Chương 128

The afternoon sun beat down on the bustling streets of Winston. Grid stood in the corner of the town square, vigorously biting his fingernails. He was anxious, but more than that, he was incredibly greedy. His legendary-rated Divine Shield—an item he had poured his blood, sweat, and expensive materials into—was sitting in the Vatican.

"Do they have any idea how much that shield is worth?" Grid muttered to himself, his face twisting into a scowl.

"I could sell that and finally buy that top-tier imported sports car I've been looking at! Those corrupt priests... I'll smash them all and squeeze every last gold coin out of them for compensation." Not to mention, he desperately needed the high-ranking priests to bestow Goddess Rebecca's blessing onto his items. Grid was notoriously stupid and constantly overestimated his own abilities, fully believing he was the strongest player in the game.

However, even he knew that fighting an entire army of elite paladins by himself would be exhausting and drain his weapon durability. Why do all the hard work himself when he could just summon some free labor? Suddenly, a massive, blinding flash of blue magic lit up the center of the square. The wind howled, scattering the nearby merchants. When the light faded, three figures stood in the dirt. Rudra stood in the front, wearing his usual black coat and carrying a heavy bone staff over his shoulder.

Next to him was a man with a straw hat holding an iron hand plow, and behind them stood a pale, silver-haired man wearing neat robes. Grid marched over, his face in a grumpy scowl.

"You're late. Time is money, you know. I'm losing potential crafting hours just standing here."

"Good to see you too, Grid," Rudra laughed, completely unfazed by the blacksmith's bossy attitude.

"We had to wrap up some farming back in Reidan. You ready to go raid a church?"

"Only because they stole my property and I need to force them to give me a divine blessing," Grid huffed, crossing his arms.

"I'll be doing the important stuff, so I need you guys to act as my meat shields. Try to keep up."

"Oh, we'll keep up," Rudra grinned. He swiped his hand in the air. [Player 'Rudra' has invited you to a party.] [Do you accept?] Grid hit 'Yes'. He casually glanced up at the top corner of his vision to check the party interface, wanting to see how much Rudra had leveled up since his reset a month ago. Grid froze. He blinked hard. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his dirt-stained hands and looked at the blue window again. His breath hitched in his throat.

[Name: Rudra] [Class: Staff Saint] [Level: 204] Grid's eyes locked onto the class first. Staff Saint. Grid's mind immediately flashed back to a month ago. He remembered the massive, golden server message that had interrupted his endless hammering at the forge. The entire world had been turned upside down because the very first player to acquire a legendary combat class had been announced.

Because Grid's transition to Pagma's Successor had been kept quiet from the global server, the world thought Rudra was the first. This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Wait... Wait a minute," Grid stammered, pointing a shaking finger at Rudra.

"That world message last month. The legendary staffsman... That was YOU?!"

"Yep," Rudra nodded casually, leaning on his bone staff.

"Finally crossed the wall." Grid felt a massive, burning wave of jealousy wash over him. But before he could even process the unfairness of someone else getting all the public fame, his eyes drifted down to the next line on the party interface. Level 204. Grid's jaw dropped so fast it almost unhinged.

"Two... Two hundred and four?!" Grid yelled, completely abandoning his dignity.

"Are you kidding me?! When you became a legend a month ago, your level reset to 1! How in the world did you reach level 204 in thirty days?!"

"We did a lot of grinding underground," Rudra said, stretching his neck.

"Found some high-level vampires. It was pretty efficient."

"Efficient?!" Grid grabbed his own hair in sheer frustration.

"Do you know how many times I have to swing my sword at monsters to gain a single level?! I stay awake for days! I skip meals! I sweat blood! Did you discover a bug?! Are you cheating?! This game is so unfair!" Grid was incredibly envious. To see Rudra casually bypass the grueling early-game grind and rocket past level 200 in a month felt like a personal attack.

"Hey, it wasn't easy," Rudra chuckled, patting Grid on the shoulder.

"I had to eat a lot of stringy bat meat." Grid swatted Rudra's hand away, grumbling bitterly under his breath about the injustices of the world. He turned his attention away from Rudra and looked at the other two men. He immediately recognized the scarred man in the straw hat. Grid looked at Piaro. He clearly saw a sharp steel sword hanging securely at the man's waist, yet Piaro was casually resting an iron hand plow on his shoulder.

"Wait, Piaro?" Grid asked, his eyes widening in confusion.

"Why are you holding a farming tool when you have a perfectly good sword right there?"

"I have not abandoned my sword," Piaro replied. He patted the iron hand plow resting on his shoulder.

"I simply realized that tilling a field and swinging a blade require the exact same posture. The dirt is the ultimate training ground." Rudra leaned in and whispered loudly to Grid.

"You know that crazy global message that popped up on the server a few days ago? The one about the Dual Legend that has the forums completely melting down?" Grid nodded slowly.

"Yeah. Everyone is freaking out. A Sword Saint and a Legendary Farmer in one body. People think the S. A. Group's servers are broken."

"That's him," Rudra pointed his thumb at Piaro. Grid felt his knees go weak. He stared at Piaro like he was looking at a mythical beast. The Dual Legend? The strongest NPC on the entire continent was standing right in the middle of Winston, holding a hand plow?! Grid slowly turned his head to look at the pale, silver-haired man standing quietly in the back.

"And... and who is that?" Grid asked, his voice trembling slightly.

"I am Mumud," the man offered a polite, graceful bow.

"He's a genius magician. Basically a legend himself," Rudra answered simply.

"He's been helping me farm experience points." Grid stood frozen in the middle of the street. His hands started to tremble again. He looked at Rudra, then at Piaro, and then at Mumud.

'A Dual Legend... and a genius magician...' Grid's mind was spinning so fast he felt dizzy.

'Why does he get all the overpowered followers?! I'm a legend too! I make legendary swords! Why am I stuck traveling alone and getting ripped off by merchants while he gets to walk around with an army of boss monsters?!' Grid bit his lip, deeply, intensely jealous of Rudra's absurdly strong party. It felt completely unbalanced. But as the initial shock wore off, Grid's greed easily overpowered his jealousy. The corners of his mouth slowly twitched upward into a wide, wicked grin.

He looked at the three monsters standing in front of him. With a lineup like this, storming the Vatican wasn't going to be hard at all. It was going to be a complete slaughter. He wouldn't just get his shield back; if he played this right, he could use these three as free labor to monopolize all the item drops from the corrupt priests.

"Alright," Grid said, suddenly looking incredibly motivated. He puffed out his chest, acting as arrogant as possible.

"Since you guys came all the way here, I'll generously allow you to do the heavy lifting. Let's go to the Vatican and take back what's rightfully mine."