A Foothold in Europe
I devoured the essence of the enhanced War Golem.
Enhanced War Golem Essence
Grade: Ancient
Absorption: 100%
You have perfectly absorbed one type of essence.
Valiant Strike
Grade: ★★★
Type: Passive
Adds a stun effect to all melee attacks. On hit, 10% chance to stun the opponent.
The War Golem had been the Egyptian players’ final gamble. A different player had piloted it in place of Marco, who was supposed to have added summoning abilities as a supporter, but the result was the same.
I didn’t even need to lift a finger. The guild members finished it on their own. I devoured the essence of what was now nothing but scrap metal. Life would be so much easier if I could always feast like this for free.
“Master Jinho, I have learned a great deal from you.”
Marco bowed his head the moment defeat became certain.
“It was nothing.”
“I already knew you were extraordinary, but I never imagined your followers would be this remarkable as well.”
“Hmph. So the beanpole uncle finally gets it,” Enrique said, pursing his lips.
Marco twitched at the word “beanpole” before letting out a long sigh.
The One Who Governs Death is satisfied with the outcome.
The One Who Governs Death promises a fitting reward.
The sub-mission was cleared as well. Every guild member received a Death Protection Talisman. It granted resistance against various instant-death skills. Once attached anywhere on the body, it would fuse with the flesh, so it wouldn’t get in the way—an excellent item.
“A decent reward.”
It doesn’t seem immediately useful, though.
“It’s insurance. Insurance.”
Above the fiftieth floor, situations that triggered instant-death judgments appeared fairly often—traps, certain monster skills, or mission conditions. It wouldn’t dramatically increase combat power at a glance, but it was an option that would prove its worth again and again as we climbed the Tower.
The Korean formation has acquired all victory points.
The winner of the promotion match is the Korean team.
“Congratulations on your promotion to Gold.”
“Looking at contribution alone, it didn’t seem like you’d fail to promote either?”
Marco wore a strange smile that mixed joy and sorrow. Even the losing team could promote to Gold if they reached fifty percent in the promotion match. For Marco, who had been active throughout the battle as Osiris’s contractor, failing to reach Gold would have been strange.
“Ah, in truth, I wish I could go to Korea.”
“I can’t accept you into the guild.”
Marco couldn’t hide his regret. If history was to flow similarly to the previous timeline, I couldn’t create any more variables.
I began to speak the words I had prepared in advance.
“Instead, I have a proposal.”
“Pardon?”
“Create the Yeokcheon European branch.”
“By Europe, you mean…”
“Haven’t you received any immigration offers from Germany?”
“Y-yes, I have. My father’s side of the family is German, so the offer came from there.”
Oh, talk about a cow stepping backward and catching a mouse.
“I changed my mind after contracting with Osiris as my constellation.”
“No!”
“Pardon?”
“Go to Germany.”
My actions must have drawn the constellations’ attention to Earth earlier than before, accelerating the timing of the behind-the-scenes contracts. Operating from Germany rather than Egypt would create fewer variables and make building infrastructure easier.
“Understood.”
“As I said earlier, if you want, you may establish the Yeokcheon European branch.”
“Me, running a guild?”
“That way we can exchange information regularly.”
“Ah, aah!!!”
Life returned to Marco’s eyes. He had looked half-dead just moments ago.
“I’ll contact you with the details later.”
“Understood! Thank you for entrusting me with such an important duty!”
Marco bowed at a perfect ninety degrees.
After finishing the Gold promotion match, I called Marco on an international line and gave him a list of people to recruit—those who had worked with him in the previous timeline or promising talents who had yet to shine.
-Was this also part of your plan?
“No way. It’s a coincidence. Pure coincidence.”
In truth, it had been improvisation. As the inflection points of the future multiplied, the current of change accelerated. I couldn’t control every single factor alone. Since Marco had appeared, proudly calling himself my fan, it wouldn’t be bad to give him instructions and watch how things developed.
“Leave it to me!”
The best part was that he didn’t even ask for reasons. It felt like dealing with Team Leader Han Suchang. If things went well, I might even be able to keep Rene Davis in check—the man who had already become the leader of a massive guild in this era.
I was curious to see how far Marco could go.
That evening, the guild members held a modest party.
“To our Gold promotion!”
“To our promotion!”
Glasses clinked in the air. The ceiling lights reflected off the liquid inside, scattering in every direction.
Ping Lei, face flushed red, chattered excitedly.
“Kuh, now that’s what I call a worthy opponent! It was so boring I wanted to die!”
“The youngest did all the heavy lifting. What exactly did you do to be bragging like that?”
“Y-you! Have you finished talking, Lee Jiyoung!”
“Yeah. What about it!”
“Hyung, noona, both of you, please stop.”
“Stay out of this, kid!”
“Y-you just called me a tiny little kid that wouldn’t even be visible even if I stood right in front of you…!”
“No. I didn’t say it quite like that, you know?”
“Graaaawr!”
The atmosphere was cheerfully chaotic. Youngsoo hyung broke out in a cold sweat trying to calm them down, while Karla sipped her wine in silence, completely ignoring the way Ping Lei and Enrique growled at each other as if she existed in an entirely different world.
-Hehe, how rowdy.
“You seem quite relaxed.”
-Do you not enjoy this sort of atmosphere, my partner?
“Not particularly.”
I let the rest of the sentence trail off.
To survive the era of destruction, one had to abandon many things. Among them was the human heart. Emotions worn down after witnessing countless tragedies. Even now, the compulsion to prepare for the future that was coming lingered in a corner of my mind.
-There is no need to carry every burden.
“Why are you suddenly talking about burdens?”
-I worry that you might one day be crushed by the weight of everything you carry on your shoulders.
“You’re speaking too vaguely.”
-Hehe, are you not hiding things as well? That is why We have no choice but to speak like this.
Tsk. She really is a vixen through and through.
“Kh, kuku.”
-Why are you laughing?
“No reason. I just thought that, as the goddess said, it might be good to set everything down at least for today.”
Yes. Compared to the previous timeline, the situation was far better. Not to mention my rate of growth. People who had once been enemies of humanity had become comrades.
So.
On a day like today, wasn’t it all right to let my heart rest?
“Master, your glass is empty. How long are you going to make me keep pouring for you?”
“Right. Sorry.”
I accepted the beer Jiyoung poured and downed it in one gulp. The bitter flavor. For some reason, the taste of beer felt especially vivid today.
* * *
The next day.
The guild members were all exhausted from the wild party and slept through the entire morning. Still, I couldn’t afford to waste an entire day. I reached for the cellphone I had charged overnight.
-Are you thinking of climbing the Tower again?
“Yeah. I barely made any progress for a whole month.”
While retrieving the Wildfire Hearth, I hadn’t been able to devour any essences. There hadn’t been time to enter and exit gates, either. Accessing the Tower from another country required approval from the local association, and doing so would have left a trail for others to follow.
Fortunately, I had just completed my Gold promotion.
“I need to clear the missions, don’t I?”
I pressed the access button immediately.
The Forgotten Valley
The Forgotten Valley was once a sacred site honoring constellations who had departed from the world.
Within the valley stand altars constructed to commune with the constellations of the heavens and the earth.
One of the Klyphoth factions, the ‘Branch of Golakab,’ seeks to corrupt these altars to complete the Qliphoth.
Prevent the Branch of Golakab from occupying the altars.
📍 Objective: Protect at least 3 altars.
⚠ Warning: Difficulty has been increased due to constellation intervention.
⚠ Note: Some altars have fallen under Klyphoth influence. Purify the corrupted altars.
I had wondered why it was so quiet. The constellations who had been watching me had intervened in the mission. Difficulty increased. They had stayed silent after I matched with Nagara in the thirties, yet the moment I entered Gold rank they pulled something like this.
“I like it even more this way.”
-As We always say, complacency is forbidden.
“Yes, yes. I’ll stay on my guard.”
I answered lightly and kicked off the ground. The core of the forty-first floor mission was to keep the altars out of the Branch of Golakab’s hands as much as possible. Once they occupied an altar, they would open a passage to the inverted world and summon reinforcements. I was about to experience the full flavor of the increased difficulty.
-My partner, something approaches.
“Perfect timing.”
Black wings flickered between the dark clouds.
Fallen Angel.
An entity belonging to the inverted world of darkness—the realm that had reversed the Sephirot Tree, the empire of angels.
Wow. No matter how hellish the difficulty, I hadn’t expected to encounter a fallen angel in the forties.
“Mortal, witness the true order of the world.”
“True order, my ass.”
The fallen angel burst from the black clouds and dove sharply. It descended at the speed of light. The spear in its grip shone with paradoxical darkness and brilliance at once. The distance closed in an instant—a speed that would have been nearly impossible for an ordinary Gold-rank player to react to.
Yes. Only within the bounds of “ordinary,” that is.
The internal energy I had accumulated through the Asura Demon Spirit Heart Method surged through my meridians. My senses sharpened as though I had been splashed with cold water. I extended my fingers, materializing my qi into a sharp edge.
Clang!
A cold metallic ring erupted as my fingers met the spear tip.
“You couldn’t even react and yet you dare spread your hand—huh?!”
“Thanks for coming down here yourself.”
Fighting flying enemies was always annoying. How convenient that it had willingly abandoned the advantage of the sky.
Shocked that its decisive strike had been blocked, the fallen angel flapped its wings violently. It tried to escape by beating them in place, but—
“You may enter as you please, but leaving is another matter.”
Blood Intoxication
Valid target detected. Target is being drawn toward the user.
“How dare you attempt to bind me!”
The fallen angel flapped its wings even harder, but it could not shake off the crimson energy wrapped around my hand. It was an aggro-control skill extracted from an evil spirit’s essence. I yanked my left hand back, and the fallen angel’s body lurched forward.
“Safe travels.”
I twisted my torso and unleashed the Black Tortoise Rock Crush. Using my right leg as the axis, I spun and poured internal energy into my entire body. My frame, now hard as a fortress wall, slammed into the fallen angel.
Boooom!
The fallen angel exploded into a pulp. A monster one would only encounter in Platinum rank had fallen in just two exchanges.
-Futile.
“What is?”
-What is the point of the constellations raising the difficulty with one mind?
“Aren’t heroes supposed to overcome hardships?”
-To you, they look more like rewards than hardships.
Leaving Nyx’s lament behind, I devoured the fallen angel’s essence.