𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟓𝟖
[Emperor Guild’s Rudin! Is this okay!?]
[Content: As those who know will know, Rudin of the Emperor Guild caught the Second Apostle yesterday. This means two of the Apostles designated as raid bosses have disappeared at the hands of Rudin.
And this is just the beginning.
If Rudin captures all the remaining Apostles, from the Third to the Sixth, how will others acquire items and participate in raids?
We need to ostracize Rudin now and join forces!]
“……What is this?”
As I entered the bulletin board, a random post greeted me.
In short, it seemed they weren’t happy that I caught the Second Apostle.
‘Then they should have caught it themselves.’
Of course, if you catch an Apostle, a raid boss, you can get some decent items.
You can also increase your skill level as a bonus.
However, my equipment was already perfectly tuned to the point where it didn’t need to be replaced, and my skill level, although it would take time, wasn’t something I needed to obsess over to the point of seeking out raid bosses.
Well, the Transcendence Stage skill was tempting though.
Anyway, if someone else had stepped up to catch the Second Apostle, I would have gladly yielded.
‘Hmm, but seeing as I’m thinking like this, do I prefer stable battles over thrilling ones?’
Come to think of it, that didn’t seem to be the case.
It just seemed like the reason was that there were no items to gain from catching the raid boss at this point.
Even the items dropped by the Second Apostle yesterday were of no use to me.
In short, my motivation for raid bosses had decreased.
‘Well, ever since I got the Legend-grade item, even Unique items don’t catch my eye.’
Then how could I obtain that Legend-grade item?
I once asked Illia how to obtain a Legend-grade item or an S-rank skill.
To that question, Illia said to follow the traces of legends.
The traces of legends mentioned here probably referred to quests.
‘Quests……’
Ah, come to think of it.
The S-rank skill I obtained from catching Deshon suddenly came to mind.
Deshon was a boss that appeared during a quest conducted by the Osiris Guild, which meant that the Osiris Guild was conducting a Legend-grade quest.
‘Could it be that I snatched that quest midway?’
And that’s why I got the S-rank skillbook?
“……”
For a brief moment, a feeling of guilt towards the Osiris Guild flashed through my mind, but I quickly brushed it aside and decided to check the reactions of the people in the post I was reading earlier.
━Crazy, if the raid boss was that easy to catch, it would have been caught long ago.
━I saw the Fifth Apostle get wiped out by a single magic spell before.
━Isn’t Rudin the only one who can catch it at this point?
━I don’t care about raids or anything, I just wish he’d show us what items dropped.
━Yeah. I’m really curious what dropped from the Apostle.
━Rudin, reveal the items!
Looking through the comments, there weren’t many people defending me.
As someone said, if the raid boss was an easy opponent to catch, there would have been more people defending me.
The problem was that the current Apostles were capable of massacring players, and there was no guarantee that they could be caught unconditionally, so this seemed to be the reaction.
‘Anyway, what should I do now?’
For now, the quest in the Ronda Kingdom was complete.
After easily dealing with the remaining three Apostles, starting with the Second Apostle, I was able to receive the next quest from Arus, which was to go to another kingdom and prepare.
It was practically no different from saying that he would give up on the Ronda Kingdom.
The good thing was that I could choose between the Karzen, Iot, and Anis Kingdoms.
The guild members recommended the Karzen Kingdom where Aizen was, so I had no choice but to move there yesterday.
‘It’s like I’m touring the continent.’
Anyway, thinking that I should connect soon, I closed the bulletin board I was looking at and attempted to connect through the capsule.
[May you find what you desire in the streets illuminated by Twilight……]
And the place I was transported to after connecting to Twilight was the defense line of the Karzen Kingdom.
The actual content of the quest I received from Arus was, as before, to defend the defense line, so I had no choice but to be here, but unlike the Ronda Kingdom, it was extremely peaceful.
[All territories in the Pronia Kingdom have been occupied.]
[The Pronia Kingdom is perishing.]
[The state of destruction will be maintained until the God of Deep Darkness, Beluin, is dealt with.]
‘Huh?’
At the same time, a message popped up as if waiting for this moment.
Reading the content, it seemed that the Pronia Kingdom had perished before I even connected. The last news I heard was that they were attacking the capital, so the destruction message that just popped up wasn’t particularly strange.
Rather, I should be surprised that they held out for this long.
[The God of Deep Darkness, Beluin, chooses the Karzen Kingdom as his next destination.]
“……What?”
Now what was this?
I thought Beluin would naturally head to the neighboring Ronda Kingdom after destroying the Pronia Kingdom, but the message that he was suddenly coming to the Karzen Kingdom left me wondering what this meant.
‘Why didn’t he go to the Ronda Kingdom? There’s no Sacred Relic in the Ronda Kingdom right now…… Ah.’
There was no Sacred Relic in the Ronda Kingdom.
Because it was used to catch the four Apostles.
But that was the same for the Karzen Kingdom……
Because they lost the Sacred Relic to the Apostles.
‘I think I get it.’
From Beluin’s perspective, he could probably sweep away the Ronda Kingdom, which no longer had a Sacred Relic, whenever he wanted.
So wouldn’t he want to prioritize dealing with other countries that haven’t recovered their Sacred Relics yet?
‘What should I do?’
Regardless of the message that just popped up, Beluin wouldn’t show up immediately, so there was still time.
If we could recover the Sacred Relic and defeat the Apostles within that time, the groundwork for fighting Beluin would be laid, but considering the sluggish progress so far, that wouldn’t be easy either.
‘Should I go and help recover the Sacred Relic?’
If I helped, we could recover the Sacred Relic quickly, but since Aizen told me yesterday to trust him, and I thought there was still quite a bit of time left before Beluin arrived, I decided to wait a little longer.
“Rudin-nim.”
At that moment, I turned my head at the sound of someone calling me and saw Yua, Sina, and Rine approaching me.
“Did you see the message?”
“About Beluin? I saw it, but it’ll take some time for him to get here.”
Anyway, if we could recover the Sacred Relic and defeat the Apostles before Beluin arrived, the Second Main Scenario would be nearing its end.
* * *
“Uh, uh? It’s Beluin!”
‘Beluin?’
One of the players who was helping to build the defense line by carrying materials suddenly pointed in one direction and shouted that it was Beluin.
Turning my head at the shout, I saw a black smoke that I didn’t know when it appeared. The black smoke rose to the end of the sky and then began to spread slowly in all directions.
“Damn it! Why did Beluin suddenly appear!?”
“Quickly inform the others!”
Leaving the players who were clamoring behind, I looked up at the sky and saw the black smoke that spread in all directions covering even the sunlight, creating a dark scene.
Day turned into night in an instant.
‘Did he come through something similar to teleportation?’
Anyway, Beluin, who covered the sky with black smoke that didn’t allow a single ray of light, soon took on a shape similar to a warrior wearing heavy armor and a giant sword.
It would have been fortunate if it ended there, but I could also see countless thoughts appearing around Beluin as if multiplying.
“……”
“……”
We couldn’t win.
Even if I didn’t know what others were thinking, I was certain that everyone was thinking the same thing as me at this moment.
It was only natural, because the thoughts that appeared seemed to number at least 10,000.
‘I really wouldn’t dare to fight him without the Sacred Relic.’
If the Sacred Relic was activated, the thoughts would take continuous damage, so it would be possible to eliminate them without even fighting.
No, with that number, the Sacred Relic was absolutely necessary.
“Run away!”
“The Karzen Kingdom is finished.”
Seeing the thoughts created by Beluin advancing towards us, the players seemed to have judged that there was no way out and started running back, and I decided to run away as well.
“Use the Return Scroll.”
“Yes.”
Yua also seemed to feel that there was nothing she could do about that number, so with a short reply, she took out the Return Scroll from her item window and used it.
As soon as everyone except me used the Return Scroll to move to the Harpe Empire, I was about to use the Return Scroll as well, but a message appeared before I could.
[Emperor Guild’s ‘ Aizen ‘ has invited you to the guild chat.]
[Would you like to accept?]
“……?”
Aizen? Did he hear about Beluin?
Thinking it was amazing that he already knew about it less than a minute after it appeared, I decided to postpone my return for a moment and accepted his conversation request.
━We have recovered the Sacred Relic.
“Ah, is that so?”
It was an ambiguous situation, whether to say they found it unexpectedly quickly or whether it was already too late.
‘Well, it’s better than not finding it.’
Moreover, since he said they found the Sacred Relic right from the start of the conversation, I thought there was a possibility he didn’t know about Beluin, so I decided to tell him about it first.
“But I’m sorry to say it’s probably too late. Beluin has appeared.”
━I already know that.
“You know?”
I couldn’t understand the intention of him contacting me and saying he found the Sacred Relic while knowing about Beluin, so I briefly entertained an absurd thought.
“Are you trying to use the Sacred Relic to catch Beluin?”
━As Rudin-nim knows, if we don’t do it now, there’s a high chance we won’t be able to catch him again.
“Why? Because of the Apostles?”
━Yes, that’s right.
So it was the Apostles after all.
I was so focused on Beluin’s appearance earlier that I didn’t consider the possibility that the Apostles from the Pronia Kingdom might have come over as well.
Simply put, there was Beluin, 10,000 thoughts, and four Apostles in front of me right now. If we retreated now, I thought the Apostles belonging to the Karzen Kingdom might join them as well.
‘Then there would be seven Apostles.’
Since I killed one in the First Main Scenario.
However, two out of the seven were raid bosses.
Moreover, if Beluin secured power in the Karzen Kingdom, there was a high chance we wouldn’t be able to catch him again, as Aizen said, so I couldn’t help but understand his suggestion to attack now.
“……How many people?”
━Our guild and the Yonggammusang Guild have decided to join forces.
“Yonggammusang Guild? They’re joining too?”
━It was their Guild Master who proposed it first.
The Guild Master of the Yonggammusang Guild was Heuksin.
He was someone I had a connection with in various ways before, and since he also had an S-rank skill, I thought he might be of some help, however small.
“Are you sure? If things go wrong, your guild members could be wiped out.”
━But it’s also an opportunity to end the Second Main Scenario. And we won’t have to face that many enemies.
That was true.
If they used the Sacred Relic, the countless thoughts swarming over there would be as good as gone, so in the end, all that remained was Beluin and the four Apostles.
So, as Aizen said, we would only have to deal with five people, and the number of people in the two guilds would be enough to handle that.
‘The problem is, I heard that the Sacred Relic doesn’t exert its full power if it’s just used normally.’
However, even such a Sacred Relic could definitely eliminate the 10,000 thoughts summoned by Beluin, and if we didn’t do it now, we would have to face the ever-increasing number of Apostles, so I had no choice but to accept.
“Where do I need to go?”
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