The Return of the Legendary All-Master

[Translator - Kiteretsu]

[Proofreader - Kyros]

[The Kalderean Empire]

The Kalderean Empire, renowned for its overwhelming military might.

Neighboring nations submitted to the Kalderean Empire, all wary and watchful of its every move.

However, the emergence of dungeons and the system completely overturned the balance of power.

No one knew what tricks had been employed, but the once overwhelming military gap began to narrow—and eventually, the difference became negligible, even indistinguishable.

As a result, the prestige of the Kalderean Empire diminished, to the point that it now found itself in a state of mutual tension with the Kingdom of Austro, which had established itself in the East.

"Focus on leveling up!"

Physical training.

Mastery of technique.

Repetition of experience.

All of that was rendered obsolete.

Leveling up and enhancing one's skills became the far faster path to power, with the added benefit of minimizing the pain that once accompanied growth.

As such, the people of the Empire became obsessed with leveling up. But the nobility would not simply sit back and watch.

They, backed by the Empire's authority, monopolized all dungeons. Any dungeon raids had to be conducted under their supervision.

This stemmed from a fear that lowborn commoners, gaining levels, might eventually stage a coup.

The only dungeons the commoners were allowed to clear were low-grade ones.

To raid even slightly higher-grade dungeons, direct permission from the Empire was absolutely required.

Furthermore, ascending to higher levels necessitated first and foremost pledging loyalty to the Empire.

"Loyalty to the Empire!"

There were those who resisted, but if caught, they were punished under imperial law—so the majority of commoners chose the path of becoming imperial soldiers.

[A quest has been generated.]

And now, a quest had been issued by the Kalderean Empire.

The quest? To cross over into another dimension through a red portal that had appeared in the capital and hunt down the humans there.

Upon success, it was promised that the Empire would bestow a generous reward.

The Empire deployed a combined force of the First and Second Knight Divisions. The knights crossed through the portal and formed ranks, waiting for the humans to arrive.

It wasn't long before two humans appeared.

"Whoa, they're high-leveled?"

"What kind of dimension is this, even?"

The knights were shocked by the humans' levels.

The commander of the knights was level 720.

The rest of the knights were barely over level 500.

Even the commander's power was considered monstrous—but level 900? What kind of strength would that be?

"Stay sharp. There are only two of them, but they're far beyond us in terms of ability."

Level is absolute—but that doesn't mean there's no way to win.

In fact, when clearing dungeons, it was common to face monsters that were of a higher level than oneself.

The knights had fought such battles countless times before.

"…What the…?"

But these humans felt off.

To have reached level 900, they must've accumulated an immense amount of real combat experience.

It would've made sense for them to stay alert and scan their surroundings first—but instead, they were full of openings.

'We've spotted them. Which likely means they've seen us too.'

Were they deliberately trying to appear careless?

Raon, the commander of the Unified Knight Division, did not let his guard down.

As he continued to closely monitor their movements, the vice-commander sent him a signal.

'We're ready!'

They were in position to attack at any moment, awaiting only the order.

'Any sign of other humans nearby?'

'No. Scouts have surveyed the area. Those two are all there is.'

'I see...'

Things would get complicated if more showed up.

But since it was just two of them—this would end here.

Raon nodded and gave the signal. The waiting mages unleashed their spells in unison.

* * *

The battle was over in an instant.

As expected of level 900s, they held out for a while—but the Unified Knight Division had already anticipated every possible countermeasure and were fully prepared.

It wasn't long before the two were overwhelmed by a series of critical hits and killed.

'What was that? Why did this end so easily?'

There were only two of them, sure—but they were still high-level players.

They'd braced for some degree of damage, but the fact that the knights killed them cleanly without suffering a single injury left them perplexed.

"Did they level up without earning it properly?"

"But their levels were way too high for that to be the case."

Even as the knights expressed their confusion, their confidence surged.

They now believed that, regardless of how high-leveled the humans of this dimension were, they could still be subdued.

Commander Raon felt the same.

He gave orders to have the bodies destroyed beyond recognition and stationed them near the portal entrance through the sentries.

"Commander, it seems the sentries were attacked."

"So they've been found."

"Yes."

The signal from the sentries had been cut.

It was set to be severed automatically if they died—meaning they'd definitely been killed by the humans.

Which also meant the bodies left behind by the knights were most likely discovered.

'Let's hope the provocation works.'

There was a simple reason why the corpses were not buried and left out in the open.

It was a warning.

A declaration that anyone who opposed the knights would be slaughtered just as brutally.

"It seems the provocation didn't work."

"How many of them are there?"

"Two."

Only two?

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, absolutely sure."

"Also, the Third Knight Division has just arrived!"

Raon's expression brightened at the news of the Third Knight Division's arrival.

With reinforcements bolstering their numbers and combat power, there was no way they would lose to the humans of this dimension.

"But… there's something odd about the Third Knight Division."

"Odd?"

"Yes. Their levels have nearly tripled."

"…What?"

Just as the knight had said, the average level of the Third Division had skyrocketed to between 1,200 and 1,300.

'What the hell…'

Startled, Raon summoned Pakorus, the commander of the Third Knight Division, for a private word.

"Pakorus, what the hell happened here?"

"Don't be alarmed. When we crossed through the portal to join you, we received something called an Amplification Buff."

"Amplification Buff?"

"Yes. It's a buff that boosts both level and stats by nearly threefold."

"…Huh."

If such a buff existed, why was it only applied to the Third Division?

"It seems the device that grants the buff activated later than expected."

"Hmm…"

Raon furrowed his brow.

With the Amplification Buff, the Third Knight Division now vastly outclassed the Unified Knight Division.

Did this mean he needed to hand over command to Pakorus?

"Oh, no need to worry. The buff disappears the moment we exit the portal. You should absolutely remain the commander of the Unified Division."

Pakorus, reading the mood, was quick to flatter him.

"…Alright. Then let's deal with those humans first."

"Understood."

Ending the conversation there, Raon returned to the command post and assessed the situation.

"Where are the humans?"

"We have a serious situation, sir."

"Serious?"

"Well…"

The sentries had been taken out effortlessly, and the humans who'd elimNated them were now rapidly approaching their position.

"It's fine. The Third Division is here now. We're more than ready."

Their levels had increased nearly threefold, after all.

With that kind of power, taking down two humans should be simple.

And then it happened—

[Debuff has been applied.]

A system message popped up, announcing that a debuff had taken effect. Level and stats began dropping rapidly.

[Level has been reduced by 50%.]

[All stats have been reduced by 50%.]

With their levels and stats halved, someone who had been level 720 now found themselves dropped down to 360.

"C-Commander! The Amplification Buff is gone!"

To make matters worse, Pakorus threw cold water on the situation.

"W-What about the debuff?"

"…What the hell—when did that get applied!?"

They were screwed.

Everyone, including Raon himself, had their levels and stats halved due to the applied debuff.

Bang! Bang!

At that moment, the distant sound of gunfire echoed.

It was faint—only audible if one focused—but Raon immediately realized it was the work of the humans.

None of the knights used guns.

'Damn it…'

Raon bit his lip hard enough to draw blood.

* * *

"What the…? Their levels just dropped drastically."

"Right? At this rate, Mr. Yoo Chan could probably handle them all on his own."

"N-No way! There are way too many of them… I can't take them all alone."

"Why are you so scared? I was just messing with you."

"R-Really?"

That scared him.

Yoo Chan let out a breath, patting his chest in relief.

Even if their levels had dropped, those enemies still moved with military precision—just like Dark Elves.

Though a Swordmaster's strength was said to be enough to shake an entire empire, Yoo Chan had grown too quickly through low-level monsters.

He realized during the battle against the Dark Elves that he lacked fundamental combat sense.

He never imagined that having no experience dealing with intelligent, thinking human enemies would become such a critical weakness.

'So… Skills alone don't make up for everything…'

Bang!

As Yoo Chan was lost in thought, the sound of a gunshot rang out again.

Na-Yeon—had already lined up her sights and pulled the trigger toward a distant soldier.

'She's seriously amazing…'

It wasn't just her level that was high.

Na-Yeon's skill was the real deal.

"Whoa…"

Yoo Chan was admiring her with awe when—

Tap.

Someone placed a hand on his shoulder.

"...!"

Startled by the touch, Yoo Chan instinctively tried to turn and break free.

But the hand pressing down on his shoulder tightened, and with a surge of pain, he fell to his knees, wincing as pressure bore down.

"Ggh…!"

"Mother, who's this guy?"

The man who had pinned him down so effortlessly spoke in a calm voice, directing his question toward Na-Yeon, who had just finished her shot.

'Mother…? Wait, her son?'

Yoo Chan forced himself to lift his head and get a look at the man's face.

'What the hell… he's disgustingly handsome.'

Long black hair flowing down to his shoulders, sharply defined features giving him a cold impression—yet there was something ethereal and mysterious about his overall presence.

===

[Player Information]

Nickname: Hoon

Level: 10,985

Class: Celestial Martial God Emperor – 6th Advancement

===

What the hell?!

What kind of number is that?!

It wasn't in the thousands—it was in the tens of thousands?

His level had even surpassed 10,000, reaching close to 11,000.

After checking his information, Yoo Chan immediately lowered his gaze.

A classic response—the posture of a weaker one submitting to overwhelming strength.

* * *

"Son, what are you doing here?"

Na-Yeon greeted Jeong-Hoon with a bright smile.

"I just picked one at random and came through—I didn't expect to run into you, Mom."

Meeting his mother had been purely coincidental.

Once outside, Jeong-Hoon had chosen the portal with the fastest-depleting timer and jumped in, taking less than three minutes to seal each one.

It was when he entered the eighth portal that he ended up encountering his mother.

"Well, now that Hoon's here, I won't have to take my time anymore."

"Yeah. I'll take care of it and catch up with you."

"Then I'll leave it to you. But… how long are you planning on holding onto that guy?"

She glanced at her right hand.

Her right hand was gripping the shoulder of the so-called "Avatar," who kept his eyes down and refused to meet theirs.

<He saw your level and completely lost his nerve.>

Tenebris cackled in mockery.

'I was just going to check on him since he was standing next to Mom…'

From Jeong-Hoon's perspective, his mother had been actively hunting enemies, while this so-called Avatar was just standing there watching blankly.

Wasn't a level 900 Swordmaster supposed to easily handle enemies like that?

Maybe this was the downside of leveling up too quickly through low-level monsters.

"You should let go now."

Jeong-Hoon relaxed his grip, releasing Yoo Chan.

Regaining his freedom, Yoo Chan immediately bowed flat to the ground.

"Thank you!"

"…Mom, can you keep an eye on him for a bit? I'll be right back."

"Alright. I'll take care of the scouts—go hit their main camp."

"Got it."

Jeong-Hoon kicked off using the Heavenly Demon Lord's Dominion.

His figure vanished in an instant.

[Translator - Kiteretsu]

[Proofreader - Kyros]