The Gaze of the War God
The Sanctuary - Olympus.
It was the heavenly domain where the constellations of Olympus resided.
White marble buildings filled the vast blue plains.
Structures built in the Doric style of ancient Greek architecture.
Every one of them was a temple honoring the constellations affiliated with Olympus.
An owl. A pottery vessel. A trident. A swan. And more.
In front of each temple, statues tied to the divine names of those constellations asserted their presence with unmistakable grandeur.
Among them, from the temple where a gladius statue stood, a deafening explosion erupted.
“No! This one is mine!”
The source of the uproar was a man wearing a golden helmet.
Blond hair flowed from beneath it like liquid gold. Bronze skin peeked through the strands.
He was Ares, the God of War of Olympus and the legitimate son of the God-King Zeus.
His eyes, red as molten rubies, glared at the crystal orb clutched in his hand.
The player reflected inside it was Yu Jinho.
Olympus's God of War offers Player Yu Jinho a Guardian Constellation contract.
Guardian Constellation contracts cannot be offered to players currently progressing through the tutorial.
The Tower System has detected a rule violation. Olympus's God of War's message has been blocked.
Ares shook the orb violently from side to side.
“Argh, why won’t it work!”
In his impatience, he kept firing off sponsor messages, but the Tower System ruthlessly blocked every single one.
If only I could claim him…!
The Guardian Constellation contract allowed a constellation to form a pact with a player. The more that player shone, the greater the constellation’s power and authority would grow.
That was why so many constellations scouted for exceptional talents.
Ares was no exception.
The Evil of the Heavens reveals interest in Player Yu Jinho.
The Evil of the Heavens insists that a player possessing innate talent for martial arts should form a contract with him.
The Heavenly Demon—that existence who rivaled even God-King Zeus—had continued to show persistent interest in Jinho.
Ares suppressed his boiling rage. Even he, the direct son of Zeus, had no choice but to yield a step to the Evil of the Heavens.
While Ares agonized over how to keep Jinho from being stolen, a youthful voice spoke from behind him.
“Brother, what’s all the noise about?”
Ares instinctively hid the crystal orb behind his back the moment he recognized the voice.
“Little brother, didn’t I tell you not to pop out of nowhere like that?”
“I came because I heard a huge commotion coming from your temple.”
The one who appeared behind Ares was a young man who still carried traces of a teenage boy.
A helmet adorned with feather decorations. White feathers also decorated the sandals on both feet.
It was Hermes, the messenger god of Olympus.
He stared at Ares with a peculiar glint in his eyes.
“It’s nothing. Really, nothing at all.”
Ares emphasized his words twice, trying to sound casual.
If any other god found out about Jinho it would be troublesome, but if Hermes learned of him, it would become a massive headache.
Why else was he called the messenger god?
The saying that a word without feet can travel a thousand miles fit Hermes perfectly.
“Hmm. And here I thought something fun had happened.”
Surprisingly, Hermes didn’t press the matter of the earlier commotion.
Ares breathed a sigh of relief.
He had no idea that Hermes had already caught a glimpse of Yu Jinho inside the orb.
Heh. Looks like my brother found something interesting again.
Hermes swallowed his laughter and slipped out of Ares’s temple.
I had taken everything there was to take from the Blood Mountain Lord.
My business in the forest was finished… Or rather, there was still one thing left.
I recalled my knowledge from before the regression.
High Ranker Antonio.
A Brazilian player who manipulated shadows.
A High Ranker, considered second only to Monarchs.
His personality had serious problems, but his skill was undeniably real.
To be precise, it was the ever-changing movements of his shadows rather than his own power that made him so broken.
Infusing magic power into shadows and moving them at will.
He could materialize shadows by pouring mana into his own or another person’s shadow.
A perfect all-purpose technique for both offense and defense.
And that wasn’t all.
He could control others’ shadows, possess them, and manipulate people like puppets.
“My shadow ability? It’s not actually a unique ability.”
“The Orb of Darkness. See this thing embedded in my forehead? That’s what lets me control shadows.”
“Rainbow Island’s forest. If you go to the biggest tree there, you’ll find this pitch-black darkness underneath it.”
“I got the orb by going inside.”
“Why am I telling you my power’s secret? I already tested it—nobody else could enter. Looks like you need a darkness-related unique ability to get in.”
“A few of my subordinates with similar powers went in, but the place was full of traps and most of them got wrecked.”
“There was one guy who made it all the way, but the orb was already gone.”
“Heh heh. If you don’t believe me, go ahead and try it yourselves.”
“They say shadow power is the ability of a nameless god.”
That damn bastard.
I spat out a curse as I remembered Antonio, the owner of the shadow ability.
Antonio was a High Ranker and the boss of a Brazilian gang.
As the Tower’s synchronization rate rose, the power players could use in the real world increased accordingly.
Using the power of shadows, he had seized control of most of the underworld across South America.
And after the world was swallowed by the Tower?
He followed his patron constellation Loki and ascended to the world of the gods.
The fact that he had revealed the acquisition process for the Shadow Orb meant he had already verified that no one else could obtain it.
Don’t worry. That won’t happen this time.
Antonio awakens a year from now. I got lucky.
Cleaning up one piece of future trash while obtaining a useful special ability.
Wasn’t this what they called catching both the fish and the shrimp in one net?
In my original plan, this was a challenge I had intended to tackle during the second week of the tutorial.
But my stats had grown far faster than I had anticipated.
What gave me real confidence was the essence of the Blood Mountain Lord.
With my sixth sense, I should be able to avoid the traps somehow.
Antonio had said he obtained the Orb of Darkness without triggering any traps thanks to his unique ability.
I, on the other hand, had neither darkness-related traits nor skills.
That meant reacting to traps that sprang out of the darkness would be difficult.
But now, thanks to my sixth sense, I could detect even attacks I couldn’t see coming.
While I’m in the forest, I’ll take the Orb of Darkness too.
The shadow ability was a bit inferior to Devour, but its versatility in both offense and defense meant its usefulness varied wildly depending on how it was used.
It was far too good an ability to leave in the hands of trash like Antonio.
So I would claim it myself.
“The largest tree in the forest.”
I didn’t even need to search.
A tree four or five times larger than the others towered into the sky like a pillar holding up heaven itself.
Not far.
I approached the tree at a leisurely pace.
As expected, the area around the roots was dyed pitch black.
If one didn’t pay close attention, it would look like ordinary shade, but upon closer inspection the shadow writhed in a bizarre pattern.
The moment I extended a finger infused with power toward the wriggling darkness—
Clang—! A repulsive force snapped my hand backward.
“Oof.”
It was a structure that returned exactly the same amount of force in the opposite direction.
If I had tried to force my way through, I would have been the one sent flying.
Well, I had expected as much.
This time I gently stroked the surface of the darkness as if caressing it.
A soft repulsive force transmitted through the black membrane.
This should be doable.
I drew up the divine power I had absorbed from Zeus’s temple.
Divine Power: 1
It was a tiny amount compared to mana or internal energy—barely the size of a grain of rice.
Yet I wrapped that divine power around my palm like a thin coating.
I had handled it before the regression, so the technique came naturally.
Being able to connect and activate myths related to Time in a chain was only possible because I knew how to handle divine power.
Paradoxically, the small amount made it easier to control.
The divine power coating my hand reacted with the darkness beneath the tree.
Ziiiing!
The darkness shook violently, sending out ripples.
Just as I expected.
So the shadow power he used was actually a type of divine power.
The hint to split this darkness lay in the words Antonio had boasted about.
The power of a nameless god.
In other words, what blocked entry into the hidden space was divine power without any will attached.
Although the divine power dwelling in the materialized darkness was far stronger than mine, creating a path through it didn’t require much. A grain-sized amount of divine power was enough.
I’ll make a path.
Riiip!
The darkness split in half, revealing the interior structure.
A spiral staircase.
Exactly as Antonio had described.
Close call.
The condensed divine power was being consumed little by little by the darkness’s resistance.
I squeezed out the remaining divine power to push the darkness back as far as possible, then used Agile Hind Legs to leap through the gap.
Agile Hind Legs
Your current location is the Passage of ???.
You have discovered the Passage of ??? for the first time in the tutorial stage. Stamina and Endurance have increased by 3.
Thud! The moment I stepped inside, the split darkness restored itself behind me.
If I had been even a second slower, my foot would have been caught.
It would have been severed clean off at the ankle.
I let out a sigh of relief.
The location name is marked with question marks, as expected.
Just as the “nameless god” suggested, question marks appeared instead of a proper constellation title.
The god who ruled over shadows.
Could it be one of the managers, like the Old Gods?
Antonio never mentioned that much.
Whether he had stayed silent despite knowing the god’s identity, or simply hadn’t known, I couldn’t tell.
Either way, all I needed was the Shadow Orb—the core of the shadow ability Antonio had used.
“I can’t see anything.”
Just to be safe, I cast Energy Bolt.
Normally the blue sphere would have pushed back the darkness, but even that light was swallowed by the darkness permeating the passage.
This place really wasn’t ordinary.
Ultrasonic Waves
Analyzing terrain structure within a 100-meter radius.
A straight passage extending forward.
Thankfully it wasn’t a maze.
I covered my entire body with Thorny Carapace and advanced slowly.
Thorny Carapace
After walking about ten meters—
Thump— A warning from my sixth sense flashed across my mind.
I instinctively ducked my head.
Swoooosh!
A massive blade grazed the top of my skull.
If I hadn’t trusted my instincts, I would have suffered a grievous wound.
So this is where it truly begins.
A place where I could not afford to lower my guard even for a moment.
I started walking once more toward the end of the passage.