The Grand Duelist

Chapter 165: Besieged by Three Guilds[6]

[Unique Skill: Royal Edict.

A unique skill created based on the Grand Duelist's Comprehension on Concept of Law. This unique skill, depending on the Grand Duelist's input can establish a law that will affect those who had heard the announcement of the edict with no exceptions unless exclusively defined.

*The Edict must be announced in a loud voice for it to take effect. The user can define any Law, but the defined Law must never be one-sided. No one is an exception to the Law and that includes the user. 

*Only a single instance of Royal Edict can be activated one at a time. The effect of a Royal Edict is indefinite, but once the user uses another Royal Edict. The effects of any ongoing Royal Edict prior to the activation of the new Royal Edict will be invalidated.

*There are no known limitations to this Royal Edict according to the Grand Duelist's comprehension regarding it. However, the sacrifice of Divinity Stat necessary for its activation scales depending on how many variables are affected by the established Law.

Skill Usage Conditions: Unique comprehension of the Concept of Law.

Skill Cost: Divinity Stat.

Skill Cooldown Time: 48 Hours.]

This unique skill enabled Joseph to establish a law that those affected couldn't possibly defy.

However, from what Joseph could see within its skill description.

It was clear that the Royal Edict had a fatal flaw.

That flaw was the fact that for it to take effect, it must be loudly announced and heard by everyone that you wanted to be affected by the law.

In other words, if a player simply covered his ears.

He wouldn't be able to listen to the Royal Edict and in turn, he wouldn't be affected by it.

But no one within this place could possibly take advantage of this fatal flaw. After all, this was the first time that Joseph would use the Royal Edict within the world of Victory. 

He himself wasn't so sure about the effects of the Royal Edict. But after reading through the skill description. He now had an idea about how it worked and he was quite excited to put his imagination to use and create a law for his advantage.

A smile crept on Joseph's lips as he declared.

"Listen to the Royal Edict!"

"The ungrateful dogs of Guild Crimson and Guild Knights of Justice along with the arrogant Guild Strongest Under Heaven are trying to challenge the authority of the Grand Duelist! Such audacity should not be forgiven, but the Grand Duelist is lenient enough to give them a chance..."

"A chance to besiege the Grand Duelist with the power of their three guilds."

"The members of the three guilds right now at this moment will face the Grand Duelist in a battle!"

"The winner takes it all!"

"The stakes for the battle are hereby declared..."

"The items of the challengers will fall to the winner. If the challenger loses, they will lose rights to their items and if they win... They will be able to take their items back with some bonus."

"If the Grand Duelist loses, the Grand Duelist will compensate the three guilds for any losses that they have suffered in the middle of the battle and prior to the battle..."

"But if the challenger loses, they will pay reparations to the Grand Duelist and to his friends for all the damages that they had suffered, in the middle of the battle and prior to the battle..."

"Additionally, unspecified outsiders are not allowed to intervene in the middle of the battle."

"The battle will happen within the Palace Halls of the Royal Palace of the Abandoned Kingdom of Nether..."

"May the best fighter wins..."

"Receive the decree!"

Joseph properly articulated each and every word that he said as if he was afraid that the players here wouldn't hear what he had said. 

At the end of his declaration, he even screamed for them to receive the decree.

The astonished and clueless elite players of the three guilds had blank looks on their faces. Kristian wore a frown and he was about to say something when several system notifications appeared in front of him.

[You have heard the Royal Edict.] 

[There is no escaping the constraint of the Royal Edict.]

[The effects of the Royal Edict will now take effect...]

[Please pay attention.]

These system notifications appeared at the same time to each and every member of the three guilds.

Meanwhile, Joseph was casually scrolling through his brand new skill tree that he acquired after his ascension.

He then opened up his [Logs] and the system notifications that he hadn't read ever since his return popped out at once.

[You have completed the King's Trial!]

[You have obtained 502,686,301 Experience Points!]

[You are now Level 200.]

[You are now within the Top 50 of the Universal Rankings for Levels.]

[Your 70,021 Spirit Stones have been converted to 70,021 Essence of the World.]

[You obtained, Kingdom Establishment Token.]

[You obtained, 52,582 Gold Coins.]

[You now have full control over the Abandoned Kingdom of Nether!]

[The system has detected that you are in possession of a Kingdom Establishment Token.]

[Kingdom Establishment Token]

[A token that grants a player the right to claim an unclaimed territory as his own and establish his own kingdom

Note: Establishing a Kingdom may be quite easy with the Kingdom Establishment Token but please keep in mind that managing a kingdom requires a lot of expertise and allies to work with! It is impossible for a single player to manage a Kingdom so for the sake of not making any mistakes.

It is advised to only use this Kingdom when you are ready for the heavy responsibility that it brings!

Status: Soul-Bound to the Grand Duelist. 

Note: A Soul-Bound Item cannot be claimed by others as their own item. However, others can borrow the soul-bound item for as long as the owner of the Soul-Bound item consents to the usage of a third party.]

[The system has detected that you have the qualifications to establish a Kingdom. However, you are advised to not do so until you are confident that you can handle the workload necessary on managing a Kingdom, or until you have enough allies that can help you with the job.]

[Do you want to use the Kingdom Establishment Token to declare the Abandoned Kingdom of Nether as your Kingdom?]

[Note: You cannot declare a territory as your Kingdom if you do not have the Crown of a King!]

[The system has detected that you do not have the Crown of a King.]

[A Unique Quest has been activated.]

[Duties of an Aspiring King(Unique-Quest)

Quest Difficulty: SS

You have succeeded in the Trial of Kings and have successfully comprehended the necessary concepts in order to manage a Kingdom.

You have also acquired the necessary Kingdom Establishment Token. 

However, a dignified king must have a fitting crown that will rest comfortably on his head for all eternity.

Gather the materials and ingredients necessary for the creation of the Crown of a King!

Quest Clear Conditions: Acquire the Crown of a King.

Quest Rewards: ??? (Guaranteed)

Quest Failure: You will forever lose the qualifications of becoming a King. ]

[It has been detected that the Unique Quest has been accepted.]

[Due to your impressive success within the world of the King's Trial.]

[You have gained the privilege of a grace period!]

[From now on, for a year, no one, even the Empire of Dawn can steal your declared territory from you!]

[This grace period is effective for a year, but this grace period does not prevent the collapse of your Kingdom due to all sorts of internal problems.]

[It is recommended that the user must first fix the domestic problems of the Abandoned Kingdom of Nether before he goes on the adventure for his Crown of a King!] 

Joseph inwardly shook his head. As an avid reader of novels back in the day, it only took him a few seconds to skim through the system notifications.

When he dismissed them all and opened his Inventory...

Joseph had an unprecedented look of excitement on his face.

But the players in front of him who saw his excitement completely misunderstood the reason for his excitement.

"Damn that bastard... He's too arrogant! He's standing in front of a Legendary Player and he's not even paying attention to him? Big Dipper, let me go..."

"I'll punch that arrogant smirk off his face!" A player whose frame and figure made him look like a giant furrowed his brows as he stared angrily at Joseph.

Big Dipper, the Main Tank, and Paladin of Guild Strongest Under Heaven hurriedly went forwards to calm him down.

"Your name is No Sucker Punch and you are going to sneak attack him? Isn't that going against your name? And also, he's a Mythical Ranked Player. If Kristian is already that strong and his class is just a Legendary Class..."

"How powerful do you think would a Mythical Class be? I'm sure it'd be at least as strong as Kristian's class!"

Big Dipper patiently advised.

No Sucker Punch let out a sigh: "Fine... If someone as cautious as you is even advising me then, I guess I won't go and sneak attack him. To tell you the truth. I don't even want to fight for as long as this guy wasn't so arrogant. I'm a true pacifist... I avoid battle if I can."

Big Dipper rolled his eyes, "Oh yeah, you want to sneak attack him?"

Big Dipper scanned No Sucker Punch's almost two meters tall figure and amusement flashed across his eyes. This guy whose height was almost as tall as a school bus was actually saying that he planned on making a sneak attack?

He should be joking, right?

"What?" No Sucker Punch turned to look at Big Dipper with a glare.

Big Dipper could only shake his head in retreat.

Meanwhile, his comrades behind him were already laughing.

"Boss Dipper, you should really go and scold that guy... We've been with each other for so long and I haven't seen you scold that guy even once..." A player with the name Ama Namin floating above his head boisterously laughed.

The others were also laughing as one of them interjected.

This time, it was a player named Big Boss. His stature wasn't a burly and big as No Sucker Punch but the way he carried himself and the confidence radiating from his body really made him deserving of his in-game name.

"Dipper... Just try to scold him once. I bet he won't fool around anymore. After all, everyone in here knows that you're only second to Boss Kristian." Big Boss said in a deeply accented voice.

"That is right... Dipper is too patient. Shout at him once and he'll obey." Another player spoke, his English was quite broken. An indication that he wasn't using the system's automatic translator. His player name, Fuurinkazan alone made his true nationality obvious to everyone.

Big Dipper lifted a bitter smile. He may be considered as the Vice-Captain of the Guild Strongest Under Heaven but he didn't think that he was that high and mighty. He didn't really crave for power.

As long as he can enjoy the game, he'll be fine without any complaints.

However, his status meant that he must also discipline the members of Guild Strongest Under Heaven along with Kristian. 

Unfortunately, Big Dipper was a man who never knew how to scold someone. He knew what to do when receiving a scolding since he was used to receiving one due to some family issues.

But he didn't understand how you were supposed to scold someone. 

This was why he could only shake his head and reveal a bitter smile.

But then at this moment, a system notification appeared right before their eyes.

[You have heard the Royal Edict.]

[...]

[...]

[The effects of the Royal Edict will now take effect...]

"Royal Edict? What is this?" Slice of Life, the player whose presence was too vague that you wouldn't even notice him standing beside you unless you looked at him finally spoke.

When his voice rang out...

He attracted the attention of every elite member of Guild Strongest Under Heaven. 

"Slice, you're finally willing to speak up?"

Ama Namin, the Theologist and main support of the team jokingly said.

"That's not what's important right now. What I want to know is what is this Royal Edict?" Slice of Life frowned.

Ama Namin patted his shoulder and said: "Don't be such a tight ass, Slice. That Royal Edict's probably just a small trick, you know about how powerful our boss is, right? A puny trick won't do much damage to us. Plus we are here so it's going to be fine..."

"Heh..." Slice of Life lightly chuckled: "Are you sure that you're not going to take back what you said?"

An amused expression surfaced on his face as Ama Namin quickly paled.

He turned around and found out that it was too late.

Big Dipper was already staring at him with an annoyed look on his face.

"Ama Namin... How many times have I told you already to never underestimate our enemy? Let me tell you this, the reason why our guild is in the top 3 of the Universal Rankings isn't that we're strong. It's because we had never underestimated an enemy, and also..." 

Big Dipper's lectures made sense, but when the members of the Strongest Under Heaven heard his words. They chuckled with schadenfreude at Ama Namin who looked like he was about to cry.

Big Dipper may be a kind man who didn't know how to scold his comrades, but when it came to lectures.

He was a connoisseur.

To be honest, his friends preferred that he scolded them instead of these lengthy lectures with recycled content.

Once Big Dipper's lecture started, there was no way that someone could intervene and forcefully end it. 

But fortunately for Ama Namin...

The changes that suddenly happened in the area along with Kristian's scream took Big Dipper's attention away.

"Get ready... We're about to fight..."

Kristian turned to look at his comrades and revealed a languid smile. 

His comrades merely nodded their heads.

It was clear that they were used to fighting since the moment Kristian said these words, the members of the Guild Strongest Under Heaven actually walked away from each other and formed a popular formation that made William and the Crimson Guild gasp. 

"So that's the popular Life Reaping Formation of the Guild Strongest Under Heaven?"

Vladimir stared wide-eyed at what was happening and so did William.

These two renowned Guild Leaders here in the Kingdom of Nether normally had nothing to fear nor to be astonished at, but when it came to the seamless teamwork of the third guild in the Rankings...

It was clear that they still had a lot to learn and that they were mere frogs in a well.

Even the members of their guilds revealed looks of admiration.

As they stared right at what was going on in front of them, it looked like they didn't want to miss any detail about the upcoming fight.

"Leader..." Suddenly, a voice came behind Vladimir.

Vladimir turned around and said, "What is it?"

The player who attracted Vladimir's attention asked: "Are we not going to help them in this battle?"

Vladimir shook his head: "Help them? Even though we are included in this battle. I'm sure that these bastards are arrogant enough to not let us in the fight. Take a look at Kristian, the fact that he didn't even take a glance to us means that he just wants us to be a spectator in this battle."

The player turned to look at Kristian who stood at the helm of the formation.

If one stared at their formation from above. One would find that if you formed a line and traced the positioning of Guild Strongest Under Heaven from Kristian to the last player, Ama Namin.

You would realize that the way they calmly stood resembled a scythe from above.

This was the Life Reaping Formation!

The strongest offensive formation that the Guild Strongest Under Heaven has at their disposal!

It was clear that they wanted to end this fight as soon as possible!

Joseph stood in front of the intimidating Life Reaping Formation of his enemies.

He swept his gaze and revealed a smile when he realized that Guild Strongest Under Heaven was actually that arrogant to fight him without the help of the other two guilds who remained here for the sake of their alliance.

Inwardly chuckling, Joseph proceeded to withdraw the Mythical Ranked Weapon that the Legendary Krid forged for him.

Appearing in a burst of dazzling light, the moment the Rapier appeared...

The world itself seemed to dim as the air in the room grew thick.

Everyone's attention turned to the Rapier and they were astonished to find that the Rapier was actually as long as Joseph's height!

Furthermore, despite having such a length...

Joseph and the Rapier didn't look out of place as the former held the latter on his right hand!

It looked like the Rapier was made for him and he was made for the Rapier!

This was the realm of becoming one with the weapon!

Alice abruptly stood up.

Her eyes widened in shock when she saw the scene unfolding before her. As a Sword Adept, one needed to become one with his or her weapon before one could ascend to the realm of Sword Connoisseurs.

It has always been Alice's dream to be one with her weapon so she could reach the Sword Connoisseur realm, yet she had never touched the borders of that realm even once.

Yet, right now...

Joseph actually became one with his weapon?

Was this the privilege of being a Myth? 

Ezreal noticed Alice's emotional turmoil.

"Calm down, and observe the battle. Observe how the master moves while being one with the weapon and you may be able to comprehend something and become a Sword Connoisseur!" Ezreal spoke in a confident voice which made Alice turn to look at her as she replied.

"You..."

"You know that I am a Sword Adept?"

"Just who the hell are you?" Alice asked with a frown.

Ezreal lightly chuckled before replying with a rueful voice.

"I'm just a servant that's pretending to be a human, that's all..."

Ezreal's cryptic reply confused Alice, but when she realized that the battle was about to begin.

She took Ezreal's advice seriously as she stared right at Joseph and the members of the Strongest Under Heaven. After hearing the contents of the Royal Edict, she had already realized that it was impossible for her to help Joseph in this battle.

But was she afraid of him losing against these people?

Of course, not!

Joseph was, after all, one of the Myths, the Grand Duelist of the current generation, and most importantly...

He was her man!

She didn't believe that her man could lose against these arrogant bastards.

A proud look appeared on Alice's face and her mood seemed to have slightly improved.

Meanwhile, back at the battlefield.

Joseph pointed his Rapier at the members of the Strongest Under Heaven Guild.

Fuurinkazan, the Blade Master of the team, frowned and warned his friends: "Be careful... His stance is strange. He's revealing so many openings to us so he's probably trying to bait us on attacking him..."

Fuurinkazan was within the top 50 of the Blade Master Rankings within the Universal Rankings so everyone in the team believed him the moment he said these words.

In an instant, everyone's nerves stretched to their limits as their eyes stared right at Joseph, ready to react at the moment he attacked.

"Oh, what's wrong? Are you guys not going to attack?" Joseph casually said.

The members of Guild Strongest Under Heaven didn't reply. 

"Tsskkk... If you're not going to attack, then..." Joseph suddenly bent his knees.

The eyes of Kristian and his subordinates saw this change as they did some adjustments.

"Oh... That's some definitely some swift reactions... But if we just keep staring at each other, this battle will not-" 

Joseph's words were interrupted by the appearance of a shadow behind him. He was quick to react as he turned around to block the incoming attack, but his split-second decision revealed his back to his enemies. 

"Fool!" Vladimir coldly spat when he saw what Joseph had done.

Revealing one's back to his enemies in a high-level battle like this was practically sending himself into the tiger's mouth. The moment he turned around to face Slice of Life, the other members of the Guild Strongest Under Heaven quickly moved.

Like raindrops, they scattered before quickly converging into Joseph's position.

Schadenfreude flashed across Vladimir's face as he stared wide-eyed at the battle. He didn't want to miss any detail, he wanted to see how Guild Strongest Under Heaven would kill the one and only Mythical Player of Victory.

In fact, he was already recording these events using the in-game recording function.

But the moment the members of Guild Strongest Under Heaven appeared around Joseph.

A smile suddenly appeared on Joseph's lips as he softly whispered.

"Pierce Blossom!"

[Pierce Blossom] 

Unleash an omnidirectional flurry of attacks in an instant.

*Each attack deal 120% of your Attack Damage, but will not go through objects and units

Skill Usage Conditions: The Grand Duelist, Rapier Type Weapon Equipped.

Skill Cost: 55 Divinity Stat

Skill Cooldown: 15 Seconds.]

Light burst from Joseph's body as the members of the Guild Strongest Under Heaven flew backwards. Even the Assassin, Slice of Life who sneaked attacked Joseph wasn't spared.

An illusory Rapier could be seen piercing through his chest as he flew around and coughed a mouthful of blood.

[You suffered 20,641 damage!]

[You suffered tremendous damage in an instant and your body is in state of shock!]

[You will be unconditionally Stiffened for the next two seconds.]

Slice of Life stared wide-eyed at the system notification floating in front of him.

What?

Why was the damage so huge?

My Health Bar is only at 40 thousand!