Ranker Who Lives Twice

Yeon-woo felt a bit flabbergasted, wondering why it had to be the Giant Demonic Divine Dragon he met first out of all his many legends. He hadn't wanted to meet a divine being yet, so he wasn't exactly happy with the situation. If the dragon in front of him ran rampant here, everyone would die. 'I was planning on falling back and joining in when everyone else is fighting each other. What should I do now?'

Quite frankly, Yeon-woo was confident he could regain his divinity if he really wanted to. If the many divine beings who'd suffered from losing their powers heard, they'd have expressions of disbelief. However, as he'd once reached the emperor-level, he didn't feel it was too difficult to become a divine being again. As long as he made achievements that were worthy of being a legend, he could exuviate and transcend easily, couldn't he?

But even if it was easy, it would take some time to actually attempt it, so Yeon-woo had planned on preparing while buying himself some time, and swallowing them all when they were all exhausted. In their eyes, he was nothing more than a mere creature, so it'd be easy for him to get by them without being noticed.

So, Yeon-woo couldn't help but become tense after seeing the Giant Demonic Giant Dragon right after seeing military Yeon-woo. That guy could eliminate Yeon-woo with just a blink of his eyes.

'But…' Then, Yeon-woo felt something strange. 'Why does he seem so weak?'

Compared to the Giant Demonic Divine Dragon's massive size, the dragon in front of Yeon-woo was clearly quite shrunken. However, his power seemed to have shrunk as well. There was definitely a hot magic power flowing in the air, but that was it. The dragon did nothing, just sleeping with his two eyes shut.

Taking into consideration how Yeon-woo was very untrusting of others, the dragon shouldn't have been acting like that. If he was also a part of the legends that were disconnected from Yeon-woo, the dragon should've been wary of why he was trapped in here. It could be a strategy to grasp the situation, but…

'He looks too at ease for that. It feels like he's dead, not sleeping. What is this? Why's he like that?' Yeon-woo contemplated for a moment and something occurred to him. 'Is it because he's only the legend of the Giant Demonic Divine Dragon…?'

There were various causes for how the Giant Demonic Divine Dragon was created. Absorbing the Factors of multiple transcendent races was part of it, but it was also thanks to harmonizing all those Factors together after becoming the Black King's ego.

There were many components intricately tied together, so if the legend of the Giant Demonic Divine Dragon had just been snipped off alone as Yeon-woo thought, the identity in front of him was possibly nothing more than an empty shell. That provided an explanation as to why the dragon's aura was drastically weaker and why he looked listless.

'Then are the other legends like that too?' Yeon-woo thought it was possible. If everyone here were individual beings who all had their unique legends, had separate identities without sharing any memories, the difficulty of this stage would become more complicated.

'Then why do I still have memories of the past despite becoming high-schooler Cha Yeon-woo?' The question struck Yeon-woo, but he decided to think about it after taking care of what was in front of him. 'Great. I was chasing after Yvlke, but what the heck is this?'

The difficulty of this stage was something that even the strongest divine beings probably couldn't pass. No, the difficulty became harder the more legends one had. Dealing against a legend that had too wide a gap in strength as Yeon-woo would be anything but easy. Perhaps the reason why he wasn't hearing anything from Yvlke, the Bull Demon King, and the Tongtian Jiaozhu who had entered before him was that they were struggling as much as him. Whatever was going on, one thing was for sure: Yeon-woo needed to clear this mission to catch Yvlke.

While he was thinking to himself, Yeon-woo realized that military Yeon-woo was staring at him intently. He could guess what soldier Yeon-woo was thinking as he saw his dark eyes.

"You don't seem too surprised, young man." Soldier Yeon-woo was now outwardly suspecting Yeon-woo.

Of course, Yeon-woo pretended not to know anything this time around as well. "What's there to be surprised about? It's strange why there's such a huge doll here, but I think it's even stranger to be scared of it."

"A…doll?"

"Yes. I've seen something like that in videos before. The Nice Carnival, I think it was? They did parades with a bunch of dolls like that. Isn't that something like that?"

"…"

"…W-What is it? You're scaring me." Yeon-woo stepped back with shaking shoulders like he was scared of how silent soldier Yeon-woo was being.

Still, soldier Yeon-woo's cold gaze didn't change. Yeon-woo pondered about what he had to do to get this damned suspecting guy to let down his guard or not abandon him all of a sudden.

"You…!"

Just when soldier Yeon-woo was about to say something, intense tremors suddenly came up as if the tomb was going to come crumbling down. Crash! Du du du! Particles of rock dangerously fell from above in great abundance, and light flashed. When a hot wave of heat came breezing over, Yeon-woo and soldier Yeon-woo turned to the direction it was coming from.

Two sources of light, one that shone in red and one that shone in black, were attacking the Giant Demonic Divine Dragon. It was an intense flash of light that almost blinded him, but Yeon-woo could tell who the lights were. 'Is the red the king of gods, and the black the Death King?'

They were the legends of becoming Olympus' supreme god and the absolute ruler of the Underworld, respectively. If comparing the two, the king of gods was technically stronger.

'But there probably isn't too great a difference.' If it was only the legends that had been snipped off as Yeon-woo guessed, there likely wasn't too great a difference in their strength. The weight of the ruler of the Underworld definitely wasn't second to the king of gods of Olympus.

'The problem is that they're up against the Giant Demonic Divine Dragon, who they probably can't defeat even if they're working together.'

Yeon-woo could tell, just as he and military Yeon-woo had, the king of gods and the Death King had met each other and decided to work together to hunt the Giant Demonic Divine Dragon before they fought each other. That was what he would've done.

'But of course, their alliance won't last for too long.' Even if they all had different identities, the two were probably exceedingly suspicious of the other like soldier Yeon-woo was to Yeon-woo. They'd no doubt try to stab each other in the back if either showed any weakness.

Still, at the moment, they were using all the power they had to fight against the dragon. Black lighting struck down, and red columns of fire shot above.

Grrrrr…! Starting to become annoyed by the combined attack of the two gods, the dragon opened his eyes and growled.

The atmosphere quaked. Yeon-woo felt dizzy and pained, like his insides were twisted. If he stayed here any longer, he might really die. 'I need to start getting a move on now.'

Yeon-woo glanced at soldier Yeon-woo, who seemed to be trying to judge the situation logically. However, soldier Yeon-woo's eyelids trembled, with various emotions flashing by his eyes—disbelief, surprise, shock. Since the guy only had memories as a soldier, a scene like that probably went against everything he knew.

Yeon-woo wouldn't have believed any of this if it wasn't for the pocket watch Jeong-woo left behind either, so the realistic soldier Yeon-woo was probably the same. And that was enough to get rid of military Yeon-woo.

Slice! Pwak!

"What…?"

Before soldier Yeon-woo could do anything, Yeon-woo pulled out the sword on the man's belt and slit his neck. Soldier Yeon-woo had a shocked face. Even if his attention was on the fight between the two gods and the dragon, he had been positioned in a way that put him at an advantage just in case something happened with him and Yeon-woo.

"Sorry, but my experience wasn't taken from me." Yeon-woo smiled coldly and stabbed soldier Yeon-woo in the forehead.

Pewk! Like that, soldier Yeon-woo fell back. Sssss. As his body was disbanded, it was absorbed into Yeon-woo.

[The legend 'Cain' has been re-combined.]

At the same time, some strength returned to Yeon-woo's weak body. 'This is enough.' His high-school body was so weak that he was tired after moving just a little, but that wasn't the case for his soldier's body.

Yeon-woo quickly avoided the two gods and dragons, and escaped as quietly as possible. Of course, he probably couldn't deceive their keen senses, but he knew they were too busy focusing on their fight to be concerned with him.

'They probably think they can eliminate me anytime.' Yeon-woo quickly left into another cave. 'This place is made up with a similar system to the Heavenly Demon's Tower stage missions. Then, in addition to the legends being separated, there are probably hidden pieces around that will let me turn the tides.'

And Yeon-woo could guess what the hidden piece was. 'The Fire of Origin.' The power from the beginning with Li's Fragment would be more than enough to defeat the other legends despite their difference in strength.

'I'm being asked to prove whether or not I'm worthy of having that fire in here.' When he came to a conclusion, Yeon-woo began to scan the tomb's ceilings and walls. There were most definitely clues as to where the hidden pieces were. Simultaneously, upon feeling the magic power flowing in the atmosphere, he forced it into his body and circulated it. Since this was a path he had already traveled, it wasn't hard to sense mana. The only hard part was refining it with magic power and establishing a Magic Circuit for it.

[Magic power is circulating in your body.]

['Magic Circuit' has been created.]

[The circuits have increased by two.]

[The circuits have increased by three.]

…

Swish! As the Magic Circuit began to take form, Yeon-woo's clothes turned black. His muscles were torn and healed, his bones were broken and stuck back together again. He grew taller, and his body was newly rejuvenated.

[The skill 'Magic Circuit' has reached a perfect form and been changed to 'Atman System!']

[The skill 'Draconic Eyes' has been created.]

After repeating this several times, no impurities remained in Yeon-woo's body—just the thick magic power flowing within him. Of course, this wasn't enough for him to say he has regained his power, but he didn't attempt anything else.

'Found it.' Through Draconic Eyes, Yeon-woo was able to spot the faint imperfections splitting through the cave. It was an opening that he wouldn't have noticed unless he was looking carefully. He was about to extend a hand toward it when he heard a voice from behind him.

"Stop."

Yeon-woo turned to see the Death King exuding a black light.

"I was wondering why there was a rat in here, but I didn't know you'd find something like that."

"…" Yeon-woo looked at the Death King who had the same face as him yet exuded an aura that tightened around his heart. The Death King should've been attacking the dragon with the king of gods…so Yeon-woo wondered if the hunt was already over and if this guy was the final victor. But Yeon-woo couldn't sense anything to the Death King for that to be true.

However, as if he had no intentions of answering his questions, the Death King immediately began his attack.

[The skill 'Sky Wings' has been created!]

Yeon-woo circulated his magic power and flung his body in the air.

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