I Became a Veteran Who Has to Stir Up Trouble to Survive - Chapter 76

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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[076] Showdown with Leviathan
The battle was overwhelmingly one-sided.
“Damn it! Everyone, take cover!!”
“What kind of undead is this?!”
As the Knights shouted or cursed, I hovered in the air with my Imp wings, observing the battlefield from above with detached amusement.
Summoning bone spears with casual indifference, I hurled them downward, and the Knights were pierced straight through their armor, their bodies skewered and lifeless.
One of them attempted to intercept with an arrow, but….
─How foolish.
With a snap of my fingers, bone spikes erupted from beneath his feet, impaling him instantly.
A one-sided massacre!
Not even a battle—a slaughter devoid of contest!
‘So the Neptune Cult Knights were only at this level?’
While the quality of forces varied greatly between temples, these ones seemed inexplicably clumsy.
Perhaps it merely felt that way because I had grown far too powerful.
‘A waste of time.’
Just as I prepared to dispatch the remaining Knights and search for the Spear, a peculiar sight caught my eye.
The fallen Knights bit down on pills they had hidden in their mouths and swallowed them.
At first, I thought they were committing suicide, but the pills’ true nature soon became apparent.
「The Temple Knights have consumed a forbidden substance!」
「Their bodies will dissolve from a deadly toxin, but in exchange, all their physical abilities will surge dramatically for a brief time!」
They immediately sprang to their feet and scrambled up the walls toward me, launching themselves at my position with feral ferocity.
Knights rampaging like beasts stripped of reason.
I immediately swung my blade to sever their upper and lower halves, but tentacles sprouted from the severed edges, regenerating instantly as they pressed forward with zombie-like persistence.
‘A substance fit for heretics to use.’
Neptune’s dominion held no such power.
─A pathetic death throes.
Had I remained as I was, they would have posed a challenge, but now, fortified by [Chaos], I was far beyond such threats.
With a sweep of my hand, dozens of bone spears pierced through the Knights, rendering them motionless.
I left them behind and advanced deeper into the Temple, cutting down Knights in succession as I progressed.
By then, the Spear had vanished somewhere, but tracking it would prove simple.
Ding─! Ding─!
「A sacred relic’s overwhelming holy power gnaws away at your body!」
「[Andira’s Jewel] resists the holy power! Unable to completely nullify it, your health decreases slightly.」
─The aura of the sacred relic emanates strongly from this direction!
Following the status window’s clamorous alerts like a radiation detector, I soon arrived at a location radiating terrifying holy power.
By coincidence, it was the very Kitchen where I had infiltrated in crab form.
The Spear’s shaft—the sacred relic the Mermaids so desperately sought—lay buried inside a massive cauldron.
The sight was so profoundly sacrilegious that even I found myself frowning.
‘True believers would never leave a sacred Spear in such a state, regardless of their disguise.’
Regardless, I could not touch a sacred relic while undead, so I returned to human form and carefully wrapped the shaft in cloth before securing it.
「You have obtained a portion of the ‘Trident that Cleaves the Great Ocean’ (the shaft)!」
「When combined with the remaining blade portions, it will unleash truly devastating power!」
“…Good. I’ve accomplished my purpose for coming here.”
But from this moment forward, I must prepare for the next phase without pause.
I hurried out of the Temple.
As the battle seemed to have concluded, I passed by the grotesquely scattered corpses of Knights and Mermaids when Radi came rushing toward me, breathless.
“You’ve worked hard, Doran. You’re not injured, are you? Did you find the sacred relic?”
“Yes, I obtained it safely. What about the other Mermaids?”
“Once they finish organizing this place, the Mermaids will focus all their efforts on dealing with the sea monsters.”
I’ve obtained the remaining half of the sacred spear, but this is far from over.
The moment we venture into the sea, countless demons will attempt to obstruct us.
Hastening my pace, the Coastline I reached had transformed into a devastated wasteland in the interim.
The city’s ramparts had crumbled into formlessness, and in the wake of the colossal tidal wave lay only the damp remnants of buildings scattered about.
The sandy beach lay desolate, as though someone had drained it completely, while in the sea, massive monsters thrashed about violently.
Meanwhile, the refugees and soldiers who had evacuated to higher ground stood transfixed, their very breath forgotten, staring at a single point in the sea.
I immediately understood the reason.
Beyond the horizon, a silhouette as massive as a mountain was approaching.
「Leviathan’s descent is imminent!」
「The overwhelming presence of a legendary Deep Sea monster dominates the Battlefield! The stats of all living creatures decrease significantly, and water-attribute magic resistance drops!」
「???: Aah… it’s over… there’s no way to escape from that calamity. Liberta was destined to fall today….」
「Leviathan’s existence shatters the resistance will of humanity!」
「[Antagon’s Rune] absorbs the immense despair and strengthens your body!」
Those who witnessed Leviathan fell into despair, but I continued to observe the sea with a cold, piercing gaze.
‘To defeat Leviathan, I must venture at least to the Coastal Region…!’
But to do so, I must traverse a sea teeming with monsters.
Though the Mermaids fight valiantly, a single spear lacks the firepower to dispatch the countless sea monsters one by one.
‘It’s about time they appeared….’
At that moment, accompanied by a deafening cannon blast, countless silhouettes emerged from behind the Island.
Galleys, caravels, frigates. And galleons advancing with their gun ports wide open.
“Captain! We’ve come to assist you!!”
「The Balearic Archipelago Pirates have appeared!」
「To the Pirates, Liberta is like a Hometown! They will not allow their beloved City to be destroyed by monsters!」
Malton, Boggles, and Snake’s galleon led the fleet at the vanguard, bombarding the massive monsters one by one.
“Over here, you stupid fish-headed idiots!”
“They say you reek of fish even in your armpits?!”
As the Pirates drew aggro enthusiastically, the sea monsters surged toward the Ships, but this too was meticulously calculated.
“Now’s the time! Drop them all!!”
The Pirates simultaneously hurled oil barrels from the Deck into the sea and retreated.
The oil flowing from the barrels blackened the sea entirely….
“Flames of inferno, consume the sea and incinerate all!!”
A tremendous explosion erupted from Karen’s magic, obliterating the horde of monsters that surged forward in one fell swoop.
‘Perfect coordination.’
I hadn’t expected the pirates to follow orders so flawlessly.
As I gazed contentedly at the burning monsters, the mermaids approached and gestured to me.
“Come this way, human! We’ll hold back the remaining monsters!”
I climbed onto a fragment of the broken sailing ship and, with their assistance, made my way to the coastline.
Marius was waiting there.
“We have no time to waste. Let’s begin at once.”
“Agreed.”
Marius and I each grasped the spearhead and shaft respectively, then combined them.
｢The sacred relic awakens from its long slumber, roaring with power!｣
｢Neptune’s authority, which once parted the seas and subdued the calamity dragon—the Trident that Cleaves the Great Ocean—has finally reclaimed its complete form!｣
｢This spear’s blade touches the beginning and end of the sea itself, and its overwhelming presence rivals the pressure of the deep abyss. What you hold in your hand is no mere weapon—it is the sea itself!｣
｢The sea answers to the spear’s will!｣
‘Excellent…! The sacred relic is complete without issue…!’
But in that instant, a shockwave erupted from the spear, hurling Marius and the mermaids backward.
｢Such power is far too great for a mere mortal to bear! Those without qualification are forbidden even to touch a sacred relic!｣
The trident hovered in the air as though it had gained life, radiating an immense presence.
Around the spear, seawater spiraled in a tornado-like vortex, while intensely condensed energy crackled like lightning, warping the very space around it.
Marius struggled forward and reached out his hand, but was repelled as though struck by an invisible barrier.
‘Damn it… this is problematic.’
A complete sacred relic is something no mortal can handle carelessly.
The power it contains is so immense that only the chosen can even touch it.
Even Andira’s Jewel that I absorbed was so dreadful that an ordinary human would die from a curse merely by touching it.
I had assumed that Marius, being a mermaid, could wield Neptune’s sacred relic without restriction, but….
As I pondered what to do, Marius pointed at me with trembling hands and asked.
“Human… why are you unharmed?”
“What…?”
Only then did I realize that I alone stood beside the spear without issue.
Ding─!
｢The Trident that Cleaves the Great Ocean is a sacred weapon completed when the Master of the Volcano forged its framework and Neptune infused it with divine power!｣
｢The Master of the Volcano winks at you secretly!｣
｢The Master of the Volcano has temporarily granted you usage rights over the Trident that Cleaves the Great Ocean!｣
‘Vulcanus, the god of the forge…!’
It was written in the item description when I obtained the spearhead at the Mermaid Temple.
I never expected to see that familiar epithet, ‘Master of the Volcano,’ again here.
In the dungeon, he simply imposed trials and vanished, cursing me bitterly, but now that he’s helping me like this, I can only feel gratitude.
‘…For now, I am truly grateful.’
After bowing silently in my heart, I grasped the holy spear, and I felt the essence of the sea spread from my fingertips to the crown of my head.
｢You have obtained the complete form of the Trident that Cleaves the Great Ocean!｣
“Your experience of wonder grants a permanent increase of 5 to all stats!!!”
“While wielding the spear, you gain the abilities of underwater locomotion, underwater breathing, ocean current control, and pressure immunity!!”
“While wielding the spear, contact with seawater grants you an immortality effect! Even if you suffer grievous wounds, the seawater will rapidly heal your injuries!”
“While wielding the spear, all stats temporarily increase by 200!”
“Hidden special abilities remain undiscovered!”
‘Simply grasping it grants such extraordinary buffs…!’
This spear, a sacred relic lost to time, reveals its full specifications to me for the first time.
The moment I truly comprehend the power of a genuine sacred relic.
Yet suddenly, an ominous notification surfaced.
“Your Strength and Intelligence stats fall perilously short of what is required to unlock the complete power of the ‘Trident that Cleaves the Great Ocean.'”
“The sacred spear’s abilities are temporarily sealed!”
‘Even after raising my stats this much, it still isn’t enough?!’
I stared at the log message in shock.
Without unlocking the spear’s full potential, I cannot repel Leviathan.
Turning suddenly, I found every citizen of Liberta gazing upon me.
Upon witnessing Neptune’s sacred relic, they instinctively understood I was their sole lifeline—their eyes reflecting a mixture of hope and reverence as they looked up.
Yet seeing that sight, a brilliant stratagem crystallized within me.
‘I’ll become the villain, Doran!’
“You have transformed into an Undead!”
“You can temporarily manifest overlapping unique abilities of monsters!”
“The ‘Master of the Volcano’ temporarily grants you authority—you are now unaffected by holy power!”
I took flight on Imp wings, my robes billowing as I surveyed the crowd below.
“Wh-what?! An Undead?!”
“W-wait! An Undead with demonic wings? I’ve heard of this! They say this being slaughtered demons in dungeons and saved people…!”
“There were also rumors they defeated a crystal golem and rescued people…!”
“A considerable number of people stir with unease and agitation!”
“Due to the recent chain of events, rumors about you have quietly spread throughout the entire Kingdom!”
A few who recognized me looked up with expressions of hope—
—Khahahaha! My name is Orgillian! I am the worst Death Knight you shall ever face!!
I betrayed their expectations and swung the spear directly at the crowd.
Boom—! Boom—!
As shockwaves erupted from the spear’s tip like a tidal wave, buildings crumbled helplessly.
“Kyaaah!! A mad skeleton! Everyone, run!”
“Citizens cry out in terror!”
“The ‘Master of the Volcano’ hiding among the refugees is struck by debris and curses profusely!”
“The notoriety of ‘Death Knight Orgillian’ spreads among the people!”
—Khahahaha!! How amusing to see them scatter like ants in a flood!
‘…I apologize.’
Still, I deliberately targeted only empty buildings, so no one should die.
This is unavoidable if I am to stand against Leviathan.
Ding—!
“Your Strength and Intelligence stats have skyrocketed due to the massive fear radiating from the masses!”
“You have met the minimum stat requirements for the ‘Trident That Cleaves the Great Ocean’!”
As I gripped the spear with fierce intensity, a powerful vibration thrummed through my bones.
I soared high into the air and swiftly distanced myself from the Coastal Region.
As I drew near to Leviathan, I could finally discern its detailed form with my own eyes.
Scales each as massive as a building’s roof, enormous eyes that blinked as they stared blankly at me.
‘Truly a horrifying monstrosity.’
Yet now I was certain. I could end this creature.
I took a deep breath and drove the spear with perfect precision toward the space between Leviathan’s eyes.
“The ‘Trident That Cleaves the Great Ocean’ releases tremendous power!”
Boom—!!
A brilliant blue lightning erupted, shaking the entire Sea.
True to its legendary reputation, the immense shockwave bursting from the spear’s tip cleaved through the Sea and tore the clouds asunder.
Holy power exploded from the trident’s three prongs, summoning a tidal wave, and the condensed energy pierced through Leviathan’s scales.
The moment I swung the spear, a terrible recoil struck me—so violent my bones nearly fractured.
Suppressing the surging pain, I thrust the spear forward again and again.
Once, twice, thrice.
More than mere attacks, I flew across the Great Ocean’s surface, relentlessly targeting its vital points.
With each accumulated strike, cracks spread across Leviathan’s previously impenetrable scales, and agonized roars shook the Sea.
‘How much longer must I keep swinging?’
As my body began to creak and my limits approached, I ground my teeth anxiously and cried out.
—It’s nearly over, Leviathan! Return to the depths of the Deep Sea!!
Just as I was about to deliver the final blow, gripping the spear even more firmly—
—Ow! It hurts, it hurts! Why are you attacking me!!
—…Huh?
Absurdly, a voice echoed within my mind.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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