163. Soul Guardian Stone
Creak!
The gates of the fortress opened.
Beneath the high ceiling stood pure white marble pillars.
‘I felt it every time, but it was truly fascinating.’
To think this familiar place was actually a real, existing location.
Step, step.
The Holy King entered his office, then soon came back out carrying something.
Is it because he put on weight? He came out incredibly slowly.
His eyes, however, were filled with regret. An expression as if preparing for a farewell.
This bastard.
He really had delayed on purpose.
“Hoo, here it is. Haaah......”
The Holy King let out sigh after sigh as he handed over two blue stones.
One to Baek Jinwoo, one to Rachel.
Baek Jinwoo grinned and bowed his head.
“Thank you. Thanks to Your Holiness’ grace, reclaiming the fortress will become even simpler.”
“That’s enough. Since when did you start calling me Your Holiness?”
“By the way, would you be able to spare us a place to stay? Charging in right away…….”
Glance.
Baek Jinwoo subtly pointed toward the Paladin Commander.
“I think that side and the Royal Guardians need some recovery first.”
Twitch.
A vein bulged on the Holy King’s forehead, but there was nothing he could do.
That man might be a messenger of god who had descended after receiving divine revelation.
Shoo, shoo!
The Holy King, hands clasped behind his back, flicked his right hand.
“Aila.”
“Yes, Your Holiness.”
“Guide them to a place where they may stay.”
“I shall obey.”
Clank!
A woman snapped into position with disciplined precision.
She was the number one figure of this Holy Kingdom.
A Champion (S-grade).
Her name was Aila Lunares.
She’s incredibly tall. About the same as Baek Jinwoo.
Almost 183 cm?
She had long silver hair, and her features were cold and sharp.
But.
Getting along with her would be beneficial in many ways.
You had to drive the holy spear used by the Champion into Asmodeus’ chest to clear the 60th floor easily.
‘Of course, back then I cleared it without the Champion. I probably couldn’t do that now.’
Whatever the case, the overall standard had risen upward.
“This way, please.”
Aila led the way with an expressionless face, and they lazily followed after her.
* * *
Inside the fortress annex.
To the right of where the Holy King stayed was a separate small palace, and its condition was fairly good.
‘I thought he’d hand us some stingy place covered in thick cobwebs, but it seemed he was at least trying to treat us properly.’
“You may stay here.”
Clank!
The Champion’s armor rang as she immediately turned and left.
‘Looks like she really doesn’t like us.’
Well, whatever.
Let’s check the stones we received.
[True Soul Guardian Stone]
[Grade: S-grade]
[When consumed by a summon, permanently increases HP by 100,000.]
“Uh, wait.”
Baek Jinwoo’s eyes widened.
“What is this?”
“Hm?”
Rachel came over with a look asking what was wrong.
“Check the stone’s stats.”
“Why?”
“......The effect increased tenfold compared to before.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
This was the Guardian Stone Baek Jinwoo had received in Battle of Summoners.
[Soul Guardian Stone]
[Grade: S-grade]
[When consumed by a summon, permanently increases HP by 10,000.]
The True part was missing.
“Wow.”
This was insane.
Usually, when Top-grade rare runes were equipped as a full set, they raised HP by around 10,000 on average.
Only special tanking runes like Jaggeo’s Will rune raised HP by around 100,000.
“This is... insane?”
Even with simple math, it made no sense.
Just feeding that one Guardian Stone would duplicate the effect of equipping six Top-grade tanking rare runes.
“That’s what I think too.”
Rachel added.
“To be honest, the difficulty here is only bearable because it’s us. It’s on a ridiculous level, isn’t it?”
“.....Right?”
“So the rewards rose proportionally too. That’s the only way the balance makes sense!”
That was right.
Baek Jinwoo agreed as well.
That it was the most likely deduction.
“So it wants us to get stronger here and endure better?”
“Something like that. Probably the Tower of Trials, the 70th floor, the 80th floor...... The higher we go, the harder it’ll get. That’s the feeling I get.”
“Hm.”
Whatever it was.
Getting stronger was a good thing.
If they rolled around here for a while and then went outside, even the real world rankers would look like kids.
‘They’re already easy to deal with now, but......’
Anyway, the gap would keep widening to an absurd degree.
“Anyway, we should give this to Jaggeo.”
—Gwo?
Thud, thud!
Jaggeo, who had been keeping some distance, came over thinking he had been called.
“Here, eat this.”
—Gwooooar!
Jaggeo got excited.
It must look tasty at a glance.
Making him consume it was similar to when he fed him the Ice-Heart Jade Blood Paste before.
He opened my fist in front of him.
“......Here.”
As he placed the Guardian Stone on it, he brought it to his mouth and crunch, crunch! chewed it.
“....”
No matter how many times he saw it, he couldn’t get used to it. What would the Holy King think if he saw this?
Wouldn’t he foam at the mouth asking how a holy relic could be crushed and eaten like that?
Shrrr!
You could visibly see the HP stat rising by 100,000.
‘Ahh.’
Now he had truly become a crazy tanker.
Wouldn’t it be even more absurd later if he unlocked a self-healing skill or something?
Usually self-healing recovered a percentage of maximum HP, after all.
“Hey, Jinwoo.”
That was when it happened.
Rachel placed one Guardian Stone on her palm and held it out to him.
“Hm?”
Baek Jinwoo’s pupils widened.
“Why are you giving this to me?”
“The HP effect. I don’t need it at all. White Tiger is a damage-tank, but…… this suits Jaggeo much better. This stacks, right?”
“.......”
Ah.
She’s giving something this precious to him?
Baek Jinwoo was not normally someone who was easily moved.
But this time, he was genuinely touched.
Honestly, if White Tiger ate it, he’d probably become a truly insane zombie tiger.
“You’re the one who saved my life, and anyway, if we’re going to survive, we need to raise at least one strong tanker. Take it before I change my mind.”
“Thank you.”
Baek Jinwoo quickly accepted it.
This was not something you refused out of modesty. If he rejected it, that would be a real problem.
Probably.
Rachel was looking ahead to the future.
World rank number one?
Making lots of money and enjoying wealth and glory?
Those were secondary for Rachel.
Her top priority was the Tower of Trials!
When they went to even higher floors later, her intention was clearly to maximize Baek Jinwoo’s abilities and raise the success rate of clearing them.
And decisively, it had been Baek Jinwoo who proposed asking the Holy King for the Guardian Stones in the first place.
“Jaggeo.”
Rachel placed her palm on the golem’s leg.
“Grow big and strong. This big sister is giving it to you, okay?”
—Gwoooooooar!
Jaggeo expressed his gratitude with a roar.
And just like that, Jaggeo’s HP increased by 200,000 in a single day.
And?
As you know, when raw HP goes up, rune effects are applied properly.
[Rune]
[Grade: Top-grade (Rare)]
One of only 100 runes in the entire world.
[Set Effect: Will]
-When 6 are equipped, HP increases by 100,000, MP increases by 100,000.
If the possessed skill is passive, its effect increases by 100%.
[Level: Max]
[Stat Increase]
Strength +48%, Stamina +48%, HP +60%, MP +60%
Since he was currently wearing six of these. Looking at HP alone, he was receiving an additional 360% effect.
A truly insane effect.
[Summon: Jaggeo]
[Race: Golem]
[Grade: EX-grade (Isolated)]
Isolated after a balance-breaking element was discovered under certain conditions.
[Level: 50]
[Owned Stats]
-Strength: 58, Intelligence: 10, Stamina: 58, Agility: 10
-HP: 1,610,000, MP: 460,000
-Critical Hit Chance: 20%
-Critical Hit Damage: 20%
[Owned Skills]
-Indomitable: Recovers 20% of damage received as HP.
-Magic Absorption: Recovers 20% of damage received as MP.
“Hey.”
Baek Jinwoo looked at Rachel with a baffled expression.
“Hm?”
“Do you know how much HP Jaggeo has now?”
“How much?”
“1.61 million.”
“...That’s insane.”
Even Rachel was shocked.
In ten years of playing that game, it was a number she had absolutely never seen before.
Even Baek Jinwoo had never seen such a number, not even when he cleared the final 100th floor.
“He’s basically not going to die now, is he?”
“Looks like it.”
Most likely.
When they fought Asmodeus this time, it seemed they would have to properly test just how absurd his tanking ability really was.
* * *
Yoobaek City
“......Hmm.”
There was no strength at all in Yoo Jia’s hand as she flipped through the documents.
Every day, she visited the front gate of the Tower of Trials and asked for records.
They said there was no record of Baek Jinwoo coming out.
For reference, because of that, headquarters had also gone on emergency alert, and only upper-level agents had been dispatched as resident staff while maintaining airtight security.
Because Yoo Jia had requested absolute secrecy.
Jinwoo is alive.
She firmly believed that.
That was why she had not told Baek Jinwoo’s parents about this either.
She didn’t want to make them worry for nothing.
The worrying was more than enough for herself and the guild members to bear.
To most of the staff, and to the family as well, they had agreed to say that he had gone on a long-term assignment to an overseas dungeon.
Also.
Just in case, she had tried using the skill Desperate Call as well, but…..
[The use of “Desperate Call” has been canceled.]
[The target does not exist or is too far away.]
It was always like this.
It never clearly told her whether he was dead or alive.
Sigh.
‘Let’s just work.’
If she kept working hard, maybe at least he would come back within half a year?
It was just a vague feeling, but she couldn’t think too deeply about it.
If she did, she wouldn’t be able to work.
Rustle.
As Yoo Jia flipped through the papers, one report caught her eye.
[12th Guild Member Selection Test Progress and Follow-up Measures Proposal]
Oh.
Her eyes lit up.
The third week had ended now, so the third test should be over.
[1st Test: Stamina Test
Applicants: 100
Eliminated: 50
Remaining: 50
2nd Test: Cooperation Test
Applicants: 50
Eliminated: 30
Remaining: 20
3rd Test: Control Test
Applicants: 20
Eliminated: 10
Remaining: 10
We are attaching the list of remaining interns.
Fewer candidates than expected have advanced to the final stage. All of them are promising talents.
Please decide whether we should reduce the number further as originally planned, or allow all 10 remaining candidates to proceed through the 4th and final stage before making the selection.
Hong Ari.
Senior Judge.]
Rustle.
As she turned the page, she checked the list of names.
There were quite a few people she had been hearing about in the interim reports.
Seo Yiyoon, Jeong Siu, Kang Daehyuk, Han Yuna...... and so on.
They all survived to the end.
As expected, the ones who stand out really do stand out.
How could Yoo Jia not know?
Both Hong Ari and Hwang Juwon would occasionally come by and go on and on about the interns.
And every single time, only those four ever came up.
What did that mean?
They’ve already decided, haven’t they?
Those four were guaranteed to pass!
And they were asking whether the remaining borderline candidates should also be kept……
“Hoo.”
A short sigh escaped Yoo Jia’s lips.
‘You’ve already grown attached to them.’
Even if they couldn’t express it. It was obvious they were reluctant.
Yoo Jia was far away, so she could think about it rationally, but those people had spent three whole weeks clashing bodies, crying, struggling, and suffering together while cheering them on and going through it all alongside them.
But even so, the fact that they were passing the authority of selection over to her meant?
‘They want me to make the final call.’
On their wavering hearts.
Nodding to herself, she picked up her pen.
Then she wrote:
4
Choose only 4.
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