episode_0139

Lia is a Hero.

The only S-tier character in the Prophecy RPG.

Her base stats are all high,

and her potential is top-notch.

Even without cheat-like abilities, she’s the kind of character who can take on the Demon King one-on-one.

Her strength is a given.

‘And yet, such a Hero was granted all sorts of cheat keys.’

The trait, which assigns the attribute to every attack.

The trait, which assigns the attribute to every defense.

On top of that, the trait that blocks all status ailments.

Even just these three would be game-breaking.

But.

It doesn’t end there.

There were cheat keys to accelerate her growth,

and ones that maximized all her talents.

That’s why she’s the Hero.

She could become a Sword Master.

She could become a Grand Magician.

She could become a Grand Archer.

She could become an Assassin Master.

She could become a Master Blacksmith.

If she set her mind to it, she could become anything.

But.

She became none of them.

Lia was a crybaby,

a child who clung to me every day, whining for head pats.

‘Though she was just pretending to cry…’

Anyway.

She just stuck to me like glue and played around.

She didn’t fight,

and she didn’t train.

She did practice magic periodically,

but that was it.

As a result,

her abilities, excluding her cheat powers, weren’t particularly high.

If she fought without her cheats, I suppose you could say she’d lose to Alice?

Of course,

even that much was still incredible.

Alice was considered A+-tier in the Prophecy RPG,

and now she’s gotten even stronger.

Effectively S-tier.

It’s only natural she’d be stronger than Lia, who never properly hunted.

…Or so I thought.

‘Her attacks didn’t land at all.’

Dark’s ultimate move was fast and powerful.

But.

Lia blocked it effortlessly.

She didn’t use her trait.

Instead, she lightly released her mana and ‘attacked’ Dark’s attack.

Since she attacked, the trait activated,

instantly killing Dark’s attack.

A flawless defense.

But.

If that was all, I could’ve brushed it off.

She had trained hard in magic, after all.

Using magic to neutralize an opponent’s attack was something she could easily do.

‘The real problem was what came next.’

Dark collapsed after being punched by Lia.

He couldn’t even react.

‘Dark was too weak to react?’

No way.

His physical stats were on par with Alice’s, and his mana was even stronger in this possessed body.

He’d trained longer than Alice.

He’d acquired more hidden items,

and overcome more trials.

Even if Alice had grown stronger since the Prophecy RPG,

Dark should be stronger.

And yet, he couldn’t even react to Lia’s speed?

‘Insane.’

Her attack power was infinite thanks to her cheats,

but there were no cheat keys boosting her attack or movement speed.

That was her sole weakness.

Even with her infinite attack power,

if you avoided her strikes with speed, you could endure.

Like in a Souls-like game, if you dodged all her attacks and kept hitting back, you could eventually defeat her.

That was the only way to take her down.

‘But now…’

Today, that sole weakness was gone.

…Or so I thought,

though there was still a chance it wasn’t the case.

Maybe Dark had only trained in magic and his physical stats were trash…

“Lia! I’m coming at you this time!”

“Okay!”

“Here I go!”

Thwack!

“Urgh!”

Thud!

Even Alice, going all out, was taken down in one hit to the head.

‘She really is fast.’

A punch so fast Alice couldn’t react.

That confirmed it.

Lia’s sole weakness was gone,

and she had become a flawless Hero.

‘If there’s any weakness left…’

It’d be if the Goddess of Light, Serena, took back Lia’s cheats?

But.

The chance of that happening is close to 0%.

It’s safe to say there’s no way to beat Lia now.

‘At this point, even the Demon King…’

She wouldn’t just defeat him.

She could treat him like a toy and play around with him.

‘This is good.’

In the Marianne Salvation Ending, the most crucial element is likely the ‘Demon King’s Stone.’

‘Even if Marianne inherits the Demon King’s Stone, as long as the mana overload is controlled, things might work out somehow…’

But ideally, destroying the stone itself would be best.

That way, no future Demon King would emerge,

and Marianne could live in peace.

So I thought.

‘The plan to destroy the Demon King’s Stone… Hmm… Maybe like this?’

A rough plan formed.

But.

One thing was odd.

‘When did Lia get this strong?’

Lia is a cheat-powered Hero, sure,

but she has no speed-related cheats.

To boost attack speed, movement speed, or reaction time, she’d have to train through constant combat.

But Lia never did that.

‘She did get speed-enhancing gear, but…’

Alice had been training nonstop too.

She’d gotten fast enough to easily match Lia’s previous speed.

‘Did she train in secret?’

Curious, I asked.

“Lia.”

“Yeah?”

“Did you train in secret or something?”

“Yeah! I did!”

“What kind of training?”

“This kind!”

Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof!

Suddenly, smoke appeared, and Lia split into six.

“?”

“Ta-da! Shadow Clones!”

“Shadow Clones?”

“Yeah! I learned it from the manga Master showed me! They’re perfect clones! They even have the setting where training as a clone makes the original stronger too!”

“You replicated that?!”

“Yeah!”

“How many can you make? How long do they last?”

“Around 500? Duration is about 1–2 weeks?”

“500?! You mean 500 clones have been running around training separately?! And you get all that experience?!”

“Yeah!”

“Wow… That’s insane…”

Lia, already cheat-tier, had been enjoying a 500x EXP buff.

At this point, not being able to defeat the Demon King would just be pathetic, right?

Wait.

Couldn’t she just send clones to wipe out all the demons?

…I thought as I asked, but

that was impossible.

“If the clones get too far from the original, they disappear, so clearing all the demon territories alone is impossible.”

“There’s a distance limit.”

“Yeah.”

“What’s the max range?”

“From here… roughly up to Velika Village.”

“Velika Village… so about 500 km.”

For reference, the distance from Seoul to Busan is around 400 km.

500 km is a pretty wide range.

But.

It’s not enough to sweep through all the demons and monsters in the world.

‘And even if she did, it wouldn’t solve everything.’

Even if Lia’s clones hunted all over the world, the monsters would just respawn over time.

Areas with low divine energy have stronger monster stats and faster reproduction rates.

No matter how much you hunt outside human territory, the monster population won’t change much.

They just keep respawning.

So.

To truly save the world, the total amount of divine energy in the land must be increased.

‘And the easiest way to do that is to increase the population.’

The more people worship Serena, the more divine energy exists in the world.

All we need is more people,

so sex is the answer.

‘Same for us.’

Kill the Demon King,

destroy the Demon King’s Stone to prevent the next one from appearing?

If we accomplish that, our job is done.

Clearing demon territories?

We can do some of that,

but if there aren’t enough humans to occupy the cleared land, it’s meaningless.

We’ll just have to wait for the population to grow.

So?

What should we do in the meantime?

‘Sex.’

We’ll work hard to increase the population by having lots of sex.

Aim for about five kids per wife and shake those hips.

That’s our job.

…The moment I thought that, a strong intuition struck me: if I don’t stock up on stamina-boosting items soon, I’m in serious danger.

‘Once Lumi joins, we’ll be right before the ending…’

After the ending, the 19+ events start immediately,

and if I don’t prepare stamina items beforehand, I might get squeezed dry and die.

So I picked up Dark.

“Sophia.”

“Yes!”

“Heal me, please.”

“Yes, my lord!”

Whoosh!

“Ugh… nngh…”

Dark quickly regained consciousness under Sophia’s healing magic.

“You awake?”

“Uh… yeah… Did I lose?”

“You did.”

“Wow… That’s insane… I heard she was cheat-mode, so I even developed counter magic… I trained hard to react to any attack!… And I lost this pathetically?!”

“Did you seriously think you could win?”

“Of course!”

“Why?”

“Isn’t aiming to be the strongest the rule in isekai?!”

“So you trained hard to beat Lia and become rank one?”

“Yeah! But…”

“Feeling down after losing so easily?”

“Yeah…”

“Just give up. Current Lia is a true monster growing at 500x EXP speed.”

“500x EXP buff? That exists?”

“Remember that ninja manga I showed you last time? She mastered the Shadow Clone Jutsu perfectly.”

“Shadow Clones? The technique where clones training counts as the original training?!”

“Yep. You know it.”

“And Lia learned that?!”

“Yeah.”

“So the Hero, who already has infinite attack and defense, can use Shadow Clones too?!”

“Uh… Lia?”

“Yeah?”

“Do the clones have and too?”

“Yeah! The clones and I have the same combat power! The only difference is they have slightly less HP!”

“Broken.”

“Broken.”

Dark and I said in unison.

Meanwhile,

Alice, revived by Sophia’s healing, excitedly charged at one of Lia’s clones.

Thwack!

“Urgh!”

Knocked out in one hit again.

Wow.

The clones are strong too.

“And she can make up to 500 of those…”

“500?!”

“Yeah.”

“500 of those clones?!”

“Yeah.”

“How do you even beat that?”

“Exactly.”

Current Lia has become an ultimate being no one can defeat.

…Or so I thought.

“Master!”

“Master!”

“Get away! If you’re clones, act like clones and scram!”

“No! I want head pats from Master too!”

“Me too!”

“If all of you come, I won’t get any!”

“You’ve had enough, so step back! It’s our turn now!”

“No! You’re just clones, so disappear already!”

“Request denied!”

“What?!”

“We will fight for Master’s head pats!”

“Hey! HEY!!!”

Lia and her clones started fighting like dogs.

Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack!

The and traits canceled each other out.

As a result,

for the first time, Lia experienced actual damage—not the usual 1-damage love taps, but real fiery punches.

“Ow! My nose is bleeding!”

“Now! All together!”

“Hey! STOP!!!”

The five clones ganged up on the original, beating her down to claim victory.

“We won!”

“Woo-hoo!”

The victorious clones rushed to me, beaming, and shoved their heads forward, demanding head pats.

Meanwhile,

Lia sniffled, experiencing defeat for the first time.

“Waaah… I’m the original… I made all of you…”