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Chapter 55




<Chapter 55: The God of Martial Arts Regressed to Level 2>
* * *
A sinister darkness began to seep into the sunlit stadium.
The bizarre phenomenon of darkness pushing back the light.
Seong Jihan, who witnessed this, gathered his inner energy.
‘A magical power so overwhelming that it can’t even be felt… It’s impossible to overcome this.’
No matter how much power and force he possessed, at his current level, it was impossible to overcome the power of the throne.
‘But, I don’t need to win.’
Seong Jihan recalled the content of the epic quest.
[Find the Shadow Queen in the audience seats of the Colosseum map and provoke her.]
The quest he received was not to fight the Shadow Queen but to find and provoke her.
The condition to find the Shadow Queen seemed to be cleared, but…
‘Since the quest hasn’t been completed… I haven’t managed to provoke her yet.’
How can I provoke the Shadow Queen?
Even if I throw the Phoenix Arrow into that darkness again, it won’t have any effect.
Just as Seong Jihan was deep in thought.
Swoosh—
The Phoenix Arrow he had sent through the barrier had returned to his hand.
‘It returned even after entering that darkness… The characteristic of returning remains intact.’
Even though the Phoenix Arrow, which returns to its owner once thrown, was expected to lose its function due to the powerful darkness.
The Phoenix Arrow was emitting a strong white light as usual, seemingly approved by the Shadow Queen.
‘Hmm.’
As Seong Jihan infused his energy into the Phoenix Arrow, the white light grew stronger, illuminating the surroundings that were being eroded by darkness.
At that moment.
He felt something twitch beneath his feet.
Looking down, Seong Jihan saw that his long shadow had transformed into a strange shape.
‘This is…’
The head of the shadow had transformed into the shape of a sword.
At the same time.
Swoosh!
The shadow, now shaped like a sword, suddenly leaped up, trying to pierce through Seong Jihan’s body.
But Seong Jihan, who had been on guard since the shadow began to change, easily dodged it.
Sss—
The sword-shaped shadow, losing its form, disappeared.
The shadow on the ground immediately returned to its original shape but soon transformed into a sword again.
‘The shadow is being supplied with foreign magical power. This will never end.’
Not only that.
Even though the shadow was set aside, the darkness outside was still pouring into the stadium.
If this continued, there would be no solution.
‘I need to understand the situation first.’
Seong Jihan decided to retreat.
Crack!
Just as he was about to use the Thousand Lightning Steps.
“…?”
A slight current rose from his legs, slowing down the shadow’s transformation.
‘Lightning works.’
Once more.
This time, when he used the Thousand Lightning Steps, he deliberately let the lightning energy derived from it flow onto the ground, and the shadow visibly became paralyzed.
‘I can suppress the magical power flowing into the shadow, but I can’t make it disappear completely.’
No matter how much Seong Jihan tried to eliminate the foreign magical power with lightning, it didn’t completely disappear.
‘I’ll leave it as it is for now.’
Having made this decision, Seong Jihan used the Thousand Lightning Steps to find other players.
* * *
The stadium was in chaos.
“What, what is this? What kind of shadow…?”
“Ah, aaaaah!”
The screams of players echoed everywhere.
Unlike Seong Jihan, who had suppressed the shadow and could move freely, other players were helplessly attacked by their own shadows, which had transformed into swords.
Trying to block the attacks with shields or shield spells was futile.
For some reason, the shadows ignored the players’ defenses and instantly took their lives.
[There are 5 survivors.]
[The TOP 100 promotion match will soon end.]
The number of survivors rapidly decreased, and Seong Jihan became anxious upon seeing the system message.
‘I haven’t completed the epic quest yet.’
How can I provoke the Shadow Queen?
He looked around.
Besides the barrier he had broken, all the barriers in the stadium had been dismantled, and darkness was pouring in from all sides.
In the center of the stadium, four players were still alive, seemingly unaffected by the darkness and not attacked by the shadows.
But their shadows were also wriggling, indicating that their time was running out.
‘I need to save them first.’
Whoosh!
Seong Jihan used the Thousand Lightning Steps to approach the survivors.
“Charging…!”
As Seong Jihan approached at a terrifying speed, a warrior panicked and tried to use a skill.
Thud, thud.
“Ugh…?!”
Seong Jihan lightly tapped the warrior’s body, as if it wasn’t worth engaging.
At the same time.
He stepped on the warrior’s shadow with his foot, which was charged with electricity.
Crack!
The shadow sword that threatened the player disappeared and returned to its original form.
‘What… Why is he helping us?’
Blink, blink.
The warrior, now a log due to the pressure points being hit, could only blink in confusion.
Seong Jihan lifted the warrior with force and moved the other three survivors to the center of the stadium using the same method.
“…”
All four players stood side by side in the center of the stadium, frozen like statues.
They could only blink and look at Seong Jihan, unable to do anything.
If he let them die, he would win, so what is he thinking?
The four players looked at Seong Jihan with puzzled eyes.
But Seong Jihan, without even glancing at them, stared at the darkness encroaching from all sides.
From his observations so far.
Although the darkness looked the same, there was clearly a difference in power within it.
‘To confirm this…’
Crack!
Seong Jihan sent electricity into the shadows of the four players, including his own.
The shadows, which were trying to transform into swords, immediately returned to their original form but continued to try to transform.
However, Seong Jihan’s intention was not to completely suppress the shadows.
He wanted to observe from which direction the magical power flowed into the shadows when he gave them a strong stimulus.
Soon, a strange energy extended from the northeast darkness.
At the same time, the shadows, which had been completely suppressed by the lightning, quickly recovered.
‘It’s from there.’
He was certain.
The Shadow Queen was where he had created the hole.
Now that he knew her location, all that was left was to provoke her by dealing a blow.
However, with the Three Disasters and No Extremes, it was a distant goal to reach the Shadow Queen.
Although the Three Disasters and No Extremes was a powerful martial art, the opponent was far beyond the norm.
In fact, no matter what martial art Seong Jihan used now, it would be beyond his capabilities.
However.
Among the martial arts he could use, there was one.
By exploiting the opponent’s weakness to lightning, he could deal a blow to the darkness.
Whoosh!
The Phoenix Arrow burned again.
This time, it not only contained white flames but also blue lightning.
‘Although I haven’t fully learned the Nameless Art…’
It wasn’t a skill registered in the game.
But his body remembered it well.
The advanced martial arts of the Nameless Art.
The three divine seals.
Seong Jihan unleashed the most suitable martial art for this situation.
Nameless Art
Heavenly Lightning Divine Seal
Thunderbolt Flash
One of the advanced martial arts of the Nameless Art, the art of the Lightning God.
This power, which excels in suppressing darkness and evil, was too high a level for the current Seong Jihan to fully wield.
Even if he had completely learned the Nameless Art from the wandering god, he wouldn’t have been able to fully execute this move.
However.
‘If my level is insufficient, I can borrow from the Phoenix Arrow.’
The Phoenix Arrow, an item that disappears after five uses.
But in terms of power alone, the Phoenix Arrow possessed a formidable strength comparable to SS-grade.
Thus, Seong Jihan drew the missing power from the Phoenix Arrow to perform the Thunderbolt Flash.
Sizzle!
Seong Jihan’s right hand, holding the Phoenix Arrow, burned from the heat.
This was a side effect of trying to use an advanced martial art without the support of the Nameless Art’s skills.
Intense pain spread through his hand.
This was the result of not using the Battle.net Connector, but Seong Jihan didn’t frown; instead, he smiled.
Rumble!
Because the thunder roared from the Phoenix Arrow.
“I’ve succeeded…”
Seong Jihan took a throwing stance.
All the muscles in his upper body, including his arms and shoulders, contracted as if they were about to burst.
His shoes were torn apart by the destructive force.
And then.
Crack!
A sound of the atmosphere being torn apart echoed from Seong Jihan.
The Phoenix Arrow, now a bolt of white flame, split the darkness as it left his hand.
At the same time.
The darkness that seemed ready to engulf the stadium receded, revealing a figure.
A dark elf with black eyes, who had just been making eye contact with Seong Jihan.
Seong Jihan’s brows furrowed.
The figure, presumed to be the Shadow Queen, had revealed herself.
Moreover, she was standing directly in the path of the Phoenix Arrow, which was emitting a destructive force.
However.
“…Tsk.”
The Phoenix Arrow, which had been flying, abruptly stopped in front of the dark elf.
[--------.]
As she recited an unknown language.
The flames of the Phoenix Arrow gradually died down, and the lightning lost its power.
The Phoenix Arrow, which seemed ready to engulf the dark elf, soon returned to its original form as a white spear.
It appeared that Seong Jihan’s all-out move had been in vain.
At that moment.
Crack!
A bolt of white lightning grazed the dark elf’s left cheek.
The second lightning strike of the Thunderbolt Flash.
The lightning from Seong Jihan’s completely burned right hand had followed the Phoenix Arrow.
‘Although the power of the advanced martial art Thunderbolt Flash wasn’t fully released, it became a delayed attack…’
This turned out to be advantageous.
And for a brief moment.
The dark elf’s left cheek, slightly scorched, returned to normal.
[…….]
The dark elf stopped speaking and touched her face.
Although the second attack Seong Jihan had prepared only caused minor damage to her.
[You have provoked the Shadow Queen.]
[You have completed the epic quest.]
[You have earned 50,000 achievement points as a reward.]
For Seong Jihan, this was enough.
After all, this attack was solely to provoke the Shadow Queen.
[-----------.]
The dark elf with black eyes spoke and extended her right hand.
The darkness that had enveloped the area instantly disappeared, gathering in her hand to form a sword.
A black sword of overwhelming size, extending from her hand to the sky.
Swoosh.
At the same time, the shadows of all living players writhed.
Until now, the shadows had been restrained by Seong Jihan’s electricity, but as the dark elf exert