I Start with 13 Hidden Traits Chapter-300

Ch-300. **Encounter**

—

Looking back on it now, even I have to admit—it was *madness*.

For days on end.

For nearly ten days straight, I barely slept while playing Wilhelm.

Back then, it was only possible because I was what people jokingly call a “time billionaire”…… an unemployed bum.

No job prospects, no money to spend—games were the only thing I could do, and that seemed to awaken a strange sense of stubborn pride.

*Fine. I’ll clear it no matter what.*

In *Pangaenia*, there’s an evasion technique called **Crawling**.

It’s nothing fancy—just a command that makes you crawl along the ground.

A method that lets you move while minimizing detection by monsters that use preemptive attacks.

However, using *Crawling* properly was extremely difficult, which was why almost no one used it.

It takes time to stand back up from a crawling position, so if a monster spots you, you’re practically guaranteed to become prey.

On top of that, movement speed is slow.

You can’t perform other actions while crawling.

Most people argued that it was better to just run and escape.

But there was one thing people didn’t realize.

*Surviving while crawling raises evasion. And you get a high survival score.*

That was exactly what I was aiming for.

High evasion makes it harder for preemptive-attack monsters to lock onto you.

It also increases the chance of attacks *missing* when you’re struck.

That was why, before leaving the forest, I kept crawling back and forth around the cave, raising evasion as much as possible.

The closer I danced to danger—maintaining a razor-thin distance from powerful monsters—the faster evasion rose, until it finally reached a level where escaping the forest was possible.

However—

*…Wilhelm was aware from the very beginning.*

I knew that Wilhelm was conscious inside the character.

When he reached Sword Mastery Level 31 during his first fight with Raiga, Wilhelm’s sealed memories bloomed, forcing a certain scene back into my mind.

The game’s *intro*.

The scene where he calls me a damn god and shouts that he’ll burn the world down.

But that wasn’t all.

Wilhelm—

His consciousness had existed *from the moment the character was created*.

Long before escaping the Forest of Nibelung.

*All that time, in this place…*

I looked around.

Pitch black.

Nothing was visible.

This place—the Swamp of Consciousness—was unbearably lonely and cold.

No matter how much you spoke, nothing reached anyone.

No matter how much you moved, there was no end.

Even the flow of time was distorted.

It felt dozens of times slower.

One hour for Wilhelm felt like a full day to me.

Maybe even longer.

Time here felt like hell.

More than five years had passed since the character was created.

How long had Wilhelm *felt* he’d been here?

A hundred years? Two hundred?

The longer one stayed, the slower time seemed to flow.

There was no way to even estimate how long he’d been trapped.

Only an overwhelming sense of distance.

Anyone else would have gone mad.

No—actually.

Every human *except Wilhelm* would be incapable of enduring this place.

*…And yet Wilhelm swung his sword in silence.*

Even through that hellish stretch of time, Wilhelm kept swinging his sword.

Without rest, obsessively trying to break through the wall and reach me.

But I never heard him.

I didn’t even perceive him.

Of course not.

Wilhelm was just a game character I was raising.

I thought he simply grew faster than others because I’d built good early proficiency.

I never imagined that Wilhelm himself was helping me acquire special skills or manifest unique traits.

*That’s why I wanted to challenge a hidden quest.*

After escaping the Forest of Nibelung,

A certain *hidden quest* became something I absolutely wanted to clear.

There are seven officially existing hidden quests in *Pangaenia*.

They were so impossible that they were unofficially called the “Seven Mysteries.”

Naturally, I’d never even dared to attempt them before.

Honestly, even in my own judgment, they were truly impossible.

The quest required solo play—hunting the King of Bloodhorn Peak at Level 1.

At Level 1, you had to defeat a raid boss monster—the Level 7 King of Bloodhorn Peak.

You had to climb a mountain crawling with orcs, challenge him alone, win, and then come back down alive.

*If not now, then never.*

In *Pangaenia*, most leveling comes from hunting.

You can gain experience from quests, but it’s negligible compared to hunting.

Which meant that while climbing Bloodhorn Peak, you’d inevitably have to kill orcs—and once you did, you’d level up.

The moment you leveled up, the hidden quest became unattainable.

That was why *Crawling* was essential.

Wilhelm was still Level 1 when he escaped the Forest of Nibelung.

With high evasion, I was confident he wouldn’t be noticed by the orcs.

*All that remained was a one-on-one duel with the King of Bloodhorn Peak.*

But the greatest obstacle was, of course, the king himself.

The only slim chance was to force a one-on-one fight through a warrior’s duel.

And a warrior’s duel was only possible if you hadn’t killed a single orc.

If not now, the challenge would be impossible forever.

That’s why—

I charged in without hesitation.

*If not for Wilhelm, I would have lost.*

The skill that was created during the duel with the King of Bloodhorn Peak—

That skill wasn’t born merely because evasion was high.

It was created because Wilhelm’s will reached it.

If the **Blade Flow** skill hadn’t existed in that moment, the duel would have ended in defeat.

*…We were both reckless.*

Watching Wilhelm’s memories, I let out a small laugh.

Because the feelings Wilhelm had toward me were now exactly the same ones I had toward him.

Being trapped in pitch-black darkness, swinging a sword endlessly.

With no one watching, no one acknowledging you, no possibility of escape—

Could anyone really swing a sword for countless eons like that?

That time. That effort.

…Only now did I truly understand.

“You existed so that I could exist.”

Knowing it would never reach him, I still expressed my gratitude.

“You did well, Wilhelm.”

I praised his efforts.

“But calling me a ‘damn god’ is one thing—calling me a *dog*-like god is a bit harsh, isn’t it? I was just trying to survive.”

I complained.

Because I now understood that “damn god” wasn’t just an insult born of resentment.

It literally came from crawling on the ground like a dog.

Absurd as it was—if I hadn’t done that, I would’ve gone mad long ago.

“…This *dog*-like god is cheering for you. Go wild.”

Wilhelm’s everything.

The state he wanted to show me.

Without a doubt, he was strong.

Far stronger than I’d imagined.

Beyond anything he’d ever been as a mere game character.

But even that wasn’t the end.

Wilhelm, who had regained all his memories and come to know himself—

“……”

…Looking at him, I couldn’t say a single word.

All I could do was tremble.

Wilhelm.

He had become a being on an entirely different plane.

The completion of Heaven-and-Earth Genesis.

It was nothing like the sword I had known or wielded.

And yet, I couldn’t grasp it at all.

We had learned the same thing—yet the trajectories were utterly different.

He no longer shouted at me.

No longer tried to reach me.

He simply *showed* me.

*…Is it my turn now?*

Was this his way of saying that now I was the one who had to struggle?

Something unreachable—no matter how hard one tried.

“Hahaha!”

Watching his method, I burst into laughter.

I finally understood what Wilhelm was trying to show me—what he wanted me to *feel*.

It was, truly—

“You’re a real damn bastard.”

A truly dog-like bastard, without question.

*

*

Randolph changed his strategy.

If he couldn’t kill Wilhelm even with the Supreme Sword that decided fate, then he would crush him another way.

*Destruction of Mystery.*

He would destroy Wilhelm’s mystery.

The mystery Wilhelm now wore was clearly different from that of ordinary humans.

By elevating his own rank, the specifications of everything he wore had risen.

Then all Randolph had to do was strip them away, one by one.

《‘Out-of-System’ mystery cannot be destroyed.》

…But it wouldn’t break.

*Winter.*

*Whiiiiing—!*

Randolph activated the unique skill of his sole supreme-grade weapon—

**Winter (Final Twilight)**.

An ability that froze the opponent with extreme cold.

But even this failed.

This level of cold couldn’t compare to the cold Wilhelm had endured in his psyche.

*Sssshhh—!*

Darkness engulfed Randolph’s entire body.

*Eye of the Dreadful Omen.*

The domain of darkness expanded.

He implanted the Eye of the Dreadful Omen into his opponent, forcibly seizing control.

An Eye of Omen bloomed on Wilhelm’s chest.

But it didn’t move as Randolph willed.

Wilhelm’s body and mind had long surpassed the stage of being a vessel someone else could control.

Above all, he had already been controlled for a very long time.

“…As the God of the Blood Demons, I command you. Protect me.”

Using the authority of the God of the Blood Demons,

Randolph attempted to summon the Blade Dragon God Hana and the two children.

But none responded.

《‘Blade Dragon God’ refuses the summoning.》

《‘Issera’ refuses the summoning.》

《‘Lucaria’ refuses the summoning.》

…They had never been truly summoned to begin with.

From the start, they knew that the current Randolph was not the god they served.

Thus, they had been mere puppets—false constructs.

Had they responded, the *real* versions would have appeared in Phase 2.

*Crunch!*

“Are you rejecting me? I am real! I am the true Randolph!”

Randolph ground his teeth.

They weren’t the only ones refusing him.

Skills related to the *Successor of the Stars* also became unusable.

At the same time—

Randolph’s eyes sank coldly.

If this was what he wanted—

“…Fine. I’ll show you why I’m called the *strongest*.”

I’ll prove it.

How I slaughtered the Lords of the Abyss and the Primordial Beings on the Island of Gods.

Randolph raised his sword.

*Thunk!*

He stabbed his own heart.

Then—

*Fwaaah—!*

Black smoke erupted from his heart as countless *eyes* surfaced across his skin.

“You haven’t seen this yet, have you? The proper use of the *Fragment of Destruction*.”

Eternal Randolph.

Upon death, he could revive once using the power of life—

But there was another method.

Using the *power of death* contained within the Fragment of Destruction.

A power only the current Randolph could wield.

The true driving force behind the massacres on the Island of Gods.

Randolph smiled.

“I am your *destruction*, Wilhelm!”

*

*

 

The sword swings.

*Kuaaaang!*

The world is cleaved.

Shattered and erased.

Randolph’s movements annihilated all existence.

Everything his blade touched was driven into death.

He had become a living *bug*.

*Craaaash!*

*Rumble!*

The tower collapsed.

It felt as though the world itself was being destroyed.

But as blades clashed and crossed, Wilhelm realized—

—*Won’t you destroy the heavens with me?*

The blue bird’s true intent.

Watching Randolph fully unleash the power of the Fragment of Destruction, he now understood.

*Destruction is a weapon sent down from the heavens.*

A weapon meant to annihilate the lower world.

It wasn’t something that appeared randomly and turned Pangaenia into hell—

It was sent from the *Heavens* to destroy it.

Not just Pangaenia.

Countless worlds had been burned that way.

Now he knew.

The current Randolph was unmistakably connected to the *Heavens*.

Was that why the damn god had set Randolph against him?

*How dare they…*

And so Wilhelm understood exactly what he had to do.

He also understood why the damn god had cheered for him.

*This is my world.*

Not a place you get to toy with as you please.

*It’s our world.*

So I’ll show you.

The ultimate extreme of *martial force*.

**Heaven-and-Earth Genesis.**

An infinite world you’ve never experienced before.

Wilhelm swung his sword.

*

*

*Goooooo—!*

The world trembled.

Everything centered around the Tower of the Martial God was swallowed.

And so, the entire tower was devoured by *darkness*.

A completely new world.

“Where… is this?”

Randolph looked around.

The sword Wilhelm had swung—

The countless profundities and ultimate principles contained within it had overwhelmed his mind.

A blade unseen even within the Gate of Truth.

And when he opened his eyes again, he was here.

The Swamp of Consciousness, drenched in darkness.

Cold.

Nothing visible.

Unable to move.

Randolph endured countless ages in that state.

He destroyed worlds with the power of destruction—

Only for them to regenerate and swallow him again.

Endless, repeating worlds.

*Ah…*

Agonizing. Agonizing. Agonizing.

As if time itself had stopped.

As if he were trapped forever.

How much time passed like that?

*Thud.*

A single sword fell before his eyes.

*Shing.*

Someone picked up the fallen sword and appeared.

“Disappear now, fake.”

…Park Hyunmyung revealed himself.

*

*

《You have defeated ‘Eternal God Randolph’.》

《Hidden Phase.》

《‘???’ has appeared.》

《Remaining time of ‘Complete Golden Law’: 8 minutes》

Wilhelm, having unleashed the extreme of nothingness, stiffened as he looked at the reappearing Randolph.

“…O damn god.”

 

 

 

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