167. Holy Blessing
In the end, the Holy King came clean.
He said it was a scroll called the 'Apostle’s Sacred Mark', and that there were ten in total.
"Haa, no matter how I think about it..... You truly must be a punishment sent down by God."
"What a hurtful thing to say, Your Holiness."
"Please, enough with that damned 'Your Holiness'!"
The Holy King snapped.
What kind of 'Your Holiness' was he, when this bastard was telling him to swear to God just so he could loot holy relics?!
His subordinates had been right.
That guy was a devil.
A devil that hunted devils.
"First, it’s true that there were only two Soul Guardian Stones. Other than that, there really is nothing else. There, there! Fine! I swear it to my God. Is that enough now?"
"Understood."
Baek Jinwoo nodded.
The holy Holy King was even swearing an oath, so of course this had to be believed.
"However."
The Holy King spoke firmly.
"I can only give out two for now. One for you, and one for the woman behind you."
"Excuse me?"
What was that supposed to mean?
"Don’t we still have to conquer Runestia and Arseon? If I hand them all over now, what exactly am I supposed to give you then?"
"Mm."
This bastard Holy King.
He didn’t look it, but he was actually a bit smart?
He was saying he’d only loosen up a little now in case they made a scene later asking for more.
"Then if it’s two, two, and two, that makes six. What about the remaining four?"
"You thieving bastard!"
That damned bastard!
Anyone hearing him would think those precious holy relics had been entrusted to him or something!
"Your Holiness?"
"Guaaaargh! Again, again, again with 'Your Holiness'!"
As the Holy King frothed at the mouth, Champion stepped in.
"Your Holiness...... Please maintain your dignity."
She wanted to say, The way this fatso squeals, he really does sound like a pig. But of course, she couldn’t actually say that.
They were inside the tent for now, but the subordinates outside might still hear.
She walked closer and restrained the rampaging Holy King.
"The four...... absolutely! Aabsolutely! cannot be given away. Even giving you six took a great deal of resolve on my part!"
"...Well, understood."
Fine then.
He’d only poked at him just to test the waters, but getting anything at all was still good.
Grinning from ear to ear, Baek Jinwoo accepted the scrolls.
He took the two and gave one to Rachel.
"Then."
Smiling, Baek Jinwoo bowed politely.
"Please call for us again next time. We’ll see you when it’s time to conquer Runestia."
This time, he deliberately left off 'Your Holiness'.
Judging by the expression on the man’s face, it looked like he might actually faint.
* * *
"Wow, you really are."
Great!
Rachel gave him a thumbs-up.
"Amazing, seriously amazing. I respect you in so many ways. How do you manage to squeeze even that out of him? The Holy King’s eyes were brimming with tears. I even felt sorry for him."
"Let’s check the scrolls."
Once outside the tent, we checked what we had received.
[True Apostle’s Sacred Mark]
[Grade: A-rank]
[When engraved on a summon, damage dealt to dark-attribute summons or the demon race increases by an additional 20%.]
"Oh."
That wasn’t bad.
Especially in this Tower of Trials, it was an item with tremendous efficiency.
"But this isn’t for consumption, it’s an engraving?"
"I’ll use mine first."
Baek Jinwoo immediately pulled out the scroll. Things like this just turned to crap if you tried to save them.
If you could raise your damage by 20% right now, then why hesitate?
"HunGyo."
—My lord?
"Yeah, this is yours. Refusal is refused."
Aso, Gale Slayer, Explosive Dragon, and the others.
There were many dealers, but even now, the one reliably controlling them all was still HunGyo.
These days, even in actual combat, he wasn’t being pushed behind them either.
Well, that was what happened when he’d been fed so many good things.
"From now on, anything good goes to you first, no matter what."
—Th-thank you.
Rip!
The moment Baek Jinwoo boldly tore it open, a burst of white light spilled out.
The blue pattern written on the scroll shone exactly as it was.......
Swish.
It was drawn onto the back of HunGyo’s hand.
Now HunGyo would deal even more damage against demons.
Rachel engraved hers onto the Yellow Dragon.
We were supposed to receive six in total.
'But?'
Of course, he was planning to take the remaining four too.
There were plenty of ways.
He could give him buffs, or say they’d be needed when crossing over to the Demon Realm to kill Asmodeus, and so on.
As long as he was persuaded, the Holy King would definitely hand them over.
Because he was an easy mark.
* * *
Four days later.
"Runestia has been conquered!"
The Holy Kingdom won another great victory.
This time, Baek Jinwoo and Rachel openly shined.
Explosive Dragon, in particular, was growing stronger at an exponential rate.......
Especially during war.
By sweeping away the smaller monsters with flame, she kept building stacks.
'I wish there could be about ten more wars like this?'
It was the perfect environment for stacking!
Honestly, Explosive Dragon didn’t even need training.
All she had to do was go into dungeons every day and build stacks!
That was training in itself.
When the battle ended, the Holy King came running over, panting, to greet them.
"You’ve worked hard. Here are the two I promised you. Then there should be no problem with Arseon either, right? Hahaha!"
Once again, they inherited the merit, and once again received two Apostle’s Sacred Marks.
The instant they got them, Baek Jinwoo applied one to Explosive Dragon, and Rachel applied hers to White Tiger.
* * *
This time, three days later.
"Arseon has also been conquered! We have secured all major strongholds."
"In this battle as well, the help of God’s apostles was immense!"
"They truly are incredible people. The sight of that red monster appearing and breathing fire to burn the demons...... it was such a magnificent scene that it may be hard to witness anything like it again!"
Now the holy knights praised Baek Jinwoo and Rachel as complete Apostles.
They respected them so deeply that whenever they met them, they couldn’t even speak and only bowed their heads.
Cruel and merciless demon hunters.
Whenever that group passed by, demons were cut down or burned without even managing to let out a dying scream.
Naturally, the Holy King loved it.
"Uahahahat! Well done! Truly well done!"
The fact that the three cities had been conquered meant they could now leave the Holy Kingdom.
How cramped it had been until now.
Most had lived by the roadside or in stables while taking in refugees.
And people who had no place at all?
Some even dug holes in the mountains and slept there.
'Besides.'
Three of Asmodeus’ loyal subordinates had died.
As a result, the continent’s level of corruption had dropped, and the thick demonic energy spread across it had disappeared.
That meant monsters would no longer be able to survive easily on the continent.
"Here! I’ll give you these again."
Apostle’s Sacred Marks.
This time, Baek Jinwoo gave one to Aso, while Rachel applied hers to the Archmage.
Now there were only four scrolls left in the Holy Kingdom.
Baek Jinwoo knew how to get them.
'Now.'
The time had come.
The time to cross over to the Demon Realm!
Then he would be able to demand them naturally.
* * *
It is the instinct of living beings to prefer peace over battle.
Because that is far better for survival.
What made it all so ridiculous was this.
The Holy Kingdom had become satisfied with peace.
Ordinarily, by now they should have opened the gate leading to the Demon Realm and advanced.......
"Well, well, what are you talking about? There has been no divine oracle from God yet."
"Give us some time! The people still haven’t even found their own homes again!"
Every time they went to see him, he spouted such leisurely nonsense.
Rachel grumbled.
"Ugh, that cowardly bastard."
Anyone could see it.
The Holy King was thoroughly terrified right now.
Peace had finally arrived, so why go out of the way to root out the source of evil completely? He’d probably started thinking that.
Because once battle began again, he himself would have to move personally too.
"Hah."
Baek Jinwoo shook his head.
Back during 「Battle of Summoners」, they had moved straight to the 58th floor, so there had been nothing like this.......
Well, whatever.
If they wanted to move quickly, it seemed like they were going to have to prod him a little.
* * *
Beneath the Holy Kingdom.
Clank!
Baek Jinwoo solved the secret of the hidden dungeon and pulled the lever.
Then.
Rumble!
A heavy mechanical sound rang out, and the floor trembled.
Deep inside, in a small space, a chalice overflowing with divine power could be seen.
"Wow."
Rachel, who had been watching from beside him, let out a gasp of admiration.
"You remembered all of this?"
"I’ve done it a lot."
The secret had been fairly difficult, but for Baek Jinwoo, who had done it before, it was as easy as pie.
"Here."
Swish.
Baek Jinwoo stretched out his arm and took out the chalice.
"It contains a Blessing of Light that even the Holy King doesn’t know about."
He grinned as he loosened his grip.
Sliiide.
The chalice fell to the floor under gravity.
Crash!
It shattered.
In that instant, a dazzling light covered the entire dungeon, and the wave of light that burst forth shot into the sky and spread throughout the entire kingdom.
Swaaaaaaaa!
Rain falling as light.
"Ah."
"Aaah."
Everyone reached out their hands to catch it.
The thing called 'fear' vanished, and 'courage' began to grow abundantly in their hearts.
Patrol soldiers, trainees in training. Paladins, Royal Guardians..... Even the Commander and Champion.
"We have to kill them."
And beneath that 'courage', 'rage' also began to swell.
The ones who had invaded the continent. The horrifying demons who had torn apart families and destroyed their homes.
"Let’s kill them!"
"Let’s storm the Demon Realm right now!"
Sching!
One by one.
The soldiers drew their swords and raised them toward the sky. Their eyes began to be dyed with madness.
The desire to preserve peace?
It vanished completely.
To go down right now and tear the demons apart was both God’s will and their own desire.
"Our enemy is evil!"
"We must destroy the Demon Realm at once!"
"Exterminate Asmodeus!"
The Paladins rose up, and the Royal Guardians collectively prostrated themselves before the Holy King.
"O Holy King! Please give the order!"
"We must open the gate to the Demon Realm at once!"
"....What in the world are you all doing?!"
No wonder.
He, who had not been touched by the rain of light, was flustered, but.
Whirl!
Even Champion Aila Lunares spun her spear forcefully as she pressed for a decision.
"Your Holiness, we can endure it no longer. We must punish evil at once!"
And before the bewildered Holy King.
"Hello, Your Holiness?"
Two more people appeared.
They were none other than Baek Jinwoo and Rachel, both wearing strange smiles.
* * *
At that same time.
South Korea was buzzing with excitement.
It had already been a month since the SKY recruitment test had begun, and now all that remained was the result.
Everyone knew the list of the public candidates.
The third, control test.
Because the people who had been eliminated there had revealed the final list.
Who would make it?
It looked like there were still ten people left, but if they were holding another test here......did that mean they were picking even fewer?
Just as the public was arguing back and forth, instead of an official answer, someone’s ILiVe broadcast turned on.
It was BJ Luna.
ㄴWow!
ㄴLuna’s on!
ㄴEveryone, get in here!
With the result still unknown, what more was there to say when a participant of the final test had started a broadcast?
Even foreigners with nothing to do with SKY made accounts and entered.
ㄴWhat happened?
ㄴDid Han Yuna get eliminated?
ㄴWho made it?
ㄴThere’s no way all ten got in, right?
People voiced their curiosity.
Then.
Bzzzt!
A spark crackled once, and Han Yuna’s face filled the screen again in an extreme close-up.
"Hiii, everyone~"
Her face looked incredibly excited.
ㄴDamn!
ㄴJudging by her expression, she passed, didn’t she?
ㄴHuh?
ㄴA streamer who got accepted into the world’s best guild in one shot?
ㄴAaaagh, this is killing me! Tell us already…..
ㄴWhy did you turn the stream on? Is this a failed-test review? Or the acceptance announcement?
"Hold on, everyone."
Han Yuna seemed to fiddle with her phone, and soon the stream title changed.
[(Live) BJ Luna, Official Announcement of SKY 2nd Generation Guild Members!]
Han Yuna, a final successful candidate for the 2nd generation.
In the end, Yoo Jia had officially allowed her to do a SKY broadcast.
What she loved.
Broadcasting, and being a player.
She had managed to catch both rabbits at the same time.
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