Chapter 60: 59. Dangerous Times, Dangerous Measures

The unknown enemy was aiming a gigantic sword at me, and his speed was phenomenal. I didn’t have enough time to scan his facial features; I could only block the attack.

I’ll take a look at my enemy after blocking the attack, but I have a good idea about this attacker’s identity.

There weren’t many people that cleared the tutorial this early, and the ones that could threaten me among them were even fewer.

The sword was twenty centimeters away from my abdomen, and I had to react quickly.

I thought about meeting the attack head-on, but I wasn’t arrogant enough to meet such an attack without any precautions.

I had to burn myself with flames of a high temperature so that my stats were high enough.

However, Ratska was close by, and I didn’t want to injure or kill him accidentally. Furthermore, most of my items were inside the bag of holding, and it wasn’t immune to fire damage.

I wasn’t in direct contact with any shadows, so I couldn’t use [Shadow Assimilation] to teleport myself

Sigh.

“[Zoom],” I whispered; My destination was just behind my opponent.

The skill teleported me instantly, and the attack hit nothing but thin air. The sword made a sharp sound, and the air around me vibrated due to the strength contained in that strike.

My enemy turned around to face me, and I was able to take a good look at him.

He was at least two meters tall, and he had a muscular build. He had spiky black hair, and brown eyes and his nose was crooked.

His eyebrows were thick, and he had an ugly grin on his face.

He had a full-body silver armor suit, and it was adorned with many purple jewels. The portion that covered his torso didn’t contain any gems; an insignia was engraved instead. A tall white angel held a large sword, and he pointed it upward.

This is Igor; The Battlefield Hegemon.

He was a hero of mine in my past life, and now he’s trying to kill me.

“Good reaction there, Jason,” he said as he smirked and held his great sword over his shoulder, “I am Igor, and I’m here to claim your life.”

He advanced toward me at a slow pace, then he raised his great sword toward me.

I laughed, then clapped.

“I am busy right now, and I’ll appreciate it if you went home right now,” I stared at him with deadpanned eyes, “I won’t kill you today, but you’ll regret messing with me.”

The Almighty Holy Bastard must’ve been salty that I didn’t pick his blessing, and he’s serious about ending my life.

I scanned my surroundings for Ratska, and he was standing at the exact spot where I left him before entering the Trading Station. He was twenty meters away to the right of Igor.

I was glad that Igor didn’t kill him yet, but the Gnome was agitated. His eyes were downcast, and he was fiddling with his fingers.

Igor must’ve done something to him…

“[It’s fine!]” I shouted, and a coat of flames covered my body. Orange flames danced brightly around me, and they remained firm even when the winds swayed them.

“What is it that’s fine?” asked Igor as he smirked, “Well, at least I know you won’t be when I am done with you.”

I wouldn’t have shouted if I didn’t need to do so…

I pretended to charge at Igor, and he held his Great Sword in front of him. However, it was just a feint. I pointed my finger toward him and shouted.

“[Burn That Invader!],” An Orange beam of flames erupted from my finger, and it crossed the distance between me and Igor instantly. I targeted his heart, but he reacted by slightly tilting his body.

I invested half of my mana in this attack; I prioritized making the beam as strong as possible, and its radius was half a centimeter.

It struck his shoulder and penetrated it easily. I heard sizzling sounds, and Igor let out a sharp shrill as he caught his shoulder.

His body started catching fire, but the process was very slow. He was about to fall to the ground, but I didn’t plan on giving him enough time to do so.

All of a sudden, he raised his great sword and threw it to his right. The weapon flew away with great velocity, and it spun as it kept going.

That’s where Ratska is!

Immediately, I changed my course and parried the sword with a palm strike when it was ten meters away from the little Gnome. The sword was about two meters tall and twenty centimeters wide, and it was completely black except for continuous white patterns on one of its sides.

The blade looked heavy but it seemed even heavier when I struck it. Interestingly, the flames burning my body flickered after making direct contact with the sword, and it returned to Igor before touching the ground.

“Are you okay?” I asked the Gnome. I made sure to extinguish the flames burning my body when I got close to Ratska; I didn’t want to kill him by accident.

“Yeah,” he whispered, “I am sorry; I tried to prevent him from ambushing you, but he threatened to kill me.”

I patted Ratska’s head, then turned toward Igor.

The sword was back in his hand, and my flames were spreading even further throughout his body.

The left half of his torso was on fire, and so was the left side of his face and his left arm.

“You’re a maniac, aren’t you?” he said as he laughed with a coarse voice, “I’d better take you more seriously than before.”

He raised his sword and touched the burned area with it. Out of nowhere, the flames got extinguished, and the burns started healing slowly.

Shit, now I can’t use [Unlimited Fireworks], and he’ll still have his mana… I need to get serious!

I took off my regular clothes, cape, and crown; the only item that I kept on was my new legendary-grade suit. I put the equipment that I took off inside my new spatial ring, then rushed toward Igor.

My suit was charged with some thermal energy; I decided to play it safe and use its special ability.

A system screen appeared in front of me and it said that I’d be invincible for fourteen seconds. I wasn’t satisfied with the short duration, but I couldn’t do much about it.

Igor grinned, and he got into a battle posture. He raised his sword in front of him only using his right arm, as most of his left side was burned.

I had a plan, and it seemed promising. I changed my path slightly; I wanted to attack Igor from his left side exclusively. His left eye was swollen and the tissue around it got cauterized, so his perception and defense must’ve been feeble on his weakened side.

The grin disappeared from his face when he saw me changing my path, and he ran away. He was faster than me, which was commendable for an injured person holding such a heavy weapon.

Suddenly, he raised his weapon toward Ratska, but he didn’t throw it this time. He slashed repeatedly at the Gnome from afar, and energy strikes erupted from his sword as it glowed with a bright golden glint.

I clicked my tongue and went back to defending Ratska. I parried some of the attacks and blasted some of them off using [Flame-N-Go].

I was pissed off at this point; I didn’t mind my enemy using underhanded tactics, but he was not fighting me at all.

I noticed that the cooldown of my single-target skill was over; it was time to get rid of this guy once and for all. I pointed my finger toward his head this time and invested all of my remaining mana in the attack.

“[Burn That Invader!],” I shouted, and a beam erupted from my finger; its target being Igor’s forehead.

My opponent was already waving his sword in front of him to generate energy attacks; he furrowed his eyebrows when I pointed my finger at him.

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He managed to slightly tilt his great sword and move it in front of his face. The fire beam struck the blade, and the blade flashed with a golden light as the beam got dimmer and thinner.

However, the beam wasn’t completely nullified; it got reflected and it penetrated his right thigh.

The contact between my attack and Igor’s leg produced a large snapping sound. His leg was now pointing in the wrong direction, and a large portion of his muscles got burned and fell to the ground. There wasn’t much blood; the flames cauterized the wounds as soon as they made them.

Igor cried loudly, and his face paled. His right eye dimmed, and some tears fell out of it. He lost his footing, but he regained his balance by using his sword as a crutch.

“You’re even stronger than we thought,” said Igor as he tried to clap while leaning on the great sword; he failed to do so, “However, you’re not strong enough.”

The dude’s body got completely ruined, but he still had some confidence. I didn’t know whether this was a bluff or not, but I decided not to lower my defense.

He waited for me to reply, but he clicked his tongue and shook his head when I didn’t.

“Man, I was just testing the waters to see if you were worthy of being my rival, but it seems like I’m weaker than you,” he said as he grinned; some blood fell out of the right corner of his mouth, “I hope you survive this attack, we’ll meet once more during the top rankers’ obligatory meeting. It takes place a couple of hours after the tutorial is officially over; I’m sure you won’t miss it.”

Stella will go after me viciously once this crook dies, and she’ll probably be much stronger than him.

However, something alarming happened.

With a swift motion, Igor stood on his left leg; no longer relying on his sword as a crutch.

I found his movement suspicious, but there was no way for me to run away without risking Ratska’s life.

Then, Igor pulled his blade out of the ground and then planted it once more.

Suddenly, the sword disappeared for a second before reappearing once more.

Out of nowhere, I felt a sharp pain in my legs, and I started falling to the ground.

Heh?

I checked my legs, and they were no longer there. I fell to the ground with a loud thud, and blood was pouring out of my thigh stumps profusely.

“If it was Stella who fought you instead of me, then she would’ve said that you deserved this for messing with the Great Church,” he said as he rolled his eyes, “It doesn’t matter to me; I only want to fight strong people. I hope this isn’t enough to kill you, so stay alive for a while and grow even stronger. I’ll kill you personally, and your head will be my greatest trophy. Also, the Gnome was called Ratska, right? I am sure he’s a valuable person, else you wouldn’t have protected him this fiercely.”

All of a sudden, his body disappeared alongside his weapon; he teleported himself out of here.

I was still shocked at the way my legs disappeared, and I didn’t let out any cries or whimpers.

“Mr. Jason,” shouted Ratska as he rushed at me, “Oh no, this is all my fault! Shit, I don’t even have any herbs to craft a quick potion.”

The blood loss weakened me, and I felt like I was about to lose consciousness.

I need to fix this injury as soon as possible, lest I die.

“Hey, Ratska,” I said with a weak voice, “Hide behind the Trading Station, and don’t ask me why.”

The Gnome was running in circles, and my voice startled him. However, he nodded quickly but left as tears welled in his eyes.

Don’t worry kid, I won’t die and you won’t lose your first job opportunity in years.

When Ratska was behind the cubic building, I increase the temperature of the flames burning my body to six thousand Kelvin.

[It’s fine!] increased my regeneration rate when my body was on fire, and the current temperature closed the wound instantly. Then, new legs started growing.

It took about two minutes before my legs were completely regenerated, but I managed to do it nonetheless.

I called Ratska after extinguishing the flames that burned my body, and he was astonished when he saw my legs once more.

“Why didn’t you say that you could regenerate amputated limbs?” said Ratska as he stared at me with wide eyes.

I shook my head and didn’t reply to his question.

Stella’s bunch were too eager to exterminate me; I had to be cautious. Besides, they might try to pull a fast one during the top rankers’ meeting which was going to take place in nine days.

I was concerned about my Legendary thermal suit, as a portion of it got destroyed too easily for my taste. However, it got repaired quickly when I used its self-repair feature.

Something else weighed on my mind; it had to do with Igor’s last statement.

It’s no longer safe to leave Ratska alone; Igor knows that he’s an important person, and they’ll investigate more about him.

I thought about giving Ratska my Anti-Gravity Legendary shield, but I decided not to. We just got to know each other, and he might betray me when he gets a better offer as we didn’t sign a contract yet.

I need better equipment for this guy, and I need exclusive contracts with the best blacksmiths too…

I could’ve bought some equipment for him from the System Trading Station, but it was more cost-efficient to have an accomplished blacksmith craft them.

Dwarves and Lizardmen are the best blacksmithing candidates…

Both of these races were experienced when dealing with metals, but I preferred Lizardmen when it came to creating blades and sharp weapons, as it was along their style of combat.

Besides, Lizardmen did not need to worry about the forge’s flames being too hot, thus they could play around with metals that had high melting points, unlike Dwarves.

“Are you familiar with Lizardmen, Ratska?” I asked.

“There were some of them on my home planet, but I didn’t interact much with them,” he replied as he nodded; he regained his normal facial expression, but his face was still pale, “They live in hot, dry climates, and they’re stubborn folk who take great pride in their connection to Dragons.”

It was true; most of them preferred to live in deserts. Areas like the Sahara and the Gobi Desert were filled with Lizardmen, as they planned on terraforming those places to better suit their needs.

“I am giving you two hours to prepare yourself, Ratska,” I said, “I’ll take you back to the sewers, and meanwhile, I’ll buy more items that we need for our journey.”

“Journey?” asked Ratska, “What journey are you talking about?”

“We’re going to Africa,” I said as I grinned.

I need to play my cards quickly… I lack the resources that Stella’s group has, and I have to make up for the difference using my future knowledge and some underhanded methods.

#

Special shoutout to:

chris

GenericKane

Water Dragon

Bladesunder

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