Chương 91

Grid lost his place of residence because he was expelled from Patrian. Therefore, he resurrected at a temple near his place of death, which unfortunately turned out to be a temple for the god of darkness, Yatan. Dark energy hung heavy in the air. Robed black magicians wandered around with gloomy expressions, pounding their chests around a creepy altar.

"Kiyaaaaak!" The sharp scream of a woman in pain came from underground.

"... Well, it is nothing compared to my real life," Grid muttered.

"S-S-Status window." His voice shook, but he ignored the horror-movie atmosphere around him and concentrated on the translucent screen in front of him. [Name: Grid] [Level: -1 (0/20)] [Class: Pagma's Successor] [Title: One who Became a Legend - Abnormal conditions don't work well on you. - You won't die when health is at the minimum. - Easily acknowledged.] A flood of emotions filled Grid's head. The negative level made him incredibly angry. He couldn't even beat up a rabbit with these stats.

But the special perks given by his new legendary class completely overwhelmed him. The title gave him high resistance to status effects and five seconds of immortality, making him very difficult to kill. Even better, he could bypass equipment conditions. He pulled Mamon's Greatsword out of his inventory. Even with the class penalty for not meeting the level requirement, he was holding an Epic-rated weapon at Level -1.

"I missed out on a foreign car, but maybe this isn't so bad..." Grid giggled to himself. At that exact moment, a finger poked his back.

"Aack!" Grid screamed in terror, hurriedly turning around and swinging his heavy greatsword. A Caucasian-looking man in light leather armor easily dodged the clumsy swing and raised his hands.

"Hey, calm down. Do you want to kill a person?" Grid glared at the NPC. The green name over the man's head read Doran.

"You poked me in a dark temple! What do you want?" Grid snapped. Doran smiled slightly.

"The Yatan Temple is filled with evil energy. Ordinary people fall into a state of sheer terror if they stay here. But you are perfectly fine. You even managed to laugh to yourself. You actually have great abilities, don't you?" Grid blinked. His new Composure stat and Legendary title completely neutralized the fear debuff. Doran suddenly bowed.

"I am Doran, a shadow who secretly protects Earl Steim. The Earl's daughter was kidnapped and is trapped in the basement of this temple. Won't you lend me your strength?" [Rescue the Earl's Esteemed Daughter] [Difficulty: S] [Clear Reward: 3, 000 gold, a low probability of becoming the Earl's son-in-law.] [Quest Failure: Level -2.] [Would you like to accept the quest?] Grid's eyes widened at the reward. 3, 000 gold was almost 3. 6 million won in cash! But it was an S-rank quest.

If he failed, his level would drop to -3.

"I can't do it. Ask someone else," Grid refused immediately.

"Please! A precious person's life is involved!" Doran pleaded, falling to his knees. No matter how many times Grid refused, the artificial intelligence kept forcing the prompt. Grid finally lost his temper. He raised Mamon's Greatsword.

"I said I won't help! Get away from me or I'll hit you!" Grid yelled, swinging the massive blade horizontally just to scare the NPC away. Kwajak!

"Kaaack!" Grid froze. He hadn't hit Doran. He had accidentally cleaved right into the neck of a Yatan believer walking past them in the dark. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. [Your relationship with the Yatan Church has become hostile.] [The followers of Yatan will try to kill you when they find you.]"Who dares hurt Yatan's believers!" dozens of black magicians screamed, turning their glowing, crazy eyes toward Grid.

Doran immediately jumped up and patted Grid's shoulder.

"Thank you for drawing their attention! Let's go!" [You cannot tolerate the evil deeds of Yatan's followers. You must rescue Irene.] [The quest has been forcibly accepted.]"Fuck my life!" Grid sobbed as Doran grabbed his collar and dragged him down the dark stairs toward the basement. Doran was incredibly fast. He threw daggers with terrifying speed, interrupting the black magicians' spells and slicing their throats before they could react. Grid just waddled behind him, cheering the assassin on.

"Doran, you are my god! Kill them all! Get me my three million won!" Grid yelled. They burst into the large, torch-lit basement. A beautiful woman was tied to a stone altar in the center. Standing between them and the hostage were twenty high-level black magicians. And standing at the front of them was a woman whose beauty completely overshadowed the hostage. Grid recognized her instantly from the real-world TV broadcasts. Blood Witch Yura. Rank 5 on the global leaderboards.

"I'm sorry, but I can't allow you to take away the sacrifice," Yura said coldly. Peeng! A massive, red-hot spear of fire erupted from Yura's hand and slammed directly into Grid's chest. [Critical!] [You have suffered catastrophic damage!] Grid's low health instantly vanished. He was completely dead. But as the fire cleared, he didn't turn into grey light. [A legend doesn't die easily. You can resist all attacks for 5 seconds with the minimum amount of health.] Grid stood perfectly still, his health bar locked at 1 HP. Yura's eyes widened in genuine shock. Her magic calculations were flawless. A single critical hit from her spell should have instantly vaporized a low-level warrior. But the man in front of her didn't even flinch. He wasn't even stunned.

"How are you perfectly fine after taking that attack?" Yura asked, taking a nervous step back. Her usually calm, flawless composure was completely shaken. Just a year ago in a muddy swamp, a lunatic in a dark mask had completely ignored her best spells, closed the distance, and slapped her across the face. She still remembered the stinging humiliation. Now, another completely unknown player was shrugging off her fatal magic like it was nothing. Has the world gone completely mad? Yura thought, her pulse spiking.

Grid didn't know what she was thinking, but he saw the confusion in her eyes. He had exactly five seconds of immortality left. He needed to be the ultimate distraction.

"Quickly, Doran!" Grid roared, marching straight toward the 5th ranked player in the world.

"I'll use my body to block their attacks! Kill them!" Yura's pride flared. This unknown player was completely disregarding her magic. She immediately began chanting her absolute strongest, top-tier spell.

"Dark Storm!" Yura shouted. A massive, silent hurricane of pure black magic formed in the basement, ripping the stone pillars apart. The devastating area-of-effect spell completely engulfed Grid. Yura smirked, waiting for him to die. But Grid just kept walking forward, penetrating straight through the dark storm without a single pause. He laughed like he didn't feel anything, his immortal passive completely absorbing the apocalyptic damage. What is his identity? Yura thought, her hands actually trembling.

This overwhelming presence... he resisted dozens of spells! He isn't stunned! Is he a bugged user? No, there must be a rational explanation. How did he gain such strength?! For the second time in her perfect life, Yura felt completely outmatched. The man named Grid was deeply and terrifyingly imprinted onto her mind. Grid grinned. He had two seconds of immortality left. Doran was right behind him, preparing to jump off his back and assassinate Yura. I'm going to survive! I'm going to get the gold!

Grid cheered inwardly. But right before Doran could step on Grid's back, a massive, unnatural pulse of kinetic energy vibrated through the very bedrock beneath their feet. BOOOOM! The entire ceiling of the underground basement violently exploded. Massive chunks of bedrock and dirt the size of carriages rained down into the room. Sunlight pierced into the dark temple for the first time in centuries.

Through the massive hole in the ceiling, a figure wearing a sleek black trench coat dropped directly into the center of the dark storm. He held a heavy bone staff that glowed with a terrifying, blinding orange heat. Grid looked up, his jaw dropping. Who the hell is that?! The falling man didn't chant a spell. He didn't even look at Yura or Grid. He just gripped his staff with both hands, twisted his body in mid-air, and slammed the heavy weapon directly into the stone floor of the temple.

"[Crushing Strike]." KABOOM! A shockwave of pure, devastating blunt force and explosive fire ripped through the entire basement. The Echo Strike passive triggered instantly, sending a second and third phantom shockwave ripping through the foundation. The twenty black magicians surrounding the altar were instantly vaporized into grey ash. Yura's defensive barrier shattered like cheap glass, and she was violently thrown backward against the collapsing wall.

Grid's five seconds of immortality expired exactly as a massive, fiery boulder dislodged from the ceiling and landed directly on his head. [You have suffered catastrophic damage!] [You have died.] Nooooo! Grid wailed internally as his vision turned grey. My three million won!! [Quest failed!] [Your level has dropped by 2.] [You are now level -3.] [As you have died two times within 24 hours, you won't be able to connect to the game for 12 hours.] As his consciousness faded, Grid's last sight was the ruined temple collapsing around them. Doran scooped up the hostage and sprinted toward the exit, looking back at the crater in pure awe. The NPC fully believed that Grid had deliberately drawn the Witch's fire and orchestrated the complete destruction of the Yatan Temple just to save them. He owes me a paycheck, Grid thought, right before the game forced him to log out.