Debuff Master

Chapter 217

The Force of the Lord was an ancient magic bestowed to the rulers of the frontier territories, and the ancient magic that was activated when Siegfried first became the ruler of Proatine was activated once again.

“Oh!”

“Our Great King!”

“Great King Siegfried!”

“The heavens have sent him to us!”

The citizens of the kingdom cried out in awe and started to worship Siegfried.

It was only obvious for them to worship him as the people of Proatine and their ancestors had been living as the Vampire Lord’s livestock for centuries, and the Great King shrouded in bright holy light in front of them had finally subjugated the evil vampire.

The brilliance and glory Siegfried was emitting were truly blinding and awe-striking.

The people could not help but worship him as their Great King.

[Alert: The ancient magic Force of the Lord has bestowed new powers upon you!]

A message popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes, describing his new power.

Ding!

[Great King’s Blessed Lands]

[The ancient magic Force of the Lord will bless the territory under Siegfried van Proa while he is sitting on the throne.]

[Type: Passive]

[Effect: Talent Recognition, Resource Prospecting, Talent Enhancement, Abundant Harvest]

[Talent Recognition: Increased chances of finding talented individuals.]

[Resource Prospecting: The hidden resources within the territory will start to appear.]

[Talent Enhancement: The stats of the citizens will increase, and the officials will experience exponential growth.]

[Abundant Harvest: The territory will always have abundant harvests, and all crops will be immune to insects and pestilence.]

The Great King’s Blessed Lands was an extremely useful passive skill for a ruler. Siegfried’s class wasn’t a class specializing in ruling a country, but this skill alone was more than enough to put him on par with most rulers on the continent.

No, he was probably better than most rulers right now…

However, that wasn’t the end of it…

[Great King]

[A title bestowed to rulers with tremendous achievements.]

[Type: Title]

[Rating: Legendary]

[Effects: +1,000 Citizen’s Love, +1,000 Citizen’s Loyalty, +1,000 Citizen’s Respect, +1,000 Ruler’s Prestige]

The effects of Great King were much better than Great Hunter. It was limited to the citizens of the Proatine Kingdom, but this cemented Siegfried as a beloved king in his territory.

***

Gringore had recorded everything.

The Demon Lord of the Night demanded offerings, and His Majesty seemed to have accepted the demand. However, it was all a part of His Majesty’s great plan for the future of his kingdom.

He set out to subjugate the Vampire Lord four days later.

Then, His Majesty’s craftiness pitted the Lycanthrope Lord and the Vampire Lord against each other, and he successfully sealed both of their souls to bring peace to the Proatine Kingdom.

Alas! The citizens started calling His Majesty Great King, and His Majesty was shrouded in glory for everyone to see!

Ah! How glorious, you ask?

Worship him, all of you!

The Great Vampire Lord Slayer! The Great Lycanthrope Lord Slayer!

Worship him on your knees!

Records of the Proatine Kingdom Book 1 Chapter 5

Siegfried van Proa the First

His Majesty’s Achievements

And Gringore’s records didn’t end there…

The depth of His Majesty’s wisdom and cleverness in coming up with tactics is as vast as the wide blue ocean.

His Majesty is truly a ruler who is talented in both military and literary arts. His wisdom also rivals that of sages.

Records of the Proatine Kingdom Book 1 Chapter 6

Siegfried van Proa the First

Commentary

Gringore had the habit of writing about Siegfried’s embarrassing moments, which were actually just him being faithful to his duties as a scribe. However, he also made sure to write down every single achievement that Siegfried garnered as king.

***

Siegfried made sure that he tied all loose ends as well. First, he returned all of the items that the Adventurers had dropped upon dying in combat against the Vampire Lord.

He also made sure to compensate them.

“Wow! Hyung-nim is great!”

“Thank you!”

“Wow… He actually returned our dropped items? And he even gave us a bonus!”

“He didn’t really have to, but I’m really glad that he did…”

The Adventurers were extremely grateful to him.

Siegfried didn’t forget the NPCs either. He bestowed medals and merits to the NPCs who participated in the battle and promoted them by a rank as a bonus for their valor.

Lastly, he made sure to pay special attention to pay respect to those who had fallen in battle. He compensated their bereaved families as well.

“I should promote them by two ranks and hold a kingdom-wide state funeral for them, right?” Siegfried asked while browsing through his files.

“I believe a state funeral is a bit too much, Your Majesty… Those are only reserved for Dukes or higher-ranking officials…” Michele replied.

“I know, but they died protecting our kingdom. The least we can do for them is to show them the respect they deserve. That’s the only way others will be willing to put their lives on the line for the kingdom in the future if an even greater danger falls upon us.”

“Hmm…”

“Make it a state funeral, and compensate their families by paying them their salaries for twenty years. Ah,?make sure you increase it every year depending on the inflation rate. Our kingdom’s finances are doing quite well right now, so we can do that much, right?”

“Your Majesty…” Michele muttered while looking at his liege.

‘He is turning into a true ruler now…’?

Michele’s respect for Siegfried went up a notch once again.

Siegfried was often irresponsible and lazy, but Michele knew that his liege was someone worth serving. In fact, Michele considered himself to be a genius and an expert tactician, but the tactics and ideas his liege would come up with in every crisis so far had been bizarre yet ingenious tactics that sent chills down Michele’s spine.

“Then, I will do as you command, Your Majesty.”

“Okay,” Siegfried nodded before saying, “Oh, about that crater.”

“Yes, Your Majesty?”

“Fill it up, then build farms as well as ranches on top of it. We might as well use that land, right?”

Siegfried was referring to the massive hole that the Scourge of God had created. The crater once had a mountain range and thick forests.

The Vampire Lord’s castle once stood there as well.

“Or… we can dig a deeper crater and turn it into a reservoir…”

“Y-Your Majesty…?” Michele muttered in horror.

“W-What?”

“Are you unwell, Your Majesty?”

“Me? I’m fine. Why?” Siegfried tilted his head in confusion. He looked down at himself and asked, “Why are you asking? Do I look sick?”

“Y-You suddenly became really smart… Hahaha…”

“…”

“T-Then, I will go and execute your commands. I will excuse myself now, as I have a lot of work,” Michele said. He hurriedly ran away with a stack of documents.

“Hmm… Have I always looked dumb in his eyes until now…?” Siegfried muttered to himself with a confused look. Well, Siegfried was probably the only one who had no idea that every official had long unanimously agreed that he was dumb.

***

Meanwhile, at a luxury beef barbecue place in Cheongdamdong.

Sizzle…! Sizzle…! Sizzle…!

The sound of meat sizzling beneath the grills was everywhere.

Tae-Sung, Seung-Gu, and Cheon Woo-Jin met up to continue their interrupted beef dinner last time.

“So, you killed both of them?” Cheon Woo-Jin asked.

“Yeah,” Tae-Sung nodded in response.

Munch! Munch! Munch!

He was busy stuffing his mouth with the high-quality beef that he didn’t get to eat properly last time.

“See, I told you it’s just a matter of time before you become strong,” Cheon Woo-Jin said.

“Do you really think that I won because—munch, munch—I’m strong? I just outsmarted them…” Tae-Sung replied while still stuffing his mouth with beef.

“Well, I guess you’re right now that I think about it. Still, you’re already quite strong, and you’ll become stronger from now on.”

“I have to—munch, munch—level up to become strong,” Tae-Sung replied without even listening properly to Cheon Woo-Jin’s words. The opportunity to eat premium beef was rare for Tae-Sung because he would usually eat lunch boxes from convenience stores.

What was the point of earning billions if he had no time to spend it? At the end of the day, Han Tae-Sung was still the same gaming addict, even though he already had a ton of money.

“You’re really going to pay for this, right?” Cheon Woo-Jin asked with a hint of nervousness in his voice.

“Of course—munch, munch—don’t worry so much—gulp!?There was an emergency at the time, so I had no choice. Do you really think that I’m someone who would often dine and dash? This costs nothing to me. I’m really rich, you know?”

“Look at this dude who turned rags to riches. Are you looking down on this premium beef now that you have some money in your pocket??Wow… What a show off…”

“I’m just saying,” Tae-Sung said with a shrug, but he was thinking of something else deep inside. ‘How can I make this bastard pay for this dinner this time? I have no idea why… but that thrill… I want to feel it one more time…’

It wasn’t that he did not want to pay, but there was a certain thrill about screwing Cheon Woo-Jin over…

“You’re really going to pay for it, right? You’re not going to run away like last time?”

“Yeah, I already told you,” Tae-Sung replied with a hint of annoyance in his voice. He took out his credit card and threw it onto the table.

Tak!

“That’s my credit card right there!” he confidently exclaimed.

“Wow!” Cheon Woo-Jin was impressed by Tae-Sung’s brazenness.

“Hey, I’m going to the toilet for a while.”

“Go ahead.”

“Hey, Seung-Gu. Let’s go together.”

“Okay, hyung-nim,” Seung-Gu wiped his mouth with a napkin and followed Tae-Sung.

“Why are you going to the toilet like a bunch of kids?” Cheon Woo-Jin grumbled and sighed in disbelief.

“Hyung-nim?”

“Yeah?”

“Aren’t we going to the toilet…?”

Seung-Gu noticed that Tae-Sung wasn’t headed toward the toilet.

He was headed to the parking lot rather than to the toilet.

“I know.”

“Huh…?”

“I know, so hurry up. He’ll chase after us once he notices something strange.”

Tae-Sung immediately hurried to the valet and passed him a ten thousand won bill.

He took the keys to his Ferrari from the valet and ran to his car.

“H-Hyung-nim? Are we dining and dashing again?”

“Yeah.”

“Why…?”

“Don’t you think it’s fun? There’s a certain thrill to it. It feels really good to dine and dash!”

“…”

“Why? Don’t you feel the same?”

“Hmm… A-Actually… I do…”

“Then, what are you waiting for? Hurry up and get in!” Tae-Sung exclaimed. He hopped into his Ferrari and started the engine.

Vroooom!

Cheon Woo-Jin was leisurely enjoying the premium beef when he suddenly heard the sound of a roaring engine from the parking lot. Cheon Woo-Jin froze.

He was sure that the roaring of the engine definitely belonged to a…

‘No way…’?he thought as he ran out of the restaurant.

A red Ferrari was leaving the parking lot.

Tae-Sung’s Ferrari was leaving the parking lot…

“Excuse me…” the waitress approached Cheon Woo-Jin.

“Can you try… this card?”

“Yes, please wait a moment.”

Two minutes later…

“Excuse me, customer-nim…”

“Yes?”

“Erm…?this…”

“It declined, right?” Cheon Woo-Jin asked with certainty.

“Yes,” the waitress replied.

Cheon Woo-Jin clenched his fists and trembled in anger after being made to pay for the dinner once again.

***

The next morning, Tae-Sung hopped into his VR capsule and booted the BNW client.

He descended on the Nürburg Continent as Adventurer Siegfried.

‘I should spend a few days looking around. It’s my place, after all, so I should be aware of what's going on here at least,’?Siegfried thought. He wanted to see how his kingdom was faring after the Vampire Lord was subjugated.

He knew nothing about his own kingdom thanks to his habit of signing whatever was thrown at him instead of reading them. He had also shoved all the administrative work to Michele.

He was about to step out of the castle.

However, Hamchi interrupted him. “Hey, owner punk! Where are we going this time?!”

“I’m just going to take a look around the kingdom.”

“Then, Hamchi’s not going with you. I’m going to take a nap instead.”

Hamchi then disappeared somewhere.

“Wow, look at that lazy bastard,” Siegfried clicked his tongue.

He found the giant hamster to be quite cheeky, but he decided to ignore the hamster because he wouldn’t really need the cheeky hamster this time.

Siegfried visited the mine first.

The kingdom’s mine was just a tiny small coal mine.

“Your Majesty!”

“I greet Your Majesty!”

The laborers at the mine immediately knelt in front of Siegfried.

“Welcome, Your Majesty,” the knight in charge of the mine knelt in front of Siegfried and greeted him. “What brings Your Majesty to a lowly place like this…?”

“I’m just here to take a look,” Siegfried replied. He scanned the mine and asked, “But why is it so quiet here?”

“Actually… the amount of coal we have been mining hasn’t been that high recently, so we think that the mine has already run out of coal deposits.”

“Really? Well, I guess we can’t do anything about that. Make a report once it’s fully depleted so that we can close it properly.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

“Oh, who left a pickaxe here?” Siegfried picked up a pickaxe lying on the ground.

“Your Majesty! Please do not touch that filthy tool! Allow me to…!”

“It’s okay. I just feel nostalgic seeing it,” Siegfried said with a smile.

He then swung the pickaxe a few times before slamming it into the ground with ease.

It seemed that his body could still remember the days he had spent at the military digging trenches…

Crack…!

The ground that the pickaxe struck suddenly cracked open.

Boom!

An explosion occurred as a pillar of flame shot up from the ground.