Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 190

Chapter 190: Confidence
“I hope you remember what happened to our guild members last time…”

Anderson said, and as he spoke, the terrifying images they had seen emerged once again in the people’s minds.

Many months prior to that day, the Twilight guild had been tasked with clearing a B-rank gate.

Since their guild master Anderson had just been promoted to S-rank, they underestimated the threat.

Healing potions, spells scrolls, and even resources, they didn’t bring nearly enough to be considered a ‘large-scale’ gate raid.

However, there had been an error in the gate’s rank measurements, and the members found themselves inside an A-rank gate.

At the time, Anderson had immediately suggested retreating but was swayed by his teammates’ fancy words, and convinced to continue the raid.

A third of the expedition team died, almost a dozen of people remained crippled or paralyzed, and every single one of the expedition members sustained heavy injuries.

Defending the remaining people from the countless trolls, Anderson pushed his body beyond its limits and barely walked out of there with his abdomen ripped in two.

As the members of the Twilight Guild were being carried to a hospital, the monsters broke out of the gate’s restraint, invading the city and slaughtering the civilians.

The matter was successively handled by the American New York raid second team, led by Elijah’s niece.

Caleb had barely stepped inside the S-rank at the time, yet he could provide little to no help.

The Twilight Guild was not held responsible because of the incredible losses they suffered, but the lives of the civilians still weighed on the survivors’ shoulders, especially on Anderson’s, who felt responsible for the massacre that happened that day.

‘I will not… allow for a disaster to happen again.

Underestimating an A-rank gate could cause a disaster, and it must be stopped… as soon as possible’

Chaos echoed outside the gate, while Hans was being swarmed by the sea of crabs.

{telekinesis}(tier-7)

The young man ripped apart the creature standing in front of him.

‘Fuck… pant… pant…’

Another giant crab suddenly jumped towards him, and Hans was forced to take care of it:

{frozen dragon armor}(tier-6)

{strenghten}(tier-2)

The boy’s arm was covered in ice as he punched forward with all his strength.

“Splat”

The creature’s blood spattered all around, painting the sand in a disgusting purple color before falling to the ground lifeless.

“How much longer…

Pant… pant…

Are they going to keep spawning in?”

Every single one of the monsters was stronger than a yeti leader, and there were hundreds or maybe even thousands of them.

‘I can’t… Keep going like this, the problem is…

Even after Hans’s fire bomb had detonated half of its body, the Boss monster still hadn’t died.

The remaining parts of its body did not move, but the passive blessing of the burning sand boosted all the other giant crabs’s stats, making them even more difficult to deal with.

“Fuck the promise of returning before midnight… I’ll make sure to come back in thirty minutes!!”

Hans unleashed his {burning hell} spell, creating his sanctuary of flames that gave a substantial boost to his fire magic.

“How about roasted crab for dinner”

He said to himself jokingly.

{fire breath}…

…

‘Pant… pant… pant…’

Preston was running with all the energy in his body alongside the sea.

‘What the hell… is the Twilight guild doing?’

‘Pant.. Pant… pant’

‘Come on… come on… move stupid leg’

He continued to run, while in the distance, the giant gate’s figure became clearer with every passing second.

“Now… If you would excuse me, I’ll go and prevent a catastrophe, and while I’m at it, I’ll save the young mage inside there…

His future is bright, it would be a waste for him to die here”

Anderson was sure about his choice, and no one dared to stop his path.

“S-stoopp!!!!”

“Pant… pant…”

A man in the distance yelled at the Twilight Guild expedition team.

“Didn’t we come to an agreement?

Pant… pant…”

“You…”

Anderson watched Preston who was slowly making his way toward the gate.

“Are you planning on… not keeping the promise you made in front of all the citizens?”

Preston placed himself between the Gate and the Guild master, showing incredible courage.

Standing in the path of an S-rank… was something only a few people in the whole world would dare to do.

“You will not pass.”

“Preston…

The silver-haired man’s face changed from passive to aggressive, as he squinted his eyes and glared at the person in front of him.

“… move!”

“My friend’s in there, he’ll come back before you even notice he’s gone”

The other replied, not moving an inch from where he stood.

“What gives you the confidence to say that Hans will come back?

He entered alone and without a single piece of equipment…

If we don’t intervene right away he might die… if he hasn’t died yet.”

‘What gives me the confidence?

Honestly… I don’t know.

It’s absurd to me too… the fact that a boy as young as him entered an A-rank gate, where his grave could be placed if he wasn’t careful, without even batting.

But that confidence… it wasn’t arrogance, he was sure about his abilities, and the way Caleb described him…’

Preston thought about what Caleb had told him a few seconds after he had met Hans for the first time:

‘Hey! Do you want to know something about Hans’

‘What…?’

‘There’s something I’m one hundred percent sure about…

It doesn’t matter if it’s bringing down the stars, or shutting off the sun, I feel like if he was the one who said it, then he would actually be able to do it’

At the time, Preston replied like any normal person would:

‘Sir… stop saying bullshit and get to work’

But as he came to know Hans, he also felt like that.

‘If he said he would be able to do it, then he will!’

Preston thought.

Seeing as the other had no intention of moving out of the way, Anderson tried to persuade him one last time:

“I won’t repeat myself again, move, your friend is in danger, as his friend, shouldn’t you be worried about him?”

The tension in the air was so thick it could be cut with a knife, but the whole discussion ended as a third voice replied to Anderson.

“Uh?! And who are you to worry about me?”

Both the men turned their heads in shock.

And standing there, as if nothing happened, was the young boy they were talking about.

Keeping it as if it were a basketball between his left arm and his abdomen, Hans held a huge shiny purple crystal, while his right hand was massaging his shoulders, sore from the activity he had just gone through.

His clothes were ripped and tattered, even showing some signs of burning, but his skin seemed unscathed.

“Hey! What are y’all staring at me for? I said I would take care of it and I did, well, it seems like midnight was a little bit too much, maybe I should’ve set the sunset as a target time.”

No one replied, not even moving.

“About this… can I keep it?”

Hans took the crystal in his hand and asked Preston, who just nodded.

“Alright then, I’m out of here, could we pass by your house? I have to pick up my bag”

“Y-yeah, I-I’ll give you a ride”

“Thank you”

Just like that, Hans and Preston walked away, and time, which seemed to have stopped, resumed its work as all the reporters swarmed the young man to interview him.

Anderson and his guild were left in the dust, standing still while everyone else moved away.

“What do we do now?”

Asked the vice guild leader to Anderson, who still hadn’t recovered from the shock.

‘There is no… no way…

Flashbacks of the last catastrophe appeared in his mind and he began sweating.

‘… no way…

All those people, all those deaths…

My friends, my subordinates, they died!

All of them died that day!!

How could, how could one person?…

I can’t believe it… it’s not true!’

‘I will… see it for myself’

Without replying to Mercer, Anderson rushed inside the giant gate, even if it was about to close, and worried that his leader could’ve gotten trapped in there forgetting about the gate’s closure, his friend and right-hand man followed behind him.

Speechless…. Even more than before.

The man’s astonished face couldn’t change expression as his petrified eyes watched the scenery unfolding before him.

The crystallized melted sand was covered by a sea of purple blood that flowed down the beach, staining the blue sea.

And on the shore stood hundreds over hundreds of corpses of giant creatures’s carcasses.

“Impossible!…”

He exclaimed, his mouth still open.

“What sir?”

Mercer Asked.

But before a reply even came back, his face took the same shape as his leader’s, and his chin dropped.

No words were spoken, and no glazes were cast, but they both thought the same thing.

‘What kind of…monster are we dealing with?’