Chapter 484: Karo's Hope
Chapter 484: Karo's Hope
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
Nobody would have thought a drunkard with a mouth full of nonsense would really be that "invaluable" epic hero. After all, in the eyes of the people, the strong could be arrogant, cunning, and untrustworthy, but they definitely wouldn't disregard their dignity and image.
"Blood will spill when I'm angered; blood will run like a river when the lord is angered; there will be millions of corpses when the emperor is angered. Isn't being out on these streets purely just to let some steam out anyway? I'll take on the likes of whomever messes with my dignity!"
But in this world, there just so happened to really be an epic hero who completely didn't care about their image...
"Image? Can you eat that? Uh-huh, it's definitely to cover up who you really are, and it's not purely in bad taste."
Alright. I admit it. Sometimes, it was also quite fun when I was obviously telling the truth, and yet people didn't believe it no matter what.
But on the other hand, I didn't lie. Right now, I was indeed incredibly weak.
[Roland Mist / Strength: 24 / Dexterity: 24 / Constitution: 25 / Intelligence: 32 / Will: 22 / Charisma: 20 / Arbitrator Bloodline / Natural Abilities: War Angel form, Original Sin Demon form, Titan blood, Stare of the Hell God / Basic Career: Lvl.60 Order knight, Lvl.60 Chaos lich king, Lvl.10 Four elemental swordcaster / Advanced job classes: Lvl.6 Lord of Frigidwinter, Unable to evaluate overall levels / Pet: Harloys / Mount and Armor: Erebella. ]
These were the stats I had before the war of Hell, but now…
[Roland Mist / Strength :4 / Dexterity: 7 / Constitution: 5 / Intelligence: 32 / Willpower: 22 / Charisma: 22 (Increased for mysterious reasons) / Blood: Mixed Arbitrator and Wood Spirit... What is 'Too weak to kill a chicken'? This is it.]
"How would I know that she'd be so petty! She actually put a curse of weakness on me!"
[...Serves you right.]
"At the same time... Now that you mention it, if it were me, I would have gone harder."
I regretted bringing out silly cat and Astrya even more. Ever since Astrya stopped needing to pretend to be my System, all sorts of shameless jokes and double the complaints made people feel really helpless.
But the system stats she offered were indeed convenient. For the convenience of her cultivation, after their exchange, she also gave a detailed explanation for her judgement.
Stats didn't increase in a linear way; rather, stats were in comparison to others of the same species. The higher the numbers, the fewer existences there were to compare to.
[Strength (muscle strength and body strength): four points (three was a human's lower limit, and it was most probably the equivalent of a vegetable, so it'd be a compliment for a four to be called 'too weak to tie up a chicken'. Normally, a goose was a six, so you would really be as strong as half a goose!)]
[Dexterity (including a combination of stats like physical agility, hand-eye coordination, reaction speed, and coordination. This means your control of your body, and how fast your nervous system can react): Seven Dexterity points (Amelia's a really kind person to you. At this stage, you'll only occasionally fall over on flat ground. You'll look really cute, and you'll probably trip more than ten times a day. If it were two less points, then you would really have to worry about choking to death on water all of a sudden and other hilarious things like falling off a cliff after slipping on watermelon skin)]
[Constitution (health and the degree to which one can fight natural diseases). Five Constitution (Little sister Peach... Little sister Lin Daiyu. Are you alright? Stop crying. Be careful, you can really cry yourself to death. It was difficult to save you when you fainted from crying last time.) Note: Since the basic stats of your body were forcibly sealed by the curse of weakness, your actual stats are still there and your physique is above average. You won't need to worry about getting drunk or feeling bloated from drinking wine and eating, but the hangover will definitely be hard to bear. Be good, quit drinking!]
Basic stats were the foundation of the flesh. Three of the stats were related to the soul, so these three mage stats remained the same. I won't touch on this for now, as one was destined to be useless trash just for the three close combat stats being this weak.
As for why this was the case and why those two guys said I deserved it, I'd have to start from the path I left behind back in the day…...
One of the rules of Hell dictated that the God of Hell couldn't leave. Since this was a requirement, it was, in some sense, a type of way to check the balance of power. This limitation was a lot stricter than the Eich Gods, but it was for the sake of avoiding disastrous divine intervention in the mortal realm once again.
And since Hell represented fair trials, as one of the four main Gods who ruled Hell, there was no way they could go against the most basic of rules. They couldn't ever leave hell; otherwise, so-called equality and justice would be a joke.
Reasonably speaking, as the pillar of law, Wumianzhe Roland also stayed in Hell for eternity, and this iron-clad rule was the only back door that I paved... No. Actually, it couldn't be called a back door, but my abilities were simply special, and I "happened" to be able to reincarnate according to the requested rules.
Mhm, the loophole I dug was "Wumianzhe" Roland. I became the pillar of the law as the Wumianzhe and the fallen God Roland. After the reverse God's Descent was removed, Wumianzhe was still the pillar of the law and the eternally just God of Judgement, who became even more with the sentiment of justice after losing his sense of self. Meanwhile, "Roland" was a normal dead person in Hell…
What happened thereafter was very easy to understand. I had only lived several years in my most recent life. I hadn't broken too many divine laws, nor did I have many crimes worth punishing me for. In less than a year, I completed the torture of purgatory and naturally reincarnated.
It wasn't the first time I reincarnated. In normal circumstances, souls should have their memories and sense of self erased, and start all over again. However, those who were capable of protecting their sense of self during reincarnation, such as me, didn't want another father and mother, nor a frightening, long childhood. I would always climb out of the River Styx and then ask my System who had the power of Creation for yet another chance.
But this time, if I were to start all over again, it'd be too much of a waste of time. That was when I thought about the other beings with the privilege of creation. Perhaps they'd have an idea.
Yes, other creators. This world not only had the one creator and Goddess of creation. Things were different from a billion years ago. Due to unpredictable change of circumstances, this world still had two other creators in existence that I could choose from.
Needless to say, one of them was Hell. As one of the previous rulers of Hell, I was completely familiar with this path and all the Gods in Hell would also give me the green light.
However, if I chose Hell, I would have to possess the body of an underworld envoy of the Hell Dragon Clan. Otherwise, I'd have no way of leaving Hell, as ghosts and other entities had no way of leaving.
But I didn't want to reincarnate into a big lizard in the slightest. Dragons and men were different in nature, so I'd have to spend forever familiarizing myself with the new body. Since I couldn't walk out of Hell, I was left with just one clear and straightforward choice—the wood spirits clan of the Forest of Dreams.
Within the Forest of Dreams, the wood spirits clan could turn adventurers into wood spirits without starting over again. This was also the most popular service that the wood spirits offered. They could turn the dead souls in the Forest of Dreams into new wood spirits. It seemed like this was a type of reincarnation that only they possessed.
I'd said before that Amelia actually became a Goddess of Creation in a freak accident within the Forest of Dreams.
The most obvious evidence for this was most probably the fact that the wood spirits clan had their own independent soul reincarnation which was unique to their world. This was clearly a type of special power only creators possessed.
Even though there were limitations to this privilege, as natural species, they might just be the strongest at creating flesh, and that... was what I was most lacking in.
So, when the "big plan" deployed on schedule, I personally went to the Forest of Dreams in Bardi to give them an artery.
"...This is a specimen of my blood and flesh. Is this sufficient?"
"Don't worry, Father. We'll reconstruct a physical body. When your soul is destroyed, it'll travel through this body and resurrect. It's the same principle as the Lich's phylactery. We know this, but how can you promise that the soul will return to the body? Is it necessary to have some kind of soul-calling ceremony?"
"Haha! I have a superb plan."
"Father, your body will become weak if you give this much blood and flesh. Your fighting strength will plummet. What are you going to do?"
"Haha! I have a superb plan."
To keep it a complete secret, I didn't even tell the wood spirits the truth at first. I only just told them it was a backup body, but in reality, it was just as expected. I didn't need the chance to personally take action.
After Hell was successfully constructed, the matters of the world developed just as I'd predicted. With the entire wood elf clan using all resources at their disposal, the clone created from my own flesh did indeed hold a big portion of my strength, but... God had plans of their own. In the end, there was just one little thing missing.
"Then, you just went in head first?"
"How could I have known that Amelia would happen to wake up just then? How could I have known she would... she would..."
[Forced marriage? Actually, Amelia isn't bad. In fact, from a female's point of view, you're the one who's actually the most out of order. You were let off easy when you were cursed.]
"Yeah… First you flirt cunningly and agree to marry the woman, get your hands on the dowry, and then ya turn around and run away! Isn't cheating other people's feelings and lying about getting married what women hate the most? You're a super-douchebag! Amelia's really cute considering that she only cursed you."
"Cute? Are you sure that woman who used countless snakes to bind and swallow me whole for revenge is cute? Are you sure the evil witch who created the super-earthquake that swept across three countries just to stop me from escaping is cute? You think that the hysterically crazy woman who created frightening faces in the clouds, shrieking "Roland, you're dead!" is cute?""
"It's all your fault!"
[Your fault!]
I kind of wanted to cry, but tears didn't come. Wait... Had I become the public enemy of women all of a sudden…?
"At first, wasn't it you guys who persuaded me to run away? One after the other, you all said, "How can one attain happiness in an emotionless marriage?", "She must be groggy from sleep. You must think about the consequences. What do you think Elisa will do if she knew?" Isn't that what you all said? How did I end up the one in the wrong? Could you please be reasonable?"
"No! Besides, it's all your fault."
[Isn't there a saying on earth? A woman's special right is to be unreasonable!]
Alright, it looked like there was no reasoning with a woman under certain circumstances. But no matter how you put it, I'd considerably suffered the consequences of my own actions.
This body came from Amelia's hand, so it would naturally have her imprint. It was far too easy for a creator to edit their creation. This curse of weakness, which left people a little helpless in living, was her trump card to force me to be good and head back.
It was worth mentioning that as a spirit-bound pet, after silly cat had her time to shine, she was cruelly clapped back down; all she could do was send a clone to fulfill her duty of guarding purgatory.
Even though her powers were rather special, I was afraid that Harloys was the only one whose clones were far more powerful than she herself was.
But in another sense, this curse of weakness wasn't a terrible thing…
"Perhaps I'll be even stronger because of this. At the very least, I'll be stronger than that muscular idiot."
The blade lowered slowly as the careful cutting skills sliced the beef. It looked very simple, but if you really compared it, then you'd realize that the slices of beef were paper-thin. Not only that, but the thickness and shape of each slice were the same as well.
If it were a good sword, then that'd be understandable. But right now, the vegetable knife that I used was a blunt knife which couldn't even draw blood.
Eyesight, handiwork, heart, and a heavy body were natural shackles. The lack of strength made it so that every slice required a perfect combination of upper body strength, heart, and body conditioning. Perhaps, if you trained sincerely with hope, there wouldn't be anything in life that couldn't be trained.
A fruit was tossed up in the air and a knife flashed across. What fell into a bowl turned out to be intricately carved pieces of fruit. The final scoop happened to be carved into a rabbit.
"At least I have a new understanding and much better control over my strength. So, this time, I'll start from the subtle details to see if I can surpass that idiot..."
After Hell was successfully constructed, the heavy responsibility I carried had already been more than halved. If I still had anything on my mind, it'd be that promise from back in the day to teach that idiot in the abyss a good lesson.
"Now, we're so incredibly apart in level."
It was only three hundred plus years ago that we were on a similar level. Based on fighting strength alone, there was simply no way to compare. If I hadn't cheated, then I was afraid I would have ended up hacked to death with one strike. In the end, from seeing how delighted he was to see Cynthia's true body, and from the silhouette of his back as he left, I knew that he would definitely be stronger the next time we meet.
Logic dictated that our natural talent should have been about the same. If you looked at it from how hard we worked, then we shouldn't have had the leisure of slacking off. We both progressed at about the same speed, but in the end, we turned out to be a large distance apart. If we were counting from the start to the very end, it wouldn't be difficult to see why.
In the past more than three hundred years, far too many frivolous matters divided my attention. I spent a lot of effort on thinking, planning, and strategizing. In the end, I got what I wanted—a mature team working to gradually make the world better. We also seemed to have prevented the apocalypse.
As the prince of the abyss, he would kill, eat, kill, and eat on a daily basis. He also got what he wanted the most; he had become the strongest in the world and crushed his mortal enemy, Cynthia.
It was very difficult to say if this decision was a right one, because one couldn't compare every person's life choices. However, in an one-to-one fight, I lost against an idiot, and that really pissed me off.
Now, I was not stressed about anything else. I was really interested in knowing whether I would eventually be able to duel him if I put all my heart into training.
"Karo! Is the grilled beef fruit salad done yet?"
"It's almost done! Almost done!"
Katerina's urgent voice came from outside the kitchen. I realized that I accidently sliced the beef too thinly and didn't divide them on the grill; neither could I cut the fruit in the right design for the salad. I had to do everything all over again. Apparently, I should first handle the business at hand, then think about training.