The Ascension Stone

"I'm back!"

The Divine Beast Yeonlim looked down at the tiny demon ship in her true form.

How had she returned so fast?

She had gone off to wipe out an entire sect, and she was back in three days — not even a few months. Was that even possible? And it wasn't some nobody sect, either. It was Poakgwido, the undisputed number-one demonic sect among every heretical order in the Gi-gye realm.

Giyeol, the Sect Leader of Poakgwido, was a Nascent Soul powerhouse who had crushed the other heretical sects through raw force alone and held enough strength to stand against both the demonic and orthodox orders.

"Is that really true?"

"Yeah. I let a few of them slip — a few people, I mean — but I wiped the place out properly. Don't believe me? Go check yourself!"

"No, it's fine. You have no reason to lie to me."

Watching the mission reward windows cascade up one after another, I felt full just looking at them.

Must have been because it was an Ancient-grade special mission — the payout was absurdly stacked!

Especially for something that amounted to clearing one same-tier field boss and wiping an entire map.

Rewards claimed. Time to go.

Oh, right.

"Hey, Yeonlim. Which way to the big city? Gigagiljin? I think that was the name."

"I believe I already told you that I am one of the Four Great Divine Beasts of Gigagiljin."

"Sorry! Skipped it!"

"Do you have business in Gigagiljin?"

"Huh? Well, to reach the upper realm you either need the Ascension Platform or the materials to build one, right? That's why I was heading there."

At my words, the Divine Beast was wrapped in a golden aura, shifted into human form, and rummaged through her storage pouch until she pulled something out.

"It's nothing compared to the favor you've done me, but here — an Ascension Stone. It's a material for the Ascension Platform."

Whoa. Bonus reward!

I'd figured the mission payout was already done, but I'd vacuumed up every last reward and still got extra loot just from external interaction dialogue?

No — looking at how she was still green even after the mission ended, maybe it was just a friendly NPC helping me out. The Small Luck event window popping up seemed to confirm it.

"Hey, want to come with me to my sect, Yeonlim?"

"I'm a little surprised you have a sect of your own, but I am bound to this city of Gigagiljin as a Divine Beast."

And more than that, even if it had been forced on her, she wasn't exactly free and unattached — I could feel the long, complicated backstory trailing off behind that sentence, so I skipped it and used a mode's power instead.

"Prisoner Demand."

It was an interaction that turned any NPC whose morale had broken — or who could still hold a conversation — into a prisoner.

When this mode first dropped, there had even been a speedrun strategy where people scooped up every friendly NPC as prisoners and sold them off. The Abyss runs had killed that meta, but either way, using Prisoner Demand on a friendly NPC tanked their affinity hard enough to turn them into a monster or a neutral NPC as a side effect.

Still, just accepting the mission had been enough to make her friendly, and I'd finished it at record speed — so with Yeonlim, her affinity ought to be high enough. Half as a joke, I tried it.

At the demon ship's words, invisible chains began to tighten around her. Yeonlim, descendant of a Divine Beast's bloodline, frantically looked up at the sky.

There —

the red star that always seemed to be looking down at the demon ship.

It turned its gaze, just slightly, like an eye, and looked down at her.

For an heir to a Transcendent species' Divine Beast blood, the mere meeting of that gaze made her own blood scream in terror. Feeling herself freeze with fear, Yeonlim forced her locked jaw open and cried out.

"I'll go with you! So—!"

So please don't turn that gaze on me. Don't look at me.

"Huh. Affinity barely dropped at all."

I'd expected her to drop to neutral at minimum, or turn into a monster if things went wrong — but she was still a friendly NPC.

When I'd tested this on other neutral NPCs, every single one had flipped into a monster and charged me with their eyes rolled back, so I'd killed them all. Must be because she was already friendly?

In reality, Prisoner Mode was working overtime because a new prisoner naturally meant more power for it — but Yu Hee couldn't have cared less.

"Wait, Yeonlim, are you hurt somewhere?"

Why the prefix wounded?

That was a rare qualifier that didn't even show up for one or two permanent injuries.

I remembered it as something ridiculously hard to get — it tanked your physical stats in exchange for a flat 100% boost to mental stats.

There were always one or two players a year who deliberately tried to pick it up for a mage build and bricked their characters in the process.

More precisely, if a player met the conditions for that qualifier to attach to an NPC, a special event reward slapped permanent abilities and debuffs onto them.

Ah — was that why her morale was low enough to get captured so easily?

Well, good things are good things!

"Whatever. Once we're back at the base — the sect — I'll fix you right up. Let's go!"

"As I said, I can't leave this place…?"

"Okay, say it with me. Base — Return."

"Base… Return?"

"No, as one word."

"Base Return?"

Watching Yeonlim vanish with a whoosh, I immediately used Base Return myself and came back to the base.

"What… what on earth is this…?"

While I was dragging the dazed, spinning Yeonlim over to the warehouse to dig out consumables that could heal permanent injuries, San Gi-yeon and some middle-aged man came hustling over to greet me.

"Who are you?"

Gray? Why was he hanging around with San Gi-yeon?!

Ah. Low-level scrub.

"I am Taeryeok, sent by Sir Gisa, Sect Master! I will devote everything I have to Hwanga-gongdong, which saved both me and my disciple!"

"Ah, Gisa?"

What the hell was that guy doing out there ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that he found an NPC with maxed-out faith and shipped him over? More importantly, if he weren't a friendly NPC, he wouldn't have been let into the base.

Had he registered as friendly to Gisa? I couldn't tell how the judgment worked.

"Well, whatever. Yeona's looking after you? Oh, right — this is Yeonlim, a new prisoner who just arrived. What are you standing around for? Say hello."

"Nice to meet you? Uh?"

Ah, I forced the interaction. Well, as long as affinity didn't drop, fine? Anyway, Yeonlim, San Gi-yeon, and that gray dot named Taeryeok — wait, when did he turn green? He ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was definitely gray a second ago.

They were introducing themselves and chatting away all warm and friendly. Yeah, skip skip — I was not interested.

I dumped every kind of consumable that cleared permanent injuries onto Yeonlim, forcibly healing not just her Nascent Soul and body but even her wounded heart, then immediately flew off to find Elder Togo.

"Elder Togo!"

I flew straight at him with my arms open, diving into the embrace of Elder Togo, who had been sitting atop a building with his eyes closed. He laughed and caught me, tucking me neatly into his arms.

"Back in less than ten days — did you find some kind of harvest?"

"I found this!"

"You truly found the material for the Ascension Platform. How did you come by it?"

"I did a favor for Yeonlim — a Divine Beast — and got it in return."

"A Divine Beast? Something that should only exist in the upper realm was down here in the lower one?"

"She said she's a descendant."

"If she carries only the pure bloodline without properly inheriting the laws and arts, then she is a half-of-a-half Divine Beast at best."

Half of a half — so only a quarter, then?

She'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠said there were four Divine Beast heirs, so if you gathered them all and fusion-evolved them, would you get a complete Divine Beast?

Togo's gaze grew warm as he looked down at Yu Hee, who had drifted into pointless speculation. He kept gently stroking the little one who nestled into him as if craving warmth.

She gradually went limp, then tipped over into a Rest state. Holding the sleeping child, Togo closed his eyes as well, and a portion of his Nascent Soul split off as an avatar and entered Yu Hee's Mental World.

By now it was familiar — he opened the door of the little house sitting in the golden sky that bisected the Mental World above the Sea of Slaughter, and the Humanity Clones were all clustered inside.

"Whoa, Elder Togo! Welcome!"

"Perfect timing — we were just about to watch the videotape Gisa sent over. The memory recording, I mean!"

"The newborn who achieved Transcendence second, you mean?"

"Yep! Unlike the main body, he's doing newbie-rearing, so it's not that exciting, but still!"

"The one running the main tank-stack defense build was always that Yu Gisa guy anyway."

"Which is exactly why there's so much backseat gaming to do! Wait, the file size on this is weird."

"Why? Wait — what the hell? She's only been gone ten days, right?"

"This memory isn't years' worth of footage?!"

"Just watch it already! Time runs different in the Mental World because of Double Speed Mod anyway!"

And so, gathered snugly around Elder Togo in front of the little house's TV, the Humanity Clones hit play on the shared memory recording, and Yu Gisa's adventures began to unfold.