Chapter 239
I Became the Successor of the Martial God
Chapter 239.
—Family head!
"Ugh, my ears are buzzing."
Jeon Soo-yeon immediately whined as soon as she picked up the phone.
Yoo Baek-jun pulled the receiver away from his ear.
—You’re the family head now… That woman is weird! She’s not like a human, more like some kind of beast!
"Come on, no matter how you look at it, calling a perfectly normal person a beast is a bit much, don’t you think?"
—No, I don’t mean it in a bad way. It’s just that the way she acts is seriously like a wild animal… really…
Jeon Soo-yeon sounded sullen.
She had been keeping an eye on Blood Rin, the Blood Demon he had persuaded earlier.
While no major issues had arisen, a rogue S-class monster was always a ticking time bomb.
‘It’s like an S-rank monster going berserk and running wild.’
Thinking of it that way wasn’t too far off. After all, Blood Rin had lived like a wild beast all her life.
"Has she shown any intention of coming back?"
"That woman? No way. Seems like she’s really enjoying mountain life."
"Figures. Hmm…"
It would take quite some time for her to come to the Sword Saint family.
Yoo Baek-jun licked his lips.
"Then leave it to your subordinates and come back. You can’t stay there forever."
"Finally, some good news! Wow! I can finally return to civilization. Proper food, sleep, and rest…"
Since Blood Rin seemed somewhat stable now, it was better to leave her to the subordinates and have Jeon Soo-yeon return.
Of course.
"As soon as you get back, work with Min Yi-jae to track down the Stagglers."
"Uwaaah…"
He had no intention of letting her rest.
Jeon Soo-yeon whined, but he ignored her. He himself was buried in paperwork—how dare she think of resting?
"Do you even know how much your annual salary is?!"
"B-but you’re working me so hard I don’t even have time to spend that salary…"
"So what, am I running a charity? Should I just pay people for doing nothing?"
Jeon Soo-yeon kept grumbling, but Yoo Baek-jun had no intention of humoring her further.
"This must be the pain that comes with a promotion… Well, I guess I’ll just have to accept it. Ah, and Family Head."
"What?"
"A Gate has appeared in the area you mentioned before. I think it might be the one you were looking for."
"Oh?"
Yoo Baek-jun’s eyes gleamed.
"Looks like I’ve got work to do."
"While you’re at it, my work too…"
Yoo Baek-jun hung up immediately.
He had already instructed the intelligence team to monitor a certain area.
A Gate had appeared there—an Entry-type Gate leading to Halpeon.
‘The Gate… Before I go there.’
There was something he needed.
Yoo Baek-jun checked the points he had accumulated. To his surprise, there was an absurdly large amount left.
"What the heck, I’ve got 8,000 points?"
He hadn’t had any reason to spend them, so he’d been saving them up like pocket change in a piggy bank.
And now, without realizing it, he’d reached 8,000.
"It’d be a waste to just leave them sitting there."
Letting this many points rot away was practically criminal.
Yoo Baek-jun fell into thought.
‘This is enough to buy a high-performance S-rank trait and still have leftovers. What should I do?’
Something that would help him now.
And something that would continue to be useful in the future.
There was one.
Rustle.
Yoo Baek-jun pulled out the Book of the Martial God And quickly flipped through the pages.
Among the countless traits listed, he found the one he was looking for.
—Thunder Monarch (S).
—5,000P.
The name alone exuded majesty.
Yoo Baek-jun thought for a moment, then decisively selected the Thunder Monarch trait.
The glowing letters. A powerful force began flowing into his body.
Rumble!
The sound of thunder echoed from somewhere.
Yoo Baek-jun closed his eyes. When he opened them again, his irises flashed a deep golden hue.
[Thunder Monarch (S)]
—You have inherited the power of the Thunder Monarch, whose name once shook the world.
—You can freely wield lightning, and the power of thunder-attribute skills is greatly enhanced while magic consumption is reduced.
—You gain strong resistance to thunder-attribute attacks and can absorb low-level thunder-attribute attacks.
—Due to the trait’s effect, the rank of all thunder-related traits and skills you possess is increased.
It was a trait with performance similar to the S-rank trait Successor of the Death King.
Notably, it allowed him to absorb low-level thunder-attribute attacks.
Meaning he could outright ignore weak lightning spells cast by lesser mages.
‘Freely wield lightning.’
That was its greatest feature.
It was also why Yoo Baek-jun had chosen this trait out of all the good options.
‘Even if I can’t be bothered to learn magic, there aren’t many ways to mimic its effects.’
For Yoo Baek-jun himself, learning magic was far too inefficient.
He had plenty of magical power, but he couldn’t fully utilize the power of spells.
Because he lacked the relevant traits.
"But with this…"
Yoo Baek-jun opened his palm.
As he summoned the power of the Thunder Monarch, fierce lightning crackled in his grasp.
"Hmm!"
He executed a light martial arts sequence.
Each punch and kick was accompanied by lightning, making his attacks more powerful than before.
‘Not bad.’
It did consume magical power, but it was well within Yoo Baek-jun’s current limits.
Additionally, thanks to the trait’s effect, the ranks of Thunderwheel Strike and Thunderstomp Kick had also increased.
The Thunder Dragon technique was probably stronger now too.
‘With this, even that bastard Harun…’
Harun was a specialist in ice magic, but that wasn’t all he had. He had hidden trump cards.
This trait was necessary to prepare for those.
And even without looking that far ahead.
"Time to go hunt down some Tugwi?"
The newly opened Gate.
This trait would be useful when clearing the Tugwi Event beyond that gate.
‘And I should get that dice too.’
While at it, he could also acquire an artifact to help with using the Skill Selection Ticket.
Yoo Baek-jun stood up.
There was no reason not to go.
* * *
Yoo Baek-jun’s destination was a hotel.
A five-star hotel in a city famous for tourism.
Normally bustling with people, it was now completely empty.
—Gate appearance. Entry prohibited.
A Gate had appeared in the hotel’s basement, sealing it off.
Guards from the Hunter Association were stationed at the entrance, and they spotted Yoo Baek-jun.
"You may proceed."
"……"
One guard welcomed him, but the other’s gaze was hostile.
Baek Jang-hyeon, the Hunter Association Chairman, was a respected figure. Many within the Association admired and followed him.
That guard seemed to be one of them.
"Not exactly the attitude to show someone who’s here to clear the Gate."
"Huh? Ah! S-sorry. Hey! Are you insane? Do you even know who that is…?"
"…My apologies."
Yoo Baek-jun smirked and walked past them, past the barricaded entrance.
He didn’t pay it much mind.
"If you’re an Association employee, you’d be pretty pissed right now. I get it. There’s the Vulcanus incident too."
"Right. The bomb I dropped must’ve left the place in shambles."
The Hunter Association had been in turmoil lately.
Investigations into Vulcanus and Black Hammer had exposed their crimes.
And in the process, their connections to the Association had also come to light.
—Hunter Association’s Jo Yang-woo arrested.
—Received bribes from Vulcanus and Black Hammer, facilitating their operations…
Thanks to that, Jo Yang-woo was gone, along with several others tied to him.
Not long ago, the Jeju Island Association incident had caused chaos, and now this happened right after.
‘Baek Jang-hyeon is a relatively clean figure.’
But what about the others?
The Hunter Association was a long-standing organization, so there were plenty of rotten elements.
Moreover, thanks to the previous incompetent chairman, that rot had festered even deeper.
‘Even if Baek Jang-hyeon is clean, the rats beneath him are a cesspool.’
No need to touch him.
Just cleaning up the ones below would drag the Association’s reputation through the mud.
"Speaking of Vulcanus, the Golden Lion is in pretty bad shape."
"How so?"
"Song Tae-yeon was arrested for attempted murder, and the executives are under investigation… Guild members are leaving in droves."
Golden Lion had already seen a mass exodus when Song Tae-yeon became the guild master.
Many of those members had joined White Wolf, including long-time executives who had supported Golden Lion for years.
"The current core executives are probably just replacements who filled the void."
"From what I hear, they’re the same type as Song Tae yeon—yes-men who climbed the ladder by brown-nosing. Like attracts like."
Golden Lion would likely disband.
With the guild master arrested and members quitting, there was no way it could survive.
And that was an opportunity for White Wolf.
"White Wolf’s influence is about to grow again."
White Wolf would greedily devour the remnants of Golden Lion’s collapse.
But that wasn’t a bad thing.
‘If White Wolf grows stronger, we gain a solid ally.’
Yoo Baek-jun mentally reviewed the list of organizations friendly with the Sword Saint family.
The Peng Family, Crimson Crusade, Dokgo-jun’s Myeongseong Group—all somewhat friendly.
Add White Wolf, which was about to become a major guild, and the Magic Tower organization.
‘With this much…’
Even the Hunter Association wouldn’t easily provoke. In fact, it might be possible to pressure them instead.
"This’ll be fun."
Yoo Baek-jun arrived at the hotel basement.
The basement had once been a bar. Decorated in lavish gold tones, it had exuded luxury.
But now, likely due to the Gate’s appearance, the interior was a mess.
"That’s it."
The destroyed, chaotic basement bar—people had fled in a hurry.
Deep inside, there was a Gate.
[Flower Blooming in the Desert.]
Amirst, a city built on an oasis in the desert. A famous stop for any traveler crossing the sands.
But lately, people have been disappearing there one after another.
You must go to this city, uncover the reason behind the disappearances, and eliminate the cause.
—Difficulty: B~S-rank.
—Entry limit: 5 people.
—Objective: Discover the reason for the disappearances and eliminate the cause.
—Clear reward: Varies by difficulty.
The difficulty was erratic.
Minimum B-rank, maximum S-rank.
This meant there were multiple paths to clear the Gate, each with different difficulty levels.
‘Choosing the lowest difficulty would make it easy to clear. But…’
Yoo Baek-jun scoffed.
"Then why even bother clearing it?"
He was aiming for the highest difficulty.
Only then could he obtain all the hidden rewards within the Gate.
"Alright, let’s head in—"
Just as he was about to enter, he noticed Han Seong-ah’s absence.
Yoo Baek-jun looked around and found her sitting on a barstool.
"Oh my, so many delicious desserts… Ah, Seol-yeong. There’s meat too. Want some?"
—Growl!
Her eyes sparkled as she looked at the desserts in the bar.
Then she even fed meat to Seol-yeong, who was nestled in her arms.
"Is it good? So tasty."
—Grrr.
Yoo Baek-jun sighed.
"Instructor Han Seong-ah, it’s getting fat. Stop feeding it. Put it on a diet."
"But…"
Han Seong-ah watched Seol-yeong happily chomping on the meat with fondness.
"Isn’t it cute how much she’s enjoying it?"
"No wonder she’s been gaining weight lately—it’s your fault."
At first, the scrawny cub had been hard to identify as either a tiger or a leopard. Now, it was pleasantly plump.
Its fur patterns, once faint, had also become distinctly tiger-like.
Swoosh.
When Yoo Baek-jun touched the patterns, they began glowing in mystical colors.
Normally black, they seemed to light up when magic was channeled.
"Now it's starting to look like its parents."
"Huh?"
"Never mind."
Yoo Baek-jun pulled Seol-yeong up.
"Instructor Han Seong-ah, stop acting like a grandma feeding her grandkids and let’s go."
"Aah, the desserts…"
"I’ll buy you some when we get back."
With Han Seong-ah and Seol-yeong in tow, he stepped into the Gate leading to the desert.