Player AR1026, who used to be known as Unseen Origins God and now as Concealed Text God by those who believe in her, looked down at the Thunder Lizard Lakrak, who was the first apostle of Sung-Woon, also known as Nebula and Night Sky.
“…..”
Concealed Text God didn’t say anything, but only pointed at Lakrak with a finger.
‘…There is something underground.’
Lakrak wasn’t surprised or bewildered. He had already made speculations about Concealed Text God’s powers, so he knew something was targeting him from underground. But when a black thorn rose, Lakrak came to the realization that it wouldn’t be an easy fight even as he quickly avoided it.
‘It’s gotten that close already?’
Although Lakrak had avoided the black thorn, the black thorn shooting up from the ground got very close to him, which meant that he had almost gotten hurt despite knowing it was coming.
As if Concealed Text God knew that Lakrak would avoid the first thorn, they immediately raised the second thorns. Lakrak quickly twisted his body and tumbled a few times to avoid the thorns as they continued to sprout, piercing through Red Fruit’s soldiers, weapons, tents, horses, and big Weasels; even some of Golden Eye’s soldiers were caught.
Observing everything happening, Lakrak identified the power the black thorns possessed.
‘They aren’t simply hard and sharp thorns.’
Those who got pierced by the thorns immediately lost strength without putting up a moment of struggle, and they soon withered and turned black as if the life in them was sucked out. In fact, the victims of the first wave of thorn attacks were already drying up.
‘The thorns take things like vitality or life. Is it an absorption ability?’
***
Sung-Woon nodded.
“As expected, first came an absorption ability.”
“And it’s an AOE skill. It seems like she does know how to do it.”
In other words, AR knew how to make use of skills while Hierophany was active.
“Of course she would know.”
Sung-Woon looked down at the fight between AR1026 and Lakrak.
When a game first released, people would explore all kinds of tricks. Although they usually enjoyed playing normally according to how the game was designed to be played, they would also look for glitches in the game as if they were doing QA, play with their own concept, or enjoy the game by their own standards of fun. The most common thing people found enjoyment in, however, was aiming for higher efficiency. Many players would work to figure out how they could play the fastest and strongest, and strategies prioritizing efficiency tended to be developed the fastest out of all tactics.
For example, in TCG, there were several decks with high win rate, and even professional gamers only had a few custom cards.
In RTS games, in order to unlock the best tech tree possible, factors such as how many workers would be made to produce resources, which worker would build what building, how many fighter units of each kind would be made, and at what time the first attack needed to be carried out was already decided.
In AOS, how much money a character accumulates and what kind of item they buy with it, what kind of skills they should use, and how the objects that appear throughout certain stages of the game should be used were all important knowledge to be utilized at the right time, which would be the measurement of how good a player one was.
Therefore, players of The Lost World also researched how to be efficient; it was natural for players to expect efficiency from the skill Hierophany, which was one of the stronger winning moves of the game.
‘The biggest merit of Hierophany is the use of a Domain’s skills.’
Just as apostles obtained skills from their own prestige, when players who already existed as gods used Hierophany, they would have access to skills granted by the Domains they had. And players could select the skills themselves.
‘With the Domains a player has, they could pick a collection of skills, expand the range of their skills, and decrease the amount of Faith points that would be needed to upgrade or use their power.’
Sung-Woon could guess what kind of Domains AR1026 had combined to make the black thorns.
‘Is its piercing nature from Domain: Metal? The concept of absorption and the appearance of the thorns are probably from Domain: Roots. Usually root plants would be grown as food, and medicinal herbs would be grown to treat diseases or wounds, but I guess they do also absorb nutrients as well. And she probably used other miscellaneous Small Areas to increase the range and speed, as well as reduce the cost of Faith points.’
The more Domains used to make a skill, the stronger the skill would become.
In Sung-Woon’s perspective, it seemed that AR had invested quite a bit into Black Thorn.
‘If she has such a strong skill with a Divinity level of 18, she probably has three, at most four, Hierophany skills.’
Strictly speaking, it was hard to say that Black Thorn itself was a strong skill from the perspective of the players. That was because the skill AR1026 was using wasn’t necessarily meant for attacking, but rather for recovering Faith points through massacre. Keeping Hierophany active required a continuous supply of a significant amount of Faith points, so it would be difficult to maintain without starting a genocide or using absorption skills.
“That’s straight out of a textbook,” said Sung-Woon. “I can also guess her other skills.”
Lunda frowned.
“Then as expected…wouldn’t it be a bit difficult for Lakrak to deal with her alone?”
“He will need some support.”
Sung-Woon nodded and looked at Lunda. She had been nodding along, and she turned to him like she had felt his gaze.
“What are you looking at me for?”
“I’ll block Crampus or the other creations that intervene. So you go down.”
“M…me?”
Lunda stammered and shook her hand before she even said no.
Sung-Woon replied, “I’m not telling you to use Hierophany. Just go into any of the priests and draw some attention.”
“Why does it have to be me? Let’s change roles. I’ll block the other creations that try to interfere from here, so can’t you go down instead?”
Sung-Woon shook his head.
“You’ll be more efficient at this though.”
“Why would I be more efficient?”
Sung-Woon refuted, “Who would catch AR’s attention more right now?”
As Sung-Woon mentioned the pain of betrayal that Lunda had been trying to forget, she suppressed a scream.
“That’s exactly why I don’t want to do it!”
***
Lakrak realized the Concealed Text God’s intentions.
‘They’re planning on making the whole ground into a thorn field.’
Lakrak initially thought that he had an advantage in speed, but that was a miscalculation. The thorns didn’t have to outpace him at all.
As the sharp thorns of the Concealed Text God began to take over the ground, there was little space for Lakrak to stand on.
‘Then…’
Lakrak raised the gold spear he was holding into the air. Among his many skills were Armor Creation and Ride Together.
“Come! Anakse!”
The monstrous Cockatrice, Anakse, who had been with Lakrak until his last moment, appeared with lightning while breaking through the thorn field. Anakse had died, but the Afterlife existed with Night Sky’s powers, just as Lakrak had wished for. Now, Anakse was borrowing Lakrak’s power, allowing it to rival any Divine bird.
.
Lakrak got on top of Anakse and shouted, “Charge, Anaske!”
-Shrieeeek!
A thunderous cry boomed all the way to the fortress walls of Deimerit, and Black Scale’s soldiers cheered at the lightning quick figures of Lakrak and Anakse in the distance.
Anakse rushed like the wind and charged at Concealed Text God’s Hierophany body.
‘The thorns come out of the ground. They could rise up into the air, but it would take more time.’
Lakrak’s calculations were accurate.
However, his spear did not manage to reach Concealed Text God. They disappeared the moment he blinked.
‘This is dangerous!’
Lakrak pushed off of Anakse’s stirrups, and Anakse quickly lowered its head. Thorns rose tens of meters high and shot up between the two.
As Lakrak did a somersault in the air, he noticed Concealed Text God appearing more than 200 meters away.
‘It’s teleportation. Without any warning sign!’
Anakse quickly dove toward Lakrak, and Lakrak grabbed its reins and got on top of it again.
Lakrak then realized that the next wave of attacks wouldn’t be as easy to deal with. Between him and Concealed Text God, giant figures were rising.
***
“A teleportation skill. Of course she would have one. But the skill has a long reach, so there might be a longer cool down.”
“What the hell are you doing admiring AR’s skills?!”
Sung-Woon responded to Lunda’s reprimand with a criticism of his own.
“What? You’re still here? Are you not gonna go?”
Lunda replied with a tearful face, “Alright. I’m going. I’m choosing whose body to go into.”
“Hurry up. Crampus and AR have sent their creations.”
Of course, Sung-Woon had no intentions of just leaving them be.
***
Made to protect Concealed Text God, the large, strong guardians charged at Lakrak.
Anakse was fast as Lakrak’s mount, but these creations were nothing to sneeze at either since they had been molded by their respective god.
Lakrak avoided the first and second attack, but as a mouth full of sharp teeth came at him to devour him, he thought he would have to clench his teeth and take it. Fortunately, the mouth missed its mark rather than getting a bite into Lakrak.
-Go, apostle. I will open a path for you.
Lakrak realized who the voice belonged to.
“Sratis!”
-Go!
Lakrak cut off the claws and wrists of the other creations.
‘Damn it!’
Even though Night Sky’s creations were helping, Lakrak eventually fell to the ground. As an apostle, he could take the impact.
‘However, once I land, the thorns…’
Lakrak tumbled onto the ground and became puzzled.
‘…Aren’t here?’
Lakrak raised his head.
Concealed Text God shot a fleeting glance at the ground, but not at Lakrak.
The god’s resentful internal cry was also heard by Lakrak.
-Lunda…!
A Renard priest whose name was unknown ran from one side of the battlefield to the other while avoiding the thorns and other obstacles.
‘It’s a chance.’
Lakrak quickly climbed onto Anakse, who had come to pick him up. They charged at Concealed Text God again. It wasn’t so much running but flying, and rather than flying, soaring would be a more fitting description. Anaske was soaring almost as fast as lightning.
Riding on top of Anakse, Lakrak raised his spear and moved toward Concealed Text God’s back. However, a god was a god for a reason.
Concealed Text God quickly turned around even though a moment ago, it had been chasing after the Renard priest Bountiful Harvest had assumed control over.
-How dare you, an apostle…!
Concealed Text God hurriedly reached out. For a moment, Lakrak felt a black veil surrounding him and Anakse. Anakse was thrown into the distance, and the same was about to happen to Lakrak.
***
‘If she has an AOE ability and a teleportation skill, then she probably has a crowd control skill as well.’
Players’ skills varied according to their preferences, but these were the three types of skills everyone deemed necessary. Sung-Woon didn’t find fault in that line of thinking, but he believed there was a problem with it.
‘It’s predictable.’
***
Lakrak did not get thrown away by the black veil around him. He tightly grabbed his spear, tore the veil with his lightning power, and charged.
“…!”
Concealed Text God’s eyes widened as if they hadn’t expected that to happen at all.
*** 𝑖𝘦.𝘤𝑜𝘮
Gods made skills with the Domains they had. On the other hand, an apostle’s skills were made from their achievements.
‘AR, did you forget Lakrak killed an evil god?’
Sung-Woon thought that could be the case. Jeol Woo-Bi was an unusual anomaly. The players didn’t think of Jeol Woo-Bi as a player, or to be exact, as a person. But apart from that, Jeol Woo-Bi was still considered a god by the system.
Lakrak had killed a god.
Sung-Woon checked the skill that Lakrak had obtained after killing Jeol Woo-Bi’s Hierophany body.
[God Killer: If the target is a god, resistance against any negative effect inflicted when attacking the target is granted.]
‘Now this is what killing a god means.’
***
Lakrak’s spear penetrated Concealed Text God’s body.
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4. Aeon of Strife, a custom map for the original Starcraft?and the first of what we know now as MOBA
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