Chapter 137:
After much deliberation, the archbishop ended up awarding me with the top ranked relic.
He was crying tears of blood handing it to me seemingly desperate to be unseparated from it……
However, his desperation to achieve victory in the holy war won over and he ended up handing the relic over quite quickly.
I only received two items so I was a bit let down, but I took that sentiment back after I looked them over with the Fire Dragon’s eyes.
After all…..
「Seal of Tribute」
「Rank : SS-」
「A black seal bestowed upon the archbishop that sacrificed everything to the god of dark.」
「Once the seal is stamped on the back of the hand, the exclusive effect ‘Tribute’ can be applied.」
「When the exclusive effect is applied on the back of the hand, the item will be instilled inside the seal on the hand and disappear.」
「……However, the item will disappear once the challenger Han SungYeun leaves the 15th floor’s trial area.」
「The Night Veil that Devours Fire」
「Rank : SS-」
「The gods veil that swallowed up the fire of the beginning into the darkness.」
「When the possessor dies, the ‘Night Veil’ will activate.」
「When the exclusive effect ‘Night Veil’ activates, the possessor’s divine powers are exhausted to revive the possessor.」
「When the exclusive effect ‘Night Veil’ activates, the possessor will enter a state of ‘Discipleship’.」
「When the exclusive effect ‘Night Veil’ activates, after the revival, the item will disappear.」
「……However, the item will disappear once the challenger Han SungYeun leaves the 15th floor’s trial area.」
The unsightly black seal and simple black handkerchief were beyond my imagination.
‘What the…….’
Looking at the relics’ hidden descriptions through the Fire Dragon’s eyes, it looked like these items could not leave the 15th floor……
But these SS- ranked items have never been seen before.
Furthermore, the night veil had a similar effect as the ’Last Stand’.
Revival effect.
Although it’s different from the last stand which nullifies the critical attack…..
It was a huge merit to be able to revive from death using the divine powers.
After all, I still had a few more days of cooldown to use the last stand due to the battle with Nam GungHyuk.
‘Even if it’s limited to the 15th floor, it’s a good item.’
As long as weak opponents continued to come until the end of this floors’ trial, I would have no use for it.
However, in the case of unprecedented events, it’d be best to have it just in case.
“…..I-it’s the finest relics of our church. Please take care of it.”
I quickly stored the relics that the archbishop handed out with trembling hands.
Once I put away the relics in the dimensional pocket, the archbishop let out a deep sigh.
“….phew. The holy war has only begun. I hope that you’ll properly fight with what you’ve received.”
“I’ll do my best. Don’t worry.”
“……If you run away, the god of dark will punish you. Remember it.”
“Of course, how can a mere human run away after receiving the relics?”
Half of it was truth and half of it was a lie.
I will not run away since I’ve received the relics, and since it’s a world inside the trial, there is nowhere to run either…..
But I did not believe that nonsense about the god punishing me.
After all,
Even the god of battle that opposed me could only manage to send me a few messages.
‘Even if it’s possible to oppose me by using other challengers, it’s difficult for the god to personally curse me.’
Under the protection of the tower, even a god-like entity could not touch me.
“Then I will take my leave.”
I spoke while standing up from the chair.
“……. understood. Unnamed, I hope you can get rest until the next battle.”
The archbishop bid farewell with a grim face.
Although I knew that they were an existence created by the tower, I felt pity.
Well, it’s not like I felt bad enough to return the relics.
Since I definitely deserved such relics after managing to defeat over a thousand enemies.
And I planned on continuing to perform as such in this holy war.
‘And I doubt that this 15th trial will end smoothly….’
I had no reason to not have these relics as a type of insurance.
After all, the towers always bestow trials that are difficult to clear.
Once I exited the tent, the mercenary I saw a few times approached me.
“Ah, Mr. Swordsman! Did you have a good talk with the archbishop?”
It was Reinel Asir.
I smiled while looking at her to speak.
“You looked so determined when you told me that you’d buy me drinks if we survived, and yet you don’t have a single injury on you.”
“Ahaha…. I got lucky and now I’m on the bodyguard duty for the archbishop.”
Reinel spoke while laughing and I stopped my laughs to bring up the main topic.
“Anyways, you seemed like you were waiting for me. Did you want to talk to me about something?”
“Ah….. uh, hm. You know, as I mentioned before… I wanted to buy you a drink…..”
“Thanks for the sentiment, but I’ll have to decline.”
I immediately declined the offer she brought out hesitantly.
I did not drink often.
Nor did I plan on drinking.
I avoided anything that will affect the body negatively whether it be alcohol or cigarettes.
It was one of the habits that formed while trying to become a hunter for 7 years.
‘And my body no longer resembles a normal human.’
If an alcohol I could get drunk off of existed in this world, that could easily be called a fatal poison.
But, Reinel who did not know that became sad.
“Ah, I’m sorry….. I was rude. Please forget about it.”
I thought about clearing up the misunderstanding, but decided that it was unnecessary.
After clearing the special assignment, through Reinel’s existence, the command system got established, and the fighting spirits of the allied forces doubled.
‘It’s best to draw the line here.’
It was not good to give too much emotion to a being created by the tower either.
“Then I will take my leave.”
I politely told Reinel and returned back to my personal tent.
Since my treatment from the allies wasn’t great, instead of surveying the surroundings, it was better to prepare for the upcoming battle.
‘It’s the perfect opportunity to organize the items I got from the UK hunters association.’
I smiled with the dimensional pocket on my hand.
“Now I can finally calculate my earnings.”
It was time to go through my rewards.
»————- ★ ————-«
There were a lot of items inside the dimensional pocket.
From multiple rare items from the tower.
To skill proficiency potions and random skills books.
‘I sure got a lot.’
I felt a prick on my conscience as I got them from saying that they were meant to be offerings to a god, but I felt very little guilt.
After all, I did more for the UK hunters association than what I received.
I prevented the death of countless challengers and subjugated an ambusher that tried to destroy the entirety of England.
If I didn’t manage to kill Seindal in London, England as we know it might’ve been erased from the map.
Therefore, this much reward was appropriate.
‘Looks like everything from earth is out now.’
After displaying all the items from the UK hunters association on the table, I got light headed.
From shining gems, multiple weapons, and countless consumables that are difficult to get.
However, most items were useless and low ranked.
To the point it deserved to be thrown on the side of the road.
Of course, that was to my standards and it could actually be useful to other challengers….
What was certain was that none of these could be used in an actual battle for me.
Not considering the skill proficiency potions and random skills book.
“…..These additional rewards aren’t great either.”
But luckily, I managed to acquire a skill that could help me get rid of these useless items.
Munch!
「Activating skill ‘Steel Eat’.」
Among the items on the desk, I chose a sky blue colored wand and bit on it like a cookie.
Besides the fact that I have high stats, for some reason, the moment the wand went inside my mouth, it crumbled as if it was disintegrating.
‘This is rather nice.’
Well, other than the fact that the texture became nice, it had absolutely no flavor whatsoever……
To be honest, I expected that it would’ve tasted like metal.
So I considered this to be another positives of this skill.
「You’ve consumed the item ‘Steel Cloud Staff’.」
「<00:09:59> Until complete consumption.」</00:09:59>
A message appeared once I finished swallowing the last of the wand.
‘So this is what it meant by after a certain period of time’.
The effect did not immediately appear but rather after a certain waiting time.
I knew about it since I’ve read the effects, but it was bothersome to have a waiting period.
「Consumption completed.」
「+ 1 on mana stats.」
However, that thought immediately vanished at the message that popped up after 10 minutes.
“……it raised it by this much?”
The stats that reached a three digit number no longer increased regardless of how much souls i’ve consumed.
But with a single item, the stats were raised by an entire number.
‘What kind of crazy skill is this?’
I felt joy at that and swallowed the jade colored gem.
「You’ve consumed the item ‘Celestial Steel Jewel’.」
「<00:09:59> Until complete consumption.」</00:09:59>
And
「Consumption completed.」
「Your constitution is changed from consuming steel.」
「Expelling 0.8% of toxic energy within the body.」
And with the following message, I felt a foreign object on my throat.
“Cough, Cough!”
After coughing out with a hand over my mouth, a black thick liquid covered the palm of my hand.
“And what is this…….”
Toxic energy?
I seem to have expelled an unexplainable substance, but my body felt lighter than before.
I was still clueless as to what this toxic energy was and what this black liquid was….
But one thing was for certain.
‘…..It said that my constitution will be changed, so it must be improving somehow.’
This change of constitution would not harm me.
I continued on to consume a few more useless metal items from the desk.
After eating about 8 or so more items, a new message popped up.
「You’ve consumed more than 8 steel items.」
「You can no longer have a waiting period for the item consumption.」
「<01:19:47> Until complete consumption.」</01:19:47>
It seemed that there was a limit to how many items you could consume at a time.
Of course, this was nothing compared to the benefits the skills brought.
‘At this point, it’d be weirder to be able to exchange the consumed items into a waiting period.’
Following this, I took out the relics from the dimensional pocket.
I had nothing to concern myself over the The Night Veil that Devours Fire since it will naturally activate at my death.
But the Seal of Tribute was a different story.
This item could apply an exclusive effect called ‘Tribute’.
And after the seal applied through the exclusive effect, the item would imbue itself to the seal and disappear.
To summarize, it could be an item that can leave the 15th floor.
‘It definitely has a value.’
Once I pressed the black seal looking relic on the top of my left hand, a message popped out.
「The exclusive effect of item ‘Seal of Tribute(SS-)’, ‘Tribute’ is sealed on your hand.」
「The item will disappear after being absorbed by the seal on the hand.」
Drip.
The black seal disintegrated as if it was melting and a black seal appeared on the back of my hand.
A seal made up of very tiny words forming into a wolf.
I was still unsure of what ability this item had and what changes it would bring forth.
However, one thing was certain from the messages.
「The seal on the hand will never disappear.」
That I reaped something better than I expected from this 15th trial.
[To be continued.]
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