The Sun-Moon Divine Pellet

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Heavy footfalls rolled through Jin-soo's ears, and with them green-skinned giants, each a full five meters tall, began to show themselves one after another.

"Those are giants?"

"What enormous frames."

Shin Sua and Cheon Museong stared, startled, at a race neither of them had ever seen. Monsters that had never once appeared in the Tower—of course they were surprised.

The giant race.

In truth, giants were not the sort of monster that belonged on the Tower's 200th ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Floor. Large monsters such as trolls and ogres were filed beneath the giant race as lesser branches, but they were a world apart from true giants.

The way a true dragon differs from a lesser dragon.

Giants possessed strength and speed beyond any large monster, and hides every bit as tough. But the most troublesome thing about facing them was this.

Their intelligence sits at roughly a human level.

Unlike monsters whose cleverness amounted, at best, to that of a dog or a dolphin, the giants used an independent language of their own. They could practice martial arts, draw up formations, and execute coordinated assaults.

"Korrath vel-mek, dun-saal threk! Tak-sidum tol-wakka!"

"Uwoooorgh!"

"Waj dil-rassa, hem-dun nar-duk!"

At the bellow of the one who seemed to be their chieftain, twenty-nine giants charged Jin-soo's party.

"Th-they're talking?"

The meaning was impossible to grasp. Even so, the giants were unmistakably using a systematic language.

"My Lord, should we interrogate those creatures, we may yet pry out the Tower's secrets."

"Then we take one alive."

Jin-soo nodded readily at Cheon Museong's words. Inwardly, he thought otherwise.

Capturing one won't mean a thing.

Just as players could not understand the giants' speech—

The giants can't understand ours, either.

Before the regression, there had been players who tried to converse with the giants even to the point of teaching them writing and sign language. Every one of them had failed.

There was even someone who mastered the giants' language.

Even then, dialogue never got through.

The undead and the true dragons were the same.

Whatever form it took, however much time and effort one poured in, it meant nothing. Even when both sides rattled on in the identical tongue, the language would not connect. Writing and signs were no exception.

The only explanation is that the System deliberately blocks communication between players and monsters.

Even so, he could not tell Shin Sua and Cheon Museong that now.

Jin-soo trusted his party members. That was why he had revealed that he could use the skills of every class, and that he could cross freely between the holy and dark affinities. He had no intention of revealing anything tied to the fact of his regression.

The blessings, I can share with people I trust.

He had no intention, however, of telling them that he had gained those blessings because he had regressed.

"Kuuwoooorgh!"

A giant swung a massive axe.

"Nyaaaang!"

Leo, perched on Jin-soo's shoulder, let out an adorable roar and hurled himself at the giant. Five meters tall, the giant did not spare so much as a thought for a kitten-sized Leo charging him. He ignored the cat completely.

"Nyaang!"

The price of dismissing Leo for his size was truly staggering.

Pap-pap-pap-puk!

Leo's cat punches flew in at tremendous speed and hammered the giant's legs in rapid succession.

Kuuung!

The giant's legs seemed to give out, and he dropped to his knees.

"Zun-dur? Dho gla-dal..."

In the instant confusion crossed the giant's face—

Shuk!

The Blood-Sucking Sword sheared his neck off clean.

Jin-soo burst forward, swinging Baekcheonsingeom and the Blood-Sucking Sword together. Shuk! Slash! Bodies of hard muscle, tough hide, and bone harder than steel parted like sheaves of straw.

The moment he charged, Cheon Museong took up sword and shield as well and advanced with flowing footwork. Twisting his shield, he turned a giant's axe aside—kagagak!—and swung a blade wrapped in pure-white sword aura.

Shuk!

The white aura severed the giant's ankle.

"Dil-rak sem, rak-dgek!"

"Ahen wha-tlago! Waj dil-rak sem, rak-dgek!"

The giants closed the distance between them and drew into formation.

Still a low standard.

Jin-soo took the measure of the survivors. Their numbers were few, and their class line consisted of nothing but warriors. The giants he had faced before the regression had been a great host numbering in the tens of thousands.

Their classes had been complete, too—tanks, warriors, assassins, archers, mages, and healers.

The giants before him now were warriors alone, and both the skills they used and their base stats fell far short of a giant's average.

They showed up as an exception inside a hidden dungeon on the 200th floor. Only natural, then?

Jin-soo quietly cut their numbers down one by one. The giants formed a tight pressing line and drove in hard with the strength pouring from their massive bodies, but they could not stop Jin-soo, Cheon Museong, and Leo.

"Zam-dur! Waj du-wekkeh, nar-du!"

The eyes that had been fixed on the three of them turned, all at once, toward Shin Sua.

Thud, thud, thud!

One giant charged her. The axe came whistling down—and the stone golem on guard threw itself across his path. Stone dust flew, and the golem's body began to crumble. Its level had climbed a great deal, and it carried every kind of buff, but a stone golem simply did not have the strength to hold a giant.

Buying a little time was enough.

In that span, the whip of sword aura Jin-soo had sent flying sheared the giant's neck clean through. The others never reached Shin Sua. Cheon Museong, shield to the fore, had already cut off the path to her.

"Krrrk!"

"Uwaaaagh!"

The giants shrieked and fought back savagely. Even so, beneath the attacks of Jin-soo, Cheon Museong, and Leo, their numbers dwindled one by one.

Kuuuuung!

The last giant collapsed bonelessly to the ground.

"Krrrrgh!"

After taking Leo's cat punches, he had been stripped of several stats and skills, and both arms and legs had been severed. All capacity for battle was gone. Breath, however, still remained.

"I shall interrogate it."

Cheon Museong stepped forward, and Jin-soo made no effort to stop him.

"Can you understand my words?"

Cheon Museong addressed the giant and tried a few simple gestures. The giant understood neither his speech nor his movements. Far from answering, it only groaned, or spilled some crooked tongue no one could parse.

"As I thought, words do not pass between us. The System's power to interpret every language of its own accord does not seem to be at work. Nor does the creature understand the language of gesture in the slightest."

Cheon Museong spoke with a creased brow.

"Looks that way to me, too. Feels like conversation was blocked on purpose."

Jin-soo let the truth slip, casual as anything.

"The System's cunning, then."

Face hard, Cheon Museong swung his sword and granted rest to the giant that had been suffering.

The hidden dungeon cleared in the same instant the giants were wiped out.

Fwaaash!

In a bright wash of light, the Ilwol Sindan appeared before Jin-soo's party.

What in the world are these?

Puzzled, Jin-soo called up the pellet's information.

Why is the description this vague?

He could not quite grasp what it meant, to draw the body's efficiency up to its maximum.

I'll eat one first.

Jin-soo placed an Ilwol Sindan in his mouth. It melted at once and sank into his body, and he felt his flesh begin to change. Creak. Crack.

The change on the outside isn't large.

There was only the sense that skin, muscle, and bone were being slightly tuned. Within, though, the change was violently fierce.

This is...

Just as when he had taken a Demon Spirit Divine Pill, the efficiency of his mana circuits climbed—and with it, strength surged through his whole body. It was not because his stats had increased. His flesh had grown more perfect, and the efficiency of those stats had risen.

So this is what it meant.

Nor did the change end there.

Even the efficiency of his Holy Body had risen.

"Excellent."

Jin-soo was deeply impressed by the effect.

Can I get one more of these?

If he ingested one through the dark-affinity status window, there would certainly be a further change, and the efficiency of his Dark Body would rise as well.

No. One won't be enough.

Even if, like the Demon Spirit Divine Pill, repeated doses dulled the effect, his bodily efficiency might still climb a little further.

I need at least two more.

Only then could he confirm how duplicates behaved. If a repeated dose still worked, he would need three at minimum.

I also have to test whether two or more duplicates still have an effect.

If he could manage it, four. And if there was still an effect after more than two?

I'll need even more than that. I'm certain I can obtain them.

The Jin-soo of before the regression had not been the sort who seized the strongest class and the finest weapons at the outset and rode an unbroken streak of success. He was the one who survived through hardship and sheer persistence, gained a good class and good weapons, and only grew strong once the late stages arrived.

That was why, before the regression, the achievements I earned and the hidden dungeons I cleared were few beside the other rankers.

After the regression, it was different. From the lower floors he had cleared nearly every achievement, and countless hidden dungeons besides. As rewards he had obtained the Holy Body and the Dark Body, secured a great number of Demon Spirit Divine Pills, and now he had drawn out the Ilwol Sindan as well.

"Hoh. It feels as though I am undergoing a Flesh-and-Bone Rebirth."

Having swallowed an Ilwol Sindan, Cheon Museong spoke with open admiration.

"To draw forth an effect identical to Flesh-and-Bone Rebirth from a single elixir... truly remarkable."

Cheon Museong had undergone Flesh-and-Bone Rebirth once before, in the Museong Dimension. Perhaps because of that, the breadth of his change was small, just as with Jin-soo, and he adapted to his altered body almost at once.

"Jin-soo, I'm fine. You eat it."

Shin Sua held an Ilwol Sindan out to him. Until now he had not been taking elixirs, yet he had eaten this one. That meant he needed it.

I can't be shameless enough to eat even the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one Jin-soo needs.

That it was an elixir of tremendous effect, she could tell from his reaction and Cheon Museong's alone. And precisely because of that, she wanted all the more to give it to him.

At her words, Jin-soo's expression shifted, subtly.

It's true I need more.

Even so, he had no wish to take Shin Sua's share and eat it himself.

If I need elixirs, I can just obtain more later.

He accepted the Ilwol Sindan she offered.

"Hehehe."

Seeing that, Shin Sua broke into a bright smile.

Jin-soo slipped the pellet neatly between her slightly parted lips. The moment ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it entered her mouth, it melted away.

"J-Jin-soo?"

"I'm fine too."

At his words she offered a faint smile. It did not last.

"Ugh!"

Unlike Jin-soo and Cheon Museong, Shin Sua's transformation was extreme.

Creak! Creak! Crack!

The sound of skin peeling, of bone and muscle twisting, burst from her without pause.

"It hurts! It hurts so much!"

Her body trembled. She clenched her teeth and thrashed in the pain. Shin Sua was an ordinary person from Earth.

She had taken several kinds of elixirs, the Demon Spirit Divine Pill among them. But that pill only raised the efficiency of one's mana circuits, and the rest did nothing more than increase stats. This was the first time she had swallowed the sort of elixir that violently remade the body itself.

"Sua. You can't pass out!"

Jin-soo, too, had felt extreme pain when he took the Holy Body Pellet and the Dark Body Pellet and his flesh changed. He had not lost consciousness, and because of that his body's efficiency had risen.

The Ilwol Sindan will be the same.

If she was to come out of this with a tougher, more efficient body, Shin Sua had to keep her mind to the very end.

"Nnnngh! J-Jin-soo! D-don't go! Stay here!"

She seized his hand.

"I know. I'll stay right beside you. So don't worry."

"Thank you."

Her face brightened a little.

"Hold on just a little longer. It'll be over soon."

Through the pain, Shin Sua managed a faint smile. And just as he had said, it was not long before the violent change tearing through her body came to an end.

"Haa... haa! I thought I was going to die just like that."

The pain gone, she spilled out rough breaths.

"Ahem."

Jin-soo quietly let go of her hand and opened a little distance between them.

"Hm-hm."

Cheon Museong, too, eased back from her side, turned his head, and fixed his gaze on a far corner of the dungeon.

"Nyaaang!"

"Kaaak!"

Leo and Kkami likewise put as much space between themselves and Shin Sua as they could.

Why ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠are they acting like that?

The pain over, feeling as if she might live after all, Shin Sua looked at the two of them in puzzlement.

"Ugh!"

In that instant a horrific smell stabbed into her nose.

What is this smell?

The source was her own body. Now that the change was finished, she was covered in murky sweat and flakes of shed skin—and that sweat, those flakes, were pouring out a stench too vile for words.

"Uuuuugh!"

Only then understanding why they had drawn away, Shin Sua's face flared, in an instant, as red as a ripe apple.