Chapter 144: Leon’s Growth (2)

Unity of Body and Sword.

It was the state where the body and the sword became one.

In simple terms, it referred to a level where one could handle a sword as freely as their own limbs.

However, just a moment ago, Leon had surpassed that level.

Unity of Soul and Sword.

The unification of will and sword.

This was not merely a higher stage; it was a realm where the body, mind, and everything else were aligned with the sword.

A state of selflessness and oneness with the world.

The moment he reached that level, the physical sword lost its meaning.

Leon’s will became the sword itself, possessing a sharpness capable of cutting through any material in existence.

That was why he had been able to pierce the incredibly hard exoskeleton of the massive mantis, an Insect King Species.

If he had relied on his previous, immature Unity of Body and Sword, his life would have been in danger.

But he remembered the teachings of Kim Si-won and applied them, finally reaching this new height.

However…

“Thud, thud!”

The same thunderous roars as before echoed through the air.

Looking around, what he saw was—

“Chirr-rr-rr!”

“Keeee-eek!”

Various forms of the Insect King Species.

The moment the mantis king perished, its peers sensed the crisis and tore through dimensions to appear.

But there was something strange.

‘Ants?’

All the Insect King Species appearing around him were ants.

[The Insect King Species seems to be guarding the secret of the Labyrinth.]

[If you eliminate all of them, you can gain access to the secret.]

The secret mentioned in the initial trial objective.

That secret was what these ant kings were guarding.

Of course, the secret had not yet been revealed.

To approach the secret and achieve the 5-star condition, he would have to reach whatever it was these ants were protecting.

To that end…

-Swish!

He swung his sword without hesitation.

The strike was neither fast nor slow.

However…

-Slash!

An ant king, boasting an exoskeleton even harder than the mantis, was sliced through like a radish.

It couldn’t even dodge.

No, it was more like…

It looked as if the ants were jumping into Leon’s swinging sword of their own accord.

It couldn’t be helped.

Leon’s sword had not only reached the Unity of Soul and Sword; it was now touching the strings of fate.

He wasn’t just cutting.

His movement created the result of being cut.

As if a law had been etched into the future, death was preordained.

Because of that…

“Thud, thump!”

Every time Leon’s sword swung, the bodies and the lives of the giant ant kings were snuffed out.

At first, it seemed quite easy.

But…

“Kirr-rr-rr-rr — “

As he ventured deeper into the Labyrinth, even more powerful opponents appeared.

They were still ants, but their size and appearance were different.

‘Soldier Ants?’

What appeared next were Soldier Ants, armed with exoskeletons as hard as heavy armor.

It wasn’t just their shells.

Their mandibles were sharp enough to snap through any metal.

They clearly possessed power incomparable to the ant kings he had seen just a moment ago.

However…

‘I will cut them.’

It was useless against Leon, who was already in a trance and had reached the Unity of Soul and Sword.

It was the same for the Nurse Ants, the Guardian Knights, and the Princess and Prince Ants that followed.

‘Then…’

Reaching the end of the Labyrinth, Leon realized one fact.

Deep within the Labyrinth, there was an Ant Kingdom.

Starting from the workers and moving to the Soldier Ants, Nurse Ants, Princesses, and Princes, and finally, at the very end…

“How surprising… To think there was a human capable of reaching this place.”

It wasn’t a voice.

It was someone’s will being transmitted directly into his brain.

The Labyrinth was finally freed from the darkness.

Inside a space completely covered in white, a massive entity occupied the vast area, making all the Insect King Species he had seen so far look like mere larvae.

Folding eight pairs of giant wings, it was…

‘The Queen Ant!’

As expected, it was the Queen Ant.

She was resting with her enormously swollen abdomen resting on the ground.

“Thump”

Inside her swollen belly, a life was growing and that life was…

‘…Dangerous!’ Leon felt it instinctively.

The life growing inside the Queen Ant’s belly was something incredibly dangerous.

“You are no ordinary human. This… perhaps this is a divine Rank.”

Surprisingly, the Queen Ant perceived Leon’s origin.

She correctly identified that he had once been a God of Creation.

“In that case, you have certainly come to kill this child—my child!”

Until a moment ago, she had sent out a relatively mild will.

But as soon as she concluded that he was targeting her child…

“Rumble!”

A storm of terrifying pressure began to swirl around her.

And that pressure…

“Pop!”

It burst the eggs the Queen Ant had laid nearby.

That was only natural.

A Queen Ant does not produce just one individual; she consumes nutrients to produce a countless army of ants.

And life was born from those eggs according to their designated roles.

But these were not ordinary ants.

“There is a diverse range of prey here. And through those nutrients, I have produced new individuals.”

The Queen Ant kindly explained what she had done.

And those were not empty words.

-Drip

Creatures were born, splattering green fluid everywhere.

They were not the ants one would typically imagine.

Mantis, grasshopper, stag beetle—they weren’t just other insects or the Insect King Species. 

They had different forms, and some even resembled humans.

The Queen’s ability was to extract the genetic information of what she consumed to produce even stronger species.

Because of that ability, new individuals with the strengths of various species were born.

Created for one single purpose: to kill the meddler named Leon.

[You have reached the secret of the Labyrinth.]

[The Queen Ant has been extracting numerous pieces of genetic information to produce the strongest and most perfect species. Finally, she has completed a perfect species that extracts the strengths of all species.]

[The birth of the Ant King is not far off. If this Ant King is born, all dimensions will face destruction under his rule.]

[Prevent the birth of the Ant King. You can earn additional bonuses based on your performance.]

The task was simple.

Deal with the new species of ants approaching to kill him on the Queen’s orders.

And then, stop the birth of the perfect species the Queen Ant was trying to bring forth—the Ant King.

‘Interesting.’

Leon caught himself mimicking Kim Si-won’s habit of speaking.

But truthfully, the situation was turning out to be quite interesting.

A perfect species.

That was the very dream Nepas, his creator, had sought to achieve.

And now, although it was a different being, a creature carrying a perfect species was right in front of him.

Through his training with Kim Si-won, he had escaped his past resentment and hatred to some extent, but it was true that complex emotions were surfacing.

‘Bury it.’

The words of his Master came to mind.

‘If you dwell on the past, you cannot move forward. If you truly wish to progress, bury all of it. Only then can you move toward the future.’

Bury the past.

He shouldn’t just forget it, but bury it completely so as not to be consumed by it.

However, Leon had not yet reached that stage.

Kim Si-won had been able to bury everything that happened on the Gritia Continent and take a step forward, but Leon was still tied to his past.

And…

“Rumble!”

That anger began to seep into his blade.

Just like the sword Anus that Kim Si-won used, a red blade manifested from the broken sword that had nothing but a hilt.

It was a reflection of his heart right now.

And that anger…

-Slash, slash!

It cut down the new species, the children of the Queen Ant, as they approached.

It was…

‘Strong!’

It was a form of power he had never experienced before.

It was natural.

Anger is one of the most powerful energies a human possesses.

A sword imbued with it, a sword carrying that will, could only be more powerful.

‘I can move forward.’

Leon thought this was the clue to reaching a new realm.

Therefore…

-Whoosh!

He equated Nepas with the Queen Ant and poured even more rage into his strikes.

The result was…

“Thud, thud-thud!”

The corpses of the new species fell, sliced in half.

He didn’t even realize they were all dead.

He had handled those powerful species that quickly, in the blink of an eye.

But…

“Huff, huff!”

The emotion of anger was powerful, but it exhausted the mind and body just as much.

Even though he had been perfectly fine just a moment ago, he was suddenly gasping for breath.

Only then did he realize.

‘Master’s words were not wrong.’

For a second, he thought this feeling of rage, this energy, was the hint to the next stage.

But Kim Si-won had said…

‘Above all… do not be seized by anger. It is not an emotion a human can control. If you are swallowed by it, you won’t move forward; you will regress.’

He clearly remembered those words.

Despite that, he had committed a mistake, intoxicated by the great power that the emotion of anger provided.

“How foolish! To exhaust your physical strength by being swayed by such trivial emotions. Then again, that is what humans are. They lean on emotions and mistake them for great energy.”

The Queen Ant mocked the foolish Leon.

And then…

-Snip!

She severed the organ connecting her abdomen to her body.

Had she given up on the Ant King’s revival?

No.

It was the opposite.

“Thump-thump”

The Ant King’s heart was still beating.

The Ant King was growing through the energy left within that abdomen, and there was only one reason she had severed it.

Transitioning into a combat form.

The Queen Ant could freely switch between a production form and a combat form.

She had left enough nutrients in the abdomen to finish the Ant King’s revival.

And now that she had shed that cumbersome part, her form possessed arms and legs like a human. 

This was her combat form and that form was exuding an incredible aura.

“Rumble!”

It was…

‘This is impossible.’ Leon judged.

The Queen Ant’s power was so immense that even the current Leon could not face it.

To be precise, it was impossible in his current exhausted state.

This was still the Labyrinth, a place where he could not fully utilize his powers.

With his body and mental energy spent, facing the Queen Ant was bound to be difficult.

If only he hadn’t been seized by rage.

If only he had dealt with the new species more strategically, he wouldn’t have reached this state.

And as if piercing through Leon’s thoughts…

“I will give you a chance.” The Queen Ant began to tempt him, “If you withdraw now, I will not bother you further.”

She was saying that if he declared his surrender, she would let him go and that was…

[The Queen Ant suggests you give up.]

[If you accept, you can safely exit this floor.]

Surprisingly, it was connected to the System.

[If you give up now, it will be applied as passing the Unfathomable difficulty.]

It was even an Unfathomable difficulty pass.

The very difficulty he had been achieving all this time.

“I am showing mercy specifically to celebrate the birth of a new King, so you had better decide quickly.”

“…”

In that moment, a great conflict arose.

To be honest, about 80% of him leaned toward giving up.

He couldn’t help it; he had already reached the Unfathomable difficulty, and he didn’t think even Altain could succeed more than this.

Furthermore, there were many floors left to conquer.

Dying here would be a dog’s death, so wouldn’t it be the correct judgment to move on like this?

“…”

Just as he was about to voice his surrender…

‘The moment you give up, all growth stops.’

Kim Si-won’s words, his voice, echoed through his head.

 And…

“…’Giving up’ is just a word used to count heads of cabbage.”

Giving up.

It was a phrase used for trivial things, not for his path.

“I… will not give up.”

A disadvantageous situation?

His Master had overcome disadvantageous situations every single time.

With nothing but his own body, Master had continued his devotion for over 1,000 years and finally reached the pinnacle.

And yet, he was going to succumb to a mere trial like this?

It would be a disgrace to his Master’s name.

Even if he were to die here, he could not give up.

“I am Leon, the disciple of Master Kim Si-won.”

It wasn’t for his own honor, but for his Master’s.

And in that moment…

-Whoosh

Like water pouring from a broken dam, he felt an incredible vitality drenching his entire body.

And that was…

“Oh!”

One of the benefits that comes with enlightenment.

Body Reconstruction.

It was the phenomenon where the physical body was reconstructed, restoring both vitality and mental strength.