SFRW-Chapter 80

Ch. 80 Sword God From The Ruined World   

Their size barely reaches one meter.  

Dull green skin and faces that look like a clever mix between a dog and a rat.  

They walk on two legs like humans and possess enough intelligence to use tools.  

These are Kobolds.  

With no exceptional physical abilities in strength or speed, even an average adult man could defeat one in a fight.  

If one could overcome the fear of facing a monster, they weren’t particularly difficult to subdue with human strength.  

Because they were weaker than humans, Kobolds had no choice but to live in groups.  

Forming massive hordes ranging from at least a thousand to sometimes hundreds of thousands, their reproductive rate was astonishingly high to maintain such numbers.  

“The Edal Duchy, was it?”  

Even in the ruined world, Kobolds were monsters that could only be ignored.  

But then came the shocking event where these disregarded Kobolds brought about the fall of an entire duchy.  

While their unchecked reproduction was part of the problem, the decisive cause was—  

“That guy over there.”  

Seo Do-jun’s gaze fixed on the Kobold King strutting arrogantly amidst tens of thousands of Kobolds.  

It looked exactly like in the photographs.  

At five times the size of an ordinary Kobold (which barely exceeds one meter), one might doubt if it was even a Kobold at all.  

But size wasn’t its only advantage.  

The Kobold King possessed strength rivaling that of an Orge.  

In fact, when an Orge encountered a Kobold King, it would often turn tail rather than fight.  

Unlike solitary Orges, the Kobold King always led a horde.  

Especially since it was constantly guarded by unusually large Kobolds, 24/7.  

“It seems it’s been leading this horde for quite some time.”  

Hundreds of massive Kobolds surrounded the Kobold King, forming an impenetrable guard.  

These Kobold warriors, 2.5 times larger than ordinary Kobolds, wore crude metal armor and wielded iron weapons. Their combat prowess was such that even an Orge—a higher-tier monster—would struggle against them.  

And these Kobold warriors were also the direct offspring of the Kobold King.  

The king mated dozens of times a day, and with its superior genes, the chances of producing strong offspring were high.  

Thus, a Kobold King that had reigned for a long time inevitably bred many powerful warriors.  

Aside from them, about a hundred other peculiar Kobolds stood out.  

Draped in necklaces made of unidentifiable bones, these were the Kobold shamans.  

Think of them as a kind of sorcerer.  

While they couldn’t cast direct offensive spells like Orc shamans, they could drive tens of thousands of Kobolds into a frenzy or temporarily blind and deafen enemies with curses.  

“Warriors and shamans—they’ve got a proper system going.”  

This horde was currently heading toward Alaska.  

Meaning the Kobold King was confident of victory.  

In truth, the American Heroes in Alaska would struggle to stop tens of thousands of Kobolds.  

Especially since they knew nothing about the Kobold King’s abilities, its warriors, or its shamans. A single moment of carelessness would undoubtedly prove fatal.  

“If I take out the Kobold King first… things will get complicated.”  

Killing the Kobold King itself would be easy.  

The problem was that doing so might cause the tens of thousands of Kobolds to panic and scatter in all directions.  

For Seo Do-jun, who needed to hunt as many monsters as possible to clear out the Yukon territory, this would be a major nuisance. So he decided to leave the king for later.  

“First, I’ll inflict as much damage as possible in one go… though that won’t work either.”  

Seo Do-jun clicked his tongue as he reconsidered drawing his sword from subspace.  

If satellites happened to capture this, recklessly using his sword was out of the question.  

What if he wiped out thousands of Kobolds in one strike using Vandeyan swordsmanship?  

The whole world would be stunned.  

People were already obsessively fixated on him for far less—he couldn’t afford to pour more fuel on that fire.  

“No choice.”  

In the end, Seo Do-jun’s solution was—  

“KWAOOOOOO—!”  

—to hunt the Kobolds using Casserian.  

It seemed fate had ordained that Casserian, having ventured outside the rift zone, would have to work hard.  

Flying at an altitude undetectable to the Kobolds, Casserian finally unleashed the roar it had been holding back and began its rapid descent.  

“KEEKEEKEEK!”  

“KEEKEK! KEEKEK!”  

The sudden appearance of this apex predator sent the Kobolds into a panic, crushed under sheer terror.  

Even the Kobold King, which had been strutting with unmatched arrogance, was visibly shaken.  

Why is a top-tier predator here? it seemed to wonder.  

Meanwhile, Casserian skimmed low over the center of the horde, scattering feathers and stirring up whirlwinds with its wingbeats.  

In the blink of an eye, dozens of Kobolds were torn apart without a trace, painting the surroundings in splatters of purple blood.  

Seo Do-jun wasn’t just spectating either.  

Standing atop Casserian, he unleashed a devastating magic storm with a single punch, erasing dozens of Kobolds in an instant.  

The Kobolds were already in disarray from the apex predator’s appearance, but realizing that a human was controlling Casserian sent them into even greater chaos.  

However, as thousands of Kobolds fell, the Kobold King regained its composure.  

“KEEKEK! KEEKEEK! KEEKEEKEEK!”  

At the King’s screeching orders, the Kobold shamans acted first.  

Raising the bone fragments hanging around their necks, they began shrieking incomprehensible incantations.  

A thick black fog rapidly spread before Casserian’s eyes—a curse meant to blind it.  

“KWAOOOOO—!”  

Casserian contemptuously dispersed the fog with a single powerful flap of its wings.  

THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!  

“SKREEEEEEE—!”  

But the fog wasn’t the only trick. Earthen pillars suddenly erupted from the ground, disrupting its flight, while eerie wails circled the skies, tormenting Casserian.  

At the same time, a rain of sharp wooden spears came down.  

The Kobold warriors’ thrown weapons.  

No matter how strong these warriors were, could they even scratch Casserian?  

THUD-THUD-THUD!  

The spears that miraculously struck its body harmlessly bounced off its tough feathers.  

There wasn’t a single mark left, but Casserian’s pride was deeply wounded.  

How dare these lowly Kobolds—the weakest of monsters—!  

Fury exploded in its eyes.  

Casserian’s slaughter grew even more frenzied.  

Dozens of Kobolds died every second.  

Just as the horde’s numbers were rapidly dwindling—  

WHAM!  

Casserian’s body shuddered slightly.  

“KWAOOO—!”  

A powerful strike had landed on its left wing. It immediately identified the attacker.  

The Kobold King, wielding a massive iron sword.  

It had bravely charged at Casserian, which was mercilessly crushing its army. But even with strength rivaling an Orge’s, it stood no chance.  

All it did was provoke Casserian further.  

As Casserian reared back to seize the king with its claws—  

“Killing that one first would be troublesome.”  

Seo Do-jun lightly smacked Casserian’s head, stopping it.  

“KWAOOOOO—!”  

Why?!  

Why stop it from killing that insolent king?!  

Casserian protested with a roar, but Seo Do-jun remained unmoved, forcing it to hunt only the other Kobolds.  

Noticing this, the Kobold King’s eyes gleamed cunningly.  

For some reason, the apex predator couldn’t attack it. Realizing this, the King grew bolder, charging recklessly with its iron sword.  

“Ignore it. Focus on the others.”  

At Seo Do-jun’s cold command, Casserian had no choice but to evade the King while hunting ordinary Kobolds.  

The problem was, this emboldened the warriors, shamans, and even the common Kobolds.  

“KEEKEEKEEK! KEEKEEKEEK!”  

Roughly translated, they were chanting:  

“The predator fears our King! Stand your ground and fight!”  

Fueled by battle frenzy and empowered by the shamans’ spells, the Kobolds threw themselves at Casserian with suicidal fervor.  

Watching this, Seo Do-jun allowed a satisfied smile.  

As expected, a well-trained monster was more useful than most humans.  

*** 

“…Good work.”  

“Kwoooo…”  

Instead of answering, Casserian collapsed onto the ground with a thud.  

Hours of relentless Kobold slaughter had taken their toll—even for an apex predator.  

Especially after flying from South Korea to Guam, hunting monsters there, briefly resting, then flying to Canada to exterminate tens of thousands of Kobolds. Its stamina was completely drained.  

Seo Do-jun observed the remaining two hundred Kobolds.  

The Kobold King stood motionless, seemingly in shock at the near-total annihilation of its army.  

Realizing escape was impossible against such an enemy, it rallied its surviving forces for a final stand.  

The only silver lining was that the apex predator seemed weakened.  

“KEEKEEKEEKEEK!”  

The King screeched, urging its troops to kill the human first, then Casserian.  

But—  

CRACK!  

A lightning-fast punch from Seo Do-jun exploded the Kobold King’s head like a melon.  

“KEEKEEK! KEEKEEK!”  

As the leaderless Kobolds tried to scatter, Seo Do-jun snatched up the King’s fallen iron sword and swung it in a wide arc.  

WHOOSH—!  

A crimson wave of magic sliced outward.  

In an instant, nearly half the Kobolds were bisected at the waist.  

CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!  

The sword, overloaded with Seo Do-jun’s magic, shattered into dozens of fragments that scythed through the remaining Kobolds.  

Those still alive screamed as they collapsed, while the few survivors desperately tried to flee—  

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!  

Only to drop dead one by one as Seo Do-jun’s thrown stone fragments shattered their skulls.  

In moments, the Kobold King and its remaining forces were exterminated.  

Seo Do-jun immediately retrieved a magic stone from the King’s body—an intermediate-grade one.  

While ordinary Kobolds only yielded low-grade stones, the King’s was vastly superior despite being the same species.  

Storing it in subspace, Seo Do-jun wordlessly mounted the exhausted Casserian.  

Searching the tens of thousands of Kobold corpses could yield at least 4,000–5,000 low-grade magic stones.  

But Seo Do-jun left without a second glance.  

Instead—  

“Low-grade magic stones?”  

“Send people to collect them if you want. I don’t need them.”  

He called Gloria, who promptly contacted the Alaska Hero Association branch.  

Hours later…  

“…G-Good heavens!”  

“One person did all this?!”  

“N-No way…!”  

The three hundred people who arrived at the unimaginable slaughter scene could hardly believe a single individual was responsible.