Starting from Zero

Chapter 147: (Chapter Title at the End) [Vol 4 Chapter 85]

Translator: blackberrry Editor: blackberrry

(Slight racism in this chapter)

"Ah….." No one knew what happened to Masayoshi Matsumoto, but he suddenly screamed and rushed at the Black Dragon. He looked just like a lunatic! Of course, regardless of whether he had gone crazy or not, a blade will always remain a blade, he was still unable to cut through the Black Dragon's scales, but this time, he had awoken the Black Dragon.

The Black Dragon's large eyes suddenly opened, its sharp gaze so strong that it caused some of the Japs to feel vertigo. He lifted his head up, and after swaying around for a bit, the Black Dragon actually stood up, the human length thick iron chains rustled and clanked with his movements. By standing, the iron chains were actually stretched taut, and because of it, the Black Dragon looked to be extremely angry, with a resonant roar, the Black Dragon struggled to lift his body higher in an attempt to remove the iron chains.

Phantom suddenly spoke up again: "Master, Lucky hopes that we can help this Black Dragon."

"There are too many people there, I don't know if I can defeat them, especially that Asmere dude, He can single-handedly kill Dragons, how can I defeat him?"

"But….?"

"I didn't say I'll do nothing, tell him not to be so anxious!"

The Black Dragon struggled for a while before giving up, the black iron chains were too thick, and were impossible to be broken! The Black Dragon looked at the ants beside him, his eyes revealing a pleading expression, even a fool would be able to tell that the Black Dragon was begging Masayoshi Matsumoto and his group to save him. But by the side stood the even more ferocious Asmere, whose strength was something they had to take into account, furthermore, they were Japs, who had always been known to be cruel and people who kicked their benefactors in the teeth! Masayoshi Matsumoto had no intentions to save him, and an aggressive Mage by the side even unleashed a gigantic Flaming Meteor at the Black Dragon. Without even looking, the Black Dragon extinguished the Flaming Meteor with a bite!

That fool, how can a Black Dragon be afraid of Spells! Even Lucky, a bogus Black Dragon is already almost immune to all spells. This Black Dragon is the real deal here!

After being attacked on, the Black Dragon seemed to have given up the hope of being saved, his neck and head suddenly bent backward while his chest area started to inflate violently. After being with Lucky for so long, how could I not know what was going on, those were the moves that the Dragon would showcase while preparing for their signature skill, [Dragon Fire]. Ruly, the Black Dragon's head suddenly came forward and spewed purple [Dragon Fire] all around, scaring the Japanese Mage who had released the Meteor to immediately raise his hands in an attempt to block. But before the fire could even reach the man, a blue barrier suddenly appeared around the Black Dragon and blocked the [Dragon Fire]. The internal space of the Blue Barrier was quickly filled with [Dragon Fire], and luckily Dragons were immune to their own flames, otherwise, the Black Dragon would have definitely died! But regardless of that, the Black Dragon suffered from some injuries, immune would only be immune, the damage output of the [Dragon Fire] is something that can never be overlooked!

Asmere laughed out loud. "This Dragon that you see is one that I had bred from young, he was supposed to be a Saint Dragon, his Father was the Dragon Lord of the Dragon Race, but he was killed by me. This is the Dragon hatched from a Dragon Egg that I picked up for the purpose of torturing him. If I hadn't been lucky in the past, I would have died in the mouth of his father, but I still won! HAHAHAHA!"

From that sentence, I was even more sure that Asmere was a perverted Psycho!

"Phantom, ask Lucky, how is that guy a Prince of a Lord? Isn't Lucky the Dragon Lord?"

Phantom took a while before returning: "Lucky said that that black dragon is his older brother, that year, there were two Dragon Eggs, Lucky was brought up by their mom while his older brother was raised by their Dad. After that, their dad was killed by Asmere while his brother's whereabouts remained unknown, they all thought that he died, thus Lucky inherited the position of the Lord."

"At that time, shouldn't Lucky still be his shell?"

Without asking Lucky, Phantom answered: "A Dragon Egg incubation period is usually 200 years, thus their coronation usually occurs before the Dragon Lord hatches."

"Oh!" I nodded my head, but suddenly felt something amiss: "Doesn't that mean that Asmere is alive even after 200 years?"

After a while, Phantom brought Lucky's words back: "Asmere is an Old Demon that had lived for thousands of years, since the beginning of the Dragon Race, they were already trying to kill him!"

"Woah woah woah, he is also a long time fugitive on the run!" No one could tell that the disgusting man had such a huge fame, the entire Dragon Race was on the hunt for him!

After laughing, Asmere continued: "All of you have to be careful, I fed this brat with corrupted things from young, and his original saint body had completely turned into the dark body of a Black Dragon. My original intent was to remove his Saint traits and turn him into a Dark Dragon, but instead, it made him even more powerful! This brat inherited all of his father's powerful abilities and strength, making him very powerful. All of you have to focus your attacks either at his mouth or eyes, those are the only places without Dragon Scales, and do your best not to hit on the Iron Chains. Although you guys should not be able to break the chains, if by any chance it DOES break, I might not be able to suppress him!"

When I heard that, my spirits were lifted. Asmere did not have the capabilities of handling two Dragons at once. If I were to break the Iron Chains, Lucky and the other Dragon could most probably defeat Asmere together. As for the Japs, as long as I could delay them and hold them back until Asmere dies, they would easily be trampled by the Black Dragon!

Upon thinking about it, I decided to take a gamble, and with lightning speed, I rushed out of the passageway while summoning all of my Companions. Before Asmere or Masayoshi Matsumoto and his group could even react, I had already led my Companions forward. Lucky spoke to the Black Dragon, but obviously not in Mandarin, but most likely Dragon Language. The Black Dragon quickly stretched all the iron chains on his body to their maximum tightness while Tank rushed up and spewed a mouth of acidic liquid onto the iron chains locking down on the Black Dragon's neck. After that, Tank started to run towards the other iron chains behind.

Asmere was the fastest to react, he immediately prepared a spell in an attempt to kill us, but I had the perfect Mage Killer - Dart. Before Asmere could complete his spell, Dart had already arrived by his side. Although Dart had the most terrible attack and HP amongst my Companions, he had the most frightening harassment tactics. As long as he was around, Mages should never consider on using any spells, because, the time they took to prepare a spell with the shortest cast time, Dart was able to attack three to four times.

Asmere had never encountered such a fast-moving monster before, the large Fireball that he was preparing exploded in his hands, resulting in a shock that caused him to retreat a few steps back. Masayoshi Matsumoto and the rest only realized what was going on when the Fireball exploded, and they rushed forward. But my Phantom Knights were not just for show. The 10 Phantom Knights quickly took the vanguard, and although Masayoshi Matsumoto had close to a 100 men and were all experts, the Phantom Knights were still level 850 mini BOSSES, and could still hold against 10 enemies individually!

I took the chance where both sides were being held up to jump and cut down the iron chains on the Black Dragon's neck.

Clang!

The part of the iron chain that had been corroded by the acid was cut apart by my sword, but the recoil from the iron chain sent me flying as well. Rosa quickly wove a net and received me safely. Phiona rushed forward and shot consecutive flame shots at the iron chain, turning the iron chain red hot. Asmere was too busy fighting against Dart, but Asmere was after all the Dragon Slaughterer Magus and had plenty of treasures and unique Spells on him, Dart had somehow got nerfed with a Slow spell as his speed had clearly dropped. Aldeina rode on Night Shade and helped to harass Asmere through melee combat. Although Asmere was powerful, a Mage who could not unleash spells, he had turned into garbage, and with Aldeina's command, the three of them efficiently suppressed him. Asmere could only run from them as the three of them chased after him relentlessly, preventing him from even have the breath to chant a spell.

On the other side, the iron chains were already glowing red from Phiona's flames. Loong'er cast [Weaken] on the iron chains, enabling them to be more easily broken. Tank raised his gigantic scythe and cut down on the red-hot section of the iron chains, but the chains simply trembled a bit and did not break. After that, Lucky rushed forward and used [Dragon Fire] together with Phiona's flames.

I borrowed Rosa's net elastic force to spring back, and with my sword, I slashed down on the exact place once again.

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Clank!

It was the sound of an iron chain dropping on the ground!

The Black Dragon roared out loud, followed by the deformation of the reinforced steel bars that were forcefully pulled by the Black Dragon with pure brute force, causing the last bit of iron chains to tense up. With a Tail attack, Lucky struck the last bit of iron chains and completely destroyed the iron chains.

After breaking the iron chains on his neck, the Black Dragon immediately started biting the iron chains on his left leg while we worked on the right. Tank added more corrosive acid on the chains, causing the iron chains to burn with green smoke. The iron chains that I had hacked down thrice was reduced down to a bit of attachment in which Tank was responsible to continue spewing the corrosive acid. The remaining iron chains were quickly broken apart with us dealing with them separately. The Black Dragon once again unleashed a Dragon Roar that caused soil and debris to fall from the ceiling. The Black Dragon suddenly flapped his wings forcefully to add in power. Continuous clanks could be heard from the breakage of Refine Irons and sparks ignited on the remaining iron chains that were forcefully broken apart.

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After unleashing its joyous Dragon Roar, the freed Black Dragon smashed his claw down on 10 over Japs while the Phantom Knights rushed over to Asmere under my command. The unrestrained Black Dragon used its tail to sweep at the Japs, causing 40 to 50 Japs to fly into the air, and in midair, around 30 of the Japs transformed into white light, while the remaining few were smashed onto the walls, leaving humanly shaped grooves all along the walls in the room. Masayoshi Matsumoto and the few other more powerful Players managed to dodge the attack, but even so, they were flung away by the powerful gale. Before they could even land, [Dragon Fire] enveloped their bodies, and by the time the [Dragon Fire] spell had ended, nothing was left of Masayoshi Matsumoto and the rest except for their dropped equipment. Not even ashes were left.

The 100 odd Japs were all swept clean in five seconds. It was the true power of a full Adult Dragon. This scene made me feel even more lucky to have encountered Lucky at the beginning! If I had encountered Lucky at his full Adult form, I reckoned my entire game life would have been completely different!

After resolving Masayoshi Matsumoto and the other Japs, the Black Dragon immediately turned and rushed towards Asmere. I anxiously got Aldeina to lead Dart and the rest away. Who knew that the Black Dragon would only take 5 seconds to take care of the Japs, the Phantom Knights who were initially supposed to harass Asmere had to immediately make way for the Black Dragon's attack.

Aldeina and the rest retreated too quickly, leaving a short lapse of time before the Black Dragon's attack could follow up. Asmere was truly no ordinary character, in that few seconds, Asmere was able to finish preparing his first spell.

The Black Dragon opened his mouth, it seemed as though he wanted to eat Asmere, but Asmere had finished casting his spell, and the blue barrier that had previously sealed the Black Dragon suddenly appeared once again. When the Black Dragon's teeth bit into the barrier, an intense and dazzling blue light instantly blossomed like a welding power supply, the glaring light instantly pained our eyes! The blue bright light was followed up with sparks that flew all over. None of us dared to look in that direction.

The sparks continued to flicker as the bright light remained. I adjusted the visor of the Dark Dragon Lord Helmet from its transparent color to black to act as sunglasses, and with difficulty, I turned my head to look at the dazzling ball of light. Asmere was supporting and controlling the ball of light right from the beginning while the Black Dragon was giving his all to bite on it, both parties were stuck in their positions and were in a deadlock. I walked over to the side of the ball of light, in which both Asmere and the Black Dragon had noticed. From the Black Dragon's gigantic eyes, I could see a smiling expression, while Asmere had a look of shock.

At the ball of light, I took out the Dragon Lance and stabbed into the light, resulting in the light disintegrating followed by a collision. The Black Dragon's gigantic jaws had unexpectedly closed and the sound of the rows of teeth smashing into each other was similar to two trains colliding! But I never saw blood and Asmere actually escaped at the last second, he was actually able to utilize an [Instant Blink] Ability in such a crucial and short moment, what a terrifying Mage! If not for the Black Dragon, even three of me might not be able to defeat Asmere!

Asmere was in fact not having it good as well, the hurried use of [Instant Blink] resulted in him appearing not far away, in fact, he appeared right in front of Aldeina, the distance between the two was less than a meter. Aldeina moved forward and kicked Asmere out. I predicted his trajectory and threw my Dragon Lance at Asmere, who was accurately stabbed by my "Javelin" in midair, but almost at the same time, he had released an offensive spell, the target - Me.

A light beam with a diameter of over one meter struck my body, and after feeling limp and numb, I did not know what happened after that.

When I woke up once again, I saw a handsome face right in front of me, scaring me to the point that I jumped up.

"You're awake?" The other party was the first to speak.

I looked around me, I was still in the same hall, but the Black Dragon and my Companions were gone, but Asmere still laid on the floor in the distance, with my Dragon Lance still stabbed in his stomach! I quickly summoned Lucky and the rest but was once again reminded by the notification that I had died once and was in a weakened state, thus unable to summon any of them. Without a choice and being helpless, I could only obtain information from the man before me.

"Who are you?"

The other party laughed and his body suddenly distorted, and the Black Dragon from before appeared again.

"Do you recognize me now?"

"You...you're that Black Dragon?"

The Black Dragon returned to his human form, his black clothes made him look like a Cultivator. "Thank you for saving me, the Dragon Race will forever remember your grace!"

"What just happened to me? I feel as though I had died once, but if that's so, why did I revive here?"

"You did die, but I saved you. Before you disappeared, I made you ingest the Spirit Stone."

"What? I swallowed the Spirit Stone?" When Masayoshi Matsumoto had died, the Spirit Stone had dropped as mission items would have their undroppable trait removed at the mission location, who would have known that it would be eaten by me!

I opened my stats to take a look and the result shocked the life out of me. All my stats had completely dropped.

"WHAT! What the hell happened?" I fainted again.

The Black Dragon shook me awake and explained: "The Spirit Stone allows a complete redistribution of Base Attribute Points, which is equivalent to reconstructing a new Character with your current one. Thus some of the values would change completely, especially the number of Companion Slots."

It was truly a complete transformation, an extremely huge change. My Companion Slots had actually increased to 13, while my Servants Slots had increased to 20.

"Because of your equipment, your Basic Attribute Points have all increased to 14, according to your 14 Charisma Points, you should own 7 Companion Slots, adding the additional slots provided by the Main Class of Tamer and Side Class Breeder, you have a total of 9 Companion Slots. Your Second Class, the Soul Manipulator, increases the number of Companion Slots by 2, and with your race as a Divine Demon, it gives an additional 2 Companion Slots, thus a total number of 13 Companion Slots. The Servant Slots has changed in proportion to your Companion Slots, thus you now have 20 Servant Slots. Are you satisfied with your new Attribute Points?"*

"I am satisfied, but what about my level….?" I could not carry on asking, I had spent the last few months bitterly training and struggling through it all, but in the end, this was the result.

"Your level?" The Black Dragon then realized that I was not agitated because of the Companion Slots. "Didn't I tell you? The Spirit Stone can help you reset your Base Attribute Points, just like reconstructing a new character? Since it is the reconstruction of a new Character, of course, you start from level 1!"

"Oh my god!" I was already crying. "I have trained for the past few months, but you actually forced a broken stone into me and turned me back to level 1, why didn't you just leave me to die instead! If I had died, I would have at most dropped two levels, but how great is it now, I dropped over 400 levels! How do you want me to play from now on?"

The Black Dragon never expected my reaction to be so huge. "I am sorry, I am truly sorry, I didn't know that you wouldn't want the new distribution of Attribute Points!"

"What's the point of being sorry, my levels will not come back!"

Oh right, I can just ask Customer Service about it! I quickly called the Customer Service Department.

"Hello! How can we help you?" The customer service lady's voice was sweet.

"I want to file a complaint, my level 479 Character was wiped clean by an NPC to level 1!"

"Alright, let us help you take a look at it!" The Customer service lady immediately started investigating. Not long later, she returned.

"I am sorry, your situation belongs to a story development that the Game has set into place and does not categorize under a BUG, but considering that the drop in level is truly too drastic, the Company has decided to give you a set of compensation. Firstly, let us directly increase your level to 20, this way, you can continue the game from your location. Secondly, we will give your Character the Trait of ignoring Equipment Requirements, that also means you are free to use all Equipment regardless of the requirements set for the equipment. The level requirements, stats requirements, class requirements are all ineffective for you, this way, you can continue using your current equipment. Thirdly, we have preserved all of your Spells and Spell Levels. Lastly, we will give you a choice of compensation."

F*ck! Level 20, why bother even setting it, and even claim that it is a compensation! But I did not dare to complain, what if they actually took everything back!

"What choice of compensation?"

"The first choice is to increase your Companion Slot by one and your Servant Slots by two; The Second choice is to grant you a passive trait of not dropping any items, regardless of what item it is, it can never be dropped upon death or stolen; The Third choice is to increase the Leveling Spring Water** into 10 dosages, we realized that you have items that can help increase levels, and can help you transform them into pills for easy consumption, every pill will increase one level. These are the options, you can choose from either one of them."

There was no need to consider: "I want the passive trait of not dropping any items!"

"Alright, the Trait has been entered, thank you for calling Customer Service!"

Although I had obtained the compensations, I was still in a foul mood, A Character that was almost level 500 had actually dropped to level 1! (supposedly 20 with the customer service) How long would I need to train back up!

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The Black Dragon became embarrassed upon seeing my anger: "I am truly sorry, I did not know that levels were so important to you!"

"Forget it, you did it with the intention of helping me. I can train my levels back up!"

"What about this, I'll follow you to help you?" The Black Dragon suddenly shocked me with those words. "I am very powerful, if I were to follow you, you can regain your levels quickly!"

"You don't know about this, but a Companion's level cannot exceed that of the Master. I am level 20 now, so Lucky will definitely be level 20! Oh right, have you seen Lucky? He's your younger brother!"

"I know! When he saved me, I caught the scent of Mom! Anyway, since my brother is with you, it'll be perfect to have me. Even if our levels are low, we are still Dragons, a level 20 Dragon is definitely stronger than a level 40 Lizard!"

"That's true! Alright then! AHHHH…." Right when I agreed, the Black Dragon pounced and bit on my wrist. "Why do you guys like to bite my hand?"

The Black Dragon opened his bloodied mouth and suddenly turned back into his Dragon Form. After taking my blood and recognizing me as his Master, he had turned back to level 20. Seems like the Dragons required an extremely high level to be able to transform themselves!

"Since you are my companion now, I should give you a name, what about Epidemic? Because ever since I saw you, I have been unlucky, you're truly no different from an epidemic!"

Although he was not very happy about it, Epidemic nodded his head.

"Phantom Knights!" I summoned the Phantom Knights, luckily they were still around, I was back to level 20, and out of all my Companions, only Epidemic could fight, I was in deep trouble! I suddenly recalled that I had a Faerie Dragon.

Since I'm in need of all the help I can get, Why not! I took out the Faerie Dragon Egg and pricked my finger to drop a drop of blood on it. Crack, the egg cracked, and a tiny Faerie Dragon staggered out. Epidemic looked at her excitedly, I never expected Epidemic to actually be a perverted Dragon.

"Little one, you have a really beautiful color, I'll call you Crystal from now on!" I gave the Faerie Dragon a name. Now, I have become the world's first Dragon User with Three powerful Great Dragons, what a pity they were all level 20!

I looked at the empty hall and found a small door in the distance, most probably, the treasures were kept in there. This time, I had paid such a huge price, and could not return empty-handed. As long as I brought our National Treasure back, I could say that I had sacrificed myself for the country! Of course, I had to first deal with Asmere. He was still lying on the ground without disappearing, which only meant that he had not died or he had something on him.

I walked over and grabbed onto Dragon Lance and flipped him over, and it turned out that he was still alive.

"PHANTOM KNIGHTS! HELP!" I was only level 20, how could I not run from the old Monster! But the old monster on the ground actually did not crawl up to kill me, my Dragon Lance had already taken most of his life. The Dragon Lance was a weapon that ignored Defence, matched with my high Damage output that only Warriors could unleash, no matter how perverse this old monster was at in being a Mage, my Dragon Lance had definitely struck a fatal blow despite being unable to kill him!

"Master, he's about to die soon!" The Head of the Phantom Knights used his Spear to poke at the dying Asmere.

I carefully returned and looked at Asmere. He was vomiting blood, and it prevented him from chanting spells or curses. But I did not dare to get too close, I was sure that a level 1000 mage could kill me just by hitting me with his staff!

"Kill him!"

The head of the Phantom Knights used his own spear and stabbed twice.

Bang!

Asmere suddenly exploded.

Luckily, I was hiding further away, the Phantom Knights in front of me had quickly drawn close to me and formed a human wall to block the power of the explosion. But even so, I almost died from the impact, a level 20 Character was truly weak!

When the Phantom Knights in front of me moved away, I immediately noticed the items on the ground, there were three gemstones, who would have thought that the old man's private stash would be so generous! I walked over and picked up the blue Gemstone and took a look at it. Good stuff, Ultimate Ice Crystal! It was an item on par with the Ultimate Fire Gem on my Helmet! Right next to the Ice Crystal was a green gemstone. I inspected it, it was an Ultimate Poison Gem. I quickly picked up the last gemstone as well, it was an Ultimate Black Water Gem! I've struck it rich!

All the Gemstones had the 'Ultimate' Quality property, which meant they could be used like how the Ultimate Fire Gem was used. In the beginning, it was the Fire Gem that saved me from the lava when I attempted to [Blink], if not for the Dark Dragon Lord Set's Gem slot that had the Ultimate Fire Gem in it, I would had long been burnt to ashes! As for the three gemstones in front of me, they should all have equivalent capabilities.

The Ultimate Ice Crystal could resist Freeze or cold effects, not only could it reduce Ice type Magic, it could also summon Yetis, the number of summons was equal to 1/10 of the User's Level plus one. I did not know what a Yeti was, I had never tried gaining levels in a Snow region, so I did not know how or what a Yeti was, but I guessed that they would be something similar to the Flame Hornets that the Ultimate Fire Gem initially summoned, just that the Element type was different.

The Ultimate Poison Gem could resist Poison, at the same time summon the King Butterfly, the number of summons equal to the level of the User. I did not know what a King Butterfly was as well, and only wished that I could summon Phantom as he was like a walking encyclopedia, he would know all these!

As for the last Black Water Gem, the information box wrote that it could resist Light Magic, and could summon Underworld Skeletal Hands, the number of summons was 10 times of the User's level. I had seen the Skeletal Hands before, The Dark Knights in the Death Valley knew such a spell, with one summon, they were able to summon a huge number of Skeletal Hands, although their damage output was low, there were plenty of them. It was a complete nightmare for foot soldiers or armies!***

Although their attributes were good, I had no way to use them, I had to let Clark embed them into the armor for me! But I faced a problem of leaving the place. The door at the end was the only way out. I came in by using Phantom's [Blink], but now that we were level 20, Phantom's [Blink] had a maximum range of less than 1 meter!

I brought the Phantom Knights to the door and decided to get them to open the door. If there were any mechanism inside, My level 20 "Newbie" would definitely be unable to stop it! Fortunately, nothing happened when the door was opened, it only revealed a corridor. We ran through the corridor with the Phantom Knights split into three groups, the Head of the Phantom Knights led four Phantom Knights as the vanguard, another four walked behind while one Phantom Knight brought me in the middle. I had become as fragile as glass now, one touch and it'll be the end of me!

We reached the end of the corridor in a short while, where a mud wall blocked the path. The head of the Phantom Knights knocked on it, producing a hollow sound! Three Phantom Knights turned their Mounts backward with their butts against the wall (The corridor was extremely wide). The Head of the Phantom Knights waved his hand, and the three Mounts jumped and used their rear hooves to kick the wall. With a rumble, the mud wall fell and formed a hole. The Phantom Knights quickly expanded the hole to allow the Mounts to pass through.

After passing through the hole, we arrived at a Teleport Station. Left with no other choice, I used it. After being teleported, we arrived at a gigantic cave with a river of lava flowing down by our side. The high temperature caused my HP to drop constantly, but with my fast HP regeneration, it basically balanced out, but the information box was constantly updated: You have lost 1 HP due to the blazing lava.

Without walking far, we reached a gigantic lava lake which had a striking resemblance when I was at the top of the volcanic crater, just that this lava lake had a ceiling while the volcanic crater was open to the sky. In the center of the lava lake was a gigantic island, but it was impossible to jump across. Luckily, I had wings, and flying was not a problem.

I unsummoned the Phantom Knights and flew over to the island in the center of the lake, and summoned the Phantom Knights once again. This way, the Phantom Knights could assess the Island with me. The temperature on the island was much higher than the outside, and the rate at which I was losing my HP exceeded that of my HP regeneration. It compelled me to swallow pills occasionally to keep my HP up. Luckily, the Phantom Knights were at extremely high levels and were not worried over the loss of HP.

At the center of the Island was some sort of Altar with a Stone Plague above which had some words carved into it. I led the Phantom Knights over, the temperature of the ground was truly horrifying, every step I took would produce green smoke from beneath my feet. Very quickly, we reached the Altar, and that was when I finally saw a brownish red wooden sword stabbed into the Stone Plague. The Sword tip was stabbed deep into the Plague, with less than a chi**** left exposed out of the stone. But from the Chinese Dragon shape hilt and its unique carvings, I knew that it was one of China's National Treasure.

I went up to grab the sword hilt and right when I was about to pull it out, I suddenly noticed words written above the Stone Plague. I released my grip on the sword and swiped the dust away, revealing the words below, that were written in Chinese.

Sage Tai Zu encountered a restless Fire Source, afraid that it would take lives, used the Deity Sword to protect the land. If the Deity Sword is unleashed, the Flames will lose control, and lives will be seized! To move this Sword, one has to first cast the Spirit Stone into the flames, eliminating the intensity of the flames!

The words were written vaguely, but I got the gist of it. Firstly, the sword was called Deity Sword, and it was used to stabilize the lava pool, as long as the Sword were to be separated from the Plague, the lava lake would churn and the mountain would become an active Volcano. To prevent the lake from turning active, one had to throw the Spirit Stone into the flames. But I had already eaten the Spirit Stone, how could I find another Spirit Stone to throw it in! But, since we were in Japan, although I did not know where the Teleportation had brought me to, I was sure that we were still within Japan itself. Since the Volcano would not burn the Chinese, then let it burn!

Who cares, I grabbed the sword hilt and pulled it out.

Ssshhinngggg!

The Deity Sword was easily drawn by me, but at the same time, the lava started to churn. I unsummoned the Phantom Knights and used my Wings to fly back to the main land. The lake was already turning active with bubbles constantly forming on the surface of the lava and already looked extremely unstable, as though it could blow at any moment. The Deity Sword suddenly flashed with a faint white light, and a white barrier formed around me. I calmed down, the Sword was able to stabilize the entire Lake, protecting me alone would not be a problem.

I had already flown over the lake, thus I leaned on the wall and waited for the Volcano's eruption to form a way out for me. The lake became more and more unstable, inside the churning lava, there would occasionally be lava spouts spewing up over seven to eight meters before falling back into the lake. Suddenly, the ground started to tremble, and the wall that I was leaning on collapsed. The Lava started to surge towards me. A tunnel appeared at where the wall had collapsed and the lava surged into the tunnel like a flood. But the light barrier did not break, thus I did not suffer from any damage.

What I did not notice was that the cave had a total of eight such tunnels that appeared, where the rising lava had flowed into, flowing into eight different directions….

Chapter Title: Reincarnation & A Reset

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(*) Ziri's base attributes at the start of the game was Str 13, Dex 6, Int 2, Charisma 6, Spirit 3 and Constitution 8

(**) The Spring Water was most likely obtained from the Spring of Life, but Thunderstorm never wrote much about it after that.

(***)I've looked through the novel but could not find any Dark Knights that had summoned this spell, most likely a mistake, or I did not read properly. If anyone remembers a scene where some Dark Knight in some Valley (the valley that I remembered was the one where he went to train and encountered high-level mobs at the Lost City in the beginning, but there were no Skeletal Hands there.)

(****) Chi = Chinese foot = 30 cm