< 46 : The Battle of Cuebaerg (1) >
People often say that life is like a wheel that keeps rolling.
Those who live a life full of twists and turns might be different, but I think most of them show a similar pattern.
I’m no exception.
Every morning, I face the same routine as always.
I wake up with sleepy eyes and take a shower, then I hurriedly put on my clothes and head outside.
Then I board the subway and drag my tired body to work.
Some days, I’m nervous about getting scolded for a small mistake, and some days, I’m filled with anticipation and wait for the time to clock out.
And some days, I buy a can of beer on my way home to relieve the stress that piled up during the day.
When I get home and the next day comes, another day like yesterday begins.
Life is nothing but going back to where I started no matter how much I move forward.
As I live such a life, I sometimes fall into the illusion that I have become a cog in the wheel of society.
Even though in reality, nothing would stop if I disappeared.
“Phew… I survived another day.”
But people still live with hope for the next day, because they each have a reason for their lives.
Family or friends. Or a lover.
Or something precious of their own.
For me, gaming was one of those small pieces that made up my reason for living.
A world beyond my smartphone that allowed me to escape from the boredom of life for a moment.
There, I don’t shy away from adventure or challenge, and I don’t fear failure.
This shoddy game was nothing less than an escape route from my daily life.
“I should play a game for a while and then make some ramen.”
That was why I threw my stuff and started the game as soon as I got home.
Of course, someday, I might get tired of the game and quit the one I loved.
And I might regret wasting my time and money on the game.
Here is my edited and translated version of your text:
Even so, at this moment, I felt happy to be immersed in the game.
I loved this world beyond the narrow screen of my smartphone so much.
“I wonder how much karma I have earned today.”
Tap.
As I touched the screen of my smartphone, the main screen disappeared and the game started loading.
The first thing I checked after launching the game was the amount of karma that had accumulated.
The most important currency in this idle game was karma, no matter what anyone said.
I needed to collect karma to increase my player level, and I needed to spend karma to create new characters.
More than anything, one of the goals of the game was to reach one million karma.
-The progress of <Descent> skill will increase by one stage whenever you meet the following conditions.
-Available karma: 715 / 999999 (Incomplete)
The total amount of karma that had accumulated so far was 715.
It was far from reaching the target value of <Descent> skill, but it was not much left to create the next apostle.
The amount of karma that I obtained had increased significantly lately.
Most of the new karma was generated by Cuebaerg and Estasia.
At this pace, I might be able to create a new apostle soon.
I felt satisfied as I watched the increasing amount of karma, when messages started popping up from the bottom of the screen.
Here is my edited and translated version of your text:
“Ah… what’s this? A level up?”
I lowered my gaze and read the new messages that had popped up.
Most of the messages that were displayed were about Cuebaerg’s karma acquisition.
It seemed that Cuebaerg was busy making karma even at this time.
And below those messages from Cuebaerg, there was a level up message that I hadn’t seen for a long time.
I had finally gained a level after accumulating a lot of karma.
-You have reached level 8.
-<Eye of the Observer (Lv.7)> has grown.
-<Eye of the Observer (Lv.8)> has been achieved. You can observe the continent with a clearer vision than before.
Of course, most of the messages that appeared as I leveled up were not much different from before.
The growth of <Eye of the Observer> skill. The increase of mana value.
And the warning message from <Karma’s Balance>.
It was similar to the usual output, except for one exception.
-Warning: Karma that is excessively biased in one direction has a high possibility of triggering <Causality Adjustment>.
-<Karma’s Balance> has tilted.
-A low-level <Causality Adjustment> has occurred.
-Causality Adjustment Progress: 4%
As I obtained a large amount of karma from Cuebaerg, the causality adjustment of <Karma’s Balance> had exceeded 4%.
Of course, that was also the result of Estasia constantly reducing the causality adjustment value.
By my calculation, the causality adjustment should have reached 6% by now.
That’s how actively Cuebaerg was hunting.
I hated his face, but he was the hope of the sect who had a stronger heart than anyone else.
-A new condition for <Descent (Lv.0)> has been revealed.
And there was one message that had a different content from usual.
It was about the next condition for <Descent> skill being revealed.
The evolution conditions for <Descent> skill were what I considered as the endgame content of this game.
The first condition that was opened was too difficult to achieve.
I had to collect almost a million karma without using it.
How could anyone collect a million karma without spending it?
Besides, I had no idea how long it would take to collect a million karma.
It was a harsh condition for me.
“But I should check out the new quest content anyway.”
But that didn’t mean I would leave <Descent> skill alone forever.
It was still a goal that I would eventually clear someday.
If there was an easy goal, I thought it would be okay to achieve it step by step.
With that thought, I checked the content of <Descent> skill again, and there was one evolution condition that had been hidden before and was now revealed.
-[Relic: Ergus’ Stake]: 0 / 1 (Incomplete)
The new evolution condition for <Descent> skill was to acquire a designated item.
The name of the item was [Relic: Ergus’ Stake].
It was an item classified as a relic category, like magic swords or divine artifacts.
I couldn’t help but ponder deeply about this unfamiliar category of relic.
“Relic? What is this?”
It didn’t seem like an item that I could get from the gacha.
I didn’t think they would put something like that as a mission for unlocking the skill.
Then maybe it was an item related to the gods in the game.
As I was pondering that, the image of Evan, who used to be a paladin, flashed through my mind.
Evan was a faithful paladin who served the goddess before he became my apostle.
Maybe Evan would know something about [Relic: Ergus’ Stake].
“Should I ask Evan?”
The characters in this game could communicate with the player to a certain extent.
If I used the communication function to ask him, I might be able to get an answer from Evan.
If Evan knew a lot about the relic, I might be able to order him or other apostles to retrieve the relic.
There was no reason to delay the conversation if I had made up my mind.
I immediately found Evan in the city and pressed the speech bubble button above his head.
-Please enter the message you want to send.
Second Apostle, Evan Allemier.
The conversation with an apostle that I hadn’t had for a long time began.
***
-Gwooooooo.
Cuebaerg’s strange roar echoed on the mountain road where trees had fallen.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
The forest collapsed and landslides occurred every time Cuebaerg’s body moved.
Lord of the Abyss Cuebaerg.
He was born and raised in the deep abyss, and he was a predator by nature.
He grew up in the dark abyss where no light reached, and devoured everything that stood in his way.
The invaders from the outside world. The noisy kin.
And the abyssal beasts that roamed around to eat Cuebaerg.
There was nothing that Cuebaerg hadn’t tried to swallow.
-Gwoooo.
Cuebaerg’s body had grown grotesquely large because he had absorbed the power of the prey he had eaten so far.
Cuebaerg, who had eaten countless abyssal creatures and absorbed their power, became a powerful lord of the abyss.
All his kin followed Cuebaerg, and all kinds of abyssal monsters ran away from him.
There were less than ten beasts in the entire abyss that could compete with him.
Cuebaerg responded to the call of a greater being because he felt bored with his life in the abyss.
-“I’ve become much weaker.”
But Cuebaerg, who was born in the abyss, couldn’t fully exert his power on the surface as well.
Cuebaerg was a creature that grew up in the abyss after all.
His body structure was not suitable for moving on the surface.
It took him days to travel a distance that he would have passed in an instant in the abyss.
And because of his excessively large body, he felt a lot of fatigue when he moved for a long time.
He was still a powerful predator, but his might in the abyss had long disappeared.
-“I need to eat more and grow faster.”
But that didn’t mean Cuebaerg had completely given up on growing on the surface.
He felt more possibilities on the surface than before.
There were countless creatures on the surface that I had never seen in the abyss.
And the creatures called humans showed that they could counter animals stronger than themselves with the power of knowledge.
If I ate and learned from them, I would become stronger than before.
And the great being who sent me down would be pleased with me.
That was why I was moving busily to overcome the limit of an abyssal beast.
-Harvest life.
A familiar voice rang in my head as I moved my tentacles and walked forward.
It was the voice of the great being who pulled me out of the abyss.
The voice of the great being had been repeated since the first day I arrived on the surface.
The great being wanted me to harvest life.
I wanted that too, so neither of us had any reason to refuse.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
I left the mountain range at a fast speed and finally entered a vast plain.
-”Are those humans?”
And I saw the sight of humans gathered in my eyes.
Many humans were standing in front of a huge structure made of piled stones, leaning on it.
I knew the name of the structure that humans were leaning on through my learning.
Castle.
A structure to protect humans from external attacks.
Of course, it was a meaningless act against a huge being like me.
The humans seemed to know that too, as some of them were holding weapons and leaning on the castle.
“A monster is coming!”
One of the humans who spotted me shouted loudly to the surroundings.
Woo woo woo woo!
A majestic horn sound echoed and the humans started to move chaotically.
Their movement was also something that I had learned before.
Humans moved together in groups and imitated a giant creature.
Sometimes I saw superior species being hunted by them, so their movement was quite efficient.
-“Foolish humans, gathering in one place.”
But the fact that they were gathered together was very foolish from my perspective.
Even if a bunch of bugs gathered together, they were nothing but bugs in front of me.
As a predator, I just had to swallow them in one bite.
They even saved me the trouble of moving by gathering together for easy swallowing.
There was no need to go elsewhere after finding the gathered humans.
I didn’t refuse the tempting prey in front of me.
-Gwooooooo.
My ferocious roar rang out, and soon I started to charge toward the humans.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
The ground shook and dust rose every time my body moved.
The humans who were heavily armed with all kinds of equipment also raised their weapons to face me.
The moment they recognized each other as enemies.
The battle between me and the humans began.
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