What Is Honey? (1)

After leaving the chicks behind for the first time in a while, the expedition felt refreshing.

Is this why fathers want to go on trips alone?

The moment I left the barrier, my shoulders felt lighter, and I even felt a sense of liberation.

We pushed through the dense undergrowth toward the border between the Monster Belt and the Beast Forest.

We’re heading to the dungeon Aetas and other Creator fanatics offered as compensation for the Dark Mae Young-ryeong incident.

Using footwork made the scenery blur past, and the wind brushing my face sent my mood soaring.

Just as I felt like letting out a shout of relief,

“Uh… Mr. Kim Han.”

Stagger.

Startled. I had forgotten the gardener’s presence because there had been no sign until now.

I barely caught myself from falling, kept my composure, and answered while moving.

“Yes?”

“Where are you going right now…?”

“Ah, I met the Creator this time, didn’t I?”

“That’s right!”

“Yes. But the Creator, while saying it would be hard, told me to go to a place. He said to go alone, but since the gardener is the Creator’s priest, you certainly qualify to go with me. Haha.”

At my words, the gardener froze in place.

Worried I’d misspoken, I replayed my words in my head, and tears streamed from the gardener’s eyes.

“Really… Mr. Kim Han, truly… thank you.”

“…Yes?”

A man in his mid-forties crying and embracing me.

How would you take that? Tears shed from being deeply moved by something.

And those bright, sparkling eyes. A shiver ran through my whole body.

I calmed the gardener before anything else could happen.

“Calm down for now, and if we move quickly, won’t you see the place sooner?”

“…Ah, I made a scene. Let’s go.”

We ran for about half a day without rest—I had considered a break, but the gardener was shooting lasers from his eyes—until we finally arrived at the place Aetas had told us about.

She had only given a rough area, so I took out the necklace she gave me from my inventory to find the exact dungeon entrance.

Zzzzz—

The vibrating necklace trembled in my palm like a phone on vibrate and pointed in one direction.

We pushed through trees and bushes for about thirty minutes in the direction the necklace pointed, and a cliff rising toward the sky blocked our way.

“Is… it here?”

“Yes, just a moment.”

I asked for a moment’s indulgence at the gardener’s noticeably disappointed voice and approached the cliff.

Just as I put the necklace on and was about to check for any devices, a part of the cliff opened like an automatic door, revealing a dark passage.

“Huh… I couldn’t feel any divine power or traces of a barrier… So this is why His…”

The gardener murmured in astonishment, and his words echoed hollowly down the passage.

I lightly tapped the gardener’s shoulder, who was standing dazed, and moved into the passage.

The passage was nothing special. Guardian and Argus’s Eye had both run a Battlefield Analysis and found no traps.

None of us felt discomfort as we passed through the dark corridor with not a single ray of light.

The necklace vibrated more intensely the closer we got to the end of the dark passage.

At the end of the passage, a smaller space than expected appeared.

A wooden desk that didn’t fit the surroundings and a sky-blue box on top of it.

Looking around, it was just an ordinary cave, nothing more or less.

Just in case, I used divine power and ran a Battlefield Analysis, but there was nothing.

A dungeon where you supposedly get treasure just by entering.

‘What kind of dungeon is this! These things are worse than that demon god woman.’

I trudged to the desk, layered divine power thickly in my right hand, and grabbed the box.

“…”

As expected, nothing changed. I felt embarrassed at how tense I’d been.

When I cautiously opened the box, the old box seemed to scream. Inside, two jewels glowed on a blue lining.

‘Identification.’

‘These gods really…’

There’s no remedy. If just a few of these drop and one person monopolizes them, wouldn’t the balance collapse?

I thought the box only contained the two jewels, the Spirit Core and the Wyrm Blue Dragon Heart, but the bottom was filled with Blue Dragon’s scales.

After putting the box in my inventory, the gardener, who had been waiting at a distance, approached.

He stepped closer and asked politely.

“Did you get what you wanted?”

“…Ah, yes. We just need to visit three more places.”

“Three places?”

“Yes. He told me to visit a total of four places. Oh, aren’t you curious what I got? As the gardener, I could show you.”

At my words, the gardener’s face lit up again, but he shook his head to dissuade me.

He argued that if it’s something one might reveal unknowingly, it’s better not to see it at all to keep the secret.

“Then let’s move.”

When I took the necklace off and put it in my hand, it vibrated furiously as if I should put it to my ear and say ‘hello?’ and pointed to one side of the cave.

I put the necklace on and approached the cave wall. The wall opened where there was nothing, revealing an exit.

After passing the passage with the gardener and emerging outside, I looked around; we’d entered through a cliff but come out onto a gentle hill dotted with grass and flowers.

We followed the necklace, which still pointed in one direction, walking at a steady pace while chatting with the gardener.

For about fifteen minutes we walked like that, me asking about the atmosphere of the Battlefield of the Gods and the gardener answering earnestly.

Eventually, a massive boulder blocked our path.

We glanced at each other and tried to go around the rock. At that moment,

Grrrr— thud.

The rock opened. The boulder, which showed no seams, split cleanly in half and opened.

“Ah… Our Master is truly… miraculous. Who could have found this?”

“…Indeed.”

I matched the gardener’s awed stride and slowly moved through each ordinary passage.

But Guardian’s Battlefield Analysis still ran intensely, scanning the floor, ceiling, and walls.

This passage was short too, but unlike the previous dungeon, something waited for me.

Sitting motionless in the wide chamber, waiting, was a black stone golem.

“Hm? I will…”

“No.”

The gardener stopped me from stepping forward. With a gentle smile, he took a step and spoke.

“He would want me to handle it too. If I can’t even resolve something like this…”

“Oh my, I was short-sighted. I’ll cheer you on, Messenger.”

The gardener’s voice carried more expectation than concern. He seemed to accept me as the Creator’s Messenger.

‘Whew… that’s all adamantium.’

Adamantium is a metal not found in the Battlefield of the Gods; it exists only in the Demon Realm, the demon god’s origin, and the Netherworld ruled by Mors.

Of course, I’ve absorbed a fair amount of it in the game, but materials like this are best stored whenever you get them.

Knowing it’s the left sole doesn’t mean blindly targeting the left foot is anything other than amateurish.

I decided to test the golem’s strength, relieve the stress from the Spirit Forest, and give it a hit, so I slowly approached the golem.

I closed to about ten paces from the adamantium golem; its eyes glowed blue as it rose.

With a rumble it rose, and it wasn’t as large as I expected—just over two meters.

I drew a long spear that had appeared once in combat with the Myryan King from my inventory.

I gripped the spear with my right hand as if to crush it, put my right foot forward, and lowered my center of gravity.

I pulled my right arm holding the spear as far back as possible and waited.

With my right foot forward and right arm pulled back, holding that awkward stance stretched every muscle until they cried out.

The golem finally moved its massive body.

I twisted my body further while looking at its eyes—like a tightly pulled rubber band, like a spring wound to the end.

Boom—

Distance to the golem: eight paces.

It felt like stretching after a long time—muscles from shoulders to calves tightening painfully yet refreshingly.

That sharpened my focus.

Guardian’s display showed the golem’s predicted path.

Thud— thud—

Distance to the golem now five paces.

I lowered my gaze to its waist.

I awakened the dormant divine power. My body trembled lightly as chaos swirled strongly inside and infused the spear.

Thud— thud!

Two paces to the golem.

Like releasing a stretched rubber band, I brought my left leg forward and smoothly drove my pulled-back right shoulder forward.

Distance to the golem one and a half paces.

I stepped forward with my left foot and put power into my legs: a seismic kick.

A roar echoed through the cave as force rose from my legs, traveled through my waist, passed my right shoulder that had moved forward, and channeled into my right arm like an arrow being fired.

But that wasn’t the end.

At the last moment I rotated my right arm holding the spear inward across my chest and snapped my wrist.

Kraaaang—!

Of course it was imbued with divine power chaos.

On top of that, I added the subtleties of spin and vortex.

Spin and vortex also affect the breaker force concentrated in the spear.

The breaker force, known to destroy everything, combined with the rotational subtleties of spin and vortex produced an ear-splitting blast, and I could see the landscape beyond the blocking golem.

‘Not as strong as I thought?’

Even though a hole the size of a child’s head had been torn in its waist, the golem’s fist raining down like a meteor toward me did not stop.

With a twinge of disappointment, I moved on to the finishing maneuver.

Pop!

For a brief instant my vision shifted and I saw the golem’s back. Shadow ambush.

I put the spear in my inventory and pulled out a crude-looking hammer.

Like a famous golfer’s swing, a smooth, clean swing extended toward the floundering golem’s left leg.

Wham—

One of its legs gone, the golem wobbled and toppled sideways.

I grabbed the sole of its foot lying on the floor after the golem fell and pulled out the mana stone embedded within.

Perhaps curious about my hesitation gripping the mana stone, the gardener approached and asked what was wrong.

“Ah, this. I had thought of analyzing it to own it, but my magical knowledge is shallow, so I just watched for a bit. Now I’ll destroy it.”

Glancing at the golem slowly restoring itself after losing its mana stone, I smiled wryly and crushed the mana stone in my hand.

The shattered golem turned into a scattering of adamantium and expired.

After savoring the sight, I opened the pocket-space magic pouch Unos had offered—granted to me willingly—and stored all the adamantium inside.

When I finished, I noticed a box much larger than the one found in Aitas’s dungeon behind where the golem had sat.

As before, I layered divine power into my hand and carefully opened the box.

‘Huh? This is basically telling me to make a side scythe.’

The dragon bones, forming a gentle curve, seemed to cradle something inside: six white stones.

“Huh?”