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.

***

the water clan 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

will be happy when I tell him what I’ve experienced

king wept bitterly 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 different from humans. The water clan members were very loud, as if they had forgotten Grid was at the

will always be

his thoughts and went

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

low houses. He rummaged through

[Spirit Stone]

when activating

energy from spirit stones, gradually recovering a total

magic stone belonging

of spiritual energy. Given that Grid’s spiritual energy

that the dead woman had

[Hwajamsa Ceremonial Clothing]

Defense: 0

a robe made from the thread of

spiritual energy into it and train it,

itself when

was because of this outfit that her defense

purple ceremonial robe was beautiful, even though it appeared old-fashioned. This particular style was uncommon even on the East Continent and the item itself performed quite well. Grid contemplated gifting

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

there’s more

8,000 spiritual energy was semi-permanent. Just as the description of the ceremonial clothing explained, it wasn’t known

had 0 defense when

certain was that even the armor of the cultivators couldn’t be looked down upon. Grid’s expression became a bit serious as he

‘Hwajamsa Ceremonial Clothing’ to train it. The defense

definite effect. It meant that the clothing of cultivators could also be classified as a treasure. Of course, not all

a rare treasure

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

‘Annihilation energy works best.’

was that the total amount of Annihilation energy was only 100,000. The amount consumed by injecting it normally was only a few dozen, but the recovery speed was slower than that of mana.

a lot of power, then Annihilation energy would drain rapidly. He’d been

energy into the ‘Hwajamsa Ceremonial

[The training has failed.]

couldn’t cope

“Um...”

the clothes enough time to be properly

the recovering piece of clothing aside. Then he examined

[Ten Thousand Death Swords]

killing nine thousand worshipers of a divine tree in a most brutal way and sprinkling their blood on the tree to corrupt it,

belonging to the bloodline of the

had their heads cut off while they were still alive, and their heads

melted silver of the Demon World, which contain

order to wake them up and unleash the ‘Four Auspicious Directions Blood Flames,’ the user’s flesh and blood must be offered as a sacrifice.

energy alone can’t fully utilize the power of Ten Thousand Death