I Start with 13 Hidden Traits Chapter-98

Ch-98

*

*Did you see the message that just popped up?*

*Baal of the Four Calamities? What the hell… why is a Four calamity suddenly showing up?*

The Player Talk exploded into chaos at the sudden announcement.

*Which lunatic resurrected the Four calamity Baal?*

*What are the Four calamities?*

*It’s a name that always appears if you progress the ancient quests. They called the four primeval monsters that existed at the dawn of time the “Four calamities.”*

*They’re the ones who destroyed half of the old empire’s might.*

*Was the old empire stronger than the current one?*

*Of course it’s not even comparable;; Back then the entire continent existed, and now more than half of it has sunk into the Abyss. How could you compare the two?*

*So where did it resurrect?*

*No idea.*

*Mountain of the Trainees. All the cities connected to it are in an uproar right now.*

*Why the hell would Baal resurrect at the Mountain of the Trainees?*

*No clue… but if it says surrounding city destruction, does it mean the cities connected by warp?*

There were five cities connected to the Mountain of the Trainees.

All were neutral cities, including the mercenary city of Cartel.

The resurrection of the Four calamity Baal meant that every neutral city connected to the Mountain had gone into full alert.

*Then it’s not close to the player cities, right?*

*At least that’s a relief.*

*Relief? Does a Four calamity look like a joke to you…? Without the Empire or the Goddess Church stepping in, nobody’s killing that thing.*

*But wait—Mountain of the Trainees, isn’t that where Phantom is right now? He must’ve gone in to do Main Quest 7.*

*No way.*

*He must’ve cleared it and come back down already.*

*Yeah, true. It’s just a proficiency level quest anyway, he probably hit level 15 and left.*

*Why don’t they just say Phantom revived the damn Four calamity lmao*

*No matter how crazy Phantom is, he wouldn’t go resurrecting a Four calamity.*

*He’s the one they used to call the Knight King—he wouldn’t do anything that stupid.*

*Praise be to our Phantom-god!*

*We believe in you, Phantom-god!*

*Phantom-god!*

*PHANTOM-GOD!!!*

*

”

Kwaaaang!

The body of Raktusha, slammed into the ground, rose back up.

“Kh—!”

He coughed up blood.

Blackened blood.

“…Interesting.”

Raktusha bared his teeth in a grin.

Truly worthy of the title of a Four calamity.

It wasn’t for nothing they said this monster was stronger than the White King or the Black King.

*He is strong, I’ll give him that.*

He deflected his sword aura, driving a curse deep into his enemy’s lungs.

His head spun.

If he hadn’t used Rebound Aura for that one instant, he would have been killed on the spot.

*A mere insignificant creature cannot possibly be stronger than the Black King.*

A deeper, blacker aura poured out from every inch of Raktusha’s body.

The thing had failed to kill him. That meant the Four calamity would die by his hand.

Raktusha gathered his sword aura with even greater focus.

Crack!

Craaaack!

His entire musculature stretched to the point of bursting, and his frame began to swell.

Jjeoeoeo—ok!

By the grace of the Black King, Raktusha had surpassed the limits of the orc race.

Within moments, he possessed the body of a giant.

He rolled his shoulders slowly.

*As expected. This blessing is truly magnificent.*

With the physique of a giant and anti-magic resistance, the curse of the Four calamity no longer frightened him.

The curse of an insignificant creature could no longer affect him in the slightest.

It was all thanks to the Black King’s grace—power that transcended race and bestowed the might of the Great Cataclysm.

Gwooooooooh—!

The monstrous eyes of the Four calamity Baal turned toward Raktusha.

*

*

 

“….”

Stepping out of the sanctuary, I emerged at the summit of the Mountain of the Trainees.

I looked around—and momentarily lost the ability to speak.

You couldn’t even call this chaos. This was beyond devastation.

Collapsed trainees lay scattered everywhere, and the mountain itself had been ravaged.

In the distance, a gigantic monster—surely the Four calamity Baal—and some giant were locked in combat.

“A giant?”

Wait. Why is there a giant here?

And… could that even be called a fight?

“…He’s a punching bag.”

“Punching bag” with high endurance was probably the more accurate description.

Maybe because he was so big, he was getting beaten to a pulp by the Four calamity.

I rubbed between my brows, feeling a touch dizzy.

【Lv. 13】

The giant’s level was an absurd 13.

A level far beyond what the entire mountain combined could hope to handle.

Despite being pummeled, he was a real monster—slightly stronger even than Cramdel’s four pillars.

And even that giant was being utterly outclassed by the Four calamity.

【???】

The Four calamity’s level was a question mark.

Unknown.

But—

*Is that really an incomplete resurrection?*

…The fact that *that* creature was supposedly resurrected incompletely was horrifying.

How strong would a fully revived Four calamity be?

I shook my head.

*This is far beyond anything I can handle.*

There was no solution for now.

First… escape.

As I walked, something familiar entered my field of view.

A beastman with fur like the White King’s.

*The White King’s child?*

That was my first thought.

Only the White King had such pristine white tiger fur.

And the numerous marks of fallen trainees around her suggested the others had been trying to protect her.

She had to be someone important.

I carefully lifted her onto my back.

“Stone of Ascension?”

My gaze moved to a standing stone not far away.

It was definitely similar in material to the one inside the sanctuary.

Rough, covered in sword marks—slightly different, perhaps, but it needed to be checked.

I slowly raised my sword and cut.

Kuru-rung!

The stone—presumably an ascension stone—split cleanly in two.

“Hm. Guess not.”

It wasn’t the same as the sanctuary stone.

Clicking my tongue, I walked further—then saw a man sprawled out beside a spear.

*The spearman.*

I knew instantly.

The spear’s silhouette matched what I had glimpsed in the darkness.

Throwing the spearman over my other shoulder, I began descending the mountain.

*

*

“Guh—!”

Raktusha spat another mouthful of black blood.

“Damn it.”

It seemed impossible to face a Four calamity alone.

Even with the blessing that allowed him to transcend his race, the opponent was a Four calamity.

*I can’t do this alone.*

He was certain.

To kill that monster, he would need at least two more fighters of comparable power.

He would report to the Black King and then reconsider how to deal with the Four calamity.

*Retreat first.*

Raktusha looked toward the summit.

He couldn’t retreat empty-handed.

At minimum, he needed to bring the White King’s daughter back.

Ascending swiftly, Raktusha involuntarily scowled.

“…Where did she go?”

Aria was gone.

The spearman was gone as well.

Had they regained consciousness and fled?

But his subordinates lay all around the mountain base.

Escape would not have been easy.

“……What is that?”

Then he spotted a bisected stone tablet.

If it had been an ordinary stone, he would have ignored it.

But that stone was the very one he had carved “sword marks” into.

Why was it now split cleanly in two?

*Did the Four calamity break it?*

He immediately shook his head.

If the Four calamity had broken it, it wouldn’t be this clean.

Inspecting the cut more closely, Raktusha’s expression hardened.

“…In one strike… with a sword.”

This was the mark of a blade.

A single stroke.

A stone he himself had only managed to scratch with sword marks… cut cleanly in one blow.

Who could have done this?

Someone whose swordsmanship surpassed even his own “Sword master”-level mastery?

“Impossible…!”

Impossible.

Absolutely impossible.

Raktusha’s pupils shook violently.

More than they had while fighting the Four calamity.

Raktusha—the greatest warrior among the orcs, revered as a Swordmaster.

Long before adulthood he had been lauded as the next Orc Lord.

With a sword in hand, he had never lost to anyone.

A peerless genius?

That wasn’t enough.

Unprecedented.

And unrivaled.

No one before or after could match him.

Everyone who witnessed Raktusha’s swordsmanship praised him unanimously.

And Raktusha, when asked who the greatest swordsman was, would answer with conviction: himself.

*Sword God…*

He had believed such a being did not exist.

Yet the image of the sliced stone would not leave his mind.

A Sword God.

If such a being existed, certainly he would be called the god of the sword.

But if such a person had appeared here on the Mount only to slice a stone and vanish—it made no sense.

Could it be someone sent by the White King?

*But the White King has no subordinates who wield a sword so deeply.*

Nor did the four pillars.

The Grand Earth Dragon, the Gunggi, the death king, the Medusa—none wielded swords.

Then who?

If not one of the White King’s followers—

Who saved the White King’s daughter and sliced the stone in one stroke?

*Aria would know.*

He *had* to solve this mystery.

His pride as a swordsman had been shattered.

That pride, honed over a lifetime, felt crushed.

Only by uncovering the identity of the Sword God could he restore it.

Gwooooooh—!

A curse-laden tail suddenly wrapped around Raktusha.

It would not let him leave so easily.

The thick, foul curse from three tails pierced even the giant’s anti-magic resistance.

Crack!

“You—damned bastard!”

Raktusha unleashed the Black King’s blessing at maximum output.

*

*

Aria felt as though she were dreaming.

After being subdued by Raktusha, she’d been struck by the Four calamity’s curse when it suddenly appeared.

A Four calamity.

She could not comprehend why one of the four ancient monsters would suddenly appear at the Mountain of the Trainees.

Nor could she resist.

The curse was a power that devastated everything around it.

For someone like Aria, still walking the path of a trainee, it was far too monstrous.

*I am… a genius…*

But what plunged her into deeper despair was Raktusha.

The Swordmaster toyed with her like an adult handling a child.

It wasn’t simply overwhelming stats.

Raktusha had deliberately lowered his own abilities and matched her, fighting solely with pure swordsmanship.

Leaving cuts deeper than anything the Sword Master had ever carved, showcasing an overwhelming difference in mastery.

A sky above the sky.

Was Raktusha the true genius?

*But… the stone. It was cut…*

She had seen a sword god who surpassed even Raktusha.

A Trainee’s Stone that reacted only to sword proficiency.

And that stone had been sliced cleanly in half with one strike.

*The human I saw in the Domain of Chaos…*

The one who defeated the spearman and unleashed brilliant sword aura.

She had tried to chase him, but at some point he vanished beyond the cliff and she could not follow.

Yet he had suddenly appeared, saved her, and cut the stone.

To cut the stone meant he had reached a level far beyond the Sword Saint—or Raktusha.

—“The one who cuts the Trainee’s Stone shall be the ‘Master of the Sword.’”

A legend passed down on the Mountain of the Trainees.

A note left by the Sword Saint.

Having stayed on the Mount for so long, Aria had read all the texts related to the Sword Saint.

One text had mentioned the one who could “cut the stone.”

—*“The most powerful ‘sword’ is buried somewhere within this mountain, and only the one who cleaves the stone may wield that ‘vicious blade.’”*

At first, she had no idea what that meant.

Was some tremendous sword really buried somewhere on this Mountain of the Trainees?

But now she wondered if the Sword Saint had already known.

The strongest and most vicious sword.

Could that not be the monstrous creature before her—the Four Calamity Baal itself?

The Sword Saint had written that only the one who could cleave the Trainee’s Stone would be capable of wielding the Four Calamity Baal.

Of course, simply cutting the stone would not be enough to control a Four Calamity.

—*“Only when the armor, helmet, and essence that can withstand the ‘sword’ are assembled may one truly be reborn as the ‘Master of the Sword.’”*

There was no doubt.

The Master of the Sword referred to the man currently carrying her on his back.

Just before Aria lost consciousness again, she had taken out a book left behind by the Sword Saint from within her robes—and handed it to the man.

 

 

 

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