Translator: HunterW
Editor: RED
Every time Adora used his unbelievably powerful Focus attack, he remained rooted to wherever he was standing. I wasn’t the only one who attacked him every time he stayed still. Every chance the Empire’s soldiers got, they attacked Adora with a volley of their most powerful Skills and spells. But Adora still possessed his damage immunity. He let the attacks hit his body, opened his eyes and threw his fist at me.
“Gah!” I couldn’t hope to block or avoid that attack.
“What, no critical hits four times in a row? I just don’t get you, Lee Jiwon.”
I silently gnashed my teeth at his surprised expression. In just four hits, I had lost 160 million HP. My regen abilities were quickly restoring my HP, but I knew for sure that even if Adora’s next attack wasn’t a critical hit, it was going to end me. It wasn’t going to kill me completely, since I still had my Bracelet of Eternal Fire, but I didn’t want to die.
I even thought about running away. I actually would have if there was even a slight chance of a rematch, but there was none. This was the final battle. If I ran, the five million soldiers behind me were going to get slaughtered. I looked up and glared at Adora, the real monster. It was all I could do.
“Hmm… will this be the end?” Adora asked, reading my expression. “Then again, you were pretty amazing to stay standing after four hits. You did all you could do and more, so you may die with honor. 100x Duplicated Focus – Attack.”
I was at a crossroads. I didn’t need to waste the Bracelet’s ability here since I would die again anyway but I couldn’t just run and leave the Empire’s soldiers. I couldn’t help but shout, “Come out already, Shaman Ko!”
The ratty-looking boy had never appeared whenever I called for him, but he always revealed himself in dire times, in more ways than one. I shouted for him again here, since this was definitely a dangerous situation.
I heard something pop in front of me and looked up. Shaman Ko was standing in front of me with the Dungeon Mole tied to his waist by a rope made out of hair. He looked the same as when I first saw him in Abu Dhabi, except this time, he also had the Achilles Tendon tied to his waist as well. Shaman Ko stared at me as if nothing was wrong. I was so grateful to see him, but I had to express that gratitude later. I pointed my finger at Shaman Ko and shouted, “Consume: Shaman Ko!”
==[You have consumed your target.
Target: Shaman Ko
Time applied: 24 hours
Effect 1: Increase Shaman Ko’s Stat Points two hundredfold.
Your currently invested 9,039 Shaman Ko Stat points will be increased by two hundredfold.
Effect 2: Increase all Stat points besides Shaman Ko’s Stat Points by tenfold.
All invested Stat points besides Shaman Ko’s Stat Points increase by tenfold. (This only applies to base Stat points)
You may choose one of these two effects
Effect 1/Effect 2]==
“Select Effect 2!” Effect 1 might increase my STR to 1,807,200 in an instant, but I had invested heavily into STR, AGI, and VIT. I needed to increase all of my Stats to fight properly.
==[You have received the effects of Effect 2.
The 30,000-point increase to all Stats of Create Critical Weakness will be removed. (The 15% increase to CRIT rate and 1500% increase to CRIT damage will be maintained.
The 2x increase to all Stats of Ripped Advance will be removed.]==
==[Name: Lee Jiwon
Level: 1393 Death Count: 0
Title: Earth’s First Deva, The Keeper of Terra
HP: 752,440,700/752,440,700 MP: 42,624,000/42,624,000
Strength: 2,196,520 + 9,039 Agility: 1,397,000 Vitality: 1,406,000
Willpower: 425,680 Intelligence: 383,280
Unassigned Stat Points: 0
Fatigue: 0
Special Effects: Luck Boost (X+1), immune to all Status effects, Dungeon Seeker 14 points
Physical Attack: 6,707,404 Physical Defense: 1,459,327
Magical Attack: 1,174,010 Magical Defense: 472,846]==
“….” My HP, down over 160 million, were now completely restored, and so was my MP. My Fatigue that had risen over the past few minutes was now back to 0.
Before I could turn away from my Stats Menu, I felt Adora’s powerful punch strike me in the chest. I still felt tremendous pain from the attack ,and was also pushed back several meters from the force of the blow ,but I couldn’t help but smile. The attack didn’t hurt as much as before, and I had only lost ten million points to my health.
“…” Adora was the first to notice the change in my demeanor. He no longer had the confident smile, and instead looked at me with a confused expression.
“You’ve changed,” Adora said after a moment.
I looked back at him. “Yeah, I did. You may be a transforming robot ,but I’m like a morphing robot,” I said before charging him right away. Judge’s Gavel and Create Weakness were now both off of their cooldowns.
—-
Adora the Monster knew that Lee Jiwon had changed just by touching him. Lee Jiwon’s power had suddenly surged, prompting him to charge in with renewed vigor. Adora had to think for a moment if he should ignore the attacks like before. No, Adora told himself. His HP were well over 100 million; he didn’t need to mind Lee Jiwon’s attacks. But for some reason, Adora felt uneasy. The last time he ignored this feeling of uneasiness, he ended being enslaved by Claudia. Adora quickly made the decision to not focus on attack.
“10x Focus – Rising Combat Prowess!” Lee Jiwon was coming in too fast for Adora to use 100x Focus. No, Adora couldn’t even keep track of Lee Jiwon’s movements. Adora had to use the 10x Focus, which charged faster. He doubted that Lee Jiwon would be able to break through his One Kill One Shot ability, but he didn’t want to regret anything. Besides, Rising Combat Prowess also raised his DEF.
Focus came with three sub-abilities: Attack, Defense, and Combat Prowess, but Adora had deleted the Defense sub-ability, choosing to rely on his One Kill One Shot ability instead. Focus’s description did tell him that if he got rid of one of the three abilities, the other two would increase in effectiveness.
As soon as Adora finished charging his ability, he saw Lee Jiwon suddenly appear in front of him, as if he had used Blink.
“Gah!” Adora felt the most pain in his life from Lee Jiwon’s attack. Adora was thrown backwards into the air by several meters. When he hit the ground, the force of the attack had slammed him into the ground a couple of feet. Adora dragged himself out and checked his HP. The attack hurt so much that it felt like his soul was leaving his body.
But from the message that appeared before him, Adora knew that it was a good thing he had raised his Combat Prowess. If he hadn’t, that attack would have broken through his One Kill One Shot, even though it wasn’t a critical hit. He had 1,499 left in his HP, which quickly recovered.
“How…how did he do that? He didn’t just get stronger…” Adora was horrified. His unbreakable shield had just cracked.
—
“Tsk!” I hoped that by Consuming Shaman Ko, I would have inflicted critical damage this time but I didn’t see the yellow flash. But I did see Adora’s gawky face, telling me just how shocked he was from the attack. That was why I didn’t stop. I just needed to keep attacking.
I bounded off the ground and charged at Adora as he was getting himself up. I didn’t even need to use Blink, I appeared next to Adora that fast. I slammed my spearhead into Adora.
“Gah!” After making all those haughty laughs, Adora finally screamed out in pain. “Shit! 100x Focus – Rising Combat Prowess!”
“That’s right. Try as hard as you can!” I didn’t care how much stronger Adora made himself, since I would always be stronger. But I did worry about one thing. Create Weakness and Judge’s Gavel both weren’t enough to deal enough damage. But I could deal with that when the time came.
“Fuck! Die, you monster!”
I smiled when Adora called me a monster. In the end, Adora had to admit that I was threatening to him. So began the second round of our fight.
“Gah!” Adora was definitely a lot stronger all around, but 100x Focus still wasn’t enough to stave off my damage output.
“Is that all you got? I think you’re going to need more than 100x Focus.”
“Fuck you! Don’t get full of yourself! You still aren’t dealing any lasting damage to me. Fine. You wanted to know, right? You wanted to know how to break through my damage immunity? Kekeke. I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you so I can see the despairing look when you realize you can’t do anything. Reveal!”
==[One Kill, One Shot]==
“Kekekeke. Don’t compare it to something as trivial as damage immunity. This is the only way you can kill me. You have to deal enough damage in one attack to bring my HP to -1, not 0. Any other attack won’t ever affect me! I noticed that your attack a few minutes ago was your strongest one. What will you do now? I think you failed. My Combat Prowess has been increased by 100 times. You can never break through it now. You will never be able to hurt me!”
“….” I didn’t expect him to have ability like that. It was an outright cheat skill! I was definitely annoyed, but I didn’t let it show. I at least knew everything about his abilities now. I could come up with an answer, somehow. “You must be getting impatient to reveal your last hidden card now. I might not be able to deplete your HP in one go, but I can at least make it really painful for you.”
“….”
“I’ll show what real pain is. I’ll make you beg me to kill you.” I charged at Adora who had a triumphant expression, while activating Spirit Strike.
“Gak! Fuck!” Adora screamed in pain from every single one of my attacks, getting thrown back from the force of the blows each time. “Fuck! Lee Jiwon, you bastard! Fine! Let’s see which of us lasts to the end! Remove Attack Focus, Accept 10x Penalties!” Adora shouted, face red with anger.
“Activate! 1000x Focus – Rising Combat Prowess!” A red smoke soon rose from Adora’s body. “I’ll show you hell for making me get rid of Attack!”
Adora was now ten times stronger than he was a few minutes ago, and it showed in his speed. But I was a lot stronger than before as well, and I matched his charge.
—–
The Terran and Crootian armies were locked in a fierce battle this whole time. This battle was going to decide which world was going to survive the war, so each soldier fought with full intent to kill the enemy in front of them. But as time went on, the soldiers of both sides couldn’t help but focus on the duel that was happening in the middle of the battlefield. They all knew that it wasn’t their battle that was going to decide their fate, but the fight of the two monsters.
Each soldier felt hollow inside. They didn’t have a reason to fight with their lives on the line like this. The fate of their worlds rested on their champions, not on the foot soldiers. Soon, both armies pulled away from each other and returned to their original positions, no longer willing to fight a meaningless fight.
“Did they really spend the same time during the Otadolon stage as us?” one officer asked Madun.
“…” Madun and the other officers couldn’t reply. They themselves did not know the answer, and did not want to know. They, too, couldn’t believe that Lee Jiwon and Adora were capable of such power.
The Crootian officers felt the same way. Only Navana knew about Adora’s fourth ability. He looked on in disbelief when his liege had to resort to such measures. “We completely underestimated Lee Jiwon. I actually don’t know what’s going to happen. It wouldn’t be weird to see him break through Master Adora’s One Kill One Shot ability now.”
——
We had now been fighting for almost twenty four hours straight. We were both panting heavily from fighting all day, but the victor still hadn’t been decided yet. That meant I was about to lose since I wasn’t able to break through Adora’s One Shot One Kill, even after Consuming Shaman Ko.
I took out an item from my inventory. It was the Rank 10 item I had thought was a dud, known as Escape: Dead End. I really needed the Absolute Destruction that Muskan had left me some time ago. It was the same Absolute Destruction I had lost to the Predator Duke when his Predation ability consumed a part of it and Shaman Ko ended up eating up the rest. It was because of that that Absolute Destruction was now on Shaman Ko’s Roulette Wheel like Predation. But I had never gotten it; the Wheel only landed on Predation, and only after I obtained the Dungeon Mole.
Then, when I obtained Death’s Achilles Tendon, Absolute Destruction had gained another section on the Wheel. That meant that as long as I met the requirements, I could obtain Absolute Destruction, but the damn Wheel never landed on it. It never got close. I ended up giving up on ever getting a taste of Absolute Destruction, since I never felt the need to get too hung up on it. I never felt the need to have it when I had faced Angel and Claudia, but now, I really, really wanted it. It was my last hope.
-Activate! Escape: Dead End!-
