The Return of the Genius Ranker of All Times - Chapter 236

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 236

Episode 236.

‘I didn’t expect this…’

To think the Guardian’s true identity was a crystallized belief left behind by the Forgotten King in his old age.

As he let out a hollow laugh at this bewildering situation, the Guardian took another step forward.

His presence was overwhelming.

Dohyun could feel a gap so vast that he could never win with his current strength.

[Guardian of the Forgotten Tomb, ‘Belief of the Old King’]

[The Guardian has revealed his true identity.]

[The disaster recreation rate is rapidly increasing.]

[The current disaster recreation rate is 28%.]

Just looking at the nameplate floating above his head, it wasn’t just red but a dark crimson color.

No, should this even be called dark crimson?

Seeing what was practically black made his grip on Cheonbyeon tighten involuntarily.

‘Surely they don’t expect me to defeat this? If another strike like that comes, I don’t think I can handle it…’

No, more than that, wasn’t the purpose to save the Forgotten King?

Dohyun’s brow furrowed at this incomprehensible situation where the King was acting as a guardian and attacking without warning.

-Owner…

-Rizariza…

Jihad seemed to share the same thoughts, as anxiety could be felt in the trembling of his voice.

Charlie was also trying to act nonchalant, but his body was visibly tense with excessive strain.

That’s the kind of opponent he was. The aged version of that Forgotten King.

If he was this strong despite his haggard, gaunt appearance and sickly body, it was unimaginable how powerful he must have been in his prime.

Swoosh-

[Nameless Irregular, my trial remains the same as before.]

In that regard, it could be considered fortunate.

The Guardian who drew his sword didn’t immediately charge at Dohyun.

His purpose was literally a trial, not a fight.

Drawing his sword and taking a swordsmanship stance, the tip of his blade pointed at Dohyun as he spoke.

[Show yourself to me. And prove it.]

Prove that you are worthy of obtaining me.

‘…So he wants to have a direct conversation through swords.’

For Dohyun, this was somehow a familiar attitude.

The rotted flesh of the Forgotten King had also shown such behavior when offering to bestow swordsmanship.

‘Whether knights of the old era just love proving things, or if that Forgotten King and Lion King are peculiar… well, since the flesh and that guy are the same person, it’s natural.’

Dohyun’s eyes became serious as he looked at the sword tip pointing at him as if urging him to draw his blade.

If that was truly his will, there was no reason to refuse.

A conversation of swords?

It was more familiar and preferred than conversing with words.

Swish.

Dohyun raised Cheonbyeon in its White Lion’s Snow Flower Sword state and took his stance.

As he slowly closed his eyes and opened them again, a different scene unfolded.

A blizzard swirling around them.

A cold aura enveloped the surroundings as if wielding a sword on a snowy mountain, and a white lion descended upon it.

[The effect of the White Lion’s Snow Flower Sword is activated.]

[The White Lion’s Song is activated.]

[Recreating the Forgotten King’s most powerful sword strike.]

[Unable to recreate the complete sword strike due to insufficient user level.]

‘This is that sword strike… It’s shabby compared to what I saw back then.’

Small and shabby, but the aura contained within was unmistakably the Forgotten King’s sword strike.

[That is…!?]

The Guardian’s eyes widened, knowing this better than anyone.

Looking at the sword strike with obvious surprise, he nodded as if finally understanding.

[Remarkable. Have you already received recognition from another version of myself? That would make some sense then.]

Come to think of it, that sword.

He had ignored it thinking it was too old and couldn’t possibly be held by a mere apostle, but it really was the sword he once used.

This made him even more curious.

[I shall see. What kind of swordsmanship you were bestowed.]

What did he see in you that made another version of himself bestow that swordsmanship?

[I suppose I can give my all…]

The Guardian smiled and unleashed explosive energy like igniting a final ember.

As the light in his serene eyes gradually faded, the white lion’s eyes above his sword glowed menacingly and the blizzard raged fiercely.

Dohyun’s already small sword strike looked pathetic, almost like a speck of dust.

‘This is really going too far.’

However, seeing the blizzard that filled the cave, Dohyun chuckled and instead took a step forward.

[Heaven-Defying Period]

[Using 1st Form, Beginning]

He advanced, mixing the White Lion’s Song with the footwork of the 1st Form, Beginning.

Never retreating and always advancing in the face of any adversity.

That was the foundation of the Heaven-Defying Period.

[There is an overwhelming difference in skill level.]

[You took a step forward in the face of great adversity.]

[The power of Heaven-Defying Period increases.]

[You have glimpsed the path to the next realm.]

And at this moment.

That foundation was shining brightly.

* * *

Right now, the Godose homepage was in chaos with articles related to the World Quest.

[Unprecedented scale World Quest! High rankers deployed en masse!]

[Even the Arniss Empire is on guard? What exactly is the Forgotten Tomb!?]

[Empire’s wary masters deploy their affiliated players en masse! News of Siana, disciple of the Crimson Tower leader and Flame of Karma, joining creates rivalry with Lepiass…]

[Late-moving top 10 guilds moving quickly! News of Earnest Guild and Leonn Guild participation revealed…]

From NPC-affiliated high rankers to top 10 guilds.

It was because of the unprecedented scale with countless people being deployed.

Even news that the proud Empire was showing particular interest and wariness reached them.

Journalists who couldn’t let such hot news pass smiled broadly as they pounded their keyboards.

-Wow, it’s really a total gathering. I’m so jealous of those watching live. It had to open when my access time was up, damn…

-Only 4 out of 10 major guilds participated lol

-And I heard more are coming? At this rate, most places will gather within a day?

-Wait, is everyone abandoning the New Continent? Didn’t they say they couldn’t leave because of ongoing progress?

-That’s how much this World Quest is worth investing in. I heard the difficulty is also unprecedented?

-Yeah, I thought the regular monsters were manageable, but I almost fainted when I saw the boss. How does it make sense for the first boss to be an elite raid boss?

-Its appearance was practically monstrous too.

-Agreed. It barely has eyes, nose, or mouth, but its ears are fucking huge and creepy as hell. Its body seems like 3 times bigger than an ogre too.

Naturally, the community’s reaction was also extraordinary.

Every chat room was packed with scrolls constantly moving down.

This led to all kinds of chatter being posted, but there were a few particularly frequent topics among them.

-What’s this about the Empire being on guard? Is that real?

-Has the Empire ever cared about user content? They’ve told us to get lost when annoyed, but I don’t think they’ve ever been wary.

-Well, they think they’re the best at everything…

One of them was the Empire’s reaction.

A country ruled by the sole Emperor who was the owner of the Main Continent.

There had been few times when the Empire, which knew no limits to its arrogance, showed this level of reaction to mere content that players were doing.

-It’s a World Quest, so that could be possible. Originally, World Quests sometimes have NPCs participating too.

-If you think about it that way, there’s nothing strange about it… But being on guard? That Emperor?

-There might be something we haven’t thought of…

-At first it seemed like just interest, but at some point they suddenly started being wary?

That wasn’t the only strange thing.

-It is kind of weird that the difficulty doesn’t make sense. Does it make sense that the disaster recreation rate is already 27 percent?

-For real, at this rate it looks like it’ll exceed 50 percent before Demroc arrives. It’ll be cleared in two days.

-Ah, so World Quests were originally supposed to end in just a few days? lol

-Will it even be cleared? The difficulty seemed quite serious.

-Does it make sense that the boss that appeared at 20 percent took over 10 minutes even though Babylon and Cheonoechen practically killed it together while competing?

-Regular players basically became observers lol They were just standing far away with their mouths open watching.

-Ah, so that’s why Ernest immediately turned to looking for hidden pieces as soon as they arrived? They were just wandering around all day.

-Well, they’re originally an explorer guild so it makes sense to see it that way. There are so many competitors.

-You’re underestimating Ernest. Their main field may be hunting and gathering, but they’re damn strong too.

-Well, I don’t know about the others but Harrington is really something. It would be strange for him to withdraw obediently, and if he’s searching around this seriously, he seems to have gotten some kind of clue.

No matter how high the difficulty of a World Quest was supposed to be, this was abnormally high.

The top 10 guilds and high rankers were managing to clear it smoothly, but for regular players, they couldn’t even properly touch the bosses.

Moreover, the speed at which the recreation rate was rising was ridiculous, so the prevailing opinion was that at this pace it might end in just two days.

Scrape-!

And this atmosphere was even more pronounced on site.

“Ugh, damn it’s endless.”

“How are the monster levels getting higher and higher? Is this a monster or a boss.”

“Hey, the disaster rate went up another 1 percent in the meantime. It’s 28 percent now.”

“Damn, there they’re respawning as a legion again.”

No matter how much they killed, monsters were endlessly generated.

That wasn’t all. Befitting the term disaster recreation, the scenery was also gradually changing destructively.

The appearance that had been at most buildings engulfed in flames and an eerie atmosphere was already nowhere to be seen.

The sight now visible was truly miserable, like looking at a ruined country.

“Master, it seems the rumors are true after all.”

“Hmm, indeed. It is quite serious.”

At the Vice Master’s words with a hardened expression, Ast also became serious.

What was reflected in Ast’s eyes as he looked around were bizarre monsters wandering around the disaster site and ruined country.

[Offspring of the Deepest Depths]

‘This is somewhat unsettling. The name is also creepy… Why is the type ?? again?’

There wasn’t even a description. The only things that could be confirmed were the name and grade.

And those guys were showing overwhelming power compared to monsters of the same grade.

Especially in the case of the boss monster they had just killed, contrary to expectations that it would die in one or two hits, they barely managed to kill it after hitting it dozens of times.

’28 percent is still early stages. But it’s already this much, which is strange.’

No matter how much it was a World Quest, usually the difficulty was easy in the early stages.

The early stages had to be at a level that even ordinary players could enjoy comfortably for a World Quest to have meaning.

In other words, this meant that what was happening now was difficulty set at a level for ‘average’ players to enjoy.

In the later stages, it was normal for top-level rankers to need to combine their strength…

‘…If this is the average standard, then in the later stages which are top-level standards? What will appear then?’

…Perhaps something completely unmanageable would appear?

Was that why the Empire was being wary?

‘Shouldn’t we stop raising the disaster rate and pause for a moment?’

Ast shook his head at the ominous feeling sprouting in one corner of his heart.

It was excessive worry.

This was a situation where numerous famous high rankers were gathering.

Already four of the top 10 guilds had assembled, and Lepiass and Siana were sweeping up monsters as if competing.

‘It doesn’t make sense that we can’t catch anything with this kind of power.’

So as Ast pushed the uneasiness to one corner of his mind, one guy suddenly came to mind.

‘By the way, what is that guy Kaiser doing? Don’t tell me he’s clearing some hidden piece again? I heard those Ernest guys are also doing something… I wonder if I’m the only one hunting too honestly.’

That’s when it happened.

Rumble rumble rumble-

Suddenly the ground shook violently.

Ast, who had been lost in thought, staggered and belatedly regained his balance. The ground that had been fine was caving in, buildings were collapsing, and the sky was turning black.

But Ast wasn’t flustered.

[The disaster recreation rate has reached 30%.]

[The Forgotten Tomb greatly changes as it recreates a massive disaster.]

[A boss appears.]

‘Oh no, I’ll be late at this rate.’

It was something he had already experienced when the recreation rate reached 20%.

“Where’s the boss location? How far is it from here?”

“Looking at the coordinates… Huh? Master. The location shows up as this place…”

There was no need to wait for his subordinate’s words.

Before the words were even finished, something huge broke through the ground right in front and revealed itself.

[Hero-grade Named Boss, ‘Beast of the Deepest Depths’ has appeared.]

A height reaching 8 meters.

Abnormally huge hands and arms that seemed like they could crush an ogre with one hand.

Like the previous boss, this one with barely any facial features let out a roar through its only attached giant mouth.

Kraaaaaaah-!!

“Prepare for battle.”

It was the moment when Ast, who wouldn’t miss the opportunity, was about to immediately summon the divine beast’s maw.

Tap tap tap, tap!

Quick footsteps heard from somewhere.

At the same time, something leaped from the side and emitted brilliant rays of light.

Beyond eyes squinted almost shut from the dazzling light, a man could be seen.

A blond man emitting brilliant light from his holy armor and sword.

[The goddess’s holy light burns evil.]

[The left arm of Hero-grade Named Boss, ‘Beast of the Deepest Depths’ burns away and disappears.]

As he instantly cut off and burned the huge arm, the beast screamed in terrible agony and suffered.

A unique ability that displayed incredibly powerful performance when facing evil.

It was the unique ability of the Mythic God, the Light of the Goddess of Purification.

“Damn it… Did he already arrive.”

And there was only one person in Godseeker who used this ability.

Thud.

The Paladin standing proudly on top of the screaming monster’s head slowly opened his mouth.

“Already 30 percent… It seems I’m later than I thought.”

The Master of The King.

It was the appearance of Ahdeo, the undisputed strongest Paladin.

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