“A metal only giants can work, huh.”
Shinhyeok mulled over the information that had been conveyed in that brief moment of connection.
“Why giants? Then was the owner of this hammer a giant?”
But the hammer was far too small to have belonged to a giant.
Judging by its size, it looked like something an elementary school kid might have used.
“Hoo.”
Baek Arin was still catching her breath.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m just out of breath. I think it’s because so much sacred power suddenly drained out of me.”
Shinhyeok watched her carefully as she tried to steady her breathing.
“Arin’s loss of energy is severe.”
She had already lost a considerable amount of sacred power, and now even what remained of her life was being stolen away.
The one who needed help right now was her.
- We need to hurry. She’s going to die soon.
- Indeed. For a mere human, she’s lasted quite long.
- It’s because she’s holding an Origin in such a half-baked way. Tsk.
Shinhyeok ignored the gods chattering beside him.
“I need to replenish her energy.”
At the very least, he needed to pour some energy into her so she could endure for now.
“But how……?”
Shinhyeok himself was also having his energy drained.
Feeling like a drowning man clutching at straws, he looked around to see if there was anything nearby and spotted the Astra Ring.
He approached it and touched the metal.
“With this…?!”
The Astra Ring was a metal with the property of drawing in energy.
Its range even extended to drawing in the Origin of gods.
“If I package it properly.”
He saw the old-timers who had endured in this space for a long time right beside him.
He stared at the numerous gods.
They were watching the dying Baek Arin with lofty amusement, smiling.
- Human. Do you have time to stand around dazed like that?
- That’s right. Isn’t this a time when even moving with all your might would hardly be enough?
Seeing them jeer at him, Shinhyeok let out a faint laugh.
“Don’t worry. I’ll handle it just fine.”
Leaving her be, he picked up the hammer again.
“Mister…… I’ll.”
He gently pressed down on her as she tried to take hold of the hammer.
“Rest. I’m full of energy right now.”
Shinhyeok pierced through the veil with his left hand and struck the metal with his right.
Kang!
Kang, kang!
The sound of the Astra Ring being struck continued to echo.
- Haaam. How boring.
- It’s nice to hear that sound again after so long.
- How many days did that dwarf hammer away at it?
- About twenty years, was it?
- That was truly hilarious back then. We went to all that trouble to help him, and then that Slayer bastard popped out and sliced him up.
As Shinhyeok struck the metal, he listened closely to their chatter.
“Dwarf?”
He found it strange that they called the owner of this hammer a dwarf.
“The Akashic clearly said only a giant could handle it.”
For now, he set the question aside.
Kak!
“Oh, a hole.”
A small hole had opened.
The gap immediately began to close.
[Administrator!]
“Question! Summarize it. About the metal of the Astra Ring made by the winged gods!”
[It is a divine relic made with Divine Steel and Orichalcum as its foundation.]
“Not that, its weakness!”
The gap was on the verge of closing.
[The core of the divine relic is a rare mineral called Orichalcum, which is responsible for absorbing and amplifying energy…….]
Thud.
Before long, the hole closed.
“Damn it. This cliffhanger is seriously killing me.”
He set the hammer down and caught his breath for a moment.
“Hoo.”
A great deal of sweat had flowed from him.
It felt as though he had been hammering nonstop for an hour.
Still, he had heard something meaningful enough.
“Orichalcum.”
A small amount of Orichalcum was mixed into this enormous metal orbit.
“That provides the main driving force, and the rest of the metal separates the space.”
He had grasped the general role of the metal well enough.
“No need to tell her all of this.”
Shinhyeok held Baek Arin.
“No. I’m not that bad yet.”
She struggled to shake off his hand and walked.
Stagger.
He caught her shoulder with one hand.
“Hah, this is seriously annoying.”
She was irritated at her endlessly feeble state.
“Rest for now. You’ll be busy soon.”
Shinhyeok briefly stared at the gods beside him, who were saying all kinds of things.
“They really do run their mouths about everything.”
From the owner of this hammer to that owner’s death.
Moreover, the fact that they spoke so freely about how he would die even if he escaped this place allowed him to cautiously guess one thing.
“They intend to kill us. Or use us as sacrifices.”
There was a reason they were quietly watching.
Shinhyeok’s gaze naturally turned toward the central sphere.
“I need to do both at once.”
Even if they crossed beyond this space, the thing outside would target them, and even if it did not, those things called gods would aim for their lives.
“Release the End……!”
He resolved to thoroughly ignore whatever they were spouting.
“I’ll trust my encyclopedia of knowledge.”
He trusted the accuracy of the information the Akashic had fetched for him.
“Then let’s prepare both at once.”
One was a way to break the central sphere.
The other was a way to bind those so-called gods who were all talk.
“I need to find a way to break Adamantium, and a way to apply Orichalcum.”
With his head tangled, Shinhyeok sighed and leaned back against the debris.
- Have you decided to give up?
Hermes sidled over and asked.
He looked at the nearly dying Baek Arin and smiled.
- She’ll die at this rate. Shouldn’t you do something?
She slapped away the hand he extended toward her.
“Get lost.”
At her cold tone, Hermes pretended to be sad.
- Oh my. How cold. What a prickly human.
Shinhyeok looked uneasily at him as he kept approaching.
“Hey, Hermes. What are you thinking?”
- What am I thinking? I’m just carrying out the job those guys dumped on me. Helping you diligently.
At his far too earnest “help,” Shinhyeok let out a chuckle.
“Don’t make me laugh. They just want me to flail around and die.”
- Haha, I suppose their true intentions are far too transparent? They are rather clumsy at deception. They’re gentlemen who have never done such things before.
“Could you stop clinging to us and get lost?”
Hermes sat down and leisurely leaned back.
- Shall I?
Seeing him fully settle in, Shinhyeok was dumbfounded.
This made it inconvenient to do anything.
“I said get lost.”
Hermes looked at Shinhyeok with a subtle gaze and snapped his fingers.
“Mm?”
A transparent energy enveloped the surroundings.
“It’s a simple barrier. Just enough to block sound.”
Then Hermes’s voice could be heard clearly.
He seemed pleased to be making sound after so long.
“How long has it been since I used my voice? Krrk~ This is what it means to be alive.”
Seeing him suddenly do something suspicious, Shinhyeok grew wary.
“What are you doing? What the hell.”
“Just think of it as me helping you. Of course, my intentions aren’t pure.”
Hermes raised his staff and pointed outside.
“I genuinely want to get out. Unlike those idiots.”
“…….”
“So those gods really had no intention of leaving.”
Pointing at the gods around them, Hermes said,
“Those noisy brats are just doing that because they’re bored, and there are plenty more gods here besides them. Why do you think they’re all staying still, even though they know how to get out?”
Shinhyeok thought of the one outside.
“That human?”
“Him? Hahahaha, the gods here could beat someone like him easily enough. You think they can’t handle just him?”
Hermes crooked a finger, beckoning him closer.
“What?”
For now, Shinhyeok leaned in and offered his ear.
“Celestial God Metacron, and Great Demon Paimon.”
He mentioned two names.
One was a name Shinhyeok knew.
“Gods among gods. Bastards who climbed closer to the Creator than anyone else.”
Shinhyeok roughly realized what they were afraid of.
“Though they fear the Celestial God more of the two. These guys have no intention of leaving right now. They’re waiting for the moment those two collide and become weakest.”
At those words, Shinhyeok thought of what was happening on Earth right now.
“The phenomenon of merging into one.”
Hermes smiled and stretched.
Shouting from boredom, he looked at Shinhyeok.
“But, nngh. I’m not the type who likes to wait!”
“How could I give up such an interesting sight? What’s Earth like right now? Huh? What interesting things are happening?”
Hermes was full of curiosity.
“That’s what I want to know. There’s a limit to what I can pick up by overhearing things here!”
He sprang to his feet and looked at Shinhyeok seriously.
“I’ll help you get out. So get me out too.”
Shinhyeok held his tongue.
“He’s hard to trust.”
Hermes smiled and spoke of Shinhyeok’s caution.
“As expected of a human. So suspicious. Listen, gods like us do not utter lies lightly. But if you still doubt me, then take this.”
He held out the staff he always carried.
A staff entwined with two snakes.
“It’s my divine relic. Precious little ones, you know.”
Shinhyeok stared at it with a puzzled expression.
“This?”
“Yeah. I haven’t done anything strange to it, so take it. You’ll know anyway. With things like this, you’ll understand instinctively.”
Still wary, Shinhyeok accepted the staff he handed over.
For the moment, he felt nothing in particular.
When Shinhyeok took it, Hermes’s eyes trembled.
“Ah, now I can’t hear it.”
With a regretful face, Hermes picked at his ear.
“It’s been a while since I felt this emptiness.”
Hermes dusted off his hands and said to Shinhyeok,
“Is this enough to make me trustworthy?”
Shinhyeok nodded.
“For now.”
Grinning, Hermes asked about Shinhyeok’s plan.
“So what’s your method?”
He asked with great curiosity, his expression as innocent as a child’s.
“I’m going to release that.”
Hermes checked the direction Shinhyeok was pointing.
When his fingertip aimed at the central sphere, Hermes burst into laughter.
“Hahahaha! That?! Krahahahaha! You’re incredible! I knew it! This is why humans are interesting!”
Laughing heartily, he agreed with Shinhyeok’s idea.
“I like it. So, what help do you need? Hm?”
Shinhyeok asked just one thing.
“How did the owner of this hammer tear metal off that sphere?”
“Ahh, that? He just hammered away at it diligently.”
“Just?”
“Yeah. Without energy, with pure physical force. That dwarf had learned some human technique called the ‘Hard Body Art’ or whatever.”
At the mention of “Hard Body Art,” Baek Arin cut in.
“It’s a technique that strengthens muscle power. Purely muscle power.”
At the words “purely strengthens muscle power,” Shinhyeok had a sudden thought.
“Does ‘only giants can handle it’ mean it truly has to be struck with pure strength?”
Suspicious, he struck the hammer he was holding hard with his hand.
Tak.
No particular sound rang out.
“There isn’t much of a reaction?”
Hermes scoffed.
“That much won’t even make it flinch. Move aside.”
Hermes stepped forward to demonstrate himself.
He rolled up his sleeves and struck hard.
Boom!
It sounded like a grenade had gone off.
“Uh…….”
At that moment, something became visible in the metal that had not reacted to anything.
The densely interwoven particles briefly opened a gap from the impact.
“Oh.”
Shinhyeok quickly made his judgment.
The difficulty of processing it was at the extreme.
“I should start lowering this now. Those morons are getting suspicious.”
Hermes’s barrier slowly dissolved.
“Keep that with you.”
He pointed at the staff he had handed over.
Hermes gave him a sly wink.
“It’ll be useful.”
Receiving a wink from a man made Shinhyeok feel slightly disgusted.
“What is with him?”
Even so, he gripped the staff Hermes had given him tightly.
It definitely felt different from ordinary things.
[You have accessed the Notedrasil System through an abnormal channel.]
[Verifying Administrator. Bypass access permitted.]
[Administrator?]
Shinhyeok looked at the object in his hand and was dumbfounded.
“Did he know when he gave it to me?”
- Hey, Hermes. What are you trying to pull this time?
- Wasn’t ruining Hephaestus enough for you?
- Now you’re going to toy with the Alchemist too?
Hermes gave a pure smile.
- It’s fun. Just imagine how amusing it’ll be to watch him struggle desperately to get out~
- Honestly, you’re the worst one here.
- But it’s fun~
Hermes quietly cheered on Shinhyeok, who was looking into the hammer and something else.
- Do your best~ Make it even more interesting.