Leveling Up Through Eating

Chapter 836

For a brief moment, the entire world was plunged into silence. Minhyuk had injured Nerva Sephiroth. For the Luvien Empire, Nerva Sephiroth was far more valuable than the sky and the land in their hearts. For the people of the Beyond the Heavens Empire, he was the Battle God’s Sword, an absolute existence that reigned the world, and pushed them to the brink of their deaths.

Drip— drip, drip—!

”Keuaaaaaaaack!” Nerva screamed, blood dripping through the gaps in his hand that covered his left eye.

“Aaack! Uwaaaaaaaack! Keuaaaaaaack!”

It was a pain that he had never felt before in his life.

“Your— Your Majesty!!!”

“Your Majesty!!!”

Don, the commander of the Sword of the Gods, hurriedly rushed forward and blocked Nerva from the enemies. He looked warily at Minhyuk and the other Named NPCs of the Beyond the Heavens Empire.

Don was indebted to Minhyuk due to the events when seeking Mandala before. If it was not for Minhyuk, he and the other Sword of the Gods would have already died. However, just because he was indebted to the man in front of him did not mean that he could not distinguish and separate his public and private matters.

The emperor of an enemy nation had inflicted a serious injury on their own emperor. This was a serious matter.

Glug, glug, glug—!

Knight Commander Don hurriedly pulled out a top-quality potion and poured it over the injured eyes of Emperor Nerva.

‘The injury is not healing…?’

The wound did not heal even after using such a high quality potion. Seeing this, hundreds of priests hurriedly rushed forward and sent their holy power upon Nerva. But even that could not cure Nerva’s injuries.

“What in the world have you done?” Don glared sharply at Minhyuk.

This was the power of Unhealable Injury that was attached to the Sword of Aeon.

(Unhealable Injury)

Artifact Skill

Level: None

Mana Required: 5,000

Penalty: All stats will decrease by -2.

Cooldown: 144 hours

Effects:

•It leaves players, NPCs, or monsters with injuries that cannot be healed or recovered by recovery skills, potions or any other means.

•However, in the case of players, the injuries would disappear once they are forced to logout.

Description: The greatest sword contains the power of the God of Death after he strengthened the sword using his Authority, The One that Advances.

In Athenae, the higher the Named NPCs' levels were, the more difficult it was to deal with them. The main reason for this was because of their recovery ability, which was completely different from ordinary human beings.

Due to their high recovery ability, these NPCs could quickly recover even if a sword had dug deeply into their arms. In fact, even if their arms had fallen off, they only needed the power of an outstanding priest to attach it back. Of course, such a treatment would only be possible for the emperor of the Luvien Empire.

Considering that the skill allowed Minhyuk to cause a permanent injury on such a high-leveled Named NPC, the skill was more powerful than he initially thought.

‘I can’t defeat Nerva right now.’

Minhyuk could not deny this fact. Nerva was at least equal to or more powerful than Brod. But even though he could not win against him right now, at the very least he was able to weaken him with the Unhealable Injury skill.

Nerva’s pain finally subsided. No, to be exact, his fear and terror finally came under control. Nerva had reigned as the strongest for all his life and had never felt such mind-numbing pain before. Because of that, he felt great fear.

Nerva, who covered one of his eyes tightly, glared sharply at Minhyuk, “Bastaaaaaaaaaaaard!!!”

The divinity that wrapped around Nerva’s sword earlier had already disappeared the moment a disturbance appeared in his mind. On top of that with Brod and Ben, who had already recovered from their injuries, standing on Minhyuk’s left and right respectively, he could no longer repeat such a feat.

“Your Majesty, you can’t.” Knight Commander Don hurriedly stepped forward and stopped Nerva from charging forward.

“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

“Take Nerva’s head!!!”

“Kill Nerva!!!”

“Long live the Beyond the Heavens Empire!!!”

Right behind them, the large army led by Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Aaron were slaughtering the Luvien Imperial Army’s troops. However, the biggest threat to them was the fact that Brod and Spear God Ben, the existences that even the Sword of the Gods had a hard time dealing with, had now recovered.

The only reason why they were able to deal much damage to Brod and Spear God Ben before was because the Swords of the Gods had cleverly attacked them while they were exhausted. However, now that they no longer had any gap to take advantage of, there was no guarantee of victory if they attacked them right now.

Nerva was also fully aware of this fact. His breath was rough and heavy, his remaining eye turning bloodshot as he looked at Minhyuk furiously.

Then, Minhyuk opened his mouth and said, “The Luvien Empire has done something that it should not have.” He raised his sword and pointed it at Nerva as he continued, “You have attacked the Beyond the Heavens Empire without any rhyme or reason and reaped the lives of many of my people.”

Grit—

Nerva gritted his teeth. He was the emperor of the greatest empire. The number of empires kneeling at his feet were countless. He even had hundreds of kingdoms obeying his orders. Yet, a mere emperor of a newly-established empire was showing contempt in front of him? Unfortunately, Nerva was currently helpless in front of such contempt.

“To pay for that sin, destroy all of the Luvien Imperial Army troops in this place!”

“Bastaaaaaaaaaaaaaard!!!”

Nerva grew even more furious. However, despite his anger, the situation unfolded in a different direction from what he expected.

“Your Majesty, you must go.”

“Your Majesty. Please— please go quickly!”

“Please hurry and leave!”

If the ones present here were only the Luvien Imperial Army, the Swords of the Gods. or the Empire’s Stars they would not have chosen to retreat. Even if they died, they would still do their best to decimate the troops of the Beyond the Heavens Empire. However, Emperor Nerva was with them. What was worse, his eye was injured and he was still bleeding.

“Kghhk!” A dull pain continued to assault Nerva. “I will come back to deal with you.”

Nerva’s words were like a signal and an acknowledgement that the Beyond the Heavens Empire had now become a newly-emerging empire. From this point, they would be known as the empire that forced the Luvien Empire to retreat.

“Order for a retreat…”

“Retreat! Retreat!!!”

“Retreat!!!”

The Luvien Imperial Army’s troops began to retreat.

Brod turned to look at Minhyuk and asked, “Your Majesty, please give us your orders.”

The fact that the Great Luvien Empire had chosen to retreat was already a huge surprise. However, true to what Minhyuk said before, he ordered for their destruction.

“Do not let a single person live.”

He ordered for them to chase after the retreating army and kill them. Even though he said that, Minhyuk already knew that it would be difficult to kill Nerva and the Swords of the Gods. His orders meant only one thing, he wanted to kill the rest of their troops. He wanted to teach Nerva not to even think about looking toward the Beyond the Heavens Empire ever again!

“As the emperor of the Beyond the Heavens Empire, I command you! Do not leave a single man alive. Kill them!!!”

“Yes!!!”

The tightly closed gates opened as the Beyond the Heavens Empire’s soldiers, who had been hiding in fear earlier, charged forward.

Meanwhile, the commentators shouted in excitement.

[It— It seems like the Beyond the Heavens Empire is not satisfied with forcing them to retreat. They want to annihilate them!]

[If the Beyond the Heavens Empire annihilates their enemies, then they would be able to obtain greater achievements!]

[Now, the second battle has begun. Will the Luvien Empire be able to run away or will they die?]

***

Initially, the players’ desire and enthusiasm to win against Nerva and the Luvien Empire was strong since the start of Athenae’s second era. After all, Nerva was the Battle God’s Sword and the Luvien Empire was the greatest and the strongest empire.

They planned to gradually devour Nerva’s powerful army and one day, with their own power, slay Nerva and take his head. Then, it would show them that they were the true masters of Athenae.

However, their enthusiasm and excitement immediately collapsed and disappeared just after three months. Just a few weeks after the appearance of the Luvien Empire, an entire continent fell into their hands. A few more months after that, they invaded several more continents. Several more months after that, most of the continents, with the exception of the Asgan Continent, fell into their hands.

Under the name of an Alliance Agreement with the Luvien Empire, hundreds of kingdoms were forced to sign an agreement that allowed them to be exploited freely by the empire. Most of the empires also chose to side with the Luvien Empire.

Because of that, most of the players clamored loudly.

[Knight Arlo, the one that taught me how to use the sword, died last night in the war against the Luvien Empire. I’m so sad…]

[I am an orphan. That was why I am very happy to have met Hansen and his family. However, they were killed for no reason at all.]

[It’s just so sad.]

[Thankfully, there are laws set in place in reality.]

[I’m shelving Athenae.]

[Is there someone, anyone, who can help me get revenge?]

[I’m going crazy.]

[Please, I’m begging someone, anyone! Take down that damn Luvien Empire!]

[Take down Luvien!]

[Someone, do something please!]

[Rankers, please stop Luvien!]

[Luvien!]

[Bring Luvien down!]

[Damn you, Luvien!]

[F*ck you, Luvien!!!]

It was a silent outcry. In the end, some of the players either left or just gave up on the game completely. The Luvien Empire, who stood at the center of Athenae’s second era, eventually began to encroach upon everything.

Now, one humble player had forced the Luvien Empire to retreat. And he was not even satisfied with that.

—Do not leave a single man alive. Kill them!

The hearts of the people thumped loudly as they watched over two million soldiers of the Luvien Imperial Army flee.

[Right. Please do that. Please kill every single one of those bastards. Do not leave a single one of them behind!]

[Kill Nerva, Food God!]

[Our Lord, Food God! We believe in youuuuu!]

In Athenae, a place where the NPCs had now taken center stage, a single player, the Food God, had taken a stand. With his appearance, hope started to sprout in the hearts of the players once again.

However, the Luvien Imperial Army laughed at them.

“You? Destroy us? You have to be capable of doing something like that.”

“If His Majesty was not injured then we would not be retreating.”

They continued to laugh. Even if they retreated from the fight against the Beyond the Heavens Empire, it did not mean that they were scared. They were just stepping back to ensure that their emperor was not hurt and to reorganize themselves.

The Imperial Army thought that Sun Wukong and the coalition of players that came at them were nothing as long as the Swords of the Gods stepped forward.

“Retreat as fast as you can! It would be better if you spread out! Make sure to come back alive in the Luvien Empire!!!”

“…?!”

Knight Commander Don, who was helping His Majesty Nerva, had shouted. The soldiers could not understand his reaction.

‘Why is Commander Don acting like that?’

‘But we have obviously overpowered Brod, Spear God Ben, and all of the Beyond the Heavens earlier?’

‘No— no way…?!’

They all looked back and wondered about the changes happening in the enemy army. What was different from before? Was it the appearance of the Great Sage, Heaven’s Equal and another army? However, they believed that their current numbers were more than enough to pierce through the enemy’s defenses. So, what else has changed?

‘Emperor Minhyuk’s appearance?’

That was all but Knight Commander Don had told them to run as fast as they could.

“What is the matter with you?”

Only one person had appeared, so they could not understand the reaction of Knight Commander Don.

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang—

Slash, slash, slash, slash, slash, slash—!

At that moment, a loud and violent explosion erupted amidst the ranks of the retreating Luvien Imperial Army. When they looked back, they saw Brod, Spear God Ben, Sword of the Gods Luo, Great Demon Elpis, and the rest of the Beyond the Heavens Empire charging forward and wiping soldiers away with vicious and devilish expressions on their faces.

“Hi— hiiiiiiiiiik?!”

“What— what the hell?!!”

In just an instant, more than 30,000 of the Luvien Imperial Army disappeared from their joint attacks. Only then did the soldiers of the Luvien Imperial Army recall something.

‘Food God Minhyuk is someone that can make the best buffed dishes!’

Minhyuk had used Everyone’s Happiness while they were busy retreating. He had also fed a total of ten people with the legendary dishes that he had prepared in advance. The ten people that he selected to feed those dishes included Brod, Ben, Elpis, Luo, Alexander, and Golden Mage Ali. Now, they had become 1.3x stronger than before.

“Haa.. haa… Quick! Go faster!!!”

“Run faster!!!”

The speed at which the Luvien Imperial Army retreated started becoming faster. Following Don’s orders, the soldiers scattered around. Unfortunately, even when they did so, Sword of the Gods Luo, Informant Abel and Asura Ascar chased after them and swiftly cut them down. At that point, they realized that running away scattered around like that made it harder for them to counter the enemies.

“Hi— hiiiiiiiik!” Hanson, an ordinary soldier, screeched in terror when he looked around him.

The almost 2.5 million troops of the Luvien Imperial Army had disappeared in just over two hours. He could also see Knight Commander Don running with the unconscious Emperor Nerva on his back.

“Sir— Sir, did you give us that order because you knew that the Food God could create extraordinary buffed dishes and can make our enemies stronger?!”

Hanson was just a soldier. In fact, he did not know where he got the courage to ask their commander such a question. But even so, he still asked.

However, Knight Commander Don gulped dryly, his head shaking in answer. “…That’s not it.”

Hanson felt thrilled. Knight Commander Don answered his question! But then, he saw Knight Commander Don look back with a frightened look on his face. And someone was standing right where Don was looking.

“It’s because I’m afraid of him.”

Hanson turned to look back. He saw the Beyond the Heavens’ Emperor standing in front of the retreating army. Then, something strange happened.

Creak— Tick, tick, tick, tick—

A person suddenly appeared in front of the enemy emperor. His body was being supported with thin and transparent lines that looked similar to the lines used in fishing. The person’s body twisted and creaked, just like a puppet made out of wood.

Clack, clack, clack—

Not long after, the wrong body parts finally aligned and fitted together. None of the soldiers of the Beyond the Heavens Empire or the Luvien Empire knew the identity of the puppet. However, that was not the case for the soldiers of Edea. They clearly recognized who it was.

“En— Envoy Viel?”

That was right. The one that appeared in front of Minhyuk was none other than Envoy Viel, who had become a wooden puppet.