Chapter 249: What Happened Twice Will... (9)

As soon as I realized that the Gaze skill was deactivated, I took out a bottle of Elixir. After drinking about half the bottle, I asked Sharana to bring Lotte to me to have her drink the rest. Even as we were getting emergency treatments, messages continued to flow in.

[Amazing! You completely killed one of the enemies threatening the world alone! You reaped the Hermit King's soul with the reaper's scythe. With the king's soul in possession, all lightning type monsters that invade Earth will have their abilities reduced by 10%! This is a monumental achievement! In addition, you can retrieve the remaining magic power in the Hermit King's body and soul, and turn it into your own.]

[If you receive the Hermit King's power, the Hermit King's corpse will disappear and you will not get any reward for the raid completion. If you destroy the Hermit King's soul, you will obtain the Hermit King's corpse and receive appropriate rewards from the dungeon. What will you do?]

[You obtained the title, 'Ruler of Lightning'! Your affinity to lightning increases greatly. The ability to govern the lightning element has been newly created. Even without mana, you can withdraw lightning from nature and wield it.]

[You obtained 30 stat points and 10 skill points for completing a Grand Raid.]

I thought this would happen. From what I can tell, something like this happened when the reaper's scythe dealt the final blow. Retrieving the Hermit King's power? I pondered over the message.

[Dear Husband! Are you okay?]

"Yeah, I'm fine and so is Lotte! Plene, you can stop singing now!"

[Un!]

When I looked back at my companions, a message window popped up as if to demand my answer.

[What will you do? If you do not decide quickly, the king's soul will be extinguished.]

In truth, I wasn't sure what to do. With its transformation undone, I could see the giant corpse of an electric ray suspended underwater. It was much smaller than when the Hermit King first appeared.

Right, his secret wasn't anything grand. He just had the ability to become extremely big or extremely small. There was one more aspect to this ability.

What made his ability so scary was that he could shrink his presence as if he didn't exist or enlarge it as if he was a terrifying enemy. Furthermore, regardless of what size he was, his true strength didn't change. When he condensed his enormous lightning power into the size of a flea and attacked with a terrifying speed, even Enigma couldn't defend against it. It was a power fitting of the name Hermit King.

The question was how I noticed him. It was thanks to chaos flames. No matter how small he became, the chaos flames burning inside his eye didn't disappear. How could I not know where my ability was located? I had seen through everything.

However, if he noticed that I had discovered his secret, I would have lost my chance to counterattack perfectly. To attack him in the perfect time, I pretended not to see him and ended up with holes in my body.

Thanks to this, I could accurately time when he would charge towards me, and I gave him the strongest attack I could make. If that wasn't enough, I planned to use Sky God's Rage for the finishing blow, but it was thankfully unnecessary. Trishula's effect and the reaper's scythe had activated with a critical hit.

[What will you do?]

"... Hu."

The decision was entirely up to me. If I took his corpse and the raid reward, hm... Daisy would receive another powerful undead and I would probably receive a Legend grade item. However, I was more interested in a power that would become mine entirely. Even if that power was an ability to transform or an ability to hide my presence, that would have its own use. Moreover, the fact that message noona was asking me in the first place suggested that...

"I'll take the power."

When I gave my answer, the Hermit King's corpse began to shrunk. I watched with a blank expression until the corpse disappeared completely. In the end, only a blue energy was left floating. It then slowly approached me and was absorbed into me.

[Dear Husband!]

Licorice and Plene, who was approaching me with a relieved look, sped up in shock when they saw what was happening. However, I was already in no situation to explain them the situation. The moment the blue energy was absorbed into me, it resonated with Peruta Circuit and was surging through my body at a terrifying speed.

[You can choose between two titles. The first is 'Hermit King', and you will be granted the Hermit King's Unique ability, 'World Trickery.' With this skill, you will be able to freely change your body's size, form, and presence while maintaining your full strength.]

[The second is offering your title, 'Rule of Lightning', to obtain a new title, 'Lightning God' With this title, your affinity and dominance over lightning will reach a pinnacle, allowing you to freely create and wield lightning at your desire. You will also not take any damage from lightning below the EX rank, and you can even wield your enemy's lightning as if it was your own.]

"Of course it's Lightning God! Are you kidding me!?"

How are those two even comparable!? I shouted as if someone was listening. Immediately afterwards, the blue energy in my body transformed into a dazzling golden color. It immediately transformed into a powerful lightning and went berserk as if to burn me alive.

[Master, there's so much energy! This is... Master's...!]

"Huaaaaaaaaa!"

Unable to endure the shock, I screamed, echoing underwater. This was like when I obtained a god's power... No, my body was transforming even more than when I obtained a god's power!

[You obtained the title, 'Lightning God'. Your affinity and dominance over lightning has reached the pinnacle. You can wield all lightning under EX rank as if it was your own, and you will not be injured by them.]

[Congratulations! You met one of the conditions to advance to the next realm!]

How long did it take before that message rang out? I had no way of knowing. When I became conscious, Licorice, Lotte, and Plene were hugging me in a competition of some sort.

[Dear Husband, Dear Husband!]

[Hero, don't die!]

[Snap out, Shin!]

Ruyue and Sharana were also floating around me with worried looks. However, as Peika was in my body the whole time, she didn't seem too worried. I flicked the girls' foreheads and made them back off.

"I'm fine. Stop trying to take off my armor and get back."

[But I have to check your body! You might be hurt!]

Feeling doubtful at Licorice's choice of words, I notified them that I was at my absolute best condition. Then, I flicked Licorice's forehead one more time. I suddenly became curious if it was Licorice's buff that allowed me to obtain the title of Lightning God. After all, it was thanks to her buff that I obtained the Ruler of Lightning title.

Thus, I changed my mind and pat her head. Although it didn't really work as we were underwater, she seemed to have understood my feelings as her face brightened. She suddenly asked.

[Can I unclothe you?]

"Stop when you're ahead, please."

As a test, I ignited lightning with my left hand. It was done without using Peika's power. Despite us being underwater, golden lightning danced on my palm naturally. I felt an indescribable sense of pleasure.

[Dear Husband... I see, if you obtained a power of this level, it makes sense that you fainted. How is it? Can you handle it?]

"Of course. I feel like..."

I threw the lightning towards the bottom of the Mariana Trench. That single bolt of lightning didn't lose even the slightest strength as it descended endlessly. Soon, the light it was giving off disappeared and a powerful explosion was felt.

"I can even kill the remaining three kings alone."

Before we entered the SSS rank Event Dungeon underneath, I notified the rest of the guild members that I took care of the king and that we didn't need any backup. Some breathed sighs of relief, some cursed, and some laughed as if it was only natural. Leon's trust in me was too big!

[Nothing less from the guild master. My heart dropped for a second though.]

[Was the king weak?]

"He said he was the weakest."

[How can he stop us from running away? That's cheating!]

[If all kings are like that, we'll have to be extra careful. You said he hid his presence so he couldn't be discovered?]

I nodded at Hwaya's question (though she couldn't see me), and answered.

"It was a strange technique that only the Hermit King could do. The other kings shouldn't be able to do it. I'm certain so you don't need to worry. The other kings can't hide their presence. Their overwhelmingly powerful presence, that is."

[Yeah, the Lava King was like that, but...]

[Corpse... What about... the beautiful, tough... corpse?]

"There is no such thing."

[Ah... Kang Shin, I hate you.]

Daisy seemed angry I couldn't acquire the corpse, but I would have made the same choice even if I went back in time. I made a bitter smile and consoled her.

"I'm sure Antarctica has powerful monsters too. I'll find a strong one for you."

[Pinky promise...]

"Yeah, yeah."

At that moment, Yua made a surprising report.

[Oppa, the egg hatched!]

"Really!?"

I was sad I couldn't be there to witness it.

[It's a really cute baby dinosaur!]

"What did you name it?"

Feeling uneasy, I couldn't help but ask. Yua gave a hearty response.

[The name is Doo—]1

"If you didn't name him yet, what about 'Ruth'!?"

I cut her off and shouted. Yua corrected me.

[It's a she. Plus, I already named her.]

"You named a girl Doo— No, nevermind. How about Luna?"

[Oh, that's a pretty name, Oppa! Then I'll call her Luna from now!]

Just like that, I made a better future for both Yua and Luna. I had yelled whatever name that came to my mind, but naming a flame dragon's baby Luna... My naming sense...

[I'm happy Oppa named her, huhu.]

"I'm happy that Yua's happy. Mostly in the sense of copyright laws."

[I agree with that, but you two brother and sister need to make some distance.]

[I'm already so far from him! You want me to get even farther! I hate Hwaya Unni!]

[See! In the first place, that's the wrong response! Yua, this Unni will introduce you to a nice boy. How about it?]

[No! I'm going to live with Oppa for the rest of my life! I hate Unni!]

It seemed I had sparked another trouble. As I was scared of both Hwaya and Yua, I decided to ignore them both. Then, I charged straight into the SSS rank dungeon.

Two weeks later, on the 32nd day after leaving Korea, I completely cleaned up the Pacific Ocean and the Oceania and headed to the Antarctic Ocean. Including the stat points from defeating the Hermit King, I had gained 55 bonus stat points. While the Chaotic Spear was at 84% growth.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dooly_the_Little_Dinosaur