“What can I do? Tayarana is also a Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter now, isn’t she?”


    “T-That’s right.”


    He had forgotten for a moment, but Tayarana had taken over Ra’s soul and then she became a Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter.


    The Egyptian government and elders naturally assumed that the next president would be Ra’s sessor and the most powerful woman in the country. However, Tayarana had no intention of giving up her freedom and tly refused everything. Unable to give up on her, the Egyptian government and elders tried to convince her until the end.


    She eventually got so fed up with their persistence that she announced if they bothered her one more time, she would renounce her Egyptian citizenship and be a naturalized citizen of South Korea.


    <em>‘Damn, Tara really is brave.’</em>


    Han-Yeol shook his head as he listened to Mariam.


    “Did Tara really hate bing the president that bad? Well, I always knew she hated it, but was it to the point of giving up her citizenship?”


    Mariamughed. “Haha, of course giving up her citizenship was ny percent a lie. Tayarana-nim cares and loves Egypt more than anyone else. So now that she’s the sessor of Ra, she’s willing to be a symbol of Egypt, even if it’s a bit of a hassle. But that doesn’t mean she wants to be the president, which is full of empty formalities and troublesome work.”“Yeah, bing the president is indeed a hassle, especially when you’re as wealthy as me and Tara. No need to go through such trouble. There’s not much wealth and honor we can earn from that.”


    <em>Slurp.</em>


    Han-Yeol took a sip of the hot coffee in his hand.


    “Ha, Han-Yeol-nim, it seems you don’t have any intention of stopping Tayarana-nim.”


    “Yeah, why should I?”


    He knew very well why Tayarana didn’t want to take on the role of president, so he didn’t want to waste his energy trying to convince her otherwise.


    <em>‘Besides, it’s good for me to have Tara with me.’</em>


    He only tried to stop her out of courtesy because of his rtionship with Egypt in the first ce, but Han-Yeol was actually grateful to have her.


    <em>Whoosh. Thunk.</em>


    Without even looking at the finished coffee cup, Han-Yeol threw it behind him and scored it in the trash can.


    “Well, I’ll be off then.”


    “Oh, okay. Bye.”


    The table was in front of Han-Yeol’s private building. It was one of his favorite spots because the garden, maintained meticulously by the hired servants, provided a beautiful and airy atmosphere, making it more pleasant to drink tea there than inside the house.


    <em>Tap, tap, tap!</em>


    Just then, Noras urgently approached Han-Yeol.


    “What is it?”


    [I found it!]


    “Really?”


    [Yes. We’ve located two of the three remaining stones!]


    “Okay, let’s leave right away!”


    [Alright!]


    ***


    Once Han-Yeol realized where the stones were, Han-Yeol confidently took action.


    <em>‘It’s said that the second war between light and darkness is at its peak in the Bastro Dimension. Even though I’m in charge of dispersing the hyenas’ power as much as possible on Earth, I can’t sit around and do nothing.’</em>


    Han-Yeol had been keeping up with the news from the Bastro Dimension.


    <em>‘Equipment like Yoo-Bi’s mana rifle apparently made a significant contribution.’</em>


    Until now, the Light Faction didn’t have many medium and long ranged weapons. While rank one and two warriors were able to unleashrge amounts of mana and attack far, it was very inefficient since it consumed a lot of mana and couldn’t be used for long periods of time. However, Yoo-Bi’s modern technology increased the Bastro Warriors’ firepower by several times.


    <em>‘Of course, that doesn’t mean the Light Faction has an advantage.’</em>


    The modernization of their equipment had given the Light Faction warriors an advantage over the hyena sorcerers, but the Light Faction’s weakened overall strength was no match for the hyena race. The hyenas had really dominated most of the Bastro Dimension and advanced their craft.


    Like the Korean independence fighters against the Japanese, the guerri warfare had beenrgely skirmishes, inflicting damage on the hyena race.


    <em>‘If we want to turn this situation around, we need to find a way to get rid of the Dragon of Destruction, and I need to join them.’</em>


    “So out of the stones that have been found, the Sky Stone is in ska, right?”


    In his private ne, Han-Yeol sat across Noras, and he pointed to ska on the world map.


    <em>Tap.</em>


    [That’s right.]


    Noras, a wise sorcerer, didn’t know what ska was, but he calcted the coordinates from the map Han-Yeol showed him and his GPS and nodded.


    “Hmm, ska.”


    It was a US territory.


    It used to be a beautiful ce, with plenty of natural and rich underground resources, but after the gate incident, all the Americans left and only monsters resided there, turning it into an abandonednd. The US also tried to reim ska after the world stabilized, but they failed every time and suffered huge losses in manpower and resources.


    ska was home to monsters so powerful that even the Transdimensional Space Association couldn’t do anything but seal off the entire state.


    “Not bad.”


    [I see.]


    But this was actually good news for Han-Yeol.


    <em>‘I won’t have to get tangled up in politics and diplomatic affairs.’</em>


    ska was still a US territory, but no humans lived there, and it was basically a wastnd. In other words, anyone was free to go hunting there. The entirend was filled with monsters, so the US had given up any direct control over it.


    ***


    “Khaaaa!”


    <em>Slice!</em>


    “Arrr!”


    A giant snow wolf was shed by a golden me encased sword and stumbled backward, spitting out blood.


    <em>Gush!</em>


    “Keh!”


    A deep cut was then made from top to bottom through the heart of the fallen snow wolf, ending its life.


    [Whoa, it’s really cold here.]


    Tayarana had just killed a snow wolf, known as the ouws of the snowfields and said to be the hardest to kill in ska, as if she was dealing with a mere dog. No matter how tough the monster snow wolf was, it was facing the incarnation of Ra, a Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter. She could take on a hundred Master-Rank Hunters on her own, so a snow wolf was no different than a weak monster.


    “Hmm, yeah. I can’t believe even our Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter, who’s tolerant to most weather conditions, feels cold. I can see why this ce is called and that’s been rejected by humanity.”


    ska was extremely cold, literally nicknamed thend that was rejected by humanity like Han-Yeol had said.


    Numerous joint US private and public investigation teams had been sent to the field, but none seeded because Master-Rank Hunters couldn''t survive the bitter cold before they could even face the monsters.


    [Maybe there''s a weather-controlling monster out there somewhere,] Noras said.


    “Besides, they said that the weather had gotten colder recently, right?”


    [Yeah.]


    Han-Yeol reached out to his intelligence team immediately after Noras told him about the Sky Stone in ska. They scraped together reliable information about ska, organized it into an easy-to-read format, and sent it to Han-Yeol. Thanks to them, he was able to learn that ska, which was already freezing cold, had recently experienced a sharp drop in temperature.


    [Hmm, I believe the monster that controls the weather has the Sky Stone.]


    “Oh, that might be it.”


    Han-Yeol had already seen the effects of the stones on monsters, so Noras could be right.


    <em>Koooo!</em>


    The roar of monsters could be heard throughout the abandonednd of ska.


    <em>Krrrr.</em>


    Every three minutes or so, the roars were apanied by a small earthquake that would cause the earth and sky to tremble in fear. The weather was also fickle. The hail storms were difficult to block with normal mana and required the use of defensive skills to stop them.


    “Wow, this ce is actually crazy,” Han-Yeol said.


    [I agree. I’ve never seen an environment this barren and uninhabitable even in the Bastro Dimension. This ce is the worst in terms of environment alone.]


    Even Noras, a Bastroling who had grown up in a much more harsh environment than Earth, had a hard time adjusting to ska.


    “But I can’t give up on the Sky Stone. Let’s hurry.”


    [Alright, Han-Yeol-nim.]


    [Okay.]


    Han-Yeol’s group was small. It was just Han-Yeol, Tayaryana, Mariam, Noras, and a group of roe deer sorcerers needed to find the stone.


    The rest of his group eagerly wanted to follow, but bringing too many people could alert the hyenas that they were secretly collecting the stones. Han-Yeol couldn''t afford to have even a single stone of the three remaining stones fall into the hands of the hyena sorcerers. So, he had to move as secretly as possible, or at least hide the fact that they were looking for the stones if they were spotted.


    “This is it.”


    [Yeah, I think it’s here.]


    “Huh, how do you know?”


    [Um, I just have a feeling?]


    “Of course you do.”


    Han-Yeol shook his head at Tayarana’s cute shamelessness.


    ska was a vast expanse of frozennd, but Han-Yeol had a skill called Demon Eyes. He already knew the wavelengths of the stones, so it wasn’t too difficult for him to find the stones hidden in the frozennd.


    <em>Tap.</em>


    [Hmm, this area is incredibly chilly.]


    Noras was particrly sensitive to mana, so he stroked his beard with his left hand that wasn''t holding onto his staff and stared into the dark underground passage.


    “Ignore the chill and let’s get through this quickly.”


    [Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.]


    [Yes, Han-Yeol-nim.]


    “Haa.”


    Mariam really felt that her peaceful days were over and the anxious days were back.


    <em>‘We’re going into a ce like that?’</em>


    She was now a Master-Rank in using telepathy. As a result, she had the ability that allowed her to look down on most Hunters. Despite this, she somehow felt reluctant about the chill that this underground passage was giving off.


    Normally, she wouldn’t have dared to think about entering such a dangerous ce, but with Han-Yeol around, she didn’t think about danger.


    <em>‘I hope Tayarana-nim doesn''t get injured… No, I’ll make sure she doesn’t!’</em>