Chapter 66: Chapter 66

[Translator - Night][Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 66: Returning to the Battlefield (2)

The Earthling forces were steadily regrouping, but they were only getting wiped out upon arrival.

“P... please spare me…”

“I shouldn’t have come…”

It’s one thing for D-ranks to get obliterated, but if even the C-ranks were struggling like this, what were we supposed to do?

Hmm…

There had to be a way.

My gaze fell on the Artemis Bow I was holding.

Shooting arrows en masse was undoubtedly useful, but it felt too much like an AoE (area-of-effect) skill, overlapping with my Thunder God's ability.

Could this be lent to someone else?

It would return to me automatically if I unsummoned it anyway.

Spotting Kang Shia among the Earthling forces, her face darkened with despair, I approached her.

“Shia.”

“Oh… you’re here?”

“What’s your current rank?”

“I’ve advanced to C-rank… but my attacks are completely ineffective against those black skeletons.”

Though she’d been happy about her rank increase at first, her mood had soured when her attacks didn’t land at all.

“Try using this.”

I handed her the Artemis Bow. She accepted it, and perhaps because she had watched me shoot it several times, she quickly drew the bowstring.

Unlike when I used it, only a few extremely fine arrows, as thin as strands of hair, materialized.

“They’re homing arrows. Try shooting them at the skeleton.”

“Alright.”

As she released the string, the magical arrows flew straight toward the skeleton’s head.

The arrows were so fine that they were nearly invisible unless you concentrated.

Thunk.

The arrow pierced the skeleton’s head and disappeared.

Maybe it was because her mana was weaker?

When I used the bow, the arrows would pierce through enemies and annihilate the surrounding ones as well, but that wasn’t happening now.

“Wow! I already leveled up…”

“Keep using it for a while.”

“Ah… is that okay?”

“Yes. The Earthlings need to level up. I’ll recall it if I need it during a fight. Use as much mana as you can while you have it.”

“Understood!”

“Oh, and if you run out of mana, pass it around to other C-rank archers. Tell them they’ll face penalties if they slack off despite having mana.”

“Got it. Thank you so much.”

Kang Shia’s face brightened for the first time in a while.

Leaving her behind, I returned to the battlefield and opened my skill window.

I could start leveling up skills now, right?

I decided to upgrade my frequently used skill, Thunder God, but saw that it required 300,000 SP.

300,000…

That’s a huge amount.

Currently, I had just over 100,000 SP.

Other skills like Soul Mediation, Ability Absorption, and Soul Reaper each required 100,000 SP for upgrades.

For now, I decided to prioritize Soul Reaper during the week of battles ahead.

After leveling it up, the skill’s level name changed.

[Soul Reaper Skill LV4]

[Gain SP by plundering a portion of an enemy’s soul upon their death. Upon reaching LV5, you will also gain SP by significantly damaging an enemy.]

Oh.

So I could gain SP without killing them?

Excited, I tried to level up Soul Reaper again, but its SP requirement had suddenly increased to 500,000.

What?

Why did the SP cost spike all of a sudden?

While the skill upgrades were fantastic…

I’d have to be more conservative with SP usage when increasing attributes from now on.

I also changed my title.

[Pioneer of Earth (Legendary)]

[Grade: A]

[A title granted to the first Earthling to reach B-rank and the legendary grade. All stats increase by 20%. This effect is active only when the user is B-rank.]

The bonus had increased from 10% to 20%, making it even more valuable.

Pioneer?

That’s mine to keep.

As I scattered magic around, I glanced at my status window.

[Name: Kim Jiho

Class: Soul Mediator (Enhanced)

Patron Deity: Hermes, God of Messengers

Title: Hero of Kevrian

Level: 107

Strength: 101, Agility: 100, Magic: 101

SP: 4,120

Bonus Stats: +26]

[Name: Kim Jiho

Class: Soul Reaperer (Enhanced)

Patron Deity: Loki, God of Deception

Title: Pioneer of Earth (Legendary)

Level: 107

Physique: A, Magic: A, Skill: A, Luck: A

SP: 11,084]

Through Ability Absorption, my strength and magic had increased slightly, but agility, skill, and luck remained the same.

Since skill and luck were still B-rank, I had invested neutral faction bonus stats into them to achieve all A’s.

The gauge for A was barely filled, but I wanted to see the “all A” status.

As for order faction bonus stats, I decided to save them for now.

Although I hadn’t invested much into my stats, I felt significantly stronger, likely thanks to the title change.

Getting stronger was great, but the SP consumption after reaching B-rank was just too high.

I’d have to restart Soul Mediation soon and prioritize leveling up SP-gaining skills like Soul Mediation and Soul Reaper.

With skill upgrades now possible, there were even more things to consider.

While firing lightning bolts with my left hand, I continued browsing through my status and skill windows with my right.

My attention was drawn to a skill that had appeared alongside Soul Mediation—Soul Energy Emission.

[Soul Energy Emission LV1]

[Consumes SP to create soul energy. This energy can be imbued into the user’s body or weapons they’re touching. It destroys enemy SP at ten times the cost. As the skill levels up, its ratio increases, and long-range use becomes possible.]

It consumes my SP to drain the enemy’s SP?

I couldn’t fully grasp it, but I had to try it out.

I transformed Yeoui into a large sword and activated Soul Energy Emission.

“Soul Energy Emission.”

White spiritual energy began to emanate from the sword.

It was similar to a mana blade, but the fluctuating white light around the blade gave off an unstable, wave-like appearance.

I was about to swing Yeoui to sweep away some enemies when I noticed a message pop up and couldn’t help but gasp.

[100 SP consumed.]

What?!

It cost me 100 SP just to activate this?

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

And it didn’t even last long.

After about 30 seconds, the spiritual energy started fading.

In a hurry, I swung the sword at a nearby black skeleton.

The moment the sword touched the skeleton, it disintegrated instantly.

It didn’t burn with holy power or anything—it was just erased from existence.

[The enemy's SP is extinguished.]

[The enemy's SP is insufficient. The entity disappears.]

[The soul is completely annihilated. You cannot gain SP through soul absorption.]

Wow.

So if the enemy runs out of SP, they completely disappear, even their soul.

This would be tricky to use on regular mobs.

I mean, you don't gain SP; you lose it instead...

I should try using it against stronger enemies.

[Let us aid the ground.]

Once the enemies in the sky were somewhat suppressed, an angel descended with an army of light.

With the angel's army joining the fray, humans finally started holding their own against the black skeletons.

When the holy spirits led by the angel entered human bodies, those humans powered up and their attacks started working.

"This is the grace of Zeus..."

"Thank you for the blessing of the supreme god."

Some devout individuals began offering prayers.

Seeing people kneeling and drawing the sign of the cross while chanting "Zeus" gave me chills.

Most of them were praising Zeus.

Sure, Zeus is the leader and the strongest among the twelve gods, but still, this is polytheism.

Yet the other gods seem to get hardly any acknowledgment.

[Praise Zeus.]

Even the angel raised a sword of light and stirred the crowd.

"Whoaah!"

People rushed toward the undead.

Well, at least we can fight the black skeletons now.

But the constant chanting of "Zeus" stuck with me.

There's no way they're helping us for free; the angels must have something to gain from this...

"The enemies have stopped coming for now."

"Phew. That was really tough to fend off today."

"It would have been difficult without the angels' help."

"I feel ashamed for not going to church. Truly, God's grace is amazing."

"Yes, I should visit the temple more often too."

People were chatting cheerfully.

Churches and temples were united in praising Zeus.

Maybe ignorance really is bliss.

It feels like I'm the only one with open eyes among a world of blind people.

Shaking my head, I approached Kang Shia, who was organizing things.

"Ah, Jiho, your archery was amazing. Thanks to you not summoning back the bow, every single C-rank archer got to shoot at least once."

"Did you level up?"

"Yes! My level went up about one for every six enemies I killed. For C-rank archers, it took about ten shots to use up all their mana. D-rank archers, however, could only manage three shots."

"D-rank archers could use it too?"

An A-rank weapon being usable by D-ranks?

That’s surprising.

"Yes. I tried to discourage them by saying there might be penalties, but they were determined to try since they figured they'd die either way..."

I probably would’ve done the same in their situation, being trampled by skeletons while unable to do anything.

Anyway, thanks to the D-rank archers’ experiments, they all gathered near the bow, taking turns shooting one arrow before passing it to the next person.

Thinking about hundreds of archers taking turns using one bow makes me feel kind of bad for them.

"Oh, and Diana from the World Tree said she’s performing a ceremony and asked me to tell you to come when the battle with the commander is over."

"For me? When?"

"Yes, about an hour ago? It was today."

This must be what Elprian mentioned earlier.

Maybe she’s regained her senses.

I thought about going now but hesitated because it was a brief lull in the battle and hard to leave my post.

I’ll go after we fend off one more wave.

I approached the angel standing proudly above the ground.

"When do you think the next attack will be? Or do you think it'll come at all?"

This honorific speech isn’t coming out properly.

The light concealing the angel’s face flickered.

[Kim Jiho, Awakener. If you want to speak casually, just do so. Since Hermes is your patron deity, I will tolerate it.]

"If you're okay with it, I won’t hold back. Why don’t you come down from the sky and help on the ground now? We’re only numerous in numbers."

[Alright. Everyone else is too incompetent. It would be better to forcibly enhance their abilities through spirit fusion. However, those with no abilities might die quickly from spirit fusion. Are you okay with that?]

"They’ll die here anyway, right?"

[Correct.]

"Then it’s fine. Go ahead with spirit fusion."

It’s better to die while at least dealing damage to the enemy than to die doing nothing.

Might as well earn some experience points.

"By the way, was it always this hard to fight them? Were we really meant to overcome this?"

[Even though divine grace is concentrated on you, Earth’s Awakeners are extraordinarily weak. Death Soldiers can usually be defeated by someone at hero rank. Did Earth do something to earn the deity’s wrath?]

"Who knows."

[An unusual case... Hmm. The enemy is coming. Prepare yourself.]

The angel was surprisingly conversational, but enemies arrived at an inopportune time.

The angel's sword shone brightly, illuminating the battlefield.

The direction of the light was the front.

In the light stood a familiar foe.

An enemy who had previously died to me.

The Death Knight King had returned, leading an army of ghosts.

"Ampellion!"

[There’s one in the sky too.]

At the angel's words, I looked up.

A lich in a black robe stood in the sky.

It was three or four times larger than a regular lich, wielding a scythe instead of a staff.

Around it were flocks of decayed monstrous birds flying in formation.

[I’ll take care of the sky.]

The angel soared into the air, followed by the holy spirits.

The sky would soon erupt into another large-scale battle.

[Kim Jiho, I decided that quality matters more than quantity, so I’ve prepared two special knights for you. I worked hard to revive Ampellion, so don’t let me down. Kill it quickly, haha. If you fall into despair after dying, I’ll bring a nice consolation gift.]

Hades’ voice echoed in the air.

What a detestable enemy.

More importantly, Ampellion...

Last time, it crushed me when I was a C-rank.

I’m much stronger now, almost incomparable to back then, but can I handle it?

"Die."

Ampellion’s form vanished, and a sharp pain pierced the top of my head. S~eaʀᴄh the NôᴠelFirё.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

It’s been a while since I’ve felt this kind of danger.

But unlike last time, it doesn’t feel overwhelming.

This is doable.

Alright, let’s settle the score.

"Accelerate."

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]