95. The Ancient Proving Ground II (2)

“Boss. The Ancient Proving Ground—wasn’t that the one hidden in the Myeongdong gate?”
“Yeah. That’s the one.”
“Didn’t figure the trials would carry on.”
“That’s why there’s a ‘1’ tacked onto the front of it.”

Yujin answered without missing a beat.

The Constellations of the Pantheon had hidden this trial away to sift out exceptional Hunters. Clearing it meant putting your life on the line, but the rewards ran so outrageous that the major guilds throttled access just to keep its popularity in check. Even the French gate, where the location of the Ancient Proving Ground I had been uncovered, kept restrictions in place so that only a handful could use it.

“Heard about it as a commission reward, I take it.”

Kang Minho worked out the source of the information on his own and let it go at that.

That’s more convincing than knowledge of the future, isn’t it.

By holding his tongue, Yujin let Kang Minho’s read stand.

“Bro. So this is why you wouldn’t tell us where we were going, huh— right?”
“The entry conditions for the Ancient Proving Ground still aren’t public knowledge. You three keep your mouths shut about it too.”
“Got it!”

All they had to do was reach the rooftop of the tallest building in the Field of Glory. Far simpler than gathering frogman hearts, smearing them with Goblin Shaman’s blood, and setting them in their designated spots. And yet the gate’s secret had gone undiscovered, all because of another access restriction.

“This place only lets in people who’ve cleared the Ancient Proving Ground, see.”
“This isn’t the reason you said let’s go on a trip, is it, Bro?”
“Little sis. Try saying something that makes sense. That’d mean he knew the gate’s secret before we even set out.”

Hmm.
Needlessly sharp, this one.

Rather than fan the flames of a touchy subject any further, Yujin looked ahead.

“Brace yourselves. Looks like it starts from here.”

— Clack. Clack.

The grind of machinery on the move. The long, straight corridor heaved hard, and as cracks split open here and there, it spat out human-sized stone statues.

“Th-the, uh. Bro.”
“Stone statues can’t be raised as undead.”
“How’d you know what I was gonna ask?”
“It’s obvious.”

Warrior Statues packed the corridor full. At a glance, there had to be hundreds of them. Red light surged up from the hollows where their eyes had been carved.

The eerie sight of it sent Kang Minyeong’s hand running unconsciously down her own forearm.

“You can still pull out, right now.”
“Boss. You can say it all you like, but it’s not convincing when you don’t mean it.”
“It showed?”
“If that’s what you wanted, you wouldn’t have brought us along in the first place.”

Correct. Yujin grinned.

“I’ll follow your orders, Bro.”
“I brought the scrolls—Grease, and Dig, and Ice Field.”

The Scraps team checked their gear and readied for the fight. Yujin, too, let his holy power unfurl.

He laid every buff but Unholy Blessing on the Scraps team. On Song Myeongseok, whom he’d called out from the Ring of Black Darkness, he used every holy spell but Giant’s Strength.

He’d even summoned the Blood Golem, the red beast compressed into a catalyst. His preparations to meet the enemy were complete.

“Kang Minyeong and Lee Seongmin take the rear. The rest of you take the front.”
“And you, Bro?”
“Both.”

In soccer terms, the midfielder. With the Verdian-Style Basic Spearmanship and the Aura he could half-wield, he put out more power than an ordinary 3rd-Rank Martial Hunter. The magical armament Cursed Fang let him keep enemies in check at mid-range as well. And the one man who could deftly juggle healing and barriers on top of all that was himself.

Whew.
Having a lot of abilities is exhausting in its own way.

“True enough, but why does it sound so damn obnoxious?”
“Don’t be rude to the Boss.”
“But you gotta admit Senior’s got a point there, dontcha?”

These guys.
I make them fit to pass for human beings, and now there’s nothing they won’t say.

‘You’ll stay out of mortals’ squabbles, won’t you?’

‘I’m just stating the plain facts, dryly.’

Damn it.
He throws those words right back at me.

Yujin clicked his tongue. Tsk.

“Intruders. Spotted.”
“Targets. We stop them.”

The statues lurched into motion. One Cursed Fang shot out, wreathed in spirit-power.

— Crunch.

The Cursed Fang buried itself deep in the Warrior Statue’s head. The red glow dimmed for a moment, and then the thing came charging in, the magical armament still lodged inside it.

“Why doesn’t it die even when you hit the head?”
“Because it’s not a living thing.”

Converting spirit-power into dark-mana, he formed a jet-black spear and hurled it at the chest of the statue, the one with the bone awl jutting from its head.

— Thud.

The statue, its strength drained by the successive blows, toppled over, and with a sharp crack split into dozens of pieces.

“Bro. Did you hit its core?”
“Statues don’t have a core like golems do. Instead… when the mana making up its body runs out, it ends up like that.”
“So you just gotta deal enough impact to drain the mana, then?”
“Quick on the uptake. I like it.”

In game terms, they may as well have had HP. Stack up enough impact past a certain point, and the statue’s strength gave out and it toppled.

“How much firepower we can throw out—that’s the crux of it, then.”

Kang Minho quickly pinned down the heart of the Ancient Proving Ground II.

“Right. And we’ve got to factor in stamina, too.”
“We’ll trust your command, Boss.”
“Mm-hm.”

There was a payoff, after all, to changing their diapers and raising them since their 1st-Rank days.

Yujin watched the statues close in, moment by moment, and issued his orders one by one.

In the state of Nevada stood a gate called the Field of Glory. Into the proving ground hidden within it, a single owl came flying.

— Clang! Cling!

The grating screech of metal on metal rang through the corridor. Amid a fierce battlefield where sweat and dust and flecks of blood flew, not a soul registered the owl’s presence.

Yujin’s party wasn’t the only group to have entered ‘the Ancient Proving Ground II.’ Just as France held a gate that opened onto ‘the Ancient Proving Ground I,’ so too, at the Armatus Colosseum in Rome, the capital of Italy, meeting certain conditions granted entry to ‘the Ancient Proving Ground II.’ Which meant that Yujin’s party, undertaking the trial through the Las Vegas gate, was nothing special.

‘These children. Quite impressive, aren’t they.’

Athena. The Constellation who governed wisdom in the Olympus stellar field watched Yujin’s party and let out a sound of admiration.

“Blood Golem, three steps forward. The rest of the front line, fall back two steps.”
“By your command.”
“Lee Seongmin, deploy Grease and Ice Field. Ready a Fire Bolt right after.”
“Yessir!”
“Kang Minyeong. Volley fire toward four o’clock in five seconds. No need to aim precisely.”
“Got it. Bro!”

Warrior Statues filled the long corridor to the brim. Against an army of them swarming endlessly in, Yujin’s party didn’t yield an inch.

‘It’s thanks to that child’s command.’

The domain Athena officially governed was wisdom, but she excelled at war and strategy too. It was only that, since Ares, another of the Twelve Olympians, presided over ‘war,’ she kept that side of herself out of open display.

And so she could tell at a single glance just how formidable Yujin’s command ability was.

‘He reads the flow of the battlefield in a heartbeat and makes the right call.’

He had the keen insight and seasoned poise of a master general who had dominated his age. That a man barely in his twenties carried the composure of a veteran of a hundred battles was uncanny, yet apart from that, there wasn’t a single fault to find.

‘The teamwork is excellent, too.’

The Scraps team members who took Yujin’s orders were remarkable in their own right. As if they shared one body, the instant his instructions reached them they moved exactly as he intended.

Had they been even a fraction too slow or too fast, or failed to grasp the meaning behind his words, their formation would have crumbled in an instant.

‘If that keeps happening over and over, it can no longer be written off as coincidence.’

His command ability weighed his allies’ skill against the enemy’s level without a flaw. And then there were the movements of the Scraps members themselves, who trusted Yujin completely and followed his every order. Not one part of it left a thing to fault.

‘I’ve seen plenty of remarkable ones for 3rd Rank, but a combination like this is a first.’

Her heart was racing. The urge to sponsor these mortals welled up in her, here and now. All four were talents worth coveting, but the one she wanted most among them was Yujin.

Athena poured additional Divine Power into the Owl of Minerva and watched Yujin closely.

‘What’s this. This unpleasant aura—he handles a power that runs against the natural order.’
Tsk.

Athena clicked her tongue and at once withdrew her interest in Yujin.

A being who had mastered necromancy, an ability grounded in spirit-power, could not be made an object of patronage. That was an unspoken rule known to every Constellation whose name was inscribed in the Pantheon.

‘But I sense holy power, too. This child.’

Athena furrowed her brow.

A power that ran against the natural order; in other words, a Necromancer who doubled as a Priest? Impossible.

Magic-line Hunters did, on rare occasion, double as Priests. But no Constellation in the Pantheon would ever take a Necromancer as a follower.

‘If it’s the Tower of Babel’s side, perhaps it might be possible.’

Athena gave Yujin no further attention. What was the point in coveting fruit you couldn’t eat?

She was better off sponsoring the Hunter so deft with a shield, Kang Minho.

‘This child has the talent to draw out the full power of my blessing.’

Aegis. Athena’s blessing, the one that bestowed the very concept of protection. If Kang Minho, with his Movable Fortress trait, were granted ‘Aegis,’ how much stronger might he grow?

‘The number of Constellations watching this trial is growing, so I’d best hurry.’

Having finished her calculations, Athena calmly waited for Yujin’s party to clear the Ancient Proving Ground II.

The party reached the end of the corridor. For hours, without a proper rest, they had pressed forward, smashing every statue that swarmed in.

“Haah, hah.”
“Thought I was really gonna kick the bucket there.”
“B-Bro. I don’t ever want to take a trip like this again.”

Worn out, the Scraps team sprawled across the floor and dragged in ragged breaths.

Even with all the support the holy spells had lent them, the fight had been fierce enough to push the party’s stamina and willpower to their limit.

“Combat ability down 63%.”

— It was merely carelessness. My liege. There will be no being struck down like this next time.

The Blood Golem, which had held the very front, had shrunk to half its size from spending too much blood. As for Song Myeongseok, his lower half was rolling around loose across the floor.

‘Recommending five made sense, all right.’

It had been a close thing. Even with the Blood Golem and Song Myeongseok along, the drain on their fighting strength had run heavier than expected.

‘Pleased with it, I take it.’

‘You were munching popcorn and going on about that hero business of yours again, weren’t you.’

It wasn’t as if he’d known Kronos for a day or two. What Kronos was thinking didn’t need watching; it was VOD on demand.

After Endurance, the second emblem he’d earned went by the name ‘Valor.’ It raised no fewer than three stats by 10% with no strings attached, and it sharply lifted mental resistance, the one area that was always so finicky to build up.

‘Not an option I much need, though.’

Yujin swallowed a wry smile.

His unique trait, Clear Mind, already shut out all mental interference. He’d have to content himself with the stat boost, then.

Along with a hearty laugh, Kronos let his satisfaction show.

Everything up to here’s gone according to plan.

“Uh, Boss.”
“The Constellations are sending you messages about wanting to sponsor you, or something.”
“How did you know that?”
“The Ancient Proving Ground was made to find Hunters worth sponsoring.”
“Ah. In that case, you must be getting a flood of messages from the Constellations too, Boss.”
“I’ve already got a patron Constellation, haven’t I.”

Kang Minho, that is.
What Constellation would dare try to sponsor a man wearing the title of Saint.
Though since my class doubles as ‘Necromancer,’ the Constellations won’t so much as spare me a glance, anyway.

Yujin’s aim had been, from the very start, to raise Kronos’s standing by accomplishing great feats.

“You two the same?”
“Yeah. Bro.”
“Never knew I’d be so loved by the Constellations!”

Yujin heard the divine names of every Constellation sending the Scraps members a sponsorship message.

“You two, don’t accept the sponsorship.”
“Why not?”
“There’s no Constellation that fits your abilities well.”

A patron-Constellation contract was the very thing countless Hunters aimed for. It would have been only natural to feel tempted, yet the moment they heard Yujin’s advice, the two of them set their hearts at ease.

“There’s gotta be a reason you’re saying that, Bro. Understood.”
“There’ll be another chance next time, yeah?”

Yujin smiled gently, then looked at Kang Minho.

“Boss. Then I…”
“Make a contract with the Owl of Minerva.”
“Pardon me, but might I ask that Constellation’s true name?”
“Athena.”

She had been Kang Minho’s patron in the time before the regression, too. It was a proven pairing, and beyond that, as one of the Twelve Olympians, Athena was a Constellation of mighty power.

She bit the bait faster than I expected. Almost makes me grateful.

“A-A-Athena, you say?!!!!”

Realizing it a beat late, Kang Minho gave a start and let out a shriek laced with shock.