CH 172

A few days ago, Gerard went to the Bavarian Workshop to enhance the Shadow Weapon. Unfortunately, he was rejected.

“I’m sorry, but we only purchase these kinds of evil artifacts for research. We don’t enhance them for others.”

The Bavarian Workshop was obsessed with weapons of mass destruction, but they had a very strict policy of not providing any services to holders of evil artifacts.

Thanks to that, Gerard had to leave the Bavarian Workshop empty-handed, and the person he bumped into on the way out was none other than Siegfried.

‘No wonder I felt like bashing his skull open that time,’ Siegfried grumbled inwardly after realizing Gerard’s identity.

Gerard wasn’t the descendant of the people who won against Deus five hundred years ago, but Siegfried had a feeling that he was going to have an ill-fated encounter with Gerard sooner or later.

“Are you that rude Adventurer?” Gerard asked with a smug grin.

“Can you really do anything if I check you out?” Siegfried replied with a smirk before he flashed his Rune of Insight.

Then, Gerard’s details popped up in front of his eyes.

[Gerard]

[Shakiro’s first disciples, but he was banished after causing trouble.]

[Type: NPC]

[Level: 240]

[Class: Weapon Collector]

[Affiliation: Church of Osric]

[Position: Apostle-To-Be]

[Remarks: He possesses a dark magic called ‘Rune of Plunder’ that allows him to steal the abilities and skills of others. He is able to conjure a wide variety of weapons thanks to his Shadow Weapon.]

Siegfried grimaced after checking Gerard’s details through his Rune of Insight.

“Church of Osric? Wow, look at this little bastard. Was it really that hard for you to find friends that you lumped together with those who killed Master Shakiro? Unbelievable…” Siegfried grumbled before he looked at Gerard with eyes full of pity and said, “Do you really think that Master Shakiro will applaud you if he were here?”

“Master Shakiro?” Gerard muttered with a confused look.

It was then…

“Senior Brother!”

“It’s over for you now that Senior Brother is here—Keke!”

“Senior Brother is going to dispose of you in master’s stead… you better prepare yourself, bastard…”

“It’s over for you… Senior Brother is not going to let you do what you want…!”

Hakken and the other Weapon Maestros growled at Gerard.

“Senior Brother…?” Gerard muttered. He looked at Siegfried and asked, “Don’t tell me… you’re the bastard whom Hakken has been calling Shakiro’s successor?”

“Yeah, I’m his rightful successor. Whatcha gonna do bout it?” Siegfried sneered.

Meanwhile, he was thinking, ‘Ah… I can’t deny it anymore… I’ll have to live as the next Weapon Master…’

He knew that he was now going to be the official Senior Brother of the Weapon Maestros after declaring that he was Shakiro’s successor…

“Is this the part where I laugh?” Gerard smirked.

“Shakiro seems to have gone senile before going six feet under. Who could have known that he was going to name a greenhorn like you as his successor? Well, he was senile from the start, after all. He was scared of my talents, so he refused to pass down the Torrential Flower Rain to him…”

“Why look at this dumb little bastard…”

“…!”

“This asshole is a completely ungrateful bastard.”

Siegfried was not the type of person to cuss in such a manner, but his anger toward Gerard made him utter such words. Of course, what he said about Gerard wasn’t technically wrong, judging by the things that Gerard had done until now…

“Can you even call yourself a human?” Siegfried said as he walked toward Gerard before he stopped and let out a sigh, “Sigh… You’re such a coward…”

“C-Coward…?!”

“Isn’t it obvious? You came crawling out because you heard that Master Shakiro was killed by the Church of Osirc.”

“What are you talking about—”

“Ah, looks like I’m right,” Siegfried interrupted Gerard before he could defend himself.

“N-No! You’re wrong!”

“Ha? What’s with the denial? You are nothing but a coward piece of shit, right?”

“Y-You! You dare…!” Gerard gritted his teeth and growled in anger.

Siegfried had struck him right where it hurt.

Gerard had been roaming the continent as nothing but a mercenary when Shakiro was still alive. However, he stumbled upon the Church of Osric by chance, and he had learned of the Weapon Master’s demise.

Gerard immediately headed for the Weapon Academy afterward.

Why?

It was all because Shakiro was no longer around.

Gerard was the most afraid of Shakiro, and after finding out that Shakiro was gone, he decided to go after his brothers and sisters.

“Your mouth…! I’m going to rip your mouth!” Gerard screamed and rushed at Siegfried.

***

Siegfried ended up screaming inside right after the fight commenced.

‘Am I fighting an octopus?!’

Gerard’s Shadow Weapon was threatening, but Siegfried was most concerned about the many different weapons flying around Gerard.

Sword, saber, spear, shield, blunt weapons, assassination weapons, scythe, and a whip. There were eight kinds of legendary-level weapons orbiting Gerard, and they would attack Siegfried whenever he got near Gerard.

Thanks to that, Siegfried couldn’t help but feel like he was currently fighting a nine versus one battle, and he could only defend without fighting back.

In fact, he couldn’t even place his debuff fields because he had no time to cast them.

‘Let’s try to push him back for now…’ Siegfried thought as he unleashed his radioactive energy.

Fwaa…!

A poisonous green fog surrounded Siegfried.

‘Nice, he won’t be able to approach me with this,’ he thought.

Whiish! Whiish!

Siegfried was about to cast his debuff fields when the eight weapons pierced through the fog and attacked him.

“It looks like you were planning on widening the distance between us, but it’s too obvious. Did you really think that such a shallow trick would work on me?” Gerard sneered.

“…”

“I’ll rip you to pieces,” Gerard said as he controlled the eight weapons to attack simultaneously.

“Senior Brother!” Hakken shouted urgently.

There was no gap in Gerard’s attack, so it wouldn’t be strange if Siegfried ended up being ripped to shreds.

However, things didn’t turn out according to their expectations.

“I-I really don’t like getting hit…” Siegfried grumbled under his breath.

Flash!

Then, his body was covered in a flash of golden light.

Adamant Body.

Adamant Body raised Siegfried’s Defense and gave him Super Armor.

Bam! Shwiiik! Puk! Sukeok!

Siegfried managed to withstand everything that Gerard had thrown at him.

Of course, his HP decreased, but he didn’t get incapacitated because of Adamant Body’s Super Armor.

Wooong!

He activated Shadow Swamp and Blaze Field at the same time, and then he followed it up by activating Contempt for the Strong and Proof of Existence as well.

However, Gerard wasn’t an enemy that Siegfried could easily defeat just because he was able to cast his debuff and buff skills. Gerard was fifty levels higher than Siegfried, which meant that their stat difference was massive.

“What are these strange abilities you’re using? I thought you were Shakiro’s rightful successor? Hmm… I guess it was all a lie,” Gerard said with a smirk.

“…”

“You’re nothing but an empty shell, so how does it make sense that you’re Shakiro’s successor?” Gerard asked while upping the pressure against Siegfried.

Gerard was strong.

He was not a run-of-the-mill NPC judging by how he would attack Siegfried immediately after cutting down the shadows that were trying to cling to him.

Danger.

Siegfried’s debuff skills were overpowered, but they weren’t overpowered enough that they would allow him to beat someone fifty levels higher than him. Otherwise, his class was no longer going to be a Hidden Class. It would be a broken class instead.

Meanwhile…

‘Do I have no other choice but to depend on my new skill?’ Siegfried recalled the new Level 190 skill he had just obtained. It was quite difficult to hit the target with it, but it was definitely going to turn the battle around if he managed to land it.

‘Let’s give it a shot…’

Siegfried decided to go for it. After all, it was his only way to turn the tables.

***

“Shakiro was a fool until the end, judging by how he named a trash like you as his successor,” Gerard sneered while grabbing Siegfried by his neck. Then, he asked, “Did you even learn the Torrential Flower Rain?”

“Keuk!”

“You just know how to swing that—”

Woooong!

All of a sudden, a small circle the size of a manhole cover appeared underneath Gerard’s feet.

‘What the heck is this?’ Gerard wondered.

Boom!

Something seemed to have exploded inside the hole, and a blue flame shot up to burn Gerad. The blue pillar of flame didn’t directly reduce Gerard’s HP, but it shredded something else.

[Gerard]

[HP: ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬜⬜]

[Mana: ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜]

Gerard’s HP and Mana were at eighty percent and forty percent, respectively, before he was struck by the blue pillar of flame.

[Gerard]

[HP: ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬜⬜]

[Mana: ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜]

Gerard’s Mana plummeted to zero upon being struck by the blue pillar of flame.

[Mana Burn Fire]

[Summon a pillar of flame that burns mana. A direct hit will burn up to 80% of the target’s mana.]

Mana Burn Fire was a strong skill, but its long casting time, small range, and the small delay after casting the skill meant that the user had to be meticulous if they wanted to make use of it effectively.

The skill’s range was so small that the manhole-sized hole beneath Gerard’s feet earlier was already under the effects of the Quad-Turbo Set’s buff. However, it was going to be possible to burn all of the target’s mana, even after a direct hit.

An enemy without mana was as good as an empty shell, and this was quite true for someone like Gerard, who was heavily mana-dependent. In short, Mana Burn Fire was basically a critical hit for him.

Mana Burn Fire was truly a skill befitting the Debuff Master.

Why?

Because the Debuff Master could simply burn off his enemies' mana and beat them to a pulp if his debuff skills were ineffective…

The result was…

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! 

Gerard lost control of the weapons orbiting him, and the weapons dropped to the floor one by one.

“Eat this!” Siegfried swung his hammer at the dumbstruck Gerard’s chin.

“Kuheok!” 

Gerard flew backward after getting smacked by the hammer.

***

“Keuok!” Gerard groaned as he forced himself up. He had suffered a concussion, and half of his chin had turned into a gory mess.

‘I’m going to kill him…!’ 

Still, Gerard had no doubts about his victory.

He had zero mana, but he still had his trump card—the Shadow Weapon.

The greenhorn got lucky and managed to land a hit on him. However, Gerard was certain that his powerful artifact was more than enough for him to win.

“You charlatan… How dare you…!” Gerard growled in anger.

However, he noticed something strange.

The weapons…

Clack…! Clack…! Clack…! 

The weapons on the floor started trembling before they floated into the air one by one.

The strange phenomenon confused Gerard.

“W-What are you doing right now…?!” Gerard exclaimed.

“Why? Did you really think that you’re the only one who can do this?” Siegfried asked nonchalantly.

“How can someone like you—” Gerard was in shock.

“I mean, you can do it, so why can’t I?” Siegfried replied with a shrug.

Moving the weapon? That was a piece of cake for Siegfried.

There was no way that moving a few weapons would be difficult for him when he could use Shakiro’s ultimate skill—Torrential Flower Rain.

It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

“Anything you can do, I can do better,” Siegfried said.

“You… You bastard…!”

“But the things I can do? You can’t do them.”

“Bullshit!”

“Didn’t you call me a charlatan a while ago? I’ll show you who’s the real charlatan here,” Siegfried said.

Whiiiish…!

The legendary-level weapons started orbiting Siegfried.

“N-No! T-this is impossible…!” Gerard screamed in denial.