Chapter 110: A Knight's Code
If you planned to play as a psychic-type, you should invest in your gear. This was common sense in Monster Soul as psychic power was more effective when strengthening objects.
Reinforcing psychic power in a weapon showed a superior performance compared to qi reinforcement and magic power reinforcement.
However, the man currently in front of Kawin didn't seem to have any weapons even though he was wearing psychic-type armor. There were only two types of people who did something like this. The first were the skilled ones who had reached the realm where a weapon wasn't necessary for them anymore, while the second were the idiotic ones who didn't know what was the best for them. Sure enough, Kawin was positive that this man belonged to the first category. His Earth Spear that was severed into two told him that much.
Kawin took a good look at the man in front of him. Given the ability this man had, he wouldn't be a nobody. Although Kawin didn't make an appearance in the open, he had information regarding all the famous players.
"Silver armor and silver hair... Although you don't wield a sword, am I right to assume that you're the Silver Knight Shueria of the Royal Armament Guild?"
"Yes, I'm Shueria. But no, I'm no longer a member of the Royal Armament Guild. I'm now a guildless player."
Kawin seemed to understand something. "So, you're seeking revenge, aren't you? You're a friend of Cross so Sila is your enemy."
"Something like that."
"Do you want to kill him with your own hands?"
Without saying anything more, Shueria walked over to the unconscious Sila and placed his hand onto Sila's forehand.
Kawin could tell that he missed something important but he didn't know what it was. He wasn't aware that Shueria had quit the guild even before the guild collapsed since Cross had kept this information a secret from the public. He thought that Shueria was angry with Sila who was the cause of his guild's predicament.
A tremendous amount of Recovering Qi enveloped Sila's body and tended to all his wounds. The hole in Sila's chest was closed, the bleeding was stopped, and his body began to regain its vitality.
Afterward, Shueria removed his hand away. Sila's stable breathing told him that Sila was already free of danger. Meanwhile, Shueria's heart beat slightly while Sila's right hand did the same.
'Hmm... So he has the Right Arm of the Seal One,' thought Shueria.
"Recovering Qi? You can use qi despite being a psychic-type? How come?" Kawin was doubtful.
"The same method Zero used," curtly replied Shueria as he turned to face off against Kawin, Paiyuan, and the disciples of the Heartless Steel Sword dojo.
Kawin felt relieved. Although he still didn't know the reason why Shueria tended to Sila's wounds, he guessed that Shueria must want to defeat Sila with his own hands. Since Shueria was the enemy of Sila, it could be said that he was an ally of Kawin.
A skilled player who could use dual energy types was someone the Heavenly Dragon Guild would gladly welcome with opened arms.
The method for wielding two types of energy was known only by Zero. As long as Zero kept his mouth shut, no one would know how he could do it. It was for this exact reason that the Heavenly Dragon Guild and its allies were trying to find Zero. However, Zero was nowhere to be found, and instead the person they found was Sila, who was wearing the same outfit.
If Shueria knew the method, then there was no longer any reason for them to look for Zero. Kawin was glad that the opportunity to recruit Shueria to the guild had come.
"Mister Shueria, are you interested in joining our guild?"
Ever since Shueria had trained under Crow, he had became a quiet person. He stood there without replying so Paiyuan perceived that Shueria was currently considering the proposal.
"Young man, there isn't anything that you need to worry about. Be it influence, wealth, or reputation, the Heavenly Dragon Guild can give you three times what the Royal Armament Guild used to give you."
A smile formed at the corner of Shueria's mouth. Witnessing that smile, everyone was glad that Shueria would join their guild. However, the next sentence of Shueria shattered their delighted expressions.
"Do you really think I will serve the person who destroyed the guild I founded?"
Paiyuan hurriedly explained, "It was natural that the Royal Armament Guild came to an end as Cross was weak. However, if you trace the cause, you will know that Sila is the start of it."
"That's weird. In the forums, there are many threads claiming that the collapse of the Royal Armament Guild was the work of the Heavenly Dragon Guild while Sila was merely a trickster who claimed it to be his work. With or without Sila, the evil Royal Armament Guild would end up being destroyed by the Heavenly Dragon Guild anyway. Sounds like propaganda, don't you agree?"
Paiyuan lost in an argument so he kept his mouth shut.
Kawin was vigilant. "So, what exactly are you planning to do? Are you Sila's enemy? Or ours?"
Shueria slowly declared, "Both the Heavenly Dragon Guild and Sila are my enemies."
This statement brought confusion to all the people present. In the time where the war event was approaching, was Shueria really planning to become an enemy of both sides?
Pointing his finger at the unconscious Sila, Kawin said, "Didn't you just help Sila a moment ago? Why did you help your so-called enemy?"
"I just protected what's precious to me," indifferently said Shueria.
Only by experiencing the situation yourself could you understand someone's feelings toward that situation. Kawin had heard Montra talking about Sila for a while but never did he understand Montra's feelings until this exact moment. Finally, he could comprehend why Montra hated Sila.
People always chose to stand at Sila's side despite Sila doing nothing to deserve it. For the person who was trying his best to achieve his goal like Montra, Sila's existence was something he couldn't accept. Otherwise, everything that he had done would account for nothing.
He felt resentful in Montra's place.
"You protected him despite him being your enemy?"
Shueria slowly shook his head. "You misunderstand. I didn't protect Sila. What I did was protecting my way of life - protecting the thing I believe in."
"What is it?"
"My pride. Even though Sila is my enemy, I will not act against a defeated opponent. There will surely be the day where I clash with him. But, I will only accept it if he is the most prepared and ready to fight against me. It's the only way to confirm that I can gain victory over him."
Pride. This word was a double-edged sword for Shueria as he held this word dearer than anyone else.
When he first entered Monster Soul, he had received help from Cross so he had promised Cross that he would help Cross in founding and joining the guild.
Even if the guild they created turned to be far worse than what Shueria had imagined, he turned a blind eye to it as he thought he was obligated to the promise he had given to Cross.
However, after he had lost to Sila and had time to rethink about it during his training days, he came to the answer.
Wasn't stubbornly and blindly following Cross's orders because he didn't want to break the promise what truly damaged his pride?
The thing that he should hold in highest regard wasn't the guild, wasn't Cross, wasn't the promise, but he himself.
That was Shueria's meaning of the word 'pride': To stick to what he believes in.
Naturally, what you believe greatly affects your growth. After Shueria cut the unnecessary ties that had shackled him, his ability had leaped to a new realm. He wasn't in need of weapons anymore as he possessed strength that far surpassed them.
Kawin clad himself with magic power. He was confident that he could win in any battle regardless of who his opponent was.
"You're too dangerous. If you plan to become the enemy of the Heavenly Dragon Guild, I will have to defeat you right here."
Shueria transmuted an energy blade from the tips of all five of his fingers combined, one on each hand. "It's naturally fine to stand up for what you believe in. Do you all intend to come at me together?"
Kawin felt like he was being humiliated. However, he regained his composure once he adjusted his breathing.
As for Paiyuan, he had completely healed after taking a pellet. He was the owner of a martial art dojo but now he was being looked down by people of the younger generation. Thus, he waved his finger as a signal, ordering his disciples to charge at Shueria in unison. As for himself, he took half a step back, concentrated his power into his sword, and waited for a slight gap to kill his opponent in one move.
Shueria was expressionless. Many people couldn't understand the reason why Shueria chose to cover his eyes with a blindfold. However, if psychic experts like Divine or the One-Eyed Evil God were presented, they wouldn't rashly charge at such person with a blindfold, as they knew fully well that Shueria was likely to possess Psychic Eyes, the high-tier psychic skill, which only a handful of people have.
Psychic Eyes was birthed from training one's mind to the utmost limit where one could use psychic power in place of the eyes.
The psychic power that was polished to the point where it could replace one or more of the five senses was undoubtedly terrifying and allowed the user to know the opponents' movement like they were dancing in their palm.
For someone who could reach this level, aside from independent NPCs like the One-Eyed Evil God and Divine, there were only Shueria, Nednapha, and the present Burapha. To master this skill, they had to close off their eyes to familiarize themselves with sense their surroundings using psychic power.
Even Nednapha was training this skill by closing only one of her eyes. As for Burapha, although he closed both of his eyes, he only did that in training sessions. Meanwhile, Shueria chose to close them off all the time to accelerate the speed of the skill's growth. It was evident that Shueria planned to overcome his limit and enter the realm of those independent NPCs as soon as possible. This kind of determination wasn't something that ordinary players possessed.
The energy blade on his left hand was infused with qi while the one on the right was infused with psychic power. Both of them must display the exact same level of strength. It was something that Shueria had spent a month to put into practice.
"Rhythm of the Dignified Blades." At the end of Shueria's statement, power surged from within his body. The energy power reinforcement covering his body was both mighty and sharp. Tree leaves fluttering from the wind and even nearby pebbles were cut into pieces.
Shueria lifted his arms up and quickly did a double slash downward.
In the blink of an eye, all the disciples of the Heartless Sword dojo were cut down and died without realizing they had died. Blood rained down before disappearing once three seconds passed.
"Ouch." As for Paiyuan, he was in the rear so he could resist Shueria's move in time. However, even with that, his left wrist was severed and the sword in his right hand was neatly cut into half.
Several small injuries appeared on both arms of Shueria, dyeing his white arms red with blood. Nevertheless, in the next moment, they were all healed at tremendous speed with the help of Recovering Qi.
'I still don't have complete control over Rhythm of the Dignified Blades so the backlash of the attack also affects me. It seems I won't be able to use it in succession until I master it.' Shueria thought that his training was still lacking.
The only survivors belonging to the Heavenly Dragon Guild and its allies were the gravely injured Paiyuan and Kawin who was out of Shueria's attack range.
Kawin stared at Shueria in disbelief. Rhythms were the upgraded versions of cladding one's entire body with energy power. In Monster Soul, except for the independent NPCs, Kawin always thought that only him, Montra, and Revin were able to obtain this level of skill. It was the reason that Kawin had firmly believed that his Heavenly Dragon Guild was superior to everyone.
Rhythms vary in name and ability for each user. It was a skill that clad the user's body in their specific energy type. What makes it different from the usual energy power reinforcement is that a particular aspect of a user's combat style is enhanced. The aspect chosen was decided by the kind of person they were and the ability they possessed. You could say that Rhythm was the level of skill attained when the user had a complete understanding of their own personality and ability.
An ordinary level of power wouldn't be able to keep up with Shueria's Rhythm of the Dignified Blades. Although Kawin didn't know what ability it granted to Shueria in detail, based on what happened, he could guess that it was a Rhythm to strengthen Shueria's attack power.
"Rhythm of the Metal Fortress." The color of Kawin's body turned the color of metal. All of his magic power was concentrated in his body without dispersing.
Narrowing the distance by charging at Kawin, Shueria swung the blades covering his hands from above to the opponent.
Kawin calmly blocked each swing Shueria threw at him. The sound of metal grating against metal resonated even though both people didn't wield any weapons.
Every time the blade was blocked, Kawin would perform a counterattack against Shueria. However, Shueria was equally calm and managed to block every fist he threw.
It had become a battle of attrition and concentration. The one who made the first mistake would fall into a disadvantageous position.
Fully aware that he could only maintain Rhythm of the Metal Fortress for at most twenty minutes, Kawin realized that he was in a race against the clock. On the other hand, Shueria seemed to be able to keep displaying this level of strength as if his energy capacity was bottomless despite the consumption being, without a doubt, very high.
It was all thanks to the Heart of the Sealed One that Shueria owned. Although it didn't possess a fraudulent ability like the left arm or versatility like the right arm, the heart stayed true to the principle of qi, which was simple, yet powerful.
At first, the Heart of the Sealed One had increased Shueria's qi, magic power, and psychic power by two times. After that, once Shueria finished the Search for the Lost Qi Kingdom quest, which he could accomplish with the help of information he obtained from the Blue Pigeon Guild, his energy recovery rate had become five times that of normal players.
Despite the heart's shortcomings of preventing him from changing his race and forbidding him from equipping cards, he was glad.
Thus, he had sought Cloudy Tiger Qi which was the combination of Qi of Little Tiger and Qi of Little Bird. Its prominent point was the powerful might it can display with the downside of its consumption being very high. Nevertheless, with the heart, the current Shueria could display his maximum power for two hours straight without taking a break.
Regardless of how many times Kawin had countered Shueria with a powerful blow, instead of evading, Shueria would directly counter it back using the same level of power. It was a wasteful, yet effective strategy for exhausting Kawin.
Gritting his teeth, Kawin started to activate a spell he hadn't thought he would have to resort to. He was always confident in his Six Moon-Grabbing-Claws so he tended to not use in-game skills if it was a one-on-one battle.
"Earth Splitting." His foot stomped heavily on the ground, cleaving the land into two. His goal was to bury Shueria into the ground.
Unfortunately, Shueria fell down into the pit only for a brief moment before he utilizing Psychic Impact to push himself up in the air. Then, he leaped toward Sila before Sila's body fell into the pit and quickly made his way out without looking back.
Once Shueria's body disappeared from his sight, Kawin's metal arm guards broke as he deactivated Rhythm of the Metal Fortress. He felt pain all over his body, especially his arms which he used to defend against Shueria's blades.
'Such frightening attacks. It's unexpected that they could penetrate through my strongest defense.' Kawin tapped his foot on the ground to close the pitfall.
Looking at the direction where Shueria headed off, Kawin felt concerned for Montra that such a formidable enemy had appeared. Based on his estimation, the current Shueria was even stronger than Lone Wolf.