𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟏𝟒
Several days have passed since the battle with the 18th Apostle. I received a message from Aizen and immediately headed to the Elf Forest.
The World Tree’s recovery was finally complete.
As expected, with the Emperor Guild members gathered, the World Tree’s recovery was quickly finished, and I heard they received a buff as a reward.
‘But still……’
Just like with Ukron, the World Tree reward wasn’t great.
After diligently working on its recovery for days, the reward was merely a buff.
The World Tree’s recovery took quite a bit of time, so I expected a decent reward, but that expectation turned into disappointment as soon as I heard about the buff.
“Oh, you’ve arrived!”
Anyway, after a long walk, I arrived at the Elf Forest and saw Radells, who greeted me so enthusiastically that I momentarily doubted who he was.
Was he always such a brightly smiling elf?
Regardless, I nodded and took a few steps into the Elf Forest. As if waiting for me, a message appeared.
[The blessing of the World Tree dwells within you.]
[For 24 hours, your Health, Magic Power, and all stats will increase by 10%.]
‘Is this the reward?’
While I couldn’t say it was amazing, it was a decent enough reward.
I figured they probably gave this buff to help us face the First Apostle. I looked at Radells, who was smiling beside me, and he began explaining as if he had been waiting for this moment.
“Actually, the World Tree’s recovery is complete. Thanks to you, this forest is once again filled with energy, just like before.”
“The barrier is still up, though?”
At the mention of the barrier, Radells’ expression briefly darkened.
“If we lift the barrier, the evil energy will absorb the World Tree’s power. This is something I can’t do anything about.”
‘So, in the end, it’s the same situation.’
It seemed like the only difference was that the World Tree was recovered, so it could hold out longer than before.
Are they trying to hold out until Beluin dies of old age?
If we fail the Main Scenario, there’s a high chance Beluin will awaken. I wondered if they could hold out in this forest even then.
‘More importantly, why are there so many guild members here?’
As I continued walking deeper into the forest while talking with Radells, I soon spotted Aizen along with numerous guild members.
“You’ve arrived.”
“Yeah, but the reward is worse than I expected.”
“There shouldn’t be any problems. Everyone earned various items through Contribution Points for recovering the World Tree.”
“Ah, right, there were Contribution Point rewards too.”
Would they have given a better reward if there weren’t any Contribution Point rewards?
After having such a pointless thought, I looked around at the Emperor Guild members again.
There were so many people that it felt like the entire guild had gathered. Seeing this many members gathered, it seemed like they had been intentionally assembled.
“Are we leaving now?”
“Yes, is there something else?”
“No, not really.”
While Aizen and the guild members were busy recovering the World Tree, I also wandered around trying to explore, but I didn’t find anything special.
‘Well, I guess it doesn’t matter.’
Thinking back, I’ve done almost everything I could.
I recovered the World Tree and received a buff, freed Ukron from control and received a Legendary-grade sword, and activated the Temple of Purification to lift the curse on the Abandoned Castle.
There was nothing left to do.
The only thing remaining was to defeat the First Apostle and restore the seal to its original state.
“What about the crystal?”
“Here it is.”
Activating the Temple of Purification required a crystal, and we needed to fill the crystal with Magic Power.
I had entrusted that task to Aizen. I received the crystal he handed me and checked how much it was filled, and I saw that it was filled more than I expected.
━Stored Magic Power: 2,145,384.
“……You gathered a lot.”
Roughly, 10,000 stored Magic Power equaled 1 minute, so we could operate the Temple of Purification for about 214 minutes.
It was almost over 3 hours, so I thought it should be enough and nodded, putting the crystal in my Item Storage.
‘But isn’t Lee Joo-ho being too quiet?’
If he found out about the secret passage, he should be making some kind of move, but he was strangely quiet.
‘I’d rather not be caught off guard.’
If things went wrong, he could potentially infiltrate and interfere during the fight with the First Apostle.
If that happened, the raid would be as good as a failure. After a brief contemplation, I came up with a decent plan and took out the Sword of Protection from my Item Storage and handed it to Aizen.
“Oh, by the way, do you have any swordsmanship skills?”
“I have an A-rank Swordsmanship skill.”
“What level?”
“Level 26, but why do you ask?”
It was Twilight’s first Legendary-grade item, but I couldn’t use it, and it would disappear after the Main Scenario ended.
So, I thought it would be better for Aizen to use it. I remembered the stat restrictions and asked about them first, and after confirming he could use it, I was relieved.
Lucky guy.
“Use this weapon.”
Moreover, it wasn’t just the Sword of Protection.
It was the Sword of Protection that I had generously enhanced to +7, so I could guarantee it would be much better than the weapon Aizen was currently using.
And Aizen, upon seeing the Sword of Protection, showed a surprised expression.
“It’s a Legend item.”
He spoke calmly despite his surprised expression.
“I received it from Ukron. He said if you put that sword in the seal, it will return to its original state, so try using it.”
“Thank you.”
As I handed the Sword of Protection to Aizen, I had a slight worry. I wondered if I should have enhanced it to +10 instead of just +7.
However, if I had enhanced it to +10, questions about how I did it would have arisen, and I didn’t want to deal with those questions, so I enhanced it to a reasonable +7, just enough to avoid suspicion.
Still, since it was a Legendary-grade item, the enhancement options were quite good, so I believed it would be of considerable help in the fight against the First Apostle.
“Thanks to you, our chances of success will increase.”
“Oh, I have something to tell you about that.”
I explained the countermeasures I had prepared in case Lee Joo-ho decided to intrude.
* * *
My countermeasure was very simple.
Aizen and the guild members would deal with the First Apostle, and I would block the secret passage.
Unlike before, now that I had strengthened my weapons to +15, I could face Lee Juho with a smile, and Aizen could face the First Apostle without any interference.
However, there was a drawback: we wouldn’t be able to obtain the items dropped by the Apostle. But I could solve that by lending my legendary weapon in exchange for just one item dropped by the Apostle.
[The Temple of Purification is activated.]
[Stored Magic Power: 2,145,384.]
[All curses that have permeated the earth will disappear for the next 214 minutes and 31 seconds.]
However, Aizen showed signs of opposition since I would be excluded from the battle with the Apostle. But when I said that if Lee Juho attacked with a vengeance, we would have to face both the Apostle and Lee Juho, he reluctantly agreed.
Of course, this operation was not without its problems.
There was a possibility that Aizen might be defeated by the Apostle. However, I tried to ignore it, thinking that Aizen, wielding a legendary weapon, wouldn’t be easily defeated.
‘But what if he really loses?’
Didn’t Ukron say it?
That the First Apostle was stronger than him.
‘Well, I’ve prepared for that to some extent, so it’s okay.’
Anyway, after activating the Temple of Purification, I immediately ran to the location of the secret passage.
Using the Giant’s Sprint, I ran at a speed of almost 4,000 and arrived at the location of the secret passage in an instant. I saw the guild members busy with various preparations.
They seemed to be raising their stats by eating food or drinking potions.
‘Come to think of it, Sina has never made a potion.’
Did she need some special ingredients or recipes?
Anyway, as the preparations were almost finished, someone opened the secret passage, and I saw Aizen leading the guild members.
“Ah, right.”
What should I do with the orb Ukron gave me?
The orb seemed to be used when attacking the walls where the followers were, but since we were using the secret passage now, it didn’t seem necessary to use it.
‘Should I just watch for now?’
After confirming that all the guild members had entered the secret passage, I slowly moved and entered last.
Lee Juho might be ahead, but then Aizen and the guild members would take care of him. And if they did, he wouldn’t be able to log in for 24 hours, so it could be considered a good thing.
However, since I had to face him head-on, I thought the possibility of that was small. As I walked through the passage, I accessed the Twilight homepage. The reason was to watch Aizen’s broadcast.
‘But this guy set it to 10,000 won again.’
Simply put, I was supposed to guard the stairs leading down to the First Apostle and immediately help if the Emperor Guild was in danger.
Also, we agreed to use the broadcast to confirm that, and thanks to that, Aizen turned on the broadcast not for profit but to relay the situation to me.
‘Huh?’
Meanwhile, I saw a rather unexpected sight. As soon as Aizen started the broadcast, quite a few people started connecting.
How did they know and connect?
━Wow, he limited it to 1,000 people.
━Didn’t he set it to 10,000 people before?
━Show us the main scenario sooner.
And the chat that was coming up.
After reading it roughly, it seemed that Aizen had limited the number of viewers to 1,000.
I didn’t know the reason, but I decided it wasn’t something to worry about. I arrived at the stairs leading to the First Apostle and quietly watched the broadcast. I could see Aizen drawing the Holy Sword of Protection as he arrived first in the wide space where the Apostle was.
Now, he would face the First Apostle, presumed to be the final boss of the main scenario……
Clang━
“……?”
What was that?
I thought he was about to fight the First Apostle, but before he could even approach the Apostle, a transparent wall seemed to block Aizen.
‘Was there something like that there?’
Come to think of it, I only remembered retreating as soon as I discovered the First Apostle.
Anyway, this seemed to be a problem.
As expected, looking at the chat window, it was filled with messages asking what this was all about.
━Wow, did you turn on the broadcast without even checking this?
━There was a reason he limited it to 1,000 people lol.
━The broadcast is over.
━Can I get a refund for this?
‘What to do.’
Aside from the chat, Aizen and the guild members also seemed flustered.
Who would have known that they would be blocked right in front of the Apostle after receiving the World Tree’s buff and raising their stats with various food and potions?
I also thought about a good way to solve this, and then I remembered the orb Ukron gave me.
‘Honestly, I don’t know if I can solve it even if I use the orb.’
Looking at Aizen swinging the Holy Sword of Protection diligently, trying to break the barrier, I took out the orb and crushed it, hoping to do something.
Crack━
And not long after I crushed the orb, I heard Ukron’s roar from afar.
Kuoooo━
Did this sound reach the people watching the broadcast? Everyone started talking about the sound, and after the roar, there was an explosion, and then the secret passage I was in started shaking.
Rumble!━
‘What kind of attack did he do?’
In addition, the earthquake Ukron caused also brought about a change where Aizen was.
Due to the earthquake, five of the 12 red stones in the magic circle lost their light.
━Guild Master! The wall has disappeared!
One of the guild members shouted as they confirmed that the wall had disappeared, and Aizen nodded and then ordered everyone to prepare for battle.
However, the First Apostle also seemed to have awakened due to the earthquake, as he slowly rose from his seat.
━It seems Ukron’s control has been released.
Ordinary clothes in appearance.
His face was hidden under a deep hood, but his attire was leather armor that emphasized movement, with an iron vest over it.
And the sword he held in one hand.
He didn’t look like the final boss of the main scenario, let alone a raid boss, but the Apostle didn’t seem to care and spoke to the guild members.
━Was this your doing?
“Everyone, attack.”
But Aizen didn’t answer and ordered the guild members to attack, while he himself charged at the Apostle with the Holy Sword of Protection.
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