Chapter Sixty-Two: An Old Friend

Everyone was pressed to the ground by the Plague Gaze.

They could only look up at Kana.

As for Kana, his "Stout Soul" allowed him to withstand the weakness brought by the gaze.

Watching him, he walked step by step toward Retainker, who had already transformed into a maggot-like monster.

Retainker could see Kana's strength clearly.

Corrupting everyone present would take a certain amount of time anyway, so he was not in a hurry at all. He just stood there, quietly watching Kana.

"Human, you want to challenge me?" Retainker's voice was now full of grating friction, carrying a certain degree of mental fluctuation.

"Afraid?"

"Huh? Hhahahaha!"

Kana's words made Retainker burst into laughter. Along with his laughter, green fluids and some plump white maggots even sprayed from his mouth.

"You actually want to challenge an apostle of a god!"

Retainker laughed so hard he was almost out of breath. After a while, he caught his breath, looked at Kana, and smiled, "Your ignorant courage makes my lord very interested. Come on, human! Even if you fail, my lord will still grant you the title of warrior."

Kana merely smiled, a sense of confidence radiating from him.

Yes, facing the divine envoy of an evil god, facing the gaze cast down by an evil god, Kana radiated confidence—a temperament completely mismatched with the current environment.

Perhaps to make this duel look more entertaining, the evil god even eased the pressure on the others, allowing those immobilized spectators to speak.

"Your Highness!"

Aliris's voice came from behind.

Kana said nothing more, channeling his mana into the sword he had newly gripped.

His voice was confident and steady: "Trust me."

Everyone present fell silent. The confidence in his voice was not put on.

"If you hadn't revealed your true form, I truly wouldn't have recognized you," Kana muttered to himself.

He recognized the monster before him.

Perhaps in the original plotline, he wasn't directly killed by Rurich and didn't completely embrace the rot, but instead managed to escape.

Because in version 2.0, he became a dedicated raid boss used for grinding skills and familiarizing players with the mechanics of that era.

Entering the 10-player raid would inevitably result in 5 people being randomly suppressed, manifested in the exact same way as the current Plague Gaze.

Later on, this boss directly became a badge of honor for skilled players.

If you could solo him, you were guaranteed to be a skilled player.

Many guilds specializing in raid progression even specifically required applicant members to be able to solo this boss.

And Kana, as it happened, was a skilled player; he had fought this boss until he was sick of it.

He looked at the weapon in his hand.

[Sword of the Mountain Warrior]
[Heavy Sword—One-Handed Sword—Magic]
[Attributes: Tenacious, Sturdy, Crushing]
[Effects: Mountain Warrior, Brutal Strike, In the Name of the Grey Mountains]
[Mountain Warrior: When acknowledged by the mountains—gain enhancement (Constitution + Agility +)]
[Brutal Strike: When the wielder attacks with this weapon—gain Fracture (Penetration + Strength +)]
[In the Name of the Grey Mountains: When the wielder calls upon the name of the Grey Mountains—trigger an overwhelmingly powerful strike (Magic Piercing + Evil Piercing + Punch-Through +)]
[Description: A warrior's sword that can only be wielded by one acknowledged by the mountains. Your heroic deeds have been acknowledged. Raise your sword and receive the blessing!]

In a word—Overpowered!

He raised the Warrior's Sword in his right hand.

"Grey Mountains! Bestow your blessing upon me!"

Following Kana's loud shout, the night mountains began to tremble.

A stone platform rose from beneath Kana's feet, lifting him up.

A brownish-grey radiance surged from the earth into his body, illuminating the Warrior's Sword in his hand.

[Status: Blessing of the Grey Mountains]
[You stand atop the Grey Mountains, and the damage you take is reduced by 30%.]

"In the name of the mountains!"

"Charge, warrior!"

"Take down that traitor!"

The surrounding dwarves shouted at the top of their lungs, pouring out every ounce of strength remaining in their bodies.

"Bless him! Thunder!"

Rurich seized an opportunity out of nowhere, exempting himself from a judgment.

Taking advantage of this, he directly cast a powerful blessing upon Kana.

A bolt of lightning struck down from the dark night.

Intense thunder radiance poured into Kana's body.

When the thunder radiance dissipated once more, the stone platform supporting Kana was covered in cracks, and Kana's entire body was wreathed in electric arcs.

Even his eyes flickered with the brilliance of lightning.

[Status: Thunder Charged]
[You have obtained the protection of thunder. Your movements are as fast as lightning, and your attacks are suffused with thunderous light.]

Following this divine protection, the evil god was clearly extremely displeased with Rurich. Rurich, who had previously been able to maintain a half-kneeling posture, collapsed flat onto the ground on the spot.

He could only barely lift his head, opening one eye to watch the battlefield.

"Are you ready? I can wait for you a bit longer." Retainker still stood in his original spot, looking as though he were watching a farce.

Kana stood on the stone platform, looking at him with a level gaze: "It's still not too late for you to surrender."

Retainker smiled with disdain. Within the tattered body of maggots, from a swollen arm, a massive scepter nearly two meters tall suddenly appeared.

He slammed it fiercely against the earth.

"Feel the gift of life!"

A foul green aura instantly flooded the entire area, enveloping everyone present.

Here it comes. The countdown begins.

Seeing this, Kana became even more relaxed and confident.

Because it was identical to the game.

This starting skill would continuously weaken the status of surrounding players.

Every interval of time, a stack of "Corruption" would be applied.

If the challenge was not successfully completed within 10 minutes, it would result in failure.

In reality, that meant turning into a corrupted creature of the "Lord of Rot."

Without a word, Kana leaped straight down from the high platform.

The Warrior's Sword, wreathed in thunder, delivered a vertical slash.

It cleaved a large gash across the insectoid body, causing a massive amount of green fluid to spray out. The lightning scorched the wound, making it difficult to heal.

Withdrawing the sword, he instantly executed a backward roll.

He dodged the horizontal sweep of the giant scepter, sprang back up, and violently hurled the Prince's Dagger in his left hand.

The blade flew straight and pierced firmly into Retainker's left arm, with a blood-red "rope" tied to the hilt.

With a violent pull of his left hand, Kana swung himself directly along the rope.

This maneuver allowed him to just barely dodge the horizontal swipe of the maggot's tail.

The moment he was lifted high into the air by Retainker's upward-moving left arm, Kana let go.

Plunging from the sky, he gripped the Warrior's Sword with both hands, channeling the downward momentum into a piercing thrust.

The lightning-wrapped Warrior's Sword once again pierced deep into the sweeping insectoid body.

Jumping off from the other side while holding the sword, he carved a massive wound that split the tail in half.

A massive torrent of green fluid spurted wildly.

"Gahhhrgh! Damn bug!"

This blow caused Retainker to roar in pain.

He raised the scepter, which was wrapped in a green aura, resembling a gigantic heavy hammer.

It came crashing down fiercely!

On the left.

"Bang!"

On the right.

"Bang!"

Still on the right.

"Bang!"

"Damn—bug!"

Retainker grew somewhat frantic, feeling as though his attacks were being completely seen through.

He changed his attack pattern.

Yet the moment Kana saw it, he knew what Retainker was going to do.

Roll.

"Aaaaaah!"

A horizontal strike from the upper right.

Every single attack was dodged. The enraged Retainker was even beginning to lose his mind.

It's time! Kana silently chanted inwardly.

Just as he anticipated, the enraged Retainker raised the scepter—now transformed into a giant green hammer—and swept it horizontally toward him from the upper right.

At this moment, Kana lunged fiercely forward.

The shield on his left hand transformed into a slanted convex shield, channeling nearly the majority of his mana into it.

The shield was likewise wrapped in flashes of lightning. In this exact fraction of a second, he unleashed a full-powered shield bash.

The blood vessels all over his body bulged violently and turned crimson.

"Bang!"

A deafening crash echoed.

Amidst the astonished gazes of all the dwarves, finding that microscopic gap with pinpoint accuracy and executing a full-powered shield parry, Kana forcefully batted the giant scepter clean out of Retainker's grip.

He had been disarmed.

"No!"

Retainker roared, but his hands were already beyond his control, trembling continuously.

The scepter flew straight out of his grasp.

Kana did not hesitate for a fraction of a second, not wasting a single superfluous movement. He simply raised his left hand—the one that had just executed the shield parry—and jerked it upward violently.

The Prince's Dagger, still stabbed into Retainker's arm, once again served as the anchor point for the blood-red "rope."

This time, the rope reeled in sharply, hauling Kana directly upward.

Taking advantage of the split-second Retainker was dazed, Kana rushed right up to his torso.

Kana's face magnified within Retainker's incredulous field of vision.

"Is this the power you gained... from rotting to this extent?"

Simple words pierced ruthlessly through Retainker's psychological defenses.

He raised his sword.

And slashed downward diagonally.

"Aaaaaaaah!"