undergoing deep introspection and enlightenment. Fully observing and accepting himself, as this process progressed, a halo-like radiance began to flow from his body like a garment, even without conscious effort.

Then, at a certain moment.

[……!]

Light condensed behind Esiocles, soon taking on a form.

It was a human figure. With ears slightly shorter than those of the Alves, golden ornaments tied up on both sides of the head, and a slender, muscular body clad in a light, southern-style outfit, it was the figure of a beautiful woman.

Sophia, who had been observing the battle from a distance, immediately recognized the figure and smiled.

“Indeed, is this where you reveal yourself? Esiocles’s spirit.”

[……?]

Gabrielle, who had also appeared beside Sophia, looked at the spirit behind Esiocles with a curious expression and spoke to Sophia.

“What? Are you jealous of Esiocles’s spirit’s figure? Asking if there’s a way for you to become like that? Wake up, girl. There’s no such way.”

[……!]

Gabrielle immediately pouted at Sophia’s response, puffing her cheeks in anger.

Meanwhile, the profound enlightenment within Esiocles, brought about by the spirit’s manifestation, had a significant impact.

The dark and biased thoughts in Esiocles’s mind gradually flowed away, replaced by a cheerful and joyful heart. The muscles he had diligently cultivated through sweat and pain. Each muscle fiber harmonized, singing an inaudible celestial melody that began to flow deep within Esiocles.

“I see. Your name is Saraswati! You’ve finally come to play my muscles and fill my mind with your music!”

Instantly understanding the essence of the spirit that had come to him, Esiocles saw Saraswati nod with a smile.

“Well then, I’ll ask for your help, Saraswati!”

As Esiocles spoke, he assumed a proper ‘strange pose’ for the first time since arriving on the island. Saraswati embraced his neck from behind, her soft touch against his trapezius muscles ignored as Esiocles glared forward with burning eyes. And in that moment.

Esiocles’s already impressive and beautiful muscles bulked up further, and the golden radiance coating his body momentarily took on a jade-like glow. The radiance enveloping his body was not just the light of Pasa Hyunjung but also a manifestation of dense willpower that momentarily distorted physical forces.

This immediately changed the tide of the battle around him. The ancient pirates’ weapons could no longer harm his body, as it was now protected by a principle that reduced 9/10 of any harm directed at him. His body, which had only suffered minor scratches before, now couldn’t be injured by the remaining 1/10 of the impact.

Finally, seeing Esiocles gaining the upper hand against the ancient pirates, Sophia turned her gaze towards Kukunis, who was commanding the pirates from afar. She had been scanning Kukunis and his surroundings, searching for the location of the dungeon’s core.

“Found it. The dungeon’s core. Kukunis’s weak point.”

In the next moment, the longsword that had slipped out of Sophia’s scabbard disappeared without a trace. An unexpected attack followed, and Kukunis’s blood splattered as a single index finger fell weakly to the ground by the dock.

 

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