Chương 31: Chapter 30: Leveling Up by Killing Another Apostle of God

In the days that followed, I was still basking in the feeling of having killed an apostle of God. This was an achievement I never thought I would reach. All this time, I worried about how I would face the apostles of God, and yet it ended so anticlimactically. It was a mixed feeling of joy and confusion. My joy also came from being able to level up so much after just finishing off an apostle of God, which made me wonder how much further I can progress in this way.

The days then started passing peacefully yet again as I waited for the next one to arrive. As a month passed since the death of the apostle of God, progress had been made as Shiro harvested the materials she needed for building more nuclear bombs, and she was starting to prepare to make more. I was relieved, as now we would have more weapons that we could use in case of emergencies. With that achievement, another week passed. In this time, I had tried to level up my skills, to no avail.

Neither my magic nor swordsmanship could level up past this current point, as they had exited the scope of mortal understanding. As I couldn't level them up, I decided to get some fresh air by walking around the kingdom. I was captivated by the progress that had been made in the kingdom, as it had transformed from medieval-age technology to looking like modern-day Earth.

Though the civilians haven't reached the point of being as technologically capable as modern humans, they are slowly adjusting to the current changes. While wandering around, I found myself at the edge of the kingdom as I looked toward the outside world, which I don't usually see. I'm usually too busy doing something else to just stand around and look at the scenery. This fantasy world is truly vast, as trees and forests stretched as far as the eye could see.

As I was enjoying my peaceful time, a figure started to appear in the distance. The figure was wearing heavy robes, so it was hard to see the face or body. Instead, I did feel a slightly dangerous energy from the person who was coming. As the figure slowly approached, soon they were close enough to see me. The figure then spoke: "I am the apostle of God sent by Goddess Trisha. I have come to investigate the disappearance of a previous apostle of God who came here before. Could you provide me with any clues?"

I replied, "No, I don't know of any apostle of God coming here." The apostle of God then questioned, "The apostles of God are respectable beings. They make themselves known to spread their faith. The previous apostle of God should have made his presence known, so are you sure you've never seen him?" I replied, "I'm sure such a person has never appeared. I can't help you with your search." The apostle of God in front of me then had an unpleasant face as he snapped, "How dare you lie to an apostle of God?

I know for sure an apostle has come here, as we apostles faithfully carry out the will of God. His disappearance must have something to do with you." I was taken aback by this person with such heavy faith. I had been talking peacefully with this person, and now they suddenly got so angry out of nowhere. I tried to calm the apostle of God down by replying, "I truly don't know the apostle of God that you are speaking about."

The apostle then commanded, "If what you say is true, then swear to Goddess Trisha that you are speaking no lies. If you are lying, then may you be struck down by the Goddess and be cleansed from where you stand." If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. I immediately hesitated, fearing this oath might bring real consequences.

As gods and goddesses exist in this world, and I'm still unfamiliar with the rules of gods, what if she could strike me down if I made an oath? Observing my hesitation, the apostle said confidently, "Since you don't dare to swear, then I am right, and you truly have something to do with the appearance of an apostle of God. Since that's the case, I will take you back for questioning." The apostle of God then took off the robes that were hiding his identity.

A young man appeared who had a very well-built body and rough, short hair. The short-haired apostle then stated, "If you don't surrender right now, then you shall face the wrath of an apostle of God." Since a conflict seemed inevitable, I quickly looked at my system window to gauge this apostle's strength. This apostle was significantly weaker than the previous one, as this short-haired apostle was only at level 3727.

This made me wonder why such a weaker apostle was sent after a stronger one had come in the first place. The conclusion I came to was that this apostle was an advanced scout to test our strength, since we managed to kill an apostle of God. While I was lost in thought, the short-haired apostle got impatient and threw a punch coated with a weird layer of light. As the fist grew closer, I quickly took out my sword to block the attack.

This collision created a large explosion that threw both me and the apostle backwards. I was shocked by the sheer strength of the apostle's punch. It carried enough power to push me back, even though I was a significantly higher level than the man. I decided to look more closely, as I had written off the apostle as weaker previously due to the lower level. As I looked again, I saw the apostle had a very high-level skill, which explained the previous output of power.

This short-haired apostle had his brawling skill at [EX] Brawling (lv. 18). In terms of skills, this apostle had me beat by a large margin. If it weren't for my higher level, I wouldn't have been able to repel this apostle and would have directly lost. The short-haired apostle quickly recovered from the initial clash, as he too was surprised by my power. As an apostle of God, he was very powerful and probably rarely met anyone who could fight back against him.

The apostle quickly lost his shock and assumed a more serious demeanor. The entire feeling of the apostle suddenly changed as he prepared to use his next attack. As the apostle quickly finished his preparation, he launched another attack that was far more powerful than the previous punch. I decided to get serious too, as I layered my sword with magic and solidified intention. I put everything I had into my sword, intending to finish this battle quickly so as not to alert the others and to solve this personally.

In the next moment, we clashed once again, creating a much larger exploding sound as we blasted a dent into the ground where we met. Initially, we were evenly matched, but as the clash continued, I slowly started to overpower the apostle of God as my sword inched closer. Unable to pull back his punch and retreat, the apostle tried to use more effort to push me back. His efforts were in vain as my sword continued to move forward, until finally, I made contact.

I then slashed as hard as I could, wanting to kill the apostle in one hit. As my sword cut through the apostle's body, he quickly backed away. My attack did have a decent result, as a huge slash mark was now on the apostle's chest, making him bleed heavily. With this injury, my victory was now assured. Now with such a heavy injury, the apostle knew he could no longer escape easily and decided to accept his fate, knowing he would die here today.

Instead of trying to flee, the apostle decided to make a last-ditch effort and deal some damage before dying. The apostle then tried to distract me by threateningly stating, "Are you proud of defeating me? Well, I am only a weak scout sent out by the other apostles. Soon, many others will come to attack you together once they realize that I never came back. You may kill me today, but don't think this is the end." In the next moment, a large surge of energy was emitted by the apostle.

It seems the apostle was now burning his life energy to attack with everything he had. Soon, the apostle threw his final attack, prepared to sacrifice his life for mutual destruction. I was now no longer sure if I could deal with this attack without dying or at least incurring heavy injuries. Then, behind me, metal projectiles appeared and headed toward the enemy's attack while I suddenly felt a surge of strength. In my sight appeared Sophia and Shiro. It seemed help had arrived, and I regained my confidence.

With their support, I engaged the apostle for the final clash. After a short encounter, the apostle's energy quickly dissipated as he ran out of life energy. As this happened, I took advantage and dealt the finishing blow. As the apostle's dead body fell to the ground, I felt a sense of accomplishment. I had killed an apostle without needing the help of a nuclear bomb. Though I had some support, it was still me fighting personally, which resulted in a win. This result was satisfactory in my view.

What made it even better was that I had leveled up. I then had a new notification on my system window: Level Up: 4061 With this victory, I felt new confidence in the coming storm that was the attack of the other apostles of God.