Chapter 141:
「‘Revival’ achievement unlocked.」
「+4 on every stat.」
「 ‘Adversary’ achievement unlocked.」
「+4 on every stat.」
Every stat got raised from winning the battle…….
「Sky Breaking Sword has broken an unbreakable thing to rank up into A+(8,700/10,000).」
Furthermore, after killing the god of battle under <advent>, the Sky Breaking Sword has reached the point of just before a rank up.
If I were to combine everything including the rewards of trial clear rewards, the gains would be immeasurable.
However, on a separate matter, the state of Blood Demon Sword was not good.</advent>
「Every skill of True Blood Demon Sword’s Soul Ego are deactivated.」
「The durability of True Blood Demon Sword is decreased by 9.4%.」
With cracks on multiple places of the sword, Damn Cheonwoo let out a groan.
[ ……Are you okay? ]
At that, an immediate response followed.
―……Damn it, Does this one look like it’s in its prime? Telling this one to face a god under <advent> right after waking up….. Tis was luck that it was an incomplete <advent>, if not for that, we both would’ve faced death.
[ ……. ]
―……We hath survived somehow, but this one can’t fight off the tiredness. We shall continue this later on. Until then, this great one shan’t help you.
[I understand. ]
―And this great one will have to be the one to talk to you about the reason for this fight with…… a god…..
Soon after, the voice of Dam Cheonwoo flickered like a candlelight by a breeze to disappear completely.
There were more things that I wanted to ask him, but they seemed quite tired from this battle.
‘……I suppose it can’t be helped, I’ll have to wait until they’re awake later.’
Dam Cheonwoo has previously mentioned that it’s difficult to maintain his consciousness so conversations never lasted very long.
It was disheartening that his condition became worse.
‘It seems like he knew a lot about different things, I wish I could’ve asked him more things while I could.’
Perhaps because Dam Cheonwoo managed to reach the higher levels of the tower, they seemed to know a lot about gods.
So with all these questions I had, having lost the person to question was disheartening.
Of course, that didn’t mean that there was a definitive solution so it was better to pay attention elsewhere.
‘God of battle.’
I approached the body of Gerhan that fell to the ground.
I neared it with the hope that there would be a spirit left by the god of battle…..
But once I got close to the body that was split in half, an inconceivable scenery appeared before me.
[ Damn…… it all……. Just…… How? ]
The god of battle was still under <advent>.
‘Hm? I thought that the <advent> would’ve been dispelled since I got the cleared trial message.’
I got taken aback momentarily, but understood the situation by observing the state of the body.
‘Ah, with this, even <advent> can’t do much.’
The god of battle meaninglessly kept the <advent> activated to stare at me.
With no way of harming me, it was harmless to declare it as trial completion.
Since the requirements of trial completion was to lead the holy war into victory, making the god unable to resurge meant that the trials of the 15th floor were cleared.
I said while looking down on the god of battle.
[ Is there something else you can do by continuing to sacrifice that divine power of yours to the tower? ]
[ ……Ha, I pre-paid it in advance. Even if I wanted to cancel out of <advent>, I can’t. ]
[ Now that’s a good news. ]
[ ……I will make sure that I will kill you. Do not think that this is the last you’ll see of me. I will make you regret that a dog of the tower like you dared to covet for divine power. ]
[ ……. ]
At this rate, I was honestly over the obsession.
Just what was that divine power for this god to declare me as nemesis.…….
However, this question did get a bit of clarification.
I found out through the state of discipleship.
The ones that gain divine powers without a trace of god are given the opportunity to reach the state of divinity.
This was something I realized instinctively after reaching a state of discipleship.
‘Perhaps the god of battle does not want another divine entity to be born.’
It’s a bit lacking in a logical sense, but with everything I found out at this point, that was my theory.
[ Next time… I will ensure to kill……. ]
But now, it did not matter why the god of battle sought to attack me.
They thought of me as an enemy, descended under <advent>, but I faced them as an opponent to win.
That was plenty.
[ Swallow it. ]
After using the divinity <dark> through manipulating nature, the ground soon turned black.</dark></advent></advent></advent></advent></advent></advent></advent></advent>
「Using divinity <dark>.」
「The darkness is swallowing up the specified target.」</dark>
[ ─! ]
The god of battle attempted to scream through the <advent>……….
But before they could, the darkness that covered the ground swallowed up their head faster than they could utter a sound.
Soon after, Gerhan’s body lost strength and was followed with a dark smoke.</advent>
「 You have absorbed the soul of the Reserve Disciple ‘Gerhan Nevia’.」
「Proficiency increased by 7.7%」
It was the mark of necromancy.
‘……As I thought, there’s no soul for the god of battle.’
The only soul that can be absorbed would be Gerhans’.
And it’s not like the god of battle died either so it was obvious that their soul can’t be absorbed……
I couldn’t help but be let down by that.
But that sentiment soon disappeared with the message that followed.
「By absorbing the soul of a stronger soul than the user, the judgment for Divinity Extraction will start.」
It was a message for Divinity Extraction.
Of course, Gerhan Nevia alone would never be a tough opponent for me…..
「Judgment success.」
Well, I figured that the divinity extraction was not based solely on battle prowess so I was not surprised by the results.
「Existence of power confirmed in the soul of Reserve Disciple ‘Gerhan Nevia’.」
「Extracting power from the soul.」
But I still couldn’t help but feel excited over it.
Since Gerhan was a favorite of god of battle, they ought to have multiple powers that would be useful.
And the extracted powers did not let me down.
「The power ‘Flash Step (B+)’ is being engraved on the soul of user Han Sungyeun.」
The ability of Flash Step was simple.
「Activating the power ‘Flash Step’.」
「There will be a 10 minute cool down on the power.」
「By using divine power, you can immediately teleport to a location within your sight.」
It was a short distance teleporter.
Honestly, there was nothing else to observe with its simple usage method…..
But because I was still in the state of discipleship, with a higher understanding of powers, I could understand the nature of this power.
‘……This is not traveling between spaces, but rather a speed movement.’
If i was not careful and attempted to use it rashly, I’d end up getting hit by a wall.
Well, as long as I use it in an open field, it should work the same as teleporting so I wouldn’t have much to worry about.
After getting an insight of Flash step, a message appeared at the corner of my sight.
「The god of Dark is scoffing at a stupid god that used up most of their divine powers.」
「the god of proof is mocking the god of battle for being mindless.」
It was the message of the two gods that I’ve seen before.
[ ……. ]
Both of them were making fun of the god of battle, but it did not feel satisfying as I did not know their intentions.
The god of battle attempted to kill me just because I had divine power.
Then depending on the situation, these two gods could also change and turn to kill me as well.
‘I need to be wary of gods.’
Until I can find out their exact intention, I didn’t plan on blindly trusting them.
「Tower of Trials is punishing the god of battle that went against the rules with a ‘Advent Prohibition and Chatting Prohibition’.」
Among all the unfortunates, the fortunate was that the tower of trials has punished the god of battle.
Seemingly with more rules other than needing to spend divine powers, the god of battle was prohibited from descending and chatting.
At least for a good while, I won’t have to worry about the god of battle interfering.
「State of Discipleship ending in <00:00:00>.」</00:00:00>
With the remaining time decreasing, the time for dispelling the state of discipleship approached.
「Time is up.」
「Dispelling the State of Discipleship.」
「Divine keywords <death>, <dark>, and <immortality> are disappearing.」</immortality></dark></death>
“Ah…….”
The darkness surrounding the body melted away like snow and the radiant divinity disappeared.
To tell the truth, it was hard to let go of them, but it would’ve never been given to me under normal circumstances.
‘I just have to grow stronger to reach a state high enough to use them again.’
After consoling myself, I was about to use the portal that appeared after the trial completion.
I could sense an army of people approaching from my surroundings.
Without a moment of delay, I could see the identity of the presences.
“How, how could this be?! Did we truly get the savior of the church of dark….?!”
Church of Dark.
With the priest serving the god of dark as a lead, the group of spirit priests appeared again.
With an enormous number.
That’s when I realized that the church of dark did not run away.
‘……They must’ve chased after the cult of battle members that ran away and replenished the numbers.’
They most likely assumed that in order to affect the battle with a transcendent entity, more fighters would be needed.
It was rather strategic, but it was useless by the battle being cut short.
And with the portal out, I had no intentions on getting involved anymore than what I have.
But…….
“Oooh! Disciple of the dark lord…..! Why have you forsaken us until now?!”
The archbishop Keinel that I’ve previously met appeared to kneel.
With drops of tears streaming down their face.
‘What….?’
To be honest, I had no idea why they thought that I was a disciple serving the god of dark.
But perhaps I was alone in that sentiment, as other priests and mercenaries started to kneel.
At that overwhelming scene before me, I flinched. But that became a catalyst.
“Why have you not helped the church until they have oppressed us?!”
The archbishop cried without holding back in their spiritual high.
‘……I’m not even a priest so why do they keep misunderstanding me?’
I wanted to be honest and tell them that I was not a priest, but as always, the world never lets you have what you want.
「Activating the power ‘Faith Harvest’ strongly.」
「Harvesting the faith towards you from the surroundings.」
Seeing the harvesting faith, my mouth opened on its own.
“……I had no choice.”
I was taken aback by the flowing words that bypassed my conscience.
But I held onto my thoughts and added onto the lies.
“It was the will of the Dark Lord. For the god has not forsaken you.”
With the lie flowing out without a pause, I felt no guilt.
This was an opportunity.
The opportunity to create a new myth.
So rather than a stab at my conscience, the thought needing to take advantage of this situation took over.
‘……It can’t be helped. Faiths are not acquired easily after all.’
While my mind muttered about, my mouth never rested a moment on spewing out sugar coated words.
“The Dark Lord has not forgotten you. Your proof is right here..”
「The god of dark is calling a kind hearted child and wanting to pat your head.」
It was bullshit.
Truth is, if the god of dark really desired to help these people, she would’ve acted a long time ago.
But I had no desire to give up on the faith being collected as I spoke.
“Everything was the will of the Dark Lord, and I followed their will with my whole heart.”
And hearing this, the archbishop Keinel cried even harder and sunk their head into the ground.
As in literally, not figuratively.
Bam!
“H-How profound……! My sincerest apologies, oh priest! We were ignorant, and blamed……!”
It was almost like seeing someone who went mad, but if it could be used for gaining faith, I couldn’t care less.
“That’s all right. After all, the will of god works in inconceivable ways.”
「God of dark is feeling satisfaction at your words and smiles.」
「God of proof is astonished by your deception techniques.」
I didn’t care what the gods talked about.
It was best to get every benefit I could before I left this stage.
At that moment
“……O- oh priest! I have something to ask of you!”
Behind the archbishop, a woman suddenly jumped out to kneel before me.
“You are…….”
It was Reinel Asir.
Reinel asked quietly once she realized that I recognized her.
“Y-you remember me……?”
“Of course. We spoke a few days ago.”
“I-It’s an honor! T-the reason why I called you is…….”
Reinel’s voice gradually became smaller, wary of the gaze from the priests.
“I wanted to… know your name…….”
I couldn’t help but smile after hearing what she had to say so timidly.
To think her question would be to ask me for my name.
I was a bit dumbfounded, but it was not like it was a big deal, so I decided to tell her.
“Han Sungyeun.”
But…….
“That’s my name.”
That must’ve affected her somehow since a new message appeared before me.
「Faith Harvest accelerating from having your true name be known by the believers.」
「Myth ready to be created with the accelerated harvest of faith.」
「 Myth is calculated depending on the results and the faith of believers.」
It was the notification for myth creation, which I haven’t seen in a long time.
「Myth <final savior=""> is completed.」</final>
「Myth <final savior=""> is accumulating into the divine powers.」</final>
「When challenger Han Sungyeun activates the corresponding myth, the effect <salvation> is applied.」</salvation>
「When the weak are rescued through kind actions, every stat will be raised even just a little.」
「When challenger Han Sungyeun activates the corresponding myth, the effect <enlightenment> is applied.」</enlightenment>
「When followed by a religion, depending on the number of the followers, the divine powers are increased.」
Seeing the two absurd myths, salvation and enlightenment, I bitterly laughed.
It felt as if the more I lied, the stronger I got.
‘Don’t tell me… am I a natural……?’
……A little. It was just a very tiny bit, but it did feel like I did, and I felt a prick at my conscience.
[To be continued.]
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