Level 0 Master

First fight. I will win by being smart.

"Jenna, I'll explain the plan now."

"Yes, sir."

Princess Ereka reconfirmed the terrain she chose on the opposite side of the place where Sungjin was explaining his plan.

There is one path and only two turrets, one in the center and another in the base camp.

There were neutral monsters in the forest, but they were not worth engaging while leaving the puppet soldiers behind.

A map of honest struggles in a 1:1 fight. This was fit for a duel, and there was no room for variables.

What could a level 0 do on this map, where it was impossible to take even a detour to attack the enemy's base camp? It was cruel to choose a map that blocked him from using his resource.

But I can't fight against the Blood Ruler if I can't overcome this impossible condition.

Entering the battlefield, Ereka shouted aloud, "Virtus Successio!"

Her inner Heroic Power was let free as she spoke the spell aloud. Golden mana comparable with the sun enveloped her body in a blaze of brilliance. The heart of a girl who dreamed of love was sealed deep. She became a knight determined to fight and win.

But her figure was rather beautiful. Her smooth skin was fresh and clear, and the protective gear that focused on convenience and brevity of motion showed her curves without a hindrance.

She didn't need thick and blunt armor. That was why the golden Heroic Power, which covered her entire body, had a defensive power that went over the castle walls.

Blond hair that shone brighter than the sun's rays reflected off of her platinum armor, and spirits of wind hovered around her, scrambling to offer praise. Her steps were imposing, and her spear and shield were firm.

The holy virgin standing on the battlefield embraced her nobility and proud beauty.

If Sungjin was an ordinary person, he would be more awe-inspired, but if he were truly the demidevil, he would go crazy with desire.

Ereka pushed her way through vigorously, scattering her pure and glorious holy beauty along the way.

* * *

Princess Ereka faced Jenna at the most important place of the battleground, which was just at the center where the turrets of both sides were facing each other. Puppet soldiers of both sides marched with a mechanical walk along the road.

"I can't see him."

"Yes, that's what I'm saying… He is only conducting me from a safe place," Jenna replied as her knife tail stirred. Her ears were fitted with Wind Spirit Stone earrings to convey a long distance conversation.

"That's a wise judgment."

Ereka raised her spear high. She would have caught him with a skill shot at the moment he appeared before her, even if he was backed up by a turret.

Unlike Jenna, who had some defense capability as a level 4, Sungjin who was level 0, would be a one-hit kill.

I don't expect your resource to be great, but I'll watch.

Her spear pierced an approaching puppet soldier.

In fact, the puppet soldiers had the combat power of elite soldiers, a class that civilians had to train professionally for more than three years in order to achieve. But they were powerless in front of Ereka.

In response, Jenna also raised Thor's hammer and fired lightning bombs. Lightning energy bombs the size of watermelons hit the puppet soldiers one by one.

But their force was not equal at all.

Jenna was just hiding herself behind the turret and using her range to hold out, while Ereka was in front of the turret and was slaughtering soldiers within range as soon as they approached.

Even time was not on the former's side.

The princess had the artifact, "Shield of all People," even if both sides had the same amount of crystals.

Compared to the usual magic-enhancing items that Jenna would implement, the resistance power that the Shield of all People granted was overwhelming. Victory was promised to the princess.

I can't see where the hell this resource is.

Princess Ereka breathed a sigh of disappointment.

"Please give him my message. If he doesn't come up with any tricks by the time I come back, it's over."

The turret and Jenna's cautious movements no longer served as a defense line, if Ereka had the Shield of all People. It would be over if Ereka pushed her way through and cut everything down.

"Y—Yes! I'll tell him."

What the hell is he doing?

Jenna's knife tail made a question mark. Sungjin didn't explain the details of the plan to her. He simply delivered a very basic policy of holding out with the turret and gathering crystals to strengthen her spell power. That was just a standard procedure that anyone would do.

But this was really marginal. The situation couldn't be held out any longer if Princess Ereka came back.

This is nonsense, isn't it? I'll do as you told me, but I'll charge you with insulting the princess when this is over…

It was obvious that the princess would forgive due to her soft heart, after all. She returned to the base camp to strengthen her spell power once more.

And then the duel entered a new aspect.

The energy of burning lightning was poured out, and high-temperature rays were stretched out. These rays created a fire net that even the monsters wouldn't dare to approach.

But the holy virgin, holding her shining shield high, walked proudly through it without a doubt in her victory. Lightning hit the shield, but it died away helplessly. The rays hit her armor, but they couldn't even give her a minor-degree burn.

This was obviously an advance, but it had more pressure than the advance of a military tank.

The figure raising her spear proudly before was like the goddess of war herself that ruled the battlefield.

Jenna, feeling no longer manageable, turned her back and ran away. Even though she was a child, she had the speed of the wind and a body that had already transcended human limitations.

But the swiftness of the princess chasing her was like a gale. In an instant, the distance between the two became nothing, and the spear that cut down through the air signaled the end of the game.

This blow ended the duel.

From the beginning, there was no room to do anything in front of the overwhelming level difference.

At that moment, a curtain of ice was formed and blocked the attack. Ereka's powerful spear smashed against the curtain and destroyed half of it, but her attack couldn't reach Jenna.

"What?"

Ereka was momentarily embarrassed by the implementation of the skill that Jenna couldn't have done.

Who did that?

"Sir?"

"I came just in time."

Sungjin appeared from the forest and smiled.

"Your level is 0. How can you… is that a separate power of the Other World?" Ereka, wondered, soon realizing the secret of what had just happened. "It's an item. The Scepter of the Frost Queen. How did you get it?"

"Of course, I bought it with crystals," Sungjin replied.

"I mean, how did you get the crystals?"

Ereka felt that one of the absolute laws was shaken. Cracks had come into the physical world made with common sense. Such a thing could not happen.

The puppet soldiers were hunted by her and Jenna. There were neutral monsters in the forest, but a level 0 extra couldn't hunt.

"Jenna said you were operating safely from your base camp!"

"I might have said a safe place, but I didn't say base camp. The forest is safe as long as it's a blind spot in your mind."

"Tch. But you at level 0 couldn't have been able to hunt monsters in the forest!"

"I implemented a hunting trap with the crystals given in the beginning."

"Trap…?"

She had never thought that.

The only things that could be implemented with crystals were arming equipment, potions for consumption, Wind Spirit Stones for communication, or Vision Stones for securing vision, and so on.

That's all I thought about, but did he really use a hunting trap?

It was the Valkyrie of the battlefield who gave out any items for the proper amount of crystals, as long as it wasn't an artifact.

The hero class hunted monsters with their skills and Heroic Power originally because they didn't think of using traps that were implemented by hunters of the extra class.

The destruction of common sense—this was a brilliant idea that simply outmaneuvered the opponent.

"How can…"

Once they caught the weakest giant wolf and increased their crystals and got better equipment, then, even a level 0 would have been able to hunt a little bit.

The result was the Scepter of the Frost Queen.

This was not comparable to the Shield of all People, but it was an advanced magic item with its own Heroic Power of ice.

Sungjin shook the scepter again.

"Ice Shackle."

As he spoke, an ice storm wound around Ereka and tied her feet.

"That's only for a few seconds!"

An item of such power could not work against Ereka's own resistance power, and so she used her Heroic Power to push free of the curse of ice.

"That's enough."

But Sungjin's smile of victory was caught in his mouth.

There was a triple magic square under Jenna's feet who had just turned back, and a pleasant voice uttered an incantation.

A pattern of lightning swirled quickly—it was Thor's huge hammer that covered the sky and hid the sun. Its real name was Mjolnir.

"Mjolnir!"

The deafening thunder was already a shock wave rather than a sound. The heated air current rushed through the wind. But what was truly feared was Thor's hammer itself that descended as burning white light enveloped it.

The shock wave broke the earth, and lightning burnt everything. The trees were charred in an instant, and the rocks were broken and splintered.

The blackened soil rose with the storm so that the sandstorm blocked all views, and the tearing roar even paralyzed your hearing.

This was the Ultimate of a level 4 wizard, the best skill of Jenna, a lightning wizard.

Everything in the area was devastated. The center hit down by the hammer's head was simply annihilated.

The sandstorm subsided slowly.

And…

In it, Ereka stood like a burnt body beside her spear which was like a stick now.

Even the knight class, having very high resistance power, couldn't withstand an Ultimate spell.

"That was a great linked attack," Ereka praised from the bottom of her heart.

She would have either rushed into the middle of casting and cut it off or dodged it by stepping out of the range of Jenna's Ultimate, Mjolnir. But Sungjin tied her feet with the magic power of ice so that both were impossible.

A great plan that proved to be equipped with items by hunting neutral monsters, overturned the common sense that a level 0 couldn't do anything on the battlefield.

I have to admit that he has a different power from the general extra class.

"But that's all it was."

She gathered the Heroic Power throughout her whole body, and her wounded body was restored to its original condition in a single breath. Even the dust on her armor was blown away in a single shot. Her weapons once again shone with their natural light of brilliance and authority.

The majestic beauty of a holy virgin standing tall in the middle of the ruin was flawless.

"That kind of blow would consume only a certain amount of my Heroic Power."

If Sungjin had the twice power, he could have ended the game. But Jenna being level 4 in the end, would not be enough.

"You can't win!"

The gap was not so small as to be overturned by a blow. One's level was the absolute law that ruled this world. It was a unique indicator of one's class. If he could break it by just one single fresh idea, they could not have kept this law for thousands of years.

"Wow. Even my Ultimate can't win, even though it can harm her a bit. What do we do now," Jenna asked Sungjin.

"Once…"

Sungjin's secret plan was,

"Run away!"

It was just a retreat, the 36th stratagem.

"How long do you think we can run?"

Ereka quickly chased after the two who were running hard into the woods. The deficit in power she received after being hit by Mjolnir had recovered shortly.

Sungjin waved the Scepter of the Frost Queen hurriedly and tried to slow her movements, but that didn't bother Ereka.

That scepter, a consumable item, had a limited number of uses as it had a powerful effect.

If my memory is correct, I can use it three more times, maybe four more times.

It was only a nuisance to dodge, but it couldn't be treated as a threat to Ereka. The only thing to be wary of was when it was linked with Jenna's Mjolnir, but one's Ultimate needed a long time to charge before it could be used again. The Scepter of the Frost Queen would be consumed before it could recharge, and she could surely knock them down.

I don't know if there are four more uses of the Scepter of the Frost Queen… but that can't be expected because he can't have collected so many crystals.

Maybe it was the last one, or maybe he bought another one by hunting at high speed. But she was still relaxed.

Was this situation really that urgent?

Sungjin used up all the scepters three times in a row.

A little gap was made, but it was only a last resort. Ereka went after them again shortly, and they couldn't do anything afterward. They got caught in an instant.

Ereka, who approached from the center of the forest, finally aimed her spear.

"You may not have anything more. It was a good resource, but you should realize that the gap between level 4 and 6 is too big to overcome."

"Hoo. You only think that I do not have anything more,"

"You are bluffing."

"If you think it's a bluff, why don't you try it out? You're only a few steps away."

Jenna, beside him, held her hammer without saying a word and was prepared to use the General skill. But Ereka was confident that Jenna's attack would not be a big threat to her.

"I'm going to do so."

There was no use in taking more. There was no reason to give Jenna time to recharge her Ultimate.

Ereka made a bold dash and stabbed her spear with force, and Sungjin and Jenna were pierced immediately.

An… illusion?

Ereka was embarrassed.

They talked a little while ago. But, they were phantoms… A virtual phantom implemented so elaborately and so realistically that she could not even see it herself?

Miss Jenna doesn't have such a skill. She's got it as an item, but… The scene of them running away and talking was perfectly real. But did she also have a high-ranked item following the Scepter of the Frost Queen? That's impossible…

No. That was not it. Ereka confirmed the Video Stone embedded beneath the ground where the two phantoms had disappeared.

This was a simple recording item that captured the actual image made in front of the stone and played. It was cheaper than the item of the phantom system that made a fake fantasy real.

It has been running until now… From when did I start to follow this phantom?

The answer was…

From the… the beginning?

The two hid when they were blinded by the shock of Mjolnir, and she only tracked down the prepared phantoms.

The reason why the Scepters of the Frost Queen were used out one after another during her first chase was because she blew them up when she was inside the shooting range from the ambush site, not because she was embarrassed.

But… how did they do this with the Vision Stone for recording actual behavior?

Maybe… when they inspected the battlefield last night, they foresaw the development of the present situation and they recorded their actions together!

But what about the natural conversation?

He… he even predicted the timing!?

That's ridiculous. Knowing that she would catch up with him at that point and say that… that's impossible.

"It's possible."

At Sungjin's words, Jenna tilted her knife tail.

"Hmm? What?"

"Ahh. That's what I told the princess."

"Huh? Are you talking with her through the Wind Spirit Stone?"

"No, but this is about the time that she's thinking about it."

Sungjin smiled slightly.

"Eh? How do you know that?"

"Ah, she's so simple that she's easy to read."

The tracker's speed, the escapee's speed, the variable speed along the terrain of the path, the time change due to items, and the timing of their conversation pattern —if you combined and calculated all these variables, this was only so so.

But I didn't do this just to show off my abilities of predictability.

"Start."

"Yes."

Jenna shot up the lightning bullets as he had asked.

"Lightball!"

Dozens of small lightning balls having good range soared high into the sky. The power of each one was at a normal level, but Jenna's general magic had the advantage of having a good range, and she could shoot dozens of balls at the same time.

It was useful, but it was not a threat to Princess Ereka even if she were to be bombarded by them.

It's supposed to be…

Watching the lightning energy that didn't even target her, Princess Ereka felt an unknown fear. The demidevil brought her here with a sophisticated trick. Was it because he was bored?

Clang.

The ice trap tied her legs again… the Touch of the Frost Queen, a disposable installation item that slowed down the movement speed of approaching enemies temporarily. It was hidden underground.

It was just a cheap damage level 0 item that slowed down movement, but its sound became a horror now.

Lightning fell all over the forest here and there, and in the next moment, flames soared through the entire forest.

Jenna also forgot to shake her knife tail when she saw the scene that her blow created.

"Wow, that's all fire… even though the trees are dry because it is the winter… you've oiled the trees here and there all over the forest, haven't you?"

"Yes, I've done it."

"I've never seen oil embodied with crystals on the battlefield."

This admiration wasn't just acting. It was real.

"Well, I couldn't do such a thing even in the game I played on earth."

Sungjin smiled slightly.

The use of geography was the basis of military discipline, and it was natural in games. However, it was possible to apply different applications depending on the location.

The principles that have reached their source are applied freely after breaking down stereotypes. That's the secret of his victory.

The idea that daily items like oil could be recreated was beyond the common sense of the hero class here, who were busy re-creating magical items and artifacts.

But Sungjin was not tied to one frame of the game even though he was a gamer!