Overgeared

Based on his clone’s performance, Grid found being a magician quite easy and fun.

What he found the most enjoyable was attacking an enemy from outside their attack range. Only when the demon cultivator managed to attack from within the Multiple Weakening Barriers did Grid realize that a magician had huge advantages over cultivators.

The demon cultivator had attacks that took the form of flowers which bloomed and delivered damage from within shields when striking a target. He was a specialist when it came to killing cultivators. Therefore, he was a great inspiration to Grid.

Grid thought that it would be surprisingly easy dealing with a cultivator’s shield even without the Falling Moon Sword or Annihilation energy.

He was right.

Grid’s Frozen Tempest inflicted serious negative status effects such as chill, slow, and freeze on Du Baeryong. The chill had penetrated through the shield. The cultivator’s shield worked similarly to Multiple Weakening Barriers, meaning that it could absorb or repel external shocks. The shield did not adapt to the frozen storm raging outside of it, because Frozen Tempest easily broke into Du Baeryong’s shield.

Inside the frosted shield, Du Baeryong froze slightly. This made him sluggish and unable to withstand the pressure from the increased gravity that followed. By the time he managed to fight back against Grid’s clone’s attacks, his movements had become significantly slower, so the clone could easily use Weapon Break against him.

Therefore, Grid couldn’t sympathize with Zibal’s sentiments.

“Relying on pure strength...? You have no idea how many fights I’ve gone through in a short period of time.”

I am just using clever strategies.

At least, the clone was like that. Wasn’t he Braham’s true successor? In fact, most of the clone’s titles were related to Braham. He could cast multiple spells at the same time, cast a spell without having the need to say it out loud, reduce the casting speed of his spells, his magic attack power would significantly increase with each successful spell cast, and so on.

Not only did the clone possess a high amount of passive skills, which could change a magician’s life if they had merely one of them in their arsenal, but the clone had hidden potential that could impress even the God of magic and wisdom. Combining this with Grid’s combat experience, the result was the clone tactically beating up Du Baeryong.

Yes, he was rather strong for a magician, but that wouldn’t really affect the outcome of the fight. This battle had been won from the start because of Grid’s clone’s cunning strategies.

Zibal stared blankly at Grid’s clone, who strongly denied what Zibal had just said. People tended to be obsessed with what they were lacking. Zibal vaguely understood Grid’s point of view. He nodded and said, “I see. I’m sorry.”

Gray light flashed and they heard a familiar voice. It was Du Baeryong’s voice, even though he had been crushed to death by Meteor. “As expected from a Super Galaxy Treasure. I never dreamed that my incarnation would be defeated by the incarnation of a qi refining cultivator. There’s a possibility that you aren’t an ordinary cultivator, but one of those Warriors... Still, you’re an excellent fighter, no matter what.”

The light dimmed out, revealing Du Baeryong.

“This guy...!”

The immortal’s strength was comparable to an old dragon’s. Grid’s clone had used all those powerful spells on a mere clone? Zibal paled at the thought.

New enemies showed up. There were fifty-three cultivators in total, their realms ranging from nascent soul to great ascension. The sect that Du Baeryong had belonged to when he was a cultivator was offering their support.

“I would like to say that I don’t need my sect’s help, but... Unfortunately, you aren’t an opponent that I can easily deal with given my current condition.”

“It’s an honor to help you.”

“I will fight until my dying breath.”

The fifty-three cultivators who obeyed Du Baeryong were like soldiers. This was unexpected, given that cultivators were obsessed with survival.

Grid’s clone was somewhat surprised.

“You’re going to risk your lives to fight? I didn’t expect a cultivator to ever say that. What’s in it for you?”

“Lifespan,” Du Baeryong answered on behalf of the cultivators. “I swore that I would make the bodies of those who fight and die for me into my spare incarnations. A preliminary incarnation can live quite freely until their master grants them consciousness. What’s more, they would become preliminary incarnations of a true immortal. They can live for an extra hundreds of thousands of years.”

“......?” Grid’s clone didn’t know what to say. He tilted his head.

Du Baeryong added, “I won’t lose anything if these guys become my preliminary incarnations. In any case, I’m going to make you my incarnation.”

“...Sooo, what you’re saying is that they have the potential to become your incarnations while also enjoying various benefits?”

“Correct.”

“I don’t understand. Won’t they all just die?”

A spear of magic fell from the sky. It was Disintegrate.

One of the void refining cultivators, who was standing behind Du Baeryong, didn’t have time to move out of the way in time and got killed by the spear. The dwarf who escaped from his dead body entered Du Baeryong’s sleeve.

Grid pointed at the dwarf and asked, “If you make him your incarnation and don’t give him a consciousness, will he be free to live as your preliminary incarnation in the future? He will even live as long as you?”

“That’s right. I can also make him look the same as when he was alive. He could even increase his cultivation realm. It means he will become the embodiment of me, but his independence is guaranteed. Someday, if I need a new incarnation or if my main body dies and I need a replacement, I will deprive him of his freedom and make his body my own. But you... Why are you asking me something so obvious? You don’t seem to have basic knowledge that a cultivator should possess. Don’t tell me that you didn’t even use spiritual energy as the material for your incarnation?”

“Really strange... If what you’re saying is true, isn’t it better for a cultivator to just die and become the incarnation of an immortal?”

“That’s true, unless they have the ambition to become an immortal someday. However, it’s almost impossible for a cultivator to become the incarnation of an immortal. Just as I am obsessed with you now, immortals naturally want to have powerful incarnations. If they made incarnations from just about any cultivator, that would be a fruitless endeavor because the cultivator’s realm would be too low. I wouldn’t have done them this favor if they weren’t cultivators from the sect I used to belong to.”

“Um... You can’t create an unlimited amount of preliminary incarnations, right?”

“I can hold and maintain seventy spare incarnations. This is a lot, and I can only do that because of a technique that I learned. Most immortals, except for me, only have around five spare incarnations.”

“Out of the seventy preliminary incarnations, you can only inject consciousness into one at a time?”

“Yes, except for that one incarnation, the rest of the preliminary incarnations aren’t that impressive.”

“Is the technique you learned related to the puppet technique?”

“It’s a higher form of that. Puppetry is simply a technique that creates puppets, while the technique I learned allows me to multiply myself. Of course, puppeteers won’t admit that.”

Suddenly, Grid’s clone had doubts. Why did this person answer all his questions without hesitation? Was it to buy himself time? That was probably the case. Grid’s clone urgently cast an offensive spell.

“You are too late.”

Flash!

Another gray light flickered. It was a second Du Baeryong who looked exactly like the first one. The energy emanating from him was on par with the incarnation that had just been crushed to death by Meteor. One of the preliminary incarnations had obtained Du Baeryong’s consciousness and arrived as reinforcement.

“I admit that you are a formidable enemy. I will fight with all my strength.”

The two Du Baeryongs smiled and swung their flaming swords. The remaining fifty-two cultivators also dispersed in all directions and joined the battle.

Zibal sighed and asked, “Still fighting using your brilliant strategies?”

“......”

Grid’s clone couldn’t say anything to deny that. He had an immortal, its clone, and fifty-two cultivators to deal with. Seeing the two Du Baeryongs get closer and closer, Grid’s clone had no choice but to use his trump card.

“Memorize.”

An Absolute could split seconds into tens of units. He pulled out all the spells he had stored using Memorize to block Du Baeryong’s attack and fight back. He also used Hourglass, the ultimate acceleration spell, to reduce the cooldown of his spells while casting various ice spells. Barriers of ice erupted across the battlefield, the ground froze, and a cruel chill enveloped the area.

Grid’s clone’s intentions were clear. He wanted to make the temperature drop as much as possible until Frozen Tempest’s cooldown refreshed, and to increase this particular spell’s power.

Du Baeryong could tell that much. “Do you really think that I will fall for the same trick twice?”

He created a flaming mountain when his clone swung the sword once. The flaming swords brandished by both the immortal and his clone naturally melted all the ice around him. The air was no longer cold as ice. The climate became milder before eventually heating up.

“Time to die now.”

Waves of roaring fire poured toward Grid’s clone. The immense, ferocious flood of flames resembled Red Phoenix. The heat made it difficult for Zibal’s group to breathe. They felt as if their brains were melting as they got affected by various debuffs.

This was even worse for Grid’s clone, who was the target of the flames. After exchanging looks, Zibal and Katz pushed Mir and Jessica back and rushed at the clone’s side.

“Mass Teleport.”

Grid’s clone was one step ahead and teleported all his allies from the battlefield before casting Poison Smog. This was Braham’s favorite spell when researching explosive spells. The poisonous mist contained various hazardous substances and a small amount of flammable gasses. And given that those immense flames were heading his way...

As expected, there was a huge explosion.

Grid’s clone hadn’t expected for the explosion to be so massive. His body, which was made of Greed, twisted and folded strangely, and he was badly damaged.

‘It’s ruined...’

His vision flashed red. He was in a pitiful state, and he could no longer move. Grid’s clone had no concept of survival since he could not be destroyed completely. Instead, he became stiff every time he suffered great damage. Given how badly damaged he was now, he would be unable to move until he received repairs.

In other words, he was completely defenseless. The clone’s anxiety skyrocketed at the thought of Du Baeryong capturing him. However...

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have...]

The same system message appeared more than fifty times. Only then did Grid’s clone come to his senses. He looked around and saw there was no one left on the battlefield but himself. He hadn’t killed just the fifty-two cultivators, but Du Baeryong as well.

After all, who could survive an explosion that damaged even Grid’s clone so badly? That explosion had the capacity to even destroy the Tomb of the Gods. Du Baeryong’s flames were indeed incredibly powerful.

A cunning smile appeared on Grid’s face. “In any case, I won.”