◈ Episode 376. The Picture I Drew (2)
They said it had been a grievous injury.
“Are you truly, truly all right?”
Apparently, I had been walking endlessly with blood streaming from my side… Well, no wonder I’d lost consciousness and collapsed. Even as I thought that, I recalled the effect of [Blessing of the First World Tree]. ‘No matter how serious the injury.’ Once the battle ended, it shouldn’t have taken long to recover.
Should I look back through my memories?
Let’s recall the past, when I consumed two elixirs at once. ‘Back then, truly…’ I fainted from the extreme pain.
I even dropped my teacup.
I must have been half-soaked in the Yellow Springs. ‘It didn’t take long for me to come to.’ No need to look far. Even now was the same. Not even a few hours had passed since I returned to the Iron Castle, yet my injuries had already healed cleanly.
That was why I was puzzled.
Why had I been walking while bleeding? ‘Did the Blessing of the First World Tree not activate?’ If not, there would have been no reason for me to walk while shedding blood.
Know yourself and know your enemy—this was something I needed to confirm for certain. [I Alone Am Supreme Under Heaven and Earth]
Whether the problem was this, or [Blackening],
I couldn’t tell. But I felt I had to know precisely in order to prevent any mishaps.
Concealing my thoughts, I answered.
“As you can see, I am the same as ever.”
Swoosh.
Soon, my gaze turned toward the blood-soaked Dawn jacket. ‘……Even in this situation, I still have lingering attachment to my attire.’ In any case, was this fortunate?
The Iron Castle was in high spirits.
I had eyes, so I could guess why.
I could see in real time that the gazes directed at me were shifting from concern to relief.
I muttered inwardly. ‘I’m the one who’s still frightened out of his wits, though.’ This time, too, it was Nam Taemin’s voice that had awakened me.
Grandfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo…!
Before he could recite that full name, I hurriedly came to my senses, draped my jacket over my shoulders, and left the cabin. Of course, I said nothing of the specific circumstances and spoke instead.
“May I hear the mission report?”
Since they’d already seen me unconscious anyway.
My memory was hazy, so what had happened?
I could have simply said I couldn’t remember… ‘Judging by that mouth that can’t be honest, looks like you’ve completely recovered.’ My damned pride was still remarkable.
The one saving grace was that the Holy War Alliance was used to Grandfell’s way of speaking.
First, Hisagi opened his mouth.
“A world message appeared. It said that a ray of light within the endlessly deep darkness had grown faint. Thanks to that, we surmised that something had happened to you, Commander-in-Chief. We immediately set out to find you.” ……
Starting off by making me flinch, huh. ‘As if putting up my full name weren’t enough, what, what did it say?’ Now even my epithets are being displayed as world messages?!
I was briefly incensed at that devilish Raymon Sean.
Then the specific situation followed.
“As you know, the Arcana Continent was shrouded in thick darkness, Commander-in-Chief. The permanent rift leading to the Demon Realm, [Behemoth’s Maw],
was no exception.”
Walsweil stroked his beard and let out a low groan. Both his hands, which should have been treated as more precious than a thousand pieces of gold, were wrapped in bandages. He must have been injured at a place called [Behemoth’s Maw].
‘For some reason, even hearing about it doesn’t jog my memory.’ It seemed the cause was that [I Alone Am Supreme Under Heaven and Earth]
had activated after I fainted.
And because of that, the status abnormality [Blackening]
had activated. Thanks to it, the film of my memories must have cut off at the battle against Wrath, one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
As if I had fallen into a deep sleep.
I needed to retrace what Grandfell had done during the moments when I, Lee Hoyeol’s, consciousness had been submerged in darkness. Maintaining my shameless composure, I continued.
“I would like to hear your honest impressions.”
And I was appalled. ‘……I really did something like that?’
I could guess that I had hunted down Wrath of the Seven Deadly Sins.
The place where I came to my senses was Behemoth’s Maw, after all. Grandfell of all people would never have moved elsewhere while leaving behind the prey that was a great evil.
But.
“Discus. He was a lich of the Demon Realm, an undead monster.”
They said I had hunted a boss-level monster that had leapt out of the Demon Realm.
What followed was even more shocking.
Discus was no ordinary boss monster.
Chainwalker adjusted his gear.
“He was certainly worthy of being called the king of corpses! This adamantium armor was damaged, after all. Had we clashed with him properly, we alone could not have guaranteed victory, Commander-in-Chief.”
Dwarven arms.
Their performance was widely renowned across the Arcana Continent. If the dwarves had a hand in it, [Unique] grade was the baseline, and [Epic]
grade equipment items were not at all uncommon.
The combat power of dwarves who went to battle wearing the equipment they themselves had crafted? A blacksmith couldn’t exactly be called a combat class, but if one considered the gear advantage, they should at least be just below the seniors of the Magic Tower. ‘And if you add the Iron Castle’s forces, you could say they’re on the level of the Magic Tower.’ Yet they still couldn’t be confident of victory.
I, Lee Hoyeol, specialize in knowing my place.
Of course, even if I had joined them,
I probably wouldn’t have been able to take down that Discus fellow easily. ‘He wasn’t even a demon, either.’
Why had the Demon Hunter been treated as a trash class? Because the targets that triggered [Natural Enemy]
were extremely limited.
Demons and undead.
They might look similar, but before an undead, [Natural Enemy]
does not activate. A dwarf named Gunner, who had supposedly watched the entire situation as a dwarven pilot, cautiously opened his mouth.
“This may be rude to you, Commander-in-Chief, but… when I witnessed that sight, I thought of you, Commander-in-Chief, as a calamity. But I had no choice. To think you buried that lich of the Demon Realm in darkness without lifting a finger!”
It seemed I had disposed of that Discus without difficulty.
There were this many witnesses, and yet…
It didn’t feel real, so I checked my status window.
Raymon Sean might be hell-bent on screwing me over,
but the system itself did not lie.
First, I checked my level. ‘Let’s see, then…’ Had I risen by roughly around 100 levels?
The ones I’d hunted were Wrath of the Seven Deadly Sins and Discus, a lich of the Demon Realm.
Arcana’s level-up had an upper limit of 50 levels. In other words, no matter how much experience they gave, 50 levels each, for a total of 100, was the limit.
[Level: 826]
That was my level after sending the fallen Yunaxus to hell.
If 100 levels had been added to that, it should clearly have been level 926, but…
[Name: Grandfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo]
[Level: 976]
[Available Points: 150]
I flinched after seeing even the available points.
I had risen a full 50 levels higher than expected.
Between Arcana’s levels, there are invisible walls. Those walls exist at every 100-level interval, and every time one crosses an interval, the amount of required experience to level up increases drastically.
The 900-level range.
It meant that, boss raids aside, one could not easily gain experience through ordinary hunting.
Then the story became simple.
Wrath of the Seven Deadly Sins.
And in the interval between burying the lich, Discus, in darkness.
I had defeated “something” no less formidable than those two.
Who was that fellow?
It wasn’t that hard to guess. It seemed everyone had heard something. Chainwalker nodded at Gunner’s words, then added.
“However, it seems it is not yet time to be at ease. That king of corpses was clearly chasing after a Demon King. Yes. I mean Buer, Demon King of the Ten Thrones.”
Buer.
—Welcome. To your stepping into the realm of the Heaven Beyond Heaven (天外天).
If it was Buer, an upper-ranking Demon King, he was no doubt worth more experience than Wrath, one of the great evils of the Seven Deadly Sins, as well as Discus, the lich of the Demon Realm—certainly not less. But… ‘I defeated that?’
I simply couldn’t believe it.
It had only been a short while ago
that I had acknowledged the upper-ranking Demon Kings as true kings, as beings beyond heaven itself. ‘……Even if it was Grandfell.’
I couldn’t believe that he had eliminated Wrath of the Seven Deadly Sins, defeated the upper-ranking Demon King Buer, and then buried Discus—who possessed enough power to challenge Buer—in darkness one after another. ‘Proof. I need proof.’
Thanks to that, I naturally opened my inventory.
And then I witnessed it.
The spoils of the Seven Deadly Sins.
The set item, [Neutral Parasitic Organism] set.
Following Envy and Lust.
[Neutral Parasitic Organism Wrath 3/7]
An item that appeared to have been dropped by Wrath.
I decided to check its effects next time…
And examined the next spoil.
As expected, one item I didn’t recognize caught my eye.
[Scripture of the Demon Realm: True Necronomicon]
An unidentified leather cover.
Blood-red jewels adorning its exterior.
Even bands wrapped around it like chains.
At a glance, it had the appearance of something a lich would carry around. I could guess. It must be Discus’s spoil. If it was a book, was it a skill book? I grew curious, but decided to examine its effects later as well.
Then I shifted my gaze. ‘……It’s not there.’
The spoils ended with that.
Buer was, strictly speaking, a Demon King.
And an upper-ranking Demon King, even if he was at the lowest seat.
He should definitely have dropped a Demon King’s spoil.
Yet no matter how thoroughly I searched my inventory, that spoil was nowhere to be found.
I revisited my speculation. ‘Could it be that the one I hunted wasn’t Buer?’
Was it simply that the Arcana Continent was vast, and the Demon Realm was no less vast?
Had I defeated yet another demon whose identity I did not know, one equal to him?
It was the moment I thought that.
“……!”
I ended up witnessing it in my status window.
Proof that I,
and no one else,
had defeated Buer.
But that proof was not ordinary.
[Title: Master of the Ten Thrones]
Wait, if I’m the Master of the Ten Thrones…
That means I’m the king, doesn’t it?
Don’t tell me I took Buer’s throne?!
*
There was bound to be a subtle war of nerves between each branch. Even if they aimed for world peace, in the end, it was work done by people. It could not help but be entangled with the gains and losses of their own homelands.
At the AAU General Assembly.
“I had no idea ties were this suffocating, sunbae.”
Rustle.
Seong Hyeonjun fidgeted with his tie this way and that as he whispered to Yun Sugyeom beside him.
He had spoken to relieve his nerves.
Unfortunately, Yun Sugyeom did not hear him.
“……I feel sick.”
The indescribable player, Lee Hoyeol.
And thanks to his brilliant performance in the Yunaxus raid,
Nam Taemin had taken first place in Arcana’s official rankings.
The homeland of those two players: the Republic of Korea.
The influence of the AAU’s Korean branch had no choice but to surge accordingly. One could tell simply from the fact that, for the first time in history, the AAU General Assembly was being held in Seoul.
Yun Sugyeom calmed his stomach and took the sight in.
“It’s on a completely different level from seeing it on a monitor. I had no idea it would be this magnificent.”
The scenery of the Magic Tower’s Crystal Hall.
All executives and staff of the AAU from every branch attended the General Assembly.
In that sense, the Magic Tower was a place that could not have been more suitable. Not only was it spacious, but portals could offset even geographical issues. However, no one had imagined it.
The idea of daring to use the Magic Tower as the venue for the General Assembly, that is.
“Sunbae, look over there!”
“……Hm?”
“Over there, Branch Manager Park!”
Point.
At the place Seong Hyeonjun’s finger indicated stood Park Minjae.
More precisely, there was Marcelo, the new Tower Master of the Magic Tower.
And Park Minjae, bowing his head to him again and again.
Yun Sugyeom assessed the situation honestly.
“Somehow, the new Tower Master looks extremely burdened.”
It went without saying, but Marcelo was not shameless like “someone.”
It meant he knew how to feel awkward about excessive treatment.
Seong Hyeonjun grinned at his superior’s new appearance.
“Branch Manager Park isn’t flattering him. He’s probably bowing his head like a roly-poly toy because he’s genuinely happy, right? To think the AAU General Assembly is being held at the Magic Tower of all places. You saw it earlier too, didn’t you? How much his shoulders were squared among the branch managers…!”
The timing was appropriate.
With Marcelo elected as the new Tower Master, the Magic Tower had begun a more active opening.
Hoyeol’s influence, as one who valued [“Anomaly”],
played a great role in that course of action. The Magic Tower’s [“Regular Conference”] and the AAU’s [General Assembly]. There was ample possibility of reaching a new result.
Seong Hyeonjun checked his watch and whispered.
“It’ll start soon.”
Why Thursday?
The reason was simple.
A meeting required an agenda.
Thursday’s regular update was no different from an excellent stage to test the performance of the new [“Anomaly”]. That was also why Yun Sugyeom was nervous.
“I’ve definitely brought the materials…”
At the very least, so that the Magic Tower would not be disappointed.
They had to produce plausible results.
Because he knew that fact.
However, unfortunately.
“……!”
Tap.
At last, when the regular update details appeared, Yun Sugyeom’s fingers froze. No, it wasn’t only Yun Sugyeom. Every member of the AAU, of course. Even the face of the Tower Master, Marcelo, hardened. Park Minjae quietly ground his teeth.
──────
A new incident comes to your side.
──────
“Raymon Sean, this bastard really…”
──────
[A new large-scale event, “Demon King Contest: Proof of the Ten Thrones,” begins.]
[Upper-ranking Demon Kings and new challengers appear.]
[From now on, “Behemoth’s Maw” will no longer attack demon-type monsters.]
…….
──────
*
I stared at the messages rising before me.
[Will you challenge?]
[Will you prove yourself?]
[The choice rests solely with you, the king.]
……
It seemed like you had gotten something seriously wrong.
What were you thinking,
making me participate in a Demon King contest?
I summarized the situation in a single word.
“Checkmate.”
“Ch-checkmate……?”
Damn it, I went and overlooked the ears listening…!