Game’s Dogma

“Coming!” Danting leapt from his seat and took out his two-handed greatsword.

The moment he took his weapon out, everyone’s focus landed on the imposing sword. One of them shrieked, “This! This is the Divine Martial Sword! The legendary Divine Martial Sword that’s worth three hundred million!”

Three hundred million!

Everyone sent envious gazes at Danting’s weapon, though some who had done their research knew Danting was never known to be the wielder of the Divine Martial Sword. In other words, he had only acquired this sword recently. But where? What about the spendthrift who splurged three hundred million on it?

All but one player held fury in her eyes instead of envy—she was Pulchriture, Tigeroar’s woman. While she had no idea that her lover was a Maverick, she knew the Divine Martial Sword had always been in his possession. However, his name greyed out ever since he went missing after the quest. She couldn’t understand why he quit the game without leaving her a message at the very least, more so about how his sword ended up in Danting’s hands.

All legendary items were unique and owner-bound. In other words, they never dropped from player deaths. Even if Tigeroar was defeated by Mask, the sword still shouldn’t have dropped, but the fact was that Danting was wielding that exact sword.

No matter how hard Pulchriture thought about it, she never considered the possibility that Tigeroar was truly dead. When Tigeroar met his demise, the Divine Martial Sword naturally became ownerless and could acknowledge others as its owner.

“Hmph! Legendary weapon, so what?”

Tripurity showed no fear. The only person he feared was Mask, not his loyal dogs—they weren’t worthy of his attention. He formed a finger sword with his index and middle fingers, commanding his wooden sword to fly up into the air.

“Scatter!” he ordered.

At his command, the wooden sword flickered in the air and divided into two, then four, then eight… until thirty-six swords were hovering in the air.

“Swiftly!” Tripurity quickly formed a mudra with his hands and sent the swords to surround Danting.

“Exciting!” Danting was brimming with battle intent. He put on a genuine smile at the encirclement of swords around him.

“Boss… Isn’t this a bit too risky?” Zephyrwolf asked worriedly.

Although Danting was no child, his mind was rather childish even when compared to Sasaki who was younger than him. He was a younger brother to them all; even the queen-like Idyllic Poet treated him with gentleness.

“Tripurity is one of the best fighters in Empyreon. Dan’s great too… But…” Zephyrwolf seemed really bothered.

Drako Yau smiled and responded with a question. “How long have you been cultivating under me?”

“Um, almost a year,” Zephyrwolf answered after a brief hesitation.

“That’s right.” Drako Yau knew they all thought Danting to be a childish young man, but he hoped to instil trust within their minds. “How much have you improved throughout the past year?”

Zephyrwolf scratched his head. While he was the oldest among them all, he still submitted to Drako Yau’s unwavering dignity. “Almost like I’m a different person.”

Drako Yau nodded. “Dan has been cultivating under me for over two years before joining us.”

Drako Yau said no more, but the implication was obvious—the rest was up to Danting to prove for himself.

Danting drew something with his left hand in the air. The next moment, an earthy magic array formed beneath him. He slammed his right palm into the array.

Boom!

It was the Level 20 Magic Swordsman skill, Array of Sentient Earth. As if the ground was heeding his call, soil surged from the ground and surrounded Danting in a thick spherical wall, wrapping him up like an egg. The thirty-six swords dove in with thrusts, slashes, and hacks, but none could even scratch the barrier of earth.

“Hmph!” Tripurity remained unfazed and swiftly formed another mudra—Level 28 Taoist skill, Swordsplosion.

Taoist had a unique combination of skills. Those thirty-six swords were created by the Level 5 skill, Mystical Swords. The higher its level, the more swords it could conjure, with thirty-six being the maximum.

Swordsplosion caused the wooden swords to explode, dealing massive damage. For every extra sword there was, the skill dealt thirty per cent more explosion damage. Now, all thirty-six swords had planted themselves into the earth barrier; even a paladin with full epic gear and invested all points into Constitution probably couldn’t withstand the blast, let alone Danting.

“Explode!”

The thirty-six swords vibrated violently and exploded together at Tripurity’s shout. They sounded like thirty-six individual bombs, yet together they formed one shuddering blast.

Players who sat closer to the sparring area were about to be blasted by the shockwave when Sir Hui casually waved his arm. An invisible barrier trapped the shockwave and protected the players.

Drako Yau squinted his eyes and thought, This wave of energy… This barrier… It’s almost unnoticeable.

Sir Hui had offset the shockwave with the perfect amount of his energy—not a tad bit more, not a tad bit less.

The sole wooden sword returned to Tripurity and rested on his back. The entire patio turned silent; the legendary sword wielder Danting didn’t survive even a single attack from Tripurity.

Tripurity locked his ambitious eyes with Sir Hui confidently as if to say he was more than qualified to be one of the five successors. His intention was clear as the sky despite him not voicing it out.

Sir Hui let out an elegant chuckle. He pointed behind Tripurity and said, “The battle is not over yet.”

Almost instantly, Tripurity felt the chills running all over him. The sound of metal clashing reached him before he could turn around. The Divine Martial Sword was a few inches before his eyes, blocked by a flying sword.

“Eh?” Danting leapt back after knowing that his strike was blocked. Like a curious child, he asked, “What’s this?”

On the other hand, Tripurity was sweating non-stop; only he knew how dangerous it was just now.

The transparent flying sword was his strongest defensive skill, the Level 35 Taoist skill Invisible Guardian. It functioned independently and required no control from the player, nor could it be controlled either. Instead, it automatically defended its owner from an attack that it deemed its owner was incapable of defending. It’d disappear and enter a ten-minute cooldown afterwards. In other words, Tripurity was immune to a single attack once every ten minutes.

Ten minutes might sound like a short cooldown, but with how fast-paced battles were in the game, it could only activate once before a fight concluded most of the time.

Tripurity knew that without Invisible Guardian, he’d already have fallen prey to Danting’s barrage of attacks. He had one question in mind: What just happened?

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