The Healing Solaris Cleric-Chapter 291: Fuse (3)

Kai's arrival had already sealed the skeleton legion’s defeat. The only problem was that Kai was still a person, with only two arms and two legs. No matter how powerful he was, he couldn’t block ten hands with just one. Therefore, by the time all the skeletons had been wiped out, the damage to Libertia was indescribable.

"Seriously... just once... I just want to see their face. Just once."

With one corner of his mouth curling upward, Kai surveyed the devastated territory with a chilling smile. He had been admiring Libertia’s beauty just this morning while looking down from above. Yet the thousands of skeletons that had invaded had never intended to win a battle in the first place.

"Porton, how is Zone 3?"

"Don't even ask. It's worse than this area. The entire marketplace is in ruins."

"Ugh. These guys are relentless. They weren’t here to fight—they came just to destroy the territory."

The moment Kai had appeared, the skeletons had changed their behavior. Realizing that killing the NPCs was practically impossible, they had started attacking the buildings instead.

Looking at the wreckage of the marketplace, Kai asked, "How long will the repairs take?”

"Hmm..." At that question, Karundal, the king of the dwarves, stroked his long, braided beard. "Fortunately, the main facilities of the territory are intact. The problem is that the damaged area is the marketplace."

"... Damn it."

In truth, Kai had never spent his own money developing Libertia. He had simply reinvested the territory’s own profits. Even so, he couldn’t help but feel irritated at the thought that part of that investment had now vanished into thin air.

"Sigh, what's done is done. I suppose it's better to look at this as an opportunity."

"... How exactly are we supposed to see this positively?" Kai glanced around and asked in response to Karundal’s words.

"Think about it. When Libertia was first developed, our people weren’t even here."

Just as he said, only the merfolk and elves had been present when Libertia was first founded.

"That's true."

"Because of that, when we dwarves later joined as new members of Libertia, it caused some complications."

The elves, merfolk, and dwarves each had their own unique culture. Those differences were evident in architectural styles, but in reality, there was never any conflict between the elves and the merfolk over that matter.

Because the merfolk built and lived in houses underwater.

However, the situation was a bit different for the dwarves, who had joined later. They had to live on the surface alongside the elves. While the elves resided in homes built throughout the massive trees, the shops and markets they constructed on the ground were a different matter entirely.

"The layout of the marketplace was quite inefficient."

"We admit that part. Back in the Elven Forest, we lived alongside the World Tree, so we never needed such facilities. We had no experience building them." Elania, the queen of the elves, nodded in acknowledgment of their past mistakes.

"So, this is the perfect chance to rebuild the marketplace properly."

"Well, you can handle that however you see fit."

"What about the tournament?"

Kai sighed. The biggest issue was the Grand Blacksmith Tournament.

"What else can we do? We’ll cancel the event for now and reschedule it once the marketplace is restored."

"But many people have come just to watch..."

"We’ll have to ask for their understanding. There’s no way we can proceed with the tournament in this state."

The tournament grounds had been completely destroyed, and restoring Libertia’s infrastructure had to come first.

"It can’t be helped, then. Let’s take a month to rebuild the marketplace and hold the tournament afterward."

"Sounds good. Oh, and I’d prefer if something like today never happened again."

"You mean another invasion?"

"Yes. It was extremely unpleasant."

Kai had always believed that his presence alone was enough to keep the territory safe. Moreover, the elves and merfolk were skilled warriors, so he had never been too concerned.

But after today, my perspective has changed.

Libertia’s security was far weaker than he had assumed. It wasn’t that the elves and merfolk were weak, but when faced with an overwhelming number of enemies, even they had struggled.

Getting caught off guard once is a mistake. But letting it happen twice...

That wouldn’t be a mistake anymore—it would be proof of his own incompetence.

Kai left a short warning to the culprits who had hidden themselves from his sight, "Hide as best as you can. Make sure not even a strand of hair is visible."

***

The first move made by the guild founded by Sting and Goliath, the Revenge guild, had gone better than expected. They had attacked both of Kai’s territories simultaneously and achieved their intended results. More importantly, they had left behind no traceable evidence for Kai to identify them. A perfectly executed jab.

Yet, Sting’s expression was darker than expected. He looked as if he was greatly shocked.

"Why do you look like that?" Goliath asked.

Sting slowly replied, “The one-two punch landed for sure. It was an unexpected blow, so he’s probably still feeling the sting. More than anything, the Grand Blacksmith Tournament has been canceled, so he must be furious.”

“That’s right. Everything went exactly as we wanted. You should be happier about it.”

“Sigh. If you had seen his strength firsthand, you wouldn’t be acting so composed.” Sting ran both hands over his face, looking visibly drained, and continued, “No matter how much I think about it, I just can’t understand. We both have the same Mythic-class jobs, so how can there be such a vast difference in ability?”

“Think about how long he’s had his Mythic-class job. We’ve only had ours for a month.”

“Do I look like an idiot to you? Of course, I took that into account. But even so... Ugh, no, it’s faster to just show you.”

Sting immediately sent the footage he recorded to Goliath.

“Hm. Let’s see just how skilled he is to make you react this way.”

Goliath played the video without much concern, but his expression changed with each passing moment. At first, tension. Then, bewilderment. But most surprisingly, what followed was happiness.

“Are you insane? Unless my eyes are deceiving me, you look incredibly happy right now,” Sting sneered in a provoking tone.

In response, Goliath grinned and tapped his opposite palm with his fist. “Isn’t it interesting? His base specs are incredibly high, but beyond that, his fighting style is extraordinary. Aside from him, what other player could possibly fight like this?”

“No one. And that’s the problem.”

“Heh, are you afraid?”

Goliath’s question made Sting glare at him coldly. “Don’t provoke me. I already feel like shit today.”

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"It’s unfortunate that you took it that way." Goliath shrugged as he lightly stroked his chin. “I get why you’re so irritated now.”

“I knew he was strong, but I never imagined he was this absurdly powerful. Does this mean second-ranked Yoo Ha-Rin and third-ranked Chris are just as strong?”

Just hours ago, Sting had confidently claimed that he could rank within the top three, but now, unease flickered in his eyes.

"Where did all that confidence from earlier go? Don't worry. He's just abnormally strong—that doesn't mean we're weak."

“Hm. No, I think it would be better to evaluate the skills of the other top-ranking players before we proceed with our plans.”

“Interesting. You sound like you’re planning a ranker hunt.”

“Why not? Do you know what Xao Lin does before carrying out an operation?”

"I do. He taps on a stone bridge to test its strength, then smashes it apart and builds his own right next to it—he’s a lunatic."

“We don’t need to go that far, but being meticulous isn’t a bad idea.”

“Agreed. Besides, I’ve wanted to fight Yoo Ha-Rin at least once.”

After witnessing Kai’s overwhelming power, both men became much more cautious in their approach.

“Still, we didn’t walk away empty-handed.” Sting recalled the brief conversation he had with Kai while linked to the skeleton, and smirked. “Those with something to protect are strong. But ironically, when they have too much to protect, they become weak.”

"That’s exactly the part we need to exploit."

“Exactly. No matter how powerful he is, he’s still human, just like us—two arms, two legs. He can’t handle simultaneous attacks happening in different locations.”

Having found a key strategy to target Kai, the two of them began to look forward to the future.

***

“Are you certain about this?” Kai asked as he looked at the thin, blue barrier covering the skies over Libertia.

In response, the king of the merfolk, Karius, said with absolute confidence. “You underestimate our merfolk magic too much. You already know, don’t you? Our kingdom, Aquavera, is protected by a spatial interference barrier.”

Kai was well aware of that fact. It was the very reason Aquavera had survived despite the relentless pursuit of the nagas.

“So this is the same thing?”

“Not quite. The spatial interference magic is different in nature. Unlike Aquavera, Libertia can’t change locations continuously.”

"Right."

"That's why we set up a reinforced protection barrier."

"A reinforced protection barrier... What does it do?"

"First of all, no one will be able to connect a teleport gate from the outside without approval. If an external signal is sent, we will evaluate it and decide whether or not to open the gate."

"That’s great." Kai’s expression noticeably brightened.

After all, the method of teleporting skeletons from an extreme altitude, like in the previous attack, had been particularly difficult to counter.

"Of course, maintaining a barrier of this level continuously requires a significant amount of money."

"It doesn’t matter. Don’t worry about the cost and just keep the barrier active."

"Having a wealthy lord certainly makes things easier in this regard."

As Karius grinned, Kai took the opportunity to make another request. "If possible, I’d like to set up the same barrier in my other two territories. Would you be able to do that?"

"It’s not impossible, but a wizard will need to reside there to maintain and reinforce the barrier."

"Please recruit volunteers from the merfolk for the job, and make sure to mention that the pay will be generous."

Kai had no hesitation in opening his wallet. In fact, he even felt grateful that he could spend money to ensure the safety of his territories.

The ambush was certainly unpleasant, but in a way, it ended up being helpful.

If he hadn’t known that such an attack was possible, they could have suffered an even greater disaster in the future. At the very least, realizing this now gave him the chance to prepare.

Well, now I have a new task.

He had no intention of expressing gratitude to the attackers who had helped him learn this lesson.

The only thing I’ll be giving them is my fist.

Determined to track down the enemy who had left no trace behind, Kai set off to visit his goddess.