Chapter 389: Here I Come (5)

“Count Hovan has entered the hall.”

“Baron Ojira has entered the hall.”

“Viscount Pharos has entered the hall.”

Dozens of nobles entered the royal palace of Aldebaran. Each held different titles, but they shared one thing in common. They were all military aristocrats with powerful private forces.

“Viscount Xao Lin has entered the hall.”

Of course, Xao Lin was one of them. He followed the attendant's guidance and headed straight to the strategy room.

So this kind of day really does come.

The formation of the invasion force against Rashion. It had been one of his long-cherished dreams since the early days of the game when the Black Dragon guild first formed. Of course, the target of the invasion had slightly changed.

Has it really been a year and a half already... Things were truly exciting that time.

Back then,

MID Online

could be summed up in one word. A battleground. Hundreds of millions of players, and hundreds and thousands of guilds raised their flags and declared their ambitions. Among them, the ten leading guilds were honored with the title of the World’s Top Ten Guilds.

The Kingdom of Rashion was no different from a land of gold.

Unlike inland kingdoms like Aldebaran and Haran, Rashion had mountains, seas, fields, and rivers. It lacked nothing. Perhaps that was why five of the World’s Top Ten Guilds were based in the Kingdom of Rashion. Black Bee, Titan, Cheonhwa, Warriors, and even Pray.

Xao Lin had endlessly competed against them, grown his guild, and eventually took control of hunting grounds. Looking back at the past year and a half, he realized he had truly pushed himself.

But now it's time to bring it to an end.

About half of the top guild competitors had dropped out for various reasons. They couldn’t keep up with the increasing pace of players or made the mistake of provoking the wrong person.

Kai.

The monster who devoured two of the top ten guilds. Xao Lin had watched him more closely than anyone else with both fear and vigilance.

But no matter how incredible a person is, they cannot shine in a place they’re absent from.

Xao Lin didn’t know whether Kai could return, and if so, when. But even so, he made his move.

Fifteen days. That’s all the time I need.

That was how long it would take to sweep through from the north to the east of Rashion in a straight line. Even if Cheonhwa, Warriors, and Pray all joined forces, it wouldn’t change anything.

Even now I have eight million troops ready for deployment.

Of course, only a handful of them were rankers. After all, most of the 20 million Black Dragon guild members were ghost members. Because they had mindlessly inflated their numbers, it was no surprise Black Dragon was called a dull blade or a disorderly bunch.

However, if their original goal had been to make their enemies lower their guard, then the story changed.

The odds of winning were high even with Kai here, but now he’s not even around.

They had already verified the opponent's level through the Church of Muldine. The reason he had teamed up with Sting and Goliath was also to assess Rashion’s actual strength.

Things are about to get busy.

After all, war became busier after victory as the newly gained territory needed to be stabilized.

***

On the thirtieth day since Kai arrived in the Demon Realm, a message appeared.

[Shadow Shift is now available to use.]

“

Oh

.”

It was the message he had been waiting for. Now he could return to the Middle Realm whenever he wanted.

Then I guess it’s time to go for the main dish.

Kai turned his head to look at the two archdukes. He had already extracted all that could be gained from them.

I learned some interesting things.

Personally, Kai thought there was nothing he could learn from Steron of Black Lightning since he couldn’t wield lightning himself.

But there was something.

It was an effect he had completely forgotten. It was none other than Zatan’s Gravity Gloves. The gloves carried an effect that sometimes granted an elemental property when generating a gravity field. If he got lucky and received the lightning element...

Then I could at least partially mimic Steron’s movements.

Of course, that wouldn’t work on an archduke-level opponent. But it would be invaluable when fighting against other players.

“I’ll make good use of what I learned.”

“Vile human, just leave. Please...” Basion murmured in a sorrowful tone.

It was a lifeless tone that drained the strength of anyone who heard it.

“I was planning to leave anyway. So what will you two do now?”

Basion and Steron looked at each other at Kai’s question. Exhausted, they both weakly turned their heads away.

“I’m going back to my castle.”

“Basion. Your neck... Keep it safe for now.”

They both wanted nothing more than to return to their territories, take a hot bath, and sleep without a care. That was the only thought that filled the minds of the two archdukes.

“Then take care of yourselves. See you next time.”

“Don't be ridiculous. There won’t be a next time.”

“Kai, was it? I’ll be sure to remember that name.”

The two archdukes were completely worn out by Kai. It was only natural since he never took damage nor died no matter how hard they attacked him. And it wasn’t like they could avoid the fight either, because he would hunt them down and beat them up anyway. In the end, the two archdukes had no choice but to spar with him like children forced to eat mustard through tears.

“Enhanced summon, Mimic.”

Kai summoned a proud wyvern and climbed onto its back.

“Let’s go.”

He was off to meet Angol Moa, the king of the Demon Realm, whom even the gods of the Celestial Realm hesitated to face.

***

Kai had crossed swords with all four archdukes, and one thought clearly settled in his mind as he did so.

The archdukes won’t do.

They couldn’t withstand his full power.

But what about the Demon King?

Faster than Steron who moved like a flash of light and more poisonous than Basion’s deadly toxins, the Demon King Angol Moa was said to wield every elemental type of magic. Kai eagerly looked forward to meeting her.

Mimic crossed the Demon Realm in an instant and entered the territory of the Demon King.

Ding!

That was when the message arrived.

[Yoo Ha-Rin: Kai, where are you?]

[Kai: I'm on my way to meet the Demon King.]

[Yoo Ha-Rin: Oh, what about Shadow Shift?]

[Kai: We can use it now, thankfully. We can get going together once the duel with the Demon King.]

[Yoo Ha-Rin: Are you okay though? I saw on the community this morning that a war is breaking out...]

[Kai: It’s fine haha. Not just the Rashion army but also the Pray guild, Holy Blood Order, and even the Crimson Dawn are guarding my territory. Plus, Cheonhwa and the Warriors won’t let their own land fall either. They’ll have to fight till death.]

He didn’t think all of them would fall to the Black Dragon guild and Kingdom of Aldebaran.

[Yoo Ha-Rin: That’s good to hear. How many days do you plan to train with the Demon King?]

[Kai: Hmm. I’ll have to try it and see. I also have some questions to ask.]

[Yoo Ha-Rin: About Muldine?]

[Kai: Yeah.]

[Yoo Ha-Rin: Alright. Even if you have the buff, you still feel pain when hit so please be careful.]

[Kai: You be careful too, Ha-Rin.]

[Yoo Ha-Rin: Thanks for worrying about me ♡]

“

Hm

.” Kai scratched his head as he looked at the message.

Lately, he felt like he had gotten much closer to Ha-Rin.

This must be the power of traveling.

A man and a woman naturally grew closer when they lived together in a foreign land and relied on each other.

Mimic, who had been flying smoothly, suddenly let out a mournful cry, “Kiruruk!”

“What’s wrong?”

Kai stroked Mimic’s neck to calm it down but Mimic flapped its wings weakly and slowly descended to the ground.

What’s going on?

That question was quickly answered.

[Mimic’s fullness has dropped to 15%.]

[Mimic’s condition has changed to Hungry.]

“Oh no

.

”

Kai looked surprised. Not once had a message like this popped up since he first obtained his summons.

Well that’s because I’ve always kept my babies well-fed until now.

He had plenty of money, so he never hesitated to spend on food for his summons. However, things didn’t go as he wished in the Demon Realm.

There’s nowhere to buy food with money... Now that I think about it, Ha-Rin’s cooking was their last meal.

Since then all his summons had been starving. Of course, the Warriors of Light were basically spirits so they didn’t need food, but Blizzard, Mimic, and even Kai himself were different.

Actually, Mimic also has infinite fullness in its slime form.

Mimic didn’t need any food when it wasn’t transformed into anything and was in its slime form. But when it transformed into a wyvern, King Sand Worm, or other creatures, it had to be fed regularly. The problem was that Mimic was a picky eater. Even when in wyvern form, it didn’t eat meat. Perhaps because it was fundamentally a slime, it usually ate food in liquid form.

Mimic used to eat the Blue Plague pretty well for a while, but even that hasn’t worked lately.

Kai tried releasing a little bit of the Blue Plague just in case.

“Mimic, you’re hungry right? Want to try this?”

“

Kyurung

.” Mimic turned its head away sharply as if to say it didn’t want it.

Feeling awkward, Kai had no choice but to start rummaging through his inventory.

It’s a mess here since I never organize.

𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

All kinds of items were chaotically taking up space.

“Can you eat this? It’s canned tuna. There’s broth too.”

Mimic shook its head.

“Then what about this? I confiscated this chocolate because Helik kept eating too much and forgot to return it.”

Mimic shook its head again.

“

Sigh,

this is driving me crazy.”

It didn’t like this or that. Kai began to wonder if Mimic might be even more of a picky eater than Helik.

This is all the food I have. What am I supposed to feed it if it hates everything... huh?

Kai’s eyes slightly widened as he organized his bag. It was a similar feeling of finding money under the bed while cleaning the room after his mother’s relentless nagging.

“This is...”

It was a round black orb.

[

Zatan’s Core

]

Grade: Unique

This once served Zatan’s energy core.

It reactivates if infused with holy power.

Zatan’s core...

It was one of the rewards he obtained after defeating Zatan. He had completely forgotten about it until now.

The description is a bit different from Mimic’s.

In Mimic’s case, it had awakened from an incomplete core that came out after defeating Aosa. Back then, the description said that it would awaken when holy power was infused.

“

Kyurung?

”

As soon as Kai took out Zatan’s core, Mimic snapped its head back around and showed interest. The wyvern’s round eyes sparkled as it stared intently at Zatan’s Core.

“Hold on. Let’s try reactivating it first.”

The core began to vibrate as Kai infused holy power into it. It was as if rust stuck to old metal began to flake off. The blackened parts crumbled away and disappeared. Then what emerged was Zatan’s core, now glowing brilliantly. It greatly pulsed as if it were a heart being squeezed.

“

Kyururung!

”

That was when Mimic also started jumping around in excitement. Normally it showed no affection at all, but now it circled around Kai, and flipped onto its back and kicked its legs.

“You want to eat this?”

As Kai watched Mimic nodding fiercely he fell into thought.

I probably shouldn’t feed it junk food... but this should be okay, right?

It came from a raid boss monster, and this was the first time Mimic wanted something so badly.

“Alright. Try eating it.”

As Kai held out the core, Mimic canceled its wyvern form and returned to its slime form.

“

Huh?

Wait a second. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you eat something in slime form...

Oh

, I guess I have once.”

Kai’s eyes sparkled as he recalled a past memory.

“Then maybe this time too...?”

Sure enough the same message as in the past appeared.

Ding!

[Mimic has begun absorbing Zatan’s core.]

[Mimic will be able to fully control a gravity field once the absorption is complete.]

[Progress rate: 1.2%...]

[Progress rate: 2.3%...]