by Park Saenal
-Available Elemental Techniques-
* The energy of the elemental king is infinite. The use of the elemental doesn’t consume the resources of the contractor.]
[Sword of Light]
[Makes the elemental into a sword of light.
The Sword of Light follows the contractor…]
[Flash]
[The light elemental will ‘instantaneously’ move to the target pointed out by the contractor.
If the target is strong, it will shine intensely…]
[Elemental King Summoning Lv. 1]
[Summons an elemental king to the present age through the light elemental.
The ability of the light elemental king is affected by the ability of the contractor.
The low skill level limits the abilities of the light elemental king.
Summoning Duration Time: 10 minutes.
Cooldown Time: 30 hours.]
“…”
Yura hadn’t been expecting much after she was forced to postpone her visit to the World Tree due to hunting in hell. Most of her colleagues had contracted with lower to intermediate elementals, and she thought she would be the same. Yet it ended up being an elemental king.
She once again owed a great debt to Grid. Her current self wouldn’t exist if she hadn’t met him in the temple in the past. She would still be one of Yatan’s Servants, struggling against the Rebecca Church and Overgeared Kingdom. Yura would have regreted it every day.
“I’ll become someone you can count on.”
Step.
Today, Yura didn’t open the gate to hell. The place she came to was the city of Reidan surrounded by the desert.
“Yura?”
On the walls, the faces of the Overgeared members—who were tired from the inexhaustible imperial army—brightened. Yura had been focused on hell hunting since the beginning of the 4th National Competition until the present. Consequently, they hadn’t expected her to join the war so soon. The gold medalist in Drawing the Saint Sword and silver medalist in PvP—she was a strong representative of the Overgeared Guild. She was a power that could do the work of ~4–5 of the top Overgeared members alone. The Overgeared members were reassured that she would be with them in the future.
After a while…
“Hell Leap.”
The Overgeared members witnessed Yura’s development and realized how much they had underestimated her. She jumped into space itself and moved to hell, leaving the gate that connected hell to the present world. Demons popped out of the gate and into the middle of the battlefield.
“Eh?”
There was the sudden appearance of the red dimensional door and the demons pouring from it. The imperial soldiers were stunned by the unrealistic sight and forgot to even scream as they became food for the demons.
“You can summon demons?” Chris asked with a surprised expression. A demon hunter could summon demons…? It was a bizarre contradiction.
Yura shook her head. “I simply opened a passage.”
Hell Leap—it was a skill that temporarily transferred her body to hell. The user didn’t know where they would appear in hell, and the temporary transmission only lasted for one second. Yura took one second to identify the place she appeared, recognized the presence of a sufficient number of demons in the vicinity and opened the gate while escaping from hell. She applied the escape technique as a summoning technique. For the imperial soldiers, it was literally a hell gate.
“Aaaack!”
“Hiik! S-Spare me…!”
The duration of the gate was one minute. It was plenty of time. Demons with the instinct of eating humans utilized the gate actively. They flew forward with full power.
“W-Wow…”
Thousands of demons popped out and massacred the imperial soldiers, causing the Overgeared members to feel overwhelmed. They worried that they would be next after the imperial army was destroyed. However, they had Yura. As the imperial soldiers were chewed up, the demons who turned their attention to the Overgeared members in a hungry manner were pierced by Yura’s bullets.
***
“There haven’t been too many prey these days.”
“The Vatican is closed, so it is natural to have no guests.”
At a mountain village near the Vatican, there was a unique village with large and small Rebecca statues in many places. Originally it was filled with tourists wanting to visit the Vatican, but it had been dusty of late. The Vatican was temporarily closed as the war between the Rebecca Church and Yatan Church intensified. As such, the Vatican wasn’t accepting outsiders, so no tourists were visiting the village.
“Hrmm.”
Thanks to this, Shay was bored. The assassins—Shay, Kerb, and Sniffer—were a vicious PK group that worked with Dong Pao—a Rebecca priest—in luring tourists to certain areas and stealing their money. However, they were also the benefactors who informed Grid about Marie Rose’s presence and gave him Kasim. Of course, they hadn’t meant to be benefactors.
“I want to release some stress, but it isn’t working.”
“I should pick up an assassination request today.”
“I have done more than 100 commissions this month. I don’t like it anymore. It is annoying. I need some healing.”
“Eh? Hey.”
The trio sitting on the terrace of the restaurant turned their gaze toward the person at the entrance of the village. Just by looking, it was obvious that the person had a lot of money. It was a man wearing unusual sunglasses. They didn’t see his face and ID because he was wearing a helmet. but based on the overall armed status, his level was in the low 200s.
“Doesn’t he look like a character made by a man with some money?”
“Yes. All the level 200 items are enhanced.”
“He might be a gold spoon.”
The items scattered a subtle glow. This was proper prey. Shay’s group exchanged sly smiles with each other and got up. The three people came down from the terrace and were engaged in daily conversation as they passed by the unidentified man. Yes, they passed by the prey they had been waiting for.
‘X! Leave quickly!’
The trio hastened their pace. They had an iron rule. This cardinal rule was that they didn’t mix with a person who hid their face and ID. Why? In the past, they had a bad experience with Grid who concealed his identity. They didn’t want to go through that terrible experience twice. Since then, Shay’s group excluded unknown targets from their PK list. It was a type of phobia.
“Oh, it would be good if we could hunt pushovers like in the old days.”
“It was almost a windfall to meet those kids. Still, what can we do when it is a one in a million case?”
They couldn’t be discouraged. The reason why Shay’s party could PK in one area for a long time was because they were cautious. In particular, the most important thing was their affinity with the villagers. The villagers didn’t doubt Shay’s party, who were friendly and kind, and never thought they were bandits. Sometimes, paladins from the Rebecca Church would come down to the village and ask about the bandits, but they never cared about Shay’s party. This was the importance of image management.
“It is impossible today. Perhaps we should go to the guild and ask…?”
The trio left the village only to freeze like a stone statue. They noticed that the unidentified man was following closely behind them. The man took off the helmet and black hair flowed down. The revealed name was…
“G-Grid!”
Shay’s party was full of hatred. They even wanted to kill Grid.
“This is great. Have you been doing this in the same place for many years?”
“T-That, sometimes… Sometimes just…”
“T-That’s right! These days, we mostly work in other places. We sometimes come here for healing!”
“I-It is like a heart that misses home… Hahaha…”
Shay was a single digit ranker on the assassin’s ranking. During recent times, he had fallen to the top 20, but he still had excellent s
kills. In particular, he had a lot of experience with PK and excelled in PK skills. Even so, he was modest in front of Grid. He had been beaten by Grid several times and was afraid of him. Grid suggested to them, “Go to Reidan. In that place, you can cheat, kill, and steal from the empire’s players. Won’t it be more fun to play on a bigger stage than in a village like this?”
“…You want to use us as a tool of war?”
“D-Do you think we will cooperate with you?”
“Yes, if you don’t want to die. You will be killed by me and then have a kill order placed on you.”
“…Shall we leave right now?”
“Assassination is our specialty. Isn’t that why you came to us? We’ll definitely be a great help to you.”
“Yes, I’m looking forward to it. You will be rewarded if you play an active role.”
Grid had to mobilize as many contacts as possible in order to deal with the empire. Thus, Grid was wandering in search of connections, but they were mostly evil ones. He was fortunate that he was stronger than those he had a bad relationship with.
“Next is Bubat… Hmm…”
After confirming the appearance of Shay’s party, Grid was ready to use the return scroll, only to stop. Now that he was here, he became curious about ‘that’ place. Grid failed to recall the old location and had to ask Shay, “That dungeon, where was it?”
“Dungeon? Ah, the one with the vampire duke sealed? It is a forbidden area, so it isn’t stored on the map.”
It was a space where magic and skills were blocked because of a powerful evil influence. That was the space where Shay’s party used to hunt the players.
“It is approximately three kilometers northeast of here… Hey, forget it. Just follow me.”
It was complicated to explain in words. Instead, Shay just moved forward, and Grid followed behind him. Shay was making a smug smile. He was timid, but he wanted payback.
‘No matter how great Grid is, he can’t catch up with my speed when I’m a master of swiftness.’
Grid would try to chase Shay and be humiliated. Shay imagined Grid’s expression and hummed. Then he used a skill that increased his movement speed to the peak. However…
“…”
Grid maintained the appropriate distance behind Shay without much difficulty. He was very agile and hd recently created a set of items that sped up his movements. Shay started crying. ‘Filthy bastard. Really filthy bastard. Eating everything alone.’
He would quickly finish this side of the world and cut off all connections with Grid forever. He would leave for the other side of the continent, so he wouldn’t get involved with Grid again.
‘No, let’s go to the East Continent,’ Shay vowed repeatedly.
Chapter 995
People weren’t seriously concerned about the war situation in the Overgeared Kingdom. Was the empire’s army hundreds of times larger than the Overgeared Kingdom?
“What does that mean?”
Grid would come forward and slaughter the enemies as always. People took it for granted, and the experts didn’t disagree. It was because Grid and the Overgeared members had shown too much. They always handled crises in ways and methods that transcended common sense.
Then what was the truth? The situation of the Overgeared Kingdom was like a candle flickering in the wind. The armies of the seven dukes were tied down for a while as they defended the port cities, but there were still the magicians of the Tower of Eternity, the magic machines, the Red Knights, the Five Pillars, and so on. The empire hadn’t pulled out their real power yet. On the other hand, the Overgeared Kingdom had already put a lot of effort into stopping the empire’s troops.
Grid was nervous. He was anxious because bad results kept coming up. The reason why Grid used methods, such as dealing with the companies and using his network of connections, was in effort to change the expected outcome. He came here was the same reason.
[Marie Rose’s evil influence makes your magic power turbid. All types of spells and skills aren’t available.]
[You have resisted.]
It was an ominous entrance that looked like the mouth of a monster. This was the cave Marie Rose was trapped in. The vampire duke sealed by the second pope Chreshler and Rebecca’s Daughters—the ultimate vampire who transcended Shizo Beriache—was released from the seal by none other than Grid.
‘It happened because of Malacus’ Cloak.’
An unintentional accident had occurred. Grid was looking forward to the effect of the Blood King Candidate.
[Blood King Candidate]
[You have become a candidate to be a blood king.
You will give a sense of pressure to ordinary vampires. All ordinary vampires hostile toward you will have their stats decreased by 15%.
You will give a sense of confusion to true blood vampires. All true blood vampires hostile toward you will have their stats decreased by 8%.
Direct descendant vampires will be interested in you. Any direct descendant vampires facing you will temporally awaken from the Curse of Idleness.]
Grid had sealed four direct descendants, so the title Qualification of a Blood King was promoted to Blood King Candidate. The alertness of the direct descendants rose, and this was enough to awaken them from the Curse of Idleness. This might work positively for Marie Rose.
‘I am happy to play.’
Noll said that when he faced Blood King Candidate Grid, the thought that ‘everything was annoying’ had been erased from his head and he had been filled with motivation. He’d felt ‘emotions’ for the first time since he was born, and he had been filled with a fearsome anger and killing intent toward Grid.
Noll had described the event of the day like this, “I realized I was alive after feeling the emotion. Once the Curse of Idleness was broken, I felt sorry for the wasted time and even grateful to you for making me angry and forgetting the curse.”
This was why Grid looked forward to the effect of Blood King Candidate.
‘If Marie Rose is like Noll…’
Would she be thankful to him for freeing her from the seal and the Curse of Idleness? What emotions would she feel, and if she felt favorable toward him, would she take a cooperative attitude? Of course, it was an extremely optimistic idea. He could provoke Marie Rose and be slain by her.
However, the circumstances weren’t clear, so Grid planned to grasp a straw and contact her. Marie Rose was one of the most powerful beings in the world. The benefits that came from having her as a companion were so huge that it couldn’t compare with the value of Grid’s life.
‘It is a gamble I should challenge once.’
Grid came here to increase his chances of the gamble. He sent Shay back and entered the cave alone. Then he pulled out a pickaxe and held it.
‘Braham said it previously. Marie Rose’s evil influence was inherited from Shizo Beriache, and she has a very strong personality.’
He knew because he actually experienced it. It had been ~15–17 years since Marie Rose left here, but there were still remnants of her evil energy. Grid made a hypothesis, ‘The cave that sealed Marie Rose for hundreds of years will have a thick evil influence…’
It was a natural formula that caves had minerals. That’s right. Grid thought it was likely that the minerals present in the cave were affected by Marie Rose’s evil influence. He wasn’t expecting much from the performance of the minerals.
‘The minerals affected by Marie Rose’s evil influence will have a low rating. I only hope that they aren’t corroded by the evil influence.’
The land near the cave was barren. Thus, the minerals which were directly exposed to Marie Rose’s evil influence might’ve become dusty and corroded. Nevertheless, the reason why Grid needed the minerals was to buy Marie Rose’s favor when they met someday.
‘She’s very sensitive to the smell of blood from Malacus’ Cloak.’
It was enough to wake her up from the seal after hundreds of years!
‘If I am wearing items that contain her evil i
nfluence, she will recognize them immediately.’
He couldn’t help being impressed with his way of thinking. His thoughts were occasionally extraordinary. Then Grid started looking closely at the cave. It was to observe the presence of minerals. However, there were only stones at the entrance, and he had to go deeper.
[Marie Rose’s evil influence makes your magic power turbid. All types of spells and skills aren’t available.]
[You have resisted.]
[The remnants of the evil influence is eating at your physical and mental strength. You have fallen into the ‘weak’ and ‘confused’ state.]
[You have resisted.]
The deeper he went, the thicker the concentration of evil influence and the higher the physical burden became. Grid was able to resist them, but it would’ve been different for Shay’s party.
‘They can’t even enter here.’
Marie Rose’s seal wasn’t defiled. Once he learned that, Grid’s mind felt more comfortable. He was once again impressed by the fraudulent nature of a ‘legend’ and felt thankful as he arrived at the innermost part of the cave.
‘It is surprisingly big.’
He hasn’t known it from the outside, but it was a huge cave. It took 40 minutes to reach this place despite there being only one road.
‘She has been sleeping here for hundreds of years.’
Grid looked at the coffin in the middle of the space. It was a pure white coffin. The beautiful figure of Marie Rose sleeping there naturally came to his mind.
“Ah…”
He had imagined it, but her real beauty was enough to make him feel in awe. It was mysterious. Grid emerged from his thoughts and carefully observed the wall of this space. It was in order to find minerals, but most of them were already corroded by the evil influence. This space was quite big, and it took time to search.
‘Ah, the efficiency is too bad.’
If it wasn’t for the residual evil influence, he would’ve called Minor over right away. The minerals detector hadn’t found new minerals in a long time, and he was inactive these days.
‘Still, he isn’t playing around…’
For a few years already, Minor had been forced to work in the library without a break. He read books related to minerals and geography and expanded his knowledge. Grid raised the building level of the library purple for Minor’s sake. Increasing the level of the library widened the variety of books it handled.