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Chapter 14
The tavern was filled with blood and sprawled bodies.
Not a single one of them was still alive.
Even Park Seong-hoon, the Awakener who bore the guardian spirit of Lü Bu, had been killed by Song Hyeong-ju’s thorn spear attack.
“Idiots.”
In the end, the ones who took all these lives were Park Seong-hoon and Song Hyeong-ju. Just the two of them.
They killed each other, and in the end, the only one I personally killed was Song Hyeong-ju himself.
“Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue at these fools who had thrown their lives away for nothing.
Just as I was about to leave the tavern and leave the gruesome scene behind—
{Your eye reacts to a guardian spirit without a body.}
{You recall memories of the Mythic Age.}
“Huh?”
A message appeared.
At the same time, my right eye began to burn with searing heat.
“Ghh…!”
The pain forced me to close my eyes.
Yet even with my eyes shut, I could still see.
My vision, against my will, was showing me something.
Memories that were not my own.
-
Graaaahhh!
Green skin.
An army of orcs stretching endlessly across the horizon.
They let out terrifying roars as they charged forward.
Beside me stood human soldiers clad in exotic armor, lined up in formation.
I couldn’t be sure, but their attire gave off the impression of some ancient Middle Eastern kingdom.
-
Waaaaaah!
The humans soon raised their own battle cry to face the onrushing orcs.
Fwoosh! Boom!
Fireballs rained down on the orcs from the human lines.
In response, the enemy unleashed a hail of arrows at us.
After the exchange of spells and arrows, the two massive armies clashed head-on.
Clang! Clang! Crash!
Humans and orcs fell one after another.
In the midst of that fierce battlefield, sword in hand, I slashed through the orcs without hesitation.
I was just a lowly soldier, but whether it was luck or instinct, I somehow managed to survive and fight to the bitter end.
“Haa… haa…”
After killing and killing, I eventually noticed the sun—once high in the sky—sinking toward the horizon.
As the sky turned red, so too did the battlefield.
The corpses of humans and orcs were strewn everywhere, filling the air with the stench of blood.
And there, amidst it all, I stood… as the victor.
Whoooosh!
“Graaaghhh!”
A massive clump of mana floating in the air poured into my eye.
It felt as if some immense being was forcibly tearing its way into me.
“Huff… huff…”
As I came back to reality, a new message appeared before my eyes.
{You have absorbed the soul of Cú Chulainn.}
{You have stolen the Authority <Gáe Bolg, the Thorn Spear>.}
{Willpower has increased by 3.}
{Assimilation rate with Azidahaka has risen. 2.12%}
“…What?”
The content was shocking.
Not only had my Willpower jumped by three points at once.
Not only had my assimilation rate, previously in the low 1% range, suddenly doubled.
More importantly, I had stolen the Authority of another guardian spirit.
I immediately pulled up my status window to confirm.
───
<Authority List>
-
Pain: Flame of Karma
-
Claws of the Evil Dragon
-
Thorn Spear, Gáe Bolg (!)
-
A spear inherited from Scáthach. It returns to its master’s hand on its own and can extend 30 thorns to strike multiple enemies.
(Error! Main weapon is incompatible with projection!)
───
There it was—the Authority I had just obtained.
Exactly as the message had stated.
I had truly stolen the power that Song Hyeong-ju once wielded.
“To steal another guardian spirit’s ability…”
This completely broke the rules of the system.
The fact that I now had a skill I couldn’t even use was proof of that.
The Authority, Gáe Bolg, was tied to spear-type projections, while my main weapon was knuckles.
Even the error message spelled it out clearly.
I couldn’t help but grow suspicious once more.
“What the hell is happening to me?”
Strange things kept happening.
It was as if something was constantly trying to break the system’s laws.
And on top of that, I was seeing bizarre visions.
Evil?
Had I really been possessed by some kind of demon?
The incomprehensible events tangled up my mind in confusion.
Just then, familiar messages appeared again.
{Error detected!}
{Unauthorized data found in guardian spirit status. Debugging will begin immediately.}
{Debugging complete.}
The same type of message I saw back when I acquired the trait Right Eye of Malice.
But this time, unlike before, nothing else tried to interfere.
And as a result, the “stolen Authority” vanished from my list.
───
<Authority List>
……
-
null
───
As if to explain itself, another message in that same oppressive tone appeared.
{There are not enough demons to corrupt the system.}
{Malice says you must harvest more demons.}
“To corrupt the system… demons?”
Thinking back, the last time I’d seen such a message, it said that a minion of Baphomet had infiltrated the system.
After that, the new trait had fully settled into my status window.
Putting those memories together with this message, the conclusion was obvious.
To obtain powers that violated the system, I needed to hunt more demon-type monsters like Baphomet’s minions.
{Malice nods.}
“…Wait, are you answering my thoughts right now?”
The existence was now directly communicating with me through messages.
Which meant it was sentient.
The moment I realized that, I asked the question that had been burning inside me all along.
“Hey! Just what are you?”
But no answer came.
“So you won’t answer that? Then can you at least tell me what those memories I saw were? Or… are you part of the system itself?”
No matter what I asked, there was silence.
“…Say something!”
Still, no reply.
Whether it refused to speak further, or whether there was some other reason it couldn’t, I couldn’t tell.
But it left behind its answer in the form of an update to my status.
───
Right Eye of Malice
-(Stage 2) Absorb guardian spirits without bodies and reclaim their past powers and memories.
───
If you want power.
If you want truth.
Witness more deaths of Awakeners.
This demon was demanding that I spread evil throughout the world.
“Thank you for subduing these criminals. Please come to our city defense headquarters tomorrow morning to receive your reward.”
The tavern incident wrapped up smoothly.
The guards who arrived late initially tried to arrest me as I stood among the corpses.
But thanks to the witnesses who had watched the fight from outside, I was hailed as a hero instead.
“That guy’s insane.”
“Did you see him? He fought with just his fists at the end.”
“Yeah, I saw! His hands moved so fast they were a blur.”
“He must have a Legendary guardian spirit or something.”
“At that level, I’d believe it.”
And just like that, I became the most talked-about figure among the raid participants.
Not that I welcomed it.
Fame meant competitors would start keeping a closer eye on me.
Especially in a raid where rankings mattered.
I could already feel the sharp stares of those wary of me piercing my back.
“Great… what a pain.”
Still, it wasn’t entirely a bad thing.
It also meant more people would want to side with me.
“Hy-hyungnim!”
Lee Jin-yoon.
The guy who hadn’t shown his face until now finally appeared.
He must have bolted outside with the crowd the moment things got messy.
“Are you okay? You didn’t get hurt or anything, right…?”
“Hey! Lee Jin-yoon!”
Choi Yoon-ah showed up beside him.
“Yoon-ah! …Ack!”
She kicked his shin the moment she arrived, her face twisted in fury.
“Quit whining. I know it didn’t hurt, you’ve got a defense shield.”
“Uh… yeah.”
“Your comrades were fighting inside and you ran off alone?”
“S-sorry.”
“What’s the point of a new Authority if you don’t even use it? Ugh…”
She glanced around, caught herself, then sighed.
She must have been about to mention his Legendary guardian spirit but thought better of it.
No need to broadcast that information.
“Sorry…”
Jin-yoon shrank under her scolding.
‘Figures.’
Watching him, I felt stupid for ever hoping that maybe—just maybe—he’d prove useful after surviving the first stage.
That hopeless coward was utterly useless in a fight.
‘But her, on the other hand…’
Choi Yoon-ah was his polar opposite.
I recalled the outstanding combat skills she’d shown earlier.
‘I thought she was just a sniper, but she held her own in close combat too.’
Using stealth and her submachine gun, she completely dominated against Lü Bu.
She deployed two projected weapons at the right moments with flawless timing.
Her guardian spirit’s performance was impressive, but her natural combat instincts were on another level.
‘Most people lose their composure when taunted or provoked in battle…’
Instead of letting herself be shaken, she dragged her opponent into her psychological warfare.
‘She’s a talent I want.’
Compared to the Legendary Jin-yoon, I found myself more intrigued by the Historic-ranked Yoon-ah.
Her stealth and sniping would be invaluable support for someone like me who fought on the frontlines.
Even more so in the wide-area battles of the next stage.
I resolved to recruit her for the next stage.
“Um…”
“Excuse me.”
At that moment, we both spoke at the same time.
“…You first.”
I yielded.
“Well… uh…”
After hesitating, she finally spoke with difficulty.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t help back when those guys showed up. I couldn’t get a grasp on the situation.”
She must have felt guilty for standing by while I fought Song Hyeong-ju.
But if she said that, then I was just as guilty.
“It’s fine. I didn’t exactly step in to help you either.”
Still, her expression remained gloomy.
She fidgeted, unable to look me in the eye.
But really, for someone I had just met today, she had no reason to feel this bad.
Especially since she’d been so wary of me earlier.
So why was she saying this now?
The answer was simple.
“Anyway… what I mean is. For this raid… would you like us to join you?”
Because she wanted something from me too.
