Chapter 173
Chapter 173: The Weight of a Sword
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
[Roland Sacred Sword: with this regal sword having to bear more and more weight, it is now closer to evolving and becoming a true God Equipment. When it awakens, you shall receive your first true God Equipment.]
[Kingdom-Class Treasure’s Effect: As long as the East Mist Communal Country exists, this sword shall be indestructible. If the country perishes, this sword shall self-destruct. Feel free to exchange blows with any weapons using this sword, as even Ayer’s Reaper’s Scythe will fail to leave even a single scratch on this sword.]
[System Reminder: For Master who’s in dire straits currently and becoming more and more unseemly every day, this Sacred Sword is crying out… it’s already been crying. I said it many times already, it’s a Sacred Sword, not a barbeque rack! Just try seeing what happens if you take advantage of its indestructibility to bake some sweet potatoes one more time! Also, as for cooking food, you should use a kitchen knife, don’t you know how to value and respect such Sacred Equipment? No matter what, it’s an artifact left behind by your grandfather’s generation.]
The Legendary Quest regarding the Revival of Mist that descended upon the Roland Sacred Sword has been with me for quite a while, but ever since I entered the northlands, the Sacred Sword has entered an abnormal hibernation period.
Its original extravagant to the point of opulence characteristics had completely disappeared, and the only explanation about it remaining was that mysterious Kingdom-Class Treasure’s Effect. According to the system, the Sacred Sword seemed to currently be storing energy in order to truly transform into a God Equipment.
Perhaps when I finished the Revival of Mist quest, this Sacred Sword would truly awaken as a God Equipment. Well, as for the system’s comments on how I had used the sword as a barbeque rack and to bake sweet potatoes, I was merely making the best use of its newfound trait.
Now that it was indestructible, it didn’t even require maintenance anymore. Not even dust would adhere to it, for it to be so handy, of course I would try finding some extra uses for it.
Yep, it was quite normal for me to do so, I definitely respected the sword, at the very least, I didn’t use it to hang clothes on.
[Additional System Reminder: You did do so, you bastard! The only problem was that any clothes you hung on it were automatically sliced in half by its keen edge.]
Okay, let us ignore this system that’s getting more annoying these days, and return to the main topic.
“God Equipment? I’ve actually never used God Equipment before, and I don’t know just how strong they are.”
It seemed inaccurate, but I was telling the truth.
Just like the name, God Equipment meant equipment that was godly in power, typical with a god’s soul or power within, so they would definitely be rare and precious. I came into contact with some false God Equipment before that merely had the title, but it was certain that they still couldn’t match up to true God Equipment.
As for the original form of my Sacred Sword, it only began its transformation into God Equipment after I ascended to godhood and received power from the Law Gods, it still needed time in order to accumulate the divine power injected by real gods in order to truly transform, but unfortunately, I don’t have any more chances to do that currently, and as for that other so-called God Equipment – the Scepter of Eternal Night, yep, everyone knows about what that is already.
In this aspect, I was quite envious of Harloys. She personally came into contact with God Equipment before, and understood just how strong they were. I also asked her in the past just how much of a difference my items were from true God Equipment.
“Below True Gods are the SemiGods, and you know the difference between them as well. Beneath God Equipment are those with partial God powers known as SemiGod Equipment, but those random assortments of abilities SemiGod Equipment possess aren’t actually all that different from Legendary or Epic Equipment, apart from the number of abilities. God Equipment however is on a completely different scale; perhaps they might not have as many abilities as SemiGod Equipment, and some might even have zero attack power, but they’ll definitely have various unique abilities that are the overwhelmingly best in their fields, at the top of their class.”
After I came into contact with the Ancient Sea God’s Bottle, I was faintly able to detect the true uniqueness of God Equipment. Even if it was an insignificant-seeming ability like returning a water source to its original form, even if the God Equipment itself was completely tattered, even against a True God’s curse, it was still able to use its ability as normal.
I’ll skip over the obvious ones such as how Fire Gods’ Equipment would have something to do with flames, or how War Gods’ Equipment would have enormous effects in battle. These days, I’ve been considering just how the Roland Sacred Sword would end up when it finished its evolution.
Based off of my understanding of the system, due to the limitations of karma, it never gave me any rewards that materialized out of thin air, instead, it would give me what I would have received anyways. Its biggest use was to skip over the needlessly detailed or complex parts for me, and use already twisted karma to twist karma even further, rather than creating miracles out of nothing.
The system’s rewards almost always had a relation to the cause and effect as well as karma of the mission as well, for instance, that one Epic Quest rewarding me in the end with points based on my influence to “history,” and when I defeated the Hydra in the Epic Challenge, I was also rewarded with something from the Hydra itself.
That’s why I deduced that since this quest was for me to revive the Mist Kingdom, and the reward was the Roland Sacred Sword’s evolution to a God Equipment, and also taking into consideration that this Sacred Sword was the representation of the Royal Seal of the Mist, then the final strength of this Sacred Sword most likely depended on how well I completed the quest to revive the Mist Kingdom.
The higher-quality the end result, the stronger that the newborn Mist Kingdom was, the stronger that the Roland Sacred Sword would become.
And with many events simultaneously developing, I also constantly adjusted my plans. With our combined efforts, a brand-new Mist Kingdom was gradually beginning to form.
Perhaps it was still currently rather fresh and tender, but it was currently growing through battle. Perhaps it was currently still weak and small, and in the midst of danger, but when it finally matured as the king among wolves in the north, it would definitely shock the world.
Just as how I would have definitely regretted it if I only fulfilled the most basic requirement of the Epic Quest, I had no intention this time of merely stopping at fulfilling the basic requirement this time either.
“A country’s power will always be limited, perhaps an alliance with the same goal will be more suited for pursuing my long-cherished desire.”
The East Mist Alliance was the name I secretly wanted to call it. With the East Mist Communal Country at its heart, plus the Sleuweir Kingdom, the Shawen Free States, the Barbarian tribes, and so on, they would worship the Law Gods as their religion, and have “non-aggression” as their basic tenet, they shall come to each other’s defenses and fight strong enemies while united, and gradually form into a simultaneously loose yet tight alliance through difficult holy battles.
This Alliance would perhaps become the foundational block for me to overturn everything.
In the past, I believed that I was sufficient by myself to take care of everything, and that friends and companions would only make me soft and show weaknesses, but numerous defeats woke me up to reality.
Personal strength was meaningless in front of the waves of history, which was why this time I had trustworthy companions and friends at my side, whose strengths and intelligence were more than enough to make up for what I lacked, and of course, there were also my allies in the heavens.
In the past, I believed that battle would wipe out battle, but endless amounts of death and screaming woke me up to cruel reality again – any battle without benevolence, justice, and limitations would only bring death and destruction.
Warriors without beliefs would become nothing more than butchers sooner or later, which was why this time, I decided to use the various complex teachings of the Law Gods in order to limit our actions. Even if it seemed rather inconvenient due to having to adhere to so many rules, it was actually a path we must take in order to receive even more support down the road, as well as a yoke upon ourselves for us to not fall to limitless insanity.
In the past, I believed that a terrifying autocratic government was the sharpest sword available to me, but reality proved that this was nothing more than a shortcut to craziness.
Allies that fought for the same purpose would give you unexpected assistance, while subordinates that merely followed your orders would only think about how to replace you and take over your position. That’s why I no longer considered making an authoritarian Empire, a loose alliance would be sufficient, while the young leaders and kings could lead their own countries by themselves as the vanguard, and fight together under the same banner, with me silently and secretly making the plans behind the scenes, taking hidden actions, and doing the dirty work.
“Love and justice? Of course not, that wouldn’t fool anyone in this generation, but based on consideration and logical deduction, while something to believe in and a mutual goal to strive for seem rather empty, it’s actually quite important. The larger the gathered forces, the greater the chances to overturn the twisted fate, which was why I chose to do this.”
Reality proved that my choice was correct. The Gentlemen Alliance, the Underground powers, the Church of Law, the East Mist Communal Country and all the other powers, while they definitely had many connections with my previous self, but technically speaking, they didn’t have formal subordinate connections to me, but not only did they still follow my orders, even if I wasn’t present, they would still be able to operate on their own, and support and help each other, creating a cooperative power that wasn’t ignorable.
“In order to deal with the future, I have limitless expectations for our allies and their support, even if they only hope to be carried by us, even if they want to personally benefit, that’s acceptable as well.”
By now, it was obvious that this Epic Quest recognized the New Mist Alliance that I created, and the Roland Sacred Sword’s hibernation and newfound indestructability were doubtless evidence that it received enough power from the gradual growth of the newborn Mist Kingdom.
But the system suddenly gave me a quest to find a specific person, which would give me the reward of evolving the Roland Sacred Sword even earlier. Perhaps this meant that it was almost time to use this sword, or in other words, there was a difficult obstacle ahead of me that I would be unable to surpass without using the Sacred Sword. This was definitely terrible news.
But the next piece of information I received sunk me into confusion as I faintly felt like that damned system had gotten me good yet again.
“Glina.Caso, she vanished several years ago, and she was supposedly last seen near the entrance to the Underground cities…”
[She’s right by your side…] I recalled the system’s notification for me, causing me to think of a certain person, who just happened to fulfill the requirement of having returned to the Northlands approximately three months ago.
“Clint, take off your armor! Immediately! Damn it, you dare to run!? Catch him for me!”
Nobody expected that even if the Holy Battle was to involve even the gods, that the first God Battle in this Holy Battle would come so quickly and ferociously. Not only that, it was even due to an internal conflict between what should have been the neutral Elves.
Until the black magical mist enchanted by the Spider Queen dissipated, the sun would no longer be able to act as a threat anymore to the Dark Elves.
And under the protection of various guardian gods, the Elf Forest under this black mist was now a chaotic battlefield, with Elves and Dark Elves fighting everywhere.
“Impossible, how did they possibly pass by the border guards? Wasn’t the underground tunnel being guarded?”
“They didn’t come through that tunnel, they came through the imperial mausoleum, there must be a new tunnel inside there!”
There was no way that the Elf Kingdom wouldn’t be on guard against its mortal enemy, having every entranceway heavily fortified was already a longstanding habit of all the Elf countries. But this time, the Dark Elves’ attack was too sudeen.
The Tassel Elf Kingdom’s imperial mausoleum’s underground tunnels weren’t a natural occurrence, they were the secret escape tunnels as a last resort for the royal family, an artificially constructed passageway that could help them escape to the main portion of the Underground world.
From a certain perspective, Annie and Anya were favored by fortune, not only did they manage to reach that critical intersection when they were lost, even more luckily for them, they met Suana who had escaped into the tunnels in order to protect herself, which was how they coincidentally managed to learn about this shortcut reaching to the Tassel Elf Kingdom.
When Annie and her army learned about this passageway, they didn’t think too much about it, they were merely pleased to learn that there was a shortcut available for them to take, but when her army camped nearby this passageway, the secret naturally spread through certain channels to Roshe, causing this completely unexpected ambush.
Perhaps it was the Elves’ fate to meet with such a disaster. If you looked at it from a certain way, if it wasn’t for the fact that certain people forced Suana to her death, the Banshee would never have met up with the Underground Lord, nor would Roshe ever have learned about this secret passageway, so this ambush wouldn’t have happened. Perhaps this was all fated by karma.
The guards at the imperial mausoleum were novices that had never experienced combat before. The guards were in the midst of yawning and complaining about how it wasn’t time for the next shift to take over; they never anticipated that the shadows behind them had begun to twist in form as life-rending green daggers stabbed towards their backs.
All the imperial mausoleum guards were slaughtered in just a few minutes by the Dark Elves’ elite scout forces without even a chance to raise the alarm. When the main Dark Elf forces poured out from the underground tunnel, even they didn’t expect just how loose the elves’ defenses were in this area, and how easy it was for them to go through this path.
Of course, Dark Elves didn’t care one whit about the concept known as politeness. After a brief momentary period of shock, they obviously took advantage of the surprising situation and proactiveness to make their ambush as brutal as possible.
The Dark Elves used the highly mobile Lizard Cavalry as their vanguard. Perhaps this high-tier troop type wouldn’t have been as useful in a direct confrontation on the battlefield, but the Lizard Cavalry were outstanding in chaotic battles. While the Elves were busy defending against the Dark Elf Knights’ poisonous arrows and long spears, the Gray Lizards’ bites and claws were actually even deadlier.
In small contained battlefields, Lizard Cavalry became a nightmare for the Elves that lacked close-combat capabilities. Even against strong mages, they were able to use extraordinarily strong leaping abilities and flexibility to pass over the mages’ cannon fodder summoned creatures and tear the mages to pieces.
With these cold-blooded Dark Elf Knights’ and Lizard Cavalries’ arrival, the Elves that weren’t prepared suffered enormous losses. Many villages and cities were instantly lost, and the cold-blooded knights that had satisfied their bloodlust hadn’t even had time to dedicate their sacrifices to the Spider Queen when the anxious Priest Roshe wielded her Hydra Whip to indicate the next town for them to attack.
Due to the ambush, those small scout squads in the backlines suffered losses of over 90%. For someone like Tasia to have lived and even counterattacked was something that was less than 1%, which made the other Elves even suspect that she turned traitor.
Just like the Elf Army freely roaming around the Sleuweir Kingdom previously, the Dark Elves’ army entered the Elf Kingdom and opened holes in its defenses everywhere, and the Tassel Kingdom that didn’t have most of its soldiers sunk into a huge disadvantage of only being to passively react.
If this was an ordinary war, perhaps the Tassel Kingdom wouldn’t even survive until its main forces returned, but this was the prelude to the Holy Battle involving the personal benefits of True Gods on both sides. While the order forbidding True Gods from directly intervening in lower species’ wars still had some effect, there were still actions taken that were in the gray areas and barely touching upon the boundaries of that rule.
“My children, awaken.”
When nature’s low roar of anger emerged together with High Priest Prescott’s angry shouting, ancient trees that were thousands or even tens of thousands years old transformed into tall Dendroid Warriors, the combat situation began tilting once more.
“Forest Guardian Clareladin! Do you really think that attempting to hide behind a SemiGod descendant playing at using Gods’ powers, I wouldn’t be able to detect the scent of your rotten wood God Power? Since you were the ones to break the rules first, then you won’t be able to complain about me! Descend, my children! Tear down these rotten branches, and bring me the head of that High Priest descended from SemiGods.”
Just as the Elf Warriors were getting all excited over the Dendroid Warriors joining their side, the Spider Queen’s screeching threw them into the depths of despair again. Before nature’s angry roars even stopped echoing on the battlefield, a large portal leading from the lower dimension suddenly appeared.
Dozens of huge black spiders that were more than ten meters tall crawled out of the portal, and easily tore through the ancient Dendroids’ branches with their spider limbs that were thicker than steel pillars. Even the strongest warriors took deep breaths of worry at this scene.
And so, while the ordinary Elves were fighting amongst themselves, the far more powerful Gods began their conflict as well.