Chapter 169
Chapter 169
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 169
Chapter Title: Racial Grand Alliance (1)
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[You have received the Silver Lion Set from Human Emperor Kaisman.]
Right there on the spot, the emperor bestowed master-level gear upon Rokan.
The Silver Lion Set—a mid-to-high-tier item among master-level equipment. It was the exact same set item worn by the emperor's imperial guards.
‘As expected.’
It would have been perfect if, like the Red Crusader bounty mission, he could have chosen the options too, but this alone was more than excellent enough.
Though it would be hard to assemble a perfect full set due to the sealed Lion King's regalia, the combined set effect from the pants, pauldrons, boots, cape, and even the ring item—the Silver Lion Signet—for a total of five pieces was truly tremendous.
[The Silver Lion 5-piece set effect activates.]
[All stats increase by 50.]
[All elemental resistances increase by 30%.]
[Movement speed and attack speed each increase by 20%.]
[You can now use the special skill ‘Silver Lion's Radiance.’]
Increases to stats, resistances, movement speed, and attack speed. It was an all-around boost without equal.
On top of that, the special skill Silver Lion's Radiance was a legion-wide buff, not a personal one.
It was a perfect fit for the human race, experts in group battles, but to Rokan, it was no different from a personal buff.
Even so, it was outstanding.
Because Silver Lion's Radiance included a toughness effect alongside the movement speed boost.
Toughness reduced the effects and durations of all debuffs, making it invaluable later when curses came raining down.
And separate from the set items, there was one more benefit.
[You can select and acquire 1 special mount.]
Acquiring a special mount!
Special mounts could be broadly divided into four types.
Aerial, ground, underground, and maritime.
In particular, wyverns—flying mounts with immense combat power in their own right—were coveted and desired by countless players in his previous life.
‘Damn. What a tough choice.’
In his past life, he would have picked a wyvern without hesitation, but since he hadn't anticipated receiving a special mount this quickly, Rokan found himself agonizing over it. He already had another flying mount: Kai, the Big Bird of Life.
‘Combat power-wise, wyvern is the clear winner, but…’
That was the problem. Wyvern had overwhelming combat strength, but if Kai grew just a bit more, his flight speed would surpass it. And unlike the Heavenly Bone Horse, wyverns didn't grow from the level they were received at.
Plus, Rokan had the mount-exclusive combination skill ‘Rider of Legends.’
If used on Kai, even if temporary, it should produce combat power superior to a wyvern.
“Hoo, no helping it.”
After much deliberation, Rokan finally decided.
[You have selected the special mount ‘Digdog.’]
[Digdog is now bound to you.]
Rokan's choice was the Digdog. It resembled a massive dog but was an underground-type mount that burrowed through the earth.
He had been tempted by the seahorse for swimming through the sea like Mada, but sea terrain travel was rare, so he opted for the strategically mobile Digdog.
‘I’ll raise it up.’
It was a bit of a gamble, but he figured the combination skill would cover for it somewhat.
Tweet!
Perhaps approving of the choice, Kai—summoned at his shoulder—chirped happily.
“Hoo, my setup’s changed quite a bit.”
With that, preparations were complete.
Excluding the sealed Lion King's regalia, most of his gear had been swapped to the Silver Lion Set, erasing his prized one-shot setup—his crit build. But he had already secured substantial crit chance and crit damage from title effects, ring, and earrings.
It wasn't 100%, but the crit chance and damage exceeded most dedicated crit builds, so he felt little regret.
In exchange, he had become far sturdier and tougher.
“Alright, let’s go.”
Buoyed by the confidence from his gear, he slowly made his way to Kartago, the hub in the neutral zone where the Racial Grand Conference was being held.
“Kai, let’s go!”
Tweet!
In the neutral zone of Kartago—where the Golden Lion Alliance and Black Dragon Legion camps shared a single hub—teleport magic circles could not be used.
If one camp connected a teleport circle, they could infiltrate straight to the enemy's core strongholds.
Moreover, Rokan wasn't traveling alone; administrative NPC officials came along, so he led them at a measured pace.
Everyone rode pale bone horses, so it wasn't too slow, but the distance still took a full day.
They had to pass through monster-spawning zones along the way, but with master-level Rokan and his expert-level escorts, safety was no concern.
Rokan even took the opportunity to casually level up Kai a bit.
“The representative of the human race, Master Rokan von Regalia, Earl, enters.”
Arriving exactly three days later in Kartago, Rokan was immediately ushered into the conference hall.
Many attendants had come along, but only one representative per race could enter the Racial Grand Conference hall.
Only the gnome race, handling proceedings, could enter two. Though part of the Golden Lion Alliance, the gnomes were shrewd with calculations and thus the least hostile toward the Black Dragon Legion.
‘These punks, why not hustle a bit faster?’
Entering the hall, Rokan grimaced slightly. Despite arriving right on time himself, he was annoyed that some hadn't yet.
The arrived representatives were from gnomes, half-elves, goblins, and undead.
From the Golden Lion Alliance, the dwarves were missing; from the Black Dragon Legion, orcs and trolls.
‘If I were high master, I’d flip this place upside down…’
But even Rokan couldn't act on impulse here. He represented his race, opponents were all high masters—not beneath him—and Kartago was the domain of the black dragon Kartago.
Stir trouble, sour the dragon's mood, and the conference or not, this hub could vanish.
Dragons started at master-level for hatchlings, high master for adult dragons, and grand master for ancient dragons.
That was baseline; with racial traits, they were a notch above.
In other words, adult-dragon Kartago was high master-level but grand master in combat power.
‘Chilling.’
Swallowing his irritation, he glanced around. Each racial rep had staked out their area, confident yet wary.
Interestingly, even same-camp allies showed no warmth.
Just as other races had scorned humans near-contemptuously upon first reaching the third city, same camp didn't mean good relations.
“To show your face here after causing trouble—thick-skinned as ever. Humans, huh?”
In the cold silence, a small voice stabbed at Rokan.
The gloomy, damp voice belonged to the undead rep—an arch lich, human in life—who muttered sneering at human shamelessness.
It irked him, but it wasn't wrong, and snapping back here meant losing, so Rokan flashed a sly grin.
“Didn’t expect a master-level to just suck on finger bones, unable to do what I can.”
“You worm…!”
Beyond mocking the undead for lacking anyone but Rokan to properly stop the Red Crusaders, he indirectly jabbed at their absent race.
Humans caused it, sure, but no one else had stopped or contained them either—that was fact.
Sure, they hadn't stepped up aggressively, but fear kept them back too, so the arch lich bristled instead.
“Enough. This isn’t why we’re gathered.”
The half-elf rep stepped in to halt the arch lich, who seemed ready to stack curses on Rokan.
Undead loathed humans, and guardian half-elves loathed undead, but position demanded mediation.
“Picking sides because same camp, eh? Once this is over, I’ll peel your skin layer by layer to check how thick it is, human.”
It didn't look that way to the arch lich, apparently.
“The representative of the orc race, High Master Ku Hulan Great Chieftain, enters.”
Amid the growling, the orc rep arrived.
True to their born-warrior label, the hulking, muscled figure snorted at fellow warrior Rokan before taking his seat.
“The representative of the dwarf race, High Master Etchi, enters.”
“The representative of the troll race, High Master Yesran, enters.”
Dwarves and trolls followed, seating themselves, thickening the air again.
The gnome officiant broke the silence.
“The reason we’re gathered here… I assume you all know. To stop the rampage of the ancient emperor revived by the humans.”
“…On behalf of the human race, we express our regrets.”
Rokan followed the cue with a formal apology for his race.
They were all out to kill and destroy each other, so no full apology was needed, but the indiscriminate destruction by the ancient emperor had damaged everyone and wrecked the world—regret was fair game. Same camp had suffered too, after all.
“Anyway, the situation is what it is, and fortunately, the revived ancient emperor isn’t at full power—a great relief. The issue now is how to deal with him and his high master escorts… As you all know, eleven high masters and over two hundred masters are too much for any single race. We must unite our strength, if only briefly, to crush them. Delaying further will only magnify the damage—whoever it hits next is unpredictable. Some may welcome enemy losses, but no one can be sure their own race won’t be next.”
The gnome officiant subtly aired human gripes but balanced his words, formalizing the obvious need to unite.
“I have a question. Fine, unite strength—but how do we ensure no backstabs? Especially from races famous for it.”
The arch lich piped up again, openly targeting humans—no brain required.
“We’ll use this for that.”
The officiant produced a familiar item.
A contract.
Mutual non-aggression during the ancient emperor raid, with a clause for instant heart-destruction death on intentional attacks—terrifying.
With the system's absolute enforcement, all nodded, receiving identical eight copies to sign gravely as racial reps.
‘This… could be fun.’
Like the others, Rokan took his contract, scanning it closely—alone smirking secretly in amusement.