Chapter 163: Public Ranking Match (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 163: Public Ranking Match (2)
It was around nine in the morning when Roman faced Jayden.
The match was decided in a single second. Now, just before noon, Roman Dmitry was already standing before his next opponent—the 98th ranker.
To think Jayden lost in a single second...
Deli, the 98th ranker, wore a deeply cautious expression.
Roman Dmitry didn’t look nearly as intimidating as the rumors suggested, but Deli knew the truth. Jayden, a man whose skills rivaled his own, had been subjected to an overwhelming defeat. And Roman was undeniably arrogant. He had scheduled his duel with Jayden for nine in the morning, yet had already sent a letter declaring he would face Deli before noon.
Arrogant bastard.
Deli's stomach churned.
He already knew he was going to lose.
However, he had accepted this duel with a single goal: to throw a wrench in Roman Dmitry’s path. Victory wasn't the objective; draining Roman’s stamina was. Determined to drag the fight out for as long as humanly possible, Deli dropped into a heavily defensive stance and waited for Willas’s signal to begin.
Finally.
Flutter.
The signal dropped.
Roman kicked off the ground.
Lightning fast, his sword swung forward. Deli frantically raised his weapon to block, but his eyes widened as the opponent's blade traced a bizarre, impossible trajectory.
Thud!
"Argh!"
A sharp cry of pain echoed out.
That was it.
Against someone like Roman, even stalling for time required a minimum level of skill.
"...With Roman Dmitry, the 99th ranker, defeating Deli, the 98th ranker, I hereby declare Roman Dmitry as the new 98th ranker!"
The crowd gasped in shock.
Once again, Roman didn't even bother to look back. Far from celebrating his new rank, he simply hurried his steps as if he was late for another appointment.
Four hours later.
Roman met the 97th ranker.
Three duels in a single day.
It was an absolutely absurd pace.
Roman had never once considered the possibility of being delayed by his first two opponents; he had only factored in his travel time. Naturally, the 97th-ranked swordsman reacted with the exact same indignation as Deli. Under normal circumstances, he might have gracefully stepped aside for Roman, but he refused to tolerate the sheer disrespect of Roman scheduling their match before even fighting Jayden.
And he, too, was blown away in a mere three seconds.
Spattering blood as he collapsed, the 97th ranker didn't even have the mental capacity to process how he had lost.
Three consecutive victories.
The onlookers could only stare in sheer bewilderment.
"...What on earth are we looking at?"
"He defeated three rankers in a single day. No matter how low their ranks are, they're still Cairo's experts. They've all reached at least the 3-Star realm! Does this make any sense? It didn't even take him ten seconds to defeat all three of them combined!"
They doubted their own eyes.
Meanwhile, Roman set off once again, this time to face the 96th ranker.
As if he had absolutely no need for recovery time, he simply secured his victory and left without a single lingering thought.
People began to follow him. They wanted to see for themselves just how far Roman Dmitry would go.
In a mere two days, Roman crushed everyone up to the 91st rank.
And just as he was making this shocking progress, Jayden—his very first victim—finally regained consciousness.
* * *
He had a terrible nightmare.
Dreaming of being eaten alive by a monster, Jayden snapped his eyes open, his face drenched in cold sweat.
He bolted upright.
Pant, pant.
He heaved heavy, ragged breaths.
In his dream, the monster had taken the form of Roman Dmitry.
Jayden had struggled desperately to win, only to crash against an insurmountable wall.
"...What on earth happened?"
"What do you think?" a voice replied. "You acted rashly by trying to face Roman Dmitry, and you got knocked out without enduring a single blow. You've been unconscious for a whole day. Do you want to know the only silver lining? Everyone who faced Roman Dmitry after you hasn't woken up yet either."
Jayden's heart sank.
It had only been a day, yet there were already other people who had faced Roman Dmitry?
Sensing something was terribly wrong, Jayden asked, "What do you mean, 'everyone'? How many people did Roman fight?"
The healer froze.
He had known Jayden for a long time. Jayden was a veteran who had seen his fair share of battles, and the healer knew exactly what kind of life the swordsman had lived.
He understood why Jayden had challenged Roman.
However, looking at the aftermath, he could no longer defend the man's choice.
"Right after facing you, Roman Dmitry defeated a total of five rankers in a single day. He beat you, the 99th ranker, in the morning; the 98th around lunch; the 97th and 96th before sunset; and the 95th in the evening. Do you know what that means? Roman Dmitry only spent time traveling between those five duels. He didn't even break a sweat against any of you. You were never his opponents to begin with."
"...Crazy bastard."
A curse slipped from Jayden's lips.
Only then did he truly realize it.
Roman Dmitry was utterly insane.
People had naturally assumed that challenging the 99th rank was a strategy to play it safe. But looking at his current actions, it was clear he truly intended to climb to the very top from the absolute bottom. To think such a monster existed in this world. From his audacious decisions to the sheer skill required to execute them, Roman Dmitry was a being beyond the heavens.
Just then.
Sting!
"...?!"
A sharp, agonizing pain flared up the moment Jayden tried to move.
As Jayden looked at the healer with a bewildered expression, the man spoke grimly.
"One of Roman Dmitry's followers told me something. He said his lord believes that every choice must have a price. You won't be able to move your body properly for the next month. I don't know what kind of technique Roman Dmitry used, but he completely wrecked your internal muscles."
One month.
That was the price of his reckless bravado.
Recalling the nightmare of being devoured by the monster named Roman, Jayden felt his heart pound and his mouth go dry.
"I have to stop the others."
The rankers above the 90th rank—they would try to face Roman.
Just as he had, they wouldn't be able to think outside the confines of common sense.
Glaring at his own unresponsive body, Jayden desperately hoped they wouldn't suffer the same fate.
He hurriedly penned a letter. It was addressed to all rankers, excluding those in the absolute upper tiers.
[I, who was once ranked 99th and have now been pushed down to 100th, warn you all. Roman Dmitry is a monster we cannot hope to face. I could not last even a single second against him, and as the price for failing to face reality, I am now unable to move my body properly for a month. If you wish to avoid the same fate, please do not stand in Roman Dmitry's way. A duel with Roman Dmitry will never be a valuable experience; it will only leave you with terror. Please, do not ignore my words.]
He sent the letters out, praying they wouldn't make the same mistake he did.
Against a monster like Roman, it was time for Cairo's lower-ranked swordsmen to hold their breath and know their place.
* * *
By the time Roman defeated the 85th ranker, people finally began to sense that something was horribly off.
They had accepted that he defeated Jayden in a single second.
However, despite the immense fatigue that should have accumulated from his relentless schedule, the 85th-ranked powerhouse was defeated without being able to do a single thing.
It was an overwhelmingly one-sided victory.
People finally saw reality. Through these consecutive duels, it was becoming terrifyingly clear just how much of a monster Roman truly was.
And right around that time, Jayden's letters arrived for Cairo's rankers.
"...I will forfeit."
"Look at the letter Jayden sent! That brute is writing like a frightened child just because he faced Roman Dmitry once. This isn't a warning we can simply ignore. Now that even the 85th ranker has fallen just as helplessly as the 99th, the fact that we are in the low 80s doesn't mean a damn thing."
"The rumors mean nothing. Roman intends to defeat every single ranker, starting from the absolute bottom."
Starting from the 84th rank, the rankers forfeited one after another.
Only three days had passed since the Public Ranking Match began, yet people were already parting the seas to clear a path for Roman.
They were terrified.
The rankers who had faced Roman, Jayden included, had made the price of reckless bravado abundantly clear. No one wanted to suffer the penalty of being crippled for a month. Besides, hadn't Roman's strength already been proven? Any hypothesis that the rumors were exaggerated was utterly crushed beneath his overwhelming power. Those who followed Roman from duel to duel became his heralds, spreading word of his terrifying might to the rest of the world.
Occasionally, there were those who still challenged Roman despite the warnings.
The 80th ranker was one such person, but he paid the price for his bravado in full.
Crunch!
"Cough!"
He slammed face-first into the ground.
Thick drool mixed with blood spilled from his lips, and his unfocused eyes could no longer even pinpoint Roman's position.
It was over.
Once again, Roman had utterly crushed his opponent.
This alone is not enough.
The Public Ranking Match.
Roman did not participate simply out of a desire for honor.
Once these ranking matches were over, Cairo's power players, including Marquis Benedict, would try to force his hand. Therefore, he intended to make his presence known through this Public Ranking Match—to show them exactly what kind of being they were dealing with. If a situation ever arose where he had to fight Cairo's power players, this display would give those who followed Dmitry a reason to place their absolute trust in him. This was a performance of sorts.
And above all, he had despised his assigned ranking from the very start.
Just as Valhalla challenged the rankings purely out of a competitive spirit, Roman wanted his name placed at the very apex.
That was why he chose to climb from the bottom.
Ninety-nine powerhouses.
He would bring every single one of them to their knees.
When that time came, even if Dmitry finally revealed its true ambitions, the world would not dare to oppose them.
The Public Ranking Match is merely a signal flare for what is to come. There is no telling when the Salamander Continent will be swept into a vortex of war. Before that happens, I must bring the Cairo Kingdom completely under my control.
People vastly underestimated what kind of man Roman was.
They could never have imagined that a man from the mere fringes of the kingdom would dare to covet the entirety of Cairo.
That was why the Noble Faction merely watched from the sidelines.
They hoped Roman would exhaust himself through this endeavor. If he collapsed before reaching the top, they planned to force his choice right then and there.
For now, not many truly believed Roman Dmitry was the First Sword of Cairo.
* * *
Exactly one week later.
The rumors doubting Roman vanished completely.
Thanks to his overwhelming strength and the ensuing cascade of forfeits, Roman Dmitry rapidly ascended into the upper ranks.
From the 39th to the 31st, all the experts in the 30s forfeited.
Convinced that Roman Dmitry possessed the strength of at least a top-10 ranker, they accepted defeat as if they had all colluded beforehand.
However, the 30th ranker actually accepted Roman's challenge.
"Fernando! What on earth are you doing?"
"You heard the rumors too. If you face Roman Dmitry, your body won't remain intact! That guy is at least in the 5-Star realm, and no one below the top 10 in the Cairo Kingdom can face him. That's why everyone below that threshold decided to surrender, so why are you making such a reckless choice?!"
"Seriously, just listen to us."
His fellow rankers surrounded him and snapped.
Just as they said, the rankers had united.
They felt that if some surrendered while others chose to fight, those who surrendered would look pathetic.
So, they had all chosen to forfeit together to save face.
If it was a fight they couldn't even last a minute in, there was no reason to step into the arena in the first place.
"It's my choice," Fernando said, his expression firm.
The Gatekeeper of the 30th Rank.
That was his nickname.
Commoners might say being ranked 30th was amazing, but Fernando knew his nickname wasn't meant as a compliment. It was a form of mockery. Despite having reached the 30th rank long ago, the reality was that whenever a new powerhouse appeared, his rank would slide down. In fact, if a high-ranking ranker hadn't died in the battle against Kronos, he would be ranked 31st right now.
"You foolish bastard. Do you really have to fight even if it drags our reputation through the mud?"
"Let's get one thing straight," Fernando replied coldly. "What dragged your reputation through the mud wasn't me refusing to join your little pact. It was your own weakness in getting scared and admitting defeat before even drawing your swords. Don't try to force your cowardice onto me."
"Damn it."
"Ugh, you stubborn bastard."
The other rankers turned away in frustration.
Their thoughts?
He knew exactly what they were.
But Fernando had never refused a challenge in his entire life.
They and I are different. Those born with natural talent will naturally improve as time passes, even without risking their lives through effort. But for me, the moment I let my guard down even slightly, I will regress.
Fernando.
People always wondered about him. His swordsmanship was incredible, so why was he perpetually stuck at the 30th rank?
What people didn't know was that Fernando had suffered from poor Mana circulation since birth. Even after reaching the 4-Star realm, he couldn't unleash his full power. That was the very reason he seemed destined to remain at the 30th rank forever. Having hit an insurmountable wall with his Mana, he sought to solve the problem through another method.
Experience.
Fighting countless powerhouses.
He built his foundation on that brutal combat experience and created his own practical swordsmanship.
Even if he couldn't overwhelm his opponents with Mana, he strove to gain the upper hand through sheer martial skill.
The result of that blood, sweat, and tears was his 30th-place ranking.
He could defeat those below the 4-Star realm with swordsmanship alone, but he had no way to deal with powerhouses who possessed an overwhelming advantage in Aura. Thus, whenever a new genius appeared, Fernando was forced to step aside. People mocked him, asking how he could remain in the exact same rank ten years ago, five years ago, and even now—but Fernando simply gritted his teeth and accepted reality.
In truth, avoiding challenges was an option for him as well.
However, by accepting every fight that came his way, Fernando hoped to add even a single grain of experience to his repertoire.
According to the rumors, Roman Dmitry's swordsmanship is incredibly complete in its own right. With my skills, I won't be able to block his attacks more than a few times, but I hope to grow even a little by facing him. That is all. My reputation as a ranker means nothing to me.
Rankings were merely a facade.
In the end, a swordsman spoke only through their skill.
After his colleagues left, Fernando returned to his training.
No matter what people said, he swung his sword until the sun went down.
That was Fernando's true identity.
The Sloth.
It was a nickname given to mock his stagnant rank, but he was neither lazy like a sloth, nor did he ever wish to remain stagnant.
In his mind's eye, he faced Roman Dmitry.
Falling into a State of Selflessness, Fernando did not stop swinging his sword until his entire body was drenched in sweat.
And so, dawn broke.
"Whew."
Fresh morning air filled his lungs.
Though he had stayed up all night, he felt absolutely no fatigue.
He took a firm step forward.
Now, it was time to face the real Roman Dmitry.