Chapter 377:

Chapter 377:

Chapter 377: The Book of Plunder

“Boom!”

A terrifying magic power began to surge from the four Warfighters standing before Danas.

It was a magic power far denser, heavier, and more oppressive than before.

Danas opened the book in his hand, causing it to emit a dim light that merged into the Warfighters.

The four Warfighters’ power surged under this light, releasing even more magic power.

“That is…?”

Shien was surprised.

Seeing Shien’s surprise, Danas smiled.

“Surprised?” Danas chuckled. “Don’t be. This book has quite a history. Have you heard of The Book of Plunder?”

“The Book of Plunder?”

Shien frowned.

He had never heard of this name.

But not far away, Maeve, who was slicing several attacking evil beings in half, heard Danas’s words and exclaimed,

“Could it be the legendary magic book that can steal Unique Skills?”

Maeve’s words stunned Shien.

“A book that can steal Unique Skills?”

Did such a broken magic tool actually exist in this world?

As Shien was surprised, Danas spoke with a hint of regret.

“It’s not that easy to use. Unique Skills are known as powers that defy common sense. If they could be stolen so easily, it would be an insult to their name.” ŖÄꞐo͍βΕŠ

Danas truly looked regretful as he explained,

“To steal someone’s Unique Skill using The Book of Plunder, several very harsh conditions must be met.”

“Not only must the target be willing to offer their Unique Skill, but they must also become a sacrifice, self-immolating before The Book of Plunder.”

“Even so, the probability of this book successfully stealing a Unique Skill is less than one in ten. And even if it succeeds, depending on the degree of completion during the stealing process, the Unique Skill will eventually disappear. In other words, there’s a time limit.”

“Moreover, The Book of Plunder can only hold one Unique Skill at a time, and it can’t be discarded. Unless the stolen Unique Skill reaches its time limit and disappears on its own, it can’t steal another skill. This book has many limitations.”

“For example, now, the Unique Skill recorded in The Book of Plunder has less than a year left before it completely disappears.”

Danas then smiled again.

“But fortunately, the Unique Skill currently recorded in The Book of Plunder is very useful to me.”

“It can ignore all conditions and increase the power of magical lifeforms several times over. Back then, I went to great lengths to obtain this Unique Skill.”

“Now, it’s just the right time for you to experience its power.”

Danas’s smile suddenly turned cold.

“Go, Warfighters. Let him witness your true power.”

With Danas’s command, the four Warfighters abruptly raised their heads.

“Swish!”

Suddenly, the four Warfighters vanished from the spot.

“…!”

Shien’s expression turned serious. He raised the Holy Sword without hesitation, the blade imbued with [Demon Sword], and slashed around him.

“Swish!” “Swish!” “Swish!” “Swish!”

The four Warfighters instantly appeared around Shien as if teleporting, surrounding him once again. They dashed towards Shien at an astonishing speed, each raising their hands and deploying a magic barrier.

“Clang, clang, clang, clang—!”

Shien’s Holy Sword swept across, like a spinning wheel, striking the barriers in front of the four Warfighters. However, it couldn’t break through them as easily as before. Instead, it was deflected with a series of metallic clangs.

Then, taking advantage of Shien’s unfinished attack, one of the Warfighters suddenly accelerated, appearing behind Shien. Raising his hands again, he unleashed several magic whips that instantly wrapped around Shien.

“Look out!”

“Oh no!”

Seeing this, Oz and Maeve’s expressions changed drastically.

At the same time, the other three Warfighters also appeared around Shien. Their hands, hidden beneath their robes, suddenly appeared, each holding a thorn-like spike, and stabbed at Shien mercilessly.

Knowing that Shien possessed the [Magic Resistance] skill, these four Warfighters chose to use physical attacks to finish him off.

The three spikes were aimed at Shien’s throat, heart, and head.

Unfortunately…

“Clang—!”

With a clear, crisp sound, the three sharp spikes landed on Shien’s vital points, but it was as if they had struck steel. Sparks flew as they were deflected.

“What?”

Danas, who had thought victory was within his grasp, saw this scene and his pupils constricted.

“He also has the high-level [Physical Resistance] skill?”

Was this a joke?

Danas had seen resistance skills before.

He had also seen high-level resistance skills.

A resistance skill that could ignore the attacks of four Warfighters above level eighty had to be at least level nine, right?

But people usually only had one such skill.

Because resistance skills were different from defensive amplification skills, the way to learn them was to endure a certain level of attacks.

To learn the [Physical Resistance] skill, one had to endure a sufficient number of physical attacks of a certain intensity.

To learn the [Magic Resistance] skill, one had to endure a sufficient number of magic attacks of a certain intensity.

Due to these conditions, many people couldn’t learn resistance skills in their lifetime. Firstly, they lacked the talent in this area. Secondly, attacks strong enough to allow one to learn resistance skills were often fatal before the skill could be learned.

Resistance was about enduring a sufficient number of attacks, allowing the body to adapt and develop resistance. Therefore, the attacks endured had to be taken head-on, without defense or resistance.

Under such circumstances, how many people could learn resistance skills?

Those who could learn resistance skills had all come back from hell, having suffered countless fatal injuries and brushed with death numerous times, finally learning the skill after being successfully rescued.

Such people weren’t nonexistent in the three realms, but they usually only had one resistance skill.

Two resistance skills?

How many near-death experiences would it take to learn them?

Shien, who looked so young, actually possessed two resistance skills and had even raised them to near maximum level?

“This human…”

Danas’s expression turned grim.

Oz and Maeve were also shocked.

“He actually has two high-level resistance skills?”

Oz was dumbfounded.

“Is… is he a monster?”

Maeve couldn’t stay calm.

Shien, completely unaware of the shock he had caused, ignored the three Warfighters who were stunned by their ineffective attacks. He struggled against the magic whips and clicked his tongue.

“This kind of binding ability, even resistance skills are useless against it?”

It made sense.

The effect of resistance skills was to reduce damage. They naturally had no effect on abilities that didn’t cause direct damage.

If it were an abnormal status, Shien, with [Abnormal Status Resistance], could negate its effects. But against direct restraints, no resistance skill would work.

Shien could only rely on brute force to break free.

No, wait.

“[Bestow: Dispel].”

Shien used a new Bestowal Magic, imbuing the whips wrapped around him with the “Dispel” attribute.

“Bang!”

The whips on Shien instantly shattered.

“—!”

The four Warfighters finally reacted. Not giving Shien a chance to escape, they unleashed their chains again, wrapping them around him.

“[Bestow: Dispel].”

Shien used the same trick again, dispelling the restraints on his body, and abruptly turned around, using Celestial Magic.

“[Flying Star]!”

Countless small meteors descended from the sky, transforming into a rain of light that fell on the four Warfighters.

“Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang…!”

As the meteors continued to fall, explosions occurred one after another, creating smoke and dust that gradually enveloped the battlefield where Shien and the four Warfighters were fighting.

The battle between Shien and the four Warfighters intensified, magic clashing against magic, sword strikes against spikes, creating shockwaves and roars, indicating that the fight had reached a fever pitch.

“So… so powerful…”

Maeve murmured.

“Humans are as cunning as ever. Although most of them are weak, occasionally, some incredibly powerful individuals are born. There’s never a shortage of strong people in any era. It’s really puzzling.”

Even Oz said these words in amazement.

Clearly, they were shocked and amazed that Shien could still fight against the four Warfighters, whose power had increased several times over.

Of course, this wasn’t the situation Danas wanted to see.

“It seems I underestimated this human noble.”

Danas frowned deeply.

He had indeed heard a lot about Shien, but he never expected him to be so troublesome.

Subjugating a declining [Assassination Branch], although it caused a stir among the Old Demon Faction, wasn’t really taken seriously by many.

The [Assassination Branch] used to be somewhat formidable, but after its decline ten years ago, it had become the weakest among all the Old Demon Faction branches. Few people looked up to it.

Bedo was quite powerful, but his strength was limited. Compared to him, many leaders of the Old Demon Faction, including Danas, paid more attention to the young but promising Kilian.

Therefore, their subjugation only made many branches of the Old Demon Faction lament the disappearance of a once invincible force and remember Shien’s name. Besides that, it served no other purpose.

Afterwards, whether it was taming the black dragon of Atlus or destroying nearly half of the Kingdom Knight Order’s forces, although many members of the Old Demon Faction were surprised, few truly considered Shien a threat.

It wasn’t until there were rumors that Shien had connections with Airi, one of the Six Demon Lords, and had also caught the attention of the Moon Demon, seemingly having some relationship with these Demon Lords in private, that many people truly remembered Shien’s name and started to take him seriously.

But this attention was focused on the power behind Shien, not his own strength.

If Shien’s strength was only enough to subjugate a declining [Assassination Branch], it could only be said that he was somewhat capable.

The same went for destroying nearly half of the Kingdom Knight Order’s forces.

After all, the Kingdom Knight Order was full of soldiers below level seventy.

𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

If Shien had destroyed nearly half of the Royal Knights’ forces, that would have been worth the Old Demon Faction’s attention.

In conclusion, including Danas, many people were only interested in the various feats Shien had accomplished, but few considered his personal strength a threat.

But now, Danas felt that he had to change his view.

“This human noble is definitely a menace.”

A hint of killing intent appeared in Danas’s eyes.

Shien was too young, not much older than the Kingdom’s treasure and the Empire’s Valkyrie, but he possessed such strength. Moreover, he had the black dragon of Atlus as his follower and connections with Demon Lords. If he was allowed to grow, he would undoubtedly become a great threat to the Old Demon Faction.

“We must eliminate him here.”

Danas raised the magic book in his hand and poured magic power into it, hoping to enhance the Warfighters’ strength further.

The Unique Skill recorded in the magic book hadn’t reached its limit yet.

Although pushing it to the limit and enhancing their power too much would shorten the time limit of the Unique Skill’s record in the magic book, causing it to disappear earlier, Danas was a decisive person. When he had to pay a price to achieve his goals, he would readily do so. This was how he had managed to climb to his current position despite his weak strength.

However, at this moment, something unexpected happened.

“[Cyclone]!”

A clear shout suddenly rang out, and a whirlwind appeared in Danas’s hand. With a swirl, it snatched The Book of Plunder.

“Who…!?”

Danas’s expression finally changed, and he abruptly turned towards the ceiling of the temple.

The skylight that had been broken earlier was still there.

Therefore, a figure appeared there, standing on the ceiling, reaching out and catching the magic book swept up by the whirlwind.

Seeing this person, Oz and Maeve were overjoyed.

“Saintess Elise!”

“Saintess Elise!”

They couldn’t help but shout.

It was Elise.