Chapter 162 – Testing the Rune of Lightning
<Soul Binding Quest>
└ Defeat the seven archangels
└ Current number of archangels defeated (1/7)
└ Upon success ▶ ?????
‘A Soul Binding Quest? There was a quest like this?’
He’d seen only main quests and sub quests—this was the first time he’d ever seen a quest like this existed.
‘Just looking at it, it feels like a quest that appeared because I killed an archangel….’
Even the reward was hidden, and the difficulty was high.
After all, it was a quest you could only clear by killing all seven archangels.
‘If I infer from the phrase “Soul Binding,” is it a quest that persists even when the Round ends?’
Normally, a quest’s deadline is until the end of the Round.
It doesn’t carry over into the next Round.
But considering the phrase “Soul Binding,” and a difficulty that’s impossible to finish within a single Round…
‘It must be a quest that lasts until I die.’
He couldn’t think otherwise.
‘So I basically have to kill all seven archangels before Round 20? Now it’s six, but still.’
It was an utterly absurd level of difficulty.
As he let out a hollow laugh, Yamtti approached.
“Master.”
Just then, Ryu Min’s Reaper transformation ended, and his bare face was revealed.
“Is it all over?”
“Yeah. I’m done with what I came to do.”
“That angel you caught at the end… he looked kind of strong….”
“He’s one of the seven archangels—one of the highest-ranking among angels.”
“H-huh!? Master killed something that amazing?”
“Amazing, my ass. Once I actually fought him, it was nothing special.”
With a short snort of laughter, Ryu Min used Trace Erasure to clean up the corpses, then said,
“Let’s go. We’ve got sub quests to do.”
As he left the temple, Ryu Min hid the title Last Time Reversal.
[The Holy Empire’s reputation toward Last Time Reversal has decreased from ‘Hostile’ -> ‘Sworn Enemy’.]
Because he’d incurred the temple’s wrath after killing not only angels but even the pope.
‘Strictly speaking, another angel killed the pope, but still.’
Since he’d hidden the title, nothing bothersome would happen, but he couldn’t hide the bitter taste.
‘I finally did something good for once, and I end up getting hated by fellow humans.’
Well, it was nothing more than complaining he didn’t mean—and in truth, he didn’t care at all.
Whether they saw him as an enemy or not, when there was a chance they were NPCs—or maybe actual otherworlders—why would he worry about that?
‘Who cares what people think. As long as I get the reward, that’s enough.’
He had plenty of titles anyway—he could always swap in another.
“Master… do we have to part ways now?”
“Yeah. Like I said, if you start clearing from here, you can fill four of them before the time limit. Then you’ll comfortably make it into the achievers.”
“Hiiing, I don’t want to separate….”
“Stop acting cute and get going. If you dawdle and fail your quests and end up getting erased, I’ll hunt you down to the end of hell and scold you.”
“Y-yes! I’ll survive for sure!”
Yamtti had to survive.
Her ability would be useful to exploit going forward, too.
After parting ways with Yamtti, Ryu Min immediately moved on.
‘I already finished one sub quest, and I have to complete nine more in the remaining nine hours.’
He’d already decided which quests to do first.
From experience, he’d already built an optimal route to minimize time and travel.
‘First, here.’
Entering an alley beside the plaza where street stalls were gathered, Ryu Min spoke to an NPC.
“I’m here to buy some things.”
“Welcome! What can I get you?”
“From here to here—give me all of it.”
“…Pardon?”
The second sub quest was “Flex at the Street Stalls.”
In Round 10, finding sub quests isn’t difficult.
If you wander around, you’ll discover them, and there are many types.
Delivering items, running small errands, doing favors, exterminating monsters, escort missions, and so on.
There’s even work like taking over a shop for a few hours, like a part-time job.
‘But that eats too much time, so it’s inefficient.’
With sub quests, nothing beats ones you can finish quickly.
Right now, the fastest were donating at the temple and buying out the street stalls.
‘Other than those two, the quests take at least 30 minutes.’
After purchasing the goods, Ryu Min went next to the fast quest after that—finding a mercenary corps.
“Welcome. What brings you to our Golden Eagle Mercenary Corps?”
“I’d like to take a subjugation mission.”
Monster subjugation takes a fair amount of time, but if you’re skilled enough, it’s also a fast quest you can finish within 30 minutes.
The desk receptionist looked at Ryu Min and spoke brightly.
“Oh my, looks like you’re a Skilled-rank mercenary. We just so happen to have a suitable subjugation mission—let me introduce it.”
[Touch the monster you want to subjugate.]
└ 1. Lizardman
└ 2. Werewolf
└ 3. Skeleton
└ 4. Sandworm
[If you want to cancel, please state that you refuse.]
Ryu Min chose the strongest of the four—the Sandworm.
‘The subjugation time is about the same anyway, so I might as well hunt the stronger one and grab some extra experience.’
When they told him to wait a moment, maybe about a minute passed?
The mercenary corps’ door opened, and a group approached Ryu Min and spoke to him.
“Are you Black Scythe? Good to meet you. I’m Hark Berman, captain of the Golden Eagle Mercenary Corps’ 3rd Subjugation Squad. You’re fine to depart right away, yes?”
“Of course.”
Where he followed the subjugation captain to was a massive machine with a futuristic design.
A so-called “Warp Device,” a machine that teleports you to various places in an instant.
“Come over here.”
Ryu Min stood on the Warp Device together with the captain and his mercenaries.
Tzzztzzztzzzt—
In the blink of an eye, they arrived at a desert where Sandworms appeared periodically.
“From here, we’ll have to walk. Shall we go?”
<Sub Quest – Subjugate Sandworms>
└ Condition ▶ Subjugate 100 Sandworms
└ Current Sandworms defeated (0/100)
Seeing the message, Ryu Min let out a small snort.
‘For anyone else, this would take two hours, but…’
For Ryu Min, it wouldn’t even take 30 minutes.
If there were enough monsters, he could shorten it further, but considering the Sandworms’ spawn frequency, 30 minutes was the limit.
Ryu Min moved along with the ten-man subjugation squad.
They were all NPCs, and since they had no interest in Ryu Min, they didn’t even talk to him.
It seemed that, by setting, they weren’t a party—they were mercenaries thrown together for business, meant to compete with each other.
‘Even so, I don’t need to worry about my share being stolen.’
The mercenaries here weren’t much to look at.
If you compared them to Players, they were around level 30—barely able to take down a Sandworm with three people working together.
‘In other words, the NPCs just draw the monster’s attention. The one who actually has to kill it is the challenger—the Player.’
Well, Ryu Min didn’t even need anyone to draw attention.
Before that could happen, the Sandworm would already be a corpse.
“It’s here!”
At the mercenary’s shout, he threw his gaze—and saw something writhing beneath the sand.
You couldn’t see it clearly, but he’d already detected it with Detection.
A Sandworm.
Ryu Min was about to pull out his scythe, but instead put it back into his inventory.
‘Should I test the rune I just got?’
He hadn’t used the Rune of Lightning even once, so he was curious about its effects.
And if he wanted to use it later, he needed to get a feel for it in advance.
Pzzt-pzzt—
Sparks burst from Ryu Min’s hand.
‘So this is what it feels like. Lightning magic doesn’t have good compatibility against Sandworms—will it be okay?’
Magic was a powerful means of attack, but elemental compatibility existed.
Against a Sandworm—an earth-element creature that moved under the sand—electric-element magic was resisted.
Simply put, the damage was cut in half.
‘Well, even so, it’ll still land damage.’
With his high Intelligence stat, there wouldn’t be a problem killing them.
“Gwoooaaaargh!”
“It’s out!”
Bursting up from beneath the sand, the Sandworm revealed itself—boasting a massive, ancient-tree-like size.
But—
‘Shot.’
The electric bolt fired from Ryu Min’s fingertips struck the Sandworm dead on.
Pzzzzzzzzzt—
The thing’s dramatic entrance meant nothing—it turned into a worm roast in an instant.
Thud—
Seeing the Sandworm, charred black and dead in a single hit, the mercenaries couldn’t close their gaping mouths.
“Were you a mage?”
“To kill that terrifying Sandworm in one blow… impressive!”
“A truly incredible great archmage has joined our subjugation squad!”
Even as praise poured in from all directions, Ryu Min didn’t respond even once.
Because he, too, was a little dazed.
‘I expected it somewhat because my Intelligence is high, but… I didn’t think it would actually die in one hit.’
It was overwhelming damage—enough to ignore elemental compatibility entirely.
He could go around claiming he was a Grand Mage class and people would believe it.
‘If anyone questions how the Prophet fights, I can show them this.’
Pzzt-pzzt—
Smiling as he watched sparks popping in his palm, Ryu Min moved again.
The subjugation was even easier than expected.
At the mercenary corps, you could only do subjugations up to three times.
Ryu Min managed to finish all three within the shortest time—30 minutes each.
It was the result of using the Rune of Lightning.
‘No—if I’d used the scythe, I still could’ve finished within 30 minutes.’
But throughout the subjugations, Ryu Min used only the Rune of Lightning.
He didn’t even take out the scythe once.
It was to get used to the rune’s power, but…
‘More than anything, it’s convenient.’
Standing still and firing magic was clearly more comfortable than running around with a scythe.
And since everything died in one hit as it landed, it was easy to kill them.
Maybe because he had the common skill Dexterity, it wasn’t that hard to hit, either.
‘Shot, Charging, Wide Discharge, Amplify… I’ve tried most of them, right?’
Of course, he didn’t even dare try Self-Destruct.
The damage was so high that if he messed up, he might even lose his life.
‘Self-Destruct should only be used at the absolute last, last resort. Not that I’ll necessarily ever have to use it.’
Mages definitely had lots of area skills and were convenient in combat, but it wasn’t all upside.
‘When everything’s on cooldown, there’s just… nothing to do.’
After using the Rune of Lightning, he learned that each ability had a cooldown.
‘Shot was the shortest at 6 seconds, but…’
On a battlefield where lives were decided in seconds, a 6-second gap was an enormous penalty.
‘So that’s why magic-using classes conserve skills and manage cooldowns?’
Of course, as a hybrid, Ryu Min didn’t need to worry too much.
If he used all his magic and had nothing left to do, he could just go back to swinging his scythe.
[The subjugation has ended.]
[Your achievements will be recorded by the mercenary corps.]
[Your mercenary corps rank has increased from ‘Skilled’ to ‘Professional’.]
After consecutive successful subjugations, his mercenary corps rank rose.
‘Next time, I’ll be able to take even harder missions.’
Though it was still a long way from killing a dragon.
‘Now, where to next…’
Leaving the mercenary corps, Ryu Min checked the time as he moved.
It looked like he could comfortably finish ten.
Ten hours.
It was quite a long time, but as he kept doing quests, it passed so quickly he didn’t even realize it.
“N-no… there’s not much time left!”
“H-h-have to do at least one more…!”
The shouting players noticed a change and lifted their heads.
At some point, they’d returned to the colorless space that had been the starting location.
“Already? The full ten hours are up?”
“Aaaah! I was almost finished with my quest!”
Since the ranking method—number of quests—had been revealed, people had been doing nothing but quests without resting.
Because of that, many were in the middle of something when they got pulled back, and unfortunately, any mission in progress was counted as forfeited.
[Humans? It’s Nell. Did you all do your quests properly? Then now…….]
“Angel! I had a mission I was clearing until just now! If you give me literally ten seconds, I would’ve completed it, so could you count it as cleared—”
[You thunderstruck human bastard!]
As Nell’s gaze turned chilling, the player clamped his mouth shut.
[You inferior human—how dare you interrupt an angel? And when did I ever say it was okay to ask questions? Are you protesting because you want to be killed?]
“S-sorry—”
[Don’t answer either. I don’t want to hear it.]
It wasn’t his imagination—the angel looked angrier than usual.
[Normally, I should show you the tally results, but before that, I’ll ask you just one thing.]
There was only one reason Nell was in a bad mood.
[Is there anyone among you who received an oracle?]
Because the death of Remiel—one of the seven archangels—had turned the heavens upside down.