Beware Of Stagnation Than Slow Growth (1)

Naruan, with the expression of a child tasting cotton candy for the first time, savoring it for a moment, suddenly ran up to me and hugged me.

“…What are you doing?”

“Captain! I really, really like the captain!”

A confession out of the blue.

I pushed Naruan away as she tried to rub her face against mine in some odd spot and looked at the faces of the party.

Everyone clearly looked shocked.

Especially the three newcomers stared at me with eyes wide as if they would pop out and mouths agape.

“So? Not bad, right?”

“…Captain, this isn’t just ‘not bad,’ you know?”

Starting with Hugo, who answered without having been specifically asked because he was too surprised, everyone voiced their impressions.

Although they couldn’t check quantified stats like I could, they felt intuitively that some of their physical abilities had increased.

“Let’s return to the entrance and rest for now.”

That night, even eating odorless jerky and simple drinks, the party was surprisingly excited.

They might be dreaming, of getting stronger by eating enhancement stones that raise stats after relatively easy hunts like today.

When I call them physical stats and other representatives say physical abilities have increased, there are a few categories.

The most frequent and effective increase comes from the power of the gods.

It’s also why we visit the Garden of Gods every year, and the free stat points I receive are, strictly speaking, from this source.

Stats also increase when equipping special items, like the accessory Genesis passed to me through Mae Young-ryeong.

Stats rise when special techniques are taught. Lee Hyo-ju, Hazel, Naruan, and Mae Young-ryeong all experienced huge stat increases after receiving ‘Ex’ grade techniques.

Rarely, training can also increase them.

But unlike the spiritual pills Genesis gave me, there is nothing that raises stats without limit like a Myryan’s ‘enhancement stone.’

Only Myryan, and most likely the Myryan of this dungeon, drop them with the highest probability.

Of course, unlike Genesis’s spiritual pills, they don’t ‘always’ raise stats regardless of the stat range, but the fact they have no usage limit makes a Myryan enhancement stone a treasure among treasures.

Above all, Myryans are demonic beasts. They cannot breed sexually. Even within the Battlefield of the Gods, the number of Myryans is limited, so this concentrated place cannot be handed over to others.

‘That’s why I chose this place.’

But do they know that the true nature of the ‘annoyance-inducing demonic beast’ will be revealed in earnest?

That as time passes and they clear more corridors, it will only get harsher and harder.

I wish they’d remember why I gave Hugo and Inex the ‘stamina enhancement stones’ instead of others….

I didn’t expect anything from those who, excited at finding enhancement stones, were swept away by their thrill.

Entering the second corridor, Hugo and Inex gripped their weapons tighter and glared at the approaching Myryans.

The Myryan gleaming with a red luster at a glance made it obvious to anyone that it was fire-attributed.

Hugo and Inex rushed forward to block the two Myryans and waited for the timing to thrust their swords into the beasts’ mandibles or gaping mouths.

At last the red Myryan opened its mouth and a round ball of fire shot out, like a fireball spell.

“…Huh?”

With Arun’s dumbfounded reaction, the two beefy men took the fireball-like magic with their bodies. They couldn’t even scream; their singed eyebrows and disheveled looks were a sight to behold.

Meanwhile, Naruan approached the Myryan and, like when she handled the water-attributed Myryan the previous day, hooked her scythe into a joint, full of force.

Just as Naruan was about to yank the scythe, the Myryan’s body flared a vivid red.

“Ah! Ho-hot!”

Naruan dropped the scythe and stepped back as the hot aura seeped in.

‘If only she’d wrapped the whole scythe in force….’

As the two in front rose and tried to reform the formation, Simon and Arun’s voices echoed through the corridor at the same time.

“Gyas’s Forceful hand.”

“Ice Canon!”

A giant hand appearing in midair grabbed the two Myryans together, and at that moment the piercing magic Ice Canon struck down the two Myryans.

“Now!”

At Arun’s signal, Naruan picked up the dropped scythe, poured force into it, and swung it like a reaper severing the dead, chopping off the Myryan’s neck cleanly.

A black light flashed from the orb floating to Hazel’s right, and the Myryan whose neck Naruan had cut and the still-living Myryan split apart with a ‘ching’ sound.

Mae Young-ryeong approached Hugo and Inex, and Naruan busied herself dismantling the Myryans.

The reason Hazel was made to focus on defense became apparent here.

Hazel’s space-splitting attack was tremendous.

If you got caught in the space she created, most representatives would be cut in half. So a demonic beast is nothing.

The problem is that the Myryan’s attribute core can also be sliced in half and rendered useless, just like now.

The party’s mood sank.

It was no longer the cheerful atmosphere from a few hours ago when they were happily discussing which enhancement stones they wanted.

“How is it?”

No one answered my question that lacked subject and object. The Myryan had only spat out a single fireball-like ball.

Yet the mages had more to worry about, and the vanguard and Naruan had to be careful with attack and defense.

“Let’s move. When you can’t find an answer, you have to settle it with your bodies.”

After that, the party’s battles could be described as downright miserable.

To the point that even Jimnas or the gardener wanted to help. Of course, I politely refused.

Hugo and Inex’s armor became ragged with holes everywhere, and Simon was panting from rapid mana use.

Arun and Naruan also had sweat all over their faces.

The ones still keeping their composure were Mae Young-ryeong, Lee Hyo-ju, and Hazel.

To be honest, Simon and Arun’s spell combination exceeded my expectations.

The combination of Evocation (spirit-summoning) magic, abandoned for its danger, and Transmute, difficult to handle because of its irregularity, was shredding elemental and physical resistances.

But in proportion to its effectiveness, the two’s divine power was drained quickly.

When they reached the end of the corridor, the two ragpickers could bat aside the Myryan’s flames like a batter or deflect them with their shields.

Naruan was still rampaging, but Arun and Simon’s legs trembled as if they could collapse at any moment.

“Start.”

Time to rest? I could allow it. Going slowly might be an option. But in the Battlefield of the Gods, combat isn’t a ‘match’ where rounds end and you take breaks like in boxing.

“Guh!”

“…Damn.”

With a short complaint, the two who lunged forward had eyes that shone fiercely.

Hugo’s shield reached the face of the larger Myryan first, reflecting the blaze back into the beast’s mouth just as it was about to open and unleash a fireball.

“There. Tuck it in, tuck it in.”

Even at that moment, making a silly joke, he drove his force-filled sword into the Myryan’s palate.

Arun, having recovered mana, chanted for a long time alone and produced a strangely familiar spell.

“Water Breath! Transmute! Apply gravity. Waterfall!”

Fortunately, Hugo and Inex had backed off quickly and were safe from the blast, but was it just me, or did Arun seem to be protesting their desire to rest by not giving them a break?

After an immense volume of heavy water poured down, the Myryan that emerged had all its legs broken.

Being a demonic beast, it would regenerate quickly, but the party rushed in toward the Myryan already struggling on the ground.

Before the swift Naruan could act, Hugo, who was closest, dashed in and with a clean arc aimed a straight downward strike at the Myryan’s head…

Thwang—!

…but the sword snapped, and he had to fend off the flying broken blade.

Thanks to the subsequent barrage, Hugo survived, but stunned at his own misfortune, he retreated holding his half-broken sword and dented shield, unable to press the attack.

Naruan finally moved gracefully like a butterfly, befitting her name ‘Black Wing.’

She thrust the scythe, which leaked force like a stream, into the narrow joint.

Had the gaps in the joints shrunk as they grew larger and fatter?

Boldly plunging in, Naruan struggled, unable to pull the scythe out or push it further.

“Separation!”

With Hazel’s help widening the gap just enough, Naruan’s scythe sank harshly into the leader Myryan’s wound, as if annoyed at having been stuck and not knowing what to do for a moment.

And finally, the fire-attributed mid-boss Myryan fell.

Unlike before, the party heading to the entrance was neither noisy nor elated.

Some were lost in thought, others wore grim faces.

Hazel and Lee Hyo-ju, among others, had serious looks as they discussed something, and Naruan stood beside me, quietly watching for cues.

That tiny creature kept glancing at me with watery eyes, and it was annoyingly distracting.

“Why.”

“Huh?”

“I said why. If you have something to say, say it. You’re not usually this timid, are you?”

“…Um, captain. What should I have done? Like back then?”

I stopped dead.

When I, who had been walking at the very front, stopped, the entire party halted. Naruan grew nervous and fidgety.

I stared down at the uneasy Naruan. The top of her bowed head betrayed her anxiety.

‘Is she angry? At herself?’

I resumed walking and motioned to Naruan, then held out my right hand to her.

“Give me your weapon.”

“…Huh? Ah! Yes!”

She fumbled a long scythe out of her pocket and handed it over.

It was certainly a decent weapon. Its balance was good, and the slightly heavy tip meant that with a determined swing you could slice through most things easily.

“This, Naruan, is how you inject divine power. Watch the blade.”

Chaotic black energy streamed from the scythe. The undulating divine power looked, at a glance, to have considerable destructive force.

“And this is a scythe qi, a scythe aura, produced by a skilled warrior injecting divine power.”

Unlike before with Naruan, clear black divine power had gathered on the scythe, forming a slightly expanded scythe-shaped aura.

The finesse and efficiency clearly differed from earlier. Even with less divine power, a cold aura radiated.

“And even if it doesn’t reach ‘strong force,’ you can still apply it like this.”

“Oh? Wh-wow!”

Hugo certainly had sharp eyes. While Inex and Naruan watched with dumbfounded faces, Hugo stared intently at the scythe in amazement.

“Feel the flow of divine power. On the scythe it flows…”

“…Huh? Captain?”

“Can you feel it? Inex?”

“Yeah. How do you do this?”

“I can feel it. Is it a vibration?”

I nodded and taught a simple method of manipulating divine power, especially to Naruan.

Naruan’s weapon was a scythe. Unlike swords, knives, or spears, a scythe is impossible to twist and remove once lodged in an opponent’s muscle or bone.

Once swung, it must cut; only then can further movement be made.

Naruan knew that too, which is why she’d been pouring divine power into it recklessly, but it was clearly inefficient.

By the time I finished explaining the basic divine power handling, the party had returned to the entrance.

Unlike the first day, the party fell asleep without much conversation.

And perhaps the first day had been lucky, because that day they only obtained three enhancement stones and couldn’t distribute them before ending the day.