SFRW-Chapter 43

Ch. 43 Sword God From The Ruined World  

The battle was unexpectedly fierce.  

Black Orcs, no matter how strong, should have been no match for the Silk Flower Guild members composed entirely of A-rank Heroes.  

That had always been the case until now, and should have continued to be so.  

But the current atmosphere felt distinctly uncomfortable.  

Crunch!  

A single strike crushed a Black Orc’s chest, killing it instantly.  

Outwardly, it seemed like a clean, effortless kill – the expected result.  

Yet Park Seung-ho, standing with his spear in hand after delivering the blow, wore a stiff expression.  

“…Why are these things…”  

His words trailed off as his face contorted.  

Black Orcs were common monsters found in rift zones worldwide.  

Park Seung-ho had fought countless Black Orcs before and knew their weaknesses and how to handle them perfectly.  

So when Black Orcs appeared before him, he hadn’t been worried in the slightest.  

But these Black Orcs were different.  

“No, they’re way too different.”  

Park Seung-ho looked at the spear in his hand.  

It was a Grade 6 weapon – lightweight, durable, and with a rare ‘explosion’ special effect.  

He had spent nearly his entire fortune to acquire it, and it had repaid that investment many times over by helping him hunt numerous monsters.  

Against something like a Black Orc, even a glancing blow should have been fatal.  

That’s how it had always been… until now.  

Screech!  

A Black Orc charged at the dazed Park Seung-ho.  

With bloodlust in its eyes, it swung its crude steel sword at the back of his head.  

Thud!  

Park Seung-ho’s spear, which had seemed idle, suddenly lashed out to deflect the attack.  

Grip!  

Clenching his spear harder than usual, Park Seung-ho thrust with all his might.  

The spearhead, infused with bluish magic, struck the Black Orc square in the chest.  

Boom!  

It exploded.  

The rare ‘explosion’ effect had triggered.  

“……”  

But the Black Orc only flew backward, its chest blown open, spraying blood.  

At minimum, its upper body should have been blown to pieces as if hit by a bomb, but that wasn’t the case at all.  

“These things… are seriously weird.”  

Park Seung-ho’s face twisted. The other guild members’ expressions weren’t much different.  

“Why are they so strong?”  

“They should be dead but won’t die!”  

“Damn it! What the hell is going on?”  

“Die! Just die already!”  

Who would have thought they’d struggle so much against mere Black Orcs?  

The Silk Flower guild members were stunned when monsters that should have died kept standing and counter attacking.  

When even injuries started occurring from what should have been easily defeated Black Orcs, Jung In-joo’s expression hardened more than ever before.  

As dismay filled the faces of all 38 guild members, Jung In-joo had to make a decision as their leader.  

“Hyun Joo-yeon!”  

She had confidently claimed she could handle the Black Orcs herself. Pride and embarrassment didn’t matter now.  

The safety of her guild members came first, even if it meant trampling on her pride.  

Hyun Joo-yeon, who had been grinding her teeth while watching the guild struggle, immediately responded to Jung In-joo’s call.  

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!  

The moment Hyun Joo-yeon’s palm touched them, Black Orcs’ upper bodies exploded.  

This was the terrifying attack power of an S-rank Hero.  

Hyun Joo-yeon’s speed ranked second in South Korea – no, perhaps third now.  

Her combat style involved using that speed as a weapon to close distance and strike with magic-enhanced blows.  

In short, she was an extreme close-quarters combatant.  

Many believed this fighting style limited her potential – it didn’t suit her beautiful appearance (she wasn’t some muscle-bound tough guy), and truthfully, she didn’t much like it herself.  

It had simply developed because she had no choice but to rely on her speed.  

However, only other S-rank Heroes could look down on Hyun Joo-yeon’s fighting style.  

To A-rank Heroes, she was an overwhelmingly powerful figure they couldn’t hope to match.  

Proving this, Black Orcs began dying rapidly once Hyun Joo-yeon joined the fight.  

Within less than a minute, over 40 Black Orcs fell to her hands.  

pYet no one was celebrating this.  

‘My body definitely isn’t normal.’  

She had known her body felt heavier, but the impact was greater than expected.  

Hyun Joo-yeon, who had once cleared 90 Black Orcs in a minute, was shocked to only take down about 30 in the same time now.  

Now she understood why the guild members had struggled.  

Why Jung In-joo had swallowed her pride to ask for help.  

‘This is wrong! Something’s seriously off!‘  

Even if Brazilian monsters were stronger than those in other regions, they shouldn’t have changed this much in just days.  

Thanks to Hyun Joo-yeon’s intervention, the battle ended quickly.  

Five guild members had suffered significant injuries, though none life-threatening.  

“This makes no sense! Are these Black Orcs special or something? Last rift zone, Black Orcs were no challenge at all!”  

Someone shouted in frustration and disbelief.  

When they first arrived in Brazil, the guild had handled Black Orcs in the rift zones with ease.  

“Clearly there’s something wrong with this place! The entrance was weird from the start!”  

“Our condition is off too! It’s like we’re under some debuff!”  

“Is this a game? What debuff?”  

“Game or not, that’s what it feels like! Ten years ago, who could have imagined this? Reality’s more like a game now anyway!”  

As guild members grew increasingly agitated over minor comments, Jung In-joo had to step in to calm them.  

Meanwhile, Seo Do-jun was examining the Black Orc corpses.  

“Kassal, see this? My guess is this is what’s making them stronger. Hmm… it’s slightly different from normal magic. If I had to name it… dark magic? The name isn’t important. Listen – monsters forcibly infused with this dark magic become much stronger than normal. At least twice as strong. And the surrounding magic flow has subtly changed too. Try to sense it.”  

Dark magic.  

Not an official term.  

Just what the scholar Ryuntna had named it after discovery.  

What mattered were its properties – it could more than double a monster’s strength.  

Surprisingly, Seo Do-jun found traces of dark magic in the Black Orc corpses.  

“What are you looking at so closely?”  

Hyun Joo-yeon approached Seo Do-jun as he intently studied a corpse.  

“See these black wave-like things here?”  

Looking closely inside the corpse as Seo Do-jun said, she could see thin, membrane-like black waves undulating.  

“What is that?”  

“…I don’t know. But this is what made them stronger.”  

“This did?”  

Hyun Joo-yeon stared at the dark magic with wide eyes.  

She never would have noticed it without Seo Do-jun pointing it out.  

The dark magic was that inconspicuous unless examined carefully.  

‘Why is dark magic appearing here?‘  

Seo Do-jun’s expression was stiffer than ever before.  

In the ruined world too, the appearance of dark magic had accelerated the pace of destruction.  

No, even before that – when monsters first rained from the sky, their bodies already contained dark magic.  

And as time passed, existing monsters began absorbing it too.  

The result? Monsters that had been easy prey became formidably strong.  

Was this just coincidence?  

Seo Do-jun didn’t think so.  

He had a bad feeling.  

‘Perhaps…‘  

Seo Do-jun cut off the thought.  

It was something he absolutely didn’t want to consider, something that should never happen.  

‘It’s too early to conclude.‘  

But from now on, he couldn’t afford to overlook even the smallest detail.  

After the Black Orcs, Swamp Ghouls and Delcates had also grown stronger.  

The rotting fingers of Swamp Ghouls tore through sturdy combat suits, and the stones thrown by Delcates punched clean holes through anything.  

By this point, fear began rising in the guild members’ hearts.  

Despite having the powerful ally Seo Do-jun, they were developing a new fear of the monsters themselves.  

What if monsters elsewhere had also grown this strong?  

What if this change spread beyond Brazil to the entire world?  

Even A-rank Heroes would find monster hunting difficult.  

B- through D-rank Heroes might need to change professions entirely.  

The Hero ranking system itself would need restructuring – there’d be massive downgrades across the board.  

At least two ranks lower.  

An A-rank becoming C-rank?  

Most Heroes wouldn’t be able to handle that sense of loss. The entire system and order would collapse.  

This would undoubtedly have massive implications for global security too – monster waves would overwhelm existing rift zones.  

“It couldn’t possibly go that far, right? This place must just be special. The entrance was different from the start. There must be some reason only this rift zone is affected.”  

One guild member tried to dispel the anxiety with these words.  

“That must be it! If everywhere changed like this, it’d be the apocalypse! Hahaha…”  

The forced laughter about the apocalypse was met with cold silence, leaving the speaker awkwardly scratching their head.  

“Now I really see the difference between us and S-ranks.”  

“Honestly, I thought A-rank and S-rank were just one step apart. But today made me realize – it’s like heaven and earth.”  

“Don’t say that where other S-ranks might hear. The temperamental ones might actually kill you.”  

“I know.”  

While the guild struggled with every monster encounter, Seo Do-jun and Hyun Joo-yeon still displayed overwhelming strength.  

Seo Do-jun was beyond common sense anyway, but Hyun Joo-yeon was different.  

Seeing her reduced performance against Black Orcs, some guild members had secretly thought even she wouldn’t be her usual self in this rift zone.  

But Hyun Joo-yeon laughed at such thoughts as she slaughtered monsters single-handedly.  

She destroyed them so thoroughly that ‘just grazing them’ became synonymous with annihilation.  

“Hyun Joo-yeon is human like us too. She’s clearly struggling.”  

Fatigue showed on her face after hunting so many monsters.  

In contrast…  

“Hero Seo Do-jun is really…”  

One guild member trailed off, shaking his head.  

Despite hunting more monsters than anyone, Seo Do-jun remained exactly as he’d been at the start.  

Not a single heavy breath, no trace of fatigue.  

“But he’s taking this as seriously as we are. His face has been stiff the whole time.”  

“True. Whether at the last rift zone or against Takashi, he always had this… unshakable composure. Like the world could collapse and he wouldn’t blink. But here, he’s clearly different.”  

“This must be a first for him too. He must recognize how serious this is.”  

While the guild rested and ate, Seo Do-jun kept scanning their surroundings with that same hardened expression.  

“Aren’t you going to eat?”  

At Hyun Joo-yeon’s question, Seo Do-jun shook his head.  

“Not really hungry.”  

Hyun Joo-yeon wasn’t hungry either, but forced herself to eat to maintain stamina.  

“At least have some of this.”  

She offered Seo Do-jun some combat rations, which he reluctantly accepted.  

“That thing you mentioned earlier – what could it be? What could make monsters this much stronger?”  

She wasn’t expecting an answer – just voicing her frustration.  

“It’s simple.”  

“Simple?”  

Hyun Joo-yeon’s eyes widened at Seo Do-jun’s knowing tone.