The Immortal Knight

"It has undergone Naturalization."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"If refinement is artificial, then naturalization is the natural way of things."

Elder Togo had been about to launch into some complicated explanation, but he took one look at me, paused for a beat, and neatly summarized it in a single line. His consideration for me was almost painful.

"When vast amounts of heaven-and-earth primordial energy gather and give birth to spirit essences or primordial treasures, cultivators imitate that process to create dharma tools. Just as cultivators artificially refine tools with spiritual power suited to themselves and turn them into dharma tools, naturalization is when a cultivator invests spiritual power over a long period to tame someone else's dharma tool, or when the power of a Heavenly Tribulation sent down by the heavens naturally strengthens a dharma tool."

And in the end, reading my blank expression, he loosened the explanation a little more. So... I still had no idea why that ancient-grade armor left behind by that pervert was kneeling there all by itself, nodding as if it understood everything.

"Didn't you see it too, baby? When I was making the elixir."

"Ah, right."

Come to think of it, when Elder Togo and Cheon Nan-cho were making the consumable for me to break through my limits and leap to Nascent Soul, Heavenly Tribulation had poured down onto the elixir, hadn't it?

I looked at the full-body armor that was radiating pure white radiance from the only openings—its eyes.

So... it's a Humanity Clone, right?

The full-body armor nodded.

It couldn't speak, but it could read my thoughts. Even though I could no longer read the kid's thoughts myself.

It felt like one of them had completely dropped out of the memory network formed by the Humanity Clones and gotten blocked off.

Not being able to talk was inconvenient. No—before that, why the hell had this one possessed this thing in the first place?

I checked the other Humanity Clones' memories. What? Because it looked fun?

Well, sure, it did look fun, but still!

The full-body armor—more precisely, the Humanity Clone with the knight class—reached into the air, somehow produced a stone tablet, and with a gauntlet that stood out pure white against the otherwise pitch-black armor, pants, shoes, and helmet, scratched letters onto it with a finger before handing it over to me.

"This nickname—no, this name. Did you pick it yourself?"

From the way the helmet shook side to side, it seemed even the kid didn't know. Didn't look like it was lying, either.

Job is knight so the name is also knight? Talk about simple.

No matter how I looked at it, this had to be because of whatever memory or soul remnant that pervert left behind in the armor.

Scanning the memories, it seemed the Humanity Clone that inherited the job and the memories personally entering the armor had been some kind of trigger.

The incomplete soul merged with the remnant left in the armor, Heavenly Tribulation got added on top of that, and the whole thing fused into one with the armor itself, achieving Transcendence in the process.

"If it's Living Armor, then it's basically just Living Armor, right? You can't go back to the Mental World?"

The knight nodded.

It could enter the inventory and even open the inventory, so it seemed to be receiving both prisoner and item judgments at the same time. I wondered what the exact judgment would turn out to be.

Anyway, it felt like I'd gained a clone, so it wasn't bad.

Yu I-seong, who had achieved the first Transcendence, had no physical body and occupied the sky of the Mental World. She couldn't exert her power without going through my body, I had no clone-type skills, and because of the Slaughter Tribulation I couldn't create a body for her.

If I could make bodies for the other Humanity Clones this way, maybe I could pull them out of the Mental World?

With that thought I ran some experiments. No Heavenly Tribulation fell, and if they got a little too far from me they either bounced back into the Mental World or the equipment simply wore out and broke at high speed.

So that didn't work!

After talking it over with the Humanity Clones, we concluded it had been a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠coincidence born from the extremely high compatibility between the ancient-grade item and the knight who had inherited the power and memories of its original owner—that pervert.

And since there happened to be an invasion event going on, I tossed Yu Gisa into it. Even though he was only at Transcendence Stage 1, the body he was using was the ancient-grade armor that a max-level 500 knight had worn.

"Fights pretty well."

Aside from Yu I-seong, not a single one of the Humanity Clones had known how to fight, but whether it was because he'd inherited that pervert's power or not, the knight used his entire body as a weapon and pulverized the monsters pouring in through the invasion event.

If both Yu I-seong and I were closer to ADCs, Yu Gisa looked like a pure tank—except he was a tank with pretty high attack power thanks to the Slaughter Tribulation.

He turned into a metal blender and ground the invasion monsters to pieces, showing off a powerful display that was just simply strong.

Totally different from a certain someone specialized only in Evil Karma proportional damage!

In the Mental World, Yu I-seong half-lidded her eyes and reached for her golden spear. I freaked out and apologized.

It was a joke, a joke! If you take that thing and stab me with it I will actually die, okay?!

After barely soothing Yu I-seong, I set aside the regret that the item window no longer opened for the knight, meaning I'd obtained an ancient-grade armor only to never even get to try it on before it flew away.

Yu Hee began settling the results from the Abyss.

"We cleaned everything up already!"

"The main body just meditated in the Mental World the whole time!"

Hey, what kind of fabrication is that? That was skill crafting, okay?

Lightly ignoring the Humanity Clones' complaints, the results I checked were pretty decent.

If I raised my level too high I'd get kicked out, and the experience drop rate would fall, so I'd focused on increasing spiritual power and Slaughter Energy. As a result my level itself was still 502.

But the spiritual power and Slaughter Energy that had felt quite awkward right after reaching Nascent Soul had stabilized considerably, and on top of that I'd cleaned up the modes whose level restrictions had been unlocked upon hitting level 500.

Most of all...

The Abyss elite mobs—in other words, the level 500 monsters—dropped Extreme-Grade Spirit Stones at a low probability, and I'd piled up quite a few of them.

Each one was worth a full hundred million. Just sticking one in the warehouse was enough to make a raid boss monster pop out with a "peekaboo" during an invasion event.

Whether it was because goods in xianxia mode were items, or the result of game-style inflation, Uniques were worth around a thousand and Legends around ten thousand.

Of course, the value judgment in the Base Management Mode warehouse only looked at simple grade rather than level, so the actual value was probably quite different!

Anyway, Extreme-Grade Spirit Stones were amazing.

Just bury one in a mountain and the mountain became a spirit mountain. Bury it in the ground and the spiritual energy thickened. Socket it into a dharma tool and—assuming the tool could withstand it—the tool became extremely powerful.

If Cheon Nan-cho used her power she could create a spirit vein through which the Extreme-Grade Spirit Stone's spiritual energy flowed, helping with cultivation. Elder Togo could consume Extreme-Grade Spirit Stones to display power that slightly exceeded the peak of Nascent Soul even in the lower realm.

At this point you could call them all-purpose.

Of course they had almost nothing to do with me, who handled Slaughter Energy!

Even after reaching Nascent Soul, spiritual power was still hard to handle.

I'd just leave it to the Humanity Clones.

They could be used as goods too, but according to Elder Togo, consuming them in a lower realm like this was a waste.

At first he'd tried to stop me from making a spirit vein in the base, but since this base was a secret realm that practically belonged ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to me, he'd accepted it.

I mean, if I changed channels and couldn't return to the base, that wouldn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠work, right?

This secret realm called the base was connected to my Status Window, so even if I ascended to the upper realm I should naturally be able to return! No matter how much of a trash game it was!

Don't underestimate the Base Fortress Management Mode!

Anyway, I introduced the Yu Gisa guy to Cheon Nan-cho and San Gi-yeon, not just Elder Togo.

"So this is an Earthly Treasure you made by tearing off a piece of your soul?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"A treasure that got hit by Heavenly Tribulation."

"Well, it did get hit by Heavenly Tribulation, but treating it like an object... I don't know about that. Shouldn't we ask the person themselves?"

The knight crossed his arms and tilted his helmet, looking down at Cheon Nan-cho with an arrogant air. Cheon Nan-cho, as if throwing a tantrum, kicked the knight right then and there.

I'd expected him to bounce off thanks to the Prisoner Management Mode, but since the knight received both item and prisoner judgments, the attack went through as-is.

But the ancient-grade armor that had been the final gear of that max-level 500 pervert couldn't even be scratched by such a simple attack.

In the first place, it was armor with such absurd defense that it had taken my Sea of Slaughter head-on and only cracked without even denting.

Yu Gisa, who had made that his body, naturally followed the armor's defense.

More precisely, the combination of the defense, prefixes, and option effects from every piece of armor—from the shoes, helmet, pants, all the way to the gauntlets—had raised the defense even higher.

Hardened by the job correction, Yu Gisa was a genuine tank who, despite being only Transcendence Stage 1, couldn't even be damaged by Cheon Nan-cho's power.

The job was broken. Completely broken.

The limit level was only Golden Core, but looking at how it was 402 rather than ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a clean 400, it seemed like it had simply subtracted about 100 levels from my own.

As an experiment I dropped one level with the wheel, and Yu Gisa wrote out in letters that his limit level had dropped by one, just as I'd guessed.

Communicating is such a pain!