Sword Pilgrim

"Are you really alright?"

Callius answered affirmatively to the worried Emily.

To be honest, he was still confused, but he could only answer that way.

It's not like he could tell Emily or the rest about the system.

"What did you do all of a sudden? Everyone was dumbfounded. I was worried too. You didn't wake up for ten whole days."

“I got a little… enlightenment.”

Enlightenment.

What a simple word.

Emily's brows furrowed softly hearing it.

"Looks like it. Your divine power is stronger than before. Even I can feel it."

Truly. His divine power level did not rise, but the purity became outstanding.

If the divine power before had been light and thin, should it be said that it was now quite heavy and thick?

"Still, I was surprised. I was worried that you might never wake up at all, but suddenly there was a commotion… Take a bath first. You stink."

"Yeah."

His body was awash with a foul odour as if it had was packed full of waste products. However, the skin covered with shells like a lizard might shed, and the flesh underneath was white.

‘That's interesting.'

After taking a quick bath, Callius felt anew the energy that was welling up from his elixir field.

It must be said that in order to achieve three peaks, the original first and second peaks had to be broken and remade.

"If it weren't for the seed's performance, I wouldn't have even dreamed of this."

But there was something that bothered him.

A defeated God whose name had been lost.

That bastard dug into his body, and the Six Peak Flowers technique rose to the mountain summit.

‘Again.'

Parts that he'd never set up was bothering him again.

But aside from the message, there was really nothing to examine.

The traces of the seed that had sunk into the elixir field had long since disappeared.

Inside the room he'd been left alone in, Callius put down the wet towel and reflected on what had just happened.

"A defeated God dwells."

What significance did this have?

A defeated God.

The seed of that God had nestled inside him.

‘Perhaps it's safer to say that the will of God dwells there.'

The system message did not say the seed, but rather the God dwelt.

A defeated God's will.

Or something similar, nestled inside his elixir field, creating the third three peak of Six Peak Flowers Bloom in Late Season and six energy veins.

Now, in his elixir field, three buds had taken root, with two veins each.

The stronger and more resplendent buds were the reason behind his purer divine power.

‘Is there no other effect because it's a defeated God?'

At first, he'd been worried about the clash between different divine powers.

However, the divine power inside the seed was so pure and homogeneous that it even made the Six Peak Flowers bloom.

Despite all his worries, only good things happened.

"It's a little embarrassing."

His whole body was brimming with divine power, elevating his aura.

He took the Vivi's Bracelet that had been placed on the table and wore it.

Then, the powerful surge of divine power again faded calmly.

"Did I lose the half-glove that Dexter made for me?"

It looked like it was torn or lost during the battle.

He felt sorry, but it couldn't be helped.

He put the Predator Sword into the subspace and gently raised the Strong Sword.

As he grabbed the hilt of the sword and slowly pulled it out, the broken gray-white blade was revealed.

[Strong Sword – Gwydd]

Grade – Spirit

Infused Soul – Gwydd, the Troll

Unique Ability – Spirit Descent.

The sword was broken, but the soul was still there.

If it had been a life sword, he would've just sent it to the heavens to get a reward.

‘Just throwing it away would be a pity.'

The Strong Sword had demonstrated its power in this war. If it weren't for the troll's spirit descent, he wouldn't have been able to turn the battle around.

It was difficult to give up the Strong Sword, which let one borrow the might and regenerative power of a troll.

Whether or not he could get a reward for a demonic sword was also unknown.

"I'll have to call Dexter."

It was unknown if even he could fix it, but he'd still have to call Dexter and show it to him.

It's not that he didn't believe in the dwarf's skills, but this was no ordinary sword.

Originally, taking it to the Church getting it tested would have been the right decision, but…

‘It's impossible because it's a sword mixed with demonic power.'

If you take such a sword there, it would either be taken away or he would be driven away as a heretic.

There was no reason for him to rock the boat[1].

If even Dexter couldn't fix it…

‘I'll have to take the risk and try to fix it myself.'

Originally, the soul of a life sword would disappear as soon as it was broken, but the soul of a troll would not disappear that easily.

He was sure it could be fixed somehow.

Callius stopped himself from worrying further and put the sword down.

"Shall we check the rest of the rewards?"

Because of the seed of the defeated God, he hadn't really looked at the rest of the rewards.

The existence of the seed was still an open question, but there was no way to find out, so for now he could only accept it as a fortuitous encounter.

‘If Six Peak Flowers technique reacted…'

He had some hopes, but he couldn't be sure.

He shook his head as he remembered the saint of the Church, who had disappeared so long ago.

[Choice of Unique Talent]

[Rare Trait Draw Ticket]

Unique talents and rare traits!

"Talents and traits."

Talents, and traits.

It wasn't easy to acquire talents compared to traits. He decided to take a look at the talent options right away.

It was written as "choice", so there must be a few options.

[Choice of Unique Talent]

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‘As expected, they are all unique talents.'

None of the three were bad.

At first glance, one might think they were useless talents, but in this world, each country spoke a different language.

In addition, there were countless other languages, such as ancient languages and languages of different races, and just being able to read them could bring many advantages.

‘For example.'

It meant that he could read the language of the Vira people that he'd discovered recently.

And find out how that ancient civilization crafted artefacts.

Besides, the language left by the Gods might appear in the future, so this talent would always be helpful.

‘It's not worth throwing away intuition, though.'

In a sense, intuition is everything in battle.

There are no few people who fight entirely based on their intuition.

Besides, it would not only be useful in battle, but would definitely be of great help during trading.

‘Mental calculation is good, too.'

Every battle is also a battle of numbers.

When the enemy does this, I counterattack like this, and the ball goes to the other's court, and so on.

In battles numbers were essential, and better mental calculation ability meant one could solve problems more easily on the battlefield.

After contemplating for a while, Callius chose 『Instinctive Intuition』.

Because the first and the third were talents that were a bit disappointing for unique grade.

There could've been many better choices… But what could he do?

He had to make do with what he'd been given.

‘Good intuition will be of great help during enlightenment or in dangerous situations. Intuition is the best.'

Other things you might be able to do with effort, but not improve your intuition.

It was purely a matter of innate talent.

[Choose Instinctive Intuition?]

So, along with the sound of the wind blowing, he felt a little heat all over his body, which then disappeared in the next instant.

‘Let's leave it at that for now.'

Next, he decided to take a look at the trait draw.

It was a draw, meaning he had to rely purely on luck.

He cleared my mind and started the draw.

[Starting to draw rare traits.]

.

.

.

He could hear the sounds of a roulette wheel, spinning.

What would come out?

Since it was rare, he thought something quite useful might come out. Something to strengthen the physical ability might be good, or a trait that helped get more wealth.

Whatever came out, if it was rare, it would surely be something useful, so his heart was already poundin.

Tiling.

『Pheromone』

Grade – Rare

• The body smells good.

The moment he saw the message on the status window, he let out a sigh.

"Ha! Really."

Pheromone. It was so absurd that he had no words to describe it.

The only explanation was that the body smelled good. Meaning no effect whatsioever.

"This is something rare, is it."

It was a passive effect, so he couldn't even turn it on or off.

It was more like a garbage setting if you thought of it like making yourself easier to detect due to the scent of pheromones during a surprise operation or an ambush.

He didn't even know how it smelled like because it was his own scent.

"I'll have to ask somebody later."

The remaining rewards were three sacred stones and a saddle.

The Saddle of Humasys, who'd been famous as a master horseman.

[Saddle of Humasys]

Grade – Rare

• Horsemanship +2

Even Callius, who hadn't been able to ride a horse to save his life, wouldn't find riding difficult anymore if he had this.

Since the sacred stones could be consumed with the Gluttony characteristic, they could be used for training or to supplement divine power in an emergency. They could also be used as currency, so there was nothing wrong with getting them.

After reviewing the usages of the items obtained and putting them back into the subspace –

Callius took out the holy grail, and two containers full of troll blood.

To test out his hypothesis, he dripped a drop of troll blood on the chalice.

Ttok.

With that sound, a subtle divine power began to coalesce in the holy grail.

Since ancient times, the holy grail had been known to contain the blood of God, but it was also famous for transforming its nature and turning it into wine.

So Callius tried it out, in the hope that the grail might have the power of purification in this place as well, same as in those religions.

If only he could purify the demonic power mixed in the troll blood.

Purified troll blood was literally a potion, so it'd be of great help to Callius, who didn't have any holy water left.

Having a potion that can restore the body is no different than having an extra life.

"I can't do it."

He tried supplying it with divine power, but it didn't change much.

"Shouldn't you at least leave a manual or something?"

There was no helping it.

The precious troll blood was taken back and the chalice put aside.

Let's try the purification later. I think I'll have to look for some related books or literature.

"There's a lot to do."

The troll blood had be purified.

Six Peak Flowers technique had risen to the three peaks summit, but it still needed to be stabilized a bit more.

The energy veins had to be examined again, and then there was the sword and the leftover problems of the northern lands. He'd have to re-organize his schedule for the future.

"Before the Empire attacks again, we must organize the northern lands and dig out the rotten roots of the Carpe Kingdom."

Tuk, tuk.

The sounds of Callius' fingers, tapping the table, indicated how much trouble he was still in.

However, it stopped quickly, and the corners of his mouth curved in an arc.

"Shall we use them, then?"

An office inside the castle.

"So Callius woke up."

"Yes, he did."

"Good to hear. Hahaha."

After the war, the Master of the North had a lot to laugh about.

Elburton von Jervain.

The fatal wound he had sustained in battle healed immediately. Rather, he was in better health than before, so once the war was over, he got locked up in his office with a pile of papers about the post-processing.

But Elburton always had a smile at the corners of his lips. Because of his son, who was now called a war hero.

Because of Callius.

"What are you going to do about him?"

"You mean Callius?"

"Yes. Isn't Callavan in hiding?"

After the war, Callavan disappeared. Since no one could find him even during the war, he'd probably gone into hiding right away.

"Yeah, now that he's gone, I'll have to give Callius what he should have had."

"Since the young master contributed more than anyone else in this war, it's only natural that he should be rewarded appropriately.”

"Yeah. It's been a while since I last opened the vault. He'd like that, too, right?"

The treasure vault of the Jervain family.

Since it was a place containing the artifacts and swords made by the successive patriarchs, Callius would surely be satisfied.

"Of course. A knight with that level of skill must covet the treasures there."

"Yeah. That's right. Since Callis is the family heirloom, it won't be possible right now, but other treasures are fine. Didn't one of his swords break anyway? I have to do at least this so he won't be sad."

Jjek.

As Elburton spoke, his mouth felt a bitter taste. If he'd known things would turn out like this, he would've have chased is son out in the first place.

He was deeply regretful for not properly noticing the qualities of his own son, but what could he do? It was all spilled milk.

Even though his son had been abandoned, he'd risked his life to protect the northern lands, so the only wise choice now was to do everything he couldn't do until now.

"The successor position…"

"That too, I'll have to arrange.”

Seeing Callius' performance in this war, Elburton thought it would be good enough to entrust the North to him.

Now there was no other option.

It was Elburton who'd adopted somebody and caused this chaos.

Callius, who Elburton had always been worried about as a parent, grew up and came back to see him, so how could he not give him everything he could as a father? Even if he didn't like the gift, it was enough to leave it to him.

"Then what to do about the children?"

"Hmm…"

That bastard's children.

Rivan, the son of Callavan, and Rinney, the daughter.

Now that Callavan had disappeared, rumours that they were the children of a traitor were spreading throughout the castle.

"The children are innocent, but it's difficult to leave them like this."

"I've already thought about that issue, so you don't have to worry about it."

Just entrust them to Callius.

He was the one who'd be responsible for the North and Jervain in the future, so it wouldn't hurt to leave him the decision-making power about this kind of thing.

Besides, the children of Callavan were not complete strangers to Callius either.

"All right."

"More than that, though."

"Yes."

"I'm wondering what to do with them."

"Are you talking about them…?"

If one was a war hero who beheaded the enemy's chief on the battlefield.

Then they, who appeared just in time, and swiftly cleaned up the remnants of the enemy army, were also worthy of being called heroes.

If it weren't for the reinforcements that appeared so suddenly, the lives of many more northern men would've been lost.

"But you can't listen to their demands."

"Right."

There was only one thing the Inquisition wanted.

To take Callius into custody.

"My goodness."

What the hell have you been up to?

Before, Elburton might've left it at that, thinking his son was a crazy maniac after all, but now he couldn't.

Callius was now the hero who'd saved the North.

He had to be treated like a hero.

"I can't hand my son over to those crazy people." Elburton had no intention of surrendering Callius to them.

Editor's Notes:

[1] 긁어 부스럼을 만들 (lit. scrape and make crumbs) means to do something useless, translated as rocking the boat.

[2] 일필휘지 (lit. one brushstroke crown's orders) is being translated as Royal Order at the Stroke of a Pen.

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