V51C1P1 – The Star of Palrangka
The Palrangka War was one of the most intense battles the Versailles Continent had ever known. Seven human kingdoms, other races and monsters fought over the dominance of the continent during this great war. Weed was summoned onto this historical battlefield by Batalli the G.o.d of Fighting in order to earn some more combat accomplishments.
“Kill them!”
“You dirty b.a.s.t.a.r.ds! Kill all those Bromba sc.u.m!”
“Elite warriors of the Mapon Kingdom! Let us fight our way to victory!”
“Glory to Her Majesty!”
Shouts, screams and the sound of metals clas.h.i.+ng filled the air of the battleground.
“So many times have I been to h.e.l.l and back that I have gotten used to it.”
Weed recalled his old house, which was half underground but still comfortable enough to stretch his legs.
Having fought in so many wars, he had now become quite used to seeing monsters, giants, or even flying beasts. To him, Bone Dragons were just junior staff members, and Death Knights were part-time employees; going into war was simply another day in the office.
“Warriors of the Mapon Kingdom! Let’s reap the fruit of our h.e.l.lish trainings! Let our enemies pay for our blood and sweat!”
“Our swords shall have no mercy; let’s show what Kelton’s knights are made of!”
“Long live the Bromba Kingdom!”
Along with the kingdoms of Bromba and Mapon, armies from various different nations were tangled up in combat.
The hooves of the horses thundered on the ground as squads of knights charged forward, blind arrows made whoos.h.i.+ng sounds as it flew 4, 5 meters ahead of him. In the middle of this great battlefield stood Weed.
Beyond the armies of the seven kingdoms, there were legions of other races centered around barbarians and elves. Behind them, an endless horde of swarming monsters.
‘Palrangka War… I should probably make sure I succeed this time.’
Standing next to Weed, there was someone he had to protect just like last time.
“Valiant sir, you are the only one I can trust. Please take me to a safe place.”
A beautiful princess riding a white horse pleaded.
*Ding!*
< A Request from Princess Remi
The first princess of the kingdom of Isran, a small nation from a remote region with a population of 80,000. Loving the scenery of the ocean, she wished to spend her life in her homeland but was dragged to the Bromba Kingdom to become the 5th royal concubine of the crown prince through an arranged marriage. Due to the sudden outbreak of the war however, she was driven to the battlefield before they even had the chance to have a proper ceremony. Now she yearns to return to her home country.
Difficulty Level: A historic quest of a hero
Rewards: First-hand experience of the great historic battle. One can become the main hero of this important historical event.
Quest restrictions: Knights cannot refuse to accept this quest as it is a request from a princess. >
There have been very few cases where Weed failed a quest or a hunt.
In the past, he had lost his life in the Tower of Heroes and was reincarnated as a Skeleton Knight. And although he partic.i.p.ated in the Palrangka War, he was lacking in levels and combat techniques, which eventually led him to fall in the battlefield after fighting to his heart’s content.
As there was no response from Weed, Princess Remi opened her ruby lips again.
“Sir knight, you are all I have. You, a person of great honor and high pride; I know that you will help me.”
The mandatory acceptance of the quest.
Weed climbed onto the front seat of the white horse Princess Remi was riding.
“Oh my!”
“I shall protect you, Princess, so please hold on tight.”
“Yes, I will… I put my trust in you, Sir knight.”
With the armies from different countries locked up in an extensive battle, their escape route was blocked. Even in the sky, drakes were flying around breathing out fire indiscriminately to attack the land.
A chaotic battle! Several different forces were mingled together, fighting among themselves. Even after he escaped their current location, he would have to break his way through armies of other races as well as monsters with levels around 300 to 400.
‘To increase the chance of success, I should head to the elven camp.’
Elves did not possess an evil nature; they would not attack them if Weed explained the situation and sought their understanding. With some well-spoken flattery, things would turn even more favorable. He could just stay among the elves until an opportunity arises and flee from the monster armies, escaping the battlefield. This was a reasonable plan with a high chance of success.
‘But that would be too easy.’
In the past, when Weed was first fighting in the Palrangka War, his level was 356.
Presently he had reached level 508, and had learned many powerful skills including secret sculpting skills. Further taking into account the quests that he had since completed, the better equipment and the stats that he had so diligently improved, the combat power of the past Weed could not even stand comparison with the present. When considering the undead army he could now summon on top of it, this gap in power was akin to that between an airplane and a bicycle.
“Hmm. What would be the best way to smash them?”
With sharp eyes, he looked around and observed the battlefield far and wide.
As one advanced in level, one began to take in their surroundings from a different perspective. The first things Weed noticed were how skillfully the soldiers were fighting and the equipment they had.
‘They aren’t too bad, but still quite crude. I could wipe them all out just by summoning some zombies.’
Even the knights were nothing more than scarecrows in the middle of the field to the eyes of Weed with his current power level.
It was an opportunity to demonstrate his overwhelming power, just like during his time as the Great King of Desert.
“Time for the harvest.”
Weed yanked the reins, making the white horse gallop forward.
*Tabdak Tabdak!*
The white horse charged towards the Bromba army’s camp.
‘Roaring Gale Spear skill!’
Weed drew out the Thunder Spear and swung it in the air, creating a strong gust of wind that hit the soldiers.
“Kuuegh!”
“Arrrghh!”
“E, enemy!”
The soldiers struck by the attack were thrown tens of meters away, then turned into grey shades and disappeared. As many of the common conscript soldiers during the Warring Age were below level 50, they were easily killed by a single area-of-effect skill.
*Booooom!*
As an additional effect of Thunder Spear, bolts of lightning struck the earth. As the thunderbolts. .h.i.t the ground, intense shockwave reverberated throughout the battlefield.
Dozens of more soldiers in the vicinity were also met with an instant death.
‘That’s the way to do it.’
Showing off one’s strength after a power up!
The items dropped by the dead soldiers caught Weed’s eyes.
A needle with a blunt end, a broken candle, a worn rope; most of them were junk, and the only item he found that was worth something was a set of shabby leather armor.
It was so old that its color had faded and it was full of holes, and its poor condition had lowered the Defense score as well.
“Repair! Clean Armor!”
As soon as Weed used the skills, it turned into a s.h.i.+ny new piece of equipment. Its Defense was still only 16, but it now increased the maximum Life Force by 1,850 points.
“Princess, please wear this.”
Weed had fixed the armor because he wanted the princess to use it.
“Do I have to? It smells rather strongly of sweat.”
“You have to wear it in order to survive.”
“But it looks so uncomfortable and big…”
“H-he’s a demon!”
“That one is too strong . We need to stall him here and call the knights for help.”
While Weed was salvaging the leather armor, royal soldiers of the Bromba Kingdom closed in on him, armed with spears and s.h.i.+elds.
As none of them looked particularly strong, Weed let them be until they were close enough and he started to strike.
“Lightning Wave!”
*Psssssssst!*
Using the lightning skill of the Thunder Spear, he blew away a whole block of nearby soldiers who had stepped into his attack range. He didn’t normally use area-of-effect skills very often, due to the large consumption of mana a.s.sociated with them, but it was a worse waste of time to deal with such weak soldiers one by one.
“Lightning Wave!”
Another shot of the lightning skill!
“Aaaarrrgh!”
All the approaching soldiers were either dead or knocked unconscious.
“I-I’m scared.”
Princess Remi, sitting behind him on the back of the white horse, trembled at the sight of slaughter.
“This is a battlefield. You need to wear the leather armor.”
“But you don’t know if the armor will save my life for sure. I believe in your strength, dear knight.”
“Lightning Wave!”
*Boooooom!*
“Ascending Thunderbolt!”[1]
He used the area-of-effect skills sealed in the Thunder Spear liberally. Driving his horse recklessly in the midst of an army, he was shooting attack skills in all directions.
“Kyyyaaaaah!! I’ll wear it. I said I’ll wear it!”
It could be said that it was an ill-fortune for Princess Remi that Weed had been chosen to a.s.sume the role of her knight.
Sure, he could be kind and warm, but that side of his personality was limited to his family only.
And while Princess Remi was a beautiful lady, Weed’s standard of beauty had become Seoyoon before he knew it, so naturally she could not leave that much of an impression on him.
When standing next to Seoyoon, anyone would look like a sea squirt in comparison.
“I w-wore it.”
Princess Remi put on the leather armor that soldiers wore on top of her dress, and Weed picked up a leather cloak to cover her further.
“Archers. Shoot!”
At that instant, about 2,000 archers of the Bromba Kingdom released their bowstrings, aiming at Weed and Princess Remi. A hail of arrows covered the sky, each shot flying towards them.
“There’re arrows coming this way. Kyyyyaaaa!”
Princess Remi screamed.
Weed spun the Thunder Spear in his hand at high speed; the highly advanced skill of spinning the spear using only the back of his outstretched right hand. Although Warriors had a similar defense skill such as Rotating s.h.i.+eld, Weed had never learned them. He was forcibly implementing a skill just by using his own body.
*Bababababaaaaaam!*
The spear sliced the air as it rotated in a circle. Most of the arrows flying towards Weed and Princess Remi were ricocheted off the shaft of the spear. A few managed to penetrate their way in, but there was something else that was blocking their path.
“Xing Xing, go do your work!”
“Yes, master. It is an honor to be summoned by you. I shall work tirelessly to ensure your comfort and convenience.”
He had summoned a wind spirit that was as diligent as a slave to weaken the arrows’ impact. Equipped with Fabio’s heavy armor and Bar Khan’s Cloak of h.e.l.l on top of it, he barely took any damage from the incoming arrows. With Weed covering her with his own body, naturally Princess Remi in the back seat was perfectly unscathed.
“Arrows don’t work at all against him.”
“His strength is beyond imagination.”
“Is he a hero that was sent from heaven? How can there be such a powerful knight…”
The look of shock was apparent among the Bromba’s royal archers.
Weed’s lips curled into a devilish smile.
In truth, such attacks from the arrows could have been blocked by summoning more wind spirits or by using magic. As he was not on the Path of Struggle anymore, he could use his Necromancer skills here, which meant he could also have cast Bone s.h.i.+eld and summoned a wall of bones. Despite the fact that he had many other possible ways to block the actions of the archers in advance, he waited for them to shoot arrows in order to make a great scene.
‘Now, this is what you call style.’
This truly was an att.i.tude befitting a pro celebrity who considered his viewers.
****
KMC Media was airing the video showing Weed pa.s.sing through the advanced training hall.
“Manager, our instantaneous viewing rate has reached over 44%.”
“Yeah, another combat encounter has just ended. Switch the screen to the Garnav Plain quickly. Let’s show them the cheering crowd in that place.”
Almost every user of Royal Road was currently watching Weed’s challenge in the advanced training hall. Each channel that was currently broadcasting this adventure was witnessing their highest viewing rates ever.
All the business in schools, companies, and government offices was temporarily on hold, and pizza and chicken places were even setting the new record in the history of men in terms of the number of customers.
“We’d like to order one seasoned, one fried, and one soy chicken with sliced spring onion.”
“We’re currently having so many orders you would probably have to wait for about 5 hours, is that okay?”
“Of course, that is no problem.”
As soon as they hung up the phone, it rang again and another order came in.
In every chicken restaurant, they had stocked up at least 500 chickens in their refrigerator to accommodate for orders that would be coming in for the Battle of Garnav Plain, but they were almost running out of their storage due to Weed’s sudden trial in the advanced training hall.
“Hey boss, those people who ate chicken today probably won’t be eating it again tomorrow, right?”
“Probably.
The chicken places renewed their resolve, thinking that they would just have to endure only one day of hard work.
*R-r-ring!*
“h.e.l.lo, is it possible to make a pre-order for tomorrow? I would like to have five chickens, half-half [2] and with bones.”
But they began to even receive orders for the next day in advance.
Ever since Royal Road became a hit, the initially Korean custom of having chicken with beer while watching the videos of Weed’s adventure whenever they were on air had spread all over the world. This current phenomenon had been occurring across the globe, day and night.
Oh Joo Wan and Do Chanmi in KMC Media continued on with the broadcasting show in excitement.
“Yes. We had just finished counting, and it seems Weed had made 73 successful attacks in a row with the Heraim Fencing skill. Pakclas-nim, isn’t this a new record?”
“…”
“Pakclas-nim. Please respond.”
The other panelists including Pakclas had not spoken a word during the entire first half of the program, which had resulted in them receiving a great amount of backlash from the viewers. He had also been given several firm warnings from the production crew since, so he tried to come to his senses and opened his mouth.
“*Cough*. Yes. Well, it is certainly an impressive number, but it was just a simple battle of targeting the monsters.”
“But it is still a record, isn’t it?”
“A record is nothing but a record. Someone else will break it someday.”
Pakclas hung his head down after saying this. He had been in a good mood, having made his first guest appearance on a TV program in a long time — he hadn’t expected that he would make such pathetic and miserable comments.
“Necrat-nim. I did not know that the Heraim Fencing skill could be this powerful. What is your opinion on this sword technique?”
“I almost can’t understand why it is so strong. Sure, you can acc.u.mulate damage through continuous chain attacks, but I must say this is possible not because the sword skill itself is powerful, but rather because Weed is such an OP… *ahem*, I mean, because he’s on the Path of Struggle.”
“Because he’s on the Path of Struggle?”
“Yes, you need a straight one-way pa.s.sage that is highly populated with monsters in order to take full advantage of the Heraim Fencing skill.”
“But finding out such a benefit of the Heraim Fencing skill and knowing to exploit it in the Path of Struggle is in itself a clever move, don’t you think?”
“Yes, I’ll acknowledge that up to a certain extent. But this is just a matter of who does it first. And anyone would be able to pa.s.s through the Path of Struggle using such a method.”
With that, the message board of the company website exploded with the viewers’ comments.
(Continued on next part…)
[1]From the proofreading team: this skill from the Thunder Spear was previously translated as Electric Shock in v44c4. The name means that it is an attack made of a series of electric shocks soaring like torpedoes (thanks to Maxximal for checking the raws). The translation chosen by the current translator seems more appropriate, so we’re keeping it.
[2]This is a common term people use when ordering chickens, meaning ‘half of the chicken is seasoned, and the other half is fried.’