Time Passed
Time passed.
A faint light seeped through the fine cracks in the egg. The divine beast's soul had vanished long ago, and all that remained was to wait for the result.
In the meantime, Yujun called back up the hologram message he had skipped over earlier without reading.
You have completed every prerequisite task!
The Extreme Ice Stone can be obtained upon clearing the trial of the Ice Palace.
The current trial difficulty is EX-Rank.
"So it's a trial again."
There's no end to them. No—on second thought, this was better. A clear objective was far more convenient for a player than being told to go find an Extreme Ice Stone with no direction at all. The problem was that the difficulty was EX-Rank.
An ordinary S-rank trial or dungeon was already something a whole party of top rankers could barely clear, and this was neither SS nor SSS. It was EX-Rank. What were they planning to hand over in exchange for the Extreme Ice Stone, to have designed a trial this vicious? The reward was not going to be a joke.
"M-Master! Pray look at this! The egg is cracking!"
Yujun whipped his head around. Just as Paranet had said, the egg was already half-broken, and with every passing moment the cracks spread farther.
Then, all at once—
Krrk! Krr-crack!
"Oh..."
He had no idea what any of it meant yet, but a flood of messages never felt bad, and not one of them was negative.
So the egg was a divine beast to begin with? That would explain why it had reacted so violently to the other one. Still, one thing didn't make sense. Why had a divine beast been sitting in an earth dragon's nest? The place where he had caught that earth dragon was the Abyss, of all places, and it had nothing whatsoever to do with here.
If it simply reacted because a divine beast was already here, that much I could understand. But then its detection range would have to be absurdly wide. Either way, things had worked out, and that was what mattered.
That was when it happened.
"Kyik!"
The nameless divine beast pushed free of the egg and showed itself, and its appearance was nothing like what Yujun had expected. He had assumed that, having taken in Black Yode's soul, it would look something like Black Yode. It did not.
It was a small creature covered in pure-white fur, round in every part of its body. Its eyes were large and circular, its nose much like a puppy's, and around that nose and mouth grew a dozen or so fine black whiskers.
Kind of cute, actually. An animal came to mind. It's a harp seal. The details were slightly off, but it was nearly the same. The harp-seal-like divine beast blinked its big eyes over and over.
He remembered watching a handful of harp seal videos back when the Tower of Infinity had still been on Earth. He had fallen for how cute they were, if only for a moment.
For a divine beast, it looks awfully weak. Perhaps because it wasn't fully grown, it was very small, and that frail little face gave off no impression of strength at all. It felt more like one of those dainty pets you tote around in a game.
"Dad!"
Then the divine beast said something that threw him completely off.
"...What did you say?"
"Dad! I missed you!"
"Have we met before?"
"We've been together the whole time."
"You remember things from when you were still in the egg?"
"Yes! Of course!"
No wonder its speech was so fluent for something that had only just been born.
"Do you also remember me trying to roast you over a fire?"
"Yes!"
"Sorry."
"It's okay!"
Faced with that bright, innocent smile, Yujun felt as if he had committed a crime. So this is why appearances matter.
"Yujun... ah. You had a kid?"
A trembling voice came from beside him. He turned to find Manuela standing there, shock written all over her face.
"Of course not."
"Thank goodness..."
"And why is that a relief?"
"H-huh? Don't worry about it!"
"What."
Yujun looked at the newly hatched divine beast. The system had told him to give it a name.
"Your name is Harp."
"I like it, Dad."
"Are you a yes-man or something?"
"Huh? What's that?"
"Never mind."
A docile divine beast would probably be convenient. Unlike a summon, is a divine beast simply gone if it dies? There was no concept of summoning or unsummoning. He would have to handle it with care.
I should check the status window, too. He tried to open Harp's the same way he had with Paranet.
"..."
It wouldn't open. More precisely, there was no status window at all.
Do divine beasts not have status windows? The concept seemed quite different from a summon. Judging by that alone, it was closer to a monster.
"Harp. Can you tell me what your ability is?"
"Breath. The kind Black Yode used. I can use that."
"Really?"
"I'm stronger, Dad."
"Stronger than Black Yode?"
"Yes!"
"...Is that so?"
Honestly, he didn't believe it. The pitch-black Breath Black Yode had used was powerful enough that even a shield Yujun raised couldn't stop it. And this thing could use a Breath even stronger than that?
"Mind showing me?"
"Yes!"
Harp's mouth gaped enormously wide. The pressure rolling out from within made Yujun start—the direction that face was pointed was all wrong.
"Wait! Not this way—the other way!"
"Yes! Got it!"
In the space of a blink, it happened. Vmmm. KRAAAAAANG! Breath erupted from the mountainside. Aimed outward, thankfully, it did little damage to the surroundings, but an immense mass of energy spread across the sky, and a blast no firework could match—boom, boom-boom—slammed against his ears.
"How was it?"
Harp's tone was begging for praise. Yujun stroked its head.
"You're strong."
"Hehe."
The fur was so fluffy that it felt wonderful under his hand. I could get addicted to this.
"Got any other abilities?"
"Not yet!"
"Not yet? You mean you'll get some later?"
"Yes! And whenever Dad gets stronger, I get stronger too. The Breath I just fired was that powerful thanks to you."
"I see."
It seemed to scale heavily with his own attack power and stats. At any rate, there was no doubting Harp's ability as a divine beast, and since that power would grow whenever he did, Harp would never fall behind him. That alone was enough to satisfy him.
The problem is that a divine beast can't equip items. That part was a shame. With no level of its own, equipment was impossible. If it could wear items, its attack power might even have outstripped his own.
Then his eyes happened to fall on Manuela. She had been watching him, and their gazes met.
"W-what?"
Come to think of it, he had meant to give her items as well. The help she had given him was hardly small. Finding the Transcendent Stone had been thanks to her in the first place, and during the surprise event she had even tracked down the General Store and the VIP shop. He had taken so much from Manuela that keeping his mouth shut and acting as if his slate were clean sat poorly with his conscience.
"I've got something for you."
"Huh? What?"
"Hold on."
Yujun opened his inventory. What would be best to give her?
Manuela specialized in magic and curses. Her physical ability, by contrast, lagged behind other players of the same level.
Better to patch the weakness, or push the strength as far as it'll go? He turned it over, but the answer was already settled. Shoring up her weaknesses won't do much for me. If her magic and curses developed, on the other hand, there was a good chance it would help him a great deal.
He took out Mythic items tied to magical ability, one for each slot. Accessories, too. What he had to spare was Mythic equipment anyway. Honestly, he had no further use for items like these. The most he might do was sell them on the black market, and he already had more money than he knew what to do with. At last he pulled out a cloak as well and held the whole pile out to Manuela.
"...What is all this?"
"I'm lending them to you. Take a look."
"O-okay."
Manuela checked each item's information in turn, and her eyes went wide. The level requirement was 500. Every last one of them was Mythic, and the armor even carried a set bonus.
"...You're giving these to me?"
"I told you, I'm lending them."
"..."
In truth, calling it a loan was only a manner of speaking. So long as they traveled together, the items were as good as hers, and he wasn't binding her with a contract. Understanding what he meant, Manuela faltered.
"What?"
"It's too much for me... Is it really all right to give me this many?"
"Just put them to proper use and help me out. Then we both come out ahead, don't we?"
"R-right!"
She went on hesitating even after that, until the moment Yujun's face went flat as he held them out—and then she quietly accepted.
"Th-thank you! I'll pay you back, I swear!"
"Good."
That was when it happened.
"Master."
Paranet called out.
"You? What do you want?"
"I, too, have passed level 500, heh heh."
"And?"
"Ahem... The witch received some rather fine equipment, did she not? It looks better than the items I was given back when my level was low..."
"Ah. So what you're saying is I absolutely have to upgrade your gear?"
"It is not that it absolutely must be done... though it may be necessary, if I am to protect Master properly. No—in truth, it is necessary! Even so, I am not insisting that you give it to me... That is for Master to decide. Still, if there were superior equipment, it would be rather agreeable, would it not!"
"What are you even saying. If you want it, say you want it."
"I want it!"
The items he had already lent Paranet were decent enough. Their level restrictions sat below 500, though, and by Yujun's standard they were not top-grade. If he had to rank them, they were upper-middle and no more. Paranet had been pulling his weight lately, so Yujun replaced his equipment. Resplendent in the new gear, Paranet grinned.
"You like it?"
"I do! I am happy!"
"Earn your keep."
"But of course! Heh heh."
The event was not over yet. Only when he found the Extreme Ice Stone would he finally receive a reward worthy of the name. And I'm curious what this trial actually is.
An EX-Rank trial. It might prove harder than any event or trial he had faced, and his anticipation only swelled at the thought. The reward would swell with it. First, though, he had to find the Ice Palace.
"Where's the Ice Palace?"
"Might it not lie nearby, Master?"
"On the Snow Mountain?"
"The Snow Mountain... I think not."
"You don't think so either?"
He had already looked over the surroundings on the climb up. There had been nothing that resembled an Ice Palace.
"Tapagol."
"Yes."
"Do you know where it is?"
"Yes."
"Lead the way."
"Understood."
Thank goodness Tapagol was here. Wasn't this far too convenient? It saved time as well. Without him, they would have had to scour the entire snowfield.
So this is the convenience of navigation. The difference between having Tapagol and not having him was certainly large. In the end, the only ones left at my side are the ones who are useful to me.
Of course, among those who weren't here, there was Ju Donghyeon—and the one who was good at finding dungeons. Kim Heeyoon, was it? Kim Yeji? Kim Heeyeon?
Following Tapagol's guidance, Yujun and his companions reached the Ice Palace without any trouble.
It stood roughly five kilometers from the Snow Mountain. The distance was nothing to Yujun, but the snowstorm had swallowed the view, and there had been no way to know where it was. The guide golem had found it so quickly only because it was close.
The Ice Palace was immense. It was a palace of ice in the most literal sense, and it looked solid enough to stand unmoved beneath a snowstorm that never once stopped blowing.
At that moment—
Ziiing—!
Yujun felt a vibration stirring from the Synchronization Marble tucked in his pocket.
"Again?"