Martial Arts Worlds

Months passed like a fleeting dream, and a heat wave of dangerous degrees scorched the land of Wunderland.

It was impossible to not sweat in Rodero, a city surrounded by mountain walls, and the only relief came in the form of occasional thunderstorms.

In the past few months, Kiernan finished scouting the entire Great Dungeon of Rodero and gathered every text that was there.

A month ago, Xerxus had already left Rodero when they finished, and all Kiernan had to do was translate the text, which he was able to do by himself.

While going through those dangerous dungeons, Kiernan was able to hone himself and become an even greater martial artist.

He had reached the High Stage Martial Master, one shy step away from reaching the respected Martial Grandmaster rank.

While he hadn't quite learned the Flow State just yet, his wealth had grown to such a nice degree that he had about three hundred thousand gold coins in his interface's storage.

It was more money than he had ever imagined that he could get his hands on.

By grinding through the dungeons, he had already jumped levels and was currently level thirteen, which was an amazing feat.

His strength had grown by leaps, but he wasn't quite satisfied just yet, as he could feel that the Martial Grandmaster rank wasn't that far away.

However, he could feel that the Bottleneck of the Weak was again being a pain in the ass, standing in his way like a huge boulder.

The situation between Animal Kingdom and humans has calmed down. It calmed down after Liora delivered a letter to him.

There must've been something in the letter that satisfied the Beast King Vladimir, and the ships had stayed in the Animal Kingdom's port.

However, it felt like it was the calm before the storm, and there was something brewing that would soon disturb the "peace" time.

Xerxus had been quite tight-lipped about what the Human Government tried. It's because even he didn't fully know everything.

Liora, since she was so occupied by her thoughts, didn't dare to read the letter, so she didn't know either what it was all about.

She also got quite badly injured because of the Beast King Vladimir, but with the help of potion master Amara, her broken ribs, and punctured lungs got healed nicely.

The last three weeks had been very peaceful, and Kiernan, during the mornings, spent a few hours in the dungeon, then visited the firing range and different martial arts temples all around the city.

For the rest of the day, he spent it with Aoi, who was spending most of her time with the elderly woman, trying to learn fortune reading.

She lied to Kiernan about her daily doings, but she wasn't the best liar, and one day, Kiernan followed her to the house of the elderly woman.

He didn't mind what she was doing, as she seemed very interested in the fortune reading, so he let her be.

However, those peaceful days came to an end, as expected, at the start of the sixth month of the year.

…

Wunderland, Rodero, Smog Factory Street.

Close to the sewer lake, a dark-eyed man dipped his feet in the ugly water, his head dangling down like a wilting flower, and his back was hunched.

It really didn't look like he was alive, as his arms were unnaturally twisted and his skin was a sickly shade of gray.

"Baah… Baah… Baah…"

However, his mouth opened, letting out a goat's bleat, as if he were a creature from some sort of twisted nightmare.

At that moment, in the sewer lake, corpses began to emerge, and their eyes all turned to the twisted figure on the shore.

"Baah… Baah… Baah…"

They also started to bleat like goats.

It was bizarre, unsettling, and downright terrifying.

…

In the Benson's Street, by the alleyway, lit by the street lamps of the city.

"Ahh! Ahh!"

A frightened young man ran down the alleyway, screaming for help, and tried to make his way out of the maze-like alleyway.

In that moment, he reached the dead end, cried in frustration, and turned around to the dark alleyway.

Through the darkness, a cloaked knife-wielding man emerged and, with a smirk, lunged at him and pierced the knife into his chest.

"Argh… Why?"

The young man asked and dropped to the ground.

"I like the look of the light leaving the eyes. It's… amazing."

The killer said, wiped the bloody knife against the young man's cheek, and then disappeared back to the alleyway.

The young man was dead—the time ticked down in his wristwatch—three hours passed since his death.

At that moment, his toes started curling, his stiff fingers twitched, and his eyes shot open.

"Baah… Baah… Baah…"

…

Through the narrow path of Rodero, a horse, and the wagon it was pulling behind came through the mist.

The driver was dead, and everyone inside the wagon was also dead, but they were all mouthing and saying the exact same thing.

"Baah… Baah… Baah…"

At that moment, even the horse started to suffer from something, and it fell—the wagon kept rolling past the horse and collided with a building.

"…"

From the back of the wagon, a black-haired young man stepped out—pale skin, dark gaze, and joyless lips—he didn't seem to be suffering from the same thing as everyone else.

Amen stepped down the street but stopped and ended up looking at one of the windows, where he saw a happy-looking family having dinner.

A father, mother, and child, no older than four years old, were all dining around a wooden table.

However, at that moment, the father and mother started coughing until they started coughing blood and some strange black liquid.

They collapsed on the table while the child watched in horror.

'I am sorry… Nothing I can do, young one.'

Amen thought to himself, looked away, and kept walking—he was heading towards the dungeon—and wherever he walked, things started dying.

The flowers wilted and turned black as he passed them. The grass turned gray, and the trees withered into dust.

It was like the apostle of death was making his tours through the land, leaving destruction in his wake.

Death had arrived in Rodero.