“Sure?”
“Don’t you all know? I think they said the Kraken is going to show up.”
The arrival of the Kraken is a foregone conclusion.
Sure, we want to prevent the First Damage, but we don’t know where it will emerge from, and as of now, we have no way to stop the tsunami that could engulf the entire continent.
For now, it isn’t large enough to cover the entire continent.
[?]
[HAHAHAHAHA]
[???]
[The Kraken is that strong?]
[The Kraken isn’t that strong though.]
[Is it going to be destroyed when the Great Cataclysm happens?]
[Oh, LOL, everyone will come to their senses once they’re submerged.]
“I think the Kraken I saw is different from the one you guys know. Like, a lot different.”
“I asked before, but is it really that strong?”
“Yes.”
The Kraken I encountered through the Multicolored Successor.
The Kraken, which was once defeated by the Upper Celestial Race, was definitely much stronger than before.
The light from the Kraken stopped me, who had restored about half of my power in the Spiritual World.
Of course, I wasn’t using my full strength either, but the Kraken also wasn’t using its eyes fully.
If that state of the Kraken appeared in Deoen, annihilation would be a guaranteed outcome.
There’s no way to hold out or stop it.
“Well, it probably won’t be that bad.”
Just like Sugarado mentioned, World Bosses have their “First Damage” when they first appear and the “Final Damage” that happens after a time attack.
As long as its power is somewhat sealed, I think if we can take it down in the allotted time, we won’t reach the point of destruction.
The sea level might rise a bit though.
“Lady Lily says that the effects will hit during the Great Cataclysm, so there shouldn’t be a problem?”
“It’s that the problem itself will be washed away.”
“Hmm… Okay, I understand.”
“I have a question.”
“What is it?”
Yena, while properly setting up the scattered figures from the West, looks at me.
“Most of the Large Guilds are in the West, right?”
“That’s right. Other than Angels and some guilds, most of the top 20 are in the West.”
Notably, there are countless strong players in the West, including the ‘Black Moon’ led by the ranked 8th, Black.
They have gathered in one place, accepting territorial clashes against the formidable Empire, but I have a bit of a question.
“Why did they specifically settle in the West?”
The South is less influenced by the Empire compared to other regions, and the East is quite livable.
Even Talikal, located in the East, had good soil, pleasant weather, and a reasonable level of monsters.
On the other hand, the West didn’t have much advantage.
[Right?]
“Ugh…”
“Mol? Ru?”
“That’s always been the case, hasn’t it?”
“Isn’t it because the West is like a honey trap?”
“There are a ton of monsters in the West.”
“Probably because there’s a lot of empty space there?”
“Isn’t that because of him?”
“That person?”
“Oh, that’s a bit of a past story that only a few people might know about.”
“?”
“A long time ago. I think it was about a year after the game opened?”
At that time, there were only regular jobs, and rare classes were slowly appearing one by one.
Yena, ranked third at that time, was a top-ranking player making a name for herself.
Most users were barely managing to win against even a single Knight, when a Ranker showed up.
“There’s a stroke of luck in the West.”
A user spread the rumor that there was a hidden piece in the western continent, and he became the first to discover how to obtain a territory, becoming a Lord.
The ‘hidden piece’ first appeared in Deoen.
Once he became a Lord, Rankers who were barely managing with just hideouts flocked to the West.
At that time, hidden pieces were non-existent, and compared to other areas with terrible information, the West had solid intel.
Of course, if he had been just an ordinary user, he might have gotten lucky, grabbed the information, and searched elsewhere, but his name was way too special.
The very first person to obtain a hidden piece.
His name was…
“Lord Heavenly Horse…?”
“Yeah. The real Lord Heavenly Horse, not just a horse flying in the sky.”
It was the martial arts-style version of Heavenly Horse.
[LOL]
[Wow, it’s been a while since I heard about Lord Heavenly Horse.]
“So the Guild flocked to the West because of Lord Heavenly Horse?”
“Heavenly Horse, whoa!”
[Really?]
[?]
“Wow.”
[That nickname is so cool.]
“I miss Lord Heavenly Horse…”
“Who even is Lord Heavenly Horse?”
“I thought the first hidden piece was someone else.”
“Isn’t it Michael who got it first?”
“Isn’t Michael supposed to be the first?”
“People say Michael was the first.”
“Uh, yeah, Michael was the first in terms of job, right? His name was Holy Knight Commander, wasn’t it? But the hidden piece itself belongs to Lord Heavenly Horse.”
“Oh, I see.”
“The guild was called Lord Heavenly Horse Cult. They were quite popular back then.”
“What about now?”
Despite being the first to obtain a hidden piece and becoming a Lord, he must have risen above average Rankers by now, but what is he doing now?
Yena chuckled awkwardly.
“When the world changes, there are bound to be people who can’t adapt.”
Deoen conducts large-scale updates every year.
Once ranked third and at the peak of popularity, Yena was slowly pushed back as World Bosses and Mythical weapons emerged.
When I first met him, he was just bouncing around the top 100 rankings.
Besides that, there has been quite a generational shift between past and present rankers.
Take Leo, for example; he was just an average user until becoming a Nymph.
“Yena, now and always, the only one maintaining the top spot is our Lord Sword Saint.”
“Lord Sword Saint. He does have some skills, doesn’t he?”
If he hadn’t been so greedy, I could have acknowledged his talent.
What a pity.
[Lord Sword Saint T.T]
[Karma? Lord Sword Saint is lol]
[He’s skilled, but not as good as me.]
[Hahahahahahahaha]
[I wonder what Lord Sword Saint is up to these days.]
“It hasn’t been long since Lord Sword Saint returned. I wonder what he’s doing?”
“Isn’t he managing just fine on his own?”
It’s a pity his sword broke, but it’s better not to use such powers.
Holy magic destroys both body and soul, but magic goes even further, corrupting the mind as well.
The System may provide protection, but as it was with the World Tree, magic is the source of corruption.
If the soul isn’t strong enough to fully contain the magic, it just becomes a terrible poison.
“Anyway, to continue, the Heavenly Horse Church has been disbanded. It naturally fell apart when the kingdom it belonged to perished.”
“What about Lord Heavenly Horse?”
“Since then, he has disappeared too. He had accumulated quite a lot of rank points, but I’m not sure if he just quit or vanished like Lord Sword Saint.”
Currently, Heavenly Horse ranks 19th.
It’s a pretty high ranking, making it into the top 20, but since he doesn’t have a hidden class or special equipment, it’s presumed he’s weaker compared to today’s rankers.
Even if he’s skilled, he’s definitely lacking compared to equipped and skilled current rankers.
[So, basically, he’s washed up, right? lol]
[Heavenly Horse is a cool nickname though.]
[Hahahahahahahaha]
[Heavenly Horse;;]
[That nickname would sell for a fortune, though.]
[Can he use the Heavenly Horse Death Beam now?]
Yena shifted her gaze from the West and lifted her figure from the South.
“So many large guilds have settled in the West… but the rest are mostly in the East and South, and their powers aren’t that significant.”
“The kingdom issue you mentioned, is that widespread?”
“Yes. Except for the solid Northern region, it’s probably like that everywhere else.”
The Northern region, being the most solid, has the strongest outsider group, which has me, Lord Sword Saint, and Leo, so there’s no reason for them to keep each other in check.
In contrast, the other regions don’t have clear and reliable users to rely on.
They are lords, but they aren’t particularly swearing loyalty to the kingdom.
Thud.
Yena’s figure landed back on the map.
“To solve this issue, I think we need to stand up once.”
“Stand up?”
“Yes. Honestly, looking at what we’ve been doing lately, it feels like old times. Just like when they treated us like dogs guarding our houses!”
Clunk!
Yena shot up from the table, her hands slamming down.
The figures she’d painstakingly set up tumbled over again.
[Yena, calm down!]
[LMAO]
[Yena, what’s with the ‘over the top’?! LOL]
[Hey, Yena…]
[They’ve definitely stepped over the line lately.]
[For real, LOL]
“Honestly, they’ve given us a lot, too. We’ve been lords, and though we got paid, it was still a win-win for both, right?”
“That’s true.”
“Fighting among ourselves is fine! It’s good to negotiate our salaries as well. But taxing us too? I don’t think that’s acceptable! That’s how I see it.”
[Well said!]
[Yena for Congress!]
[LMAO]
[Yena wins!]
“…Um. I have a question.”
“Go ahead.”
“So, can’t we just include that tax in the conditions? If we’re going to negotiate, that sounds entirely possible.”
Like exempting from sales or distribution taxes.
Yena shook her head.
“There are too many restrictions on that. You’d have to make it an exclusive contract, and it wouldn’t work with just one kingdom.”
The reason the kingdoms raised taxes on trade and travel was to keep each other in check.
The residents and medium-small guilds suffering in that process? They don’t care at all.
What they want is a strong outsider force, and the rest is just not their concern.
Of course, this will all get sorted after the Great Cataclysm… but there’s just one thing that bugs me.
Someone who will actually take advantage of this situation.
“The Empire has grown too, right?”
“Well, the Empire is always growing…”
At the very top of the Empire, it’s Duke Huangyeol.
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