Chapter 46
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 46
Chapter Title: The Kueberberg Subjugation (1)
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People often say that life goes around like a hamster wheel.
It might be a bit different for those who live a life full of ups and downs, but I think most people's lives follow a similar pattern.
I am no exception.
Every morning, I face the same routine as always.
I wake up, shower with sleepy eyes, then hastily get dressed and head out.
Then I load my weary body onto the subway and drag myself to work.
Some days, I'm anxious, worried I'll be scolded for even a small mistake. Other days, I'm filled with anticipation, just waiting for the clock to strike quitting time.
And on other days, to relieve the stress built up over the day, I go home with a can of beer just for myself.
When I get home and the next day arrives, another day just like yesterday begins.
A life where, no matter how much you move forward, you just end up back where you started.
Living such a life, one can't help but fall into the delusion of having become just another cog in the machine of society.
Even though, in reality, society wouldn't grind to a halt just because one person like me dropped out.
"Phew made it through another day."
Nevertheless, the reason people live on, looking forward to the next day, is probably that they each have their own reason to live.
Family or friends. Or a lover.
If not that, then something precious and unique to themselves.
For me, gaming was one of the small fragments that made up that reason for living.
The world beyond my smartphone screen, a momentary escape from the tedious cycle of life.
In that world, I don't shy away from adventure or challenges, nor do I fear failure.
This shoddy little game was nothing less than my escape from daily life.
"I'll play for a bit, then make some ramen."
That was why the first thing I did upon returning home was to toss my bag aside and launch the game.
Of course, a day might come when I grow tired of it, and I might even quit the game I played with such affection.
I might also come to regret the time and money I wasted on it.
Still, for this moment, the simple fact that I was holding onto this game brought me joy.
Because I truly loved this world, confined as it was beyond the narrow screen of a smartphone.
"Wonder how much Karma came in today."
Tap.
As I touched the smartphone screen, the home screen vanished and the game began to load.
The first thing I always checked upon launching the game was the amount of accumulated Karma.
In this idle game, the most important currency was, without a doubt, Karma.
You needed to collect Karma to raise your player level, and you had to spend Karma to create new characters.
Above all, one of the game's objectives was to reach one million Karma.
- Each time you meet the conditions below, the progress of Advent will increase by one stage.
- Available Karma: 715 999999 (Incomplete)
- ???: 0 1 (Incomplete)
- ???: 0 1 (Incomplete)
- ???: 0 1 (Incomplete)
- ?????? (Incomplete)
The total amount of Karma accumulated so far was 715.
It was a far cry from the target for the Advent skill, but I was getting close to the amount needed to create the next Apostle.
This was thanks to the recent significant increase in my Karma income.
Most of the newly acquired Karma was being generated by Kueberberg and Estacia.
At this rate, I would be able to create a new Apostle before long.
As I watched the daily increase in Karma with satisfaction, a stream of messages began to scroll up from the bottom of the screen.
"Huh? What's this? A level up?"
I lowered my gaze to read the new messages that had appeared.
Most of the messages displayed were notifications of Karma gained from Kueberberg.
It seemed Kueberberg was busy generating Karma even at this very moment.
And below Kueberberg's messages, a level-up notification had appeared for the first time in a while.
After piling up a mountain of Karma, I had finally leveled up.
- You have reached Level 8.
- Observer's Eye (Lv. 7) has grown.
- You have acquired Observer's Eye (Lv. 8). You can now observe the continent with a clearer view than before.
Naturally, the messages displayed upon leveling up were mostly the same as before.
The growth of the Observer's Eye skill. An increase in my magic power.
And a warning message from the Scales of Karma.
With one single exception, the output was the same as always.
- Warning: Karma excessively skewed in one direction has a high chance of triggering Causality Correction.
- The Scales of Karma have tipped.
- A low-level Causality Correction has occurred.
- Causality Correction Progress: 4
With the large amount of Karma acquired through Kueberberg, the Scales of Karma's Causality Correction had surpassed 4.
Of course, that was the result of Estacia continuously chipping away at the correction value.
By my calculations, the Causality Correction should have reached 6 by now.
That was how actively Kueberberg was engaging in its hunts.
I hated to look at its face, but its heart made it the most dependable hope of the Order.
- A new condition for Advent (Lv. 0) has been revealed.
And there was one message that was different from the usual.
It was the announcement that the next condition for the Advent skill had been revealed.
I considered the evolution conditions for the Advent skill to be the game's endgame content.
This was because the very first condition to be unlocked was exceedingly difficult.
To collect nearly a million unused Karma.
How could a person possibly save up a million Karma without using it?
Besides, I couldn't even guess how long it would take to gather that much.
For me, it was a harsh condition.
"Still, I should check out the new quest details."
That didn't mean I intended to neglect the Advent skill forever.
Ultimately, it was a goal I would have to clear someday.
I figured it would be a good idea to start by steadily accomplishing any easier objectives first.
With that in mind, I checked the details of the Advent skill again, and one of the hidden evolution conditions was newly revealed.
- Holy Relic: Stake of Erges: 0 1 (Incomplete)
The new evolution condition for the Advent skill was to acquire a specific item.
The item's name was Holy Relic: Stake of Erges.
It was an item classified under the Holy Relic category, like Magic Swords or Divine Artifacts.
Seeing the Holy Relic category for the first time, I couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
"A Holy Relic? What's this now?"
It didn't seem like an item I could get from the gacha.
I doubted they would include something like that in a mission to unlock a skill.
If so, could it be an item related to the gods that exist in the game world?
As I pondered this, the image of Evan, who had been a Holy Knight, flashed through my mind.
Before becoming my Apostle, Evan was a devout Holy Knight who served a goddess.
It occurred to me that Evan might know something about the Holy Relic: Stake of Erges.
"Should I ask Evan?"
The characters in this game were capable of a certain level of communication with the player.
If I used the communication feature to ask, I could probably get an answer from him.
If Evan knew the details about the Holy Relic, I might be able to order him or the other Apostles to retrieve it.
Once I'd made up my mind, there was no reason to delay the conversation.
I immediately located Evan in the city and tapped the speech bubble button that appeared above his head.
- Please enter the message you wish to send.
The Second Apostle, Evan Alemier.
A long-overdue conversation with an Apostle had begun.
- Guoooooooooo.
Kueberberg's unearthly cry echoed through the mountain path where trees lay fallen.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
With every movement of Kueberberg's colossal body, the forest collapsed and landslides occurred.
Kueberberg, Lord of the Abyss.
Having ascended to the surface from the deep Abyss, he was a predator by birth.
Born and raised in the lightless Abyss, he had devoured everything that stood in his way.
Intruders from the outside world. Noisy kin.
And even the abyssal beasts that roamed in search of a meal, hoping to devour Kueberberg itself.
There was nothing that had not passed through Kueberberg's maw.
- Guooooo.
The reason Kueberberg's bulk had grown so monstrously large was that it had absorbed the power of the prey it had consumed thus far.
By devouring countless abyssal lifeforms and absorbing their power, Kueberberg became a mighty Lord of the Abyss.
All its kin followed it, and all manner of abyssal monsters fled from it.
Throughout the entire Abyss, the number of beasts that could stand against it was less than ten.
The reason Kueberberg had answered the call of a greater being was also because it had grown bored of its life in the Abyss.
- "I, too, have grown weak."
However, born of the Abyss, Kueberberg could not exert its full power on the surface.
Kueberberg was, through and through, a creature born and raised in the Abyss.
Its very anatomy was not suited for movement on land.
A distance it would have crossed in an instant now took days to traverse on the surface.
Moreover, due to its excessively large body, prolonged movement caused considerable fatigue.
It was still a powerful predator, but the majesty it held in the Abyss had long since vanished.
- "I must quickly devour many things and grow."
That was not to say Kueberberg had completely given up on growing on the surface.
Here, it sensed even greater possibilities than before.
On the surface, there existed countless lifeforms it had never seen in the Abyss.
Furthermore, the creatures called humans displayed the ability to counter animals stronger than themselves with the power of knowledge.
By eating them, learning, and studying, Kueberberg would become stronger than ever before.
And the great being that had sent Kueberberg forth would surely be pleased.
That was why Kueberberg was moving so busily, striving to overcome the limits of an abyssal beast.
- Harvest life.
As Kueberberg moved its tentacles forward, a familiar voice echoed in its head.
It was the voice of the great being that had pulled Kueberberg from the Abyss to the surface.
The great being's voice had been repeating since the first day it arrived on the surface.
The great being constantly wished for Kueberberg to reap lives.
Kueberberg desired the same, so neither party had any reason to hesitate.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Leaving the mountain range at a rapid pace, Kueberberg finally entered a vast plain.
- "Are those humans."
And there, in Kueberberg's line of sight, was a gathering of humans.
Countless humans stood before a massive structure they had built by stacking stones.
Through its recent learning, Kueberberg knew the name of the structure at their backs.
A fortress.
A structure meant to defend humans from external attacks.
Of course, against a colossal being like Kueberberg, such an act was meaningless.
The humans seemed to be aware of this fact, as some of them stood with their backs to the fortress, weapons in hand.
"The monster is coming!"
A human who spotted Kueberberg shouted to the others at the top of his lungs.
Wuuuuuuung!
A majestic horn blast sounded, and the humans began to move with disciplined coordination.
Their movements were also something Kueberberg had already learned.
Humans often moved in groups, mimicking a single, massive creature.
Seeing as they sometimes managed to hunt superior species, far more advanced than themselves, this method of movement was quite effective.
- "Foolish humans, gathered in one place."
However, from Kueberberg's perspective, the very act of gathering was incredibly foolish.
No matter how many insects swarmed together, before Kueberberg, they were still just insects.
As a predator, all Kueberberg had to do was swallow the insect-like humans in a single gulp.
If anything, they had gathered together conveniently, saving Kueberberg the trouble of moving around.
Having found the humans gathered here, there was no need to go anywhere else.
Kueberberg did not refuse the tempting meal laid out before it.
- Guooooooo.
Kueberberg's vicious roar echoed out, and soon, it began to charge toward the humans.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
With every movement of Kueberberg's colossal body, the earth trembled and dust billowed up.
The humans, heavily armed with all sorts of equipment, also raised their weapons to confront it.
The moment they recognized each other as enemies.
The battle between Kueberberg and humanity had begun.