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Volume 5

Chapter 39: To Represent My Name

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When the second part of his cast was finished, the fire that burned the tree became even brighter and stronger that it practically became a threat to the other players inside the arena.

Seeing this, Thorn was also worried. He spoke on his comms but didn’t get a reply.

After his third attempt, he called out to Siva, “Hey, is this still okay? Aren’t you going to save him?”

After a while, Siva said, “I can see what’s happening at the top. The two of them are still in a standoff.”

CLANG! CLANG!

“Fight me seriously!” Bladey was furious and she was panting fighting against Thorn’s nine-sword formation.

Thorn only gave her a wait gesture and the girl was furious again that she ordered her four red blades to fly towards Thorn only to be deflected effortlessly.

“If it was me, I could finish that Heller guy off without giving him a chance to unleash this magic.”

“You’re different. Let him have at it.”

“Sigh… you’re the boss.”

After that, the line was cut and Thorn looked at the girl and changed his attitude. “Sorry, miss, I am busy and so I will have to put a dot in this round.”

With hand gestures, the nine-sword formation all suddenly faced Bladey and the girl, seeing this, could only gasp as she gestured as if pulling her blades in front of her in an “x” defensive formation.

Nine blades flew, startling the crowd of players in the immediate vicinity and after four sounds of metals that clashed with each other, five sounds of metal stabbing the marbled floor of the arena rung before the sound of a muffled grunt and a series of curse.

“Hey… let go of me! Fight me seriously, you jerk! I swear we aren’t over yet! I’m gonna get you! I’m going to get you, I promise you that!”

Now, Bladey was restrained by five swords and only her hands and feet was the only things she can use as four swords hovered threatening to cut her limbs.

Thorn looked at her threateningly. “One more word from you and I swear your Game Over will be slow.”

Seeing that expression, the next batch of curses was stuck at Bladey’s throat. She could only silently sniff her sobs and lay there, fully aware of her defeat.

Meanwhile, Thorn only looked at the brightly burning tree, the four swords flying back and guarding around him… his gaze serious under the mask.

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*****

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Volt had dismissed his playful demeanor and was now feeling the threat of an Archmage.

He then looked up to see Akhenaton looking down at him. Then he raised his right hand with the sword where Akhenaton only gave a nod.

When he faced back Heller, Volt breathed in deeply as he changed his pose. He no longer felt playing and his mind was filled with the awareness that his opponent was strong.

At this point, the last part of Heller’s chant was done with a simple sentence; “––let your life burn so others may live.”

POOF!

As soon as the last syllable of his sentence is uttered, the fire that burnt the tree and gave Volt a scorching feeling was suddenly extinguished. What were left are the charred remains of a once magnificent towering tree.

The two of them were at the top, in a seemingly flat area like a platform no smokes remained on the fire as the tree seemed to have died long ago.

But the threat never left Volt’s consciousness. He knew that the attack was yet to come.

From start to finish, only four seconds had passed.

For the sake of giving credit to Heller, he didn’t even thought of disturbing him with an attack.

“Are you done?” Volt asked.

“It’s your greatest mistake not attacking me earlier, False Immortal.”

“Blah. Blah. Blah. Let’s dance. I really wanna test you out, the so called Archmage of the Mortals.”

“As you wish.”

When Heller spoke, he pushed the Leaf Blade forward with a very simple and relaxed motion that it seemed he was just casually trying to poke a wall with it.

The blade was facing Volt and even he thought that it was a useless act. Given their distance with each other right now, even that Leaf Blade of his was as large as it seems, it was still too far to actually––

“––no!”

SHOOV!

With wide eyes of shock and surprise, Volt’s last bit of doubt managed to save him as the sharp sword tip that should have been 10m or so away from him was suddenly just a few centimeters away from his left eye.

If he hadn’t planned on attacking himself and had the disintegrated particles of the Dragunov in front of him then he wouldn’t have been able to detect the fast movement that had happened with Heller.

Volt knew that he had been injured as the large blade still managed to slice a part of his left shoulder as he tried to dodge with his head.

FLASH!

Volt disappeared and was 8m away from Heller but when he turned his head to look at him, the large Leaf Blade’s shadow was already looming to hack him in half.

“So fast!”

He had no time to dodge again so he raised both the swords in this hand to block the attack.

BANG!

It was a loud sound akin to a battering ram hitting a large metallic wall. The blunt sound of solid chunk of metal against a wall made up of metal echoed in the surrounding vicinity that even from a height of 150m high, the sound of it still managed to startle quite a few of the surrounding arena players and spectators.

The large burnt tree doesn’t have any other colors in it except its charred self. And yet, even at that burnt state, it still radiated a threat only those Wizard with high affinity to Mana could feel.

Atop this tree was a duel, and they knew who exactly the two that was dueling in this tree.

Those who knew about Heller naturally knew about this giant tree, the “Yggdrasil Magic Tree” that could bolster his abilities.

It was his defining Magic Spell after all.

At a high price of 80% of his Mana Pool, he could cast this magic that can be used in two stages.

First is giving him complete control of the tree top like a living cage, and the second being the ability to use its life force in exchange for a boost on physical abilities for the next two hours.

In a great battle such as this, two hours of tripled or even just doubled ability rates are enough to warrant this magic spell a higher quality than that of even an average Tier-5 Talisman.

Although he can only use it once a week, it was still a large boost for a considerable price.

Especially when it comes to finishing an irritating opponent that managed to piss him off so much that it made him use this trump card of his.

Atop the tree, when Volt blocked that attack, he also felt the real brunt of the boost of abilities of Heller.

He was already strong earlier but he was stronger now that he had the blessing of this divine tree.

“Tsk.” With a click of a tongue, he knew he couldn’t win on a battle of strength against Heller so what he did was to direct the rest of the force towards his side.

Then he kicked and made distance, going towards the edge of the tree. But Heller’s speed also increased and as soon as he managed to free himself from the deadlock, he was also met with a side sweep of that giant Leaf Blade.

BANG!

Volt used the two swords to block but was still thrown off by the sheer force of the blow.

Thankfully, it was towards the edge of the tree.

Volt’s masked face was hidden by the arms he used to cross along with the swords. And when Heller saw the smile hidden within, he almost reacted too late as he saw a spark travel from Volt’s right hand that crawled out like a lightning serpent towards him.

During the War of Two Powers, this use of the extra function of the Dragunov was displayed by Siva in two different ways: first is storing the charge inside the [heart] for instantaneous movement; and second was to [shock] anyone with a spark grenade that was directly released from one’s hand.

With the Killing Zone, this could kill anyone below an S-Ranked Player. But with normal use, it was only enough to stun any opponent.

Because of the last second decision, Volt failed to target Heller directly. But still, the place where Heller stood was the target of the shock. Heller understood it and his only choice to survival was to dive down and follow Volt on his fall.

“You…!”

Being played up to this point, Heller was of course very furious and burning in rage but all he got from his opponent was an enjoying laughing reply.

Clearly, Volt had been influenced so much by Siva.

“Ahahahahaha…”

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*****

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“I only have two finished S-Ranked Equipment for the Black Tech but seeing all of these incoming items, I can’t help but get greedy and start the integration already.”

Siva watched the happening below with unconcerned gazes. He trusted the two to this extent.

After all, they’re both leaders of their own team.

He had lent Black Ender, Dragunov, the «Telekinesis Magic Set», as well as around 20 Spark Grenades to Volt, while he lent the «Polar Mastery Magic Set» to Thorn as well as the MODs that corresponded with the use for the Deva’s Path.

In fact he also wanted to lend them the «Five Sacred Seal of the Pentagon» but decided against it because even he himself hasn’t even gotten the chance to test it out, so how can he lend it?

Although it pained him to see that they are using the full potential of his equipment he envisioned to be used by himself… actually seeing them in their full blooming potentials was still worth it and satisfying.

He suddenly thought of selling the equipment to the two of them but dismissed it immediately.

“Unless I get a bargain from them of the same worth, I won’t trade my Dragunov and my Black Ender. But the Polar Mastery… well, it depends.”

In truth, without the Polar Mastery MOD set, he doesn’t even want to think how he can use the «Five Sacred Seal of the Pentagon» more effectively.

He was actually envisioning himself trapping a large monster on his own using five staves and controlling them with his magic to trap that monster –then finish the hunt with a devastating blow.

But actually, he had a different envisioned use for the «Five Sacred Seal of the Pentagon» in his mind.

For now, everything is just lent. Lent, right.

Siva gave the arena one last glance before he looked over the direction of the horizon.

With the height of his ascent, he could see the never ending buildings extending onto the far horizons of the city. The tall skyscrapers towered one after another as the Light towers –these defensive spires meant to counter plasma particles that also served as the city’s street lights at night– looked like chess pieces into the giant chessboard of a city.

He only spent a glance over it before Akhenaton who floated in the air stooped down to receive his master.

With a bright light engulfing him, Siva was teleported into a sort of space without any kind of edifice nor any kind of structure that resembled a ship’s interior.

And yet he could see everything around him like as clear as day as if the Eternal Night Curse wasn’t in place around him.

This was the view when inside this legendary warship called Akhenaton.

It felt like he was floating because there was clearly neither floor nor any kind of wall visible around him and yet he could feel it there beneath his feet or when he walks on a distance after 15m.

Right now, he was at the very center of the ship’s interior, in the command bridge.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Occasionally, an illusory sound of three revolving rings could be heard spinning around the space of the 30m diameter of the interior. When one focuses his vision, he might see three very thin and almost transparent golden rings moving around the command bridge.

In retrospect, the command bridge is a transparent sphere and the three rings revolve around it like three moving rings of a planet.

Siva didn’t pay too much attention to it and directly summoned his design panel. He had just an hour’s time to go before he finishes the third design. After that, he was technically done with the basic form that he wanted for his Black Tech.

What he lacked now is just its offensive forms.

“Since all of these rewards are technically mine, I just have to pick two of the most promising equipments in my disposal.”

As this thought entered Siva’s mind, he quickly summoned his player window. He checked his item stocks and thought that he might actually need to buy more spark grenades and plasma smoke screens.

When it came to appearance, he had three sets:

Siva (with Back Ender, red/black mask,) Volume Hunter (skull mask, hooded white mantle, guns, white gloves, flight armor) Skull Mage (skull mask, Whale Whiskers, black tattered mantle, black gloves, flight armor)

All in all, defensive-wise, these three sets doesn’t actually bring any kind of defensive ability. Also, all of his disguises are now fully known to everyone and he knew that there will come a time that his identity will be discovered, just like now, that he will need to be someone else entirely in order to escape pursuit.

That said, when he thought of the Skull Mage disguise back at The Mansion, he had advertently also created another persona to hide to when the time comes.

And to help with that persona, he needed a Black Tech to be able to do it properly.

Right now, in front of him, is the design panel and with a click of a button on his player panel, the nano-furnace also appeared.

Now, inside the command sphere of The Akhenaton, there was a floating curved panel box with a chair in front of it. Siva sat down on the chair and glanced at the progress panel indicator on his right. When he saw the time remaining for the third design to finish up on the queue, he couldn’t help beaming a smile.

On his left were two finished products waiting his final moderations and adjustments.

The first is a sphere-like orb weapon with four floating sub-planets on it. The second is a cloak-like wing-type S-Ranked invention that, even with Siva’s standards, was something that he was unwilling to assimilate to the Black Ball if it wasn’t necessary.

It was his second design.

Looking at this invention, he can’t help but think back to the Manager’s advice back at the Monster Center.

“Who would have thought, after getting my hands on those rare S-Ranked materials, I would also discover a vaster horizon of inventions waiting for me to design and assemble.”

Now that he had a Portable Design Table integrated on his Inventory slots, Siva discovered a whole new horizon when looking at Inventions.

Turns out that depending on the type of material to be used, there are a lot more options available for an inventor like elemental affinity when designing a weapon-type invention or variation flexibility when he is to design miscellaneous expendable yet very rare and useful items.

Only, being a Weapon Builder, there are also a vaster array of options and knowledge available for his own disposal… even to the point of it being almost a cheat because it was so one-sidedly in favour only towards the Weapon Builders.

“It turns out that there are certain options I can add to an equipment if I use a material with elemental or mysterious quality to it. Although it cannot be compared with a Legendary Weapon, it can still come close as close in quality and strength, plus the versatility of being able to be repaired if broken.”

Now he had a broader view of how MODs worked in harmony with a weapon.

MODs can’t just be attached randomly. There are also some equipment that centered their Mechanical Abilities and Functions on the MOD to complement its effects where there are also other designs that can be adjusted to accommodate MODs and their bizarre magical effects and give more suitability upon use.

In general, the Weapons Builder profession is a job that added not only the ability to create one’s own weapon, but also added more versatility and freedom of creation to the player.

“Heh. No wonder you needed a license to be one.”

Siva could only dryly laugh. Janus did indeed told him that aside from the security regulations that pertains to the use of the nano-furnace, the sky-high price of it was actually there to limit the players that can afford it.

In fact, he’d even bet that perhaps it was only him who had one without a license.

One Nano-Furnace and one PDT was enough to even bankrupt a large guild such as the Sylphiadora Guild, a Major Power in the Eastern Continent.

“And to think I got them both for free…” if Janus was there, he would laugh seeing Siva’s spirit almost leave his body just from imagining how lucky he was to actually loot these things from them.

Speaking of ‘them’, Siva couldn’t help but glance down at the arena down below.

By this point, he saw Volt jump down on the giant tree followed by a diving Archmage with a sword-staff-sword-something weapon.

Siva spent a few more glances at that direction and he also commanded the Akhenaton to turn its head as well to add more ‘drama’ on its persona.

“The battle below is intensifying. I gotta use this time to my advantage.”

Although he can’t use the Nano-Furnace right now, he can still use the portable design table. Right now, he had seen many holes and lacking on his abilities.

Just now, Siva had gained insight as to what kind of player he really was.

“I am an AOE Destroyer.” A smug grin appeared on his lips. He wiped the air with his hands and then he summoned a floating holographic panel. He then put the orb design inside that panel and labels upon labels of information began to appear atop of it. “But I also must not neglect the possibility of battling a strong person one on one.”

Right now he was going to adjust the orb’s settings to properly fit his envisioned self.

Every finished product is as is and every adjustment costs nanocubes and sometimes more materials.

What Siva is doing right now is just adjusting the mechanical function and mechanical ability of the orb ball.

“My Black Tech will officially represent my name.”

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Siva on a breakthrough!

How is his Black Tech going personify him?

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