Chapter 159
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 159
Chapter Title: Devil's Blessing
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Before Byel arrived.
Ryu Min called for Yamtti.
“Y Yamtti, didn’t I ask you to tame a hundred mealworms before? Did you do it?”
“Of course, Master. Just a hundred? I prepared up to a thousand.”
Yamtti’s class was Tamer.
She could dominate and control any animals, insects, or monsters except humans.
Of course, it wasn’t guaranteed—it depended on probability. The success rate increased the lower the target’s intelligence and rank.
That was why taming a hundred mealworms wasn’t difficult for her at all.
“Just to be sure, what else have you tamed besides mealworms?”
“I started with goblins and tamed every type of monster we’ve caught so far. I couldn’t tame boss mobs like the Minotaur—their levels were too high.”
“You’ll be able to do it eventually. It’s just that your level is still too low right now.”
There was no limit to the number of monsters Yamtti could tame.
She could collect them endlessly, just like putting items into an infinite inventory.
The restriction was on how many she could summon at once.
She couldn’t pull out all several hundred tamed monsters simultaneously.
‘That would make it way too overpowered.’
Small bugs like mealworms were possible, though.
“Summon just a hundred.”
“Yes!”
As Yamtti activated her skill, a hundred mealworms appeared on the ground.
Even insects from the real world could be brought to this realm through her taming.
Crunch-!
[Current kill count: 100/100]
[Massacre Rune effect: All stats increased by 100%.]
Stomping all hundred to death in one go filled the Massacre Rune buff instantly.
He grinned.
Then a flash of light appeared before his eyes.
It was the angel Kallen had summoned with her distress signal.
‘Hmm.’
Ryu Min silently observed it.
An angel’s strength could be gauged by its wings.
‘The more wings or the longer they are, the stronger it is.’
But the battle angel before him clearly had short wings.
They were longer than those of a regular angel like Kallen, of course.
‘Four wings, and judging by their length... around a sixth-rank angel.’
Ryu Min knew the angelic hierarchy from past experience.
He had tortured plenty of angels and learned all sorts of things.
He might not know the high-level secrets, but he had the basics of the heavenly realm down pat.
That was why he no longer saw any need to torture angels.
‘Just kill them.’
He could read their thoughts with the Mind Rune anyway, so there was no need to interrogate them.
He knew this one’s name was Byel, that it was confident in its swift swordsmanship—all without exchanging a single word.
‘Let’s try the potion first.’
Ryu Min ignored whatever Byel was saying and pulled out a potion to use it.
It was a mid-grade potion, granting +8 to all stats.
Not a huge amount, but to maximize the first-kill rewards, he needed every bit of stat he could get.
That was why he had filled the Massacre Rune buff.
Why he had used Reaper Form even against a mere battle angel.
[Entered Reaper Form state.]
[All stats, damage, attack speed, and movement speed increased by 44%.]
[All damage received from enemies reduced by 44%.]
[Probability of enemies noticing you reduced by 44%.]
‘It’s like using a butcher’s cleaver to kill a chicken, but no choice.’
He had taunted it a bit before activating Reaper Form, and the battle angel came charging in wildly with its sword.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-
It was reasonably fast.
But it didn’t faze Ryu Min.
His agility alone was over 8,800 right now.
‘Round buff, Balance Rune, Massacre Rune, First Angel Slayer, Min Ju-ri’s buff...’
With all of them multiplied together, the total boost was insane.
And now Reaper Form on top.
His stats were utterly monstrous.
[Guhk... guh...]
One swing of Ryu Min’s scythe, and Byel collapsed, spraying blood.
He ordered the ashen-faced Kallen to summon more.
In the meantime, he checked the messages that popped up right after the kill.
[Killed a Battle Angel.]
[Confirmed as the first player to kill a Battle Angel.]
[First Battle Angel kill reward: ‘Devil’s Blessing’ buff applied.]
[First Battle Angel kill reward: ‘Devil’s Rune’ obtained.]
[The acquired rune is automatically engraved onto the player’s body!]
Just one battle angel down, and the messages flooded in.
First-kill rewards were always this sweet.
‘But the real prize is the Devil’s Blessing buff.’
Ryu Min’s eyes shifted to the next message.
[Devil’s Blessing has been applied.]
[Effects calculated based on current total stats (40,890):]
[Angel kill: Gain gold equal to 1x base value (40,890). Increases up to 1,000x (40,890,000) based on angel’s rank.]
[Angel kill: Gain stat points equal to 0.01% of base value (4). Increases up to 10% (4,089) based on angel’s rank.]
[Angel kill: Slight reputation increase with demon faction.]
[Buff persists until the end of the current round.]
Devil’s Blessing was a cheat buff that granted stats and gold every time you killed an angel.
Rewards scaled up to 1,000 times based on the angel’s rank.
‘You can tell how broken it is just from the minimums.’
At his current base, that was +4 stat points and 40,890 gold per angel.
+4 stats per angel kill?
‘Total game-changer.’
It was basically like gaining a level every kill.
‘And that’s just the minimum. Stronger angels give even more.’
Of course, no one else would get benefits like this.
He could only reap such rewards because he had inflated his stats with all sorts of buffs.
The reward values were determined by his stats at the moment the blessing was granted.
‘That’s why I went all-out to boost my stats even a little.’
The downside was that the buff only lasted until the round ended...
‘No problem. I have the Devil’s Rune.’
[Devil’s Rune]
-Effect: Killing 100 angels enables use of ‘Devil’s Blessing’ buff.
Even after the round ended, he could get the blessing again as long as he had the rune.
Provided he killed angels, of course.
‘I can’t stop at just one. I need at least a hundred. For the rewards now, and to reuse the blessing later.’
He figured he had at least an hour left to hunt angels.
The rest of the time would go toward clearing the sub quest.
“Hey.”
[...Yes?]
“Call more.”
Ryu Min made Kallen summon more angels.
Five came first, then ten.
The outcome was predictable.
[Killed fifth-rank angel ‘Rapir’!]
[Stat points +8]
[Gold +81,780]
[Angels killed: 15/100]
[Killed fifth-rank angel ‘Belrue’!]
[Stat points +8]
[Gold +81,780]
[Angels killed: 16/100]
‘They’re all just fifth- or sixth-rank at best. Send some stronger ones.’
Another ten angels appeared.
Judging by their wings, they were fourth-rank.
[So you’re the human slaughtering our angels.]
[Challenging us without fear. We’ll make you suffer.]
[Poor human. What rotten luck.]
But the ones with rotten luck were the angels, not Ryu Min.
With his stats so massively inflated, a few scythe swings ended it.
[Killed fourth-rank angel ‘Volua’!]
[Stat points +16]
[Gold +163,560]
[Angels killed: 26/100]
‘I’d take even second- or third-rank. Send stronger ones.’
Time was short, so he hoped for beefier opponents.
No need to worry about alerting the Seven Archangels, though.
‘The big shots up top aren’t gonna drop everything for this.’
Besides, these selfish angels wouldn’t budge over a few dead grunts.
If one did show, it’d probably just be out of boredom.
‘I’ll cap it at a hundred, then go clear the sub quest.’
Had he gotten around fifty?
His stats were climbing steadily as he took down fourth-rankers.
That was when the variable appeared.
[Hmm. So this is where you’ve been killing my angels?]
Unlike the others, this angel had long, ornate wings.
Ryu Min fell silent.
‘This one... no way, one of the Seven Archangels?’
It was undoubtedly one of them—the ones with off-the-charts power.
You could tell just from the wings.
Enormous ones that looked like they’d span over twenty meters when spread.
Eight wings in total, by his count.
‘Definitely one of the Seven Archangels.’
He knew first-rank angels had six wings at most—he’d fought them before.
‘But this face... not one I’ve met in past regressions.’
It didn’t have quite the same overwhelming presence as the ones he’d faced, but it still felt formidable.
‘What the hell? Why is one of the Seven Archangels showing up now?’
Normally, he could casually rack up a hundred angels and call it a day.
Nothing would happen.
That’s how it had gone in the previous round, and the one before, and the one before that.
He’d been operating under that assumption.
Yet here was an unfamiliar face, popping up out of nowhere.
And at this early stage, no less.
‘Has the timeline diverged?’
Ryu Min stayed on high alert, watching what it would say.
[You’re Black Scythe, aren’t you?]
‘It knows my nickname?’
[Using a scythe... must be you. Then again, the Akashic Record wouldn’t be wrong.]
‘Akashic Record?’
He’d heard the term before.
When he killed the high orc in one second.
When he cleared the 99th floor of the Tower of Trials.
Messages about being registered in the Akashic Record had popped up both times.
[Heard you set two new records, so I got curious and came to see. Also heard you were killing my precious soldiers.]
‘Ah.’
Now Ryu Min could guess the cause of the anomaly.
‘Normally, at this point, I’d only have one Akashic Record entry: the Tower clear. But I’ve got two now.’
Killing the high orc in one second was a first for this regression.
That had gotten him two entries at this exact timing.
It must have created the variable.
‘What to do? Fight? Doesn’t seem hostile at first...’
He could read its thoughts.
It had come purely out of curiosity.
But beneath that was clear contempt for humans.
Digging deeper revealed its true intent.
No matter what, it planned to eliminate him.
‘This is a headache. Fight it? Any chance of winning?’
In that brief moment, Ryu Min frantically probed its mind for intel.
He learned its name was Remiel.
Lowest of the Seven Archangels, wielder of lightning authority.
‘Like other angels, I can read its thoughts. I can see seven seconds into the future. Might actually have a shot.’
He’d always wanted to test himself against one of the Seven Archangels.
Wondered what rewards killing one would bring.
General angels had hidden rewards, so the system had to have something for the Seven too.
‘Too bad I don’t have time to mull it over.’
If he was going to fight, it had to be now.
Reaper Form was about to end.
‘Killing one of Yamtti’s monsters would reset the timer.’
But Ryu Min didn’t even glance her way.
He didn’t move a muscle.
She had hidden herself in a corner of the cavern early on to avoid interfering.
Calling out to her now would just expose her and put her in danger.
‘I need to keep using Yamtti’s abilities going forward. Can’t let her die here just to maintain a buff.’
Time was critical above all.
Only ten seconds left on Reaper Form.
He needed a kill to reset it.
If he was going to fight an Archangel.
‘In that case...’
Ryu Min’s gaze shifted to Kallen, standing beside Remiel.
His hooked scythe extended rapidly.
At the same time, Remiel spoke.
[Why so quiet? You could at least talk to...]
Splurt-!
Kallen’s head exploded into pieces, blood splattering onto Remiel.
Ryu Min’s Reaper Form timer reset.
‘Perfect!’
He’d maintained the form, but from Remiel’s expression, he’d pissed off the Archangel.
[No need for talk, huh?]
Sparks crackled across Remiel’s trembling body.
[I’ll grant your wish. Die, human.]