“Hmm, look who it is, isn’t it Kaizar?”

Roster, the Captain of the 1st fleet of Kaimon Empire.

His two eyes slightly narrowed.

This was because he saw an unexpected face as soon as he landed on Pascal.

“Huhu, long time, no see, Roster.”

While staring at Roster’s dangling left arm, Kaizar grinned.

Roster, who became one-armed due to Kaizar’s sword ten years ago, loathed him incredibly.

“The fact that you are standing here… Must mean that we are one step too late.”

“That’s right, not just one step, but you’re very late.”

“Has the bladesmith died …”

Roster spoke to himself.

The bladesmith he spoke of was referring to Lacromyu, who was killed by Kaizar.

And Ian, who belatedly arrived at the seashore behind Kaizar, came down from Halli’s back.

Ian stopped by the battlefield on his way, and brought Pin and Ly with him as well.

“Hmm, who is that punk kid, Kaizar?”

At Roster’s question, Kaizar smirked as he replied.

“He’s our Lord guy.”

The face of Ian, who heard that from the back, wrinkled, but it wasn’t like Kaizar to pay attention to such things.

“…?”

Roster stared at Ian with a quizzical expression.

Regardless of that, Kaizar unsheathed his sword and lifted it.

Seu-reu-reung-!

The black blade of the Legendary-rank greatsword began to shine white as the sunlight reflected on it.

Roster glared at Kaizar.

“Even if it is you, it will be too much for you to face this many troops…”

However, Kaizar didn’t show any interest and walked forward one step at a time.

Stomp- Stomp-.

And after raising his sword high, he swung it in the air with all of his strength.

Baang-!

A sound similar to that of an explosion followed after.

In the sandy beach in front of the Kaimon Empire fleet, a large furrow was dug deep laterally.

Kaizar grinned.

“If you cross over this, you’re going to die, Roster.”

While looking at that form, Ian, who stood towards the back, gulped instead.

‘Our retainer is bursting with energy…!’

However, just then, a man got off of a Kaimon Empire ship that anchored late.

Accordingly, Kaizar and Ian’s gaze naturally turned towards him.

This was because Kaizar knew him, while for Ian, it was because his appearance was so remarkable.

‘What the hell, that person is so cool!’

A bright-red navy uniform and white hair that grew stylishly, as well as a white mustache.

At the form of the man, whose aura could be felt even from a distance, Ian watched him with an interested expression.

The one who opened his mouth first within the silence was Kaizar.

And different from up until now, Kaizar’s expression looked quite serious.

“Harwin… Based on the fact that even you came, old man, this was intended.”

At Kaizar’s words, Roster bristled.

“Don’t talk so thoughtlessly, Kaizar. He is the admiral.”

“That, he’s your admiral, that has nothing to do with me.”

Harwin slowly walked out to the front.

Paulean, Celia, and so on, who lead the battle in the prison to victory during that time, as well as the support troops of Luspel Empire, gathered behind Ian one by one.

An explosive situation occurred.

Ian’s gaze turned towards the troops of Kaimon Empire, who roughly looked to be about an estimate of thousands.

‘They’re numerous indeed. It looks like they have about ten times our troops…’

The fortunate thing was that the path towards the prison from the seashore was not that wide, so there wouldn’t be a situation where a lot of troops clashed into each other at once.

It was a topography that couldn’t help but be a disadvantage to the others.

In the middle of all this, Ian remembered Karceus’ Egg, which he had kept in his inventory well.

‘If all those troops are caught, then the God Dragon’s egg could possibly hatch.’

And for the first time in a while, he checked the information of Karceus’ Egg.

* * *

• Karceus’ Egg

Level: 0

Classification: Egg

Rank: Legendary (Inherent)

Personality: Unknown

Hatching (28%)

The egg that Karceus, the God Dragon that existed in ancient legends, left behind.

Karceus’ egg has begun to hatch.

For War Dragon Karceus to break out of the egg, it needs the strength of a powerful war.

Whenever the Summoner possessing the egg defeats a strong opponent, Karceus will gain a little bit of strength and eventually break out of the egg.

It’s clearly stated that its with strong opponents, but the hatching rate definitely went up much higher when he won against human-like opponents rather than when he caught monsters.

This could be told just from looking at the hatching rate that went up over 5% when it was in its early 20% up until before the battle with the guards of the prison finished.

Ian developed a greed.

‘I feel like I just need to last 5 more minutes… It’s such a waste to just leave…’

On the other hand, while Ian was thinking of this and that, Harwin, who walked out to the front, slowly opened his wrinkled mouth.

“Kaizar, today seems to be your memorial service day.”

“Huhu, I don’t know. We’ll have to see about that.”

Harwin’s mouth twitched.

“You, your lack of mannerisms hasn’t changed.”

“Then what about you, old man, based on the fact that you dragged your old bones and personally appeared, are you implying that you’ll carry out a full-out war?”

Rather than a response, Harwin raised his right hand straight up.

“Attack! Dispose of the dregs of Luspel without leaving a single one!”

“Aaah!”

A loud war cry.

Along with that, the fierce battle began.

As this was the first time Ian fought in such a large-sized battle, he also felt himself get a little excited.

“Ddukdae, tie down as many as you can with Abyss Hole!”

Deu-reuk- Deu-reu-reuk-.

Ddukdae, who nodded his head at Ian’s command, slowly walked forward.

Thud- Thud-

And as soon as the opponent troops drew close, Ddukdae spread both of his arms forward with strength.

Kwaah-!

A whirlwind of abyss formed at the centre of the ends of both of Ddukdae’s fists.

A rough estimate of what looked to be about dozens of soldiers got sucked into the current.

The average level of the soldiers was around 120-130, but it seemed that as their ranks were low, their resistance to status condition effects was incredibly low.

Ddukdae’s Abyss Hole and Ian’s continuous Current Proliferation was incredibly effective to the opponents like that.

Za-zap- Za-za-zap-!

The dozens of Kaimon Empire soldiers’ feet were tied down in an instant.

Just like he always did, Ian tried to let out a command for Lake’s Breath to be poured on top of that.

However, just then, a shadow, who was one step faster than Ian, jumped in from the air.

“Haaat!”

The identity of the shadow was Ian’s retainer(?) Kaizar, and after jumping into the middle of the opponents, whose feet were tied down, he exploded darkness in every direction.

Baang-!

And Ian knew the identity of that skill very well.

‘That, that’s the Inherent Ability attached to the sword I gave him!’

There was an additional effect called ‘Darkness Emission’ attached to the Greatsword of the Dark Fenrir, the Legendary-rank weapon that Ian passed over to him.

When attacking with Darkness Emission, there was an additional effect with a 30% chance to emit darkness in all directions, and that effect was fearsome.

• Retainer ‘Kaizar’ has used ‘Darkness Emission’ and has dealt 27,598 damage to the ‘Soldier of Kaimon Empire’.

• Due to the effect of ‘Darkness Emission’, the Defensive Power of the ‘Soldier of Kaimon Empire’ will decrease by 30% for 3 seconds.

Darkness Emission fundamentally gained damage of 250% of the caster’s Offensive Power.

On top of that, as the additional effect of Defensive Power reduction also burst, the soldiers of Kaimon Empire began to melt down like butter on a hot pan.

Kaizar’s additional attack followed.

Kaizar, who landed right in the middle of the enemy camp, held the greatsword with both hands and chanted lowly.

“Pok-ryong-cham-!”

Bang- Ba-ba-bang-!

Smoke from the bright-red sword spread out in all directions with Kaizar as the centre.

And at that moment…

The party of over a dozen Kaimon Empire soldiers turned into black smoke and dispersed into the air.

Ian let out an exclamation before he even realized.

“Keuh…!”

The pleasant feeling when a countless number of system messages notifying him of his obtained EXP fill up all at once!

Kaizar’s words lodged into the ears of Ian, who was feeling happiness.

“Alright, our Lord, that was nice just now.”

Ian, whose fortune box was broken, replied bluntly.

“What was?”

“The thing that the lump of rock just used. What is that, you know, that Abyss whatever.”

“…”

Worst of all, Kaizar didn’t see his Current Proliferation, which hit artistically, and just praised Ddukdae’s Abyss Hole.

For a moment, Ian was almost offended, but while looking at the EXP gauge bar that was still going up, he soothed his heart.

‘That’s right, still, at least he didn’t call me Lord guy.’

Following that, the streams of purple light that sucked into Ian’s inventory made him go into a happy mood again.

“Ly, Pin! That way for us!”

• Understood, Owner.

Kku-ruk- Kku-ruk-!

Even while Ian faced the empire soldiers, he glanced in Kaizar’s direction.

And every time he did, he needed to swallow his exclamations down.

‘There seriously is no other monster…’

Suh-guk-!

At one swing of Kaizar’s sword, the empire soldiers turned into a grey light and disappeared.

His fundamental attack itself was strong as well, but if Darkness Emission burst out two or three times one after another, the party was completely ruined in an instant.

‘I can’t just stay still as well.’

It was just because Kaizar’s active role was so amazing, but Ian was also quite splendidly distinguishing himself in the war with soldiers in the lv 130 range as his opponents.

“Familiar Healing!”

And along with Celia, who was magnificently supporting the Familiars from the back, and Paulean, who boasted incredible endurance expected of a knight from the imperial family’s knights and was blocking the opponents from the front, he smoothly faced the soldiers of Kaimon Empire.

However, it wasn’t like the whole war situation was good.

This was because the number of Kaimon Empire soldiers was so high.

As the troops of a numerical difference of over ten times endlessly pushed in, the soldiers of Luspel Empire eventually began to be pushed back little by little.

Ian slightly checked the quest time.

‘It should be time for the prisoners to have slowly arrived at the ship now…’

It seemed that Ian’s thoughts were read.

A system message that Ian was waiting for popped up in front of his eyes.

Ring-.

• You have completed the ‘Rescue the War Prisoners (1)’ Quest.

• Clear Rank – A

• You have obtained 2000 Specialty Points.

• You have obtained 24,859,000 EXP.

• You have obtained 15,000 Fame.

• You have leveled up. You have reached lv 124.

At the message that notified him of his level-up that came up along with the enormous amount of EXP, Ian wore a broad smile.

He had already leveled up 2 levels since coming to Pascal Islands.

“Huehue… Our retainer is a goose that lays golden eggs…!’

His sorrows towards the retainer who treated him roughly melted away and disappeared like snow, and he acted as if it never existed.

Ian needed to slip away from the enemies now and return to the ship, but as the EXP in front of his eyes felt wasted, he wasn’t able to easily turn his feet.

‘Ah… I want to fight a little more, though…’

However, Ian’s contemplation couldn’t continue any further.

This was because a following quest popped up.

Ring-.

• Rescue the War Prisoners (2)

Connected quest.

You have succeeded in safely boarding the war prisoners onto the ship.

However, a Kaimon Empire fleet unexpectedly appeared at Pascal Islands.

Slip away from them and safely return the prisoners to the Capital of Luspel.

Quest Difficulty Level: SS

Quest Requirement: A user that has successfully completed Rescue the War Prisoners (1) Quest.

Time Limit: 10 days

Reward – Specialty Points 2000

Imperial Family Contributions (Payment depending on the clear rank)

Fame (Payment depending on the clear rank)