Subscriber of the Gods Chapter 230 - Confrontation

“Ancient artifact warehouse?”

“Mr. Ethan, the ancient artifact warehouse may sound impressive, but there’s nothing truly valuable there. It’s all just old items that can’t be practically used anymore.” 

Rohai Felix quickly spoke up.

“The first part is correct. The ancient artifact warehouse contains old items with historical value. But as he said, they’re just for recording history. Not things that can be directly used.” 

“I’m satisfied with those ancient artifacts. I didn’t rescue Teacher Kai and Mr. Rohai expecting a reward.” 

At those words, Duke Felix was speechless. Ethan was willing to accept useless ancient artifacts since he hadn’t done it for a reward.

The Duke crossed his arms with interest.

“People like you are truly rare. I was prepared to grant whatever you requested. But… your composure actually makes me feel ashamed.”

Rohai’s eyes also sparkled as he looked at Ethan. Kai nodded with a slight smile, as if to say “As expected.”

“Very well, we’ll open the ancient artifact warehouse for you. But in exchange.” 

The Duke readily accepted Ethan’s request.

“I’d like to maintain a good relationship with you going forward. This isn’t a reward, but a favor I’m asking.”

“If you put it that way, I won’t refuse.” 

After Ethan and the two sons left, Duke Felix immediately ordered his subordinate.

“Bring Hansen here. Tell him to expect a big reward.”

***

“Are you really alright with just ancient artifacts? I can arrange for you to take a few more items from the treasure vault with my authority.” 

Ethan shook his head at Rohai’s suggestion. Seeing this, Rohai expressed admiration again and casually mentioned.

“I heard the story. Your help played a big part in changing my brother.”

“I didn’t do much. I just rambled on for a bit.”

“…”

Rohai let out a sigh.

“I… was a coward. I knew my brother had to sacrifice himself, but I kept my mouth shut. I had various thoughts, but… I just thought without taking any action. You did that for me. Thank you so much for stepping up for my brother.”

Rohai Felix bowed his head deeply.

“As the official heir to the Felix family, I promise you this. I will engrave this incident deep in my heart.”

“Rather than engraving it in your heart, how about we work together on something?”

‘If Rohai Felix is willing to go this far with me, there’s no need to hesitate.’

“I’m planning to add Whiskers’ name to the solid Twelve Families.”

“That story… I’d like to hear more about it.”

The families that make up the Twelve Families are extremely solid.

That’s why their rankings don’t change much. It’s because of the intense checks and balances between them.

In such a situation, the Duke Felix family had always dreamed of rising to the upper ranks.

That dream had now passed from Duke Felix to Rohai Felix.

‘He must be thinking hard about it.’

Ethan knew that Rohai Felix would use his talents to their fullest to firmly establish the Duke Felix family in the upper ranks of the Twelve Families.

That they would reach a position within the Twelve Families that no one could easily deal with.

‘Let’s try to ride along with that.’

The Whiskers territory had already grown as much as it could.

Not only had its influence increased, but it had also amassed significant financial power. Above all, it had formed connections.

‘Connections extending from the Sword Saint to Prochet, and then to the Duke Felix family can push Whiskers forward.’

Of course, it wasn’t big enough to enter the Twelve Families yet.

‘But that’s only if we stay in this current state.’

“The Dren Marquis family. They’re located close to our Whiskers territory.”

Currently, the Whiskers territory had even drawn in the Yurahan Count family near the Dren Marquis family. It was fair to say that virtually all territories around the Whiskers domain were under Whiskers’ influence.

‘And the Dren Marquis family isn’t just any Twelve Families member.’

There were three Twelve Families that played a leading role in the death of Archmage Hecate. The Dren Marquis family was one of them.

‘Not only can we get revenge for Yerica, but we can also take all the privileges held by the Dren Marquis family.’

But this was an extremely difficult task. A mere local noble family attacking one of the Twelve Families?

‘Even the Imperial Palace might get involved.’

So Ethan had made thorough preparations.

‘If we overtake the Dren Marquis family and take their place, we can get close to the fame score needed to meet the Saintess.’

The higher the fame, the better. Ethan didn’t know the exact fame score needed to meet the Saintess, so he was making rough calculations.

Of course, racking up achievements and collecting likes was a bonus.

“The Dren Marquis family.”

Rohai lowered his head, seeming to ponder for a moment. Then he looked at Ethan and nodded.

“You already have a plan, don’t you? Let’s talk more in my office tonight.”

“Sounds good. I’ll see you then.”

***

In the basement of Duke Felix’s castle.

The duke’s castle had several rooms used as treasure vaults.

‘Half of the treasure vaults are filled with fake treasures. Probably to prepare for any unexpected situations.’

One of the treasure vaults in this basement was where the ancient artifacts were kept. Ethan was holding the key to it.

“Yes, confirmed!”

The gatekeeper at the basement entrance checked his identity and opened the way.

The basement was very bright with glowing gems and torches. But as you went deeper, only the luminous stones remained, creating a gloomy atmosphere.

After descending for some time, the stairs ended and flat ground appeared.

Walking on the flat ground soon led to a path that split into three.

Ethan knew where the ancient artifact vault was, so he headed down the middle path without hesitation.

“Here it is.”

The destination was in front of a small iron door. Ethan inserted the key into the iron door.

Creeak-

And at the moment he tried to open the door.

His vision was engulfed in darkness.

‘What’s this?’

Ethan frowned and immediately tried to retreat. But his body was already falling somewhere.

Boom-!

His vision, which had been shrouded in darkness, slowly returned.

The place he fell was a forest. A bright blue moon in the sky dimly illuminated the dark forest.

Faced with this sudden situation, Ethan first tried to calmly assess the circumstances.

‘My body condition hasn’t changed. At least it’s not a debuff spell.’

The moment he inserted the key and grabbed the handle, something unfolded. And at the same time, he fell into this space.

‘If an illusion-type magic had been cast at that moment, the Immortal Hero’s Breathing would have activated. The fact that it didn’t means what I’m seeing now isn’t an illusion.’

So it wasn’t illusion-type magic.

‘If it were spatial movement, I would have noticed the spell being cast since it takes time.’

There’s no way Ethan wouldn’t have noticed that split second of a spell being cast.

It wasn’t illusion magic, nor spatial movement magic.

‘The Eye of Horus couldn’t see it either. Which means…’

“A unique space?”

In less than a second, Ethan deduced the correct answer.

A caster’s unique domain created by unique magic.

Ethan was now in a space created by some magician’s unique magic.

‘I don’t know who suddenly used this kind of magic, but…’

Ethan first thought about escaping.

‘Wind Cloud!’

-Wind Cloud is blocked by a unique power.

-Unable to find coordinates.

‘Wind Cloud’s power is useless. It’s definitely unique space magic.’

This unique space was a kind of domain declaration magic, and only a very small number of people could use this level of magic.

Then a voice was heard from somewhere.

“I didn’t expect this.”

It was a low, deep voice. The voice was clearly audible, but it was impossible to tell which direction it was coming from.

‘It’s a voice I’ve never heard before. But there’s only one person who would cast a unique space magic where the holy relic is.’

He didn’t expect them to move this quickly.

But Ethan put on a deliberately relaxed expression.

The caster can see everything in this unique space. So they must be hiding somewhere watching him.

“I didn’t expect an Apostle of the Dawn Council to welcome me like this.”

At Ethan’s words, the voice was heard again from beyond.

“What are you? I know you, Ethan Whiskers. But you don’t know the Order. You shouldn’t know.”

With those words, Ethan could clearly grasp the current situation. In contrast, the Apostle seemed to not fully understand the situation.

For the Dawn Council, Ethan Whiskers wasn’t a target of caution. Not only Ethan mentioning the Dawn Council, but his coming to this treasure vault where the holy relic was, was unexpected.

‘So they didn’t set a trap targeting me. They were probably in a situation to steal the holy relic. Did I arrive at just the right timing?’

It was possible they used the unique space magic in surprise at Ethan’s sudden appearance.

‘The timing was bad. But if I had come a little later, an empty vault would have been waiting.’

It was neither a good nor bad situation, but the scales were inevitably tipping towards the bad side.

If the Apostle created this unique space as Ethan predicted.

‘The 9th Apostle. If it’s him, he’ll be tricky to deal with.’

That’s how it would be according to old memories. But now Ethan had a much wider variety of skills than before.

‘It’s worth a try.’

“I’ll need a detailed explanation of this situation from you.”

With those words, a powerful impact struck Ethan’s abdomen.

Ughk-!

-Automatic defense!

-The earth wall has been destroyed.

“…”

Ethan frowned deeply.

“You, you blocked that? Strange. Too strange. This is far too different from our expectations! Are you really Ethan Whiskers? Or are you some other being pretending to be Ethan Whiskers?”

Anger rose in the Apostle’s voice.

“There’s no way we could have missed it! No way we wouldn’t know!”

At the same time, another attack came.

It was an attack that couldn’t even be perceived where it was coming from.

‘Ultra-long range attack.’

-Moonlight Defense!

Following the Earth King Tror’s earth wall, moonlight defense was cast.

9th Apostle Samir Wiki.

Samir, the 9th Apostle, was a safety-first person who considered safety the most important. So he doesn’t reveal himself unless the situation is certain.

‘My attacks don’t reach him and…’

Whack-!

Once again, a powerful force struck Ethan’s face.

‘The opponent’s attacks reach me.’

-Moonlight Defense!

With this, both Tror’s earth wall and moonlight defense were used.

The remaining defensive techniques were Enemy of Thousands and Moonforce’s Armor. (+)TLN: I forgot about this one “Enemy of Thousands (만인지적)” technique. I really apologize for this if I change the name of the original (at least the first name that I used) technique. I will continue using the name “Enemy of Thousands” for this particular technique from now on.

But the problem wasn’t defense. The opponent could continue attacking. In contrast, the problem was that this side couldn’t attack the opponent.

‘There must be a way to break through.’

“Oh Moon Mother.”

As the Apostle chanted a spell, another attack came at Ethan.

At the same time, Ethan also immediately flicked his hand.

“Summon.”

The ground around rumbled and surged upwards.

Booom-!

The Earth Spirit King Tror responded to Ethan’s call and was summoned.

“You called-!”

“Tror, cause an earthquake with all your might.”

“Understood.”

Tror raised both arms and then slammed them into the ground.

Rumble rumble rumble-!

‘That ultra-long range attack is an attack that requires offering a sacrifice. One unavoidable attack flies for each sacrifice offered. We can’t give time to offer sacrifices.’

First, he had to use this earthquake to block the opponent’s attacks.

‘I need to find traces!’

The next step was traces.

Things that weren’t visible before started to become visible due to the Eye of Horus and Sleeping Dragon’s Sight.

‘Damn, there are no traces.’

But there were no traces.

Moonlight Tracking is an excellent tracking magic, but tracking is impossible if there are no traces.

Then a good idea occurred to Ethan.

‘If so, I just need to track other traces!’

“Tror, stop the earthquake.”

“Understood.”

As soon as the earthquake stopped, an attack immediately came towards Ethan’s nape.

-Enemy of Thousands!

-Absorbing damage.

“Moonlight tracking.”

Ethan used moonlight tracking targeting the attack that just came in.

Whoosh-

Then moonlight started to extend in a straight line.

“As expected.”

Ethan grinned. It was a success.

“Tror!”

Once again, he used Tror to cause an earthquake.

“You have no more power left, so it can only last for 3 more seconds!”

“That’s fine!”

Ethan moved as if sliding. At the same time, lightning surged all over his body.

“3 seconds is enough.”

***

The 9th Apostle Samir Wiki was experiencing something quite perplexing.

It was good that he had entered Duke Felix’s castle to steal the holy relic.

He found the vault where the ancient artifacts slept, but several spells were cast on that door. While he was undoing those spells one by one, someone approached.

If it was a key figure from the Duke Felix family, he planned to trap them in the unique space and use them to open the vault.

But the one who entered the unique space was a completely unexpected person.

Ethan Whiskers.

“Just what is this guy?”

It was unexpected enough that he suddenly entered the underground treasure vault of Duke Felix, but he also immediately mentioned the Dawn Council and realized that he was an Apostle.

Information started coming together in the 9th Apostle’s mind.

“No way, it can’t be.”

Impossible things kept combining.

“In all the recent failures…”

As pieces of information combined one by one, the truth began to emerge.

“Ethan Whiskers was there.”

Wide-eyed, Samir quickly looked to the side.

Crack-!

Breaking through the dense forest, Ethan appeared.

“This is… impossible!”

“I hear that a lot.”

Lightning enveloped Ethan’s entire body as he broke through the forest. Holding the Frost Sword and Thunder Sword, Ethan swung them immediately.

Ethan Swordsmanship 4th Form

Eternal Frost of Trust

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Translator Note:

Again, I apologize for the inconsistency related to the technique/skills name. I feel bad for your reading experience T_T but also I don’t want to read and check the chapter one by one from chapter 1. I mean, 0-230 is a lot of work, and I admit this is just me being lazy but still.

I am very sorry.