The Healing Solaris Cleric

Chapter 185: Stomp to Death (1)

[Kai]

Class: Solaris Cleric

Level: 318

Title: Envoy of God

HP: 50,900

Holy Power: 120,900

Stats

Strength: 1221 Stamina: 509

Intelligence: 386 Agility: 389

Holiness: 1209 Dignity: 336

Benevolence: 203

Poison Resistance: +30

Magic Resistance: +40%

Nature Affinity: +200

Damage dealt to demons/undead: +50%

“Not bad.”

Humble as ever, Kai only said it wasn’t bad, but calling a status window like this merely not bad was an understatement. He was a monster among monsters, with a total stat count surpassing 4,000, including the Dignity stat!

“I should get on the move now.”

He left the Celestial Garden and used the teleport gate. He was headed to Sharin City, a place famous as a beginner’s hunting ground.

If I start here, I won’t have to go somewhere else until I reach level 100.

It was a place with a wide variety of monsters, well-distributed across different levels—one of the dream cities for beginners! However, not all beginners had favorable conditions to start there.

This place is tightly controlled by the Titan guild.

Monopoly over hunting grounds was the privilege of the powerful, something that regular players despised yet secretly yearned for.

Based in Sharin City, the Titan guild invested heavily in training new recruits.

The ones I fought with last time were the guild’s elite. However...

The fearsome thing about the top ten guilds wasn’t just that they had many rankers.

The amount of funding they get from global sponsors is on a whole other level.

And they used that funding to lure in talented players. The bait typically included straightforward things like equipment or growth support.

A guild the size of Titan could probably nurture thousands of rookies.

Of course, they wouldn’t actually train that many. Taking into account the main quests at the front lines and the rankers’ progress, they would train a few hundred rookies at most.

A guild the size of Black Dragon could manage thousands, but... not Titan.

In other words, the number of low-level players in the Titan guild were a few hundred at most.

“My chaotic points will probably stack up quite a bit, though...”

Kai glanced at his contribution points for the Solarian Church.

[Solarian Church Contribution: 417,758]

“Wow.”

Kai had a contribution score of over 400,000. He had been steadily helping others and earning rewards since his beginner days to build up that impressive score!

I’ve heard that contribution points can even buy exoneration, so I should be fine.

Considering his high affinity with High Priest Albert, there was little to worry about.

“Well then, let’s go find some Titan guild members.”

Finding them wasn’t difficult for Kai.

You might as well walk around with a billboard, just advertising yourselves everywhere.

They were the players with their shoulders thrown back, necks held high, and fists emblazoned on their chests. Moreover, the common trait among them was the disdainful gaze they cast at other players around them.

Found them.

Having spotted his first prey, Kai pulled his hood down low and quietly followed them.

***

“Ma-Master!”

Goliath scowled as the vice-master burst in with enough energy to break the door, making a fuss. “What is it?”

His sharp response carried not only displeasure but also an unusual distance, reflecting his recent state of mind.

These bastards... None of them are useful.

Even though he had brought 150 elite guild members to face Kai, they had been defeated. It didn't matter how many guild members survived a battle, if the guild master dies, then the battle is lost. As he had died, he was now worried that both the guild's and his reputation would plummet if that fact got out in the news.

That Kai bastard... What is he planning on doing...

Since then, Goliath had been obsessively watching the internet every day, unable to sleep, anxiously waiting for when and how Kai would reveal the truth. He had become increasingly sensitive, and that ate away at his mental state.

“Hmm...”

Senji, the vice-master of the Titan guild and a ranked spear player, knew this better than anyone. As Goliath, who used to control his subordinates with powerful authority, began to falter, the Titan guild started to waver as well.

Things can’t go on like this.

Senji judged that if Goliath remained in this state, it was only a matter of time before they lost their spot in the top ten guilds worldwide.

Please, let this news bring Master back to his senses.

With that desperate hope, Senji quickly said, “Our newbies are being massacred.”

“...What?” Goliath blinked with widened eyes, repeating the words. “What are you talking about? Who the hell has the guts to mess with our guild?”

Goliath’s fists trembled with rage.

Watching him calmly, Senji quietly continued, “You know very well, at this point, there's only one person who would dare to challenge us.”

“Kai!”

Bang! Crumble!

As Goliath’s fist slammed into the desk, the desk reached its durability limit and broke.

Of course. There’s no way he would stay quiet.

Goliath was a beast, but so was the one who sensed him as a threat.

Right. A predator by nature would never just let it go.

Always displaying his power to ensure no one would dare challenge him was the best way to protect himself, but if he still took the first hit...

I’ll pay it back several times over.

He had to crush them thoroughly so that no one would ever dare challenge him again.

Goliath instantly understood Kai's intentions.

“He’s trying to wipe us out.”

“Yes. As you know, our guild members operate in teams of four, including the rookies in training. The idea is to help them work together and build camaraderie from the beginner stages...”

“Shut up. How many teams have been taken out?”

“Seven teams in Sharin City.”

“Twenty-eight people... Well, considering his level, that’s expected. So, where is he?”

“Our intelligence department believes he is still in the hunting grounds near Sharin City.”

“Track his location,” Goliath commanded, as he stood up and began equipping his gear from his inventory.

Senji watched him quietly, then asked cautiously in a worried tone, “Um... Are you planning to go personally? I can lead the men myself, so you can just rest...”

“What, you think I’m going to lose to him? Again?”

Goliath’s large eyes gleamed with murderous intent. MID Online was just a game, but to them, it was no different from their lives.

How am I supposed to throw it all away and go back to the way things were just because I lost once after everything I’ve done to get this far?

He had clawed his way to his position by crushing the weak again and again underfoot and gnawing at the ankles of the strong.

It won’t go the way you want it to.

Last time, he lost because he didn’t know.

The doppelganger. I just need to watch out for that.

In fact, he had been pushing Kai back until the doppelganger appeared.

Considering he doesn’t use the doppelganger right away, it must have strict activation conditions or come with significant risks.

As Goliath resolved to calmly endure, find the weakness, and crush Kai once and for all this time, a notification sound came from the community window he had left open.

“Hm?”

It was the sound that played whenever someone he followed posted something new. Just as he was about to close the community window with a scowl, the username of the post caught his eye.

Wait, it’s... Unknown. That’s Kai’s ID!

Kai had posted something new! Even Senji, standing in front of him, seemed to have received the same notification and hurriedly opened his community window.

“M-Master.”

“Silence.”

Goliath silenced the stammering Senji and began to slowly read through the post Kai had made. It didn’t take long to read as the post was very short and straightforward, simple enough for even a child to understand.

『As of this moment, I declare a kill order on all Titan guild members.』

After reading the post, Goliath began to chuckle, then burst into laughter.

“Every time I see him, he reminds me just how arrogant he is.”

Even the most powerful guilds were extremely cautious when issuing a kill order. After all, the culture of issuing kill orders in the game had never been particularly well-received.

Regular players can’t help but view kill orders as disgusting.

A powerful guild using its strength to bully individual players or weaker guilds was the traditional meaning behind a kill order.

For the weak, it was nothing short of a death sentence. But this time, the tables had turned.

-Kai? He’s strong, but he’s just one guy. A kill order against Titan, one of the world’s top ten guilds?

└ Is he planning to fight alongside elves and merfolk again?

-Why would he make such a reckless move right after his stock skyrocketed from the Battle of the Bir Plains? There must be more to this story.

-I’m curious too. How will this turn out?

└ Obviously, Titan will win. How can one person beat a guild?

It made sense. If anyone else had declared a kill order against a guild, they’d be laughed off as crazy. However, the one throwing this reckless challenge was none other than Kai.

“M-Master, this is clearly a trap. It would be better to dismiss this as nonsense and not engage...”

“You idiot. This is nothing short of a threat,” Goliath scolded Senji and closed the community window. “He’s itching to bring down Titan. That message carries two main intentions.”

“Two intentions?”

“Yes. One is a warning to our guild members. He’s restricted the kill targets to Titan guild members. In other words, anyone who quits the guild would escape the monster’s evil hand.”

“If anyone actually quits, we won’t just sit back.”

“Well, it seems he’s confident about that.”

He was confident enough to shake up Titan so bad that those who quit wouldn’t even have time to worry about it.

“And what’s his second intention?”

“Why else would he publicly post the kill order in the community? He wants to escalate things. Unlike the secretive war last time, he wants to crush us while all eyes are watching.”

Without needing to ask, it was obvious who Kai was calling out.

“He wants me.”

***

“This is funny.”

Kai smirked after taking down Titan’s eleventh team—forty-four members in total.

And I’m still not chaotic?

In MID Online, the conditions for becoming chaotic were quite simple. If one attacked another player in the field first, their chaotic points increased. As the points accumulated, their name eventually appeared above their head. Considering that usernames were typically hidden in MID Online, that was a severe penalty.

Of course, that wasn’t the only penalty.

If you die, you’re guaranteed to drop one of your equipped items or something from your inventory.

Additionally, the time they were unable to log in increased from three days to nine, and the XP loss also skyrocketed based on their chaotic points. They couldn’t even log out if there was another player nearby.

I was fully prepared to bear all those penalties, yet here I am.

Kai checked his notification log with a curious expression.

. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

.

.

[You defeated Septim.]

[You defeated Roji.]

[Helik is watching the situation with a shocked expression.]

[She recalls that the Titan guild attacked you first in the past.]

[Your attack on Titan guild has been set as self-defense.]

“Thank you, my God.”

The beloved goddess had once again shown favoritism toward her devoted follower.