Leveling with the Gods - Chapter 147

“You suddenly went to the pioneers, and now you’re back just as suddenly.”

Merlin knew where YuWon was, and after having received the report, he looked at him in surprise. YuWon had traversed the distance that would have taken a few days to travel in nearly an instant.

“Was it thanks to Flying Nimbus?”

“I thought I was going to die riding it on the way here.”

YuWon talked about the things that had happened to him. Merlin took some time to relax from the kingly affairs and documents and listened to the happenings of the pioneers.

“So we’re indebted to the Heavenly Demonic Cult.”

“You could say it’s to the entirety of the Martial Realm.”

“Well it’s true that the two of them can’t be seen as separate entities now.”

It was now widely known that the Heavenly Demonic Cult and the Martial Realm had joined forces. Now the Martial Realm had a High-Ranker of their own, and they had become a guild that possessed an incredible amount of Rankers, enough that not even most major guilds could mess with them. The world was now talking about the Martial Realm in the same vein as the major guilds.

“I’ll be sure to repay this favor in the future.”

“How’s The Round Table?”

“Don’t even get me started. After Asgard came in and flipped everything upside down, a few even said they’d leave the guild. Even now, I don’t know who will stay and who won’t.”

The Round Table was basically the foundation that maintained the survival of Britain. They were the Rankers who represented Britain and also the loyal knights that served the king.

But the current Britain had neither Arthur nor Lancelot. In some sense, it was natural for knights who no longer had someone to serve to leave.

“Lancelot, that mad bastard, to be plotting something like that…”

“To be fair, it was Olympus.”

At YuWon’s words, Merlin nodded and let out a deep sigh. Not even the great Merlin was able to deal with Olympus easily.

“I feel as if I am being swept up by a huge wave. A wave that I cannot easily escape.”

“It’ll calm down soon enough.” He wasn’t just offering empty consolation. “I’ll make it so.”

Hearing YuWon’s confident proclamation, Merlin looked at him for a second.

If anyone else had said this, he might have scoffed at them, even if they were a High-Ranker. And this had been said by a player who had just climbed to the 25th Floor. But even so, Merlin couldn’t dismiss him because he was the one who had completely flipped Britain on its head in just a few days.

No. Maybe he put it back to how it should have been.

“…Good. I truly hope so.”

Being finished with the conversation, Merlin lifted his hand into the air.

“This is what you were waiting for, right? Take it and climb up.”

Shwoooo—

A long, broad coat appeared in the air. The dark navy-colored coat floated above YuWon and fell down.

Plop—

The coat was draped on his outstretched arm.

Shutter—

Simultaneously, 「Kyneē」 on his hand reacted.

The item created using the 「Divine Sea Crystal.」 Its form was none other than a coat.

“He named it Tríaina, telling you to definitely get the last one as well. Its form is like this because he knew you’d want more comfortable clothing rather than armor.”

“It’s perfect.”

The ‘last one’ Hephaestus had talked about was probably the 「Divine Sky Crystal.」

「Tríaina.」

The form of the item wasn’t bad. As a coat, it would be more comfortable to wear compared to normal types of armor, and it wouldn’t get in the way either. It also had the advantage of covering a larger portion of his body. But best of all, it was light. It didn’t compare too badly with the weight of 「Kyneē,」 a glove.

‘If Kyneē was made by condensing adamantium, was this made by expanding it instead?’

It probably couldn’t be helped since Hephaestus only had a limited amount of materials. Even so, YuWon thought it was amazing that he chose to create the item using only adamantium rather than adding other impurities. If that had happened, it would’ve interfered with bringing out the power of the 「Divine Sea Crystal.」

The important thing now was the effect of the item.

[Tríaina]

ᗌ Clothing made from the true Divine Sea Crystal and adamantium. Has the essence of the ocean imbued in it.

ᗌ Classification: armor

ᗌ Can rule over all oceans.

ᗌ Can change mana to water-attribute mana.

ᗌ Summon ‘Sea.’

ᗌ Resistance against water-attribute mana increased by 50%.

ᗌ 30% amplification in water-attribute mana.

ᗌ Consumption of water attribute mana decreased by 30%.

ᗌ Applies “Ocean’s Blessing.”

Its effects hadn’t changed by much.

[Summon ‘Sea’] no longer had the ‘restricted’ effect, and a new option named [Ocean’s Blessing] was applied.

YuWon checked the skill applied to 「Tríaina.」

[Ocean’s Blessing]

ᗌ Rank: S

ᗌ Classification: passive

ᗌ The power of the seas always protects your body from harm.

A short and sweet description. It didn’t seem that great of a skill just by what it said, but the skill’s rank was considerably high at S.

He wouldn’t be able to tell just like this.

Swoop—

After draping 「Tríaina」 over his body, YuWon unsheathed the sword at his hip.

Merlin made a puzzled face at his sudden movement. “Hmm? What are you doing right…”

Shwack—

Merlin’s eyes went wide with shock.

After pulling out his sword for no reason, YuWon had swung it straight at his arm.

Whack—!

A blunt noise.

“What are you doing right now?!”

In response to Merlin’s shout of surprise, YuWon just nodded. “It’s fine.”

“What?”

“I was checking its effect. How its defensive properties and the skill attached to it are.”

“You cut your arm just to check that?”

“But it didn’t get cut.” YuWon shrugged his shoulders as he resheathed his sword. “It’s still armor made of adamantium, even if it looks like this. It won’t be easy even if someone tried their best to cut me.”

“Haah…”

Merlin wore a baffled expression.

Even if it was true, YuWon really had just swung at his own arm with the intent to cut it. He could only see this as the man standing next to him attempting self-harm.

“And even if this was made of paper, I wouldn’t have been cut too badly.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’m being protected… by something.”

The sound that was made when he tried to cut the coat wasn’t just because of the defensive properties of 「Tríaina.」 When he made up his mind to cut his arm, a buoyant force could be felt pushing against his sword. An impressive amount of force at that.

The power that instinctively protected his body, [Ocean’s Blessing.] This was the best ability 「Tríaina」 possessed.

Following this…

“Please step back for a second.”

Shutter—

YuWon turned and looked at Merlin while feeling the mana coming from 「Tríaina.」

“This may be a little dangerous.”

“What?”

Shwaaaa—

A sound was heard.

It sounded like the ocean.

In an instant, blue waves surrounded YuWon. The scene around him, including Merlin, disappeared from sight, and a white, unclear something appeared in front of YuWon.

‘Is it… a body?’

It was standing with its back to YuWon. It was as if there was a reason he couldn’t see its front side.

This wasn’t the first time YuWon had experienced a phenomenon like this. When he had first obtained the 「Divine Dark Crystal」 and equipped the adamantium 「Kyneē」 on his hand, the moment the strength that was dormant within the Crystal was released from the item, YuWon was able to see the ‘eye’ of some being. And now…

YuWon was looking at that existence’s back.

Bzzzzt—

A familiar feeling was flowing through 「Tríaina」 into him.

And in that moment, as if waiting for it, the Egg awoke.

[?’s Egg cheers.]

[?’s Egg opens its mouth.]

The brat greedily ate up the power.

And in that moment, YuWon asked the unknown one, “What are you?”

…

“You don’t have a name, and now you can’t even talk? You’re not a monster nor a human. You’re not just a simple item either.”

There were many items that possessed consciousness in this world. They were called ‘ego items,’ and even if they were rare, they weren’t impossible to find.

But the one in front of him was definitely different.

That was why YuWon wanted to know.

“You… just what are you?”

Bzzzzt—

The Egg was eating up the power without a care in the world.

There wasn’t a lot of time left.

No response came.

And as the egg was nearly finishing its feast…

Is this…

The dormant ‘something’ turned its head.

The second one.

And in that moment,

Fwaaaaah—!

The blue waves that had covered YuWon’s body disappeared, and the original scene returned.

He felt as if all his strength had been drained from his body.

YuWon thought back to the face of the thing that had turned its head towards him. But then…

‘What did it look like?’

He had definitely seen the face. But he couldn’t remember it.

This wasn’t a simple problem of him having a bad memory or something like that. It wasn’t like the being didn’t have a face, like a white sheet of paper. He just really couldn’t remember its face.

‘I wouldn’t feel as frustrated if I was at least able to see its face.’

As long as it wasn’t a face he recognized, it didn’t really matter what it looked like. The important part was why it was revealing itself through the item and why it possessed the powers of the Outer Gods.

‘Did it say “second one”?’

Thankfully, only the face was the part he couldn’t remember. The words it said were engraved into his mind.

The ‘second one’ it talked about was probably in regards to the 「Divine Dark Crystal」 and the 「Divine Sea Crystal.」

It was definitely waiting for the third one, the 「Divine Sky Crystal.」

‘I can find out if I gather the third one… is that what it means?’

It wasn’t an easy condition. Unlike the 「Divine Dark Crystal」 that he had obtained by chance and the 「Divine Sea Crystal」 that wasn’t owned by anyone, the 「Divine Sky Crystal」 was an item owned by Zeus.

It also had to be the symbol of Zeus, the [Lighting Bolt.]

‘This will be difficult.’

And as YuWon was contemplating his frustration, a message he had been waiting for appeared.

[?’s Egg’s incubation rate has increased.]

[Incubation rate: 95.94%]

The increase in its rate was much smaller than before. It seemed that not all the fragments had the same size or power.

He was only lacking 4% now.

Since there weren’t many opportunities left to meet Outer Gods, he had wanted to hatch it using this opportunity, but it came a little short.

‘Well, I still have a method of filling up the remaining bit.’

It would be in the not-so-distant future.

YuWon thought of that time and decided to let it go.

“What… was that?”

Merlin had brought out his mana to protect himself from the sudden unexpected situation, just as Hephaestus had. He looked like he was about to throw spells at the energy that had surrounded YuWon.

“It’s all done.”

“What is?”

“I don’t know either. Although I do want to know.”

It was the truth.

At YuWon’s answer, Merlin didn’t inquire any further.

There were two meanings to this answer. Either he really didn’t know, or he did but didn’t want to share any further. Either way, Merlin had no intention of asking any more.

“Well. There will always be one or two things you won’t understand in this Tower…”

Not intending to dig up someone else’s secrets.

Just as with stats and levels, it was normal for someone to keep secrets they knew only to themselves. Going around talking too much about themselves was a good way to invite an early death.

“Fine. I already know you’re a special one.”

After putting the coat on, YuWon didn’t sit down again.

Merlin still sat where he was and looked up at YuWon looking down on him.

“Will you be going now?”

“Yes.”

“You really don’t rest even for a day. I don’t know why you’re in such a hurry…”

After clicking his tongue, Merlin lifted the near-empty tea cup and stood up from his seat.

“Come visit again when you have time.” After sitting back amongst his pile of documents, Merlin continued, “By then, a statue of you should be here as well.”

The reward for the test was decided after the Administrators finished their meeting.

Skills and stats. Between these two, YuWon had selected the stats.

The reason was because rather than a few random skills, the certainty of a stat was greater.

[Your strength increased by 1.]

[Your constitution increased by 1.]

These two stats were increased. And with this, strength and constitution had both reached 100.

On the 26th Floor, YuWon instantly attempted the next test.

[You have passed the test of the 26th Floor.]

[You have obtained 20,000 points.]

Keeping his goal of climbing as fast as he could in mind, YuWon continued to take the tests.

The 26th Floor, and then the 27th… All the way to the 30th Floor.

It had taken just under fifteen days to climb five floors.

YuWon continued to climb the Tower that way.

And so, half a year passed.