“A companion?”
“Ah… for now, just rest up.”
Hazel called me, I who had been staring blankly at the book category inside the bag with the ridiculous name “book bag.” I finally came to my senses at that voice.
I took out one each at random: a skill book, a magic book, and even a class-change book I had never seen before.
[Skill Book—Nisten Intermediate Swordsmanship Manual]
It is the intermediate swordsmanship manual among the low, intermediate, high, and advanced manuals of Nisten, the first emperor who founded the Nisten Empire.
Nisten was an exceptionally rare sword mage who had reached the pinnacle. The reason he could become the leader of his party was that he excelled in every respect, in both magic and swordsmanship.
If you have the aptitude of a sword mage, or if a sword mage learns or has learned Nisten's intermediate magic manual, you can gain an additional effect.
—Set effect: Nisten Intermediate Sword Magic.
—You can imbue up to intermediate magic into a weapon and wield it like Force.
[Magic Book—Nisten Advanced Magic Manual]
It is the advanced magic manual among the low, intermediate, high, and advanced manuals of Nisten, the first emperor who founded the Nisten Empire.
Nisten was an exceptionally rare sword mage who had reached the pinnacle. The reason he could become the leader of his party was that he excelled in every respect, in both magic and swordsmanship.
If you have the aptitude of a sword mage, or if a sword mage learns or has learned Nisten's advanced swordsmanship manual, you can gain an additional effect.
—Set effect: Nisten Advanced Sword Magic.
—You can imbue up to advanced magic into a weapon and wield it like Force.
—The talent ‘Magic like swordsmanship, swordsmanship like magic’ is awakened.
[Class-Change Book—Strongman Under Heaven]
Among Nisten's companions, many had strange abilities. Spino was one of them.
His bizarre strength and stamina were enough to chew up Force and tear magic apart.
After the empire was established, Spino returned his title and spent the rest of his life researching his own power. It is a class-change book Nisten discovered while personally recovering Spino's body after hearing of his death and placed in the imperial palace vault.
Because it contains Spino's will, you can acquire the job ‘Strongman Under Heaven.’
[Job: Strongman Under Heaven]
True to the name that means possessing the strongest power under heaven, you are transformed into a state where you cannot use divine power. Instead, all divine power is converted into vitality and strength, and resistance to divine power increases. You can learn sustained skills and growth-type skills.
‘This is insane!’
This is ridiculous. Naruan was revived after eating a hero’s soul stone and gaining the talent ‘Immortality.’ It was enough to be called a downgraded version of what she went through.
Just by opening a book, I can gain benefits similar to Naruan dying and coming back to life…?
I almost made a big mistake by judging only by the shabby appearance of the book bag.
‘Wait, if this is what it means…’
It is proof that the items on the remaining ten display stands are not ordinary either.
I hurriedly asked the party to handle them carefully, and had them appraised one by one with appraisal scrolls.
And a little while later.
“Crazy…”
“Kings and emperors are just an incomprehensible breed, aren’t they? Why would they stuff weapons like this away in a place like this? If they’d used them, they wouldn’t have fallen, right?”
“Now that you mention it, that does make sense?”
“Well, wasn’t it to prevent chaos in their own way?”
“Prevent chaos my ass. Just waving that spear in front of the rebels would make everyone run away.”
“Our kingdom doesn’t do that!”
As each of them marveled over the ten appraisal sheets and spoke of the emperor’s foolishness, Merus’s sudden voice rang loudly through the cramped vault.
“Huh? Merus, what now?”
No one understood what he was saying. Naruan asked with a look that said, What stupid thing are you up to now? Merus, unable to say for himself that he was royalty, a crown prince, groaned for quite a while.
“None of you knew, huh. Merus is actually royalty. The crown prince, too.”
At my added explanation, silence settled inside the vault. And soon, with a snort of laughter, Arun’s voice rang out.
“Wow!! Wow, that’s funny. Captain, this joke was a little funny. Hahahahaha! No, how can you make a joke with such a serious face!”
“Hahahaha!”
“Hohoho!”
“But I’m serious?”
“……!!”
At Merus’s confession(?) the laughter cut off abruptly. Even Lee Hyo-ju had only just started to smile before she looked at Merus in surprise.
“Really?”
Nod, nod.
“Really, really?”
Noddd!
“Really, really, really?”
…Nod.
“For real……!”
“Enough! You idiot!!”
Naruan kept asking again and again as if she couldn’t possibly believe it, until she finally had to bear Merus’s anger.
It wasn’t just Naruan. The others also couldn’t hide their bewilderment at Merus’s extremely sudden crown prince revelation.
And so, Merus’s crown prince incident was never accepted, with the other members denying reality to the end.
When the brief commotion died down, the members, still unable to suppress their awe as they looked over the appraisal sheets again, piled the treasures one by one in front of me, whose subspace did not repel any magical item, unlike a magic pouch.
“We’ll distribute equipment when we return, so think it over carefully on the way back. For items that need owner registration, I’ll give them to the person recognized as the owner, so think carefully.”
Leaving the cheering, happy members behind, I stored them one by one in my inventory and activated ‘Check,’ which displayed descriptions even more accurate than the appraisal sheets.
First, I picked up the gem about the size of a child’s head that glowed in a strangely ominous black.
[Endless Greed (An Insatiable Greed) [Ancient-Legend]]
In the early days of the empire, there were cases where dragons became enthralled by corrupted divine power and fell into ruin.
Lukrum, the demonic dragon of insatiable greed. I do not know why he became enthralled by the corrupted divine power, but his actions were very strange. He began devouring everything in sight, without distinguishing between humans, monsters, or other races.
Those hit hardest by the dragon demon's rampage were the elves and dwarves who lived in seclusion in the forest.
However, when he ravaged a frontier domain, he caught the empire's eye, and the fact that the dragon demon was also a dragon stirred the empire's greed, leading them to launch a dragon hunt.
But when 20,000 elite soldiers, 500 knights, 200 mages, and the five absolute masters including the tower master of the imperial palace's magic tower clashed with the dragon demon, only 20 percent barely survived and fled.
After that, the dragon demon Lukrum devastated one-third of the continent until he destroyed himself.
The black Dragon Heart was what remained in the place where the dragon demon Lukrum's corpse disappeared.
At the time, mages devoted themselves to various studies, but in the end they could not uncover its effects.
—It cannot be consumed in its current state. If you can meet the legendary divine dragon, purification is possible using the divine breath of the divine dragon. The purified Dragon Heart can be consumed.
—It can also be used as a weapon-making material. However, it will always have a demonic attribute, and once the weapon is drawn, it must be fed blood.
—If crafting succeeds, the weapon's performance improves by at least 1.2 times and up to 2 times, and its rank rises by at least one tier.
[Tibia—The Pipe That Sings of Revival and Ruin (The Tibia) [Ancient]]
In the early days of the empire, before imperial authority had stabilized. At a time when the emperor's power did not yet reach even the frontier lords, the tyranny of the local lords was at its peak.
There was a bard who traveled the continent, comforting its people with songs and rebuking the lords.
At the time, not only the nobles but even the emperor tried to capture that bard, but she was so elusive that she could slip out even through the siege of the imperial magic tower.
Then one day the bard appeared in the imperial palace garden, sang of the continent's weary plight, turned into a pillar of light and ascended to the sky, and this is the flute left behind at the place where she had stood.
According to legend, the flute is said to weep on its own as the end draws near.
—If owner registration succeeds, you can obtain the job ‘Bard of Revival and Ruin.’
—If owner registration fails, it can be used as a flute. It has a clear tone.
[Job: Bard of Revival and Ruin]
A bard's flute sound, filled with hope and despair in song, can both save the dying and bring the healthy to death. This bard, passed down in a one-person lineage since ancient times, uses ‘sound,’ and thus possesses the power to overturn the balance in large-scale battles or wars.
Though there was the condition that owner registration had to succeed, wouldn't at least one of the seventy-odd members succeed?
I was excited to see who would become the owner of the beautiful emerald-glowing flute, and how strong the members who gained the job would become.
Next was a weapon: a chain sickle, as rarely used as a flexible sword.
[Misery's Chain Sickle [Ancient]]
It was a weapon and a ritual tool used by ‘Misery,’ the emperor's favorite concubine in the mid-period of the empire.
Misery was also the concubine's name, but when the various incidents she carried out to wrap the emperor around her little finger were revealed as truth, it changed into a term meaning ‘one who bewilders reason, curses, and covets.’
Until the concubine Misery's deeds were exposed, the emperor had not realized he had been cursed and bewitched.
After that, the emperor sealed the chain sickle in the imperial palace vault, which only the reigning emperor could enter, so that no one could take it out.
—Once it has marked a target, it will never miss.
—Regardless of the marked target's strength, for the first time only, it moves according to the weapon owner's will.
—You can use the power-like technique ‘Binding.’ Those with strength 160 or below and divine power 155 or below cannot escape. Even beings exceeding those strength and divine power thresholds need a little time to break free.
—The chain length extends according to the weapon owner's will, the curse effect is multiplied by 1.5, and recoil is reduced by 15%.
After the strange chain sickle came a rough wooden necklace. It didn't even have the unique elegance of woodcraft; it was literally a necklace of rough, crude wood attached to leather.
[Grudge of the Miao Tribe[??]]
In the mid-period of the empire, licentious sex life spread across the continent like a trend.
As seeking ever more stimulating and more intense pleasure, and boasting about it, was becoming famous in noble society, the beings the nobles turned their eyes to were none other than the other races.
In the early days of the empire's founding, relations had been good because among those who helped the first emperor of the empire restore the chaotic continent were elves and dwarves as well, but from this period on, relations with various other races irreversibly worsened to the worst possible state.
Then, in the midst of this, the chief's daughter of the Miao tribe was kidnapped, and the chief slaughtered every human in that domain to find his daughter.
From the Miao tribe's perspective it was revenge, but from the human perspective it was deemed an invasion; because of this, not a single Miao was able to escape, and they were all killed or taken as slaves.
At the time, the Miao shaman used his enslaved kin and his own life as collateral to unleash a forbidden spell, and all the Miao turned into blood without even leaving corpses. And only the rough wooden necklace remained in that place.
—When worn by a human, the top-grade status-ailment curse ‘Confusion’ is applied. If the resistance roll fails, they carry out slaughter without distinguishing friend from foe until their breath is cut off.
—When facing humans, all physical abilities increase by 20%.
—Each time you kill one human, the sustained skill ‘Grudge of the Miao Tribe’ is applied. It can stack up to 30 times.
—If you can be recognized as the owner, you can summon a ‘Miao warrior’ once a month.
[Grudge of the Miao Tribe]
Attack power +5%. Defense -1%. Agility +5%.
[Sword of the Rune (The Sword of the RUNE) [Ancient]]
There were a total of three superhumans who appeared in the empire's history. And among those three, there was one superhuman who appeared in the same era as the others. The two were close friends closer than family, and rivals.
A mage and a swordsman.
It is a sword made by Laurent, who was the mage, for his friend.
Ironically, this sword shows its specialness even more when a swordsman faces a mage. Because a mage who had ascended to the ranks of superhumans engraved magical language one rune at a time onto a finely refined famous sword, even a swordsman can intuitively manifest magic.
The moment the rune letters shine from the sword and a gigantic magic circle rises in front of it is so mysterious that this sword is said to have been coveted by the emperor.
—It automatically defends by casting the defensive magic best suited to offensive magic.
—Regardless of the type of divine power, you can use about 170 kinds of magic with arrangements of 36 rune characters.
—The moment owner registration succeeds, you can intuitively comprehend about 170 kinds of magic.
—If the being that succeeds in owner registration is a skilled swordsman, or if after registering as the owner they train until their swordsmanship realm meets the conditions, they can acquire the special job ‘sword mage’.
[Special Job: sword mage]
Using both magic and swordsmanship is close to impossible in the first place.
There may be several reasons, but the biggest is that the divine power used is different.
Mages use mana, and swordsmen use Force.
Nevertheless, sword mages have appeared rarely throughout history, and each time they showed tremendous power.
You can handle magic by using Force like mana.
