Turns Out To Be a Genius Duelist

[Note: This first part regarding the three tiers of challengers is a bit confusing due to the original formatting. The translator did their best to make it work, sorry for the inconvenience.]

Chapter 260 A Different Breed (2)

Challenger Carpbenny divided the 1,191 rankers who reached the 23rd floor Duel Tower into three categories.

1st Place (SSS+) 13 people, 14th Place (SSS) 78 people, 92nd Place (SSS-) 131 people. These 222 were the high rankers.

223rd Place (SS+) 267 people, 490th place (SS) 414 people, 904th place (SS-) 188 people. These 869 people were normal rankers.

Finally, 1,092nd place (S+) 97 people, and 1,188th place (S) 3 people. It would be an insult to treat these 100 insects as rankers.

For reference, his ranking was 490th, falling short of the high ranker standard. However, he didn’t feel inferior to them. This was because narrow-minded challengers who judged others based on their rankings were usually generous with themselves.

’Even if it’s a high ranker, it’s just a high rank because they have combat-type Unique Skills.’

He truly believed that. Techniques, stats allocation, synergy due to systematic skills acquisition, a specialty of Unique Skills. In terms of comprehensive skills alone, he wouldn’t be pushed back even if he met a high ranker.

「Countdown is starting.」

When the countdown started, Carpbenny fired a sharp glare at his opponent.

「3」

’Is that a swordsman… the synergy isn’t bad.’

A mask covered his face, and his attire looked useless for defense. Then his eyes flicked down to the long, black sword around his foe’s waist. This was his rough analysis, but Carpbenny put any judgment on hold. It wouldn’t be too late to decide after checking everything…

’…What?’

「2」

b Treasure Hunter} was a Unique Skill that quantified and showed the value of equipment the opponent possessed. Because of this, Carpbenny was startled.

’The equipment value is 60 million…?’

Of course, it wasn’t that surprising. It was higher than average, but about 30 million points lower than his. However, he couldn’t understand how such a high value could come from that shabby appearance.

‘…Is it because of that?’

Soon Carpbenny realized the reason. He might not know about the other equipment, but the necklace and two bracelets on his foe’s wrist emitted a bright light, meaning they were equipment ranked S or above.

’If that alone costs 60 million points, it means he has Rank SS… the accessories rank higher than the weapon? Maybe he’s more of a battlemage than a swordsman?’

「1」

‘…That’s even better.’

Carpbenny smiled quietly. The duel had yet to begin, but his judgment had already been made. This opponent would be easy prey.

‘Because I haven’t spent a point on equipment.’

Unique Skill {Treasure Hunter} wasn’t for combat, but it wasn’t solely a detection skill that checked equipment values. The true value of it lay in its late-blooming effect.

Rank E – When winning the duel, the treasure is obtained according to the opponent’s equipment value.

It wasn’t an item but a treasure. Thanks to his special treasures that weren’t sold in stores, Carpbenny didn’t have to invest points in equipment. So the result was obvious.

「START!」

A person who invested 60 million points in the equipment and… a person with a higher equipment value even though they didn’t invest a single point. If the two were competing, of course, the latter would win.

‘Is he crazy?’

Yoon-seok tilted his head when he saw his opponent smiling at him. His opponent stood relaxed even though the duel had begun.

“…”

However, Yoon-seok couldn’t act rashly. However, he could only see openings everywhere… that arrogant and relaxed attitude bothered him.

“Are you not coming? If you don’t, you won’t have another chance.”

The amount of magic Yoon-seok sensed was that of a normal ranker. In all honestly, it looked like he would get a K.O if he attacked once, at most twice. But his foe spoke as if he was better than Cheon-ma. There wouldn’t be another chance?

For Yoon-seok, even Cheon-ma couldn’t easily spit out such words.

’There’s no way a ranker who came to the 23rd floor couldn’t sense my magic… is he confident even after sensing it?’

Yoon-seok was on the verge of doubting his sight. Was that opening he saw a trap? Wouldn’t it look like that when one had reached the state Cheon-ma mentioned?

’There’s nothing bad about being careful.’

It would be dangerous if the opponent hid perfectly enough to deceive him. If that was the case, he might be a master comparable to Cheon-ma. Making a quick judgment, Yoon-seok recorded the opponent’s name on the list using b Death God} and quickly read the brief description written.

「Clark Carpbenny.」

Nickname Collector, the dimension was Flan. Flan was similar to Seheranbad, except they only had humans. Swords and magic existed, and the level of civilization was similar. Well, that probably wasn’t important right now.

’…Who the heck is this bastard?’

It was a nickname that he recognized from the 490th place. The ranking was the same as Lee Soo-yeon’s before she graduated. Therefore, Yoon-seok couldn’t understand.

’…Does he not know how to sense magic?’

Of course, it didn’t make sense that a person ranked 490th lacked that basic knowledge…

“Degrading stats… it will be fun to have a handicap like this. Can you come over already?”

Carpbenny, who received the stats-downgrading effect of {Death God}, beckoned Yoon-seok forward. Yoon-seok felt it ridiculous, but as he kept thinking about it, he decided the situation wasn’t so bad. There were a few things he wanted to experiment with during this duel.

‘This could be perfect.’

Yoon-seok drew the Judgment Sword and immediately narrowed the distance, lunging.

Whoosh-!

His sword arrived with the sound of rushing wind. It would have penetrated his forehead if he hadn’t twisted a little to the side.

“…T-That’s pretty fast.”

The opponent turned his head slightly and avoided the blow, then murmured. Yoon-seok moved his sword again.

Whoo! Whoo! Whoo! Whoo!

One, two, three, four… each missed. It was a matter of course. Yoon-seok was missing on purpose.

’Fifty times.’

Yoon-seok, counting while he struck, smacked his lips and stopped moving.

Rank E – If 50 consecutive attacks miss, fighting spirit increases. If it overlaps more than four times, additional characteristics will be randomly given to the next blow.

The Rank E effect of the newly acquired Unique Skill {Strife} wasn’t activated.

’As expected, it’s not working.’

It was a little unfortunate, but it wasn’t enough to feel sad about it. The Tower wouldn’t allow it to activate by intentionally missing.

“Did you give up already?”

He was disconcerted by the sharper-than-expected consecutive attacks, but the Collector recovered surprisingly fast. He flashed a smile at Yoon-seok.

Unbelievable.

’…What’s with this guy? How can he rank so high?’

Not knowing that Yoon-seok missed on purpose, it seemed like he thought that he avoided it…

“Is it my turn now?”

Carpbenny clenched his fist and changed his posture. Perhaps his specialty was martial arts like King of Steel, as his fist was instilled with magic.

Hook!

Yoon-seok carefully watched his flying fist. His skill was above average, but there was nothing unknown in his fist, and the force was terrible.

Punchhh-!

Yoon-seok accepted the blow to check what would happen with fighting spirit. However, was it because his durability stat increased significantly? Or was it because his magic moved instinctively to protect against attack?

’What’s with this cotton fist…?’

It was safe to say that the damage was zero.

‘I can’t check if it’s done like this…’

Yoon-seok was forced to use magic to hurt himself, and at the same time, a phrase appeared.

「Fighting spirit increases.」

That day, Carpbenny saw for the first time-

Wiggle.

Muscles that sincerely tried to kill him.

Whooooooosh-!

The sword swung with the Muscle principle, barely stopped under Yoon-seok’s superhuman patience.

’Oh, I almost killed him.’

It stopped exactly one centimeter away from Carpbenny’s forehead.

’I didn’t know fighting spirit would be like this…’

Yoon-seok wanted to fight, or perhaps to kill would be more precise. Even though he recognized that he needed to experiment with an easy opponent, he was lucky to figure it out.

It was hard to hold back, and Heart of Liberty didn’t seem to recognize it as a harmful effect.

’Even if I have improved stats, I don’t want to use it…’

He would have to check further, but it might be an ability that didn’t fit him well. With that thought, Yoon-seok spat out the blood coming up from his throat.

Ptui.

Carpbenny, returning to his senses, backed away from Yoon-seok.

“T-That was close. Y-you couldn’t have moved normally after being hit by it.”

Yoon-seok decided to pay no attention to his continuous misunderstandings. He didn’t feel the need to correct it, and even if he wanted to, he didn’t know where to start.

’As expected, no one’s normal among the rankers.’

Yoon-seok sighed and met his opponent’s eyes. He was staring at Yoon-seok with a different attitude than before. Maybe he had come to his senses.

“…No way, I didn’t expect you to endure the pain and fight back. That’s some great determination.”

Of course, he didn’t intend to answer that nonsense. Yoon-seok doesn’t care.

’Vajra Step.’

Instead of answering, Yoon-seok recited the command internally. At the same time, Yoo-seok leaped away from his opponent.

The moment when the tip of his toes touched the ground-

「Basic stats of all beings within a radius of 100m is fixed at Rank F for 20 minutes.」

All the magic filling his body disappeared. However, Yoon-seok smiled.

’As expected, I was right.’

「Due to the No-loss Muscle effect, strength, agility, endurance, and durability stats do not decrease.」

Only magic had disappeared, and his body was still full of energy. But if there was something he didn’t expect…

Was there a weakness in this connection?

“Neutralization.”

His foe, whose ability was unilaterally reduced by the Vajra Step effect, recited a command. At the same time, his opponent’s magic returned to its original state.

‘Now, I can’t use anything else.’

Vajra Step was neutralized by a single debuff nullifying skill. No, it was a loss for Yoon-seok as No-loss Muscle didn’t protect his magic.

’If this happens, am I the only one with fixed F- magic?’

Yoon-seok was confused. Perhaps this ability wasn’t as fool-proof as he thought. But did he reveal that feeling through his eyes?

“That’s too bad. I think that was your secret weapon.”

Yoon-seok didn’t reply this time either. He just sighed and shook off his mixed feelings.

‘…It’s a pity that the synergy is worse than I thought, but let’s be glad that it was tested in advance.’

Still, it wasn’t that there was no positive side to this. If this happened against an opponent with equal skills, he would have been rather frustrated.

“I just want to say thank you before I finish you off.”

Yoon-seok was startled by the sudden thank-you. The tone that took victory for granted was one thing, but gratitude?

“If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have known until now.”

Yoon-seok couldn’t understand what he was saying.

“If you let your guard down, you can lose to those who are weaker.”

Why was he mentioning the obvious? Wasn’t it weird that he didn’t know until now?

“I’ll be serious from now on.”

Yoon-seok had no choice but to feel a kind of awe.

’…Is he stupid or what?’

Though there was no normal person among the rankers…

The Collector was a different breed.