Chapter 499: The Raiders

Chapter 499: The Raiders

Baroque Kingdom was the kingdom closest to Beyond the Heavens Kingdom. It had maintained a close relationship with the Barras Kingdom in the past, sending support to Barras Kingdom in the form of troops in exchange for the various items and products that they created.

But that was not the case anymore.

The Baroque Kingdom had cut off all ties and exchanges with the newly established Beyond the Heavens Kingdom. Because of that, they lost the supplies that the Barras Kingdom sent as support and their kingdom was now plunged into heavy financial burdens and difficulties. The fact that they maintained a close relationship with Barras Kingdom meant that they were only a bit better than them in terms of influence. In other words, their influence, when compared to other empires and kingdoms, were abysmal. Thankfully, the number of territories under their kingdom’s rule and the people that they governed was on the higher side so they were still able to hold out for a bit longer.

Lance, a sentry guard stationed at Baroque Kingdom’s southernmost city Erdejid, yawned loudly, “Fwaaaaa. How about having some beer after our shift for today?”

“Beer sounds nice.”

He chatted together with the people on duty with him. But while they were doing so...

Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud—

“...?”

Lance felt the ground rumble and shake. The vibrations passing through the soles of his feet told him that it was definitely caused by something so he hurriedly took out his magic telescope and peered at a distance.

What he saw made him shriek in shock, “Hi, hiiiiiiiiiiik?!”

There were roughly 20,000 monster corps advancing towards where they were. The problems that they were about to face did not end there. The monsters in the monster corps were all at Level 450~490. There were even masked knights riding on top of these gigantic monsters. Then, an even more shocking fact presented itself in front of the soldiers.

“Th, that...!”

Lance’s expression turned ugly after seeing the figures of creatures that were as big as mountains with the faces of a lizard and shiny scales covering their bodies. They were all flying through the skies while flapping their wings strongly. Then, one of the beings sent out a huge hellfire that devoured and slaughtered Lance, along with more than 200 troops stationed at Erdejid and its walls.

Vwoooooooooong—

The loud blare of the horn from the intelligent monsters rang loudly as the monster corps began to advance towards Erdejid.

***

Notifications began to ring for the players present in Erdejid.

[Kingdom Quest: Erdejid in Crisis.]

Rank: SSS

Requirements: None

Rewards: EXP acquisition rate and item drop rate x2. A high contribution might grant you a noble title.

Penalty for Failure: None

Description: Erdejid, the largest city in the southernmost region of Baroque Kingdom, is being attacked by unidentified assailants, monsters and dragons. Baroque Kingdom’s greatest heroes, please lead the victory in the battle against them.

“What, what the hell?!”

“A kingdom quest?! Wait. Erdejid is in crisis?!”Fôllôw new stories at novelhall.com

“Dra, dragons...? Is this for real?”

“I heard that the unknown assailant is Crazy Tyrant Akhan.”

“That crazy bastard came to our server again?!”

The players trembled. Crazy Tyrant Akhan was originally from the American Server and was hailed as a lunatic that should never, ever be touched in Athenae. The problem was that Crazy Tyrant Akhan’s power was comparable to the power of those world-renowned players. Especially because he was a player that showed great advantage and force when it came to large-scale battles.

Just when the players were plunged into great confusion...

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

“Uaaaaaaaack!”

“Keuhaaaaaaaack!”

...screams rang loudly in the area. When they turned their heads, all they saw was the collapsed walls of the fortress and monsters running rampant. In a blink, 20,000 of Erdejid’s troops gathered. Then, the commander cried loudly, “Foreigners, please! Join us in this battle! Those that can fight! Join us!!!”

For a brief moment, the players felt terror and fear. However, they still joined the war at the behest of the 20,000 kingdom troops. Then, notifications began to spread in the entire continent. Kingdom quests were like that. They were amazing in a way that there would be no requirements and anyone could accept, whether they were from a different empire or kingdom.

And now, the best guilds of Korea had gathered together: the Iris and Ares Guilds, together with Avalon Guild, the guild that replaced Artheon Guild from the top 4, after they became subordinated to Beyond the Heavens Kingdom. At the same time, countless players and kingdom troops moved to protect Erdejid.

The viewers that watched the video were all left speechless. The only thing that they could do was use their keyboards and express what they felt about the situation.

[Everything would be over if they can’t stop them...]

[This is crazy. Is the Athenae Management doing its job?! How can they let a player do that?! Dragons on top of a monster corps?! And what are those masked knights?!]

[Athenae should explain this. ASAP.]

[F*ck! At this rate, Akhan will devour the entire Asgan Continent, right?!]

Everyone was hoping that they would quickly fix this.

***

Joy Co. Ltd.’s president, Kang Taehoon, felt an incoming migraine as his head throbbed fiercely. The conference room was covered in a thick layer of silence.

‘How did this situation come to be?’

In fact, they believed that the situation was impossible. That was why none of them had expected it to become a reality. The first thing that they pulled up was the information about Akhan’s staff.

(Death God’s Ruler’s Staff)

Rank: God

Requirements: Level 500 or higher, the one that received the Death God’s favor.

Durability: ∞ / ∞

Attack Power: 350

Special Abilities:

•All stats increase by 39%.

•Commanding Abilities increases by 200%.

•Passive Skill: God of Death’s Blessing

•Passive Skill: Berserk Monster

•Active Skill: One Man Army

•Active Skill: Death’s One Man Army

Description: The Death God, one of the Absolute Gods, has given his staff to his favored successor and has given him the authority to manage and lead the monsters.

The Death God’s Ruler’s Staff was an item with ridiculous effects and skills that were overpowered. The active skill: One Man Army was a skill that could allow the staff user to manage and lead monsters that were around 50 or more levels higher than the owner. It was a skill that can support and increase a tamer’s skill by ten more times.

The issue was Crazy Tyrant Akhan’s main class. His class was ‘Death God’s Descendant’, a God class. The Death God’s skills and abilities were extremely compatible with a tamer. In the first place, the number of monsters that Akhan could lead was already tremendous and with the Death God’s Ruler’s Staff in hand, this ability was amplified and made even stronger. The One Man Army skill could also fit perfectly with the higher skill Death’s One Man Army. It was a skill that could allow the staff user to lead monsters thirty times their usual amount.

Because of that, all of the operators of Athenae were very much concerned with the artifact. In fact, even the supercomputer, Athenae, showed great distaste and even felt very repulsed with this artifact. However, time passed by and nothing noteworthy happened. This was mainly attributed to the fact that the God of Death’s Ruler’s Staff would disappear a week after the Death’s One Man Army was used. It was the skill’s severe penalty. After all, no player would be stupid enough to waste one of the greatest artifacts in existence just for a short bout of pleasure and delight.

However, the artifact fell into the hands of Crazy Tyrant Akhan. He even went so far as obtaining around ten of the parchments called ‘Penalty Seals’ from all over the continent. It was a parchment that had an effect that could ignore penalties. In fact, the Penalty Seal could help the parchment user to avoid receiving other penalties for skills with extreme penalties. In the case of an artifact skill, the artifact would be sealed for three months.

But was that all? Of course not.

‘He used the passive Berserk Monsters in a very efficient method.’

The Berserk Monster passive attached to the Death God’s Ruler’s Staff was a skill that increases a monster’s attack power by 25%. However, it had an extreme penalty that reduces the monsters’ HP and defense by 70%.

But Akhan had obtained the treasure, ‘Shield’s Tears’, that the Shield God had left behind in the world. The Shield’s Tears was an item that created a shield with extremely high defense around the one that used it. This was not a coincidence at all. All of the items in Akhan’s hands were ridiculous, and made him the most absolute existence in the game.

There was only a 0.1% probability of this happening, but Akhan made it happen.

President Kang Taehoon sighed and got up. Team Leader Park Minggyu also got up and followed him to go to the bathroom.

“President.”

Kang Taehoon looked back at Park Minggyu. Truth was, Park Minggyu had heard some rumors when he went abroad for a meeting. At first, he thought that it was just a rumor but looking at the situation that they were in, it seemed like that rumor was true.

He looked at Kang Taehoon gravely and asked, “Is it true that Crazy Tyrant Akhan was one of the early developers of Athenae?”