Translator: HunterW

Editor: RED

I stood in front of the general store and the accessory shop of Section 35’s Center D Store. I had way too many golden rings to know what to do with them all.

The last time I came to the Store, I was left with about 1.2 billion golden rings. Then, I had earned 11.7 billion golden rings after the battle against Claudia and her army. Then, Song Daechul and the Empire’s guild masters had given me 14.5 billion golden rings, leftover from the golden rings we had taken from the Windsor Guard and the Nayuta Guild. After my trip from Earth, I came back to the Continent with 5 billion more golden rings in my pocket. By that point, I had a total of 32.4 billion golden rings.

Then, there were the golden rings that Song Daechul and the guild masters brought me last night. Those totaled up to 94.7 billion golden rings. That amount was all they were able to scrape together. They told me that they were initially going to give that amount to someone else. They had considered Aman Lagus, Arthur Miller, and even Zulova. That was just how well they did against Adora during the three months I was gone.

When I finally returned to the Continent, the guild masters unanimously decided to give me the golden rings instead. Even Aman and Arthur wanted the golden rings to go to me. So now, I had a chance to become even stronger, except for the fact that Earth had lost twenty four Sections. Store prices were now up by 120%; they had more than doubled. One Stat point now cost 2.2 million golden rings to buy.

“Alright. I’ll go to the accessory shop first.” I turned right and entered the accessory shop.

“Welcome to Section 35’s Center D accessory shop.”

“Show me your wares.”

Soon, the shop’s menu appeared before me. I scrolled all the way down to the bottom. “I’ll buy an Accessory Rank Upgrade.”

“Yes, sir.”

A new window appeared, with a slot for me to place my item in. This time, I took out the Reversal Prodigy and placed it inside. I did still want extra lives like Angel and Dunia, but I had gotten so much from my visit to Earth. It seemed a waste to spend the golden rings when I was hard to kill already, thanks to Critical Weakness and Ripped Advance. Since Adora was supposed to be immune to critical hits, that just made me want to raise my critical Stats even more.

==[You have selected a Rank 9 accessory.

Upgrading this accessory requires 3,960,000,000 golden rings and has a 1% chance of success. If the upgrade fails, you will lose the 3,960,000,000 golden rings. Are you sure you wish to proceed?]==

“…” Upgrading a Rank 9 accessory used to cost 1.8 billion golden rings but with that 120% price hike, it now cost more than 3.9 billion golden rings. I was stunned speechless from seeing the actual price with my own two eyes, and I hesitated.

I was going to save Fated Crossroads, since I had so many more golden rings than I knew what to do with, but realizing that one upgrade was going to cost almost four billion golden rings made it hard to proceed without some sense of security. Just trying to upgrade the accessory two or three times was going to cost almost ten billion golden rings.

“Meh. Activate: Fated Crossroads!”

==[Fated Crossroads has been activated.

You are presented with two paths.

Path 1: You attempt to upgrade your Reversal Prodigy to Rank 10.

Path 2: You decide to not upgrade your Reversal Prodigy to save your golden rings.]==

==[Please select one of the two paths.]==

“Select first path.” A video appeared before me.

==[At this point, I’m going to always succeed as long as I use Fated Crossroads.]==

The me in the video didn’t celebrate for long. But I had celebrated, meaning I had succeeded, which was enough for me.

“Proceed.”

==[The Rank 9 Reversal Prodigy has successfully been upgraded to Rank 10.]==

This was my fifth time upgrading an item. I had succeeded three times out of five and I had used Fated Crossroads before those three times. The two times I had failed, I hadn’t used Fated Crossroads. That had to mean something.

I took out the Reversal Prodigy and replaced it with the Rank 9 Desert King’s Resolve and the Bracelet of Eternal Fire. I had to know for sure. I paid the necessary golden rings for each accessory upgrade.

==[The Rank 9 Desert King’s Resolve has failed to be upgraded to Rank 10.

The 3,960,000,000 golden rings will not be returned to you.]==

==[The Rank 8 Bracelet of Eternal Fire has failed to be upgraded to Rank 8

The 3,080,000,000 golden rings will not be returned to you.]==

They had both failed. Now, I was confident that Item Rank Upgrades were only going to work after I use Fated Crossroads. I used up about 9.4 golden rings just to know for sure.

“That just makes Fated Crossroads that much more valuable, so what’s up with this item?” I thought back to the item I had received from the second Rank 10 Random Item Chest.

“It looks pretty much useless…” The item seemed so bad when I checked it that it was basically a dud.

“Oh well. Item Check!”

==[The Reversal Prodigy (Rank 9)

These are the earrings that once belonged to Paolini, known as the Reversal Prodigy.

Paolini fought in countless battles and as a veteran commander, in battles that seemed impossible for him to win. But Paolini only needed a 0.1% chance of survival. As long as he had that, Paolini was able to turn the tables around even when all seemed lost.

Increase all Stats by 300 points.

Increase AGI by 1,000 points.

Increase WIL by 2,000 points.

Increase CRIT rate by 0.1%, increase CRIT damage by 1,000%

After a successful critical hit, there is a 40% chance the next attack is a critical hit. (Successful critical hits increase CRIT damage by 1,000%.)

Absolute Critical Hit: If every seventh attack does not inflict critical damage, the next attack will absolutely be a critical hit. (This critical hit will increase CRIT damage by 1000%.)

Increase skill EXP gain by 20%.

DEF 3500, MDEF 3500]==

It had now been upgraded quite heavily all around. It gained a new effect that raised my AGI by 1,000 points and increased its base CRIT damage boost to 1,000% from 200%. Its CRIT rate boost was still the same but the Absolute Critical Hit made up for it. If my seventh attack wasn’t a critical hit, then my next attack was absolutely going to inflict critical damage. I now had two chances to always inflict critical damage, the other being Judge’s Gavel.

-Will this be enough?,- I thought to myself, but I still didn’t know for sure if I would be able to pierce through Adora’s immunity to critical hits.

-Well, it’s not like thinking about it is going to give me an answer.-

Satisfied, I left the accessory shop. Now that Fated Crossroads had a cooldown of 153 days, I wouldn’t be back for a while.

—

Once I left the accessory shop, I entered the Skill shop next door. The moment I had set foot on Earth, I had gained 3 skill points and the moment I came back to the Continent, I had gained another five. I had eight Skill points to burn.

“Welcome to Section 35’s Center D Skill shop.”

“Show me your wares.”

“Right away, sir.”

I looked at the skill shop menu that came up before me, hoping I could learn another Random Skill, but the tab was empty this time as well.

-Hmm…should I look at some single target Skills this time?-

Before, I needed more AoE skills, since my main goal was to kill as many Crootian soldiers as possible. But with the appearance of Adora the Monster, I quickly realized that I needed single target Skills capable of dealing massive amounts of burst damage. He was going to be my sole target in the coming battle; that’s what he wanted, I wanted, and the Empire wanted.

I searched up single-target Skills, looking for any other skills that could always inflict critical damage like Judge’s Gavel. But as I had expected, no other skill existed. Still, I did manage to find a single target Skill that increased damage based on weapon Rank, like Scorched Rage.

==[Spirit Strike (3/3), (Active)

Gather your spirit energy into one powerful strike against your enemy.

Damage can increase according to weapon Rank:

Rank 7: Increase damage by 3%.

Rank 8: Increase damage by 5%.

Rank 9: Increase damage by 10%.

Rank 10: Increase damage by 20%.

Level 1: 600 second cooldown. Base damage of 30,000. Inflicts 200% of user’s ATT as additional damage. 10% to cause Panic upon enemy. (Panic: Decreases DEF and MDEF by 30%.)

Level 2: 600 second cooldown. Base damage of 40,000. Inflicts 250% of user’s ATT as additional damage. 20% to cause Panic upon enemy. (Panic: Decreases DEF and MDEF by 30%.)

Level 3: 600 second cooldown. Base damage of 50,000. Inflicts 300% of user’s ATT as additional damage. 30% to cause Panic upon enemy. (Panic: Decreases DEF and MDEF by 30%.)

Skill points required: 3

Golden rings required: 450,000,000

This Store is experiencing a 120% increase in prices. This Skill requires 990,000,000 golden rings to learn.]==

It didn’t seem much compared to Judge’s Gavel, especially since Judge’s Gavel was already maxed out. It didn’t compare at all in the first place. Still, I decided to learn it without hesitation, since it did more damage according to my weapon’s Rank. “Learn.”

==[You have learned Spirit Strike.]==

I went back to the list of Skills, where I discovered another special-looking Skill.

==[Backstab (3/3), (Active)

Attack the enemy unexpectedly to inflict additional damage.

Attack from the side to inflict 50% additional damage.

Attack from the back to inflict 100% additional damage.

Level 1: 600 second cooldown. Inflicts 200% of user’s ATT as additional damage.

Level 2: 600 second cooldown. Inflicts 250% of user’s ATT as additional damage.

Level 3: 600 second cooldown. Inflicts 300% of user’s ATT as additional damage.

Skill points required: 3

Golden rings required: 320,000,000

This Store is experiencing a 120% increase in prices. This Skill requires 740,000,000 golden rings to learn.]==

I definitely always had the chance to attack an enemy from the side or from the back, but I never did. Attacking from the front didn’t do less or more damage than attacking from another direction. But I thought that Backstab might be pretty useful against Adora. Besides, I still had plenty of golden rings to spend and if it didn’t live up to my expectations, I could always delete it at anytime.

“Learn: Backstab.”

==[You have learned Backstab.]==

“Hmm…now I have two Skill points left.” Most of the more useful Skills cost two points to learn, so I wasn’t sure what to do with the points I had left. As I looked through the Skill list, I found something that seemed alright.

==[Create Weakness (3/3), (Active)

Create a weakness on a random location of an enemy.

Level 1: 20 minute cooldown. Attack the created Weakness within 5 seconds to inflict 50% additional damage.

Level 2: 20 minute cooldown. Attack the created Weakness within 5 seconds to inflict 70% additional damage.

Level 3: 20 minute cooldown. Attack the created Weakness within 5 seconds to inflict 100% additional damage.

Skill points required: 2

Golden rings required: 100,000

This Store is experiencing a 120% increase in prices. This Skill requires 220,000 golden rings to learn.]==

“Learn: Create Weakness.”

==[You have learned Create Weakness.]==

With all eight Skill points used, I left the Skill shop. The longer I stayed, the more I felt disappointed. If I had these Skills when I went to Earth, they could all been maxed out. Then again, I did only have three Skill points on me at that time.

I went over to the general store to buy some more Stat points, fully prepared to spend all of the 113 billion golden rings I had left. Still, as I walked in, I trembled. I wasn’t going to get 113,000 Stat points from those golden rings. No, I was only going to get less than half; exactly 51,363 Stat points. That was all I was going to get. I hesitated for a second and thought it might be better to just save the golden rings, in case I could use them at a Store that didn’t have the penalty once the war on the Judge’s Continent was over.

“No… if we lose because I decided to save… I can’t have that happen. That would be incredibly foolish. Besides, the nine guilds gave me these golden rings so that I can secure victory.”

Adora the Monster I had seen on video was truly a monster. I couldn’t keep the golden rings the Empire had given me so that I could defeat him for myself. If I lost, then Earth lost. Not only were the Terrans on the Continent going to die, but so were the mortals stuck on Earth.

I closed my eyes tight and bought the 51,363 Stat points.

==[Are you sure you wish to buy 51,363 Stat points for 112,998,600,000 golden rings?]==

“…” I froze for a moment. That was a LOT of golden rings. I shook my head numbly.

“Yes!”

==[You have bought 51,363 Stat points.]==

“Open Stats Menu.” Once my Stats Menu came up, I looked at all of the unassigned Stat points I had now. Altogether, I had 62,363 points.

“What do I put them into?” I said to myself, but I didn’t need to think long. I just needed to put them into STR, AGI, and VIT, like always.

-My base STR is at 122k, base AGI and VIT are at 92k…-

I began splitting up my unassigned Stat points into those three Stats. I let all of the messages about bonus Stat points and Grand Achievements come up and looked at my Stats Menu one last time.

==[Name: Lee Jiwon

Level: 1393 Death Count: 0

Title: Earth’s First Deva, The Keeper of Terra

HP: 69,740,700/69,740,700 MP: 4,102,800/4,102,800

Strength: 179,301 + 8,853 Agility: 119,701 Vitality: 120,601

Willpower: 42,568 Intelligence: 38,328

Unassigned Stat Points: 4,363

Fatigue: 0

Special Effects: Luck Boost (X+1), immune to all Status effects, Dungeon Seeker 14 points

Physical Attack: 655,747 Physical Defense: 172,767

Magical Attack: 139,154 Magical Defense: 89,734]==

I had just spent 58,000 Stat points to increase STR by 40k and AGI and VIT by 20k. At first glance, it didn’t seem possible, since it looked like I didn’t have enough Stat points, but it was only possible thanks to the bonus Stat points from each 10,000-point milestone and from the Grand Achievement Stat points. I was now almost as strong as when I had used Ripped Advance and Critical Weakness against Claudia. If I used those buffs now…

I shivered at the thought. Maybe, just maybe, I would be able to inflict enough damage against Adora the Monster. I invested the remaining 4,363 Stat points into STR to increase my ATT as much as I could. Once I was done, my Comm Link rang.

“Hello?”

“Commander Lee! Adora…Adora the Monster has begun his attack!”

“…” Perfect timing.

“Good. I didn’t need to wait long.”