The final days of the rainy season went by pretty peacefully. Instead of heavy, violent downpours and strong winds, they turned into slow, gentle drizzles, and then one day, without any warning, the rain stopped completely.
The sunlight returned, flooding Zant Port with the warmth that had been missing for the past three months. You could see everyone's mood instantly improve. The normally deserted streets suddenly became crowded, as if this was just an everyday scene.
The happiest of all was probably Larry. That cat had been jumping all over the place since the rain stopped, and naturally, it dragged me by the neck to sunbathe with it. Needless to say, the sight of me suddenly bursting into flames caused quite a panic. Someone even used magic to try and put out the fire, and somehow accidentally blasted me way out into the sea.
I did mention I can't swim, didn't I? Luckily I was saved, by Larry in its true form. It goes without saying how much people freaked out when an S-rank monster suddenly ran through town and dove into the sea. Good thing Isolde stepped up to vouch for it, so we didn't have a situation where everyone tried to hunt Larry down like back in Wind Port.
But more importantly, I just found out my pet can fly without wings. It seems to have used some sort of wind magic to levitate, gliding through the air like a paper airplane.
That gave me the idea to use Larry as a mount. Imagining myself riding a giant furry beast flying around the world like a certain Airbender got me pretty hyped. But the moment I tried to climb on its back, it threw me right back into the sea. And this time, it didn't even bother to save me.
Luckily, a nearby fishing boat fished me out. According to them, my heart had stopped beating and I wasn't even breathing. But after being pulled ashore for a few minutes, I vomited up the water myself and came back to life.
Maybe this is a trait of a Blood Tribe or something. And I just added one more absolute must-do to my list: learn how to swim.
The consequence, however, was that I was unconscious for the rest of the day. And I missed the adventurer's guild's end-of-hunting-season party.
…
The next morning, we quickly packed our bags and set off to leave Zant Port like everyone else.
Back in the middle of the rainy season, I tried contacting the merchant caravan staying at our inn, and successfully hitched a ride with them to Milishion. Our job would be to protect them throughout the journey. That meant we didn't have to walk and could cut down our travel time.
The caravan had nine carriages in total. Most of them were transporting gems, metals, crafts, and especially materials gathered from the recent hunting season. As a crafting maniac, materials are what immediately catch my eye, naturally. However when looking them over, they only had stuff like animal pelts, fangs, bones, blah blah. Sounds like random junk (to me, at least), but they're actually worth quite a bit.
I also spent some money to buy a few things that piqued my interest, like the stomach of a 'Whole-Swallowing Frog'. It's a normal-sized frog, about as big as a ten-year-old kid. However, it can swallow an entire elephant thanks to the terrifying elasticity of its mouth and stomach. That's why people often use this monster's stomach to make highly durable bags, and the demand is pretty high too.
I planned to take that thing and apply some Water magic to it to make a freezer bag for preserving food. But I'll probably have to wait until we reach Milishion to actually make it. Right now, it's time to focus on bodyguarding the caravan.
Based on everyone's roles and abilities, we were assigned to different spots in the caravan. Isolde, with her defensive and observational skills, was assigned to the back to guard the rear. Talhand was in the middle for easy support. I was at the front with Roxy, our super badass duo King-tier mage. Because if there were any problems other than monsters, we could use magic to assist our movement. Like using magic to dry the ground to make it easier to travel, which is exactly what we were doing.
"We just got out of town and it's already like this, I don't know how it'll be once we enter the forest," I sighed. "How much mana is going to be enough?"
"You don't need to worry about that, Atur," Roxy explained. "Once we reach the Holy Sword Highway, there won't be any more problems."
"Holy Sword Highway?"
"It's the road created by the slash of Saint Millis in the bible. What kind of believer are you, Atur?" Isolde stared at me intensely.
"What," I pouted. "Just slipped my mind for a bit."
I actually knew what the Holy Sword Highway was, of course. It's a road that cuts straight through this entire Millis Continent, kind of like the Pan-American Highway. Pretty impressive, right? But that's nothing compared to what people usually say. Legend has it that this road was created by a divine slash from Saint Millis that cleaved through the continent and struck a Demon King on the Demon Continent. Absolutely surreal. So I always just assumed it was a road built by the Holy Kingdom of Millis, and they just used that propaganda story to attract more believers. Because even if this is a magical world, a single individual being strong enough to unleash a transcontinental strike like that is a bit too ridiculous.
However, when we actually reached that highway, I realized the story might just be true. Why, you ask? Was it because my faith in Millis convinced me? No, it's because ever since we left the town, the ground everywhere was extremely annoying, sticky mud. Yet, when we reached the Holy Sword Highway, it was unbelievably dry. As if a three-month-long rainy season hadn't just happened, while the forest on both sides of the road was still a slimy mess.
Saint Millis is fucking awesome!
My faith in Millis just leveled up a few dozen times.
"When we pass through the Blue Dragon Mountains, you'll see something even more miraculous."
With those words from Isolde, I genuinely looked forward to the day we'd reach the Blue Dragon Mountains at the edge of the Great Forest.
…
The first few days of the journey passed peacefully. Occasionally, a few monsters would sneak up to observe us, and I'd just release some bloodlust and they'd run away completely. That meant I didn't have to lift a finger too much. Which gave me free time to enjoy the scenery, like right now.
Raindrops lingering on leaves sparkled like precious gems before splashing away as a little bird hopped around; the chirping mixed with the patter of falling water to create a soothing natural symphony. Every now and then, some giant lizard would crawl by, opening its mouth to snap up the careless bird. The whole scene made me want to write a poem.
However, compared to those things, it was the stuff outside of nature that caught my attention more. Especially a faintly glowing stone monument lying by the side of the road.
I, being as curious as a cat, along with Larry, an actual 'cat', immediately crept over to investigate while the others were busy eating lunch.
"Hm? What's this?" I muttered to myself, staring at it.
At first glance, it was a stone slab about a meter tall sitting by the roadside, with symbols carved into it, emitting a faint glow. In the middle was a character written in the Fighting God language, and sorry, even though I studied this language before, after years of not using it, I seem to have forgotten it all. I almost forgot the Human Tongue after two years on the Demon Continent, for crying out loud.
And besides that Fighting God character, surrounding it were seven other symbols, also radiating that faint blue light typical of an activated magic circle. I could recognize a few of the symbols. Like that sword shape over there, if I'm not mistaken, belongs to the Sword God, and the axe-like symbol is the North God; I saw them back when I read books about the history of swordsmanship. Could this be...
"What are you doing, Atur?" Isolde suddenly appeared right behind me. Then, she looked at the stone slab in front of me and lowered her voice. "Don't break that thing, okay."
"Of course not." I glared at her. "What kind of person do you think I am?"
"You're the type whose eyes light up whenever you see an interesting magic implement." Isolde shrugged. "But dismantling a Seven World Powers monument is not a good idea."
"Oh, so this really is the Seven World Powers."
"Huh? You don't know?"
"This is the first time I see it." I admitted.
The Seven World Powers is a title given to the seven strongest individuals in the world. They are honored on stone monuments scattered across the world just like this one. I had heard about the existence of this thing and the Seven World Powers from the stories Mia told me since I was a kid.
"Honestly, I thought it'd be more impressive than a roadside rock like this," I added.
"Were you expecting it to be placed in a temple with a statue of each person or something?" Isolde asked, sounding more concerned than sarcastic.
"Uh..." I scratched my forehead. "By the way, Isolde, do you want to get your name on this list?"
Knowing her, the answer was definitely yes.
"It'd be a lie to say no," Isolde admitted, catching Larry as he jumped from my head into her arms. "I want to reach the fifth rank with the title of Water God."
"Fifth rank? I thought you'd always aim for the very top?"
"Take a look from the fourth rank upwards and you'll understand," Isolde replied, petting Larry.
"Fourth rank… huh?"
Only then did I suddenly realize why Isolde was only aiming for fifth. For an easier picture, let me list the ranks and the status of each person currently on the Seven World Powers list.
First: Technique God
Second: Dragon God
Third: Fighting God
Fourth: Demon God
Fifth: Death God
Sixth: Sword God
Seventh: North God
Leaving aside the fact that anyone from the top 4 upwards is a terrifyingly overpowered monster, anyone looking at the list would notice that some of these guys haven't been seen for hundreds or even thousands of years. Like the Demon God, Laplace, who got sealed away, so who knows why he's still on the list. The Fighting God is a hero from several thousand years ago, isn't he? If he was truly human, he'd be dead a few hundred times over by now.
I heard the Dragon God title changed hands after the Laplace War and isn't the hero Urupen anymore. Occasionally, when I was still at Necross Fortress, I heard that guy was a bit weird; he once pushed an old man off a cliff or just randomly blocked the road to beat people up for absolutely no reason. But word is that guy is super strong, his whereabouts are a mystery, and there are tons of disconnected rumors about him, so many people consider the current Dragon God to be just a myth that doesn't actually exist.
As for the Technique God... nobody knows who the hell he is, what his abilities are, or if he even appears in any stories. He just suddenly showed up, created this list, proclaimed himself the strongest, refused to elaborate, and vanished like a sigma.
Basically, I think they should just remove the ones who are missing, dead, or sealed away if this list is supposed to show who the strongest alive is right now.
"I wonder what the Technique God's purpose was in creating this?" I touched the slab; it was freezing cold.
"Maybe just to boast that he's the strongest?" Isolde replied.
"Sounds like a narcissist, doesn't it?"
"A narcissist with actual techniques."
Isolde was right about that. The 'actual skills' part, I mean.
Because if the Technique God could create a type of magic item that's rumored to update automatically, he's no joke. I heard that when someone defeats a ranked member, or the ranked members themselves settle a score, the order changes automatically. Basically, it's a premium top-tier leaderboard. If the Technique God is a superman in the field of creating magic items, that's pretty scary. Honestly, I wanted to smash this slab open to see its internal structure and copy whatever I could, then...
"Don't even think about it." Isolde glared at me.
"I know, I know. Just kidding." I waved my hands and laughed it off.
Anyway, let's ignore the 'why' for now and talk about the remaining people on the list who actually exist, yeah?
First is the North God in the seventh rank. This guy is the husband of Demon King Atofe, obviously, and also one of the three heroes who defeated Laplace back in the day. He's dead, so the title was passed down to his son, and now it's his grandson. I haven't had the chance to meet him, but according to what Calina said, that grandson is even stronger than Atofe, wielding some crazy overpowered sword which can control gravity or something. My head was thinking about the Gravity Gun of Doctor Freeman. And it seems because of the pressure created by his predecessors, the current North God set off on a journey to slay monsters and tyrants to become a hero like his father and grandfather.
Seeing someone actually working hard for the 'hero' title while I just cheated and used money to get it makes me feel a bit guilty. I just hope the guy doesn't find out the truth about me and decide to hunt me down to 'deal with the unworthy' or whatever. I'm seriously worrying about that, mind you.
But probably not; after all, I hear he's nearly a hundred years old, so he must be pretty mature. In my head, I'm picturing a badass, muscular old man laughing heartily and praising me for being smart or something, just like Lord Lan Xin.
Next is the Sword God, the head of the Sword God Style, ranked sixth among the Seven World Powers. The one currently holding that title is named Gal Farion, residing in the Sword Sanctum. That place where the Sword God and Water God factions randomly punch each other over it. According to what I was told, our master Reida and the Sword God are rivals too. However, the results of their matches heavily tilt in the Sword God's favor.
Given the nature of the Water God Style, which inherently counters the Sword God Style, and with Master Reida being an extremely powerful Water God who even created her own secret technique... for her to still lose means this Gal guy must definitely be terrifyingly strong.
Ah, moving on, the last one is the Death God, right? I heard rumors this guy is related to the Rybak family of the North God or something? That came from the Ultimate Four, so I don't really buy it (and I couldn't be bothered to ask Moore to confirm, so oh well), but it seems the Death God also spent some time at Necross Fortress. And like the North God, I heard this guy wanders all over the place, occasionally engaging in impromptu duels for long periods. But now he's suddenly vanished without a trace for many years. Maybe he just died of old age or something.
Anyway, that's the list of the seven strongest people; a bunch of terrifyingly overpowered individuals (or ones who might not even exist).
Seems like back in the day, Master Reida had the idea of turning me into the hard counter for that sixth-ranked Sword God. The thought of beating one of the Seven World Powers to get on a leaderboard like this is pretty cool, but I'm not sure if I can actually pull it off. After all, even though I'm vastly stronger than before, if I were to fight Lord Lan Xin or Atofe fairly, I still wouldn't win, let alone against one of the strongest people in the world.
But didn't I promise Eris I'd climb to the top 1 of this list? Well, I'll just do my best and see how it goes.
At worst, if I can't beat them, I'll just surrender or run away, no big deal.
…
Nearly a month passed, and we finally made it out of the Great Forest, a forest as huge as a sub-continent.
The reason we moved so fast was because, true to its name, the Holy Sword Highway was incredibly safe, so we just kept moving straight ahead without encountering any obstacles. The carriages moved swiftly thanks to that, speeding forward through the entire forest.
At this point, we stopped by a small dwarven settlement. Talhand didn't look too happy arriving at this place, but since it wasn't his hometown, it wasn't a huge deal.
The caravan stopped here to sell their goods. And I took my time to search for something interesting but failed to find anything, too bad. After about two days, they resumed their journey south. The very next day, we reached the Blue Dragon Mountains.
It was a massive mountain range that stretched as far as my eyes could see. It was like The Wall from Westeros. According to what I was told, there are absolutely no natural passes through these mountains. The only way through is the very Holy Sword Highway we were on, which cuts straight through the entire range in a perfect line. Not a single rock ever falls here either; Isolde said it's because Saint Millis's magic protects this place, but I completely don't understand the mechanics of it.
Maybe someday I'll try to look deeper into the mysteries of this highway.