I Start with 13 Hidden Traits Chapter-178

Ch-178. # Final Settlement

—

Everyone had thought the same thing.

Randolph. Phantom was surely hiding within the Allied Forces, concealing his identity.

After all, Phantom was the epitome of an extreme mystic.

For that reason, quite a number of people had joined the alliance.

And yet—

“What was Main Quest 9 again?”

“You idiot. It’s ‘Climb the Tower of the War God’!”

“Then Randolph… Phantom was in Pangaenia, not here?”

As time passed, the murmurs grew louder.

Every player who wasn’t completely out of the loop knew that Main Quest 9 was “Climb the Tower of the War God.”

And it was also widely known that Randolph had progressed up to Main Quest 8.

But during a full-scale invasion like this, no one could have imagined Randolph would actually climb the Tower of the War God.

Everyone simply assumed he would be somewhere within the Allied Forces.

“…This is a checkmate.”

“But did he really climb the tower? These points don’t make any sense.”

“Did he beat the Champion on the 20th floor?”

“The Champion no one dared challenge for a whole year?”

“It’s Randolph.”

“No, even if he really did beat the Champion, this score is just…”

For the past five years, the Champion of the Tower had never changed.

In fact, in the last year, the Champion hadn’t accepted a single challenge.

At best, challengers reached the 19th floor.

And everyone knew the scores of players who had reached that floor.

Even if one managed to defeat the Champion—this score was beyond comprehension.

“……”

Darkstar unknowingly furrowed his brows.

He was deeply displeased.

Master was dead, and Gracia had been driven out—finally, he had stepped into the role of protagonist.

The world was now his.

Phantom?

He’d always assumed that Phantom had no intention of becoming a hero—no intention of stepping into the spotlight.

At best, Phantom would sneak around and follow behind him from the shadows.

Like MintChoco Is Delicious.

But now—

“He didn’t join at all?”

He showed no interest whatsoever in the alliance.

While everyone was desperate over Earth’s crisis, he alone had been climbing the Tower of the War God in Pangaenia.

“Is he insane?”

How was that even possible?

Was he not human?

The Second Invasion had begun—yet he calmly chose to climb the tower?

If things went wrong, his physical body on Earth could die, and that would truly be the end.

He must be out of his mind.

Completely deranged.

Everyone else couldn’t even *think* of logging into Pangaenia.

If he climbed the tower, that meant he had been climbing nonstop before and after the invasion began.

He had long surpassed the category of “ballsy.”

“He’s definitely an unpredictable one.”

…He had no choice but to admit it.

If Randolph had truly killed the master, it meant he had surpassed the master’s skill.

Climbing the tower and seizing the Champion’s seat wasn’t impossible for someone like that.

However—

“…But this score is still impossible.”

No—“impossible” wasn’t even enough to describe it.

This was *beyond* impossible.

The Hall of Fame had a certain score ceiling for those who made it in.

Especially for certain main quests.

The Tower of the War God was the prime example.

It had a fixed number of floors, and the only major dividing point was whether one defeated the Champion or not.

Even at the highest, the score should have been around 500.

But this—

“A bug. An error. Something. It just doesn’t make sense.”

Darkstar stubbornly denied it.

Even if Randolph had repeatedly broken limits before, no place was as strictly capped as the Tower of the War God.

Something had to be wrong.

And yet, the score continued to flicker in front of his eyes.

*Grit.*

Darkstar ground his teeth softly.

It felt like his position as the protagonist—everyone’s attention—had been stolen from him.

Stolen at the most important moment of all.

*

*

All demons simultaneously lifted their gaze to the sky.

Long ago, they had been forbidden from looking upward—but not anymore.

“War God Karas. Has he reclaimed his divinity?”

One among them.

Pride sat in the midst of the battlefield and muttered softly.

Sitting atop a mountain of corpses, he stared up at the sky with a faint smile.

“Is he sending me a warning? Telling me not to run wild?”

The divine beings of the tower.

Godhood was the natural counter to demons.

They were the only ones who monitored and restrained demons and fiends.

But now, with most divinities destroyed by “Annihilation,” there was no one left on this continent who could restrain them.

The demon realm invading other dimensions, demons playing their tricks—this was all possible because of that.

And yet—

“How did he revive?”

Pride tilted his head.

War God Karas had restored himself fully.

The moment he resurrected, he shook the heavens with a warning.

Declaring his return.

Telling all evil to remain on guard.

Furthermore—

“Envy is dead.”

One of the Seven Sins—Envy—had died.

Was Karas the one who killed him?

Only a true divinity could kill a demon of the Seven Sins.

A half-divinity could not.

Given the timing, it was reasonable to assume that the revived Karas had slain Envy.

“War God Karas. If it’s him, he could kill Envy.”

Envy always liked to wander alone. It was no surprise she died.

Above all, among the remaining divinities, Karas was one of the more troublesome ones.

It was impressive that he had managed to maintain his existence all this time.

The remaining divinities had lost their forms and fused with their towers.

The demon, Pride, stroked his chin.

“So the Omen Race wasn’t entirely wiped out.”

Seems Annihilation hadn’t truly erased all of them.

A bloodline survived… allowing Karas’s tower to resurrect.

A curious thing indeed.

“The druids seem to have returned as well.”

The elves were moving.

The connection between all forests and greenery was abnormal.

Pride was certain.

Somewhere in the world, a druid—master of nature—had appeared.

“Are the extinct races re-emerging?”

Hm.

What was strange was that many of these annihilated races were reappearing simultaneously.

All of them were races Annihilation had prioritized wiping out.

The Omen Race, the druids… and—

“The ones who break every rule. Those ones should have been erased completely.”

In some ways, they were more troublesome than the first two.

And they seemed to be appearing again as well.

Several dungeons and towers had shown signs of broken rules—he had seen it with his own eyes.

Divinities were recovering, and the vanished were returning.

But Karas alone would not be enough to stop their movements.

Pride shrugged.

“A pity. I was going to turn Karas into a star.”

He had planned to turn Karas into a star and scatter it for humankind.

Well, no matter. Too easy is boring.

In this twilight age, with the gods absent, demons had grown stronger than ever.

Countless demons now surpassed their old strength.

Karas alone could never stop him.

*Clack! Clack! Clack!*

Soon, tens of thousands of soldiers and knights crowded around the mountain of corpses.

“King Friedrich! We have won the battle!”

“We have exterminated all the barbarians!”

“All hail King Friedrich!”

“Hail!!!!!”

*

*

I slowly descended from the Tower of the War God.

“As expected, I still can’t reach him.”

War God Karas.

Having reclaimed his full divinity, he displayed power truly befitting a god.

In my current, still-growing state, there was no way to defeat him.

Perhaps once I was more complete.

“But still, that wasn’t bad.”

I had poured everything I had into that battle—fought without a single regret.

How many more times in life would I have such an experience?

Even if I had challenged him as Wilhelm, it wouldn’t have been easy.

*Caw!*

The crow following close beside me.

The Omen Race had restored the tower in an instant.

And that wasn’t the only ability they possessed.

“When four Calamities gather, they can use the Black Sun again.”

The terrifying omen—authority that brought “absolute death.”

Even Baal would have died to the Black Sun if he hadn’t revealed a fragment of Annihilation.

Where masses of seer crows had once been required, the Omen Race needed only four.

Moreover—

《The Omen Race has been designated as the Administrator of the Tower of the War God.》

《The Omen Race receives the blessing of the Tower and War God Karas.》

《All stats are fixed at 120.》

《The Omen Race may use a portion of War God Karas’s powers.》

…The Omen Race had such functions as administrators of the tower.

A powerful system for a powerful guardian race.

Very satisfying.

“Now only Main Quest 10 remains. It’s time to meet the Dragon God.”

A smile tugged at my lips.

The hardest part was over—now it was time for the most important task.

“But before that.”

There was something I needed to do.

Perhaps the most important thing.

**Settlement.**

The moment I left the tower, the messages kept appearing in my mind.

I drew them before my eyes once again.

《Main Quest 9 ‘Climb the Tower of the War God’ completed!》

《O creator of myth!》

《O one who governs the beginning and end of all myths!》

《Your mythic resonance shall echo across the entire continent.》

《Total Score: 1,990 points!》

《You have obtained one ‘Perfect Golden Scale’ and one ‘Fragment of the Golden Scale (1,990h)’.》

《All seats of the People’s Hall have agreed to raise the reward tier.》

《You possess a Luck Dice.》

《A total of 101 reward tiers above have been revealed.》

《The reward tier for this quest has been far exceeded!》

《You may combine the three myth-grade items obtained so far to create a new item.》

《Please select three from the list below.》

《Great Cataclysm》,
《Dragon-Slaying Sword》, 《Lu-》, 《Transcendent Blade》, 《Avatar of Ultimate Extermination》, 《Pureblood’s Diagram》, 《Avatar Zigret’s Armor》, 《Dorian’s Prestige》, 《Soul of the Lava Giant》, 《Lam’s Eye》, 《Ultimate Saber》, 《Resplendent Robe of Honor》, 《Absolute Nihility》, 《Corrupted King’s Armor》, 《Corrupted King’s Crown》, 《Corrupted Knight Order Round Table》, 《Star-Stepping Walker》, 《Staff of Original Sin》, 《Impure Lance》, 《End of the Labyrinth》…

*

*

Karas looked down at his own hands.

Having fully regained his divinity, he had expected to easily surpass Randolph’s level.

And indeed, he had won.

Yet—

“…My hands are shaking?”

They were shaking.

A pure clash of strength.

Randolph should not have been a match for him.

He shouldn’t have even touched him.

But Randolph shattered that expectation—shattered that prejudice.

Even when facing Wilhelm, Karas had never felt this way.

Wilhelm had been complete—but Randolph was not, yet still—

His hands were shaking.

Why?

Fear?

No. Randolph did not yet possess the power to instill fear in him.

Then why were his hands trembling?

Karas had no idea.

And it wasn’t just that.

He brushed across his chest.

The long sword etched into his chest.

Something impossible had happened.

A human had wounded a god—himself, a divinity.

Inside this tower, no less.

A human had struck the War God who had regained his divinity within the Tower of the War God.

No matter how extraordinary a human they were, it had never happened since he became the master of the tower.

The sheer potential and growth he displayed were enough to make one’s jaw drop.

Even during battle, he only continued to sharpen and strengthen.

A monster of growth. Or perhaps even a god.

Karas let out a quiet laugh.

“Truly… what an absurd fellow.”

 

 

 

 

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