The Treasure Selection
The time for the Treasure Selection had arrived.
Aside from the entrance exam and the raid incident, this was the first major event of the Academy's early stages that could accelerate a player's growth.
The Hero's Holy Sword.
The Ember left behind by the Saintess.
The book left by White Ghost.
Within the treasure vault existed numerous artifacts, beginning with the relics left behind by the Hero Party that had slain Abaddon.
Most were genuine originals, though a few specific treasures—including the Hero's Holy Sword—were replicas.
Replicas didn't mean inferior performance, though.
Because the originals' value was simply too high, they had been separately crafted for the purpose of "selection"—but they were still upper-grade artifacts in their own right, made with the finest materials hand-selected alongside master craftsmen of the era.
Alongside the seven heroes' personal items, artifacts left by renowned hunters and heroes also resided in the treasure vault.
The reason this event was called "selection" was that when an artifact's original owner donated it to the Academy, they could attach conditions.
For example—
"Among those bearing the Jin surname, one who shows talent with dual swords."
In cases like this, it was a matter of a predecessor entrusting an item to be passed down to a descendant of their bloodline when the Academy accepted them.
"The user must possess a dual affinity for both fire and ice."
That condition was meant to pass the artifact to someone who had awakened a similarly unusual lineage of ability.
"More than half of the user's blood must be dragon."
[Ah, this one? I know that one.]
"That's right—the condition left by the last dragon that remained on Snow Mountain, attached to the Dragon Heart."
Perhaps hoping that they wouldn't be the last dragon after all, the original owner had left that condition in the hope that someone carrying dragon blood might inherit it.
Because of that condition, even the Bureau Director—who had participated in the pact with the dragon—refrained from touching the Dragon Heart and kept it stored within the Academy.
When the conditions matched a user, the treasure in the vault would respond accordingly.
And freshmen were then given the choice of whether to accept it or not.
Even if multiple treasures selected you, you could only take one away.
Of course, cases where someone was selected by multiple treasures simultaneously were so rare in Academy history that they could be counted on one hand—and one of those people was the original game's protagonist.
Anyway, since there was a random element involved and the probability of being selected by the previous Hero's treasures was extremely low, most people were advised to build their skill trees around that possibility.
The Treasure Selection was, quite literally, a random factor.
If you were selected by a treasure that fit your growth tree, great—but if not, it was a real headache.
Because of this, some players treated it as a fun element, skipping the prologue, enrolling in the Academy, and then ressimarolling the Treasure Selection.
From the jackpot prizes to the super busts that actually applied penalties when you won them, all kinds of treasures existed inside the selection chamber.
The Academy knew this very well, which is why they made it a public event where everyone watched together.
They went to great lengths—adding dramatic roulette-style presentations so students could experience the Treasure Selection with the same anxious anticipation as pulling a gacha in a mobile game.
"Tis Unnie, what kind of treasure do you think you'll be selected by?"
Sia, who had been scrolling through the list on her terminal, suddenly asked me.
"Hmm…? I'm not particularly greedy about it."
"Aww~ Isn't it nice if you get something good?"
"Sia, do you have something you want?"
"Hmm~ If I had to pick, probably the Holy Sword? Or if not that, one of the Hero Party members' treasures? Since we're picking, might as well go for the strongest one, right?"
It was an unwritten rule that during Treasure Selection time, you should at least drink a big bowl of kimchi brine in advance—just in case you won the lottery, you'd want to have thought about what to do.
[U-um, wouldn't it be good if we got selected too?]
Shan, her eyes shining with quiet anticipation, went back to searching through the treasure list posted online.
"That sounds like greed to me."
[Huh?]
"Well, we already have a lot in our hands, don't we?"
[A lot in our hands?]
To help Shan, who was tilting her head in confusion, I laid out what treasures we already possessed.
"First and foremost, White Ghost's secret technique. It was stored here, then stolen, and Fedor picked it up and learned it—and then we absorbed it, right?"
[Oh, right…]
"Since it was originally a treasure kept here, we could say we were selected two years early."
On top of that, the Saintess's treasure—the Ember—which Cheon Geomhwa had obtained from White Ghost as a former Hero Party member, was also somehow already in my possession.
[Oh, right. You said you grabbed it while I was unconscious.]
"Yeah. I'm still figuring out what to do with it."
Cheon Geomhwa had turned herself into a heart because she wanted to save Roseria.
Right now, Cheon Geomhwa was in a state similar to a coma.
Until the Ember was delivered to Beelzebuth, the contract between Cheon Geomhwa and Beelzebuth was still considered unfulfilled.
So for now, Roseria and her company Evergarden would be safe—but once Beelzebuth grasped the situation, she would certainly try to break or circumvent the contract somehow.
There was a big homework assignment left to deal with eventually. I also needed to safely send Katie outside of Area 7.
[B-but Beelzebuth doesn't know about the situation here yet, so we're fine for now, right?]
"That's true, but if we send Katie back, there's a higher chance she'll figure things out faster."
Anyway, between White Ghost's Silent Killing Method and the Ember, I already had two treasures in my possession.
Of course, the more the merrier—but I felt a bit of a conscience prick when it came to hoping for a new treasure.
Something like that.
If there was anything to worry about in the Treasure Selection event, it wasn't on my end—it was Siu and Sia's.
They should take this opportunity to secure a good treasure so their future would be at least a little easier.
Ugh.
[Treasure… Hero…]
I was pulled out of my reverie by Shan's whining, whimpering sounds—she seemed to be fuming about something.
"What's wrong?"
[Huh? Ah, no, it's just…]
"If something's bothering you, we can always talk comfortably with each other, anytime."
[That's just it. It's about White Ghost.]
Shan hesitated, then clenched her cotton-ball fists and finally poured out her heart to me.
"About White Ghost, why?"
[I, I don't like White Ghost.]
"What about her?"
[First of all, her a-appearance doesn't sit right with me.]
What kind of thing was that?
I couldn't have imagined such a statement coming from her.
"That's a complete surprise? I thought you'd naturally like her."
[W-why would you think that?]
"Well, obviously, because she looks exactly like us."
[T-that's the problem!]
Shan's eyes glistened with tears.
[I-s-isn't that unfair? Look at Tis's appearance right now—how did we make it? Tis and I spent two years racking our brains to polish it into a perfect, aesthetically flawless beauty—so why… why is there already someone with the exact same appearance?]
"That's…"
I found that questionable too.
It was strange to dismiss it as a simple coincidence.
Wait—when I thought about it more carefully, wasn't she the original? When I conveyed that thought to Shan, she deflated even further.
Hnnngh.
[Then our two years of effort were all for nothing. I don't want to hear White Ghost called the original…]
Once Shan started pouring out her words, she ran like a runaway locomotive.
[A-and calling her 'daughter'—what's that about? Huh? Without telling me… why did you proceed with such a major development behind my back?]
"I'm sorry."
Honestly, I had thought Shan would be thrilled, saying something like "Tis is doubled!"
[A-and why is White Ghost 'mom'? W-we don't have a mom. White Ghost killed our mom and then tells us she's our new mom—doesn't that seem weird?]
I hadn't thought about it that way.
It was true that White Ghost had killed Shan's biological mother, Abaddon.
"Shan, honestly, you don't have much feeling toward Abaddon, do you?"
And besides, the number of Abaddon's spawn left behind before her death—there would have been hundreds… no, tens of thousands of them.
[Ah, anyway! I don't like it. I-I'd rather have been Tis's mom myself, since I was the one who adjusted everything from her height down to the fine details of her body. Why White Ghost? Aah…!]
"Hold on, Shan."
I had just heard something enormous.
"Shan, say that again."
[Huh, so I was saying—]
"Could you explain to me in detail what you meant by that comment about height?"
Shan finally realized she had slipped up and stopped talking.
[Ugh.]
"Shan, are you saying that you secretly adjusted my height behind my back…!"
[N-no! I was just talking nonsense because I got excited!]
Shan shook her head frantically, denying it in a hurry—but I didn't really believe it was just a slip of the tongue.
Was the reason I was under 140 centimeters not because of the burden on my body or because I was Shan's host as Abaddon's spawn—but because of Shan's personal influence?
To be honest, I even felt a bit of betrayal.
[T-Tis… so, I mean—]
"Hold on. We'll talk about that later."
Something about the flow of sound around me felt off.
[…! I'll activate my sensory organs.]
Following Lionel's guidance, I stepped into the large, deep underground passage leading to the treasure vault and looked around.
"Shan! Shan!"
[What?]
"Look at the ceiling over there."
Eeeek!
Shan let out a startled scream.
[W-white thing!]
White Ghost was perched on the horizontal structural beam supporting the ceiling, looking right at us.
[P-please tell me you didn't h-hear what I was saying?]
"There's no way she did."
[B-but you never know. S-she's a ghost, ugh… scary.]
Shan trembled as if she'd been caught gossiping behind someone's back and gotten caught red-handed.
"Oh, you poor thing."
I patted Shan's head soothingly, pressing down with ichor.
Why was White Ghost here?
[W-what on earth is White Ghost doing here?]
"Probably… she negotiated with Baba Yaga, I think?"
[N-negotiated?]
"Sorry, it'll take too long to explain in words, so I'll share the memory with you."
Using the essences I had absorbed—those of upper-grade hazards like the Mental Eater, Elder Mind, and Eyeball, which were used as mental weapons for brainwaves and telekinesis—I shared the memories of everything that had happened while Shan was unconscious.
Perhaps the reason she had come all the way here was also because of the Ember.
If she said to leave it in the treasure vault as is, I honestly wouldn't have any words.
"Then that's a bit of a problem."
I needed to keep it myself so I could control Cheon Geomhwa and Beelzebuth from my side.
White Ghost, knowing I had caught on, descended silently from the ceiling like a ghost and approached me without making a sound.
Through the Silent Killing Method, she had completely erased her presence—so right now, aside from me, no one here knew White Ghost existed.
"Daughter."
[S-she really said that word to Tis!]
Shan screamed in horror at the sight of White Ghost approaching with a faint smile.