Leveling with the Gods

Chapter 105

“You’re pretty good at bringing back things like these, kid.”

Hephaestus didn’t talk for a few minutes after seeing the 「Divine Sea Crystal.」

The one thing he said was just a laugh mixed with amazement and wonder, and then he continued to observe it afterwards.

Vwooong—

The blue stone shone brightly in Hephaestus’s hand. He looked at it for a long time before asking a question.

“Is it perhaps ‘the thing’?”

YuWon answered without asking what he meant by “the thing.”

“Yes.”

It was an obvious question.

“Really? Is this really the Stone of the Sea or whatever?”

“That’s right.”

“It’s—damn, haha…”

Hephaestus could only exclaim, baffled, for a bit and then grasped the handle of his millstone while muttering, “I can’t believe it.”

Well, it only sounded like that to YuWon’s ears, but the true meaning was completely different.

“Just where did you get this? This is an item that my uncle couldn’t find for over a thousand years.”

“I got lucky.”

“Does that even make sense?”

Hephaestus was so filled with frustration, he looked like he would burst.

But he couldn’t really tell YuWon off. What could he say when he said he got lucky?

Fortunately for YuWon, Hephaestus wasn’t worried, unlike Urpha and the other Giants.

“In any case, this will keep my father and uncle busy in Olympus for a while, keeping each other in check, so they won’t be able to pay you any attention.”

He knew the relationship between Zeus and Poseidon, and he also predicted that the appearance of the 「Divine Sea Crystal」 would put the two in a battle of paranoia.

With the start of this war of nerves, they had no choice but to leave YuWon alone. Zeus couldn’t personally move because of the pressure from the other big guilds, and Poseidon couldn’t move either because of the pressure from Zeus.

In the end, the one who profited the most from this incident was YuWon.

Having thought up to that point, Hephaestus marveled at him.

‘No way he predicted all this, right?’

He had thoughts like this because he knew YuWon was a pretty smart kid. However, this was still too much of a stretch.

Ignoring the fact that he knew where to find the 「Divine Sea Crystal,」 Hephaestus thought that YuWon predicting this would have been impossible unless he somehow knew the inner workings and relationships in Olympus. He knew YuWon was the strongest player he had ever seen, but this was a totally different problem than just being an outstanding individual.

‘And also this…’

Hephaestus closely analyzed the 「Divine Sea Crystal」 in his palm.

‘It’s just like Father’s Lighting Bolt.’

The nature was completely different, but they were similar.

It wasn’t just with the 「Divine Sea Crystal,」 it was the same when he was crafting 「Kyneē,」 which was currently on YuWon’s hand. Both of them were quite similar to the core material of the 「Lightning Bolt,」 the item that could be called the symbol of Zeus.

“Can you work with it?” YuWon asked without a hint of doubt.

He was asking the person who had already crafted the 「Divine Sky Crystal」 into 「Lightning Bolt.」 He had also already created excellent work with the 「Divine Dark Crystal,」 so naturally there would be no problem with the 「Divine Sea Crystal」 either.

Hephaestus answered affirmatively and clenched the Sea Crystal in his palm.

“Before refining, this is the same as that thing on your hand. If I’m to make a proper item, I need other materials.”

Even Hephaestus couldn’t create something from nothing.

“I need a certain quantity of adamantium, but there isn’t a place to get it either…”

“How long would the refining take?”

“It’ll take about ten days this time.”

“Is that so?”

After thinking for a bit, YuWon nodded. “I’ll go get it as fast as possible and bring it here.”

“The materials?”

“Yes.”

“Are you rich?”

“I don’t have too much since I used it all when making this,” YuWon said while shaking his right hand with 「Kyneē」 on it.

The amount of adamantium needed to be able to withstand the power of a refined 「Divine Sea Crystal」 would probably be similar to the amount needed for 「Kyneē.」

To aquire that much right now would be impossible even if one had the money, but YuWon said he would “go get it” all too easily.

Even though he was hearing another absurd thing, Hephaestus felt a weird sense of believability.

‘He’s someone who’ll definitely do what he says.’

Of course, he didn’t know the exact duration of YuWon’s “as fast as possible.” It could take a few years at most, and at the least, a few months would be reasonable.

However, one thing that was sure was that YuWon would definitely go and acquire that impossible thing that any other person would never even be able to touch, even if they looked their entire life for it.

“Where are you going now?” Hephaestus asked while rolling up his sleeves to start working.

He knew YuWon wouldn’t just stay here idly. Since YuWon was always busily moving around, Hephaestus knew the punk would go climb again.

“Are you going to challenge the test right away?”

“Well, just as you said, Ahjussi, I’ve bought some time now.”

While he was coming down to the 1st Floor, YuWon had already thought of how to spend the rest of his time.

“For now, I’m thinking of using the time to raise my level.”

“‘Bought some time’?”

Hephaestus was more interested in the ‘time’ rather than what YuWon would be doing.

“No way, you brat. Are you really thinking of fighting Olympus?”

It was another story he had heard before. YuWon had already become an enemy of Olympus because of him, and he said he would bring Olympus down from the skies.

Hephaestus thought it was a nonsensical statement. He thought that YuWon was just an immature kid who didn’t know the goings-on of the world and thought, ‘He probably feels like he can take on the world right now.’

But dreams were usually like that. At first, they were bigger than reality, but as time went on and one learned more about reality, they would become smaller and more vague.

However, it was the complete opposite for YuWon. Rather, his dreams would get bigger with time and were becoming clearer.

On top of that…

“Do you think that’s all?”

YuWon’s goal didn’t just stop at Olympus.

“What are you talking about?”

Hephaestus was taken aback from the completely unexpected answer to his yes-or-no question.

YuWon didn’t elaborate further. Instead, he nodded once at Hephaestus and turned to leave the workshop.

“Then I’ll leave it to you. I’ll pay you the fees later, so don’t worry.”

“…Alright.”

Hephaestus was quick-witted, and asking a question he knew the person didn’t want to answer didn’t fit his style. He believed that there was a reason YuWon wasn’t saying more about it.

Thinking this, Hephaestus looked around the workshop for his refining burin.

Step—

YuWon left the 「Divine Sea Crystal」 to Hephaestus and left the workshop.

It looked like Hephaestus was worrying too much because he thought YuWon was going into battle against a foe too big to handle. YuWon hadn’t known him for a long time, but he could tell that Hephaestus was someone who worried a lot. He probably worried about many things but was just choosing to not show it on the outside.

“He would really fall over if he knew everything.”

[?’s Egg wiggles.]

Was it because its incubation rate had increased? Nowadays, it was awake for about half the day, and this time, it answered YuWon.

YuWon smirked a little while questioning if the Egg even knew anything at all and started a conversation with it for the first time in a while.

“You’ll probably be able to meet your siblings soon.”

[?’s Egg tilts its head in question.]

It was like a little kid that didn’t know anything yet. Just what would it be like if it hatched? YuWon was half looking forward to it and half worried about it.

“It’s going to become pretty fun, and the rotten parts of the Tower will start to be revealed one by one.”

The Egg reacted as if to say it still didn’t completely understand.

Well, this thing was only interested in one thing.

“Don’t you grow by eating them?”

[?’s Egg nods.]

A child that only cares about eating. Like a gluttonous little kid, it showed a strong appetite for the Outers and grew by eating them.

He didn’t know just what was inside the Egg, but he was certain that it was at least friendly towards him.

“Soon enough…”

YuWon started to move towards his destination.

“I’ll let you feast.”

* * *

Translator – Jreaming

Proofreader – BringTheRayn

* * *

The world on the 1st Floor was vast. Many worlds were like that, but the 1st Floor was especially so. You could arrive at an area that had yet to be developed in about half a month. After leaving the City of Beginnings, going through the forest, and then going on for a while longer, you could arrive at the second world that wasn’t recorded on the map.

‘After this point, there’s only about eight developed places.’

How surprised YuWon was when he found out that the final known size of the 1st Floor was about five times the surface area of his original earth. Because of this, he didn’t even dream of traveling by foot. Rather than that…

“Thank you for using the pride of Olympus, the Sun Chariot!”

He used one of the fastest methods of transport in the tower, the 「Sun Chariot」 replica he saw on the 20th Floor.

[1000 points have been used.]

Naturally, he had to pay the expensive usage fee, but the 「Sun Chariot」 was a method of transport that could move about ten people at once. It boasted a fast speed that could travel between the upper and lower floors, and as the symbol of Apollo, there was a rumor that the real one could the travel from the 1st Floor to the top in just one day.

“Please come again!”

Receiving an aggressive sales greeting, YuWon dismounted from the 「Sun Chariot.」

He had been flying for over two days, and since he couldn’t do much during that time, his entire body was sore.

‘I’ve arrived.’

In front of YuWon was a tall wall without an end in sight. The black wall looked as if it was a barrier between night and day. As he walked closer and put his hand on it, it felt solid and cold.

This was it.

The edge of the world.

The huge world wall of the so-called ‘Tower.’

The Outers had definitely come from outside here.

‘We thought it would never break.’

No High-Ranker could break this wall. Not even Zeus, the great King of Olympus, nor Odin the King of Asgard, nor Asura, nor Hercules, not even The Great Sage, Heaven’s Equal, Son OhGong.

Let alone break the wall, they couldn’t even make a dent in it. That was why they thought the Tower was safe.

No, they didn’t even suspect from the start that there was anything outside it.

‘No one expected the wall to fall apart on its own.’

Swish—

YuWon lifted his hand off the wall and turned around. He didn’t come here just to reminisce and fall into his thoughts. The reason he used up two days to come here was because he was certain of something.

‘That’s not a dungeon that would appear on the 1st Floor.’

The difficulty of the dungeons that appeared on a floor was set to be similar to the levels of the players on that floor, but that was only relevant when talking about naturally generated dungeons.

The thing YuWon was looking for was an ‘artificial’ dungeon.

[Cinder Eyes reads the path.]

His eyes turned red, and above this wasteland of nothingness, YuWon found a single sign.

“If you get the opportunity, try going to that place once.”

The one who told him this bit of information was the King of Asgard, Odin.

Vwong, vwooong—

Inside YuWon’s inventory, the 「Totsuka no Tsurugi」 that he obtained after passing the 1st Floor test began to vibrate.

“Before that guy died, he seemed to have hidden an incredible thing.”

Vwong, vwooong, vwongwongongong—

The sword started to become erratic.

After YuWon grabbed the fragment of Tsurugi in his inventory, his eyes began to find a path.

‘Found it.’

The dungeon hidden at the edge of the world.

‘Susanoo’s Dungeon.’

Rank 57th. One of the highest ranked High-Rankers, Susanoo.

His legacy was here.