D.I.O

Chapter 252

Ting!

The Editor Blade began to emit strange waves, and soon, the surrounding space shuddered.

It was a strange phenomenon that occurred whenever the power of the Editor Blade, which could interfere with a magic system up to a certain level, connected to DIO.

“Anyway, can you still fight?”

“What? Of course, I can!” Sungmuk’s eyes twinkled with life as he took a fighting stance.

The air around him was blown away from his fighting spirit, and a bright smile bloomed on his face.

Merlin was bewildered by Sungmuk’s happy temperament and exuberant atmosphere.

“No, I didn’t mean are you able to fight with me. Also, don’t even think of readjusting our contract to contain a clause to allow you to fight me. It’s not going to happen.”

“Then who am I supposed to fight against? You’re not intending to use me for simply hunting, right?”

Since he had spent a long time in Dynamic Island, Sungmuk’s understanding of the DIO system had grown to the point where it was now hard to believe that he was originally an inhabitant of a martial arts-crazed planet.

Thus, Sungmuk knew that a user’s [pet] could hunt and gain EXP for its owner.

“That’s exactly what I want you to do. I want you to hunt.”

“What?”

“But it won’t be as easy as you think… Hmm, let’s see. Sungmuk, [stay still].”

Whoosh!

With a laid-back attitude, Merlin stabbed Sungmuk with his Editor Blade.josei

It wasn’t a quick movement, but Sungmuk was unable to move or defend against the attack, which made his heart fully exposed to the Editor Blade.

“Are you crazy? What are you doing… Huh?”

Sungmuk couldn’t muster up any will to resist because of Merlin’s order to [stay still] and the power of absolute command those words had over him. His facial expression changed subtly once the Editor Blade pierced his heart.

This was because he didn’t receive any significant damage even though the Editor Blade had penetrated his heart.

“Data Patch,” Merlin murmured softly.

After that, Sungmuk felt a strange wave of energy spread through his body, but he did not know what this meant.

/[‘In Case of Emergency – Buff #3’ has been applied!]

- 500% internal energy amplification function has been added to the Divine Red Sparrow Sword!

- Life force, strength, stamina, regen, reaction speed, and magic resistance have all increased by 300 points!

- An additional 3 cycles of internal energy (180 internal energy points) have been created and granted onto the subject!

- Buff’s Remaining Time: 71 hours 59 minutes./

While seeing a message float before his eyes, Sungmuk felt a tremendous swell of power as energy spread throughout his body. Although his level had not changed, Sungmuk felt and gained strength so powerful that he was sure he’d be able to defeat five or six beings at the level he was at just ten minutes ago.

“Oh, this is great.”

“It’s a system-generated special buff that was created in preparation for a situation where users have to fight against a particularly strong opponent. However, since it can only be used inside DIO, it’s difficult to see this buff being used except when [outside] beings invade DIO. Anyway, Data Patch.”

Ting! Ting! Ting!

While muttering this explanation, Merlin applied buffs to himself, Arc, Miho, and their pets, Quiet Heaven and Ellie.

The effect of the buff, which was originally created in preparation for an [emergency situation] against non-DIO opponents, was enormous. The buff made it possible for the target of the buff to easily hunt opponents who were their equal.

After Arc checked the enhanced power in her body and the temporary stat changes, she asked, “Exactly how strong is our opponent that we need such a buff?”

Arc’s question came out of the blue; she didn’t offer any context in her line of questioning.

Nevertheless, Merlin answered calmly, “It won’t be such an amazing and overwhelming opponent. Well, it would be faster to see for yourself than for me to explain.”

Woong!

As soon as Merlin spoke, a blue aura rose and surrounded the entire party.

While magic power was rearranged, Merlin transferred the entire party to the spatial coordinates he inputted earlier.

An expression of amazement spread across Sungmuk’s face when he saw that they had instantly entered an enclosed dungeon, where the outside world could no longer be seen.

“This… You used long-distance teleportation. Moreover, you didn’t just teleport yourself, but a considerable number of other people… You crossed space as easily as if you were breathing. If the guys from my hometown saw you now, they would think you’re some sort of god.”

“If it’s your hometown, you mean the Jin Continent?”

“Right. It’s a place where all sorts of martial arts are practiced. However, there were no martial art principles that deal with space.”

Quiet Heaven, who was on top of Arc’s helmet, nodded after hearing Sungmuk’s words. “Naturally, Merlin’s only able to handle the Three Major Attributes with such ease because he has total control to manipulate the world’s systems through magic power. Advanced internal energy users who use mana through senses and realizations, not theory or theoretical understanding, are limited to controlling the five basic elemental attributes. In most cases, those internal energy users are only able to control yin and yang.”

The world was made up of numerous attributes, and all superpower users utilized those attributes in their own way.

Among these many utilizations, there were some martial arts studies that allowed beings to utilize many attributes with relatively little effort, such as the utilizations that mages used. There were also studies that dealt with limited attributes, such as most martial art practices, and studies that dealt with only one attribute, such as aura power.

“Three Major Attributes?”

“Ah. You don’t know because you’re from a traditional martial arts background, huh? I’m talking about space-time emptiness. It’s also called the Three Major Attributes or the absolute attribute.”

Time attribute and properties… spatial attribute and properties… and emptiness. Emptiness had the most special and powerful power among all the attributes that existed in the world, so it was very difficult to deal with.

In the case of the technique of remotely controlling attribute power by connecting to the outside world, Merlin’s group teleportation could be interpreted as utilizing the Three Major Attributes to some extent However, it was difficult to say that this action proved that he had completely ‘acquired’ the absolute attribute.

“Is it difficult for internal users to handle those Three Major Attributes?”

“It’s not just difficult… It’s close to impossible. Whether it’s magic power or Dao power, the only way one can handle the Three Major Attributes is by utilizing the skills of [borrowing] or [controlling] external power or the ability of the summoning system. If an internal energy or chakra user… or someone who handles and controls one’s own energy like an aura user… can properly utilize the Three Major Attributes…”

“If they can properly utilize the Three Major Attributes… then what?”

At Sungmuk’s question, Quiet Heaven sighed aloud and chuckled. “That being would be seen as a very enlightened being. That being would be someone who transcended the limits of fate, and that being would acquire the qualifications of a beginner god.”

“The transcendent realm…” Sungmuk muttered quietly to himself.

At that moment, Arc, who had been looking around in spite of the conversation, spoke up, “This space is full of moisture. Also, based on my user map, it says our location is in the sea.”

“We’re in an underwater dungeon. Anyway… this sure brings back memories.” Merlin sighed and smiled as he looked around the space and reminisced.

It was the highest-level dungeon that existed one kilometer under the sea. The name of this dungeon was the [The Seadragon’s Temple].

Originally, it was a dungeon that only those who had reached the highest level—Merlin’s current level—were able to enter. It was also the place where Merlin, who had unintentionally attacked the gaps in the system when he first joined DIO, entered when he was only a Level 1 user.

[A guest?]

Just then, a sturdy young man appeared at the front of the entrance of the dungeon, which looked like a small trickling spring. The young man had slightly bluish skin and an angular upper body like that of a Greek statue. He also had pure white pupil-less eyes and long purple hair.

This young man was the guardian of the Seadragon’s Temple. Merlin had met him in the past. The guardian was a Level 13 Mermaid Hero who possessed powerful combat power.

Ting!

The Mermaid Hero placed his hand atop the sword that was hanging from his waist.

He was a practitioner of the Celestial Divine Draconic martial arts and a master swordsman at the peak of his swordsmanship development. With such fighting power, the young man possessed enough power to prevent any unqualified being from entering the Seadragon’s Temple.

“Sorry, but I don’t have time.”

However, power was relative. The young man stood no chance against Merlin.

Boom.

Merlin took a light step forward and slammed his right hand downward.

It was a simple action, nothing complicated or unusual, so the Mermaid Hero quickly pulled out his sword, Shadow Blade, in response.

A lightning-fast slash was formed with the Shadow Blade sword.

It was such a perfect display of an Iaijutsu strike (a strike where one’s blade was pulled out from the sheath to directly launch an attack) that even decades-long kendo practitioners would have screamed aloud upon seeing it. Yet the result of the Shadow Blade colliding against Merlin’s hand was underwhelming, to say the least.

Ting!

Boom!

Following a heavy noise that was as if a huge steel plate had been struck with a hammer, Merlin’s palm touched the well-trained Mermaid Hero’s chest.

There were no visible wounds, but blood soon started flowing from the Mermaid Hero’s mouth.

[This is absurd. You’re definitely that kid from back then… Yet you’ve already developed to this extent…]

The Mermaid Hero laughed bitterly as it began to turn into black smoke and disperse.

[This is really… unfair.]

With those last words, the Mermaid Hero disappeared, and the Shadow Blade fell to the ground with a clunk.

Seeing that there were no other items dropped, it seemed that the Shadow Blade was the only drop item.

What was interesting was that the Shadow Blade, which had been broken by Merlin’s hand just moments ago, was now restored to its original state. Merlin picked up the Shadow Blade and lifted it.