Chapter 223
The wound was not deep, but Bodonchar immediately understood from the Akasha Message that something had gone horribly wrong.
[The Holy Blood of Degradation lowers your caliber.]
“YOU BASTARD! CHWIK! WHAT DID YOU DO?!” he screamed.
His body felt heavy, as if he had just run an all-out sprint. The caliber he naturally emitted had been reduced.
Holy Blood of Degradation? Lowering my caliber? What kind of nonsense is this? Bodonchar thought.
Caliber was a form of status that one naturally accumulated. It theoretically couldn’t be lowered by another.
“Damn rat!” Bodonchar shouted, reaching for the unknown being that had taken the form of Gurun.
He needed to capture them, no matter what, to make them cancel this cursed effect. However, Seong-Hwi had no intention of being captured.
I’ve fulfilled my objective! All that’s left is to retreat! Seong-Hwi shouted inwardly.
He immediately prepared his escape the moment he broke through Bodonchar’s defenses and dealt a blow to him. The Wings of Evolution curled inward, forming a feather pattern of white and brown.
[Converting Destiny Force to Kinetic Force.]
Kinetic Force, the secondary force of birdfolk, amplified the kinetic energy of oneself or other objects. Seong-Hwi burst vertically upward like a blazing rocket, and Bodonchar could only grasp Seong-Hwi’s afterimage.
“Ahahahaha! I’ve reached them! At long last!” Seong-Hwi shouted as he ripped through the tent and reached the night sky, his eyes shining ecstatically.
He had finally closed the gap between him and the World Rankers, the frontrunners of the Mirror World, which he couldn’t even dream of in the past, to the point that he could almost reach them with a fully outstretched arm. He removed the Myriad Cheoyong Mask, transforming from Gurun back to his true form.
I can’t let Honin be exposed. He has more to do.
Seong-Hwi looked down at the ground he was rapidly flying away from and saw orcs running frantically. Bulgasal was acting according to plan at the rear, and orcs at the vanguard were panicking due to the surprise attack in the command tent.
“Chwik! Where the hell is the weapon thief?!”
“All of you, come to Lord Bodonchar’s tent! Chwik!”
Once he was certain that the operation had gone according to plan, Seong-Hwi slightly loosened the guard he had heightened to the extreme.
Alright. Master Taidzu will do the rest—Huh?
Just then, Seong-Hwi thought he saw something faintly shining in the sky.
A... grey star?
[The Steel Tortoise Heart Guard detects danger.]
[Activating Item Skill: Steel Plate.]
A steel shield suddenly formed before Seong-Hwi, but was instantly destroyed like a sand castle struck by a wave.
A shadow?
The moment Seong-Hwi noticed a black fist rise from his shadow, he drew out his mana and guarded his chest with both hands. The black fist smashed into his arms, breaking them like twigs.
“KURGH!”
He was blown away like an insect struck by a wrecking ball, over Fortitudo’s rampart.
***
“Chwik! Damn it all! The damn rat has a bunch of annoying skills!” Bodonchar shouted, snorting in rage as he looked out the hole in the ceiling of his tent.
A black shadow that looked identical to Bodonchar stood behind him. It was in a punching stance, but its right arm was missing from its fist to its elbow. The missing parts returned soon after, and the shadow lay down behind Bodonchar, returning to a regular shadow.
“C-chwik! Are you okay, my lord?”
“Lord Bodonchar!”
“Chwik! How could Master Gurun have betrayed you?!”
“Assemble at the command tent! There’s been an ambush!”
The orcs who had been unable to react to the sudden events gathered before the command tent.
“Chwik! Do not make a fuss! It’s just a scratch!” Bodonchar shouted irritably as he stared at his side, bleeding slightly.
It was unmistakably a human! How did he penetrate the Black Insect Armor?! Bodonchar wondered.
Although the Black Insect Armor was not as impenetrable as when it belonged to Insectum, its current defense did not fall behind significantly. Bodonchar had believed its defense rivaled that of the Tortoise Emperor, Lee Kang-San, but it had been penetrated not by Kang-San, but by the spear of a human he had never seen before, infused with a bizarre power.
However, the wound the spear made was not the issue. It was the unknown curse known as the Holy Blood of Degradation, which had permeated his caliber.
My star power was weakened! How is this even possible?!
Normally, even if the human had an automatic protection skill, Bodonchar would not have failed to capture him. He looked up at the sky and saw his star, Betrayal, shining with a grey light. Not only was the light dimmer than usual, but it kept flickering.
The magnitude! Damn human! Is he a Recorder? I didn’t see a star!
Bodonchar gritted his teeth and commanded, “Chwik! What are you just standing around for?! Deal with the disturbance at the rear!”
“C-chwik! Yes, my lord!”
“All warriors with detection skills, follow me! Chwik!”
“There are only a few enemies! Chwik! First, set up an encircling net and...”
As the orcs quickly got to work, Bodonchar shouted, “Chwik! And bring me Shaman Atanggi and Gurun!”
Atanggi should be able to lift this curse!
He was also suspicious of Gurun because the human had disguised himself as him.
“CHWIK! HUMAAAAAN!” he screamed, recalling the face of the impertinent human who had vanished from his sight in just a few seconds. He had black hair, black eyes, and an elated smile. “CHWIK! YOU’D BETTER HOPE I DON’T FIND YOU! I WILL TEAR YOU INTO PIECES!”
The wounded Bodonchar’s screams echoed throughout the plains.
***
“Kurgh! Dammit...”
Seong-Hwi grimaced, smashed into the inner walls of Fortitudo’s rampart like a meteorite. Both his arms were broken and bent unnaturally, and his face was bright red.
“Urgh... Argh!”
However, his agony was not due to his broken arms; he was accustomed to that level of pain. The golden light shining from his solar plexus dimmed, reducing the pain that felt like his body was being eaten alive.
[Three strands of the Grace Period Chains have broken due to overuse of the Fruit of the World Tree.]
[82 of the Grace Period Chains remain.]
[82 days remain until the termination of Indigestion.]
[18% of the Fruit of the World Tree’s power is available.]
...
Seong-Hwi closed his eyes and focused on visualizing the Fruit of the World Tree inside him. The faces on the surface of the Fruit screamed silently as they gnawed on Curiositas’s Grace Period Chains.
“Huff! Huff! It took three strands to use the maximum output. It was only for ten seconds...”
In other words, he had three fewer days to live. Death had taken a large step toward him, but Seong-Hwi was smiling.
It was a small price to pay. I managed to stab a World Ranker!
And it wasn’t with just any spear, but the Spear of Longinus. Seong-Hwi had been dead-set on borrowing the destiny of Longinus, the Roman centurion, since reading about him at the National Library of Korea.
His cursed spear, which had forever engraved the name of an ordinary Roman soldier into history, could lower the caliber of anyone it pierced. Its effect couldn’t be used on more than one person at a time, and the effect could be broken, but such a power was more than worthy of being called a trump card.
My fighting style is almost complete, Seong-Hwi thought.
One only needed two ways to win a battle. They could either be strong or weaken the enemy. Seong-Hwi could rapidly heighten his caliber and amplify his stats using the Wings of Evolution. On top of that, although at the cost of his lifespan, he could temporarily become as strong as a Spare Ranker by using the Fruit of the World Tree. Now, he could even lower the enemy’s caliber using the Spear of Longinus.
Thanks to these things, he managed to injure a World Ranker in only a year and a half since reaching the Mirror World. The result may only be thanks to a surprise attack, but it was an astonishing feat nonetheless.
My strength was my wide skill arsenal, which allowed me to devise the perfect strategy for any opponent.
His D Weapon, the Tarot Deck of Destiny, made that possible.
I don’t need to abandon that strength. I need a powerful and unforeseeable attack that can balance that strength!
Seong-Hwi believed the answer lay in his unique caliber.
It may have been faint, but... I saw a grey star. And the fist that came out from my shadow... Something was off about it.
He was sure that it was Bodonchar’s attack. It made the Steel Plate look like a piece of scrap metal and easily broke Seong-Hwi’s arms despite him having S-rank Health.
I felt like an average human on Earth again when that fist approached me. It gave me a strong premonition that I couldn’t block it.
Seong-Hwi then recalled his conversation with Kang-San.
“When those who have realized their unique caliber use skills, whatever skill it may be, the fatalistic power of their star is applied to them.”
“Fatalistic?”
“Deterministic, inevitable, whatever you want to call it. In short, they are recorded as the victor in the Akashic Records.”
That black fist must have been infused with the power of Bodonchar’s star! That’s why my arms broke, as if the result had already been decided! Is this... the power of unique caliber? But... I’ve felt this kind of premonition before... Seong-Hwi thought.
Countless orcs had gathered around him while he was deep in thought. Taidzu had fortified the night patrol, taking Seong-Hwi’s plan into account.
After receiving news of Seong-Hwi’s return, Taidzu rushed to him and said, “Cheon Seong-Hwi! Oh no, you’re a mess. Are you okay?”
Seong-Hwi stood up and stared at his broken arms as he summoned the Tarot Deck of Destiny.
[Activating Unique Skill: Symbol Embodiment.]
[Ace of Cups]
[Two of Cups]
...
[Eight of Cups]
[Torah, one of the symbols of No.2 The High Priestess]
Nine cards flew out of the deck and flashed with a golden light. Thirty-six blue cups appeared, combined into one, and silver water, imbued with the effect of Torah, filled the cup. The silver water wrapped Seong-Hwi’s arms like casts, healing his wounds as the sound of bones being reattached echoed.
“I sure am,” Seong-Hwi replied.
“You even have a healing skill? You surprise me to no end,” Taidzu said. His eyes shone as he asked, “Did you succeed?”
“Yes, I gave him a very filthy sting,” Seong-Hwi answered confidently.
“I see...”
“All that remains is for you to choose. Will you defer the matter to the future, or seize the present opportunity? If you decide to defer, I will retrieve the sting here and now. It is far too valuable to stick around here,” Seong-Hwi pressured.
Taidzu looked at the sky beyond the rampart—more specifically, at the dim grey star, thinking, It’s certainly gotten weaker.
“I can’t go back when there’s a shortcut right before my eyes,” he declared.
Yes! Seong-Hwi shouted inwardly.
Taidzu, his voice blazing with his desire for revenge, clenched his fists and said, “I suppose... I must return to being Arinchar for a moment.”
***
The sun rose, and the plains in front of Fortitudo’s gates were in disorder due to the night ambush.
“Chwik! Damn those rebels!”
“They even stole the cauldrons we need to cook our food!”
“Chwik! We can’t even boil our borts!”
The Tusk tribe orcs had no choice but to eat spoonfuls of stale borts because of Bulgasal’s feast last night. Borts was an orc cavalry field ration, and was dried meat finely ground into a powder. It was conveniently portable and high in calories, allowing cavalry to travel long distances without growing tired. Borts was usually used to make soup, but the warriors were forced to take spoonfuls of the powder because someone had stolen all their cauldrons.
The orcs, complaining as they had breakfast, heard a loud noise.
“Chwik? What’s that sound?”
“Huh? Chwik! L-look over there!”
“The gates! Chwik! The gates are opening!”
Fortitudo’s tightly shut gates were slowly opening.