Ten minutes later, Flame Ignito held his stomach and groaned. “Kuheok! E-Enough… Just kill me already…”
“Nuh-uh, you still have thirty-three punches to go,” Siegfried replied nonchalantly.
“P-Please…”
“The universe revolves around the survival of the fittest or something like that, right? You’re weaker than me, so it’s natural for me to beat the living shit out of you, don’t you agree?”
“But why are you only aiming for my abdomen…? Just hit me a few times and kill me if revenge is what you want…”
“You hit me really hard a while ago, you know?”
“…!”
“An eye for an eye.”
“D-Don’t you think you’re being a bit too much? I only hit you once, so why do you want to hit me a hundred times?”
“I’m a very generous person that will only get satisfied after paying my debt a hundredfold, you see. And what are you going to do about my items? Are you rich? Do you have a lot of money?”
“Money… Our race does not deal with material currency. Those things don’t hold any value to us…”
“Then, you just have to pay me back with your body.”
“…”
“I usually charge a thousandfold, but I’m a bit busy right now, so you’re in luck as I’m giving you a ninety percent discount. Got that? Anyway, you have thirty-three more left, so good luck to you,” Siegfried grabbed Flame Ignito’s head and dragged him back up to his feet.
The intimidating boss monster that could wield the Flames of Destruction had long disappeared. Right now, Flame Ignito had become a poor little alien that got on a stronger person’s wrong side.
“Great work being a sandbag…” Siegfried finally let go of Flame Ignito after hitting him one hundred times.
“It’s finally over… am I going to die now…?”
“Yeah, you can die now.”
“I see… so I can finally taste death …” Flame Ignito looked emotional for some reason as he closed his eyes.
Pukeok!
[Alert: You have cleared the Quest – ‘Endure to the Bitter End!’]
[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]
[Alert: You have reached Level 175!]
A string of messages popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.
“Ah… That was exhausting…” Siegfried grumbled.
The whole fight lasted for four hours, so it wasn’t strange that he was exhausted despite it just being a game.
“Huff… Huff…”
Hamchi was already sprawled on the ground after exhausting all of his energy running on the magical hamster wheel.
However, they had no time to rest.
“Hey, Hamchi. Get up and collect the loot,” Siegfried commanded.
“Huff… Huff… Hey, owner punk…! I’m very tired… I want to rest…” Hamchi retorted.
“I’m also on the verge of dying from exhaustion, but what can we do? We have to rush back to the fort and help them out. They should be at their limits already.”
They had defeated the second wave, but their troubles hadn’t ended just yet. They had to return as soon as possible and help the others fight against the first wave.
“All right, you just rest up. I’ll go loot the items,” Siegfried walked over to Flame Ignito’s remains.
When he was about to pick up the dropped item ‘Ignito’s Core,’ someone suddenly pointed their sword at Siegfried’s neck.
“What the hell do you want?” Siegfried grumbled as he looked at the perpetrator.
“King of Proatine, Siegfried van Proa.”
The one who pointed their sword at Siegfried was none other than a knight of the Renoma Kingdom, Carlisle.
***
“You are the enemy of my kingdom. I—Carlisle—will avenge my kingdom for the atrocities you have committed against—”
Carlisle was interrupted by someone else.
Shiik!
The other person pointed their sword at Carlisle’s neck and said, “Put down your sword.”
They were Carlisle’s superior, a knight captain of the Renoma Kingdom’s knights.
“Captain! What is the meaning of this?!”
“I said put your sword down.”
“Are you trying to protect the enemy of our kingdom?! You are ordering me to spare our enemy! This is treason!”
“You’re right, but he saved our magicians, and he fought those enemies alone. Do you really think that pointing your sword at someone like that is something that a knight should be doing?”
“Did you just say what a knight should be doing?! What oath did you swear? Did you not swear loyalty to your country and to your lord?! That is what it means to be a—”
“Justice,” the knight captain interrupted Carlisle with one word before continuing. “That is the most basic principle of being a knight. He’s not an ordinary civilian, but he’s not an evil person in my eyes.”
“He is our enemy!”
“Who made him our enemy?!”
“…!”
“Our country did something unforgivable and cowardly for our own survival, and he is only doing the same for the survival of his kingdom. The things he did, like killing our officials, abducting our king, and manipulating our armies, are the price we have to pay for our actions!”
“So what?! What do you want me to do now?! Are you saying that we should just let him go? I cannot and will not do that! If you insist on stopping me, then I will have no choice but to cut you down first, captain—”
Another sword was pointed at his neck.
Shiik!
It was the sword of one of his comrades.
“Put down your sword, Carlisle.”
“I-Ivan! You too?!”
It wasn’t just Ivan…
“Hey, stop that man…”
“Today’s not the day.”
“We should fight him fair and square. What shameful display is this?”
Most of the knights stepped up and stopped Carlisle.
However, Siegfried was tilting his head in confusion.
‘What the hell are these guys talking about? I don’t remember saying I’ll drop dead for them…’
The whole thing was surprising, but he decided to keep quiet and observe in the meantime.
“…I will report this to our superiors,” Carlisle said. He finally put down his sword and walked away from Siegfried. Once he was far enough, he glared at Siegfried and threatened, “Just you wait, the enemy of my kingdom! I will have your head one day and make you pay for what happened today!”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Siegfried grumbled.
“The day we meet again will be your—” Carlisle started.
However, Siegfried interrupted him. “Will that really day come?”
Siegfried wasn’t a fool, and he also wasn’t the type of person who would let someone who had threatened him and drawn their sword against him go scot-free. He had always believed that letting a seed of vengeance grow would bite him in the ass one day.
However, a message popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.
[Alert: You will not be able to receive the quest rewards for the Quest – ‘Endure to the Bitter End!’ if you kill Carlisle right now.]
‘I won’t be able to receive the rewards? Wait a minute. What were the rewards again? Item dropped by the boss monster? It must be that thing on the ground, and what does useful recruits mean…?’
The message seemed to have stumped Siegfried.
“Please forgive my subordinate’s insolence,” the knight captain apologized to Siegfried.
“Well, yeah… he was quite rude, so I was about to—” Siegfried was about to say ‘kill him.’
However, the knight captain interrupted him and said, “I have something to tell you, King Siegfried van Proa.”
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“Okay, go ahead.”
“Will you accept me?”
“What? Accept who?”
“My name is Orlan de Mongrave, and I have been ordained as a knight by the Renoma Kingdom. However, I am willing to swear loyalty to you if you are willing to accept me,” Orlan said as he got down on one knee in front of Siegfried.
***
Orlan wasn’t the only one who wanted to swear loyalty to Siegfried.
“I wish to swear loyalty to you, Your Majesty.”
The other knights got down on their knees, showing their intent to swear loyalty to Siegfried. In addition, the knights weren’t the only ones willing to swear fealty to him.
“This old one wishes to swear loyalty to Your Majesty as well.”
Viscount Decimato and the magicians came over after finally being freed from the Mana Amplification Device. It was clear that they also wanted to swear loyalty to Siegfried.
‘The useful recruits were these knights and magicians?’ Siegfried finally understood.
Surprisingly, the quest rewards this time weren’t items but people.
“Are you sure? I’m just an Adventurer,” Siegfried asked. He then added, just to make sure, “I don’t have any grand ambition to unify the continent or expand my territorial borders. I just want to turn my small kingdom into a place where people can live peacefully. That’s all.”
Siegfried was an Adventurer and a gamer down to the core. His natural instinct as a gamer was to roam around the main stage of BNW, the Nürburg Continent, to hunt monsters, collect items, level up, and clear quests.
Of course, managing one’s own country was also a part of the game. It was pretty fun too, but…
‘I don’t want to get stuck in my office all day signing papers throughout my gaming time…’
Siegfried knew very well that the mountain of documents would only grow larger together with his territory. In short, Siegfried’s ambition was more on the self-centered side rather than the nation-building side.
However, the knights and the magicians somehow found this side of him to be much more attractive than he had intended.
‘To think that there is a ruler who places his people’s peace and prosperity above his own ambitions…! That is only something a true ruler can say!’
‘Waging wars without any casus belli is something only those deranged war-crazed rulers would do. He is a true ruler who places his people above anything else…!’
The knights and magicians misinterpreted Siegfried’s reluctance to grow his kingdom because of his phobia of documents, and they ended up picturing him as some kind of honorable ruler.
“I will like nothing more than to serve Your Majesty if that is how you feel about things.”
“I hope that you will consider accepting this old man to serve you.”
Orlan and Decimato bowed their heads toward Siegfried once again.
The rest of the knights and magicians followed suit. They all bowed their heads toward Siegfried and shouted in unison.
“We swear our loyalty to Your Majesty!”
“Hey, owner punk! Just accept them, will you? They want to get used and abused by you, so why are you refusing them? Kyu!”
‘Well… I guess I do need more people,’ thought Siegfried upon recalling Michele’s grumbling about how they needed more manpower. Michele had also been pushing him to go and recruit more people for the longest time now.
In the end, Siegfried decided to accept these ‘useful recruits’ as his subordinates.
“Alright, I will accept all of you as my subordinates,” he said with a smile.
[Alert: Orlan and 57 knights have joined your kingdom!]
[Alert: Decimato and 69 magicians have joined your kingdom!]
Two messages popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.
“Please give us your command, Your Majesty,” Orlan said.
“Let’s clean this place up and hurry over to Proatine,” Siegfried replied.
“I, Orlan, accept Your Majesty’s command!” Orlan responded in a booming voice.
The rest of the knights and magicians immediately stood up and got to work.
Siegfried retrieved the Rod of God and Magic Sword of Vengeance: Avenger before going over to Flame Ignito’s remains and picking up the item that the boss monster had dropped after dying.
[Flames of Destruction Orb]
[An orb containing the Flames of Destruction.]
[A powerful fire attribute energy is contained within it.]
Siegfried used Absorb Attribute as soon as he was done reading the orb’s description.
[Alert: You have absorbed the required amount of fire attribute energy!]
[Alert: You may enhance a skill with your fire attribute energy!]
[Alert: You may enhance ‘Circle of Mortality’ with the fire attribute energy you have gathered!]
Siegfried had finally gathered the necessary amount of lightning attribute, dark attribute, and fire attribute energies to enhance his skills. This time, he enhanced Circle of Mortality, which was the core skill of the Debuff Master, with the fire attribute.
‘Nice! My skill has been enhanced, so it’s time to absorb the souls.’
He pointed the magic sword toward the named monsters’ souls.
[Alert: You have absorbed the soul of ‘Chiffon’.]
[Alert: You have absorbed the soul of ‘Ramirez’.]
[Alert: You have absorbed the soul of ‘Verenas’.]
[Alert: You have absorbed the soul of ‘Juanchief’.]
[Alert: You have absorbed the soul of ‘Chinok’.]
[Alert: You have absorbed the soul of ‘Flame Ignito’.]
However, he only received a string of messages notifying him that he had ‘absorbed’ the souls of the named monsters and the boss monster. That was it. There were no other messages informing him of how the magic sword’s power had increased or anything.
‘What’s going on? This is confusing. Where is the increase? It should be more powerful now than before,’ he wondered.
Of course, there was no way he would get any answers right now, and he also didn’t have anyone he could ask about it, so he decided to ignore it for now.
[Alert: You have obtained a ‘Dimensional Fragment’!]
[Alert: You have obtained a ‘Dimensional Fragment’!]
[Alert: You have obtained a ‘Dimensional Fragment’!]
He then collected all of the Dimensional Fragment, which was an item that only monsters from Dimensional Rifts would drop. Once he was done collecting every Dimensional Fragment, he gathered his new subordinates and made their way back to Proatine.
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