Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 214

Ji-Cheok activated the Cthugha’s Steps and Fire Dominion!

Roar!

Flames soared over the ectoplasmic road he had created. Because of that, the ectoplasm scattered and disappeared. Even so, Ji-Cheok kept moving forward as he descended to the ground.

Rumble—

Something that looked like a mixture of plants and animals was sloshing around like some weird jelly. From a distance, it looked like a multicolored syrup, writhing and moving, but up close, it was a repulsive sight.

Ji-Cheok landed on top of this writhing mass and kept going. The mass itself was traveling pretty fast, about the speed of an ordinary human sprint speed. However, Ji-Cheok’s bike was incomparably faster, and he was able to simply ride on top of the monsters moving—or, rather, being moved—around.

The result was catastrophic!

Roar!

The flames swayed and danced over the waves of monster flesh and plant stalks. It fed on Ji-Cheok’s mana, burning away this procession of grotesque and horrific creatures.

“Kiiiek!”

“Kiiiaaaak!”

“Kiiiiiieeeeek!”

Just as expected, these things were still alive. They screamed from what Ji-Cheok assumed to be their mouths, and then just died. And then, they screamed some more. The burning parts merged together and tried to put out the fire, but the flame created by Ji-Cheok’s skills was magical and did not need oxygen to burn. Even if they completely sealed the surface, the flame only heated up the inside and could not be dissipated!

‘Burn them all!’

“Come forth! Ye who have died and become white bones, let out all thy fury! Rise, ye rotting flesh! Kill the one that killed thee!”

Behind Ji-Cheok’s back, Reable chanted a suspicious-sounding incantation. Then, from among what little remained alive, skeletons rose from the ground. Beings that weren’t humans, and beings that used to be humans all rose to their feet and sprinted out with a hideous glare in their eyes. Their numbers quickly grew from tens to hundreds, and eventually, there were over a thousand of Reable’s underlings stomping the ground!

“Woow~ This place had a lot of corpses underneath the ground! This is very good!”

The God of corpses laughed behind his back. Hearing him laugh hysterically also put Ji-Cheok in a good mood.

‘Maybe I’m becoming crazy too. But for now, I must do what I have to do! Formless Sword!’

Roar!

The Formless Sword that was slashing the ground stopped in place and started to spin.

“Class 2 Fire-type Spell Boost!”

The kilometer-long Qi blade began to burn, turning from a light sword into an even more intimidating blazing sword. Of course, size alone did not correlate with power, but the Sword Qi mixed with fire was indeed remarkably powerful.

With this, Ji-Cheok swung the Sword Qi!

* * *

“It’s started!” Ha-Na shouted as she rode on the back of Ji-Byeok.

Next to her, Seong Kwang, Mu-Cheok, and Ji-Han were running at full speed. High-level Hunters were considered superhumans, and even though they all ran at speeds close to racehorses, they showed no signs of fatigue.

“Look at that!”

Ji Byeok looked up at the sky and was instantly stunned. There was a straight line of flame that suddenly appeared in the sky. Its length was beyond imagination. And that giant flame swung at the ground. Despite its enormous size, it moved so fast that it cut through the waves of lifeforms that were writhing and gathering on the ground.

Boom!

The creatures burst into flames. The Forest Shade was instantly burned to ashes, no longer able to showcase its majestic life. It was a marvelous sight, worthy of being the subject of myths and legends.

However, they were not just standing there tanking the hit.

[The [Slow Forest Shade] glares at [GodTube Influencer].]

It was an unexpected message. At the same time, more than half of the creatures in the dungeon gathered around the giant green sphere that the team could see in the distance, morphing into giant flowers. Even from this far away, the shape of the flowers could be easily recognized, which meant that their size had to be absolutely ridiculous.

The ‘flowers’ flashed with light in unison. No… rather than just illuminating the sky, they were literally shooting out light beams! The team was met with a sudden ray attack!

“Ji-Cheok is maneuvering to evade! Reable is summoning the Undead, and there seem to be thousands of them!”

As he ran, Ji-Han heard the cry of Ha-Na. He thought to himself, ‘A direct battle with a God is still a long way off. What a change of pace… Um Ji-Cheok, you…’

He gritted his teeth.

“Everyone get ready! We will be heading that way at once.”

The moment everyone assumed that Ji-Han was planning to use the [Time Acceleration] that he had used before, the illusion of a cog wheel emerged from behind Ji-Han’s back. All of them disappeared on the spot.

* * *

It was a huge sphere. Ji-Cheok could feel the [Slow Forest Shade] looking at him. They looked like they were made of grass and soil, but the gaze gave him chills! Most people in his stead would have probably suffered some negative mental influence or would have even gone downright crazy, but Ji-Cheok was fine. It was all thanks to the effects of his million skills and titles.

[[Slow Forest Shade] glares at [GodTube Influencer].]

‘Wait a second…’

“You shouldn’t reveal my job, you crazy God bastard!”

“Oh…I see you are a GodTube Influencer. That’s so weird! But what exactly is your job?”

“Shut your pie hole and focus, Reable.”

“Hahaha! Your wish is my command, milord!”

The entire island’s flora and fauna were gathering up. Ji-Cheok set them on fire and cut them down, but they still kept gathering into a sphere. The sphere had to be over three hundred meters in diameter. Interestingly, underneath the sphere, a pillar that looked like it was a kilometer long extended into the ground.

“That thing looks like a lollipop stuck in the ground. I’m sure they wanted it to look like a plant or something.”

“Hahahahahaha! That is gold, Mr. Umji~”

[[Slow Forest Shade] is enraged!]

‘Oh? So you’re angry! What are you gonna do? What kind of attack—what the hell?!’

Twelve flowers formed on the surface of the sphere. If Ji-Cheok recognized them as flowers from this distance, they had to be gigantic. They looked like sunflowers, and as soon as they opened their pedals, Ji-Cheok could feel the powerful energy radiating from their cores.

?Begin maximum evasion maneuver! Full deployment of Soul Telekinesis!?

Vroom!

The Mono Bike G took flight once more, moving like an aerobatic plane in the sky. The rapid movement massively increased the G-forces that Ji-Cheok was experiencing, but he endured it and proceeded on his way to the God.

“So, Mr. Umji~ What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to burn that thing! Reable, attack with your Undead on the ground!”

“Roger!”

Ji-Cheok pulled the Formless Sword back. It was a kilometer long, but it was still thin. And since it was made of Sword Qi and had no physical form, it was delicate.

—If you want to slice through a God, you need the Augmented Qi to even have any impact on a God. I don’t think you can kill a God with it, but at least you can hurt them. Hmm…maybe in your case… since you have the [Absolute Destruction] ability, you might be able to kill them.

This was one of the things the God of War had told him during training.

Ji-Cheok gritted his teeth. He focused so hard that veins were popping on his forehead. His Qi was boiling inside into a point of vaporization and the long Formless Sword gradually shrank. Eventually, it became a sword about fifty meters long. It was a fifty-meter-long blade infused with Augmented Qi! Unfortunately, even though it looked transcendent, it was nothing compared to the God in front of him.

.

‘Still, this is gonna hurt like shit, and is going to make you cry! Die, you [Slow Forest Shade]!’

The Formless Sword rushed toward the God, blasting through the sound barrier in an instant. It moved in response to Ji-Cheok’s will.

The next level of the Formless Sword, the Mind Sword, was out of Ji-Cheok’s reach for the time being. However, it didn’t matter now.

‘Pierce! Pierce! Cut that God into two!’

[The [Slow Forest Shade] has used the power of [Slow].]

“Holy shit!”

Ji-Cheok swore out loud. The Formless Sword Starlight, which flew like a flash, was now moving at the speed of a turtle.

‘What? Did they put a debuff that slows down time on my Formless Sword?’

?Master! It’s coming!?

Whoosh!

“Ugh!”

Cheok-Liang flipped the bike over at high speed. A ray of eerie light flashed through the place that he had just left—the heat rays emitted by the flower of the damn [Slow Forest Shade].

“That bastard sneak-attacked me without saying anything!

And then there was the matter of the Formless Sword, which was now slowly hovering in the air. Maintaining it consumed less Qi than remaking it, and Ji-Cheok wondered what he should do. He couldn’t leave the sword just floating there forever.

‘God damn it! Move! Don’t just stay there!’

Ji-Cheok tried to focus even more. To his surprise, it started to pick up a little bit of momentum. It was still very slow, but at least it was faster than before. From a turtle’s pace, the Formless Sword was now moving at a human’s pace.

‘At this rate, I should be able to plunge that sword into the God’s torso in at least few minutes—’

“No way…”

Their massive body tilted sideways. The column-like thing that stretched all the way to the ground bent gently, making the giant sphere sway like a weird daffodil in the wind. And then, they released their power.

Boom!

The Formless Sword passed by their body in an instant.

‘This is really starting to piss me off. But I’m in front of you now too, you bastard!’

Ji-Cheok covered the bike with Sword Qi and drove toward the God with the sole purpose of crashing it into them. Just before it made contact…

“Jump!”

“Okay~”

Ji-Cheok jumped off the bike with Reable.

Boom!

A part of the God’s torso was crushed and the flesh was shredded, leaving behind a crater dozens of meters in diameter. Green and red fluids splattered, and there were bits of flesh and plants scattered everywhere. The Mono Bike G was a wreck too.

?Initiating self-destruct!?

At Cheok-Liang's words, Ji-Cheok grabbed Reable by the scruff of his neck. While executing the [Heaven and Earth Warp Steps], he simultaneously activated Cthugha’s Steps and Fire Dominion.

Roar!

Flames erupted wherever his feet touched. As he sprinted away, a loud explosion echoed behind him.

BOOM!

Although the explosion wasn’t as big as when he had faced [He_who_denies_death], it still shook the [Slow Forest Shade] to the core.

Good! I’m just going to get on top of you and burn you to a crisp—’

Crunch.

Something that resembled a giant crocodile’s mouth popped out from under his feet. It was about to bite him, but he safely dodged it by using Soul Telekinesis. Then, he saw various monsters or Hunters sprouting from the [Slow Forest Shade]’s massive body.

‘What the… Didn’t you just fucking squeeze everything together?! Now you’re trying to spit them out again? This is fucked up!’

“Reable! You need to fight on your own from here!”

He threw Reable away and drew his swords. Cheok-Liang was still in his fennec form, using Soul Telekinesis, and a shield of ectoplasm surrounded the two. Leaving the Soul Telekinesis to Cheok-Liang, Ji-Cheok pulled out the [Guardian of Hope] out of the Shadow Pouch and put a bunch of buffs on himself.

Slice—

With each swing of his sword, he cut down a bunch of the attacking monsters.

Boom! Flash!

Fire-breathing and lightning-sparking enemies burst out from the ‘ground’ to attack him. Thankfully, telekinesis was a really handy power, and it even intercepted lightning.

He closed the distance and slashed the monsters with his sword, but the sphere just kept forming new monsters. It was nearly impossible to keep up with the monsters that kept squirming out of it.

After defeating a few monsters, Ji-Cheok used his telekinetic power to soar into the sky.

1. This is different from just the Formless Sword itself, possibly a sword technique.