Chapter 235: The House Centipede Part II

Translator: HunterW

Editor: RED

It was easy for Arthur to find out Lee Jiwon’s exact location when Lee Jiwon was all the Shire Guild’s hunting parties were talking about

—

“Damn! Did you see that back there?”

“Yeah! That was crazy. He cut down the same monsters we’ve been hunting with such finesse and ease.”

“You know, I think this is the first time I’ve felt this bad for monsters.”

“Hah! You too?”

“Yeah. I was actually rooting for them.”

“Well, the real important part here is that he’s still getting stronger. I was on his team when we raided the Dark Caster boss, and I can tell you that he’s way stronger now.”

“I noticed that, too. You’re leveling rate is supposed to plateau the higher you level, and it’s really difficult to get all your entire equipment to at least Rank 8, but… Lee Jiwon’s still growing at a faster rate.”

“That’s why everyone’s calling him the First Emperor. He even shut down the Slayer completely over at Ankara during the Defense Quest.”

“Yeah. It’s a good thing we’re on the same side.”

“If Lee Jiwon actually joins up with a large guild…yikes! Just thinking about it freaks me out.”

“He’s on the fourth floor right now, right?”

“Yeah and it looks like he’s been there for a while. He hunts all day and rests at the fourth floor base.”

“Damn… solo hunting on a high-grade dungeon’s fourth floor…”

“Only Lee Jiwon is capable of that, so don’t even think about it. You’ll die in an instant.”

“Do you think I’m stupid or something? I know that much.”

—

Once he learned Lee Jiwon’s location, Arthur quickly headed for the fourth floor. He was beginning to think he should have brought more than 10 billion golden rings after hearing what the Shire Guild members were saying about Lee Jiwon. But it was too late to regret anything now, and Arthur was confident in his own abilities, not just in his Centipede skill.

Victor had given Arthur a total allowance of over two billion golden rings so that Arthur could grow stronger, but Arthur had not spent a single golden ring on himself and just continued to save. He did end up having to spend five hundred million golden rings to create a shelter for the homeless and needy of his country, but he still had 1.8 billion golden rings leftover. No one of the Messenger Guild had noticed that Arthur had not been using the House Centipede skill so far. Arthur was just that strong.

——

The entrance to the fourth floor of the Dark Caster Dungeon…

“Activate House Centipede – Combat Mode.”

==[House Centipede – Combat Mode has been activated.

Please choose the amount of golden rings you wish to spend to activate Combat Mode.

You may only use the golden rings in your inventory.

You will be refunded 80% of the golden rings spent when Combat Mode deactivates.

Combat Mode will last for 24 hours.

Cooldown: 15 days.]==

“Seven billion golden rings.” If House Centipede was a simple skill that only raised Arthur’s attack power and defensive capabilities, it would have just been considered one of the many buff skills that were out there. But its Combat Mode made it a very unique skill.

==[You have spent 7,000,000,000 golden rings and may now use Combat Mode for the next 24 hours.

ATT and MATT increased by 700%.

DEF and MDEF increased by 700%.

STR, AGI, VIT, WIL, INT increased by 700%.

HP increased by 7,000,000, MP increased by 700,000.

CRIT rate increased by 7%, CRIT damage increased by 700%.

Increase CRIT resistance by 700%.

You will be refunded 5,600,000,000 golden rings after 24 hours.]==

This particular Combat Mode was a buff that cost 1.4 billion golden rings to use and only lasted for 24 hours. It was an expensive buff, but Arthur didn’t care. It was a small price to pay to defeat Lee Jiwon!

Once he was ready, he entered the fourth floor and roamed, searching for Lee Jiwon. Not long afterwards, Arthur finally felt Lee Jiwon’s presence, but it was apparent that Lee Jiwon had noticed Arthur as well.

“Who are you?” Lee Jiwon asked.

—

This guy was saying that he needed to test me for whatever reason, but one thing was for certain; I didn’t need any tests!

“Judge’s Gavel.” I didn’t care what reason he had to test me. Whoever this guy was, he was looking down on me, and he would pay for that insolence. I’ll even kill him every time he came knocking.

I rushed at the shield and sword-wielding stranger and closed in on him in an instant. I frowned. There were thirty meters between us and I only crossed half that distance when he was right in front of me. He was just as fast as me! It could have been the effect of an item or skill, but I noticed that his reflexes were just as quick. His AGI was probably as high as mine. He was still my enemy, however, and swung my spear at his shield, with full intent to cleave it in half.

“Manifest: Aegis! Activate – Defense: 100 million golden rings!” The stranger shouted something that didn’t really sound like skills I had heard before, but I ignored him.

The giant hammer slammed into the youth’s shield. I expected him to burst into a cloud of smoke and die like all of devas I had killed before, but that didn’t happen with him.

“Whew…you actually broke though Aegis and dealt some damage to me. Impressive.” He was too calm, and even though he said he had received some damage, there was not a scratch on him.

“…” My attacks had never failed like this before. Not even the Monarchs I had defeated so far could stand up to my attacks. Hell, my Penetration was well over 1,000 points, and that was even more shocking. Sure, my Warrior’s Brave Spirit and Howl of the Wolf were both on cooldown, but Mana Conversion was still in effect. The Judge’s Gavel boosted by a Level 7 Mana Conversion could be easily blocked like that?

“Who are you?” I asked warily.

“That’s what I want to ask you.”

“You know who I am. You’re the one who came looking for me.”

“Sure, I know of you. You’re Lee Jiwon. But I always wondered how you got this strong…”

“It’s because of all the effort I put in.” Well, most of it was from Luck and my experience of my past life, but it was still true. I worked hard to get where I am. I made it my mission to become the strongest in the world, and not once did I stray from it.

“You and I both know that hard work alone isn’t enough to get strong in this world.”

“…” He was right. This world wasn’t fair enough to reward hard work alone.

“Well, I did get lucky a couple of times, too.”

“It must be nice to be lucky enough to get that strong. But I’m still going to test you to see if you are worthy of that strength!”

“You took the words right out of my mouth. Altered Equality.”

==[You have activated Altered Equality – Altered Equal Stats on your opponent.

Your opponent’s base Sat points, Stat points increased by skills and items, and Stat points granted by specials will all be redistributed.

Calculating all Stat points…]==

==[Your opponent’s Stats have been redistributed.

The effects of Altered Equality will last for the next 24 hours and you must wait that time before using Altered Equality on someone else.

Stat points received for Kiran will be set to 0 as payment for using Altered Equality.]==

“Ripped Advance.”

==[Ripped Advance has been activated.

All Stats are now doubled for the next 24 hours. (Only base Stat points will be increased.)

Once this skill deactivates, you will lose 0-100 Stat points.]==

I activated both skills at once. I didn’t want to have to end up winning by a hair, even if it meant losing up to 100 Stat points.

“How annoying,” the stranger said with a frown.

“I bet it is.” I was frowning, too. He should be angry, not annoyed. Everyone else I used Altered Equality on was angry. Something clearly wasn’t right.

“Fine. Let’s do this.”

“Agreed.”

“Assault of the Titan! Activate – Attack: 100 million golden rings, Skill: 100 golden rings!”

“Rah!”

My spear met the stranger’s sword in a deafening clang of metal, and we were both pushed back from the force of the attacks, wincing in pain. We both looked at each other in surprise. My STR right now was well over 70k, but we were both pushed back by four meters. That had to mean our STR was nearly even. I never knew about someone this strong existing in my past life, but I decided I would think about it later and attacked again.

“Fissure!”

“Titan Stomp!”

He met my AoE attack with one of his own. Both attacks met like two waves of equal size crashing into each other before bursting to the sides. We continued to fight after that, refusing to get pushed back again. What I felt as we fought was clear; his fight style was very similar to mine. He was surprising me more and more.

——

Arthur Lucas couldn’t believe this was happening. He had actually worried he may have overspent activating Combat Mode, but he quickly realized he should have spent more.

“Titan’s Roar!”

“Blink 2.”

“Titan Slam!” All of his attacks were finding their mark, but they weren’t pushing Lee Jiwon back. Arthur had even boosted his attack and skill power by spending 100 million golden rings each. But there was a limit his actual attacks and skills could be boosted every time he used them.

==[3,000,000 golden rings have been used to increase Titan Slam’s attack power by 300%.]==

==[3,000,000 golden rings have been used to increase Titan Slam’s skill power by 300%.]==

If he could spend a hundred million golden rings or more on his attacks and skills’ power each time, he could defeat any opponent in an instant, but he could only spend three million golden rings on them. He had never really felt that limit was ever constraining him before. A three hundred percent boost was more than enough on the enemies he had faced before, but for the first time since he had learned House Centipede, he wished he didn’t have that limit!

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