Correct me if I made any mistakes. Sorry for the late update!

Tell me if it is too hard to read as I'm using 'Verdana' font for this post, unlike my previous posts. (but I find it easier to read in Verdana font)

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The sky was dark and the atmosphere was grim.

The horrid stench of blood and the unfathomable sight of corpses were not avoidable. Even though the corpses were all grayed out, the blood that had sprayed all over the ground was still red. The sweat that Ichiroku excreted was washed away by the rain. His breathing was heavy and his field of vision was narrowed. His satiety had long dropped to 0 and now experiencing a decline in his HP due to overexerting himself.

Nevertheless Ichiroku was still standing still. There were a few times when his legs gave up on him and he fall on the flat ground, but he got back up when he reminded himself about the huge exp that he would going to get afterwards. The war against the mermen that started since afternoon was dragged on until late at night.

Even so, the surrounding area was not dark like what it supposed to. The yellow colored full moon was at its zenith. There was a small opening in the luster of black cloud allowing moonlight to reach them. Ichiroku threw a side glimpse on his character info that he opened for less than one second to see the time indicated by the small icon on his profile.

Midnight!

“Have we really been fighting for that long?” Ichiroku thought to himself.

Eden who ran out of Mana was busy protecting No Hair. The subjugation force that was promised to come had never show up their face. The party of three knew that they could not defeat the Mermen King. They have no other choice but to drag the fight even longer while waiting for the Subjugation Force that supposed to come a few hours ago.

“Haaaaa.. Haaaaaa… Haaaaaaa…” Ichiroku could hear his own heavy breathing.

It had been a few hours for him to continuously evade the Mermen’s King fire breath. All those hours, he had been directing the Mermen’s King fire breath towards the Titans. The plan succeed, but it took a lot of time and considerable damage.

The Titans, Mangdora Creep and the Mermen with their King excluded, they were all exterminated. Unfortunately by the time they completed the feat, the party of three had their HP bar colored red. Even more perilous for them, their hp was declining every 1 minute as their satiety had dropped to 0.

During the helpless situation, Ichiroku opened his mouth.

“You know… I don’t have a great endurance; I don’t even have a good reaction time… I’m living a sedentary life since I was in secondary school. In reality, I can’t even do such feat as jumping backward, moving instantaneously or even turn invisible.

I’m as weak as fuck that when you touched me I’ll probably crumble onto the ground. Every single day I had to keep on praising myself, putting myself in delusion that I am somehow competent.” Ichiroku said.

The one that he was talking to was none other than the Mermen King. However, the Mermen King was in no mood to join in Ichiroku conversation. The Mermen King who had been spamming the same attack with the same attack pattern had exhausted almost 5/6 of its Mana.

“… It even amazes me that I survived all so many near death experiences. Honestly, I don’t even know why I am even playing this game right now. I get bashed by fire balls, I get whip by lightning and I even got a spear planted on my heart. I wet my pants, I shat my pant… I tried to run away so many times… But that fucker behind me won’t let me off the rope. ” Ichiroku continued on talking.

On the other hand The Mermen King halted its attack. Either he was listening to what Ichiroku was saying, or it was merely waiting for its Mana to regenerate. He stood still, saying nothing, doing nothing…

“…You must be thinking that I’m stupid, doing this for the sake of lottery tickets. I know… I know that I’m stupid. That is probably the reason why I didn’t get into the University that I applied. They don’t need stupid shit… All they need are those bright headed people to pass their exams.

Now that I think of it… It was not really for the sake of lottery tickets. Who the hell even willing to take this much of a beating for a few gold? I would rather work my ass off on a part time job rather than getting hit like a masochist for some virtual money. Wait, the quest had already been updated, so there is no more 1 gold and 50 silvers reward.”

Ichiroku swallowed hard. His breathing had become even heavier than before as he was screaming to his lungs.

“But that is not what I’m trying to point out here. What I wanted to say is… I hate your face. That tundra arctic expression, that cold voice and that looking down kind of eyes! I hate it! I hate the way you preaching saying you're fool; I had enough of your foolishness and shit…

The world that you know is only amounted to a speck of dust then what it was actually in reality you say?

You don’t even know the meaning of thing that you had just said; you are just an Artificial intelligence. What do you even know about life… ”

Ichiroku fist was gripped hard. The word that the Mermen King had been repeating over and over again had finally got into Ichiroku’s head. Ichiroku had somehow got reminded about something when he heard the words.

“Now, I’m going to kill you… You know why? Not because I’m a racist human or some evil reincarnation like what you have been babbling since your first appearance. I simply had enough of your shit… And another reason is because my timeout had finally gone.” Ichiroku said and pulled out a deck of card from his Inventory Bag.

Ttring!

Cards Of Lucia!

Cards are very essential to a Gambler. It is the Gambler very weapon in their own battlefield of wits and luck. Players are now able to use the Goddess of Luck Lucia blessing in their battlefield.

The chances to Win the Goddess Good Blessing increased with every ‘Luck’ stat that the player have.

The draw count for the Cards of Lucia had been reset.

Draw Count : 0/3

Player must shuffle the card one time for the first draw.

Player must shuffle the card two times for the second draw.

Player must shuffle the card three times for the third draw.

Each draw time has an interval for thirty minutes.

Blessing will only occurs when you get one of these combination,

• Straight flush

• Four of a kind

• Full house

• Flush

• Straight

• Three of a kind

• Two pair

• One pair

• High card

The deck enchantment was unlocked the moment Ichiroku accept the profession of a Gambler. However, there was a time out for 1 day before he can use it in battle. One of the main reasons why Ichiroku prolonged the battle was to wait for the card's time out to gone.

With this hand trembling he shuffled the deck once!

The card that he drew was four of a kind, a set of four suits of number 8 and Ace of Spade.

Goddess of Luck Lucia blessing!

The Heroes of Four of a Kind.

The brave Heroes of Luck had heard of your great fortune. Your battle and your fight had surely aroused their admiration that had long stayed dormant. Their Swords, Shield, Magic, and Vitality are entrusted to you.

Summoning time 4 seconds (x Luck Stat)

Mana Cosumption: 500

Phase 1 | Summoning Normal 0%

“Pu.. Puhahahahaha…” Ichiroku laughed in almost inaudible voice.

The ability to summon Heroes…

“What the hell is this…” He thought to himself. Even though he thought of that, what was carved on his lips was not dissatisfaction, but his smile of amusement. “I’m not even a necromancer and here I am able to summon heroes, hopefully they are not dead.” He said to the Mermen King.

The Mermen King however, was still the same as before only stood still.

Truth to be told, Ichiroku himself did not know what did he even started the conversation with the Mermen King other than trying to buy some time waiting for his deck time out to cease and allocating his additional stats point. His frustration had pent up to the point of exploding. Alas it exploded and he kept on talking.

White text was clotted in silver light emerged in front of Ichiroku. It was a spell that needed to be chant to summon the Heroes. Truthfully Ichiroku needed 50 intelligence stats to be able to decipher the writing in front of him. But the text in front of him was not written in an alien writing system, instead it was written in alphabet.

However, Ichiroku did not spoke the words of summon.

“Are you not going to summon the Heroes?” The Mermen King solemnly spoke out.

“Huh?” Ichiroku let out a surprised looked. One of his eyes was blinded by blood that was flowing from his forehead, thus he was looking at the Mermen King with only one eye. He started the conversation with the expectation of him being ignored and talking to himself.

But The Mermen King spoke to Him.

“… …” No Hair and Eden who had been watching all the time was surprised as well.

“Are you not going to summon the Heroes?!”Once again the Mermen King said it out loud.

“What? After knowing that you’re going to die you finally have the heart for some conversation?” Ichiroku added.

“Long have I fought with human…?” The Mermen King spoke out. “I’ve seen their animosity; I’ve seen their cruelty. Human are heartless being who kept on killing my kindred without any sympathy. What was on their lips was never a word but smirk of devil. What they have in their eyes is nothing but indescribable evil.

But you… Never did I see human like you until now. What I’ve seen in your eyes is different from the human that I have encountered by far. Even though I detected a high level of animosity from you, I sensed no evil… What are you exactly?”

“I don’t know what crap you are trying to say…”

“Anyhow, words are useless now… I’ll confirm it myself. Summon your Heroes human, for I will use my full strength! I’ll let myself to confirm who you are.”

“Pfttt… bring it on!” Ichiroku said out loud. He raised forth the Four of Kind cards on his hand. “I am the follower of the Goddess of Luck. My stats are the offering, my winning are her blessing. I summon forth the Heroes of Lucia! Come to my bidding!” Ichiroku read the sentence that had been floating in front of him since he drew the >Four of a Kind

Four different suits of number 8 card emits a blinding bluish light flew into the sky, leaving only one card left on Ichiroku hand. The Cards dropped down onto the ground, creating a small crater. From the light came the stature of four Heroes of Luck.

“Hero of the Sword, the Spade comes to your bidding My Honored Master.”

“Hero of the Shield, the Diamond is at your service My Noble Master.”

“Hero of Vitality, the Heart is here, Master.”

“Hero of Magic, the Club is yours.”

The four heroes came prompted.

“Your wish is my command!” The Heroes said in unison.

The rain had stopped.

Or to be precise, they stopped moving in the mid-air. Moving at one direction at a very high speed, a sphere of water began to circling around above the Mermen’s King Stick. It started slow, but as time progress the movement of the circling sphere had became even faster than before.

Alerted, Ichiroku shouted out to Diamond.

“Diamond, use your shield to intercept the incoming attacks!”

“I understand.” Diamond moved forward and sunk his diamond shield in front of Ichiroku.

“Heart, heal the whole party!”

“I got it covered Master!” Heart replied with her utmost enthusiasm.

“…and Club.”

“Yes Master?” Club answered her Master’s call.

“…do whatever you can, just don’t go ‘disco’ on me.”

“… …” Club was speechless. “Uhhh…”

It can’t be helped.

Spade was fully equipped in Knight Armor. Diamond was fully armored in heavy metal plating clotted with diamond and Heart was wearing a leather Red Robe… On the other hand, Club was wearing a skimpy outfit and a staff that was usually seen in some Magical Girl show.

The Mermen King shot a consecutive water balls at Ichiroku. The water balls were moving at a high velocity that usually used to cut a diamond. The water balls hit Diamond’s shield perfectly. However, Diamonds defense sturdy, leaving only a few scratches which could be seen on his diamond shield.

On the other hand, without the need to be ordered, Spade, was moving from one place to another, avoiding the water balls that were coming right at him. There were a few occasion where he could not avoid water balls and had to cut through it instead. This had caused Spade’s HP chipped away little by little.

The Heroes who were summoned by Ichiroku were naturally included in his party. The healing effect that was casted by Heart had naturally regenerate her allies HP including Eden and No Hair. However, due to Ichiroku, Eden and No Hair satiety had dropped to 0, their HP was still declining even when being healed by Heart.

“Lightning Spear!” The Mermen King shouted out.

The sky began screaming. Lightning flashes could be seen being connected one by one in the dark cloud. The sky roared, and shook the entire ground as lightning bolt began forming above the dark clouds.

“I who control the flow of mana, summon thee to my command, Dimension Weaver!” Club chanted her magic with no delay as soon as she saw the accumulation of mana above the sky. She pushed both of her palms with her wand floating into the mid-air. Transparent aura began appearing from the very palm of her hand and moves in a semi sphere direction.

The whole party was engulfed in a semi sphere transparent aura that Club had created. However, it was a different story for Spade who was already at the back of the Mermen King. The lightning bolts fall down mercilessly onto the ground.

Right at the very contact of the lightning bolts with the semi sphere aura that Club created, the lightning both dispersed as if it was glass that fall onto the ground.

Ppaatanng Ppaatanng Ppaatanng Ppaatanng Ppaatanng Ppaatanng!

The sounds of the lightning bolts being repel echoed inside the semi sphere aura.

“Club… how much longer can you maintain this aura?”

“Until my mana burns out…” Club explained.

Dimension Weaver is a technique where the summoner used their mana to continuously fuel the dimension field that was created by the summoner. Until the player cancelled the mana channelling or either ran out of mana, the dimension field will not cease of its existence.

“Can you give me an approximation?”

“About five minutes…” Club replied.

“Five minutes huh?” Ichiroku who was on the verge of dying had his HP went back up to green. Even though his HP kept on declining before, as soon as Club activated her the decline in his HP had stopped. The same goes to both No Hair and Eden.

Thinking that Spade will not last longer with any defense, Ichiroku ordered Diamond to Spade’s aid. Even though Spade was fully armored, his armor is a high electricity conductive metal. It was the same as running naked into the battle field. On the other hand, Diamond had his armor clotted in diamonds which was the exact opposite of metal.

The rain had already stopped pouring when the Mermen King turned it into a circling sphere above its stick. Ichiroku who was no longer affected by the Mermen’s King had activated his instantaneous movement and travelled 14 meters away from the Mermen King location.

“I really need to work on my accuracy.” Ichiroku thought to himself.

It was true indeed, he was aiming to land right before the Mermen King and activates his invisibility and thus used his dagger to attack to land a critical hit. But he landed further away than where he initially planned to, thus ruined his plan.

Spade had already landed a few attacks.

But it was to no avail. There was an invisible shield like aura that had been protecting the Mermen King. Spade wanted to give out a concentrated attack on one point. But it was obstructed by the Mermen’s King lightning bolts that flew right at him.

Thankfully, Diamond was there to parry the lightning bolts. While Diamond was occupied covering for Spade with Ichiroku who was spamming his phantom step to evade the incoming lightning bolts. The Mermen King began changing its form.

The circling sphere of water that The Mermen King had above of its stick flew into the sky and created a round ball of aura above the Mermen King head. Second after, the Mermen King bathed in a blue light that was emitted by the aura ball.

A few second after he was consumed by the light.

What was revealed after the blue light disappearance was a stature of a man. He had a long curly white hair, with dead fish eyes and a stern expression. His body was slender yet muscular with the right amount of muscle on his every limb.

Covered in sparks of lightning, his Stick had turned into a Trident.

With his hoarse voice, with his dead expression he spoke out.

“I am the God of the sea, Poseidon. I have deemed you worth for my full strength. Now show me who you really are!”

The Mermen King had turned into The God of the Sea, Poseidon. One of his hand that was cut off before had reappeared, or rather was made anew inhis Poseidon form.

“…. What on earth.” No Hair muttered to himself.

“Well… that escalated quickly.” Club said. She had her Dimension Weaver deactivated.

It was not because her Mana ran out. It was because there were no longer Lightning bolts that could be sighted.

Spade moved forward and thrust his sword onto Poseidon, aiming for the heard of the God of the Sea. However, Poseidon tapped the tip of Spade’s sword lightly.

Fiuungg!

The sound of the sword flung into the open area was heard. Poseidon landed a straight punch into Spade’s stomach. Spade was thrown a few tenths of meters away. Even though Diamond managed to catch Spade, he was thrown along, due to the momentum and velocity of Poseidon punch.

They landed hard onto the ground with Diamond’s shield at his back and Spade on Diamond’s hold. Luckily Diamond had put his shield as their ‘cushion’ to absorb the impact and to avoid the heat caused by friction.

Heart who saw the event had immediately rushed over to heal the both of them.

Poseiden launched his body forward; a small crater was created at where he was at. Trails of shockwave were seen on the air as Poseidon moved at a very high speed movement towards Spade.

Poseidon brought forth his Trident and thrust it right at Spade.

Tang!

A small friction of fire was created as it hit Spade’s heavy armor. Poseidon pulled his trident once again, this time he began channeling mana into his Trident.

“Silver Palm!”

A gigantic silver palm slammed hard onto Poseidon causing him to flinch. Ichiroku appeared in front of him out of nowhere and stabbed Poseidon shoulder before disappearing once again into the thin air, only to be repelled by Poseidon invisible aura.

As the Mermen King had turned into Poseidon, Invisibility once again worked against him.

Invisibility and Phantom Step that does not need any mana had been utilized by Ichiroku at any chances that he had.

Far from them was No Hair who was back at his full HP. Eden who was unconscious right when Club’s Dimension Weaver was activated due to mana exhaustion had his HP at its max too. Spade, Diamond and No Hair worked as the vanguard, while Ichiroku worked as DPS dealer, Heart and Club worked as their backup.

Even though they had put themselves in formation, they are literally everywhere. No advance raid formation could be seen from the way they fight. They kept on attacking on every single chances that they got.

Ichiroku kept on turning invisible at every chance that he get.

Poseidon put forth his strength on his Trident and stomp the hill of it onto the ground. The ground shook as if there was an earthquake. Ichiroku lost his footing and fall like a rotten apple. This however, was not missed by Poseidon as he readied his trident and launched it at Ichiroku.

Club immediately coil a Dimension Weaver around Ichiroku, thus deflecting Poseidon’s Trident.

Spade and No hair pressed forward.

The Trident turned into water, and reappear in Poseidon’s hand. He holds the Trident using both of his hand and parried Spade sword and No Hair’s Silver Palm altogether. Using all of his might, Poseidon swung the Trident three times.

Spade's Knight Armor was cut through as if it was paper. No Hair on the other hand had lost half of its total HP.

However Spade did not falter, he mustered all his strength onto his right leg and push his body forward. His sword that was seemed like swinging around aimlessly had somehow pushed Poseidon a few step backward.

Poseidon swung his Trident, but Spade quickly evaded it by jumping high above Poseidon, he bolted into the sky by a one hundred meter. Diamond who was hiding behind Spade the whole time, charged against Poseidon. Poseidon stopped Diamond’s shield advance with his right hand and threw his Trident into the air.

Ttang!

Another sound was heard reverberating throughout the stagnant air as Spade used his sword to battle out Poseidon Trident by swinging his sword downright at the Trident. However Poseidon summoned his Trident back into his hand once again. He threw the Trident at Club.

Club’s heart was pierced!

She disappeared like a broken glass and returned as a card.

“One down… Three to go...” Poseidon spoke out in his hoarse godly voice that was usually heard in some epic movie trailer.

“Yoouuu Bastard!!!” Spade screamed out. “Imperial Wrath!” Spade’s sword emits a blinding golden light.

Spade who was falling down high above Poseidon looked like as if he was holding a gigantic golden sword. Sadly. a blast of water ball at a very high speed went through Spade’s head easily. Spade disappeared like a broken glass and returned as a card, the same fashion that Club did.

“And now… It’s your turn…” Poseidon said and averted his attention to where Diamond was.

Poseidon knew that Diamond had a very sturdy defense. He once launched his concentrated water ball against Diamond’s shield but it did not even leave any scratch. Out of all enemies that was present there, Poseidon had identified Diamond as the one with the highest defense.

He put all of his remaining mana in his Trident. His Trident had turned into a lightning bolt. Even so, it retained the same appearance of a Trident.

Using all of his strength Poseidon threw the trident right at Diamond’s shield with the intent to pierce through Diamond defense. The Trident flew from Poseidon hand, cutting through the wind, piercing through every obstacle that obstructs its path.

Little did he know that it did not go like what he had planned!

Appearing out of nowhere, Ichiroku grab the Trident hilt from a sideway. An immense electric shock had passed through his body. His HP had begun dwindling from green to red colored. However, with Heart’s help his HP bar kept on changing color form green to red.

It was as if his hand was roasted alive, he felt indescribable heat punching his body’s meat from inside of him. Intense paralyzing shock passed throughout his body. He felt as if thousand of small needles had pierced his vein from inside out. Ichiroku let out a deafening roar.

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!” and he threw back the Trident to Poseidon, and it flew right at Poseidon direction.

For Poseidon has long ran out of mana, he was not able to summon the Trident back into his hand. Posiden took a defensive stance, ready to grab the Trident.

Ichiroku whom had foreseen that activated his Phantom Step.

“Please let me land correctly this time, I beg of you my lucky stat!” He prayed. As if his luck stat played its role, Ichiroku landed correctly where he wanted to.

The Trident was 1 meter away before it reaches Poseidon, however Ichiroku who had activated his instantaneous movement grabbed the Trident before Poseidon, and use all of his strength and thrust the trident right into Poseidon heart.

He landed a critical hit.

Poseidon HP took a sharp decline, and finally had its HP turned to 0. However Poseidon did not grayed out like any other mobs that Ichiroku had fought with before. Ichiroku who fall on four out of energy, and Poseidon who fall on his knees had their eyes met. With energy that Poseidon had left he said,

“Human… You hold a tremendous potential that I had not see for the last few hundred years. You have the same power and strength as the Alpha that I had befriended, humans that can be proud of, before they became of what they are now, the era where it all begin.

That Era was the era of liberation and peace. Human were once a peaceful being. What was human greatest weapon were not swords and magic, but love and compassion. No discrimination, no massacre. It was truly a peaceful Era.

It was understandable that the reason why human had turned to became like what it was right now is mainly due to our fault. I myself believe so. I had intended to set things right by wiping human from the surface of Einstal. But it seems it was no longer needed.

I don’t know what is in your heart. I don’t know who you really are. But you are the man who defeated the God of the Sea, Poseidon. You are the man who possesses the power of Alpha. I believe if such a human like you still exist, there are still hope for human race…

I pr…” As Poseidon turned into a small particle of light, his last word was swallowed by the wind.

10 minutes had passed since Ichiroku summoned the four heroes. All of the remaining Heroes had returned into card and Ichiroku had once again kept it inside his inventory bag.

When the particle of light had gone, a small letter written in goat skin was seen. Ichiroku who had run out of energy mustered his strength and grab the letter. He didn’t bother to read it. All that was inside his mind that everything is over!

It was indeed over.

They had defeated The Mermen King who became Poseidon.

“….Such plot twist, much wow!” He laughed out loud, staring at the clear sky that was decorated with numerous beautiful star.

“We won lad!” No Hair screamed out.

“… …” Eden was still unconscious.

“I think I will sleep for a while.” Ichiroku said.

He really did.

He log out from the Einstel Online and hit the bed afterward. He was excited about collecting the loots, skinning the Mangdora Creep and the Mermen. Sadly he cannot loot Poseidon because Poseidon had turned into particles of light.

But he put all of those thought aside.

Because what was he really need at that time were not the loots and quest reward, but a rest for his brain that had been working hard for the whole time.