“Is the treasure we need to protect here?”

“The treasure is an artifact of the Four Gods? It is the death god among the Four Gods so is there any care that needs to be taken when handling it? For example, should it stay away from fire?”

“Are there no enemies at all?”

“In the event of an enemy invasion, how long will it take for the troops to arrive? What and how many traps have been set up nearby to stop the enemy from invading?”

A square building—the rankers were taken to the strange building that had no exits at all and released a bombardment of questions. All their confusion and fury were subdued. A penalty of losing four levels...

They judged there was no need to be agitated when the penalty would only occur if the quest failed.

“Please answer me.”

Knowing oneself before the enemy was the most basic formula for victory. However, the client didn’t answer the question and remained silent. It was a serious problem when the client who should be the most cooperative wasn’t motivated. It was an attitude that would reduce the motivation of the rankers trying to complete the quest.

‘What are you going to do?’

The client—the longer the beautiful black-haired woman who guided the rankers to the training hall was silent, the more anxious the rankers became. A person with a ferocious personality even felt the desire to grab the beauty’s collar and shake her. The reason he didn’t do so was because the beauty’s name was shining in gold.

Most of the rankers had already noticed her true identity. A yangban—a god of the East Continent. Someone with the power that a player would never exceed. It was a far cry from the unidentified half-god who Grid had recently defeated.

“Sigh.” The blue robe flapped as the beauty pulled out a smoking pipe. She seemed reluctant, just like when she first appeared. She seemed to be skeptical of the situation. “It is embarrassing that mere humans are rushing to ask questions rather than prostrating themselves. I feel so uncomfortable.”

‘Bullshit.’

The rankers’ expressions distorted at the beauty’s disrespectful words. They knew the customs of the East Continent people where they stopped what they were doing the moment the yangbans appeared and prostrated themselves. However, this was just a custom of the East Continent.

In the beginning, the rankers knew the yangbans weren’t worthy of being objects of faith. They had witnessed the yangbans treating humans as livestock several times. Even so, they were being polite in their own way yet the beauty was asking for more. It happened when a few rankers looked like they were chewing shit.

“I’m sorry. We were ignorant and committed great rudeness because we didn’t know the culture of the East.” One man surrounded by a sharp, cold air stepped forward and bowed to the beauty. His identity after taking off his cloak was exactly what everyone expected. “You might not be interested in humans but I would like to sincerely introduce myself to the god I’ve heard about for a long time and envied. My name is Bondre. I’m a magician who deals with ice magic.”

“It is ice magic...”

Bondre calmed the atmosphere that could’ve worsened. The beauty exhaled the smoke, put the smoking pipe away and showed interest in Bondre. “There is a separate job for you so follow me.”

“What about us...?”

“You just have to protect this place. This is the face of the intruder.”

The rankers left behind were feeling flustered when the beauty threw a portrait at them. It was a portrait of a white-haired old man. His wrinkled face looked like a dry old tree but his eyes were sharp and full of vitality, making him look unusual at first glance.

‘Who is this?’

It was a Westerner but this was the first time they had seen this face. The rankers were shaking their heads and the beauty added an explanation.

“He is a swordsman. Pungsa said that every time he swings his sword, lightning will explode and a storm will rage.”

‘This skinny old man can use such destructive swordsmanship?’

One man among the rankers showed a somewhat unbelievable reaction.

“Sir Dante...!”

“...?”

Everyone’s eyes focused on this man. It was the wanderer Rekflex, 12th on the swordsman ranking and 403rd on the unified rankings.

“Rekflex? Do you know him?”

“I know. I met him while I wandered around the Glaucian Kingdom. He was the single-digit knight of the golden era of the empire.”

“Golden era of the empire...!”

“I received a lot of help from him at the time but it is strange. At that time, Sir Dante was aging...”

Dante complained that his body was old and his senses were dull, making it difficult for him to extract the full power of the sword. He even used a mace that was easier to control than a sword since a small amount of force applied to the mace could exert great power.

Yet a few years later, he used swordsmanship that created a storm? A swordsmanship that was powerful enough to receive the attention of a god?

“Did he become a transcendent?”

“...!”

It was the moment when the name Dante was engraved on the minds of hundreds of high rankers and the beautiful yangban...

As they memorized Dante’s name, the 73 year old knight Dante—in the Overgeared Kingdom—gained a healthier color.

“Sir Dante, how is it that you seem to be getting younger?” Piaro asked when he returned from field work to see Dante at the training ground. Dante just laughed.

“Um... I don’t know why but I’ve been feeling lighter for some time. It feels like my existence itself has strengthened and my body is full of motivation and strength.”

“Huh...! This is the power of farming!”

“The power of farming?”

“I hope that the people who eat the rice and wheat we sweated to grow will always be happy and healthy. All the farmers working in the field have the same wish. The farmers in Reidan are particularly enthusiastic. Dante’s great health is probably because he ate the crops of Reidan.”

“Huhu, that makes sense.”

“Right. Hahaha.”

Piaro returned from conquering the Gauss Kingdom. After a long time, he returned to the life of a farmer and his heart was healed. He became even happier when he saw Dante was healthy.

‘I can’t believe a day came when I can laugh with my old colleagues and mentors again.’

All of this was a blessing due to King Grid. Piaro was filled with deep gratitude and prayed, ‘Be well.’

***

[There is a rumor that the procession to your stone statue is endless!]

[Currently, the worship of Hero King Grid’s Statue is at the maximum. Over the next month, your dexterity stat will rise by 30%, and the probability of making a high rated item has increased slightly! Additionally, the speed of sword-type attack skills is 20% faster!]

It was like this everyday. Grid witnessed this notification window every few days. This meant that the dexterity and speed buffs were effectively ‘permanently’ applied. Of course, Grid wasn’t complacent. He knew that the moment he let people down, the worship would stop coming.

“......”

Grid bowed in thanks to the prayers of those unknown before slowly raising his head and opening his eyes. Far away, a rectangular white building was visible. Looking back, it was a building that seemed very strange. It didn’t match the overall scenery of Chiaotzu, which had an ancient Chinese city feel.

The security was also very tight. Every road leading to the building was full of heavily armed soldiers and the intricately arranged structures near the building gave off a suspicious amount of magic power.

“Did they plant daoists among the soldiers?”

“No, artifacts are installed on behalf of the people.”

Braham pointed to the red lamps hanging from the end of every tile of all the buildings and Grid realized that different colored papers were all stuck on the red lamps.

‘Amulets...’

In the battle against Hangyeol, Grid had experienced the power of the amulets. The amulets were excellent artifacts where the shortcomings were difficult to find apart from the fact that they were consumables. Depending on the color of the amulet and the characters written on them, the amulets had a variety of functions such as protection, attacking, and cursing. The configuration of the amulets would also maximize their power.

‘Laying thousands of such amulets...’

It must be here. In this quaint square building, the Black Tortoise Jewel was held. The confident Grid soon felt doubts.

‘No, isn’t this too obvious? Is it a trap?'

It was a building that gave off a strange sense of difference to anyone who saw it. The tight security seemed to be screaming out to him, ‘This is the location of the Black Tortoise Jewel.’ It was so obvious that it was strange.

“...This is a trap.”

Grid asked Braham for help. He couldn’t come to a conclusion when he thought about it himself so he relied on the advice of the Duke of Wisdom.

“In a normal situation, this would be a trap. However, the opponent is a yangban. It was hard to think that those arrogant enough to call themselves gods would’ve hidden the Black Tortoise Jewel in a secret place.”

Braham was a timeless force, a legend. As a result, he was confident that he could better penetrate the psychology of a strong man than anyone else.

“This is more of a provocation than a trap.”

“......”

The sneering voice of the yangbans seemed to enter Grid’s ears.

‘This is where the Black Tortoise Jewel is located. If you can take it away then take it...’

“It is a taunt that I can’t pass by.”

Grid’s motivation boiled up. He wanted to fly into the building and smash everything. However, he remained calm. Grid was reminded of something. The purpose this time was to collect information, not to win. The goal was to understand the enemy’s power as much as possible and make meaningful use of it in the future. For now, it was enough to grasp the reality of the square building.

“Braham.” Grid reached out to Braham.

Braham took off the skin mask he was wearing and returned it to Grid while saying, “I’ll open the way for you.”

Grid nodded. “Then immediately return to the West Continent,” Grid ordered Braham before he put on the skin mask.

Dante and Kentrick’s faces had already been used so he decided on Asmophel’s face. It was determined that no one would recognize Asmophel in the northernmost part of the East Continent, Chiaotzu.

‘It is hard to recognize Asmophel easily, even if there is a player.’

It was because Asmophel often dressed up as a soldier. In fact, he was less active than Piaro and Mercedes, making him the least popular of Grid’s subordinates. Even so, Grid wore the Slaughterer's Mask as well and appeared in the air. His gaze was only on the square building. He was undaunted by the amulets installed on every building and the thousands of soldiers on each side of the road. The legendary great magician was with him.

“Meteor.”

“Eh?”

This was too excessive. This wasn’t at the level of cleaning up the enemy’s defensive forces and traps. Did he intend to destroy the city itself? Grid stared in fright at the meteorites ravaging the city when Braham urged him, “Go now.”

“...You must leave! Understood?”

There was no time to delay. Grid barely held back the words in his throat and flew toward the square building in the midst of the meteorite explosion.

Subsequently...

“This isn’t Sabaek.”

Two yangbans appeared in the place Grid had just vacated. The two yangbans nearby had found the magician who cast the magic.

Braham spoke to those unfamiliar with himself, “Who did you mistake me for? This body is the only one who can bring down the stars in the universe.”

The winds that he summoned cut at the bodies of the yangbans.

***

“Huh? In the end, the Black Tortoise Jewel isn’t here?” Old Sword Demon, who was running along the underground waterway following Hwang Gildong, was startled by the explosion from the ground.

However, Hwang Gildong didn’t stop running. “Cold air blocks the flow of water so the Black Tortoise Jewel should be at the place where the ice magician was taken. We shouldn’t trust what we see because the yangbans are extremely insidious.”