CH 317

The situation changed drastically.

The metallic body of Alexander, who was beaten back by the tremendous heat wave without being able to put up much of a defense, was flung away while glowing red from heat. Arc, who had been stunned for a moment after casting her ultimate magic spell, raised her body and blocked the enemy faction’s path.

The pirates of Basara, who had suffered a considerable blow, were taken aback; they were taken aback by the absurdity of the situation rather than a sense of danger or fear.

“I’ve never heard of a case where a six-tailed fox turned immediately into a nine-tailed fox…”

“Besides that, who is that girl? Could it be that she was sealing her own powers and memories?”

“Two transcendents appearing out of nowhere…”

Likewise, the first slayer of Grotesque, Sadness, who had been hit hard and pushed back, looked at Miho and Eunhye with a strange expression on her face.

However, unlike Basara’s pirates, she didn’t say anything.

Instead, she moved.

Bang!

When Sadness’ fist flew out like a beam of light and collided against Arc’s fist, a formidable shockwave spread out from the clash. And from that blow, Sadness obtained a lot of information.

‘I’m still stronger.’

The first slayer of Grotesque, Sadness currently possessed spiritual power beyond her normal capacity, as she was equipped with Caesar’s spiritual abyss armament and the Hatred dwelling in it; in terms of level, she was currently a transcendent being at around Level 25.

Although Arc was at the pseudo transcendental realm, after utilizing a mysterious type of skill, her level was able to just pass the transcendental realm cutline of Level 20. If she was determined and driven, and with the current power level that she possessed, she would normally be able to kill anything within a 10-kilometer radius…

Bam!

But at that very moment, Sadness’ temple caved in, and her neck snapped with a blood-curdling sound. She had a huge stature, gray skin, and a very attractive physical figure, but her body was soon disfigured with a huge palm print stamped on her right side.

“You…”

“The darkness dwells and the light burns…”

Arc, while muttering a spell chant, rushed towards Sadness, who was about to say something. The two’s fists collided once more, and again, another shockwave spread out. Merlin, who had taken a step back from the action after landing a blow on Sadness, suddenly had a thought pop into his head while he was recovering his magic power and internal energy.

‘Something… something has changed. What is it?’

When he used Irrational Hand strike on Sadness, he felt a subtle sense of something foreign covering his entire body. It wasn’t anything that was harming him. No, rather, Merlin felt something huge and unknown trying to [correct] him. However, the feeling was unfamiliar and foreign; moreover, his senses couldn’t grasp the foreign force’s identity.

‘Thoughts and ideas… things are starting to pop into my mind.’

And those thoughts were exceedingly useful.

“Oh my god.”

Amid the fierce battle, Merlin groaned.

Merlin suddenly realized the final piece of the puzzle to complete his Unified Soul Catcher production process.

Unified Soul Catcher was the name of the project that Merlin had been researching and pursued desperately to counteract Tan and the Noblesse’s eventual invasion of Earth. The Unified Soul Catcher was a new technology that, once complete, would become a considerable roadblock for all alien beings who planned on invading Earth!

However, even as he started the project, Merlin knew that it wouldn’t be possible to complete it before Tan appeared and interfered. All Merlin had was the idea and overall framework; he was still missing several core technologies.

If unlucky, the project may have taken a long period of time to complete, such as several months, several years, or even decades!

What made it more difficult for Merlin was his inability to conduct research, especially on a single topic, for a long period of time.

‘Yeah, I probably wouldn’t have been able to complete the project if it had gone on for several years.’

Rather, it might have been more possible to garner results if Arthur had learned magic and led the research. This was because large-scaled research required [perseverance] rather than momentary realizations and epiphanies. One had to endure grueling long research and conduct numerous experiments, so there was no way that Merlin, who was naturally unsuited for prolonged and sustained efforts, could do such [uninteresting] work for several years.

But at this moment…

The entire process was shortened, and a perfect foundation was laid due to a sudden thought.

And that wasn’t all.

Crack.

The internal energy of the Golden Pill Immortal Technique in his left hand met with the magic power of the Seven Jewel School in his right hand. The two spiritual powers repelled and amplified before crystallizing. The crystalized product was a combination of Force, Essence, and Ether. It was an instantaneous production ability that was made possible because Merlin had acquired the basic mana control ability, one of the three necessary abilities for one to enter the transcendent realm; however, Merlin had gone one step further.

Whoosh…

The crystallized magic stone in Merlin’s hand stabilized. Since the magic stone was instantly solidified magic power, it should have been something that naturally dispersed over time, but, as if it had been hardened over a long period of time, the magic stone became a physical jewel.

Even the power was strengthened, as this new magic stone was able to output 5 times more energy than its predecessor.

‘This is crazy. I can store magic stones that are created in an instant?’

Internally, Merlin couldn’t help but sigh. This was because he realized that if he had this ability previously, the result of his battle with Tan would have turned out much different. If he had collected hundreds of these magic stones in advance and poured them out in his attacks, even a transcendent would have a difficult time facing off against him.

No, if Merlin had created his Unified Soul Catcher in the first place, Tan wouldn’t have been able to invade Earth.

Rumble!

A thunderbolt struck Sadness, who was launching attacks at Arc. Among his Howling Spells, Merlin used Lightning Blade of Zeus, which was the most powerful spell he had in his arsenal to contend against a single target.

‘The Unified Soul Catcher is now obsolete. Even though I now understand the full production process, it’s a job that requires a considerable amount of manpower and time… two luxuries I don’t have.’

While producing a magic stone to cast another Howling Spell, Merlin organized his thoughts. The enemy was strong, and the ongoing battle was fierce.

‘But still… This is crazy. Other thoughts and realizations are constantly popping into my mind… Oh man! I can use my Jeweled Eye and Gold Eye in that way as well!’

Ideas sprung up non-stop in his mind.

Inspiration and epiphanies appeared like successive flashes without a break!

Moreover, it wasn’t just Merlin who was experiencing such a phenomenon.

“Wow, no way.”

Jeros opened his eyes wide as he looked at the ball of flame in his right hand.

“Wait, am I finally going to succeed? At such a time?”

“Hey! Stop muttering and fight! These guys are too strong!!”

“Ah, right! Fireball!”

As he waved his hand, a ball of flame slowly flew out from Jeros’ hand. Having been pushed back onto the ground due to the dragon-headed Basara’s attack, Hanma was flabbergasted after seeing Jeros’ spell.

“Man, how long are you planning to use that weak fireball spell…”

“Final.”

The orb of flame, which initially moved slowly, rapidly accelerated. The dwarf Basara girl fired her magic bullets to block the incoming fireball, with full confidence that her bullets would naturally intercept Jeros’ fireball, but Jeros’ fireball exploded after meeting her bullets and continued to accelerate towards its target.

Bang!

And as the fireball made its way to the middle of the pirates and exploded one last time, the Basara pirates’ formation started to unravel. The overall power level of the fireball was moderate, but the fireball's success in reaching its intended target meant that Jeros was able to effectively attack an opponent who was clearly at a higher level than himself.

Using the gap created by Jeros’ fireball, the other Masters started launching their own attacks.

“Body, Sword, Flame. Human Gate (6th Gate), Open.”

Ilyia’s body burned red. She had opened her inner microcosm, and soon, her body itself became an attribute. This sort of change would have been impossible if she was an internal energy or magic power user, but since she was a chakra user who could open her own inner microcosm and created a set of overarching laws for that mini world, this complete change of her being and essence was possible.

‘Hmm. I’m taking a gamble…’

Ilyia’s body, which had transformed into a single ball of flame, flew into the center of Basara’s formation.

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Her chakra power undulated chaotically and violently. This was the first time she opened three elements at the same time; moreover, what made this feat even more astonishing was that she was opening her Human Gate, the primary element for a chakra user.

‘… but, I don’t think I’ll fail.’

And as she had this thought, her attempt proved to be a success.

“Flaming Heaven Sword.”

The flames emitted by Jeros’ fireball merged with her chakra to form a flaming sword. The Flaming Heaven Sword, which looked as though Ilyia had melted her whole body to form a sword shape, was at a level that even the pirates of Basara, who presented a considerable collective fighting power, couldn’t dare ignore.

[Stop it!]

The other Masters react to the words of the fish floating in the air.

“We won’t let you! No way!”

“Ohm (Ω)!”

Hanma’s body, which was essentially no different from a locomotive, struck the pirate’s outer formation, and by using Divine Hundred Steps, which allowed Hanma to concentrate all his strength in an instant, Hanma flew towards the whale-headed man, who was located at the center and acted as the core of the formation.

Of course, there was no way that Shen, the whale-headed man who was born as an Irregular, like Arthur, Merlin, and Cruze, and had traveled throughout the universe for the past 300 years, would succumb to such a blunt, brute-force attack.

Crack!

“Ugh!”

Aung Nina’s head was shattered when Shen deflected and modified the direction of Hanma’s Divine Hundred Steps attack to shoot toward Aung Nina. Feeling that something was unusual and off, Shen sought to reduce the number of Masters as soon as the opportunities presented themselves.

Bam!

But right at that moment, Cruze’s bullet punched a hole in Shen’s chest. The elf swordsman, Chan, had stood in front of Shen and had been operating a sword shield, but for some reason, Cruze’s bullet wasn’t affected by his sword shield. And Ilyia, who had turned herself into a flaming sword, dug in through the momentary gap that was created from the commotion.

Bang!

Dozens of defensive barriers, with walls that reached high into the air, were blown away by the powerful, concentrated heat wave. The eyes of the floating fish, that was protecting the Basara pirate formation from the rear, widened.

Suddenly, Leaf appeared right in front of the floating fish.

“Ah… I get it now. This is what a teleportation coordinate is.”

[S-shoot…]

“No!”

The Basara pirates were horrified at Leaf’s sudden appearance within the boundary of their formation, so they tried to move and counter her, but before they could, a white orb rose from Leaf’s hand.

Kunlun Jade.

A burst of light exploded outward, and instantly, the body of the floating fish-shaped alien was literally erased from the world. Only a single translucent tail fin remained, possibly because of the fish’s origins being closer to a spiritual creature than a physical being.

Poof.

Shen gritted his teeth as he watched Leaf use teleportation. Though Leaf had moved behind him, he was momentarily disabled due to the bullet lodged in his heart.

“Ack… ack…”

While gasping for air, Cruze laughed aloud. She had used a large amount of her aura power to launch the bullet attack, so she had exhausted herself.

“Have you ever heard of a variable probability bullet? Well, have you, whale-head?”

“You…!”

Shen’s white face contorted into an ugly frown. It seemed that Shen’s pride was hurt by the fact that he was hit by someone he looked down on. However, the attacks weren’t over.

Bang!

“Ack!? You?”

“It took a while to come back because I was blown so far away.”

Bruce Wayne’s dark magic sword was surrounded by black air currents and flames. Chan’s face distorted at the clearly different operating method that Bruce Wayne was deploying compared to before.

“What is up with these guys!? Did they collectively take drugs or something!?”

The Basara pirates couldn’t hide their astonishment at the Masters’ sudden show of force and increased power levels. In terms of overall power, the pirates were still at an advantage, but the battle atmosphere had completely changed. What was more serious and concerning was that the Masters’ capabilities and powers were [growing].

And such explosive growth at that!

However, there was one person in the party who didn’t seem affected by the [correction].

“Huh? I… I feel like something is tickling me…”

Lancelot looked at his party members, who were all flinging themselves across the battlefield and having a grand time, before looking internally to confirm his condition. Nothing had changed. He felt as though something was trying to appear in his mind, but that was all. Lancelot wasn’t endowed with a sudden epiphany or an increase in power like the rest of his colleagues.

“What’s going on?”

He closed his eyes and checked his body condition for a while before turning on his user status window. It had been quite a while since he viewed his status window. After all, what mattered to him was never his stats, titles, or occupations but his capabilities.

“My title, occupation, and level are the same… Hmm? Current Condition is reading…”

Lancelot narrowed his eyes at the words [Gaia’s Blessing] in his status window. He tried to turn on the detailed description function, but the description was just written as ‘???’, so he couldn’t figure out what the blessing was.

However, after seeing his stats, Lancelot was able to quickly discover an abnormality.

Overall, among the stat areas where he had 400 points, a clear anomaly could be seen.

“Hey, what is this?”

DIO’s stat system started at 20 points for every beginning user, and an explosive amplification of power occurred for the user at every 100-point threshold. Of course, the higher the point total in any category, the more difficult it became for a user to develop further in that stat area. Additionally, it took an exponential amount of bonus points to increase stat areas once one reached higher stat point totals.

Because of this, even if one reached the Master realm, the average stat in any category was usually less than 300 points.

Theoretically, if one put all of one’s bonus points into one stat category, one could reach 400 stat points by the time one reached the Master realm, but such an extreme stat distribution would eventually lead to self-destruction, so it was better to divide stat points evenly.

The important thing to keep in mind here was that the maximum stat points was 999 for any single category. This system maximum was widely known in Dynamic Island, so there was no doubting it.

“But…”

Boom! Bam!

For a moment, forgetting that he was standing in the middle of a fierce battlefield, Lancelot stared blankly at his last stat category.

“My luck stat is…?”

There, it was written…

/Luck: 1,000 (???)/