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Chapter 1019

The group of us finally left the back of the church. A path was created for me to walk down into the center field. Meanwhile, seating had been hastily set up in a circle around the courtyard, where the party guests had been relocated.

“Is it not possible for Octius or you to fight for Deek?” Otto asked. “A slave is considered the weapon of their Master, right? We can use his temporary slave ability as he did once before.”

Octin shook his head. “At the moment, this is about maintaining the dignity and respect of our nation. If you or anyone else were to fight for him, it’d lose all meaning.”

“Thank you for concerning yourself with me,” I patted Otto on the back. “I’ve decided to do this on my own.”

I felt a bit touched that Otto was worrying about me so much. Eliana ran up and hugged me next. Raissa and Faeyna stood at the side. Raissa’s tail was lowered, and Faeyna also had a slouched posture. It was clear they were both worried as well. I reached out and embraced them all. This earned me a few glares and bad looks, but I didn’t care. When I turned away, I was shocked to see that on the other side of the courtyard, a similar scene was playing out with General Nova, except he was lewdly grabbing and kissing several women.

This was his wedding day, and he was marrying Alysia, but he was kissing and feeling up other women right in front of the entire wedding precession. My eyes narrowed and once again I felt anger toward this man. It really would be nice to put him in his place. He seemed to notice my eyes on him because he broke away his kiss and then glanced in my direction. A grin formed on his face, showing far too many teeth.

I parted from my group, who went to find places to watch as I stepped into the circle. General Nova did the same. The pair of us stopped a distance away from each other. That’s when my eyes fell on a stage that had seemingly been hauled here just for the noble family. They were above everyone else, and included soft chairs and even cover from the sun. The King walked up onto the platform, and another two Osterian women walked up behind him. When I saw them, my body froze and my mind reeled.

Alysia was there, her head lowered, a veil covering her face enough that it was impossible to see her expression. She was wearing a dress made of blue silk, and it flowed down her body quite alluringly. I had only ever seen her in her military or adventuring clothing, so this was the first time I had ever seen her dressed up. Her red curly hair flowed down her shoulders and contrasted with the darker tanned skin of an Osterian. Osterians didn’t freckle as humans did, so as she tanned, they didn’t get darker.  She was shockingly beautiful even with only her eyes showing.

However, I barely glanced at her, because my eyes were on the other woman who ascended onto the platform. I recognized her as well. I had seen her features many times before in many different forms. I had seen her as a human, and I had seen her as a giant. This was the first time I saw her purely as an Osterian. It was none other than Xin!

Chapter 1020

“How can this be? How can Xin be here?” I demanded, using slave communication to have Faeyna and Raissa ask the Tibults.

Ultimately, they didn’t know what I was talking about. None of them knew the full story about Xin. To Raissa, she was just a woman that sort of resembled the boss monster in the dungeon. She never interacted with Xin very much. As for everyone else, most had never even laid eyes on her or had heard about her existence. They vaguely knew that I had a dungeon I had more or less tamed, but they didn’t know to what extent that I had control over it. They didn’t know about Xin, her monster clone, nor the soul I had fetched from the Twilight Dungeon.

As it turned out, the group with me were the group least familiar with the situation, and explaining it all to them now was far too difficult. All I could determine was that Xin was the Queen here. As the story went according to Faeyna’s summary of what Octin said, King Aberis had declared her and all Osterian’s outlaws, and she fled across the border with the last of the Osterians and became their leader. Since Aberis was too young and still forming, she was able to recover the last bits of Osteria, including the capital city which was originally in the south, and form a new country.

Not everyone agreed with King Aberis’s pro-human rhetoric, and so Ost Republic was formed counter to Aberis. Of course, not all blame could be put on the King. His people had been oppressed by demons, and the Osterians had joined them in doing it. Ultimately, the only Osterian ally he had murdered him, and led to the ultimate sacrifice of his wife. He had felt his actions were justifiable at the time. Thus, the two countries remained antagonistic to each other for roughly twenty years.

A few years ago, Queen Xin resigned her position and gave it to the royal prince, who became King Greggar. This was all fine and good, except that I knew that Xin did not go to the Ost Republic. Halfway there, she was taken control of by Demon Lord Aberis, who turned back into Aberis. Once born, he tossed her into the Twilight Dungeon where she died, and then he regained his power, took control of Lord Reign, and then used him as a puppet for the last twenty years.

In other words, there were two stories, and they didn’t match up. Could it be that Xin was a dungeon clone? Did the Ost Republic make a fake Xin? She had a lot of sway with the people, so anyone who wanted to control the Osterians would have been smart to try to clone her in a dungeon. However, that kind of thing took time. My mind was still busy wondering when General Nova spoke up.

“A bride and groom shouldn’t see each other before the wedding!” He declared.

“Once my daughter heard of this fight, she had insisted on being present to see how it turns out,” Xin spoke in a voice that sounded familiar, but also strangely cold and aloof.

“I truly hope she doesn’t hope to intercede…” He spoke uncertainly.

“Rest assured, she will not involve herself as any more than a spectator.” Her mom spoke before giving the woman herself a sharp look. “And she will abide by the outcome, where ever it may fall.”

Alysia silently nodded, but her eyes shot to me, and even though she was at a distance I thought I could see some reluctance in there. I noticed she was distinctly staying quiet. It was clear by her entire body language she didn’t want this to happen.

“Then, let the battle begin!”

Chapter 1021

“Are you ready to die?” General Nova asked, pulling out a long spear. “What is your weapon of choice.”

I was pretty surprised to see a spear. I was used to most nobility using swords. Although my girls had a variety of different weapons from magical to physical, it seemed like whenever I faced a human, they had a sword. Then again, this guy wasn’t a human, and the spear he had in his hand didn’t look like it had been made for a human either. It was thick, and when he hit the ground with the back of the staff, it made a resounding thud showing just how heavy it was.

As I pulled out my sword, it looked pretty pathetic in comparison. I was larger and stronger than I used to be, and this small sword in my hand just didn’t feel like it belonged anymore. I might have been wielding a dagger for as light as it was. However, it was a powerful sword, and while it wasn’t at the level of the Silvthril sword, or even the Star Sword, it was the best the blacksmiths could make in Chalm. Until Garnet made me a stronger one incorporating magic or I lucked out and found a powerful magical sword in a labyrinth, these standard swords were the best that I had.

“Hmph… a commoner’s sword… fitting for an unremarkable man.”

I considered asking Octius or Octin for a magic sword, but I had seen Octius’s sword and fighting style, and it didn’t fit me. He used elegant and light movements, flowing from one attack to another. I imagined he had gotten that from Octin. It called for light, flowing movements refined from years of practice. I was self-taught, and my fighting had often been desperate as I tried to survive in the dungeons. My attacks also relied on speed, but they were sharp, aggressive attacks, intended for doing maximum damage at minimum cost. It wasn’t that either way was better or even preferred, but that I wouldn’t be any more comfortable with either of their swords.

“When you are defeated by a commoner’s sword and an unremarkable man, I wonder what it will make of you?” I asked, strengthening my grip on the sword.

My words caused the malicious grin to finally fall off his face. He glared at me, and then lowered his body to attack. I similarly got into position. I had already optimized my setup for the battle, concentrating on the jobs that would make me the strongest. True Hero, Hero, Mimic, Demon Knight. Why didn’t I dump all my points into a 5th job? It was because I had optimized my dungeon points as well, concentrating on abilities I often ignored in the dungeons.

I had 62 dungeon points at the moment. I originally had 42. Male Deek had earned 15 points from defeating Twilight Dungeon and Female Deek had earned 5 points finishing off the Bandit’s Respite. When my souls combined, so did the blessings, and also my missing points. Combined, I could finally equip a 50 point skill. Most of these were extremely terrifying. Eternal Youth, Earthshatter, Soul Reaver, and Dimensional Shift were a few of the skills under this list.

Dimensional shift likely functioned similarly to my blessings modification to portal. That meant that technically, I could have used it rather than waiting the week. However, that would have taken 50 of my points, and I didn’t know the cooldown time for it. What if that cooldown was also a week or even a month? I wasn’t willing to sacrifice 50 points for who knew how long. Plus, I admit I hadn’t noticed it at the time, since I had bigger things on my mind.

Thus, I put 16 points into Stamina Increase. Instead of 10X experience and the extra portals, I had the 10-point skill Haste, 6 points to get level 2 in Increased Strength, the 5-point skill Hawk Vision, and the 1-point skill Explosive Movement. I could still drop the Advanced Learning levels to get six more points, but I realized they were better than I initially thought. They didn’t just make it easier to remember things, but they were the reason I was able to glean more information when I had a job equipped simply by contemplating the job carefully. In this case, I was using it mixed with my Moderate Weapon Proficiency to understand a spears strengths and weaknesses.

Hawk Vision gave me extremely precise vision, and when combined with Mimic and Advanced Learning, I was confident I could replicate the skills being used against me. I truly was going all out here. It was finally time to see what I was capable of.

“Begin!”

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