4th Year, Announcing Its Start Spectacilarly (1)

“Battlefield of the Gods” Year 4, January 11.

The demon god’s representative Violentia and the Heavenly God’s representative Benialis expanded numerically and drew in representatives.

As a result, many of the comrades I had intended to recruit had joined those two camps.

Perhaps it was because of the shifts in those two camps caused by me.

At first I seriously contemplated forcibly taking them back, but I decided against it.

There were many reasons, but the main one was that I believed they chose of their own free will.

They were people whose relationship with their patron gods was the worst.

Because they didn’t receive even the basic annual power from their gods, their relationship was worse; if their patrons had ordered them to join the Heavenly God or Demon god camps, they would have refused outright.

From the information I roughly gathered, their joining was clearly voluntary.

Still, I cautiously contacted them and subtly encouraged them just in case, but not a single person showed willingness to leave those camps and join me. They didn’t show the slightest interest.

Over time, some people living in the ‘Battlefield of the Gods’ end up hating the Demon gods and Heavenly Gods after losing comrades or lovers.

But there were only four such people. Therefore, the initial plan to have around fifty members became impossible.

I was flustered that I missed many comrades because I was consumed by legion achievement expeditions, but I decided to think of it positively.

There were some fortunate points, after all.

I had bought up crafting materials as much as possible, but in a situation where we couldn’t freely go on expeditions, high-grade crafting materials were painfully scarce.

If we hadn’t gone on expeditions in Year 3, any items we made at best would have been ‘Super Rare’ grade.

If there had been over fifty people in that situation, we’d have had to wrack our brains.

Ten days and a day had already passed since Year 4 began.

Currently, in the mansion there were seventeen newly joined and nine existing representatives including me — twenty-six representatives in total.

Most of them had been given sobriquets, however brief, in their previous lives; those sobriquets are as follows.

Battle Puppet Naruan (female)

Dancing Halberd Hippoly (female)

Swift Poison Fang Kitas (female)

Charge of Inex (male)

Womanizer Knight Hugo (male)

Half-orc Ostum (male)

Passcraft Meo (male) and Mishel (male)

Island War Joel (male)

The above: 9 warriors

Just Arun (male)

Whirlwind Simon (male)

Riverside Alain (male)

Rest’s Disturber Jules (male)

Sage Lewis (female)

Sorcerer Jeanne (female)

The above: 6 mages

Mae Young-ryeong (female)

Healing Hand Apher (female)

Recovery Chloe (female)

Holy Patrick (male)

The above: 4 priests

Weird Star Kim Han

Military Star Lee Hyo-ju

Spirit Stalker Hazel

Amazoness Liru

Spirit Shrine Maiden Soria

Beastmaster Stefan

Druid of Sacrifice Cheong

The above: 7 special-class

These twenty-six showed a camaraderie as if they’d spent six years together, despite only half a year having passed.

There were three main reasons they bonded so quickly.

First was the beloved purple dragon. This creature played a big role.

Everyone, regardless of gender, would rush to pet the purple dragon, and it enjoyed it.

If someone hugged it, it tilted its head back and leaned comfortably on their arm, as if saying, ‘Go on, pet me.’

Even though half a year had passed and it still ate nothing, we were worried, but it was so healthy and growing so fast that we just watched.

Just in case, we fed it milk or sweet health juice once a day.

But seeing that its digestive system seemed different from humans or other animals, it didn’t even urinate, we’ve come to accept that it might not need to eat.

The second was the luck die.

Honestly, I put it out to raise counts quickly; I didn’t imagine it would be this addictive.

The encouraging thing was that the more the luck die was used, occasionally a representative would permanently gain 1 or 2 luck.

So a charming little table in the dining area always had the luck die summoned on it.

The last was one-on-one or one-versus-many sparring matches against Biosis and Talis.

At first I or the existing representatives planned to help train, but Jimnas and even the gardener who had gone on expeditions kept coming to the mansion three to four times a week, so we didn’t need to intervene.

One-on-one matches generally ended in crushing defeats, and the one-versus-many cases were no different.

Whether the warriors gathered or they formed an ideal party to take on a transcendent, they were always beaten far beyond expectation.

The most representative episode was the ten-versus-Biosis battle: nine warriors led by Naruan plus the Amazoness Liru.

That day Biosis showed how far cruelty could go.

Now all the legion members staying at the mansion knew just how strong Biosis and Talis were.

The ten challengers resolved to land just one hit.

However,

It turned out to be a fatal mistake that Biosis heard them steeling themselves.

At the start of the fight, Biosis tossed sacks from a magic pouch filled with food waste and filth.

While everyone vomited, their minds and noses shattered, Biosis calmly put on a mask and sprinkled a spice similar to Earth’s red pepper to finish things off.

The subsequent beating was gleeful and rhythmic.

After thoroughly beating them, Biosis said,

“What do these representatives mean by ‘one hit’? They should be resolving to kill their opponent… Tch. There’s no one like my disciple.”

Saying that, Biosis dusted off his hands and disappeared.

Talis was no different: frying, burning, freezing… he even put them to sleep with a spell and woke them one by one to torment them, spouting weird lines like, ‘Do you fall asleep at your level?!’

Jimnas was blunt, and the gardener was overwhelmingly strong.

That evening after the sparring.

After meals the representatives always gathered around a table, drank beer, and comforted each other, and thus the Rebound legion became one.

After twists and turns our legion, now a bit stronger, moved to the Garden of Gods slightly earlier than before.

The gardeners who already knew the visit date were all waiting near the chapel entrance to see me.

The sight of the gardeners seeing me was like muted wave-riding.

I thanked each gardener who came out and didn’t forget the usual warning I give before entering the garden.

“As I always say, after you enter the Garden of Gods, meet your patron god and then wait. Today the gardeners will arrange a place for you to rest because they’ve worked hard, so don’t go anywhere. Got it?”

“Yes.”

“Okay!”

After everyone who was to enter had gone in, I told the gardener to take good care of them and was the last to enter the Garden of Gods.

Today as well, Ludicer welcomed me in the beautiful garden.

That meant that shortly Aetas and the other gods would join.

But is it all right to meet other gods so often?

“Ah! Mr. Kim Han.”

After awakening the talent ‘Insight,’ whenever I fell into thought it spawned more absurd thoughts; pushing aside those recurring notions, I approached Ludicer.

“Yes, that’s right.”

Ludicer, delighted to see me, slowly came closer.

Her steps didn’t stop where I expected them to.

Soon Ludicer was right in front of me, arms spread, embracing me.

“Ludicer?”

“You’ve worked hard. I was worried.”

“…I know.”

Her voice was so earnest I couldn’t ask what she was doing; only ‘I know’ came out.

It felt like a moment and also like a long time.

An indescribable time passed, and Ludicer stepped back with flushed cheeks, stammering.

“I-I’m terribly sorry for the rudeness.”

“It’s fine. It means you were worried about me that much.”

“O-of course!”

“Yes.”

After that we briefly discussed plans for Year 4.

While talking about simple plans and crafting items, Ludicer mentioned dragon hearts.

“Dragon heart?”

“Yes. Right now Mr. Kim Han, you have three dragon hearts.”

That’s right. I had three dragon hearts in total.

First, an ‘Earth Dragon Heart [Super Unique]’ included in the ‘Earth Dragon Corpse [Super Unique]’ that I hadn’t yet butchered.

And the ‘Worm-class Blue Dragon Heart [Legend]’ obtained from Aetas’s dungeon.

Lastly, the ‘True Ancient Black Dragon Heart [Demi-God]’.

“And?”

“How do you plan to handle the dragon hearts?”

“Handle… what do you mean? I’ll eat them.”

“…Ah, I’m sorry. It’s my fault for not explaining. I didn’t expect you, Mr. Kim Han, to possess so many dragon hearts… Anyway, a representative can consume a dragon heart only once during the ‘Battlefield of the Gods’ period.”

I stared at Ludicer, wondering what she meant.

But Ludicer’s face was serious; she wasn’t joking.

“Why?”

“I’ll skip the long story and explain by analogy to your situation, Mr. Kim Han. Is that okay?”

“Alright.”

My voice sounded flat as if an item had been taken from me

no, it was slightly sharp.

“Your divine power has been at 150 for almost a year now, yet it hasn’t budged. Do you know why?”

“No. I thought it got hard to raise once you passed 150 anyway?”

Previously it took three years to raise stamina by just one after hitting 150, so I was leisurely training.

“That’s true. But considering the Mixed Origin Yang Divine Art you’ve mastered, the accumulation formation installed in your mansion, and the title effects, it doesn’t make sense that it wouldn’t increase at all in a year. At this rate, it would take at least ten years before it starts to rise properly.”

“Ten years?”

“Yes. There’s one reason: the vessel.”

“The vessel?”

“Your divine power grew too quickly. Especially with the Mixed Origin Yang Divine Art, your divine power has been replaced by chaos. That’s okay so far. But the 150 I used as a benchmark is the threshold for using things beyond ‘enhanced energy’; it marks the start of shedding the human guise…”

“So what should I do?”

Ludicer’s expression growing more serious, I asked urgently, shedding a human guise sounded ominous.

“Consume the Ancient Black Dragon Heart.”

“Now?”

“…I would like you to take it here and now, but I can’t see it. It takes a long time. May I have the Black Dragon Heart briefly?”

Moved by Ludicer’s worried voice, expression, and gestures, I almost unconsciously pulled the True Ancient Black Dragon Heart from my inventory and handed it over.

Ludicer fiddled with the dragon heart for a long while and then handed it back to me.

“This… is actually better?”

“Yes, it has definitely improved. I even infused part of my power. Mr. Kim Han, as the item description states, dragon hearts were used as tools to break walls. For humans, walls mean widening the vessel. Dragon hearts were abused in the early ‘Battlefield of the Gods,’ and many representatives became gods. The issue came from the dragons: they petitioned the Creator for their tribe’s survival, and the Creator limited the number of dragon heart consumptions to one per representative during participation in the ‘Battlefield of the Gods.’”

No wonder it felt strange.

Violentia from my past life and the present Violentia had very different weights to them.

The Violentia who destroyed the Amor temple before was so different from the Violentia I met in Year 4 of my previous life.

‘That is precisely the difference in vessel…’

“Mr. Kim Han, I’m sorry to say this, but widening the vessel

in terms of your gamer power, upgrading physical grade

always comes with tremendous pain.“

“Ah…”

So widening the vessel meant upgrading physical grade

like when physical grade rose in accordance with the Mixed Origin Yang Divine Art.

Only then did everything fall into place.

The reason Violentia seemed relatively weaker: Violentia’s grade was lower than before, while mine was higher.

The problem was the pain…

“I still have to do it, right?”

“If you want to raise your divine power, you must.”

For a moment I thought 150 might be fine, but I shook my head. If I had to consume it anyway, sooner was better.

Then I suddenly wondered as I looked at my remaining divine power points.

“But what if my divine power reaches 200?”

Ludicer’s expression visibly hardened.

But reaching divine power 200 was entirely possible

even right now.

“Once you reach 200 and increase your free stat points to 201, you become a full demigod. However, how many points it takes to go from 200 to 201 depends on your preparation

it could be three times, ten times as much.“

“…What? Is that even possible?!”

For the first time in a while I got angry at Ludicer; in that moment I even felt betrayed by her.

But Ludicer’s face was full of regret and worry.

“That’s the ‘Setting,’ and it’s what the Creator decreed. To be honest, this ‘Battlefield of the Gods’ is my first, so I didn’t expect any representative to reach 200 stat. The demigod body is tremendously valuable. Do you know the divine power and stats of Talis or Biosis?”

“…No.”

“If you consider only the divine power of Deicide and Destruction

two transcendent figures who are outstandingly strong

they’re currently between 270 and under 320. Typical transcendents are in the low to mid-200s. Do you understand? The moment your stat reaches 201, you’ll have a body equal to a transcendent.“

A body equal to a transcendent. And in just Year 4?

“Don’t be hasty.”

As if reading my thoughts, Ludicer’s voice warned me. It was a cold, calm voice I hadn’t heard since rebirth.

“First, widen the vessel with the Ancient Black Dragon Heart and then adapt for at least two years. You must not raise divine power to 200 before then. You’ve already had your physical grade forcibly increased repeatedly by powers; you’re different from those who trained before becoming representatives. If someone like you suddenly raises divine power from 150 to 200, your divine power circuits

or acupuncture channels

might not handle it, and the moment you try to use that power you could self-destruct.“

My talents ‘Insight,’ ‘Argus’s Eye,’ and ‘Guardian’ all affirmed Ludicer’s words.

But my heart beat wildly. How much had I wanted to be like Talis and Biosis

to contain their power in one body…

And then I saw a path.

’I want to do it, I want to do it, I want to do it, I want to do it, I want to do it

I want it desperately.’

A fresh scent first brushed my nose, stimulating my sense of smell. A cozy, warm sensation followed, and finally the comforting touch of being embraced.

“Don’t rush. Mr. Kim Han, you’re doing well.”

Ludicer’s voice, full of worry and a faint sadness, brushed my ear and knocked at my consciousness until I came back to myself.

“Ah…”

“You’re already walking a path no one else has. Have a little patience.”

“…Okay.”

Ludicer held me like that for a long time, until Aetas and the other gods contacted us.