D.I.O

The situation changed drastically.

Beaten back by the tremendous wave of heat without being able to put up much of a defense, Alexander’s metallic body glowed hot red as it was sent flying. Meanwhile, Arc, who had been stunned for a moment after casting her ultimate magic spell, raised her body and blocked the enemy faction’s path.

The pirates of Basara, who had suffered a considerable blow, were taken aback. However, they weren’t shocked due to sensing danger or feeling fearful but rather by the absurdity of the situation.

“I’ve never heard of a case where a six-tailed fox turned straight into a nine-tailed fox…”

“Besides that, who is that girl? Could it be that she was sealing her own powers and memories?”

“Two transcendents appearing out of nowhere…”

Likewise, Sadness—who had been hit hard and pushed back—looked at Miho and Arc with a strange expression, but unlike Basara’s pirates, she didn’t say anything.

Instead, she moved.

Bang!

When Sadness’ fist flew out like a beam of light and collided against Arc’s fist, a formidable shockwave spread out from the clash. Sadness obtained a lot of information from that one blow.

‘I’m still stronger.’

Sadness currently possessed spiritual power that was beyond her normal capacity as she was equipped with Caesar’s spiritual abyss armament and the Hatred dwelling in it. In terms of level, she was currently a transcendent being at around Level 25.

Arc was at the pseudo-transcendental realm, but after utilizing a mysterious type of skill, her level was just able to pass the transcendental realm cutline of Level 20. If she were determined and driven to do so, she would be able to kill anything within a ten-kilometer radius with the current level of power that she possessed…

Bam!

At that very moment, Sadness’ temple caved in, and her neck snapped with a blood-curdling sound. She had a huge stature, gray skin, and a very attractive physical figure, but her body was now disfigured with a huge palm print stamped on her right side.

“You…”

“The darkness dwells and the light burns…”

Sadness was about to say something, but Arc rushed toward her while muttering a spell chant. The fists of the two beings collided once more, and yet another shockwave occurred.

Merlin had taken a step back from the action after landing a blow on Sadness, but a thought suddenly popped into his mind while he was recovering his magic power and internal energy.

‘Something… Something has changed. What is it?’

When he used Irrational Hand Strike on Sadness, he’d felt a subtle sense of something foreign covering his entire body. It wasn’t harming him though. Rather, Merlin felt something huge and unknown trying to [correct] him. The feeling was unfamiliar and foreign, and his senses couldn’t grasp the identity of the foreign force.

‘Thoughts and ideas… Things are starting to pop into my mind.’

Those thoughts were exceedingly useful.

Amid the fierce battle, Merlin groaned, “Oh, my god.”

He suddenly realized what the final piece of the puzzle was that he needed to complete his Unified Soul Catcher production process.

Unified Soul Catcher was the name of the project that Merlin had been researching and pursuing desperately to counteract Tan and the Noblesse’s eventual invasion of Earth. The Unified Soul Catcher was a new technology that, once complete, would become a considerable roadblock for all aliens who planned on invading Earth!

However, even as he started the project, Merlin had known Tan would appear and interfere before the project could be completed. All Merlin had was the idea and overall framework; he was still missing several core technologies.

If he were unlucky, the project could have taken a long period of time to complete, ranging from several months to several years or even decades! What made it more difficult for Merlin was his inability to conduct research, especially on a single topic, for a long period of time.

‘Yeah, I probably wouldn’t have been able to complete the project if it had gone on for several years.’

Rather, there might have been a greater possibility to garner results if Arthur had learned magic and led the research. This was because large-scale research required [perseverance], instead of momentary realizations and epiphanies. One had to endure long grueling periods of research and conduct numerous experiments, so there was no way that Merlin, who was naturally unsuited for prolonged and sustained efforts, could do such [uninteresting] work for several years.

Yet, at this moment… the entire process was shortened, and a perfect foundation was laid all thanks to a sudden thought.

That wasn’t all.

Crack.

The internal energy of the Golden Pill Immortal Technique in his left hand met with the magic power of the Seven Jewel School in his right hand. The two spiritual powers repelled and amplified before crystallizing. The crystallized product was a combination of Force, Essence, and Ether. It was an instantaneous production ability that was made possible because Merlin had acquired the basic mana control ability—one of the three abilities a being needed in order to enter the transcendent realm. However, Merlin had gone one step further.

Whoosh…

The crystallized magic stone in Merlin’s hand stabilized. Since the magic stone was the product of instantly solidified magic power, it should have been something that naturally dispersed over time, but the magic stone had become a physical jewel as if it had been hardened over a long period of time.

Even its power had been strengthened; this new magic stone was able to output five times more energy than its predecessor.

‘This is crazy. I can store magic stones that are created in an instant…?’

Internally, Merlin couldn’t help but sigh. He realized that if he’d had this ability previously, the result of his battle with Tan would have turned out very differently. If Merlin collected hundreds of these magic stones in advance and poured them out in his attacks, even a transcendent would have a difficult time facing off against him.

No, if Merlin had created his Unified Soul Catcher in the first place, Tan wouldn’t have been able to invade Earth.

Rumble!

A lightning bolt struck Sadness, who was launching attacks at Arc. Merlin had cast a Howling Spell—Lightning Blade of Zeus, which was the most powerful spell he had in his arsenal to contend against a single target.

‘The Unified Soul Catcher is now obsolete. Even though I now understand the full production process, it’s a job that requires a considerable amount of manpower and time… two luxuries I don’t have.’

Merlin organized his thoughts while producing a magic stone to cast another Howling Spell. The enemy was strong, and the ongoing battle was fierce.

‘But still… this is crazy. There are more thoughts and realizations constantly popping into my mind… Oh, man! I can use my Jeweled Eye and Gold Eye in that way as well!’

Ideas sprung into his mind non-stop. Inspiration and epiphanies were appearing like successive flashes without a break!

Moreover, it wasn’t just Merlin who was experiencing such a phenomenon.

“Wow, no way.” Jeros opened his eyes wide as he looked at the ball of flame in his right hand. “Wait, am I finally going to succeed? At such a time?”

“Hey! Stop muttering and fight! These guys are too strong!!”

“Ah, right! Fireball!”

Jeros waved his hand, and a ball of flame slowly flew out from his hand. Having been pushed back onto the ground due to the dragon-headed Basara’s attack, Hanma was flabbergasted after seeing Jeros’ spell.

Hamna said, “Man, how long are you planning to use that weak fireball spell…”

Jeros added, “Final.”

The orb of flame, which initially moved slowly, accelerated rapidly. The dwarf Basara girl fired her magic bullets with full confidence that her bullets would naturally intercept Jeros’ fireball and block it. However, Jeros’ fireball exploded after coming into contact with her bullets and continued to accelerate toward its target.

Bang!

The Basara pirates’ formation started to unravel as the fireball made its way to the middle of the pirates and exploded one last time. The overall power level of the fireball was moderate, but the fireball's success in reaching its intended target meant that Jeros was able to effectively attack an opponent who was clearly at a higher level than him.

Using the gap created by Jeros’ fireball, the other Masters started launching their own attacks.

“Body, Sword, Flame. Human Gate (Sixth Gate), Open,” Ilyia said.

Her body burned red. She had opened her inner microcosm, and her body itself became an attribute. This sort of change would have been impossible if she were an internal energy or magic power user. Nevertheless, since she was a chakra user who could open her own inner microcosm and create a set of overarching laws for that mini world, this complete change of her being and essence was possible.

‘Hmm. I’m taking a gamble…’

Ilyia’s body, which had transformed into a single ball of flame, flew into the center of Basara’s formation.

Her chakra power undulated chaotically and violently. This was the first time she had opened three elements at the same time, but what made this feat even more astonishing was that she had opened her Human Gate—the primary element for a chakra user.

‘…But I don’t think I’ll fail.’

While she thought this, her attempt proved to be a success.

“Flaming Heaven Sword.”

The flames emitted by Jeros’ fireball merged with her chakra to form a flaming sword. The Flaming Heaven Sword—which Ilyia seemed to have formed by melting her whole body into the shape of a sword—was at a level that even the pirates of Basara, who presented a considerable collective fighting power, couldn’t dare ignore.

[Stop it!]

Upon hearing the words of the fish floating in the air, the other Masters gave out responses.

“We won’t let you! No way!”

“Ohm (Ω)!”

Hanma’s body, which was essentially no different from a locomotive, struck the pirates’ outer formation. Hanma used Divine Hundred Steps, which allowed him to concentrate all his strength in an instant, and flew toward the whale-headed man, who was located at the center of the pirates and acted as the core of their formation.

Of course, there was no way that Shen—the whale-headed man who had been born as an Irregular like Arthur, Merlin, and Cruze and had traveled throughout the universe for the past three hundred years—would succumb to such a blunt brute-force attack.

Crack!

“Ugh!”

Aung Nina’s head was shattered. The reason was that Shen had deflected and modified the direction of Hanma’s Divine Hundred Steps attack to shoot toward Aung Nina instead.

Feeling that something wasn’t right, Shen sought to reduce the number of Masters as soon as the opportunities presented themselves.

Bam!

However, Cruze’s bullet punched a hole in Shen’s chest right at that moment. Chan, the elf swordsman, had been standing in front of Shen as a sword shield, but Chan’s sword shield strangely had no effect on Cruze’s bullet. Meanwhile, Ilyia, who had turned herself into a flaming sword, dug in through the momentary gap in the Basara members’ defense that the commotion had created.

Bang!

Dozens of defensive barriers, with walls that reached high into the air, were blown away by a powerful, concentrated wave of heat. The eyes of the floating fish, who was protecting the Basara pirate formation from the rear, widened.

Suddenly, Leaf appeared right in front of the floating fish.

“Ah… I get it now. This is what a teleportation coordinate is.”

[S-Shoot…]

“No!”

The Basara pirates were horrified at Leaf’s sudden appearance inside the boundary of their formation, so they tried to move and counterattack.

Yet, before they could do so, a white orb rose from Leaf’s hand. It was the Kunlun Jade.

A burst of light exploded outward, and the body of the floating fish-shaped alien was instantly erased from the world. Only a single translucent tail fin remained, possibly because of the fish’s origins being closer to a spiritual creature than a physical being.

Poof.

Shen gritted his teeth as he watched Leaf use teleportation. Although he knew Leaf had moved behind him, he was momentarily disabled due to the bullet lodged in his heart and could do nothing about it.

“Ack… Ack…” Cruze laughed aloud while gasping for air.

She had used a large amount of her aura power to launch the bullet attack and become exhausted.

Cruze asked, “Have you ever heard of a variable probability bullet? Well, have you, whale-head?”

“You…!” Shen’s white face contorted into an ugly frown.

It seemed that Shen’s pride was hurt by the fact that he had been hit by someone he looked down on.

The attacks weren’t over though.

Bang!

“Ack!? You?”

“It took a while to come back because I was blown so far away.”

Bruce Wayne’s dark magic sword was surrounded by black air currents and flames. Chan’s expression distorted when he saw that Bruce Wayne was deploying a completely different operating method now.

“What is up with these guys?! Did they all take drugs or something?!”

The Basara pirates couldn’t hide their astonishment at the Masters’ sudden show of force and increased levels of power. In terms of overall power, the pirates were still at an advantage, but the battle atmosphere had completely changed. The more concerning point was that the Masters’ capabilities and powers were [growing]—with such explosive growth at that!

Despite that, there was one person in the party who didn’t seem to be affected by the [correction].

“Huh? I… I feel like something is tickling me…” Lancelot said.

He looked at his party members, who were all flinging themselves across the battlefield and having a grand time, before looking internally to confirm his condition. Nothing had changed. He felt as though something was trying to appear in his mind, but that was all. Lancelot wasn’t endowed with a sudden epiphany or an increase in power like the rest of his colleagues.

“What’s going on?”

Lancelot closed his eyes and checked his body condition for a while before turning on his user status window. It had been quite a while since he had viewed his status window. After all, what mattered to him was never his stats, titles, or occupations but his capabilities.

“My title, occupation, and level are the same… Hmm? Current Condition is reading…”

Lancelot narrowed his eyes at the words [‘Gaia’s Blessing’] in his status window. He tried to turn on the detailed description function, but the description was just written as ‘???’, so he couldn’t figure out what the blessing was.

Nevertheless, Lancelot was able to quickly discover an abnormality after seeing his stats.

Overall, a clear anomaly could be seen among the stat areas where he had 400 points.

“Hey, what is this?”

DIO’s stat system started at 20 points for every beginner user, and an explosive amplification of power occurred for the user at every 100-point threshold. Of course, the higher the point total in any category, the more difficult it became for a user to develop further in that stat area. Additionally, it took an exponential amount of bonus points to increase stat areas once a user reached higher stat point totals.

Because of this, the average stat in any category was usually less than 300 points even if one reached the Master realm.

Theoretically, if a user put all of their bonus points into one stat category, they would be able to reach 400 stat points by the time they reached the Master realm. However, such an extreme stat distribution would eventually lead to self-destruction, so it was better to divide stat points evenly.

The important thing to keep in mind here was that the maximum number of stat points was 999 for any single category. This system maximum was widely known in Dynamic Island, so there was no doubting it.

“But…”

Boom! Bam!

Forgetting for a moment that he was standing in the middle of a fierce battlefield, Lancelot stared blankly at his last stat category.

“My luck stat is…?”

There, it was written…

/Luck: 1,000 (???)/