Chapter 7: Overwhelmingly Powerful
(Note: [Imperial Castle] is changed to [Imperial Palace], and the 250% increase of the Qi Condensation Realm is changed to 1000% increase.)
While King was off grinding at the level 110 areas, Saitama followed King's advice and started grinding at level 60 areas. Although he could only face two or three of the monsters at a time, his EXP rose drastically, which led to Saitama believing King really grinding at this place until he reached level 50. King grinded more and more at the level 110 area, until the EXP given per monster became worse and worse every level up, until when he reached the range of level 60, it took King thirty monsters to even reach the amount he would've previously gotten from just a single monster on his EXP bar. Even then his grinding was beyond blindingly fast.
King then entered the level 120 ranges, but just then, something King dreaded had just appeared.
[Server: In 30 minutes, the server will calculate the levels of every single player in the game, and make a live ranking even if some players were not on the previous rankings.]
King's monstrously high level was going to be revealed to the world. "Well shit!" King cursed in his mind. Did the server really need to do this!? If the rankings were released earlier, then maybe it wouldn't be so weird. But King's level was more than twice the previously assumed first place! Now with Saitama, he won't get the brunt of the curious players's harassment, but as first place, he was bound to get more attention. "So much for laying low..." King complained. "Screw it. If I'm going to be harassed by billions of players, I'll just grind usually. Nothing I can do." King resigned himself to his fate of constantly being disturbed by a mob of players wanting to search for a player named King, and was level 60.
Not necessarily. King was planning to go all out, so King was going to grind as much as possible. If King got incredibly serious, he could gain a level every 3 minutes. Meaning, King would level up to level 70 before the ranking hit! And with that, King got up with a flash, and ran straight to the level 130 to 140 ranges to grind. But at level 130, a new type of equipment dropped. It was [Mythical Tier]. The forums didn't say anything about this, so maybe it was left for players to discover. So King ran through 20 levels, and ran all the way into a level 150 zone. King lured one monster, and fought it. A single hit would undoubtedly kill King instantly, so King was going to kill it silently, to gauge the EXP that he could gain from a single monster. After the monster died, it instantly filled up King's almost full bar to the max, leveling King up. Measuring the total length out of a full meter, it filled up half! King gauged that he could handle maybe three to four at once, so King looked for a group of four of those monsters, and started killing.
[29 minutes later]
It was 5 more minutes until King's level was revealed to the world. King had gained more DEX points, which allowed him to swing faster, so he was able to kill off 1% in half a second. 50 seconds later, a monster would be gone. And with that speed, King leveled up more than he previously assumed, landing squarely at level 75. King sighed, sat down, and waited for the last minute.
...Thirty more seconds. King looked at his level. Right at the start of level 75. King then saw something in the dirt which caught his eye. It had a golden glow, and was covered in mud, as the area was swampy. King took it out, and suddenly, the object gave off a shockwave, shaking off all the mud, and knocking King off balance. His one-handed greatsword vibrated intensely, then flew out of the leather loop which held the blade. King then got a good look at the object he pulled out, which was a long spear. It conjoined with the two swords perfectly. King then remembered that with both swords combined to make the greatsword, there was a hollow groove at the very tip of the sword. King always thought it was for aesthetic purposes, but it was actually functional! The spear slid in perfectly, and then, the sword vibrated intensely, sending shockwaves throughout the entire area, scaring off all the beasts.
It then gave off a chime, which was incredibly calming. Then, the timer which was about to hit zero, revealing King's strength... stopped. It was then replaced by another announcement by the server.
[Server Update: In 5 minutes, the server will update for the duration of 8 hours. (Time: 8:04:57)]
At that moment, the whole server was in an uproar. What ranking, this is an update! What was with the declaration, oh right, 'An update will be expected to occur only every year?' HELL NO! In the span of three months, there were three updates! An update a month! Not year! But the most affected was in fact... King.
At the moment, King appeared to be in a stance. His body was trembling. After 5 minutes... he jumped up, and shouted "YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Really loudly, one could hear it from the level 70 area, which logically he technically should be at currently. His luck was beyond godly, its just broken! But King wasn't going to complain. If his luck was going to save him in a crisis like this, then King welcomes it with open arms!
So with freedom, King spent the last four minutes grinding another 4 levels, bringing him to level 79. At the last minute, He managed to reach the very edge of level 80, a single millimeter left. But only 10 seconds were left at the time. So King logged off before the server would kick him off, instead. Then, King awoke from his beanbag chair, which when King had gotten off the beanbag chair, there was an obvious depression left on the beanbag.
"Ah. That is nice. Real nice." King said, as he stretched, still happy that his beyond-high level was still a secret! But King had to accept, his level was going to be revealed one day. But King hoped it would be when he was 50 levels ahead the second place, A.K.A Saitama. But either way, King leveled up faster than he expected, since he discovered his tactic. Well, if he didn't have those cheaty skills along with the cultivation that King had, King would instead only be able to fight up to 10 levels of difference, which was still a shocking difference.
King jokingly thought, "If only there was no limited time on cultivation, then I'd just cultivate all day..." And King tried to mimic cultivating. But he did. For four hours, he sat- or hovered in place, cultivating. When he opened his eyes, he immediately recognized the feeling, the feeling of getting out of the cultivation mode. King checked his cultivation was- wait, since when was cultivation time cut down ten magnitudes? At the 6th stage of the Foundation Realm, King was supposed to only be able to spend 48 hours every 240 hours in cultivating, but for King, it felt like in real life... there was no restriction! He felt that he could cultivate as long as he wanted in reality! Well, it was realistic. It was only restricted in the game, but in real life, who can block you when you want to cultivate? Just choose a spot, and hover in place.
And, the time required to cultivate to the next stage was cut ten times less! Instead of needing the usual 10 hours of cultivation to rank up, one only needed an hour! At the first stage, one only needed 10 minutes, in real life. The next stage was 30 minutes, and it didn't change until the 5th stage, where the time required was an hour. So far, King cultivated 4 hours, but he only improved 2 stages. Past the 7th stage, one needed two hours to reach the 8th stage, and to reach the 9th stage, one needed 4 hours. King had just reached the 8th stage, and if he cultivated for another 4 hours, bringing him to the point the game started again, King would reach the 9th stage!
King then realized, "The cooldowns changed to fit into reality time?" So instead, it was more like in the game, King would've been cultivating for 40 hours, instead. Well, King checked the time. It was 2 a.m. Looks like everyone who played the game would be sleeping. "Well, I'll use this time well, then~" King whistled, as he hovered back at his spot to cultivate. When he opened his eyes, it was exactly 6 a.m. He had also reached the 9th stage, and the almost popped out his eyeballs for the requirements to the next cultivation stage. Requirements were at least level 50, and 8 hours of cultivating.
I meant that, if one didn't have sufficient levels either, one would never be able to rank up their cultivations! Well, not like it was to be unexpected. And King realized it was the time a full 'real-life day' was over in the game, so King logged in, told his character to cultivate for another four hours, as King had another 4 hours of free time, King took a sandwich from the fridge, ate it, drank some water, and tried something. Cultivate at the same time the character did. He had around another four hours to go, so four more hours of cultivating he did, before he did however, he said to himself, "Well, here goes nothing."
[Four Hours later...]
King opened his eyes to see the afternoon sun, as he finished cultivating. He took a sip of water from an in-game item this time, got another sandwich from his fridge, and before he entered the game, he realized something: He was in the Qi Accumulation Realm. In game, he should've cultivated for only 4 hours out of 8, the other four must've come from when King was cultivating outside of the game! Cool!
King logged in, and saw that the effects of the cultivation was that he now had 100% more stats, double his current one. It's not like its just a free level up, the values are calculated differently, like King's [Ring Of The Warrior]. Meaning if King was level one, he'd be as strong as level 2. If he was level 2, he'd be as strong as level 4, and level 3, he'd be as strong as a level 5. Now... King was level 79, almost level 80. He could take down a level 100 with his stats alone. His items were now just an added plus.
King saw the 3 parts of the [Divine Emperor's Combat Mechanism] was still shining brightly, and it was still chiming like a bell. King kept the sword, and saw its stats. The original skill of dealing at least 0.01% damage upgraded to 0.1% damage to normal mobs, and 0.01% to boss mobs. There was also a second skill, which was [Empyrean Flame] which dealt 10% damage every second for 30 in a 500 meter radius except for friendly units, and dealt 1% damage to boss mobs. The cooldown was pretty long, however, at around the same time as the two invincibility-like-skills, at a full day's cooldown, or 10 days in-game. It was basically a sure-kill item on almost everything. Almost. Meaning if King were to go to a extremely high-level area, he could probably kill every single one of the with this skill alone! What was dangerous, on the other hand, was that at level 200 or more, the mobs are incredibly fast, and could kill King before he even knew they were there. That is, if King was your average ordinary person. King could in fact survive level 200 mobs, but running at full speed. And although his DEX was probably enough to maneuver through level 180, level 200 or more is...not.
Well, so if there was a huge army or something King needed to kill, he could always use this ability, then. What was good, however, was that the skill was customizable, the area, the damage caused, delay time, etc. And said skill happened around the sword, meaning King could activate the skill while his sword was somewhere else, and the ability would only affect the area around the sword. Then, King had a bright idea. He would run at full speed into a level 200 area, and when he confirmed that there are huge crowds of level 200s, he would activate his two skills, and kill as much as he could, and at the last 5 seconds, activate his sword skill, because the ability had a 5 second cast-time. And with that, King took a breather, calmed himself, and ran.
[1 hour later...]
"Holyshitholyshitholyshitholyshit-" King said while running at absolutely full speed, chased by an angry horde of level 210-230 mobs. King went slightly too far, and had attracted a literal swarm of enemies. King saw the minimap- was almost entirely crowded by enemies. So King enlarged it- mother of god. THERE WERE 3 KILOMETERS SQUARED WORTH OF ENEMIES! King's plan was to attract a huge swarm, and activate his skill which would deal 3.5% damage every second of 30 seconds, to deal exactly 105% damage, to kill of all enemies without wasting the extra damage, and the range was extended up to 2 kilometers. How's he going to deal with the extra kilometer square of enemies!? King bit down, steeled himself, and activated the skill. There was a 50 meter distance between them, so the instant King activated the skill the monsters had arrived at his position when he stopped. That was the speed they were travelling at. 25 seconds. King kept his sword and waved his arms like a madman, each hit dealing 1% damage. But with his level 80 speed, he managed to kill 3 enemies in 2 seconds. That was the new bonus of the two skills when activated simultaneously. King could see his two skills leveling up from the tier experience, and he got them to the 42nd tier in 7 seconds.
15 seconds. King's two skills leveled up until the 77th tier, and then the growth was much slower, because each tier had 3 more zeroes at the back. King had slaughtered so many enemies before activating the skill he already leveled up to level 90. King picked up the items on the floor at lighting speed while simultaneously slashing and killing the enemies, knowing if he didn't those items would disappear into dust when King activated his skill. 5 seconds. King took out his sword, channeled his skill... and within the area of 2.5 kilometers squared... everything went white. The last thing King saw, was a humongous pillar of flame descend, and then, King blacked out.
"Ugh... my head..." King said, as he awoke from his unconsciousness earlier. When he first opened his eyes, what he saw was his hands holding his sword, as he was surrounded by charred black remains of the entire land, no monsters left in the area. King, remembering what happened, quickly checked his three bars. His HP bar was on the verge of death, only 300,000 HP left. 300,000 HP... out of how much, 10^(24) previously? Now, it was 300,000 out of- that was worth it. His level had shot up so much he reached level 194. Then again, he was fighting a horde of innumerable level 210-230 monsters. AS A LEVEL 80. It was a miracle King wasn't dead. And it was a miracle King's plan WORKED. He reached level 194, almost level 195, with three centimeters left until the meter-long EXP bar was full, and King leveled up again. But that little, tiny inch was beyond far literally 30 seconds ago. This single inch was probably worth more than the entire amount of EXP King previously accumulated. But now, he should be strong enough to fight level 200s with ease, and probably survive another level 230 pack, just not... a huge swarm, like earlier. Even King has his limits, you know? But anyway, aside from the charred black surface of the area of the attack King just survived, there were thousands of drops.
After 562 drops, King took the best items for himself, which so happened to be a full set, the [Sovereign's Set], which was a totally new tier, aside from the [Mystical Tier] which King got from level 130+ monsters, King got himself an [Ascended Tier] set, which was the common one among the drops he had gotten, the lower qualities being at another tier already, the [Holy Tier].There were 555 items left, after King took out his [Sovereign's Set]. 555, that's pretty neat. Anyway, the only downside was that the enemies were totally annihilated, leaving no trace of their body left to salvage, which would've been good for making more armor. There were even some {Fire Dragons} in that swarm that was chasing King earlier. The cooldown on King's two skills, as well as the sword ability, was at 9 days 23 hours and 27 minutes. King was out for 30 minutes? He REALLY was lucky, that within the thirty minutes no monsters had killed him at the time. King kept his sword, and went farming properly, this time, instead of doing what he did earlier.
[1 hour later...]
"It really is much slower, compared to last time." King said, when he went farming. He had gained 5 levels, and was on the brink of reaching level 200. In reality, King was supposed to have gotten 25 levels in an hour alone. But now... King had only gotten 5 levels. There was still a bit more until King got to level 200, but it seemed to be much, much harder now. Maybe his stair-theory held true? Or maybe... because there were much lesser monsters now? King arrived at the level 250 area, and monsters were much rarer, one every few minutes. Maybe it had something to do with King's earlier skill? Who knows. King was on the brink of level 200. Just a tiny bit further, and he would enter a new realm. In fact, Silver Fang, or Bang, the accepted 'highest-leveled player' was just level 35 after killing and getting many quests from the [Rebel Quarter]. Quests were accepted to give the most EXP, since they were relative to one's level. But King's method of farming was just pure broken. Well, the quests themselves were pretty broken, too. Even if it was a level 1 quest, it would fill a percentage of one's EXP bar, even if it was say, 1% of it, King would receive more than Saitama's HP in EXP required.
Well, but King's method was the fastest, despite only being usable daily. Daily as in a real-life day. In-game, he was only allowed to use it once every 10 days. But what was the best for King, currently, was quests which would reward in levels. Which was the reason instead of farming normally, King teleported back to the city. But before that, he disabled viewing of his level from anyone. And also cancelled the special effect of the armor, which was only for aesthetics purpose, which was- be a human searchlight. The [Ascended Tier] and [Holy Tier] had the ability to glow, and even the [Mystical Tier] had that too, but it was only a light glow. For the [Ascended Tier], King would shine brighter than a lighthouse. And that wasn't a joke. In fact, it was probably there to help attract enemies, due to the actual scarcity of them. King had disabled the effect since it was annoying, but then it became much harder to find mobs to kill.
But that was beside the point. The current point was, King was near-invincible, and should probably do quests. Considering nothing should be able to stop him whatsoever. King teleported back to the city, and then he remembered: He hadn't completed a quest called [An Old Spear] yet! Since level one, he had still kept the old man's spear, and he hadn't even handed the spear to him yet! So King changed out his items to a different, low-leveled set, since even without the shine, King's armor was so flashy and beautifully carved it was bound to attract a lot of attention. Also, King had headed to the post-box to see the amount of money he got from that shield, and it went to... 500,000 gold coins. Winner: Heavenly Pride.
...Who the hell is Heavenly Pride? One of the S-Class heroes? Only millionaires or S-Class heroes can afford that price! 500,000 gold coins was 400 million Yen! Well, since Saitama was always so keen on saving... "Hey, Saitama. I just made 400 million Yen. Want half?" King messaged Saitama on such short notice, Saitama stopped dead in his level 110 murdering-tracks. King also put a marker up in a specific spot that only specific people could see. And now... only Saitama could see it. In three minutes, Saitama had appeared in the alleyway, King wearing his usual gear that Saitama last saw him in. "King. D-did you really make 400 million yen?" King then smiled, and channeled 250,000 gold coins to Saitama, all that was needed to to was for Saitama to accept. Saitama accepted in a flash, and at light speed hugged King. "You. Are. A GENIUS!" Saitama said, when he let go of King when he released him from Saitama's hug. "How'd you do that!?" Saitama asked frantically. "Well I have the armor-smithing skill, so I took a level 60 item and turned it into a shield. Remember when there was a three-day bidding war?" King explained to Saitama, and asked him at the end. "Well, yeah- wait. YOU MADE THE SHIELD!?" Saitama yelled in surprise, which was in King's expectations, which was why he had set up the noise-cancelling item earlier before Saitama arrived.
"No shit, genius, of course that was me. You're wearing a level 100 chestpiece, and you're surprised at a level 60 one?" King joked. "The amount they're bidding is beyond crazy! The winner spent 400 million Yen! Anyway, I'm off to go and change these gold coins into cash!" Saitama said, as he rushed straight to the [Money Exchanger] building beside the [Guild Broker]. Speaking of which, King still hadn't set up the base of his guild yet. Guilds could be built anywhere, even the city. The Heroes Association spent a fortune to buy a plot of land in the city to build their guild. And by a fortune... around a million gold coins would do. But King wasn't going to place his guild there. He was going to place his guild in a level 200 area. Which area, King still wasn't sure. But, to register, the building for registering in his guild would be in the city. The actual guild would be in a level 200 area. But in five to six years, the area would probably become obsolete. But, it would be a good starting area. Just because the guild was at a level 200 area doesn't mean that the are would be there forever... Nah. King decided to place the [Guild Banner] at a level 1000 place, instead. But, of course, he can't outrun those yet, so King would have to wait until next time.
But ignoring that, King would have to continue grinding for maybe another week or two in real life. But since King can't do what he did again right away, King was currently searching for a quest. He was now walking in the city normally, doing nothing, looking for quests to do. Instead of having a yellow exclamation mark on the NPC, players would have to actively search for quests to do, so quests were much harder to find. But as King's monstrous luck would not sit tight, King heard a scream in an alleyway, in the slums district. Yes, yes he was in the slums district. He had nothing to do, what'd you expect? King followed the sounds, and saw a little girl being surrounded by three men, all four of them wearing ragged clothing, the little girl having the worst clothing of them all, wearing literally a single piece of ragged cloth. The other threee weren't that well-dressed either, wearing dirty shirts and holed pants, but they were armed with a knife. One of them had a bag. It didn't take a genius to figure it out. It was a kidnapping.
King silently approached without them knowing, to listen to their dialogue. "W-why are you doing th-this?" A feminine, young voice said. That was probably the little girl. "Heh, you beast-kin may not be worth much, but those nobles with the special tastes will want you, so you're just gonna have to come quietly, huh?" A lanky thin man among them said. She was a beast-kin? Must be one of those situations where racism is taken literally in medieval times like this where swords were used instead of regular advanced technologies, like guns. Then again, Atomic Samurai still used a sword, but that wasn't the point. Well, the little beast-kin girl was struggling against the three men, so looks like its time to interrupt now. King walked, but this time, he made it so that his footsteps were obvious. Even then, they couldn't hear it since they were too busy kidnapping her.
"Hold up..." One of them stopped the other two. Have they finally noticed the huge, avatar of their deaths yet? No. No they have not. "Why not sample the 'merchandise', since no one but us is here..." King facepalmed, and even then they still couldn't hear him. "W-wait, but he's a guy?" King instantly stopped in his footsteps. That kid was a trap? Wow, he should've hung back, so he would've learnt this in the dialogue, but looks like they were so bad at this that they couldn't even recognize King literally making himself so obvious at their backs. King then made it so painfully obvious that even level ones could hear, and even then they totally ignored him, or are just plain deaf. King just walked, and then he was so close, he was basically at their backs. The struggling 'girl' then stopped struggling, once they saw King's figure, which puzzled the three. Then, the kid started shivering, and then- a familiarly horrible smell assaulted King's nose which he had been forced to clean up after a certain ninja. "Ugh! Disgusting brat! You beast-kin are always bad at controlling your bladders, that's what we hate about capturing your kind!"
"Wait, so beast-kin are just bad at controlling their bladders in the first place?" King thought. King then walked a little closer, then they saw King's shadow, and finally realized why the beast-kin kid was shivering, and wet himself. This person was huge, look at him! He was even wearing high-quality armor, didn't those belong to the armor-types of those high-level guilds? Then, the suddenly felt a wave of pressure fall upon them. No, it wasn't the pressure of a level 199 player. King disabled that, because if he had activated it, the entire city would feel the pressure. He hadn't entered the [Imperial Palace] yet, and wasn't sure if there was anything that might be able to fight King yet. Well, King was like a [Ascended-Tier] boss himself, being able to skip levels and all that. But he still didn't want to provoke said palace yet. So King simply stood there like he usually did, and let his natural intimidation aura do its work. Either way, in about three seconds, the three people are quaking in their boots, their hands can't even properly hold the dagger. In exactly 4.38 seconds, one of them fainted, and the other two ran off, not caring about their comrade.
"T-t-thank you, s-sir!" The boy shakily got up, and the smell still stuck on him. King used the [Clean] spell on him, which... cleaned things. It usually depended on one's mana, so the high one's level, the more effective the cleanup. And with King's ridiculously high level, the [Clean] was so good that the rag that the boy was wearing which was yellowish-brown turned white. And the beast-kin boy himself was cleaned as if he came out of a shower. Now that King took a closer look, he noticed a pair of ears on his head, but they were black, like his hair, which was why King didn't spot them in the first place, but now that the boy was cleaned, he could clearly see the cat-ears on him. King also didn't spot his tail at the beginning since he was on the floor. "Who are you?" King asked.
"I-I'm just an orphan from the slums..." The boy said dejectedly, his tail drooping down. "My question is, what is your name?" King asked, clarifying his question. "O-oh, my n-name's Kuroneko." He answered King. "Kuroneko..." King closed his eyes, and thought of something: "The AI is good, but their naming sucks." King said to himself, Kuroneko not knowing about King's complaint on his name. "Also, why were they kidnapping you earlier?" King asked again, changing the topic.
"T-they're just workers under a slave-trader. The people in the slums are usually kidnapped and sold as slaves every day. This is just the standard, everyday occurrence." The boy replied dejectedly once more. "Why are you in the slums?" King asked. "Well, my mother was accused to be involved in the drug-trade, and my father died as a soldier in the war.. I didn't have any relatives. So I had to live in the slums." The boy answered, his ears and tail drooping down. "Do the feelings of beast-kin usually show in their tails and ears like in novels? Booooring." King thought to himself. King then handed Kuroneko a bag of coins, all of them silver. According to the in-game lore, this much should be able to get food for a month or two.
"Take this." King gave to Kuroneko, then disappeared. Since:
A)This was bound to have something in the future.
B) He currently had nothing to do.
C)He already has a quest he could do, that is bust the slave-trading business. Busting a slave-trade should be quite something, wouldn't it? So King took a sword and shoved it through the guy that was left behind to wake him up.
"GUYAHHH!" The guy woke up abruptly, to see his thigh get impaled by the person they were running away from. "I just want to know, who's the slave dealer around here." King asked calmly, the calm scaring the person. "H-he's in the Clown District, the biggest building! Please don't kill me!" He said with fear etched in his voice. He was also about to pass out from the blood loss from his thigh. "Good job." King said, before he took out the sword, and slit the squirming man's throat... what? It's just a game.
So King went to the address that he indicated. In the meantime, he wondered if he could also get a new quest. In no time, King arrived at the building, and with his level 199 power, literally walked passed them without them stopping him. That was how much better a level 199 was. Either way, King walked in normally, but when he opened the door, the NPC's would go 'Who's there?' and then see the door open, and yet not notice King. This obviously startled a few of the NPCs, some just went full retard™ and go 'Hmm, must've been my imagination.'
So King was wandering around the building, and found where they kept the slaves. They were kept in dirty pens and some even had dead bodies. King got a pop-up, something that he hadn't received in a long time, "Quest: Free The Slaves available! Accept?" The answer was obvious. King then knocked out the guard on-duty, opened a wall to the outside, and bent the bars opened. The slaves, confused, didn't know what had happened, but they ran out fast. The next room had more pens, but this time, they had collars, King expected them to be like a restrictive item, so King broke all of them by hand, knocked the guard out again, and pried the bars open AGAIN. But this time, the slaves didn't run out. They got to a chest, took items out of them, which when worn, made them look like casual adventurers. They killed the guard while he was unconscious, killed the other, unconscious also guard from the first room, and a few escaped, but a portion stayed back, and killed everything in the way.
King then got the reward from that quest, which was 1% of the EXP bar is filled. And with that, King gained one more centimeter, leaving 2% more on his EXP bar. He was 98% complete on being level 200. So King went back to his business, simply watching the adventurers kill their way to the top floor. King wasn't noticed at all. But on the last obstacle, there was a thick stone door, with two gargoyles on the two perches beside the door. "What is the password?" A gargoyle asked. "Open the hell up!" A rash adventurer yelled at it, swinging his sword at the statue. "Wrong." The gargoyle caught the sword mid-swing, and broke it. Then, it leapt from its pedestal, and killed the adventurer instantly by biting it on its neck.
It then sat back down on its pedestal, like nothing had happened. The adventurer former slaves backed away, not wanting to die after being free. So King appeared, allowing others to see him this time, walked towards the statues. "What is the password?" The statue of the gargoyle asked again, to which King responded, "Death. Death is your answer." "Wrong." The gargoyle jumped from its pedestal once more, aiming for King's neck. the adventurers back off, thinking King would be mauled, but then King held the gargoyle in one hand, strangling it.
"I'm afraid the answer holds true." King said, as he crushed the gargoyle's stone neck. The second gargoyle jumped from its pedestal as well, but King kicked it before it could jump away, shattering it. King got a incredibly miniscule amount of EXP, it was practically nothing. King then approached the stone door, ignoring the shocked-beyond-words former-slave adventurers, and shattered the thick stone door as well by kicking it. King then disappeared from their view, but in reality King simply allowed them to see him earlier. Now that he didn't, they would think that he had disappeared. King walked into the room, seeing an incredibly shocked slave-trader packing his things in a bag. "Shit!" The slave trader cursed, as the then packed everything in the bag, pressed a button under his desk, and surprise, surprise, there was a secret compartment beneath his chair which lead to a slide. King followed along, to see that it lead to a stable, and the slave trader landed exactly on his horse.
Under the guise of the night, the slave trader escaped the slums district where the stable had lead to the outside of the city. Well, the building was actually right in front of the wall, which was probably how he could escape right outside. since the slide was always heading downwards, King saw that there was 50 meters of extra dirt from the wall, meaning he traveled 50 meters downwards. Getting back on track, King followed the slave trader, who entered from the East gate of the city. Handing the guard his citizenship card, he entered flawlessly. King was so high leveled the guards couldn't even notice him. Well, the guards were just level 30, after all.
King followed the slave trader, who had left his horse at the nearby stable. Said slave trader then went to a house, knocked on the door in a specific pattern, and was brought in by a burly man, who closed and locked the door. Using his [Ethereal] spell which he picked up at the level 170 area, King phased through the door. Walking up the stairs, he phased through another door, and saw the slave trader talking with another person. "Just 30 minutes ago, our branch was destroyed! The fifth one in the slums!" Wow, so there were more of them? And FIVE in the slums alone? This was getting slightly more interesting. Because the bigger the quest, the better the reward...unless this did absolutely nothing. "Well, it's bound to do something." King thought.
The slave trader that escaped earlier had went back downstairs, and after the person in the turban wearing middle-eastern clothing made sure no one could listen in, he took out a map, and crossed out one of the circled areas. King mentally memorized the map and left the building. He made a few map markers, and made a mental note... to destroy said buildings when he gets the chance. No, he's not focusing on it. Its a 'Oh, this place? Meh, may as well, since I'm here.' kind of thing. But anyway, King remembered a certain something: Finish his damn spear quest.
He went back to the fountain and looked for the old man. When King found him, he was still in his old position. When King approached him, he called out to King. "Oh, you're back! I wondered what happened to you! After all, you took so long!" He said laughingly. It looks like the old man thought that King had died. "Here, your spear." King said, as he passed it to the old man. "Ah... it's a beauty! Lost so long ago, yet the luster doesn't change whatsoever..." The old man said, reminiscing about the past. King then got the rewards for this quest, which was exactly what he was looking for: 2% of his EXP bar filled. There was also a newer, better sword compared to the [Rusted Sword] King got. Maybe this was supposed to be handed in earlier? Well, King didn't need that sword anymore at the time, since he had that [Tiger-King's Blade].
Well, King supposed that sword could be used as a keepsake. After all, it was the drop from the very first boss of the game. And- uh oh. The Hall Of Fame was accessible at level 50! But what was the problem was... Silver Fang was approaching level 50. Well, that was a problem. "Anyway, wonder how to Hall Of Fame looks like." King said to himself, as he then thought about going to the Hall Of Fame. The hall of fame was supposed to be a hall that was accessible at any given point in time, and was given the rights to enter by an NPC in the city that according to the lore, appeared from a portal to allow people to visit his museum of history, which records events that happened throughout time. He was also allowed because he himself overpowered an entire guard platoon without lifting his finger, and his level was said to be beyond mortals.
While thinking, King arrived at the destination: A tear in reality, with a man with a well-groomed handlebar mustache, in a white gentleman's suit drinking from his teacup, while hovering on nothing. "Must be magic." King thought. As King approached, the gentleman looked up from his tea, and noticed King from the corner of his eye. The NPC's face then turned into one of surprise, and then respect. As King approached, the NPC took off his checker-patterned top-hat, and greeted: "Hello, there. I assume you are here to acquire access to my museum?" The NPC asked politely.
"Yes. I'd like entry." King said normally, his tone unreadable. King was just being his usual self this time. "I see. My requirements were that people were at least level 50 so that they would be worthy of even looking at these people in my museum. Also that was the minimum requirement so that they also don't get sick or die along the process of transportation. A normal guard like that would be dead." The gentleman explained the reason of why a player needed to be at least level 50. But King already knew. He read the lore from the official page of the game, so he knew a few things already.
"Hmm. I think you already know I fit the requirements?" King asked. "Well, yes. It is obvious with my eyes that can see through things, you are hiding your true strength. You are almost on par with me." The gentleman sipped his tea, and stood up from his seat. "Well then, I'll send you off, I'll be following you shortly." The gentleman took his cane which rested on an empty seat, and lightly tapped the ground with it. After three taps, a purple sphere expanded from the tip of the cane, enveloping the area around King and the NPC. "My name is Anthonio. Anthonio William. Not just any person can know my name, you know. But your power... I respect it, and I give you my name. What.. is yours?" The NPC, Anthonio William, bowed, and asked for King's name.
"King. My name is King." Well, King didn't want to use his real name. After all, his IGN is actually just King, anyway, so he decided to use his IGN, instead. "A name fit for one of your power. Now, if you'll step into the portal. Anthonio pointed to the rift, and King stepped into it. "You'll arrive as soon as both your feet are in." Anthonio explained. King casually walked in, and his surroundings, which was supposed to be a chaos in time and space, changed into that of the huge interior of a well-built museum, with white limestone walls, and polished marble floors. Around him were exhibits, some of demonic nature, some which had a holy appearance, and in the largest room, it was beyond large. It seemed to be able to fit in a football field. On the top, the plaque read: "Men Of Power."
And there, there were five statues... all of King. The first was when King was the first person to reach level 10. The next was level 25. Followed by a statue of level 50. The fourth was of level 100, and finally, a level 200 statue, of King wearing his current set. The first statue was a life-sized statue of King's carved in marble. King was using the [Tiger-King's Sword], with the [Panther-Claw Dagger] in the other hand. At level 25, he was wearing a different set of armor, with different weapons, as well. They were mismatched, since at the time, King focused on effects, and still does. At level 50, King was wearing a proper set, holding a single-edged blade, which looked more like a work of art than a true weapon. It was so beautifully carved it put everything else from he other halls to shame.
On the level 100 statue, King was wearing a regal set of his [Combat General's Set], and held in his hands the better, improved sword, which was composed of the first sword combined with the second blade, although there was two tips, with something looking like it was missing from the tip. This statue was standing on the corpse of a monster King remembered to be from a level 120 area. And the last one was King at level 200, wearing his current [Sovereign's Set], which made even regular royal attire to shame, and could even match up to the formal attire of a king. He was in his pose of when he activated his sword skill, half knelt, with both hands gripping the handle of his weapon. One thing worthy of mentioning was that his sword hilt was longer, and that there was only one tip on the sword, this time.
"Magnificent, isn't it?" Anthonio suddenly appeared beside King, which only startled him a little. "So far, five statues are all of you. When I first saw you, when you were level 1, from my seat, here in this museum, you had already caught my eye." Anthonio then looked at King in the eye. "You didn't disappoint. You grew so fast in such a short time." Anthonio said, as he put one hand on King's shoulder. "Then, you reached level 80." Anthonio then pointed at an empty wall, which turned into a cinematic of King running away from a huge horde of level 210-230 monsters. "Even I would've died after facing such a horde. I truly lost faith back then, thinking you would die." Then, the video cut to when the horde grew immensely huge, and King activated his two skills to survive.
"I didn't expect you to have such a skill. And by killing a few of those monsters, in that 30 seconds of time, you grew explosively. But you were nearing your end." The video was then at when King's skill was fading. "But then, you truly surprised me to no end, when you revealed the power within your sword." Then, like King's experience, a bright white light fell from the heavens, as the monsters all roared and writhed in agony. As they died, King held that pose for 30 minutes straight, before getting back up. "You survived that horde, and came out a man so powerful you were on par with me, at my current state."
King was then surprised. 'His current state?' Did it mean he was actually much stronger than this before? Anthonio sighed, as if sensing King's questioning, told a story. "Back then, I was a brash boy. I tried to grow stronger continuously, forsaking everything. If it wasn't for my master, I would've died. He then taught me a skill, something which could grow stronger, just by me breathing."
Anthonio continued telling his story. "I was ecstatic, getting such a great skill. Sure, it was slow at first, but with the right training, one could surpass almost anything, with this art." Then, Anthonio had a look of sadness on his face. "Looks like the brash me from back then was still there. I truly thought I could win against him. Yet, I had been defeated like I was but a speck of dust. And ever since then, when he had placed his seal on me, my power was weakened 5 manifolds. Each seal halved my power."
...5 manifolds? Half his power? Didn't that mean he was originally pretty damn powerful!? That means he had to be at least what, level 6400 originally!? "I built this museum, before my downfall. This surrounding area used to be like a walk in the park for me. Now... I'd be dead in a flash. you can exit, if you want. But you'll die. Nothing stops you from exiting the door, but to enter, you'll need my permission. Here." Anthonio explained, before summoning a key from mid-air, and placing it on King's forehead. King got the notification, [You have gotten permission to enter Anthonio's Museum, the Hall Of Fame at any time at any give day!]
"J-just a question. Exactly what are the levels of the inhabitants outside?" King asked, visibly shocked. After all, despite being level 200, he was only able to fight Anthonio, and that was since he had what... 5 seals placed on him!? "Well... they were around level 5000..." Anthonio mused, which stopped everything in King's brain. Hello? Level 5000?...The things outside were overwhelmingly powerful! They could kill King with a breath! This was... an absolute Gold-Mine! If King's cooldown finally reset, he could level up crazy fast, in just the span of a single day! A single day! And level 5000? Even for King, that was crazy-talk. But even with that... "If I were level 5000 now... that'd ruin the story! I'm already beyond powerful at this stage of the game. And level 5000? NOW!? Nope. No thanks. I'll stick to enjoying the game, thanks. Unless I really, really need to complete something, I'm not going to level like crazy again." King decided not to level up like a damn cheater again, unless he REALLY needed to.
"But either way, I must say, you're the only human I've seen that is capable of cultivation..." Anthonio then said on whim, but that caught King's attention. "Cultivation?" King asked, making sure he heard that right. "Oh, yes. Originally, only the greatest of the greatest among all the races can possibly cultivate, and even then, only ever a single human had ever cultivated." Anthonio explained. "I myself, being half human could cultivate, but my art alone is good enough for me." King then tried to process this information. Only a single person had been able to cultivate in the human race? And he was one? Nice. But even then, Anthonio should be a really powerful level 200... "Also, my current level is 200, like yours, but I, like you can overcome one step." Anthonio said, as if reading King's mind. "So I can overcome a hundred levels due to my current level of cultivation, but you can overcome it with your art?" King asked again.
"Yes... my special art allows me to overcome say... one level every two levels, meaning as I am level 200, I can fight up to level 400." Anthonio confirmed King's theory. But then again, King's current cultivation was the first stage of the Qi Accumulation Realm. The second stage alone was capable of doubling King's current ability! And with each stage, King could increase his battle power by 100%, and so at the first stage of the Qi Condensation Realm, If King was at level 1000, King could fight the maximum level of 10,000! And that wasn't even taking into account the 1000% increase of every following stage of the Qi Condensation Realm! Cultivation OP! Still, it would take beyond long to even reach that level of cultivation. I mean, the entirety of all 9 stages of the Foundation Realm took a full day to complete.
For the Qi Accumulation Realm, each stage was like a full foundation realm, and in the Qi Condensation Realm, each stage was a full Qi Accumulation Realm! That was painfully long amounts of cultivation time! But in the end, if Cultivation could do something like kill a level 10,000 at just level 1000 on just the FIRST stage of Qi Condensation realm? That was OP. Like REALLY OP. But then again, with such a superior gaming development company, they'd work an update to help it soon enough.
"But still, that human cultivator may have been the only cultivator of his race, but at that time, I read that he was the strongest of all cultivators, taking the seat as the Strongest Of This World." Anthonio suddenly said. "Hmm, what was his cultivation stage?" King asked. "He was at the Imperial Lord Realm, I think." Well then, King has a lot of catching up to do. "Oh, and quick question. Do you have a spell which can alter time like earlier?" King asked. "Well, there is this spell..." Anthonio handed King a spellbook. On it were the words [Time Manipulation].
"Slowing a single second to say, one minute takes 1 million MP, so it's relatively cheap. Stopping it on the other hand is quite expensive, for one at level 100... Around 100 billion every second you're stopping." Anthonio explained while King flipped through the pages. "Hmm, but if I were to want to stop time by say... using all my MP, how long can I stop it for?" King asked. Anthonio took a thinking pose, and after 20 seconds of murmuring calculations, he finally gave the answer. "Around a full day's time." Anthonio said. Well then, it was good time to cultivate, wouldn't it? "How much for the book?" King asked. "Well, this spell is relatively expensive, around say... 50 tons of Demon Cores." Anthonio answered.
"But, you could pay me in another way.." Anthonio said, as he took out a piece of paper, and handed it to King. "These are the materials I need to break the first seal. If you get them for me, I'll consider it paid. He made it so that these materials in my prime would be easier than breathing to get, but at my current power, wouldn't be able to get it whatsoever." Anthonio said, as he pointed to five items on the list. It was [Thunderous Skybull's Horns], [Molten Golem King's Core], [Diamond Armadillo's Scales], [Blood-Eater's Eyes], and last but not least, [Dragon Lord's Heart].
"These are all level 400 beasts. They are near-impossible for me to kill them, at my current strength, yet when I break the first seal, I would easily be capable of killing them." Anthonio explained, as he took out a map, and circled five places, the [Crystal Mine], [Mountain Sky], [Great Volcano], [Bloodied Battlefield], and [Dragon Lord's Den]. It didn't take a genius to find out which boss was where. So King thanked Anthonio, as he exited through the opened rift which led to the portal which was back at the city.
So using logical thinking, King headed for the [Crystal Mine] to kill the {Diamond Armadillo} first, considering it should be a heavily-armored enemy, but really slow for its level. After three hours of travelling, King finally reached the mouth of the cave, or mine. Even from the mouth one could tell there were many gems here. But inside were building-sized monstrous armadillos, which are docile, but when entering the cave, they treat it as an invasion of their territory, and will kill anyone who enters their cave. But if one manages to escape the cave, even when targeted, they will not follow. But if one does this more than three times, the armadillos will treat you as a high-priority target, and will kill on sight, even when not entering the cave.
King entered the cave, a several armadillos came and charged towards King. Even as armadillos, they are incredibly fast, but on their level, it is beyond slow. King avoided their attacks, and killed them off with his upgraded [Divine Emperor's Palm Technique] and [Divine Emperor's Strike Technique]. They were much better now, and King wanted to test them out. King now could do well unarmed. But the best would be to use the [Divine Emperor's Combat Mechanism] on his right hand, as the damage increase from his right hand would help a lot, and the sword, or lance, was capable of killing off anything in a thousand hits, as long as it isn't a boss. The 0.1% health per hit was beyond OP now. King's speed from his DEX and STD attribute was definitely capable of a thousands swings in five seconds. But King wanted to level his two skills first. When he was approaching the boss, then only would he use his [Divine Emperor's Combat Mechanism]. The fight should take a minute or two, with King's 0.05% HP as minimum damage on a boss.
As we speak, King had already leveled up to level 250 from the level 400 {Crystalline Armadillos}. King was about to reach the boss room. He is currently level 250, meaning he can now fight equally against a level 500. But King has a feeling, that since Anthonio said he wasn't able to do so, King was sure this boss wasn't simple. After all, the little armadillos would be easy for King. What was the reason that Anthonio wouldn't be able to kill them? In fact, King had just remembered something, there were bosses which were much higher-leveled compared to the mobs around them. King remembered fighting a level 75 boss, with level 70 mobs around it. Sure, that was just 5 levels. But when it gets to this point, King wasn't sure if that was the right thing to follow. for all King knows, this boss might be level 500, or 600.
...And he hated it when he was right about this. As he entered the last room, the boss too, was sleeping. What was different however, was that instead of level 500, like what King would logically assume... this bastard boss is at level 600. King took a deep breath... took out his sword, and prepared to swing his sword as fast as possible. And after 30 seconds... King rushed in.
The moment he entered, the boss was stirring from its slumber. And when King made contact, in a single second, 5% of the boss's HP was gone. The {Diamond Armadillo} roared in pain, and swung at an incredible speed, at least, to King's current level, the swing was really fast. When King hopped back to avoid the swing, he took off 10% of the boss's HP. But he couldn't continue at this rate, as avoiding the rest of the attacks, when the boss was fully conscious, and willing to kill, would take almost all his nerves to avoid. A single hit meant death. It reminded King of when he was power-leveled all the way to level 200 from level 80 like a cheater, but it wasn't a cheat, as it was more of King's broken luck constantly finding good things for him. But King wasn't going to complain. Just not more than 3 hours ago, he just found a level 5000 grinding area.
Well, King now had to constantly dodge the swipes of the {Diamond Armadillo}, and throw in a few swings in there. After 45 seconds, King didn't take any damage, since if he did, he'd be dead. But the {Diamond Armadillo} was bleeding all over its body, as it only had 13% of its HP left. And after the last 3% was gone-
"GRAWWWWWWWWWWWW~" A roar resounded throughout the cavern. The {Diamond Armadillo} was on its last 10% HP. What sucked was the extra attack speed. If King fully concentrated, he'd be able to dodge all the attacks. But he needed to attack, if not, it'd regenerate it's HP back fast! But what was good, was that King was slowly but surely killing it. After 2 minutes, the {Diamond Armadillo} dropped down, dead. King collected the scales, which were basically outcrops of diamond on the actual scales, and the items from the dead boss. King actually could not get hit once, simply because even though he was wearing level 400 armor from the {Crystalline Armadillo} mobs in the earlier caves, level 400 armor cannot make up for level 600 attacks.
King collected the scales, and took the best armor. The best was obviously the {Armadillo Set} which dropped from the boss armadillo. Sure, it looked dumb, but the armor itself was powerful. Sure, it made King look sort of stupid, but the armor worked. That was enough. But King had to say something: "Did they really need to add in the stupid head-model?" King complained about the armadillo model on his helmet. Everything else was fine. The helmet was the source of discontentment. If he wasn't wearing the helmet, he'd look like a proper warrior. The armor had no difference from regular armor. The helmet just made him look retarded. In his opinion, anyway.
But there were other bosses, as well. And King assumed that the {Dragon Lord} would drop better equipment. Why else was it last on the list? It even had its lair named after it. King leveled up to level 489 after killing the level 600 boss. Well then, looks like after the three other bosses, King would have reached level 600, probably just enough to fight that {Dragon Lord}. King assumed his level to be around 750, or 800.
Preview Of Next Chapter:
King saw a weird out-of-place stone in the room, after he was about to leave the cave. When he rolled it over, it was a wide passageway which led to a different room. King entered wide passageway which was big enough for a certain armadillo to get through. When he entered the room,
He was leveling fast. Only thing he didn't like: He had to change armors fast. "Unless of course, I have the 'Divine Emperor' set, since if this emperor had his own combat weapon which could split into swords, a spear, and probably more, he should have his own armor." King said to himself, while he continued sifting through the pile of items that was in the treasure trove room King was currently in, to split them into categories which he had set to the 'keep' folder, the 'sell' folder, and then the 'Divine Emperor's Stuff' folder, which was compromised of the [Divine Emperor's Martial Arts Inheritance] and the [Divine Emperor's Combat Mechanism]. All King needed was the armor of this 'Divine Emperor'.
And as if the universe responded to his own statement, King saw a glint among the pile of treasure. When he took it out, and checked it, he wondered if there was a god out there which was giving him everything he wanted. In his hands, King held the [Divine Emperor's Weaponry Gauntlet].
End Of Preview.