– What is this? ‘Middle-Earth’?

– I know, right. Will there be a new dimension?

– Hines, you haven’t heard anything about the Middle-Earth?

– Yeah. I have never heard of anything called the Middle-Earth. How is the situation going to flow?

In a dark room.

A man was staring at the TV screen with a very satisfied expression while leaning onto the couch.

He mumbled in a soft voice as if talking with the commentator.

“How will the situation go, huh? That stupid Lich King AI is the grave plate.”

However, the peculiar thing was, the man’s Korean was rather different.

The vocabulary was rather perfect like any Korean, but the pronunciation was that of a foreigner.

“Is that Ian? Surely, the top class users of the Korean sever are amazing.”

Mumbled the man with a grin, he suddenly moved and turned off the TV with the remote controller.

Ping-!

“The result well, it is going to be…”

The man slowly moved and was heading somewhere.

And behind him, two men in black suits silently caught up to him.

* * *

‘This is exciting?’

Temporarily changing the dimension type to ‘Middle-Earth’ caused several lines of system messages to pop up.

The most prominent was these, however, it was the level of transcendence, which appeared to be the content of the Middle-Earth only.

[The dimensional Tower of the ‘Falcacio Stronghold’ has been temporarily changed to ‘Middle-Earth’.]

[Transcendence stats are set in accordance with the stats gained from the Earth.]

[The Transcendence level applied now.]

[The current level of transcendence level of ‘Ian’ is level 1.]

[The leveling up of transcendence is limited until you become a ‘Qualified Warrior’. (You cannot raise more than level 10)]

Ian looked at the system messages as fast as he could and quickly opened the status window to check his stats.

– Ian

Transcendence level: 1 (0/200 (0%))

Dimensional Rank: none

Race: Human

Occupation: Summoner (Taming Master)

Title: Owner of Cintamani (Myth)

Fame: 35,975,250

-Combat Ability

Vitality: 96,250 (+ 93,200)

Attack: 625 (+250)

Agility: 815 (+310)

Intellect: 448 (+170)

Defense : 495 (+225)

All equipment gained from Earth will be reduced to one-tenth of the stats.

(Leak)

Ian’s eyes went further wide after he read the stats window.

‘What? What is with the stats?’

Except for the increased number of items due to the level of nearly 10-20, all the combat abilities had been lowered.

Even the performance of the item was applied to one-tenth, the stats in the status window were of a complete beginner.

Flustered with what he was seeing, Ian quickly looked around and saw that everyone was reacting similarly.

“What, What is? All the stats have been reset!”

“OMG… not just the stats! Skill level has changed to level 1!”

“Why? My familiars have all turned to level 1!”

“What’s with the equipment now? My armor defense is weird!”

It was utter chaos!

Ian tried to calmly grasp the current situation.

‘The maximum level one can raise on the earth is obviously of level 500. The transcendence level appeared just now seems to be a content that can be raised through the Middle-Earth content. If so, the Lich King, will his level change to the transcendence level?’

Ian’s eyes went to the head of the Lich King.

As Ian expected, the new level appeared on the head of Lich King.

Lich King Chalian: Lv 20 (Transcendence)

Before the enchantment opened.

The Lich King used the word ‘the power of earth’.

As if he had more power than humans.

And right now; the transcendence level of ’20’ that was floating on the head of Lich King and it was the power he was talking about.

‘I can’t guess how much power a level 20 has. Is it impossible to cover it with equipment?’

It wasn’t known how much the stats would rise when the transcendence level rose. If the leveling was similar to that of a normal level, the level difference of 20 would be fully covered by the equipment options.

However, since the stats itself—that was given as the 1st level of transcendence, was 10 times higher than the normal level—which made it unlikely to be possible.

‘Surely that Chalian was proud of himself.’

Chalian raised his skull staff with a triumphant look.

A shattering sound came out of Chalian’s mouth.

“Kyaahahah, I will make all you deceased ones into my servants.”

Powerful dark shots sprang from the staff of Chalian’s.

And because of their fluster, one user on the expedition couldn’t avoid it and was out of the game.

“Kuaaah-!”

“Oh sh*t, Lokan!”

“Crazy! With just one shot!?”

With a very simple attack magic shot, a user with a full vitality had been out of the game.

The user’s class was a knight with the best tanking ability.

Seeing the users all flustered, Lich King Chalian began to laugh and laugh.

“Keeuk, Keekeuk! Foolish humans, can you understand the situation now?”

Kuooo-!

With his long fingers, he stretched out his hands to the sky and began to cast another dark spell.

“The King of the Dead. I command you in my name…!”

Purple light similar to that of the electric currents began to emanate from his hands.

And the users who confirmed it were even more terrified.

“What are the damage dealers doing?! Please stop the casting!”

“Damages won’t come in because of the Black Shield!”

“I’ll do it till the damage deal is done!”

“What are you trying to say, the shield will get lost with just a single shot!”

“That looks like a huge damage deal! Move to the back…!”

“Magicians, priests, stack up the wide-area shield!”

“No use! It looks like a channeling skill.”

The ranking users were all in chaos with just one use of a simple magic skill, and now Chalian was casting a strong spell, and they were expecting that.

The only choice for the users was to get out of the range of the attack somehow or the other.

Shakran talked with Ian in a languid manner.

“Keuhm. What do you plan on doing now, kid? If you stay still, you’ll be wiped out.”

Shakran who never usually shows any change in his facial expression was now in urgency and was having trouble remaining calm.

However, Ian was rather calm.

“Wiped out? Why will I get wiped out?”

“Huh?”

Shakran had nothing to respond to Ian, he seemed like he was dreaming but had a strange expression on his face.

“Trust only me. Just me.”

Hearing that ridiculous statement, Shakran spoke to him again,

“What believe you and about what? You’re not expecting me to believe in the Phoenix of yours, right?”

Even Shakran believed that he wouldn’t get wiped out this time.

Many of the top rankers had special skills, and if he could take advantage of the unique abilities that they possess, he could be able to prevent an attack or two.

And with the use of the unique ability of Ian’s familiar, Nick.

However, if the current one would get blocked, the next one would be a problem.

Chalian would surely unleash one after the other strong attacks, and after stopping two or three, they would be out of options.

Instead of answering, Ian grinned and moved on the floor.

Ttat!

Ian who was on Pin gave a loud order.

“Users! Gather in as much as you can!”

Seeing Ian order that confidently, the users started to gain some sense.

“It is Ian!”

“Surely, Ian would’ve thought of something!”

“Hurry! Do as he ordered!”

They didn’t know what strategy was going to be used, and it didn’t even matter for them.

In the current situation for the expedition users, Ian’s order was like a divine light.

A miracle that could make the impossible into possible.

After a while, Chalian started to speak once again after he was done casting the dark magic.

“Kyaahaha, I’ll turn you all into ghosts!”

Kwaah-!

Purple light moved out from the hands of Chalian and spread all through the dungeon through the air.

At that very moment, the unique ability of Nick was triggered just as Shakran had anticipated.

[Familiar ‘Nick’ unique ability ‘Guardian of Sun God’ has been triggered.]

[Familiar ‘Nick’ can heal 30% per second.]

Woong-!

A golden glow was emanating that could almost devour the dark currents in the air.

But after the three seconds, the glow began to fade away.

On the contrary, the dark currents from the Lich King didn’t stop.

Shakran who grasped the situation accurately watched Ian’s movements with keen eyes.

‘What are you going to do now, kid? I don’t think you would’ve expected this much.’

It was even too late to avoid.

If he tried to evade the wide-area attack, he would have to leave his camp while the ‘Guardian of Sun God’ ability of Nick was in play.

There was no way to escape from the Lich King as they were trapped in a confined place of the dungeon, at least he could’ve tried to buy some time.

And Shakran along with the other expedition users left everything to the orders of Ian.

Although this choice might wipe out everyone, no one would blame Ian.

‘If it weren’t for that kid, we wouldn’t have even made it till here.’

The protection from the ‘Guardian of Sun God’ was removed, and the dark energy was pouring into a place where the gold light was shining previously.

The moment when the darkness had reached there, the expedition users would die right away.

At the moment, all the users turned to look towards Ian’s fingertips.

“Please…!”

The voice of someone was lingering in the air, and a huge dark current covered the entire expedition.

Kyahh-!

A huge explosion that seemed like a raid failed.

But then, users felt that something was off.

“Uh?”

“What is this? Why isn’t the damage deal coming?”

The dark currents were stopped by a transparent film and disappeared.

After a while.

Kyaaa-!

Out of nowhere in the middle of the dungeon, the roars of the dragon started to come.

Unsurprisingly, the eyes of the expedition went to look in the direction of the sound, and at the same time.

“…!”

The Lich King stared widely at the giant dragon that was flying on top of him within his dungeon.

There the dragon of darkness unleashed a fearsome roar.

[Dragon of Darkness, Lugarix: Lv: 45 (transcendence)]