Overgeared

“Our people have once again received His Majesty’s favor.”

The king of the water clan bowed as the cheering crowd watched. He was ready to bow even deeper, but Grid stopped him.

“How much are you going to humble yourself in front of your people?”

The eyes of the king of the water clan were dark. He smiled and said, “Does being humble count when one is courteous to a great person?”

It was a shame that Siren was still dependent on the empire despite receiving their support for so many years. He even felt guilty toward Grid.

“I am sorry to be indebted to Your Majesty every time.”

Grid shook his head. “The enemy who invaded your clan this time was too high level. Had they targeted the empire’s cities, they would’ve done a lot of damage. Siren was just unlucky.”

The waters around Siren were inhabited by a large number of powerful monsters. Grid had always been grateful to the king and people of Siren for thoroughly protecting the kingdom from those monsters and supplying the empire with specialties that couldn’t be obtained on land.

Noticing Grid’s approval, the king and his people bowed deeply. “I’m just grateful to Your Majesty.”

Grid realized just how high these people regarded him, and how influential of a figure he was to them. He carefully considered what to say before speaking up.

“Why don’t you take this opportunity to send talented clan members to the capital to study? As you know, the capitol is home to the Magic Tower and the Sword Tower. Recently, the great sage Sticks has been systematically researching new training methods, and he’s planning to offer a course on them at the academy.”

“If you are talking about new ways of training...” the king trailed off. His face paled. The techniques used by the woman who had sacrificed her fingers to the silver sword adorned with skulls seemed to flash through his mind.

Sensing the king’s confusion, Grid explained the concept of spiritual roots and cultivators. He added that he would send troops to protect Siren to replace the dead fighters, and also ask Euphemina to build stronger barriers.

The king thought about it for a while before nodding.

“The young people of the kingdom will gladly accept the precious opportunity Your Majesty has given them. Attendant, prepare the talent screening test right away. We must make thorough preparations so that His Majesty won’t be disappointed.”

“There is no need for that.”

Grid pulled out the Emperor's Sword. He activated Barbatos’ Vision to quickly review the status windows of the hundreds of thousands of water clan members. It took a lot of time, but Grid was patient.

The God Hands pointed fingers at thousands of young clan members. There were cries of surprise from everywhere. Many of those pointed out were famous for their talent.

Siren’s nobles looked at Grid with disbelief and admiration. They were shocked because of what they’d just witnessed. “You have a very discerning eye.”

Apparently, all those people that Grid pointed out were very talented—about eight thousand water clan members in total. The people had no idea that there were so many talented members within the nation with the potential of becoming equals.

The young people, who had been born as commoners and hadn’t had the opportunity to show off their talents, were also impressed. The emperor of the empire personally recognized their talents, which the nation didn’t know about. They felt like main characters in a fairy tale.

“The empire will be responsible for dealing with any obstacles that may arise when the water clan members operate on land. You shouldn’t worry and instead devote yourself to studying.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty!”

The young people of the water clan tribe and their families smiled from ear to ear. The hope and enthusiasm in their eyes made Grid happy.

‘This is it. I want to keep seeing sights like this.’

Grid remembered the days when he would fight to the death and felt very rewarded.

***

held a banquet for Grid and the young clan members. Since Grid was in a good mood, he didn’t refuse the king’s offer. For the sake of the young clan members who were leaving their hometown, they sat down and livened up the atmosphere of

will be happy when I tell

because he missed the princess. The nobles, who were from different factions, threw their glasses and got into a fight. The youths cheered enthusiastically. Maybe they were lightweights, or maybe their emotions were

always be a

thoughts and

the bottom of the sea, where neither sunlight nor moonlight reached. There was something distinct and enigmatic about this city. Pink and blue sparkling

curiously observed the lumpy, round roofs of the low houses. He rummaged through his

[Spirit Stone]

activating certain formations or bans, or when

spiritual energy from spirit stones,

a magic stone belonging to

worthless. It had many uses, and it restored quite a considerable amount of spiritual energy. Given that Grid’s spiritual energy was only 8,000, cultivators with a low level like Grid would treat it

the clothes that the

[Hwajamsa Ceremonial Clothing]

Defense: 0

robe made from the thread of a silkworm endowed with

train it, the higher your fire resistance and defense will

itself

because of this outfit that her defense was

performed

but at least the item was capable of self-repairing. As an experiment, he injected all of his 8,000 spiritual

there’s more

the ceremonial

to how much defense it can have. Seeing as it had 0 defense when it was dropped, the amount of defense must be consumed every time the wearer takes damage in

what was certain was that even the armor of the cultivators couldn’t be looked down upon. Grid’s expression

it. The defense power of the ‘Hwajamsa Ceremonial

was less efficient than spiritual energy, but it had a definite effect. It meant that the clothing of cultivators could also be classified as a treasure. Of course, not all cultivators would be able to wear this type of clothing. The

be a rare treasure for

energy into the ‘Hwajamsa Ceremonial Clothing’ to train it. The defense power

‘Annihilation energy works best.’

injecting it normally was only a few dozen, but the recovery speed was slower than that of

energy would drain rapidly. He’d been

20,000 Annihilation energy into the ‘Hwajamsa Ceremonial Clothing’

[The training has failed.]

was damaged because it couldn’t cope with the excessive spiritual

“Um...”

he had to give the clothes enough time

aside. Then he

[Ten Thousand Death Swords]

worshipers of a divine tree in a most brutal way and sprinkling

the bloodline of the Four Auspicious Beasts were forced into solitude to

cut off while they were still alive, and

to the melted silver of the Demon World,

the ‘Four Auspicious Directions Blood Flames,’ the user’s flesh and blood must be offered as a

can’t fully utilize the power of