Chapter 20: Chapter 20

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Chapter 20: Broken World (2)

Huh?

I don’t even know what killed me.

Suddenly, my head hurt like hell, my vision darkened, and I was dead.

It happened so fast I didn’t even really feel the pain.

What the heck?

Did my skull crack open or something?

Oh.

What happened to Peep?

“Peep!”

Oh!

Still on top of my head.

But what on earth killed me?

[Aurelia tells you that you were killed by a catapult rock.]

[Pollux mocks you, saying, “If you’re going to dive in unprepared, at least turn into your spirit form like a phoenix, you fool.”]

Ugh.

I don’t even have words for this one.

I didn’t even equip the armor Hephaestus gifted me—just went in unarmed.

I mean, who could’ve guessed a catapult rock would fly at me the moment I entered?

But still…

This was my fault for not being prepared.

I guess I’ve been getting complacent since things have been going well lately. seaʀᴄh thё Novelƒire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Pfft… Haha. You’re back already?”

Elf Alena approached me, struggling to hold back her laughter.

Aaaaahhhh.

This is so embarrassing!

“Everyone, this is what happens when you go to high-difficulty planets. So don’t make reckless choices.”

Aaaaahhhh!

They’re using me as a failure example!

Seeing the elves, dwarves, and hunters stifle their laughter made my face burn and my hands and feet curl in embarrassment.

Wow.

This is officially my most humiliating moment of the year.

“You should’ve turned into your spirit form before going in…”

“Oh! Spirit form!”

“I asked you earlier, but you didn’t respond, so I thought you knew, being a Spirit Mediator and all.”

Ah, I must’ve ignored Alena’s explanation because I was distracted by the dwarves betting…

Ugh.

I brought this on myself.

She then taught me how to transform into my spirit form.

She explained that I needed to focus my mana on my head and heart while imagining my body disappearing.

“It’s hard for most people to get the image right at first. That’s why the other hunters haven’t left yet—they’re still struggling with spirit form…”

“Uh… Like this?”

I imagined myself dissolving into mist while channeling my mana, and my body turned ghost-like and translucent.

Even my clothes became see-through.

But I could still speak.

“As expected of a Spirit Mediator. You did it on your first try, and you can even talk in spirit form… That’s impressive.”

My shattered pride was slightly restored, but the embarrassment still lingered.

Alright, time to get serious.

“If I’m in spirit form, I won’t die from a catapult rock again, right?”

“Oh, so you died from a catapult. Yes, spirit form will let you dodge it. But since you’re only D-rank, your duration won’t be long. Once you enter, you’ll need to find a safe spot to regroup quickly. Also, be aware that high-level magic can still harm you in spirit form. Be cautious.”

“Got it… But shouldn’t the starting point be somewhere safer?”

“I did mention that this was the safest battlefield in Kevrian. Kevrian is on the verge of collapse.”

Alena’s expression turned serious as she spoke.

“To be honest, since you’ve already died once, I’d recommend dying twice more and starting fresh on another planet. We’d love to see Kevrian recover, but it’s practically impossible at this point.”

She had a point.

But if I have to die twice more to leave, I might as well give it my all here.

I remembered that I could use SP to increase my stats while looking at my status window.

I had planned to save up 1,000 SP to open the premium shop, but if I’m going to prepare properly, I’ll need to spend it.

Raising stats costs 10 SP per point.

Order-aligned stats can only be raised with Order SP, and Neutral-aligned stats require Neutral SP.

Currently, I have 101.2 Order SP and 31.1 Neutral SP.

For now, I’ll focus on physical stats.

I increased Strength and Agility by 5 each for Order, and Physical Ability by 3 for Neutral.

However, as my Strength approached 20, the SP cost doubled to 20.

I had planned to raise it by 5 points from 15.5, but I could only manage 4.5, bringing Strength to 20.

Here are my final stats:

[Name - Kim Jiho

Class - Spirit Mediator

Patron God - Pollux, God of Gemini

Title - Bat Awakener

Level - 24

Strength: 20, Agility: 19.5, Mana: 19, SP: 1.2]

[Name - Kim Jiho

Class - Spirit Reaper

Patron God - Aurelia, God of Volcanoes

Title - None

Level - 24

Physical: C+, Mana: C+++, Skill: C--, Luck: D++, SP: 1.1]

Now I feel human again.

I equipped Hephaestus’s armor and prepared for spirit form.

This is a far cry from when I first entered Kevrian with just a greatsword on my back.

One careless death is enough.

“Want to bet again? 100 million on the line. I say one hour.”

“I say two hours.”

“Thirty minutes.”

“Ten minutes.”

“One minute.”

The dwarves were betting again, but I ignored them completely.

Time to focus on the fight.

Standing in front of the mana stone linked to Kevrian, I prepared myself as I was transported to the planet.

The moment my feet touched the ground, I immediately activated spirit form.

Boom! Boom!

Rocks fell exactly where I had landed.

Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t just rocks—there were heads, human heads.

No, elf heads.

Their discolored faces twisted in pain, frozen in death.

Ugh… Disgusting.

Do they put heads in catapults, too?

First, I needed to assess my surroundings.

I was standing on a fortress wall.

Elf archers were firing arrows with despair written all over their faces, while humans and dwarves were fighting off orcs climbing the walls.

Rocks were flying everywhere, occasionally hitting the walls.

Somehow, I narrowly avoided getting crushed by rocks twice in a row.

This can’t just be bad luck…

Did the elves deliberately drop me into this mess?

Hmm… Suspicious.

“ERIJQEGNOEQRH!$!”

A male elf who had been shooting arrows suddenly pointed his bow at me and shouted something.

I didn’t understand what he said, but it didn’t sound friendly.

Wait, aren’t they supposed to be on my side?

How do I communicate with them?

Just as I was struggling to figure out what to do, a beam of light descended from the sky.

[Athena, Goddess of War, focuses her divine blessing on Kevrian’s sole awakened, ‘Kim Jiho.’]

[Order-aligned stats are doubled.]

[All attacks are imbued with divine holy power.]

[All beings aligned with Order will revere you as the Apostle of the Gods.]

[The world’s primary language is automatically translated for you, and your speech is also translated.]

Oh.

Double?

DOUBLE?!

And divine power on top of that?

Insane!

My entire body surged with strength for a moment before settling.

Though the changes in my form were hidden by the armor, I could feel a power of an entirely different magnitude compared to before.

[Translator - Night]

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The elf archer stared at me, awestruck by the light descending from the sky, then bowed her head.

“What an offense! To think you’re the apostle of the Goddess of War, Minerva! Please lead us to victory in this battle!”

Oh!

I can hear them.

But Minerva?

Not Athena?

Maybe she’s called differently here.

Anyway, I was wondering how to convince them, but they’re accepting me on their own.

That’s a relief.

At that moment, a system window flickered in front of me.

It was the quest window that I hadn’t even realized existed until now.

[Quest Notification]

[Battlefield of the Planet Kevrian: Summoned to ‘Fortress Train.’]

[Fortress Train has been occupied by the monster legion ‘Black Dragon Army,’ led by the chaos-corrupted Black Dragon Arkardian. This occupation opened the path to the World Tree.]

[Main Quest.]

[Difficulty: Impossible.]

[Defend Fortress Train for 100 days.]

[Quest Rewards upon Completion:]

SP: 100,000

Achievement: ‘Savior’s First Step’

Titles: ‘Hero of Kevrian,’ ‘Challenger of the Impossible’

3 Random Skill Boxes (B-grade or higher)

3 Random Item Boxes (B-grade or higher)

Wow.

Just looking at these rewards—they’re incredible.

This is a quest I have to complete no matter what.

No time to look up guides—the fortress already seems like it’s on the brink of falling.

I’ll join the defense for now.

I sprinted toward the fortress wall.

In a single leap, I traversed the space in an instant.

My stats were already superhuman before, but now they’re on an entirely different level.

Even though my stats only doubled, the power feels far more amplified than that.

Below the fortress walls, I saw a monster army carrying banners with a black dragon emblem.

Unlike the black orcs I’d seen in dungeons, these orcs had green skin.

At the front stood a massive orc rallying the troops—its resemblance to the boss monster I defeated earlier was uncanny.

Most of the monsters were from the orc legion, but there were some of different species.

Among them, operating the catapults were large, bulky monsters with ochre-colored skin.

Probably ogres.

They’ll need to be dealt with first.

I summoned Artemis’ Bow.

As I drew the string, a small amount of mana flowed out, forming an arrow of light.

The light gleamed pure white.

I aimed at one of the ogres when—

“Chirp!”

Out of nowhere, Peep flew toward the arrow of light and blew a puff of breath at it.

The breath from its beak turned into flames, which were absorbed into the light.

Now, the pure white arrow had a tinge of red.

A flame buff?

Great.

Let’s give this a shot.

Normally, I’d need to shoot in an arc to hit from this range, but with my boosted stats, I could just fire directly.

Boom!

The arrow streaked through the air like lightning, piercing the ogre’s torso.

When it hit the ground, it exploded spectacularly.

Maybe the phoenix’s flames caused a synergy effect—the fire quickly spread, engulfing the catapult in flames.

This isn’t just an arrow—it’s a bomb!

“Hey, you’re amazing!”

“Chirp, chirp!”

“You’re incredible, Apostle of Minerva! Please continue targeting the catapults!”

The elves nearby cheered as they loosed their own arrows.

I couldn’t help but cheer, too, as a new system window appeared.

[You have defeated an Ogre. You gain 1,231 EXP.]

[Soul Reaper skill activates. Efficiency reduced due to distance. You gain 3.8 SP.]

[Trait Absorption skill activates. Efficiency reduced due to distance. You absorb 0.03% of the Ogre’s Strength trait.]

[Perfect Form Maintenance skill filters and converts the absorbed trait into the user’s strength and physical stats, preventing any contamination.]

[Strength increases by 0.07.]

[Physical stats slightly increase.]

One ogre gave me so many benefits?

An increase of 0.07 in strength means killing about 15 of them would increase it by 1.

And 3.8 SP per ogre means 10 of them would yield 38 SP?

Wow.

Soul Reaper is amazing.

Does it give more if I’m closer?

“Peep, let’s keep shooting!”

“Chirp!”

I disabled the Soul Reaper notification window since I was in battle and excitedly kept firing arrows.

Now that I knew they exploded like bombs, I prioritized targeting the catapults.

Boom! Boom!

I destroyed 10 catapults in no time.

The orcs’ arrows, axes, and other projectiles came flying toward me, but with Danger Detection, I dodged them while continuing to target the catapults.

With my stats doubled, the enemy’s attacks seemed easy to read.

“Chirp…”

But after about 10 shots, Peep seemed to run low on mana and couldn’t infuse the arrows with flames anymore.

I tried firing without its flames, but without the phoenix fire, the arrows didn’t explode.

The light arrows still had tremendous penetrating power, like bullets, but when the orcs threw themselves at the catapults to protect them, the arrows couldn’t fully pierce through.

And my mana was also depleting rapidly from firing so many arrows consecutively.

To recharge my mana, I had to stop using magical arrows.

Still, I had to save my last resort.

“Hand me some arrows.”

“Here you go!”

I took the arrows handed to me by the elves and fired them furiously.

Each shot pierced through armor, embedding deeply into the orcs.

If I hit an unarmored spot, the arrow would go straight through and hit the orc behind it.

Thud. Thud-thud. Thud-thud-thud.

The drumbeat of the orc army’s war band echoed across the battlefield.

With it, a massive banner bearing the black dragon emblem advanced toward the fortress walls.

A horde of massive orcs began charging toward the wall.

They looked just like the boss monsters I’d encountered in the E-rank dungeon before…

But here, they were an entire unit.

These 3-meter-tall orcs carried enormous ladders that they seemed to interlock across their shoulders as they ran ferociously.

The elves unleashed volleys of arrows, and magic attacks rained down on them.

But as the orcs roared in unison, many of the spells detonated mid-air.

While arrows struck their heavy armor, they didn’t penetrate deeply.

The orcs ignored the arrows embedded in their bodies and charged full speed ahead.

“Kill the Apostle of Order!”

“Kill! Kill!”

“Crush them and feast on their corpses!”

“Let’s eat them alive!”

Even without a translation, the gist of their words was clear.

The massive ladders began rapidly being set against the fortress walls.

We tried desperately to hold them back, but the sheer number of massive orcs was overwhelming.

“It seems the Uruks have recognized you, Apostle, and are converging here. You must retreat. We’ll hold them off somehow,”

Said one elf, looking grimly determined.

So, these huge orcs are called Uruks, huh?

I appreciated the sentiment, even if he was shaking in fear as he urged me to flee.

“Once this wall falls, it’s over, right? Where would I even run to?”

“B-but you’re our only hope, Apostle. If you die here…”

“Then trust your only hope a bit more.”

Alright, time to use the skills I’ve gained.

“Summon Flame Chariot.”

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