The legendary Moonlight Sculptor

V51C1P2 - The Star of Palrangka

- Hahahahaha. I'm about to die from laughter. This must be the comedy of the year.

- Anyone can do it, he says? Did the entire game change while I wasn't looking so that any average user has mastered all the sculpture skills and possesses sword techniques that can flatten any ranker?

- Frankly, I'm really not confident that I can do the same as he does. Moving around and swinging the sword so precisely while five Ferocious Hounds are leaping at you all at once… and that was not some automatic attack or evasion skill? How does that make any sense?

- That is one crazy movement. If you can replicate something like that when you are hunting in a party, you'll instantly become the hero of the group.

- Everyone is just out of it and not comprehending what they're seeing; they are totally captivated by the video.

- There are very few people who could beat Weed if they were fighting in the same condition as him: all the skills blocked, no flashy equipment and only one longsword at your disposal.

- I would like to express my bitter reproaches against Weed in advance. There will at least be a hundred people who will head off to challenge the advanced training hall, claiming they've learned the trick with the Heraim Fencing skill, only to be killed horribly.

- Honestly, what makes me laugh the most is what Packlas said. Someone else will break that record, really? So that's just nothing?

- They themselves only barely managed to pass through that path, even with all of their numbers and their great expensive weapons, yet look how they're trying to belittle Weed.

- Well, we all know that the Hermes Guild has always had no sense of shame.

The public message board was full of viewers' comments that cast stones at the panelists and the Hermes Guild. Occasionally, there were some high-level users who voiced their opinions after proving they were over level 450.

- The physical exhaustion you get from engaging in a combat while actually wielding your weapon with your own hands is equivalent to that experienced by a soccer player running full 90 minutes of the final match.

- His quick judgment and sense of combat aside… How can a human fight for such a long time while maintaining their focus?

- Don't you know how Weed was back when he played Continent of Magic? He had once hunted for 204 hours straight; the guy's a real monster at farming. Anyone who knew about him during those days would know that he has been severely underrated in Royal Road.

- Let's… Let's just think that Weed belongs to an entirely different race from us. Not because it makes us feel better… But because it's the truth.

- Whenever Weed went online on Continent of Magic, all the other users in nearby regions would quit the game. They ran away.

- Was Weed really such a tyrant in Continent of Magic?

- He was an absolute devil. The final boss. Maybe even more than that.

- He killed anyone that got in his way. A single person made a mistake, the entire group they were in had to pay the price.

- He once wiped out a whole city and erased it off the map.

- You mean Aaringit, the city by the river?

- If it was destroyed by Weed himself… I guess it became a popular tourist attraction afterwards?

- Well, no. Weed flooded the city with water from the river and drowned it entirely. The city was gone after that.

The stories from the time when he played Continent of Magic became a hot issue again in the message board after a long while.

The users who had joined Royal Road late had not known about these stories.

- If Weed was really such a tyrant, shouldn't he be rebuked by people?

- It's probably just some false rumor. The Weed-nim I saw would not do such things.

- But it's all true! Everyone who has some experience playing Continent of Magic knows about it.

- His notoriety… There really was nobody who hadn't heard of it. There are plenty of video clips out there titled like "Weed's brutal massacre".

- He was very famous as a merciless assassin and a god of war.

- The users who had played Continent of Magic all had similar thoughts: Weed's profession as a sculptor is not what makes him so strong; rather, it's precisely because Weed is a sculptor that the Hermes Guild is still drawing breaths.

***

The Garnav Plain!

In this place where a festival and sculpture construction were taking place at the same time, there were very few users who were not watching the video of Weed fighting his way through the advanced training hall.

"Hurray! He did it!"

"H, he really did it alone?"

"Wow… this is crazy. Seriously."

The video made 100 million users, who had been waiting nervously, go wild. Reaching the end of the Path of Struggle was in itself amazing, but fighting continuously for 37 hours all alone was even more phenomenal. He powered through encounter after encounter with almost godlike movements, without even getting tired. Many users felt that there might be some secret tricks behind his great stamina, but they were also deeply immersed in what they were watching.

Destroying one's enemy with all his might, and marching forward… This was the sight of a true warrior like they had dreamed of ever since they started playing Royal Road. The scenes they saw in this video seemed to set the very hearts of the users in the Garnav Plain on fire.

"Let's fight!"

"That Hermes Guild is nothing!"

The Northern users, who had grass leaves on their hair, shouted out in cheers.

***

Weed looked around, searching for prey.

Vice, a war hero of the Bromba Kingdom, was a formidable opponent with a level over 400. He was in the middle of fighting against the Mapon Kingdom's army, commanding a squad of 100 knights riding on black horses.

'They look like delicious targets.'

Weed spurred his white horse towards them, holding the Loa Sword in one hand and the Thunder Spear in the other.

"The enemy is coming."

"Shieldbearers! Join the heavy infantry and stop him!"

Following the order of the Royal Commander-in-Chief, the infantry soldiers began to move.

Compared to monsters and demonic creatures that were over level 500, this was but a piece of cake!

"Huaaaah!"

Each time Weed swung his sword and spear, soldiers were throw into the air in all directions.

He became one with the horse, breaking apart the enemy ranks with powerful strikes.

Princess Remi hugged Weed tightly from the back.

"I-I'm scared!"

A knight with his beautiful princess was a favorite cliche of a romance plot. What a dramatic scene it would make, riding in the middle of a battlefield on horseback with a beauty sitting right behind you!

Weed contemplated for a moment.

'She is getting in the way whenever I'm swinging my weapons. I just need to keep her alive, so maybe I should knock her out for a little while?'

A thought had dawned on him that it might be easier to fight if he hit the back of her head and knocked her unconscious. However, that all the viewers would be watching the broadcast later stopped him.

'Let's leave her alone for now. If she becomes too burdensome, I'll just knock her out when we are not on screen.'

Using his Moonlight Sculpting Blade skill, Weed struck down one of the commanders among the enemy soldiers with ease.

"Princess. We really, absolutely, unconditionally have to break through this path in order to survive."

"Can't we just go the other way?"

"I need to take what I can, even though I'm busy… Even if something goes wrong, I'll protect you so do not worry. I'm not planning to die so easily in this kind of place."

"I-I will trust you."

Princess Remi seemed to have let go of her worry at last; it would have been partially influenced by his [1] high Charm and Charisma stats.

Still conscious of the viewers who would be watching him, Weed gently told the princess:

"Those barbarian warriors seem quite strong. You don't have to worry about them right now, but later, you could be killed by a flying axe coming from a random direction."

"What?"

"Or you might be burnt alive by a Drake's fire breath. Oh, and those arrows that the elves are shooting, be careful with them, too. If I happen to miss one, that might go straight through your head."

"W-Whaaaat?"

Those soft-spoken words made Princess Remi freeze with fear. In the meantime, Weed continued to swing his sword and spear, and broke the lines of soldiers.

"I am Vice, the Lord of Castle Rahalnov, Commander General of the Gromter Legion, and the leader of the Order of Royal Black Knights. You, who are you and where are you from? If you wish to fight me, at least do so honorably and state your name first."

Seeing the damage Weed caused to his army, Vice stepped out from among soldiers, raising his lance and ready to charge. Vice, a renowned general of the Bromba Kingdom, had led his troops to victory in many a fight against the royal knights of other kingdoms.

The knights under his command were following closely but did not seem to be inclined to interrupt the one-on-one fight.

Ever sensitive to the audience ratings, Weed galloped on his white horse towards the knight.

"I'm a Moonlight Sculptor."

"What did you say?"

"The king of the Arpen Kingdom, an explorer of the ends of the earth, an immortal warrior, the glorious commander of the undead army."

"I still don't know who you are!"

"Wait, I'm not done yet! I'm a patient fisherman, an adventurer discovering the Continent's history. I am also a king acknowledged by the gods, a hero who saved the Continent, a hunter of demonic plague, the bringer of catastrophe, a desert traveler, a rainmaker, a greedy and nasty… ahem, disregard that. I am the one who stands against Dragon Fear, the honorable king of kings, an artist of dragons, and a master craftsman of rare metals."

"What a load of crap!"

"I have many more titles, but I've said briefly the first which came to mind!"

Weed's white horse and Vice's black horse began to charge, and as they were just about to clash spear to spear.

"Anyway, just call me Weed. Roaring Gale Spear skill!"

Bromba Kingdom's war hero Vice lowered his body close to the horse. The Thunder Spear brushed past him with a loud noise that shattered the air.

"It's foolish of you to make such a big attack, I'll teach you how to fight on a horse!"

Vice spurred his horse and gained on Weed, getting ready for the counterattack. With impressive riding technique, he followed close behind, but the Loa Sword was waiting for him.

*Shshshoook!*

With the first single blow he pushed away Vice's spear by sheer force, then landed the second and the third hits on his body.

< A heavy impact!You have successfully landed a powerful attack that reduces the opponent's Life Force by minimum 20%.>

< A direct strike on body!The enemy will be stunned for a very brief time.>

The armor with a high Defense score which Vice was equipped with was what narrowly saved him from instant death. Knight was also a profession with inherently high Life Force. But this only meant that Weed needed just one more blow to kill him off, and unfortunately for Vice, the Thunder Spear was already spinning in Weed's other hand at this moment.

"Go, Spear of Storm!"

A spear could gain increased attack strength by rotating. After exactly five spins, Weed's spear pierced Vice's body.

< You have gained experience points.Your Spear skill proficiency has increased. >

< A gift from the King.You have acquired armor with an excellent defense score. >

Vice left a set of red-hued armor as he died, along with a couple of junk items. Weed jumped into the group of the remaining knights.

"Ascending Thunderbolt!"

It was one of the skills contained in Thunder Spear. The spear became fully charged with the power of lightning and began to emit it in all directions. Blinding white light spread out, and soon the ground itself was upturned while galloping horses tripped and collapsed.

Even as he was engaged in the fight, Weed took a moment to appraise the armor he had got from Vice. Not to mention its high Defense, it came with quite a lot of bonus stats and skills related to combat; this armor was one of the most laborious works of a famous blacksmith during the Warring Age.

'Pretty good, eh?'

Of course, it was not good enough for Weed to wear, but it still wasn't too bad.

The lower level requirement especially, would make this equipment attractive to many others. On top of all these benefits, the item also granted a large amount of Fame points as well as the title 'A War Hero'!

'I've got something I can sell at a high price. Those heroes fighting in the Palrangka War should have quite a lot of special weapons and equipment like this.'

Weed gave out a Lion's Roar.

- Come fight me at once! I shall claim all of your lives!

Batalli the God of Fighting had sent Weed to the Palrangka War once again for him to try to make up for his currently insufficient Combat Accomplishments, but his secret nature as the supervillain that threatens the world peace had awakened from within him.

'What I can gain from this war are some good quality items with low level requirements. Those Legendary or Hero-class items are enough to fire up the auction.'

It was time for him to begin another hunt!

Even better was the fact that he was not in the Path of Struggle anymore, which meant that he could now eat food and was not restricted by various rules.

"Sculptural Destruction!"

Weed took out one of his sculptures and broke it. Using his Sculptural Destruction skill, he converted all of his Art stats, which was over 3600, into Wisdom. His maximum mana reserve and recovery ability were enhanced dramatically, and the power and range of his magic spells increased. As additional benefits, his Necromancer Skills became more potent and he received protection from illusion spells. It was evident that increasing one's Wisdom stat meant only one thing: maximizing his Necromancer abilities!

Weed recited magical incantations towards the fallen knights and other bodies nearby.

"Rise, restless, sleepless spirits. Take revenge on the living souls, the ones who killed you. Dead Rise."

The dead knights, including Vice, rose again as Death Knights. Their flesh had melted off, but they were still equipped with the same weapons and armor that they had when they were alive. Despite the fact that they had just been revived, the undead were even more powerful than they had been during their living days.

"Leonard. How could you…"

"You evil Necromancer! How dare you raise the undead…"

The royal soldiers of the Bromba Kingdom were engulfed by anguish and terror at this horrible sight.

"Kill them all."

Weed commanded the undead.

The Death knights swung their weapons at their former comrades without hesitation. They slashed their bone swords, and some skeletons were head-butting the enemies.

As Skeletons possessed such high Life Force, they were not killed even when their body was sliced in half at the waist, and those torsos that had been reduced to bones were still crawling on the ground.

The emergence of an undead army, with their horrible power!

As there were currently no less than seven royal armies tangled up together in a fight, there was no shortage of corpses.

"Dead Rise! Everyone rise anew!"

As Weed repeatedly raised the undead, his army of Skeletons and Death Knights grew in number. As a natural course of action, the undead soldiers engaged themselves in a fierce fight against the nearby Bromba Kingdom's army.

"Call Death Knight Van Hawk! Call Vampire Lord Torido!"

He also summoned his usual subordinates.

Van Hawk emerged, shrouded in a black smoke, along with Torido who was covering himself in a cloak.

"Van Hawk, go assume the command of the Death Knights."

"What is our goal?"

"There are no limitations. Kill anyone who's holding a weapon."

Weed ordered Van Hawk to lead the Death Knights. As strong as he was alone, his ability to command the undead army was truly outstanding.

Torido wrapped his entire body in his cloak once again.

"And what should I do?"

"Go and wreak havoc to your heart's content. You may drink blood and create new thralls as much as you want."

"Got it, master."

Torido gave a satisfied smile, revealing his sharp fangs.

As Weed had already made some new Combat Accomplishments and gained some more Fame, he decided not to worry about the possible ill reputation that would be caused by this for now.

'I could just complete a couple of adventures or make some sculptures to make up for it.'

The combat strength of the Death Knights were greatly enhanced by Van Hawk's aura.

Currently, Weed's Summon Undead spell was at Intermediate Level 8, and his other supportive spells such as Empower Undead, Craft Poison, Bone Shield and Summon Golems had not even reached the Intermediate level. For now, summoning Van Hawk had an even more dramatic effect on his undead army's power than using normal spells.

(Continued on next part…)