The Saint's Stigmata
For the week since the stigmata appeared, I roamed the city without a care in the world. I took Jeanne to see the parts of Seoul she hadn't explored yet, treated her to every delicious meal we could find, and did whatever we pleased. There was no longer any need to hide my identity. The Constellation of Dawn Guild had promised to protect my anonymity, so I could finally move freely. Of course, even while we played, I kept clearing gates. The byproducts brought in money, and I needed to raise my mana capacity to shorten Jeanne's summoning cooldown. Having her with me made the raids almost effortless. Ordinary monsters couldn't even put up a fight before her holy power washed them away. Still, because her reserves were limited, I used it mostly for support.
Protection Barrier
Remaining Uses: 2
Cooldown: 8 hours
A massive orc swung its baseball bat at my head. The weapon stopped dead a few inches away, as if it had slammed into an invisible wall.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The enraged orc kept hammering away, but it only struck the barrier. I clicked my tongue.
“This won’t do.”
The barrier itself was useful, but its mana consumption was ridiculous. A single use had drained twenty percent of the Snow Flower Stone’s reserves. At that rate, it was far more efficient to simply dodge with Shadow Step.
Bang!
The orc toppled, a clean hole punched through its skull. I lowered Napoleon’s Rifle and walked over to absorb the mana leaking from its corpse into the Snow Flower Stone.
Mana Capacity: 6000 / 6000
After weeks of steadily hunting monsters, the stone’s capacity had more than doubled. The result of accumulating mana from the high-grade creatures we’d slain in the Myeongnyang Gate and Toulon Gate.
C-4 Gate Cleared
Clearance Rank: SSS
On the way home after clearing the Bukaksan Gate, I spotted something familiar.
“Jeanne, want to try that?”
“Food shaped like fish? How unusual.”
“It’s called bungeoppang.”
I pointed at the stall on the corner of the market. Once a common sight, these fish-shaped pastries had grown expensive and faded into memory. But whenever I stumbled upon one, I couldn’t help but stop, filled with nostalgia.
“Mister, one bag of bungeoppang, please.”
“For the two of you? Where’s the young lady from?”
“She’s from France.”
“…A foreigner who speaks such good Korean. Here, have one on the house.”
I accepted four fresh, piping-hot pastries and handed one to Jeanne.
“It’s hot inside, so be careful.”
“Thank you.”
She took a tiny, cautious bite from the edge. Her eyes sparkled.
“How is it?”
“It’s delicious. What is this sweet black filling?”
“It’s red bean paste. They boil azuki beans with sugar.”
“Ah, so that’s why it’s so sweet.”
Jeanne ate the bungeoppang with delicate bites. The crisp shell and warm, sweet filling made it a beloved winter treat for a reason. Watching her blow on the steam before nibbling away, I chuckled softly, then glanced at the Snow Flower Stone in my pocket.
Still no good.
The stone was expelling the mana it had absorbed instead of converting it. This had been happening constantly for the past week.
“Still not working?” Jeanne asked.
“No. Looks like it’s reached its limit.”
This was a serious problem. The Snow Flower Stone served as my “mana battery,” compensating for my own lacking reserves. If its capacity stopped growing, clearing higher-rank gates would become difficult, and I wouldn’t be able to reduce Jeanne’s summoning cooldown either.
And that’s not the only issue.
Current Slots:3/3
All slots filled. To increase maximum capacity, strengthen your ability to add new slots.
My ability allowed me to manifest three summon slots. Napoleon’s Rifle, the Twin Dragon Sword, and Jeanne. All three were occupied. To welcome a new Transcendent, I needed to expand the number of slots.
I wonder if no new ones are appearing because the slots are full.
Napoleon, Yi Sun-sin, and Jeanne had all arrived within just a month and a half of real time. Yet after spending an entire month with Jeanne in this world, not a single new Transcendent had visited my general store. It was like a hotel with a full “No Vacancy” sign.
For now it was manageable, but it would become a problem during future gate raids. The moment we faced something our current relics couldn’t handle, it would be over. I would die, and Jeanne would remain trapped forever in some crevice between worlds, unable to be summoned.
Expanding the slots was essential. And the only way to do that was to increase my mana capacity. But the Snow Flower Stone that supplemented my mana seemed to have hit its ceiling.
“Couldn’t you use a different mana stone?” Jeanne suggested.
“It wouldn’t work. Only one can be recognized at a time.”
Just as you couldn’t plug multiple batteries into a phone at once, mana stones worked the same way. Only one could be recognized. That was what made the Snow Flower Stone so valuable; it was the only one capable of absorbing mana on its own and “growing.”
“Then the only answer is essence.”
“Essence?”
“It’s a spiritual medicine that strengthens mana.”
Essence. The pure distillation of mana, rarely obtained from gates, was used to enhance abilities. It could also help the Snow Flower Stone evolve.
“The problem is that proper essence is incredibly difficult to obtain.”
“It must be a precious resource.”
“Yes. If even one decent specimen appears, entire cities flip upside down trying to claim it.”
The scarce supply of essence was distributed first to S-rank hunters. Even then, there was never enough. But to add more slots, I needed essence. Just a few drops would suffice.
If we ran the Myeongnyang Gate a few more times, we might get some…
I was wondering whether I should simply wait for a quest to appear when—
“Seojun,” Jeanne said. “Does the Church have essence?”
“Well… they probably do, but…”
The Vatican, which possessed the world’s largest collection of holy relics, was an organization with a long and storied history. They would certainly have essence.
“I’ll go to the Church and obtain some.”
“No.” I immediately refused.
I knew, even if she didn’t show it, that Jeanne felt conflicted about the Church. Otherwise she wouldn’t have avoided visiting even once during her month in the modern world. No matter how much time had passed, the organization that had burned her at the stake remained the same.
I couldn’t let her go there because of me.
“I’m truly fine with it. Please let me help.”
“……”
Her calm, resolute expression made me hesitate. Jeanne had never received a proper apology from the Church. But would an apology after six centuries even mean anything? I doubted it. She didn’t seem interested, either.
However, if it was revenge, that was different. Using this opportunity to wring everything possible out of the Vatican would feel incredibly satisfying. Even if Jeanne didn’t want to, I did. The appearance of a saint was an enormous event. If that saint chose not to side with the Church, the shock to the Vatican would be immense.
After thinking it over, I finally spoke.
“All right. But I’m coming with you.”
“Thank you.”
“I should be the one thanking you.”
While we were at it, I might as well secure some holy relics too. That would help replenish Jeanne’s insufficient holy power.
*
Late that night, at the Daeseong Cathedral in Yeoksam-dong, Seoul.
Having finished conducting mass, Cardinal Francis knelt in solitary prayer. His expression remained heavy, refusing to brighten.
The Seventy-Two Demons of Solomon. A dark-attribute gate named after the seventy-two demons sealed by King Solomon himself. Among them, the previously dormant gate of Astaroth the Despairer was beginning to stir.
In the past, this wouldn’t have been an issue. The Vatican had possessed Mother Teresa, a saint of miracles. But after her death, the Church had failed to establish any effective countermeasures against dark gates. They couldn’t even stop the Despairer Gate, which was why Cardinal Francis himself had been traveling the world.
For him to remain in one country for over a week was highly unusual. Yet Francis had no intention of leaving Korea.
The trace of holy power was real.
Having inspected the site personally, he was certain it had been a miracle born of holy power. Having stood beside Teresa, he understood holy power better than anyone.
Francis had pinned his last hope for clearing the Despairer Gate on Korea’s saint candidate. But no matter how much time passed, the candidate showed no sign of appearing. At this point, it was safe to assume they had refused. Or perhaps there had never been a candidate at all, and the holy power had been a natural phenomenon.
Either way, he could no longer afford to wait. The Despairer Gate would soon go into full rampage.
I suppose I must return.
With a bitter smile, Francis rose from his knees. He needed to prepare for his return to the Vatican.
At that moment—
“Your Eminence!”
Archbishop Ambrosio burst in, breathless.
“What is it?”
“They have arrived!”
Francis didn’t need to ask who. He instinctively knew it was the saint candidate.
“Let us go.”
“Yes, Your Eminence.”
Francis followed Archbishop Ambrosio to the chapel. Inside waited a young man wearing a mask that covered the lower half of his face, and a blonde girl.
After observing the pair, Cardinal Francis asked, “May I know which of you is the saint candidate?”
“That would be me,” the blonde girl replied.
Francis’s mouth went dry. If this girl truly was the candidate, it would be an immense blessing for the Church.
“Your presence here means you are willing to help the Church, yes?”
“We came to make a deal.”
“…A deal?”
“Yes.”
The unexpected answer left Francis flustered. The young man beside the girl spoke up.
“We will assist in clearing the Despairer Gate. In return, we want compensation.”
“W-what would you ask of us?”
“We want a narrative-grade or higher holy relic and top-grade essence.”
Francis’s eyes widened. The young man had spoken casually, but those two items were anything but casual. Narrative-grade holy relics were objects proven to cause miracles, and top-grade essence was so rare that even the Vatican possessed only a handful. And he was asking for both?
It was an impossible demand.
“Even for a saint candidate, that is simply too—”
Whoosh!
A brilliant radiance suddenly poured from the girl. The warm light that embraced him made Francis’s eyes tremble. It was a sensation he had felt before.
No… it’s even warmer than before…
Confused by what he thought must be a mistake, Francis found himself drawn toward the girl. When he reached the source of the light, his eyes flew open in shock.
The light flowed from the girl’s back, so radiant that neither clothing nor bandages could conceal it. The glow took on the unmistakable shape of a miracle.
“This… this is…!”
A disbelieving voice escaped Cardinal Francis’s lips.
“Stigmata…?!”