Chapter 15.
‘A sword?’
It was shooting arrows earlier.
So the Guardian’s true identity was actually a sword.
‘But what’s it planning to do from that far away?’
After jumping around here and there collecting treasure chests.
Lee Ganghan had somehow ended up far from the starting point.
The Goblin Chief could fall, sure.
But coming all the way here with a sword would be impossible, wouldn’t it?
However,
Paaaaat…!
An intense pure white light spread from the sword.
Shushushik!
The giant light sword split into dozens of light swords.
And began flying rapidly toward Lee Ganghan.
-???
-What’s the difficulty;
-This is… Iron…?
-This level seems hard even for Gold to handle;
The swords rushed at a speed similar to Lee Ganghan who was jumping using Heavenly Demon Reign Step.
Though they were still far away and hadn’t reached here yet.
It seemed like they would catch up within a few minutes.
‘There’s not much time left for Heavenly Demon Divine Art either.’
Should he fight those swords while Heavenly Demon Divine Art was maintained?
Or should he open treasure chests faster?
Just as Lee Ganghan was at a crossroads of choice.
[Return portal is opening.]
Ziiiiing…!
On the opposite side of the broken cliff.
In the direction where Lee Ganghan had been jumping and collecting treasure chests.
Several blue portals opened.
Since it was Iron grade, it seemed like they weren’t just telling him to die.
‘Then I can collect more treasure on the way and take the portal.’
Shik!
Lee Ganghan drew an escape route in his mind.
And opened a treasure chest on the stepping stone side.
[Treasure chest opened.]
[You gain 1,000 TP.]
[Reward acquisition amount increased by 100%.]
[You gain 1,000 TP.]
After opening 10 more treasure chests.
Lee Ganghan had arrived near the portals.
‘One more jump from here and I’ll escape.’
He used tickets to open 35 chests and gained 70,000 TP.
For Iron grade, it was quite a profitable haul.
However,
‘If I could subdue that sword next time, I could open more chests, right?’
Since he still had two more entrance tickets left.
It wouldn’t be too late to test whether he could handle the sword this time and then escape.
With that thought, Lee Ganghan.
At the treasure chest platform in front of the return portal, right before escaping.
Folded his arms and waited for the sword to come.
About a minute passed like that.
‘It’s here.’
Shuuuuk!
Several light swords approached right in front of Lee Ganghan.
‘Up close, the momentum is definitely quite strong.’
Shuuk!
The swords spread in all directions, occupying Lee Ganghan’s space.
The footing wasn’t wide, so avoiding the sword attacks seemed almost impossible.
Whik!
Lee Ganghan dodged here and there, barely touching or not touching the swords.
Furthermore, he even went as far as to grab the sword handles in reverse.
-Wow, he’s dodging all of that?
-Having a promise duel with the sword? ㄷㄷ Crazy
-Something about his body movements seems different…
-That’s why he’s the Heavenly Demon;
-It’s really unfortunate that he’s terminally ill ㅠ
Lee Ganghan showed amazing feats even considering his Heavenly Demon abilities.
When he tried to face off against other swords while holding one.
[‘Sword Spirit’ is being subdued…]
Suddenly, this message appeared before his eyes.
‘Sword Spirit?’
Is there such a spirit?
When Lee Ganghan glanced at the sword he held in his hand.
Wiiiiing…
In the center of the sword made of light.
There was a small child crouched with knees pulled up.
‘Is this the Sword Spirit?’
If he subdued this spirit, would he be able to use light swords?
That would be completely sweet.
Lee Ganghan briefly had expectations.
[You do not have sword-related skills.]
[Cannot subdue the Sword Spirit.]
Along with the message that he couldn’t subdue the sword.
Passsss…
Cracks appeared in the sword.
The light scattered in all directions and disappeared.
‘So close.’
If he could subdue the Sword Spirit.
It would be much more valuable than opening a few more treasure chests here.
Lee Ganghan swallowed his disappointment and continued facing the attacking swords.
Chiiik!
Even as his skin got cut several times by the sword’s fierce attacks.
He didn’t even twitch an eyebrow and grabbed another sword.
Even if he couldn’t subdue the spirits, he could still destroy them.
Passsss…!
After grabbing and bursting about ten swords like that.
[‘Sword Spirit’ is being subdued…]
[Skill ‘Heavenly Demon Divine Sword’ acquired…]
Unlike before.
‘Heavenly Demon Divine Sword’ appeared in the message window.
‘Oh?’
He gets a sword skill like this?
Then he should be able to subdue the Sword Spirit right away.
Lee Ganghan expected the dots in the message to disappear.
And for the skill acquisition message to be completed.
Ting.
[Trait ‘Heavenly Demon Constitution’ minimum grade has not reached D grade.]
[Cannot acquire skill ‘Heavenly Demon Divine Sword’.]
A message appeared saying he failed to acquire the skill ‘Heavenly Demon Divine Sword’.
‘Ah… When I first chose bonus skills, Heavenly Demon Divine Sword showed as D grade or higher, so this is connected to the minimum grade.’
‘Heavenly Demon Divine Sword’ which showed as D grade or higher in the bonus skill selection window.
The grade shown there was related to the minimum grade.
While Lee Ganghan was disappointed about not acquiring Heavenly Demon Divine Sword.
He was able to understand the mechanism for acquiring Heavenly Demon-related skills.
‘In the end, the minimum grade of the Heavenly Demon Constitution trait is key.’
Just like he acquired Heavenly Demon Reign Step after the minimum grade of Heavenly Demon Constitution rose to E.
The minimum grade of Heavenly Demon Constitution had to rise to D to get the D-grade Heavenly Demon Divine Sword.
It seemed like a structure where as this rose step by step to C, B, he would get higher-level skills.
But if this was the case.
‘Heavenly Demon Eternal, Ten Thousand Demons Prostrate was an SSS-grade skill. I chose well to pick this first.’
The SSS-grade skill ‘Heavenly Demon Eternal, Ten Thousand Demons Prostrate’.
Could only be obtained when the minimum grade of Heavenly Demon Constitution reached SSS.
Fortunately, the skill obtained during the tutorial was a ‘bonus skill’.
So he could acquire skills without such grade cuts.
‘I chose well to pick the bottom one.’
Lee Ganghan felt once again that his choice at the time was excellent.
If he hadn’t chosen ‘Heavenly Demon Eternal, Ten Thousand Demons Prostrate’ then.
He would have been able to get it only after reaching SSS grade.
-Wow, more than half the swords disappeared ㄷㄷ
-Seeing this, I’m really convinced the Heavenly Demon Constitution trait is terminally ill
-ㄹㅇ How can such an ability be E grade ㅋㅋㅋ
-Really unfortunate, will he make it to Bronze?
-Seems like he’ll just show a taste in Iron and disappear ㅋㅋ
Meanwhile,
As Lee Ganghan only got scratches even in the sword encirclement.
And conversely destroyed and subdued the swords.
Viewers became more convinced that the Heavenly Demon’s power had a usage limit.
Whether he would disappear in Iron.
Or if he would make it to Bronze, betting was happening in the chat when.
[Heavenly Demon Divine Art duration ends.]
As the Heavenly Demon Divine Art duration ended.
Lee Ganghan’s movements became noticeably slower.
‘Now I should escape.’
The number of swords was less than half compared to before.
But it was still difficult to handle the swords without the Heavenly Demon Divine Art effect.
When Lee Ganghan jumped toward the return portal.
[Calculating Iron Tower No-777 performance…]
[Opened 30 or more treasure chests.]
[Encountered the Sword Spirit.]
[Clear Evaluation – S]
As the tower was cleared.
The clear evaluation results came out.
***
‘Only S?’
For Lee Ganghan who had received SSS+ twice so far, it was an unsatisfactory result.
[Clear rewards are given proportional to evaluation.]
[Opening clear rewards.]
[Level increases by 1.]
[You gain 3,000 TP.]
The clear rewards were also pathetic compared to the previous SSS+ times.
‘No wonder the rewards were generous even though it’s Iron… It’s because I got SSS+ until now that they gave well.’
3,000 TP was actually 3.9 million won when converted to currency.
It was a considerable amount.
If the majority of players earned such high income.
The number of people giving up midway would have been much fewer.
‘Still, it’s disappointing not getting SSS+ after receiving it before. Would the evaluation go up if I subdued the Sword Spirit?’
If he had the skill ‘Heavenly Demon Divine Sword’.
It seemed like he could sufficiently subdue the Sword Spirit.
‘Next time, I shouldn’t use the entrance ticket right away, but challenge when I’m qualified to get the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword skill.’
Lee Ganghan made such plans for next time and organized today’s profits.
70,000 TP from opening 35 treasure chests.
10,000 TP received in donations plus 3,000 in clear rewards.
‘83,000 TP… That’s over 100 million won.’
Even for a treasure chest map, it was mind-flipping profit for Iron level.
‘My total TP is now 123,000… At this rate, it’s more wasteful to exchange at 100% ratio.’
He had to exchange at 110% ratio through a guild somehow.
Lee Ganghan decided to hold onto the TP for now.
‘Did the goblins revive?’
To check the goblins’ life and death, he opened Ten Thousand Demon Battle.
[Ten Thousand Demon Battle]
The dwelling of ten thousand demons who submitted to the Heavenly Demon.
The player’s status is low, so Ten Thousand Demon Battle cannot perform its original function.
Current capacity – 51/10,000
Looking at the capacity numbers.
Like the chief said, it seemed they revived in the Ten Thousand Demon Battle even if they died in the tower.
And in the darkness of Ten Thousand Demon Battle.
Looking at the goblin territory that was the only area lit up.
Several goblins were lying sprawled out, turned gray.
When Lee Ganghan pressed one of them.
[Goblin#1 waiting time until reactivation 23:48:55]
This message window appeared.
‘Can’t use them right after death, can use them after 24 hours.’
But considering that tower entry was also possible 24 hours after clearing.
This didn’t seem like a big penalty.
‘But the chief isn’t lying down.’
Whether the horn’s revival effect was used here.
Unlike other goblins who died from falling, the Castrated Goblin Chief was fine and active.
But unlike when he usually commanded goblins.
He was looking at his crotch area and pulling his hair, seemed like some trouble occurred.
‘Hmm… Is there nothing more to invest in the goblin territory?’
Lee Ganghan had been reluctant to spend even when he invested 40,000 TP recently.
But the goblins had made great contributions by throwing themselves in this 777 map clear.
And generosity comes from abundance.
After earning big income, he felt like investing.
As he pressed around the goblin territory like that.
Ting.
[Would you like to build ‘Goblin Training Ground’?]
[30,000 TP will be used.]
A message asking if he wanted to build a training ground appeared.
[Goblin Training Ground]
During waiting time in Ten Thousand Demon Battle, levels are raised through self-training.
Growth possible values through training are proportional to the player’s level.
‘They grow according to my level.’
This seemed worth building.
The goblins who had their basic needs met were just lying around being lazy.
As the master of Ten Thousand Demon Battle.
He couldn’t just watch them play and eat like that.
‘Right. They should at least follow my level.’
When Lee Ganghan decided and built the training ground.
Thud, thud, Thud, thud…
A campsite spread out in the goblin territory.
A training ground filled with various scarecrows was created.
Then the Goblin Chief who had only been staring at his crotch.
Whik! Whik!
Gestured to the goblins and pushed them into the training ground.
‘What a desirable middle manager.’
Lee Ganghan thought so and.
Touched the goblin territory again.
Still had some TP left, wasn’t there more to invest in?
As he continued touching.
Ting.
[Would you like to build ‘Goblin Black Market’?]
[60,000 TP will be used.]
Compared to everything built so far.
A much more expensive facility appeared.
‘60,000 is a bit expensive…’
If he built this too, consumption would be more than what he earned today.
Spending 100 million after earning 100 million in a day.
Shouldn’t he need to calm down a bit?
‘Right… Let me wash my face.’
He should look at the facility description with a clear mind.
He shouldn’t just spend recklessly like this.
When Lee Ganghan got up and walked to the bathroom.
Ting, ting…
The cell phone rang.
“Who is it, at this important moment?”
The number on the phone was one he’d never seen before.
Lee Ganghan wondered who it was and answered the phone.
“Who is this?”
[Ah. Ganghan, it’s me, Uncle Junghyeon from the logistics center.]
At the mention of Uncle Junghyeon, Lee Ganghan thought of one person.
Uncle Kang Junghyeon whom he often talked and hung out with at the logistics center.
He was quite kind and had a broad sense of meddling, so he received a lot of help.
‘But did he know my number too?’
Lee Ganghan tilted his head and answered.
“Ah, yes, Uncle.”
[There’s someone who really wants to contact you?]
“…Contact?”
[Yeah! You know President Shin Yuri, right?]
“Shin Yuri?”
[Don’t tell me you don’t know…? You know, the GLASS agent president! Ah. I’ll transfer you for now.]
What the.
When Lee Ganghan tilted his head.
[Hello. Are you Lee Ganghan?]
Suddenly a woman’s voice came through the phone.
“Yes.”
[This is Shin Yuri, CEO of player agent ‘GLASS’.]
