Chapter 53: CH 53

Initially, Thousand Scents had planned to test Cruze by having her break one of the barriers that enveloped the dragon’s body. Since the gap between Thousand Scents and Cruze was so immense, this assignment would’ve been difficult even if Thousand Scents didn’t do anything. To further explain, Cruze would’ve had to pierce one of Thousand Scents ‘defensive barriers.’ Thousand Scents had four defensive barriers, which were named Four Seasons. Among those four, Cruze would have been given 30 minutes to break through the barrier called ‘Spring Creation.’ Actually, Cruze had already failed this mission before. This time around, however, rather than making Cruze take the test, Thousand Scents had just let her pass.

/You have succeeded in your Job Quest!/

/Your job has changed from ‘Citizen’ to ‘Weapon Maker!’/

/You have acquired a challenge ticket to obtain the Master Skill, ‘Repeating Illusion!’/

/You have acquired a challenge ticket to obtain the Master Weapon, ‘Prism Ring!’/

Cruze was caught off guard by the sudden feeling that rushed over her body. It felt like she was being reinforced as she sensed her ability stats rise, also noticing that she no longer had to organize her Memory to Install ‘that’ Program.

“What the heck? How come my aura expanded so much?”

Surprised, Cruze opened her status window. The Job field, which previously always stated ‘Citizen,’ now showed ‘Weapon Maker.’ As the new title said, she was given a new Job.

“How is it?”

“… Wow! This is no joke! I can take the Level 11 test immediately with these specs. And on top of that, I got an opportunity to acquire a Master Skill and a Master Weapon….”

With a satisfied smile, Cruze raised her aura. Her aura capacity had expanded immensely. Though it had only gone up by 100 points, it was an immediate increase, like how titles worked.

Her ability area had risen from 350 to 450 points, an exact 100 points. However, the amount of aura that she was now able to control and use had expanded to ten times the previous amount. Cruze felt that the possibilities were endless with this much aura.

“Oh, shoot! What time is it?”

“Ten in the morning.”

“Ack! I only have three hours left?”

After crying out, Cruze got back into a meditative position. Since there wasn’t much time before the Siege Quest commenced, Cruze wanted to quickly convert her newly acquired aura into Memory and Install the new weapon Program that she’d finished creating moments ago.

“Shall I wake you when the time comes?”

“No. You can tend to your own business. Thank you.”

After stating this, Cruze started manipulating her aura. With the sudden rise in aura capacity, she felt infinitely stronger.

“This Siege Quest will be quite fun.”

Her real name was Lea Schmidt. Her ID was Cruze. Currently, she was one of the users in DIO who had reached the highest levels in the game.

***Battle***

To start, Merlin used his magic power. Of course, he couldn’t drain it down to one tetra, but Merlin tried to use up as much as he possibly could.

“Two.”

When he recovered his magic power, he used it all up again before promptly meditating once more.

“Five.”

Use magic power, then meditate… rinse and repeat. Yet, Merlin found that his magic power recovery rate was falling. This was an obvious result. Since constant use drained the user, his magic circuitry and the pathing within his body were reaching their limits. This was similar to how someone’s muscles would become exhausted after using them with no breaks or if internal energy was pulled non-stop from a user’s dantian.

“Nine.”

He expended the entirety of his magic power again before, like clockwork, meditating. His magic power recovery rate was now half of what it was when he started using it.

“Fourteen.”

However, Merlin continued this process. Although he was mentally tired, he was enjoying himself and having a ton of fun. It was as if Merlin had done drugs. As he continued to use Enchantment, his internal magic systems became more refined and efficient. In the beginning, he was only able to cast two enchantment spells with 22 tetra, but as he got used to Enchantment and understood more about its essence, he was able to increase the number of Enchantment spells he could cast in one sitting to three, four, and even five spells.

“Twenty.”

Merlin stopped. Even if he meditated right now, he would only gain one tetra for ten minutes of meditation. He’d been enchanting non-stop for the past five hours.

/Your Enchantment skill has risen to rank 1!/

/You have acquired the title, ‘Enchantment Mage!’/

/You have acquired the special skill, ‘Accelerated Enchanting!’/

“It’s nice to know I’m improving, but these constant pop-ups are a nuisance.”

Ignoring the messages, Merlin pulled up his magic power status to see that he had three tetra remaining. In addition, it didn’t take him long to realize that, while he only had three tetra at the moment, his overall magic power capacity had risen to 47.

“My magic power limits have risen?”

Of course, he couldn’t utilize this expanded capacity immediately. Since he had gone through several cycles of consuming and recovering his magic power, Merlin wasn’t able to regenerate his magic power quick enough for it to be completely refilled by the time the battle started. It would probably take one to three days for his magic pathways to recover.

“I’ve enchanted for five hours straight, but I’ve only completed twenty….”

Merlin looked at the 20 short spears laid out in front of him. He had purchased these from Arc at the weapon shop, and despite buying 50 of them in total, he had only been able to enchant 20.

“I have arrows, I’ve tested my maximum range, and I even made these special attack spears. I guess I just need to wait for the monsters to appear.”

At the moment, Merlin was standing on the tower at the center of the reservoir, although he didn’t know the reservoir's name. Despite being 50 meters high, he didn’t feel any fear. As an ‘A rank’ swimmer, the water below him was effectively a cushion. Moreover, even if there was no water, Merlin’s body had been reinforced and strengthened to the point that he could easily land gently on the ground. If he fell without any precautions, his life points were so high that he wouldn’t die.

“Hmm. I don’t need to do anything else to prepare, so how should I use my time? There’s still an hour before the start- huh?”

Just then, Merlin saw a monster corps approaching. The monster corps was filled with small, medium, and large-sized monsters. It was only then that Merlin realized something.

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“Ah, right. The time written on the Announcement Board is the start of the Siege Quest. The monster corps still has to make their way to Starting.”

Though the monster corps was five kilometers away from him, Merlin could easily make them out with his Enhanced Eyesight and Telescopic Vision. The monsters were progressing in an orderly fashion, and their numbers seemed never-ending. Amongst the monsters, Merlin noticed one particular monster.

“The Orc Hero…”

The Orc Hero wore brown leather clothes and was 190 centimeters tall. He stood atop a large, 100-meter-long serpent as he looked ahead while carrying a sword with a Plum Blossom motif on it. He was extremely calm, unbothered with the coming battle. Then, the Orc Hero suddenly turned his head…

“Huh?”

Merlin was shocked by this sudden development, and he quickly ducked down. Alas, as he stood on the serpent’s head, Sungmuk had looked in his direction and met Merlin’s gaze.

“Did he see me? At this range?”

The distance between them was close to five kilometers, so even if there weren’t any physical barriers like fog, it was still too far to spot a certain individual. However, Merlin had seen Sungmuk, so technically, Sungmuk would have been able to see him in turn.

“I got caught. I guess I can’t launch a sneak attack.”

Obviously, Merlin didn’t think a sneak attack would work on Sungmuk in the first place, but he never expected to be recognized so early on.

“What should I do….”

Merlin was no match for Sungmuk in close combat; he had already realized that truth in their last battle. Yet, Merlin also knew that long-ranged attacks would probably not work on Sungmuk either, as even Merlin could dodge an incoming arrow. Without a doubt, Merlin’s arrows would certainly be quicker than any shot by a Nol or Blood Fist guild member, but the Orc Hero Sungmuk most definitely had a rapid reaction speed.

Rumble…

As he contemplated his next steps, the monster corps had advanced considerably. They were now only two kilometers away from his location; typically, this distance was still far enough that people wouldn’t be able to make each other out.

The surrounding terrain was a flatland that didn’t have a single hill, but an average individual would still have trouble seeing anything distinctly at this range. When they were two kilometers apart, people generally wouldn’t be able to fight properly against each other. However…

“Gear 5.”

Without changing his outfit, a great bow- a Decian Great Bow, to be exact- and 100 metallic arrows appeared. Merlin took out an arrow from its quiver and placed it onto his bow, calmly observing the advancing monster corps as he felt the blowing wind. There was a faint breeze that was blowing toward the west.

Creak!

With a creaking sound, Merlin pulled back on the bowstring. The Decian Great Bow required 300 points in muscular strength, so he wouldn’t have been able to do this with just his normal muscular strength. Thus, Merlin used physical reinforcement to strengthen his muscular strength. Yet, in contrast to the last time, he only needed to use half a year of internal energy. Merlin had come up with a specialized physical reinforcement process specifically for the Decian Great Bow.

Whoosh!

After the rushing sound of the bowstring snapping forward rang out, the metallic arrow quickly shot through the air. The downward recoil force that Merlin’s lower body felt was considerable. When he was drawing the bow back, Merlin had aimed at a forty-five-degree angle from the ground, so he had felt recoil in his legs. If he had shot parallel to the ground, he would have been sent flying backward by five meters.

“Phew…”

While controlling his breathing, Merlin watched as his arrow made its way across the sky. By now, the arrow had stayed up in the air for a significant amount of time.

“Five, six, seven… hit.”

There was no sound. Although he had Telescopic Vision, he did not have any martial skills related to hearing, such as Thousand Li Ears. However, Merlin knew that his attack had been powerful. A large monster that resembled a praying mantis had been struck by his arrow and knocked back by its immense force.

“The total flight time is 10.5 seconds. The accuracy isn’t too bad either.”

He placed another arrow on the bowstring. Then, he reinforced his physical body.

/Muscular strength has been reinforced by 130 points, and life force has been reinforced by 500 points. The application time is one second!/

While he already possessed 200 points in muscular strength, it wasn’t easy to bring that point total up to 300. Since ability stats doubled after every additional hundred points, 200 points were three times the strength of 100 points. Similarly, after 100 points, each added point was worth twice as much until 200 points were reached. As such, the points after 200 were effectively valued at four times as much as the points from one to 100. Hence, in terms of strength, 300 points were actually twice the size of 200 points.

Therefore, although Merlin’s base muscular strength points weren’t low, it was still difficult for him to increase his muscular strength. After all, he needed to essentially more than double his strength. Furthermore, he would have to expend an immense amount of internal energy.

Whoosh!

However, to shoot the arrow, Merlin didn’t have to use as much internal energy as one would think. This was because he had localized his physical reinforcement to his upper body. If Merlin were to perform a martial arts move or attack, he’d have to reinforce his entire body, but to shoot an arrow, he mainly used the muscles in his upper body. Essentially, he needed to reinforce his back muscles. His lower body just needed to possess enough muscular strength to maintain a standing position and not shake as he attacked.

Creak!

Half a year of internal energy went through Mercury and became one year. Then, Venus processed that single year and turned it into two years. Merlin used those two years of internal energy to reinforce his body. His second planet in the Golden Pill Immortal Technique, Venus, needed one and a half seconds to expand the internal energy and had a cooldown time of half a second, so it wasn’t optimal to use Venus when applying constant physical strengthening. Yet, since he reduced the time to one second of physical reinforcement, Merlin had found a workaround.

Whoosh!

A Lizardman had been looking around to see the source of the previous attack before Merlin’s arrow hit it in the head. Instantly, the Lizardmen crumpled to the ground. Despite not being imbued with any internal energy, the metallic arrows’ speed gave them extraordinary punching power. The arrow weighed 450 grams, so it was already six to seven times heavier than an average wooden arrow. Additionally, the arrows were being shot at speeds of 200 meters per second. In comparison, the speed of sound was 340 meters per second. So, the arrows clearly packed a punch.

Creak!

He drew back the bowstring.

Whoosh!

He shot an arrow.

Bam!

An enemy was destroyed.

“Good. None of the mid-sized monsters can block the attack.”

While the monsters were higher-leveled than Merlin, they couldn’t do anything about arrows flying from two kilometers away. The more quick-witted monsters realized where the arrows were coming from, but they couldn’t see Merlin as the distance between them was too far. Additionally, Merlin was standing atop an elevated tower, so at a distance, he’d just seem like he was a part of the tower.

“Let’s see just how defenseless you guys are to these attacks!”

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