CH 222

“You don’t seem to know much about strong qi. If you complete and perfect the art of sword strike, one can even cut through dimensions. In other words, if an attack can’t cut through dimensions, it can’t cut through strong qi. By forming a black hole in the palm of my hand, I can crush the attack quickly, no matter how much energy it possesses; hence, such attacks are useless against me.”

After hearing Regrant’s explanation, Arthur ignored the collapsing Smashing Vajra Formation and stepped out alone.

“In other words, if you wear strong qi around oneself… one can even be protected against a black hole. No, wait, one can even cut through a black hole, right?”

“If you control it well, even time can be cut. Of course, only a handful of people can properly handle strong qi to that extreme. That kid over there probably can’t, am I right?”

“…”

A bitter smile appeared on Lionel’s face after he heard Regrant’s provocation. Though he knew of Regrant’s overwhelming power from the beginning, it was still a surprise as to how monstrous Regrants truly was. It was beyond Lionel’s expectations. As a member of the War Dragons, Lionel didn’t expect that he would look so shabby and wanting in front of Regrants.

“… Dance of the Dragons.”

Lionel mumbled something like a whisper, and soon, his body glowed blue and began to expand with terrifying momentum.

“Sheesh. I guess we can’t contend if we continue as we’re doing now, huh?” a user commented.

“Ah, but there are four of them.”

“Hmpf. The Grand Masters should have gone out with full force from the start.”

Archmage Leighann’s body expanded while shining with golden light. Thousand Scents and Adalcha each emitted intense white and black light respectively as their body sizes expanded. Their massive appearances made each of the Grand Masters look slightly different than what they looked like before.

Grr!

A gigantic Blue Dragon covered in blue scales roared while emitting tremendous force. Next to it, a Gold Dragon shining with golden light appeared, and a black Shadow Dragon, half-melted into the gray sky, floated next to it. The White Dragon Thousand Scents, who had the appearance of an oriental dragon because she was a Divine Dragon rather than an Emperor Dragon like the rest, floated in the air as if she was weightless. She held a Chintamani Marble in her hand.

“Wow! I knew Thousand Scents and Leighann were dragons, but I didn’t know Lionel and Adalcha were dragons, too!”

“Hey, are you okay? I feel like I’m choking from the spirit pressure that they’re exuding… no, wait, didn’t you die a while ago?”

Hanma laughed at the sight of Adol gasping and moaning.

“Did you forget the announcement that one can resurrect three times? In addition, life force users can open and close their senses… ugh! Damn it… even though I can close my senses, the overwhelming spiritual pressure is still affecting me as well.”

“What gibberish are you going on about… ugh!”

Adol couldn’t help but scoff after seeing Hanma’s trembling legs. Hanma’s muscle fibers were stronger than intertwined reinforced steel, so for such a user to be trembling uncontrollably meant that the surrounding spiritual pressure was considerable.

“Hahaha! Good, we’re finally starting in earnest! Let’s get it started!”

However, despite the true appearance of the four transcendent Grand Masters, who exuded an overwhelming spirit pressure into the surrounding area, Regrants jumped into the sky while shouting out with excitement. He wasn’t just moving in the air… he was flying around freely like a UFO.

“Crash into it, Alistar!!”

Woong!

An invisible, intangible energy hit Regrants. When Regrants put up a defensive barrier using his strong qi, the resulting shockwave from the collision completely leveled the mountain that was behind the school.

“Ugh! What the hell is this! Argh!”

“Oh, my god! We’re so dead!”

“Damn it, I just came back to life!”

Adol stayed close to the ground with his shield raised while Hanma rolled his body into a ball and rolled around. Higher class talents, like Arthur and Merlin, coped better with the shockwave, as they were able to scatter the majority of the shockwave.

“Wow! Bro! Those guys are monsters, no!? Can we even do anything in this fight? Why did the Noblesse throw us into this mess?” Youngmin commented from Merlin’s side.

“The Noblesse aren’t fools… They must have their reasons.”

As soon as Merlin thought about this, he quickly came to understand the Noblesse’s intentions. Arthur, who was standing at a distance, looked toward Merlin. It seemed that Arthur had also reached the same conclusion.

“Ugh! Damn it! Resurrection is great, but how come they’re not restoring our spiritual power.”

“… Okay, it seems we’ve gathered everyone present.”

Merlin nodded after seeing Cruze suddenly appear out of thin air. After confirming Cruze’s presence, Merlin performed a hand sign and chanted to execute a large-scale space teleportation spell.

“Woah!”

“Oof!”

“Oh? Are we recalling?”

Around thirty players were gathered around Merlin. Cruze frowned.

“Uh, this is it? These are all the survivors? Weren’t users supposed to be resurrected after they died? How come our numbers are so few?”

“The users below Level 13 have already died three times. Every time a shockwave was sent out, their lives were put in danger. How do you expect them to live through those shockwaves?”

“Damn it, it’s a team event, but in the end, it’s just another survival game. One can’t live unless one has the ability and skill.”

Bam!

The moment Cruze said this, another shockwave shook the space. Arthur stepped forward and swung his draconic sword, Dustin.

Search tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w for the original.

“Ha!”

The various shockwaves scattered after meeting Arthur’s attack. Arthur’s Bursting Sword Light and Soul Swordsmanship could be utilized at the same time without any delay. Soul Swordsmanship was an absolute martial art move that controlled the [direction] of [all] energy that touched his sword. Arthur was able to use Soul Swordsmanship to increase the power of his sword, even being able to absorb the power of his enemy’s defense barrier; thus, he was able to reflect or deflect an enemy’s overwhelmingly powerful attack.

“Darian’s Mercy…”

“Body, Virtuous Gate (5th Gate), Open.”

“Damn it, our bodies will always stay in a disabled state if we take on damage or injury… Damn!”

The surviving Masters were healing each other’s injuries and recovering their spiritual power. The number of survivors was exactly twenty-eight.

“Hmm, at least thirty-six people must be present to make a proper formation… well, we’ll have to make it work somehow.”

Among the survivors, there were users that Merlin knew well, such as Arthur and Cruze, the other members of the Heaven above the Heavens. Outside of them, there were also users like Hanma, Jeros, Adol, Ohje, Bruce, and Ilyia; all of whom Merlin had known for a long time. The rest were mostly users he had never seen nor was very familiar with. Of course, Merlin constantly collected basic information about the Masters, so he had some basic background information regarding each of the surviving users.

‘Moreover, why is Dongsoo still not Level 13? He always seems to be training so hard.’

Merlin looked at Lancelot, who barely survived the shockwave attacks and was being treated by a priest. As a Level 12 user, it was unknown how Lancelot managed to survive the battle aftershocks between the Emperor of Martial Arts and the four Grand Masters. However, this didn’t mean that Lancelot was completely unharmed. Lancelot’s whole body was in shambles. Cruze was trying to pretend to not be interested, but she stood next to Lancelot and monitored his condition.

‘On the other hand, Aung Nina is fine. Outside of the Heaven above the Heavens, she’s probably the user with the next highest level of ability and skill.’

Although it was difficult to know Aung Nina’s exact details, as Merlin and Aung Nina hardly knew each other, Aung Nina was nearly Level 15. The Chinese government’s persistent pressure on her, her foreign relations efforts, dealing with the conflicts within the Chinese people, and the countless people she had to constantly protect… all these efforts made Aung Nina push herself to achieve a higher level in-game.

‘Stress is also… an important factor in raising one’s level.’

It was not easy for a person who lived a comfortable life without any hardships to attain a high level. A person rose to a higher level after one agonized and contemplated endlessly. Also, one could give one’s all to pursue something with madness and passion.

Of course, talent was important. Actually, the harsh truth was… talent was essential. There were many cases where people without talent burned their lives with effort and passion but never came close to achieving what they wanted.

“Alright! Let’s all regroup and go again! The Empress of Martial Arts is unimaginably strong, so if we don’t act according to a plan, we’ll never be able to inflict any damage on him!”

“Wait a minute! You’re thinking of fighting that monster again? But we’ll still be no match, right?”

There were comments and shouts that refuted Arthur’s call, but Arthur shrugged his shoulders.

“It doesn’t matter if we die anyway, right? And above all… it’s absolutely necessary that we obtain these gem points.”

“…”

“He’s right. Masters without gem points are just surplus manpower.”

In order for a Master to manifest once, one needed 10,000 gem points. One could only obtain rewards of 10 to 50 gem points from normal missions, and considering that missions that gave gem points didn’t always exist, one could see how difficult it was to gather the requisite 10,000 gem points.

Masters under Level 12 could barely collect 10,000 gem points after toiling and struggling for an entire month, and even Level 13 and Level 14 users had to suffer for a few weeks. Moreover, if one failed a mission, one’s credibility would decrease, which would often restrict one’s ability to participate in the next mission, making it difficult to consistently accrue gem points. In fact, the only users that possessed the ability to freely gather and relatively easily accrue gem points were the three Heaven above the Heavens.

‘But even I don’t have an abundance of gem points because of what I’m saving for Miho, who they’re holding hostage. Though I can’t be sure… I bet Arthur and Cruze are in a similar situation.’

This was why even if one accrued a large amount of gem points, one consumed those gem points literally in an instant. Once one manifested, it was impossible to cancel the manifestation, and after an hour, the entire 10,000 gem points, collected for a month for most users, were spent and lost. It was an exhausting cycle, but the aliens attacked every day, and if the only countermeasure, the Masters, didn’t have the requisite amount of gem points, the situation would worsen and become serious for humanity.

“Come to think of it, the reward… they mentioned that the basic 5000 gem points could increase to 150,000 gem points depending on completing certain activities, right?”

“Yeah. But based on the current atmosphere, it seems unlikely that we’ll even manage to get the basic reward. At the very least, we’ll have to show that we’ve done something productive and influential.”

After Arthur said this, he raised his right hand and waved it in the air. His internal energy hovered in the air and began to create a barrier. The round barrier was a kind of information transmission medium. Jeros, who had been watching quietly, screamed out.

“Ack! Isn’t that magic?! How do martial arts users use magic? Did you also choose magic power as your spiritual power?!”

“Huh? Oh. Hahaha! It’s just a property change. If you change the nature of one’s spiritual power to be similar to magic power, one can use magic with internal energy. However, it’s impossible to fight with this in a battle because the entire process takes four steps. The efficiency is quite bad.”

“A property change? Transform your internal energy into basic spiritual power and use it like magic power?”

“Nonsense! How can that be?”

“No, no matter how out of the ordinary the Heaven above the Heavens are, isn’t this too harsh?”

Arthur was taken aback by the users expressing their astonishment at his unbelievable feat. He had no idea that the other users would be so taken aback by his achievement.