I Start with 13 Hidden Traits Chapter-151

Ch-151

—

Because it was a sword art that compared only the opponents’ *pure stats*, nothing more.

The dignity imbued within that sword art made it so.

It must be an existence of utterly untainted purity.

However—

*“Its weaknesses are just as absolute as its strengths.”*

Its advantages and disadvantages were clear.

If that guy used that sword art, he too would be unable to benefit from any additional stat effects.

He might have an advantage against someone like me—someone who relies on stacking buffs—but it would be close to useless when facing a weaker multitude.

That was why, when people first appeared, he transformed and immobilized them.

*“Above all, that sword art is not yet complete.”*

It was still on its final path toward completion.

And if something is incomplete, there must inevitably be a weakness.

*“That bastard isn’t perfect. But he is dangerous—dangerous enough that he must be eliminated here.”*

If he grew any further, he would become uncontrollable.

If that sword art were to be completed, the Annihilator of Heaven’s plans could be derailed.

Thus, the Black Paladin bet everything he had.

Fwooooom!

The black spots grew and began dividing infinitely.

As though they were on the verge of exploding.

**《You use ‘Black Spot Explosion’.》**

**《The power of ‘Black Spot Explosion’ increases based on the overload.》**

**《All overload and holy demonic power are consumed to create an explosion within the designated area.》**

**《After use, the user dies with 100% certainty.》**

A self-sacrifice skill.

What power could be more pure than life itself?

The Black Paladin was certain that even that mysterious sword art could not block this one sacrifice skill.

As long as the opponent was using that unknowable sword art, his absolute defense would instead be weakened!

“Slayer of Heaven! I will soon come to your side!”

And then—every black spot covering the Black Paladin’s body detonated.

KWAaaaaaaaaang!

*

It couldn’t be blocked.

That apostle of the Annihilator of Heaven had succeeded in grasping the nature of my abilities to some extent.

Convinced I would not be able to stop him, he chose to self-destruct.

*Where did that thing even come from?*

He was the first to grasp the origin of Wilhelm’s sword art.

And as someone who saw through it, his attempt was bound to be effective.

That self-destruction *was* the type Wilhelm’s sword art could not block.

Even using *Darkening* would be the same—it would simply shorten the time before death.

But there was still something he had not understood.

**《You use the Sacrifice Skill of ‘Bloodspawn Cluster 2’.》**

**《‘Burning Blood Veil’ is cast.》**

The ability of the *King of the Blood Demons*.

If he used a sacrifice skill, then I would simply meet it with one of my own.

FWOOOSH!

The second cluster.

Five hundred bloodspawn exploded simultaneously, scattering blood.

The gushing blood gathered as one and formed a massive blood veil before me.

Rrrrrrrumble—

The exploding black spots slammed into the blood veil, making it tremble.

But it did not break.

It wavered dangerously, as though it might shatter any moment—but it held.

*Not enough.*

It still wasn’t enough.

The life force that apostle possessed was not that of a single person.

The lives he had absorbed numbered in the hundreds, the thousands… perhaps even more.

—*I don’t like it, but if it’s to kill the Annihilator of Heaven, I will help you. Use ‘Winter’.*

‘Winter’ spoke again.

Clearly a being that knew the Annihilator of Heaven.

How could a sword sealed in the Northern Lands know of an entity even I knew nothing about?

More than that… did it not seem to *oppose* the Annihilator of Heaven?

In any case, there was no reason to refuse help.

I gripped Winter.

And—

**《You cast ‘The Last Winter’.》**

**《‘The Last Winter’ descends upon all levels of the domains.》**

*

Hooooh—

When Raktusha exhaled, his breath froze instantly.

*“This is no simple blizzard.”*

Winter arrived suddenly.

The raging snowstorm was not merely cold.

*“A curse. On the level of the one I once experienced from Baal.”*

The snow itself was a curse.

Something had invoked the curse of Winter.

A powerful curse that slowed the body, weakened all resistances, and even diminished one’s offensive power.

But who?

Who would dare summon a Winter of this magnitude?

Baal had cast a powerful Curse of the Dead upon those near him.

The curse Raktusha had once felt at the foot of the Mountain of Disciples—he now felt that same oppressive force across a vast range.

However, it could not truly endanger Raktusha.

Annoying, perhaps—but bearable.

That was not the real issue.

*“The range…”*

This blizzard covered the entire domain.

This Winter did not happen only here.

Hah.

**《A large number of low-health bloodspawn have died.》**

**《Domain exploration rate has exceeded 90%. The ‘Domain Boss’ has appeared.》**

Absurd.

It was killing bloodspawn over a massive area.

Low-health monsters, injured ones fleeing for their lives—wiped out.

And because of that, even the domain boss had appeared.

It did not kill the domain boss, but that hardly mattered.

**《You have gained 30 contribution points.》**

**《Your party’s total score is 510 points.》**

**《The 1st-place party’s total score is 980 points.》**

Insane.

The first-place party’s score was rising at a ridiculous rate.

Not by tens, but by *hundreds* at a time.

Which meant—

*“The one who killed the Master and summoned this Winter… is in the first-place party.”*

Who could it be?

Who could display such overwhelming feats?

Someone capable of surpassing entire domains by sheer difference in power.

*“Could it be… the White King?”*

Perhaps it was the White King.

If the White King himself had climbed the Tower of Rifts, it was plausible.

If he was in his complete form, summoning a curse like this would be well within his abilities.

And if the White King was somewhere in this tower—

*“Then this is the perfect chance to kill him.”*

An inescapable tower.

No place to run—an ideal opportunity to take down the meticulous White King.

He would be in a higher-level domain, but considering that this curse spanned multiple domains, there *must* be a method of crossing between them.

And Raktusha had recently been blessed again, possessing strength beyond his level.

Even sword force was now within his reach—he felt confident.

**《The 1st-place party’s total score is 1,060 points.》**

…But was it really the White King?

The score broke through a thousand in an instant.

No matter how powerful the White King was, a point difference like this was hard to accept.

At best, he would have ascended with his Four Pillars.

*“He is killing every monster in this domain and slaying the boss as well.”*

He could not allow himself to fall further behind.

But he could not immediately hunt the domain boss just because it appeared.

The wisest strategy was to kill all monsters in the domain first, convert them into points, and then kill the boss.

That was the whole point of this place.

Simply killing the domain boss gave only limited points.

Raktusha began sweeping through the domain.

He did not know how much time passed when—

“Oh? You are…?”

The great dragon of the earth.

One of the main forces under the White King.

He stood face-to-face with the massive, emerald-glowing Earth Dragon.

*

When Balte regained consciousness, the world had turned pure white.

*“What… happened…?”*

He remembered being surrounded by monsters, but remembered nothing afterward.

*“I blacked out again.”*

So weak.

Balte rebuked himself.

He kept losing consciousness—how could he ever grow this way?

“Heir…?”

But the time for self-blame did not last long.

In that frozen-white world, he recognized the figure standing at its center.

Randolph.

He had raised ‘Winter’ and blocked the explosion.

On the opposite side of the frozen wall of blood, everything was frozen solid, as if time itself had stopped.

Conversely, on the inside of the wall—where they stood—he could even feel a faint warmth.

“Ah…”

“Wh-what is this…?”

“Did he… actually save us?”

People slowly began regaining consciousness, one by one.

Winter’s ability was the power to govern contracts.

All the *contracts* they had made with the tower’s master in the “Waiting Room” were now nullified.

Including the curse commanding them to kill the bug user.

Since he had nullified the contract and even blocked the explosion, it was only natural that they misunderstood, thinking he had saved them.

And at that moment—

**《The ‘???’ of the 1st-place party has completely killed the Black Paladin ‘Yor’, the Mindflayer ‘Yata’, and the Toin Warrior ‘Sar-am’.》**

**《You gain an additional 280 points.》**

**《Party member ‘Serengeti’ has greatly contributed to slaying the domain boss.》**

**《You gain an additional 100 points.》**

**《Party member ‘Rommel’ has delivered the final blow to the domain boss.》**

**《You gain an additional 60 points.》**

**《The total score of the 1st-place party is 1,520 points.》**

Even Serengeti and Rommel had helped increase the score.

Thus—1,520 points.

A total score on an entirely different scale from every other party.

Ziiiiing!

Then, before every party member, a golden warp appeared.

**《The ‘1st-place party’ challenges ‘Lord Solbaren’.》**

**《The combat power of ‘Lord Solbaren’ decreases by 99.9%.》**

**《‘Lord Solbaren’ is bewildered.》**

—

While he was confronting the Great Earth Dragon, Raktusha narrowed his eyes.

“You… didn’t you climb the tower with the White King?”

Raktusha had assumed the 1st-place party consisted of the White King.

And if it were the White King, then surely he would have climbed the tower with his main forces.

But despite the message *“the 1st-place party is challenging”* appearing before his eyes, the Great Earth Dragon was still fighting him here.

“Why should I answer such a question?”

Kwa-rung!

Two bolts of lightning fell like flashes of light.

They took the form of spears and planted themselves on either side of the Great Earth Dragon’s massive body.

Fwoooooom!

At the same time, the earth trembled, and the two spears began absorbing the surrounding ground like powerful magnets.

A type of skill he had never seen before—no, this wasn’t a skill.

It was a weapon.

A Unique-grade weapon that commanded both thunder and earth.

Where in the world had he suddenly obtained such a thing?

Because of that weapon, the Great Earth Dragon’s rank had risen by several levels.

But that didn’t matter.

Raktusha himself could now wield sword force thanks to the Black Heaven Blade.

What concerned him more was something else entirely.

*“The 1st-place party isn’t the White King?”*

Then who?

Who had secured that overwhelming 1,520 points?

The Black King wasn’t climbing the tower.

That left only the White King.

Which meant—the one who brought this Winter about…

…was a third party he hadn’t even considered.

*“The Empire? But to cause such a massive upheaval, it would practically have to be the Emperor himself.”*

The Emperor.

He had been asleep for hundreds of years, wrapped entirely in mystery.

And yet the widely accepted belief was that the White King and the Black King avoided interfering with the Empire precisely because of that *slumbering Emperor*.

Of course, only those two would know the real reason—

But even Raktusha had to admit: unless the Emperor had awakened, this point total made no sense.

No matter how many famed powerhouses the Empire possessed, could any truly surpass him?

*“Or… was it them?”*

When the Black King had attempted to expand his forces, certain heretics had approached.

But the Black King dismissed them as “mongrels” and refused them.

If some unknown faction had climbed the tower and achieved a result of this magnitude… the only plausible candidates were those mongrels.

“Raktusha. Is the Death King dead?”

The Great Earth Dragon suddenly asked.

Raktusha smirked at him.

“And why should I answer that?”

If he wanted an answer, he had to give something in return.