I Start with 13 Hidden Traits Chapter-163

Ch-163

—

At that very moment—

Lightning roared outside the wedding hall.

*KURURURUNG!*

“H-Hydragon has appeared!”

“That’s no ordinary Hydragon!”

“Prepare for battle!”

Soldiers outside began to move in a frenzy.

There was no reason for a Hydragon to suddenly show up here.

If there *was* a reason, it could only be because Randolph had summoned it.

“Evacuate!”

“The building is collapsing!”

Hudson turned to look at Randolph.

Randolph had slipped through the chaos and was now standing right before him.

“Log out. Now.”

“Th-Then, Sir Randolph, you’ll—!”

“I’ll be fine. Korea is still safe.”

Korea had not yet been attacked.

Tears welled up in Hudson’s eyes.

“Aah…! Thank you!”

【Remaining time for ‘Guardian Wall (Lv 7)’: 1 second】

【If you do not log out within 1 second, you will die.】

【‘Hudson’ has logged out.】

*

*

Korea.

Everyone had rushed out into the streets.

The ground suddenly began to shake—an earthquake.

“Wh-What is that…?”

And when the people looked up outside, they were left speechless.

Up in the sky—

A *meteor* was falling.

“The sea…!”

And that wasn’t all.

All three surrounding seas were surging, about to unleash a massive tsunami.

A cataclysm with no warning.

Players too, overwhelmed by the sudden invasion, were thrown into panic.

“H-How are we supposed to stop that!?”

“Where are the demons!?”

“They say the one invading Korea is the ‘Mage of the Golden Ratio’!”

“Don’t tell me that thing floating in the sky is…?”

But no demons were in sight.

Only a man gripping a golden staff floated serenely in the sky.

The moment he swung the staff, the meteors accelerated, and the tidal waves grew even larger.

*FWEEEEEN!*

*CRACK!*

*BOOM! BOOMBOOM!*

But before the meteors could reach the ground, they began exploding—cut apart by countless swords.

“Gracia!”

“It’s Gracia!”

“Why is Gracia in Korea!?”

The logged-out Gracia was confronting the Mage of the Golden Ratio.

The problem, however, was the sheer number of falling meteors.

*The area’s too wide.*

Gracia frowned.

Even after launching all one thousand of his swords, it wasn’t enough.

And the tidal wave—its scope was far too large for him to stop it alone.

Some meteors broke through Gracia’s defenses and hurtled toward the ground, and the tsunami prepared to swallow nearby cities whole.

“Aah…!”

What awaited them now was pure catastrophe.

Just as people squeezed their eyes shut, bracing for horror—

“—Huh?”

“Wh-What…?”

The expected disaster never came.

A massive *barrier* had appeared before them, blocking both the meteors and the tidal wave.

*

*

The Mage of the Golden Ratio tilted his head, staring at the enormous barrier that had suddenly manifested.

“What is this gigantic ‘Guardian Wall’?”

“…I will leave the Heroic Order.”

After the Master’s death, Gracia had spoken.

The Heroic Order—this group that began with the “Eight Heroes”—he would withdraw from it.

“…Gracia. You mean to give up all the privileges you gained?”

“Yes, Lucifer. I’ll relinquish everything.”

Lucifer.

The de facto leader of the group.

The one who created the Heroic Order, who placed the Master at the front while pulling the strings from behind.

When he spoke heavily, Gracia nodded.

He would give it all up.

*I was never meant to be here. I never even took part in the Great Expedition.*

A man who had not even clashed properly with demons being called the hero who conquered the Demon Realm—what a joke.

Even a passing dog would laugh.

Yet he had never corrected this.

Because he could not let go of the benefits it brought—because of greed.

In the end, he had become complicit in a massive lie.

“You haven’t forgotten the ‘Oath,’ have you?”

“Cut it off.”

Gracia extended his right arm.

To leave the Heroic Order, one had to surrender a part of their body.

He had eaten enough from them; he could give at least this much.

But—

“I will reveal the truth. That the only one who led the Great Expedition was *Wilhelm*.”

“…And what do you gain from that?”

Lucifer frowned.

Announcing such a fact gained Gracia nothing.

He would lose an arm and be mocked as a man who lived a lie.

“Honor.”

“You mean that pathetic scrap of *your own* honor?”

“Yes.”

Gracia acknowledged it openly.

This choice was solely for the sake of standing proud before himself.

But being proud before oneself is the most important thing.

*If I cannot stand proud before myself, I cannot surpass my limits.*

He had finally realized why he could not grow stronger.

Because he lacked pride. Because he was dishonorable.

Gracia longed to be honorable, yet he always held dishonor.

This had blocked his limit.

This was the key reason the stars avoided him.

“What a shame.”

Lucifer smirked faintly.

…Still a man whose true identity remained unknown.

Even Gracia did not know what Lucifer truly was.

Then—

Lucifer slowly took out something from inside his robe.

“If you insist on leaving, I won’t stop you. I won’t even take your arm. It’s just… truly a shame. I was thinking of sharing ‘this’ with everyone.”

…What he drew out was a severed body part.

And upon seeing it, Gracia understood instantly.

That was… the body of a *god*, not the Goddess.

A particularly *special star*.

*

*

Union, the Mage of the Golden Ratio.

After swearing fealty to Issera, he accelerated his Corruption Rate and was finally able to travel to Earth.

“So this is the land of sinners.”

Ah… from the air alone, this place was unbearably foul.

A barren land filled with worthless mana.

A land overflowing with the sinners he must annihilate.

How should he crush them?

SLAASH—

Union swept his hand, and a rectangular storage vault appeared.

“Inventory: ‘Golden Meteor Staff.’”

A golden staff flowed out of the infinite inventory and landed in his hand.

“‘Storm that Parts the Sea.’”

This time it was a consumable.

He fired a lightning-shaped rune toward the ocean, triggering a colossal tidal wave.

“Skill: ‘Meteor.’ Inventory: ‘100% Mana Recovery Elixir.’”

When he activated the skill, meteors began pouring from the sky like mad.

Union then pulled out a blue potion from the inventory and gulped it down before swinging the staff again.

“Skill: ‘Meteor.’ Inventory: ‘100% Mana Recovery Elixir.’”

“Skill: ‘Meteor.’ Inventory: ‘100% Mana Recovery Elixir.’”

He was the Mage of the Golden Ratio.

In the days his body had been stolen and he had lost his freedom, he could mimic every act the “sinner” had once performed.

And that wasn’t all.

*Inventory had a security flaw.*

Long ago—

Every sinner possessed an Inventory.

An infinite inventory, capable of storing countless items for free use.

But it came with a security weakness.

This is why players today are no longer given unlimited inventories.

But Union—

*I can control every inventory.*

He could extract the contents of every inventory that ever existed.

A walking treasure vault.

With all this, destroying this stretch of land in a single moment was trivial.

FWEEE—

*BOOM!*

Then—countless swords shot in from somewhere, destroying the falling meteors.

“…Oh? The Sword Saint.”

He recognized it instantly—Sword Saint’s skill, *Thousand Swords.*

It seemed the successor to the class “Sword Saint” had appeared again this generation.

A rare class, one with extremely strict requirements—clearly a skilled individual.

“Inventory: All-Breaker.”

Of course, it did not matter.

Not before him—the Mage of the Golden Ratio and *Master of Infinite Inventory.*

The Sword Saint was indeed formidable, but it was not a true hidden class.

A massive, grotesque pair of scissors emerged from the inventory.

*SNIP!*

With a single closing motion, countless swords were cut apart.

The All-Breaker—an 8-tier weapon that cut and destroyed all weapons of tier 6 and below.

Unless reinforced with Sword Aura, any weapon under tier 6 was destroyed instantly.

And most of the swords used in *Thousand Swords* were tier 6 or below.

The Sword Saint, witnessing his blades severed in an instant, looked visibly shaken.

“Successor of the Sword Saint—have you nothing more to show?”

Union was delighted.

Toying with sinners, dragging them into despair—

Imagining the burning of this entire world.

In the end, the Sword Saint could not block the swarm of meteors he unleashed.

*KWARUNG!*

The falling meteors were about to turn the ground into a sea of flames—

But then—

A massive barrier rose.

The Mage of the Golden Ratio tilted his head again.

“What is this gigantic ‘Guardian Wall’?”

A blue barrier blocked both meteors and tidal wave.

It was definitely the Guardian Wall.

One of the Goddess’s rights.

But it was far too large, far too solid.

“Inventory: Sage’s Eye.”

A small eye floated before him.

Then the information observed by the Sage’s Eye displayed before him—

【True (進) Guardian Wall】

As expected.

Only the name was visible, but that alone was enough.

This was a Guardian Wall that nullified **all attacks below a certain level**.

But a Guardian Wall doesn’t simply grow stronger by raising its level.

Yet this one had been strengthened into its *True (進)* form, capable of blocking a vast range of attacks.

A form and structure he had never seen before.

And this could only mean one thing—
Union’s attacks were lower in level than that Guardian Wall.

“Inventory, stored experience potions.”

But that was fine.

He had plenty of stored experience saved up.

Experience potions imbued with his original tier.

He had only lowered himself temporarily to maintain balance when crossing dimensions.

He was, after all, a being **not permitted** to cross dimensions in the first place.

If he had attempted to cross at a higher level, he might have been thrown back by the dimensional balance.

*Gulp! Gulp!*

As he downed potion after potion without pause, a message soon appeared before him:

【You have leveled up】

“Inventory, the Bow that Pierces the Barrier of Absolute-Annihilation.”

Now then—
**Will this be blocked as well?**

A bow refined to the extreme, belonging to the Absolute-Annihilation series.

A bow that deals **one additional level of damage** when targeting a barrier.

He grasped its bowstring and released.

*KWA-RRRRRR-UNG!*

“…Again?”

Strange.

It was effectively a strike equivalent to two additional levels’ worth of power.
He had never imagined this attack could also be stopped.

Just what level **was** this Guardian Wall?

Was it even possible to raise it to such a height?

“…What an amusing creature.”

It seemed an extraordinary sinner was hiding down below.

He turned his head slightly—
the Sword Saint was charging at him, wielding a sword of light.

“Inventory, Shield of the Absolute.”

*KWAANG!*

But the Sword Saint could not penetrate the Shield of the Absolute.

Union didn’t care.
He was too absorbed in staring at this peculiar Guardian Wall.

*I wonder what class the owner of this Guardian Wall has inherited.*

—

 

 

---