Chapter 98
I’m translating the chapter into the requested HTML format and preserving the special in-universe blocks as styled `
` sections where the source uses system-like or read-aloud text.CHAPTER_TITLE: The Final Fork in the Road
“Hariaad's Tear and Saliad's Well? I’ve never even heard of either one. Still, they’ve got to be insane items, right? They’ve got the names of named angels on them, and unique attributes too.”
Items that bore the names of high-ranking angels were usually packed with powerful effects.
I will begin by introducing Hariaad's Tear.
A rough, teardrop-shaped earring. The liquid held inside was as clear as its name, Hariaad's Tear.
Background Story
After the band led by Founding King Kain left the hill of Gippeum, the four angels bestowed many blessings upon the races they had created.
The elves received the blessing of wisdom and longevity, the dwarves strength of body and mind, the orcs endless vitality, and the half-people abundance and spirits.
Humans received no blessing at all. They already possessed, in balance, the strengths of the other races. But as the years passed, only humans grew weaker. Only the royal line of Kain, protected by divine favor, carried strength forward through its bloodline.
Of all beings, Hariaad loved humans most as she descended to the world below. So much so that, even though she could return to the heavens only if both wings remained intact, she tore off one for the sake of humanity. At the cost of surrendering her own immortality, she granted mortals the blessing of Resurrection. For humans, who did not live as long or stand as strong as the other races, Resurrection remained a great hope.
But the other races, especially the dragons, found Hariaad's actions deeply offensive. A six-headed dragon threatened her, demanding that she restore the three heads it had lost to humans. If she refused, it would burn the entire western land to ash.
Hariaad did not yield. She fought the six-headed dragon and defeated it. But in its final frenzy, the dragon spat out flames that turned the western region into a sea of fire.
Hariaad hesitated. With only one wing, she could not fly back to the sky, but she could have fled to another land. Yet if she did, everything around her would be consumed by the blaze.
After agonizing over the choice, Hariaad beat her remaining wing with all her strength and extinguished the fire. Even so, the west was left scarred by a great catastrophe, and from that time on the unmapped territory to the west came to be called the Dark Red Land.
As she collapsed among smoke and ashes, spent of all strength, the angel mourned deeply. She regretted that if she had shared hope with the other races too, none of this would have happened.
On her final tear, Hariaad poured all her power and turned it into a jewel. The tear of the angel who had tried to restore everyone but had not saved herself is sealed inside this earring.
“That’s a pretty long setup. I’ve never seen this before, and it’s moving, but... huh? What the hell is this item effect. Holy crap...”
Ho-yeong, who had been skimming lazily, suddenly widened his eyes at the tooltip that followed.
<Hariaad's Tear>
- Grade: Mythic
- Type: Active & Passive / Rechargeable Equipment
- Passive Effect: The divine power wielded by Hariad priests near the wearer increases by 20%.
- Active Effect: You can resurrect races other than humans! Not only human-adjacent races such as dwarves, orcs, elves, and half-people, but also monsters and animals can be revived.
“Revive another race? Seriously?”
The active effect stood out far more than the passive one.
The strongest authority of the Hariad faith, Resurrection. A power only humans could use, and only for humans, a strength granted exclusively to humanity.
Even in the game, the setting was faithfully reflected: only humans could be revived in combat. So Ho-yeong was shocked to hear that power could be used on non-human races as well.
Please read the detailed explanation.
[Use]
- If Hariaad's Tear is poured onto a corpse, it will be restored to life. The more intact the body and soul, the faster the resurrection and the fewer the aftereffects.
- Each use of this item consumes tears and KP. The amount of KP consumed increases in proportion to the target’s strength and usefulness, and the amount of tears consumed increases in proportion to the target’s degree of edification.
- This item cannot be used on the same target more than twice.
[Recharge]
- Each time the wearer or the resurrected spreads the value of sacrifice or hope, Hariaad's Tear is replenished.
[Restriction]
- Only humans may wear this item, and among them only those who follow Hariaad’s will.
“So it uses KP instead of EP or RP...”
KP was Kill-Point, in other words, kill points. Ho-yeong was a little rattled at the idea that something he had thought was nothing more than a score would be used as a resource.
“If KP goes down... does that mean the game-clear reward gets smaller too?”
When the game was cleared, accumulated KP could be exchanged at a rate of ten thousand won per point.
That reward, along with the chance to obtain five Mythic-grade items, was one of the most tempting things about clearing the game.
If you mean the reward received in your world after completing the main quest, then yes. Since accumulated KP decreases, the amount of currency you receive also decreases.
That part bothered him a little. Ho-yeong wanted money for his younger siblings, as much money as he could possibly earn.
Right now my accumulated KP is 1,100. If I cleared it this instant, that’d be 11 million won. But if I used 100 KP to bring back a monster, that’d mean one million won less. Still, calculating it at this point doesn’t mean much. We’ve only just started Chapter 2.
The road ahead was long. Ho-yeong decided not to worry about reduced rewards for the time being.
“The KP you earn by killing monsters can also be used to bring monsters back to life, huh. That’s kind of loaded with meaning. So how much KP would it take to revive Vulcher?”
The moment he saw the item effect, the first thing that came to mind was the hogryphon Vulcher.
It takes 7 KP to resurrect a normal hogryphon specimen.
When I killed a hogryphon before, the KP I got averaged around 5. If it costs 7 to revive one... that’s about 1.4 times as much? The exchange rate is pretty stingy.
But it wasn’t that simple.
Hogryphon #005, Vulcher, is not an ordinary specimen. He is an elite specimen that has received several buffs, including the designation of Leader, and has accumulated a variety of experiences; in other words, he can be considered an elite. Vulcher's resurrection is expected to consume 15 KP or more.
There was a catch: the stronger and more useful the resurrection target, the more KP it would consume.
“So it’s not like there’s a fixed formula. Anyway, I don’t mind spending 15,000 won, no, 15 KP, to bring back my precious Vulcher. KP can be earned again. No matter how much a monster’s life is worth, I’m not the kind of guy who likes doing hard-nosed cost-benefit calculations.”
Ho-yeong decided to keep things simple. Use the KP earned by killing evil monsters to bring back good monsters.
“Either way, this item lives up to the Mythic name. No, it stands out even among Mythic items! It can fill in troop losses after a fight as a basic function, and I could even send people on dangerous missions knowing I can revive them if they die. On top of that, it’s perfect for building friendly relations with other races and factions, like elves or dwarves. Basically, I can say, ‘I’ll bring your dead guy back, so give me resources.’”
...Didn’t you just say you weren’t suited to weighing profit and loss in terms of lives? That was three seconds ago.
“That was that, and this is this! I’m not some saint, so don’t be too stingy about it.”
Since it could resurrect beings that normally could not be revived, it had plenty of advantages.
“Now that I know Hariaad's Tear is ridiculous, show me the other item too.”
He was curious how amazing Saliad's Well would be.
I wonder what it does. Since it’s got the word well in the name, maybe it has something to do with recovery?
In games, wells usually served as places to restore health or mana.
As the remaining reliquary was opened, a glowing well appeared.
<Saliad's Well>
- Grade: Mythic
- Type: Passive / One-Time Buff
- Effect 1: Drinking this well water permanently increases Intelligence by 30%.
- Effect 2: The one who drinks this well water can escape death once.
Background Story
Hariaad was able to unleash the overwhelming authority called Resurrection by sacrificing herself.
Saliad pitied the angel, but at the same time thought her foolish. If she had remained in the heavens, she could have helped far more lives, for far longer.
The angel of wisdom dug wells for restoration, not sacrifice. These wells, which only the wise could find, have now all dried up.
“Escape from the brink of death?! This isn’t some nonsense like The Number One Way to Escape an Awkward Moment, is it?”
This item’s second effect was the one that stood out right away.
[Detailed Explanation]
- When the user is expected to suffer damage that would be fatal, the body and soul ascend to the celestial realm and avoid the crisis. This effect activates automatically even in a crisis the user does not consciously recognize.
- When moved to the celestial realm, health, mana, stamina, and fatigue are all restored. When descending back to the mortal realm, the user may choose any destination.
- After descending, the user enters a [Protection] state for a certain period and does not take damage. The closer the distance between the place they ascended from and the place they returned to, the longer the protection state lasts.
“That’s basically a bonus life, right? And it fully restores you too, with unlimited return range... not to mention it even gives you [Protection] afterward. It’s a whole gift set, no, a whole relic set.”
Ho-yeong’s jaw dropped. He had never seen an effect that combined a survival skill, a recovery skill, a movement skill, and an invincibility skill all at once.
The automatic activation is the biggest advantage by far. Even if I got ambushed without warning, like being stabbed in my sleep while I’m in my equipment, I could still come back to life, right?
There were plenty of characters with survival or escape skills in Reign of Dice. But no matter how good a skill was, if you couldn’t use it in time, Ho-yeong considered it the same as not having it at all.
If I return to the place where I almost died, the [Protection] state lasts longer... I could even use that to go on a rampage.
With his unusual imagination, he was already thinking of unconventional uses.
Effect 2 is absurdly good, but Effect 1 is plenty good too. No, I can even call it amazing. Permanently increasing Intelligence by 30% with no penalty at all... That alone is basically on par with most Legendary-grade item effects. It can’t hurt to be smarter.
He recalled how his foresight was too low to let him estimate Squatroll’s location.
“Hmm... this is a hard choice. Let me sort it out. Hariaad's Tear doesn’t give me a direct benefit, and in fact it eats into my KP reward, but it helps my allied forces enormously. Saliad's Well is the exact opposite: it’s huge for me, but it does nothing for my allies. This is rough.”
For the conflicted Ho-yeong, Daliha offered some guidance.
I recommend considering it from another angle as well. Resurrecting allies may seem, at first glance, to force a loss in KP, but in the end it could bring great benefits to you, Guardian. It could lay the foundation for completing the main quest.
“Yeah, that’s true. If I can’t clear the game, then rewards and all the rest are useless anyway.”
On the other hand, your survival is a great help not only to you, but to your allies as well. Without you, the lord, the continued existence of Tamer Territory would face serious problems.
“That makes sense too. Sure, Seonjo, no, my ancestor, gets shit on for fleeing during the Imjin War, but in the end, because he ran so well, he kept the country’s center from collapsing.”
Thinking of Seonjo’s flight sparked another perspective.
“Hold on. Sure, he managed to get away, but in the meantime the whole Joseon Peninsula got wrecked, didn’t it? Come to think of it, even if I get out safely, there’s a chance the remaining allies all get wiped out. What’s the point of surviving alone then... Ah, my head hurts.”
Daliha’s advice did not resolve his dilemma; if anything, it only made the conflict bigger.
“Damn. This really is the most complicated fork in the road.”
Even though Chapter 1, The Endless Fork in the Road, had already ended, it felt like he was still standing at the last branching point.
Three minutes remain until decision.
“The tear of the angel who had tried to restore everyone but had not saved herself is sealed inside this earring... huh.”
Ho-yeong read the background story of Hariaad's Tear once more and let out a long breath.
Was Hariaad feeling the same thing I am now? A brutal choice either way. Do you save yourself first, or someone else?
With two minutes and thirty seconds left before the decision.
Unknown event triggered! A hostile will is attempting to interfere with the timeline. The timeline freeze state will soon be lifted!