Chapter 2005
While Grid was unconscious, the clone, Noe, and Randy had gone to great lengths to get him to safety. They had to flee with all their might and be constantly on the lookout for their surroundings.
As a result, they were exhausted. This was why Noe had devoured that fish like he had been starving.
‘It doesn’t change that this is a game of luck.’
As the group rested and satisfied their hunger, Grid was busy repairing his armor. The by-products of Fire Dragon Trauka were piled up in his inventory, so he had plenty of materials. However, it wasn’t easy for him to get the results he desired.
Dozens of Full Moon Fortress were still intact because the whereabouts of the old dragons were unknown. They had disappeared without a trace after they encountered some mysterious enemy. Garam had been reborn as an Absolute, and there were also the three masters.
The situation on the East Continent was still bad, and Grid’s time was running out. He didn’t have a lot of time to spare on crafting armor. Thus, Grid made the items using auto mode. To save time with the portable furnace and used the river of flames in his mental world to make the dragon armor like it was an industrial product.
The results were better than what he expected. Grid’s chaotic mental world had actually helped.
[Chaos Fire Dragon’s Armor]
Its defense was slightly lower compared to the previous Fire Dragon’s Armor, though it had the same rating. Effects such as damage immunity, one-shot immunity, stats increase, and immunity to poison were still there, like in the case of the previous Fire Dragon’s Armor.
However, effects such as increased defense in proportion to the number of existing party members, sharing said increased defense with all party members, and increasing defense and physical damage with every hit had all been deleted.
This was very unfortunate, but it wasn’t really a loss because an effect was added to replace the one that had been deleted.
[★Every time you take damage, attack power will increase by 3%. This can stack indefinitely. However, the additional attack power is only applied to your following attack.]
Grid had plenty of defense already. Hanul had dealt so much damage to him only because Grid no longer had the Annihilation energy. Had that not happened, Grid would have been fine. He had the Shock Mitigation skill that significantly mitigated all types of damage. There was also the Absolute Defense skill that invalidated most attacks.
The skills previously built into the Fire Dragon’s Armor had surely been neutralized by Hanul’s light, but the Regression skill, the ultimate skill of the Fire Dragon’s Armor, was still intact.
[Regression.]
Reproduces the will of Fire Dragon Trauka and regresses to the state one was before taking damage.
Skill Cooldown Time: 48 hours.]
If Grid hadn’t fainted, he would’ve made good use of this ultimate skill. The Chaos Fire Dragon’s Armor had also inherited this ultimate, overpowered skill.
Yup. Grid was back to having a lot of sustainability.
The armor, gauntlets, boots, and helmet were jet-black and had a faint red hue. Grid equipped them.
[You have equipped the Chaos Fire Dragon Set. The Chaos Aura effect is activated for having all the set items equipped.]
[Chaos Aura]
[Inflicts the Confusion negative status effect on enemies within a 10 meter radius. If the target is resistant to negative status effects, the aura will instead inflict a debuff that reduces attack power and defense.]
A gray mist hovered around Grid. This was a passive skill that was active all the time and inflicted Confusion, which was considered the deadliest CC after Stun since it made it impossible for opponents to control their movements and actions. This passive skill would be activated twenty-four hours a day without any conditions or restrictions.
To add a bit of exaggeration, this skill was powerful enough that it was worthy of belonging to a death god.
Grid had crafted the items too easily. The armor, helmet, gauntlets, and boots had all been crafted using auto made. The Chaos Fire Dragon Set had been created through pure luck. Of course, Grid had failed dozens of times while crafting them and consumed a considerable amount of materials, but it was worth it.
He’d done all this in just half a day. He now had this set effect that he hadn’t even intended for.
‘This really is the power of luck.’
There was little information on how to make set items with an aura effect. Grid had gotten his hands on one by pure accident just because of how the mental world had been acting while he was working on his items.
Randy gulped. The clone also retreated slightly with a frown. He was overwhelmed by the ominous gray aura that emanated endlessly from Grid. His allies weren’t affected by the aura, but they were still driven by instinct and were slightly afraid.
“C-Cool, nyang.”
Noe’s black and white eyes sparkled. Since he was from hell, he seemed to be attracted to the ominous aura.
Seeing his reaction, Grid examined the clone’s condition.
“How much of your mana has recovered?”
The clone was a magician who inspired even the God of magic. He had a tremendous amount of mana, and his mana also regenerated incredibly fast.
Now, the clone was casting dozens of spells at the same time. He had the surveillance spell installed on each route active while also having AOE illusion and protective spells around the area where the group currently was. Even a great magician would run out of mana within an hour when casting so many spells.
“I have more than half left. It will be fine, assuming that I withdraw the illusion and protective spells.”
Fortunately, the clone was in good condition. Grid nodded and took a deep breath.
The Annihilation energy was incredibly powerful, and Grid knew this because he’d gotten personally damaged by it. The most important aspect was that Annihilation energy rendered defense useless. It had reduced Multiple Weakening Barriers, as well as the armor with infinite durability, to dust.
Garam had inherited some of Hanul’s divinity. There was a high probability he had some leftover Annihilation energy.
In other words—
“Killing Garam should be my top priority.”
Leaving Garam alive was dangerous. Grid should be his first target.
The clone also thought that. This was why he took the risk to stay on the East Continent for now. If they went back to the West Continent and returned to the East Continent afterward, Garam would surely sense them, even if they used magic or warp gates. He would detect Grid’s powerful presence no matter what.
“Invisible.”
This spell made objects invisible. However, the spell used by the clone was different. Not only did it make the target invisible, but it also completely erased their traces. Others couldn’t even hear the targets speak. It was almost comparable to Faker’s Stealth.
The skill caused some powerful side effects.
“It feels strange.”
“Where am I?”
Noe and Randy were extremely confused because they couldn’t see nor hear themselves. It felt as if all of their senses had been blocked. It was difficult for them to be aware of themselves.
Grid grabbed them by the scruff of their necks as they struggled. Even if the clone’s Invisible magic was very effective, it couldn’t avoid Grid’s insight. He could clearly see the rest. Grid saw how proud the clone was and scolded him.
“Why are you so smug?” Grid asked, grinning. “Any Absolute could see through this. Of course, only if they’re close enough. This spell is truly amazing. Even I wouldn’t be able to see this spell from a hundred meters away unless I use my artificial senses.”
“I know. Still, it is gratifying to hear you say that.”
“Should I like receiving compliments from you?” Grid wondered.
“You can be me, but I can’t be you.”
“You keep saying that.”
The group moved secretly and quickly. They followed Garam’s traces, which the clone detected using surveillance spells. They determined the route Garam had taken and moved.
“Huh…”
“Did he start combining Annihilation energy and light?”
The group was very shocked.
Garam was always one step ahead of them, and everywhere he went, only traces of destruction remained. The moon-like fortresses had vanished, leaving behind only small fragments. They all looked like they had been swept away by a storm.
The standard way to destroy the Full Moon Fortress was to dismantle the formation and gradually weaken it, but Garam simply destroyed the building using force. It was clear that he was using Annihilation energy. They could barely find any traces of the cultivators’ resistance. This probably meant that they had all died before they could do anything.
“Don’t be nervous, nyang.”
As the atmosphere grew heavy, Noe puffed out his chest and tried encouraging the rest. There seemed to be something he believed in.
“Our master can also handle light. What are you so worried about? Didn’t you all see the master turn into light and kill Hanul?”
“……”
Noe believed in Grid.
Grid had no expectations. He looked slightly disappointed when he asked, “Can you now properly control the Treasures that you have absorbed from the cultivators’ nascent souls?”
“A-A bit…?”
“Keep training until you can control them. You are my most important asset. Even when I fought against Hanul, it would’ve been hard for me to win without your help.”
“Y-Yes! I understand, nyang!”
Noe smiled brightly for the first time in ages. His eyes sparkled and he vomited out hundreds of Treasures. He was yelling and controlling the Treasures flying around him. Grid turned to speak to the clone.
“It’s true that I can handle light thanks to the title of Another Light. But as you saw, I can’t withstand the speed of light.”
Dealing with the power of light possessed a lot of risks. Grid had fainted because he had moved at the speed of light.
Grid wasn’t the God of light. The title of Another Light was like a power temporarily borrowed from the title of The Faith of a God of the Beginning. He couldn’t handle light properly.
The clone said, “Hanul and King Sobyeol’s divinity was so scary because they could absorb the power of their opponent. Garam is probably becoming stronger because he’s exploiting this power while killing the cultivators. We should kill him as quickly as possible.”
Grid agreed. Regardless of the light, they continued to pursue Garam. They toured almost the entirety of the East Continent. It wasn’t easy to track Garam because he used routes outside the Overgeared World every time he moved.
Almost a whole day passed.
“What is it you’re doing?”
Grid’s group arrived in front of a Full Moon Fortress, which was engulfed in flames. Did it just collapse? They encountered a group of cultivators.
No, wait. Their clothes were similar to the ones cultivators were wearing, but the energy they exuded was on a different level. They were Immortals, and there were seven of them.
The search formation they had set up around them dismantled the Invisible spell and detected Grid’s Annihilation energy. They thought Grid was the main culprit who had destroyed the nearby Full Moon Fortress.
“Nothing good will come from me wasting time here.”
He needed to deal with Garam as soon as possible. Grid was somewhat nervous.
[I was wondering why they stopped chasing us.]
A strong intent was engraved everywhere as two giant dragons showed up. Raiders and Nevartan had been MIA for a long time. Grid noticed that the color of their scales had become somewhat darker and realized something.
“Were these guys chasing you?”
[It just so happened that they were.]
“Let’s finish them off quickly,” Grid said.
An immortal wondered, “Are you crazy?”
Finish them off quickly? Really? The immortals snorted.
[The effect of Dragon Knight is active!]
Grid stood on Nevartan’s head and exuded a different aura from before, which was enough to make the immortals nervous when they had previously treated the old dragons as prey.