Eternal Randolph

······A gap more than twice as wide.

He had seized a Mystery so profound that no one could even begin to guess how he had done it, or what he had obtained.

Phantom.

Phantom······.

The fallen king who had once been called the pinnacle of Pangenia was thrashing about after losing everything and tumbling from his throne.

"What will you do?"

Master rose from his seat and looked out the window.

The tallest building on Wall Street.

Its owner had just changed a short while ago.

This world is divided into those who rule and those who are ruled.

Step by step, Master was becoming a true king.

The power of another dimension, available only to the chosen. For the one who stood at the peak of that power to also stand at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the peak of this world was only natural.

I am one who reigns. And the world to come will be ruled only by those with ability.

The world would change.

In a way utterly different from any upheaval that had come before.

The Players capable of handling Pangenia's monsters would become the masters of Earth.

That beginning.

Everything should have been perfect by now — yet Master was tasting the worst mood of his life.

Having his claim on the rights of Main Quest 5 pushed back a step had been quite a blow.

What should I do?

But Phantom was already a fallen king.

The credit for smashing half the Demon Realm was acknowledged, but Master and the other top-tier Players did not fear the Demon King.

On the contrary, they were scheming to use the Demon Realm and the Demon King to secure their place in Pangenia — and become kings of Earth.

Above all, Phantom was dead.

If one became a Player after dying, there were limits to how strong one could grow.

And Phantom was famously without a faction. How could he possibly close the gap between them?

I meant to capture him alive and tear the information out of him.

Master had intended to seize the fallen king alive and extract the knowledge only he possessed.

But even after years of searching, he had never been caught.

Which meant Master's strength alone was not enough.

"······I'll have to convene the Round Table Conference."

"I will contact the Eight Heroes, Master."

The shadow vanished.

Master slowly gazed out the window.

He's starting to get under my skin.

Little by little, it grated on him.

The movements of that fallen king.

So it seemed a correction was in order.

The first line meant I had already obtained the finest Mystery the Tower could offer, so no replacement reward of equal caliber existed within it.

A replacement for the reward?

But the next part left me tilting my head.

Replaced by the Constellations' reward list?

Then the list that appeared made everything clear.

A hundred rewards, each bearing a Constellation's name, floated before me.

No way to know what the actual rewards are.

No related abilities or options were visible.

I would have to choose based purely on the Constellation's name alone.

No need to pick one right this second.

This was something that needed careful thought.

Rewards a Constellation had put forward under its own name.

Each one was surely a treasure that could shake heaven and earth.

I couldn't choose rashly.

Besides.

I had already gained plenty.

First, I had secured three hundred hours of the Broken Fragment of the Golden Rule for certain.

My Fame had also risen by five hundred. Considering that Honor-related quests only gave between ten and thirty, five hundred was a number that made you suck in a breath.

And most important of all—

Eternal Randolph.

A Beyond Specs–grade Mystery: Eternal Randolph!

When it had been Unique-grade, only my name had been attached to it. The moment it ascended to Beyond Specs, the prefix "Eternal" had been added.

It was the first time I had ever seen a prefix called "Eternal," so of course it drew my attention.

A Mystery without color, scent, or form.

But I could clearly confirm the Mystery that had been granted to me.

For a Mystery, the text was long if you called it long, short if you called it short.

······Insane.

But the contents were anything but ordinary.

I froze solid, my heartbeat so loud I could feel it in my face.

The ability to destroy an opponent's Mystery.

And the fact that it could destroy anything of Eternal Randolph grade or lower meant that even Unique-grade Mysteries could be permanently erased if I so chose.

On top of that, it carried all three of the options hailed as the holy trinity of Unique-grade items: Indestructible, Interference Immunity, and Permanent Duration.

It even added a Hidden Trait.

The moment my thirteen Hidden Traits became fourteen.

Hidden Traits that normally only increased according to talent had been granted one more by a Mystery — something even I had never seen before.

Not a single option worth discarding.

The strongest Mystery, one even Knight King Wilhelm had never been able to obtain!

It was, quite literally, the strongest.

There was no other word that could express it.

I spent a long while savoring the afterglow of that awe.

I had never seen anything like this.

I had collected eight Unique-grade items while playing the game, but the rapture I felt then had nowhere near this lingering weight.

Time to leave.

After roughly ten minutes of savoring it, I slowly began to move.

Leveling up had already ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠restored my stamina and every other condition.

I had thoroughly conquered the Hall of Mysteries. There was no reason to stay longer.

I stepped onto the warp that had been generated.

And then—

······The Four Pillars?

I found myself face-to-face with the Four Pillars gathered before the Tower.

The final entrant was merely the King of Corpse Crows?

The most unimpressive of all the entrants.

The Four Pillars couldn't help but find it strange.

All one hundred entrants had emerged, yet not a single being they would have considered a Transcendent species had appeared.

And yet—

"Hmm······."

"I can't tell."

They couldn't form a firm judgment about that King of Corpse Crows.

All of the Four Pillars tilted their heads.

Whether it was strong or weak — not a single reliable estimate came to them.

What was certain was that the King of Corpse Crows possessed something that left even them feeling unsettled.

"Th-that crown······."

"Isn't that the crown formed when the rings fused together?"

"Ah."

The answer lay in the monsters' murmuring.

The crown worn by the Corpse Crow was unmistakably identical to the one created when the Tower's five rings had merged.

"You're telling me a mere Corpse Crow like that surpassed my Mystery?"

But not everyone was convinced.

The Imugi raised its head again.

It simply could not accept that it was not the one who had created this phenomenon and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this situation.

The Imugi menacingly unfurled its Legend-grade Mystery, Mist of the Phantom Dragon.

"Behold! My majesty! I am the master of a Mystery that no mere Corpse Crow could ever hope to match!"

Majestic and overflowing with presence.

It advanced right up to the Corpse Crow and personally demonstrated the clear difference in rank.

"Out of the way, caw."

In that instant—

The Imugi's Mystery, Mist of the Phantom Dragon, vanished.

"Wha······?!"

The Imugi could only be stunned.

The Mystery had not been deactivated.

······The Mystery had been destroyed.

But it could not understand.

A Mystery was something no one else could interfere with.

It was a truth that could never be destroyed.

That was why, to monsters, a Mystery was proof of existence itself.

A domain beyond simply raising stats and granting options. An unchanging force of being.

And yet, in a single moment, the Mystery had been destroyed.

It had not even taken any particular action.

The moment the King of Corpse Crows merely took it into its gaze, the Mystery had vanished forever.

"Ngh······!"

The Four Pillars who witnessed it went rigid.

They, too, were certain the Mystery had been destroyed.

Common sense had shattered. In a single instant, the scales of balance had collapsed.

"H-how could you do that to my Mystery······!"

The Imugi was still reeling.

But that shock soon twisted into rage.

Only one Mystery could be obtained from the Hall of Mysteries.

Monsters staked their lives challenging the Hall of Mysteries.

How hard-won that Mystery had been—

"I'll kill y—"

Crack!

The Imugi could not finish its words.

In an instant, it had turned to stone.

Watching it, the King of Corpse Crows spoke.

"Seems there's one among you with a working brain, caw."

Arrogantly.

Daring to stand before the Four Pillars without yielding an inch.

As if to say that if they had not stayed still, it would have erased this entire surrounding domain.

And yet those words did not sound arrogant.

Dignity.

When the King of Corpse Crows spoke, a matching dignity settled over everything.

Something that could not be ignored.

Something that must not be ignored.

It was a strange sensation they had never felt even when facing the White King.

If every one of the Four Pillars felt it, this was no illusion.

But one thing was certain.

It is not an enemy.

Nor was it an ally.

What was it?

Just what was that Corpse Crow?

But the words that followed from the Corpse Crow were more shocking still.

"Bring the White King, caw. You lot aren't on my level, caw."

The Four Pillars I faced the moment I left the Hall of Mysteries.

And looking at the countless monsters gathered around them, I could be certain.

They had gathered here because of me.

The Tower itself had likely announced my challenge.

A situation completely different from when I first entered the city.

I had thought the Four Pillars were level 11, but they were 12.

They must have leveled up in the time since.

The problem was that every one of the Four Pillars was on a completely different plane from ordinary monsters.

Super Elite Raid Boss monsters!

A single level of difference was more than a single star of difference.

If I clash with them, I'll be shredded in an instant.

I probably wouldn't last even a second before dying.

I hadn't expected this, but that didn't mean I could back down either.

If I retreated here, it would all come to nothing. First impressions mattered that much.

Since it's come to this.

I had no choice but to see it through.

Luck was on my side, at least.

Destroying the Imugi's Mystery had planted a healthy sense of caution.

Moreover, the Four Pillars could never read me.

Fourteen Hidden Traits.

I had gotten a sense of one of the effects that Eternal Randolph among them possessed.

Dignity of Species.

It imbued my words with dignity.

The effect was strong enough that most monsters of ordinary caliber could not defy it.

Even the Four Pillars, no less.

······I never wanted to meet him again.

And so, at present—

I stood in the Hall of the White King together with the Four Pillars.

The White King I had sworn never to meet again.

"His Majesty the White King approaches."

At Dae-to-ryong's words, I looked up at the towering throne.

The Four Pillars, transformed into half-human, half-beast forms, knelt one after another.

······There was truly no turning back now.

White King

Riding the tiger.

I had already climbed onto the tiger's back.

Having caught the momentum, I could not get off — and having spoken the words, I could not take them back.

Only one thing remained.

I had no choice but to go all out, as if my life depended on it.

The final boss, then.

······No matter how hard I tried to look composed, I couldn't stop the burning in my gut.

If not for the Heart of the Iron-Blooded Monarch, I might already be vomiting up my insides.

That was how crushing the pressure was.

I had succeeded in bluffing my way past the Four Pillars, but the White King was on another dimension entirely.

Still, the fact that they had brought me before the White King meant they had felt a sense of caution toward me.

At the very least, I had proven I was a being that could not be measured by their standards.