Chapter 274: Claudia Part II

Translator: HunterW

Editor: RED

==[Name: Lee Jiwon

Level: 1349 Death Count: 0

Title: Earth’s First Deva

HP: 39,740,700/39,740,700 MP: 702,800/702,800

Strength: 98,201 + 8,127 Agility: 58,601 Vitality: 60,501

Willpower: 6,968 Intelligence: 6,228

Unassigned Stat Points: 0

Fatigue: 0

Special Effects: Luck Boost (X+1), immune to all Status effects, Dungeon Seeker 14 points

Physical Attack: 395,747 Physical Defense: 95,797

Magical Attack: 23,154 Magical Defense: 42,634]==

“…” I still could not get over how easy it was to quickly raise my Stats like this. It had only been two months since I had last updated my Stats, and my STR was getting that much close to 100,000. If I used Critical Weakness, it could easily surpass 130k ,and if I used Ripped Advance on top of that, I could have a STR of over 260,000 for twenty-four hours. That would be the highest my STR ever was, even higher than when I had Consumed Shaman Ko. And with my increased AGI and VIT, I could confidently say that I could defeat any opponent who stood in my way.

But I couldn’t shake the anxious feeling that was creeping up all over my body just from the title “Time Controller”. I had faced several enemies who had some really overpowered abilities, like the Blood Prince, the Predator Duke, and the Grim Reaper. Hell, I could be included, too. I was the first to become a deva, the first to learn Unrivaled and at level 0 no less, and even had the overpowered Luck Boost.

Those overpowered enemies had some really crazy special abilities that gave me a really hard time dealing with them, but I had still managed to overpower them and defeat them. But I still felt this tinge of fear at the coming battle, even though I had come so far.

Fated Crossroads still had seventy-three days left on its cooldown. I wished it wasn’t, so I could use it on this Claudia person and give myself some peace of mind, even if I couldn’t believe it completely. It could at least give me a sense of what her abilities really were.

-Whatever. There’s nothing I can do about it anyway.-

I shook my head, left the general store, and entered the accessory shop. I could use my remaining 2.6 billion golden rings to get my total STR all the way up to 100k, but it wasn’t like another 2,000 points would make much of a difference. If I somehow managed to successfully upgrade my accessory’s Rank this time, I had full intentions to borrow more golden rings to attempt another one.

“Welcome to Section 3’s Center B accessory shop.”

“Show me your wares.”

“Right away, sir.”

When the store menu popped up, I scrolled all the way down to Accessory Upgrade and selected it. Once again, I placed my Bracelet of Eternal Fire into the slot. I wanted to redeem myself, and really wanted to get some extra lives.

==[You have selected a Rank 8 accessory.

Upgrading this weapon requires 1,400,000,000 golden rings and has a 1-3% chance of success. If the upgrade fails, you will lose the 1,400,000,000 golden rings. Are you sure you wish to proceed?]==

I heaved a nervous sigh before saying, “Proceed!” Soon, the Bracelet shone brightly for a moment before returning to its former state.

==[The Rank 8 Bracelet of Eternal Fire has failed to be upgraded to Rank 9.

The 1,400,000,000 golden rings will not be returned to you.]==

“…” It failed twice. I almost screamed in anger. I selected Accessory Upgrade again and placed my Bracelet back into the slot when another message appeared.

==[You do not have enough golden rings to upgrade this accessory.]==

After failing the previous attempt, I was left with 1.2 billion golden rings. Of course I didn’t have enough golden rings to try again. The message quickly snapped me back to reality and I felt a wave of bitterness come over me. I didn’t need to get that angry just because it failed. I had already put most of my golden rings to good use by sharply increasing my Stats. This was just something to put my remaining golden rings towards. If it worked, great; if it didn’t, I should have moved on.

I walked out of the accessory shop with a bitter smile and headed over to where my clan was set up at Section 3. I was finished with my preparations, and I just needed to wait for the enemy to arrive. When I got home, I Summoned the Dungeon Mole and the Achilles Tendon like always as I put my feet up. I did try to Summon Shaman Ko, too, but nothing happened… as expected. I didn’t mind it.

——

Ten days later…

An emergency meeting was called for the Empire.

“That’s them challenging us to meet them halfway, isn’t it?”

About 2.3 million soldiers; there was a good chance they all knew how to walk. They had come to a stop exactly halfway between Croot to Earth, and it had been three days already.

“It would seem so.”

“This… is going to get annoying.”

We had planned on using Section 3’s walls to take a defensive approach. There were too many enemy soldiers for us to take on directly, especially since the enemy was led by their strongest deity, the Time Controller. That left eight of our frontlines Sections open for the enemy to come and destroy but we did it anyway. It was better to lose Sections than to lose the war entirely.

“I thought their strongest deity would charge straight in, but I guess that’s not the case anymore.”

“That poses a bigger problem. She’s pulling out all the stops.”

“Then what should we do? Should we just wait out the siege?”

“I don’t know.”

With the enemy acting outside of our expectations, we were in disarray and not in a good way. The enemy was clearly challenging us to a full-on battle away from the safety of our walls, and if ignored it, we would become cowards.

“Shit! Why did we end up having to deal with this in Earth’s stead?”

“Because we’re the strongest,” I answered the officer’s complaint in a low tone.

“Making the rabble fight instead only serves to strengthen the enemy. The same goes for them as well. That’s why they’ve sent out their strongest already. They don’t want to lose anymore,” Song Daechul added.

“We have to accept their challenge, even if we don’t like it. We have to fight for Earth’s victory,” agreed Madun.

“He’s right. The only way to win the war of the Judge’s Continent is to fight and kill the enemy. Anyone who wishes to stay away from the fight will inevitably become the loser,” Alpha finished.

“My apologies. I know what you all mean, but I just felt so lost and burdened,” the complaining officer said in a quiet voice.

“Don’t worry about it. I completely understand how you feel,” I agreed, before we returned to our discussion.

For now, we were split on two differing opinions. One side wanted to meet the enemy, while the other wanted to continue to hold our defenses. Our raiding army was made up of about two million elite soldiers from the Empire and other Earth guilds, all fully prepared to invade the enemy’s territory. Furthermore, the devas that currently resided in Section 3 totaled nearly ten million. They were family members of the raiding army and others who wanted to watch the coming battle. They were also prepared to back up the raiding army at any time. The side who wanted to fight also argued that we would have to fight the enemy eventually, and a long wait within the safety of our walls during a siege would definitely cause our soldiers’ morale to plummet.

“This is also the enemy’s strongest deity. We need to defeat her before she gets any stronger. We destroyed three of the enemy’s Sections, and we’re the ones who with the winning streak.”

“That’s right. We also have an army of two million elite soldiers. We’re going to have to fight them eventually. There is no such thing as a draw on the Continent. There are only winners and losers. Just as Madun said, we need to attack while our soldiers’ morale is still high,” Daniel Miller of the Shire Guild added.

After Madun and Daniel made their cases, the other officers were starting to all lean towards accepting Croot’s challenge. Then, I noticed that their eyes moved to me. In the end, the final decision came down to me. I didn’t feel annoyed or angry about it. It was obvious. I would be the one who had to do most of the fighting anyway. I was the strongest person of Earth and wanted to be the strongest on the Continent.

“Let’s go and fight. Like you all said, we need to fight them eventually. I don’t want to have to fight with our backs to the walls against stronger enemies because we were too afraid to fight when we were properly prepared,” I said quietly. I made my decision. I did want to hole up behind Section 3’s walls too, but the enemy had caused a great fuss in the three days they waited for us.

“If we win here, we win the war of the Judge’s Continent,” I added.

“Understood, commander.”

“Let’s show these bastards what it means to challenge the Empire!”

“Ready the soldiers. We move out in three days. And make sure everyone knows what we’ve decided here today. Let’s make it a magnificent sortie.”

“Yes, sir.”

“We’ll make it so.”

“Oh, and are we keeping close tabs on the Windsor Guard and the Nayuta Guild that just arrived at Section 3?”

“Yes sir. We know where they are right now and have constant eyes on them. We are ready to intercept them the moment they move.”

“Good. Make sure they don’t get through. We can’t have the soldiers on the front lines fearing the rear.”

“Yes sir.”

—

Three days later…

A massive crowd of people was waiting by Section 3’s Center D eastern gate. Two million of them were the soldiers of the raiding party, and the others were the spectators who had come to see us off.

As the raiding army’s commander, I came out to stand in front of them and faced the endless sea of soldiers. “We have won time and time again, and we will win this battle as well,” I said confidently, looking into the eyes of my soldiers.

“Let’s go. Victory is waiting for us,” I said, before turning about face and marching out the eastern gate, leading the two million soldiers close behind me.

——

Seven days later, we met the enemy’s army, who was waiting for us with open arms.

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