The Monarch's Evaluation
Gulp—
Ping Lei downed the potion from the bottle in one go.
“Don’t drink it like that. It’s all money, you know.”
“Then heal me properly before you lecture me.”
“Did I suddenly become your personal healer?”
Grumbling, he cast Heal.
It was only a low-grade recovery spell, so the effect wasn’t exactly impressive.
Still, what choice did he have? He poured in as much mana as possible to somehow boost the skill’s efficiency.
Among the skills he had gained through Devour, healing-related spells were particularly rare.
He had self-recovery abilities—like the integrated Super Regeneration—but supporter-type skills were almost nonexistent.
“Even with five of us attacking, we couldn’t draw out Master’s full power.”
“It was a close call. You saw me detonating magic at near-suicide levels, right?”
“And you didn’t even summon your transformation or the dinosaur.”
Jiyoung pouted, lips pushed forward.
“Be honest. How much power did you actually use?”
“Eighty percent.”
He hadn’t called out Lexy or Ark either.
Ark’s true firepower only shone on large-scale battlefields, so that was understandable. But the primordial beast Lexy would have been a massive help.
He also hadn’t used any transformation stronger than Dragon Form, nor Void Projection, which manifested the original form of devoured essences.
Void Projection
Dragon Form
-Forgetting about me would be most troublesome.
Nyx, perched on my shoulder, turned her head away with a huff.
“Master. You really are disgustingly strong.”
“What’s with the sudden flattery?”
“I knew it when we were on the same side, but fighting you as an enemy really drove the point home.”
Groans and sighs echoed from all around.
“Brother Youngsu. Are you okay?”
“You give us the disease and then offer the medicine? That’s not fair.”
“Thaaaaat’s right. Your formation is honestly too much to handle.”
To think he had already mastered several formations.
It was an annoying ability that granted buffs to allies while forcing debuffs on any enemies within range.
I knew about one or two of them, but I never expected him to restore a broken formation in the blink of an eye.
“It’s all thanks to Ping Lei’s hard work.”
“Haha! See? My contributions are this significant!”
Yeah. Your shit is pretty thick.
After crossing blades with him directly, I couldn’t even argue.
By using his clones to build and maintain formations, he could rebuild them almost instantly no matter how many times I broke them. It was clear proof that he and Youngsu had trained together frequently.
Karla poked her head over Jiyoung’s shoulder and stared at me intently.
Teacher?
Why are you looking at me with those eyes?
“How did I do?”
“Not bad. Your spatial teleportation has improved quite a bit.”
***
It was a form of instant movement different from Shrink, which folded space to change position.
It could be used consecutively, and if the opponent had no ability to interfere with space, they would be completely defenseless.
Karla’s firepower was also tremendous.
When it came to pure destructive power, she was the strongest among the guild members.
“Huuuueeeeng. My Titan!”
“It didn’t get completely destroyed. Stop whining.”
“You evil human! Cold-blooded monster! You have neither blood nor tears!”
“That Titan—you wouldn’t have gotten it if it weren’t for me.”
When the guild members formed teams, the constellations had forced them into competition with the dwarves on the lower floors.
Unlike normal weapons, Titans weren’t automatically retrieved when their dwarf owner died.
Thanks to that, Enrique had obtained the steel colossus—the pinnacle of magic engineering—far earlier than in his previous timeline.
You should be thanking me.
“Still, your mech synchronization and firepower projection have both improved compared to before.”
“Hiiing. My Titan…”
“Keep complaining and I’ll break the rest of them too.”
“I have always respected you, Guild Master sir!”
Look at how fast he switched attitudes.
Evaluation Complete
-So, after grading them all, what do you think?
“They’ve all cleared the cutoff line.”
Honestly, they had exceeded my expectations.
Even against five members of the Elf Royal Guard, they probably wouldn’t lose.
To think they could hold their own against the Royal Guard while still only Platinum rank.
It was an incredible achievement—one that even Ellen, America’s strongest ranker, had never managed.
-When comparing their individual combat strength, aren’t they still weaker than that child?
“You’re right.”
Ellen had stood at the peak of Platinum rank and accumulated levels for several years.
In a one-on-one fight, none of the guild members could beat her.
Team battles, however, were a different story.
Youngsu’s commanding ability.
Ping Lei, who seized control of the battlefield using clones and Seon Magic.
Jiyoung designated coordinates in midair to create barriers that blocked attacks or stole the enemy’s breath.
And Karla, the space manipulator, possessed a single devastating blow.
“Uncle, why did you leave me out of the evaluation?”
“You still have a long way to go.”
“Why! Why are you only like this to me?!”
“Who reveals their trump card right from the start?”
The Machine Monarch, Enrique Deltoro.
The boy had deployed every stored weapon he possessed to handle every possible situation.
His adaptability was outstanding.
Once he was certain of victory, he would summon his Titan and completely overwhelm the enemy.
But he still had far to go.
“Even a Titan isn’t invincible.”
“I know that.”
“You just learned that lesson today, didn’t you?”
“……Tsk.”
At least he didn’t deny it.
The team battle evaluation was complete.
Now it was time to see how far each of their individual abilities had grown.
***
“My Titan’s left arm is broken, you know?”
“The right arm is still fine.”
“I’m not in perfect condition either way!”
“Then should I break the other arm too?”
“I’ll prepare immediately.”
After crushing Enrique’s minor rebellion, I moved on to individual sparring sessions.
“Jiyoung, your use of blessings is still lacking.”
“Brother Youngsu, those are useless in solo fights. You should invest more into puppet control.”
“Ping Lei, didn’t you hear the same thing earlier?”
…….
Some people excelled in team battles but struggled to display their full power in one-on-one fights.
Youngsu was the perfect example.
On the other hand, Karla’s abilities shone even brighter when acting alone.
Jiyoung maintained the best balance.
“Me?”
“You use your barriers in so many different ways.”
She could disrupt enemy formations, support allies, or even use them offensively.
She had even interfered when I tried to combine two spells with Eclipse.
Her greatest strength was the ability to switch freely between offense and defense.
Even in one-on-one combat, she never lost her edge.
“Master, I too synchronized with the commander using my clones.”
“Oh, that was impressive. You swallowed your pride and faithfully carried out the command role.”
“Look, woman! Master acknowledged that my performance in the spar was the greatest!”
“Yes, yes. You were the most amazing.”
Even though Jiyoung’s reply was completely half-hearted, Ping Lei still laughed with smug satisfaction.
There was only one thing that left me disappointed.
“Enrique.”
“No. I don’t want to hear it, sir.”
“I haven’t even said anything yet.”
“You’re about to nag me, aren’t you?”
Good grief.
Nagging? These were all valuable pieces of advice that would become flesh and blood for him.
Tsk tsk.
Back in my day, we treated our seniors’ words like golden maxims.
-You did?
What’s with that doubtful tone?!
“Your skill in handling weapons is flawless.”
“Heh. Hehehe.”
“But you’re too emotional.”
He would occasionally ignore Youngsu’s orders, and during one-on-one spars, he couldn’t control his hot blood and would dump his firepower too hastily.
“You should only do that when you can definitely finish the fight.”
“But if I push with maximum output, I can seize the initiative, can’t I?”
“Only if you can control all that firepower with perfect precision.”
The more weapons he summoned…
***
The precision of each weapon decreased.
He needed to handle them with marksman-level accuracy and only unleash full power at the decisive moment.
“Did you understand?”
“Yeeeees.”
“If you don’t understand, feel free to say so. You’ll get it after a few more sparring sessions.”
“I understood perfectly!”
Hmm.
It seems I really do have a talent for teaching.
“Everyone looks exhausted, so let’s move on to clearing the gate.”
“Master, what do you mean by that?”
“We can’t just play around in the gate and leave. Since we’re here, we should take care of it.”
“W-who said we were playing around?!”
“Looks like our Ping Lei would rather spar than clear the gate.”
“I will clear the gate immediately!”
Ping Lei marched forward with a face full of renewed determination.
* * *
◈ Health +21
◈ Mana +15
◈ New Skill: Resident of the Earth
Resident of the Earth
Grade: ★★
Type: Passive
While standing on the ground, health recovery speed increases by 20%.
The Dremen were inhabitants of a desert dimension.
Although the Tower hadn’t manifested the real Dremen, the common racial traits had been converted into a skill and absorbed perfectly into me.
-It operates on a similar mechanism to my sister’s blessing.
“It feels a bit wrong to put the blessing of a concept-level goddess on the same level as these guys.”
The difference in weight class is massive.
Comparing a mortal race’s trait to the blessing of a conceptual god… doesn’t that seem a little shameless?
We hunted the Dremen hiding throughout the desert as we advanced.
“Delicious prey has walked right into our territory.”
“Who exactly is the prey here?”
Void Projection
Manifesting: Primordial Species – Tyrannosaurus
Manifesting: High Orc
Let’s finish this quickly.
Chewing sand the whole time is pure torture.
Yellow Dragon Fang
***
The Dremen chieftain seemed to be shouting something, but his voice was completely swallowed by the violently spinning energy.
One strike.
That was all it took to take down the boss of an A-rank gate.
“Who’s really the monster here?”
Jiyoung’s muttered complaint lingered in my ears.
◈ Strength +35
◈ Mana +22
◈ New Skill: Sandstorm
Sandstorm
Grade: ★★★
Type: Active
Creates a strong wind containing sand particles.
If the target lacks the Resident of the Earth skill/trait or has low earth affinity, their vision will be restricted and agility will decrease.
Within the range of the sandstorm, the efficiency of earth-related skills increases.
It was a wide-area debuff skill that generated sandstorms across a large area.
I had used it quite effectively in my previous life as well.
Thanks to Resident of the Earth, I could force vision restriction and agility debuffs exclusively on my enemies.
I couldn’t use it when moving as a team, but since Devour often had me operating alone, it wasn’t much of a problem.
“Uwaaaaah! We’re finally escaping this place!”
“If someone heard you, they’d think we were stuck here for a week.”
“Look at how rough your skin has become. How have you been taking care of it?”
Instead of chatting, why don’t you just leave the gate?
Leaving the still-whining Jiyoung behind, I stepped out of the gate.
Sand poured from every part of my body.
I definitely needed a shower first.
“Analyst Thomas, when can these kids challenge their promotion matches?”
“They all reached maximum level a week ago.”
The promotion matches were fixed for the beginning of each month.
Today was the 25th, so… exactly five days left.
“Let’s go for the next promotion match right away.”
“Understood.”
“For the time being, I won’t climb the Tower either. I’ll focus on helping the guild members with their training.”
“If the Guild Master helps personally, it’s like gaining a thousand soldiers and ten thousand horses.”
“When did you start learning four-character idioms?”
“Recently I’ve developed a hobby of learning them.”
Ever since the Tower of Babel appeared, all languages had been unified.
However, special phrases—metaphors, idioms, and the like—were not translated.
It does make one sound more refined.
-Why don’t you learn some yourself?
“I’d rather not.”
For the remaining period, I focused entirely on training—no, drilling—the guild members.
“This instructor can become either an angel or a devil depending on your attitude.”
“Don’t spout nonsense. Since when were you an angel, Master!”
***
“Oh dear. The devil only sees devils in others’ eyes. So you are the real devil.”
WHAM!
I disciplined the devil-possessed Ping Lei with the whip of love.
This is not revenge. Definitely not. Absolutely not.
And so, four days passed.
The morning of the Diamond promotion test finally dawned.