Soul of Searing Steel
chapter-20

Starfall Year 831, Winter. 3rd of November. Moldavia. Howling wind.

The sky was gloomy. Gray clouds had shrouded the entire sky. There was no sunlight at all. A breeze blew past the streets sweeping the snow up in mid-air. The weather in the north could change in the snap of a finger. Alongside the sudden gust blowing in, the weather was snowing once again, and it was getting heavier by the minute.

The cold that would chill deep into one's bones began to spread. The blizzard and the strong winds were howling across the night as if they were trying to cover up the other sounds in the city.

Just as the snow was getting heavier, the sound of a loud deafening explosion came from the center of the city. Even people in the suburban area of the city could hear that loud bang.

Boom!

Followed by a tremor that shook the earth across the entire city, the mansion that looked larger than a castle began to collapse like how a sand castle would. Dust and sand were stirred into the air mixing in with the snow in the surroundings. Meanwhile, a man was walking out from the ruins of the collapsed castle one step after another.

Joshua walked out of the dust that covered the air. Meanwhile, right behind him, the count's mansion had turned into a heap of rubble that the only way to restore the mansion's condition was to rebuild it from scratch. Joshua's face was emotionless at that time, as he was deep in thought about something else.

"The enemies in the mansion have been taken care of. So I should focus on exterminating the remaining enemies throughout the city now."

Although he was there alone, he did not hesitate at all to say the word 'exterminating' out loud in front of the hundreds of enemies. Joshua did not seem to give a sh*t about them. He raised his head and looked at the sky, frowning.

"Another blizzard… Can't the north have some good weather sometimes?"

At that moment, there were no clothes or whatsoever to cover Joshua's upper body. Well, that was because no clothes or any other things could withstand the explosive impact of his power. They were all torn to shreds. Meanwhile, his [Divine Power] was beginning to fade. The skin all around his body was beginning to revert back to his initial skin tone. However, the blazing heat that was emitting out of his body had melted the snow all around him into puddles of water.

"Intermediate Silver-tier warriors and some of the patrollers and guards… I've taken out at least half of them… That greedy uncle might not have made it out alive. After all, he barely made it to Steel tier due to his over-reliance of making potions. He shouldn't be capable of getting out of the building before it collapsed entirely."

Upon thinking things through, he felt that everything was going smoothly as planned. So Joshua turned around with confidence that he had left nothing behind. Then he walked towards Ying who was currently feeling unhappy.

"…"

The young girl did not say a word. She just frowned, with a cold expression on her face.

"It's… it's my fault this time."

Bending down a little, Joshua attempted to comfort Ying with nice words, "However, I did not use you because we need to be prepared for situations that are far more dangerous than this."

Well, it would not be possible for Joshua to say 'Because I've been running on foot alone in the wild for seventeen days. So I was not happy at that moment. That's why I totally forgot that I have a Divine Armament when I was slaughtering the enemies'. As she was a rare and powerful being, of course Joshua would speak seriously, "According to my knowledge, there will be Gold-tier enemies coming at us not long from now. I'm just a Silver-tier. So if I want to defeat them, I can only count on you by then. After all, the duration of the [Divine Armament Transformation] is only 1 hour. We can't afford to simply use it."

"Huh?"

Ying raised her head to look at her master after she spaced out for a brief moment. Although she heard Joshua's voice, she did not actually catch what Joshua just told her. Actually, this female Divine Armament was rather depressed after seeing the count's house in ruins.

"I've never gone to uncle Fang and the previous count's place when they were alive. Now, everything's gone…"

"I see, that's a pity… Wait a minute?!"

Ying's voice was not loud, however, realization struck Joshua like a bolt of lightning. He instantly reacted to the situation by turning his head to look at the remaining dust that was still floating around in the air. He was speechless for half a day.

After seeing the mess he made, he felt guilty for destroying the place, despite his bloodthirsty nature. When the blood rushed to his head, he lost control of himself and destroyed everything. Before the battle, he was still recalling his fond memories. However, after the battle begun, he had forgotten everything. He was overwhelmed by his feeling of delight from bloodshed. He even unleashed all his ultimate skills and turned the entire count's mansion into a heap of rubble.

"It wasn't just the memories. There were also flying carpets from the elves in the south covering the floor of the entire hall. The cost of the materials required for each carpet had already exceeded 20,000 gold pieces. If the cost for making them and their artistic value were considered as well, each carpet could potentially be priceless!"

"The furniture in the main hall were all made of raw materials such as the enchanted red cedar wood. They were made by halfling craftsmen. The workmanship of the halflings is renowned for their fine details and precision. There was no telling if those furniture were treasures left behind by some of my ancestors. Also, the paintings and the sculptures that were hanging on the walls of the hall are also antiques that were kept one by one… Not to mention those things upstairs…"

Upon lowering his head calculating the losses, Joshua realized that the sum of the losses was tremendous. Truth be told, Joshua would rather be surrounded by fifty Silver tier warriors or spend an entire morning playing hide and seek with the guards than bearing such amount of losses. That moment should be the darkest moment in the history of the Radcliffes. The antiques that were collected through the years had been swept clean. More importantly, he was the one who destroyed everything!

"... the Wilson family."

Suddenly, Joshua looked up. His face was filled with murderous intent. The side of his mouth was twitching.

"Providing aid to my enemies and snatching my birthright, followed by such level of destruction—Very well! I'll remember this!"

In a nutshell, it was all their fault! As one of the powerful ones, Joshua had no intention to reason with them. Bringing up the system tab, he took a closer look at his current attributes.

[Name: Joshua van Radcliffe]

[Form: Leader]

[Designation: ...]

[Race: ...]

[Level: Level 30 Silver (Challenge Level, Level 30 Silver)]

[Attribute:...]

[Status: ...]

[Status: Divine Power (Remaining Power X 1.1), Martial Art Form (When making the first move, Strength Agility Endurance +5)]

[Class: ...]

[Innate Abilities: Weapon Mastery (Class), Retribution (Individual)]

[Profession: ...]

[Skills: MAX Supreme]

[Living Skill: ...]

[Equipment:...]

[Weapon: The Seventh Generation of Divine Armament for battling Aragami (Humanoid)]

[Aim: To be Invincible]

Well, others were not important to him. Joshua was only very interested in keeping tabs on his level.

Under the circumstance where a person was on the same tier as his enemy, killing that enemy would reward him regular experience points. For example, if he is a Silver, killing a Silver-tier enemy would bring him regular experience points regardless of the levels. However, if Joshua was too bored and massacred Steel-tier monsters, he would receive a very large penalty in regards to experience points. Of course, if he decided to challenge Gold-tier enemies, he could also acquire experience points, though the success rate of doing so would be extremely small.

Currently, Joshua had killed almost thirty Silver-tier warriors. Furthermore, he killed dozens of Steel-tier warriors as well. As such, Joshua managed to reach Level 30 for the moment. Well, he still had quite a long way to go before he could reach Level 31 to get to Gold tier.

However, that was not a big problem at all.