Winner Takes All (2)

“Checking the list of plundered constellations is work too. Well, I suppose calling it a pleasant dilemma would be more accurate.”

Kang-hoo opened the constellation window while tossing a few snacks into his mouth.

Some people said they gained weight quickly even after eating only a few snacks.

But even when Kang-hoo maintained a high-calorie diet, his weight always stayed in place. There were even times when it dropped.

These days, he had been consciously eating a lot, but it was still not enough.

At this point, he wondered if he should eat fried food or, rather, straight-up animal fat instead of snacks.

Before checking the plundered constellations, he was skimming through the list of constellations he had steadily plundered so far when.

He saw the name of a constellation that looked familiar, but that he had not used in a long time.

It was a constellation he had had many chances to use, but had kept away from because he was worried the bonus stat points might be assigned to “Mana.”

It was a constellation he had plundered long ago after killing the fake priest in an open-type dungeon, and every time, it was a shame.

If it had not given bonus stats, but instead guaranteed stats other than Mana.

He would have carefully prayed for the repose of every hunter he killed as an enemy up to now.

‘Despicable Priest constellation. Is it impossible to make it increase stats excluding Mana?’

A negotiation attempt made just in case. He was not particularly expecting anything.

As expected.

He did not know what made it so proud when it was not even a main constellation, but apparently, it did not intend to negotiate.

So Kang-hoo gave up on the idea as well. If he did not use it, that was all. If he gave it no attention, that was all too.

In any case, it was not as if Despicable Priest was the only constellation he had, and he had more than enough contracted and subordinated constellations.

If it kept being neglected, it would probably realize something later.

Ignoring it did not require effort either, so there was nothing to become uncomfortable about as time passed.

At that moment.

“Hmm?”

Kang-hoo stood up.

The fact that there was a dead hunter meant that there might be something to recover from him.

He deployed a skill and moved in one sprint to the confirmed location, but it was a wasted trip.

Anything worth money had already been stripped and plundered. The hunter in question belonged to Heuksaja.

Since he had come anyway, he looked around the surroundings, and the affiliations of the corpses abandoned on the road were also all Heuksaja.

Even though there were quite a few Cheong-an hunters’ shoulder patches and flags nearby, there were no corpses at all.

Lee Ye-rin had probably instructed them to collect everything meticulously. They were subordinates she cherished, after all.

In the original story too, and even now.

Lee Ye-rin always cherished and loved the subordinates belonging to the mercenary corps. This recovery must have been sincerity, not hypocrisy.

Right then, suddenly.

Even the constellation Frenzied Murderer, from whom news had been sparse lately, revealed its presence with a new message.

Before this, Frenzied Murderer had provided stats like this a total of three times.

The first time, it had given 30 selectable stats, the second time it had given 48, and the third time it had provided 10 each of Divine Power and Dark Energy.

This fourth time, for some reason, it gave a full 44 Divine Power.

Just looking at the scale of the reward, this was the largest ever.

In previous cases, if the selectable stats were 30, hidden stats like Divine Power could only be exchanged for 10.

“Can an evil-aligned constellation give Divine Power too? That’s unusual. To think it would provide me with sacred power completely opposite to its name.”

He would not refuse what it gave him, but he was curious what kind of existence Frenzied Murderer was, showing off its presence like this just when he was about to forget it.

Unexpectedly, contrary to its name, it might be a neutral-aligned constellation.

However, judging by the fact that its alignment was not displayed in the detailed tooltip, it seemed it did not want to reveal it itself.

He had wondered if she was quiet, but apparently, she had been warming up for this moment.

At Dimension Plunderer’s words, Kang-hoo laughed softly. It was also because he thought it sounded like her. She was a unique character.

In any case, unless they became main constellations, plundered constellations were subordinated to Dimension Plunderer regardless of reason.

A subordinated constellation could not decide its own fate, and Dimension Plunderer’s will became absolute.

Therefore, no matter how high and mighty a constellation might be, it had no choice but to bow its head to Dimension Plunderer.

Because if Dimension Plunderer severed the subordinate relationship even by consuming holy power, the corresponding constellation would disappear. Simply put, for a constellation, it meant death.

Strategist of the Wasteland, his exclusive cheering squad leader, was, as always, full of nothing but high praise.

The “Succubus” constellation, which had not said a word since being plundered from Vincent Meyer and subordinated, also added its words.

In addition, numerous subordinated constellations competed to open their mouths and praised Kang-hoo’s recent merits.

Seeing each of them insist on saying at least one word, it seemed that cleanly winning a one-against-many battle had deeply impressed them.

Even Kang-hoo, the person involved, was surprised himself while reviewing it, thinking that this had really been possible, so that said everything.

To compare it.

It was a picture where he had won every single one of a dozen-plus rounds of rock-paper-scissors without losing or drawing. It made no sense.

‘Up to Buddhist of Reincarnation, which I obtained last before killing Gwak Hyeong-su and Gwak Hyeong-seok, it was sixty-seven. I got twelve this time, so it’s almost eighty now.’

Just looking at the total number of constellations, it was more than twice Jang Si-hwan’s.

Of course, not all of them were choice constellations, and there were also “chaff” constellations that only uselessly filled the headcount.

But the fact that this many constellation contracts were gathered was enough for him to feel the growth he had achieved so far.

Now it was time to check the constellations plundered from the two brothers one by one.

Only by properly grasping the characteristics of the constellations could smarter responses come out in future battles or unexpected situations.

Kang-hoo’s gaze diligently swept over the faces of the constellations. He checked them meticulously without missing a tooltip.

‘Since it’s additional storage separate from the Dark Energy I have, it’s a power bank. It’ll obviously have plenty of uses.’

Even if he had his own Dark Energy recovery ability, it was not faster than bringing out and using what had been stored.

He liked it.

If he could draw out a large amount of hidden stats like Dark Energy or Divine Power in emergencies, creating variables would become easier.

‘Now the illusions created by Illusion Arts are 10? Five is already enough, so if it’s double, there’s nothing more to say.’

On top of that, with the maximum proficiency effect, the illusion’s adaptability, “false movements,” became abundant as well.

Unless someone had truly excellent eyes, from now on, it would be difficult to distinguish the main body from illusions based only on their actions.

Next, he also checked the names of three constellations that permanently increased stats.

Since they could raise stats even without wearing separate items, the existence of these kinds of constellations was also precious.

Because later on, there were many cases where there were no item slots left to wear equipment, so even if there were opportunities to raise stats further, one could not do so.

From that point on, the hunter who raised stats further with constellation abilities became the winner who moved ahead.

In particular, Toughness and Anti-Magic were stats that were harder to raise further, so the value of the three constellations was great.

‘30 times?’

Kang-hoo doubted his eyes.

If it was at that level.

It would likely resemble a case in a game where the recovery speed was overwhelmingly faster than shaving down a boss monster’s HP.

Just as the constellation’s name said, it was a constellation worthy of drawing out an immortal appearance that would not die.

That meant Gwak Hyeong-su’s HP stat had been at least 501 even when estimated at the minimum.

So before Immortal Hero could activate, Great Decapitation’s Judgment, which activated when the target’s HP was below 10%, activated first and killed him.

It was an adverse effect that Gwak Hyeong-su, who had steadily and carefully raised his HP, would never have imagined.

With this, the constellations plundered from Gwak Hyeong-su totaled six.

Looking at the faces of the constellations.

The conclusion came that killing Gwak Hyeong-su at the very start of the battle had been an extremely good strategic judgment.

If his lifeline had lasted a little longer, he would definitely have created variables by using Dark Energy based on his illusion ability.

“Now it’s Gwak Hyeong-seok’s turn.”

Perhaps because he had devoured two powerful people at once.

He felt as if he had filled his stomach quite a bit through constellation plunder, but as many constellations as he had already checked still remained to be checked.

Unlike his older brother’s constellations that he had checked earlier, Gwak Hyeong-seok’s constellations often had special conditions attached.

This, too, probably contained the contractor’s characteristics and strategic meaning, but in any case, it was a form he was seeing for the first time.

‘Even if not all of it, it means I’ll gain intuition to predict a swordsman hunter’s basic attacks to some degree.’

It certainly was unusual.

Among weapon-type items, swords were divided into daggers, one-handed longswords, two-handed greatswords, and so on.

And most hunters on the swordsman side handled longswords, so it would be fine to view it as a constellation targeting swordsmen.

‘This is mage-customized.’

Hunters of the mage class were as common as the swordsman class.

A “black mage” like Jang Si-hwan was a special case, and normally, a hunter who used magic skills was in the “mage” class.

All damage against them increasing by 25% was no different from having a constant damage buff.

“Hooo.”

Kang-hoo, who had been checking things busily, belatedly realized that he had been holding his breath until now and exhaled heavily.

He once again truly felt that “devouring” strong people became the foundation for rapid growth.

If he had not had the constellation plunder ability, these were constellation abilities he would have watched with greed but had no choice but to suck on his fingers over.

Those had entered Kang-hoo’s grasp intact.

And still.

There were four more plundered constellations from Gwak Hyeong-seok to check.

It was truly a bumper crop of constellations.