Chapter 658: Choice and Location

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

Perhaps I’d repeated this many times already, but reality would always remind you that no matter what world you were in, there never was such a thing as true fairness. It would already be difficult to even get close to fairness. True fairness was something that only existed in theory.

Everyone in the world of Eich was already used to the law of the jungle, where the strong ruled over the weak. Any species that lacked top-level individuals would forever remain as mere slaves or a subordinate species. The most obvious example would be how the Superior Elves, a Silver Species, had been subordinated by the Gold Elves, a Gold Species. Meanwhile, the wild elves and ordinary elves who had a Copper Bloodline were in turn the subordinate species of the Superior Elves.

Were humans an exception to this? According to the human history books, humans had never been subordinate species, but ancient existences would remember that humans had previously been the subordinate species of giants, great demons, and even elves. However, humans had learned magic and martial arts from these species. In this cruel world, the weak human species had been subordinated plenty of times before they finally became the ruling species of the world.

Yet, the humans were still forever naturally at disadvantage with their human bloodline. A human would never be able to win at arm-wrestling against a giant. Some foundational inequalities were impossible to change.

However, humans knew how to use tools. It was unknown which individual had first come up with it, but the idea of “Myth-ranked weapons” imbued with an individual’s personal Concept indeed gave human top-level individuals the potential to surpass top-level individuals from other species.

The most obvious realization of choosing one’s own combat style would be the evolution of “combat job classes”.

Back in the primal age, there was no such thing as a warrior or a mage. Back then, powerful ancient existences would randomly attack with their physical bodies or instinctively control the elements. In a way, this reflected the saying “There would never be any paths to begin with. Only after enough people walked the same way would there be a path”.

The path to reaching the top of any job class was to condense one’s own personal understanding and path into a “tool” that only oneself could use.

While human skin wasn’t anywhere nearly as tough as dragon scales, humans could team up to hunt powerful mythic beasts and use their tough hides to create armor and shields which had defensive properties surpassing that of even castle walls.

While human magical talent and affinity for the elements couldn’t compare at all to the elves’ talent and affinity, humans could use special tools as extensions of their bodies. They could gather various elemental or magical creatures’ cores in order to buff a certain type of elemental affinity or some specific magic spell, making up for the lack of natural talent.

While humans truly had no way of comparing in physical strength to a giant, humans could create magical ogre gloves that tremendously buffed physical strength…

While humans were unable to fly, and also lacked stamina, they could fly with magical shoes…

While humans couldn’t travel through time, they could use the Concept of Time to create a Time Hourglass…

Myth-ranked weapons weren’t actually all that mysterious. They were simply the evolved form of humans’ instinctual usage of weapons. It was just that these “tools” used by top-level individuals were recognized by the entire world. The Myth-ranked weapons, which all had their own unique traits, would each have obvious strengths and weaknesses.

Every tool would have a specialty. Tools were created in order to make up for insufficiencies. However, the downside to a specialized tool was the lack of general use.

Maybe you could create a dragonscale shield. However, any place you weren’t able to guard with the shield would still be incredibly fragile, and if you wore a suit of heavy dragonscale armor instead, it still wasn’t a part of your body. All the extra weight and discomfort on your skin would definitely negatively affect your agility and senses.

There would always be losses for every gain. If you decided to use external objects to improve the weaknesses of your physical body, this would also mean that your physical body would no longer grow stronger. Other weaknesses would also become even more apparent.

The moment that you decided to use a tool, the tool’s usage would already be determined. The tool would improve you in its specific area of expertize, but you wouldn’t have any obvious improvements in other areas.

However, combat wasn’t something so simple. Maximizing one’s own personal advantages while avoiding and hiding your own weaknesses would obviously be the best way to obtain victory.

“I don’t need to be stronger than my enemy in every area. Properly using my advantages in battle is the best way to victory.”

Of course, the easiest method of all when one tool wasn’t enough would be to obtain several more tools. But, when considering how difficult it already was to enter the new Level 4 and craft a personal Myth-ranked weapon, and even more how human bloodlines would be unable to withstand the creation of multiple Myth-ranked weapons, no ordinary powerful individual would be able to consider this.

For humans who lacked so much talent compared to other species, it wouldn’t actually be good to enter Level 4 as quickly as possible. For the great majority of powerful individuals, they would have zero chances to regret whatever tool they had chosen for their own Myth-ranked weapon once they’d made their choice. This was a one-time deal only. If a person chose wrongly, it would be the equivalent of voluntarily limiting one’s own upper potential… To use a gaming analogy, it would be the equivalent of using your skill points and attribute points on poor skills and wrong attributes, so you would have to start over again with a new character.

The creation of any Myth-ranked weapon would be the amalgamation of that person’s total knowledge and experience. Sometimes, people would forcefully try and enter Level 4 without any preparation beforehand, or they would enter Level 4 without any guidance from another. That would mean that they would be completely unable to select what they created for their personal Myth-ranked weapon. There were indeed many rather laughable existences at Level 4 rank.

For instance, there was a well-known powerful water mage whose personal Myth-ranked weapon was the physical realization of his knowledge of how water naturally flowed. Thus, his weapon became an umbrella that would bring a torrential downpour whenever he opened it. He had the venerated nickname of “Divine Bringer of Rain”, and was quite popular in areas with long droughts.

But… for any water mage in Level 4, it would be quite easy already for them to casually summon a torrential downpour. Thus, his Myth-ranked weapon didn’t improve his combat power even in the slightest. In fact, it even weakened him as its effects were in too large of an AOE. Moreover, using his rain umbrella would always cost him a tremendous amount of mana. Hence, using it would bring his power level far down below Level 4.

Although it sounded quite laughable to become weaker after leveling up, he wasn’t the only example.

This wasn’t only the result of mistaken choices or foolishness. Sometimes, there were indeed heaven-sent calamities that one couldn’t do anything about.

There was once a mage who was born with a weak body. He would always cough up blood every time he cast a spell. However, he was extremely intelligent, and entered Gold rank back when he was only 12 years old. He then reached the very peak of understanding in time magic, and his Myth-ranked weapon ended up being ridiculously strong. It was said that it was truly capable of turning back time itself, which was a true miracle.

However, miracles would require a price. This Myth-ranked weapon would use up the caster’s life force each time it was used. How much life force it required was unknown, because that mage only used it once and then died right afterwards.

Overly strong willpower or belief would also lead to bad endings.

There was once a Level 4 Holy Knight who desired for the Holy Light to forever accompany himself as if it was the warm sun. He indeed accomplished this, but the end result was that he died of dehydration… This Holy Knight had been far too hostile towards the darkness, and far too stubborn about the concept of “forever”, yet he didn’t think about how having the sun forever next to you would result in being baked alive. Still, this guy’s belief and willpower had been truly incredible as he had survived for three months before he finally dried up completely.

Overly strong belief would unconsciously affect a powerful individual’s created Myth-ranked weapon, yet Holy Knights who didn’t have enough conviction also wouldn’t go far. There were plenty who made mistakes among the priests and Holy Knights. Although it was rare to bake oneself to death like in the previous example, it was quite common for someone to transform themselves into a 24-hour living lightbulb of Holy Light. In the end, the Holy Church had even incorporated these individuals into their teachings, warning people not to become like them.

The exact opposite would be the Undead Emperors. The great majority of Undead Emperors had formerly been humans from long ago at one point in time. They had been stuck before Level 4 for an incredibly long period of time. However, the much longer time would allow for far more accumulation. Thinking for far longer before reaching Level 4 would also be a good thing. Making the breakthrough would mean that the rest would become quite easy.

Cough, cough, I was getting off topic. Anyways, since I had previously entered Level 4 before, I had an obvious advantage. Not only did I have the knowledge and accumulation to create multiple personal Myth-ranked weapons, I also possessed a physical body and soul that could handle the creation of multiple Myth-ranked weapons. It was an extravagance that ordinary powerful individuals couldn’t even dream of.

Still, this extravagance couldn’t be wasted. Unlike how other Level 4 individuals would typically think about how to strengthen their personal specialty and advantages, I could consider the functions I wanted from each Myth-ranked weapon and use them to make up for my insufficiencies and weaknesses.

My Holy Light sword, Dawn. Its main trait would be the Light of Salvation. I had two different strategic forms planned for this sword: Chaos Slayer and Offer of Salvation. It would be able to majorly weaken Chaos Faction demons and undead in a tremendous area of effect as well as gather condensed Holy Light for strong attacks against powerful enemies. My Dawn sword would be my most reliable weapon in this long battle against the Chaos Abyss.

My death sword, Original Sin. Well, I suppose I could also call it the Seven Original Sins sword. It would be a mega weapon that countered all soul existences. It would be my most powerful magic sword of all, but when considering the resources it required… it would likely be the final one of my four planned Myth-ranked magic swords to be completed.

I still hadn’t finished the blueprint for my Law sword, but when considering the effects of Law, and how I wouldn’t really need any more powerful melee weapons after my Original Sin death sword was completed, I would likely create my Law sword as a weapon focused on restraints and defense.

My knowledge of ice was the most lacking compared to the other three areas. However, since my other three Myth-ranked swords were focused on various effects such as attack, defense, debuffs, buffs, restraints, and so on, I had already determined what function I wanted my ice sword to have.

“An automatic sword, or at least a semi-automatic magic sword that can surprise my enemies. And if I’m lucky, this sword will actually have the highest potential for combat.”

“…Most automatic Myth-ranked weapons will attack indiscriminately without being able to differentiate friend or foe. For instance, that Holy Light sun which baked that Holy Knight to death. Other similar examples are all too ridiculous to even laugh or cry at. If you’re unlucky, this weapon will become nothing more than more help for your enemies. Although it has the most potential in combat, it also has by far the most potential to become a burden. Are you certain?”

Harloys’ attempt to convince me otherwise didn’t shake my determination one bit. Since the majority of automatic weapons were the type that were a double-edged sword for both oneself and one’s enemy, perhaps that would be the most suitable type of weapon of all for me as I was already so used to misfortune.

“I’ve decided! I’m going to call it Calamity sword… Northlands Frost sword! Even if it will only bring about calamity and disaster, I feel like I can at least survive longer than my enemies thanks to my experience in dodging the endless ice and snow calamities in the Northlands!”

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