Translator: HunterW
Editor: RED
Fayez, the so-called Grim Reaper cackled as he watched the battle unfolding before him. He turned to Khalid beside him with a sneer. “This is the strength you were boasting about all this time?”
Khalid had told Fayez that all he needed to do was take care of Lee Jiwon. If Fayez could keep Lee Jiwon away from the battle, then Khalid and the Astes could easily do away with the Abu Dhabi Guild. But the battle Fayez was watching right now was completely one-sided, with the Astes getting pushed back.
“Even if I kill Lee Jiwon, I doubt any of you will be remaining,” Fayez snorted.
Despite Fayez’s insults, Khalid put on a wicked grin. He didn’t seem at all worried that his army was losing. “You’re quite talkative today, Lord Reaper.”
“…”
“You’re not afraid or nervous about fighting Lee Jiwon, are you?”
It was a good counter to Fayez’s taunts but Fayez did not retort. There was not a single trace of worry on Khalid’s face.
Fayez had known Khalid for quite a while now. Fayez had accepted Khalid’s request without question because even Fayez acknowledged Khalid’s abilities. It just worked out that Lee Jiwon was targeted by Death. Fayez’s targets were always chosen without Fayez’s say, and he had to kill his targets within the time frame or he incurred a severe penalty. If he couldn’t kill Lee Jiwon on time, Fayez would die instead and lose his Death ability at the same time. When Lee Jiwon was targeted at the same time Khalid came with the request to kill Lee Jiwon, Fayez saw this as a sign from the heavens; to kill Lee Jiwon and end his climb to greatness. But now, Fayez was annoyed and angry as he saw Khalid’s Astes getting pushed back so easily by Abu Dhabi.
“Do you know where we are right now?”
“This is obviously the Battlefield of Valor,” Fayez replied bluntly.
“Do you really think so?”
“…What do you mean?”
Khalid smiled again. “Everything is going according to plan. As long as the Lord Reaper kills, no, as long as you keep him away from the battle, we will win this battle.”
“You seem confident in yourself.”
“I’m confident in my plan.”
“I’m curious as to what that plan really is.”
“You’ll find out soon enough. Oh, look, Lee Jiwon has finally shown himself.” Khalid pointed to Lee Jiwon, who was slowly walking towards the battle. “I leave him to you, Lord Reaper. No matter how perfect my plan is, I need him preoccupied.”
“Fine by me. I realize there are only four of the Seven Monarchs left, but I’ve made my promise as the Grim Reaper and I intend to keep it. But, should your so-called perfect plan fail, even I won’t know who I’ll take my anger out on.”
Khalid laughed. “It seems I’m doing this for Lord Fayez, instead!”
“You must, or I swear you’ll regret it!” Fayez said as he turned around and headed towards the battle.
Khalid watched Fayez sprint towards the fray before bursting out in laughter. “That’s right. More will die by the enemy’s hands, all the while in my dungeon!”
Just then, one of Khalid’s closest advisors came forward. Only three people knew about Khalid’s random skill, and they were his closest advisors. “The fools are all gathering in their own graves.”
“It’s because they don’t know. They can’t know that this entire place is inside my dungeon. Not even Lee Jiwon can ever know.”
——
Khalid’s random skill, Declare Dungeon. To be exact, it didn’t exactly create dungeons like Kazunari’s Dungeon Creation. As such, no monsters existed in Khalid’s dungeons, nor were there items or golden rings to be dropped. In addition, once the dungeons’ time limit was up, the dungeons disappeared. Creating dungeons that looked and felt like the real thing, but didn’t have the same essence; that was Khalid’s Declare Dungeon.
It definitely fell short against Kazunari’s fully fleshed-out dungeons, but when it came to altering the laws of dungeons, Khalid’s dungeons were perfect. Declare Dungeon allowed Khalid to create a dungeon anywhere he wanted, just like how he did in Jayid’s room. It was a crude method, but it worked nonetheless.
Khalid took that chance to create an open-type dungeon as big as a city. Khalid decided at Masdar City to create a giant dungeon that would be invisible to the mortal eye. This part of the plan was the riskiest, however. This dungeon was an open-type, not a closed-type like the one from Jayid’s room. While it was invisible to the naked eye, the dungeon didn’t have any entrances or doors, preventing those inside from leaving.
This dungeon only worked with the Battlefield of Valor. That was the most important part of his plan. As long as the Battlefield lined up with the dungeon, everyone inside the Battlefield would not be able to leave until the guild battle was over, or until Khalid’s timer ran out. Frankly, that was all there was to Khalid’s perfect plan. Only this time, Lee Jiwon wouldn’t be able to break this dungeon like he did with Jayid’s dungeon, thanks to the Battlefield of Valor.
This foolproof plan was only supposed to be a backup in case Khalid couldn’t fully use Jayid and take over the Abu Dhabi Guild. He didn’t want to have to resort to it because of all the lives it would cost and the scars it would leave, but that was just how much he desperately wanted to become Abu Dhabi’s guild master.
—
“You won’t be able to break and smash your way out of this one, Lee Jiwon,” Khalid quietly said to himself. He was very satisfied with how things were going. “Send the rest in!”
“Yes, sir!”
“I’m sure you all know, but make sure you bring as many of the enemy into the battle before dying as you can! Baden or Umaru will know something’s up sooner or later. Keep it up until then!”
“Understood, sir.” By Khalid’s orders, Astes began throwing their lives at Abu Dhabi while making sure to increase the enemy soldiers’ fatigue as much as they could. They certainly weren’t throwing away their lives needlessly, especially when their guild master had a way to restore their lives.
==[Restart (Active)
This skill is granted via the random skill Declare Dungeon.
This skill can only be used by the user while the user is in a Declared Dungeon.
Cooldown: 30 days.
Resurrects the user’s allies that have died in the Declared Dungeon. (No death penalty)
Successful resurrections restore HP, MP, and Fatigue to full.
Successful resurrections grant a buff that decreases all damage taken by 50%.]==
This skill could only be used after a dungeon was Declared. Furthermore, Khalid had never used this skill before, so no one knew what it really did, but they were going to find out soon enough.
——
“Gah!”
It only took two hits to kill a shield tank. “Damn.” Level 5 Mana Conversion was just way more than I had expected.
“Ahahahaha!” I couldn’t help but laugh like a maniac.
“Fuck! Why is he so strong?”
“Shit! That debuff I get every time I get close to him is starting to piss me off!”
“Why is everything he has so overpowered? What sort of cheat engine is he using?”
It seemed that we would win this battle pretty soon, especially once I had entered the fray. That is, until that message appeared before me.
==[You have been caught in the range of Touch of Death. You will receive the effects of the debuff.
ATT, MATT, DEF, MDEF decreased by 15%
All recovery-type skills lose 70% of their effectiveness
Damage received from all Death-type skills increased by 30%]==
“Huh?” That didn’t make any sense. Unrivaled made me immune to all status effects, including debuffs. Ever since I had learned it at level 0, I had never been affected by debuffs, including the Blood Prince’s and the Predator Duke’s. This was the first time this had ever happened and that shocked me even more. I wasn’t the only one to be taken aback as well.
“Huh? Touch of Death?”
“You got it too?”
“Yeah.”
“We know everyone on Khalid’s side, but I’ve never heard of anyone knowing this debuff or Death-type skills.”
“There’s no way we couldn’t have known about an AoE debuff like this!”
“Whose is it?”
It seemed Abu Dhabi didn’t know about this debuff, either. Either way, what was important was that I was affected as well.
Just then, I felt a sharp gust of wind blow from behind me. I quickly turned around and swung my spear at the object flying at me. I was rewarded with a clang of metal and saw a short, black stick fall to the ground before it disappeared into a cloud of smoke.
Another message appeared before me.
==[Your deity opponent’s attacks are unaffected by Unrivaled.]==
Soon, a single man came into view along with sounds of his laugh and footsteps. He was completely covered in a black cloak. He had to be caster of Touch of Death. That quickly reminded me of a man I had heard about. He was one of the Seven Monarchs, and known as the Grim Reaper.
“Reaper?”
“Oh ho, so you know of me! I work from the shadows, so there aren’t many who know of me.”
“Ha…” I heaved a heavy sigh. It wasn’t that long ago that I had defeated the Dungeon Creator, and already another Monarch had appeared before me. -I get it. The stronger I become, the more enemies I make that want to stop me from growing any stronger. But I just didn’t get why Unrivaled isn’t working.-
“What’s wrong? It is because your once-reliable Unrivaled isn’t working anymore?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly it. I have never had it happen before,” I replied matter-of-factly as I brushed my hands.
“You’ve got quite the mouth for a dead man,” the Reaper said coldly.
“That’s what I want to say to you. You can’t possibly think you’ve won already just because you took Unrivaled away, do you?” I said, but I was actually pretty annoyed at this point. I needed Unrivaled to face a deity, especially a Monarch. This was going to be tough.
“Bwahahaha! Me? Die? I am Fayez, the Grim Reaper!”
“So you say, but you know what happened to all those who boasted about their power in front of my face, don’t you?”
“Don’t compare me to those fools! Thorns of Death!” Angered by my choice of words, the Reaper attacked first. A shower of thorns fired at me from his shadow.
I swung my spear at the incoming missiles. They were supposed to be thorns, but when they collided with my spear, I was met with a resounding clang of metal and it felt like hitting a metal pole each time.
“Blink 2.” I quickly got away from the volley of thorns and Blinked behind the Reaper and stabbed.
“Cloak of Death!”
My attack wasn’t successful, however, thanks to the Cloak of Death that suddenly appeared.
“Wrap him!” The Cloak then stretched outward and wrapped around me.
—
“Hmm…something’s not right.”
“I think so too, sir. We’re killing many of his soldiers, but Khalid hasn’t reacted at all.”
“Exactly. Khalid isn’t a fool to throw the lives of his soldiers away like this.”
Baden always knew Khalid was up to something. That was why he had Umaru defect to Khalid’s side, and made Khalid his vice-master. But no matter how hard he tried, Baden just couldn’t figure out what Khalid was thinking. Baden soon learned just how crafty his younger brother was when that same brother challenged him to a guild battle with those conditions.
There was no way Khalid would throw this battle. Then there was that individual Baden had never seen before. That stranger was actually pushing Lee Jiwon back.
“Cover Lee Jiwon and begin the retreat! Something’s not right!”
