Chapter 42. Something Lost, Something Gained

A dark and bright place. It’s noisy because the whole world is full of sounds, yet quiet because he couldn’t hear anything.
For a long time, he was floating around in that strange world, and suddenly he felt a familiar gaze. Someone was looking at him.
Odin, Thor, Heimdall, Loki, even those whom he didn’t know yet.
The gods were looking down on Ivan. They were watching with a dignified presence and wonderful momentum.
Gods of Asgard. Among them, the one in front came one step closer. In that moment, Ivan felt that he was on the palm of a great divinity.
Whiing-.
A storm shook him. The war tested him. Magic dug into him, and wisdom judged him.
The ideas of the great divinity passed through Ivan’s body. In the meantime, Ivan has been torn apart and reassembled several times.
Now the great deity, Odin, was looking at him and thinking. Would he harvest his soul and bring him back to Valhalla, making him a great heavenly warrior, or should he make him stronger than he is now by shedding more blood, death and battles on earth?
In that strange pain, Ivan clenched his teeth.
“Odin!”
Ivan screamed in a place where mortals could never stand. Then, Odin, who was holding the soul in his hand, suddenly stopped moving.
Ivan looked straight at him. His whole body was crushed by the presence of such a strong existence, and his eyes in the face of the great divinity hurt as if they were burning, but he screamed nonetheless.
“Not yet! I will not be your puppet!”
Hahahahaha!
There was no sound, but it sounded like laughter. Everyone around him seemed to be smiling.
What did this mortal dare say? Is it that the fierce and cheeky warrior dares to reject the glory of Valhalla? The eyes of the gods sharpened. With that alone, Ivan had no choice but to feel the pain of his body being torn apart.
God never saw Ivan as a person. He only looked at him as grain to be harvested and the pigs to be slaughtered.
Whether this grain would ripen more lusciously or the pigs would gain more weight, they did not think about his heart.
‘Damn Asgard!’
Ivan did not look away from them in his pain. He looked at them until the very end and raised his fighting spirit.
Odin, who had not responded to his warrior’s pleas, desperate cries, and screams of sorrow, smiled at the enemy’s young eyes. He was satisfied with the spirit of fighting without losing his will to the end.
Instead of harvesting Ivan’s soul, he sent it back to Earth.
It’s still to early to come to heaven. It is not enough to receive the glory of Valhalla. Shout out their name a little more on earth. Experience a greater ordeal there and become a strong warrior.
The hand of the great deity that was holding Ivan’s body disappeared. Then Ivan’s body fell down. Constantly, towards the ground.
Ivan opened his eyes. His whole body felt heavy as if it was being sucked to the floor. He felt like he had expended all his energy.
He looked around. It was very dark. Even though Ivan could not see anything, he knew that this was the abandoned altar of the snake god Morna, the city of naga. (dlazarturead(dot)wordpress(dot)com)
He was cold and wet. And he was gloomy and frustrated.
There was such a smell. The air stuck to the skin.
Slip.
As Ivan cautiously tried to lift his torso, Delfino, who was beside him, approached, forming a bead of pale light. His face, in the dim light, looked very tired.
“Are you awake?”
Ivan asked in a cracked voice.
“How long has it been since I lost my mind?”
“Well, maybe ten hours? Maybe a little less than that.”
Ivan was more astonished that he had been lost for ten hours or so and that he had not died.
“Things weren’t good, but what happened?”
“A large snake appeared. At first glance, it looked like a basilisk. We took you back while it ran rampant. It entered the depths of the city of Naga.”
Apparently, the guy who was here found the intruder and attacked it. It ignored Ivan and Delfino who were with the Lizardmen the followers of Morna the snake god, but it couldn’t ignore the orcs.
Maybe the snake god Morna intervened, even if only for a bit. She was by no means a kind or merciful god, but she was more possessive. She will not be able to forgive orcs for invading her place.
“By the way, how’s the wound?”
After that, Ivan looked at his side. The sensation that Sracan’s spear had ripped through was still clear, but the wound had already healed.
“Your side is fine. You’ve suffered.”
However, Delfino shook his head.
“I’m not talking about the wound, I’m talking about the vessel of the soul.”
Ivan bit his mouth. He tried to contain the power of God excessively, so the vessel of the soul that had been shattered was now clumsily attached. He knew it was because Odin had used his hand.
Drip.
Suddenly, Ivan’s right eye gushed blood with intense pain. It seems that it wasn’t just because it was dark that the vision was blurry.
“Ugh!”
Delfino, startled as Ivan groaned, came to him and tried to heal him with divine power. But Ivan raised his hand to stop him.
“It’s useless. It’s a stigma. It’s a sign to let me know that I’m theirs.”
Damn Odin. It’s not like they’re kids who put saliva on object because it’s theirs, so what are they doing?
Ivan swallowed the swear words inwardly and bit his teeth tightly.
Mysterious knowledge was being engraved in his mind.
About death, about life, about the beginning and end of the world, about the secret and powerful runes and their powers.
As his blood dripped from one of his eyes, he saw something in him with the other.
The skill points that he had not used and had accumulated in the meantime had disappeared in bulk. It was clear who did it.
He has such a bad taste. Wasn’t his intention to make Ivan similar to him. The fact that he took one eye and had runes and magic engraved on him through the spear.
Smack!
He stood up using the spear of the lost warrior as his staff. His staggering body gradually filled with magic. It was a different feeling from the power the gods gave him.
Ivan headed outside. As if the battle had just entered a lull, Ferocious Tooth were sitting on a pile of stones and exhaled harshly.
“Are you awake? I thought you were going to die.”
There was a pleasure in the words that he said.
Anyway, Ivan was a benefactor who found the gaze of the lost snake god Morna, and a comrade who was fighting with him for a while. It was better to be alive than to remove his body.
“I almost died, and barely came back after trying to stop the gods from taking my soul.”
“It’s a pity to refuse the god’s call.”
“Not at all. I’m not very devout.”
Ivan blinked his one eye several times and looked ahead. He could see the torches the orcs were holding in the distance, but he couldn’t catch how far at first glance. His senses were blurred and his vision was awkward.
‘…Damn it, I have to go to the forest of elves once.’
There were not many ways to heal the wounds engraved by God himself. Among them, the easiest way to get it was to go to the forest of elves.
As you can see from the fact that you have to enter the forest of elves, the difficulty of obtaining it was terribly difficult. It’s a precious thing, so those snobs won’t give it away easily.
In the end, Ivan had to walk towards the ordeal on his own feet again. Maybe Odin was aiming for it and stole his eye.
“By the way, you’ve endured until now.”
“It’s all thanks to the king snake sent by the goddess. The sacred snake attacked the goddess’s enemy.”
Usually, a basilisk was a symbol of fear, but to them it seemed to be felt as a sacred creature.
After all, they are the people who worship the snake god, so the big snake must look like that. He thought that they are similar too.
“What happened to the Basilisk?”
“It went back to the water with serious wounds. Srakan was strong. He is indeed the son of the orc Lord Kartak. His reputation was not a lie.”
“Did his fame spread to you?”
“I heard that the Orc Lords planted seeds, and there were five that stood out. He is one of them.”
“What about Valkrun? The guy I killed in the East was also said to be the son of Kartak.”
“I don’t know such a name.”
Ivan was terribly disappointed. (dlazarturead(dot)wordpress(dot)com)
Valkrun was also quite strong. Since he was a vanguard warrior.
It seems that his reputation wasn’t that great. Or was it only known within the Orcs?
Ferocious teeth, which had been looking at the orcs in the distance, jumped up from their seats. He shouted, showing his teeth fiercely as his name suggests.
“They are coming again! Srakan is moving!”
Srakan was the one who properly inherited the blood of the Orc Lord Kartak. An existence that cannot be stopped by ordinary Lizardmen warriors. As much as Ivan was seriously injured and fell out, he had no choice but to stop himself.
With that thought in mind, the moment the ferocious teeth were about to step forward, Ivan went out first.
“Is it alright?”
“Leave it to me. Because I don’t like being beaten alone.”
Ivan peered through the darkness with his only remaining eye. His eyesight has diminished, but his senses have become more sensitive, so now is better to fight in the dark.
He could not use the power of God. One of his eyes was gone. However, by using the skill points he had accumulated and saved, the newly acquired power was worth the points.
“Whoa…”
He let out a long sigh. Power entered his hand holding his spear, and blue natural flowers bloomed from his one remaining eye.
As Ivan appeared proudly, Srakan chuckled.
“What a tough lifeline, human! I’m going to cut it off this time!”
It was not easy to deal with the Basilisk, so his outfit got quite messy. He was also seen with wounds here and there. However, Sracan’s momentum was still confident.
‘strong.’
Ivan meekly admitted. he was strong Among those he had seen before, there were very few beings comparable to Srakan.
He could be said to be the strongest of the enemies Ivan had ever met, except in special cases such as a god, a great demon, or a clone of a strong man.
Named. A strong man whose name is known.
But that was it. He was a great warrior, but not enough to shake the world. He couldn’t barely die from such a person.
Cheeky!
bang!
With thunder strides, he swung the spear that narrowed the distance at once. Attack as before. Naturally, Ivan’s attack was blocked, and rather pushed back.
Srakan said boringly.
“It’s gotten weaker. I don’t feel like fighting.”
The guy took a step forward with a grim face and swung his spear. A spear that shone like light pierced Ivan’s chest. But at that moment, Srakan’s face hardened. There was no feeling at all.
Clink!
With the sound of glass breaking, the figure of Ivan with his chest pierced scatters. Ivan was spinning the spear in front of him as if nothing had ever happened.
Clink!
Once again, Srakan moved the spear. This time, it must have blown away Ivan’s head, but it disappeared with the sound of glass breaking. Ivan suddenly stood behind him.
“What is this! Illusion? I don’t notice such tricks?”
Ivan said coldly as he looked at Srakan screaming in anger.
“If you don’t, you should have raised your mana sense.”
“Mana, what?”
Whoops!
Runes appeared one by one around Ivan holding the spear. All the runes burned at the same time.
He could feel the heat from all directions. Srakan couldn’t think of it as an illusion.
Ivan kicked the ground and ran towards him.
bang!