Most of them had injured themselves on the battlefield. They were the former injured soldiers, who were evacuated from the battle field. They had finished their treatments, but they were evaluated to be unfit for battle. This was why they were picked to become sentries for the watchtower. Of course, most didn’t not know what had happened to their families.
Most of their homelands had fallen into the hands of the orcs. This was the reason why most of the them had to have board and lodging in the sentry barracks. Therefore, they were very jealous of Passat, who had a family he could return to. One soldier with a patch over his eye complained.

“Shit. Stop being so smug.”

“Well, what can we do. There is nothing we can do. Why don’t we just go?”

McMillan gave a bitter laugh and he took command of the soldiers. The 57th defense force including one foreigner had finished their shift, so they returned to the barracks.

Dok-gosong, who was following McMillan, was deep in thoughts. He wore a coarse chain mail over his body. It clanked, but it couldn’t disrupt his thoughts. While walking with the soldiers, he unconsciously looked towards the sky.

‘I’m unfortunate enough to become a sentry…..’

He laughed bitterly, but he had to force himself to harden his expression.
Since he had decided to survive, he had to maintain his life one way or another.
Therefore, he wanted a chance to learn the mystic technique called magic.
After he was victorious from his battle with the ogre, he had to stay in the infirmary for a long time. During the battle, four of his ribs were fractured by the ogre’s hands. He had been seriously injured.
After his wound had healed, he had the chance to meet Benitez again. He was the only person capable of conversing with him.

“You will probably be enlisted into a guard unit. I expect you to do your best in performing the guard’s duty.”

Dok-gosong didn’t have much choice so he agreed. Therefore, he had just finished playing the role of guard for half a month and now he had a chance to rest.
While he was walking, he stealthily raised his left hand. There was a blackish bracelet on it.
There were various symbols etched onto it, and the bracelet fit perfectly around his wrist. With his strength, he wouldn’t be able to unbind it. Inside his head, Dok-gosong thought about the warning Benitez gave him.

“Wherever you are, this bracelet will allow me to find you. So I insist you throw away any notions of running away.”

However, Dok-gosong didn’t really have any thought of running away. First, he had no reason to runaway when he didn’t know the language of this place. Moreover, he didn’t have the strength to protect himself. Therefore, he decided to follow their words, and Dok-gosong decided to learn the language. He spoke softly to placate his complicated emotions.

“During the time I learn the language, I shouldn’t think too much.”

After the sudden outburst from the back, the other soldiers focused their attention on Dok-gosong, who spoke in a language they couldn’t understand. However, they were all tired so they didn’t pay too much attention to it.

“I guess he was talking to himself.”

Without speaking, McMillan briefly glanced at Dok-gosong’s face before he resumed walking. Their destination was the guard’s barrack, and it finally came to view in front of them.

Inside the small cafeteria, there were similarly dressed soldiers gathered in small groups to dine. There was a line of soldiers on one side where the food was distributed. McMillan stopped walking, and he signaled for Dok-gosong to follow him. The other soldiers fully knew about their current situation so no one had to look out for them, but the foreigner was an exception. The person in charge had the obligation to look out for the foreigner.

“Follow me.”

As if he had successfully understood it, the foreigner quietly followed behind McMillan. McMillan frowned as he picked up a tray that was stacked on one side. It hadn’t been cleaned properly, and there were still wastes on it. It was very dirty. However, he wasn’t in a situation where he could complain so he handed a tray to the foreigner without saying anything. Then they stood at the end of the line.
The foreigner had received the tray in silence. He lined up behind McMillan and he waited for his turn. McMillan felt his mouth water when he smelled the delicious odor coming from the soup inside the cafeteria.

“It has been a long time since I’ve had some soup.”

While they were working in the watchtower, they couldn’t even imagine eating soup. They only had dry bread and a piece of cheese as substitute for a meal. After a while, McMillan received his meal, and he walked toward a corner spot with the foreigner.

Zzup. Zzup. (TLN: slurping noise)

McMillan was wordlessly focusing on his meal when his gaze drifted toward Dok-gosong, who was bringing the tray towards his mouth. The soup was under-cooked and the fishy odor stung his nose yet he drank the soup without saying anything. Of course, the food from a different dimension wasn’t to his preference, but he didn’t care. He was used to being homeless while carrying out his mission with the SWG. Therefore, he didn’t complain about the food.
Truthfully, he was considered to be a foodie in Zhongyuan. After he returned to the Bae-sect, he picked up the hobby of eating gourmet food. It was to make up for his impoverished childhood, and this caused a lot of trouble for the cooks.

Dok-gosong had developed his hobby of eating food to a abnormal degree. Of course, Sah-joonhwan had a plan up his sleeve, so he granted almost every one of Dok-gosong’s demands. He kidnapped renowned chefs from various parts of the country, and offered them to Dok-gosong.
Zhongyuan had a very advanced food culture. Each region created unimaginably diverse foods, and it was impossible to count the variety of foods. If one discounts people with two feet or four-legged desks, everything else was used as ingredients in Zhongyuan to cook.

That said, Dok-gosong was very peculiar about his tastes. Especially while he was in a position where he had to fight against the world with the SWG, he promised himself that he would learn how to cook. The basic reason being one couldn’t bring a chef to a battle field where blood and flesh was flying.
While living in the world for 10 years, Dok-gosong’s cooking skills developed enough to be on par with a first class chef. Sometimes, the warriors of SWG ate his cooking and they were astonished at the taste.

“This is the best. Captain.”

“Doesn’t it just melt in your mouth?”

Dok-gosong was used to delicacies from Zhongyuan. At a glance, he could tell that the food here wasn’t that great. First, they used the pork as the main ingredient, but they didn’t get rid of the fishy taste. Also, the ratio of seasoning they used couldn’t save the taste of the meat. Of course in wartime, they wouldn’t dispatch a first class chef to a cafeteria where the normal soldiers dined. He took one bite from the meat, and Dok-gosong frowned when he tasted  the strange flavor.

“I guess I’m not in a situation where I could argue about the taste of the food in this place…”

After Dok-gosong glanced at McMillan, who was busy eating his dinner, he wordlessly put his head down towards the tray and ate his food. Dok-gosong had to put whatever food into his stomach to survive.

After finishing their dinner, Dok-gosong followed McMillan towards the sleeping area. The guard’s quarter was on top of the cafeteria. After they ascended the stairs, there was a narrow corridor, and rooms were lined up on both sides. McMillan chose one door and opened it. However, the room was already full of soldiers sleeping. A pungent smell assaulted his nose the moment he opened the door. McMillan closed the door while frowning.

“We’ll have to find another room.”

After searching for awhile, they were able to find a room where there was enough room for them to lay down. McMillan pointed toward the empty spot, and he stared at Dok-gosong.

“It’s a bit narrow, but you won’t be cold. We’ll sleep at this spot.”

After seeing the foreigner nod his head, McMillan took off his armor and he used it as a pillow. He must have been very tired since he fell asleep right away. He was used to sleeping like a shrimp against the wall at the guard tower, so this sleeping spot must have been comfortable to him.

Doo-roo-rung. (TLN: snoring sfx)

Dok-gosong wordlessly stared at McMillan, who was snoring in his sleep, then he quietly sank to the floor.
The smell of sweat was entrenched everywhere. He had brought a sheet of dirty blanket with him, and Dok-gosong laid down without taking off his armor. The low ceiling came into view.

“This is pathetic.”

Dok-gosong spoke in a subdued tone, then he tried to get some sleep. However, sleep wouldn’t come to him no matter what. Eventually, Dok-gosong’ had no choice but to wait for the next day with a blank mind.

—–

The overall great war was coming to an end, and the entire Murim was dyed in blood. At first, it was predicted that the White Peach Murim would have an upper hand, but unlike the prediction, the combined forces of the Demonic sect and the minor sects called the Majin Alliance continued to be stronger.

However, both sides of the great war was suffering enormous amount of material and personnel loss. The governing bodies had no choice, but to pursue truce. The White peach sect, who was part of the Murim-mang, had suffered unexpected losses, and they were no longer able to cope with the losses. The Majin alliance had achieved their goals, so they had no reason to drag the war out.

Eventually, the end to the great war that had lasted 10 years was in sight. Needless to say, the Righteous sect and the Demonic sect was damaged extensively by this great war.

There were countless sects that were completely exterminated. The back bone of the Murimang, Goopa-il-bang(TLN:basically the old/prestigious families of the Righteous sect), and the Demon sect that made up the main force of the Majin Alliance were floundering from the damage they suffered from the great war. It was dubious as to whether they would be able to recover from it.

If one was told to pick the sect that benefited the most from this situation, one would definitely pick the Bae-sect. Amongst the Murim sects that participated in the great war, the Bae-sect suffered the least damage.

Sa-joonhwan was a skilled tactician, and even during a heated battle, he was able to save the maximum number of his sect’s warriors. He would determine the success rate through thorough calculations, and he would only dispatch his warriors in battlse with 80% success rate. He achieved this result by dispatching troops in numbers where the sacrifice would be minimized. The amount of loss couldn’t be compared to the Demon sect and the Goopa-il-bang, who had lost at least half of their hand picked elite warriors. Even during the dogfights, the Bae-sect was able to maintain their military strength and naturally their status was increased.

The Demon sect and the Pae-wang-moon, who made up the Majin Alliance, couldn’t control the Bae-sect’s behavior. They didn’t dare speak ill of the Bae-sect, because of an external force. It was the SWG, which was led by the Surging Sky Demon Dok-gosong. They were the troops that had achieved the most brilliant war result during the great war, and no one could deny this truth.

The Invincible Storm Corps SWG.  The Surging Sky Demon Dok-gosong stood at their head, who had become a peak expert in just 10 years. If it was an one-on-one fight, he was a fighter of iron and blood with enough mugong(TLN:martial arts) where not even the sect leader of the Demon sect would be able to meddle with him. He lead just 500 members of the SWG to smash numerous number of Righteous sect bases, and he was able to weaken the White Peach Murim’s strength. Countless number of warriors from the Righteous sect was killed by his hands. There were even popular beliefs that his meritorious deeds were acknowledged by the leaders of the Majin Alliance, which was compromised of Demon sect warriors.

Of course, he was portrayed to be the evil incarnate by the Righteous sect, but Dok-gosong would forever be known as the absolute being to the followers of the Bae-sect. Through the great war, he had etched the name of the Bae-sect into the heart of both the Righteous sect and the Demonic sect. However, Dok-gosong’s rising fame was not looked on with kind eyes by the sects under the Demonic sect, especially the Demon sect. (TLN:I hope the naming doesn’t confuse people, the overall organization is called Righteous or Demonic sect. These organizations are composed of big sects and minor sects.) However, even the Demon sect had no way of harming Dok-gosong. Bae-sect had grown so much that the Demon sect couldn’t even touch them.

After much meandering, the great war finally came to an end. The leader of the Murimang, and the absolute being of the Majin Alliance met with each other and both quickly agreed to a truce. Once again peace had come to the Murim. Although, no one knew how long the peace would last……

Doo-doo-doo-doo. (TLN: horse sfx)

There was a mounted party heading towards the Thousand Mountain where the Bae-sect’s headquarters was located at. Everyone was covered in dust yet they mindlessly rode their horse. In the front, there was a warrior with a slight build leading them. His back was extremely curved, and one could guess he was a hunchback. Behind him, there were 180 warriors attached to him like a shadow.

Their identity was none other than the SWG. They were the iron and blood fighter that had led the Demon sect to victory in the great war. One could dare to say that they were the reason why the Demon sect was able to end the war with an upper hand even when they had less military strength.

Currently, they were on their way to return to the Bae-sect headquarters. They had continued to work until the moment the armistice was signed. They had reluctantly withdrawn their swords when the message indicating the great war had ended had been received.
Then they boldly headed towards Bae-sect as the victorious troop. After Dok-gosong was on his horse for a long time, his bloodshot eyes sparkled.

“It was a long war.”

His bloodshot eyes shown with crimson light. His whole body was emitting enormous amount of demonic energy. If one stood in front of him, one wouldn’t be able to breathe from the overpowering pressure emitted from him. He had risen to a position where he couldn be called an absolute being. This year would be the 20th year since he had escaped from the Shaolin temple. During all these years, Dok-gosng had gone through a lot of change.