Growth, and Growth Again

A blue-tinged fragment, barely holding on to its shape at all.

The same sensation that had washed over me when I Salvaged the souls of Rir and Moss came creeping back.

"A new spirit body…!"

Simply saying it out loud pulled a smile of anticipation across my face.

Even setting that aside, expecting anything more than support from just the two of them, Rir and Moss, had always been a bit of a stretch.

'But with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠three spirit bodies, that changes things.'

If the three of them launched a combined assault, there might even be situations where I could entrust my back line to them outright.

And even setting that aside, the more spirit bodies I had, the stronger I became alongside them.

'I have to save this soul. No matter what.'

I fixed the soul fragment with a steely resolve.

And within roughly three seconds, I ran face-first into an obstacle.

"…You want me to call its name?"

I blinked and studied the fragment. Naturally enough, there wasn't a name written anywhere on it.

"So what am I supposed to do here?"

If there'd been no penalty, I could've just taken wild guesses. Unfortunately, it seemed that calling the wrong name more than three times would leave the soul beyond salvation.

"Hmmm…."

I racked my brain for a while.

'Given how the Limit Break System works, it wouldn't hand me some completely absurd soul.'

'This thing wants me to grow, after all.'

I couldn't explain the why of it, but this skill had always helped my growth when it could, and never offered me anything outright impossible. The soul was probably connected to me somehow, or one of the beings I'd crossed paths with.

…….

A short while later.

Having sorted through every possibility I could think of, I tried the first name on my list.

"Chadwick."

The last opponent I'd fought — the knight who had been remade into a cardinal and manipulated like a puppet. Could his soul perhaps still linger somewhere?

"Thought so…."

It wasn't him.

He'd been a man who fought by burning his very soul as fuel. In his final moments, he had poured out every last ember of it to detonate himself — there was nothing left to remain.

Which meant…

"Wengrum."

The descendant of the great archmage who had served as Namekeeper. True, his end had come as the necromancer of a fallen kingdom —

'But he saw his duty through to the very last.'

If a man like that were given a second life as a spirit body, wouldn't he want to keep fighting? I let a faint hope kindle inside me.

And it was dead wrong. Damn it all.

"Ha… hell."

One attempt left. If I missed again, I'd lose my chance at a powerful new ally.

I screwed my eyes shut and focused in earnest.

'Think. Think, Lee Tae-hyun.'

Spirit bodies — Salvation — were fundamentally different from simply raising the dead as phantoms.

I pulled up the skill window once more.

"Noble souls who would rise of their own will to fight once more."

I rolled the words around in my mouth, slowly, the way one might chew over their meaning.

"Chadwick and Wengrum each met an end that was entirely their own."

Not that any living creature dies without regret, of course. Chadwick had been used and discarded as a cardinal, sacrificing body and soul alike until annihilation was the only peace left to him. Wengrum had defended a kingdom already doomed, and closed his eyes only after completing his duty as Namekeeper to the very end.

'Though somehow both of them ended up dying by my hand….'

Meanwhile, look at the ones who had become spirit bodies — Rir and Moss.

Rir had been hunted down by divine beast poachers. Moss had been kidnapped as a hatchling by the Advent Cult, forcibly bred in captivity, and finally robbed of his own body by his enemies — a fate too bitter for words.

'But the decisive difference is this —'

Both of them had wanted to keep fighting until their final moment. They had refused the ease of death and chosen instead to rise and fight again.

"I've been overcomplicating this the whole time."

A being who, having already crossed death's threshold, still wanted to take up the sword once more.

If I had to pick someone like that from everyone I'd ever met —

'There's only one, isn't there.'

Certain, this time beyond any shadow of doubt, that I would not fail —

I stood tall before the fragment and spoke.

The fragment swelled bit by bit, until it burst into blue flame.

"It was you, wasn't it. It's been a long time."

A prince robbed of his homeland and his people by his own younger brother. The knight of nothingness who had become the Nameless King, standing in lonely vigil over a land already lost. The man who had sought to become a Monarch to protect his own dimension.

You and I, we're looking at the same place, aren't we?

'The Iron Blood Monarch. Bringing Leo down.'

So, since it had come to this —

Whoooooosh!

The tiny soul expanded, bit by bit, taking the shape of a knight. Towering height, a massive frame, armor sheathing him from head to toe, and a greatsword of imposing grandeur.

The exact image of the Nameless King I had seen in the Graveyard of Knights.

That part had been decided long ago.

Every part of me wanted to inspect Grempel right then and there, but given where we were, I put it off for the moment.

Clank!

At my command to enter my shadow, Grempel inclined his head with full military formality.

"Can you not speak?"

Come to think of it, the system had said his soul had been worn down. Because of that, he probably wasn't the exact man I'd last seen.

'Maybe he'll change a little as he grows.'

Grempel's memories would prove useful in all sorts of ways. He had been, after all, the elder brother of the Iron Blood Monarch himself.

"And with that, all the special rewards are wrapped up."

Now it was time to open the real reward.

Which was —

A status window level-up!

'After subjugating Behemoth, I'd accumulated about 7,000 experience points in total.'

And now, with another 3,000 from felling the cardinal —

I had fulfilled the entire experience requirement for the next level.

A shiver ran through my entire body.

"Finally. S-rank."

From the very bottom, F-rank, all the way to the very summit, S-rank. A flood of emotions crashed over me all at once. All those desperate, grueling days of grinding to grow stronger flickered through my mind like a lantern show.

'Because of this godforsaken growth limit, no amount of effort ever let me catch up to the hunters above me.'

But not anymore. My ceiling had been shattered once and for all.

"Stronger. Stronger. And stronger still."

Against the enemies waiting in those higher dimensions.

To protect the people dear to me.

I activated my status window for the first time in a while. Seeing the letter S etched into the Potential field brought an involuntary smile to my face.

"The next level is… wait, what's this? 'Update in preparation'?"

I'd been bracing myself for the next experience threshold demanding some absurd hundred thousand points — and instead this completely random notice was sitting there.

Apparently, level 5 was some kind of branching point. It was a little disappointing not to have a concrete goal in sight right away, but I'd raised my potential to the absolute ceiling, so it was fine.

'If I just keep focusing on my growth, the update will finish itself eventually.'

Next, I checked out the newly added feature.

"Titles, huh."

Another piece of game-speak tumbling out of the system.

An explanation had popped up, but it was all rather vague.

"Well then, no choice but to—"

"—experience it firsthand, I guess."

As it happened, I already had a few titles of my own. I pulled them up right away.

"Oh."

I hadn't expected much, but two whole titles of History grade — right in the middle of the ladder.

"…No, wait. That's kind of a rip-off, isn't it?"

Behemoth, which I'd subjugated at death's very door, and Marca — and all they're worth is History grade? What on earth does it take to earn a Myth-grade title? Am I supposed to go kill an actual god?

"Setting that aside for now."

First things first — let's look at what these titles actually do.

From the look of it, simply holding a title raised my stats on its own.

'Honestly, that's more tempting than the equip effects.'

Not that the equip effects were useless. Dimension Vagabond, for one, automatically boosted my attack power whenever I entered a gate.

'But if I had to pick one of these to equip…'

This one, obviously.

Mental fortitude. With this, flare-ups of runaway emotion like last time should die down a little.

'You never know. Karin might pull out another "Affection-Rising Perfume" or something equally ridiculous.'

"Dimension Vagabond's effect isn't something I need right this second. I'll just swap it in when ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the time comes."

If I ever ended up facing a dragon, I'd switch to Dragon Slayer then. All in all, a system I thoroughly approved of.

"Ahem."

And with that, the wrap-up of everything I'd gained was more or less complete.

Now it was time to step outside and set the board in earnest.

"But first — I should treat this body of mine."

I picked up the vial I had tucked safely away in the corner.

And if I was going to drink it anyway — better at S-rank potential than at A.

"At S-rank, the efficiency is far better, after all!"

The absorption rate would be night and day.

I smacked my lips, brought my mouth to the mouth of the vial —

and downed the milky liquid inside in a single gulp.

Glug! Glug!

A cool, crisp freshness spread through my mouth, as if all of nature's vast expanse had been distilled into a single sip. With every swallow, an ecstatic sensation spiraled dizzyingly through my whole body.

"Kwah!"

The vial was empty in moments. At the same instant, a colossal surge of energy raced through my insides, kindling a tremendous vitality.

"Incredible."

The word simply spilled out on its own. That was how immense the power of the Celestial Stone Milk truly was.

Ssssssss…!

My injuries healed in the blink of an eye — and that was only the beginning.

Pop! Crick!

My body was growing, ascending to a whole new stage. Torn muscle regenerated and knitted itself back firmer, denser than before. As the elixir restored my flesh, it was carrying me toward the next realm entirely — bones locking into place, energy purifying itself within me.

"Hoooh!"

My exhale came out so clean and bracing it could've passed for the dawn air of a mountain forest. My injuries had been fully healed ages ago — and my S-rank body was now drinking the elixir dry, siphoning every last drop of its power to the very limit as it grew.

All of that, from swallowing a single elixir. A stroke of fortune among strokes of fortune — the rarest of the rare.

I grinned, giving my freshly healed body — no, not merely healed, but stronger than it had ever been — a light once-over.

Then I stripped off the patient gown and changed back into my own clothes.

"Shall we get going, then?"

To the stage where everything would be settled — perfectly.