Chapter 547: Myth Rank

Translator: imperfectluck  Editor: Kurisu

The corridor I walked in was pitch-black, yet the darkness was unable to impede my senses. While I didn’t have night vision like longer-lived species would, I had excellent senses and a tremendous amount of combat experience. I was capable of remembering every detail of the surrounding environment even with my eyes closed. It was quite simple for me to dodge these robots’ predictable attacks.

I just kept swinging my war hammer with great force, shattering hundreds of robots into scrap metal like it was nothing.

For any experienced warrior, they would only have to rely on their instincts when fighting enemies much lower in level than themselves. As for me, since I didn’t even have to dodge any attacks due to my ridiculous dragon armor, I was too lazy to even follow my instincts to dodge attacks.

Barton’s assault team had already been through this way to clear out at least a portion of the robots. The remaining strongest robots had probably all gone down to the lower levels to reinforce the Sky Tower Spirit. As I kept going down, I didn’t see a single robot that was even remotely strong.

“This level of enemies isn’t even enough for me to warm up…”

I had contacted Timlad already. Although it was quite noisy on his end, making it difficult to hear him clearly, I could hear him howling pitifully, “Boss Roland, please come save me! I can’t take this anymore!” I could tell from this that… he could probably survive for a while longer!

“If he really couldn’t handle things anymore, he wouldn’t even be able to call for help.”

“Yep.”

“It sounds like he still has plenty of energy. I wonder what else he still has up his sleeve?”

I, Harloys, and Amelia were all veterans. Of course we would notice that Timlad’s call for help lacked the tension and fear of his life truly being threatened.

And even if we rushed down at top speed, it would still take a while to go down so many levels.

The mechanical elevator that the adventuring team had used was now broken by the robots. Even with Timlad guiding our way and the remaining robot defenses being so poor, it would take a significant amount of time for us to travel down a few hundred levels.

“369, 370…”

I was even casually counting the number of robots I had crushed for fun.

Looking at the large pile of scrap metal behind me, I suspected that this number wouldn’t even reach one thousand by the time I reached the bottom level.

Most of the robot defenses weren’t even military-purpose robots to begin with. Many of the robots were actually janitors or maintenance workers. Such a defense system was so easy for me to deal with that I wanted to yawn.

How did I know that these weren’t military purpose robots? When a six-handed robot rushed over to attack me while wielding a broom, dustpan, mop, and cleaning rag… or when a spray gun suddenly sprang out of the ground and shot a trickle of water at me while playing strange music as if it was warning people to avoid the water, it was clear.

And, some of these robots were so strange and wondrous that I really wanted to laugh.

A teddy bear robot with a strange baby sticker, singing a lullaby? Was this robot really the right type to be attacking me? What about that robot riding a unicycle? That seemed more fit for a circus than to fight against me.

The one that spat out sparks and flames from its arms might have seemed scary, but did they really think that I had never seen a welding gun before?

I felt rather helpless facing such opponents. In fact, I even felt like shouting: “Please be more serious, this is a battle!”

After using my war hammer for a while, I decided to put it away. I was instead using a sword of ice that I had summoned. Although this sword wouldn’t be anywhere close in power to Harloys’ transformed Ice Calamity magic sword, this normal sword of ice would be more than sufficient to deal with such low-level robot opponents.

Not only did I feel it was a waste to use my God Equipment war hammer to deal with such opponents, I felt like it would even be on the level of desecration.

“Someone like you would value his weapons so much? Did you really think that we forgot about how you used the Roland Sacred Sword to open up walnuts back in the day? And, why did you waste mana to freeze those teddy bear and cleaning robots instead of destroying them? I think that you switched weapons in order to preserve the robots rather than to destroy them.”

“…I want to research them to see if they can be mass produced. And even if there’s no market for them, I can give them away as presents to someone.”

“Presents to whom!”

“Presents to whom?”

Harloys and Amelia asked me the same question simultaneously, which I found rather surprising. I also had no idea why both of them seemed to be glaring at me. Still, I felt no guilt about doing anything wrong by them, as there was nothing I needed to be secretive about here.

“Of course, to Reyne and Annie. Little girls like them probably love stuffed toys, right? Annie was so happy for several days back when I gave her a skeleton doll so long ago…”

“He’s so suicidal.”

“I give him 100 points for being suicidal!”

I had already gotten accustomed to ignoring strange comments about me that I couldn’t understand, so I simply continued with telling them my intentions.

“…Actually, I do feel a little guilty about disappearing for so long without saying anything to them and leaving them with so many responsibilities. And since they’re all my juniors, I should also give a gift to Glina. But, she seems quite mature, so I doubt she would like something like a teddy bear. I think I should instead give her a respectable robot. The technology here is clearly far more advanced than the goblins and gnomes’ junk. Since Glina’s also an engineer, she should be happy with receiving a robot.”

“I’m rather curious to see what expression Reyne will have when she receives a teddy bear while Glina receives an actual normal present.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll see very soon, probably sooner than you think.”

As we chatted while moving down levels, I got accustomed to my now restored physical body through battle. In order to achieve the next power level, it would be highly important to have excellent synchronization between the physical body and the soul.

“You’re intending on going for Myth rank already? You’re not going to stay at Saint rank some longer?”

I didn’t even try to conceal my desire for strength and a greater power level. In fact, I had already started preparing for the next rank up.

Harloys and Amelia were also top-level in this world, so they knew this as well.

“Yep, there’s not much time left. And, Myth rank is quite special, so something like experience or whatever is completely meaningless for me in achieving Myth rank.”

“Then, how many are you intending on?”

Amelia asked me a question without referring to anything in particular. However, I instantly understood—she was referring to how many Concepts I was going to have as a Myth rank!

“Heehee, take a guess.”

Although it sounded like I was making her guess a riddle, to be honest, even I didn’t know how many Concepts I would be able to have as a Myth rank. This was because I had learned far too many things over the years, giving me far too many choices.

For ordinary people, Myth rank would seem like a glorious and inconceivable realm. But for people like us, Myth rank was nothing more than a step on the way to SemiGod rank. A powerful individual had once summarized how special the Myth rank was with a quote.

“Before SemiGod rank, there’s always a path to take. Myth rank means that you’ve reached the end of your path. This level is the total summation of your and your entire species’ experience. Once you surpass this level and achieve SemiGod, there’s no more paths to take.”

When mentioning Myth rank, the most common were probably Myth rank weapons rather than individuals. And, the majority of Myth-ranked weapons were indeed left behind by Myth-ranked individuals. This was a complex relationship that would first require an explanation of how special Myth rank was in its method of achieving breakthrough.

Humans’ classification of power levels separated each level into how much potential each individual had managed to develop in themselves. Those with higher power levels might not always necessarily be stronger than those with lower power levels. However, those with higher power levels would definitely have traveled farther down their path.

The pure energy level of an individual would basically be maxed out already at the peak of Legend rank. A powerful Legend-ranked mage would be able to use forbidden spells already—the best evidence of this. Meanwhile, Saint rank was more about an improvement in one’s specialties, where individuals obtained their personal Concepts, which were similar to smaller versions of Divine Concepts.

Since Saint rank was about entering the divine, this meant that the physical body’s potential had already been developed completely. The pure energy and will within the physical body would be capable of interfering with the world. In fact, Saint-ranked individuals would even be able to break natural laws, something the ordinary people could never achieve. But, unless one chose to ascend to Godhood, it would be almost impossible to progress past Saint rank.

Meanwhile, Myth rank would represent the next, almost inconceivable breakthrough past Saint rank which was already considered near perfection.

“Since the physical body can’t be developed any further, then let’s seek outside assistance.”

It was unknown who’d first thought of such a method to power up even further. It was also unknown if this was truly even the most effective path, but countless intelligent life forms had already proven that this path was indeed possible.

Achieving all the ranks before Myth rank would be all about personal accumulation and experience. As long as you slowly leveled up, and as long as you were talented enough and lived for long enough, it would be possible to enter the realm of Saint rank. But, starting from Myth rank, one would have to fight against the heavens, against others, and against their own self. A forceful breakthrough would be required. Not making any progress here would mean eventual regression.

The Myth rank was well known for its Three Heavy Doors, each representing a required breakthrough. These were also the three steps required for creating one’s personal Myth-ranked weapon.

The first step, or the first door, was to continue improving one’s personal Concept, transforming it from something ethereal into a concrete existence. At this step, one was still working on improving the physical body.

For instance, to use Adam as an example, when he was at this level, he improved his personal Concept of “Phoenix Fire” into “Undying and Indestructible.” From then onwards, he would be the same as the legendary phoenix. It would be impossible for his physical body to die unless his flames were quenched.

The second step was to bring one’s personal Concept outside of one’s own body, transforming it into something concrete.

It would always be incredibly difficult to create something from nothing. This process of “creating a personal Myth-ranked weapon” would typically require “outside resources” to be used in the weapon’s creation.

This outside resource could be an already existing normal weapon, or a modified part of one’s own body, or even part of the surrounding environment. Or, it could be a certain magical spell or a Soul World. It was quite difficult to classify all the different possibilities.

To continue using Adam as an example, this was the level at which he completed the inheritance of the phoenix and obtained the phoenix’s blood and heart, which he then used to create his Phoenix Fire swords “Phoenix’s Guidance” and “Heart of the Phoenix.”

At the third and final level or door would be the synchronization between the physical body and the Myth-ranked weapon.

These weapons were always injected with the wielder’s personal Concept and soul. As long as the weapon became a part of your physical body, this meant your body could begin on a path of expanding its power potential outside of the physical body. From then onwards, one would be able to completely leave the realm of mortals, with no limit and no obstacles. There would only be endless potential with zero restrictions.

Did this seem like nothing much would be required? Actually, this was the level with the highest death rate.

This seemingly simple task would always be by far the most difficult. This third and final door was the most difficult level that the Myth-ranked individuals in all dimensions would always get stuck on or fail and perish.

If one’s physical body or soul was incomplete, it would be impossible to reach a true synchronization between body and weapon. That would leave you forever stuck behind this door… Since the undead didn’t have living physical bodies or complete souls anymore, this power level was by far the one where most high-level undead would forever be stuck at. It was to the point where the undead could cry and complain about discrimination against the undead.

If one’s personal Concept was too weak, or if the resources used for the weapon weren’t strong enough, the Myth-ranked weapon created would either directly break down, or barely be usable but be too weak to host one’s soul and future path. That would also mean being stuck behind the third door… this was the most common reason for failure at over 70%. But, one didn’t need to worry, because you could still succeed if you started all over again. You would just have to start from the very beginning, searching for a new personal Concept… and you might be able to try breaking past the third door again thirty years later.

If the Concept or weapon resource was too powerful, the weapon created would be ridiculously strong, leaving you stuck behind the door or maybe you would even die… Why, you ask? If the physical body couldn’t handle the weapon’s power, then the individual would become controlled by the weapon, or become a vessel for the weapon’s soul, or the physical body would be ruined, or the mind would completely shatter, or you would simply die.

The Three Heavy Doors of Myth rank. Each door was more difficult to pass through than the previous. The final door was cursed at endlessly by innumerable Myth-ranked powerful individuals throughout the ages. But, as long as you broke past the third door, not only would there be boundless potential waiting for you at SemiGod rank, you would also finally obtain your personal powerful weapon customized and imbued with your own personal Concept. Whenever a Myth-ranked weapon was created and wielded by its original owner, such a weapon would sometimes even surpass God Equipment in certain areas. It was a definite that one’s combat strength would explosively increase.

Margaret’s two Myth-ranked “weapons” were the “Spell Codex”, which allowed her to replicate any magic spell that she witnessed, and the “Philosopher’s Stone”, which was an almost limitless mana reserve just for her.

Just one item alone would have still been alright to deal with, but those two items combined were bug-like in ability.

Margaret was capable of copying enemies’ forbidden spells and casting them as she pleased. In any direct magical confrontation, she would always be able to cast two spells at once, her own spell and the copied spell. When combined with her almost limitless mana reserves, Margaret alone was on par with an entire group of archmages in any long-range magical battle. This was such an incredibly shameless ability.

Rather than calling the created Myth-ranked weapons weapons 1 , they were more like extensions of the Myth-ranked individual’s physical body. And if that individual died, the Myth-ranked weapon left behind would be that person’s inheritance.

Of course, without the support of the original soul and physical body, the weapon’s power would be greatly reduced. Still, it would be a better-than-average weapon with some special effects.

One couldn’t be too weak or too strong to pass the final door of Myth rank. You had to be at just the right power level… Trying to forcefully go past Myth rank would be suicidal. Only taking things cautiously with experience and repeated attempts would be the only method to succeed and reach SemiGod.

But as for me, I had long since prepared my personal path for breaking through. In fact, I had more than ten Concepts at my disposal capable of becoming my personal Concepts. However, taking the final step still wouldn’t be so easy.

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