Returner of the Colosseum

Episode

33 . Rapid growth (7)

When I headed back to the plaza where the new recruits were, I saw the guys waiting for me nervously.

“brother! You’re all right! Did you catch the one who lured the ants to us just now?”

Joo Chang-beom, who flinched at my blood-soaked appearance, greeted me with a wide smile.

“yes. killed.”

“I’m so glad.”

“By the way, it moves right away. After killing him, the ants were swept away all the way to the entrance of the queen ant’s den. If you are late, it may be taken away by another party.”

“yes!”

We moved at high speed towards the entrance to the queen ant nest.

After about 20 minutes of busy work, I was able to quickly reach the entrance of the queen ant’s nest.

‘Fortunately, no one seems to have come yet.’

There were so many dead bodies of ants everywhere that it was impossible to enter the nest of the queen ant without cleaning them up.

I looked around for a while, but there was no sign that the body had been moved.

I entered the queen ant nest with the newcomers and stopped at the entrance.

“…?”

“I will not go in. It is up to you to defeat the queen ant.”

“yes?”

At my words, the eyes of the newcomers widened.

“This inner situation will be on a different level from the ant monsters you’ve dealt with so far. There will also be ant guards, stronger individuals, and if you are unlucky there may be prince ants. So go in and think carefully, think about it, and then kill the queen ant and come back.”

“Can we?”

I shook my head at Changbeom Joo’s question.

I do not know.

No, it probably won’t be easy.

‘There is a high probability that he will die surrounded by the guards.’

Even if you kill all the guards, it will be really difficult to kill even the queen ant.

Still, there was a reason to send only the guys.

Because the conditions were so good.

There is only one entrance to the queen ant nest.

Unless there is a name that I don’t know exists in this match, no one can enter in the state I’m guarding in front of it.

Even if there is a name, I can kill the queen ant first.

So even if they annihilate the queen ant without killing it, I can clear the mission.

‘I can grow greatly just by experiencing death once.’

If you clear the mission with your own strength, you will learn something as soon as you clear it, and you will learn a lot even if you do not clear it.

It is a rare situation that can provide such a stable and good experience.

There was no reason for me not to push them to the limb.

“Keep in mind just one thing. Stay calm in any situation. If you keep that in mind, it’s not entirely impossible. Haven’t you been working hard up until now? Go and prove your efforts.”

At my words, the newcomers nodded with firm expressions and began to slowly enter the queen ant’s nest.

‘I guess I have to do my job now.’

Then I heard the sound of a party entering the anthill plaza.

Their target is the queen ant.

And what I have to do is not let anyone go inside until the newcomers defeat the queen ant or annihilate it.

The party entering the plaza spotted me and whispered among themselves.

“for a moment. Who is standing in front of me?”

“Looks like a party has already entered the queen ant nest. Let’s hurry.”

It was a party of three swordsmen, one archer, and one wizard.

A perfect combination for PvM missions.

“Laura! After defeating that guy and entering the cave, prepare for casting right away! Go Tae-min, if there is a wizard inside, eliminate it first!”

The enemies immediately started running toward the queen ant nest.

Looks like I don’t care.

Of course, it would be because their skills were at the base.

Out of 20 parties, they arrived at the queen ant nest first.

That alone was to prove that the guys’ skills weren’t mediocre.

‘Consider meeting the wrong person.’

I immediately turned on my breath of thunder and swung my spear at the rushing guys.

Kwajijik!

“Queuck!”

“Quaaagh!”

Due to the Thunder God skill, electric sparks flew, and four out of five people were cut in two at once.

A swordsman barely blocked my attack, but it bounced back for a while.

But his condition wasn’t looking too good either.

He fell to the floor and continued to vomit blood.

Tring!

[You have killed player ‘Laura’.]

[You killed player ‘Go Tae-min’…]

[Your HP is recovered by 1% with ＜Recovery of Blood＞ ability.]

The blood spurted from the corpses of the four was splattered everywhere.

“Mi, crazy……. cool, cool. Where did this monster…”

The swordsman put on a futile expression and didn’t even think about getting up.

I went up to him and thrust the spear through his heart.

Tring!

Five corpses were created in an instant.

As these corpses pile up, the number of players trying to get into them will decrease.

―Kieeaek!

While I was organizing the first party that arrived, it seemed that the newcomers also started hunting.

The groans of the ant demons were faintly audible.

In fact, more lessons will be left for newcomers to eventually fail and die.

But I prayed in my heart that they would succeed in hunting.

It’s already been 3 hours since the newcomers entered the queen ant’s nest.

The sound of constant fighting could still be heard inside.

Seeing that the death call did not appear on the status window, it seemed that everyone was safe.

Hearing that sound, I stabbed the fallen opponent with a spear.

“Heuk!”

Tring!

Before I knew it, I was also in the state of annihilating the 4th party.

‘The thunder god and the breath of thunder have good synergy.’

Tier 1 skill was literally a scam.

I thought I would become stronger to some extent, but I never imagined that I would be able to overwhelm other parties so easily.

My level right now was such that I could slaughter even if I ran the co-main event right away.

“Mo, everyone stop!”

In the meantime, a new party entered the central plaza and stopped when they saw me.

Dozens of dead bodies cut in two.

Among them, I stand alone, covered in blood.

The guys who saw it held their breath and couldn’t do this or that.

“…”

“…”

momentary silence.

I didn’t bother running at them first.

No matter how much the Colosseum is a battlefield where people die and kill each other, I didn’t want to cut down the enemies who lost their fighting spirit.

That’s what bloodthirsty psychopaths do.

“Ho, are you sure you won’t kill us?”

When I showed no hostility, a woman wearing a magic hat at a new party asked me.

I nodded at her.

“Unless you want to come in here.”

The guys let out a sigh of relief at my answer.

“Phew, he lived. You won’t be able to go in anyway, so let’s sit here and rest.”

At the words of the sorceress, the remaining party members quietly moved to their seats while watching me.

It was a corner of the square.

It doesn’t look like he’ll be able to deal with me and defeat me, but it seemed like he was thinking of going inside when an unexpected opportunity arose.

I didn’t bother touching them.

After that, three more parties arrived.

Among them, one party that attacked me became a cold corpse, and the other two parties…

―Do you think the name fits?

-yes. Still, if you don’t attack first, I don’t think he’ll kill you.

-thank god. Sometimes there are bastards like psychos. Compared to that, that level is an angel. Eh, by the way, this game was a hit.

―You are grateful that you can still survive. After all, guys like that quickly rise to the top leagues, don’t they?

He was staring at me while talking in whispers.

Tired of standing still, I spent my time listening to them.

Then, another party arrived at the plaza.

―Ah, another party is here. What will they do?

-Will you bet with me? 1,000 gold for I’m not fighting.

―Hey, I’ll go there.

– Didn’t I already do it first? So, the party leader is 1,000 gold for attacking.

“What are these assholes? Have you had a picnic?”

“I think it’s because of the bastard blocking the entrance. Anyway, you bastards.”

The new party attacked me even after seeing the dead bodies of the players piled up.

‘Tsk.’

There were too many guys in the Colosseum who didn’t know how precious their lives were than I thought.

I activated the breath of thunder again and swung my spear at them.

Tring!

[＜Thunderbolt＞ is activated.]

aaa!

Just as the entrance was blocked in the plaza, the first thunderclap erupted.

The player who tried to take my spear head-on with tremendous power collapsed with his upper body completely gone, and the rest of them were not safe either.

The survivors trembled at the sight of the corpses of their comrades who died miserably.

“Kuh… is this, what the hell?”

“Sah, save me. I won’t run again. please······.”

I killed the wriggling players one by one while lying on the floor.

Of course, the guy who begged for help.

‘I wonder if I don’t attack at all.’

I won’t let anyone who sticks his teeth into me even once.

―Hey, did you just see it? What kind of lightning did it look like?

―Wow, I guess you didn’t show all your skills to the party you were dealing with earlier.

-crazy. What planet name is it? Isn’t that the level of an elder in Moorim?

―What is certain is that it is not Moorim. They hate wearing robes. Looking at that mask, it looks like Midgard or Hyperborea?

―By the way, a thousand gold, you know?

-yes? You didn’t answer that!

All the parties that were resting around seemed surprised by the power of the wall.

I was shocked every time it was activated, so I understood their reaction.

‘Anyway, it takes quite a while.’

It seemed that the new recruits were holding up well against the ant guards.

Still, inside the queen ant nest, the sound of fighting did not stop.

They were fighting non-stop for nearly three hours.

‘Through this match, I’m sure I’ve gotten used to the experience of fighting against monsters, so I’ll have to focus on teaching how to fight against players from now on.’

Of course, it’s not that there aren’t players who specialize in PvM matches.

However, fighting players in a PvM match is the same.

Even today’s match was a group PvM mission, but I fought more with the players than with the ant beast.

That was when I was thinking about it.

The sound from inside the queen ant nest suddenly cut off.

‘He’s dead.’

It was bittersweet.

I thought I would learn more through death, but in my heart I hoped that they would succeed in hunting the queen ant beast.

It was then.

Tring!

[The queen ant witch has been defeated!]

[The match has ended.]

[Team ‘Fighting’ wins!]

[Basic salary x 1 victory allowance will be paid.]

[All the dead in Team ‘Future’ party will be resurrected.]

[No party members have died. 1,000 P is paid as a bonus.]

The game end call appeared on the status window.

For a moment, I was dumbfounded.

really?

Did they succeed in defeating the queen ant witch?

how the hell

[Bonuses are set according to the number of ant monsters killed.]

[Status of number of ants killed ― 1st place. Team ‘Future’ 427 kills]

[3,000 P is paid as a bonus for the first place in the number of ant kills.]

[Status of party kills ― 1st place. Team ‘Future’ 26 kills]

[3,000 P is paid as a bonus for the number of party kills.]

[Since everyone survived and achieved 1st place in ant kills and 1st place in party kills, you will receive an additional bonus x 2.]

It seemed that the skills of the newcomers were better than I thought.

For a moment, I relaxed and smiled.

Why did I think I was the only one who grew rapidly?

They’ve been training with me too.

‘It was a game that proved the rapid growth of our team itself.’

It was a bigger harvest than I thought.

Tring!

[6 games of the lower league-Blood Knight 187 are over.]

[I received 16,100 P as fight money. (Team ‘Fight’ fee deducted 6,900 P)]

[Base salary +4,500 P / Winning bonus +4,500 P / Additional bonus +14,000 P / Fee -6,900 P]

[From the next game, the basic salary will be set at 5,000 P.]

[Go to your team’s farm. You did a really good job.]

A white light enveloped me, and soon I saw a familiar landscape.

In front of them, Aserian and Lee Se-yeon were waiting for us.

When Aserian met my eyes, he smiled broadly.

Seeing that, I laughed.

“I’m home.”