D.I.O

Chapter 222

“You don’t seem to know much about strong qi. If you complete and perfect the art of a sword strike, you can even cut through dimensions. Or, to put it this way, 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 easily crush the attack, no matter how much energy it possesses; hence, attacks like that 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 layer strong qi around your body… it’ll even protect you from a black hole. No, wait, you’d be able to go so far as to cut through a black hole, right?”

“With enough control, you can cut through time as well. Of course, only a handful of people can manipulate strong qi to such a level. That kid over there probably can’t, right?”

“…”

A bitter smile appeared on Lionel’s face after he heard Regrant’s provocation. Although he’d always known of Regrants’ overwhelming power, it was still surprising to discover the true extent of Regrants’ monstrousness. It was beyond Lionel’s expectations. As a member of the War Dragons, Lionel didn’t anticipate looking so shabby and inadequate before Regrants.

“… Dance of the Dragons.”

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

“Sheesh. I guess we can’t compete if we continue like this, huh?” a user commented.

“Ah, but there are four of them.”

“Hmph. The Grand Masters should have gone all out from the start.”

Archmage Leighann’s body expanded as he shined with golden light. Furthermore, Thousand Scents and Adalcha each emitted intense white and black light, respectively, as their bodies grew. Their massive appearances made each Grand Master look slightly different than 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 beside it. As for the White Dragon Thousand Scents, she looked like an oriental dragon since she was a Divine Dragon rather than an Emperor Dragon like the rest. She floated in the air as if she was weightless, holding a Chintamani Marble in her hand.

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

“Hey, are you okay? I feel like I’m choking from the spirit pressure 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 that the announcement said we 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 still affects me.”

“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 him to shake uncontrollably meant there was an immense amount of spiritual pressure in the area.

“Hahaha! Good, we’re finally starting in earnest! Let’s begin!”

However, despite the four transcendent Grand Masters making their true appearance, Regrants jumped into the sky while shouting 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 with his strong qi, the resulting shockwave from the collision completely leveled the mountain 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 curled into a ball and rolled around. Higher-class talents, like Arthur and Merlin, coped better as they could 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 understood the Noblesse’s intentions. Arthur was standing at a distance when he looked toward Merlin. It seemed that Arthur had also reached the same conclusion.

“Ugh! Damn it! Resurrection is great, but why are they not restoring our spiritual power?”

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

Merlin nodded after seeing Cruze abruptly 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?”

There were around thirty players gathered around Merlin. Cruze frowned.

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

“The users below Level 13 have already died three times. Each shockwave put their lives in danger. How do you expect them to live through those?”

“Damn it, it’s a team event, but in the end, it’s just another survival game. One can’t live without the necessary ability and skill.”

Bam!

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

“Ha!”

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

“Darian’s Mercy….”

“Body, Virtuous Gate (Fifth Gate), Open.”

“Damn it! Our bodies will always stay disabled if we’re injured… 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, Merlin knew some of the users well, such as Arthur and Cruze. Outside of them, there were also Hanma, Jeros, Adol, Ohje, Bruce, and Ilyia, all of whom Merlin had known for a long time. The rest were mostly players he either wasn’t familiar with or had never seen. Unsurprisingly, Merlin constantly collected basic information about the Masters; thus, he knew the fundamentals of each surviving user’s background.

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

Merlin looked at Lancelot, who had a priest treating him after he barely survived the shockwave. As a Level 12 user, it was unknown how Lancelot managed to survive the aftershocks from the Emperor of Martial Arts and the four Grand Masters. However, this didn’t mean that Lancelot was completely unharmed. His whole body was in shambles. Cruze was trying to pretend not to 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 probably has the highest level of ability and skill.’

Although it was challenging to discern Aung Nina’s exact details, as Merlin and Aung Nina hardly knew each other, Aung Nina was nearly Level 15. With the Chinese government’s persistent pressure, her foreign relations efforts, dealing with the conflicts among the Chinese citizens, 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 wasn’t easy for a person who lived a comfortable life without hardships to attain a high level. People reached higher levels after experiencing agony and endless contemplation. Furthermore, individuals could also pursue a particular goal with madness and passion.

Of course, talent was important. Actually, the harsh truth was… talent was essential. There were many cases where talentless people fervently dedicated their entire lives but never came close to achieving what they wanted.

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

“Wait a minute! You’re thinking of fighting that monster again? We’ll still be no match, though.”

There were comments and shouts that refuted Arthur’s call, but he shrugged.josei

“It doesn’t matter if we die anyway, right? And above all… we must obtain these gem points.”

“…”

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

For a Master to manifest, they needed 10,000 gem points. Normal missions could reward between ten to 50 gem points, and considering that missions with these rewards didn’t always exist, one could see how difficult it was to manifest.

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 a user failed a mission, their credibility would decrease, often restricting their ability to participate in the next mission and making it difficult to consistently accrue gem points. In fact, the only users who could freely gather and accrue gem points with relative ease were the three Heaven above the Heavens.

‘Yet, even I don’t have an abundance of gem points because 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.’

Just like this, even if a player accumulated a vast amount of gem points, they’d consume those points in an instant. Once a player manifested, it was impossible to cancel the manifestation, and after an hour, the entire month’s worth of gem points was spent and lost. It was an exhausting cycle, but the aliens attacked every day, and if the only countermeasure, the Masters, couldn’t manifest, humanity’s situation would worsen.

“Come to think of it, the reward… they mentioned that the basic 5,000 gem points could increase to 150,000 gem points if a player completed certain activities, right?”

“Yeah, but based on the current atmosphere, it seems unlikely 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 spoke, he raised his right hand and waved it. Then, his internal energy hovered in the air and began to create a barrier. The round barrier was a kind of information transmission medium, and when Jeros saw this as he watched quietly, he shouted.

“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 your spiritual power to be similar to magic power, you can use magic with internal energy. However, it’s impossible to use this during battle because the entire process takes four steps. It is quite inefficient.”

“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 extraordinary 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.