Chapter 138: 138
"My absolute darling, you haven’t had a proper taste of high-grade lifeforce ever since I drew you from the system," Zeke murmured, addressing his katana—the Infinite Edge of Kismet’s Call—as his gaze swept over the dense cluster of monsters slowly encircling his position.
"Random Slash." He executed a lazy, horizontal arc with the blade.
An omnidirectional, crescent wave of pure, condensed mana erupted from the edge, cleanly shearing through the necks of every single beast within a fifty-yard radius in a synchronized spray of dissolving essence.
"Yeah, S-rank monsters are honestly complete garbage nowadays," Zeke sighed, scratching his cheek as he casually shook the blade clean.
{Then perhaps you should stop hunting in the beginner zones and seek out entities that actually possess a pulse.}
"Do you honestly think I enjoy dealing with trash mobs? The problem is that SS-rank entities feel exactly the same, and all the SSS-rank anomalies have already been locked down by Elio and the senior saints. I am literally reduced to playing the role of the generic neighborhood hero, rescuing weaklings from these overblown lizards."
And that was the fundamental tragedy of possessing absolute conceptual traits. [Pride] systematically neutralized any incoming damage or status effects originating from individuals whose global metrics fell below his own. And due to his hyper-focused, absurdly optimized training regimen—which, with the benefit of hindsight, he probably shouldn’t have pushed so hard—the trait didn’t merely rely on simple numerical ranks. It evaluated every single combat vector, layer of reality, and hidden capability of his opponents against his own total profile.
His currently active [Giant’s Dominion] stockpile boosted his baseline physical attributes by a staggering 80%. He had [Sunder]. He possessed peak saint-ranked magical theory. Not to mention his completely broken utility engine consisting of [Predatory Mimicry] and [Grand Archmage]—the former allowing him to seamlessly replicate any observed phenomenon, while the latter granted him permanent, structural ownership of copied magic. With a bit of focused cognitive effort, he could engineer entirely new, twisted variations of those spells. To make matters even more unfair, his passive engine maintained a permanent 500% amplification modifier on his natural mana regeneration speed.
Leaving aside his functional immortality, only genuine, high-tier saints could even register on his internal radar as a legitimate combat threat.
Everything else in this world zone literally lacked the mathematical capability to scratch his skin, let alone endanger his life.
He genuinely missed the good old days when he had squared off against Enel within the Expanse, completely clueless as to how [Pride] actually calculated its defensive barriers. It was far more thrilling back then.
Zeke let out a long, melancholic sigh and vanished from the spot. A split second later, he materialized directly in front of a terrified civilian, using his bare, unarmored chest to cleanly intercept a crushing blunt-force strike from a massive beast. The impact didn’t even ripple his shirt. He spun around to face the rescued man, planting his hands firmly on his hips with a radiant, blinding smile.
"Fear not, for I am here!"
"Uh... Thanks, I guess?" The civilian blinked, entirely bewildered by the professor’s bizarre theatricality, before gripping his weapon tighter and sprinting past him to hunt down more weakened targets. For the glory of the empire!
"Man, I really hate the fact that this setup doesn’t include an offensive multiplier against weaker opponents. It would make clearing these waves so much faster."
{Are you genuinely brain-damaged? Why on earth would an apex concept like [Pride] grant you an offensive damage boost against entities that are already fundamentally inferior to you? The systemic logic of your kit is perfectly balanced: inferior opponents cannot harm you because they are beneath your tier. You receive a standard 50% attribute amplification against superior opponents purely so you don’t get instantly ragdolled across the floor. And if you do get tossed, who cares? There is zero scaling for equal-ranked combatants because if you triumph, they are catalogued as your inferiors; if you fail, they become your superiors. It is simple arithmetic, you absolute fool.}
"I never once claimed I was oblivious to the core mechanics, Zero."
{...Oh.}
Zeke smoothly sheathed his katana, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the shifting layout of the chaotic battlegrounds.
...
"Oh, wow. Look at the professor go, actually putting on a decent show," Zeke remarked, adjusting his posture as he observed Karl Vasper from a safe distance.
Karl was currently standing dead-center in a clearing, completely surrounded by a trio of roaring monsters—though a closer look revealed they were actually his personal, high-tier summons executing flawless defensive formations. A pitch-black shadow cat, an armored terrestrial bear, and a massive, celestial avian creature.
"Are those... actual saint-ranked summons? God, that looks clean. Note to self: look into the summoning archetype."
"Why are you projecting your inner monologue so incredibly loudly right behind me?" Karl asked, his voice entirely flat and deadpan without even turning his head.
"Oh, you caught that?" Zeke offered a completely shameless, radiant grin. Who cares if you can hear me? "Hey, what exact taxonomy does that bird belong to? It looks incredibly rare."
Karl completely ignored the query.
"Come on, don’t be a gatekeeper. Give me a name," Zeke insisted, taking a few casual steps closer to the active combat zone.
"Take one more step into my perimeter, and I will personally instruct my beast to terminate you,"
Karl deadpanned, his tone completely devoid of humor. Right on cue, the massive armored bear shifted its glowing gaze to lock onto Zeke.
"Wow, look at you, possessing the sheer luxury of deploying a high-tier asset just to intimidate a colleague. You are literally cyberbullying a poor saint-ranked monster using three distinct saints. Well, two now," Zeke muttered, completely unfazed as he continued his leisurely stroll.
"Weren’t you desperately playing the role of the grand savior a mere two minutes ago across the lower plaza?" Karl asked, his irritation finally bubbling to the surface.
"My operational focus is currently split across multiple sectors."
"This is merely a clone, isn’t it?"
"Wow, look at the big brain on Karl. Eleven out of ten for deductive reasoning."
Karl closed his eyes for a brief moment, murmuring, "I see."
"Wait, were you literally blind until just now?"
"No. I ran a localized sensory sweep and detected forty-two identical mana signatures scattered across the stadium rings."
"Oh, fascinating! What specific method did you use to map them out? Aside from tracking the baseline frequency of my mana output, obviously."
The celestial bird let out a sharp, resonant squeak from above.
"Ah, shared sensory perception through a master-familiar contract. Wait a minute, saint-ranked magical beasts are fully capable of human speech, aren’t they?"
"He is perfectly capable," Karl replied, his voice dropping an octave. "He simply possesses a profound lack of desire to converse with you. Much like myself."
"Hiya, birdie!" Zeke waved enthusiastically at the sky, completely ignoring the rejection.
...
"Can you please find literally any other individual on this floor to torment besides me?" Elio let out a long, exhausted sigh, his hands covered in glowing mana vapor.
"I could, theoretically. But why on earth would I do that? This is significantly more entertaining," Zeke replied cheerfully, lounging against a broken pillar.
"Go find an active saint-level threat to occupy your time and get out of my sight."
"Can’t do. Every single high-tier entity has already been accounted for—mostly by you, might I add. You’re clearing these waves way too fast; save some content for the rest of the server." Zeke paused, his eyes scanning the immediate area.
"Hey, by the way, where did you bury your royal ward?"
"There is zero structural necessity for him to remain attached to my flank given his current baseline parameters."
"Ah, the youth of today. They grow up so incredibly fast."
"Fortunately, the active spatial rifts are finally beginning to collapse," Elio noted, observing the thinning density of the portals
.
"Wow, look at you, a true man of the people, celebrating the safety of the populace."
"No," Elio corrected instantly, his gaze turning icy. "I am celebrating the fact that once these portals close, I will no longer have a functional excuse to tolerate your proximity."
...
"Hey, what is wrong with you people? Why are you constantly picking fights with entities that drastically outclass your tier? And as for you—why are you cyberbullying commoners when you’re an SS-ranked beast?" Zeke scolded thoroughly, wagging a finger at a trembling civilian and a massive, snarling monster. "Oh, right, you’re a mindless thrall who lacks the cognitive capacity for speech. Boring."
With a casual flick of his wrist, he unleashed [Unseen Severance] through the length of his sheathed blade. The space occupied by the monster silently displaced, and its massive form split cleanly in two before crashing into the dirt.
"You there! Boy!" Zeke called out to the young civilian boy.
The boy blinked, staring up at him in complete, wide-eyed confusion.
"You did a decent job holding the line. But seriously, pick your engagements with a bit more tactical awareness next time. Your Emperor granted you a temporary stat multiplier, not a cheat code for literal immortality."
"Yes, sir!" the boy shouted, slamming a fist against his chest before sprinting back into the fray. For the absolute glory of the realm!
Zeke slowly shook his head, a faint smirk dancing on his lips.
