8. Intercontinental Conference (1)
Knock, knock.
“Jeongjin? Are you still awake?”
Verdo entered after lightly knocking on the door of the study located atop the lord’s castle spire.
“This place holds many secret books that could cause major repercussions even for the Blessed, so it’s somewhere attendants can’t enter carelessly.”
Grumbling, Verdo carried a snack in one hand.
I Jeongjin was frantically reading a book in the center of the study. Unorganized books chaotically decorated the floor around him.
*‘He’s grown so much.’*
The Viscount looked anew at I Jeongjin, who ignored his words.
Sitting in a luxurious wooden chair, wearing loose clothes, and devouring books, I Jeongjin looked like an ink-stained scholar to those who didn’t know him.
But those with keener eyes, observing his appearance carefully—the straight spine, the callused palms faintly revealed as he turned pages, and the wild, muscular frame visible through his silhouette that even loose clothes couldn’t hide—would know he was a warrior no one could ignore.
*‘Marin is thirteen now, isn’t she? If only she weren’t a Summoned.’*
The Summoned cannot bear descendants during the training period and do not age. Knowing this, Verdo clicked his tongue in regret.
“Ah, my lord. What brings you here?”
Had the Viscount’s dark scheme leaked out? I Jeongjin, who had been engrossed in reading, noticed Verdo’s presence.
“What brings me here, my friend. Do you even know how many days you’ve been in this study? The Imperial Court has been hounding me endlessly as the number of Summoned visibly dwindles.”
Saying this, Verdo cleared away some books and set down the food he had brought.
*Grrrr—*
I Jeongjin’s empty stomach growled loudly at the sight of thickly sliced meat and fruit wine.
“Nngh….”
After stretching lightly, I Jeongjin ignored Verdo and focused on the food before him.
While I Jeongjin ate, Verdo grumbled and tidied up the scattered books.
“Did you find anything?”
“No, not at all. Thank you for the food. It was delicious.”
Having devoured a palm-sized piece of meat in quick bites, I Jeongjin replied gloomily and emptied the remaining fruit wine.
“Phew… why can’t we return?”
“….”
Verdo remained silent at I Jeongjin’s words.
Earth’s Summoned, who had not returned even in their third year. Having accumulated knowledge about the relationship between the training period and dimensional beings, they fell into anxiety so deep that normal training became impossible.
The System would not make a mistake. As proof, the status window I Jeongjin displayed to Verdo still bore the *Indestructible* option.
This meant that dimensional being invasions would be so fierce that Earth required a minimum three-year training period.
“What about the Summoned in the Imperial Court—no, in the Heram Empire?”
“It’s bad.”
Verdo answered simply while scratching his ear, a gesture that hid the severity of his words.
“Over a thousand have abandoned training this week alone. Truth is, many don’t trust the Imperial Palace anymore.”
Three years and one week.
The approximately fourteen thousand Summoned in the Heram Empire had decreased to fewer than four thousand.
Unable to hide his frustration, I Jeongjin stepped out onto the terrace.
*Status.*
[Name: I Jeongjin (Indestructible)
Age: 25
Level: 27
Gender: Male
Class: Spearman
Race: Human
Stat ▼
Stamina: 34
Strength: 37
Mana: 29
Intelligence: 16
Agility: 24
Mental Strength: 31
Affinity: 27
Luck: 10
Remaining Status: 6
Skill ▼
Pain Resistance (Lv 9), Endurance (Lv 11), Imperial Basic Spearmanship (Lv 40), Roar (Lv 30, Max), Fortitude (Lv 12), Star Cluster (Lv 5), Bash (Lv 22), Lightning Flash (Lv 5), Chain Attack (Lv 2), Detection (Lv 7), Carbon Sword Technique (Lv 25), Growth Rate Correction 10% (—)]
*My level is damn slow to rise….*
Having checked the now-habitual status window, I Jeongjin sighed softly.
I Jeongjin’s fist trembled quietly, and Verdo calmly waited for him to compose himself.
“There’s something I want to ask, but this is something I can’t handle with my own strength, isn’t it?”
“Unfortunately….”
Verdo recalled the soft, green Summoned from three years ago, when they had conversed in this same place.
The young man in his twenties who had panicked over a broken tooth, not knowing what to do, was gone. Now, before his eyes stood a warrior seriously worrying about his planet’s future.
“My lord… this won’t do. I have a request.”
“This is more of a backwater than you think. Don’t hesitate to ask for anything. I’ll provide whatever support I can.”
“It’s….”
* * *
*Splash—!*
“Puhh!”
I Jeongjin opened his eyes as cold water was poured on him.
“Are you awake?”
The one speaking to him was upside down. However, the other person wasn’t standing upside down. I Jeongjin was tied with ropes and hanging upside down.
“Then… uh… when this third hourglass… flips….”
The other person stammered, reading from a notepad, and held out a sheet of paper to I Jeongjin.
It was flipped upside down to make the written contents easier to read, but there were two problems: first, the paper was over a meter in both width and length; second, the written text was smaller than grains of rice.
“Memorize the contents written on the paper before the hourglass runs out, and I’ll verify it. If you can’t memorize it, I’ll dunk you in boiling water until you’re on the verge of death. I’ve confirmed everything, so please shut up, Jun.”
I Jeongjin looked at the other person with an exasperated expression.
*How did it come to this….*
Feeling the unpleasant sensation of blood rushing to his head, I Jeongjin recalled the conversation he’d had with Verdo last night.
“Is this really effective….”
“Think about it. We’re Blessed. When we first met, what training did I give you to build basic stamina and lower body strength simultaneously?”
“You made me go up and down the spire stairs for an hour carrying a sandbag over forty kilograms.”
“I don’t know the exact weight in kilograms, but yes. If a non-Blessed did such crude training, their body would break within a year. But we who are Blessed? We can actually train in ways ordinary people couldn’t imagine, thanks to the basic recovery provided by our Status effects!”
“But this is a bit….”
“Of course, that’s not all. What is your Intelligence stat, Jeongjin?”
“Sixteen….”
“Sixteen is a value that would be considered genius-level for simple calculations and memory. Yet have you ever felt smart, Jeongjin?”
“Hmm… no.”
“That’s the difference between displayed stats and reality. Your mental limitations and lack of training prevent you from achieving the full performance indicated by the number. Those born geniuses can use their innate intelligence to the limit from the start, but we who were born ordinary need corresponding effort to utilize our intelligence to the degree shown in our stats.”
“….”
“This is a training method with extreme efficiency that lets you learn magic basics while simultaneously learning how to use your Intelligence stat and aiming for stat increases. Even the Imperial Court couldn’t achieve this level of efficiency.”
“They probably could, but don’t because of the Imperial Court’s dignity….”
“Anyway. I approve of your plan to learn everything you can and open-source the knowledge when you return to Earth. It was an unthinkable notion when the training period was one year… but since it has come to this, we must hope the training period increases even further.”
“You say terrible things.”
“It really works… my Intelligence stat is already twenty. Why don’t you try learning martial arts too, Tolji?”
I Jeongjin said this to Tolji, who was conducting his basic magic education.
Tolji looked pitifully at the excited young friend who was thrilled to have barely reached twenty, hitting him on the head with a switch.
“You can try this only because Summoned have a ten percent growth correction. Time is limited; even if you delve into only your most talented field for life, you might not establish yourself—do you have time to be distracted?”
Tolji had already been stealing time to teach I Jeongjin magic for two months, so he was quite irritated. Still, he taught him as a kind of investment because he gained insights researching Summoned development.
“In that regard, you’re truly blessed. Thanks to the growth correction, you’ve gained the chance to develop new aptitudes faintly hidden within you. So stop talking nonsense and focus on your books.”
[You have acquired new skills. Magic Mastery, Magic Formula.]
* * *
“Blessed? So what!”
I Jeongjin was slightly flustered by the other’s attitude, who didn’t care despite him bringing the Viscount’s letter of introduction.
“I’m Blessed too! I’ve spent my whole life making weapons. No matter if you bring the Viscount’s introduction, don’t expect special treatment!”
The other was a weapon craftsman who had settled in the Carbon territory alongside Verdo. I Jeongjin replied meekly out of consideration for him.
“No. I don’t even need special treatment. Just teach me the skill.”
“What?! You son of a bitch! Fine, I’ll teach you! Stick by my side all day from today.”
*This old man is cursing from the start.*
Kind words beget kind words. I Jeongjin acted according to that motto.
“Oh, what should I do? I have magic lessons with Mage Tolji starting this afternoon, so I can’t do that.”
“Shut up! I’ll contact Tolji myself! Consider yourself dead for three months!”
“By age, I’ll probably live longer~? I don’t die on Planet Olloca~?”
For three months, I Jeongjin remained before the forge until he was on the verge of death.
He couldn’t endure even with a Blessed’s physical abilities, to the point that his lungs slightly burned or he suffered full-body burns; he had paid a sufficient price for wagging his tongue wrongly.
[You have acquired new skills. Refining. Smithing.]
* * *
“Spirit magic seems to be difficult after all. I’m sorry. If you had invested your efforts elsewhere instead of learning this, you would have achieved meaningful results.”
“Not at all. Thank you for spending your time teaching me instead.”
“…Spirit magic is influenced by talent even more than magic, so if you couldn’t commune with a spirit within three months, it will be difficult to obtain one.”
I Jeongjin politely bowed to the other person showing an apologetic expression.
“Being able to use the magic I learned from Mage Tolji in actual combat is already sufficient achievement.”
“Hmm….”
“Is something wrong?”
“No. It’s just that you’re completely different from the impression I got from Elder Heoman.”
“….”
Elder Heoman was a Blessed who had made a name for himself as a weapon craftsman in the Carbon territory.
[You have acquired a new stat. Attribute.]
* * *
“Kuaaaack!”
“Calm down! Korne! He’s coming loose again. Tie him tighter!”
“….”
“Kiaaaaaaaaa!”
“Be quiet! This is all for you!”
“Bullshit! Tolji! You bastard! You think I don’t know you’re doing this because you got research material after seeing me acquire skills?!”
“Oho! Jeongjin! Such harsh words.”
“….”
“You perverted old man! Last time you proposed to a woman thirty years younger and got rejected, right? Have some conscience… Kiaaah—!”
“Lord Tolji, what did you do?”
“…I raised the output of the full-power magic a bit. To think he can endure this at not even level thirty. The effects of his Endurance skill and Attribute must be significant.”
“But still, this is….”
“Oho! Korne! Do you think I’m doing this only for myself?”
“That’s exactly right, you bastard!!”
“Think carefully. If we can identify even one more essential condition for acquiring a resistance skill, wouldn’t that benefit both him and us Ollocans?”
“That is….”
“Korne! Korrrne! Don’t be fooled! Pleeeease!”
“It’s beneficial for you too, Jeongjin. You get the chance to safely raise your Endurance skill, and if you happen to acquire Magic Resistance, that’d be hitting the jackpot. You know how to use the dial, right? When it’s done, administer the potions in numerical order. I’ll be going, so watch him well.”
“Verdoooooo! I know you’re listening! Get out here and stop this! Sweeeeen! Marin! No! Marin! Don’t run away! I secretly showed you around the city!! You wench! Don’t gooo! Please!”
[You have acquired a new stat. Fighting Spirit.]
* * *
“Jeongjin! Where are you going?”
Marin ran excitedly toward Jeongjin, who was neatly dressed in a suit for the first time in a while.
I Jeongjin replied listlessly.
“I’m going to see the city with your dad.”
“Me too! I want to go too!”
“You have mountains of things to learn here. Who are you to follow? Stay home and study quietly. Studying is easiest. Otherwise you’ll suffer like me.”
“But you’re Blessed!”
“That’s why I suffered every torture imaginable from old man Tolji for two years? Electric torture, fire torture, water torture, poison torture—every torture there is.”
“….”
“Stay put. I’ll buy you a gift.”
He ruffled Marin’s hair and entered the office.
Inside, Verdo waited in dignified attire.
“Well. Are you fully prepared?”
“…Yes.”
In contrast to the ever-smiling Verdo, he nodded with a stiff face.
It was the day the Summoned’s training period entered its fifth year. It was after five years had passed without their return being confirmed.
* * *
Ollocans could be largely divided into three classes.
Not by a traditional class system like royalty and nobility, but by the degree of knowledge regarding dimensional beings, Gates, the System, and the Summoned.
First, the highest class consisted of those who knew most of the truth about the Summoned, dimensional beings, and Gates.
They formed a transnational organization, and the vast majority were Blessed. In fact, it included nearly all the disaster-level Blessed over level 100 on Planet Olloca.
Besides them were technicians with uncommon talent who hadn’t become Blessed, a handful of imperial family members, or superhumans who had mastered mana breathing techniques and reached the Master realm despite being non-Blessed.
They eliminated threatening monsters on Planet Olloca, coordinated with intelligent races of other dimensions through Gates, and prevented individual Blessed from consuming non-Blessed lives like firewood based on high levels. They manipulated civilization from the shadows.
Their origins were the founding emperors of the three empires established after the New Era. Therefore, even after four hundred years, they persisted to prepare for the *Final Record*.
Verdo too had learned of this secret organization after receiving help from a member for his third job advancement.
The middle class consisted of the majority of Blessed like Korne and Tolji, and almost all other power holders excluding the above examples.
They maintained the world’s smooth operation; Blessed hunted monsters and raised levels in their own way. They were relatively normal, yet practically held worldly power.
They knew about the Summoned to some degree, but could not access the deeper truths.
Finally, the lower class consisted of all humans except the handful of power holders above.
Over 99.9 percent of non-Blessed belonged to this class.
They knew dimensional beings only as monsters born from mana anomalies, and regarded the Blessed merely as miraculous recipients of divine grace. Ordinary people who until death knew nothing of the truth behind the Summoned or Gates.
But their lives couldn’t be spent recklessly. Those in the highest class knew how fragile the world they lived in was.
Frankly, if one colossal dimensional being capable of crossing Gates were to invade Planet Olloca, humanity’s numbers would drop to three digits within a week.
The highest class exchanged with other dimensions and closely investigated destroyed civilizations. The conclusion drawn was a harsh truth: that civilization had been able to develop for 463 years after the New Era was nothing more than luck.
Dimensional beings possessed such power that assigning them ranks was difficult, or whose existence on a single planet was impossible. Fortunately, most dangerous Gates were blocked with the System’s help, but this too was on borrowed time.
*Final Record*.
The stage where the planet’s dominant races—all intelligent races blessed by the System—became Blessed one hundred percent.
When this period came, it would become impossible to use only the “safe Gates” provided by the System. Eventually, Ollocans would have to drive out dimensional beings and obtain peace through their own strength.
Therefore, those in the highest class cared for the vast majority of non-Blessed in the lower class to foster future warriors who could fight on their side when the Final Record stage arrived.
Strictly speaking, the Summoned led by I Jeongjin belonged to the middle class.
They were Summoned expected to leave after a year anyway. Even though they might become allies in the near future, there had been no need to share top-secret information with them.
But when the training period exceeded five years, emergency bells rang in the three empires.
First, communication with the outside.
The moment the training period began, movement to other dimensions via Gates was paralyzed. This was a reasonable measure to prevent unnecessary interference with the Summoned and their planetary instructors.
But the anxiety from dimensional exchanges being severed for five times the expected period caused shock beyond imagination.
Second, international relations within Planet Olloca.
Even with transcendent beings coordinating and a hidden organization spanning the continent, national interests remained sensitive. In the 450 years since the New Era, great wars had destroyed several nations, and regions with historically bad blood existed.
Forcing a halt to national tensions for five years meant problems festered beneath the surface despite appearances.
Unable to simply watch, the emperors of the three empires decided to hold an Intercontinental Conference, gathering members of their organization and the continent’s leaders.
Verdo, who had surpassed level 120, had to attend, and as a precaution, all remaining Summoned were gathered in one place for management.
* * *
“Phew….”
I Jeongjin couldn’t close his gaping mouth as he looked at where he stood.
Witnessing the true technological prowess of Ollocans, which he had subtly dismissed until now, overwhelmed him beyond admiration—he felt dizzy.
“What is all this?!”
He hurried after Verdo, who walked leisurely ahead.
“Don’t run. There’s always some risk.”
“You call that an explanation?!”
“Oho! If you shout, the attendants will look at you strangely.”
Verdo seemed satisfied to see I Jeongjin flustered after so long.
“Wh-what-what is it, where are we?”
“Didn’t I tell you on the way? This is where the Intercontinental Conference is held.”
Verdo’s obvious evasions annoyed I Jeongjin so much that his face flushed red, steaming with anger.
If the opponent weren’t four times his level—or if there weren’t a knight among the attendants with a similar level to Verdo trailing alongside—he would have thrown a low kick at his thigh.
“You said it on the way! After riding nothing but horse-drawn carriages for five years, you suddenly put me in that thing—did you think I was in any state to listen?!”
Unable to bear it, he flicked Verdo’s thick jowl and pointed at something.
At this unprecedented action from a Summoned, Verdo stopped walking, and attendants looked at I Jeongjin in shock.
“I thought this was medieval fantasy, but this is pure sci-fi, old man!”
The transport that had brought I Jeongjin and Verdo sat at the spot he pointed to.
The problem was its form: an off-white streamlined object slightly larger than a passenger car.
Called a *Magu* in Olloca, neither engine nor power transfer device was visible on this object.
After getting in and sitting awkwardly, waiting, it floated in the air and moved via a magician’s magic formula. I Jeongjin arrived here in utter shock.
Carrying Verdo, I Jeongjin, and the magician piloting the Magu, it flew at subsonic speed—without even a sonic boom!—for over an hour to the conference site without additional fuel.
Attendants watched I Jeongjin, who was fuming, while stifling laughs. Unable to stand it, I Jeongjin stomped his feet and shouted.
“No! And get your setting straight! I rode that thing here only to suddenly hold a conference inside a tree the size of a mountain range!!”
The floor I Jeongjin stomped on with loud thuds was made of wood.
But it wasn’t processed wood laid as flooring. The reason I Jeongjin was dumbfounded was that it was a gigantic, massive *living tree* that could accommodate dozens of people walking on it without issue.
In fact, the massive tree they stood on was merely a tiny branch growing from a tree several kilometers in diameter and tens of kilometers high—so tall it pierced the clouds.
“Did that old man Tolji cast an illusion on me again? Right? Hurry up and say yes!”
I Jeongjin raged about wildly.
“Now, calm down, my friend. I’m a bit busy. It’ll be big trouble if a low-ranking member is late while superiors start the meeting. Let’s talk again shortly.”
Verdo, who had been watching him with his mouth firmly shut to hold back laughter, snapped his fingers at one of the attendants who was staring with wide eyes as if observing a rare animal.
“What is this… k… ugh….”
I Jeongjin, who had been talking to Verdo, felt sudden mental fatigue wash over him.
“Huh? Huh? Lord Verdo? Is this Summoned really level thirty?”
He sank down, trying to hold onto his fading consciousness, and heard a neatly dressed woman behind him ask Verdo with a flustered face.
“Ah, he went through a period focusing on training resistance skills. He’ll definitely fall if we cast once more.”
“But no matter how strong skills are, this level difference….”
At Verdo’s words, the woman tilted her head and chanted again.
“You… bas….”
Sensing the magic formula rising in the woman’s hand and the mana swirling within, I Jeongjin lost consciousness before he could even curse.
As I Jeongjin fell asleep, two attendants lifted him for easy transport.
“Hurry. We’re not late yet, are we?”
Verdo watched I Jeongjin being moved elsewhere, then hurried inside the giant tree.
* * *
“Verdoooo!”
I Jeongjin woke up shouting.
“Uwaa!”
Coming to his senses, he heard someone beside him cry out in surprise and thought, *Oh no.*
*They said the Intercontinental Conference or whatever was happening. Which means….*
Relying on his Indestructible option and acting insolent, even he would be trampled underfoot by the sheer number of lofty powerhouses present!
The Indestructible option was released only if the Summoned initiated an attack against another person. Also, it didn’t work on dimensional beings other than humans, so he had faced many dangerous foes while fighting monsters in the Carbon territory.
*If they’re royalty, they have endless ways to torment me without physical pain. If I get on their bad side, I’ll suffer so much I’d be better off abandoning future training.*
Though I Jeongjin seemed to act recklessly, he was the type to calculate the angles he could push.
The moment he came to, he assessed where he was and who he was with.
*A dormitory?*
Looking around, I Jeongjin began to wonder if he had really entered a tree larger than a mountain before losing consciousness.
The room had gleaming, pure white marble-like walls with small windows. But it was wide enough to swing a sword.
Feeling something strange, he touched the wall.
“…Wood?”
Putting aside the scientific question of whether a tree could survive being hollowed out like this, the wall’s texture told him he was inside a tree.
“Are you awake?”
A man spoke to I Jeongjin, who was assessing the room’s structure.
“Ah. Hello.”
I Jeongjin greeted him with moderate courtesy.
“Sorry for shouting suddenly. I had a rather unpleasant experience.”
After a brief apology, I Jeongjin passed the man and approached the window on the outer wall.
“Wow~”
He couldn’t help whistling at the scenery outside.
“How many meters up are we?”
“W-well. It’s secondhand information, but I heard it’s over ten kilometers high.”
“Goodness…”
A man’s awkward laughter echoed through the room, as if harmonizing with the soft lament of I Jeongjin.
With an air far less anxious than when he had first regained consciousness, he casually picked up the drink on the table and poured it into a cup.
“Would you like a glass?”
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
“What’s there to thank me for? It’s not even mine.”
The man sitting on the bed across from I Jeongjin carefully moved the book he had been holding aside before receiving the cup.
“Hooo…”
A mysterious-tasting drink that delivered a refreshment so crisp it seemed to cool his mind down to its depths. I Jeongjin downed it as though it were hard liquor, exhaled heavily, and flung himself onto the bed where he had lain while unconscious.
“Aren’t the Ollokans really insidious? Keeping all this hidden.”
“Ah…”
“Hm? Don’t tell me you already knew?”
“No, we were very flustered too. But then again, I thought they had to be at least this much to survive without being destroyed by the dimensional race, so some of it actually made sense.”
I Jeongjin naturally badmouthed the Ollokans behind their backs. The man answered with a slightly flustered but understanding attitude.
And so it was. The man conversing with I Jeongjin was also a Summoned, just like him—that was why Jeongjin could maintain his reassured, laid-back attitude.
The status that appeared above the man to I Jeongjin was [Han Hyeongho (Lv 34, Indestructible)].
I Jeongjin sat perched on the bed, hunching forward as if sharing a secret. He quirked an eyebrow at Han Hyeongho, who was likewise hunched over in a tense posture across from him.
“Surely everything we say here is being monitored in real time too.”
“No way…”
“Shall we check?”
I Jeongjin immediately rose from his seat. He approached the table and drained the remaining juice.
Shaking the empty bottle in the air.
“I’m sorry. I drank all of this, but could you bring more? Or can we just go outside?”
…he said to the empty air in a quiet but clear voice.
“Ah. One moment! The time periods when you may go out and your range of movement are strictly limited.”
Han Hyeongho scrambled to his feet at the sudden outburst.
“Of course it would be. It bears the grandiose name of an Intercontinental Conference, after all. That’s exactly why I’m asking, isn’t it?”
I Jeongjin shrugged with an attitude that said, *Is there a problem?*
Han Hyeongho felt his head begin to throb at the fact that less than five minutes had passed since the man had regained consciousness, and he opened his mouth.
“That’s why I’m here to tell you that—”
*Click.*
Just then, as if cutting off Han Hyeongho’s words, the door opened and a figure entered.
A woman in elegant ceremonial dress quietly approached them, handed a juice to I Jeongjin, then bowed her head in silence. She then backed out of the room.
*Click.*
Upon hearing the door close again, Han Hyeongho let out a deep sigh and slumped into a chair.
Wearing an expression that said *See?* I Jeongjin took out another empty cup, poured some juice, and handed it to Han Hyeongho.
“A status window may float above, but I haven’t introduced myself yet. I’m I Jeongjin. Twenty-five by Earth reckoning. Pleased to meet you.”
Han Hyeongho lightly wet his lips, then accepted the handshake I Jeongjin extended.
“Ah… I’m Han Hyeongho. By Earth reckoning… Wait, twenty-five? You crazy bastard!”
And he shouted before he could even finish his sentence.
Han Hyeongho was twenty-eight years old.
* * *
I Jeongjin spoke as he opened his fourth bottle of fruit wine hidden in his inventory.
“Come on, we’re in a situation where we don’t even age during the training period. No point fussing over age.”
“You’re the one who brought it up, you crazy bastard!”
Han Hyeongho had also stocked simple snacks in his inventory, so he brought out food that went well with the fruit wine and was drinking with it as an accompaniment.
“Hyung, you said you were summoned to the Bordeaux Empire’s imperial palace? How was it there?”
It had been two hours since they had regained consciousness. Perhaps because of the camaraderie of being fellow outsiders, or perhaps thanks to the alcohol, I Jeongjin and Han Hyeongho quickly grew close as they aired their grievances about what they had experienced.
“Don’t even get me started.”
When asked about the Bordeaux Empire, Han Hyeongho waved his hand with an expression of utter disgust.
“The training you went through in the Carbon Territory was also crazy enough, but the Bordeaux Empire is worse. That place is just crawling with machos.”
He picked up some meat and recalled the past with a distant expression.
Powerhouses who appeared like comets after the New Era.
Transcendents who possessed talent and charisma shining brighter than anyone else, overcoming an era of chaos.
Bordeaux, Heram, Jjewelrin.
For personal tempering, for the world’s stability, or for the lives of complete strangers, they carried out heroic adventures spanning decades. And when their journeys finally ended, each became emperor of a mighty empire without precedent or equal in human history.
I Jeongjin had also been able to examine their life stories in detail through historical records.
If even half of what appeared in the history books were true, they were protagonists of adventures easily worth ten blockbuster action-fantasy films.
And the Bordeaux Empire, to which Han Hyeongho had been summoned, was the empire swarming with the most battle-crazed humans among the three empires.
Spoken of kindly, it was the Macho Empire.
Honestly appraised, it was the continent’s top exporter of talent.
In the Bordeaux Empire, whether one was a warrior or a mage, the moment one was identified as one of the Blessed, they would immediately grind themselves half-dead over and over to raise their levels.
Without distinguishing between noble, royal, or commoner. Upon turning fifteen and completing the coming-of-age ceremony, they were unconditionally led to the Imperial Knights and underwent five years of forced education called the “Period of Reform.”
The effects were certain, but after the education ended, quite a few Blessed harbored resentment toward the Bordeaux Empire and applied for asylum to other kingdoms or empires.
“If you endure, you’re unconditionally the strongest among the three empires! But if you can’t endure, you have to leave!”
*Clang!* Han Hyeongho slammed his cup down roughly and shouted.
Yet, for all that it called itself an empire, a certain system was in place.
The higher-ups were all training fanatics mad for skills and leveling up, one and all, so those who handled the paperwork were entirely Unblessed.
Therefore, from the commoner’s perspective, the Bordeaux Empire was also a land of opportunity where Unblessed with moderate ambition and above-average intelligence could easily rise to high positions.
That was the extent of the Bordeaux Empire’s image as known to I Jeongjin through books.
“Land of opportunity, my ass!”
Having listened to I Jeongjin’s explanation, Han Hyeongho slammed his cup down on the table again.
It was said that when Han Hyeongho was first summoned to the Bordeaux Empire, there had been sixteen thousand Summoned.
On the first day of being summoned, all the Summoned throughout the Bordeaux Empire were said to have gathered in an imperial training ground ten times larger than an Olympic stadium.
Surrounded by knights who had reached levels in the hundreds and thousands of soldiers, everyone trembling in fear, someone ascended the podium and informed them of basic information.
“Everything up to that point was fine. Earth, the dimensional race… many didn’t believe it, but when sword ki was fired right in front of us and magic was blasted about… And you know that? Parchment. Seeing it made me somehow believe for sure that all of this was real.”
Just as the atmosphere was slowly loosening, a man entered the training ground.
A man who was simply strong. A man radiating such a suffocating presence that an Unblessed, unable to overcome the pressure of his gaze, would sooner resolve to die—the Emperor of the Bordeaux Empire had appeared.
In a silence so profound that even the wind seemed too afraid to move, the Emperor opened his mouth.
“Do not waste this Emperor’s time. Run, you vermin.”
Those were the first words the Emperor spoke to them, and on the first day alone, over two thousand education dropouts occurred.
“It was hell…”
His face flushed red from drunkenness, Han Hyeongho hung his head deeply.
Following the Emperor’s command, those in charge of their education did not give the Summoned any quarter.
The Earthlings protested.
“If you train so savagely, your joints will be ruined!”
The native Bordeaux macho men who had researched the 400-year-old “Blessed-exclusive” training methods did not budge an inch.
“It seems Earthlings are all just weaklings.”
The Earthlings did not give up and tried to persuade them.
“Re… rest! Muscles need proper rest to recover…”
Even priests came forward to mock the Earthlings.
“Taking two whole days for muscle recovery? Earthlings are all just weaklings.”
The Earthlings did not give up…
“This is the science of our world!”
The mages, who had been hovering out of curiosity, mocked them.
“A combat mount worth hundreds of billions, reduced to scrap metal by a single basic Lightning Shock? You ride around on those things? Honestly…”
The Earthlings…
“This is precisely a nuclear exp—!”
Even the Emperor, unable to bear it any longer, stepped in.
“To think you can only produce that level of destructive force by borrowing a weapon’s power… Truly weak, weak fellows. That level of fireworks is something over fifty people in our Bordeaux Empire can reproduce with their bare bodies. Stop complaining, vermin.”
And so followed training upon training, hellish ultra-hard training.
Finally, when one month had passed, the number of Summoned in the Bordeaux Empire was halved, dropping below the eight-thousand mark.
The empire’s macho men thought then:
*Earthlings… Could it be that they have less grit than the Ollokans?*